Saturday, October 19, 2013

5 things to know about China's new aged care law

Elderly parents in China can now sue their grown children for both financial and emotional support.


The changes in the law in China reflect an increasingly urgent dilemma across the world: As populations age faster than ever before, families and governments are struggling to decide who will protect and provide for the old. Too often, the answer is nobody.


The Associated Press spent months reporting across formats on population aging and the growing problem of elder abuse and neglect for an occasional series, Old World. Here are five things to know about the situation in China, where filial piety, or respect for one's parents, was once a given:


HONOR THY FATHER AND MOTHER - IT'S THE LAW


A handful of countries, such as China, India, France and Ukraine, require adult children to financially support their parents. Similar laws are in place in 29 U.S. states, Puerto Rico and most of Canada, but they are rarely enforced because government aid helps support the old. In Singapore, adult children who do not give their parents an allowance can face six months in jail.


HONEY, SO NICE THAT YOU CAME


More than 1,000 parents in China have sued their children for financial support over the last 15 years. But the law now goes further to require that adult children regularly visit their parents. Employers are required to give workers time off to do so, although that provision may be hard to enforce.


GOING GRAY BEFORE GETTING RICH


China is not yet wealthy enough to keep up with its rapidly aging population. It is projected to have 636 million people over age 50 by 2050, or nearly 49 percent of the population — up from 25 percent in 2010. Although a recent expansion of the medical system covers most Chinese, reimbursement rates remain low and out-of-pocket costs high. Many rural families cannot afford hospitals' huge up-front deposits.


THE FIRST AMONG 100 VIRTUES


A Chinese proverb calls filial piety, or respect for one's parents, "the first among 100 virtues." The ancient philosopher Confucius credited it as the bedrock of social harmony, and a popular song urges grown children to visit their parents often. Communities hold "best children" contests, complete with cash prizes. One county even made filial piety a condition for the promotion of local officials. And generations of Chinese have read the classic morality guide, "The Twenty-Four Filial Exemplars," where sons strangle tigers, let mosquitoes feast on their blood and proudly scrub bedpans for the sake of their parents.


AT HOME OR AWAY


Nursing homes are not an option for most Chinese. The few nursing homes in China supply only 22 beds for every 1,000 seniors, and most are too expensive for the average family. Even children who can afford nursing homes fear sending their parents away will mark them as un-filial.


Source: http://news.yahoo.com/5-things-know-chinas-aged-care-law-055235436.html
Related Topics: dexter   iTunes Radio   apple stock   Jameis Winston   Zayn Malik  

AgriLife researcher Xiuren Zhang receives National Science Foundation CAREER grant

AgriLife researcher Xiuren Zhang receives National Science Foundation CAREER grant


[ Back to EurekAlert! ]

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

18-Oct-2013



[


| E-mail



| Share Share

]

Contact: Kathleen Phillips
ka-phillips@tamu.edu
979-845-2872
Texas A&M AgriLife Communications





COLLEGE STATION Dr. Xiuren Zhang, a biochemist and geneticist with Texas A&M AgriLife Research in College Station, has been awarded almost $1.3 million from the National Science Foundation to further his studies on RNA silencing and plant stem cells, which ultimately could help breed more productive plants.


The award is through the science foundation's CAREER program, which is given in "support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations."


Zhang is also an assistant professor of biochemistry and biophysics with a lab at Texas A&M University's Institute for Plant Genomics and Biotechnology.


His research was recently featured in Nature Structural and Molecular Biology in an article that detailed his team's discovery of the bidirectional processing of microRNAs in plants. These small RNAs turn off gene expression but they are processed from a specific group of progenitor RNAs, also known as primary RNAs that contain loop structures.


Zhang's team studied the common lab plant, Arabidopsis, and rice and found that primary microRNA can be processed in either direction. But the processing from only one direction leads to forming a mature microRNA species, while going the other direction causes the process to abort and degrade.


Zhang's work was related to Argonaute genes, so named because their mutants resemble the shellfish known as an argonaut. Argonaute proteins are guided by small RNAs to shut-down gene activities.


Zhang's lab discovered that Arabidopsis Argonaute10, different from other Argonaute proteins, specifically locks a group of tiny microRNAs, and prevents their "turn-off" activities to promote plant stem cell development.


The CAREER award, which will extend over five years, is expected to help Zhang and his team continue their work on controlling stem cells of plants, which ultimately could lead to the ability to regulate the production of leaves, seeds and fruit.


Zhang's lab will continue to focus on the Argonaute 10. The CAREER grant will be used to include investigations of various biochemical interactions involving AGO10 and its new partners. It will also include an educational component aimed at creating and sustaining interest in undergraduate students especially minorities and women in order to encourage them to continue in research at the graduate level, Zhang said.


###


[ Back to EurekAlert! ]

[


| E-mail



| Share Share

]

 


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.




AgriLife researcher Xiuren Zhang receives National Science Foundation CAREER grant


[ Back to EurekAlert! ]

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

18-Oct-2013



[


| E-mail



| Share Share

]

Contact: Kathleen Phillips
ka-phillips@tamu.edu
979-845-2872
Texas A&M AgriLife Communications





COLLEGE STATION Dr. Xiuren Zhang, a biochemist and geneticist with Texas A&M AgriLife Research in College Station, has been awarded almost $1.3 million from the National Science Foundation to further his studies on RNA silencing and plant stem cells, which ultimately could help breed more productive plants.


The award is through the science foundation's CAREER program, which is given in "support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations."


Zhang is also an assistant professor of biochemistry and biophysics with a lab at Texas A&M University's Institute for Plant Genomics and Biotechnology.


His research was recently featured in Nature Structural and Molecular Biology in an article that detailed his team's discovery of the bidirectional processing of microRNAs in plants. These small RNAs turn off gene expression but they are processed from a specific group of progenitor RNAs, also known as primary RNAs that contain loop structures.


Zhang's team studied the common lab plant, Arabidopsis, and rice and found that primary microRNA can be processed in either direction. But the processing from only one direction leads to forming a mature microRNA species, while going the other direction causes the process to abort and degrade.


Zhang's work was related to Argonaute genes, so named because their mutants resemble the shellfish known as an argonaut. Argonaute proteins are guided by small RNAs to shut-down gene activities.


Zhang's lab discovered that Arabidopsis Argonaute10, different from other Argonaute proteins, specifically locks a group of tiny microRNAs, and prevents their "turn-off" activities to promote plant stem cell development.


The CAREER award, which will extend over five years, is expected to help Zhang and his team continue their work on controlling stem cells of plants, which ultimately could lead to the ability to regulate the production of leaves, seeds and fruit.


Zhang's lab will continue to focus on the Argonaute 10. The CAREER grant will be used to include investigations of various biochemical interactions involving AGO10 and its new partners. It will also include an educational component aimed at creating and sustaining interest in undergraduate students especially minorities and women in order to encourage them to continue in research at the graduate level, Zhang said.


###


[ Back to EurekAlert! ]

[


| E-mail



| Share Share

]

 


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.




Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-10/taac-arx101813.php
Tags: chicago marathon   miss america   grandparents day   Dufnering   bachelorette  

Friday, October 18, 2013

Week In Politics: Shutdown Post-Mortem And Looking Ahead


Audie Cornish talks with regular political commentators, E.J. Dionne of The Washington Post and the Brookings Institution and David Brooks with The New York Times. They take stock of the winners and losers in the government shutdown and look forward to the next potential budget and debt crisis a few months from now.


Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=237166780&ft=1&f=1014
Related Topics: kanye west   Blacklist   derek hough   Jesse Jackson Jr   the bachelorette  

Activists: Explosion in southern Syria kills 21

BEIRUT (AP) — Activists say an explosion struck a vehicle packed with passengers traveling in southern Syria overnight, killing at least 21 people, including four children.


The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Wednesday that the blast around midnight hit the vehicle as it was driving near Tel al-Juma in Daraa province.


The Observatory says six women were also among the dead.


It was not immediately clear what caused the explosion, but activists in the area accuse the military of planting a bomb in the ground along the road.


The Observatory says there is an army outpost in the area that is besieged by rebels.


Daraa was the birthplace of the Syrian uprising against President Bashar Assad in March 2011.


Source: http://news.yahoo.com/activists-explosion-southern-syria-kills-21-073315827.html
Related Topics: Common App   dexter   apple   labor day   ryan braun  

Chinese growth rebound shores up world markets

LONDON (AP) — News of a rebound in China's economy shored up markets on Friday at the end of a volatile week that saw the U.S. veer dangerously close to defaulting on some of its debts.


Now that the U.S. Congress agreed to raise the country's borrowing limit, eliminating for now the risk of default, investors were able to focus on something other than the squabbling in Washington a day after the S&P 500 index closed at a record high.


"The sentiment in the market today is one of mild relief and back to business as usual," said David White, a trader at Spreadex.


China's economic rebound in the third quarter was the main driver of sentiment on Friday. Government figures showed that the world's number 2 economy grew by an annual rate of 7.8 percent in the third quarter, up from a two-decade low of 7.5 percent during the previous three-month period.


The improvement eased fears of a deeper Chinese slowdown that could crimp the world economy and should ensure that full-year growth doesn't fall below Beijing's 7.5 percent target.


Corporate earnings were also on the radar of most traders — the start of the quarterly results season had taken a backseat to the developments in Washington. On Friday, solid earnings from General Electric and Morgan Stanley helped shore up the market mood.


In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was up 0.5 percent at 6,611 while Germany's DAX rose 0.3 percent to 8,839. The CAC-40 in France was 0.9 percent higher at 4,276.


In the U.S., the Dow Jones industrial average was steady at 15,374 while the broader S&P 500 index rose 0.4 percent to 1,740. On Thursday, the S&P day closed at a record high of 1,733.15 after investors breathed a sigh of relief that the U.S. government cobbled together a deal to avoid a potential default.


Lawmakers reached an eleventh-hour agreement late Wednesday evening to raise the $16.7 trillion debt limit. Still, investors are assessing the long-term cost of the drawn-out political battle and the likelihood of another high-stakes standoff early next year, when the short-term increase to the U.S. debt ceiling runs out.


Earlier in Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng closed up 1.1 percent at 23,340.10 and China's Shanghai Composite Index added 0.4 percent to 2,193.78. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.7 percent to 5,321.50. Japan's Nikkei 225 bucked the trend, dropping 0.2 percent to 14,561.54. Markets in India and Southeast Asia rose.


The U.S.'s economic reputation and the status of the dollar as the world's reserve currency have taken a hit from the standoff. As a result, the dollar suffered a broad-based drop Friday.


The euro was up 0.1 percent at $1.3680, just shy of its earlier 8-1/2 month high of $1.3704. The dollar was 0.2 percent lower at 97.79 yen.


Source: http://news.yahoo.com/chinese-growth-rebound-shores-world-markets-142102510--finance.html
Similar Articles: big bang theory   emmys  

APNewsBreak: New charges in Blackwater shootings

FILE - In this Sept. 25, 2007 file photo, an Iraqi traffic policeman inspects a car destroyed by a Blackwater security detail in al-Nisoor Square in Baghdad, Iraq. The U.S. Justice Department has brought fresh charges against former Blackwater Worldwide security contractors over a deadly 2007 shooting on the streets of Baghdad. The jury indictment announced Thursday, Oct. 17, 2013 charges four men with voluntary manslaughter and other crimes. The case stems from the shooting of 17 Iraqi civilians. Blackwater security contractors were guarding U.S. diplomats when they opened fire at an intersection. Their lawyers have said the insurgents ambushed the guards. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed, File)







FILE - In this Sept. 25, 2007 file photo, an Iraqi traffic policeman inspects a car destroyed by a Blackwater security detail in al-Nisoor Square in Baghdad, Iraq. The U.S. Justice Department has brought fresh charges against former Blackwater Worldwide security contractors over a deadly 2007 shooting on the streets of Baghdad. The jury indictment announced Thursday, Oct. 17, 2013 charges four men with voluntary manslaughter and other crimes. The case stems from the shooting of 17 Iraqi civilians. Blackwater security contractors were guarding U.S. diplomats when they opened fire at an intersection. Their lawyers have said the insurgents ambushed the guards. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed, File)







FILE - In this Thursday, Sept. 20, 2007, file photo, Hassan Jabir lies in a hospital bed after he was wounded when guards employed by security company Blackwater opened fire at Nisoor Square in 2007, in Baghdad, Iraq. The U.S. Justice Department has brought fresh charges against former Blackwater Worldwide security contractors over a deadly 2007 shooting on the streets of Baghdad. The jury indictment announced Thursday, Oct. 17, 2013 charges four men with voluntary manslaughter and other crimes. The case stems from the shooting of 17 Iraqi civilians. Blackwater security contractors were guarding U.S. diplomats when they opened fire at an intersection. Their lawyers have said the insurgents ambushed the guards. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed, File)







FILE -In this Sept. 20, 2007, file photo Hassan Jabir, 37, recovers from gunshot wounds in a hospital in Baghdad, Iraq, received in his car in the Mansour neighborhood when guards in a U.S. State Department convoy opened fire, shooting him four times. The U.S. Justice Department has brought fresh charges against former Blackwater Worldwide security contractors over a deadly 2007 shooting on the streets of Baghdad. The jury indictment announced Thursday, Oct. 17, 2013 charges four men with voluntary manslaughter and other crimes. The case stems from the shooting of 17 Iraqi civilians. Blackwater security contractors were guarding U.S. diplomats when they opened fire at an intersection. Their lawyers have said the insurgents ambushed the guards. (AP Photo/ Khalid Mohammed/File)







WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department on Thursday brought fresh charges against four former Blackwater Worldwide security contractors, resurrecting an internationally charged case over a deadly 2007 shooting on the streets of Baghdad.

A new grand jury indictment charges the men, who were hired to guard U.S. diplomats, in a shooting that inflamed anti-American sentiment abroad and heightened diplomatic sensitivities amid an ongoing war.

The guards are accused of opening fire in busy Nisoor Square on Sept. 16, 2007. Seventeen Iraqi civilians died, including women and children. Prosecutors say the heavily armed Blackwater convoy launched an unprovoked attack using sniper fire, machine guns and grenade launchers. Defense lawyers argue their clients are innocent men who were ambushed by Iraqi insurgents.

The guards were charged with manslaughter and weapons violations in 2008, but a federal judge the following year dismissed the case, ruling the Justice Department withheld evidence from a grand jury and violated the guards' constitutional rights. The dismissal outraged many Iraqis, who said it showed Americans considered themselves above the law. Vice President Joe Biden, speaking in Baghdad in 2010, expressed his "personal regret" for the shootings in declaring that the U.S. would appeal the court decision.

A federal appeals court reinstated the case in 2011, saying now-retired Judge Ricardo Urbina had wrongly interpreted the law. Prosecutors again presented evidence before a grand jury, and U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth gave the Justice Department until Monday to decide what to do with the case.

The defendants include Dustin Heard, a former U.S. Marine from Knoxville, Tenn.; Evan Liberty, a former U.S. Marine from Rochester, N.H.; Nick Slatten, a former U.S. Army sergeant from Sparta, Tenn., and Paul Slough, a U.S. Army veteran from Keller, Texas.

Slatten is charged with 14 counts of voluntary manslaughter and 16 counts of attempt to commit manslaughter; Liberty and Heard are charged with 13 counts of voluntary manslaughter and 16 counts of attempt to commit manslaughter; and Slough is charged with 13 counts of voluntary manslaughter and 18 counts of attempt to commit manslaughter. All four were also charged with one count of using and discharging a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.

The men face lengthy prison sentences if convicted.

The defendants are charged under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, a statute that allows the government to prosecute certain government employees and military contractors for crimes committed overseas. Defense lawyers have argued that the statute does not apply in this case since the guards were working as State Department contractors, not for the military.

Heard's lawyer, David Schertler, said in an email that he was disappointed with the prosecution, which he believes has no merit.

"We will continue to fight and defend Dustin Heard's innocence and honor until he is fully exonerated," he said.

Lawyers for Slough and Slatten declined to comment. Liberty's lawyer had no immediate comment Thursday.

In a statement, U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen. said the prosecution "demonstrates our commitment to upholding the rule of law even in times of war and to bringing justice to the memories of those innocent men, women and children who were gunned down in Baghdad more than six years ago."

Prosecutors last month agreed to dismiss their case against a fifth guard, Donald Ball, a retired Marine from West Valley City, Utah. A sixth guard, Jeremy Ridgeway of California, pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing.

The Justice Department had earlier dropped Slatten from the case, but after the appeals court decision revived the prosecution, the government contended that he remained a defendant.

The company formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide is under new ownership and is now headquartered in Virginia. It had changed its name to Xe Services, but the company was sold to a group of investors who then changed the name to Academi. Blackwater founder Erik Prince is no longer affiliated with the company.

In moving forward with the case, the government will seek to overcome some of the legal problems that have dogged the prosecution.

The case initially ran into trouble because the State Department promised the guards that their statements explaining what happened would not be used in a criminal case. The guards told investigators that they fired their weapons, a crucial admission because forensic evidence could not determine who fired.

Because of a limited immunity deal, prosecutors had to build their case without those statements, a high legal hurdle. In dismissing the case, Urbina said prosecutors had read the statements, reviewed them in the investigation and used them to question witnesses and get search warrants.

Court documents also reveal conflicting evidence, with some witnesses saying the Blackwater convoy was under fire and others saying it was not. Some said the entire convoy fired into the intersection; others said only a few men opened fire.

___

Follow Fred Frommer on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ffrommer and Eric Tucker at https://twitter.com/etuckerAP

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-10-17-Blackwater%20Prosecution/id-ea6960fffeb848449ced58bc152802fe
Tags: Ed Sheeran   act   harry potter   djokovic   Carlos Danger  

Google flies high -- but Motorola sinks further



The good news about Google in its third-quarter results aren't hard to find: The company beat analyst estimates for revenue and earnings per share. But there is bad news, and it hints at how the company's big mobile hardware investment may be a much longer-term proposition for a profit.


Nobody, save maybe for Google's competition, is complaining about the company's revenues: $14.89 billion total, $11.92 billion net, up 12 percent from Q3 2012. The projections were for $11.7 billion revenue, and a $10.36 EPS (for the latter, Google made $10.74). Small wonder Google's shares jumped some 5 percent in after-hours trading.


One sign of how Google's business could change up with the ongoing shift away from desktops and toward mobile devices, is the dropping cost-per-click, or CPC, rate. A metric that measures the average price for an ad, CPC fell 8 percent over last year, and 4 percent from Q2, even while paid clicks rose 26 percent year-over-year and went up 8 percent from Q2.


Carolina Milanesi, a research VP at Gartner, described these steady-rather-than-drastic changes as a consequence of the movement toward mobile ads, "where there is a reluctance to pay as much." On the other hand, "the main thing is that more users are clicking on the ads that Google is serving."


Some of that may be due to the recently launched Enhanced Campaigns ad system (courtesy of its acquisition of AdMob). But other hints of how that might be happening came during the quarterly analyst conference call, where Chief Business Officer Nikesh Arora talked about how localized product-listing ads (a major component of the mobile ad strategy) and the transition "from links to answers" has been playing out.


"We’re transitioning from links to answers," he said, referring to the way Google has been reworking its results via its Hummingbird tuneup, "and product-listing ads are part of that because they're a good experience for the user, especially on mobile devices." But he declined to comment "on how that will impact going forward."


If Google plans to continue making up in volume what it loses in individual sales, it may well be one of the few entities on the planet with the muscle and the means to do so.


But Motorola Mobility, the in-house hardware side of Google's mobile strategy, hasn't experienced a turnaround of its own. Instead, it's slid even further into the red, with a Q3 loss of $248 million. At least the dip wasn't as pronounced as in Q2, where Motorola lost $342 million. Total Q3 revenue: $1.18 billion, down from $1.78 billion last year.


The real question: Is anyone even surprised by such lackluster performance? Under Google's stewardship, Motorola hasn't differentiated itself except by being remarkably underwhelming in most every respect. The U.S.-made Moto X phones have stolen no thunder from the likes of Samsung's Galaxy S4, let alone the iPhone 5s, and its "Motomaker" customization system hasn't done much for sales either.


Milanesi's observation on this point was blunt: "It is hard to see what the advantage of having Moto is, considering the fact that they have lost close to $1 billion." But she also pointed out Google is "looking years ahead, not quarters ahead, a strategy that might make earnings analysis quite complex as we do not see the quick results on investments such as Moto."


On the analyst call, CFO Patrick Pichette reiterated a similar line: The company had a quality product in the Moto X, and it was still the early days for the new Motorola. How long those early days will go on is another story entirely -- especially with the mobile market fast becoming a settled field with Apple on top, Samsung under that, and everyone else far, far behind.


This article, "Google flies high -- but Motorola sinks further," was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Get the first word on what the important tech news really means with the InfoWorld Tech Watch blog. For the latest business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.


Source: http://www.infoworld.com/t/technology-business/google-flies-high-motorola-sinks-further-229051?source=rss_infoworld_blogs
Similar Articles: christina milian   calvin johnson   eddie aikau   Ariel Castro   Beyonce Haircut  

Pink Postpones Two Shows: "Touring Would Be Terribly Easy If I Lip Synced"

Performing for hours night after night can be tough on anyone, and Pink recently felt the effects of overworked vocal chords as she had to cancel two concerts this week.


Explaining the decision on Twitter, the "Just Give Me a Reason" singer tweeted, "Thanks for all the support y'all. Not very dramatic- doctor just wants me on complete vocal rest for four days to heal. So I can kick a**."


Assuring fans that they won't miss out, the 34-year-old working mom followed up with, "Both shows rescheduled and very quickly. Touring would be terribly easy if I lip synced. See you soon xo."


The Salt Lake City and Denver shows have been reset for October 29th and 30th. Stay linked to GossipCenter for all your Pink news.


Source: http://celebrity-gossip.net/pink/pink-postpones-two-shows-touring-would-be-terribly-easy-if-i-lip-synced-944934
Tags: john lennon   Sleepy Hollow   made in america   irina shayk   jimmy fallon  

Thursday, October 17, 2013

4 TV Execs in Showdown: Fox's Reilly Calls Pilot Season 'Welfare State'; Sarandos' New Threat




This story first appeared in the Oct. 25 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.


Is Netflix "freeloading" off the networks and cable carriers that help create a big chunk of its programming? That was the word FX Networks CEO John Landgraf used in a terse Sept. 20 Wall Street Journal interview explaining FX's move to enable more video-on-demand viewing of its shows on cable systems. VOD hurts Netflix, countered its chief content officer Ted Sarandos, who said he would pay less for shows if cable carriers planned on gobbling up all the so-called "binge viewers." With such fighting words being thrown around the cutthroat (and booming) television business, THR decided to invite four of its brightest and most articulate executives to sit down and duke it out. They didn't disappoint. Landgraf, 51, and Sarandos, 49, were joined by Showtime's David Nevins, 46, and Fox's Kevin Reilly, 51, in a spirited debate about the competition for top projects, what TV agents get wrong and the shows they'd most want to steal from one another.


PHOTOS: Exclusive Portraits of 4 Top TV Executives


All four of you now compete for the same projects. What's the most frustrating part of that rivalry?


John Landgraf: I really believe in the development process. Obviously, Ted's organization has a different point of view. There's a process of working on a script and working on a pilot -- sometimes actually retooling a pilot -- that's valuable for precision of tone. And it's difficult to do that right now because [with] any project that has merit, there is, at minimum, a pilot commitment and often a series commitment.


Ted Sarandos: I'm a fan of development, I just don't want to do it. (Laughs.)


David Nevins: Having the ability to go at the right pace is one of the things I like about my job, as opposed to when I was in the network business. I don't like artificial pressure to go faster and to make decisions before things are ready.


Kevin Reilly: I enjoy that they get to appreciate my misery.


Kevin, you've done a few straight-to-series orders lately. Why?


Reilly: We've been bound to these cycles for a long time in the broadcast side of the business. When I worked in cable [at FX], I loved getting off of it. It was a much better process creatively. It has a higher yield on the success side. You want to have the ability to course-correct if need be and not have to cast under duress. So my series orders have been predominantly to unwind us off the cycle in broadcast, but the marketplace is at such a fever pitch. I can't stand it. I get dragged into pitch meetings that I shouldn't be in because, "Oh, Nina [Tassler of CBS] was there and she blew air-kisses; Paul [Lee of ABC] sent flowers; Bob [Greenblatt of NBC] is vacuuming their rugs." It gets that silly, but then people start throwing money, and there's nothing else to do. It starts to pervert the process when there's too much money involved too early and everyone makes false promises that they can't deliver.


How much of your feelings are directed at Netflix?


Landgraf: None of us is implicating Netflix in that because the truth of the matter is, there are now 48 channels, at last count, making scripted original series. So it's the whole ecosystem that's creating it. Netflix is a part of it, but so are we.


Sarandos: People get wrapped up in the cost of a show and say we pay a lot for a show. But I don't have the development infrastructure overhead, and I'm not [making] 50 or 60 pilots to do it. If you took all that money out and put it on the screen -- which is what we did with House of Cards -- then we're probably not that different.


STORY: You're Fired! Ousted Studio Execs Reveal How They Coped -- and What Happens Next


What's the one show that got away for each of you?


Landgraf: Easy. Breaking Bad.


Reilly: I was given the script of Homeland by Howard [Gordon] because of our relationship with 24, and I read it and thought it was really good, but it felt like a cable show. I still wrestle with it. It would not be our highest-rated show, but I really wish I had it.


Sarandos: True Detective [upcoming] on HBO is a show that I would have loved to have. It's one of the best-written projects I've seen.


Were you in that bidding process?


Sarandos: For a second.


Nevins: I was, too. I actually thought I was going to get it, and in the end [HBO] offered a big check and an overall deal for the writer.


Ted, how long can Netflix go without releasing any ratings information?


Reilly: This is a Ted Sarandos roast, right? Where's Jeff Ross? (Laughs.)


Sarandos: I don't know. Honestly, at some point, someone will just spend a ton of money getting the answer. Because you can, right? Somebody could sample 2,000 people, spend a million dollars and get the data. It's a question of how valuable the answer is to you guys. It's not to me.


Nevins: If John puts in 10 bucks, I put in 10 bucks, we get the Food Channel to put in 10 bucks, we can put together a pool. … Question: Would we understand it if you gave it to us?


Sarandos: I don't think so …


Reilly: I love my job, but I'd really love my job if I didn't have to live and die by ratings every day. But we're in a business where perception becomes reality. Advertisers can wake up, and they're watching Netflix and saying, "God, you know, Orange Is the New Black. Everyone's watching that!" You get these sweeping generalizations. … So we really have to try to get some uniform metric, where you put it in perspective.


Landgraf: There's no question in my mind that [Orange] is a very successful show. … The only thing that gets confusing is that perception is often reality, and we don't know the difference between perception and reality.


Sarandos: I buy programming from all these guys, so if a show on Netflix is being watched more than a show on FX, that's bad for FX and not particularly great for Netflix. I want your shows to be successful [and more episodes to be made], so I can buy more of your shows.


STORY: Fall TV Battlefield: Inside the 4 Hottest Time Slot Turf Wars



 


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thr/news/~3/owTddAI2acc/4-tv-execs-showdown-foxs-648368
Category: charlie hunnam   britney spears   Rebel Wilson   FedEx Cup standings   Cyclospora  

How Financial Markets View Fiscal Deal


For a glimpse of how financial markets may view the deal by Congress to reopen the federal government and raise the debt ceiling, Renee Montagne speaks to HSBC's chief U.S. economist Kevin Logan.



Copyright © 2013 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.


STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:


It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.


RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:


And I'm Renee Montagne.


The last-minute move by Congress that reopened the federal government and raised the debt ceiling has brought some relief to the markets. Stocks are mixed in Asia, but some investors are already worrying about the prospects of another fiscal showdown in Washington early next year, saying Congress is merely kicking the can down the road.


Joining us now is Kevin Logan. He is the chief U.S. economist at the banking giant HSBC. Good morning.


KEVIN LOGAN: Good morning.


MONTAGNE: How relieved are investors with the deal that was made, after all, at the 11th hour?


LOGAN: Well, they're quite relieved, particularly investors in the Treasury market. That's where all the risk was, whether or not the U.S. Treasury would actually default or delay payment on some of its obligations. I think away from the Treasury market, it wasn't quite as much an anxiety. We saw that in the stock market, for example. Gains slowed down, but by and large the market held in. And then there was a small relief rally once the deal was struck.


But the big relief, the big change within the Treasury market, were particularly the short-term securities that were due to mature in the next month or so. Those, which had sold off severely, rallied once the deal was made.


MONTAGNE: Well, when you talk about that market - in fact, you are talking about, in a way, the whole world, certainly world leaders were urging the U.S. Congress and the president to make some kind of deal, you know, saying that the U.S. cannot, if it came to that, default on its debt. And China - now China holds something like $1.3 trillion in American public debt. How has this whole thing affected China?


LOGAN: Well, it certainly made them start to think about the safety and security of their international reserve holdings. China has, over the last two decades, been driven by their economic growth, they've been driven by exports to a large extent. They've run current account surpluses that have piled up quite a treasure trove of international reserves. The place they invest most of those are in U.S. government securities, the deepest, most liquid and most easily transacted market in the world. Now they have to think a little bit more about the risk of that market in a way that they hadn't before.


MONTAGNE: Which, of course, would not necessarily be good for the U.S. I mean, China - there was a point at which coming out of China were calls for the international community to move away from the dollar.


LOGAN: Well, yes. Right now we have international monetary arrangements that are based on the relative strength and the quality of the financial markets in different economies. And over time it's shifted. We know that early in the last century it was U.K. with sterling. More recently, the evolution and development of the euro provided a substitute for the dollar and sterling. Things will keep changing over time. Certainly the emergence of China as a strong and potentially dominant economic power will eventually lead to changes in global monetary arrangements. This little episode we've just been through is probably just one more step on the way of making people think about how these changes will take place in the future.


MONTAGNE: Let's get back to regular folks here in the United States. The housing market took a hit momentarily. What do you think this deal will do for that and just largely such things as interest rates?


LOGAN: Well, the main thing is the end of the government shutdown. Housing was bothered by all of this because the processing of loans was slowed down. A lot of loans depend upon FHA approvals or paperwork that might go through to forming the mortgage pools that are backed by Fannie May or Freddie Mac, and all the uncertainty about the government shutdown delayed all of that processing and so held up mortgages that people might get. Hopefully the backlog will be cleared quickly, and the housing market will return to normal.


MONTAGNE: Kevin Logan is chief U.S. economist at HSBC. Thank you very much for joining us.


LOGAN: You're welcome.


Copyright © 2013 NPR. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to NPR. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.


NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.


Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=236212112&ft=1&f=3
Category: How To Close Apps On Ios7   grand theft auto 5   Becky G   big brother spoilers   Iams Recall  

Kim Kardashian’s Ass Is Back To Pre-Baby Size




By Travis October 17, 2013 @ 9:00 AM




By the time that North West is old enough to be exploited for her gender and not just her youthful innocence, social media will probably have advanced far beyond the Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. that we know today. But someone will eventually explain to North that her mother, Kim Kardashian, rose to fame by recording herself having sex with Ray J and posting “sexy” pictures of herself online, like this one that she posted yesterday. The most shocking element of this photo is probably that North isn’t actually in the picture, but I’m sure that’s because she was probably on the roof playing with knives for Kris Jenner’s new reality series pitch.


Photo Credit: Kim Kardashian’s Instagram




Source: http://www.wwtdd.com/2013/10/kim-kardashians-ass-is-back-to-pre-baby-size/
Related Topics: Valerie Harper   castle   Danny Garcia   Al Jazeera America   Disney Infinity  

Angela Ahrendts, Apple's next retail chief, talks energy and intuition

In a TEDx Hollywood talk earlier this year, the company's incoming retail chief talks about the power of feeling over thinking.


Angela Ahrendts

Angela Ahrendts, speaking at a TEDx conference in Los Angeles on March 28, 2013.


(Credit: TEDx video/Screenshot by CNET)

Late Monday, Apple announcedthat it has tapped Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts to lead its retail efforts in a newly created position reporting to CEO Tim Cook, starting next spring.


Apple has a reputation for going with intuition. Steve Jobs famously hated focus groups, and instead followed an internal compass. It would appear Apple's new hire has the same sensibilities. In a TEDx Hollywood presentation she gave in March of this year, Ahrendts delved into the power of "human energy."


Ahrendts, who was raised by a "spiritual mother and philosopher father," says she believes in the motivational power of energy: "Think of energy almost like emotional electricity. It has a powerful way of uniting ordinary people, their connected spirit, to do extraordinary things," she said.


Watch all rest of Ahrendts' talk below:



Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57607564-37/angela-ahrendts-apples-next-retail-chief-talks-energy-and-intuition/?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=News-Apple
Related Topics: Ed Lauter   American Horror Story   chrissy teigen   james franco   Charlie Manuel  

U.S. FDA panel votes against expanded use of Amarin drug


By Toni Clarke


(Reuters) - Amarin Corporation Plc's triglyceride-lowering drug Vascepa should not be approved for use in a broader patient population until results from an additional study have been analyzed, an advisory panel to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Wednesday.


The panel voted 9-2 against approval of the drug for patients who also take a cholesterol-lowering statin such as Pfizer Inc's Lipitor and are at high risk of coronary heart disease.


While the drug reduced triglycerides, or blood fats, in a clinical trial, the panel was not convinced that lowering triglycerides would automatically lead to a reduced risk of coronary heart disease or death.


The FDA is not bound to follow the recommendations of its advisory panels but typically does so.


Vascepa is already approved to reduce triglycerides in patients who are not taking statins. Amarin had hoped to market the drug to a much broader patient population. But Dr. David Cooke, clinical director of pediatric endocrinology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a panelist, said it "has not yet been proven" that Vascepa, or any medication that lowers blood fats, except statins, decreases cardiovascular risk.


The FDA suggested that approval should be withheld pending the results of an 8,000-patient trial being conducted by Amarin that is expected to shed light on whether Vascepa actually cuts cardiovascular risk. Results of the trial are expected in late 2016.


Raghuram Selvaraju, an analyst at Aegis Capital Corp, said the company will "in all likelihood need to raise additional capital" in order to fund operations through to the release of those results. While those results "could still vindicate Amarin," he said, "we believe that moving to the sidelines is probably the most appropriate strategy at this juncture."


Selvaraju cut his recommendation on the stock to "hold" from "buy."


Amarin's shares were halted on Wednesday pending the FDA panel's discussion. They fell to a year-low of $4.50 on Monday following publication of the FDA's initial review of the company's application, which was more cautious than investors had expected.


Vascepa is a purified ethyl ester of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) derived from fish oil. EPA, along with a-linolenic acid and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) are collectively referred to as omega-3 fatty acids.


EPA and DHA are also the major constituents of fish oils derived from cold water fish. The only other approved fish-oil treatment for severe hypertriglyceridemia is Lovaza, which is made by GlaxoSmithKline Plc. Lovaza has not been shown to cut the rate of heart attack or stroke.


(Reporting by Toni Clarke in Washington; Editing by Bernard Orr)



Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-fda-panel-votes-against-expanded-amarin-drug-191229743--finance.html
Related Topics: gizmodo   michael jackson   Gia Allemand   Kendrick Lamar Verse   nate robinson  

AP sources: Boehner, top GOP to vote for deal

WASHINGTON (AP) — Speaker John Boehner (BAY'-nur) and other top House Republican leaders intend to vote for the bipartisan agreement worked out in the Senate to avoid a financial default and reopen the government.


Officials said Wednesday that the leaders made their intentions clear at a closed-door meeting of rank and file Republicans.


Boehner in a statement said the House, quote, "fought with everything" it had to persuade President Barack Obama to engage in bipartisan negotiations on the country's debt and the 3-year-old health care law. He vowed that the fight will continue.


The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the internal deliberations.


Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ap-sources-boehner-top-gop-vote-deal-195044531.html
Similar Articles: Marquez vs Bradley   Clemson University   danity kane   Miley Cyrus Vma 2013   powerball winning numbers  

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Ovation Channel Returning to Time Warner Cable


The Ovation cable network is returning to Time Warner Cable systems on Jan. 1, 2014 after being dropped on Jan. 1 this year.


At the time TWC used Ovation to send a signal that it would no longer carry as many networks unless they drew a significant audience. The multiple cable system operator linked low viewership to a lack of enough quality original programming.


Under the new deal, Ovation has committed to delivering at least 200 additional hours of original programming per year dedicated to the arts. And by 2015, Ovation says it will add at least 250 hours per year of original programing  which will grow to 300 hours for subsequent years of the new contract.


Ovation cited as an example of its new programming the series A Young Doctor’s Notebook, starring John Ham and Daniel Radcliffe. Ovation said it was also launching an in house production unit called Ovation Studios.


“After losing carriage on TWC, we never stopped listening to what they had to say, and responded to it,” said Ovation COO Chad Gutstein. “Our new ‘Art Everywhere’ branding is a reflection of that.  We were intent on restoring Time Warner Cable's belief in Ovation.  Consumers demand that the arts belong on TV and Ovation has shown that the arts can encompass many things -- from theater, film and music to graffiti, fashion and tattooing. We have committed to presenting over 750 hours of original arts programming over the next several years and are thrilled that TWC have responded by reaffirming their support of the arts and Ovation.”  


”We’re pleased to reach an agreement with Ovation that will deliver a much better value for our customers,” said Melinda Witmer, TWC’s executive vp, chief video and content officer. “Time Warner Cable has a responsibility to select unique, valuable and compelling options for our customers, and Ovation’s recommitment to its mission as an arts channel strengthens and differentiates their programming.  We always look for opportunities to work with networks to enhance our diverse channel lineup.”


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thr/television/~3/r-ZJrVIs0BQ/story01.htm
Similar Articles: New 100 Dollar Bill   castle   lesean mccoy   cnet   food network star  

Good Cop, Bad Cop Routine Gets A Result For Obama And Reid





President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., shared the same goals but had notable stylistic differences in their approaches to the fiscal fight.



Carolyn Kaster/AP


President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., shared the same goals but had notable stylistic differences in their approaches to the fiscal fight.


Carolyn Kaster/AP


Since the start of the fiscal standoff that led to a government shutdown and a flirtation with a historic debt default, Democrats have been led by the tag team of President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.


At times, their tactics resembled the good cop, bad cop routine where one officer offers the suspect a cup of coffee and the other smacks it from the suspect's lips. Reid, of course, is the smacker.


Obama played the good cop, inviting all 232 members of the House Republican Conference to the White House so they could just sit down and reason together. (GOP leadership ended up paring that list way back to just the leaders.)


And Obama hasn't publicly gone to great lengths to undermine Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio. About the roughest thing Obama has said about Boehner and House Republicans overall is that they are being overly influenced by "extremists" in the conference.


Reid, by contrast, has very publicly — and repeatedly — branded the House GOP's Tea Party wing as "anarchists." He's also called them "wacky" and "weird." Reid later conceded to CNN's Dana Bash that perhaps he overstepped with "weird." But he would keep throwing around the term anarchists.


The Nevada Democrat, who will never be accused of subtlety, has also repeatedly thrown Boehner under the bus. First, he alleged that Boehner had reneged on a deal for legislation to keep the government open without any attached policy riders.


Then Reid's office leaked emails that arguably made Boehner look hypocritical. The emails between his office and the speaker's office seemed to show that Boehner worked behind the scenes to ensure that members of Congress and their staffs got an employer contribution to health care — a provision that the GOP conference later opposed and made an issue in the fiscal fight.


None of this is to suggest that Obama and Reid, while stylistically different, have varied on ultimate goals. Indeed, most observers have noted how much Democrats, who once were known for disunity, have stuck together in recent weeks.


"The entire Democratic Party said 'enough is enough,' " said William Galston, a scholar with the center-left Brookings Institution who was a Clinton White House policy adviser. "The White House and the congressional Democrats decided pretty early on not to give any appreciable ground, and they were fortified" by the sense that the Tea Party strategy would only continue if Democrats made significant concessions as they had in past fiscal fights.


In the battles surrounding the fiscal cliff in 2012 and the debt ceiling in 2011, it was Vice President Biden, not Reid, who played a central role in getting deals done.


But Biden was viewed by many Democrats, including Reid, as having given away too much in the fiscal cliff deal — especially by agreeing to make permanent the Bush tax cuts for more high-income taxpayers than Obama had originally proposed.


This time it was Reid, not Biden, at the table in the end. And he appeared to get results Wednesday. Reid and Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, announced a bipartisan agreement to end — for now at least — the shutdown and debt ceiling impasse. House Republicans got little of what they demanded when the fight started.


Asked what Reid's contribution to the Obama-Reid tandem was, Rodell Mollineau, president of American Bridge political action committee and a former senior aide to Reid, told me: "Sen. Reid is a tactician. He is a master of the Senate and its workings. ...


"Also, Sen. Reid can be very blunt, both in the way he speaks and the way he does his work," Mollineau said. "And while that might not always come out publicly as him being a great orator, I think it makes him a very effective legislator and I think there are many people in the Senate who appreciate his bluntness." Reid is a legislative workhorse who gets results like the economic stimulus and the Affordable Care Act.


For his part, Obama offered the more diplomatic approach, Mollineau said.


"And while sometimes that can be frustrating to Democratic insiders, congressmen, senators ... I think it has served the president well in certain cases because he's been able to make a case to the American people that he's the one being reasonable, he's the one being rational."


And for those frustrated Democrats who wanted to see more belligerence from their side, there was always Reid.


Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2013/10/16/235407944/good-cop-bad-cop-routine-gets-a-result-for-obama-and-reid?ft=1&f=1003
Related Topics: The Crazy Ones   Tom Harmon   Jane Addams   Eminem Survival   heidi klum  

After Sept. 11, Special Ops Were 'Injected With Steroids'


Two recent operations in Libya and Somalia offer a vivid example of how members of U.S. Special Operations are being deployed around the world to go after terrorists. Renee Montagne talks to author Jeremy Scahill about his newest book, Dirty Wars, which is about the rise of special forces.


Source: http://www.npr.org/2013/10/16/235220323/after-sept-11-special-ops-were-injected-with-steroids?ft=1&f=1032
Category: nbc news   Mayweather vs Canelo results   911   diana nyad   Anna Kendrick  

Show-within-show on 'Smash' to be performed

NEW YORK (AP) — One of the musicals at the heart of the cancelled TV show "Smash" will get another life.


The nightclub 54 Below said Tuesday it will present two world-premiere concert performances of "Hit List" on Dec. 9 featuring some of the stars from the series, including Jeremy Jordan and Krysta Rodriguez.


On "Smash," the musical "Hit List" was a gritty, low-tech off-Broadway show that became a theater community darling and later competed with the glitzy Broadway-bound musical about the life of Marilyn Monroe called "Bombshell."


Tickets are $55 plus a $25 food and beverage minimum.


"Hit List" songs were written by Drew Gasparini, Joe Iconis, Andrew McMahon, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman and Lucie Silvas.


"Smash" was cancelled this summer after two seasons.


___


Online:


http://54below.com


Source: http://news.yahoo.com/show-within-show-smash-performed-150419653.html
Tags: BART strike   apple   catherine zeta jones   Xbox One Release Date   ESPYS 2013  

Intel chief executive Brian Krzanich said he expects a rash of $100 tablets, $300 laptops, and $350

Intel chief executive Brian Krzanich said he expects a rash of $100 tablets, $300 laptops, and $350 2-in-1 hybrid to appear over the holidays, sporting Haswell and Bay Trail silicon. Bodes well for your Christmas shopping.

Read more...


    






Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/hEsl2biI1x0/intel-chief-executive-brian-krzanich-said-he-expects-a-1446205281
Similar Articles: patriots   aldon smith   What Is Labor Day   Pain and Gain   Juan Pablo  

These Rorschach Ink Tests Could Replace the Good Old CAPTCHA

These Rorschach Ink Tests Could Replace the Good Old CAPTCHA

The CAPTCHA is a wonderful thing, but it's not without its failings. And as hackers get better and better at cracking them, a team of CMU engineers are proposing an alternative: Inkblot tests.

Read more...


    






Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/Ar5aqhcnGiw/these-rorschach-ink-tests-could-replace-the-good-old-ca-1445631901
Category: ricin   Namaste   chrissy teigen   obama speech   NFL Sunday Ticket  

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Yahoo Reduces Planned Sale Of Alibaba Shares By 20%, Will Keep More Skin In The Game When It IPOs

2013-10-15_13h26_20Today in conjunction with its third quarter earnings release, Yahoo announced that it has come to a new agreement with Alibaba that will force the company to sell less of its shares in the Chinese ecommerce firm when it goes public. The number of shares that Yahoo will be required to sell now totals 208 million. That figure represents a 20.4 percent decrease on the former 261.5 million share requirement. Yahoo owns 523.6 million ordinary shares of Alibaba. Yahoo’s Alibaba stake is worth tens of billions of dollars, provided that Alibaba goes public in the $100 billion to $120 billion range that is usually discussed. Yahoo was required to sell half its Alibaba stake when the retail giant goes public. Yahoo claims to be “pleased” to hold onto more of its stake, post-IPO. Joe Tsai, a member of Alibaba’s board, said that “[u]nder its new leadership, Yahoo has made it a priority to build a good relationship with Alibaba.” So, this reduction can be chalked up to Mayer’s influence as CEO. Also, in late 2012, Yahoo exec Jacqueline Reses joined Alibaba’s board. As a company, Yahoo doesn’t need to sell its Alibaba stake to stay solvent, but as a bank account, the more it taps the resource, the more shiny things it can buy. Yahoo will net plenty, even with the reduction. Early-stage, mobile-first companies in the Bay Area beware, Yahoo is still hungry and well-funded.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/yAd6BAmBDz4/
Related Topics: mlb   torrie wilson   khan academy   Teen Choice Awards   Shawn Burr  

Robin Thicke Autographs Commemorative Photo of Racy VMAs Performance With Miley Cyrus: Pictures


One for the scrapbooks? Robin Thicke just can't escape his provocative performance with Miley Cyrus at the MTV Video Music Awards. The "Blurred Lines" singer, 36, was in Paris, France, on Tuesday, Oct. 15, when a male fan approached him for an autograph. The memento he wanted signed? A commemorative photo of Thicke onstage at the VMAs, with a nude-latex-clad Cyrus, 20, bent over suggestively in front of him, her derriere pointed straight at the camera.


PHOTOS: The craziest moments from the VMAs


The married star -- his wife is Baggage Claim actress Paula Patton -- gamely obliged the autograph seeker, leaving his swift John Hancock in gold on the racy picture, which the fan proudly showed off to photographers.


A close-up on an autograph of singer Robin Thicke on October 15, 2013 in Paris, France.

A close-up on an autograph of singer Robin Thicke on October 15, 2013 in Paris, France.
Credit: Marc Piasecki/FilmMagic



PHOTOS: Miley's raciest outfits


Thicke's hyper-sexual duet with Cyrus is almost two months old at this point, but it's still very much in the news. Both singers are asked about the performance, and the controversy it sparked, in almost every interview.


Speaking about the collaboration with Oprah Winfrey recently, Thicke said the resulting uproar was "funny" and "silly."


PHOTOS: A tale of two Mileys


"I was onstage, [so] I didn't see it," he said of the performance, which featured the former Hannah Montana star grinding against Thicke's crotch and touching herself with a foam finger. "So to me, I'm walking out toward Miley, I'm not thinking sex, I'm thinking fun...I'm singing my butt off. I'm singing and I'm looking at the sky and I'm singing and I'm not really paying attention to all that. That's on her."


PHOTOS: Robin's cutest moments with Paula Patton


"People ask me if I twerk, and I'm like, 'Listen, I'm the twerkee.' I don't twerk," he explained. "I'm just twerked upon."


Beyond that, he told Vanity Fair, the twerking was just in good fun. "I spent my whole career playing it safe, being a gentleman, never doing anything controversial," he said in the November issue of the magazine. "They told me [beforehand] that Miley's going to take her clothes off and dance around and she might bend over...I just said, 'I don't care, let's entertain the people.'"


Source: http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/robin-thicke-autographs-commemorative-photo-of-racy-vmas-performance-with-miley-cyrus-pictures--20131510
Similar Articles: backstreet boys   miley cyrus  

MeetMe Launches Standalone Dating App Charm, Where Tinder Meets Vine

Screenshot 2013-10-15 09.45.12After rebranding from MyYearbook more than a year ago, social network MeetMe is off and running on its next big adventure. It's a Tinder meets Vine social dating play, and it's called Charm.

MeetMe's focus has always been on meeting new people that may end up being great friends. With Charm, the company believes it can make a play in the dating space by using videos and instead of photos. Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/cTSrGSXs3WY/
Tags: Tony Gonzalez   raiders   Yom Kippur 2013   Andrea Sneiderman   The Wolverine  

Fifteen Years On, Pokemon Still Holds Power Over This Thirty-Something

pokemon-yWhile iPhone launch days and big gadget reveals represent some of my most anticipated events because I'm a tech blogger, a day like today can still awaken just as much excitement. Today is the launch day of a new Pokemon game, you see – the newest installment of the "Catch 'Em All" franchise, Pokemon X/Y for the Nintendo 3DS, hits store shelves and is being delivered to pre-order customers everywhere. Kids are choosing from three new starter Pokemon, and beginning a familiar adventure all over again. And a fair amount of adults like me are, too.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/nl2-dRNcD5I/
Tags: Krokodil   Valerie Harper   gizmodo   khan academy   Lee Westwood  

Bridget Jones is back in 'Mad About the Boy'

LONDON (AP) — Readers, there is good news and bad news. Bridget Jones is back. But — brace yourselves — Mark Darcy is dead.


Fans have been shaken by the revelation, leaked ahead of publication of "Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy," the third book in Helen Fielding's series about the diary-writing singleton. He may be fictional, but the demise of Bridget's handsome lawyer lover — played on the big screen by a smoldering Colin Firth — was headline news.


"I turned on the news and there was the Syrian crisis, and then 'Mark Darcy is dead,'" Fielding said, amazed.


"It's quite extraordinary for a fictional character to be treated as if they're alive. I sort of think, hats off to Colin, because really he inhabited that character."


The reaction is a testament to the hold of Fielding's characters on the popular imagination. In ditsy, indomitable Bridget, she created an archetype. (In Darcy she borrowed one, from the brooding Mr. Darcy of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice").


Bridget, created for a series of 1990s newspaper columns, was a 30-something Londoner looking for love and career fulfillment while enduring the condescension of "smug marrieds" and confessing her many insecurities in her diaries: "Alcohol units 7, cigarettes 22, calories 2,145. Minutes spent inspecting face for wrinkles 230."


In "Mad About the Boy" she is still counting calories and booze, though cigarettes have been replaced by nicotine gum. Bridget is now a 51-year-old widow with two young children, convinced she will never find romance again.


Fielding said she had no choice but to kill Darcy so Bridget's story could move on.


"The book I wanted to write was not about domesticity, married life. It was about Bridget struggling with what life throws at you," Fielding said over lunch at the London gastropub where she likes to write in the daytime.


"It was Bridget being single with two children in the age of technology. And rediscovering her sexuality. She was a mother and she lost it amid the nappies and the busy-ness. I think lots of women go through that."


Breaking the news of Darcy's demise to Firth, who starred opposite Renee Zellweger in the film adaptations of "Bridget Jones's Diary" and "Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason," was surprisingly tough.


"I was really nervous, and I had to make sure that he had someone with him and they were sitting down. And then I said, 'Colin, I've got something really bad to tell you.'


"And then I suppose I just said 'You're dead,' which is an odd thing to say to anyone. And we were both upset, but at the same time we were laughing."


"Bridget Jones's Diary," published in 1996, turned Fielding from a freelance journalist into one of Britain's most successful writers. The novel and its 1999 sequel have sold 15 million copies.


For years, Fielding resisted writing another installment. She was drawn back into Bridget's world by a desire to write about the lives of middle-aged women, who often face stereotyping, just as the single Bridget did in the earlier books.


"There was the idea of 'tragic, barren spinster' because she was unmarried in her 30s," Fielding said. "It was real then. You were Miss bloody Havisham if you didn't have a boyfriend at 35. And I think the same is true of the middle-aged woman now.


"When I was in my 20s, I couldn't imagine that life would continue beyond 40, really," she added. "I couldn't imagine there would still be dating and going out and getting drunk with your friends and worrying about calls or texts that hadn't come, and what to wear."


In "Mad About the Boy," Bridget's romantic misadventures are overshadowed by loss and the fear of aging — but a strong comic vein remains.


"I think most of the things I write are a mixture of dark and light," Fielding said.


Life is "not all sailing along marvelously, nor is it 'Oh, we're in a well of despair.' People hit tough times, and then their friends get round them and cheer them up and then they keep buggering on."


As in the previous books, Bridget can lean on old friends Jude, Tom and Talitha, as well as disreputable former paramour Daniel Cleaver.


She navigates the treacherous world of online dating sites and Twitter, and acquires a 29-year-old boyfriend named Roxster.


The book also introduces Mr. Wallaker, a teacher at Bridget's son's school with whom she instantly clashes. But wait — is that a spark between them? (Hint: Fielding says her dream casting for a movie adaptation is Daniel Craig).


Bridget has always contained elements of Fielding, who is 55 and, like her character, lives in one of the nicer areas of North London with two young children. She is separated from their father, American comedy writer Kevin Curran.


There are glimpses of Bridget in the writer's quick wit and sense of the absurd — though Fielding exudes a considerably greater sense of control than her hapless heroine.


"Mad About the Boy" suffered its own Bridget Jones-style mishap when 40 pages from another book, a memoir by actor David Jason, were inserted into the British edition by mistake.


And some of the reviews have been less than glowing: not everyone hails mishap-prone, insecure Bridget as a 21st-century heroine. Guardian newspaper columnist Suzanne Moore wrote a piece headlined "Why I Hate Bridget Jones," condemning the character as "vapid, consumerist and self-obsessed" and the book as anti-feminist.


Fielding has heard that argument before.


She said that if women can't make fun of themselves, "we haven't got very far at being equal, have we?"


"And also, I think that is the way women communicate with each other, often, privately. They talk about their frailties, their mess-ups, their weaknesses, their vulnerabilities, and they are funny about it and they support each other.


"I was surprised with the first book, with the women who told me they identified with it — powerful, successful women, saying 'Oh yes, I have that problem with tights being all tangled up.' And it's not just women, either. (Prime Minister) David Cameron was in the papers not so long ago ... and he said that he'd get in a situation when he's got the kids in the back of the car and he gets a head of state on the phone: 'Will you shut up, I've got the Israeli prime minister on the phone!'


"Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy" is published in the United States by Knopf on Tuesday.


___


Jill Lawless can be reached at http://Twitter.com/JillLawless


Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bridget-jones-back-mad-boy-104040383.html
Tags: Preachers of LA   taylor swift   NSync   Xbox One Release Date   Garrett Clayton