By Tim Kenneally LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Madea goes bye-bye? A new petition published on Change.org is demanding that Oprah Winfrey's network remove Winfrey's friend and business partner Tyler Perry from OWN's airwaves, claiming that Perry "perpetuates stereotypes" about the black community. Or, as the petition puts it more whimsically, Perry "is 'malt liquor' for the community!" Perry's new series, "The Haves and the Have Nots," premiered Tuesday night on OWN to record breaking ratings. ...
There's no question that the Surface RT comes into its own with a keyboard cover; we can't imagine using the tablet unadorned. Microsoft can't, either, as it's launching a promo that gives the covers away. Americans and Canadians who buy the Windows RT slate between now and the end of June can get either the Touch Cover or the Type Cover for free, no matter which color they fancy. Surface Pro customers are out of luck, but it's hard to dispute the value for prospective Surface RT owners -- the deal amounts to at least a $100 discount on the touch PC's real-world price.
Update: To be clear, this promo has been running in other countries; it's just now debuting in North America, however.
May 29, 2013 ? It is a commonly held perception that getting in shape and staying there requires hard work and hours upon hours of training. Now, new research from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) shows the opposite -- just four minutes of vigorous activity three times per week is enough to make previously inactive men fitter and more healthy.
Regular training improves maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max), which is a well-established measure of physical fitness. However, just how much exercise, and how intense that exercise should be to deliver the biggest benefit remains to be defined. Now, researchers from NTNU's KG Jebsen Centre of Exercise in Medicine/Cardiac Exercise Research Group have found that just three short high-intensity sessions (AIT) per week can make for substantial differences in the fitness of inactive men.
"Our data suggest that a single bout of AIT performed three times per week may be a time-efficient strategy to improve VO2max," says Arnt Erik Tj?nna, a postdoctoral fellow at the centre and lead author of the study. Tj?nna says one of the advantages of this approach is that it is easy for people to incorporate into their daily lives.
The researchers measured changes in VO2max and traditional cardiovascular risk factors in 24 inactive but otherwise healthy overweight men after they completed a 10-week training session that involved three weekly high-intensity interval sessions. One group of 13 followed a protocol that has previously shown to be effective, consisting of four intervals of 4 minutes of high intensity exercise at 90% of maximal heart rate (HRmax) interspersed with 3 minutes of active recovery at 70% HRmax (4-AIT), commonly known as 4x4 training.
The other group followed a protocol that consisted of one 4-minute interval at 90% HRmax (1-AIT). After training, VO2max increased by 10% in the group that had just one high-intensity session three times a week (1-AIT), while the group that followed the 4x4 regime increased its VO2max by 13%. Both groups saw decreases in their blood pressure, but the 1-AIT the group's blood pressures showed greater decreases than their 4-AIT counterparts for both systolic and diastolic readings.
Tj?nna says while the results look promising, the number of study participants was small, which limits the scientists' ability to extrapolate their findings. He also noted that people who are active probably won't benefit as much as the inactive participants did from the 1-AIT training regime.
"It has to be noted that the subjects were previously inactive, and the same effect on physical fitness cannot be expected in active individuals," he said. "Nevertheless, since we know that more and more people are inactive and overweight, the kind of improvement in physical fitness that we saw in this study may provide a real boost for inactive people who are struggling to find the motivation to exercise."
The official Twitter for iOS app has just been updated to version 5.7 and brings with it some visual enhancements, particularly for the iPhone version. Most notably, tweet previews before you submit them and wider timelines throughout the entire app.
Twitter has been focusing a lot on user interface when it comes to the native app lately and that isn't a bad thing. The iPhone app got a bulk of the updates this time around featuring wider timelines and a preview in the tweet composer so you can see exactly what your tweet will look like before you send it. Other updates including the ability to receive notifications before sending a tweet.
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) ? Police arrested a Disneyland employee on suspicion of putting a so-called dry ice bomb in a theme park trash can where it exploded, authorities said Wednesday.
No one was injured in the small blast, but Disneyland briefly evacuated the Mickey's Toontown section where the incident occurred Tuesday. The trash can did not blow up.
Christian Barnes, 22, of Long Beach was arrested for investigation of possessing a destructive device, just hours after the blast, Anaheim police Sgt. Bob Dunn said in a statement.
It wasn't immediately clear how police connected Barnes to the blast and Dunn did not return repeated calls. Police said earlier they would scrutinize social media and surveillance footage.
Disneyland spokeswoman Suzi Brown released a statement Wednesday saying the resort was working closely with authorities.
Barnes will be suspended or fired, she said.
Barnes, who worked as an outdoor vendor for the resort, was held on $1 million bail, Dunn said.
Dunn said Barnes was cooperating with investigators, telling them the blast was an isolated incident with results he did not expect, Dunn said. Dunn did not elaborate.
Barnes' father Raymond Barnes said he did not know exactly what happened, but thought his son was "just silly, not thinking" and messing around with dry ice without realizing the severity of what might happen.
"Whatever it was, there was nothing sinister about it," Barnes told KCBS-TV. "He's a good kid. Never been in any trouble."
Barnes' case had not yet been presented to prosecutors, said Farrah Emami, a spokeswoman for the Orange County district attorney's office. The bail amount could change when prosecutors get the case and charges are decided, she said.
Detectives found fragments of a water bottle in the trash can and believe Barnes placed dry ice inside it to create the explosion, the police spokesman said.
A telephone listing for a Christian Barnes in Long Beach rang unanswered Wednesday.
So-called dry ice bombs are easy to make, and on a much smaller scale, are sometimes used as classroom chemistry demonstrations, said John Goodpaster, an explosives expert at the Purdue School of Science at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.
The size of the explosion, however, can vary greatly depending on the container's size, material and the amount of dry ice used, he said.
The devices could cause injuries to those nearby if the built-up pressure was high enough, including cuts from flying bottle shards, he said.
"This is a simple device. It's not a pipe bomb filled with gunpowder, but it definitely will generate an explosion," Goodpaster said.
"If somebody was throwing something out, they could have been injured."
AAA??May. 28, 2013?5:14 PM ET American, Russian, Italian blast off into space AP
The Soyuz-FG rocket booster with Soyuz TMA-09M space ship carrying a new crew to the International Space Station, ISS, blasts off at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Wednesday, May 29, 2013. The Russian rocket carries U.S. astronaut Karen Nyberg, Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, and European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano. (AP Photo/Mikhail Metzel)
The Soyuz-FG rocket booster with Soyuz TMA-09M space ship carrying a new crew to the International Space Station, ISS, blasts off at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Wednesday, May 29, 2013. The Russian rocket carries U.S. astronaut Karen Nyberg, Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, and European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano. (AP Photo/Mikhail Metzel)
In a photo provided by NASA Expedition 36/37 Soyuz Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin of the Russian Federal Space Agency, top, Flight Engineers Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency, center, and Karen Nyberg of NASA, wave as they board the Soyuz rocket ahead of their launch to the International Space Station, early Wednesday, May 29, 2013, in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Yurchikhin, Nyberg, and, Parmitano, will remain aboard the station until mid-November. (AP Photo/NASA, Bill Ingalls)
The Soyuz-FG rocket booster with Soyuz TMA-09M space ship carrying a new crew to the International Space Station, ISS, blasts off at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Wednesday, May 29, 2013. The Russian rocket carries U.S. astronaut Karen Nyberg, Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, and European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano. (AP Photo/Mikhail Metzel)
Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano, a member of the International Space Station (ISS) crew, waves to his daughter as he leaves for a final pre-launch preparation at Baikonur cosmodrome Kazakhstan, Tuesday May 28, 2013. (AP Photo/Sergei Remezov, Pool)
U.S. astronaut Karen Nyberg, crew member of the mission to the International Space Station (ISS), waves prior to the launch of Soyuz-FG rocket at the Russian leased Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Wednesday, May 29, 2013. (AP Photo/ Kiril Kudryavtsev, Pool)
MOSCOW (AP) ? A Soyuz carrying an American, Russian and Italian has blasted off for the International Space Station, where they will spend six months conducting a variety of experiments.
The Soyuz spacecraft lifted off at 2:31 a.m. Wednesday (2031GMT, 4:31 p.m. EDT Tuesday) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, which Russia leases in Kazakhstan.
NASA's Karen Nyberg, Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin and Italy's Luca Parmitano will orbit the Earth four times before docking with the space station less than six hours after liftoff. They will join three other people who have been aboard the station since late March.
Associated Press People, Places and Companies: Russia
BALTIMORE (AP) ? For the second time this year, a fire at sea has aborted a cruise ship's voyage. This time, aboard Royal Caribbean's Grandeur of the Seas and the ship's 2,200 passengers were expected back in Baltimore on Tuesday after being flown on charter flights from the Bahamas.
The fire that began at 2:50 a.m. Monday was extinguished about two hours later with no injuries reported. A cause wasn't immediately known but the U.S. Coast Guard and the National Transportation Safety Board planned to investigate.
The ship, which left Baltimore on Friday for a seven-night cruise, was headed originally to CocoCay, Bahamas. Royal Caribbean said the ship never lost power and was able to sail into port in Freeport, Bahamas, Monday afternoon. The ship launched in 1996 and was refurbished last year.
Royal Caribbean said on its website and through social media that executives met with passengers in port and that the cruise line was arranging flights for all 2,224 guests. Also, passengers will get a full refund of their fare and a certificate for a future cruise.
Aboard ship, the captain announced that passengers needed to go to their muster stations, said passenger Mark J. Ormesher in an email to The Associated Press. Immediately after, his room attendant knocked on the door and told him and his girlfriend to grab their flotation devices. The attendant said it wasn't a drill.
Ormesher, a native of England, who lives in Manassas, Va., said he and his girlfriend smelled acrid smoke as they went to their muster station, the ship's casino. The crew quickly provided instruction.
"This encouraged calm amongst the passengers," he said. Passengers were required to remain at their stations for four hours, he said, and the captain "provided us as much information as we needed to stay safe."
Ormesher, who is 25 and on his first cruise, said the air conditioner had been shut off, and as the hours passed and the ship got hot, bottled water was distributed. The crew and passengers remained calm, and helped those who needed it. Crying babies were given formula and held while their parents used the bathrooms.
Photos show a substantial area of the stern burned on several decks of the ship the length of about three football fields.
Royal Caribbean said all guests and 796 crew were safe and accounted for. Royal Caribbean spokeswoman Cynthia Martinez said in an email that the company was arranging 11 different charter flights.
The company in a statement on its website said it is "deeply sorry for this unexpected development in our guests' vacation. We understand that this may have been a very stressful time for them. We appreciate their patience and cooperation in dealing with this unfortunate situation."
Carnival Corp. also had trouble with fire aboard ship earlier this year.
The 900-foot Triumph was disabled during a February cruise by an engine room fire in the Gulf of Mexico, leaving thousands of passengers to endure cold food, unsanitary conditions and power outages while the ship was towed to Mobile, Ala. It remained there for repairs until early May when it headed back to sea under its own power.
On the Royal Caribbean ship, after passengers were allowed to leave their stations, Ormesher said he saw water on the outside of deck 5 and in the hallways. The mooring lines were destroyed he said; crew members brought new lines from storage.
The damage at the rear of the ship "looks bad," Ormesher said; burned out equipment was visible.
Martinez said in a news release that a cruise scheduled aboard the Grandeur of the Seas for May 31 has been canceled so the ship can be repaired.
May 29, 2013 ? New research published by an international team of psychologists has shown that people can suppress incriminating memories and thereby avoid detection in brain activity guilt detection tests.
Such tests, which are commercially available in the USA and are used by law enforcement agencies in several countries, including Japan and India, are based on the logic that criminals will have specific memories of their crime stored in their brain. Once presented with reminders of their crime in a guilt detection test, it is assumed that their brain will automatically and uncontrollably recognise these details, with the test recording the brain's 'guilty' response.
However, research by psychologists at the universities of Kent, Magdeburg and Cambridge, and the Medical Research Council, has shown that, contrary to this core assumption, some people can intentionally and voluntarily suppress unwanted memories -- in other words, control their brain activity, thereby abolishing brain activity related to remembering. This was demonstrated through experiments in which people who conducted a mock crime were later tested on their crime recognition while having their electrical brain activity measured. Critically, when asked to suppress their crime memories, a significant proportion of people managed to reduce their brain's recognition response and appear innocent.
This finding has major implications for brain activity guilt detection tests, among the most important being that those using memory detection tests should not assume that brain activity is outside voluntary control, and any conclusions drawn on the basis of these tests need to acknowledge that it might be possible for suspects to intentionally suppress their memories of a crime and evade detection.
Dr Zara Bergstrom, Lecturer in Cognitive Psychology at the University of Kent and principal investigator on the research, said: 'Brain activity guilt detection tests are promoted as accurate and reliable measures for establishing criminal culpability. Our research has shown that this assumption is not always justified. Using these types of tests to say that someone is innocent of a crime is not valid because it could just be the case that the suspect has managed to hide their crime memories.'
Dr Michael Anderson, Senior Scientist at the Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge, commented: 'Interestingly, not everyone was able to suppress their memories of the crime well enough to beat the system. Clearly, more research is needed to identify why some people were much more effective than others.'
Dr Anderson's group is presently trying to understand such individual differences with brain imaging.
Dr Jon Simons, of the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge, added: 'Our findings would suggest that the use of most brain activity guilt detection tests in legal settings could be of limited value. Of course, there could be situations where it is impossible to beat a memory detection test, and we are not saying that all tests are flawed, just that the tests are not necessarily as good as some people claim. More research is also needed to understand whether the results of this research work in real life crime detection.'
Social tools make it possible for workers to communicate and collaborate in all sorts of new ways, but is all that virtual gabbing making people more productive or less??A new study commissioned by Microsoft finds employers and workers divided on the topic.
More than 30 percent of companies are reluctant to let their workers use social technologies on the job, and in many cases restrict their use, according to the study. That?s despite the belief of many employees that social tools improve their ability to collaborate, and actually increase their productivity.
Those are some of the findings from the study. Research firm Ipsos surveyed more than 9,900 people around the world about the use of social technologies inside their companies.
Yammer, the enterprise social networking company acquired by Microsoft last year for $1.2 billion, says its push to integrate Microsoft Office 365 with Yammer, and vice versa, should help overcome the concerns identifued by the survey. Work on that integration is under way now.
The goal is to make the line between Yammer and Office increasingly ?blurry,? said Yammer co-founder and CTO?Adam Pisoni, now a Microsoft Office engineering GM.
?Social is still too separate,? Pisoni?said in an interview. ?To get the widespread adoption that we need, we have to integrate and become part of the tools that they?re already using. A lot of the step-changes that we?re going to see in adoption are going to come as we see those integrations come to fruition.?
Yammer has a Facebook-style interface, and a big part of its success has come from grassroots adoption by employees, which eventually convinces companies to officially embrace (and pay for) additional tools to manage the Yammer service.
The survey found that 39 percent of employees believe there isn?t enough collaboration at their companies, and 40 percent believe social technologies lead to better teamwork.?For more, see?this summary report?and this related site.
A?recent study by Avanade, a consulting firm that specializes in Microsoft technologies, found that Facebook is by far the most widely used social tool inside companies.
Opera for desktops may be a couple of steps behind the recently finalized Android version, but it's coming along nicely. A preview build of the now WebKit-based browser (or, technically, Blink-based) is available to try on Windows and Mac with a bunch of features which in some ways look similar to other browsers and add-ons, but which also do things a bit differently:
Speed Dial -- a home tab that brings large tiles and folders for quick access to favorite sites
Stash -- a web clipping tool that follows a similar big-tile aesthetic (shown above)
Smartbox -- a search box that not only predicts what you're looking for but also offers to hunt for it on different search engines, such as Google or Twitter.
One thing you won't find is an integrated Opera Mail client, since that's been split from the desktop browser (due to "popular demand") and is now available as a release candidate for a forthcoming standalone product. You'll find full download linkage below.
Healthy habits die hard: In times of stress, people lean on established routines -- even healthy onesPublic release date: 27-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Suzanne Wu suzanne.wu@usc.edu 213-740-0252 University of Southern California
Developing good habits is more important than self-control in meeting goals
Stress and exhaustion may turn us into zombies, but a novel study shows that mindless behavior doesn't just lead to overeating and shopping sprees it can also cause us to stick with behaviors that are good for us.
Across five experiments appearing in the June issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, published by the American Psychological Association, the researchers provide an important new twist to the established idea that we have finite resources for self-regulation, meaning it's harder to take control of our actions when we're already stressed or tired.
Turns out we're just as likely to default to positive habits, such as eating a healthy breakfast or going to the gym, as we are to self-sabotage. Led by Wendy Wood and David Neal of USC, this research shows that lack of control doesn't automatically mean indulgence or hedonism it's the underlying routine that matters, for better or worse.
"When we try to change our behavior, we strategize about our motivation and self-control. But what we should be thinking about instead is how to set up new habits. Habits persist even when we're tired and don't have the energy to exert self-control," says Wood, Provost Professor of Psychology and Business at USC, who holds joint appointments in the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and the USC Marshall School of Business.
Wood, who serves as vice dean for social sciences at USC Dornsife, is one of the world's leading experts on habit, the automatic behaviors that make it possible for us to function everyday (imagine if we had to relearn every morning how to brush our teeth or what route to take to work).
Learned habits also play a big role in our health; research has shown that exercise, overeating and smoking are significant risk factors for major diseases. Indeed, obesity and smoking are the two primary reasons Americans die before people in other high-income countries, according to a recent National Academy of Sciences report led by Eileen Crimmins of the USC Davis School of Gerontology.
But while most disease prevention efforts focus on self-control, the latest research from Wood shows that the best way to prevent disease might be knowing how to let go: "Everybody gets stressed. The whole focus on controlling your behavior may not actually be the best way to get people to meet goals," she said. "If you are somebody who doesn't have a lot of willpower, our study showed that habits are even more important."
For example, in one experiment Wood and her co-investigators followed students for a semester, including during exams. They found that during testing periods, when students were stressed and sleep-deprived, they were even more likely to stick to old habits. It was as if they didn't have the energy to do something new, Wood explains.
Students who ate unhealthy breakfasts during the semester such as pastries or doughnuts ate even more of the junk food during exams. But the same was true of oatmeal eaters: those in the habit of eating a healthy breakfast were also more likely to stick to routine and ate especially well in the morning when under pressure.
Similarly, students who had a habit of reading the editorial pages in the newspaper everyday during the semester were more likely to perform this habit during exams even when they were limited in time. And regular gym-goers were even more likely to go to the gym when stressed.
"You might expect that, when students were stressed and had little time, they wouldn't read the paper at all, but instead they fell back on their reading habits," Wood says. "Habits don't require much willpower and thought and deliberation."
Wood continues: "So, the central question for behavior change efforts should be, how can you form healthy, productive habits? What we know about habit formation is that you want to make the behavior easy to perform, so that people repeat it often and it becomes part of their daily routine."
###
Aimee Drolet of UCLA was a co-author of the study.
[ | 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.
Healthy habits die hard: In times of stress, people lean on established routines -- even healthy onesPublic release date: 27-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Suzanne Wu suzanne.wu@usc.edu 213-740-0252 University of Southern California
Developing good habits is more important than self-control in meeting goals
Stress and exhaustion may turn us into zombies, but a novel study shows that mindless behavior doesn't just lead to overeating and shopping sprees it can also cause us to stick with behaviors that are good for us.
Across five experiments appearing in the June issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, published by the American Psychological Association, the researchers provide an important new twist to the established idea that we have finite resources for self-regulation, meaning it's harder to take control of our actions when we're already stressed or tired.
Turns out we're just as likely to default to positive habits, such as eating a healthy breakfast or going to the gym, as we are to self-sabotage. Led by Wendy Wood and David Neal of USC, this research shows that lack of control doesn't automatically mean indulgence or hedonism it's the underlying routine that matters, for better or worse.
"When we try to change our behavior, we strategize about our motivation and self-control. But what we should be thinking about instead is how to set up new habits. Habits persist even when we're tired and don't have the energy to exert self-control," says Wood, Provost Professor of Psychology and Business at USC, who holds joint appointments in the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and the USC Marshall School of Business.
Wood, who serves as vice dean for social sciences at USC Dornsife, is one of the world's leading experts on habit, the automatic behaviors that make it possible for us to function everyday (imagine if we had to relearn every morning how to brush our teeth or what route to take to work).
Learned habits also play a big role in our health; research has shown that exercise, overeating and smoking are significant risk factors for major diseases. Indeed, obesity and smoking are the two primary reasons Americans die before people in other high-income countries, according to a recent National Academy of Sciences report led by Eileen Crimmins of the USC Davis School of Gerontology.
But while most disease prevention efforts focus on self-control, the latest research from Wood shows that the best way to prevent disease might be knowing how to let go: "Everybody gets stressed. The whole focus on controlling your behavior may not actually be the best way to get people to meet goals," she said. "If you are somebody who doesn't have a lot of willpower, our study showed that habits are even more important."
For example, in one experiment Wood and her co-investigators followed students for a semester, including during exams. They found that during testing periods, when students were stressed and sleep-deprived, they were even more likely to stick to old habits. It was as if they didn't have the energy to do something new, Wood explains.
Students who ate unhealthy breakfasts during the semester such as pastries or doughnuts ate even more of the junk food during exams. But the same was true of oatmeal eaters: those in the habit of eating a healthy breakfast were also more likely to stick to routine and ate especially well in the morning when under pressure.
Similarly, students who had a habit of reading the editorial pages in the newspaper everyday during the semester were more likely to perform this habit during exams even when they were limited in time. And regular gym-goers were even more likely to go to the gym when stressed.
"You might expect that, when students were stressed and had little time, they wouldn't read the paper at all, but instead they fell back on their reading habits," Wood says. "Habits don't require much willpower and thought and deliberation."
Wood continues: "So, the central question for behavior change efforts should be, how can you form healthy, productive habits? What we know about habit formation is that you want to make the behavior easy to perform, so that people repeat it often and it becomes part of their daily routine."
###
Aimee Drolet of UCLA was a co-author of the study.
[ | 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.
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (AP) ? One person is dead and 10 people were taken to hospitals after a crash early Sunday in the San Francisco Bay Area involving a car driven by a man police say had been drinking and a party bus, authorities said.
In the 2 a.m. crash, a Honda coupe driven by a 43-year-old Oakland man appears to have slammed into the center divider of Highway 101, then came to a stop in the fast lanes facing oncoming traffic, California Highway Patrol Officer Art Montiel said.
After the Honda stopped, the front end of a party bus, with 18 people on board, hit the disabled car.
A passenger in the Honda ? identified only as a 36-year-old San Mateo woman ? was killed in the crash. The driver of the car ? identified as Raul Padilla survived ? but was hospitalized in critical condition.
Padilla and his passenger had "consumed alcohol" before the crash, but toxicology tests would have to be conducted to determine if Padilla had been driving under the influence of alcohol at the time of the crash, Montiel said.
"If it is determined he was under the influence, he could face felony DUI charges and manslaughter charges," Montiel said.
Most of the party bus passengers suffered minor to moderate injuries. Montiel did not know the name of the party bus company.
Two other vehicles were involved in the Redwood City crash, but the drivers were not hurt.
The southbound direction of Highway 101 was closed for about two hours after the crash, with traffic being diverted on to city streets.
WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama will tour the damage from the massive tornado that devastated the Oklahoma City area.
Obama plans to meet with affected families and thank first responders during a visit Sunday to Moore, Okla. The White House says Obama wants a firsthand look at the recovery from the tornado that killed 24 and damaged an estimated 12,000 homes Monday afternoon.
The town of Moore is a community of 41,000 people located about 10 miles from Oklahoma City.
Obama offered prayers for the people of Oklahoma from the White House in recent days. He said that "while the road ahead will be long, their country will be with them every single step of the way."
MOSCOW (AP) ? Gay rights campaigners and their opponents clashed at an unsanctioned rally in Moscow but a heavy police presence in Ukraine kept the two sides apart at a demonstration which went ahead despite a court order.
Russian police said they arrested at least 30 gay rights campaigners and Christian Orthodox vigilantes in Moscow.
The campaigners tried to unfurl banners denouncing the Kremlin-backed homophobic legislation in front of Russia's lower house of parliament, but were attacked by vigilantes carrying icons and crosses.
The lower house voted in January for a bill that makes public events and dissemination of information about the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community to minors punishable by fines of up to $16,000.
The bill, still awaiting final approval, is part of an effort to promote traditional Russian values as opposed to Western liberalism, which the Kremlin and church see as corrupting Russian youth and contributing to a wave of protest against President Vladimir Putin's rule.
Russia decriminalized homosexuality in 1993, but homophobia remains strong in the country. Government critics and gay rights activists claim that the Kremlin and the powerful Orthodox Church encourage vigilante groups to attack gay rallies and parades.
In Kiev, between 50 and 100 gay rights activists staged the ex-Soviet nation's first-ever gay pride parade. They held banners reading "Homosexuality is no disease" and "Human rights are my pride."
Although city authorities won a court order banning the rally on Thursday, saying it would disturb the annual Kiev Day celebrations, but the Ukrainian activists were not deterred. Authorities deployed hundreds of riot policemen to prevent any attacks by opponents.
There was no official explanation about why the demonstration was allowed to go ahead.
Last year, Ukraine's gay and lesbian community canceled the event at the last minute when skinheads gathered at the planned location, intent on beating up the participants. Two leading activists were brutally beaten by radicals in subsequent weeks.
Despite condemnation from the West, the Ukrainian parliament is debating several anti-gay bills including one which would make any public, positive depiction of homosexuality punishable by up to five years in prison.
When you see a screenplay you know it's a screenplay.
Most people, however, have never seen an oral story written down. Probably because it's an oxymoron. Yet there are times when it's useful to write an oral story down. For example, when you're helping a company create the story of their strategy.
Let?s look at the difference between oral and written stories and then I'll describe a significant problem that can happen when you write down an oral story for a company.
First and foremost we talk quite differently to how we write and read. For example, when we speak we say things in short bursts.
When we speak / We say things in short bursts. //
Yet we can write a sentence that is much longer and more elaborate than we would normally speak. Punctuation helps a reader but doesn't go far enough for a speaker (more on this below).
When we talk it?s quite reasonable to repeat ourselves. We can say the same thing a few times and no one will give it a second thought. It gives us time to gather our ideas and emphasise our point. In fact repetition helps our audience hear what we are saying.
Repetition is spurned in prose unless it?s a literary effort of Joycean proportions. But in business writing it?s a no no.
And ?it's a no no? would never pass for business writing but we could easily and acceptably say it. We can speak colloquially but brows wrinkle when we write it.
Most of the time we are speaking we use short, simple words. When we're chatting with colleagues and recounting what happened in the meeting we all just went to (editor, please replace 'went to' with 'attended'), we use short, concrete phrases.
?Did you see Bob?s face when Bronwyn said we?ll need to create a new job role? I can see this being a problem.?
People don't speak corporateez. Most people, that is.
We don't typically say transformation, core competency, retrospective coherence (yep, I've heard that), strategic leverage, commercial sustainability, I could go on.
Now let me explain the problem that often happens when you try and write down an oral story such as the oral story of the corporate strategy.
When it?s written down it looks a lot like any other business document in that there are words in paragraphs but the writing seems overly informal and even naive. Things might be repeated and there are informal phrases all over the place. So the business language wordsmiths appear and begin to make it sound like a piece of business writing. I've even had footnotes added!
YOU MUST RESIST THIS URGE.
Here's what I suggest you do.
First write the story in a format that doesn?t look like normal business prose.
Much like a poem, break up the story based on the short bursts we speak in. At the end of each line either insert a ?/? to indicate a minor pause and the sentence just flows on to the next phase or a ?//? when there's a bigger pause. This is how experts in discourse analysis write conversations down.
The great advantage to this approach is that it looks different. Internal comms immediately thinks, "Whoa, what in the hell is this?" And you can share with them the difference between oral and written stories.
Let me know if you have ever had this challenge and how you dealt with it.
ABC FAMILY CONTINUES TO GROW ITS ORIGINAL PROGRAMMING AND GREENLIGHTS A NEW COMEDY SERIES, ?SPELL-MAGEDDON?
Newest Series Will Join ABC Family?s Slate of New Productions Premiering This Summer Including ?The Fosters,? ?Twisted,? ?Dancing Fools? and ?The Vineyard?
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BURBANK, CA ? (May 23, 2013) ? ABC Family has added another original series to its roster of original programming that will premiere this summer. ?Spell-Mageddon? is an hour game show where contestants take on hilarious distractions while spelling increasingly challenging words.
?Spell-Mageddon,? which takes a traditional spelling bee to a whole new level, is created and Executive-Produced by Adam Reed, Adam Freeman and Leslie Greif of Thinkfactory Media. Additional Executive Producers are Jeff Krask and Michael Canter. It will join ABC Family?s?Wednesday?night comedy line-up on Wednesday July 24th?at 9pm following ?Melissa and Joey? and ?Baby Daddy.?
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Part of the Disney/ABC Television Group, ABC Family is distributed in over 97 million homes. ABC Family features programming reflecting today?s families, entertaining and connecting with adults through relatable programming about today?s relationships ? told with a mix of diversity, passion, humor and heart. ABC Family?s programming is a combination of network-defining original series and original movies, quality acquired series and blockbuster theatricals. Emmy? Award-winning ABCFamily.com provides a variety of interactive entertainment and community features, from rich, fan-centric programming ? including blogs, viewing parties, webisodes, full episodes of the network?s hit programming, along with sneak peek exclusive previews and behind-the-scenes clips. ABC Family is also the destination for annual Holiday events with ?13 Nights of Halloween? and ?25 Days of Christmas.??ABC Family.?A New Kind of Family.
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Thinkfactory Media?is a full-service production company that creates high-quality entertainment content.?Renowned for award-winning productions, the company was the driving force behind the Emmy? and Golden Globe?-nominated hit mini-series?Hatfields & McCoys?(History), starring Kevin Costner.?Their provocative docu-series?Preachers? Daughters?(Lifetime) just had its finale in May and the recently announced series,?Marriage Bootcamp: Bridezillas will air this summer (We tv).?Currently in production is?R&B Divas: Atlanta,?starring Grammy Award-winning recording artist Faith Evans, along with a spinoff,?R&B Divas: Los Angeles?(TV One).?Other recent credits include:?Prank My Mom?(Lifetime),?Gene Simmons: Family Jewels?(A&E),?Sinbad: It?s Just Family?(WE tv),?Chasing Mummies?(History) and?Tony Danza: Teach?(A&E), among many others.?Find out more about Thinkfactory Media and its projects at?www.ThinkfactoryMedia.com?and follow on Twitter at @TFactoryMedia.
People carry signs during a protest against Monsanto in Montpelier, Vt. on Saturday, May 25, 2013. Marches and rallies against seed giant Monsanto were held across the U.S. and in dozens of other countries Saturday. Protesters say they want to call attention to the dangers posed by genetically modified food and the food giants that produce it. Monsanto Co., based in St. Louis, said Saturday its seeds improve agriculture by helping farmers produce more from their land while conserving resources such as water and energy. (AP Photo/Mark Collier)
People carry signs during a protest against Monsanto in Montpelier, Vt. on Saturday, May 25, 2013. Marches and rallies against seed giant Monsanto were held across the U.S. and in dozens of other countries Saturday. Protesters say they want to call attention to the dangers posed by genetically modified food and the food giants that produce it. Monsanto Co., based in St. Louis, said Saturday its seeds improve agriculture by helping farmers produce more from their land while conserving resources such as water and energy. (AP Photo/Mark Collier)
Demonstrators hold signs reading in Spanish "Glyphosate = illness, disability, death," left, "Genocide concealed by agrochemicals in Argentina," second from left, and "Get out Monsanto from Argentina" near the offices of the U.S.-based company Monsanto in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Saturday, May 25, 2013. Activists are taking part in a global protest "March Against Monsanto" against the seed giant, demanding a stop to the use of agrochemicals and the production of genetically modified food. Protesters say genetically modified organisms can lead to serious health conditions and harm the environment. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
People chant and carry signs during a protest against Monsanto in front of the capitol building in Montpelier, Vt. on Saturday, May 25, 2013. Marches and rallies against seed giant Monsanto were held across the U.S. and in dozens of other countries Saturday. Protesters say they want to call attention to the dangers posed by genetically modified food and the food giants that produce it. Monsanto Co., based in St. Louis, said Saturday its seeds improve agriculture by helping farmers produce more from their land while conserving resources such as water and energy. (AP Photo/Mark Collier)
A man with a cat on his shoulder wears a mask covered by the words in Spanish "Transgenic, cancer/death" as he protests the use of genetically modified food near the offices of U.S.-based seed giant Monsanto, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Saturday, May 25, 2013. Activists are taking part in a global protest "March Against Monsanto," demanding a stop to the use of agrochemicals and the production of genetically modified food, which according to them has harmful health effects, causing cancer, infertility and other diseases. Marches and rallies against seed giant Monsanto were held across the U.S. and in dozens of other countries Saturday. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Protesters rallied in dozens of cities Saturday as part of a global protest against seed giant Monsanto and the genetically modified food it produces, organizers said.
Organizers said "March Against Monsanto" protests were held in 52 countries and 436 cities, including Los Angeles where demonstrators waved signs that read "Real Food 4 Real People" and "Label GMOs, It's Our Right to Know."
Genetically modified plants are grown from seeds that are engineered to resist insecticides and herbicides, add nutritional benefits or otherwise improve crop yields and increase the global food supply.
Most corn, soybean and cotton crops grown in the United States today have been genetically modified. But critics say genetically modified organisms can lead to serious health conditions and harm the environment. The use of GMOs has been a growing issue of contention in recent years, with health advocates pushing for mandatory labeling of genetically modified products even though the federal government and many scientists say the technology is safe.
The 'March Against Monsanto' movement began just a few months ago, when founder and organizer Tami Canal created a Facebook page on Feb. 28 calling for a rally against the company's practices.
"If I had gotten 3,000 people to join me, I would have considered that a success," she said Saturday. Instead, she said an "incredible" number of people responded to her message and turned out to rally.
"It was empowering and inspiring to see so many people, from different walks of life, put aside their differences and come together today," Canal said. The group plans to harness the success of the event to continue its anti-GMO cause.
"We will continue until Monsanto complies with consumer demand. They are poisoning our children, poisoning our planet," she said. "If we don't act, who's going to?"
Monsanto Co., based in St. Louis, said that it respects people's rights to express their opinion on the topic, but maintains that its seeds improve agriculture by helping farmers produce more from their land while conserving resources such as water and energy.
The Food and Drug Administration does not require genetically modified foods to carry a label, but organic food companies and some consumer groups have intensified their push for labels, arguing that the modified seeds are floating from field to field and contaminating traditional crops. The groups have been bolstered by a growing network of consumers who are wary of processed and modified foods.
The U.S. Senate this week overwhelmingly rejected a bill that would allow states to require labeling of genetically modified foods.
The Biotechnology Industry Organization, a lobbying group that represents Monsanto, DuPont & Co. and other makers of genetically modified seeds, has said that it supports voluntary labeling for people who seek out such products. But it says that mandatory labeling would only mislead or confuse consumers into thinking the products aren't safe, even though the FDA has said there's no difference between GMO and organic, non-GMO foods.
However, state legislatures in Vermont and Connecticut moved ahead this month with votes to make food companies declare genetically modified ingredients on their packages. And supermarket retailer Whole Foods Markets Inc. has said that all products in its North American stores that contain genetically modified ingredients will be labeled as such by 2018.
Whole Foods says there is growing demand for products that don't use GMOs, with sales of products with a "Non-GMO" verification label spiking between 15 percent and 30 percent.
It's an intriguing premise: Are Germans ready to elect a Jewish politician chancellor? British journalist David Crossland has written a novel exploring themes of racism and neo-Nazi violence in Germany. The Local has excerpts.
David Crossland was born in 1967 in Bonn, then the capital of West Germany, where his father was a foreign correspondent. He was educated at German schools until he was 16, and then attended a school in Bristol before studying politics and economics at Exeter University.
He has been a journalist for over 20 years, working for Reuters from 1994 until 2004, first in Frankfurt where he covered financial and economic affairs including the wrangling that preceded the launch of the euro, and then in Berlin as chief political correspondent, in charge of covering news from Germany. He has worked for Spiegel Online International since 2005 and also freelances for other publications.
He has written extensively about the growing threat posed by neo-Nazis in the former communist east, and has tracked the country's probing search for a new, bolder role in the world as new generations throw off the chains of guilt. "The Jewish Candidate" is his first foray into fiction.
The Local: Why did you write a book on this theme?
David Crossland: In the many years I have been reporting about Germany I have been struck by how indifferent the authorities are to the problem of neo-Nazi violence against immigrants. Experts have been warning for years that the extreme right is being underestimated. The NSU case has proven them right. The combination of well-armed racists, official inaction and the backdrop of Germany striving to be a normal country again and put the Holocaust behind it, struck me as potent material for a political thriller.
TL: Do you think Germany is ready for a Jewish chancellor?
DC: In theory, yes. But I think he or she would have to be an extremely gifted politician to stand a chance. He would have to suppress his Jewish identity to overcome public doubts about his loyalties. And he would get a lot of hate mail. But given the dearth of Jews in German politics at the moment, I think it's unlikely anytime soon. The rebirth of Jewish life in Germany is much-hyped, but I don't see much real evidence of it.
TL: To what extent is the far a threat in Germany?
DC: This country is too enlightened to vote them back into power again. I think the NPD and their ilk will remain negligible as a nationwide political force. The threat is to people on the street, in trains, on buses, getting harassed and beaten up or worse. And the threat is to Germany's reputation as a civilized nation, which will suffer unless it gets tougher on far-right thugs and tackles blatant institutional racism in its police -- as Britain has tried to do.
TL: You grew up in Germany. What's your view on it?
DC: I hope my affection for Germany and the Rhineland in particular, and for its beer, comes through in the book. It has so much going for it. But I?m disappointed at how immigrants are still viewed as foreigners even after decades living here, and at the general complacency about neo-Nazism. You get racists and far-right whackos everywhere. But Germany, which perpetrated the Holocaust, should have a zero tolerance policy here.
Click here for the prologue.
Click here for the first chapter.
"The Jewish Candidate" is available as a Kindle e-book here.
Since last year's election, the Republican Party's political leaders offered a blueprint of how they can rebuild the party after disappointing across-the-board 2012 losses, proposing a retooled platform that would better appeal to the middle class and be more welcoming to minorities.
But the controversies besieging the White House present an alternative strategy?simply running against the Democratic problems at the expense of dealing with the long-term challenges the party faces. Republican officials are now sending strong signals they're planning to highlight the Democratic scandals more than any major policy push heading into next year's midterm elections.
Opting for the easy way out could achieve short-term success, but the party risks avoiding the hard work necessary to make it more appealing to moderates and independents in the long run.
House Republicans have the most direct connection to the ongoing controversies that engulfed the White House, because their members have led the congressional investigations into the Internal Revenue Service and Benghazi, and may take a lead role in examining the Justice Department's handling of Associated Press reporters' phone records. Consequently, officials there are most bullish that the news dominating headlines in May 2013 can make an impact that lasts until November 2014.
Aides at the National Republican Congressional Committee say they bolster a time-tested argument: That Republican congressmen need to be elected because they are a vital check on President Obama's authority. The wrongdoing those investigations have helped uncover, particularly with the IRS, contribute to an already-pervasive sense among voters that the executive branch shouldn't wield too much authority, NRCC spokeswoman Andrea Bozek said.
"It's always been in our talking points," Bozek said. "What's making it even more potent now is having House Republicans on the nightly news in a thoughtful way trying to figure out what exactly was going on with these different scandals. Your average American in Iowa can watch the nightly news and see we're doing our jobs, we're providing the necessary oversight, and trying to make sure this never happens again."
Helping push the strategy along for both House and Senate Republicans is the 2014 map, which favors the GOP. Republicans defending their majority in the House will fight mostly in conservative territory?their party holds only five seats with a Democratic advantage.
Republicans in the Senate, meanwhile, will campaign in seven states that Mitt Romney carried, which are held by Democrats. They need to net six seats to regain the majority. The favorable landscape means that even if the scandals only permeate among conservatives, that could be enough for the party to take back full control of Congress.
"The 2014 Democrats are already facing a tough midterm election, and they're terrified of the political ramifications of the scandals," said Brook Hougesen, spokeswoman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
Despite a wandering focus, Republicans argue they can both rebuild the party while incorporating Obama's troubles into their message. House Speaker John Boehner, speaking?Tuesday?on the House floor, reiterated that he and his colleagues remain dedicated to rebuilding the economy.
"This House is going to continue to be focused on the issue of jobs," said Boehner, who touted the GOP's approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline. "It's the No. 1 issue of concern to our fellow citizens and we're going to continue to be focused on the things that get in the way of job creation in our country."
In the same speech, Boehner said his colleagues were also providing the necessary balance to Obama's power.
"Republicans understand we have to walk, talk, and chew gum," said Guy Harrison, a former executive director of the NRCC. "We have to look at a focused investigation, while also focusing on the economy, and jobs."
For their part, Democrats?while not encouraged by the scandals?are happy to have Republicans focus on them. Just another example, they say, of a party trapped in pleasing its base while forgetting to appeal to more moderate voters.
"They can't resist," said Matt Canter, spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. "The base can't stand the rebranding. Scandalmania plays better for them with the base and they've become a slave to the base."
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange may claim to be a champion of transparency, but when an Oscar-winning filmmaker wanted to shine a light on his rise to fame after publishing secret U.S. diplomatic cables on his website, Assange was none too pleased.
Alex Gibney set out to uncover the story behind Assange, 41, and the website he founded in 2006 to leak classified information submitted by anonymous sources, but received little cooperation from the former computer hacker.
In theaters Friday, "We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks" explores how WikiLeaks, at its height, facilitated the publication of thousands of classified U.S. government documents, including diplomatic cables and U.S. Army logs from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
To tell the story of WikiLeaks, Gibney sought to interview Assange but found the elusive Australian difficult to persuade, eventually deciding to film without him.
But the filmmaker spoke to Assange several times off camera, and said he came to form a picture of a complex character.
"If you catch him in unguarded moments, he can be terribly charming, self-deprecating and a really engaging human being," Gibney told Reuters.
However, whenever Assange felt the conversation was becoming an official interview, Gibney said he became unwilling to "give me the kind of honest reflections that would have been so important (to the film)," likening him to a "human soap box."
When Gibney decided to film the documentary without Assange's participation, he said the WikiLeaks founder did not take the news well.
"He likens himself as the puppet master, the one who's pulling the strings on the media. I think he took some offense at the idea that I was independent," Gibney said, adding that Assange had, at one point, asked to be paid for participating.
"He mentioned that the market rate for an interview with him was a million dollars. I didn't inquire what market that was," Gibney said with a laugh.
Gibney said Assange had asked him to report what other interview subjects in the documentary were saying about him, something he found to be "highly ironic."
"(WikiLeaks) was supposed to be a transparency organization, and he was asking me to engage with him as if we're now some kind of espionage outfit," he said.
'DAVID AND GOLIATH STORY'
Gibney, 59, has become a prolific documentarian over the past decade, garnering critical praise for his timely films such as 2005's "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room" and 2007's Oscar-winning "Taxi to the Dark Side."
The filmmaker was drawn to WikiLeaks initially with the idea of it being a "David and Goliath story, with Julian Assange being David," but over the course of filming for two years, Gibney found the story of WikiLeaks to be as complex as its founder.
The timing of the film's release couldn't be more poignant, with U.S. Army private, Bradley Manning, 25, who is accused of leaking classified data to the WikiLeaks website, due to stand trial on June 3. He could face life imprisonment.
Unable to interview Manning for the documentary, Gibney turned to sources that included friends and former colleagues of Manning, and hacker Adrian Lamo, who gave the FBI online chatroom logs where Manning had confided that he had passed classified government information to WikiLeaks.
Gibney said he believed that while Assange had become a celebrity with WikiLeaks, Manning had become a "scapegoat."
"There's no doubt that (Manning) has been improperly scapegoated...he's pled guilty to leaking. But these larger charges, these more serious charges that the government is trying to hang him with, aiding the enemy, carries a possible death sentence. To me, that's outrageous," Gibney said.
Gibney also turned to Australian filmmaker Mark Davis for footage of Assange before he became a headline; Davis had been following the WikiLeaks founder before the Afghanistan war-log leaks, which propelled Assange and his website into the news.
Davis' footage captured a more candid Assange, and Gibney also found home movies from Iceland that showed the WikiLeaks found far less guarded, including a clip of him dancing.
During filming, Assange's own story developed alongside that of WikiLeaks, culminating in him hiding out at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he has been accused by two women of rape and sexual assault.
Gibney was able to get one of the accusers, former WikiLeaks volunteer Anna, to participate in the documentary.
"(Assange) is the expert at holding others to account....but he's never wanted anybody to hold him to account. He can't stand anybody telling him he's wrong, and so he is refusing to be held to account for these sex allegations in Sweden," Gibney said.
"I think his downfall was hubris," said Gibney. "He became reckless. He began to imagine that the transparency agenda and Julian Assange were one and the same. And that's a very dangerous place to go."
Although Assange has not seen the film, the WikiLeaks founder and his supporters, including journalist John Pilger and filmmaker Oliver Stone, "denounced" the documentary after it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, Gibney said.
"The response around criticism of Julian has been a peculiar kind of tribalism," said Gibney. "As if somehow Julian should be above criticism or beyond the law. And I find that, in itself, troubling."
Join NORML and our friends at the Marijuana Majority in our efforts to build support for marijuana law reform at the local level by contacting your mayor and urging their support for rational marijuana policies.
Mayors are on the front lines of the war on cannabis and can see the devastation it is causing at the local level. It is time our local politicans take a stand and say enough is enough, it is time to stop wasting precious law enforcement resources, stop allowing the revenue from marijuana sales to flow into the hands of criminal elements, and stop enforcing a prohibition on a plant that is safer than tobacco and alcohol. Please take a moment of your time today to click the link below and encourage your mayor to join the majority of Americans who want to see marijuana legalized.
We are at a pivotal moment.
Support for legalization is the highest it?s ever been and it?s still growing. Now, Washington and Colorado have taken the first step toward ending prohibition for good.
But the feds still have reefer madness and are threatening to stand in the way of these states. Thankfully, mayors across our nation are taking action.
They see the harm of these laws first-hand, and they are calling for change.
Is your mayor one of them?
CLICK HERE TO QUICKLY AND EASILY CONTACT YOUR MAYOR AND URGE HIM OR HER TO SUPPORT ENDING MARIJUANA PROHIBITION
Want to see what politicians, celebrities, academics, and more have already spoken out against marijuana prohibition? Click here to check out Marijuana Majority?s webpage.
Social tools make it possible for workers to communicate and collaborate in all sorts of new ways, but is all that virtual gabbing making people more productive or less??A new study commissioned by Microsoft finds employers and workers divided on the topic.
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Public release date: 27-May-2013
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Join NORML and our friends at the Marijuana Majority in our efforts to build support for marijuana law reform at the local level by contacting your mayor and urging their support for rational marijuana policies.