hankie ballplayer: 2013

Monday, July 1, 2013

Differences between the sexes stretches to fitness formulas

By Dorene Internicola

NEW YORK (Reuters) - When it comes to fitness, experts say men generally want to be bulkier and women want to be trimmer and everyone wants to do what they are good at.

That's why as more women tackle brawny boot camps and men seek flexible peace on the yoga mat, crossing traditional gender lines, intelligently, can be a good idea.

"Women want to lose body fat, men want hypertrophy (bulk)," said Geralyn Coopersmith, national director of the Equinox Fitness Training Institute.

There are also hormonal, structural and body composition differences between the sexes, said Coopersmith, who trains the personal trainers for the chain's fitness centers.

"So if they're both training for a marathon they'll train in very similar ways but we'll look out for different things."

Women's wider hips leave them more prone to knee injuries, while men, pound for pound, will always have more lean body tissue.

"Technically the man is more fit in that regard," she said.

It's harder for women to tackle extreme workouts, such as Crossfit or P90X, Coopersmith said, but they can do it.

"They're not going to beat the men but will probably get pretty good at it and get very fit," she said, adding that too many young, healthy women don't challenge themselves enough.

SPOT THE DIFFERENCE

Dr. Michele Olson, an exercise physiologist with the American College of Sports Medicine said while everyone needs aerobic, strength and flexibility, the activities needed to achieve it can be very different, depending gender and age.

"In the early years women need to focus on bones and men on aerobics," said Olson, a professor at the Auburn University Montgomery Human Performance Lab, in Alabama.

She added that research shows it's important for younger women to take on activities with sufficient impact, such as jogging, jumping rope or step aerobics, at least 20 minutes twice a week, to develop good bone density.

"Bone density can fail women in their 40's," said Olson, "while men tend to have robust bones until very late in life."

She added that heart health is especially important for men, who are plagued with heart disease at a younger age. They need to focus on the correct exercises for the heart, including low-impact cardio exercises like bicycling or swimming.

Women at any age should lift weights, she said, adding interval-style training is more efficient in burning the mid-belly fat women tend to store after menopause.

"It doesn't have to be a boot camp. You can do it on a treadmill by adjusting speed or incline at one-minute intervals," she explained.

As men age, their lack of flexibility catches up with them, but estrogen has made the tendons of women more elastic.

"Women and men both play to their strengths," she said. "Even as children, athletes naturally select what they feel they're good at."

Connecticut-based fitness instructor Ellen Barrett believes the genders require different fitness formulas.

Even a simple bicep curl might not work for a woman, whose range of motion is generally greater, said Barrett.

Super-intense, military-style workouts and long-distance running are among the activities Barrett feels are made for men, while Pilates and yoga are so much more woman-friendly.

Barrett said when she attends a yoga class with her husband "it's like a tale of two cities."

"I feel like I've had a massage," she explained. "My husband has to recover."

(Editing by Patricia Reaney and Eric Walsh)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/differences-between-sexes-stretches-fitness-formulas-060652478.html

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New NSA spying allegations rile European allies

A demonstrator protests with a poster against espionage programs in Hanover, Germany, 29 June 2013. A coalition for action consisting of representatives from politcs, unions and Blockupy and Anonymous activists protests against NSA espionage PRISM as well as the surveillance practices of British Secret Service GCHQ. Photo by: Peter Steffen/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Obama administration faced a breakdown in confidence Sunday from key foreign allies who threatened investigations and sanctions against the U.S. over secret surveillance programs that reportedly installed covert listening devices in European Union offices.

U.S. intelligence officials said they will directly discuss with EU officials the new allegations, reported in Sunday's editions of the German news weekly Der Spiegel. But the former head of the CIA and National Security Agency urged the White House to make the spy programs more transparent to calm public fears about the American government's snooping.

It was the latest backlash in a nearly monthlong global debate over the reach of U.S. surveillance that aims to prevent terror attacks. The two programs, both run by the NSA, pick up millions of telephone and Internet records that are routed through American networks each day. They have raised sharp concerns about whether they violate public privacy rights at home and abroad.

Several European officials ? including in Germany, Italy, France, Luxembourg and the EU government itself ? said the new revelations could scuttle ongoing negotiations on a trans-Atlantic trade treaty that, ultimately, seeks to create jobs and boost commerce by billions annually in what would be the world's largest free trade area.

"Partners do not spy on each other," said EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding. "We cannot negotiate over a big trans-Atlantic market if there is the slightest doubt that our partners are carrying out spying activities on the offices of our negotiators. The American authorities should eliminate any such doubt swiftly."

European Parliament President Martin Schulz said he was "deeply worried and shocked about the allegations of U.S. authorities spying on EU offices." And Luxembourg Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Jean Asselborn said he had no reason to doubt the Der Spiegel report and rejected the notion that security concerns trump the broad U.S. surveillance authorities.

"We have to re-establish immediately confidence on the highest level of the European Union and the United States," Asselborn told The Associated Press.

According to Der Spiegel, the NSA planted bugs in the EU's diplomatic offices in Washington and infiltrated the building's computer network. Similar measures were taken at the EU's mission to the United Nations in New York, the magazine said. It also reported that the NSA used secure facilities at NATO headquarters in Brussels to dial into telephone maintenance systems that would have allowed it to intercept senior officials' calls and Internet traffic at a key EU office nearby.

The Spiegel report cited classified U.S. documents taken by NSA leaker and former contractor Edward Snowden that the magazine said it had partly seen. It did not publish the alleged NSA documents it cited nor say how it obtained access to them. But one of the report's authors is Laura Poitras, an award-winning documentary filmmaker who interviewed Snowden while he was holed up in Hong Kong.

Britain's The Guardian newspaper also published an article Sunday alleging NSA surveillance of the EU offices, citing classified documents provided by Snowden. The Guardian said one document lists 38 NSA "targets," including embassies and missions of U.S. allies like France, Italy, Greece, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, India and Turkey.

In Washington, a statement from the national intelligence director's office said U.S. officials planned to respond to the concerns with their EU counterparts and through diplomatic channels with specific nations.

However, "as a matter of policy, we have made clear that the United States gathers foreign intelligence of the type gathered by all nations," the statement concluded. It did not provide further details.

NSA Director Keith Alexander last week said the government stopped gathering U.S. citizens' Internet data in 2011. But the NSA programs that sweep up foreigners' data through U.S. servers to pin down potential threats to Americans from abroad continue.

Speaking on CBS' "Face the Nation," former NSA and CIA Director Michael Hayden downplayed the European outrage over the programs, saying they "should look first and find out what their own governments are doing." But Hayden said the Obama administration should try to head off public criticism by being more open about the top-secret programs so "people know exactly what it is we are doing in this balance between privacy and security."

"The more they know, the more comfortable they will feel," Hayden said. "Frankly, I think we ought to be doing a bit more to explain what it is we're doing, why, and the very tight safeguards under which we're operating."

Hayden also defended a secretive U.S. court that weighs whether to allow the government to seize Internet and phone records from private companies. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court is made up of federal judges but does not consider objections from defense attorneys in considering the government's request for records.

Last year, the government asked the court to approve 1,789 applications to spy on foreign intelligence targets, according to a Justice Department notice to Congress dated April 30. The court approved all but one ? and that was withdrawn by the government.

Critics have derided the court as a rubber-stamp approval for the government, sparking an unusual response last week in The Washington Post by its former chief judge. In a statement to the newspaper, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly refuted a draft NSA inspector general's report that suggested the court collaborated with the executive branch instead of maintaining judicial independence. Kollar-Kotelly was the court's chief judge from 2002 to 2006, when some of the surveillance programs were under way.

Some European counties have much stronger privacy laws than does the U.S. In Germany, where criticism of the NSA's surveillance programs has been particularly vocal, Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger likened the spying outlined in the Der Spiegel report to "methods used by enemies during the Cold War." German federal prosecutors are examining whether the reported U.S. electronic surveillance programs broke German laws.

Green Party leaders in the European Parliament called for an immediate investigation into the claims and called for existing U.S.-EU agreements on the exchange of bank transfer and passenger record information to be canceled. Both programs have been labeled as unwarranted infringements of citizens' privacy by left-wing and libertarian lawmakers in Europe.

The dispute also has jeopardized diplomatic relations between the U.S. and some of it its most unreliable allies, including China, Russia and Ecuador.

Snowden, who tuned 30 last week, revealed himself as the document leaker in June interviews in Hong Kong, but fled to Russia before China's government could turn him over to U.S. officials. Snowden is now believed to be holed up in a transit zone in Moscow's international airport, where Russian officials say they have no authority to catch him since he technically has not crossed immigration borders.

It's also believed Snowden is seeking political asylum from Ecuador. But Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa signaled in an AP interview Sunday that it's unlikely Snowden will end up there. Correa portrayed Russia as entirely the masters of Snowden's fate, and the Kremlin said it will take public opinion and the views of human rights activists into account when considering his case. That could lay the groundwork for Snowden to seek asylum in Russia.

Outgoing National Security Adviser Tom Donilon said U.S. and Russian law enforcement officials are discussing how to deal with Snowden, who is wanted on espionage charges. "The sooner that this can be resolved, the better," Donilon said in an interview on CNN.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi has a different take on what to do with Snowden. "I think it's pretty good that he's stuck in the Moscow airport," Pelosi, D-Calif., said on NBC's "Meet the Press." ''That's ok with me. He can stay there, that's fine."

___

Jordans reported from Berlin. Associated Press writers Raf Casert in Brussels, Greg Keller in Paris, Frances D'Emilio in Rome, Jovana Gec in Zagreb, Croatia, Lynn Berry in Moscow and Michael Weissenstein in Portoviejo, Ecuador, contributed to this report.

___

Lara Jakes and Frank Jordans can be reached on Twitter at https://twitter.com/larajakesAP and http://www.twitter.com/wirereporter

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-06-30-NSA%20Surveillance/id-682bb12f601f4490ae76a0f7c6dd3eec

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Sally McGraw: How Body Positivity and Figure Flattery Can Coexist

I used to utilize so much energy hating my body that I exhausted myself into depression. For years I tried to change my body with diets and exercise, believing that its shape and size were the root of the problem, but I just kept on hating it. When I began exploring fashion and style -- dressing in fun, flattering and form-fitting clothes -- an unexplored universe opened up to me. For the first time, I respected my body. I realized that there was nothing wrong with my body. I saw my body as integral to my identity. I wanted to show it off, decorate it joyously and hone my personal style so that I could understand it on new levels. Shortly after those realizations clicked into place, I launched my blog. Discovering that connection between looking good and feeling good, as it relates to style, is what inspired me to create Already Pretty. Because when I started to dress in a way that made me look amazing and feel amazing, I finally stopped actively, continually, exhaustively hating my body. And I immediately wanted to show other women how to make that connection so they could stop hating theirs.

I write about the intersection of style and body image, and I get a lot of questions about how I can call myself a body image advocate and still dish out advice on how to flatter the female form in traditional, socially sanctioned ways. I understand that many people perceive a disconnect, but there are several reasons I think it's important to discuss style in this way.

The reader-submitted questions I receive most frequently are about traditional figure flattery topics, and I address them along with all the others. My guess is that just about every style writer, stylist and style expert is plied with such questions almost constantly. Unlike many other style writers, however, I am very careful about how I address these questions. I emphasize choice and encourage people to think about why these specific figure flattery priorities are viewed as important. I never talk about figure "flaws" because I don't believe that bodies are flawed and loathe that judgmental term. When I offer traditional figure flattery advice it is never couched in terms of fixing things or hiding imperfections, and relatively few of my readers frame their requests in those terms. The dialogue is about choosing what you love about your figure and want to highlight, and also about understanding the challenges you face and the aspects you'd rather downplay. I am yet to meet a woman who loves absolutely everything about her body, top to tail and dresses without giving a single thought to what will be showcased most prominently. And while I completely agree with the sentiment behind "dress in what makes you feel happy and comfortable" -- a message I promote myself, and often -- I think that the morass of style rules, body negativity and mixed messages that women receive about style and their figures leaves many of them feeling confused about which clothes COULD make them feel happy and comfortable. Hence their questions.

I've been writing about this stuff for six years and working one-on-one with style consult clients for five, and I'll tell you something: Even women who hire me specifically because they love my body-positive stance want my advice about regular old figure flattery. When I work with them, I lean hard on acceptance and ask lots of questions because I want them to understand where those urges to look tall and thin are coming from. But I also give them what they want because I know that feeling good about how you look often begins with conforming to traditional standards of style before branching off into individuality. You've got to know the rules before you can break them. And I know for a fact that what I say to them about questioning their choices, accepting themselves as fully as possible and not worrying so much about what the fashion rags say has an impact. Because they follow-up to tell me so.

I think each individual woman is capable of gathering information, evaluating it and deciding for herself how she wants to present her figure and body and self to the world. I understand that many people view my writings about figure flattery as hypocritical, and I'm just fine with that. I don't think that "There's nothing wrong with your body" is sufficient or helpful to the vast majority of women who are both interested in style and struggling with body image. Although some may hear that rallying cry and feel empowered to shirk the rules and truly wear absolutely anything that makes them feel fabulous, others may feel like it's the equivalent of being told, "Just get over yourself and stop whining." The former group probably doesn't want my help or input on style or body image in the first place. The latter group, however, is looking for a space to explore style that includes some structure and advice, but remains free of judgment.

These women are learning about themselves through clothing -- just as I did -- and their questions are valid. They crave something more concrete and actionable than, "Wear whatever you want whenever you want." I'd rather give them ways to make their waists look smaller presented kindly and with some reminders about socially reinforced beauty standards than have them running to Stacy London or Tim Gunn. (Who, try as they might, always seem to give people the impression that there is one right way to look good). No blogger is going to cure women of their body image issues and hang-ups or have perfect answers to every possible style question. But my hope is to encourage the women who read my writing to begin thinking and talking, give them some new tools to use, offer some supportive language about self-acceptance and provide a place to discuss it all.

Some people who read my writing will never see this, or agree to it. I understand and respect that because I know there are many ways to view the world and parse information. Just as some people will always maintain that if you shave your legs or wear lipstick you absolutely cannot be a feminist, some people will say that if you wear high heels to elongate your legs you absolutely cannot be a body image advocate. Those are opinions, so there is no true right or wrong to be had. I'm a pretty black and white thinker myself, but this is one realm in which I'm happy to live in the gray. Because there seem to be an awful lot of women who are looking for a middle ground between "dress skinny" and "fuck flattering," and I want to create a safe haven for those women to explore their questions.

Follow Sally McGraw on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@SallyMcGraw

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sally-mcgraw/how-body-positivity-and-f_b_3516923.html

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Report: Israel arrests unarmed Palestinians crossing Gaza border

TEL AVIV, Israel (Ma'an) -- An Israeli army unit arrested two unarmed Palestinians who crossed the Gaza Strip border fence near Kisufim, Israeli media reported Saturday.

Israel's Ynet news site said the soldiers fired in the air but did not injure the Palestinians.

It said they were taken for interrogation.

Source: http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=609427

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Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Russian astronauts take spacewalk at space station

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) ? Two space station astronauts are taking care of a little maintenance outside their orbiting home.

Russian flight engineers Fyodor Yurchikhin and Alexander Misurkin floated out of the International Space Station on Monday morning. The spacewalkers will replace valves, install clamps and retrieve science experiments. Some of the work will pave the way for the arrival of a new Russian compartment later this year.

This is the third spacewalk conducted so far this year. Monday's excursion is under the direction of Russian Mission Control outside Moscow.

The four other space station residents monitored the action from inside.

Yurchikhin arrived at the space station just a few weeks ago. Misurkin has been on board since March.

The crew includes three Russians, two Americans and one Italian.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-06-24-Space%20Station/id-68b5a3841f9e411c882420c53648f4b9

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Monica Lewinsky Negligee, Other Items Up For Auction

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/06/monica-lewinsky-negligee-other-items-up-for-auction/

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Dead Birds Test Positive for West Nile | KTXL FOX40

Mosquito Population is Up, Campers Urged to Spray

File photo

MODESTO-

Two dead birds in Modesto have tested positive for West Nile Virus, the Stanislaus County Health Services Agency said Monday.

This marks 2013?s first appearance of the virus in the county.

In all of California, West Nile has been found in 17 dead birds and 39 mosquitoes. The virus has also been confirmed to have killed on human.

Health officials ask the public to report dead birds, particularly crows, ravens, magpies, jays, hawks and eagles. You can do so by calling 1-877-968-2473 or clicking here.

Aside from reporting dead birds, residents are asked to get rid of any standing water because they can serve as mosquito breeding grounds. Pets? water dishes and bird baths should be changed frequently.

Source: http://fox40.com/2013/06/24/dead-birds-test-positive-for-west-nile/

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BMW 4 series coupe sets benchmark for ... - Automotive News

BMW's 4 series: Priced $3,000 above rivals.

DIANA T. KURYLKO

June 24, 2013 - 12:01 am ET

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When BMW decided to rethink and reposition the venerable 3 series coupe, it set several ambitious goals: Rename it the 4 series, style it and equip it with an even more sporty and premium feel than the 3-series sedan, and charge more for it. We now know how much of a price premium the new 4 series will command.

When it goes on sale in late summer, BMW's 4 series, the renamed and redesigned successor to the 3-series coupe, will have a base price of $41,425, with shipping -- nearly $3,000 more than two key competitors.

The rear-wheel-drive 428i will be equipped with a twin-turbo 2.0-liter four-cylinder. The 435i, with a base price of $46,925, including shipping, will have a twin-turbo 3.0-liter inline six-cylinder. Both engines will be teamed with an eight-speed automatic or a six-speed manual. All-wheel drive is optional.

The 2013 Mercedes-Benz C250 starts at $38,705, and the 2014 Cadillac CTS coupe starts at $38,905. The prices include shipping. The current entry-level BMW 328i coupe starts at $39,625. The 4 series is 2 inches longer than the outgoing 3-series coupe at 110.6 inches and is 1.7 inches wider at 72 inches. It is also about an inch lower, giving it a sportier appearance.

A convertible version of the 4 series convertible will debut next year.

Source: http://www.autonews.com/article/20130624/BLOG06/306259999/bmw-4-series-coupe-sets-benchmark-for-segment-price

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Take the Best of Portland 2013 Survey and Win $250, $50 Gift Cards -

Timberline Lodge The 2013 Portland food and drink survey is now open. Since we already covered coffee, those questions have been removed, along with a few others. There is one new question ? ?Best outdoor dining space?.

I have purchased a $250 gift card to Timberline Lodge as an incentive. One lucky person will be awarded the card in a random drawing, so if you want to be eligible, be sure to leave your email address (it will never be given out, but just used to notify the winner). The gift card can be used for any purchase at Timberline Lodge or the Ice Axe Grill, lift tickets, rentals, lessons etc. A $50 gift certificate to a restaurant of your choice will be given out as a second prize. The survey will close after we have at least 1,000 responses.

In case you want to think about it for a bit, here are the winners of the last survey. The questions this year are as follows:

Best Pizza
Best Burger
Best Bakery
Best Vietnamese
Best Chinese
Best Vegetarian
Best Thai
Best Steak
Best Sushi
Best Mexican
Best BBQ
Best Italian
Best Seafood
Best Lebanese
Best Indian
Best Brunch/Breakfast
Best late night snack
Best Desserts
Best Beer Bar
Best Bar
Best Happy Hour
Best Business Lunch
Best Lunch (excluding food carts)
Best place to dine with a large group
Best New Restaurant
Of the restaurants that closed in 2012 ? 2013, I will miss this one the most
Most Family Friendly
I had to break up with this restaurant in 2012-2013 ? it went downhill
Most Romantic Restaurant
Best First Date Restaurant
This Restaurant is Coasting on its Reputation
Lousy service in a restaurant that is pretty darn good otherwise
I thought this restaurant would be great, but I didn?t like it!
Best Cheesemonger
Best Butcher/Meat Counter
Best Fishmonger
Best Gourmet Food Store
Best Wine Shop
If I want quiet conversation, I go to:
Best outdoor dining ? patio/deck/etc.

You favorite six restaurants in Portland are:

Take the survey by clicking here!

"I have a wide-range of food experience - working in the restaurant industry on both sides of the house, later in the wine industry, and finally traveling/tasting my way around the world. Whether you agree or disagree, you can always count on my unbiased opinion. I don't take free meals, and the restaurants don't know when, or if, I am coming."

Source: http://portlandfoodanddrink.com/take-the-best-of-portland2013-survey-win-250-50-gift-cards/

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Hemisphere Factor

Natalie Martinez and Josh Carter in Under the Dome

Courtesy of CBS Broadcasting Inc.

The 2009 Stephen King novel Under the Dome concerns a small town abruptly sundered from the rest of America by a transparent hemispherical membrane of seeming supernatural origin. To visualize this, imagine the surface of the Earth as the flat surface of a footed cake plate and the dome as the thingie atop it. Does the phrase Glass Cloche Encounters capture the spirit of the book? Would an invocation of The Simpsons? Trappuccino be more apt? These questions are not rhetorical; really, I?m asking, for in describing the premise of this thousand-page novel, I also have defined the only circumstances under which I would read it.

Sorry, but I haven?t even gotten to The Stand yet, and the pilot episode of Brian K. Vaughan?s television adaptation of Under the Dome (CBS) is a very good advertisement for seeing what else is on TV this Monday at 10 p.m.

The series does itself no favors with an introductory sequence that wanly recalls Twin Peaks as it introduces the characters and their situations. Highly skeptical, eyebrows growling, I witnessed an eerie close-up of a bird on a limb, a bit of music recalling Angelo Badalamenti, a waitress post-coitally slipping into a mint-green diner dress to work a shift at a failing restaurant. ? ?My notes say I saw a corpse wrapped in plastic, but that might just have a figment of hypnotic suggestion, a vision conjured by the other sounds and images?genre-markers saying, ?Welcome to the Superficially Cozy Small Town Harboring Dark Secrets.?

In the novel, this town goes by the name of Chester?s Mill, Maine. In the pilot, the location of Chester?s Mill remains unidentified. The series hints that the town could exist Down East; among the people trapped under the dome are an artsy-fartsy interracial lesbian couple from California, who are passing through town on their way to drop off their surly teenage daughter at summer camp. But the series was shot in North Carolina, with the apparent aim of sucking enough charm out of Wilmington to allow it to pass for a generic Everytown, and the series was cast with a cynical eye for demographic balance, such that it never welcomes the viewer to the state of suspended belief.

Thus has an opportunity been missed. An Under the Dome that crackled with realistic rural Maine flavor?with subtitles to translate the accents and everything?could be a lot of fun. I?m imagining the natives? self-reliance coming in handy as they endure their sci-fi confinement?and also their libertarian streaks clashing with the reflexive attack on civil liberties described in the plot. (On CBS, Breaking Bad?s Dean Norris juicily plays Big Jim Rennie, a selectman who, faster than you can say exigent circumstance, uses the dome crisis to solidify his big-time plans for small-town domination.) And in my version, the characters would include a clutch of Bowdoin sophomores who found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time while heading to Stowe in a 325i.

What we get instead are a plucky Latina sheriff?s deputy, a ruggedly handsome and doggedly mysterious Army vet, a newspaper editor with an investigative background and a Rebekah Brooks tonsure, and a local DJ who may yet develop into an amalgam of Samuel L. Jackson?s Mister Se?or Love Daddy and John Corbett?s Chris Stevens. There?s also a set of unsupervised teenage siblings; when the dome landed, their mother was eating at a chain restaurant in the next town over, and the kids? discussion of that meal occasions a sentence never heretofore uttered in the history of the American language: ?Mom?s having brunch with Uncle Steve at Denny?s.? No one brunches at Denny?s, of course. That would be like domiciling at an EconoLodge.

The dialogue tends in that fashion toward florid improbabilities of vernacular speech. When a small aircraft collides with the dome, one character says to another, ?Call the FAA!?? Reply: ?The feds?!?

Vaughan, writing and directing these lines, is hauling the Stephen King brand into risky territory. The risk is boredom?the half-puzzled, half-irritated sort of boredom elicited by later seasons of Lost. Under the Dome?s showrunner, in addition to writing addictive comic book series, was indeed a producer of late-season Lost, and CBS?s effort to explore current trends in semi-existential speculative fiction is almost charming in its awkwardness. So far, the main philosophical riddle it inspires is: Why don?t these guys try digging their way out?

Source: http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/television/2013/06/stephen_king_miniseries_under_the_dome_on_cbs_reviewed.html

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Blues great Bobby 'Blue' Bland dies at age 83

TodayEntertainment

Adrian Sainz The Associated Press

2 hours ago

GRENADA, Miss. -- Bobby "Blue" Bland, a distinguished singer who blended Southern blues and soul in songs such as "Turn on Your Love Light" and "Further On Up the Road," died Sunday. He was 83.

Rodd Bland said his father died due to complications from an ongoing illness at his Memphis, Tenn., home. He was surrounded by relatives.

Mark Lennihan / AP file

On Jan. 15, 1992, Bobby "Blue" Bland, left, receives his award for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame from B.B. King during induction ceremonies in New York.

Bland was known as the "the Sinatra of the blues" and was heavily influenced by Nat King Cole, often recording with lavish arrangements to accompany his smooth vocals. He even openly imitated Frank Sinatra on the "Two Steps From the Blues" album cover, standing in front of a building with a coat thrown over his shoulder.

"He brought a certain level of class to the blues genre," said Lawrence "Boo" Mitchell, son of legendary musician and producer Willie Mitchell.

Bland was a contemporary of B.B. King's, serving as the blues great's valet and chauffeur at one point, and was one of the last of the living connections to the roots of the genre. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 and was an influence on scores of young rock 'n' rollers.

Born in Rosemark, Tenn., he moved to nearby Memphis as a teenager and became a founding member of the Beale Streeters, a group that also included King and Johnny Ace. Upon his induction, the Rock Hall of Fame noted Bland was "second in stature only to B.B. King as a product of Memphis' Beale Street blues scene."

After a stint in the Army, he recorded with producer Sam Phillips, who helped launch the careers of Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash, in the early 1950s with little to show for it. It wasn't until later that decade Bland began to find success.

He scored his first No. 1 on the R&B charts with "Further On Up the Road" in 1957 and it was around this time he got his nickname, taken from his song "Little Boy Blue" because his repertoire focused so closely on lovelorn subject matter. Beginning with "I'll Take Care of You" in early 1960, Bland released a dozen R&B hits in a row. That string included "Turn On Your Love Light" in 1961.

Some of his best-known songs included "Call on Me" and "That's the Way Love Is," both released in 1963, and "Ain't Nothing You Can Do" in 1964.

"Lead Me On," another well-known song, breaks the listener's heart with the opening lines: "You know how it feels, you understand/What it is to be a stranger, in this unfriendly land."

Bland wasn't as well known as some of his contemporaries, but was no less an influential figure for early rock 'n' roll stars. Many of his songs, especially "Further On Up the Road" and "I Pity the Fool," were recorded by young rockers, including David Bowie and Eric Clapton.

"He's always been the type of guy that if he could help you in any way, form or fashion, he would," Rodd Bland said.

AP Music Writer Chris Talbott contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/blues-great-bobby-bluebland-dies-age-83-6C10423620

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New York City's New Subway Tunnel Looks Like a Level from Half-Life

New York City's Metro Transit Authority is still plugging away on its giant project to bring the the 7 train into far west Manhattan, and the scope of the construction is just as awe-inspiring as ever. The MTA just put out a crop of new pictures on Flickr, and we just can't help but see a slight comparison to a certain, classic Half-Life level of old.

Monday, June 24, 2013

France says Syrian rebels need to wrest areas from radicals

By Yara Bayoumy

DOHA (Reuters) - Syrian rebels need to wrest back control of territory held by Islamist militants whose involvement in the conflict gives Bashar al-Assad a pretext for more violence, French President Francois Hollande said on Sunday.

Radical Islamist groups such as the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front have joined in fighting against the Syrian president's forces in the conflict which has killed more than 90,000 people and displaced millions.

"The opposition needs to win back control of these areas ... ????????they have fallen into the hands of extremists," Hollande told a news conference in the Qatari capital Doha.

"If it seems that extremist groups are present and tomorrow they could be the beneficiaries of a chaotic situation, it will be Bashar al-Assad who will seize on this pretext to continue the massacre."

The French president was in Doha for a meeting of 11 Western and Arab countries, known as the "Friends of Syria", over the two-year-old Syrian conflict.

The countries agreed on Saturday to give urgent military support to the rebels, channeled through the Western-backed Supreme Military Council, a move that Washington and its European allies hope will prevent weapons falling into the hands of Islamist radicals.

Hollande said the countries still needed to work out how to supply arms to the Syrian opposition and that deliveries were conditional on the rebels organizing politically and militarily.

"We cannot imagine delivering weapons to groups which could use them to the detriment of interests of a democratic Syria or eventually against us," he said.

The aim, he said, was to assert military pressure on Assad, because doing nothing would benefit "Assad on the one hand and the most radical elements on the other ... We refuse that."

He also called on Iran's new President Hassan Rohani to use his influence to help the Syrian situation.

"Elections have taken place in Iran, (there is) a new president. It's up to him to show he can maybe be useful, that he can also exert pressure on Bashar al-Assad to find a solution."

The United Nations said on Sunday it had so far raised 33 percent of the $5 billion of humanitarian aid it was seeking to help the Syrian people.

"The United Nations is trying its best to help the Syrian refugees to help the Syrian refugees but a political solution is the way out of this crisis," Panos Mounties, regional coordinator of the U.N. refugee agency, said after a meeting with the Arab League in Cairo.

(Additional reporting by Aymin Samier in Cairo; Writing by Sylvia Westall; Editing by Sami Aboudi and Robin Pomeroy)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/france-says-syrian-rebels-wrest-areas-radicals-144603165.html

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Sunday, June 23, 2013

Stocks regain ground after biggest drop of the year

Stocks finished the week with an advance Friday after a two-day plunge, suggesting that perhaps Wall Street will be successfully weaned from the Federal Reserve's easy money after all. That money has helped push stocks upward over the past four years.

By Joshua Freed,?AP Business Writer / June 21, 2013

Specialist Gregg Maloney, left, works with a trader on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Friday. Stocks rose on Friday as traders regrouped following a two-day plunge.

Richard Drew/AP

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Traders decided that the stock market has suffered enough, at least for now.

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After a two-day plunge, stocks ended the week with an advance on Friday, suggesting that?Wall?Street?may be successfully weaned from the Federal Reserve's easy money after all.

"Saner heads are prevailing," said Jim Dunigan, chief investment officer at PNC Wealth Management. "People are looking a little deeper into the message from the Fed ? the economy is getting better," he said. "At the end of the day that's a positive."

Investors had known that sooner or later the Fed would quit spending $85 billion per month pumping money into the U.S. economy.

That money has been a big driver behind the stock market's bull run the last four years. It led to low interest rates that encouraged borrowing for everything from factory machinery to commercial airplanes to home renovations. Has the economy been great? No. Unemployment is still high and U.S. growth has been anemic. But it could have been worse. Investors were confident enough in a growing economy that the Standard & Poor's 500 index hit an all-time high of 1,669 on May 21.

Then on Wednesday, the Fed said it would aim to turn off that spigot by the middle of next year as long as the economy is strong enough.

Just because investors knew it was coming didn't mean they liked it. The Dow dropped 560 points on Wednesday and Thursday.

Investors recovered their mojo on Friday. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 41.08 points, or 0.3 percent, to close at 14,799.40. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 4.24 points, or 0.3 percent to close at 1,592.43.

The gains were led by the kinds of stocks that investors favor when they want to play it safe. Makers of consumer staples, utilities, and health care companies rose the most of the 10 industries in the S&P 500 index. The only two categories that fell were technology stocks and companies that make basic materials.

Friday's gain wasn't enough to erase the market's loss for the week. The S&P 500 fell 2.1 percent for the week, and the Dow was down 1.8 percent. Stocks have now fallen two weeks in a row, and four of the past five.

The real question will be whether the sell-off continues next week, said Frank Fantozzi, CEO of Planned Financial Services. So far, the market's swoon this week appears to be more of an adjustment than the beginning of a long-term rout. "If the flow out of equities starts to increase, this might be the pullback we've been waiting for," he said.

Many investors have been predicting some kind of pullback in the market following its nearly unbroken advance since last fall. The S&P 500 index rose for seven straight months through May. So far in June it's down 2.1 percent.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note hit 2.54 percent, up from 2.42 percent late Thursday. It has risen sharply since Wednesday as investors sold bonds in anticipation that the Fed would slow, and eventually end, its bond purchases, if the U.S. recovery continues.

The yield, which is a benchmark for interest rates on many kinds of loans including home mortgages, was as low as 1.63 percent as recently as May 3.

Technology shares lagged the market after business software maker Oracle reported flat revenue late Thursday, even though analysts expected an increase. Oracle plunged $3.07, or 9 percent, to $30.14, the biggest drop in the S&P 500 index. Oracle is struggling to adapt as customers shift away from software installed on their own computers toward software that runs remotely.

The Nasdaq composite index, which is heavily weighted with technology stocks, fell 7.39 points, or 0.2 percent, to 3,357.25. Apple, the biggest stock in the index, fell $3.34, or 0.8 percent, to $413.50. Microsoft fell 23 cents, or 0.7 percent, to $33.27.

The price of gold recovered after plunging the day before. Gold rose $5.80, or 0.5 percent, to $1,292 an ounce. Crude oil fell $1.45, or 1.5 percent, to $93.69 a barrel in New York.

The dollar rose against other currencies as traders anticipated that U.S. interest rates would rise as the Fed winds down its bond purchases.

Among other stocks making big moves:

?Darden Restaurants, which runs Olive Garden and Red Lobster, fell $1.11, or 2 percent, to $50.12 after rising expenses hurt its fourth-quarter earnings.

? Spreadtrum Communications jumped $3.62, or 16 percent, to $25.91 after the Chinese smartphone chip maker said its board is considering a buyout offer valued at about $1.39 billion from Tsinghua Holdings.

? Facebook rose 63 cents, or 2.6 percent, to $24.53 after saying it will add video to its popular photo-sharing app Instagram, following on the heels of Twitter's growing video-sharing app, Vine.

A Fed policy statement and comments from Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke started the selling in stocks, bonds and commodities Wednesday. Bernanke said the Fed expects to scale back its bond-buying program later this year and end it by mid-2014 if the economy continues to improve. The bank has been buying Treasury and mortgage bonds, which has made borrowing cheap for consumers and businesses. The program has also encouraged investors to buy stocks instead of bonds.

The S&P 500 is still up 11.7 percent, for the year, not far from its full-year increase of 13.4 percent last year.

___

AP Business Writer Bernard Condon contributed.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/nM5GcjoDPq0/Stocks-regain-ground-after-biggest-drop-of-the-year

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Snowden in a 'safe place' as U.S. prepares to seek extradition

By Phil Stewart

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Edward Snowden was in a "safe place" in Hong Kong, a newspaper reported on Saturday, as the United States prepared to seek the extradition of the former U.S. National Security Agency contractor after filing espionage charges against him.

The South China Morning Post said Snowden, who has exposed secret U.S. surveillance programs including new details published on Saturday about alleged hacking of Chinese phone companies, was not in police protection in Hong Kong, as had been reported elsewhere.

"Contrary to some reports, the former CIA analyst has not been detained, is not under police protection but is in a 'safe place' in Hong Kong," the newspaper said.

Hong Kong Police Commissioner Andy Tsang declined to comment other than to say Hong Kong would deal with the case in accordance with the law.

Two U.S. sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States was preparing to seek Snowden's extradition from Hong Kong, which is part of China but has wide-ranging autonomy, including an independent judiciary.

The United States charged Snowden with theft of government property, unauthorized communication of national defense information and willful communication of classified communications intelligence to an unauthorized person, according to the criminal complaint made public on Friday.

The latter two offenses fall under the U.S. Espionage Act and carry penalties of up to 10 years in prison.

America's use of the Espionage Act against Snowden has fueled debate among legal experts about whether that could complicate his extradition, since Hong Kong courts may choose to shield him.

Snowden says he leaked the details of the classified U.S. surveillance to expose abusive programs that trampled on citizens' rights.

Documents leaked by Snowden revealed that the NSA has access to vast amounts of internet data such as emails, chat rooms and video from large companies such as Facebook and Google, under a government program known as Prism.

They also showed that the government had worked through the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to gather so-called metadata - such as the time, duration and telephone numbers called - on all calls carried by service providers such as Verizon.

On Friday, the Guardian newspaper, citing documents shared by Snowden, said Britain's spy agency GCHQ had tapped fiber-optic cables that carry international phone and internet traffic and is sharing vast quantities of personal information with the NSA. [ID:nL5N0EX3JA]

STEALING DATA

The South China Morning Post said on Saturday that Snowden offered new details on U.S. surveillance activities in China.

The paper said documents and statements by Snowden show the NSA program had hacked major Chinese telecoms companies to access text messages and targeted China's top Tsinghua University.

The NSA program also hacked the Hong Kong headquarters of Pacnet, which has an extensive fiber-optic network, it said.

"The NSA does all kinds of things like hack Chinese cellphone companies to steal all of your SMS data," Snowden was quoted by the Post as saying during a June 12 interview.

President Barack Obama and his intelligence chiefs have vigorously defended the programs, saying they are regulated by law and that Congress was notified. They say the programs have been used to thwart militant plots and do not target Americans' personal lives.

Since making his revelations about massive U.S. surveillance programs, Edward Snowden, 30, has sought legal representation from human rights lawyers as he prepares to fight U.S. attempts to force him home for trial, sources in Hong Kong say.

The United States and Hong Kong signed an extradition treaty in 1998, under which scores of Americans have been sent back home to face trial.

The United States and Hong Kong have "excellent cooperation" and as a result of agreements, "there is an active extradition relationship between Hong Kong and the United States," a U.S. law enforcement official told Reuters.

However, the process can take years, lawyers say, and Snowden's case could be particularly complex.

An Icelandic businessman linked to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks said on Thursday he had readied a private plane in China to fly Snowden to Iceland if Iceland's government would grant asylum.

Iceland refused on Friday to say whether it would grant asylum to Snowden.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart; Additional reporting by James Pomfret, Venus Wu and Grace Li in HONG KONG, Tabassum Zakaria and Mark Hosenball in WASHINGTON; Editing by Eric Beech)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-files-espionage-charges-against-snowden-over-leaks-015108216.html

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Stuntwoman, pilot killed in Ohio air show crash

CINCINNATI (AP) ? A budget analyst with a daredevil streak, Jane Wicker knew she was taking a risk when she signed up to entertain thousands of spectators at the Vectren Air Show near Dayton.

She said in a TV interview she felt confident of her ability and said on her website that lots of practice makes her signature stunt a "managed risk." She planned to hang underneath the plane's wing by her feet and sit on the bottom of the airplane while it was upside-down.

It wasn't clear Saturday what went so wrong. The biplane glided through the sky, rolled over, then crashed and exploded into flames, killing the wing walker and the pilot, authorities said. No one else was hurt.

A video posted on WHIO-TV shows the small plane turn upside-down as the performer sits on top of the wing. The plane then tilts and crashes to the ground, erupting into flames as spectators screamed.

Ian Hoyt, an aviation photographer and licensed pilot from Findlay, was at the show with his girlfriend. He told The Associated Press he was taking photos as the plane passed by and had just raised his camera to take another shot.

"Then I realized they were too low and too slow. And before I knew it, they hit the ground," he said.

He couldn't tell exactly what happened, but it appeared that the plane stalled and didn't have enough air speed, he said. He credited the pilot for steering clear of spectators and potentially saving lives.

"Had he drifted more, I don't know what would have happened," Hoyt said. He said he had been excited to see the show because he'd never seen the scheduled performer ? wing walker Jane Wicker ? in action.

The show was canceled for the rest of the day, but organizers said events would resume Sunday and follow the previous schedule and normal operations. The National Transportation Safety Board said it is investigating the crash.

On the video, the announcer narrates as the plane glides through the sky and rolls over while the stuntwoman perches on a wing.

"Now she's still on that far side. Keep an eye on Jane. Keep an eye on Charlie. Watch this! Jane Wicker, sitting on top of the world," the announcer said, right before the plane makes a quick turn and nosedive.

Federal records show the 450 HP Stearmans was registered to Wicker, who lived in Loudon, Va. A man who answered the phone at a number listed for Wicker on her website said he had no comment and hung up.

One of the pilots listed on Wicker's website was named Charlie Schwenker. A post on Jane Wicker Airshows' Facebook page announced the deaths of Wicker and Schwenker, and asked for prayers for their families.

A message left at a phone listing for Charles Schwenker in Oakton, Va., wasn't immediately returned.

Dayton International Airport spokeswoman Linda Hughes and Ohio State Highway Patrol Lt. Anne Ralston confirmed that a pilot and stunt walker had died but declined to give their names. The air show also declined to release their identities.

Another spectator, Shawn Warwick of New Knoxville, told the Dayton Daily News that he was watching the flight through binoculars.

"I noticed it was upside-down really close to the ground. She was sitting on the bottom of the plane," he said. "I saw it just go right into the ground and explode."

Thanh Tran of Fairfield said he could see a look of concern on the wing walker's face just before the plane went down.

"She looked very scared," he said. "Then the airplane crashed on the ground. After that, it was terrible, man ... very terrible."

Wicker's website says she responded to a classified ad from the Flying Circus Airshow in Bealeton, Va., in 1990, for a wing-walking position, thinking it would be fun. She was a contract employee who worked as a Federal Aviation Administration budget analyst, the FAA said.

She talked to WDTN-TV in an interview this week about her signature stunt.

"I'm never nervous or scared because I know if I do everything as I usually do, everything's going to be just fine," she told the station.

Wicker wrote on her website that she had never had any close calls.

"What you see us do out there is after an enormous amount of practice and fine tuning, not to mention the airplane goes through microscopic care. It is a managed risk and that is what keeps us alive," she wrote.

In 2011, wing walker Todd Green fell 200 feet to his death at an air show in Michigan while performing a stunt in which he grabbed the skid of a helicopter.

In 2007, veteran stunt pilot Jim LeRoy was killed at the Dayton show when his biplane slammed into the runway while performing loop-to-loops and caught fire.

Organizers were presenting a trimmed-down show and expected smaller crowds at Dayton after the Air Force Thunderbirds and other military participants pulled out this year because of federal budget cuts.

The air show, one of the country's oldest, usually draws around 70,000 people and has a $3.2 million impact on the local economy. Without military aircraft and support, the show expected attendance to be off 30 percent or more.

___

Thomas reported from Philadelphia. Associated Press writers Kerry Lester in Chicago and Randy Pennell in Philadelphia contributed to this report.

___

Online:

Raw video of crash: http://bit.ly/11Vf7JA

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/stuntwoman-pilot-killed-ohio-air-show-crash-073948128.html

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Militants kill 9 foreign tourists, 1 Pakistani

FILE - In this May 4, 2004 file photo, Nanga Parbat, the ninth highest mountain in the world, is seen from Karakorum Highway leading to neighboring China in Pakistan's northern area. Gunmen wearing police uniforms killed 11 foreign tourists and one Pakistani before dawn Sunday, June 23, 2013 as they were visiting one of the world?s highest mountains in a remote area of northern Pakistan, officials said. (AP Photo/Musaf Zaman Kazmi, File)

ISLAMABAD (AP) ? Islamic militants wearing police uniforms shot to death nine foreign tourists and one Pakistani before dawn Sunday as they were visiting one of the world's highest mountains in a remote area of northern Pakistan, officials said.

The foreigners who were killed included five Ukrainians, three Chinese and one Russian, said Pakistani Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan. One Chinese tourist was wounded in the attack and was rescued, he said.

The local branch of the Taliban took responsibility for the killings, saying it was to avenge the death of a leader killed in a drone strike.

The shooting is likely to damage the country's struggling tourism industry. Pakistan's mountainous north ? considered until now relatively safe ? is one of the main attractions in a country beset with insurgency and other political instability.

The attack took place at the base camp of Nanga Parbat, the ninth highest mountain in the world at 8,126 meters (26,660 feet). Nanga Parbat is notoriously difficult to climb and is known as the "killer mountain" because of numerous mountaineering deaths in the past. It's unclear if the tourists were planning to climb the mountain or were just visiting the base camp, which is located in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan.

The gunmen were wearing uniforms used by the Gilgit Scouts, a paramilitary police force that patrols the area, said the interior minister. The attackers abducted two local guides to find their way to the remote base camp. One of the guides was killed in the shooting, and the other has been detained and is being questioned, said Khan.

"The government will take all measures to ensure the safety of foreign tourists," said the interior minister in a speech in the National Assembly, which passed a resolution condemning the incident.

Pakistani Taliban spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan claimed responsibility for the attack, saying their Jundul Hafsa group carried out the shooting as retaliation for the death of the Taliban's deputy leader, Waliur Rehman, in a U.S. drone attack on May 29.

"By killing foreigners, we wanted to give a message to the world to play their role in bringing an end to the drone attacks," Ahsan told The Associated Press by telephone from an undisclosed location.

The attackers beat up the Pakistanis who were accompanying the tourists, took their money and tied them up, said a senior local government official. They checked the identities of the Pakistanis and shot to death one of them, possibly because he was a minority Shiite Muslim, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media. Although Gilgit-Baltistan is a relatively peaceful area, it has experienced attacks by radical Sunni Muslims on Shiites in recent years.

The attackers took the money and passports from the foreigners and then gunned them down, said the official. It's unclear how the Chinese tourist who was rescued managed to avoid being killed.

Local police chief Barkat Ali said they first learned of the attack when one of the local guides called the police station around 1 a.m. on Sunday.

The Pakistani government condemned the shooting in a statement sent to reporters.

"The government of Pakistan expresses its deep sense of shock and grief on this brutal act of terrorism, and extends its sympathy to the families of the victims," said a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry. "Those who have committed this heinous crime seem to be attempting to disrupt the growing relations of Pakistan with China and other friendly countries."

Pakistan has very close ties with neighboring China and is very sensitive to an issue that could harm the relationship. Pakistani officials have reached out to representatives from China and Ukraine to convey their sympathies, the Foreign Ministry said.

Many foreign tourists stay away from Pakistan because of the perceived danger of visiting a country that is home to a large number of Islamic militant groups, such as the Taliban and al-Qaida, which mostly reside in the northwest near the Afghan border. But a relatively small number of intrepid foreigners visit Gilgit-Baltistan during the summer to marvel at the peaks of the Himalayan and Karakoram ranges, including K2, the second highest mountain in the world.

Syed Mehdi Shah, the chief minister of Gilgit-Baltistan, condemned the attack and expressed fear that it would seriously damage the region's tourism industry.

"A lot of tourists come to this area in the summer, and our local people work to earn money from these people," said Shah. "This will not only affect our area, but will adversely affect all of Pakistan."

Shah said authorities are still trying to get more information about exactly what happened to the tourists. The area where the attack occurred, Bunar Nala, is only accessible by foot or on horseback, and communications can be difficult, said Shah. Bunar Nala is on one of three routes to reach Nanga Parbat, he said.

The area has been cordoned off by police and paramilitary soldiers, and a military helicopter is searching the area, said Shah. The military plans to airlift the bodies of the foreign tourists to Islamabad, he said.

"God willing we will find the perpetrators of this tragic incident," said Shah.

The government suspended the top police chief in Gilgit-Baltistan following the attack and has ordered an inquiry into the incident, said Khan, the interior minister.

_____

Associated Press writer Rasool Dawar contributed to this report from Peshawar, Pakistan.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-06-23-Pakistan/id-5ad6a00fb9c343dab318e910b843c237

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Paula Deen and the N-word: A plate of bigotry with that fried chicken?

Paula Deen, the woman who has put Southern culture on a pedestal, may be responsible for raising deeper questions about whether the marketing of Southern cuisine comes with a side of bigotry.

By Patrik Jonsson,?Staff writer / June 22, 2013

This 2006 photo originally released by the Food Network shows celebrity chef Paula Dean. It was revealed that Deen admitted during questioning in a lawsuit that she had slurred blacks in the past.

Food Network/AP

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Many of the very dishes Southern foodways ambassador Paula Deen fetishizes ? fried chicken, fried okra, biscuits ? have slave roots, remnants of an African culinary culture co-opted by an entire region, and defined and marketed to the world as ?Southern cooking.?

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But if Southern cuisine is a racially integrated export, some of its purveyors still struggle with the region?s legacy, as revelations about Ms. Deen?s use of the word ?nigger? showed this week. The now former Food Network star and Savannah, Ga., restaurateur said in a May deposition related to a harassment lawsuit involving her brother, Bubba Hiers, that ?of course? she had used the word, but not in a ?mean way.?

In part because Deen has been embraced by liberals like Oprah Winfrey and Kathy Griffin, and has been an avid Obama supporter, the N-word quotes shocked many of her fans and confirmed for many Northerners that behind that genteel facade and Sun Belt shine, the South hasn?t really changed.

As Chicago Now columnist John Chatz wrote, ?To many of us, the South still stands for slavery and the Civil War. This may be wrong and it may be simple, but people like Paula Deen help keep these opinions alive.?

In the end, the woman who has done a ton to put Southern culture on a pedestal to be admired and chowed down on, may now be responsible for raising deeper questions about whether the marketing of Southern culture and cuisine comes with a side of bigotry.

?One reason why Deen has been so successful in creating her empire is precisely because she has taken an intrinsically problematic image of America ? one constructed ? when the South defined itself in political and cultural opposition to the North ? and covered it over with a thin dusting of Old Bay,? writes Marcus Hunter on the Flavorwire blog. ?She was able to present southern charm as something that has transcended the racial tensions that characterize so much of the region?s history. Well, until now.?

To be sure, the South?s culinary heritage interweaves both black and white culture in a way that Southerners like Deen understand innately, in their own way. Whites may make private N-word jokes, as she admits in the deposition, but they also, as she told the New York Times a couple of years ago, share a special affinity for blacks.

"I feel like the South is almost less prejudiced because black folks played such an integral part in our lives," Deen said. "They were like our family."

It?s not a crazy point.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/gpg9OlsOiFs/Paula-Deen-and-the-N-word-A-plate-of-bigotry-with-that-fried-chicken

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Afghans rush to learn risky art of defusing bombs

CAMP BLACK HORSE, Afghanistan (AP) ? In a desolate field outside Kabul, an Afghan soldier hunches over a knee-high robot equipped with cameras, multidirectional pincers and tank-treads built for rough terrain. Carefully, he attaches four bottles of water and a tiny explosive charge to the robot. He uses a remote control to guide it 50 meters (yards) away to his target: a simulated backpack bomb.

"Explosion! Explosion! Explosion!" shouts the soldier, Naqibullah Qarizada, in a warning to others nearby. Then he remotely detonates the charge.

A small dust cloud kicks up. If all has gone well, the blast has pushed the water into the bomb with enough force to knock out its triggering mechanism. But to be safe, his partner, Hayatullah, climbs into a heavy protective suit before lumbering over to pluck out the blasting cap and seal it in a fortified box.

The two men are among hundreds of Afghan soldiers training to take over the dangerous fight against the war's biggest killers: the Taliban-planted bombs known as IEDs that kill and maim thousands of people each year on and around the country's roads and towns.

A few years ago, there were almost no Afghan bomb disposal experts. Now, there are 369 ? but that's far from enough. The international coalition is rushing to train hundreds more before the exit of most coalition forces by the end of next year.

Each day on average, two to three roadside or buried bombs explode somewhere in Afghanistan, according to numbers compiled by the United Nations, which says that the explosives killed 868 civilians last year, 40 percent of the civilian deaths in insurgent attacks. Among international forces, buried or roadside bombs accounted for 64 percent of the 3,300 coalition troops killed or wounded last year, the NATO force says.

Known in military parlance as improvised explosives devices (IEDs), the bombs have long been a favorite Taliban weapon that can be remotely detonated by radio or mobile phone when a target passes by or triggered by pressure, like a vehicle driving over it.

The U.S. military has over the years developed advanced detection and disposal techniques that manage to defuse about 40 to 50 IEDs each day, says Col. Ace Campbell, chief of the Counter-IED training unit. The coalition is working to transfer that knowledge to the Afghans who will be responsible once most foreign troops leave next year, and Campbell says Afghan teams are now finding and disposing about half of the bombs most days.

"Whenever I hear about an IED or I find one myself ? maybe you will laugh, but I become very happy," says Hayatullah, 28, who has completed the highest level of training and like many Afghans uses just one name. "I am happy because it is my duty to defuse it, and I will save the lives of several people."

Hayatullah also has a personal reason for his chosen profession ? his father was killed in a mine explosion. He was just 13 when unknown attackers planted two anti-personnel mines outside their home in Parwan province, and he says the memory fuels his desire to save others.

The country's main bomb disposal school is located at Camp Black Horse, set among a dust-swept field on Kabul's eastern outskirts, where a rusted-out Russian tank looms on a distant hill, a reminder of Afghanistan's long legacy of war dating back to the 1980s Soviet occupation.

Here, a team of about 160 instructors runs 19 different courses, ranging from a basic four-week awareness program for regular Afghan soldiers to the eight-month advanced "IED defeat" course that is a slightly shorter version of the U.S. Army's own counter-explosives training.

"We are giving them the best instruction that we have available, and they are picking it up," said U.S. Army Maj. Joel Smith, one of the training program's leaders. "Some are getting killed, some are dropping out, but their numbers are growing."

Still, it is a race against time to produce enough experts to fill the gap left by foreign troops' withdrawal. On Tuesday, NATO formally handed over full security responsibility to Afghanistan's fledgling 350,000-strong security forces, though many of the remaining foreign troops will stay until next year in a support and training role.

The goal is to have 318 full-fledged Explosive Ordnance Disposal teams, each with two or three Afghan experts, spread out around the country. But Afghan security forces now have less than 60 percent of the bomb specialists they need ? hence the fever pitch of training.

"These guys are on a more accelerated program due to necessity," Smith said.

Equipping the Afghan teams is also a challenge. The coalition plans to distribute 12,000 metal detectors to regular police and army units, and each of the specialized disposal teams is slated to receive one of the high-tech robots that Qarizada and Hayatullah were working with. But Smith said each of the robots costs $17,000, and so far only about half of those needed are in the hands of Afghan teams. And that is not even taking into account who will maintain the sophisticated machines in a country where dust clogs nearly every machine and technical expertise is scarce.

Bomb disposal units gained widespread fame with the 2008 film "The Hurt Locker," but in real life the process ? while still dangerous ? is much slower and more methodical. The ultimate goal is to try not to approach a live bomb until it's been neutralized, which is the point of the exercise with the robot and the protective suit.

But with thousands of buried bombs and more being planted every day, it's impossible to have such sophisticated tools everywhere. That's why the program also trains regular Afghan army and police for four weeks in how to recognize signs of a smaller IED ? freshly moved earth, or perhaps a conveniently placed culvert next to a bridge ? and neutralize it in the crudest but simplest way: setting a smaller charge, moving far, far away and blowing it up in place.

Even such basic disposal takes weeks of training. Sitting attentively on rows of benches under a lean-to in the field, a group of Afghan soldiers listens to contractor James Webber, a former U.S. Air Force bomb disposal expert, as he explains how long to make a fuse so whoever sets it can then dash away for four minutes, or 240 seconds, to safety before the charge blows.

"So, 240 seconds divided by our burn rate - what do you get? Anyone got a calculator?" Webber asks.

The recruits nod, squint, calculate.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/afghans-rush-learn-risky-art-defusing-bombs-062833351.html

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