SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The governors of eight states including California and New York pledged Thursday to get 3.3 million zero-emission vehicles on roadways by 2025 in an effort to curb greenhouse gas pollution.
Representatives from all eight states were scheduled to gather in Sacramento at 8:30 a.m. to sign a memorandum of understanding that would increase infrastructure and make other changes to help increase market share for electric cars, hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids. By 2015, there are expected to be more than 200,000 zero emissions vehicles on the road.
"This agreement is a major step forward to reducing the emissions that are causing our climate to change and unleashing the extreme weather that we are experiencing with increased frequency," New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said in a statement.
The other states involved are Massachusetts, Maryland, Oregon, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Vermont. The eight states together represent about 23 percent of the U.S. auto market.
Each state has already, separately adopted rules to require a percentage of new vehicles sold to be zero emission by 2025. California's mandate alone of 15.4 percent calls for a total of 1.5 million zero-emission vehicles to be on the state's roads by that time.
It's a steep curve. In California, plug-in-hybrids and electric vehicles currently make up less than 2 percent of the auto market.
Under terms of the memorandum, the states will first establish a taskforce to share ideas that will help expand the network of charging and fueling stations needed to make electric and hydrogen-fueled vehicles more attractive to consumers.
"The idea is to broaden the pool of people talking about this and working their way through the challenges that come up in setting up this kind of infrastructure, and growing this kind of a market," said Dave Clegern, a spokesman for California's Air Resources Board, which regulates auto emissions.
There are now 16 zero-emission vehicles from eight manufacturers on the market; nine that run on batteries alone, two hydrogen fuel cell cars and five plug-in hybrid models, which can run on battery alone or gasoline.
Officials say that every automaker will have a zero-emission model by 2015.
Car dealers, who are under pressure to help meet these 2025 goals, say getting fueling infrastructure like charging stations in place quickly is the only way to get average consumers used to a new product that requires new driving habits.
"We think that is going to be necessary for some of the range anxiety and other acceptance barriers that need to be broken down," said Brian Maas, president of the California New Car Dealers Association.
"The cars are coming - they're here already - but if you don't have a place to charge them, there's not going to be the level of consumer acceptance."
Governors signing the memorandum all hailed the cooperative effort as a way to more quickly solve the inevitable problems that arise when making such far-reaching changes in people's everyday lives.
And some see future economic benefits from the switch to new vehicles.
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said more electric vehicles are key to his state's efforts grow the region's economy.
"Diversifying transportation fuels and providing drivers with options will help reduce vulnerability to price swings in imported oil that hurt consumers and our economy," Patrick said in a statement.
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Jason Dearen can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/JHDearen
Arcade Fire just released its entire album Reflecktor on YouTube. And it's basically one, big 85-minute lyric video. The album is officially out October 29.
NPR Music will broadcast a special live performance by the band the night before the album release date, from Capitol Studios in Los Angeles, beginning at 10 p.m. ET.
According to reports out of Philadelphia, a man in Upper Macungie Township, Pa., had his Jell-O stolen from a workplace refrigerator on Oct. 10. Angry at yet another on-the-job snack theft, the man snapped and called in the cops. "The incident remains under investigation," confirm local police. Even if that dastardly crime is never solved, I hope you can solve the 12 questions on this week's Slate News Quiz.
Question 1 of 12
According to a sobering Millward Brown report, what had a remarkable 99.6 percent failure rate in early October?
Nine and a half million people visited the Obamacare portal in its first week of operation, according to the report, but only 36,000 successfully completed enrollment.
Question 2 of 12
The villages of Viganella, Italy, and Rjukan, Norway, located in deep valleys, have both done what to brighten up the dark winter months?
The tilting mirrors atop a nearby ridge will project a 2,000-square-foot circle of light into Rjukan's town square, where a skating rink will be installed.
Question 3 of 12
A violin sold by a British auction house on Saturday went for $1.78 million. Why was this particular violin in such high demand?
Question 4 of 12
What did David Babcock, a Missouri university professor, also accomplish while running the Kansas City Marathon on Saturday?
Question 5 of 12
An AP investigation revealed Tuesday that guards have been caught napping multiple times while the doors were left open where?
These are clear violations of the Air Force's "weapon system safety rules" for its nuclear missiles.
Question 6 of 12
How did Utah Scoutmasters Dave Hall and Glenn Taylor violate the Boy Scouts' "Leave No Trace" policy on a recent camping trip?
The video of the clueless scoutmasters in Goblin Valley went viral, costing them their Scouting positions and leaving them open to criminal charges.
Question 7 of 12
Last week, Saudi Arabia lobbied for and then, confusingly, rejected what?
Turning down a two-year Security Council seat is unprecedented. The Saudis blamed the U.N.'s failures in Syria and Palestine.
Question 8 of 12
Where did Greek police find Maria, the little girl rather appallingly dubbed "the blonde angel" by the media?
Maria's identity is still unknown, but the Roma couple who posed as her parents are being tried for child abduction. They now say Maria's mother abandoned her as a baby.
Question 9 of 12
A Las Cruces, N.M., hazmat team was brought in last Wednesday to fight a cloud of what?
Habanero particles from a nearby spice company got into an industrial park's ventilation system, leading to bloody noses and breathing problems.
Question 10 of 12
What was shut down in San Francisco for four days this week?
Question 11 of 12
Iran hanged a convicted drug smuggler named "Alireza M." on Oct. 9. What happened the following day to complicate the matter?
Morgue workers discovered the following day that the hanged man was still breathing. Iran announced at first that there would be a second hanging, but has since walked that back.
Question 12 of 12
The Romanian thief who stole $24 million worth of paintings from a Dutch museum last year was back in court Tuesday. Why?
"I could not imagine that a museum would exhibit such valuable works with so little security," complained Radu Dogaru, clearly the real victim here.
Not all glitches are unintentional and problematic. Glitch art introduces, on purpose, digital typos that would otherwise be edited out in an image.
Kevin Wong/Flickr
Not all glitches are unintentional and problematic. Glitch art introduces, on purpose, digital typos that would otherwise be edited out in an image.
Kevin Wong/Flickr
HealthCare.gov, the faulty website where people can sign up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, has become nearly synonymous with the word "glitch" — sometimes defensively, sometimes mockingly.
The linguistic firestorm probably was sparked, or at least fanned, by HealthCare.gov's champion, President Obama himself. As he said on Oct. 1, the first day of the HealthCare.gov rollout:
"Now, like every new law, every new product rollout, there are going to be some glitches in the sign-up process along the way that we will fix. I've been saying this from the start."
If the word choice was intentional, it could have been a way to normalize potential problems, says Robert Terrill, associate professor of rhetoric and public culture at Indiana University.
"People are used to it. They're used to having glitches on software and websites," he says. "It seems to connote something small and easily repairable."
Some have argued that the problems with HealthCare.gov are too large to qualify as mere glitches. But that depends, of course, on where you place "glitch" on the hiccup-to-catastrophe spectrum. And a little digging around old dictionaries and newspapers shows that its place on the spectrum has changed over time.
But it seems to first come into the vernacular in the 1960s and '70s — in the context of small, unforeseen technical errors in space travel.
Astronaut John Glenn used the word in his 1962 book, Into Orbit: "Another term we adopted to describe some of our problems was 'glitch'. Literally, a glitch ... is such a minute change in voltage that no fuse could protect against it."
In 1965, The St. Petersburg Timesreported that a glitch ("as technicians call such abnormalities," it clarified) had altered the computer memory inside the U.S. spacecraft Gemini 6. Six years later, The Miami News talked about a failure in Apollo 14 that almost prevented a successful moon landing:
"Nobody knows yet why the mechanism failed. Engineers were unable to make it fail in hundreds of tests on the ground. Such 'glitches' worry engineers — they can't cure a disease if they are unable to diagnose it."
Uses like that may have led a 1978 thesaurus to include the word as a synonym for catastrophe. (In comparison, modern thesauruses often equate it to a flaw.) If then-President Jimmy Carter was introducing a new program, his speechwriters probably would have steered clear.
The Golden Age Of Glitches
Little by little, as computers became more widespread in society, so did glitches.
And it was the perfect word to describe a computer bug that many feared would cause an apocalyptic crisis: Y2K. Remember that? "Glitch" found linguistic fame as people speculated about what would happen when computer clocks turned to Jan. 1, 2000.
Some folks stocked up on water bottles and canned food in case the electricity went out; the U.S. and Russia feared a nuclear warhead might be accidentally launched; and airlines and air traffic controllers reportedly spent $2.5 billion "to assure that their computers could read the year 2000 correctly," according to The New York Times.
Despite all warnings, as the clock struck midnight, nothing much actually happened. Perhaps that's the association Obama was trying to make, too.
"The pre-hype to [Y2K] was that this was going to be something catastrophic, and it turned out to be merely a glitch," says Terrill, from Indiana University. "If that's the most common use of a term, I can see why it carried over to the Obamacare website."
Terrill notes that words are often the battleground of politics, as leaders try to "grab hold of language and define terms in particular ways." So the meaning of the word may change as the HealthCare.gov conversation continues.
Obama, for one, may already be distancing himself from it. He had many words to say about his frustrations with the site in a speech Monday, but "glitch" was not one of them.
Enjoying a truly feminine event, Kate Bosworth attended Lucky Magazine's East Coast FABB: Fashion and Beauty Blog Conference in New York City on Thursday (October 24).
The "Blue Crush" star wore a long-sleeved cream top and silver short skirt as she posed with her gorgeous magazine cover.
Also plugging her Kate Bosworth for Topshop collection, the 30-year-old actress enjoyed herself, tweeting, "Had the BEST time speaking with @evachen212 at #LuckyFABB - thank you @LuckyMagazine - what a great audience, could have stayed forever!"
Speaking about the new line, Kate explained, "The collection is tailored and classic. For fall, we wanted to create luxurious pieces with a strong minimalist approach. Slim silhouettes are cloaked in a masculine shape, staying true to the mix of masculine/feminine balance that exists in my personal aesthetic."
LISBON, Portugal (AP) — More than six years after British girl Madeleine McCann vanished from her bedroom during a family vacation in Portugal and five years after Portuguese police gave up trying to find her, authorities reopened the case Thursday, citing new evidence.
Madeleine's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, had long campaigned from their home in central England for the Portuguese investigation to resume. In a statement Thursday, they said they were "very pleased" at the development.
"We hope that this will finally lead to (Madeleine) being found and to the discovery of whoever is responsible for this crime," Kate and Gerry McCann said. The couple, both doctors, continue to care for Madeleine's younger siblings, twins Sean and Amelie.
Madeleine went missing shortly before her fourth birthday. Her disappearance sparked global interest as pictures of her and her grieving parents beamed around the world. Her parents briefly met with Pope Benedict XVI in St. Peter's Square in June 2007, a month after Madeleine disappeared, and the pontiff held a picture of their daughter.
Then, in a stunning twist, Portuguese police briefly considered the parents suspects before they were cleared and returned home.
Portuguese police closed the case in 2008 because authorities had detected no crime. However, a team of detectives from Porto, in northern Portugal, began reviewing the evidence in March 2011. They had not been involved in the original investigation.
The public prosecutor's office in Lisbon said it decided to reopen the investigation after new leads emerged during the case review. It did not elaborate. The case is subject to Portugal's judicial secrecy law, which forbids the release of information about investigations.
British police, meanwhile, launched Operation Grange in 2011 to try to find out what happened to Madeleine. British detectives have been sifting through the case files in Portugal and say they also have identified new avenues of investigation. They say both the timeline and the version of events surrounding the girl's disappearance have changed significantly as new information has emerged.
Madeleine disappeared from her family's resort apartment in Praia da Luz, a coastal town 200 kilometers (120 miles) south of Lisbon, while her parents and their friends were eating dinner nearby.
British detectives say it's possible that Madeleine is still alive.
Ten days ago, British police released a computer-generated image of a person they were interested in questioning about the girl's disappearance. Police asked the public for help and worked with the BBC on a "Crimewatch" TV show, which drew more than 2,000 calls offering possible new leads.
Police said the images were based on information from witnesses who spotted a man in the Portuguese resort the day Madeleine was last seen.
In London, Scotland Yard said the reopened Portuguese investigation will run parallel to the British police's efforts, and British police will be traveling regularly to Portugal.
"Both sides of the investigation are at relatively early stages, with much work remaining to be done," Scotland Yard said in a statement. "This new momentum is encouraging, but we still have a way to go."
Experts say all those efforts are worthwhile.
Even after so many years, officials should "do whatever it takes" to ensure that grieving parents get closure, said Delphine Moralis of Missing Children Europe, an umbrella group of 28 non-governmental organizations in 19 European Union countries and Switzerland.
"It's essential to keep the ball rolling" on efforts to find missing children, Moralis said by telephone from Brussels.
She cited as examples the cathartic resolution provided in the cases involving Natascha Kampusch, who was found eight years after being kidnapped in 1998 in Austria, and three women rescued in May after being held captive in a Cleveland house for about a decade.
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Gregory Katz in London contributed to this report.
Microsoft's revenue and earnings per share grew more than 15 percent each in its first fiscal quarter of 2014, during which enterprise server software products sold particularly well, the company said Thursday.
Microsoft generated revenue of $18.5 billion in the quarter, ended Sept. 30, up 16 percent compared with last year's first quarter and topping the $17.8 billion consensus estimate of Wall Street analysts polled by Thomson Financial.
Net income came in at $5.2 billion, or $0.62 per share, up from $4.5 billion, or $0.53 per share, in last year's first quarter. That comes out to about a 17 percent increase in earnings per share.
These numbers include the deferral of $113 million of revenue primarily related to Windows 8.1 pre-sales, the company said. Meanwhile, last year's first-quarter report included the deferral of $1.4 billion of revenue related to several Windows and Office offers and pre-sales.
On a pro forma basis, which excludes certain one-time items, earnings per share were $0.63, down 3 percent year on year but exceeding the consensus expectation of analysts by 9 cents.
"Our devices and services transformation is progressing and we are launching a wide range of compelling products and experiences this fall for both business and consumers," said CEO Steve Ballmer in a statement.
Ballmer, who is slated to retire at some point in the coming 10 months or so, was referring to the company's ongoing effort to reinvent itself from a provider of packaged software into a provider of hardware devices and cloud-hosted services.
In this quarter, Microsoft is introducing a new financial reporting format for breaking down its revenue and profits. The format splits the company's business into two main buckets: Devices & Consumer and Commercial. The first bucket in turn has three subcategories, and the other one has two subcategories.
Devices & Consumer revenue grew 4 percent to $7.46 billion. Microsoft highlighted that in this category Windows OEM revenue fell 7 percent year on year, while revenue from the company's Surface tablets grew to $400 million, including an increase in revenue and units sold compared sequentially with the fourth fiscal quarter of 2013. Search advertising, provided via websites like the Bing search engine, grew 47 percent year on year.
In the Commercial category, revenue grew 10 percent to $11.2 billion, helped by strong sales of server software products like SQL Server, Lync, SharePoint and Exchange, as well as by a jump of more than 100 percent in revenue from enterprise cloud services.
When it announced the new reporting format last month, Microsoft said that it would provide more transparency and clarity into its business. The company also said the new format better represents the company's transformation into a provider of hardware devices and cloud services.
However, some critics pointed out at the time that the new format might accomplish just the opposite, making it more difficult to evaluate how certain products are faring in the market, because of two main reasons.
First, the new format mixes very different products into the same subcategories, complicating efforts to single out how a particular product performed. Second, the new format also splinters the results of certain key products like Windows and Office into several subcategories, making it hard to get a unified view of their sales.
Indeed, in the press release Microsoft issued to announce the first-quarter results, the company didn't provide enough granular data in it for investors, customers, analysts and other interested parties to get a clear view of how many of its products did during the period.
It remains to be seen if the company will provide more details later Thursday afternoon during the conference call to discuss the results.
President Barack Obama pressed the wrong button. He got the Affordable Care Act passed and then rested on his laurels. How sad to see our tech-savvy commander in chief, who blew billions on a website that is worse than any state’s DMV, direct frustrated consumers to a 1-800 number, like an infomercial host on late-night cable.
My phone rang. In heavy metal. "Hi Jim!" The laugh hit me like a Heineken-fueled right cross. "Hey, Rene. So I'm making a new version of The Loop Magazine app..." That was great news. Dalrymple's Loop Magazine - which, full disclosure, I've written for twice - is an ode to Apple, tech, and music nerdery, and I enjoy it dearly. But, app-wise, it was already struggling to keep up with Jim's vision. And that's just when the bearded uppercut landed. "So, do you know this guy, Chris Harris?"
I did. Chris Harris is Tigger on Red Bull. A madly clever Englishman who styles himself an app director so he can better woo old media into the bed of new. He's been working on a platform for years, called Glide, meant to be simple yet powerful on the backend for content creators, yet enthralling for readers and viewers on the front. Wonders of the Universe was one of his most high-profile joints. (You can hear him talk all about it, his process, and Glide in general in Iterate episode 47.)
Jim spent a short time telling me what he wanted to achieve with the new Loop Magazine. Imagine the reverse of one of his iPhone or Logic Pro reviews. Instead of weighing the relative success of how something fit into and improved day-to-day life, he laid out his plan for making the Loop Magazine experience do just that, and with every bit as much delight. Dropbox on his end, with a logical hierarchy of folders for text, images, and videos, and near-instant sync for content delivery. Movement through space and context, direct manipulations and gestures on the readers end, elevating the experience to, well, an experience.
Part of Glide's genius - and Chris' and his team's genius - is that through simplicity they can produce a remarkable amount of sophistication and diversity. Chris has spoken to me about it often over the years, and was kind enough to not only give me a tour of the Loop Magazine's specific implementation - grinning the whole time he did so, of course - but let me try using it as well. It's impressive.
What Jim's doing with it is equally impressive. Tools and instruments are only ever as good as their craftsmen and artists, and Jim is re-launching the Loop Magazine in style. Not only does the latest issue - offered as a free sample - contain his article about the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c, it contains an article from Matthew Modine about what he learned from working with Stanley Kubrik while working on Full Metal Jacket.
As you tap into the issue and the article, as you scroll through the words, as the images zoom in and out, as you swipe to the next article, and as you pinch back to the issue or the rack of issues, it's all fluid, it's immersive. It's an amazing confluence of technology and media, and one that very much sparks that same childlike sense of wonder Apple strives for in their products.
(There are subtle hints to teach you the gestures at first, and buttons as well, in case the gestures don't take.)
The new Loop Magazine and Glide achieve exactly what Jim and Chris set out to do. They not only raise the bar on Newsstand apps, but on content creation tools to power, and empower them.
"So, what do you think, Rene?" I think I have to figure out how the heavy metal ringtone got on my iPhone. I also think if you haven't tried the Loop Magazine yet, you should do so now. Jim's about to take you on one hell of a ride.
Sports talk shows and news outlets have been all over the story of a Texas parent who filed a complaint about bullying after his son's high school football team lost a game last week by the score of 91-0.
"Aledo [High School] beat Fort Worth Western Hills 91-0 at home, pushing its season scoring pace to 69.3 points a game and running its undefeated record to 7-0. In four District 7-4A games against Fort Worth schools, the Bearcats have outscored their opponents by an average of 77 points per game."
CBS Local in Dallas/Fort Worth says Aledo kept scoring even though its coach, after seeing his team score 56 points by halftime, "began actively trying to keep the score down, subbing in backup players, letting the clock run continuously, and instructing players to make fair catch calls."
Western Hills coach John Naylor had no problem with the way Aledo played. "We just ran into a buzzsaw," he told the Star-Telegram. "[Aledo] just plays hard. And they're good sports, and they don't talk at all. They get after it, and that's the way football is supposed to be played in Texas."
But an unidentified parent did have an issue with what happened, and filed a complaint with the Aledo school that the CBS Local station says alleges "we all witnessed bullying firsthand, it is not a pretty sight."
Wednesday, Aledo coach Tim Buchanan said his district has investigated and found "no grounds" for the bullying charge.
The game and the bullying allegation, as we said, have caused much discussion. Even widely quoted legal scholar Jonathan Turley has weighed in, writing that "it is not unsportsmanlike or bullying to play a game to a lopsided conclusion. It is called life. This is just one of its lessons."
One line of thought from many critics of the parent's complaint is that bullying can be deadly — leading in some cases to young victims taking their lives. An accusation about a lopsided football game could make it look like bullying isn't a serious problem, they say. It also could be disrespectful to bullying's victims.
Trying to watch the sun's explosions with your naked eyes is a recipe for blindness, but luckily NASA has a couple of telescopes that can show you all that fusion glory with none of the permanent ocular damage. Take, for instance, this 200,000-mile long canyon of fire.
Sandra Bullock accepting the Hollywood Actress Award at the 2013 Hollywood Film Awards.
The 17th Hollywood Film Awards, the first awards show of the 2013 film awards season, took place on Monday night at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles. (Full disclosure: Dick Clark Productions, which shares the same parent company as THR, has an undisclosed investment in the event.)
The recipients of the Hollywood Film Awards are determined by founder and executive director Carlos de Abreu and an advisory committee. Thanks to the disclosure of this year's recipients in the weeks leading up to the gala ceremony, every big-name honoree showed up -- among them Matthew McConaughey, Sandra Bullock, Jake Gyllenhaal, Julia Roberts and Harrison Ford -- and many came with famous friends -- such as Robert Downey, Jr., Jane Fonda and Sean Penn -- to present them with their awards. And some arguably advanced their case for even bigger awards to come by making the most of their moment on the red carpet and at the podium in front of a huge industry crowd.
Here is a recap of some of the night's most memorable moments...
The first award of the night, the Hollywood Breakout Director Award, was presented to 12 Years a Slave helmer Steve McQueen -- by none other than rapper Kanye West, who said that he flew in for the event from San Francisco on his girlfriend KimKardashian's 33rd birthday because he felt it was so important to honor McQueen's achievement. "I've always admired Steve's work," West said, noting that he has attended exhibits of his video art and enjoyed his past films (Hunger and Shame), but was particularly impressed by 12 Years: "It was extremely moving."(According to reports, West immediately flew back to San Francisco and made up his brief absence to Kardashian by proposing to her.) McQueen, for his part, chuckled, "I've arrived!" before adding, more seriously, that he made 12 Years with the goal of helping to reach a "reconciliation with the past in order get to a brighter future."
Hollywood Actor Award recipient McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club), who received his statuette from costar Jennifer Garner, had the audience wrapped around his fingers with a folksy acceptance speech. He acknowledged the many other people in the room with whom he has worked over the past 20 years; emphasized how his decision to "recalibrate" his career and recommit to acting a few years ago -- which led to his appearances over the past two years in the films Magic Mike, Killer Joe, Mud, the forthcoming The Wolf of Wall Street and Dallas Buyers Club -- has been such a personally (if not financially) rewarding experience for him; and teased his film's plot and release date in an organic way. In short, he nailed his talking points, won over the room and looked like a plausible winner up on the stage.
Coldplay's Chris Martin, en route to accepting the Hollywood Song Award from singer Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds on behalf of his band for their song "Atlas" on The Hunger Games: Catching Fire's soundtrack, joked that the film is based on a true story and gave a solo performance of the song -- the first he has ever done publicly -- to a considerable ovation.
August: Osage County's Roberts took the stage barefoot, after a playful introduction by friend Penn and a clip of a raucous scene from the film, to accept the Hollywood Supporting Actress Award and joked, "Well, Jesus, how the fuck do I say anything after that?" She then admitted that she had initially been "scared" to take on the part -- "because I'm that paradox of a person who wants to be Lucille Ball but also wants to be invisible" -- but was grateful that she did because it offered her the chance to realize her "personal dream" of working with Meryl Streep. Streep was not present at the ceremony, but most of the rest of the film's cast were on hand to collect the Hollywood Ensemble Award later in the show from Roberts' Pretty Woman director Garry Marshall, who remarked, "I'm not sure if anyone has ever seen such an all-star cast." (The film's top supporting actor and supporting actress Oscar hopefuls Chris Cooper and Margo Martindale, respectively, spoke on behalf of the others.)
Hollywood Breakout Performance Award winner Jared Leto, who dropped 40 pounds for the part of a transsexual in Dallas Buyers Club for which he was being honored, was back in fighting shape to collect his award from pal Downey, who complimented him for bringing to his performance "humanity and will." Leto, noting that he's been acting for years, said he was very grateful for the honor because "I've actually never received an award for anything I've ever done on screen," and added, "To get a Breakout Award at the ripe young age of 41 is pretty incredible."
12 Years a Slave newcomer/scene-stealer Lupita Nyong'o received a great build-up from fellow actress Angela Bassett -- who called Nyongo's portrayal of a particularly put-upon slave "a breakthrough performance that you will not soon forget" -- before taking the stage, in a bright yellow dress, to collect the New Hollywood Award. She then had the audience enraptured as she tearfully thanked her mother, her collaborators on the film and the director: "Steve, I will never forget this opportunity you gave to me... I am so proud to be a part of 12 Years a Slave." It was one of the best received speeches of the night and only further solidifies her standing as a top contender for the best supporting actress Oscar.
Oscar winner Octavia Spencer sang the praises of Hollywood Actress Award recipient Sandra Bullock (Gravity), who befriended her on the set of the 1996 film A Time to Kill, in which Bullock starred with McConaughey and on which Spencer and Tate Taylor, the man who would later director Spencer to an Oscar win for The Help, were working as production assistants. Bullock then took the stage, wiped away a tear and then brought the house down with her acceptance speech. Improvising off of a remark that McConaughey had made in his own speech about his wife's advice that he "Sac up" and do his best at things, Bullock thanked the Hollywood community for all of its support over the years. "It's allowed me to grab my sac, and pull my sac up high and walk forward with that sac." She expressed gratitude for continued great opportunities, noting, "I don't want to go to posture -- it's cold and I'm allergic to grass!"
Fonda and Forest Whitaker, two of the stars of Lee Daniels' The Butler, were introduced to hearty applause and then presented Lee Daniels with the Hollywood Director Award. Daniels noted the irony of his award featuring the word Hollywood in its title because his film was made without the interest or support of virtually any Hollywood studio, noting that it was the late Laura Ziskin who is most responsible for making it happen: "On her deathbed we were rewriting the script. Literally." He also thanked his mother, who he said he used to tease when he was a kid for having false teeth. One day, on an Election Day when he was in his twenties, she asked him if he had voted, and when he said that he had not because he had to study for exams she responded with outrage: "Boy, I got my teeth knocked out so you could vote." He said, "This movie is dedicated to her."
42 writer-director Brian Helgeland presented the Hollywood Career Award -- the last award of the night -- to that film's supporting actor Oscar hopeful Ford, who is unrecognizable as the late Dodgers owner Branch Rickey in the film. Ford took the stage to the night's sole standing ovation from the audience, which included Dodgers legend Don Newcombe and present-day star Yasiel Puig. Ford, the star of many of the most critically and commercially successful films of the last 40 years, spoke in a soft voice as he thanked Hollywood and the many people who have supported him over the years for giving him "a useful purpose to make of my confusion, my interest, my wonder, and my passion." He said, "It's given me opportunities I never would have imagined for myself," before emphasizing, "There's a lot that I still want to do."
Viola Davis presented her Prisoners costar Jake Gyllenhaal with the Hollywood Supporting Actor Award for his portrayal of the lead detective in a mysterious kidnapping case in the hit film. Gyllenhaal remarked, "I wanted to do the movie because it's so balls to the wall... it's not a storybook version."
Jack Black presented the Hollywood Screenwriter Award to his School of Rock and Bernie collaborator Richard Linklater and Linklater's Before Midnight cowriters and stars Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke. After noting that Midnight -- the third installment in the Before series, after Before Sunrise and Before Sunset -- is the best reviewed film of the year, so far, Black cracked, "I'm not a fucking award-winning writer, I'm just a dude who wants to be in the next installment, Before the Eclipse." As the honorees stumbled over each other's words at the podium, Linklater joked that this is why "People think that the movies are very improvised. They're actually entirely scripted." Hawke then got big laughs by joking that the film's success was owed less to the script than the actors, who he wished to thank.
The Book Thief's supporting actor Geoffrey Rush presented the Hollywood Spotlight Award, which recognizes up-and-coming talent, to three people: Fruitvale Station's Michael B. Jordan, who noted of his film, "It's so timely right now"; Lee Daniels' The Butler's Daniel Oyelowo, who, in a Nigerian accent, imitated his father's long-ago advice to him that his decision to pursue acting was "a terrible, catastrophic idea," and then thanked Daniels, who "took me and believed in me and put me in two films back-to-back [The Paperboy and The Butler] in which I became a better actor and a better man"; and Rush's 13-year-old Book Thief costar Sophie Nelisse, who said, "I think it's so cool to get an award on the same stage as so many great artists" and said, "This is the kindest welcome I could ever imagine from Hollywood -- I'm really touched to be here."
Captain Phillips supporting actor Oscar hopeful BarkhadAbdi presented the Hollywood Producer Award to Michael De Luca, who co-produced that film and many others including The Social Network and Moneyball. The Somali-born actor, who was a complete unknown prior to the release of the hit film, called De Luca, "Someone who truly helped change my life." De Luca, in turn, acknowledged his producing partners Scott Rudin and Dana Brunetti and heaped praise on the film's director Paul Greengrass: "I am standing here because of all the work he did."
Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner, two of the stars of the forthcoming American Hustle, presented the film's costume designer Michael Wilkinson and production designer Judy Becker with the Hollywood Costume Design Award and Hollywood Production Design Award, respectively.
Sean Hayes presented the Hollywood Animation Award to Monsters University director Dan Scanlon.
Pacific Rim star Robert Kazinsky presented the Hollywood Visual Effects Award to the film's visual effects supervisor John Knoll.
Bruce Willis presented the Hollywood Legend Award to producer Jerry Weintraub, saying, "I love him to death." Weintraub, in turn, said, "I'm not gonna talk long 'cause I want a vodka."
Olivia Munn presented the Hollywood Movie Award, which was determined by fan voting, to Star Trek: Into Darkness.
THR also had exclusive access to the backstage green room, which was often overflowing -- literally -- with A-listers. Among the fun sights and sounds there:
Abdi approached McConaughey and saying, "Nice to meet you -- I watch your movies a lot!"
When Hawke entered the room he marveled aloud, "You got McConaughey here! You got Jack Black here!"
When Leto entered, Downey, before presenting him with his award, greeted him by patting his stomach and saying, "You are your actual size?!"
Downey, Leto and Renner were chatting when Roberts entered the room and came in for kisses with each one of them.
After watching the clip of highlights from Nyongo's performance on a closed-circuit monitor, Spencer clapped and said, "She's so great."
After Nyong'o's tearful speech, the actress returned to the green room and was still emotional as she received hugs and congratulations from friends and well-wishers.
Fonda watched intently as the highlight reel of Ford's career played and then cheered enthusiastically as he was introduced.
CU-Boulder researchers develop 4-D printing technology for composite materials
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
22-Oct-2013
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Contact: Jerry Qi qih@colorado.edu 720-470-9816 University of Colorado at Boulder
Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder have successfully added a fourth dimension to their printing technology, opening up exciting possibilities for the creation and use of adaptive, composite materials in manufacturing, packaging and biomedical applications.
A team led by H. Jerry Qi, associate professor of mechanical engineering at CU-Boulder, and his collaborator Martin L. Dunn of the Singapore University of Technology and Design has developed and tested a method for 4D printing. The researchers incorporated "shape memory" polymer fibers into the composite materials used in traditional 3D printing, which results in the production of an object fixed in one shape that can later be changed to take on a new shape.
"In this work, the initial configuration is created by 3D printing, and then the programmed action of the shape memory fibers creates time dependence of the configuration the 4D aspect," said Dunn, a former CU-Boulder mechanical engineering faculty member who has studied the mechanics and physics of composite materials for more two decades.
The 4D printing concept, which allows materials to "self-assemble" into 3D structures, was initially proposed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty member Skylar Tibbits in April of this year. Tibbits and his team combined a strand of plastic with a layer made out of "smart" material that could self-assemble in water.
"We advanced this concept by creating composite materials that can morph into several different, complicated shapes based on a different physical mechanism," said Dunn. "The secret of using shape memory polymer fibers to generate desired shape changes of the composite material is how the architecture of the fibers is designed, including their location, orientation and other factors."
The CU-Boulder team's findings were published last month in the journal Applied Physics Letters. The paper was co-authored by Qi "Kevin" Ge, who joined MIT as a postdoctoral research associate in September.
"The fascinating thing is that these shapes are defined during the design stage, which was not achievable a few years ago," said Qi.
The CU-Boulder team demonstrated that the orientation and location of the fibers within the composite determines the degree of shape memory effects like folding, curling, stretching or twisting. The researchers also showed the ability to control those effects by heating or cooling the composite material.
Qi says 3D printing technology, which has existed for about three decades, has only recently advanced to the point that active fibers can be incorporated into the composites so their behavior can be predictably controlled when the object is subjected to thermal and mechanical forces.
The technology promises exciting new possibilities for a variety of applications. Qi said that a solar panel or similar product could be produced in a flat configuration onto which functional devices can be easily installed. It could then be changed to a compact shape for packing and shipping. After arriving at its destination, the product could be activated to form a different shape that optimizes its function.
As 3D printing technology matures with more printable materials and higher resolution at larger scales, the research should help provide a new approach to creating reversible or tunable 3D surfaces and solids in engineering like the composite shells of complex shapes used in automobiles, aircraft and antennas.
###
Contact:
Jerry Qi, 720-470-9816
qih@colorado.edu
Courtney Staufer, CU engineering communications, 303-492-7190
Courtney.staufer@colorado.edu
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CU-Boulder researchers develop 4-D printing technology for composite materials
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
22-Oct-2013
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]
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Contact: Jerry Qi qih@colorado.edu 720-470-9816 University of Colorado at Boulder
Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder have successfully added a fourth dimension to their printing technology, opening up exciting possibilities for the creation and use of adaptive, composite materials in manufacturing, packaging and biomedical applications.
A team led by H. Jerry Qi, associate professor of mechanical engineering at CU-Boulder, and his collaborator Martin L. Dunn of the Singapore University of Technology and Design has developed and tested a method for 4D printing. The researchers incorporated "shape memory" polymer fibers into the composite materials used in traditional 3D printing, which results in the production of an object fixed in one shape that can later be changed to take on a new shape.
"In this work, the initial configuration is created by 3D printing, and then the programmed action of the shape memory fibers creates time dependence of the configuration the 4D aspect," said Dunn, a former CU-Boulder mechanical engineering faculty member who has studied the mechanics and physics of composite materials for more two decades.
The 4D printing concept, which allows materials to "self-assemble" into 3D structures, was initially proposed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty member Skylar Tibbits in April of this year. Tibbits and his team combined a strand of plastic with a layer made out of "smart" material that could self-assemble in water.
"We advanced this concept by creating composite materials that can morph into several different, complicated shapes based on a different physical mechanism," said Dunn. "The secret of using shape memory polymer fibers to generate desired shape changes of the composite material is how the architecture of the fibers is designed, including their location, orientation and other factors."
The CU-Boulder team's findings were published last month in the journal Applied Physics Letters. The paper was co-authored by Qi "Kevin" Ge, who joined MIT as a postdoctoral research associate in September.
"The fascinating thing is that these shapes are defined during the design stage, which was not achievable a few years ago," said Qi.
The CU-Boulder team demonstrated that the orientation and location of the fibers within the composite determines the degree of shape memory effects like folding, curling, stretching or twisting. The researchers also showed the ability to control those effects by heating or cooling the composite material.
Qi says 3D printing technology, which has existed for about three decades, has only recently advanced to the point that active fibers can be incorporated into the composites so their behavior can be predictably controlled when the object is subjected to thermal and mechanical forces.
The technology promises exciting new possibilities for a variety of applications. Qi said that a solar panel or similar product could be produced in a flat configuration onto which functional devices can be easily installed. It could then be changed to a compact shape for packing and shipping. After arriving at its destination, the product could be activated to form a different shape that optimizes its function.
As 3D printing technology matures with more printable materials and higher resolution at larger scales, the research should help provide a new approach to creating reversible or tunable 3D surfaces and solids in engineering like the composite shells of complex shapes used in automobiles, aircraft and antennas.
###
Contact:
Jerry Qi, 720-470-9816
qih@colorado.edu
Courtney Staufer, CU engineering communications, 303-492-7190
Courtney.staufer@colorado.edu
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| 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.
AMSTERDAM (AP) — Dutch brewer Heineken NV issued a profit warning Wednesday, saying business was worse than expected in developing markets and the economic recovery in industrial nations was weak.
The world's third-largest brewer now expects full year "underlying earnings," which strip out the effects of acquisitions, to be lower than they were in 2012, whereas it had previous said they would be "broadly in line."
The company also reported a 15 percent fall in actual earnings for the third quarter, with net profit dropping to 483 million euros ($665 million) from 568 million in the same period a year ago, in part because of the stronger euro.
Heineken's share price fell by 5.5 percent to 49.93 euros in Amsterdam.
CEO Jean-Francois van Boxmeer said the company will respond by expanding its cost-cutting programs.
"We didn't expect such negative development in central and eastern Europe," he said on a conference call with analysts, noting that the Russian market may shrink by as much as 10 percent.
"Secondly, we were expecting better in key developing markets like Mexico and Nigeria," Van Boxmeer said. He also put Brazil in that category, saying Heineken had expected beer markets to reflect economic growth that has so far failed to materialize.
The company's third quarter trading update also showed revenues, including acquisitions, rose 4 percent to 5.18 billion euros during the period. However, they grew just 0.2 percent without the impact of acquisitions, as price hikes of 3.4 percent outweighed a 3.2 percent fall in volumes across the company.
"Volumes and sales in the third quarter were lower than expected as Heineken continues to face challenging market conditions in emerging markets," said SNS Securities analyst Richard Withagen in a note.
Withagen repeated a "Reduce" rating on the shares.
[unable to retrieve full-text content]Australian marine scientists have found the first evidence that coral itself may play an important role in regulating local climate.They have discovered that the coral animal--not just its algal symbiont--makes an important sulphur-based molecule with properties to assist it in many ways, ranging from cellular protection in times of heat stress to local climate cooling by encouraging clouds to form.Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-10/sip-ccp102313.php Tags: Mike Wayansfox sportsJoanna Krupa
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — An improvement in Chinese manufacturing wasn't enough to boost Asian stock markets Thursday after Wall Street fell on disappointing corporate earnings and jitters continued about tighter credit in China.
U.S. stocks broke a four-day streak of record closes after Caterpillar reported a plunge in third quarter earnings and the falling oil price hurt energy stocks. Caterpillar, which makes mining and construction equipment, is considered an important barometer of the global economy. A weak revenue outlook from communications chip maker Broadcom also weighed on sentiment.
Those cues offset a preliminary HSBC survey showing that China's manufacturing rose to a seven-month high in October, suggesting continued momentum for the rebound in the world's second-biggest economy.
Some analysts said there were also renewed fears of tighter credit in China that could check its economic recovery after the central bank refrained from injecting funds into money markets for a third day. In the middle of the year, rates in the bank-to-bank lending market shot higher after unexpected efforts by the central bank to curb frothy credit growth.
The central bank "is merely taking measures to manage liquidity and we won't see a repeat of the squeeze we saw in June," said Stan Shamu, market strategist at IG in Melbourne, Australia.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.7 percent to 22,833.50 and China's Shanghai Composite Index was off 0.3 percent at 2,175.71.
Japan's Nikkei 225 shed 0.5 percent to 14,357.15 while Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.3 percent to 5,372.90.
On Wall Street, the Standard & Poor's 500 fell 0.5 percent to 1,746.38 while the Dow Jones industrial average lost 0.4 percent to 15,413.33.
The S&P had surged 6 percent over the previous two weeks, capped by a record close of 1,754.67 on Tuesday on signs that the Federal Reserve may refrain from pulling back on its economic stimulus until possibly next year.
In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude for December delivery was up 64 cents at $97.50 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $1.44 to $96.86 on Wednesday.
The euro rose to $1.3791 from $1.3774 late Wednesday. The dollar rose to 97.44 yen from 97.36 yen.
Boston Red Sox pitcher John Lackey throws during a baseball workout Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2013, in Boston. The Red Sox are scheduled to host the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 1 of baseball's World Series on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Boston Red Sox pitcher John Lackey throws during a baseball workout Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2013, in Boston. The Red Sox are scheduled to host the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 1 of baseball's World Series on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
BOSTON (AP) — Boston Red Sox manager John Farrell hasn't decided on his exact pitching rotation beyond Game 2 of the World Series.
Farrell said before the opener against the Cardinals on Wednesday night that Clay Buchholz and Jake Peavy will pitch Games 3 and 4 after the Series moves to St. Louis. But he's not sure what order they'll go in.
Buchholz gave up five runs in eight innings and two runs in five innings in his AL championship series starts; Peavy gave up seven runs in three innings in his only ALCS start. Asked before the World Series opener whether Buchholz had an injury, he said, "Not to the point of keeping him out of starting."
Farrell said he wanted to see the Cardinals in the first two games; it also could be influenced by whether it looks as if the Red Sox would need their Game 3 starter to come back for a potential seventh game.
Jon Lester started against St. Louis' Adam Wainwright in Game 1, with John Lackey scheduled to go for Boston against Michael Wacha in Game 2 on Thursday night at Fenway Park. St. Louis is expected to start Joe Kelly and Lance Lynn in Games 3 and 4.
Wacha, a rookie whom the Cardinals obtained with a compensatory draft pick when Albert Pujols signed with the Angels, was 4-1 with a 2.78 ERA in the regular season, spending part of the year with Triple-A Springfield. He is 3-0 with a 0.43 ERA in the postseason.
"I want the ball in big situations. There's none bigger than the World Series," Wacha said. "And so I'm excited about getting it and I think every guy on our team wants the ball in these kinds of situations."
When he found out he would be pitching Game 2 in Fenway Park — his first time in the ballpark — it created a whole bunch of new things to be excited — and worried — about.
"This is kind of a tricky little ballpark with the dimensions and that kind of stuff. One pitch can really kind of change a game," he said. "You try not to think too much about it, just try to approach it just like any other game, any other stadium. And that's just making pitches down in the zone and try not to give them too much of a chance to lift it."
John Cena has a problem. No, not the surgically repaired left triceps that kept him on the disabled list for the last couple of months. And not the affluent fellow with the fancy scarves and fancier accent who’ll defend his World Heavyweight Championship against the Cenation leader this Sunday at Hell in a Cell. No, John Cena’s biggest problem is that his first match back — as momentous a comeback as has ever been planned — happens to fall on his own personal Black Sunday: The WWE Hell in a Cell pay-per-view.
Cena’s dominance has grown into something of a legend even while the 13-time World Champion’s career still chugs along. Yet in his three-and-a-half (we’ll explain) trips to WWE Hell in a Cell, the Cenation leader has put up a goose egg in terms of victories. That’s more than an anomaly, and more than a coincidence. That’s a trend. And with a make-or-break match approaching — a win could set the tone for the next phase of Cena’s career; a loss could cut him off at the knees before he even gets going — it’s one that has to hang heavy over the once, and perhaps future, Champ’s head.
Before Cena makes his potentially grand return, WWE.com looks back at his ignominious record at WWE Hell in a Cell … and what it may mean for his future.
Airmail is not only my favorite email client for Mac, it's one of my favorite Mac apps period. Since OS X Mavericks officially launched yesterday, Airmail has already been updated with support including interactive Notification Center banners, local drafts, offline editing, and more.
Whenever an Airmail update gets issued, it's always got loads of new features and fixes. This update is no exception and brings with it a ton of new and improved upon features as well as lots of bug fixes. A short list includes offline editing capabilities, local drafts and sent messages, new Notification Center icon for Airmail, selection detection, and lots of fixes and improvements on existing features.
If you're looking for an alternative mail client to Mac Mail, definitely check out Airmail. It's especially great with Gmail accounts including options for send and archive. And for the price, you can't beat it.
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