A new documentary, American Promise, follows the lives of two African-American families as they try to navigate a path for their young sons at The Dalton School—a prestigious, private school in New York City with predominately white student body.
Joe Brewster and his wife Michèle Stephenson decided to chronicle their son, Idris Brewster and his best friend Seun Summers from kindergarten to college. The ambitious film took over 13 years to make and Michele Stephenson says "Everyone involved at some point or another dropped out."
The documentary showcases the difficulties and growing pains the boys faced. For example, they often felt left out by other students because of their race and wondered if they were being stereotyped by their teachers. "I talked to my parents about leaving and we actually applied to other schools." Idris says. "But I just felt as though I had to continue."
Joe, Michèle and Idris spoke with NPR's Michel Martin about letting their lives play out in front of the camera, and the lessons they learned about raising black boys.
Interview Highlights
On the Decision to Send Idris to Dalton
I was more propelled to do a public school choice. But Joe had gone to school- I had also, in university - gone to school with students who, you know, had experienced the world of independent and college preparatory schools and they were just ten times, a hundred times more prepared than either of us were when it came to university and college...I realized it was an opportunity that we couldn't really pass up because the intellectual stimulation, the nurturing, the individualized attention that we saw students were getting was something we wanted our son to experience. And I ended up saying yes to the school.
Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson/YouTube
New film explores the black male achievement gap.
On Dealing with Racial Stereotypes in the Classroom
We were always concerned about perception and we assumed that if our son was seen for who he really was - shy, eager, wanting to learn - that he would thrive in any environment. But that's not the way the rules are. And particularly for black boys who come with a legacy - a 400-year legacy of perceptions - which are not kind at times. We were always questioning whether it was that legacy that the teachers were responding to or whether in fact, there were issues that we had to address.
On Being Called Tiger Parents
We want you to throw the first stone. Because it's hard. We didn't come with a manual. We've probably read everything that could possibly be read about parenting and parenting African American boys. And still we struggled. But for us, the take-home message is that if you put in the time, the kids will thrive. If you engage the teachers, the teachers will change their perceptions. I wouldn't call us tiger parents, but I would say that we're not kitty cats.
A feel-good drama anchored by Eugene Domingo's starring turn and a narrative which advocates women's triumph against chauvinist odds.
Venue
Tokyo International Film Festival
Director
Jun Robles Lana
2013 marks the 30th anniversary of an event which heralds the beginning of the end of the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines: the assassination of the tyrant's most vocal opponent, Benigno Aquino, on the tarmac of Manila's airport on Aug. 21, 1983 would eventually snowball into a massive political movement which led to Marcos' ouster in 1986 and the return of democracy to the Southeast Asian nation.
In this context, Jun Robles Lana's latest film could be seen as a metaphor for this episode in Philippine history: by speaking of the political emancipation of a meek widow, Barber's Tales – which was set in 1975, with Marcos' political sway very much present in the village the story unfolds in – could be seen as mirroring the rise of Corazon Aquino, who would transform from being Benigno Aquino's "plain housewife" into the leading figure of the anti-Marcos movement, before finally succeeding the tyrant as president.
Philippine audiences would certainly be able to detect the parallels between history and Lana's story – the power of funereal and religious parades, for example, or how those in power would frame their opponents with deaths they caused, as Marcos tried to finger communist rebels as masterminding Benigno Aquino's killing. But just as Lav Diaz's recent festival hit North, the End of History, Lana's film – which premiered in competition at the Tokyo International Film Festival, where Diaz's film would also be shown – goes beyond the lone historic event with an audacious attempt in actually exposing the commonly-shared traits which has led to the tragedy and calamity that follows.
While Diaz's film explores the conservative ideology that could give rise to cynical power-grabbers, Lana's Barber's Tales uses the spiritual awakening of a village barber's subservient spouse to condemn patriarchy – a way of thinking which props up the behavior of corrupted politicians and thuggish husbands, but also well-meaning revolutionaries fighting for a good cause. It's a universal theme which would engage with audiences beyond the Philippines, and Lana's linear and conventional spin to the story – driven by melodrama of co-incidences, and the showing of women's solidarity through mainstream humor, complete with quite a few jokes about the male genitalia – would certainly give Barber's Tales as much festival traction as Lana's previous film Bwakaw.
And Lana could very well thank his lead actress Eugene Domingo for all that, as the veteran's poised performance is what anchors the film just as it sometimes veers dangerously close to comic-soap territory. Rather than drawing out the transformation of her character, Marilou, with broad strokes, her delivery is very controlled and somewhat internal.
She began the film living completely as the shadow and slave of her barber husband Jose, attending to his every whim – making him food, ironing his shirts, heating his bath water – and also forced to tolerate his patronizing bullying attitude and his nocturnal ventures in town. Even as she takes over the business when he dies – a task encouraged by the local pastor Arturo (Eddie Garcia, the actor-director who flourished in Bwakaw)and grows into her work as a better haircutter than his spouse, the change is slight and so incremental, even as she has to contend with the mayhem around her, as she plays the matriarch who cares for the other troubled women in the village – such as Susan (Gladys Reyes), who was pressurized into sex and continuous childbirth – while also beginning to care for the young rebel fighters in the area.
Domingo's performance subtle turn as Marilou has a reason, as her docile veneer could serve to jolt the audience with the one explosive act at the film's finale when she finally gets to confront the local corrupted mayor (and Marcos flunky) Alberto Bartolome (Nonie Buencamino) for one last time for all the hurt and grief he brought to everyone in his realm, from his own long-suffering wife Cecilia (Iza Cazaldo) – whom Marilou has befriended – to all the people he ruled with much duress.
Barber's Tales is a story about sisterhood; Domingo's turn is suitably supported by engaging performances from, for example, Shamaine Buencamino – who plays Tess, the single middle-aged woman whose role as a sage among confused wives is thrown into disarray when her nephew decided to join the anti-government insurrection. Their resilience against the odds speaks volumes about the chauvinistic universe they were placed under – not just from Alberto and his cronies, but even in a milder way from the rebels to which Marilou and Tess could only care for (serving food to them while they plot their ambushes) and fret about.
Given the period nature of the film – it was set in the countryside in the 1970s, as far away from Bwakaw's contemporary, urban settings as it can be – the production design could somehow be found a bit wanting, with the sets resembling something more out of a TV series than the cinematic epic Lana might need for the story. And while audacious in content, Barber's Tales is certainly mainstream in style, with a plot heavy on coincidences (Jose's husband's favourite prostitute also happens to be the sister of the rebel fighter Marilou saved – an event which brought about a reconciliation between wife and mistress) and camerawork and editing which relies on conventional close-ups and shots/countershots.
Still, Barber's Tales provides enough of a harbinger of things to come: as the film ends, Susan's voiceover relays the rumors surrounding Marilou's fate after she has left town: these takes on her life – she might have gone on to become a maid; she might have gone insane – relays the many realities facing Filipino women in decades to come. Lana's "real" ending for her character is much more optimistic – but perhaps it's in this that Barber's Tales will thrive, as Marilou and sisters continue their struggle to find the light in their lives.
Competition, Tokyo International Film Festival
Production Company: Apt Entertainment and Octobert Fain Films
Director: Jun Robles Lana
Producer: Ferdinand Lapuz
Executive Producers: Michael B. Tuviera, Joselito C Oconer, Ramel L. David, Perci Intalan and Jun Robles Lana
Cast: Eugene Domingo, Eddie Garcia, Iza Cazaldo, Gladys Reyes
Screenwriter: Jun Robles Lana, on a story by Peter Ong Lim, Elmer Gatchalian, Benedict Mique and Jun Robles Lana
Yellow Sac Spider, Cheiracanthium inclusum, with its web and eggs. Photo courtesy Joseph Berger, Bugwood.org
Ah, the smells and sights of fall. Crisp leaves, pumpkin spice flavored everything, and … spiders. Spiders everywhere. This massive car recall from Toyota left out one important detail: SPIDERS.
“Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A. … announced it will conduct a voluntary safety recall of approximately 803,000 2012-2013 vehicles… In the involved vehicles, water from the air conditioning condenser unit housing could leak onto the airbag control module and cause a short circuit … In some instances, the air bag(s) could become disabled or could inadvertently deploy.”
Cindy Knight, Toyota’s media contact for recalls, patiently let me pester her with spider questions this afternoon. It’s clear that an as-yet unnamed species of spider found some air conditioning drainage tubes to be an ideal place to spin a web. That makes sense to me, as a spider-watcher: It’s warm under a car, it’s dark, it’s damp — it’s the perfect spider habitat.
Those webs caused a drain blockage, and a resulting leak is blamed for shorts causing three airbag misfires and 35 warning light activations. Toyota preemptively issued a recall when the arachnid issue was discovered. Sadly, although understandably, Toyota seems more focused on fixing the electrical short than actually collecting and identifying the spider species responsible.
There is NO evidence this happens when airbags deploy. Unfortunately. Illustration by Ethan Kocak.
When I first started investigating this story, the general (and horrified) assumption people made was that the airbag exploded, spraying passengers with spiders. Like this illustration:
As awesome as that would be (in MY opinion, anyway), reality is far less interesting. It’s just a short caused by dripping water that makes the airbags misfire.
Spider automotive blockages are not unprecedented. A few years ago Mazda had to recall 65,000 cars because spiders caused vent blockages and fires. In that case the culprit was the Yellow Sac spider:
“Beverly Braga, Product Communications Specialist for Mazda, assured me that yes, there have been 26 confirmed cases in which the webs of yellow sac spider have caused problems by blocking the evaporative canister vent line of certain 2.5-liter four cylinder vehicles.”
Before you panic, Sac spiders normally occur in your garden and are relatively harmless, although they do have an irritating bite. (The term “sac spider” does NOT mean they spin webs in scrotums, which was the alarmed conclusion of one person I talked to. Some of ya’ll have really overly active imaginations.)
Sac Spiders spin tubular webs, an example of which you can see in the image at the top of this post. It’s kind of a sleeping bag affair, in which the spiders hide in the daytime. The web is fairly dense and somewhat water repellent, so it would probably function effectively as a plug in a small drain.
Sac spiders are tiny, usually not bigger than 6mm. They forage at night, so you can see why downward-facing drainage tubes in cars would make a nice daytime retreat for a hunting spider. They certainly are a likely candidate species for the Toyota spider saboteurs.
Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Cars
Itchy yet? You probably have spiders in and around your car all the time. That’s part of living in a biological world. Spiders in cars are a problem primarily when the big apes driving the cars freak out. Just talking about spiders while driving increases driving errors in people who are phobic. There are plenty of accidentreports related to spiders, but I have never found any that actually relate to harm from a spider bite.
It pains me to say it, but I know you won’t all learn to like spiders like I do, and that’s Ok. If you happen to find a spider in your car, go right ahead and scream. But do know that they are not going to hurt you, and stay focused on the road if possible. You don’t have to become a spider-lover; even entomologists can be arachnophobic. I recently found my entire head covered in thick cobwebs after cleaning behind my washing machine. The sound frequency I produced was probably last achieved by Little Richard hitting one of his high notes. Unexpected spiders startle even the most arachnophilic of us.
Practicing calm in the presence of spiders is a good goal. To help you find your Spider Zen, I’ll be celebrating Arachtober, a festival of fall spideryness started by Jenn Foreman Orth a few years ago.
The vast majority of spiders are your friends. They are valuable (and free!) pest control for your garden, home, and car. Unless there is something seriously wrong with your personal hygiene, spiders have no interest in living on you or in you. Share the Road … with spiders.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Friday named former Pentagon attorney Jeh Johnson to run the Department of Homeland Security, where the task of securing the nation's borders will give Johnson a central role in the president's immigration reform efforts.
Johnson, now a partner at the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, served as general counsel at the Pentagon during Obama's first term. There, he was involved in ending the military's ban on gays serving in the armed forces and in formulating the administration's policy for the use of unmanned drones to strike at enemy targets.
While at the Pentagon, Johnson also worked on counterterrorism, cyber security and disaster response, all of which will be issues he will have to address as head of Homeland Security.
"Jeh has a deep understanding of the threats and challenges facing the United States," Obama said in announcing Johnson's nomination at the White House.
Johnson must win confirmation in the Senate. In an indication of challenges ahead of him, Republican Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama said Johnson would have to address concerns over management of the sprawling agency and allegations that immigration officers are releasing violent criminals.
"Enforcement has collapsed, offericer morale has plummeted, and the integrity of the entire immigration legal system is in jeopardy," Sessions said in a statement.
A spokesman for Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, the top Republican on the Senate's Homeland Security committee, said on Thursday the next department chief would be expected to bring about reform. Coburn has raised concerns about wasteful spending at the department, including grants for domestic law enforcement agencies used to buy drones for surveillance.
Speaking at the White House, Johnson described how being in Manhattan on September 11, 2001, had motivated him to pursue work in public service.
"I wandered the streets in New York and wondered, and asked, what can I do," he said. "Since then I have tried to devote myself to answer that question."
The Department of Homeland Security was created in response to the 9/11 attacks.
Obama has identified immigration reform a leading priority of the remainder of his second term, and said that he would focus on the issue now that a bruising fight with Congress over reopening government and avoiding default is over.
Obama, who won re-election last year with overwhelming Hispanic backing, had hoped to make reforms easing the plight of the 11 million immigrants who are in the United States illegally.
The Senate passed an immigration overhaul in June, but House of Representatives Republicans are divided over the granting of legal status to those in the country illegally.
(Reporting By Mark Felsenthal; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A suicide car bomber attacked a small convoy of vehicles Friday near a heavily fortified private residential compound used by hundreds of foreigners on the outskirts of Kabul, killing two passers-by, Afghan officials said.
Inferior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqi said a suicide car bomber attacked two vehicles used "by foreigners" near the Green Village compound. There were no reports that the people in the vehicles were injured.
A police official said two civilians passing by the site of the explosion were killed by the blast. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the car bombing and said Green Village was the intended target.
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force confirmed that a car bomb attack had occurred in Kabul and that "there was one enemy killed as a result of the attack."
"We have no operational reports of ISAF personnel fatalities," it said in a statement.
Small arms fire could be heard after the initial blast, apparently as guards in the industrial zone where the blast occurred started shooting. An Associated Press reporter there saw fire trucks move to extinguish a blaze started by the blast.
Police initially reported that the residential compound was the target of the attack. The camp houses contractors from various countries, European diplomatic personnel and United Nations employees.
It is located on the main highway connecting Kabul to the eastern city of Jalalabad and is surrounded by layers of blast walls and has dozens of armed guards.
Green Village was last attacked by a suicide car bomber and armed attackers on May 2, 2012, and a number of Afghan guards were killed. None of its residents was injured in that assault.
___
Associated Press writer Patrick Quinn contributed to this report.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — With a midnight strike deadline just hours away and public frustration mounting, negotiators for the Bay Area Rapid Transit system and its two unions resumed contract talks Sunday as nervous commuters scouted alternate ways of getting to work.
Members of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555 and Service Employees International Union Local 1021 have vowed to walk off the job Monday morning if no new labor agreement is reached by midnight.
BART workers went on strike for nearly five days in July and were set to do so again Friday when a cooling-off period ordered by Gov. Jerry Brown ended, but they agreed to negotiate through the weekend.
Nearly 370,000 riders take BART every weekday, and its 104 miles of track make it the nation's fifth-largest commuter rail system.
In a sign of how seriously another shutdown is looming over the region, state lawmakers from the Bay Area and Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom dropped by the talks Sunday to encourage the two sides to reach a resolution.
Newsom told reporters he believes a deal is close and can happen Sunday night.
"It would be preposterous for both sides at this stage when you're getting this close to put, at risk, your reputation and the economy of the entire region," he said.
BART and union representatives said in the late afternoon that they were still hopeful a strike could be averted.
Sticking points in the 6-month-old negotiations include salaries and workers' contributions to their health and pension plans. BART workers currently pay $92 a month for health care and contribute nothing toward their pensions — generous benefits BART management is seeking to curtail.
The unions, which represent 2,375 mechanics, custodians, station agents, train operators and clerical workers, want a raise of nearly 12 percent over three years, while BART has proposed a 10 percent increase over four years. Workers from the two unions now average about $71,000 in base salary and $11,000 in overtime annually, BART said.
Labor leaders also are pressing demands to make stations safer, such as better lighting in tunnels, bulletproof glass in agents' booths and improved restroom access.
BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost said the negotiating teams met separately and face-to-face Sunday while reviewing and fine-tuning their respective proposals.
No details on the latest offers or the pace of progress were released, however, at the mediator's request.
If a strike is called for Monday, BART is planning to offer free bus trips between San Francisco and the East Bay, and ferry service to the city would be expanded. But people who travel on the system's north-to-south routes in the East Bay would be stranded, and freeway traffic is expected become snarled as more commuters opt to take cars.
Pacific ocean temperature influences tornado activity in US, MU study finds
Public release date: 17-Oct-2013
[
| E-mail
| Share
]
Contact: Christian Basi basic@missouri.edu 573-882-4430 University of Missouri-Columbia
COLUMBIA, Mo. Meteorologists often use information about warm and cold fronts to determine whether a tornado will occur in a particular area. Now, a University of Missouri researcher has found that the temperature of the Pacific Ocean could help scientists predict the type and location of tornado activity in the U.S.
Laurel McCoy, an atmospheric science graduate student at the MU School of Natural Resources, and Tony Lupo, professor and chair of atmospheric science in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, surveyed 56,457 tornado-like events from 1950 to 2011. They found that when surface sea temperatures were warmer than average, the U.S. experienced 20.3 percent more tornados that were rated EF-2 to EF-5 on the Enhanced Fuijta (EF) scale. (The EF scale rates the strength of tornados based on the damage they cause. The scale has six category rankings from zero to five.)
McCoy and Lupo found that the tornados that occurred when surface sea temperatures were above average were usually located to the west and north of tornado alley, an area in the Midwestern part of the U.S. that experiences more tornados than any other area. McCoy also found that when sea surface temperatures were cooler, more tornadoes tracked from southern states, like Alabama, into Tennessee, Illinois and Indiana.
"Differences in sea temperatures influence the route of the jet stream as it passes over the Pacific and, eventually, to the United States," McCoy said. "Tornado-producing storms usually are triggered by, and will follow, the jet stream. This helps explain why we found a rise in the number of tornados and a change in their location when sea temperatures fluctuated."
In the study, McCoy and Lupo examined the relationship between tornadoes and a climate phenomenon called the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO). PDO phases, which were discovered in the mid-1990s, are long-term temperature trends that can last up to 30 years. According to NASA scientists, the current PDO phase has just entered into a "cool" state.
"PDO cool phases are characterized by a cool wedge of lower than normal sea-surface ocean temperatures in the eastern Pacific and a warm horseshoe pattern of higher than normal sea-surface temperatures extending into the north, west and southern Pacific," McCoy said. "In the warm phase, which lasted from 1977 to 1999, the west Pacific Ocean became cool and the wedge in the east was warm."
In 2011, more than 550 deaths occurred as a result of tornadoes, resulting in more than $28 billion in property damage, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. McCoy says that with her findings, officials may be able to save lives in the future.
"Now that we know the effects of PDO cool and warm phases, weather forecasters have another tool to predict dangerous storms and inform the public of impending weather conditions," McCoy said.
The research will be presented at the National Weather Association Conference this fall.
###
[
| E-mail
| 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.
Pacific ocean temperature influences tornado activity in US, MU study finds
Public release date: 17-Oct-2013
[
| E-mail
| Share
]
Contact: Christian Basi basic@missouri.edu 573-882-4430 University of Missouri-Columbia
COLUMBIA, Mo. Meteorologists often use information about warm and cold fronts to determine whether a tornado will occur in a particular area. Now, a University of Missouri researcher has found that the temperature of the Pacific Ocean could help scientists predict the type and location of tornado activity in the U.S.
Laurel McCoy, an atmospheric science graduate student at the MU School of Natural Resources, and Tony Lupo, professor and chair of atmospheric science in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, surveyed 56,457 tornado-like events from 1950 to 2011. They found that when surface sea temperatures were warmer than average, the U.S. experienced 20.3 percent more tornados that were rated EF-2 to EF-5 on the Enhanced Fuijta (EF) scale. (The EF scale rates the strength of tornados based on the damage they cause. The scale has six category rankings from zero to five.)
McCoy and Lupo found that the tornados that occurred when surface sea temperatures were above average were usually located to the west and north of tornado alley, an area in the Midwestern part of the U.S. that experiences more tornados than any other area. McCoy also found that when sea surface temperatures were cooler, more tornadoes tracked from southern states, like Alabama, into Tennessee, Illinois and Indiana.
"Differences in sea temperatures influence the route of the jet stream as it passes over the Pacific and, eventually, to the United States," McCoy said. "Tornado-producing storms usually are triggered by, and will follow, the jet stream. This helps explain why we found a rise in the number of tornados and a change in their location when sea temperatures fluctuated."
In the study, McCoy and Lupo examined the relationship between tornadoes and a climate phenomenon called the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO). PDO phases, which were discovered in the mid-1990s, are long-term temperature trends that can last up to 30 years. According to NASA scientists, the current PDO phase has just entered into a "cool" state.
"PDO cool phases are characterized by a cool wedge of lower than normal sea-surface ocean temperatures in the eastern Pacific and a warm horseshoe pattern of higher than normal sea-surface temperatures extending into the north, west and southern Pacific," McCoy said. "In the warm phase, which lasted from 1977 to 1999, the west Pacific Ocean became cool and the wedge in the east was warm."
In 2011, more than 550 deaths occurred as a result of tornadoes, resulting in more than $28 billion in property damage, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. McCoy says that with her findings, officials may be able to save lives in the future.
"Now that we know the effects of PDO cool and warm phases, weather forecasters have another tool to predict dangerous storms and inform the public of impending weather conditions," McCoy said.
The research will be presented at the National Weather Association Conference this fall.
###
[
| E-mail
| 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.
NewsGator wants its Social Sites add-on for SharePoint to handle companies' innovation cycles with a beefed-up set of capabilities for brainstorming, idea evaluation, concept development and execution.
Social Sites, an ESN (enterprise social networking ) product, has an existing "ideation" module that's called Idea Stream and is mainly for brainstorming, but NewsGator released on Tuesday a broader "innovation" edition of the full suite.
With Social Sites for Innovation, NewsGator wants to tap further into the demand for enterprise software that lets companies solicit ideas from employees, collect and manage their contributions and distill the suggestions into concrete plans.
In fact, last month Mindjet, which makes project-based collaboration software, merged with Spigit, which specializes in innovation management, to offer enterprises tools that help from idea creation to completion of projects. Other NewsGator rivals provide various levels of innovation management functionality for their broader ESN suites.
Social Sites for Innovation can be used with on premises and private cloud implementations of SharePoint 2010 and SharePoint 2013.
The product replaces the existing, more limited Idea Stream module, which costs $5 per user per year, according to Jen Keyerleber, senior solutions manager at NewsGator.
"Current customers who own the Idea Stream module are able to expand their innovation process by purchasing the new [Social Sites for Innovation], which accesses of all of their existing ideation campaigns to take advantage of [its] end-to-end innovation capabilities," she said.
Ahead in the roadmap are plans to extend Social Sites for Innovation for use not only internally among employees but also by a company's customers and partners, Keyerleber said.
Social Sites for Innovation can be bought via a subscription or a perpetual license, which are both priced per user. Cost depends on the size of implementations.
For example, a subscription for 5,000 users to Social Sites for Innovation is $12.50 per user per year, on top of the $17.50 per user per year for the core Social Sites suite, which is required.
Juan Carlos Perez covers enterprise communication/collaboration suites, operating systems, browsers and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Juan on Twitter at @JuanCPerezIDG.
Michael Bay and crewmembers working on Paramount's Transformers 4 were attacked in Hong Kong on Thursday, according to a statement from the production, released by Paramount.
Contrary to news reports, neither Bay nor anyone in the cast or crew was injured, but the production was attacked by a man, allegedly under the influence of some sort of narcotic, who was wielding an air-conditioning unit as a weapon, according to the statement.
The man, who had earlier accosted several crewmembers, rushed onto the set in Quarry Bay and swung the air-conditioning unit at Bay's head. He ducked and wrested the weapon from his attacker. The production company's security team then subdued the assault and the police arrested the assailant and two of his companions.
The production then resumed filming. Today was Transformers' first day of production in Hong Kong after shooting throughout the U.S. since May.
Bay himself also posted about the incident on his eponymous website on Thursday. The director also disputed earlier reports, but confirms that he was attacked by an air-conditioner-wielding man, and reveals that there was a scuffle about money before that.
"Yes, some drugged up guys were being belligerent asses to my crew for hours in the morning of our first shoot day in Hong Kong," Bay writes. "One guy rolled metal carts into some of my actors trying to shake us down for thousands of dollars to not play his loud music or hit us with bricks."
Evidently, this vendor wanted four times what he (and the other vendors near the production) got for the inconvenience of having a movie filming nearby. Bay rejected the extortion attempt, but the man returned, wielding an air-conditioner unit.
"An hour later, he came by my crew as we were shooting, carrying a long air conditioner unit. He walked right up to me and tried to smack my face, but I ducked, threw the air unit on the floor and pushed him away. That’s when the security jumped on him. But it took seven big guys to subdue him," Bay writes. "It was like a Zombie in Brad Pitt’s movie World War Z — he lifted seven guys up and tried to bite them. He actually bit into one of the guards Nike shoe, insane. Thank god it was an Air Max, the bubble popped, but the toe was saved."
Bay claims it took 15 Hong Kong cops in riot gear to deal with the situation and ultimately four men were arrested for assaulting the officers.
The South China Morning Post claims that the attacker was a suspected member of the triads, or Hong Kong mafia.
Earlier, Reuters reported that Bay sustained injuries to his face after two brothers approached the director and demanded money from him. After an argument, the older brother struck Bay in the face. Reuters claimed the brothers were arrested on suspicion of blackmail and assault.
Twitter appears to be planning a revamp of its direct messaging feature, possibly including the launch of a standalone application for the feature. Recently, the company began allowing people to receive direct messages from all users, should they choose, including those that they do not follow. But Twitter may also preparing a standalone app for direct messages, which could arrive later this year, according to All Things D:
But Twitter’s new vision for direct messages will go further. It has kicked around the idea of launching a standalone direct-messaging application separate from the Twitter app, according to three people familiar with the matter. It is unclear, however, what form the final revamp of direct messages will take.
Twitter is also preparing a major refresh of its mobile app for later this year, and its possible that direct messages will have a more prominent place then. It's quite a change from just a couple of years ago, when Twitter's app was redesigned, and direct messages moved, almost hidden away. Completely discontinuing direct messages was discussed at one point as well.
But Twitter seems to have caught on to the fact that users often want a way to message their friends privately. Messaging apps like WhatsApp are increasing in popularity, and Facebook has its own standalone messaging app. Twitter may be hoping that a renewed focus on direct messages will help solve its growth issues ahead of their upcoming IPO.
How do you use Twitter's direct messages? Would you want a standalone app for them? Let us know in the comments.
NBCUniversal is reorganizing its ad sales division around content areas -- entertainment, live programming, lifestyle and digital video -- the company said Tuesday. The new structure also will unite the sales and marketing teams under a client solutions group.
The move comes on the heels of NBCUniversal's first upfront selling season with broadcast, cable and digital properties united under one umbrella that was spearheaded by NBCUni ad sales president Linda Yaccarino, the former Turner ad sales exec tapped by NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke to integrate the company's sales efforts. The new structure is designed to further address the changing needs of media buyers in a multiplatform, on-demand content universe.
“In an effort to maximize the power and potential of our portfolio, now we are putting in place the strategic leaders who will continue to position us for growth and provide opportunities for our customers like no other media company can,” Yaccarino said in a statement. “In a world of growing fragmentation and as scale has become more and more elusive, we’ve clustered our networks to capitalize on the strength of our assets. Also, I’m excited to expand our creative marketing offerings by developing a new center of marketing excellence and innovation for our clients.”
The reorganization means that several executive vps in the ad sales unit will be taking on expanded roles, while they will continue to report to Yaccarino. Dan Lovinger will oversee the ad sales entertainment group with oversight of the combined advertising sales for NBC, USA, Syfy and WWE. Seth Winter will oversee live programming ad sales, which includes news and sports. Laura Molen will oversee the ad sales lifestyle group, leading sales for Bravo, Oxygen, E!, Esquire, Cloo and Chiller. Scott Schiller will expand his role to include digital ad sales with oversight of the NBC News Group’s digital ad sales on an interim basis as well as digital entertainment ad sales. And Alison Tarrant will head up the client solutions group.
Yaccarino and her sales team touted the one-stop-shopping advantage during at NBCUniversal – which includes 17 cable networks and more than 50 digital properties including Fandango and DailyCandy – at the upfront selling bonanza last spring. The bundled approach meant that NBC did not finish writing most of its upfront deals until the end of July; networks typically conclude dealmaking by the July 4 weekend. But the broadcast network secured $2.1 billion in upfront commitments on a little more than 80 percent of its fall inventory, a 20 percent year-over-year increase with CPM (cost per thousand viewers) increases in the 7 to 8 percent range. NBC is the No. 1 network for the first three weeks of the new season among adults 18-49, the demographic most sought by advertisers. That performance is once again due in no small part to the strength of The Voice and Sunday Night Football, while the network's new series have been a mixed bag.
Speaker of the House John Boehner pumps his fist after leaving a meeting of House Republicans at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.
Win McNamee/Getty Images
Speaker of the House John Boehner pumps his fist after leaving a meeting of House Republicans at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.
Win McNamee/Getty Images
Bringing to an end an episode that once again exposed Washington gridlock at its worst, the House approved a Senate deal that will end a 16-day federal government shutdown and avert the first government default in U.S. history.
The 285-144 vote came at the eleventh hour, after weeks of partisan bickering and a very public airing of deep divisions within the Republican party. President Obama signed the bill into law after midnight Thursday.
"We now have an opportunity to focus on a sensible budget that is responsible, that is fair, that helps hardworking people all across this country," Obama said after the Senate voted.
Republicans on the House floor seemed to echo that sentiment.
"It's time to restore some sanity to this place. To do this we must all give a little," Rep. Harold Rogers, a Republican from Kentucky, said before the House vote, adding that Congress should "govern for the greater good."
If you don't remember, this all started as a battle over Obama's signature legislation, the Affordable Care Act. Republicans attached conditions to defund or delay Obamacare to the bill that funds government operations. That led to a stalemate, which led to the first government shutdown in 17 years. Without ever reaching a resolution in that impasse, Congress moved on to the debt ceiling debate, where Republicans widened their focus to fiscal issues, saying they would not extend the borrowing authority of the country, unless Democrats agreed to talks on bigger fiscal issues.
Obama and the Democratically-controlled Senate stood firm, saying they would not negotiate by allowing Republicans to extract a ransom from the American people.
On Wednesday, Speaker of the House John Boehner, who had refused to allow a bill like this come to the floor of the House, caved.
"We fought the good fight, we just didn't win," Boehner told Cincinnati station WLW-AM.
In some ways it was a replay of 2011, when the country came within hours of defaulting. The two chambers volleyed legislation, had dramatic meetings at the White House and a few deals that looked like the real thing crumbled just hours before they were expected to be brought to floor.
But unlike last time, the deal struck by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell isn't a major bargain. In fact, it leaves intact all the contentious issues. The deal makes virtually no concessions to Republicans and just sets up the possibility for another showdown like this when the debt ceiling expires in February and the continuing resolution expires in January.
Speaking after the Senate approved the bill, Obama warned that "we have to get out of the habit of governing by crisis."
Reid said: "Pain has been inflicted on our nation for no good reason. We cannot make this mistake again."
But in a statement, Boehner said his party would continue its fight against the Affordable Care Act and in a speech on the floor of the Senate, Ted Cruz, the Republican from Texas, who is considered one of the architects of the GOP position that contributed to this impasse, fired more warning shots.
He said things would have turned out differently, if Republicans had stuck together. Then he said he would, like the American people, continue to "rise up" and fight to "stop this train wreck of (Obamacare)."
Scott Disick OUT OF CONTROL Before Clubbing with Kylie, Kendall
Exclusive
If Scott Disick was the responsible adult last night when he took16-year-old Kylie and17-year-old Kendall Jenner to a 21-and-over nightclub, Kris oughta be plenty worried, because he was off the hinges earlier in the night.
Scott was at a Style Fashion Week L.A. event earlier in the evening with Kylie and Kendall. He was drinking and acting belligerent ... to the point where one of the models (Caroline D'Amore) flipped him off.
At the end of the show (for the line Day By Day), Scott grabbed the designer, Cedric Benaroch, and almost pulled him off the runway.
Scott then started freestyle rapping for Lil Twist and a random guy, ending with, "I drive f**king Bentleys!"
Robert Redford expressed empathy for President Obama and frustration with Beltway gridlock as the government shutdown reaches its 16th day.
"I don't envy [Obama's] position," he said during an interview that aired on CNN's New Day morning show on Wednesday. "I think he's a good man. I think he's an intelligent man, a compassionate man who can't function in that environment."
"It is so paralyzed, and the worst of it is that it's paralyzed by intention. There's a body of congressional people that want to paralyze the system. I think what's unfortunately underneath it is racism involved, which is really awful," he continued.
Redford then elaborated: "It's not just racism. I think it's a group of people that are so afraid of change and they're so narrow-minded that when -- you see, some people when they see change coming get so threatened by change they get angry and terrorized and they get vicious."
The comments came as Redford is making the press rounds for his man vs. nature tale All Is Lost, which features the actor as a sailor stranded in the ocean and fighting for survival.
The actor has previously expressed frustration with the administration and partisan gridlock.
On the issue of partisanship on climate change he told The Hollywood Reporter last fall that the president's opponents were "so narrow and so ideologically driven that it's not likely you're going to see much change there." He added at the time: "The Beltway is a very complicated and troubled place."
Critics have praised the actor for his performance in All Is Lost, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May and is set for wide release by Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions on Friday.
HANOVER, Germany (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel voiced support on Wednesday for EU plans to prop up carbon prices by temporarily removing some of the surplus allowances weighing on the bloc's emissions trading market that is meant to fight climate change.
German support for the plan to withdraw 900 million permits, a process known as backloading, is needed for a law to pass.
The proposal has been stalled for months as Berlin withheld its backing due to differences within Merkel's outgoing center-right government.
Although there is added uncertainty over German policy as Merkel tries to form a new coalition following last month's election, the carbon and power markets both rose in expectation that Merkel's stance made backloading more likely.
"We need a degree of backloading of CO2 emissions so that the certificate price can reach a reasonable level again," Merkel told a union event in the city of Hanover.
She said a rise in certificate prices would help modern, flexible gas-fired power stations which were now struggling to compete with coal-fired plants, which emit many more carbon emissions, because carbon permit prices were now so low.
The EU benchmark carbon price was up nearly 8 percent at 5.35 euros a tonne at 1301 GMT, after Merkel spoke.
Merkel's comments and the resulting rise in carbon prices, which raises electricity generation costs, affected the German wholesale power market, where contracts for baseload (24 hours) delivery in 2014 rose around two percent to 38.10 euros per megawatt hour.
The European Commission plan to withdraw carbon permits from its Emissions Trading System (ETS) is aimed at lifting prices depressed by over-supply and an economic downturn.
Lithuania, which holds the EU presidency, said on Monday it was confident the plan would proceed soon after "optimistic signals" from members states at a ministerial meeting.
German environment minister Peter Altmaier said there that Germany was finalizing its position on backloading, implying the government could adopt a formal view before it leaves office.
Altmaier, a member of Merkel's conservatives, has long voiced support for the proposals but Germany's economy minister, a member of Merkel's junior coalition partner which was voted out of parliament in the September election, had opposed them.
The two ministers were jointly responsible for energy policy and the departure of the pro-business Free Democrats (FPD) is likely to make it easier for Merkel to support backloading.
CO2 REDUCTIONS?
In Hanover, Merkel also said Europe needed a carbon dioxide (CO2) reduction goal for 2030.
"Without such a European goal there will be no investment in power stations in the future because nobody will know exactly how it will develop," Merkel said.
EU regulators are considering doubling the bloc's target to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and setting a tougher binding goal for renewable energy use, EU sources said in September.
The Commission, the EU executive, outlined new targets earlier this year but has yet to make a firm legislative proposal.
Merkel reiterated that amending Germany's renewable energy law, aimed at boosting green power, will be a priority for a third term but that German industry had to be protected.
"We need clean, safe but also affordable energy. We want to expand renewable energy but it must happen in such a way as not to put at risk Germany's industrial position."
Because the incentives for green power have become so popular, the cost of a surcharge added to consumers' power bills to finance them has risen sharply [ID:nL6N0I5119], pushing up bills for households and consumers.
Merkel faces a delicate balancing act to reduce incentives for green energy sufficiently to lower electricity costs while keeping up the renewables boom in Europe's biggest economy.
Merkel is in exploratory talks with the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) about forming a government but any coalition deal could take weeks and Merkel's energy shift to renewables and away from nuclear energy will be high on the agenda.
Merkel said the government would have to look at which energy intensive companies need exemptions from the surcharge to remain internationally competitive.
She said Germany would have a "real problem" if the European Union launched a case against exemptions from the surcharge, arguing it amounted to state aid.
(Additional reporting by Stephen Brown and Nina Chestney and Henning Gloystein in London; Writing by Madeline Chambers; Editing by Anthony Barker)
PITTSBURGH (AP) — The decision to hold the world-renowned Prague Writers' Festival in western Pennsylvania isn't as unlikely as it seems, considering the festival's home base was once the capital of a nation born 95 years ago in a Loyal Order of Moose lodge in Pittsburgh.
The festival has given writers a platform to promote their works but, more importantly, to freely express the thoughts behind them. Friday and Saturday mark the first time the festival will be held in the United States — or anywhere outside Europe, for that matter — at Point Park University downtown.
"It's a festival of ideas," said Michael March, the festival's founder — and often a platform for contentious or unpopular ones. Lawrence Ferlinghetti, a San Francisco writer who won a U.S. Supreme Court appeal of his arrest on obscenity charges in the 1950s, and Salman Rushdie, whose novel "The Satanic Verses" led to death threats from some who felt it attacked Islam, are past participants.
"Writers' festivals are celebratory expressions of intellectual and artistic freedom," said E.L. Doctorow, who will read excerpts of his new novel, "Andrew's Brain," at the festival.
Doctorow, known for works including "Ragtime" and "Billy Bathgate," said festivals are important because in many countries, writers are "censored, jailed, exiled, attacked, murdered, because they know what governments know: that reality is amenable to any construction placed upon it."
That the festival coincides with the anniversary of the birth of what was originally known as Czecho-Slovakia (the country later dropped the hyphen) only adds to that importance, said professor Channa Newman, director of global cultural studies at Point Park. She's also the international program director for the festival and helped bring it to Pittsburgh.
The Czech Senate is sending a delegation, as is the Czech Chamber of Commerce, while the honorary consul representing Slovakia will also attend, Newman said.
"So there's the historical ties, the cultural ties and the business ties, which is now apparently of interest," Newman said.
March agreed that holding the festival in Pittsburgh underscores its international significance.
March, a poet, was raised in New York City. He moved to Europe after the Helsinki Accords attempted to thaw relations between then-Communist bloc nations and the West, and formed a smaller writers' festival in late-1970s London.
March eventually established the Prague Writers' Festival in May 1991, less than two years before Czechoslovakia peacefully split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The festival was first held in Wallenstein Palace, now home to the Czech Senate.
Celebrating Czecho-Slovakia's birth brings the festival full circle.
The Pittsburgh Agreement, which announced the intention to form Czecho-Slovakia, grew out of a meeting in May 1918 of the Czecho-Slovak National Committee at the Moose lodge in downtown Pittsburgh, said University of Pittsburgh professor Martin Votruba. He leads what is believed to be the nation's only university program offering a minor in Slovak Studies.
Czechs, Slovaks and some smaller ethnic groups foresaw the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and hoped to determine their own future as a nation, instead of having it thrust upon them by the international community, Votruba said.
The resulting Pittsburgh Agreement was essentially a Czecho-Slovak declaration of independence, said Andrew Masich, director of Pittsburgh's Senator John Heinz History Center. The museum, which is affiliated with the Smithsonian, has had a copy of the document since 2007.
The document's author, T. G. Masaryk, declared the nation's independence on Oct. 18, 1918, and became the new nation's first president a month later, after the war.
"People forget, the first Czecho-Slovak flag either flew in Washington, D.C., or in Pittsburgh," March said.
The Pittsburgh Agreement "wasn't a perfect creation, it was an artificial creation during a terrible time of the first World War, a time of absolute devastation for people," March said. But, he said, reflecting on that might help people "appreciate their own environment even more."
Twodifferent sources are reporting that Amazon and HTC have been in talks to produce the online retailer's long-rumored line of smartphones. If true, the news is significant because it means that Amazon would be sourcing its hardware from a third-party manufacturer for first time. From the other perspective, teaming up with Amazon could save the company from hemorrhaging any more money.
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — Two members of a notorious family that authorities say once tried to set up a whites-only nation in America were arrested this week in Arizona on federal firearms charges after a raid on a sprawling ranch netted dozens of weapons and thousands of rounds of ammunition.
Kirby Kehoe and his 37-year-old son, Cheyne, had an initial court appearance Tuesday in Flagstaff. Cheyne Kehoe's attorney declined to discuss the case, while a lawyer for Kirby Kehoe did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Authorities received a tip that Kirby Kehoe, 65, had weapons on his 40-acre property near Ash Fork, about 140 miles north of Phoenix, said Tom Mangan, a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Agents who raided the property seized dozens of guns, including shotguns and semi-automatic rifles and pistols, according to the ATF. Kirby Kehoe was arrested on site, while federal authorities picked up Cheyne Kehoe in Prescott, where he had a scheduled court appearance in another case.
Kirby and Cheyne Kehoe both have previous felony convictions and are banned from possessing firearms. Each faces one charge stemming from the raid, but Mangan said the list could grow to include more weapons and narcotics charges.
The Kehoe family has been well-known to law enforcement since the 1990s when authorities say they provided weapons to various white supremacists who committed robberies across the Midwest. Authorities also said the family was involved in a plot to overthrow the federal government and establish the Aryan Peoples Republic in the Pacific Northwest.
Another son, Chevie Kehoe, is serving a life sentence in federal prison for his role in the 1996 killings of an Arkansas gun dealer, his wife and their 8-year-old daughter as part of the plot.
Cheyne Kehoe was sentenced in 1998 to more than 24 years in prison for his role in a shootout with Ohio police during a traffic stop about 40 miles northeast of Cincinnati. His sentence later was reduced to 11 years. No officers were injured in the gun battle, but a passer-by was wounded by a bullet fragment.
The family patriarch, Kirby Kehoe, was sentenced in 1999 to nearly four years in prison for racketeering and possession of illegal weapons in a case related to the plot aimed at overthrowing the government. The elder Kehoe, however, has maintained he was never involved in his sons' efforts to establish a whites-only nation and that he isn't a racist.
Mangan said due to the violent nature of the family's past, authorities planned the Monday raid carefully, first setting up surveillance on the property before moving in with search warrants, heavily armed tactical teams and armored vehicles.
He said the raid was conducted in cooperation with law enforcement from around the country and was planned to avoid the potential for a violent confrontation.
"The reason and rationale for having executed the warrant on the property in that manner was driven by public safety, just based on the past history of this individual and the sons," Mangan said Tuesday. "When a traffic stop was being conducted in Ohio, it turned into a nationwide manhunt, and we obviously didn't want to revisit that issue."
Kirby Kehoe is due back in court Thursday for a preliminary and detention hearing. Cheyne Kehoe's next court appearance is set for Oct. 22.
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_stGl96_o6C6Cx8vvTpMhvD0kuLmwZWK-NtgE4z55F_zT59mTxk1N1VXjTvwTmvkM6pSHdR_sKafca2UUF0N7QTWe-P_-rakrMoo5vABFs=s0-d){kind=small}
Share
Source: 
Source: 
