Tuesday, January 31, 2012

'X Factor' Loses Another Star (omg!)

'X Factor' Loses Another Star

After the sad news of Steve Jones' departure from The X Factor, TheInsider.com has learned the not-so-bad news that Nicole Scherzinger will be joining him.

Steve Jones Out as X Factor Host

FOX confirmed to us that Nicole will not be returning to the show next season.

The news is hardly a surprise after the downright outrage over Nicole's indecision last season which caused Rachel Crow to be sent home, and left the teenager in tears, but it is still unclear whether her departure was forced or voluntary.

The Devastating X Factor Cut

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/omg_rss/rss_omg_en/news_another_x_factor_judge_exits_show030700605/44360373/*http%3A//omg.yahoo.com/news/another-x-factor-judge-exits-show-030700605.html

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Winter cold snap kills 36 in eastern Europe

A couple walks on a snow covered road near the Lake of Eymir, Ankara, Turkey, on Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. Winter temperatures and recent snowfall has partially paralyzed life in Turkey. (AP Photo/Selcan Hacaoglu)

A couple walks on a snow covered road near the Lake of Eymir, Ankara, Turkey, on Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. Winter temperatures and recent snowfall has partially paralyzed life in Turkey. (AP Photo/Selcan Hacaoglu)

Coots fight for a piece of bread on the frozen Lake of Eymir, near Ankara, Turkey, on Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. Winter temperatures and recent snowfall has partially paralyzed life in Turkey. (AP Photo/Selcan Hacaoglu)

Coots run for a piece of bread on the frozen Lake of Eymir, near Ankara, Turkey, on Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. Winter temperatures and recent snowfall has partially paralyzed life in Turkey. (AP Photo/Selcan Hacaoglu)

(AP) ? A severe and snowy cold snap across central and eastern Europe has left at least 36 people dead, cut off power to towns, and snarled traffic. Officials are responding with measures ranging from opening shelters to dispensing hot tea, with particular concern for the homeless and elderly.

This part of Europe is not unused to cold, but the current freeze, which spread to most of the region last week, came after a period of relatively mild weather. Many were shocked when temperatures in some parts plunged Monday to minus 20 Celsius (minus 4 Fahrenheit).

"Just as we thought we could get away with a spring-like winter ..." lamented Jelena Savic, 43, from the Serbian capital of Belgrade, her head wrapped in a shawl with only eyes uncovered. "I'm freezing. It's hard to get used to it so suddenly."

Officials have appealed to people to stay indoors and be careful. Police searched for the homeless to make sure they didn't freeze to death. In some places, heaters will be set up at bus stations.

Still, 18 people, most of them homeless, died in Ukraine from hypothermia and nearly 500 people sought medical help for frostbite and hypothermia in just three days last week, the Emergency Situations Ministry said.

Temperatures in parts of Ukraine fell to minus 16 C (3 F) during the day and minus 23 C (minus 10 F) in the night. Authorities opened 1,500 shelters to provide food and heat and closed schools and nurseries. More than 17,000 people have sought help in such shelters in the past three days, authorities said.

In Poland, at least 10 people froze to death as the cold reached minus 26 C (minus 15 F) on Monday.

Malgorzata Wozniak, a spokeswoman for Poland's Interior Ministry, told The Associated Press that elderly people and the homeless were among the dead. Police were checking unheated empty buildings for homeless people they could take to shelters.

Warsaw city authorities decided to place more than 40 heaters in the busiest city transport stops to help waiting passengers keep warm.

City authorities in the Czech capital of Prague set up tents for an estimated 3,000 homeless people. Freezing temperatures also damaged train tracks, slowing railway traffic.

In central Serbia, three people died and two more were missing, while 14 municipalities were operating under emergency decrees. Efforts to clear roads blocked by snow were hampered by strong winds and dozens of towns faced power outages.

Police said one woman froze to death in a snowstorm in a central Serbian village, while two elderly men were found dead, one in the snow outside his home. Further south, emergency crews are searching for two men in their 70s who are feared dead.

In Bulgaria, a 57-year-old man froze to death in a northwestern village and emergency decrees were declared in 25 of the country's 28 districts. In the capital of Sofia, authorities handed out hot tea and placed homeless people in emergency shelters.

Strong winds also closed down Bulgaria's main Black Sea port of Varna, while part of a major highway leading to Bulgaria and Greece from Turkey was closed after a heavy snowfall. Nearly 200 Turkish Airlines flights to and from Istanbul's Ataturk Airport were canceled, and a city sports hall was turned to a temporary shelter for some 350 homeless people.

The temperature in Turkey's province of Kars, which borders Armenia, dropped to minus 25 C on Sunday night.

The situation was similar in Romania, where reports said four people have died because of freezing weather. There, authorities sent prison inmates to shovel snow and unblock paths leading to a shelter with some 300 stray dogs and puppies.

Weather forecasts say the cold snap will continue.

"We are getting some 'real' winter this week," Croatian meteorologist Zoran Vakula said.

_____

Associated Press writers across the region contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-30-EU-Europe-Weather/id-61624bc4f8234e04aa840a28c926ce34

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WATCH: Ferris Bueller Returns in New Super Bowl Ad

Honda is shaking it up (baby now!) with its 2012 Super Bowl ad: an homage to the 1986 classic Ferris Bueller's Day Off. After releasing a brief teaser last week, the auto company has unleashed a two-and-a-half-minute version, which showcases Matthew Broderick semi-reprising his role as slacking superstar Ferris. Watch it below!

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/matthew-broderick-revives-ferris-bueller-super-bowl-ad/1-a-423312?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Amatthew-broderick-revives-ferris-bueller-super-bowl-ad-423312

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'Downton Abbey' Gets 'Delicious'

Early 20th century drama gets 'pretty dark' by the end of season two, co-star Dan Stevens tells MTV News.
By Jocelyn Vena


Michelle Dockery and Dan Stevens on "Downton Abbey"
Photo: Carnival Films

America loves the early 20th century drama of "Downton Abbey." The British import is currently deep in its second season on U.S. TV, and it seems that just when things seem like they can't get any soapier, they do.

What with people falling in and out of love, families torn apart by World War I and the old British class system being shaken up by the new politics of a world at battle, there's enough comedy and tragedy there to keep anyone intrigued. And it seems that the award-winning show has a lot more up its sleeve. "Towards the end of the season, it's pretty dark," Dan Stevens, who plays Downton Abbey's reluctant heir Matthew Crawley, told MTV News. "It's great for me as an actor. It's delicious. It's pretty tough going."

For a show that seems terribly British (it takes place on the grounds of an English manor owned by Ladies and Lords) Stevens explains it's the universality of the themes of the show that make it relatable for everyone, including the actors. "The quality of the characters and particularly my character intrigued me," he said. "It's the outsider coming in and critiquing the whole thing which is always an interesting position to take — the multilayering, the weaving of the storylines. We want to find out what happens just as much as you guys do [when we get scripts]."

While season two already aired across the pond in 2011, the cast now will hit the set in the coming month to begin work on season three. And Stevens insists he knows nothing. "I don't know anything at all about it because I haven't seen any scripts," he said. "I swear on several of my dearest friends' lives. We know that it is starting in 1921 and that is honestly all I have seen and I wish I could tell you cause I want to know myself.

"More good old drama," he continued when asked what he wants to see happen. "Compared to my first season, it's way more dramatic for him in the second series and that is just so much fun to get to play. And people seem to enjoy watching that. It's quite old-fashioned weekly installments. All of the cast are dying to know. We don't know."

"Downton Abbey" airs Sundays on PBS.

What do you think of season two of "Downton Abbey"? Leave your comments below!

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1678135/downton-abbey-season-two-dan-stevens.jhtml

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Monday, January 30, 2012

Oakland to assess damage after Occupy protests

Occupy Oakland protestors burn an American flag found inside Oakland City Hall during an Occupy Oakland protest on the steps of City Hall, Saturday, January 28, 2012, in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo/Beck Diefenbach)

Occupy Oakland protestors burn an American flag found inside Oakland City Hall during an Occupy Oakland protest on the steps of City Hall, Saturday, January 28, 2012, in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo/Beck Diefenbach)

A woman pleads with Occupy Oakland protestors to not burn an American flag found inside Oakland City Hall during an Occupy Oakland protest, Saturday, January 28, 2012, in Oakland, Calif. Police were in the process of arresting about 100 Occupy protesters for failing to disperse Saturday night, hours after officers used tear gas on a rowdy group of demonstrators who threw rocks and flares at them and tore down fences. (AP Photo/Beck Diefenbach)

Oakland Police block the entrance to City Hall after Occupy Oakland protestors gained access into the building during an Occupy Oakland protest, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012, in Oakland, Calif. Oakland officials say police are in the process of arresting about 100 Occupy protesters for failing to disperse on Saturday. (AP Photo/Beck Diefenbach)

Oakland police block off a street in downtown Oakland during an Occupy Oakland protest, Saturday, January 28, 2012, in Oakland, Calif. Police were in the process of arresting about 100 Occupy protesters for failing to disperse Saturday night, hours after officers used tear gas on a rowdy group of demonstrators who threw rocks and flares at them and tore down fences. (AP Photo/Beck Diefenbach)

An Oakland City police officer stomps out a burning American flag after Occupy Oakland protestors set City Hall's flag on fire during an Occupy Oakland protest, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012, in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo/Beck Diefenbach)

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) ? Oakland officials assessed damage to City Hall caused by Occupy protesters while leaders of the movement claimed Sunday that police acted illegally in arresting hundreds of demonstrators and could face a lawsuit.

Mayor Jean Quan was among those inspecting damage caused after dozens of people broke into City Hall on Saturday, smashing glass display cases, spray-painting graffiti, and burning an American flag.

That break-in culminated a day of clashes between protesters and police. Interim Police Chief Howard Jordan said nearly 400 people were arrested on charges ranging from failure to disperse and vandalism. At least three officers and one protester were injured.

In a news release Sunday, the Occupy Oakland Media Committee criticized the police conduct, saying that most of the arrests were made illegally because police failed to allow protesters to disperse.

"Contrary to their own policy, the OPD gave no option of leaving or instruction on how to depart. These arrests are completely illegal, and this will probably result in another class action lawsuit against the OPD, who have already cost Oakland $58 million in lawsuits over the past 10 years," the release said.

The scene around City Hall was mostly quiet Sunday morning, and it was unclear whether protesters would mount another large-scale demonstration.

Dozens of officers remained present inside and outside City Hall after maintaining guard overnight. Occupy Oakland demonstrators broke into the historic building and burned a U.S. flag, as officers earlier fired tear gas to disperse people throwing rocks and tearing down fencing at a convention center.

"They were never able to occupy a building outside of City Hall," Jordan said Sunday. "We suspect they will try to go to the convention center again. They will get not get in"

Saturday's protests ? the most turbulent since Oakland police forcefully dismantled an Occupy encampment in November ? came just days after the group said it planned to use a vacant building as a social center and political hub and threatened to try to shut down the Port of Oakland for a third time, occupy the airport and take over City Hall.

Quan, who faced heavy criticism for the police action last fall, on Saturday called on the Occupy movement to "stop using Oakland as its playground."

"People in the community and people in the Occupy movement have to stop making excuses for this behavior," Quan said.

On Sunday, Quan said she is tired of the protesters' repeated actions.

"I'm mostly frustrated because it appears that most of them constantly come from outside of Oakland," Quan said. "I think a lot of the young people who come to these demonstrations think they're being revolutionary when they're really hurting the people they claim that they are representing."

Saturday's events began late Saturday morning, when a group assembled outside City Hall and marched through the streets, disrupting traffic as they threatened to take over the vacant Henry Kaiser Convention Center.

The protesters then walked to the convention center, where some started tearing down perimeter fencing and "destroying construction equipment" shortly before 3 p.m., police said.

Police said they issued a dispersal order and used smoke and tear gas after some protesters pelted them with bottles, rocks, burning flares and other objects.

The number of demonstrators swelled as the day wore on, with afternoon estimates ranging from about 1,000 to 2,000 people.

A majority of the arrests came after police took scores of protesters into custody as they marched through the city's downtown, with some entering a YMCA building, said Sgt. Jeff Thomason, a police spokesman.

Quan said that at one point, many protesters forced their way into City Hall, where they burned flags, broke an electrical box and damaged several art structures, including a recycled art exhibit created by children.

Dozens of officers surrounded City Hall, while others swept the inside of the building looking for protesters who had broken into the building, then ran out of the building with American flags before officers arrived.

The protest group issued an email criticizing police, saying "Occupy Oakland's building occupation, an act of constitutionally protected civil disobedience was disrupted by a brutal police response today."

Michael Davis, 32, who is originally from Ohio and was in the Occupy movement in Cincinnati, said Saturday was a very hectic day that originally started off calm but escalated when police began using "flash bangs, tear gas, smoke grenades and bean bags."

"What could've been handled differently is the way the Oakland police came at us," Davis said. "We were peaceful."

City leaders joined Quan in criticizing the protesters.

"City Hall is closed for the weekend. There is no excuse for behavior we've witnessed this evening," City Council President Larry Reid said during a news briefing Saturday.

Oakland Councilman Ignacio De La Fuente, echoed Reid's sentiments and said that what was going on amounts to "domestic terrorism."

The national Occupy Wall Street movement, which denounces corporate excess and economic inequality, began in New York City in the fall but has been largely dormant lately.

Oakland, New York and Los Angeles were among the cities with the largest and most vocal Occupy protests early on. The demonstrations ebbed after those cities used force to move out hundreds of demonstrators who had set up tent cities.

In Oakland, the police department received heavy criticism for using force to break up earlier protests. Quan was among the critics, but on Saturday, she seemed to have changed her tune.

"Our officers have been very measured," Quan said. "Were there some mistakes made? There may be. I would say the Oakland police and our allies, so far a small percentage of mistakes. "But quite frankly, a majority of protesters who were charging the police were clearly not being peaceful.

Earlier this month, a court-appointed monitor submitted a report to a federal judge that included "serious concerns" about the department's handling of the Occupy protests.

Jordan said late Saturday that he was in "close contact" with the federal monitor during the protests.

Quan added, "If the demonstrators think that because we are working more closely with the monitor now that we won't do what we have to do to uphold the law and try keep people safe in this city, they're wrong."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2012-01-29-US-Occupy-Oakland/id-2a95a4429756447da2e2df7b90cffc3a

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90 Days Without a Cell Phone, Email or Social Media? (ContributorNetwork)

Could you live without daily electronic conveniences -- Twitter, Facebook, email, texting and more -- for 90 days? Jake P. Reilly, a 24-year-old copywriting student at the Chicago Portfolio School, did just that.

From October to December, he unplugged from social media, email, texts, and cell phones because he felt that we spend more quality time with gadgets and keyboards than we do with the people we really care about.

During his social experiment, he found that some people he counted among his close friends really weren't that close after all. He also discovered that taking a break from his relationship with social media and really paying attention to the people around him can revive real-life romance.

I spoke with Reilly over the phone this weekend about his 90-day project, what he learned from living without electronic leashes and how it changed his life.

You say you spent three months completely cut-off from the virtual world. What steps did you take to do that?

Reilly: I called Verizon and suspended service for my cell phone. I deactivated Facebook. I deactivated Twitter, deactivated Linked-In, deactivated Spotify, and anything where there was a social component. I put up an out-of-office on both of my email accounts, like, "I'm sorry for the inconvenience, but I won't receive this until the end of the year."

Did you ever cheat and check to see what messages came in?

Reilly: I never went back on any of the social stuff. There were a few times when the bank would send me an email verification. My roommates would see me checking something like that, and they'd see me with my hands up to shield my eyes from the bulk of the screen, like a girl would do when she's watching a horror movie that she doesn't want to see. I genuinely didn't want to see what was there, because once you look you've got an urge to read it.

Before what you called "The Amish Project," how much time would you typically spend on social media sites, texting, and so forth every day?

Reilly: It was pretty bad. I was reading every single Tweet and I follow 250 people. Then, I would waste a good hour and a half on Facebook. I was sending more than 1,500 texts a month. I never really counted minutes on the phone, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was 600 to 900.

What about now, has it changed?

Reilly: I mean, I struggle with that because everyone wants to know about it, and wants to know how different it is. It's hard, because I was just going to turn off my phone at first. That was the thing that bothered me most, but I realized that if I turned off the phone, people were just going to email me all the time or send me a million Facebook messages. It's kind of a hard thing, because we're getting to the point where if you're not responding to people's text messages within an hour of when they send them, or within a day for emails, it's just socially unacceptable. It's been hard for me since I've been back. I've been bad with my phone and people are, like, "What the hell? I text messaged you?" So I haven't been up to social standards in terms of responding and people don't really understand that, I guess.

In the opening of your "Going Amish" presentation, you say that you had friends over and realized what was going on. Describe what you noticed and your feelings right at that moment.

Reilly: I live with three guys and we had two of our best friends in visiting from New York City. We only see these guys once a year, maybe every six months. We were at the University of Wisconsin watching a Badgers basketball game or something like that. Every single person had either a laptop or a cell phone. That's just kind of funny to begin with, then, I was like, "What are we all doing?" I asked everyone what they were doing and somebody's playing Words with Friends, somebody's playing Angry Birds, somebody's playing online trivia. Nobody's really doing anything, just sitting quiet. It's like this was what we were all looking forward to and we're just sitting here numbing our minds.

That's the thing that drives me crazy. People go out to dinner with a crowd and everyone's on their phone. I mean, what else are you looking for?

How did you communicate with family, friends and business associates during your "Amish" period?

Reilly: Ha! Not well, to say the least.

Do you have a landline?

Reilly: At first, we didn't, but my mom started freaking out a little bit and we got a landline. For the first three weeks, there was a hospital right next to my apartment. I went into their waiting room where there's a courtesy phone for their patients. I was using that to call people. I had written a little address book with all the important people that I needed to have their phone numbers, but, you know, most people don't answer their phones. Most people just use them to see who called. Then, they'll text you, or they'll call you back when they have time. So, I'd either sit at the hospital waiting for people to call back or I'd go home. I was in and out of this stupid hospital waiting room all the time for the first couple of weeks.

Then, we started to have more fun with it. I started to carry chalk around with me. I ride my bike a lot, so, I'd ride my bike over to people's houses and leave them messages in chalk on their sidewalk. I set up a couple of systems with people where, when they got home, they would put something in the window, like a stuffed dog, or put a pumpkin up on the ledge that meant "Hey, I'm here. Come talk." I started having fun trying to dream up different ways to get people's attention.

Were there people who said, "I'm just not going to participate in this. If you can't answer my texts, I don't need to talk to you."

Reilly: Yeah, I mean, I definitely just lost complete contact with people that normally would have been part of my life. I mean it's also an interesting metric for your life to see who some of your closest friends are, you know, and who's willing to take the time. I started to feel bad for them, too, because it definitely became a nuisance, but, yeah, it definitely changed the level of, or the number of friends that I had and the level of contact that I had with them.

So, with some people it clearly decreased your level of interaction, but were there others with whom your contact increased in either quality or quantity while you were disconnected from the virtual social society?

Reilly: That was my other favorite part. I had so much free time on my hands. I also wasn't watching TV, because that felt sort of counter-productive. I would go to school, and then there was really nothing for me to do at home, so I would just ride my bike to people's houses, all these people that I would usually text or just see on the weekends or whatever. I would just ride by and chat with them, face to face. So, that was really cool, reconnecting, doing things you'd never normally do like having breakfast with someone's parents.

You posted several of the notes you received from friends during your isolation. One note read "Jake, I'm pregnant. Call me." What was that about?

Reilly: Ha! At the school, there's an elevator. No matter where you're going, everyone has to use the elevator on the ground floor. So, for the people that I went to school with, that was the first place we'd post projects or memes. I didn't say this is my message board, but one of the girls just started leaving messages, like, "Hey. I'm on the fourth floor. Come find me," or "Jake, where are you?" It's a very public forum, so everybody can read it. It became my message spot.

Then, people almost treated it like a Facebook wall. It evolved from leaving messages for each other, to joking around, like, "Jake, your mother called. She said she doesn't love you anymore," and "Jake, the cops are looking for you," and all this stuff. It turned into a funny thing.

At one point there was a Christmas greeting trampled in the snow? What were the circumstances around that?

Reilly: Yeah, that was mine for my long-term girlfriend who I had kind of stopped seeing, but then this whole thing kind of, I think, helped us get back together because whenever we were together there was no pressure. It was, OK, we're just going to enjoy each other right now, because I don't know when I'm going to see you again. There was no drunken text messaging and jealousy from Facebook. It was just her and I.

So we started seeing each other again, and I did a lot of cheesy stuff like writing a big chalk message on the street in front of her office building and sending her a cookie with a message written in frosting and stuff like that. On the last week that she was in Colorado I went out and wrote Merry Christmas to her -- that picture was taken from the roof of the apartment we were staying at.

Do you think that those who rely so heavily on social media to interact with others are training themselves to communicate only at the most superficial level?

Reilly: Yeah, for sure. I think that Facebook is the biggest waste of time, because everyone is just presenting such a filtered picture of themselves. You only put up your best pictures. People only check in when they are at the fanciest restaurant in the city. They only keep things up there that are flattering to themselves. I just think it's like keeping up with the Joneses, but for life. You're never going to get on top of it. Someone's always going to have a better job than you, go on better vacations than you, have a better looking wife than you, or whatever it is. So, it's superficiality on top of superficiality. You never get to see the real parts of people.

Did you have to relearn skills to function without electronic communications? Writing letters, for example. I know my son has nearly illegible penmanship because he has been typing everything instead of handwriting since he was very little.

Reilly: I really don't have good penmanship at all. The funny thing is that I had written like 15 or 20 letters, and I just held them for two weeks until one time I dropped my pack and realized that I had lost the letters. I had taken all the time to write the letters and then lost them, because I didn't take the time to go mail them. You know, when's the last time I sent a letter? Never. So, I had to remember to stamp it right away and get it in. Then, it's going to take a week to get there. So when you need to say something to someone, you need to get it right in on time.

You said that you had much more free time when you stayed off Facebook and social media sites. Did this extra time translate into higher productivity or better grades at school?

Reilly: Yeah, a hundred times over. Like I said, there wasn't really much to do at the house, so I stayed at school most nights until 10 when everyone else leaves around 6, without a doubt. I think what's so hard for people and so distracting for people is that where they work, there are social media distractions on the same machine that they are supposed to be using to do their work. I'm sure every office in the country suffers from these things. I couldn't go to these sites, and when you can't distract yourself, all you can do is work.

How did you fill all this extra time? What's one thing you would have never accomplished if you hadn't taken this break in your relationship with social media?

Reilly: I did a lot of things that I don't know [?] other people would say they want to do. But I think, if they actually did them, they'd be of incredible value. I started meditating. People give you a lot of books that you can take time for, like "The Power of Now."

The best part for me was just the difference between riding your bike to work and going for a bike ride just for the fun of it. I would sit in the park a lot, throw the football with my friends, go ice-skating, and all that kind of silly stuff that you take for granted. It's all around you. I think that was the best part and most people really overlook that.

So you ended up not only with more time for work, but more time for play as well.

Reilly: Yes, absolutely. It was weird, because you had to think of how to play. Most people think more time for play means let's watch a whole series of video clips or tag some pictures, but when you don't have all that stuff, you expand your mind about what you want to do with your free time.

There's a real difference in the quality of that time. If I sit and play Angry Birds for an hour a day, I don't look back and say "You know, I had a really great Angry Birds session three weeks ago. That was a really great time," but if I share a sunset walk on the beach with someone, that's a memory that I can treasure forever.

Reilly: Yeah, sometimes you just sit on the internet and four hours goes by, and you're, like, I really didn't do one single thing. Maybe I looked at an article, looked at pictures, watched some dumb videos and got stuck in a YouTube black hole for an hour, just looking, looking, looking. I think you'd have a hard time finding anyone who thought that was really enriching your life.

I mentioned your story to my father-in-law the other day, he said "You want to interview somebody, talk to me. I've been doing that for 69 years!"

Reilly: Ha! I think that's what's so much fun about it. I've had a lot of action on Twitter for the last few days and a lot of people send me emails saying exactly that. I think adults really relate to it and think it's cool that someone from my generation is choosing to do it. They all say, "That's how we lived for 40 years. Can you imagine our whole life is like that?" That was interesting to me. I asked my grandparents, "How did you guys find each other when you wanted to go out or something?" They said stuff like throwing window pebbles and just driving by people's houses, and having a diner that you would go and turn up at where people were always there. I mean, they obviously managed just fine, and I was anxious about it and didn't like it for the first few weeks. Then, I didn't even think about my phone or miss it at all. You just find new ways.

I understand your father, ESPN sportswriter Rick Reilly, had a suggestion about your experience?

Reilly: Yeah, he's tweeted it out on his account and he's gotten a lot of reaction to it, too. He's been talking about trying to do a romantic comedy about it. There were so many missed connections. I mean, at first, I would meet girls out at the bar, and they'd be, like, "Here, take my phone number." I would have to explain that I didn't have an email address or Facebook?

?but if they'll give you their address you'll stop by sometime?

Reilly: Yeah, and they were, like, "Screw you. If you don't want to call me just say so." I'd say "No, no. Tell me where your office is, and I'll send you a bike courier message or whatever." I think there's a lot of funny stuff like that. I keep telling people the hardest part was having to send all of my sexts by USPS. I mean, I didn't actually send pictures?

In the end, having finished this whole thing, is your life different now or did you fall right back into old habits?

Reilly: It's definitely different, but I catch myself doing exactly what I hated. Someone is talking to me and I'm half-listening and reading a text under the table. For me, it's trying to be more aware of it. It kind of evolved from being about technology to more of just living in the moment. I think that's what my biggest thing is: There's not so much chasing for me now. I'm here now, and let's just enjoy this. You can be comfortable with yourself and not have to go to the crutch of your phone. For me, that's more what I will take away from this.

Do you have future projects planned?

Reilly: I keep telling everyone I should do another 90 days where I don't speak to anyone in person and only communicate by internet or through technology, but that's just a joke. It's really changed my life. Like I said, I'm back with this girl. Everything's a lot simpler. I'm more than happy that I did it.

What else did you learn?

Reilly: I think the letters were the coolest part and how people were really into it. I think I wrote 75 letters and nearly, I'd say, 85 percent came back with responses. Now all these people are responding to the video online. All the appreciation, I think the coolest part is that all these people really see this in themselves and wish that there was a different way and we weren't so tied to all that stuff.

Let me ask you one more question about the letters. What's the difference in the level of thought and feeling that you put into writing a letter compared to typing 140 characters?

Reilly: What we do now, on e-chat, is people just flying off with whatever comes to mind. It's so much different to have it really thought-out. I'm a writer, so it's time consuming. I think it takes 20 minutes or half an hour to write a letter and really get it the way I want it. I think it's a better, purer way to communicate. People appreciate it so much more when you send them a handwritten letter or even a thank-you note showing that you're taking the time to think about them.

Conclusion

With modern technology, texts and Facebook wall posts can serve as an attractive veneer making relationships seem more genuine than they really are. Conversely, social media can interfere with our most intimate real-life relationships. How many of your closest relationships would suffer if people had to invest more effort than sending a text to stay in touch? How much better could your relationship with your significant other be if you could give your partner your full attention whenever you're together? There's one way to find out, if you dare.

To see more of Reilly's work, go to BodyCopyByJake.com.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120130/us_ac/10900789_90_days_without_a_cell_phone_email_or_social_media

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SAG Awards Fashion Face-Off: Lea Michele vs. Dianna Agron


Let's send either Lea Michele or Dianna Agron home a winner, shall we?

Neither of these Glee stars picked up any SAG Awards last night, and their show as also shut-out, but that doesn't mean both actresses didn't look beautiful and that one of them can't come out on top in this Fashion Face-Off.

Consider Michele and her major leg below, while comparing it with Agron's traditional purple gown and answer this simple question: Who looked best on the red carpet?

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/01/sag-awards-fashion-face-off-lea-michele-vs-dianna-agron/

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Santorum cancels morning events to be with child

(AP) ? Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum canceled his Sunday morning campaign events and planned to spend time with his hospitalized daughter.

"Rick and his wife Karen are admitting their daughter Bella to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia this evening," spokesman Hogan Gidley said in a statement Saturday night, adding "Rick intends to return to Florida and resume the campaign schedule as soon as is possible."

Santorum had been scheduled to appear on NBC's "Meet the Press" and attend church in Miami. Officials did not cancel Sunday's afternoon events in Sarasota and Punta Gorda.

Isabella Santorum has Trisomy 18, a genetic condition caused by the presence of all or part of an extra 18th chromosome. When asked about her, Santorum says his daughter was not expected to survive until her first birthday and often has to catch himself to stop from tears.

"I have a little girl who's 3 ? years old," he told Christian conservatives in Iowa before winning that lead-off contest.

"I don't know whether her life is going to be measured ? it's always been measured ? in days and weeks. Yet here I am. ... because I feel like I wouldn't be a good dad if I wasn't out here fighting for a country that would see the dignity in her and every other child."

When voters ask him about her, he calls the decision to campaign "gut-retching" but says he goes forward for all special needs families.

"You think she's fine, and then one cold and she's this close to dying," he told The Washington Post last year in an interview.

In October, he missed one of Bella's surgeries to participate in a debate and told the audience that he planned to take an all-night flight home from Las Vegas to be with her.

"I look at the simplicity and love she emits," Santorum said in a web video his campaign released after his scheduling drew questions, "and it's clear to me we're the disabled ones."

Santorum largely has kept his daughter off the campaign schedules, preferring her to stay home with her mother. But Bella did join Santorum for a few days around Iowa's straw poll in August, and she joined her family in Charleston, S.C., the day of its primary.

She didn't join her six siblings for the public speech. She stayed backstage.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-01-28-Santorum-Daughter/id-1dac6b225d9b40af8efed4d704505567

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Sunday, January 29, 2012

Tweet lightly: How social media could someday affect your credit score, insurance, and more (Digital Trends)

social media map

Did you know January 28 is Data Privacy Day in the United States, Canada, and the European Union? The intention behind Data Privacy Day is to raise awareness of the importance of protecting the privacy of personal information?not just amongst individual users of things like social networking, but also amongst businesses, organizations, and corporations that collect, retain, and access information about their clients, customers, and users. Companies like Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo have been drawing the attention of privacy advocates and regulators in recent years, but the reality is that there are tens of thousands of companies out there collecting, processing, and distributing personal information about individuals all the time. Increasingly, those companies are looking to things like social networking for cues about individuals? behaviors, lifestyle, interests, and activities.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg ??Time?s 2010 Man of the Year ? once famously declared privacy is not a ?social norm,? and Facebook and other companies have consistently borne out that idea in the online world, collecting increasing amount of information about individuals and hiding behind privacy policies longer than the U.S. Constitution. Clauses of implied consent decree that users legally agree to having their information gathered and tracked, so long as they continue using accounts or services. In other words: Users can either agree to be tracked, or they can agree not to use a service. However, this cavalier approach to data collection and user profiling is drawing increased scrutiny not just from consumer and privacy advocates, but by governments and everyday people. The European Commission has just proposed new data protection laws that would enshrine a ?right to be forgotten? for individuals, and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission has forced Facebook to toe the line on sharing user information with third parties. Google?s recent ground-up revamp of its privacy policies and user tracking is almost certain to draw FTC scrutiny as well.

Social impact

In observance of Data Privacy Day, Microsoft?which has a major stake in how data protection plays out, has released data from a survey of 5,000 people examining how they approach their online profiles and reputations. Overall, the survey found that 91 percent of respondents have taken some action to manage their overall online profile at some point in time, while about two thirds of respondents feel they are actually in control of their online reputations. However, only 44 percent indicated they actively consider the potential long-term consequences of their online actions; that means a surprising 56 percent do not consider any consequences from their online activity. Further, a surprising 14 percent believe they have been negatively impacted by the online activities of others. In this survey, ?negative impact? means things like being fired from a job, being denied a mortgage, losing health insurance, or losing out on being accepted to a college or a job.

Microsoft Online Reputation survey results

It?s well-known that most employers these days commonly vet job candidates by checking out their social media postings: Pictures from a drunken party in college could come back to haunt job-seekers later in life, particularly as things like Facebook?s now-mandatory Timeline expose more of people?s online histories. Similarly, employers and others can easily trawl through someone?s postings to Twitter and other social media services. Someone who regularly uses insulting or demeaning language in their public tweets or fuels flame wars with strangers in forums might now be an employer?s first choice for a job that entails dealing with the public or customers politely. By the same token, tweeting ?Mainstreet offramp at 90mph, flipped off ugly minivan that honked at me!!? is probably a fast way to lose a job as a delivery driver.

Messages, files, photos, videos and other things marked as private or shared with a small group on a social networking site are only private in a very limited sense. If someone you?ve shared with takes the material public, it?s out there for the whole world to see, forever, just like any other social media posting. Also remember that discovery processes for civil and criminal cases treat social networking posts just like any other communication: They can be subpoenaed, and providers have to turn them over the data regardless of whether that information was free for the whole world or intended for just a selected few. And those subpoenas don?t have to be about you specifically: they might be about one of your online ?friends? or related to a fan page, group, discussion list, or blog you happen to like.

Do not track

Back in December 2010 the FTC fielded a do-not-track proposal that essentially extends the notion behind the the well-received U.S. do-not-call list for telephone solicitation to the Web. Consumers would be able to tell online advertisers that they do not want to be tracked or have data about their online data collected about them and used to target advertising. Although all the major Web browsers implemented support for the do-not-track behavior during 2011 (and Microsoft even submitted a version to the W3C as a standard), the bottom line is that, even if consumers enable the feature on all their browsers, sites and services must explicitly support it. It doesn?t work automatically, and there is no regulatory requirement that any site support it.

Of course, there is a negative consequence for high-profile companies (the Googles, Microsofts, and Facebooks of the world) if they fail to support something like the do-not-track technology: They can be publicly humiliated, which could impact their usership and, ultimately, the amount of money they can earn via their online advertising businesses. However, FTC commissioner Julie Brill, speaking at the George Washington University law school in observance of Data Privacy Day, noted a entirely different aspect of the industry: Low-profile data brokers who specialize in scraping and collecting information about Internet users?and then, of course, sell it to others. Like, perhaps, the Facebooks, Googles, and Microsofts of the world.

social-media-jugglingBrill indicated the FTC intends to take a much closer look at these sorts of data brokers, particularly since the data they collect is essentially unverified and hidden away. Internet users have no way of knowing, reviewing, or correcting what data brokers are saying about them, and similarly have no way to opt out of the data collection. In much the same ways inaccurate credit reports can have a severe negative impact on an individual?s finances (and can take months or even years of effort to correct, even in cases of fraud and identity theft), material collected about individuals via the Internet could have an impact on people?s everyday lives.

?Analysts are undoubtedly working right now to identify certain Facebook or Twitter habits or activities as predictive of behaviors relevant to whether a person is a good or trustworthy employee, or is likely to pay back a loan,? Brill said in her remarks. ?Might there not be a day very soon when these analysts offer to sell information scraped from social networks to current and potential employers to be used to determine whether you?ll get a job or promotion??

Brill outright admitted the FTC doesn?t even know who many of these data brokers are.

The FTC is expected to release its final report early next year, outlining policy principles and urging the industry to adopt and implement transparency principles that put consumers in control of the personal data being distributed about them. Unfortunately, these will be nonbinding recommendations: The FTC doesn?t have much in the way of enforcement power without assistance from Congress, and about the only thing the FTC can bring to bear right now is the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which only applies to credit reporting agencies (CRAs), defined as companies assembling and selling credit and financial information about individuals. It?s not clear whether scrapings from the Internet and social networking services would fall within that definition. And the final policy report is expected to fall far short of the EU?s proposed ?right to be forgotten,? which itself is not above criticism.

It?s not all about you

There are essentially three classes of information that impact people?s online reputations:
  • Items posted by a user for the whole world to see
  • Items posted by a user intended only for a select group
  • Items posted about a user by a third party
This last case is noteworthy because it?s singularly outside of a users? control. In the same way we can?t control what people say when we leave a room, we can?t control what people say about us on social networking services. Unfortunately, people have a tendency to say things online they would never say in real life; equally unfortunately, those kinds of insensitive or outright untrue comments can have an impact on our real lives. The day may come when it?s possible to negatively impact someone?s credit score just by saying enough negative things about them online.

To combat this possibility, industry leaders like Microsoft and Google recommend users be proactive and keep an eye on what?s being said about them online. Both companies recommend regularly searching for all variations on their names in popular search engines to see what turns up. Microsoft?s survey found that only 37 percent of Internet users do this. (Among other things, Google recommends automating these types of searches with a Google Alert. (Unfortunately, you have to have a Google account to do that, and will be subject to Google?s we-track-everything policies.) If you find your online reputation is less flattering than you?d hoped, there?s not much you can do about it: Once something is published on the Internet, it?s essentially available to anyone, forever.

One tactic for maintaining some online privacy can be to keep your personal and professional lives separate. Maybe have one profile that?s public and available to the world ? including employers, schools, government agencies and others. Then, have separate profiles, screen names, and email addresses that handle your personal business, and keep those under tighter control, utilizing the privacy tools available on most social networking services and sites. (Bearing in mind that nothing available on the Internet is truly private.) If you do separate personal and professional roles, don?t cross-pollinate the two! There?s no point to having separate setups if you?re just going to link back and forth between them.

Keep a lid on it

A little over a two years ago, current Google chairman Eric Schmidt opined on CNBC that if people were doing something they didn?t want anyone to know, maybe they shouldn?t be doing it in the first place; Schmidt has also frequently expressed disdain for anonymity online, once declaring it ?too dangerous.? Comments like these from a top executive at one of the world?s most pervasive providers of online services ? and advertising ? should be troubling to anyone who doesn?t feel all the details of their lives ought to be accessible to anyone at any time

Although we can?t control what others say about us, or what companies are compiling about us, we do have control over what we do ourselves. A good rule of thumb for managing online privacy and reputation is ?think before you post.? If you?ve separated your personal and professional online lives, make sure you?re logged into the right account. And before posting a candid photo or hot-under-the-collar remark, think ?Is this something I really want associated with me for years?? Because whether you answer yes or no, it will be.

Image credit: Shutterstock / ra2 studio / VLADGRIN

This article was originally posted on Digital Trends

More from Digital Trends

Study shows face recognition technology can reveal much more than your image

Why 2012 is starting to look like 1984

Surveys find consumers easily duped by online prize offers

Facebook and the FTC talk new privacy policies

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/digitaltrends/20120127/tc_digitaltrends/tweetlightlyhowsocialmediacouldsomedayaffectyourcreditscoreinsuranceandmore

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Video: Buried Secrets, Part 3

Dateline NBC

'Dateline NBC,' the signature broadcast for NBC News in primetime, premiered in 1992. Since then, it has been pioneering a new approach to primetime news programming. The multi-night franchise, supplemented by frequent specials, allows NBC to consistently and comprehensively present the highest-quality reporting, investigative features, breaking news coverage and newsmaker profiles.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032600/vp/46168490#46168490

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James Zogby: Bridging the Divide

ABU DHABI, UAE: I've just finished teaching a three week January term course at New York University's Abu Dhabi campus (NYUAD). I've had the great fortune to teach before at some wonderful schools across the U.S. But this, for me, was a special experience, the result of the unique mix of students who had been brought together in this one place.

The course I had been invited to teach was called "Bridging the Divide between the Arab World and the West". It was to be an examination of how the West and Arabs have interacted with each other in the past century, their mutual misperceptions, and the resultant and often tragic problems that have ensued, putting both sides at risk.

In the lead up to the start of the course, I had planned my lectures and prepared class exercises. The students would create, conduct, and analyze their own polls of U.S. and Arab attitudes and would develop their own class blog about the divide and the ways they experience it. On day one, I was set to begin and to proceed according to my plan, and then I met my students.

The class was made up of mostly first year students. There were sixteen in all - from twelve different countries on four continents! The range was extraordinary. Four were Arabs (one each from the UAE, Egypt, Libya, and a Palestinian from Lebanon - each with a fascinating story to tell). There were four Americans (from Minnesota, Ohio, Virginia, and New Jersey). They were joined by colleagues from: the UK, Denmark, Bosnia, Kenya, India, Indonesia, and South Korea. Though different in so many ways, they were, for the most part, "cut from the same cloth", variations on a theme. They were bright and inquisitive, expressive and insightful, and open to learning from each other.

After interviewing each of the students on the first day, it became clear to me that while they were eager to learn about the place they were in, and the Arab World, in general, they also had a great deal to share about their own experiences in confronting the many "divides" that make up our modern world. My students from Columbus, Ohio and St. Paul, Minnesota, for example, wanted to tell about how their respective communities were dealing with the influx of large numbers of Somali refugees. The ethnic and religious divides that have shaped the modern histories of India, Indonesia, and Bosnia became subjects for conversation, as did the more recent tensions that have confronted Muslim immigrants to the UK, U.S. and Denmark.

Some of my American students shared the apprehension expressed by their parents and peers when they made known their choice to go to a school in the Arab World, while some of my Arab students told of similar reactions they received when they declared their intention to attend an American school.

We had much to talk and write about, and we did. What was so extraordinary was how supportive the students were of one another. Although NYUAD is only two years old, a new culture had been created in this remarkable place, itself an important learning experience. As I watched the students engage in conversation, or when I read their posts and their comments on their colleagues' posts, or when I saw them just mingling with one another in the cafeteria, it became clear what a remarkable thing was being done here.

There were times I felt as though this were a sort of Hogwart's Castle. And that these little wizards had been plucked from their respective worlds and brought together where their special skills could be developed before they were to be sent back home. But I came to realize that this wasn't the case at all. The students weren't magical, nor was the place. It was the opportunity that had been created for meeting and learning from each other that was the magic. It was the vision behind this place that had brought these few hundred very bright young men and women from every continent to learn together, that would create lessons that would last a lifetime.

The UAE will be bidding to host the World Expo in 2020. Their theme is "Connecting the World, Creating the Future". In many ways, this is being done across this young country every day, in business, in culture and the arts, and in the meetings of peoples in everyday life. This also describes the NYUAD experience--in every classroom and in every lunch table conversation. The students who are fortunate enough to be a part of this experience are being connected to the world in a very personal way and out of this experience a new generation of global leaders is being created. And because these students are being transformed by their encounters here, they will be better able to heal the many divides they face in our increasingly complex world.

I leave here enriched and invigorated by the time I spent with my students in this place.

?

Follow James Zogby on Twitter: www.twitter.com/AAIUSA

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-zogby/bridging-the-divide_b_1239126.html

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Bucks keep Lakers' road woes going with 100-89 win

Los Angeles Lakers' Pau Gasol (16) and the Milwaukee Bucks' Luc Richard Mbah a Moute (12) fight for the rebound during the first half of an NBA basketball game on Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Jim Prisching)

Los Angeles Lakers' Pau Gasol (16) and the Milwaukee Bucks' Luc Richard Mbah a Moute (12) fight for the rebound during the first half of an NBA basketball game on Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Jim Prisching)

Los Angeles Lakers' Pau Gasol, left, and Matt Barnes (9) fight for the ball with the Milwaukee Bucks' Luc Richard Mbah a Moute (12) during the first half of an NBA basketball game on Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Jim Prisching)

Los Angeles Lakers' Pau Gasol (16) reacts to a foul against the Milwaukee Bucks during the first half of an NBA basketball game on Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Jim Prisching)

Los Angeles Lakers' Derek Fisher, left, dives for the loose ball as the Milwaukee Bucks' Luc Richard Mbah a Moute grabs it during the first half of an NBA basketball game on Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Jim Prisching)

Los Angeles Lakers' Kobe Bryant drives to the basket against the Milwaukee Bucks' Carlos Delfino during the first half of an NBA basketball game on Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Jim Prisching)

(AP) ? (AP) ? Drew Gooden scored 23 points and the undermanned Milwaukee Bucks made sure the Lakers' road struggles continued, beating Los Angeles 100-89 on Saturday night.

Kobe Bryant scored 27 for the Lakers, who are 1-7 on the road this season.

Ersan Ilyasova and Mike Dunleavy added 15 points each for the Bucks, who managed to beat the Lakers without two of their best players.

Already scrambling to compensate for the long-term absence of injured center Andrew Bogut, the Bucks found themselves without guard/forward Stephen Jackson on Saturday because of an NBA suspension.

Bryant made six free throws to break Jerry West's franchise record for free throws made. Coming into Saturday's game, Bryant needed three makes to tie West's mark of 7,160.

Bryant also came closer to becoming the Lakers' career leader in field goals made. He was 10 of 21 from the floor Saturday, leaving him three short of the 13 field goals he needed to tie Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's franchise record of 9,935 field goals made.

Even without Bogut and Jackson, the Bucks were in control most of the way. Ilyasova hit a jumper at the horn to end the third quarter, and the Bucks took an 80-73 lead into the fourth.

The Bucks led 85-76 after an inside score from Ilyasova with just under eight minutes left, but Bryant scored five straight points to cut the lead to four.

But Luc Richard Mbah a Moute hit a jumper, then Gooden scored on a turnaround hook shot and hit a pair of free throws to run the lead back to 91-81.

Andrew Bynum scored inside, but Dunleavy hit a long jumper to give the Bucks a 93-83 lead with just over two minutes left.

After Bryant made a pair of free throws, Dunleavy drilled a 3-pointer to put the game away with 1:24 left.

The Bucks managed the beat the Lakers without Jackson, whose suspension was announced a few hours before the game.

The NBA suspended Jackson one game for verbal abuse of a game official and failure to leave the court in a timely manner at the end of the Bucks' 107-100 loss at Chicago on Friday night.

It's another rough moment for Jackson, who was benched by coach Scott Skiles in the Bucks' Jan. 20 game at the New York Knicks.

Bogut, meanwhile, fractured his left ankle in Wednesday's game at Houston and is expected to miss eight to 12 weeks ? a crushing blow for Milwaukee.

Without Bogut, the undersized Bucks faced a tough test from the Lakers' pair of 7-footers: Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum.

But they held their ground on defense early on, taking a 51-43 lead at halftime. The Bucks forced the Lakers into 10 turnovers in the first half, and limited Gasol to six points on 3 for 10 shooting.

Gasol finished the game with 12 points and 15 rebounds, but was 6 for 18 from the floor.

Lakers rookie guard Andrew Goudelock scored 13 points despite being hospitalized for dehydration overnight. Goudelock was coming off his best performance of the year, having scored a career-high 14 points against the Clippers on Wednesday.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-01-29-Lakers-Bucks/id-48c1b33bad464c8998da79f03016f176

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Saturday, January 28, 2012

Dear Politicians, Stop Supporting Laws You Don't Even Understand [Internet]

Another bill which would have violated the civil liberties of many—Hawaii's H.B. 2288 Internet Dossier bill—has been pulled off the table following public outrage. And for good reason; the law would have tracked every website Hawaiians visited, and likened that browsing history to a name and address. It opened the door to profound first and fourth amendment violations. But worst of all, it was born out of ignorance. That's not okay. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/JIJjxzMaA4s/dear-politicians-stop-supporting-laws-you-dont-even-understand

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Movie Scores: How the critics rated the new movies (AP)

LOS ANGELES ? Liam Neeson continues to impress critics with his reinvention as an action hero as he approaches 60 in this weekend's "The Grey."

Neeson stars as one of a group of oil-rig workers who find themselves stranded in the snowy Alaskan wilderness when their plane to Anchorage crashes. AP Entertainment Writer Jake Coyle only gave the movie two stars out of four, though, saying: "`The Grey' is not `Jaws,' and it's certainly not `Moby-Dick.' In the script by (director Joe) Carnahan and Ian Mackenzie Jeffers, adapted from Jeffers' short story `Ghost Walker,' the philosophical subtext is forced and obvious."

Also opening this weekend to far less favorable reviews is "Man on a Ledge," starring Sam Worthington as a disgraced New York cop who threatens to jump off the 21st floor of a hotel to deflect attention from a heist going on across the street. AP Movie Critic Christy Lemire gave it one and a half stars out of four, writing: "`Man on a Ledge' is so cliched and reheated, it almost feels like a parody of a generic action picture ? only no one seems to be in on the joke."

Here's a look at how these movies and others fared on the top review websites as of Friday afternoon. Each score is the percentage of positive reviews for the film:

? "The Grey": Metacritic, 64; Movie Review Intelligence, 63.5; Rotten Tomatoes, 76. Average: 67.8.

? "Albert Nobbs": Metacritic, 58; Movie Review Intelligence, 64.2; Rotten Tomatoes, 53. Average: 58.4.

? "Man on a Ledge": Metacritic, 40; Movie Review Intelligence, 42.9; Rotten Tomatoes, 22. Average: 35.

? "One for the Money": Metacritic, 13; Movie Review Intelligence, 11; Rotten Tomatoes, 0. Average: 8.

___

Online:

http://www.metacritic.com/

http://moviereviewintelligence.com/

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120127/ap_en_ot/us_movie_scores

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Early Autism Sign: Babies' Brain Responses to Eye Contact (LiveScience.com)

The way that babies as young as six months look at the eyes of other people may be an early sign of autism, a new study suggests.

Researchers looked at brain scans of infants as they were shown pictures of faces, and those who were later diagnosed with autism showed marked differences in brain activity from those who were not later diagnosed with the condition when the eyes in the pictures were directed at the infants.

The study included 104 babies who either had a higher risk of developing autism, because they had a sibling with the condition, or had no family history of autism.

"This study takes us a step further in understanding what goes on in the brain that subsequently causes autism to emerge in children," said study researcher Mayada Elsabbagh, a scientist at McGill University in Canada.

The study is published today (Jan. 26) in Current Biology.

Infant brain responses could be an early sign

About 1 in 110 children in the U.S. has autism, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Parents who have one child with autism are 2 to 8 percent more likely to have a second child with the disorder.

Diagnoses of autism are based on children's social behavior, and are generally made in children 2 years and older.

But parents often know something is wrong before that age.

"As early as infancy, they notice that something is different, but it's difficult to have it confirmed with a diagnosis until the child ages," Elsabbagh said.

Study findings suggest there might be a way to diagnose the disorder earlier based on infant brain responses, and that treatments for the condition may be more effective when given at earlier ages.

"The next step is to increase our knowledge on how to diagnose earlier, and provide access to earlier intervention, which we know can reduce the impact of the symptoms," Elsabbagh said.

Making eye contact could be the key

In the new study, researchers recruited families from the British Autism Study of Infant Siblings, which tracked infants starting at 5 months of age until they were 3 years old.

They tested 54 infants who had a sibling with autism, and so were at high risk of developing the condition, and 50 infants who did not, and so were the control group.

The infants, at 6 to 10 months, were shown faces that switched from looking at them to looking away from them, a way of gauging their response to eye contact with another person.

Researchers used sensors placed on the infants' scalps to measure their brain in response to eye gaze directed toward or away from the baby.

They found that of the 54 infants at higher risk, the 17 who were diagnosed with autism by 3 years of age tended to have different brain responses from the 50 infants who were not at risk, and were not later diagnosed with the condition.

But Elsabbagh cautioned that the study's findings were imperfect.

"Not every child that developed autism has brain function that showed a huge difference," she said. "It could be some other factor that prevents autism from emerging."

Researchers also only looked at children who were at high risk of autism.

"These children are at higher risk than children in the general population ? children who don't have an older sibling affected by autism," said Alycia Halladay, director of research for Autism Speaks, a group that advocates for autism research, who was not involved with the study.

"So we don't know if these findings are applicable to other children with autism, or to just those who are at risk," she said.

But Halladay did point out that the study raised interesting questions about the role of early social behaviors like looking or tracking a child's eye gaze.

"Further research needs to be done on whether brain activity can be the basis for early intervention," she said.

Pass it on: How an infant responds to eye contact could determine whether they are at risk for autism.

This story was provided by MyHealthNewsDaily, a sister site to LiveScience. Follow MyHealthNewsDaily on Twitter @MyHealth_MHND. Find us on Facebook.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/science/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20120126/sc_livescience/earlyautismsignbabiesbrainresponsestoeyecontact

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