Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/295919338?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Monday, April 1, 2013
Keep Drinks Upright with a Roll of Tape
This trick could come in handy at a party where someone might knock it over, but it has its uses in everyday life as well. I might use this at my computer desk or when playing video games so my drink won't get upended by any wires, and it could also save you from a big headache at your workbench, where an erratic swing of a hammer could send it flying.
My Drink Anti-Tipping Device | Reddit
Photo by Ace Barajas
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Caroline Kennedy returns to poetry for 10th book
NEW YORK (AP) ? Beginning work a few years ago on her latest book, an anthology of poems for young people, Caroline Kennedy found herself looking through one of her mother's scrapbooks. She burst into laughter, she says, as she came across a poem that her brother John, as a youngster, had picked out and copied as a gift to their poetry-loving mom.
"Willie with a thirst for gore, Nailed his sister to the door," went the poem, by an unknown author. "Mother said with humor quaint, 'Careful, Willie, don't scratch the paint!'"
The poem "brought back memories of our relationship," Kennedy told a bookstore audience this week. "I laughed so hard."
But for Kennedy, now 55 and a mother of three grown children, there's a deeper meaning to that irreverent ditty. Poetry was a central part of her home life growing up. She and John regularly copied out and illustrated poems for their mother, Jackie, upon birthdays and Mother's Days. Sometimes, they'd recite them too, "if we were feeling competitive." And at family gatherings with their grandmother, there were frequent challenges to recite Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's famous (and famously lengthy) "Paul Revere's Ride." Only Uncle Ted, it seems, was able to recite it in its entirety.
Now, with her 10th book, Kennedy wants to share with young readers the love for the written word that she feels her poetry-filled childhood helped instill in her (even though her own son, she quips, hates reading and only likes two poems.) Hence the title: "Poems to Learn By Heart."
"It was a combination of remembering my own childhood and thinking about gifts I'd been given," she said in an interview last week at her husband's downtown Manhattan design firm, explaining the genesis of the latest book. "And working in schools and seeing the role that poetry can play in kids' lives."
It's also an effort to promote literacy, a cause Kennedy has supported in a number of ways. "Fourteen percent of American adults can't read," Kennedy says. "It's a slow-motion disaster." She believes poetry can help. "Kids need a way in," she says, "and reading needs to be fun. Poetry can give them that ? with the current emphasis on poetry slams, and these other open mic events. That's actually why I think poetry has a chance."
Kennedy's current book ? a collection of poems from various authors, with introductions by her to each section, and vivid illustrations by John J Muth ? is her fourth to focus on poetry. Her earlier books, especially "The Best Loved Poems of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis," have been huge sellers, pulling in numbers unheard of for poetry anthologies.
"She's committed to becoming an advocate for the written word and poetry in particular," says Gretchen Young, who edited all of Kennedy's poetry books at Hyperion, working with the author to cull down huge numbers of beloved poems. "And she knows she can do that."
As to what else Kennedy can do with her high profile ? and the unique and powerful celebrity status she's held since she was a little girl in the Kennedy White House ? that is a question that people never cease to ask. The latest rumor has her up for an ambassadorship, perhaps to Japan, perhaps to Canada. Asked about those rumors during a recent TV appearance, she responded with typical restraint: "I'd love to serve in any way." She added that she hadn't been asked yet, and her response is still "No comment."
But many expect Kennedy, who considered seeking an appointment to the Senate from New York in 2009 but then withdrew her name from contention amid a flurry of publicity, to take up some high-profile position in the near future. She was an important and avid supporter of President Barack Obama, both in the 2008 and the 2012 elections.
"I'm really glad he's president," she says now when asked how he's doing, giving him high marks particularly in the field of education. "He can't do all the things he'd like to. We have a lot of problems. That's why I want young people to get engaged."
For now, though, Kennedy is making her mark in different ways. She is president of the John F. Kennedy Library Association, and in May will present the Profile in Courage award to former Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. She still participates in fundraising activities for the New York City public schools, and is joining Laura Bush and Lynda Bird Johnson Robb to help the Library of Congress promote literacy through a new awards program, along with other authors, publishers and scholars.
Another pet project: Libraries, which she says are still critical places for young people to learn analytical skills. She's the honorary chair of National Library Week next month. "I'm into things that are dying out," she quips, then adds that actually they're not: "My son goes to the library all the time (at college.) There's a lot more socializing at the library than you think."
And she hints that she'll be writing other books, though not on poetry. "I think I'm pretty much done with the poetry books," she says. "I haven't figured out the next thing yet."
In any case, her attention to poetry has been a boon for all poets, says Stephen Young, program director at the Poetry Foundation, based in Chicago. "Selling poetry is, for most poets, a challenge," Young says. "It certainly helps when someone like Caroline Kennedy, who has an earnest and genuine interest in poetry, puts together these anthologies."
And while many might think that in this world of tweets and texts, the art of poetry is slowly dying out, the truth is that it seems to be on the upswing among young people, Young says ? partly because of poetry slams and the like, but also due to the Internet. "People can read AND listen to poems on the Web," Young notes.
And clearly, kids like to recite out loud. Along with the National Endowment for the Arts, the poetry foundation sponsors Poetry Out Loud, a contest similar to the National Spelling Bee. In 2006, there were 40,000 participants. This year's contest, which will hold its finals in Washington, D.C., in April, has 375,000, Young says.
It all speaks, in his view, to the fact that "poems are meant to be shared." Kennedy says this too; In her book, along with more famous poems, she includes "Voices Rising," a collaborative poem by students on the "slam team" at DreamYard Prep, a Bronx school Kennedy became familiar with in her work with public schools. Those students contributed ideas to the book, and three of them recited their poem together at Kennedy's kickoff reading last week at Barnes & Noble in New York.
Speaking of young people, Kennedy asked each of her own three kids ? Rose and Tatiana, who have finished college, and Jack, who is still there ? to contribute a favorite poem to her new book. (Tatiana, the "bookworm" according to her mother, translated a poem from Ovid's Metamorphoses, from the original Latin.) But she herself has trouble picking her favorite.
Asked by an audience member at her book reading to do just that, though, she settled on "Don't Worry if Your Job is Small."
"Don't worry if your job is small, and your rewards are few," it says.
"Remember that the mighty oak, was once a nut like you."
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/caroline-kennedy-returns-poetry-10th-book-142503264.html
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Rubio: Reports of immigration deal 'premature'
FILE - In this March 12, 2013 file photo, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington. The Republican Party?s search for a way back to presidential success in 2016 is drawing a striking array of personalities and policy options. It?s shaping up as a wide-open self-reassessment by the GOP. Some factions are trying to tug the party left or right. Others argue over pragmatism versus defiance. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
FILE - In this March 12, 2013 file photo, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington. The Republican Party?s search for a way back to presidential success in 2016 is drawing a striking array of personalities and policy options. It?s shaping up as a wide-open self-reassessment by the GOP. Some factions are trying to tug the party left or right. Others argue over pragmatism versus defiance. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., makes a point as he is joined by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and Sen. Michael Bennett, D-CO, during a news conference after their tour of the Mexico border with the United States on Wednesday, March 27, 2013, in Nogales, Ariz. A group of influential U.S. senators shaping and negotiating details of an immigration reform package vowed Wednesday to make the legislation public when Congress reconvenes next month. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Even with one of the largest hurdles to an immigration overhaul overcome, optimistic lawmakers on Sunday cautioned they had not finished work on a bill that would provide a path to citizenship for 11 million illegal immigrants.
The AFL-CIO and the pro-business U.S. Chamber of Commerce reached a deal late Friday that would allow tens of thousands of low-skill workers into the country to fill jobs in construction, restaurants and hotels. Yet despite the unusual agreement between the two powerful lobbying groups, lawmakers from both parties conceded that the negotiations were not finished.
"With the agreement between business and labor, every major policy issue has been resolved," said Sen. Chuck Schumer, the New York Democrat who brokered the labor-business deal.
But it hasn't taken the form of a bill and the eight senators searching for a compromise haven't met about the potential breakthrough.
"We haven't signed off," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
"There are a few details yet. But conceptually, we have an agreement between business and labor, between ourselves that has to be drafted," he added.
Yet just before lawmakers began appearing on Sunday shows, Sen. Marco Rubio warned he was not ready to lend his name ? and political clout ? to such a deal without hashing out the details.
"Reports that the bipartisan group of eight senators have agreed on a legislative proposal are premature," said Rubio, a Florida Republican who is among the lawmakers working on legislation.
Rubio, a Cuban-American who is weighing a presidential bid in 2016, is a leading figure inside his party. Lawmakers will be closely watching any deal for his approval and his skepticism about the process did little to encourage optimism.
Rubio, who is the group's emissary to conservatives, called the agreement "a starting point" but said 92 senators from 43 states haven't yet been involved in the process.
The detente between the nation's leading labor federation and the powerful business lobbying group still needs senators' approval, including a nod from Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican whose previous efforts came up short.
"I think we're on track. . But as Sen. Rubio correctly says, we have said we will not come to final agreement till we look at all of the legislative language and he's correctly pointing out that that language hasn't been fully drafted," Schumer said.
Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., also noted the significance of the truce between labor and business but added that this wasn't yet complete.
"That doesn't mean we've crossed every 'i' or dotted every 't,' or vice versa," said Flake, who is among the eight lawmakers working on the deal.
Schumer negotiated the deal between AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka and Chamber of Commerce head Tom Donohue during a late-Friday phone call. Under the compromise, the government would create a new "W'' visa for low-skill workers who would earn wages paid to Americans or the prevailing wages for the industry they're working in, whichever is higher. The Labor Department would determine prevailing wage based on customary rates in specific localities, so that it would vary from city to city.
The proposed measure would secure the border, crack down on employers, improve legal immigration and create a 13-year pathway to citizenship for the millions of illegal immigrants already here.
It's a major second-term priority of President Barack Obama's and would usher in the most dramatic changes to the faltering U.S. immigration system in more than two decades.
"This is a legacy item for him. There is no doubt in my mind that he wants to pass comprehensive immigration reform," said David Axelrod, a longtime political confidant of Obama.
During the last week, an immigration deal seemed doomed. But the breakthrough late Friday restarted the talks.
Ultimately the new "W'' visa program would be capped at 200,000 workers a year, but the number of visas would fluctuate, depending on unemployment rates, job openings, employer demand and data collected by a new federal bureau being pushed by labor groups as an objective monitor of the market, according to an official involved with the talks who also spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of a formal announcement.
A "safety valve" would allow employers to exceed the cap, the official said, if they could show need and pay premium wages, but any additional workers brought in would be subtracted from the next year's cap.
The workers could move from employer to employer and would be able to petition for permanent residency and ultimately seek U.S. citizenship. Neither is possible for temporary workers now.
"As to the 11 million (illegal immigrants), they'll have a pathway to citizenship, but it will be earned, it will be long, and it will be hard, and I think it is fair," Graham said.
The new program would fill needs employers say they have that are not currently met by U.S. immigration programs. Most industries don't have a good way to hire a steady supply of foreign workers because there's one temporary visa program for low-wage nonagricultural workers but it's capped at 66,000 visas per year and is only supposed to be used for seasonal or temporary jobs.
Separately, the new immigration bill also is expected to offer many more visas for high-tech workers, new visas for agriculture workers, and provisions allowing some agriculture workers already in the U.S. a speedier path to citizenship than that provided to other illegal immigrants, in an effort to create a stable agricultural workforce.
Schumer, Flake and Axelrod appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press." Graham was interviewed on CNN's "State of the Union."
___
Associated Press writer Erica Werner contributed to this report.
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Doctor Who: The Bells Of? Oh, I Give Up - Mindless Ones
I usually try to say something interesting about the episodes of New Doctor Who I review here. Even if I don?t like it, I try to find some reason to say *why* I don?t like it. I at least engage enough with it to try to see what it?s trying to do.
But if Steven Moffat won?t try, then why should I?
It?s a shame, because everyone else on the programme is clearly trying. Matt Smith is an astonishingly good actor. Jenna-Louise Coleman is perfectly capable of pulling the ?quirky? face that?s the sum total of what she?s asked to do in the story. The effects people are clearly working hard.
But Moffat? Moffat is someone who clearly *can* write. He?s not as good as his reputation suggests, mind, but he can pull together a script that makes some kind of sense. I?ve seen it.
Yet this?
They?re ?hacking? people and ?uploading? them. How? ?Wi-fi?.
Words have meanings. Writers, of all people, should be aware of this. If you make something up, say ?their minds are being controlled because of quartronic energy?, then OK, fine, we?ll go with that. We don?t know what quartronic energy is, so maybe it can do that.
We know what wi-fi is, though. Everyone knows it *doesn?t* do that ? even if you show a shot of someone typing *really* fast.
That?s not to say that I expect Doctor Who to be technologically accurate ? while I winced at the scene where the Doctor says ?I?ve hacked their base operating system, but I can?t find their geographic location?, that?s because I?m someone who just spent five years working as a software engineer and now works for a firm of computer security consultants. It?s annoying that they?d get that kind of thing wrong, but no more so than, say, when Robert Holmes used to confuse the terms ?galaxy?, ?solar system? and ?universe?. I just expect that the writers at least make a tiny bit of an effort to sound plausible. ?They?re uploading everyone?s mind (and also mind-controlling everyone in London, and also controlling all the power and the planes) because of wi-fi? just isn?t trying.
And this lack of trying is evident throughout the script, from Moffat?s reuse of his tired trope of having a character speaking out of a screen they?re trapped in, to the random sexist joke thrown in for no good reason at the beginning, to the fact that the villain of the story turns out to be the Great Intelligence. The Great Intelligence was a villain from two stories from the late 1960s, both of which have been wiped, so nobody under about the age of fifty has ever seen them. His modus operandi was also different in those stories (and much better ? he had robot Yeti that lived in the London Underground and shot webs), and the only reason I can see for having the Great Intelligence in the story at all is to make a couple of dozen nerds say ?Ah, I see what he?s done. The Great Intelligence was in The Web Of Fear, and this is a story about the World Wide Web. I am clever.?
The epitome of this comes in the scene where the Doctor suddenly reveals that his motorbike has antigravity, and drives it up the Shard (which is, for the 54,466,900 people in Britain who, like myself, don?t live in London and pay rapt attention to everything that goes on in that most omphaloskeptic of cities, a new building there and thus absolutely fascinating).
People have been referring to this sort of thing, wrongly, as a deus ex machina. I don?t think that?s quite the correct term. Rather, I think it?s sort of an inverse Chekov?s gun. Normally, if you?re an actual writer, one who?s bothered about such trifling things as coherence, if you wanted the Doctor to have an antigravity motorbike, you?d set it up in some way, perhaps by having a scene at the beginning where the Doctor is riding his antigravity motorbike.
Then, when at the end he uses an antigravity motorbike, it would seem like something that was a logical consequence of events leading up to that point, rather than, as it does, like something improvised by a six-year-old playing with action figures:
?My man says that the Doctor can?t come in and he?s bigger than the Doctor so he wins.?
?Oh yeah? Well? the Doctor?s got a flying spacebike, so he just flies up there and *he* wins!?
The worst thing about this is that there?s a scene earlier in the story where he?s talking to Clara and the dialogue goes something like:
?I fixed your quadricycle?
?What??
?All those quadricycle bits you had lying around. I put them back together.?
?We didn?t have any quadricycle bits.?
??I invented the quadricycle!?
Well, firstly, of course, quadricycles have existed for over a hundred years (we?re back to the words meaning things thing again, aren?t we?) but secondly, replace ?quadricycle? with ?anti-gravity bike? in that exchange, and what happens? The joke works ? possibly even better than it did. It certainly does the same job as a character exchange.
But it also then means that later when the Doctor starts riding up the Shard, instead of just being something Moffat pulled out of his arse that doesn?t make any sense, it becomes a clever call-back to something that we originally thought was just an offhand joke. The script becomes tighter, the plot becomes more coherent, and you?ve made a piece of dialogue do double-duty.
Now, I thought of that straight away. I am not a professional screenwriter. Steven Moffat has been writing TV shows for over twenty years. Had he bothered even to read over what he?d typed out without thinking, just to give it the same kind of basic checks I give one of these blog posts, before having a huge crew of technicians, directors, actors, musicians and so on work on this thing and broadcasting it to an audience of millions, he would have thought of that too.
Clearly, though, it doesn?t matter. The Hugo nominations were announced today. In the short-form dramatic category, three of the five nominations were Steven Moffat Doctor Who scripts.
Clearly this is what the people want. Clearly this is somehow considered ?good?.
At this point, I?m only watching this programme because I?ve agreed to write these posts for Mindless Ones. I think that once this series is over, I won?t ever watch it again.
It couldn?t get any worse, could it?
Oh, wait?
Source: http://mindlessones.com/2013/03/31/doctor-who-the-bells-of-oh-i-give-up/
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Phil Ramone, Grammy-winning producer, dead at 72
NEW YORK (AP) ? Phil Ramone, the Grammy Award-winning engineer and producer whose platinum touch included recordings with Ray Charles, Billy Joel and Paul Simon, has died at 72.
Ramone's son, Matt Ramone, confirmed the death. The family did not immediately release details of the death, but Matt Ramone says his father was "very loving and will be missed."
Few in the recording industry enjoyed a more spectacular and diverse career. Ramone won 14 competitive Grammy Awards and one for lifetime achievement. He was at ease with rock, jazz, swing and pop, working with Frank Sinatra and Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney, Elton John and Tony Bennett.
He produced three records that went on to win Grammys for album of the year ? Simon's "Still Crazy After All These Years," Joel's "52nd Street" and Charles' "Genius Loves Company."
"I always thought of Phil Ramone as the most talented guy in my band," Joel said in a statement. "So much of my music was shaped by him and brought to fruition by him. I have lost a dear friend ? and my greatest mentor."
Ramone was a pioneer of digital recording who produced what is regarded as the first major commercial release on compact disc, "52nd Street," which came out on CD in 1982. He was also part of political history, advising presidential administrations on how to properly record a news conference and helping to arrange the storied 1962 party for John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden that featured Marilyn Monroe crooning "Happy Birthday."
He thrived on producing music for television, film and the stage. He won an Emmy for a TV special about Duke Ellington, a Grammy for the soundtrack to the Broadway musical "Promises, Promises" and a Grammy for the soundtrack to "Flashdance."
Ramone made an art out of the "Duets" concept, pairing Sinatra with Bono, Luther Vandross and other younger artists, Bennett with McCartney and Barbra Streisand, and Charles with Bonnie Raitt and Van Morrison. In Ramone's memoir, "Making Records," he recalled persuading a hesitant Sinatra to re-record some of his signature songs.
"I reminded Frank that while Laurence Olivier had performed Shakespeare in his 20s, the readings he did when he was in his 60s gave them new meaning," Ramone wrote. "I spoke with conviction. 'Don't my children ? and your grandchildren ? deserve to hear the way you're interpreting your classic songs now?'"
A native of South Africa, he seemed born to make music. He had learned violin by age 3 and was trained at The Juilliard School in New York. Before age 20, he had opened his own recording studio, A&R Recording, where he served as engineer for such visiting artists as Count Basie and Sarah Vaughan. He had known Quincy Jones since he was a teenager and in his 20s became close to Streisand. By the end of the 1960s, he had worked on "Midnight Cowboy" and other movie soundtracks and would credit composer John Barry with helping him become a producer.
His credits as a producer, engineer and arranger make it hard to believe they belong to just one person: Joel's "The Stranger," Simon's "Still Crazy After All These Years," the Bob Dylan/The Band concert album "Before the Flood," such popular singles as Arlo Guthrie's "Alice's Restaurant," Streisand's "Evergreen," Judy Collins' "Send in the Clowns" and Stan Getz's and Astrud Gilberto's "The Girl from Ipanema."
The bearded, self-effacing Ramone was among the most famous and welcome faces within the business, yet he could walk down virtually any street unnoticed. He was not a high-strung visionary in the tradition of Phil Spector, but rather a highly accomplished craftsman and diplomat who prided himself on his low-key style, on being an "objective filter" for the artist, on not being "a screamer."
"The record producer is the music world's equivalent of a film director," he wrote in his memoir. "But, unlike a director (who is visible, and often a celebrity in his own right), the record producer toils in anonymity. We ply our craft deep into the night, behind locked doors."
In a statement Saturday, Bennett said it was a joy to work with Ramone.
"Phil Ramone was a lovely person and a very gifted musician and producer," Bennett said. "He had a wonderful sense of humor and a deep love of music."
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/phil-ramone-grammy-winning-producer-dead-72-171128987.html
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Exxon has yet to excavate area of ruptured Arkansas oil pipeline
(Reuters) - Exxon Mobil on Sunday continued cleanup of a pipeline spill that loosed thousands of barrels of heavy Canadian crude in Arkansas as opponents of oil sands development latched on to the incident to attack plans to build the Keystone XL line.
Exxon's Pegasus pipeline, which can carry more than 90,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude from Pakota, Illinois to Nederland, Texas, was shut after the leak was discovered late Friday afternoon in a subdivision near the town of Mayflower. The leak forced the evacuation of 22 homes.
The company did not have an estimate for the restarting of the pipeline, which was carrying Canadian Wabasca Heavy crude at the time of the leak. An oil spill of more than 1,000 barrels into a Wisconsin field from an Enbridge (Toronto: ENB.TO - news) pipeline last summer kept that line shuttered for around 11 days.
The Arkansas spill drew fast reaction from opponents of the 800,000 bpd Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry heavy crude from Canada's tar sands to the U.S. Gulf Coast refining centre.
Environmentalists have expressed concerns about the impact of developing the oil sands and say the crude is more corrosive to pipelines than conventional oil. On Wednesday, a train carrying Canadian crude derailed in Minnesota, spilling 15,000 gallons of oil.
"Whether it's the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, or ... (the) mess in Arkansas, Americans are realizing that transporting large amounts of this corrosive and polluting fuel is a bad deal for American taxpayers and for our environment," said Representative Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat.
Supporters of Keystone XL and oil sands development say the vast Canadian reserves can help drive down fuel costs in the United States. A report from the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association, put together by oil and gas consultancy Penspen, argued diluted bitumen is no more corrosive than other heavy crude.
CLEANUP
Exxon said that by 3 a.m. Saturday there was no additional oil spilling from the pipeline and that trucks had been brought in to assist with the cleanup. Images from local media showed crude oil snaking along a suburban street.
Officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration were deployed to the scene.
"Cleanup efforts are progressing 24 hours a day," said Exxon spokesman Alan Jeffers, who added the oil had not leaked into nearby Lake Conway.
"We were very fortunate that the local responders made sure the oil did not enter the water."
(Reporting by Matthew Robinson in New York and Timothy Gardner in Washington; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/exxon-shuts-oil-pipeline-major-005905765.html
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