Less than a week after Amazon announced that its Prime Instant Video service was arriving for Apple?s iPhone and iPod touch, the Internet giant has revealed it has inked exclusive licensing deals with Turner Broadcasting and Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution for two TNT?s series.
The series in question are Falling Skies (Noah Wyle, Moon Bloodgood) via Turner, and The Closer (Kyra Sedgwick, Jon Tenney) courtesy of Warner.
Amazon Instant Video is a digital video streaming and download service that lets users rent, buy or subscribe to a range of video content. Launched in April last year, Prime Instant Video is its video subscription service which makes tens of thousands of movies and TV shows available to stream. It?s free to those who subscribe to its 2-day shipping service Amazon Prime, charged at an annual rate.
Over the past 12 months, Amazon has announced a slew of content agreements with every major Hollywood studio, as well as some of the major cable networks. And back in September it brought EPIX on board, which will see thousands of new titles added to its arsenal ? including?The Avengers, Iron Man 2, The Hunger Games, Transformers, Dark of the Moon, Thor and Rango.
What?s interesting about this latest deal with Turner and Warner, however,? is the exclusive aspect of it. It seems more operators in the space are moving towards trying to secure exclusive access to content, as they try to set themselves apart from the competition. Indeed, only recently Netflix scored a US subscription exclusive to Disney?s first-run films in a multi-year deal, and we can expect to see the word ?exclusive? appear in many more content deals moving forward.
?Amazon has proven to be a terrific distribution platform for our popular television titles and we are confident that The Closer will also meet with that same success,? says Ken Werner, President, Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution. ?There will be 109 episodes of this riveting drama available for fans to enjoy for the very first time or to rewatch their favorite episodes from TNT.?
Prime Instant Video now features more than 30,000 movies and TV episodes for Amazon Prime members to stream on Kindle Fire HD, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Roku, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and the Wii U.
Student-athletes could lose eligibility, scholarships with tweet missteps, Baylor research showsPublic release date: 17-Dec-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Terry Goodrich terry_goodrich@baylor.edu 254-710-3321 Baylor University
With a single social-media misstep, student-athletes could lose athletic eligibility or a scholarship. But that's not stopping them from using Twitter sometimes even during games, when they may see harsh criticism of their performances from fans, according to a study by Baylor University and Clemson University researchers.
While many college athletic teams prohibit student-athletes from using social media during games, some breach the rules to get a "real-time" commentary on how they are doing during the game, said Blair Browning, Ph.D., an assistant professor of communication in Baylor University's College of Arts & Sciences and lead author of the study.
The study, published in the International Journal of Sport Communication, was based on interviews with 20 student-athletes in an NCAA Division I university.
Student-athletes said that they used Twitter to keep in contact with family and friends, communicate with their followers and access information about the games and their athletic performances.
The study, co-authored by Jimmy Sanderson, Ph.D., an assistant professor of communication studies at Clemson University, is called "The Positives and Negatives of Twitter: Exploring How Student-Athletes Use Twitter and Respond to Critical Tweets."
Twitter is ingrained into student-athletes' daily routine, with one athlete saying that "I mean, the kickers and snappers and me are kind of in the corner of the locker room . . . so I'll get on Twitter and I'm like, 'Great first half' . . . "
Other athletes said they wait until after games to use Twitter. In any case, comments often are critical or even abusive about the student-athlete both performance-wise and personally.
"It is tweet-worthy when fans show support because the alternative is obviously the norm," the researchers wrote.
While athletes know that criticism comes with the turf, Twitter critics are especially brutal because "brazen confidence stems from the protection users have behind the phone or computer screen," researchers noted. Even when the critics messages are blocked by an athlete, some followers "somehow find another name and get on and do it again," one athlete said.
Student-athletes' responses can be risky to their university athletic career if they respond in kind to abuse. Some choose to shrug off or delete insults -- or even using them constructively as challenges to improve.
Others are finding an effective way to cope is through "sub-tweeting" referring to a detractor as "OOMF" ("one of my followers") and responding to a remark indirectly rather than using the critic's Twitter ID to spar online.
Some players see Twitter as a chance to brand themselves. But at the university level, they're also operating under the brand of the institution themselves, so "there are tensions," Browning said.
Student-athletes also are subject to stricter monitoring and penalties than professional athletes for a social-media blunder. While professionals may be fined or censured, they maintain their ability to play. But student-athletes stand to lose athletic eligibility or scholarships.
"Student-athletes are in a precarious position because they are amateurs, are managing educational pursuits while holding essentially a full-time job with their athletics demands," the researchers wrote.
While a coach may welcome the idea that "20,000 eyeballs" are following an athlete, "at the same time, they'll probably wake up in a cold sweat" about a tweet misstep, Browning said.
Despite how student-athletes handle the messages, critical tweets "are at their core an identity hit," the authors wrote.
One athlete said he felt "low-balled, disrespected . . . It was horrible, and you know, my family was sick on top of that so there was nothing I could do."
Sanderson said that educational institutions should embrace training in social media for student-athletes, including helping them manage critical tweets.
"Ironically, schools spend a lot of time on the surveillance of athletes (on social media) rather than spending time on the front end training," Browning said. "It comes down to ambiguous statements like, 'Don't tweet anything inappropriate.'
"But what's inappropriate to a 50-year-old may be vastly different from what an 18- to 22-year-old thinks is inappropriate."
###
*Note: The study has been cited as a Distinguished Paper and will be presented at the Summit on Communication and Sport Feb. 22-24 in Austin.
Note: Two videos of comments by Blair Browning may be viewed at: http://www.baylor.edu/mediacommunications/news.php?action=story&story=125858
[ | 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.
Student-athletes could lose eligibility, scholarships with tweet missteps, Baylor research showsPublic release date: 17-Dec-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Terry Goodrich terry_goodrich@baylor.edu 254-710-3321 Baylor University
With a single social-media misstep, student-athletes could lose athletic eligibility or a scholarship. But that's not stopping them from using Twitter sometimes even during games, when they may see harsh criticism of their performances from fans, according to a study by Baylor University and Clemson University researchers.
While many college athletic teams prohibit student-athletes from using social media during games, some breach the rules to get a "real-time" commentary on how they are doing during the game, said Blair Browning, Ph.D., an assistant professor of communication in Baylor University's College of Arts & Sciences and lead author of the study.
The study, published in the International Journal of Sport Communication, was based on interviews with 20 student-athletes in an NCAA Division I university.
Student-athletes said that they used Twitter to keep in contact with family and friends, communicate with their followers and access information about the games and their athletic performances.
The study, co-authored by Jimmy Sanderson, Ph.D., an assistant professor of communication studies at Clemson University, is called "The Positives and Negatives of Twitter: Exploring How Student-Athletes Use Twitter and Respond to Critical Tweets."
Twitter is ingrained into student-athletes' daily routine, with one athlete saying that "I mean, the kickers and snappers and me are kind of in the corner of the locker room . . . so I'll get on Twitter and I'm like, 'Great first half' . . . "
Other athletes said they wait until after games to use Twitter. In any case, comments often are critical or even abusive about the student-athlete both performance-wise and personally.
"It is tweet-worthy when fans show support because the alternative is obviously the norm," the researchers wrote.
While athletes know that criticism comes with the turf, Twitter critics are especially brutal because "brazen confidence stems from the protection users have behind the phone or computer screen," researchers noted. Even when the critics messages are blocked by an athlete, some followers "somehow find another name and get on and do it again," one athlete said.
Student-athletes' responses can be risky to their university athletic career if they respond in kind to abuse. Some choose to shrug off or delete insults -- or even using them constructively as challenges to improve.
Others are finding an effective way to cope is through "sub-tweeting" referring to a detractor as "OOMF" ("one of my followers") and responding to a remark indirectly rather than using the critic's Twitter ID to spar online.
Some players see Twitter as a chance to brand themselves. But at the university level, they're also operating under the brand of the institution themselves, so "there are tensions," Browning said.
Student-athletes also are subject to stricter monitoring and penalties than professional athletes for a social-media blunder. While professionals may be fined or censured, they maintain their ability to play. But student-athletes stand to lose athletic eligibility or scholarships.
"Student-athletes are in a precarious position because they are amateurs, are managing educational pursuits while holding essentially a full-time job with their athletics demands," the researchers wrote.
While a coach may welcome the idea that "20,000 eyeballs" are following an athlete, "at the same time, they'll probably wake up in a cold sweat" about a tweet misstep, Browning said.
Despite how student-athletes handle the messages, critical tweets "are at their core an identity hit," the authors wrote.
One athlete said he felt "low-balled, disrespected . . . It was horrible, and you know, my family was sick on top of that so there was nothing I could do."
Sanderson said that educational institutions should embrace training in social media for student-athletes, including helping them manage critical tweets.
"Ironically, schools spend a lot of time on the surveillance of athletes (on social media) rather than spending time on the front end training," Browning said. "It comes down to ambiguous statements like, 'Don't tweet anything inappropriate.'
"But what's inappropriate to a 50-year-old may be vastly different from what an 18- to 22-year-old thinks is inappropriate."
###
*Note: The study has been cited as a Distinguished Paper and will be presented at the Summit on Communication and Sport Feb. 22-24 in Austin.
Note: Two videos of comments by Blair Browning may be viewed at: http://www.baylor.edu/mediacommunications/news.php?action=story&story=125858
[ | 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.
Gary McKinnon, the British man who hacked into U.S. government files to search for evidence of UFOs, will not face prosecution in the United Kingdom. In October, UK officials rejected the United States' extradition request in the decade-old case. Naked Security reports that the UK's most recent decision will apparently end the McKinnon controversy.
Recently, my daughter turned 4 years old. I cannot believe how fast the time has gone. It feels like it was only yesterday that we brought her home from the hospital, all 8.6 pounds of her. I still remember the newness of those early days. The Olympics had just finished, and the 2008 presidential election was under way.
Back then, four years felt like the distant future, and yet here we are. As one friend shared, once you have a child, ?The days are long, but the years
Juli Fraga, Psy.D. is a licensed psychologist. She has a private practice in San Francisco, California where she practices at the ?Root and the Branch,? a holistic health and wellness clinic. Here, she specializes in women?s health concerns especially as they relate to maternal and reproductive health. Juli also facilitates postpartum support groups for the Great Expectations program at UCSF, and is currently co-developing a 4-week group, ?The Afterglow,? which will be held at UCSF in January 2013. Clinically, she integrates mindfulness-based practices and psychoanalytic theories into her work. She focuses on mind/body wellness with deep attention to each individual?s physical and emotional well-being. Visit her online and on Twitter.
Like this author? Catch up on other posts by Juli Fraga, PsyD (or subscribe to their feed).
This is an announcement only, so there are no comments.
????Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 16 Dec 2012 ????Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.
APA Reference Fraga, J. (2012). 4 Lessons I Learned From My Daughter. Psych Central. Retrieved on December 17, 2012, from http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2012/12/16/4-lessons-i-learned-from-my-daughter/
A Second Take on Meeting the Press: From an up-close look at Rachel Maddow's sneakers to an in-depth look at Jon Krakauer's latest book ? it's all fair game in our "Meet the Press: Take Two" web extra. Log on Sundays to see David Gregory's post-show conversations with leading newsmakers, authors and roundtable guests. Videos are available on-demand by 12 p.m. ET on Sundays.
Home ? Blog ? News ? Paula died last week: Who cares?
Paula died last week: Who cares?
Paula on her street corner on Aurora Avenue. (Photo by Mike)
By Harry Gatjens
While the world mourns the loss of children in a senseless tragedy, there are others to be mourned for, too. This is the story of a woman who few would have noticed having passed away, even before the tragedy in Connecticut.
Paula Gomez died last week. She had a stroke on Thursday and ended up dying on Saturday. She was 40 years old and had no family and few friends to speak of. I found out what happened when her boyfriend Mike saw my number on her phone and called to tell me she had died. He said she had spoken of me positively as a friend.
I had the opportunity to meet Mike and interview him to get a better understanding of Paula?s life. He said she had been living with him and he was trying to arrange her final effects. He said he needed to raise $200 for the balance of her cremation and that he had arranged with a local priest to hold a small service. I was skeptical of the story at first, but then he told me if I wished to help out I could just call the funeral home and make a donation in her name.
I met Paula a couple of years ago at the restaurant in a local Shoreline casino. She looked worn out and disheveled but was gulping down a meal. I spoke with her to learn her story and found out that she was a local Aurora Avenue prostitute.
She had been addicted to drugs, had bad teeth, was not particularly attractive and just looked like she had lived a very hard life. She was quite open about her lifestyle and seem to be, overall, a nice person.
The food at the restaurant was cheap and the location convenient for where she plied her trade. I came to talk to her whenever I saw her and always showed concern and respect. She seemed to appreciate my concern even though I wasn?t a customer.
One time she asked for money as she claimed to be short for what she needed for a room for the night. When I saw her later that night she said she had spent some of the money on ?a toot,? as she needed to do something to deal with her ordeal.
Another time, someone broke out the window of my car in the parking lot and stole my iPad. I knew that Paula knew most of the street people in the area, so I called and asked if she could be on the lookout for it. The next day she called and told me that she had found who had taken it and told them that it belonged to a friend of hers and she wanted it back. These are not nice people she was dealing with, but she convinced them to give it to her and she brought it back to me.
I tried to work with her to help her figure out how to beat her drug problem. I never again gave her cash but would instead bring her a meal or groceries or actually make a payment toward a room for her.
Unfortunately, I didn?t have the skill set to provide her the help she needed to resolve her addiction. I attempted to put her in communication with services that could help, but until she was ready to make her own effort my attempts proved futile.
As we talked, I learned a bit about her background. Abused as a child and deserted by her parents and family, she ended up on the street at age 17. Drugs became a part of her life not long after, and she made a long downhill journey from that point forward.
Ostracized for profession, she made a few friends who would make an effort to help her change her life. Combined with the lack of a family to provide support Paula was left with no place to go.
Mike came across her and tried to help. However, with her background she couldn?t comprehend why anyone would care about her. They continued their relationship for several years but she could never truly believe in him until just recently.
Mike?s life was no bowl of cherries either. His wife had died when he met Paula, and he was suicidal. He saw Paula across the room in a restaurant and went up to talk to her and befriend her, similar to me. However, in his state, he fell for her and tried to create a relationship. At this point she had been treated like dirt by everyone who knew her and she didn?t believe anyone could care for her.
When Mike told me that they had been living together for the past several months, I was pleased. Then he told me they had been living in his car. He didn?t like her lifestyle and says that she wanted out of it too. But since that was the only thing she had done, she had little marketable skills. She needed money to live, and working the streets was the only practical way to raise it. They lived not paycheck to paycheck, but day to day ? literally.
As I got to know Paula, I could see that she wanted things to change but had neither the resources nor the support to make those changes. She talked of programs from the state to help her get her teeth fixed and deal with some of her other health issues. One day she got hit by a car and suffered severe bruising on her leg. However, she didn?t go to the hospital as she couldn?t deal with the psychological treatment of being indigent and therefore missed out on the physical treatment as well. The driver who hit her just drove away.
Paula worked on the same corner for the last 20 years. She tried to get customers who she knew and would call her, but if no one called she had to go out onto Aurora.
I saw her there several times and for the most part just drove by. Sometimes, when it was cold and dark and rainy, I would pull over and tell her she needed to get off the street. Her normal response was that she needed money to get a room. If I could, I would drive her to a motel and give her some money to pay for the room. I couldn?t stand seeing her out on that corner shivering.
She didn?t often come to the casino, so if I hadn?t seen her for a while I would call just to check out how she was doing. She always told me that she ?was a survivor and not to worry.? Still, if I had the chance I would bring her some food or something else to help out.
Her death brings me great sadness. You never want someone you know to die, but more important it seemed like no one ? outside of Mike ? would notice that she was gone outside or even care.
On one hand, I was considering that it wouldn?t be a good idea for me to attend the funeral service for a prostitute. Luckily, my heart kicked in and told me Paula was a real person and she deserved to be honored. I will go and be there to honor her memory.
The more disturbing thing I think about is, how many other women are there out in the world facing a similar situation ? drug addicted, selling bodies for day-to-day living expenses and with no support group? Paula recently told me that I was one of only one or two people who actually cared and treated her like a real person. Almost everyone else only cared about her for what they could get from her. It made me feel good that she felt that way about me, but it made me feel awful that I couldn?t and didn?t know what more I could do to help.
The point of this story is that we need to worry about people in Paula?s situation. There must be some way to prevent people from falling through the cracks. I am not quite sure what to do, but I am going to figure this out. Several friends have told me that it was her own fault, that she could have chosen a different life if she weren?t so weak. I don?t believe that people who have been raised in an upper-middle-class lifestyle can comprehend what it?s like to grow up in a situation with abuse and no loving relations.
Despite all of her choices and problems, Paula Gomez was a good person.
I am sorry she is gone, and I do care.
Edmonds resident Harry Gatjens is a contributing writer to My Edmonds News.
I just had a lecture on Class last Thursday at Enderun Colleges in Nuffnang's Country Manager's dinner. Abe Olandres, Country Manager for Nuffnang Philippines and blogger at Yugatech, and the awesome gang of Nuffnang had invited their talents to a night overflowing with fun and of course, wine.
This is a nice informational post and I hope you'll enjoy learning as much as I did. :)
?Our appetizer for the night wasn't the usual salad, bread, or croquettes but instead, we had Wine and Cheese which to me, was great. Mom and I would always indulge in wine and cheese every weekend as a treat simply because we love this food and drink.?
?The rule of thumb in wine and cheese combination is: Light Cheese is to Light Wine, and Strong Cheese is to Strong Wine. It will help you appreciate both the flavors of the wine and cheese, and you won't go wondering what the other tastes like.
I went for the Light Wine and Light Cheese combination: I had Gruyere, a semi- hard cheese with a light, milky flavor and Terra Vega, a mellow Merlot. FYI, Merlot is a medium- bodied wine in terms of acidity and flavor. Terra Vega Merlot also happened to be my most favorite wine of the night!
?Our menu for the night. The buffet of wine was provided by Ralph's Wine and Spirit. Click READ MORE and learn more about wine and food combinations!
?Right at our tables are goblets placed atop a paper with the kinds of wine to be served written all over it. I have never tasted some of these wines before, and it just made the experience all the more exciting.
?First off, we had Tanigue Tartare paired with Bolla Soave Classico '11 and Mont Gras Sauvignon Blanc '12. Fish goes great with White Wine, by the way. However, I'm not really into White Wines but I had no choice because after all, it was Wine Appreciation Night! Between the two wines, I prefer Bolla Soave Classico more because it has a refreshing citrusy taste and the right touch of alcohol, whereas Mont Gras Sauvignon Blanc is a full- bodied wine with a strong Passionfruit-Grape smell and taste. Not a fan of Passionfruit though. :p
Here's an interesting fact: The recipe of Bolla Soave is the same as the wines during Jesus Christ's time!
?Next on our table was Potato Soup with Mushroom Foam and Bacon Bits paired with Terra Vega Merlot '11 and Bolla Soave Classico '11. Both wines were repeatedly served, as I already had them in the Wine and Cheese and Tanigue Tartare portions. The soup was light and what better way to eat it than with light wines. As I said, Terra Vega Merlot was my favorite and you know now which of the two wines I liked best. :)
The Bacon Bits were served separately, and we were asked to drink white wine with the soup first, then red wine with the soup plus bacon bits after. I like the second combination best because the saltiness of the Bacon Bits and Terra Vega Merlot have balanced each other out, and gave the soup a smoky flavor.
?For our main course, we had Salmon with Leek and Citrus Butter paired with Mont Gras Sauvignon Blanc '12 and Terra Vega Sauvignon Blanc '09. If you may recall, I said at the top part of this post that I didn't like the Passionfruit-y taste of Mont Gras Sauvignon Blanc. Terra Vega won my heart once again with its ultra light, watery taste with a hint of citrus.
?To cap off our meal, we had this decadent Flourless Chocolate Cake paired with Mont Gras Cabernet Sauvignon '10/''11 and Bolla Valpolicella Soave- Classico '10/'11. Ah, chocolate and red wine--a match made in heaven! Mont Gras Cabernet Sauvignon was a little too strong and alcoholic for my liking, and Bolla Valpolicella Soave-Classico's smoky taste and aroma went so well with this cake. Every time I'd eat the cake and sip the Bolla wine, I was having a beautiful explosion of flavors?on my tongue!
There you have it! I hope you've learned a thing or two about pairing wine with food, and the types of wines. If you're interested with my favorites, Terra Vega and Bolla Soave or any of the wines I've listed above, please visit a Ralph's Wine and Spirit branch near you. Remember, expensive wines don't necessarily taste good in the same way as cheap wines don't necessarily taste bad! Proof? My favorite, Terra Vega Merlot, is only P285.00!
The best part of the night? I got drunk! I don't drink alcoholic beverages on a weekly basis--not even monthly, and it was just so nice to experience that feeling of being drunk again. What's even better is that I got drunk with a good company, made so much new friends, (thank you alcohol, for making me sociable) finally talked with a couple of bloggers whom I know but didn't really have a chance to talk with, and I was finally drafted into Nuffnang's Talent Program!
Photo credits: Arjohn Yabut
Thank you so much Nuffnang for this wonderful night and for the opportunity! I am so happy to be with this group of achievers in the world of blogging!
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) ? Members of the ruling party met behind closed doors, bartering all night for votes to depose four Supreme Court justices who had rejected the president's plan to weed out corrupt police. Ominously, soldiers and police surrounded the National Congress.
As the hours ticked by, representatives inside puffed on cigarettes in violation of their own anti-smoking laws and jokingly accused each other of vote-buying. Then shortly before dawn Wednesday, President Porfirio Lobo's National Party overwhelmingly and, many say illegally, approved the judges' dismissal.
That was a risky move.
"We don't know when we leave after the vote if there will be prosecutors waiting to detain us," admitted Sergio Castellanos of the Democratic Unification party, who voted with the majority. "Here you have to be ready for anything."
On global rosters of failing states, Honduras doesn't even crack the top 50, yet by many grim measures the troubled Central American republic is barely clinging to its status as a functioning country.
Three years after former President Manuel Zelaya was run out of office at gunpoint in his pajamas, Lobo is struggling. He has twice warned that his enemies are conspiring to oust him in a coup, and he then provoked a constitutional crisis with the judges' removal, an act that legal scholars describe as everything from an abuse of power to a betrayal of the country.
Political turmoil is but the latest trouble bedeviling Honduras. Even in the best of times, Lobo's government, police and military control only about two-thirds of the country. In at least three states, drug gangs rule the highways and clandestine airstrips, with firepower greater than law enforcement's, said Cesar Caceres, a former adviser to the Security Ministry.
As a result, three-quarters of all U.S.-bound cocaine passes through the country's lawless outback in an illicit business that has led to an explosion of violence, which in some cities has reached epidemic proportions. Honduras has more homicides than any other country in the world with 91 per 100,000 people, the World Health Organization says.
The country is as poor as it is violent.
The national government is so broke it needs to borrow $100 million to pay its employees, including members of the electoral council, who say they can't issue complete results from last month's primary for 2013 presidential candidates until vote-counters are paid.
Two out of three Hondurans live in poverty, on less than $1.25 a day, and only a quarter of children complete middle school. Every day, hundreds of people give up on their homeland altogether to make the dangerous trek north to look for work in the United States.
Since Lobo's election, the U.S. government frequently has noted Honduran progress on national reconciliation and respect for human rights, while acknowledging continued problems with corruption and impunity.
But many Hondurans say their country's problems are more fundamental.
"Honduras is a weak state in a tremendous institutional crisis," said Hugo Noe Pino, who has served at times as finance minister, central bank president and Honduran ambassador to the United States. He called the country "ungovernable."
Jore Yllescas, a presidential commissioner for the Department of Revenue, concurred.
"Honduras is almost a failed state, incapable of solving its education or health problems, let alone justice, security or control of its own territory," Yllescas said. "I wouldn't dare to stay that it's reversible. I have no evidence to show that."
Long before political scientists began to talk of failed states, Honduras was known disparagingly as a "banana republic."
In the late 19th century, U.S. companies like United Fruit and Standard Fruit owned vast tracts of land and relied on the Honduran military to quell labor rebellions. The elites then formed the country's two major political parties in support of the fruit companies, cementing ties between Honduras' business and political interests, said Marvin Barahona, a historian at a Jesuit think tank in the capital.
With wealth concentrated in the hands of a few families, Honduras remained poor. Decades later, as U.S. aid poured into government coffers, many citizens complained that their country had been converted into Washington's client state, a base for the U.S. military and U.S.-backed Contras fighting the Sandinistas in neighboring Nicaragua.
But the status quo was fine with the oligarchy. Zelaya, a rich landowner from Olancho state, was one of them when he was elected president in 2006. When he began to move away from Washington towards Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chavez, however, his opponents feared a populist threat. His proposal for a referrendum on changing the constitution was the last straw. He was booted out by leaders of his own party, backed by the army.
The U.S. suspended aid as a sanction for the coup, and in the ensuing political chaos, drug traffickers saw an opening.
"Direct flights from the Venezuela-Colombia border soared to runways in Honduras, and thus began a violent struggle for control of this drug corridor," according to the 2012 U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime report. The report estimates drug trafficking now accounts for about 13 percent of Hondura's gross domestic product.
Cocaine shipments are dropped in the Mosquito Coast region, bordering Nicaragua, then are moved through Olancho or Gracias a Dios states, converging on the border of Guatemala.
In high drug-trafficking areas, many people depend on the cartels, not the government, to provide jobs and services.
"We're like Colombia of the 1980s," said Caceres, the former Security Ministry adviser who now heads a security support program for the European Union in Honduras. "People linked to drug trafficking are seen by part of the population as benefactors, because of the inability of the state to offer solutions to their poverty."
Hondurans say corruption and crony politics have deprived state coffers of revenue thanks to politicians who enact laws to favor their own business interests.
For example, Tito Asfura, a city council member running for mayor of Tegucigalpa, holds the garbage collecting contract for the capital and sits on the corporation that renews the contract. Fast-food franchises proliferating in the city's many shopping malls and street corners get tax breaks for creating jobs that often pay less than minimum wage, or for promoting "tourism."
"The culture of tax evasion is amazing in Honduras," said Mario Lopez Steiner, the 16th director of the country's Department of Revenue in 18 years.
Since taking office in January 2010, Lobo has been under international pressure to fix the broken country. He brokered an agreement to let ousted former President Zelaya return to form his own political party, and tried to regain the trust of foreign investors.
Lobo proposed creating private cities with their own laws and authorities, arguing that the country's justice system didn't work. It was an attempt "to create a Honduras from scratch," said Octavio Sanchez, Lobo's chief of Cabinet. But the Supreme Court declared the move unconstitutional.
In a nation where people have to regularly dodge extortion attempts from police and daily violence, Lobo launched a program of background checks on police officers ? a priority of the U.S. government, which gives Honduras about $100 million a year in aid.
Lobo's police reform sowed the seeds of the current confrontation. A constitutional court declared the purge unconstitutional because it did not include an appeals process for dismissed officers, and the full Supreme Court was expected to uphold the ruling. Before it could, congress voted to put the reform to a popular vote, and replaced the dissenting court members. The attorney general reacted immediately, saying he would consider prosecuting the congressmen who approved the ouster.
The Honduran constitution gives the president, judiciary and congress autonomous powers. Since the coup of 2009, and despite a subsequent truth commission report recommending the constitution be changed to allow for impeaching a president or a justice, little has changed.
Lobo interrupted all television programing on Thursday to call for a national dialogue with the country's key players, many of whom he accused of trying to oust him just a week ago, "to find a way out of this crisis."
Average Hondurans call it a power-struggle among the elites, and say they don't want to get in the middle of it.
"God help us, we don't want the chaos of another coup," said bus driver Moises Cruz. "The worst is that we're going through this crisis again because of all these politicians who only look out for themselves."
Web edition: December 14, 2012 Print edition: December 29, 2012; Vol.182 #13 (p. 14)
Gestures have timely impact
People think differently about the passage of time depending on the hand gestures someone else uses, Stanford psychologist Barbara Tversky reported on November 17. In a series of experiments, Tversky?s colleague Azadeh Jamalian of Columbia University asked volunteers to diagram progressions of familiar events. While describing these tasks, Jamalian gestured in a straight horizontal line, gestured in a circle or made no gestures. Most individuals drew linear diagrams after seeing linear gestures and circular diagrams after seeing circular gestures. Linear diagrams predominated if no gestures were used, probably because people tend to conceive of time as running on a line, Tversky said. Gestures can subtly alter the notion of how time proceeds, she proposed.
Memory athletes flex mind power
Top competitors in memory competitions aren?t one-trick ponies. Four of the most accomplished memory athletes, including the top-ranked master of recall, scored much higher than groups of college students on a variety of memory and attention tests, psychologist Henry Roediger III of Washington University in St. Louis said on November 17. Memory competitors scored extraordinarily well on tests of list memory, recall of specific numbers from equations that had been mentally solved, and attention control during attempted distractions. Memory athletes use well-known recall strategies on specific challenges, such as remembering hundreds of rapidly presented numbers, but these people possess much broader mental prowess than that, Roediger suggested. It?s not known whether recall gurus start out with super memory and attention or gain those skills through practice.
Humans expect hidden treasures to be clustered in space
Adults and children hide valuables in clumps to make them easy for collaborators to find but scatter goodies widely when hiding them from competitors, psychologist Andreas Wilke of Clarkson University in Potsdam, N.Y., reported November 16. Humans evolved to expect that food and other resources appear in patches, Wilke theorizes (SN: 2/12/11, p. 26). In one test, 5- to 8-year-olds hid 20 marbles among 100 boxes on a playground after being told to make it either hard or easy for others to find the toys. Adults did the same in a computer game in which they hid $1 tokens in a grid of 100 squares. In both games, hiders clustered objects if they wanted them easily found.
NEW YORK?? To millions of people, the Christmas tree is a cheerful sight. To scientists who decipher the DNA codes of plants and animals, it's a monster.
We're talking about the conifer, the umbrella term for cone-bearing trees like the spruce, fir, pine, cypress and cedar. Apart from their Yuletide popularity, they play big roles in the lumber industry and in healthy forest ecosystems.
Scientists would love to identify the billions of building blocks that make up the DNA of a conifer. That's called sequencing its genome. Such analysis is a standard tool of biology, and doing it for conifers could reveal genetic secrets useful for basic science, breeding and forest management.
But the conifer genome is dauntingly huge. And like a big price tag on a wished-for present, that has put it out of reach.
Now, as Christmas approaches, it appears the conifer's role as a genetic Grinch may be ending.
In recent months, scientific teams in the United States and Canada have released preliminary, patchy descriptions of conifer genomes. And a Swedish team plans to follow suit soon in its quest for the Norway spruce.
"The world changed for conifer genetics," said David Neale of the University of California, Davis. It's "entering the modern era."
What happened? Credit the same recent technological advances that have some doctors predicting that someday, people will have their genomes sequenced routinely as part of medical care. The technology for that has gotten faster and much cheaper.
"Until just a few years ago, the idea of sequencing even a single conifer genome seemed impossible," said John MacKay of the University of Laval in Quebec City, who co-directs a multi-institution Canadian project that's tackling the white spruce. The new technologies changed that, he said.
How big is a conifer genome? Consider the 80-foot Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center in New York. It's a Norway spruce, so its genome is six times bigger than that of anybody skating below it. Other conifer genomes are even larger.
Nobody expects a perfect, finished conifer genome anytime soon. MacKay and others say that reaching that goal would probably require some advances in technology. But even partial versions can help tree breeders and basic scientists, researchers say.
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For breeders, "genomes can really help you speed up the process and simply do a better job of selecting trees, if you understand the genetic architecture of the traits you want to breed for," MacKay said.
The prospect of climate change brings another dimension. As forest managers select trees to plant after a fire or tree harvesting, genetic information might help them pick varieties that can adapt to climate trends in coming decades, Neale said.
It's all about "giving them a tree that will be healthy into the future," he said.
To sequence a genome, scientists start by chopping DNA into small bits, and let their machines sequence each bit. That's the part that has become much faster and cheaper in recent years. But then comes the task of re-assembling these bits back into the long DNA chains found in trees. And that is a huge challenge with conifers, because their DNA chains contain many repeated sequences that make the assembly a lot harder.
As a result, conifers present "these large regions I think we will never be able to piece together" with current technologies, said Par Ingvarsson of Umea University in Sweden, who is leading the Norway spruce project.
Will scientists develop new technologies to overcome that problem?
"You should never say never in this game," Ingvarsson said.
This past summer, Neale's group presented partial results for the genome sequence of loblolly pine, based on DNA extracted from a single pine nut. It includes about a million disconnected chunks of DNA, and altogether it covers well over half the tree's genome.
Neale figures it will take his team until 2016 to complete genomes of the loblolly, Douglas-fir and sugar pine. The project is financed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Mackay's group recently released its early results on DNA taken from a single white spruce.
As for the Swedish project on Norway spruce, Ingvarsson said its results will be made public early next year. The 2 million DNA pieces have captured most of the estimated 35,000 to 40,000 genes in the tree, even if researchers don't know just where those genes go in the overall genome sequence, he said.
People have about 23,000 genes, not much different from a conifer. The tree's genome so much bigger because it also contains an abundance of non-gene DNA with no obvious function, Ingvarsson said.
He said his chief reason for tackling conifer genomes was to fill a conspicuous vacancy in the list of sequenced plants.
"It was like the one missing piece," he said. "We just need this final piece to say something about how all the plant kingdom has evolved over the last billion years or so."
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By Deanna Durante and David Chang, NBCPhiladelphia.com
Two former workers at a Pennsylvania nursing home are in jail after police say they were caught on camera abusing an elderly patient.
Investigators say the abuse happened at the Arbors at Buck Run, a nursing home in Bucks County, Pa.?The daughter of a patient at Arbors became suspicious about how her mother was being treated and decided to take action, according to investigators.
?The patient?s daughter installed hidden cameras in her mother?s room and captured the abuse that?s alleged in this case, including one of the accused literally dancing in the face of a wheel-chair bound victim,? said Detective Eric Landamia of the Lower Southampton Police Department.
Police and the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare began to investigate. According to the DPW, the two workers were seen ?dumping? a resident on a bed and ?manhandling? the patient.
Read more at NBCPhiladelphia.com
The DPW also says one of the workers danced in front of the resident while holding a cell phone and then singing and yelling directly into the resident?s face. The ongoing abuse happened repeatedly from October 16 to November 13, according to the DPW.
Police identified the two workers as Regina Battles, 20, and Irene Rodriguez, 22. Both women turned themselves in Tuesday morning and were sent to the Bucks County Jail after failing to post $100,000 bail. They are charged with neglect of a care dependent person, reckless endangerment, simple assault and harassment.
The lawyer for both women says his clients did nothing wrong. He also calls the surveillance video that captured the alleged abuse ?a matter of interpretation.?
?I understand the victim?s family seeing it in a way that they?re perceiving it,? said Defense Attorney Alan Zibelman. ??I completely understand that. But I also believe that if an objective person looked at it, it could be perceived in a different way.?
The two women aren?t the only ones in hot water due to the alleged abuse. The DPW revoked the Arbors? license, citing ?gross incompetence, negligence and misconduct.?
NBC10 Philadelphia talked to a spokeswoman from Arbors.
?Do you have anything to say on behalf of the facility?? asked NBC10?s Deanna Durante.
?No,? said the woman. ?I just think it?s a wonderful place to work.?
The woman eventually directed NBC10 to the nursing home?s management company. The company told NBC10 the nursing home previously received a citation also related to patient care back in February which they were in full compliance with by May. The company also claimed they would appeal the DPW?s order to close and will stay open for the next 30 days. ?
In June, we published an article advising small-business owners to guard against hackers who use malicious software, or malware, to raid business bank accounts. Computer security specialists say these crimes, called ?corporate account takeovers,? have become increasingly common, and small businesses are especially easy prey because many lack firewalls and monitoring systems.
Worse, business owners often assume incorrectly that the protection they have on personal bank accounts applies to their business accounts as well. But historically that has not been the case. Provided banks can show adequate security procedures, they have no legal obligation to reimburse businesses for attacks, as federal regulations do not cover commercial accounts.
A recent court decision, however, creates a precedent to change that. In July, the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston ruled in favor of a construction company that had been hacked, declaring its bank responsible for the losses. Last month the two parties reached a settlement.
In May 2009, Mark Patterson?s company, Patco Construction in Sanford, Me., was robbed of $588,000 by cybercriminals using ZeuS Trojan, a form of malware. Over seven consecutive days, thieves executed automated clearinghouse batch transactions with Patco?s user name and password.
Mr. Patterson assumed incorrectly that his financial institution, Ocean Bank, a southern Maine community bank, would cover the unauthorized debits. When he learned otherwise, he tried to cut a deal.
?We thought there were enough red flags that the bank should have detected? fraudulent activity, Mr. Patterson said, ?but we also knew the malware was on our systems.? Because the bank was able to recover about $240,000 by halting or clawing back money from transfers processed within 24 hours of discovering the fraud, Patco?s actual losses were about $350,000. So Mr. Patterson asked Ocean Bank to reimburse $250,000. When the bank refused, he called a lawyer.
Patco brought suit against People?s United Bank, a regional bank based in Bridgeport, Conn., which had acquired Ocean Bank. With both sides in agreement that money was stolen and about how it was stolen, the facts of the case were never in dispute. In August 2011, Maine?s Federal District Court ruled in favor of the bank, finding that People?s United?s security systems were ?commercially reasonable,? meaning the bank had done everything possible to protect its customers from fraud.
But Patco appealed, arguing that because People?s United had configured its security systems improperly, the bank failed to prevent the crime. ?In this case, the bank put settings in place that were counter to good security,? said Dan Mitchell, a partner in the Portland, Me., office of Bernstein Shur and a member of the law firm?s data security practice. Mr. Mitchell represented Patco in the case. ?The way they operated it left holes in the system.?
Mr. Mitchell explained that thieves spirited away money from Patco?s account to places like California and Florida, where the company does not normally conduct business. The timing and values of payments were also inconsistent with regular orders.
While People?s United assigned a risk score from zero to 1,000 for every transaction, the bank did not monitor scores to halt the fraud. ?Patco?s typical scores were zero to 214 max, but in this case the risk scores were in the high 700s,? Mr. Mitchell said. ?So the bank had the ability to generate these scores but didn?t do anything with them.?
On this basis, Patco won the appeal, and in November People?s United agreed to pay back the full amount stolen from Patco, plus interest. Representatives of People?s United did not respond to requests for comment.
?The Patco case was the first to come from a court that high up,? Mr. Mitchell said. ?This case is a guidepost now. My guess is that most of these cases get resolved, and this case will encourage that even more.? He believes the ruling will motivate banks not only to purchase adequate security systems but also to configure and maintain them properly.
Still, the impact of the Patco case may be muted, as financial institutions and their customers have become increasingly knowledgeable about computer security in the past three years. ?If the status quo had been maintained, this decision would have put the fear of God into institutions,? said Sari Stern Greene, president of Sage Data Security in South Portland, Me., who testified as an expert witness in the case on behalf of Patco. ?But in the interim, financial institutions have significantly enhanced their security controls and helped educate their customers.?
Ms. Greene also underscores that small businesses must erect their own firewalls and take precautions to prevent hacking. ?Online banking security is really a partnership between the customer and the financial institution. When customers use online banking, they?re in essence creating their own personal branch,? she said. ?Businesses invest in locks, alarms and motion sensors; they understand they need those controls in the physical world. And now they need them in the digital world too.?
As for Patco, the company no longer makes automated clearinghouse batch transactions. Mr. Patterson and his lawyer estimate People?s United spent more than $1 million in legal fees, while Patco spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to resolve the case.
?Yeah, I feel good about winning,? Mr. Patterson said. ?But in the end, why does this stuff have to occur? Why didn?t the bank just settle??
A silent protester cries while wearing a sticker over her mouth signifying the loss in wages from the right-to-work law in Lansing, Mich., Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2012. Michigan became the 24th state with a right-to-work law after Gov. Rick Snyder signed the bill Tuesday. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
A silent protester cries while wearing a sticker over her mouth signifying the loss in wages from the right-to-work law in Lansing, Mich., Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2012. Michigan became the 24th state with a right-to-work law after Gov. Rick Snyder signed the bill Tuesday. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Protesters hold a silent protest in Lansing, Mich., Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2012, a day after thousands of protesters rallied on the grounds as lawmakers pushed final versions of right-to-work legislation. The tape over their mouths shows how Gov. Rick Snyder and his allies have silenced Michigan?s middle class, and effectively cut the wages of Michiganders by $1500. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)
Lansing, Mich. (AP) ? Now that Michigan has become a right-to-work state, unions in this stronghold of organized labor confront a new and urgent problem: convincing members to continue paying for their services instead of taking them for free.
Brushing aside protests from thousands of labor supporters, the Republican-controlled state House approved measures Tuesday making it illegal to require that nonunion workers pay fees to unions for negotiating wage contracts and other services. The Senate did likewise last week, and Gov. Rick Snyder swiftly signed the bills into law.
The laws take effect 90 days after the Legislature adjourns this month, giving unions little time to devise a strategy for keeping members on board and convincing nonmembers to continue their financial support.
Union leaders said it was too soon to predict how the laws would affect their membership and recruiting, partly because workers covered by existing labor contracts won't be able to stop paying union fees until those deals lapse ? which in some cases will take several years. Contracts between unions and Detroit automakers, for example, are effective until September 2015.
Many of the activists who protested at the Capitol this week said they would continue supporting their unions but feared that some co-workers would abandon them. Unions are legally required to represent all employees of a business equally, whether they're members or not.
"In our plant, it could pit worker against worker," said Brett Brown, who works in the trim department at a General Motors plant in Lansing. Unions will lose money serving workers who refuse to contribute, making it harder for them to function, he said.
Mike Card said he would happily keep paying 4.5 percent of his hourly wages to be part of Boilermakers Local 169 in Allen Park because the organization protects him from losing his job to a younger person who will accept lower pay.
"Definitely among the members you're going to have resentment" of those who opt out, he said.
After signing the bills, Snyder said unions should redouble their efforts to show workers that membership is worth the money. But experience shows that some workers won't pay even the best-managed union unless it's required.
"Some will say, 'If I don't have to pay, why should I pay?'" said Robert McCormick, a law professor at Michigan State University and former National Labor Relations Board attorney. "The more people do that, the less revenue comes into the union, and it gets weaker."
In Indiana, where right-to-work legislation was enacted earlier this year, most unions have not yet seen a drop-off in membership. But many contracts are still in place from before the law took effect.
"It's not like there's some cliff you fall off. It's not one day you have a union, the next day half the people drop out," said Jim Robinson, director of United Steelworkers District 7, which covers Indiana. He said labor leaders there are consulting with counterparts in Southern states, where right-to-work laws have been common for years.
Robinson said he has directed his organizers and representatives to continue attentiveness to worker needs to keep membership up.
Right-to-work "encourages a culture of freeloading, and you have to really be vigilant that culture doesn't get started," he said.
Peer pressure and tradition may go a long way to keep larger, more established unions intact. The United Auto Workers, for example, has been intertwined in Michigan's tight culture of manufacturing cars and trucks for 77 years.
At most auto plants, the union does more than just bargain for wages. It's a brotherhood that holds social and charitable events at union halls and organizes motorcycle rides and bus trips to baseball games and amusement parks. The halls are also sites for weddings and other celebrations, and where retirees gather to talk about old times. Simply put, a worker who shuns the union could be ostracized.
For those reasons, the UAW has seen only a few people opt out of joining the union at GM factories, even in states that have had right-to-work laws for a long time.
At GM's factory in Spring Hill, Tenn., only eight of the 1,650 blue-collar workers have rejected union membership. GM has hired more than 220 new workers at the plant and all have joined, UAW spokeswoman Michele Martin said.
Fewer than a dozen of the 3,200 workers at a huge GM SUV plant in Arlington, Texas, haven't joined, said Mike Cartwright, president of UAW Local 276.
"No one wants to be a free rider," said Cartwright, who helps to sell the union to every new worker at the factory that opened in 1954. "We do a pretty good job of explaining the big picture. It doesn't hurt the company. We support the company."
If anything, the right-to-work fight has boosted members' appreciation of their unions, said George McGregor, president of UAW Local 22 in Detroit.
"This is the best organizing tool that we will ever have," McGregor said.
___
Associated Press writers Tom Krisher in Detroit and Tom LoBianco in Indianapolis contributed to this story.
Dec. 12, 2012 ? An international research collaboration led by scientists at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine and the University of Dundee, in the U.K., have developed a way to efficiently and effectively make designer drugs that hit multiple protein targets at once.
This accomplishment, described in the Dec. 13, 2012 issue of the journal Nature, may prove invaluable for developing drugs to treat many common human diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, cancer, schizophrenia, and bi-polar disorder.
These disorders are called complex diseases because each have a number of genetic and non-genetic influences that determine susceptibility, i.e., whether someone will get the disease or not.
"In terms of the genetics of schizophrenia we know there are likely hundreds of different genes that can influence the risk for disease and, because of that, there's likely no single gene and no one drug target that will be useful for treating it, like other common complex diseases," said study co-leader, Brian L. Roth, MD, PhD, Michael J. Hooker Distinguished Professor of Pharmacology in the UNC School of Medicine, professor in the Division of Chemical Biology and Medicinal Chemistry in the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, and director of the National Institute of Mental Health Psychoactive Drug Screening Program.
In complex neuropsychiatric conditions, infectious diseases and cancer, Roth points out that for the past 20 years drug design has been selectively aimed at a single molecular target, but because these are complex diseases, the drugs are often ineffective and thus many never reach the market.
Moreover, a drug that acts on a single targeted protein may interact with many other proteins. These undesired interactions frequently cause toxicity and adverse effects.
"And so the realization has been that perhaps one way forward is to make drugs that hit collections of drug targets simultaneously. This paper provides a way to do that," Roth said.
The new way involves automated drug design by computer that takes advantage of large databases of drug-target interactions. The latter have been made public through Roth's lab at UNC and through other resources.
Basically, the researchers, also co-led by Andrew L. Hopkins, PhD in the Division of Biological Chemistry and Drug Discovery, College of Life Sciences, at the University of Dundee, in Scotland, used the power of computational chemistry to design drug compounds that were then synthesized by chemists, tested in experimental assays and validated in mouse models of human disease.
The study team experimentally tested 800 drug-target predictions of the computationally designed compounds; of these, 75 percent were confirmed in test-tube (in vitro) experiments.
Drug to target engagement also was confirmed in animal models of human disease. In a mouse model of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), mice missing a particular dopamine receptor engage in recurrent aberrant behaviors similar to what is seen in ADHD: distractibility and novelty seeking. "We created a compound that was predicted to prevent those recurrent behaviors and it worked quite well," Roth said.
The researchers then tested the compound in another mouse model where a particular enzyme for a brain neuropeptide is missing. Distractibility and novelty seeking also are behavioral features in these animals. And the drug had the same effect in those mice.
The new drug design process includes ensuring that compounds enter the brain by crossing the blood-brain barrier. These, too, were tested successfully in live animals.
According to Roth, pharmaceutical company chemists had suggested that the objective of a drug hitting multiple targets simultaneously is impossible and unlikely to succeed. "Here we show how to efficiently and effectively make designer drugs that can do that."
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of North Carolina Health Care.
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Journal Reference:
J?r?my Besnard, Gian Filippo Ruda, Vincent Setola, Keren Abecassis, Ramona M. Rodriguiz, Xi-Ping Huang, Suzanne Norval, Maria F. Sassano, Antony I. Shin, Lauren A. Webster, Frederick R. C. Simeons, Laste Stojanovski, Annik Prat, Nabil G. Seidah, Daniel B. Constam, G. Richard Bickerton, Kevin D. Read, William C. Wetsel, Ian H. Gilbert, Bryan L. Roth, Andrew L. Hopkins. Automated design of ligands to polypharmacological profiles. Nature, 2012; 492 (7428): 215 DOI: 10.1038/nature11691
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Detective Catherine Chandler is a smart, no-nonsense homicide detective. Several years earlier, Catherine witnessed the murder of her mother at the hands of two gunmen. Catherine would have been killed too, but someone - or something - saved her. No one has ever believed her, but she knows it wasn't an animal that attacked the assassins...it was human. Years have passed, and Catherine is a strong, confident, capable police officer, working alongside her equally talented partner, Tess. While investigating a murder, Catherine discovers a clue that leads her to a handsome doctor named Vincent Keller, who was reportedly killed by enemy fire while serving in Afghanistan in 2002. Catherine learns that Vincent is actually still alive and that it was he who saved her many years before. For mysterious reasons that have forced him to live outside of traditional society, Vincent has been in hiding for the past 10 years to guard his secret - when he is enraged, he becomes a terrifying beast, unable to control his super-strength and heightened senses. Catherine agrees to protect his identity in return for any insight he may have into her mother's murder. Thus begins a complex relationship between Catherine and Vincent, who are powerfully drawn to each other yet understand that their connection is extremely dangerous for both of them.
'The Carrie Diaries'
It's 1984, and life isn't easy for 16-year-old Carrie Bradshaw. Since their mother passed away, Carrie's younger sister Dorritt is more rebellious than ever, and their father Tom is overwhelmed with the responsibility of suddenly having to care for two teenage girls on his own. Carrie's friends - sweet, geeky Mouse, sarcastic and self-assured Maggie and sensitive Walt - make life bearable, but a suburban life in Connecticut isn't doing much to take her mind off her troubles. And even though the arrival of a sexy new transfer student named Sebastian brings some excitement to Carrie's world, she is struggling to move on from her grief. So when Tom offers Carrie the chance to intern at a law firm in Manhattan, she leaps at the chance. Carrie's eyes are opened wide at the glamour and grit of New York City - and when she meets Larissa, the style editor for Interview magazine, she's inspired by the club culture and unique individuals that make up Larissa's world. Carrie's friends and family may have a big place in her heart, but she's fallen in love for the first time with the most important man in her life - Manhattan.
'The Carrie Diaries'
It's 1984, and life isn't easy for 16-year-old Carrie Bradshaw. Since their mother passed away, Carrie's younger sister Dorritt is more rebellious than ever, and their father Tom is overwhelmed with the responsibility of suddenly having to care for two teenage girls on his own. Carrie's friends - sweet, geeky Mouse, sarcastic and self-assured Maggie and sensitive Walt - make life bearable, but a suburban life in Connecticut isn't doing much to take her mind off her troubles. And even though the arrival of a sexy new transfer student named Sebastian brings some excitement to Carrie's world, she is struggling to move on from her grief. So when Tom offers Carrie the chance to intern at a law firm in Manhattan, she leaps at the chance. Carrie's eyes are opened wide at the glamour and grit of New York City - and when she meets Larissa, the style editor for Interview magazine, she's inspired by the club culture and unique individuals that make up Larissa's world. Carrie's friends and family may have a big place in her heart, but she's fallen in love for the first time with the most important man in her life - Manhattan.
'Emily Owens, M.D.'
At long last, Emily Owens feels like she is an actual grown-up. She can finally put her high school days as the geeky-girl-with-flop-sweats behind her; she's graduated from medical school and is now a first-year intern at Denver Memorial Hospital, where she'll have the chance to work with world-famous cardiologist Dr. Gina Beckett - and where, not-so-coincidentally, her med-school crush Will Rider is also an intern. So why does everyone keep warning her that the hospital is just like high school? Emily soon finds out the hard way - her high school nemesis, the gorgeous, popular Cassandra Kopelson, is also just starting out at Denver Memorial, and it seems like they're rivals all over again - not only as surgical interns, but for Will's attention. Fellow intern Tyra Granger warns Emily that the cliques at Denver Memorial are all too familiar: the jocks have become orthopedic surgeons; the mean girls are in plastics; the rebels are in the ER, and Tyra has her own awkward place as the principal's kid - her father is the chief resident. Emily's the new kid all over again, and it's just as awkward as high school. Only this time around, Emily will have to balance the personal and emotional turmoil of social politics with the high-stakes world of life-and-death medical decisions. At least she has fellow intern Tyra and nerdy-but-cute resident Micah, to count on as friends. Emily is growing to realize that although she may be a geek, she may also grow to be a great doctor, flop sweats and all.
'Emily Owens, M.D.'
At long last, Emily Owens feels like she is an actual grown-up. She can finally put her high school days as the geeky-girl-with-flop-sweats behind her; she's graduated from medical school and is now a first-year intern at Denver Memorial Hospital, where she'll have the chance to work with world-famous cardiologist Dr. Gina Beckett - and where, not-so-coincidentally, her med-school crush Will Rider is also an intern. So why does everyone keep warning her that the hospital is just like high school? Emily soon finds out the hard way - her high school nemesis, the gorgeous, popular Cassandra Kopelson, is also just starting out at Denver Memorial, and it seems like they're rivals all over again - not only as surgical interns, but for Will's attention. Fellow intern Tyra Granger warns Emily that the cliques at Denver Memorial are all too familiar: the jocks have become orthopedic surgeons; the mean girls are in plastics; the rebels are in the ER, and Tyra has her own awkward place as the principal's kid - her father is the chief resident. Emily's the new kid all over again, and it's just as awkward as high school. Only this time around, Emily will have to balance the personal and emotional turmoil of social politics with the high-stakes world of life-and-death medical decisions. At least she has fellow intern Tyra and nerdy-but-cute resident Micah, to count on as friends. Emily is growing to realize that although she may be a geek, she may also grow to be a great doctor, flop sweats and all.
'Arrow'
After a violent shipwreck, billionaire playboy Oliver Queen was missing and presumed dead for five years before being discovered alive on a remote island in the Pacific. When he returns home to Starling City, his devoted mother Moira, much-beloved sister Thea, and best friend Tommy welcome him home, but they sense Oliver has been changed by his ordeal on the island. While Oliver hides the truth about the man he's become, he desperately wants to make amends for the actions he took as the boy he was. Most particularly, he seeks reconciliation with his former girlfriend, Laurel Lance. As Oliver reconnects with those closest to him, he secretly creates the persona of Arrow - a vigilante - to right the wrongs of his family, fight the ills of society, and restore Starling City to its former glory. By day, Oliver plays the role of a wealthy, carefree and careless philanderer he used to be - flanked by his devoted chauffeur/bodyguard, John Diggle - while carefully concealing the secret identity he turns to under cover of darkness. However, Laurel's father, Detective Quentin Lance, is determined to arrest the vigilante operating in his city. Meanwhile, Oliver's own mother, Moira, knows much more about the deadly shipwreck than she has let on - and is more ruthless than he could ever imagine.
'Cult'
Robert Knepper as Billy Grimm/Roger Reeves and Alona Tal as Kelly/Marti.
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Public release date: 17-Dec-2012
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Recently, my daughter turned 4 years old. I cannot believe how fast the time has gone. It feels like it was only yesterday that we brought her home from the hospital, all 8.6 pounds of her. I still remember the newness of those early days. The Olympics had just finished, and the 2008 presidential election was under way.
