Thursday, January 31, 2013

Explosion at Pemex headquarters, workers injured


An injured person is transported on a stretcher the headquarters of state oil giant Pemex in Mexico City January 31, 2013. An explosion rocked the Mexico City headquarters of Pemex on Thursday, killing one person, injuring more than 20 others and causing extensive damage to the building. A local emergency official said one person had died in the blast and 22 others were injured. Another four people were trapped inside the skyscraper, the official said. The blast, which media reports said was caused by machinery exploding, occurred in the basement, emergency officials said. REUTERS/Alejandro Dias (MEXICO - Tags: DISASTER ENERGY POLITICS TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY)
Mexico's state-owned oil company says 14 have died and 80 are injured in an office building explosion at its headquarters in the capital.
There was no immediate cause given for the explosion which occurred in the basement of an administrative building next to the iconic, 52-story tower of Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex.
"It was an explosion, a shock, the lights went out and suddenly there was a lot of debris," employee Cristian Obele told Milenio television, adding that he had been injured in the leg. "Co-workers helped us get out of the building."
The tower, where several thousand people work, was evacuated. The main floor and the mezzanine of the auxiliary building, where the explosion occurred, were heavily damaged, along with windows as far as three floors up.
"We were talking and all of sudden we heard an explosion with white smoke and glass falling from the windows," said Maria Concepcion Andrade, 42, who lives on the block of Pemex building. "People started running from the building covered in dust. A lot of pieces were flying."
A reporter at the scene saw rescue workers trying to free several workers trapped. Television images showed people being evacuated by office chairs, and gurneys. Most of them had injuries likely caused by falling debris.
Police landed four rescue helicopters to remove the dead or injured. About a dozen tow trucks were furiously moving cars to make more landing room for the helicopters.
In an earlier Tweet, the company said it had evacuated the building as a precautionary measure because of a problem with the electrical system in the complex that includes the skyscraper. It tweeted that several workers were injured.
Streets surrounding the building were closed as evacuees wandered around, and rescue crews loaded the injured into ambulances.
Interior Department spokesman Eduardo Sanchez confirmed that an explosion in a basement garage damaged the first and second floors of the auxiliary building, which is located in a busy commercial and residential area.
Calls to Pemex went unanswered.

Ontario man disputes $5,400 bill for being rescued while ice fishing


OSHAWA, Ont. - A southern Ontario man says he will fight the $5,400 bill he got from a fire department for rescuing him after he went through the ice while fishing.
Neil Robbescheuten, 62, was ice fishing on Lake Scugog earlier this month when a dense fog rolled in and he became disoriented trying to find his way back to the shore.
The Oshawa man says he went through the ice in a marshy area near some bullrushes so he was able to pull himself out onto a tree stump while he called 911 and three firetrucks responded to rescue him.
He later received the invoice of $5,392.78 for the rescue and says he plans to fight it because he worries it will make people think twice about calling emergency services when they're in trouble.
Scugog Fire Chief Richard Miller says while this is the first such invoice there, the township north of Oshawa has had the ability to issue them for years.
Miller says the temperature was warm and rainy that weekend and the local conservation authorities had issued warnings urging people to stay away from bodies of water.

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Prince Charles and Camilla Surprise 'Tube' Passengers


Commuters in London may have thought they had boarded the wrong train today when they saw who was sitting with them.
Traveling on the tube, London's subway, were none other than Prince Charles, the man next in line to the British throne, and his wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.
Charles and Camilla are usually driven around London privately, though Charles's son, Prince William, and his wife, Kate Middleton, have vowed to be more accessible, even doing their owngrocery shopping.
The Prince of Wales and his wife only rode the train for a one-stop photo op to celebrate the London Underground's 150th anniversary.
READ MORE: Prince Charles Takes Over BBC Weather Forecast
Charles, 64, and Camilla, 65, spent a grand total of three minutes on the train, traveling on the Metropolitan line from Farringdon station to King's Cross, according to the UK's Telegraph. The trip was, according to British media, the first time the royals had traveled on the tube together and the first time Charles had been on the train since the 1970s, when he made another ceremonial appearance.
"Just one stop!" Charles said as they arrived at King's Cross, the UK's Guardian reported.
Despite their lack of experience, the pair managed to figure out how to swipe their "Oyster" fare cards in the turnstile to gain entrance, although they did have help in the form of a pre-loaded commemorative card.
Also helping Prince Charles and Camilla was a police escort keeping everyday passengers at bay, ensuring the royals each got a seat on the train for their short commute.

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Would-be carjackers foiled by mysteries of the stick shift


An attempted stickup was confounded by a car’s stick shift, when would-be carjackers failed to understand the mechanics behind a manual transmission.
Randolph Bean tells WOFL FOX 35 that two men attempted to steal his 2002 yellow Corvette at gunpoint outside an Orlando hospital, but they ended up running away after they couldn’t figure out how to drive his car.
"They apparently couldn't start it,” Bean 51, is quoted as saying in a police report. “I had to tell him four different times to push in the clutch, because it's a standard transmission."
After several failed attempts, the thieves eventually fled the scene.
“My first thought was I guess we don't have driver's ed. in school anymore, because no one knows how to drive a stick. And my second thing was, don't shoot me because you can't start the car,” Bean said. “I'm trying to help you out here, you know. Thankfully they didn't."
However, the foiled carjackers did not leave entirely empty-handed. "They got away with my phone, they got my keys, they got my wallet," Randolph told the Fox affiliate.
Still, Randolph was pretty forgiving when asked what message he had for the “handsome young men, who did not look like car thieves.”
“Guys, turn your life around. You guys have got a lot going for you,” he said. “Thank you for not taking my life for something silly as a car.”

Monday, January 28, 2013

Former Colombian guerrillas face hardships re-entering society

As the decades-long guerrilla war in Colombia winds down, the biggest task facing the government is to reintegrate the fighters to society, Alejandro Eder, director of theColombian Agency for Reintegration, said on Monday.

The main obstacle facing Colombia's former guerrillas and paramilitaries in becoming productive members of civil society is stigmatization by the public and a lack of job opportunities, he said. "It's a national priority to give these people who want to change their lives a chance, most of them displaced by warfare and kidnapped, many as children, by the guerrillas themselves," Eder, told Reuters in New York before meetings with USAID.

Talks to try to end Latin America's longest-running insurgency began in Cuba in November, when the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC, sat down for the first round of a five-point peace agenda.

Of the 55,000 combatants that have left the guerillas in the Andean country over the past decade, about 10,000 have yet to surrender their arms after about 50 years of armed conflict with government forces, Eder said.

The Colombian government spends $90 million a year to transition the combatants, who have an average age of 26 to civil society. The government has a seven-year program that entails transporting the guerillas from their jungle camps, reuniting them with their families, and training them for a career.

Colombia's government spends around $3,500 per person per year to reinstate the fighters in society, which is less costly than fighting the insurgents or incarcerating them and has a lower rate of recidivism, according to Eder.

"The biggest challenge is for society to give a chance to those who gave up their arms," Eder said, adding that there is a high degree of mistrust of the guerrillas among most Colombians.

Companies that hire former combatants can claim a tax credit of around $340 per person, but the suspicion and the stigma attached to employing them can outweigh the financial incentives.

"Forgiveness is essential," said Eder, who added that about three or four guerrillas give up their arms every day and it was essential that Colombian society allow them the opportunity for a different life.

'Hansel and Gretel' Slays Box Office as Other Star Vehicles Sputter


"Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters," an R-rated 3D update of the classic Grimm's fairy tale starring Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton, slashed its way to $19 million and the top of the domestic box office on a weekend that saw some stars stumble.
But industry analysts had expected more from the movie considering the premium pricing from the 2,900 3D and Imax locations out of a market-high 3,373 theaters. The 3D locations accounted for 55 percent of the grosses, and Imax brought in 11 percent. 
Cold and tough weather across much of the East Coast didn't help "Hansel and Gretel," or the overall box office, which was down about 15 percent from the comparable weekend last year.

Paramount also opened "Hansel and Gretel" in 19 overseas markets and brought in $25 milliion. A solid overseas performance will be critical for the film to make money, given its $50 million budget.Also read: 'Argo' Named Best Motion Picture at PGA Awards
"We had a strong Saturday," Paramount's head of distribution Don Harris told TheWrap, "so I think that weather really did hurt us on Friday. The international number was stronger than we expected, so we're about where we wanted to be worldwide." The R-rating may have cut into its performance here. Just 43 percent of the "Hansel and Gretel" audience was under 25, while 55 percent was male. That missing young female demographic was the target of the horror thriller "Mama," which opened No. 1 last week. The Guillermo del Toro-produced horror thriller, starring Jessica Chastain, wound up second this weekend with $12.9 million.
Best Picture Oscar nominee "Silver Linings Playbook" was an impressive third. The Weinstein Company's oddball comedy dropped just 7 percent and took in $10 million after adding 118 screens for a total of 2,641. That ups its overall domestic total to $69.4 million after 11 weeks.
It finished just ahead of Sony's Best Picture Oscar contender "Zero Dark Thirty," Kathryn Bigelow's tale of the hunt for Osama bin Laden brought in $9.8 million in its sixth week and is at $69.9 million overall domestically. 
Also read: Disney Confirms: J.J. Abrams to Direct New 'Star Wars'
"Hansel and Gretel" is the second movie in a row that two-time Best Actor Oscar nominee Renner has opened at No. 1, but like "The Bourne Legacy," it doesn't do much to establish him as a box-office force. "Bourne Legacy" opened to $38 million last August, but that was an established franchise. This opening, which did roughly $2 million better than that of another R-rated genre mash-up, last year's "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter," likely ends any hopes for a franchise that co-financiersParamount and MGM may have had.
The presence of Jennifer Lopez couldn't help Jason Statham in the crime drama "Parker." Directed by Taylor Hackford, the R-rated "Parker' took in $7 million from 2,224 locations over the three days for Film District.
That was better than the weekend's other wide opener, Relativity's ensemble sketch comedy , which fizzled with $5 million despite a galaxy of stars. The cast included Oscar nominees Hugh Jackman and Naomi Watts, along with Seth MacFarlane, Halle Berry, Common, Richard Gere, Greg Kinnear, Kate Winslet, Uma Thurman, Emma Stone, Chloe Grace Moretz, Gerard Butler, Dennis Quaid, Sean William Scott, Kristen Bell and Elizabeth Banks.
That's a lot of star wattage but most of the roles were cameos, and few of the performers did much to promote Peter Farrelly's oddball film, which was four years in the making. The budget was $6 million and most of the performers worked for scale.
Even the presence of 12 name directors didn't help. Steven Brill, Steve Carr, Rusty Cundieff, James Duffy, Griffin Dunne, Patrik Forsberg, James Gunn, Bob Odenkirk, Brett Ratner, Banks and Jonathan van Tulleken all directed a segment.
"Django Unchained," another Best Picture Oscar nominee, finished seventh. It took in $5 million and fell just 35 percent from last week despite dropping 506 theaters. Its overall domestic total is now at $146.2 million. Warner Bros.' "Gangster Squad" was next with $$4.2 million.
Fox's Russell Crowe-Mark Wahlberg drama "Broken City" took in $4 million in its second week to top "Les Miserables" and "Lincoln," also Best Picture Oscar finalists.
Universal's star-studded musical added $3.9 million over the three days and DreamWorks' "Lincoln" brought in $3.8 million. The overall domestic haul for "Lincoln" is now $167 million after 12 weeks and "Les Miz' is at $137 million after five weeks.

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Israel warns of attack on Syrian chemical weapons


 Israel could launch a pre-emptive strike to stop Syria's chemical weapons from reaching Lebanon's Hezbollah or al-Qaida inspired groups, officials said Sunday.
The warning came as the military moved a rocket defense system to a main northern city, and Israel's premier warned of dangers from both Syria and Iran.
Israel has long expressed concerns that Syrian President Bashar Assad, clinging to power during a 22-month civil war, could lose control over his chemical weapons.
Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom said Sunday that Israel's top security officials held a special meeting last week to discuss Syria's chemical weapons arsenal. The fact of the meeting, held the morning after a national election, had not been made public before.
Shalom told the Army Radio station that the transfer of weapons to violent groups, particularly the Iranian-backed Lebanese Hezbollah, would be a game changer.
"It would be crossing a line that would demand a different approach, including even action," he said. Asked whether this might mean a pre-emptive attack, he said: "We will have to make the decisions."
Israel has kept out of the civil war that has engulfed Syria and killed more than 60,000 people, but it is concerned that violence could spill over from its northern border into Israel.
Israel deployed its Iron Dome rocket defense system in the northern city of Haifa on Sunday. The city was battered by Hezbollah rocket fire during a war in the summer of 2006. The military called the deployment "routine."
Iron Dome, an Israel-developed system that shoots down incoming short-range rockets, was used to defend Israeli cities during a round of hostilities with Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip, on Israel's southern flank, last November.
Yisrael Hasson, a lawmaker and former deputy head of Israel's Shin Bet intelligence agency, said Israel was closely following developments in Syria to make sure chemical weapons don't "fall into the wrong hands."
"Syria has a massive amount of chemical weapons, and if they fall into hands even more extreme than Syria like Hezbollah or global jihad groups it would completely transform the map of threats," Hasson told Army Radio.
"Global jihad" is the term Israel uses for forces influenced by al-Qaida. Syria's rebels include al-Qaida-allied groups.
Syria has rarely acknowledged possessing chemical weapons.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu referred to threats from Syria and Iran at a Cabinet meeting Sunday. Iran is Syria's main regional ally.
"We must look around us, at what is happening in Iran and its proxies and at what is happening in other areas, with the deadly weapons in Syria, which is increasingly coming apart," he said.
Israel views Iran as an existential threat because of its nuclear and missile programs and support for violent anti-Israeli groups in Lebanon and Gaza, as well as repeated references by Iranian leaders to Israel's destruction. Iran denies it is seeking to build atomic weapons, insisting its nuclear program is for civilian purposes.
On Friday, Israeli Channel 2 TV broadcast an interview with a former Iranian diplomat who defected to the West in 2010. He warned that if Tehran gets nuclear weapons, it would use them against Israel. He did not provide evidence.
Part of Mohammad Reza Heydari's job was to draft foreign scientists to work on Tehran's nuclear program and he brought many from North Korea into Iran, the report said.
Heydari spoke from Oslo, where he has received political asylum.

Friday, January 25, 2013

Exclusive: NRA senior lobbyist says attack ad was "ill-advised"


One of the National Rifle Association's senior lobbyists said an ad by the nation's leading gun-rights group after a school shooting in Connecticut that refers to President Barack Obama's children was "ill-advised."
Jim Baker, head of the federal affairs division at the NRA's Institute for Legislative Action, said he had made his views known to others at the powerful gun-rights organization.
The ad, which cast Obama as hypocritical for having expressed skepticism about putting armed guards in schools, when "his kids are protected by armed guards at their schools," drew widespread criticism when it first became public on January 15.
Nationwide outrage over the shooting of 20 children and six adults at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, on December 14 moved gun violence and gun control to the center of the U.S. political debate.
"I don't think it was particularly helpful, that ad," Baker told Reuters in a telephone interview. "I thought it ill-advised."
"I think the ad could have made a good point, if it talked about the need for increased school security, without making the point using the president's children," he said. The NRA has advocated putting armed guards in schools
Baker was the NRA's representative at a meeting with Vice President Joseph Biden on January 10 to discuss the administration's plans to reduce gun violence in the wake of the school shooting.
He said he was not involved in creating the ad, and once it appeared, he had let others at the NRA know what he thought. "I got to say my piece," he said.
Baker gave no details of the their response to him, but said, "Believe it or not, there are occasionally differences of opinion in this building."
In the ad, a narrator asks, "Are the president's kids more important than yours?" Obama's daughters, 14-year-old Malia and 11-year-old Sasha, attend private school in Washington and receive Secret Service protection, as is routine for children of presidents.
The White House has called the NRA ad "repugnant and cowardly," while New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said it was "reprehensible" and undermined the NRA's credibility by bringing the president's children into the debate. Christie is considered a possible Republican presidential contender in 2016.
Susan Eisenhower, the daughter of the late President Dwight Eisenhower who had Secret Service protection as a child, wrote in the Washington Post that she was "disgusted" by the ad.
The NRA's president, David Keene, objected to the White House criticism earlier this month, saying "We didn't name the president's daughters ... What we said is that these are people who think that their families deserve protection that yours don't."
The president's critics also have noted that when Obama announced his plan to respond to the gun violence, he was flanked by four children. Obama proposed renewing a U.S. assault weapons ban, as well as banning high-capacity magazines and more stringent background checks for gun purchasers.

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Obama’s big three: Gun control, gay marriage, immigration reform


n Monday, President Obama shared his vision for the next four years with the nation in his second inaugural address. In the speech the president laid out an ambitious agenda for the next four years and there’s been a lot of talk about how much can actually be accomplished. He touched on a series of issues including climate change, immigration reform, economic inequality and gay rights- becoming the first president in modern history to talk about gay rights in an inaugural speech. Many of you had questions about the president’s speech and also about what we can expect in the second Obama term.
Renee Ferguson asked: After tackling gun violence, what will the president tackle next?
Zack East tweeted that he would like to know if the president would seek to change laws nationally regarding gay marriage and discrimination policies.
And Clark Johnson wondered: POTUS inaugural- how much is real and how much is fantasy?
Thanks for the great questions everyone and please keep them coming on Facebook and on Twitter. Be sure to tune into “Good Morning America” tomorrow morning and to “This Week” on Sunday, where we’ll talk more about that speech and about the start of President Obama’s second term.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Storm Clouds Crawling With Bacteria


The storm clouds in Earth's atmosphere are filled with microbial life, according to a new study.
The research, published today (Jan. 23) in the journal PLoS One, revealed that hailstones drawn from storm clouds harbor several species of bacteria that tend to reside on plants, as well as thousands of organic compounds normally found in soil. Some of the bacterial species can seed the tiny ice crystals that lead to rain, suggesting they play a role in causing rain.
"Those storm clouds are quite violent phenomena," said study co-author Tina Santl Temkiv, an environmental chemist at Aarhus University in Denmark. "They are sucking huge amounts of air from under the clouds, and that's how the bacteria probably got into the cloud."
Living on a cloud
In the past, researchers have found bacterial life in clouds that drift over mountaintops. Bacteria have been found as far up as 24.8 miles (40 kilometers) and may even survive as spores into space, Temkiv said. [Holey Clouds: Gallery of Formations Cut By Airplanes]
Temkiv and her colleagues wanted to see if bacteria lived in the violent storm clouds that hover above the Earth's surface. To find out, they studied 42 hailstones that had formed in a thunderstorm over Ljubljana, Slovenia, in May 2009.
After carefully removing the outer layer and sterilizing the hailstone, they analyzed its chemical composition.
The team found thousands of organic, or carbon-containing, compounds — nearly as many as found in a typical river, Temkiv said. In addition, they found several species of bacteria that normally live on plants. Some of the bacteria make a pinkish pigment that allows them to withstand the punishing ultraviolet rays in the atmosphere.
Some of bacteria found are ice-nucleators, meaning they can act as seeds for ice crystals to attach to in the clouds above Earth. When these same ice crystals get large enough, they fall as rain or snow, depending on the air temperature.
The findings suggest that bacteria could influence weather patterns, possibly making rain, Temkiv said.
"They may be growing in clouds, increasing in number and then modifying the chemistry in the cloud but also in the atmosphere indirectly," she told LiveScience.
The researchers think the bacteria come from the air hovering just above Earth that gets swept into the storm clouds through updrafts. That would suggest the atmosphere is a thread that can connectdistant ecosystems, and that certain bacteria may be better at colonizing faraway environments, Pierre Amato, a researcher at France's Blaise Pascal University who was not involved in the study, wrote in an email.
"Clouds can be thought of as transient ecosystems selecting for certain [types of bacteria] that are better fitted than others, and that can thus quickly disperse over the globe," Amato said. "Understanding how microbes disperse is relevant, of course, for epidemiology, and also for microbial ecology."

Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Tony Danza re-team after 20 years


"Don Jon's Addiction" may mark Joseph Gordon-Levitt's directorial debut, but it does not mark his acting debut with co-star Tony Danza. The two first worked together 20 years ago in "Angels in the Outfield" -- a family-friendly, Disney baseball film that couldn't be further in theme than Levitt's tale about a man addicted to Internet porn.
Now screening at the Sundance Film Festival where it was bought by Relativity Media for $4 million, "Don Jon's Addiction" was written and directed by the "Looper" and "Dark Knight Rises" actor. And oh yeah, Gordon-Levitt also stars in his own film as Jon Martello, an iron-pumping city guy who must overcome his sex-crazed ways to find true love.
For his first feature-length film, it is impressively star-studded: Scarlett Johansson plays Jon's love interest, Julianne Moore plays a woman Jon strikes up a relationship with (and from whom he learns a lot), Channing Tatum and Oscar nominee Anne Hathaway even make cameos.
Gordon-Levitt, left, and Danza in 1994's 'Angels in the Outfield'Gordon-Levitt, left, and Danza in 1994's 'Angels in the Outfield' (Photo: Everett)But it was Danza who Gordon-Levitt had in mind from the very beginning to play Jon's father, hesaid recently, adding, "I met Tony Danza in 1993 when we shot 'Angels in the Outfield' together." Danza couldn't be more excited to re-team with his "Angels" co-star -- who was just 12-years-old when he last worked with him. "I think you're going to see a really good movie and what's going to surprise you is how good of a director he is," Danza said at the Park City, Utah, film festival. "It was fun to have him be the boss," the former star of '80s sitcom "Who's the Boss" added of Gordon-Levitt during anEntertainment Weekly interview.
"Don Jon's Addiction" explores how Jon's affinity toward porn warps his perception of women and sabotages his relationships. It's the key hurdle he must overcome in what Gordon-Levitt intended as a love story. "In my observation, what gets in the way of love is people objectifying each other," the 31-year-old said. "People put labels on each other and have a checklist of expectations. Rather than seeing what makes them a unique human being, it’s like well, what are her t--- like, what is her a-- like?"

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Top commander in Afghanistan cleared in Pentagon inquiry


The top commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan has been cleared by a Pentagon inquiry into potentially inappropriate email communications with a Florida socialite, a senior U.S. official said, likely resurrecting his nomination to the military's top job in Europe.
Marine General John Allen was placed under investigation in November over email exchanges with one of the women at the center of the scandal that forced David Petraeus to resign as CIA director.
Allen had strongly denied any wrongdoing and President Barack Obama kept him in his job despite the inquiry, expressing confidence in his ability to command the approximately 66,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
But the matter prompted Obama to put Allen's nomination on hold to become the next head of U.S. European Command and Supreme Allied Commander Europe. Allen had been due to face a Senate confirmation hearing in mid-November.
The inquiry centered on emails between Allen and Jill Kelley, a Tampa resident who knew Allen when he served as the No. 2 officer at the U.S. military's Tampa-based Central Command from July 2008 to June 2011.
Kelley told the FBI she had received anonymous harassing emails about Petraeus, who was previously the head of U.S. Central Command and had Allen's job in Afghanistan before moving to the CIA.
The FBI investigation uncovered an extramarital affair between Petraeus and his biographer, Paula Broadwell, and the subsequent investigation ensnared Allen.

Monday, January 21, 2013

Artifacts Found to Be Toilet Paper


Ancient Roman artifacts thought to be early gaming pieces may actually have been used as a form of toilet paper, according to a recent article published in the British Medical Journal.
In the article, Philippe Charlier, assistant professor in forensic medicine at the Raymond Poincaré University Hospital in Paris, presented among other things, a Greek proverb stating, "Three stones are enough to wipe one's arse," as evidence that such stones were used to clean up after going to the bathroom.
Other scholars have suggested that broken pieces of ceramic - known as ostraka - inscribed with names like Socrates, Pericles and Themistocles have been found in Piraeus and Athens and were used by the Greeks as a way of ostracizing their enemies, after smoothing out the rough edges, of course.
The ceramic disks - known as pessoi, meaning pepples - range from one to four inches in diameter, have been on display at Fishborne Roman Palace in Chichester, West Sussex, since the 1960's.
The museum curator, Dr. Rob Symmons, found the revelations to be "hilarious," and hoped that the artifacts would bring a smile to the faces of visitors.
"I love the idea we've had these in the museum for 50 years being largely ignored and now they are suddenly engaging items you can relate to," Symmons told The Daily Telegraph.

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Hundreds of animals removed from Ohio man's house


Humane society members wearing protective masks removed nearly 300 animals including pigeons, chickens and rabbits from an Ohio man's reeking house this week.
Most of the animals are expected to survive including some that were sick, Sheila Marquis, an officer with the Humane Society of Dayton, Ohio, told Reuters on Saturday.
Workers on Thursday took away 60 pigeons, chickens and roosters from the house in Huber Heights, a suburb of Dayton. They returned the following day for 223 animals including 100 pigeons and 30 rabbits.
The sheer number of pigeons, which can carry airborne diseases, created a health hazard inside the house, Marquis said.
Authorities were tipped off by complaints about a stench coming from the property.
The animals' owner, who has not been identified, was very cooperative and knowledgeable about the birds, which included homing pigeons, Marquis said.
She said she thinks he just got overwhelmed taking care of so many animals.
"He told us he took some animals from other people and other pigeon organizations. That's how the cycle happens. He kept getting more birds and building more cages," Marquis said.
The man will be allowed to keep two dogs and some cats living in the house.
There was no word on whether he will be charged with animal neglect or abuse, a misdemeanor for the first offense in Ohio. Huber Heights has a ban on farm animals but does not limit the number of pets residents can own.

Friday, January 18, 2013

TSA to remove controversial X-ray scanners


Those airport scanners with their all-too revealing body images will soon be going away.
The Transportation Security Administration says the scanners that used a low-dose X-ray will be gone by June because the company that makes them can't fix the privacy issues. The other airport body scanners, which produce a generic outline instead of a naked image, are staying.
The government rapidly stepped up its use of body scanners after a man snuck explosives onto a flight bound for Detroit on Christmas day in 2009.
At first, both types of scanners showed travelers naked. The idea was that security workers could spot both metallic objects like guns as well as non-metallic items such as plastic explosives. The scanners also showed every other detail of the passenger's body, too.
The TSA defended the scanners, saying the images couldn't be stored and were seen only by a security worker who didn't interact with the passenger. But the scans still raised privacy concerns. Congress ordered that the scanners either produce a more generic image or be removed by June.
On Thursday Rapiscan, the maker of the X-ray, or backscatter, scanner, acknowledged that it wouldn't be able to meet the June deadline. The TSA said Friday that it ended its contract for the software with Rapiscan.
The agency's statement also said the remaining scanners will move travelers through more quickly, meaning faster lanes at the airport. Those scanners, made by L-3 Communications, used millimeter waves to make an image. The company was able to come up with software that no longer produced a naked image of a traveler's body.
The TSA will remove all 174 backscatter scanners from the 30 airports they're used in now. Another 76 are in storage. It has 669 of the millimeter wave machines it is keeping, plus options for 60 more, TSA spokesman David Castelveter said.
Not all of the machines will be replaced. Castelveter said that some airports that now have backscatter scanners will go back to having metal detectors. That's what most airports used before scanners were introduced.
The Rapiscan scanners have been on their way out for months, in slow motion.
The government hadn't bought any since 2011. It quietly removed them from seven major airports in October, including New York's LaGuardia and Kennedy airports, Chicago's O'Hare, and Los Angeles International. The TSA moved a handful of the X-ray scanners to very small airports. At the time, the agency said the switch was being made because millimeter-wave scanners moved passengers through faster.
Rapiscan parent company OSI Systems Inc. said it will help the TSA move the scanners to other government agencies. It hasn't yet been decided where they will go, said Alan Edrick, OSI's chief financial officer, in an interview.
Scanners are often used in prisons or on military bases where privacy is not a concern.
"There's quite a few agencies which will have a great deal of interest" in the scanners, Edrick said.
OSI is taking a one-time charge of $2.7 million to cover the money spent trying to develop software to blur the image, and to move the machines out of airports, Edrick said.
The contract to change the software on the scanners came under scrutiny in November when the TSA delivered a "show cause" letter to the company looking into allegations that it falsified test data, which the company denied. On Thursday it said final resolution of that issue needs approval by the Department of Homeland Security.
The agreement with the TSA is an indication that OSI Systems will be cleared of the issues raised by the agency, Roth Capital Partners analyst Jeff Martin wrote on Friday. OSI shares soared $2.37, or 3.5 percent, to close at $70.02.
Besides the scanners being dropped by TSA, Hawthorne, Calif.-based OSI Systems makes other passenger scanners used in other countries, as well as luggage scanners and medical scanners.

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Chinese Censors Clamp Down on 'Skyfall'


James Bond might have escaped from China unscathed in his latest adventure, but the same can’t be said of Skyfall itself – as shots of a Chinese character being killed and dialogue referring to prostitution and politics were either edited out or left obscured in subtitles.
The missing scene was set in Shanghai, when a French hitman (played by Ola Rapace) is shown shooting a Chinese security guard in the elevator lobby of a skyscraper before preparing for an assassination.
PHOTOS: The Making of 'Skyfall': Bond is Back, Better Than Ever
Later in the film, in a casino in Macau, Daniel Craig’s Bond questions the story’s femme fatale, Severine (Berenice Marlohe), about whether her tattoo is the result of her being forced into a local prostitution ring at an early age. While the lines remain intact on the soundtrack, the Chinese subtitles suggest the spy is asking her quarry about being coerced into the mob instead.
The film’s Chinese subtitles also fudged the exposition of the back story of the film’s villain, Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem), who tells Bond how he was handed over to the Chinese authorities while working for the MI6 in Hong Kong. He adds that he suffered immense torture at the hands of his interrogators before attempting to kill himself.
Sony Pictures’ Chinese representatives declined to comment on the changes. But it is not uncommon for international blockbusters to be released in China with potentially politically or culturally controversial scenes edited out. Men in Black 3 was screened in China only after the removal of scenes depicting aliens masquerading as Chinese restaurant workers in New York, and a group of Chinese pedestrians having their memories wiped out by Will Smith’s character.
PHOTOS: Daniel Craig as James Bond, Javier Bardem as Villain Raoul Silva
While being granted permission to be shot in Shanghai, Mission: Impossible 3 also drew the wrath of China’s censors because of sequences showing men playing mahjong next to a room where a hostage is held, and images of what they saw as unkempt laundry lines in the streets. Meanwhile, Chow Yun-fat’s character in Pirates of the Carribean: At World’s End was edited out completely in the film’s Chinese release, with officials disapproving of what they saw as a racial caricature.
Skyfall was originally slated for release in China in November. The postponed release was reportedly the result of authorities’ hope of giving domestic blockbusters such as Back to 1942 and The Last Supper, which were released late November, a better chance at theaters to bolster year-end box office results for Chinese-language productions.
Skyfall will be the only major foreign production unspooling in Chinese cinemas in the next 10 days, with Cloud Atlas (which stars Chinese A-lister Zhou Xun and is co-produced by Hong Kong’s Media Asia) opening Jan. 31, followed by Jack Reacher on Feb. 16 and then The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey on Feb. 21. Backed by a lot of buzz in the local media, the Bond film is expected to perform well in China, with its run possibly challenged on Feb. 10 when Stephen Chow’s comedy JTTWopens at the start of the traditional Lunar New Year holidays.
STORY: 'Skyfall' London Premiere: Daniel Craig is Back as Bond
As part of its publicity blitz in China, Craig answered questions from the audience of the film’s Beijing premiere through a live video link Wednesday night. Fielding questions from journalists and viewers, the actor spoke about the number of suits he had at his disposal during the film’s production (30 sets of six) and his favorite “Bond Girl” (“I think Judi Dench will be the Bond girl – and always will be”) and his hopes for the franchise (“I hope it lasts for another 50 years – but not with me”).

Adult film executives warn of broader impact of Measure B condom law


Some of the adult film industry’s top executives warned Thursday that a new Los Angeles County law requiring porn actors to wear condoms while shooting sex scenes could have a “dangerous” impact on all entertainment companies, including mainstream film productions.
In a panel focusing on the state of the industry at the annual Adult Entertainment Expo, leaders from companies including Wicked Pictures, Adam & Eve and Hustler suggested that if the government could assert control over how how they shoot their movies, it could intervene in other Hollywood projects, as well.
“My concern is about a domino affect and that this could be implemented elsewhere, that they aren’t going to stop,” Christian Mann, general manager of Evil Angel Productions, said. “It’s very dangerous. It’s a regulation that hugely impacts how we can make movies, and even mainstream should be concerned. That kind of regulatory scheme could have an impact on everybody.”
Wicked Pictures chief Steve Orenstein echoed his concern, warning, “We don’t yet know how far they are going to take it. ... And to me, that is the greater issue.”
Their comments came after Vivid Entertainment and a group of top porn actors filed a lawsuit last week challenging the law, known as Measure B, arguing it infringed upon the industry’s First Amendment right to film movies the way it chooses.
Los Angeles County voters approved the referendum in November. The measure had been championed by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which argued the law was necessary to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases within the industry.
Industry people have argued the regulations aren’t necessary because companies already police themselves with self-described strict disease-testing measures for every actor involved in filming. Critics note that didn’t stop a syphilis outbreak that hobbled the industry and stopped production for a time last year.
Adult industry executives have suggested that the L.A. County law could drive the industry out of Southern California into states like Nevada, where there aren’t internal regulations in place to protect performers, removing an industry that has been a major economic boon to the Los Angeles area.
“We will always find a place to shoot… But it’s better to do it in a place (like LA) where there is (disease) testing than to take productions to a place where they don’t enforce this stuff,” Michael Klein, president of Hustler and Larry Flynt Productions, said. “The reality is that you are more at risk. We would put performers more at risk.”
While Measure B is only in place in Los Angeles County, the issue has been one of the top issues discussed at this year's Expo, which kicked off Wednesday. On the convention floor, several actors and actresses have been volunteering their time at a booth aimed at raising money and awareness for what they call the “dangers” of Measure B.
One actress, who declined to be named because she worried her opinion might infuriate her boss, confessed that while she would “prefer” to have her co-stars wear condoms when they filmed sex scenes, she doesn't "want the government telling me that has to happen. That is really not cool."

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Lance Armstrong mocked by late-night joke writers


Lance Armstrong's reported doping confession to Oprah Winfrey provided plenty of fodder for the former professional cyclist's many critics—and plenty of red meat for America's late-night joke writers.
The seven-time Tour de France champion and testicular cancer survivor taped an interview for Winfrey's OWN television network on Monday during which he reportedly admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs during his cycling career.
"According to the CDC, over 128 million flu vaccines have been administered this year," Jay Leno said on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno." "That's almost as many injections as Lance Armstrong has gotten in his entire career." And Armstrong's confession, he noted, "came as a shock to as many as a dozen people."
Armstrong's sit-down with Winfrey "lasted close to three hours," Jimmy Fallon quipped on "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon." "So it's sort of like a regular interview but, you know, on steroids."
And Jimmy Kimmel joked on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" that "inside sources say [Armstrong] refused to come clean about the doping at first, but then he caved when Oprah promised him a panini maker."
Kimmel then outsourced the rest of his Armstrong zingers to a mock call center in India. "We've done a lot of Lance Armstrong jokes over the years, and it's hard to come up with new stuff," Kimmel said before turning his monologue over to the outsourced material:
"Why did Lance Armstrong go on the Oprah Winfrey show? Because he thought he'd have a ball."
"What is the secret of Lance Armstrong's success? He always stays positive."
As for "The Daily Show," it weighed in on Armstrong in a segment called "Mr. Fibb."
"I believed in you Lance Armstrong," host Jon Stewart said, feigning outrage. "I shelled out a dollar for a rubber bracelet I have somewhere in my house. ... Well I think we all owe cancer an apology."
Stewart then mocked Winfrey's recent satellite interview with "CBS This Morning."
"I would say that for myself, my team, all of us in the room, we were mesmerized and riveted by some of [Armstrong's] answers," Winfrey told Gayle King.
"So you're saying we should watch it?" Stewart joked, adding: "By the way, that's not on satellite—Oprah just appears whenever Gayle gazes into a reflective surface."
The "Late Show With David Letterman," meanwhile, dedicated its "Top Ten" list on Tuesday to the other revelations from Armstrong's Winfrey interview:
10. Artificially enhanced his cycling shorts
9. Still never leaves the house without several vials of clean urine
8. Owns Texas real estate known as "Rancho Decepto"
7. Took steroids to work up the strength to admit taking steroids
6. Once had an inappropriate relationship with an air hose
5. Also has tattoo of Rex Ryan's wife
4. Has given up on making the baseball Hall of Fame
3. United States Postal Service paid him in stamps
2. Started erotic website, "Tour-De-Pants"
1. Admitted to doping just to get on "Oprah"
Stephen Colbert also skewered Winfrey's appearance on CBS.
"She sat down ... to give us her reaction to what she won't tell us Lance said," Colbert noted on his "The Colbert Report." "Well I'm sorry, Oprah. I am not playing into your little PR stunt. If you will not tell us what happened between you and Lance, I have the responsibility as a journalist to make something up.
"This just in," Colbert announced. "Lance Armstrong is banging Oprah."
Colbert also said that "rumors have been swirling for years. But when times got tough for this man, I did not get off the tandem bike of admiration. No, I saddled up, rang the bell of loyalty, put down the kickstand of support and stayed in it to Schwinn it ... and I've run out of bike metaphors.
"Point is, this man is a hero," Colbert added. "He beat cancer, then he went on to beat something even less popular: the French."

Mindy McCready’s Boyfriend Commits Suicide: Who Was David Wilson?


Troubled country singer Mindy McCready’s late boyfriend, David Wilson, appears to have had considerable issues of his own prior to his death reported on Sunday. The 34-year-old music producer’s demise has been determined a suicide.
Wilson was found in his Arkansas home by local police with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead shortly after being transported to the hospital. He leaves behind a 9-month-old son, Zayne, whom he fathered with McCready.
Aside from his involvement with McCready’s various brushes with the law—the most prominent being the 2011 attempt to abduct and hide McCready’s older son Zander from his grandmother, who had legal custody—there is little to suggest that Wilson had a disturbed lifestyle. Rather, the pieces of his puzzle show a typical Nashville music-scene up-and-comer’s story.
Dave Wilson in 2007 (Photo: Vibe 56 blog)
Wilson signed on as an intern in 2007 at Music Row recording studio Vibe 56, where the owners of the studio described him as a lifelong musician with a history of playing clarinet and keyboards. They also noted he was a “tremendous help to the studio and our clients” and that he brought a “positive vibe” to the establishment.
Vibe 56 closed in April of 2011, but Wilson seemed to have branched out on his own way before that. In 2008 he established a MySpace account for “Dave Wilson Productions,” which he self-described as “a young, innovative music production company based in Nashville” specializing in all genres of music and even offering supplemental services such as web production and photography.
Wilson at work (Photo: Stephen Hunton)
He worked on various projects, including some songs for his friends in his former indie-pop band Boom! Kinetic, for which he was the horn player. A fellow member of the band-turned-photographer returned the favor, taking photos of buddy Wilson to help him build his business. The vibrant 2008 shots show Wilson looking happy and healthy, appearing hard at work on his keyboards.
Wilson's MySpace profile shot
Wilson’s last login to his professional MySpace page was in February 2010. A second MySpace account, appearing to be more of a personal page in which he notes he is "extremely fortunate" and loves music engineering, shows his last login to be in 2011. The link to his official business site is now defunct.
It's unclear exactly when or how Wilson met McCready aside from their shared music connection; however, the young producer clearly made an impact on the often-controversial country star's life. McCready praised her late boyfriend in a statement Monday, saying he was a "caregiver" and a "precious gift from God."

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Chelsea Clinton Gets High-profile Inaugural Role

Chelsea Clinton is returning to Washington—this time in a leadership role. The former first daughter has been named the Honorary Chair of the 2013 National Day of Service and will headline a summit on the National Mall on Saturday to launch President Barack Obama's second inauguration. 

Related: Photos of Chelsea Clinton's New Public Life 

"There is no more fitting way to mark a presidential inauguration than a day of service," Clinton said in a statement sent to Yahoo! Shine. "Coming together as a country to strengthen our communities has always been part of the American spirit. I am deeply grateful that President Obama and his administration have put service at the center of the Inauguration weekend and I am proud to be part of a nation-wide service effort, honoring the service and legacy of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and building a brighter future for all of us." 

Related: 5 Fun Ways to Volunteer 

The high-profile role is a good fit for Clinton, who retreated from view after spending her childhood growing up in the public eye—she was born while her father, Bill Clinton, was governor of Arkansas, and when she left the White House to go to Stanford University in 1997, she was trailed by Secret Service members and 250 journalists—but recently seems to be embracing the political spotlight. 

"Historically I deliberately tried to live a private life in the public eye," she told Vogue magazine in August. "And now I am trying to lead a purposefully public life." 

Now 32, married, and living in New York City, the former first daughter has been honing her public persona as a special correspondent for NBC News. (Before that, she also spent a few years on Wall Street, working for a hedge fund, and three years with the consulting firm McKinsey & Company.) She campaigned on behalf of her mother, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, in 2008, moderated a panel last spring about the challenges facing women in elected office, and last fall went to Nigeria as a representative of her father's charitable foundation, Clinton Health Access Initiative. When her mother was hospitalized with a concussion recently, Chelsea Clinton acted as the family spokesperson

In November, she attended the Glamour Women of the Year awards in New York, where she spoke about the political records set and gains made by women in the last election. She is on the board of both the Clinton Foundation and the Clinton Global Initiative, and recently said that she might (eventually) consider running for public office

"Before my mom's [presidential] campaign, I would have said no," she told Vogue magazine in August. "And now I don't know… if there were to be a point where it was something I felt called to do and I didn't think there was someone who was sufficiently committed to building a healthier, more just, more equitable, more productive world? Then that would be a question I'd have to ask and answer." 

Politics aside, community service has always played a major part in her life, Clinton said. 

"When I was growing up, my parents and grandparents taught me that engaging in service, helping our neighbors and building strong communities are all part of being a good citizen and a good person," Clinton wrote in an essay for CNN on Tuesday. "When we moved to Washington, service remained an important part of my life. In high school, I helped head the service club, and in college, I volunteered as an America Reads tutor and in the art therapy room at the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital in California. I loved talking to my grandmothers about my volunteer work, and I agreed with them: I received more than I could ever possibly give." 

Saturday's event will have seven themes of service: community resilience, economic development, education, environment, faith, health, and veterans and military families. Nearly 100 service organizations will be on hand, and Clinton won't be the only big name on the program: Iraq War veteran and Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, Actress Eva Longoria, singer-songwriter Ben Folds, TV personality Star Jones, actress Angela Bassett, gospel singer Yolanda Adams, and Iraq War veteran and U.S. Representative Tammy Duckworth will also speak to the crowd. (The public can sign up to participate at the 2013 Presidential Inaugural Committee Website.) 

"Nineteen years ago, my father proudly signed the bill making Martin Luther King Day a time dedicated to serving others," Clinton told CNN. "As we think about the future of our communities and our country, we each have the ability and the responsibility to participate."