Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/193632818?client_source=feed&format=rss
tony stewart amas music awards 2011 music awards 2011 jill biden jill biden al mvp
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Monday, January 30, 2012
T-Mobile UK launches 'truly unlimited' Full Monty contract, wants to give you everything
When the Fully Monty launches on February 1st, it'll be accompanied by a new Android and iOS app that adds one-click connectivity to those WiFi networks. The deal isn't available SIM-only, although T-Mobile UK's Head of Propositions, Ben Fritsch, told us that the new deal is pitched at users looking to take the smartphone plunge. Its existing collection of tariffs will also see a similar refresh -- but there's no details on those just yet. American readers can gaze with envy at the full release below.
T-Mobile UK launches 'truly unlimited' Full Monty contract, wants to give you everything originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Jan 2012 04:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink |
T-Mobile UK | Email this | Comments
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/t7na8l9T4Ck/
enews mona simpson mona simpson grady sizemore grady sizemore samhain great pumpkin charlie brown
Wendy's reports lower adjusted profit, revenue up (AP)
DUBLIN, Ohio ? Wendy's Co. says its adjusted earnings fell 29.5 percent in the fourth quarter, while its revenue rose 5.6 percent,
The hamburger chain said Monday its income from continuing operations was $4.3 million in the period ended Jan. 1. That was down from $6.1 million a year ago.
The adjusted number stripped out one-time charges like costs related to selling Arby's and writing down the value of some assets. The company didn't report what net income would be if those charges were factored in.
Earnings were 4 cents per share, in line with the predictions of analysts polled by FactSet. After adjusting for the one-time charges, earnings were 1 cent per share.
Wendy's says revenue rose to $615 million, beating the $613 million predicted by analysts polled by FactSet. More visitors and higher prices helped.
Shares fell 2 percent in early trading to $5.10.
pharrell silver bullet russell simmons russell simmons joseph kony joseph kony 9 9 9
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Cars circle central Moscow in anti-Putin protest (AP)
MOSCOW ? Thousands of cars flying white ribbons or white balloons circled central Moscow on Sunday in a show of protest against Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
The cars ? ranging from luxury sedans and sporty convertibles to old, exhaust-spewing Soviet models ? jammed the inner lanes all along the 16-kilometer (nearly 10-mile) Garden Ring, which has as many as 16 lanes of traffic at its widest points.
More protesters stood along the side of the road waving white ribbons and flags as the vehicles passed, their horns blaring.
White ribbons became an opposition symbol during protests that broke out after a fraud-tainted Dec. 4 parliamentary election won by Putin's party.
Tens of thousands turned out for two mass protests last month to demand free and fair elections, and protest organizers are now preparing for a third big demonstration on Saturday.
Putin is running in a March 4 presidential election to reclaim the post he held from 2000 to 2008. He is expected to win, but is under pressure to show he can win fairly.
Sunday's action was aimed at helping to build momentum for the protest movement and it provided another outlet for the creativity that has been a defining feature of the demonstrations.
While most drivers were content to tie white ribbons and balloons to their cars' antennas, sideview mirrors and door handles, some decorated their vehicles with original signs and banners.
Opposition activist Alexei Navalny said the traveling protest action was a "wonderful advertisement" for Saturday's rally.
NC man charged in beheading plot to face trial (AP)
WILMINGTON, N.C. ? A North Carolina man must stand trial in a plot to hire a hit man to behead three witnesses from his brother's terrorism case, a federal magistrate judge ruled on Friday.
Following a day-long preliminary hearing, federal Magistrate Judge Robert B. Jones Jr. also ordered Shkumbin Sherifi held without bond.
Sherifi, 21, was arrested last weekend after FBI agents tracked him to a Jan. 8 meeting in the parking lot of a Wilmington Food Lion grocery store with a government informant posing as the representative of a hit man. He is accused of paying the informant $4,250 toward the first killing while his mother waited nearby in a Honda minivan.
On Jan. 22, prosecutors said Sherifi met with the informant again, this time receiving fake photos that showed the blood-covered witnesses lying in a shallow grave and what appeared to be the man's severed head.
Officials say the plot to execute the witnesses was masterminded by Sherifi's imprisoned brother, Hysen Sherifi, 27. The older Sherifi was sentenced to 45 years earlier this month for his role in what prosecutors described as a conspiracy to attack the Marine base at Quantico, Va., and targets abroad.
An FBI agent testified Sherifi left the Jan. 22 meeting with the informant and went directly to the New Hanover County Detention Center. After a meeting with his brother that was monitored by the FBI, Sherifi was arrested as he was leaving the jail with the photos in his possession.
Also arrested was Nevine Aly Elshiekh, a 46-year-old special education teacher from Raleigh who the FBI served as a go-between for the Sherifi brothers and the confidential informant, providing an initial $750 payment for the killing. Her first court appearance is scheduled for Feb. 3.
Those targeted for death, according to the government, were three confidential informants who testified against Hysen Sherifi and his co-defendants during a lengthy terrorism trial that began in shortly after the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. Hysen Sherifi and two other Raleigh men were found guilty of terrorism related offenses, while three other accused co-conspirators pleaded guilty.
During Friday's hearing, defense lawyer James Payne suggested that Shkumbin Sherifi may have believed that he was providing the money to pay for a lawyer for his brother's appeal and stressed that in hours of phone calls and meetings taped by the FBI he never directly ordered anyone to be killed.
Judge Jones said the government had probable cause to arrest Sherifi, questioning why anyone would hire a lawyer in a clandestine meeting held inside a car.
"We have an individual who was in a Food Lion parking lot giving someone $4,000," the judge said.
The Sherifis are naturalized U.S. citizens who emigrated from Kosovo in 1999 following a bloody sectarian war. On Friday, one of their three sisters took the stand as a character witness and asked the judge to let her brother go home. Hylja Sherifi, 24, said her younger sibling was a primary caregiver to their ailing father, who has lung cancer.
Shkumbin Sherifi has also volunteered as a youth soccer coach and is an aspiring songwriter, she said. Several of his rap songs are available online on a website intended to promote his music.
"He has a lot of passion," Hylja Sherifi said, a college student. She added that her family loves the United States.
"I have hope in the American government and support America," she said. "I supported my boyfriend when he was fighting in Iraq for 13 months."
The soldier she spoke of sat with the family in the courtroom, along with about 25 other people who made the two-hour drive from Raleigh to show their support for the defendant. Many were members of the Islamic Association of Raleigh, the city's largest mosque.
Farris Barakat, a 21-year-old college student who attended the hearing, said Elshiekh was his second-grade teacher at the mosque's school. At the time of her arrest, she was also teaching at a secular Montessori academy in suburban Morrisville. Elshiekh is charged with using interstate facilities for murder for hire.
Barakat stressed that he did not in any way support the type of violence of which the Sherifis are accused of plotting. Islam is a religion of peace, he said. However, he questioned whether an overzealous government was seeking to prosecute Muslims for terror offenses using questionable tactics, such as using paid informants with criminal records.
Hylja Sherifi echoed those sentiments, suggesting the full story had not been told in the courtroom.
Asked on the witness stand if any of the evidence presented Friday changed her positive view of her younger brother, she replied: "Not at all."
___
Follow AP writer Michael Biesecker at twitter.com/mbieseck
kennedy assassination kennedy assassination jfk assassination pie crust recipe heritage foundation dancing with the stars results 2011 ali fedotowsky
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Transformers: Dark of the Moon clip breaks down shooting movies, special effects in 3D (video)
Transformers: Dark of the Moon clip breaks down shooting movies, special effects in 3D (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Jan 2012 23:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink |Viddler | Email this | Comments
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/y2LJudQOFf8/
meg whitman f8 f8 catherine the great dark shadows ted haggard ted haggard
Friday, January 27, 2012
Sources: Fox anchor's accuser had an abortion
The son of New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly is fighting accusations that he sexually assaulted a woman, who later had an abortion.? WNBC-TV's Jonathan Dienst reports on the case against Greg Kelly.
By msnbc.com staff and news services
NEW YORK -- A woman who has accused the son of New York City's police commissioner of sexually assaulting her told authorities she got pregnant from the encounter and had an abortion, people familiar with the investigation said.
The woman told authorities she met Greg?Kelly for drinks on Oct. 8, then went back to her law office in lower Manhattan, where she was assaulted, one person familiar with the case told The Associated Press. She told officials she was not capable of consenting to sex, the person said.
Kelly, 43, was absent?from his job as anchor of the popular local morning show "Good Day New York" on Fox 5?New York, WNYW,?when news of the alleged attack broke?Thursday morning. He has, through?a lawyer,?denied the allegations.
According to The New York Daily News, Kelly and the accuser?exchanged texts for a considerable period after the incident and he said he received "flirtatious" messages from the woman, an indication that their meetup was consensual and for a "sexual purposes," police sources said.
The woman?said she called Kelly some time after their encounter, furious, and asked him, "Why'd you do that?" the News reported.
"That could be the big key," an investigator, who was not identified, told the News on Thursday. "Unless she taped the phone call, whether this guy gets charged could be determined by the texts."
In addition, according to a law enforcement official quoted by the AP, the woman?said she became pregnant and had an abortion.?The official, who was not authorized to speak publicly, talked to the AP on condition of anonymity.
It wasn't clear whether the woman supplied any medical evidence to authorities to support her claim.
Police spoke to the woman but quickly turned the case over to the Manhattan district attorney's office because of the potential conflict of interest in investigating the son of Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.
NYPD commish's son, a Fox anchor, in rape probe
The younger Kelly, a former Fox News correspondent, is cooperating with the investigation, his lawyer, Andrew Lankler, said in an emailed statement.
Kelly "strenuously denies any wrongdoing of any kind," Lankler said. "We know that the district attorney's investigation will prove Mr. Kelly's innocence." The lawyer didn't respond to questions about the focus of the investigation.
Lew Leone, the general manager of the New York Fox station, said, "Greg Kelly has requested some time off." He did not elaborate.
Suspicions
The story came to law enforcement's attention after the woman's boyfriend was told of the alleged incident and became enraged, the anonymous AP source said.
The woman's boyfriend then confronted the elder Kelly at a recent public event, police spokesman Paul Browne said.
"He said, 'Your son ruined my girlfriend's life,'" Browne said. "The commissioner said, 'Well, what do you mean?' He said he didn't want to talk about it here, so the commissioner told him to send a letter."
Browne said that, to his knowledge, no letter was sent. He said he could not comment on the investigation because of the potential conflict of interest.
According to her boyfriend, the woman has been "an emotional cripple" since the incident, ABCNews.com reported.?
Charles Sykes / AP file
Greg Kelly, seen in November 2010
A source told WABC in New York that the?boyfriend, who is significantly older, had had a vasectomy and when he learned his girlfriend was pregnant, he knew the child was not his. No other media outlets confirmed that, but others, including the New York Post, reported the woman told detectives she was not having sex with her boyfriend at the time.
On Friday, skepticism was cast on the accuser's account.
Investigators "don't buy her story," a source told the Post, adding that the three months that passed in between the alleged attack and the time it took to report it?are adding to suspicion.?
In addition to texts, the woman also allegedly exchanged emails with Kelly during the three months, local media reported.
It's not known whether Kelly was informed of the alleged abortion.
Mayor: NYPD 'did exactly what they should do'
Mayor Michael Bloomberg Thursday that he "thought the police department did exactly what they should do" by turning the matter over to the district attorney.
"Keep in mind: Everyone has a right to have their complaints investigated," the mayor said, noting that Greg Kelly hasn't been charged with any crime.
It wasn't immediately clear how much time elapsed between the man's remarks to the commissioner and the woman's decision to go to a police station Tuesday, nor why she had waited for nearly three months after the alleged attack to make a report.
It's also unclear how long the woman and Kelly knew each other before the alleged encounter at her office.
The identity of the woman has not been released, and the AP -- along with msnbc.com and most major media outlets --?does not name people who report being sexually assaulted unless they agree to be identified or come forward publicly.
The Daily News reported she was the?30-year-old daughter of a prominent lawyer who graduated from a prestigious private school in Manhattan, according to sources. She reportedly works as a paralegal at a firm near Wall Street.
Kelly joined Fox News in 2002. He covered the Iraq War, including four assignments in Baghdad, and was the White House correspondent from 2005 to 2007, according to his biography on WNYW's website.
In 2007, the television show "Extra" identified him as the most eligible anchorman on TV. The show's website said Kelly "has enough heart and courage to make any woman swoon." He is single.
Kelly served for nearly a decade in the Marine Corps and is now a lieutenant colonel in its reserves.
Raymond Kelly has been police commissioner since 2002. He also served as commissioner in the 1990s.
The allegations about Kelly's son are the commissioner's latest potential public relations challenge. Also Thursday, about 20 activists held a news conference on the steps of City Hall and criticized Ray Kelly for giving an interview to the producers of the movie "The Third Jihad." They said the film encourages Americans to be suspicious of all Muslims. Kelly has apologized for the interview.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
More content from msnbc.com and NBC News
?
Source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/27/10250655-sources-fox-anchors-accuser-had-an-abortion
cliff lee the raven the raven lawrence o donnell fresno state fresno state psa test
Picks revealed for free summer Central Park plays
FILE - In this Oct. 5, 2011 file photo, actress Lily Rabe attends the premiere of "The Ides of March" at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York. The Public Theater will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of its Shakespeare in the Park series this summer with a little Bard and a little Sondheim. The Public said Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012, that Daniel Sullivan will direct ?As You Like It? in June with Lily Rabe as Rosalind. A month later, directors Timothy Sheader and Liam Steel will present Sondheim and James Lapine's ?Into the Woods.? Both works will be free at the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park. (AP Photo/Evan Agostini)
FILE - In this Oct. 5, 2011 file photo, actress Lily Rabe attends the premiere of "The Ides of March" at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York. The Public Theater will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of its Shakespeare in the Park series this summer with a little Bard and a little Sondheim. The Public said Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012, that Daniel Sullivan will direct ?As You Like It? in June with Lily Rabe as Rosalind. A month later, directors Timothy Sheader and Liam Steel will present Sondheim and James Lapine's ?Into the Woods.? Both works will be free at the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park. (AP Photo/Evan Agostini)
NEW YORK (AP) ? The Public Theater will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of its Shakespeare in the Park series this summer with a little Bard and a little Sondheim.
The Public said Thursday that Daniel Sullivan will direct "As You Like It" in June with Lily Rabe as Rosalind. A month later, Timothy Sheader and Liam Steel will direct Stephen Sondheim's and James Lapine's "Into the Woods."
Both works will be free at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. Additional casting and dates will be announced later.
The Shakespeare comedy reunites Rabe and Sullivan, who combined in 2010 in the park with a thrilling production of "The Merchant of Venice" led by Al Pacino as Shylock that transferred to Broadway and earned Tony Award nominations for all three.
The Sondheim musical, a reimagining of beloved classic fairy tales that opened on Broadway in 1987, will be based on the Olivier Award-winning Regent's Park Open Air Theatre London production in 2010, which also was directed by Sheader and Steel. The original Broadway cast featured Bernadette Peters and a 2002 revival starred Vanessa Williams.
"I'm delighted that we are adding Stephen Sondheim to the Delacorte's roster: our greatest artist of musical theater will sit very comfortably next to Shakespeare," Oskar Eustis, artistic director of The Public Theater, said in a statement. "Sondheim in the Park has a good ring to it."
The Delacorte Theater officially opened in Central Park on June 18, 1962, with a production of "The Merchant of Venice," directed by Joseph Papp and Gladys Vaughan and featuring George C. Scott as Shylock. Since then, stars including James Earl Jones, Kevin Kline, Denzel Washington, Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Raul Julia and Christopher Walken have acted on its stage.
___
Online:
http://publictheater.org/
Associated Pressgone with the wind nba lockout news nba lockout news gifts for mom gifts for mom pepper spray storage auctions
Iran won't move toward nuclear weapon in 2012: ISIS report (Reuters)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? Iran is unlikely to move toward building a nuclear weapon this year because it does not yet have the capability to produce enough weapon-grade uranium, a draft report by the Institute for Science and International Security said on Wednesday.
The report by the institute founded by nuclear expert David Albright offered a more temperate view of Iran's nuclear program than some of the heated rhetoric that has surfaced since the United States and its allies stepped up sanctions on Tehran.
"Iran is unlikely to decide to dash toward making nuclear weapons as long as its uranium enrichment capability remains as limited as it is today," the report said.
The United States and Iran are engaged in a war of words over sanctions, with Iran threatening to retaliate by blocking oil shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. The United States said it would not allow that to happen.
The escalating rhetoric and tensions have led to concerns about the potential for missteps between the adversaries that might spiral into a military confrontation that neither wants.
But the report, financed by a grant from the United States Institute of Peace, said Iran had not made a decision to build a nuclear bomb. The USIP is an independent, non-partisan center created by the U.S. Congress in 1984 that receives federal government funding.
"Iran is unlikely to break out in 2012, in great part because it is deterred from doing so," said the ISIS report, which has not yet been publicly released.
The report turns down the temperature, saying that sanctions and the fear of a military strike by Israel on Iran's nuclear facilities have worked as a deterrent.
The institute has advised U.S. and foreign governments about Iran's nuclear capabilities and Albright is considered a respected expert on the issue. The report tracks closely with what is known of official U.S. government assessments.
U.S. officials say Iran has not made the decision to build a nuclear weapon and that Iranian leaders haven't made the decision because they have to weigh the cost and benefits of building a nuclear weapon.
Much of what the Iranians are doing with their nuclear program has civilian uses, but they are keeping their options open, which significantly adds to the air of ambiguity, U.S. officials told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
Some conservative and Israeli analysts in the past have challenged these types of assessments, asserting that Iranian nuclear efforts are sufficiently advanced that they could build a bomb in a year or less.
But according to the institute's report: "Although Iran is engaged in nuclear hedging, no evidence has emerged that the regime has decided to build nuclear weapons."
"Such a decision may be unlikely to occur until Iran is first able to augment its enrichment capability to a point where it would have the ability to make weapon-grade uranium quickly and secretly," the report obtained by Reuters said.
It added that despite a report last November by the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency alleging that Iran had made significant progress on nuclear weaponization, "Iran's essential challenge remains developing a secure capability to make enough weapon-grade uranium, likely for at least several nuclear weapons."
Some European intelligence officials have disputed a U.S. National Intelligence Estimate published in 2007 which said that Iran had stopped working on a program it had launched earlier to design and build a bomb.
The Europeans maintain that Iran never stopped research and scientific development efforts which could be bomb-related.
Tensions spiked after Iran announced earlier this month that it had begun to enrich uranium deep inside an underground facility near the holy city of Qom. The secretly built facility was publicly revealed by the United States in 2009.
AIRSTRIKES 'OVERSOLD'
Among possible policy options for halting Iran's nuclear program, one of the least likely to be successful is a military attack on its nuclear program, according to the institute's report.
Limited military options, such as airstrikes against nuclear facilities, are "oversold as to their ability to end or even significantly delay Iran's nuclear program," the report said. Limited bombing campaigns would be "unlikely to destroy Iran's main capability" to produce weapon-grade uranium, it said.
Iran has taken precautions by dispersing the centrifuges it uses for enrichment to multiple locations, has mastered the construction of centrifuges, and has probably stockpiled extra centrifuges, the institute said.
A bombing campaign that did not totally eliminate these capabilities would leave Iran "able to quickly rebuild" its nuclear program and even motivate it to set up a Manhattan Project-style crash program to build a bomb, which would only make the region more dangerous and unstable, according to the institute.
The report said that clandestine intelligence operations aimed at detecting secret Iranian nuclear activities, including the construction of new underground sites, are "vitally important." Known methods used by spy agencies include the recruitment of secret agents, cyber spying operations, overhead surveillance by satellites and drones, and bugging of equipment which Iran buys from foreign suppliers.
The report says another "well known tactic" used by Western spy agencies against Iran has been to infiltrate Iranian networks that smuggle nuclear-related equipment and supply them with plans or items which are faulty or sabotaged. The report says this tactic has helped the West to uncover at least one of Iran's secret nuclear sites and, according to official statements by the Iranians, has caused enrichment centrifuges to break.
Other more violent covert operations strategies, particularly the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists and engineers, have "serious downsides and implications," such as high risks of Iranian retaliation through militant attacks which could be directed against civilian targets. The United States has emphatically denied any involvement in the assassinations.
The report said that since thousands of specialists are involved in the Iranian nuclear program, assassinations were unlikely to be effective in slowing it down. It also warned that Iran could construe assassinations as acts of war and use them to justify retaliation.
(Editing by Eric Walsh)
(This January 25 story was corrected in paragraph 16 to change the date of the NIE report to 2007 from 2003)
carlos mencia packers stock sale packers stock sale jason mayhem miller margarito margarito horton hears a who
Scorpions inspire scientists in making tougher surfaces for machinery
ScienceDaily (Jan. 25, 2012) ? Taking inspiration from the yellow fattail scorpion, which uses a bionic shield to protect itself against scratches from desert sandstorms, scientists have developed a new way to protect the moving parts of machinery from wear and tear.
A report on the research appears in ACS' journal Langmuir.
Zhiwu Han, Junqiu Zhang, Wen Li and colleagues explain that "solid particle erosion" is one of the important reasons for material damage or equipment failure. It causes millions of dollars of damage each year to helicopter rotors, rocket motor nozzles, turbine blades, pipes and other mechanical parts. The damage occurs when particles of dirt, grit and other hard material in the air, water or other fluids strike the surfaces of those parts. Filters can help remove the particles but must be replaced or cleaned, while harder, erosion-resistant materials cost more to develop and make. In an effort to develop better erosion-resistant surfaces, Han and Li's group sought the secrets of the yellow fattail scorpion for the first time. The scorpion evolved to survive the abrasive power of harsh sandstorms.
They studied the bumps and grooves on the scorpions' backs, scanning the creatures with a 3-D laser device and developing a computer program that modeled the flow of sand-laden air over the scorpions. The team used the model in computer simulations to develop actual patterned surfaces to test which patterns perform best. At the same time, the erosion tests were conducted in the simple erosion wind tunnel for groove surface bionic samples at various impact conditions. Their results showed that a series of small grooves at a 30-degree angle to the flowing gas or liquid give steel surfaces the best protection from erosion.
Recommend this story on Facebook, Twitter,
and Google +1:
Other bookmarking and sharing tools:
Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by American Chemical Society.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Han Zhiwu, Zhang Junqiu, Ge Chao, Wen Li, Luquan Ren. Erosion Resistance of Bionic Functional Surfaces Inspired from Desert Scorpions. Langmuir, 2012; 120120101148000 DOI: 10.1021/la203942r
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120125101950.htm
marines urinating manny ramirez haley barbour olivier martinez ford recalls peoples choice awards 2012 mark sanchez
Thursday, January 26, 2012
'Real' Housewife Kim Richards Admits: "I'm an Alcoholic"
Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Kim Richards is finally ready to admit what anyone who watches her show has known all along.
san francisco 49ers san francisco 49ers news channel 5 49ers news ketamine peyton manning sf 49ers
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Total Recall: Ed Harris's Best Movies
We count down the best-reviewed work of the Man on a Ledge star.
A prolific character actor with leading-man chops and four Oscar nominations under his belt, Ed Harris has been entertaining audiences for decades -- so when we saw his name in the credits for Man on a Ledge, we knew exactly what we needed to do with this week's list. From supporting parts to leading roles, from action to comedy to drama, Harris has done just about everything -- and done it well. The Tomatometer agrees, giving us a top 10 that bottoms out at an impressive 87 percent. Which of your favorites made the cut? It's time to find out, Total Recall style!
87%
Can a life of violence ever really be left behind? Does a person who has committed violent acts deserve the chance to move beyond them -- even if he's tried to atone for his past? In his tense, gory adaptation of John Wagner and Vince Locke's A History of Violence, David Cronenberg asks these questions and comes away with a handful of suitably ambiguous answers -- but not before pitting seemingly ordinary restaurant owner Tom Stall (Viggo Mortensen) against a mobster (Ed Harris) who claims he has arrived to collect a debt from Stall's surprisingly shady past. "It's rare to find a filmmaker who can deliver such a message and keep us riveted every minute of screen time," wrote Bill Muller of the Arizona Republic. "But Cronenberg manages it, making A History of Violence one of his best, and most realistic, films ever."
88%
1989's underwater epic The Abyss required the construction of the world's biggest tank of filtered fresh water, as well as newly designed watertight cameras and bleeding-edge special effects work from Industrial Light & Magic. It also required a lot of patience on the part of its cast (including Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, both of whom suffered emotional breakdowns during the grueling six-month shoot) and crew (including director James Cameron, who spent hours at a time under 50 feet of water) -- and the studio had its own cross to bear, enduring millions of dollars in cost overruns and weeks of delays. In the end, The Abyss wasn't as profitable as Cameron's other epics, only bringing in around $90 million against a $70 million budget, but critics were generally kind, particularly to the longer version that eventually surfaced on home video (Widgett Walls of Needcoffee.com called the theatrical release "an abomination" and wrote, "For God's sake, make sure you have the director's cut").
92%
It endured an infamously bumpy production period -- during which stars Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell went over Jonathan Demme's head to arrange edits and reshoots with a different director -- but even if Swing Shift didn't end up fulfilling Demme's original vision, critics still felt it effectively told the story of a war bride (Hawn) who enters the workforce (and starts an affair) during WWII while her husband (Harris) is overseas. Although more than a few viewers have taken issue with its soft-focused treatment of adultery, the picture's rich detail and well-written script impressed writers like Filmcritic's Pete Croatto, who observed, "Sofia Coppola and Wes Anderson could learn a few things watching this. Or maybe they already have."
94%
Although it was roundly criticized for taking liberties with the facts of its subject's brief, fascinating life, the Patsy Cline biopic Sweet Dreams makes for a solidly compelling -- if at times frustratingly inaccurate -- film about the country star's (played by Jessica Lange) early years, short career, and tragic death, as well as her tumultuous marriage to the unfortunately named Charlie Dick (Harris). Earning Lange a Best Actress nomination for her work, Dreams won praise from critics like Time Out's Geoff Andrews, who wrote, "The two main performances are excellent: Lange plays the singer without a hint of condescension to her dreams of 'a big house with yellow roses', while Harris is persuasively menacing, with an inventively foul mouth."
94%
Ben Affleck made his directorial debut with this pitch-black thriller, adapted from the Dennis Lehane novel about a private investigator (Casey Affleck) who finds himself mixed up in the exceedingly shady case of a kidnapped girl. As he works with the cops (including Harris and Morgan Freeman) and his girlfriend/partner (Michelle Monaghan), it becomes clear that things are not what they seem. It's a basic framework that pretty much any filmgoer will be familiar with, but in Affleck's hands, Gone Baby Gone came alive; as Bruce Westbrook wrote for the Houston Chronicle, "A love-tolerate valentine to the city, it feels more real than the gangster-gorged mean streets of Martin Scorsese's The Departed, and just as tortured as Clint Eastwood's Mystic River."
Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1924369/news/1924369/
brownback salvia cybermonday deals cybermonday deals steve johnson norman reedus norman reedus
Cyprus police charge ex-ministers in fatal blast (AP)
NICOSIA, Cyprus ? Cyprus police have filed criminal charges against two former Cabinet ministers over last year's explosion of seized Iranian munitions that killed 13 people and touched off a political crisis, a senior police official said Tuesday.
The official said the charges against ex-Foreign Affairs Minister Markos Kyprianou and ex-Defense Minister Costas Papacostas include negligence causing death. Police did not publicly disclose the charges, and the official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. Defendants convicted of that charge can be jailed for up to four years.
State-run CyBC television said the two men also face the more serious charge of manslaughter which carries a maximum life sentence.
Both Kyprianou and Papacostas told CyBC that they denied to police investigators all the charges.
Kyprianou said he believes the decision to prosecute him is politically motivated. "I consider it as an attempt to distract public opinion and to find a scapegoat," he said.
Papacostas said he looks forward to setting the record straight in court.
The police official said unidentified charges also have been filed against three senior army officers and three fire department officials regarding the deaths.
Kyprianou and Papacostas resigned after the July 11, 2011, blast, which wrecked the island's main power station and triggered weeks of street protests calling for President Dimitris Christofias' resignation.
A public inquiry into the explosion said he was mainly to blame for the events that led to the explosion. Christofias rejected the inquiry's nonbinding findings.
The munitions packed in some 98 containers were confiscated in February 2009 from a Cypriot-flagged ship suspected of transporting it from Iran to Palestinian militants in Gaza through Syria in breach of a United Nations ban on Iranian arms exports.
The containers had been left piled in an open field inside a naval base on the island's southern coast, despite warnings from military officials that the munitions could spontaneously ignite as a result of their exposure to the elements.
the stand josh mcdaniels cotton bowl wizards of waverly place cedric benson pinewood derby cars playoff schedule
How Much Would You Pay for this Asspensive Artsy Fartsy Hollow Looking USB Drive? [Qotd]
sopa blackout southland protect ip act wisconsin recall wisconsin recall internet blackout jim caldwell
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)