Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/287320865?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Liver stem cells grown in culture, transplanted with demonstrated therapeutic benefit
Feb. 25, 2013 ? For decades scientists around the world have attempted to regenerate primary liver cells known as hepatocytes because of their numerous biomedical applications, including hepatitis research, drug metabolism and toxicity studies, as well as transplantation for cirrhosis and other chronic liver conditions. But no lab in the world has been successful in identifying and growing liver stem cells in culture -- using any available technique -- until now.
In the journal Nature, physician-scientists in the Pap? Family Pediatric Research Institute at Oregon Health & Science University Doernbecher Children's Hospital, Portland, Ore., along with investigators at the Hubrecht Institute for Developmental Biology and Stem Cell Research, Utrecht, Netherlands, describe a new method through which they were able to infinitely expand liver stem cells from a mouse in a dish.
"This study raises the hope that the human equivalent of these mouse liver stem cells can be grown in a similar way and efficiently converted into functional liver cells," said Markus Grompe, M.D., study co-author, director of the Pap? Family Pediatric Research Institute at OHSU Doernbecher Children's Hospital; and professor of pediatrics, and molecular and medical genetics in the OHSU School of Medicine.
In a previous Nature study, investigators at the Hubrecht Institute, led by Hans Clever, M.D, Ph.D., were the first to identify stem cells in the small intestine and colon by observing the expression of the adult stem cell marker Lgr5 and growth in response to a growth factor called Wnt. They also hypothesized that the unique expression pattern of Lgr5 could mark stem cells in other adult tissues, including the liver, an organ for which stem cell identification remained elusive.
In the current Nature study, Grompe and colleagues in the Pap? Family Pediatric Research Institute at OHSU Doernbecher used a modified version of the Clever method and discovered that Wnt-induced Lgr5 expression not only marks stem cell production in the liver, but it also defines a class of stem cells that become active when the liver is damaged.
The scientists were able to grow these liver stem cells exponentially in a dish -- an accomplishment never before achieved -- and then transplant them in a specially designed mouse model of liver disease, where they continued to grow and show a modest therapeutic effect.
"We were able to massively expand the liver cells and subsequently convert them to hepatocytes at a modest percentage. Going forward, we will enlist other growth factors and conditions to improve that percentage. Liver stem cell therapy for chronic liver disease in humans is coming," said Grompe.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Oregon Health & Science University.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Meritxell Huch, Craig Dorrell, Sylvia F. Boj, Johan H. van Es, Vivian S. W. Li, Marc van de Wetering, Toshiro Sato, Karien Hamer, Nobuo Sasaki, Milton J. Finegold, Annelise Haft, Robert G. Vries, Markus Grompe, Hans Clevers. In vitro expansion of single Lgr5 liver stem cells induced by Wnt-driven regeneration. Nature, 2013; 494 (7436): 247 DOI: 10.1038/nature11826
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/co-OcQp_tVg/130225153130.htm
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Samsung confirms Galaxy S IV launch on March 14th in NYC
It was true. And then it wasn't. Now, here at MWC in Barcelona, Samsung has finally confirmed its rumored March 14th launch event for the much-anticipated Galaxy S IV. The smartphone giant's latest flagship is set to debut in New York City, apparently by popular demand. "We introduced the Galaxy S III in London last year," Samsung Electronics' mobile division chief JK Shin told Edaily news. "This time we changed the Venue (to New York)... as we were bombarded with requests from US mobile carriers to unveil the Galaxy S IV in the country." As with any such announcement, details are sparse at best, so we'll need to wait a few more weeks before confirming specs and appearance for the Galaxy S III successor. But, as always, you're welcome to shout out your best guesses in the comments.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/JqaksR1gDmc/
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JPMorgan to trim 4,000 jobs, many in consumer bank
NEW YORK (AP) ? JPMorgan is trimming about 4,000 jobs, or about 1.5 percent of its work force, becoming the latest big bank to shrink its staff.
The bank said the cuts will be focused in consumer banking and mortgages. Many of the cuts would come through attrition, but the bank will lay off workers as well, a bank spokeswoman said.
The cuts were revealed in a presentation to investors Tuesday. They are part of the bank's bigger cost-cutting campaign. They come after a year when the bank increased profit and revenue.
The move could signal a new direction for staffing: JPMorgan already shed about 1,200 jobs in 2012, after adding jobs in 2011 and 2010.
Job cuts have become a familiar story in the banking industry. Banks are navigating new government regulations that have crimped some old sources of revenue, like issuing credit cards to students or trading for the bank's own profit. The banks have also said that complying with the new regulations is costing them more money.
Bank of America, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs all trimmed jobs in 2012. Morgan Stanley's current round of job cuts has focused on senior ranks and investment bankers. Bank of America has said it needs fewer people to work through problem mortgages, though it has cut jobs in other areas. Citigroup is scaling back in countries that it no longer sees as growth engines.
JPMorgan said it hopes to find jobs within the bank for displaced workers through a "redeployment" program.
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Warrant issued for Vegas Strip shooting suspect
This photo provided by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department shows Ammar Harris in a booking photo from a 2012 arrest in Las Vegas. Police have identified Harris as a suspect in a shooting that sent a Maserati into a taxi that exploded, killing three people on Feb. 21, 2013 in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department)
This photo provided by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department shows Ammar Harris in a booking photo from a 2012 arrest in Las Vegas. Police have identified Harris as a suspect in a shooting that sent a Maserati into a taxi that exploded, killing three people on Feb. 21, 2013 in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department)
This photo provided by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department shows Ammar Harris in a booking photo from a 2012 arrest in Las Vegas. Police have identified Harris as a suspect in a shooting that sent a Maserati into a taxi that exploded, killing three people on Feb. 21, 2013 in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department)
This photo provided by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department shows a black Range Rover SUV in Las Vegas that was found Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013, at an apartment complex east of the Las Vegas Strip. It has been impounded as evidence in connection with a shooting that sent a Maserati into a taxi that exploded, killing three people. Police are looking for 26-year-old Ammar Harris in connection with the shooting. (AP Photo/Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department)
FILE - In this Feb. 21, 2013 file photo, law enforcement personal investigate the scene of a mulit-vehicle accident on Las Vegas Blvd and Flamingo Road Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013. Variously known as an adult playground and Disneyland for grown-ups, Las Vegas has worked to brand itself as a place where tourists can enjoy a sense of edginess with no real danger. But a series of high-profile and seemingly random incidents that have left visitors to the Strip dead or in the hospital is threatening Sin City?s reputation as a padded room of a town where people can cut loose with no fear of consequences. (AP Photo/Las Vegas Review-Journal, Jeff Scheid) LOCAL TV OUT; LOCAL INTERNET OUT; LAS VEGAS SUN OUT
This undated image provided by Robert S. Beckett shows Kenneth Cherry Jr., also known as rapper Kenny Clutch. The Clark County, Nev., coroner's office identified Cherry as the Maserati driver who died after being peppered with gunfire from someone in a Range Rover SUV, sparking a fiery crash that killed two others, in Las Vegas, Feb. 21, 2013. (AP Photo/Robert S. Beckett)
LAS VEGAS (AP) ? Police said Monday they have a warrant for a 26-year-old ex-convict identified as the prime suspect in a shooting and fiery crash that killed three people last week on the Las Vegas Strip.
"We can say with certainty that Ammar Harris is the suspect who fired the fatal shots," Las Vegas police Capt. Chris Jones told reporters at an afternoon update about a manhunt that he said would be advertised on southern Nevada billboards.
Police previously released a photo of Harris taken after his arrest last year in Las Vegas in a 2010 prostitution case. It showed Harris with tattoos on his right cheek and words on his neck above an image that appeared to depict an owl with blackened eyes. Jones said Harris should be considered armed and dangerous.
Jones said investigators were looking everywhere Harris had lived in the past. He wasn't specific.
Public records show that Harris previously lived in South Carolina and Georgia, and told a police officer when he was arrested in Miami Beach last December that he had lived in Florida for about a year.
Harris was convicted in 2004 in Orangeburg, S.C., of felony possession with intent to sell a stolen pistol, Jones said. The conviction was not in California, as police said earlier.
Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson attended the news conference and said afterward that the case was getting top priority from prosecutors and he hoped Harris would turn himself in. He said the warrant was issued Friday.
"If Mr. Harris is listening, I would urge him to surrender," Wolfson said.
Harris used the name Ammar Asim Faruq Harris when he was arrested last May in Las Vegas in the June 2010 case. He was charged with robbery, sexual assault, kidnapping and coercion with a weapon.
Las Vegas police also sought pandering by force and ex-felon in possession of concealed weapon charges stemming from allegations that Harris was a pimp and attacked a woman.
Court records show the case was dismissed last June. The prosecutor and a public defender who handled the case didn't immediately respond to messages Monday.
In Miami Beach, Harris was arrested Dec. 7 after he was accused of driving a silver 2006 Hummer H3 the wrong way on a congested street at 2 a.m. The arresting officer said Harris produced a Florida state identification card and provided a Miami address. The status of the case in Miami-Dade courts was unclear Monday.
In Atlanta, Harris was arrested in June 2004 on a felony marijuana possession with intent to distribute charge. According to court records, he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor marijuana possession charge and was sentenced to three months in jail.
Fulton County jail records show Harris spent about two weeks in jail in February 2008 after a misdemeanor battery arrest. The outcome of that case was not immediately clear Monday.
In Las Vegas, investigators say Harris was driving a black Range Rover SUV when he fired shots into a Maserati before dawn Thursday, killing an aspiring rapper and causing a crash that killed two people when the Maserati slammed into a taxi that exploded in a fireball at the heart of the Strip.
Police said several other people were with Harris in the SUV as it fled the scene of the six-vehicle, chain-reaction crash on Las Vegas Boulevard near the Bellagio, Caesars Palace, Bally's and Flamingo resorts.
Jones and police homicide Lt. Ray Steiber said they were confident that Harris was the only shooter. They didn't say whether police intend to prosecute anyone else in the SUV.
But, "To anyone who is aware of his location or is assisting Ammar Harris in any way, you will be arrested and prosecuted," Jones said. "You may think you're being a friend, but keep in mind Ammar Harris is wanted for the murder of three citizens."
The SUV was the focus of an intense search before it was found Saturday parked in the garage of a gated apartment complex just a couple of blocks east of the Strip. Harris wasn't found at a nearby apartment where he was believed to have been living.
Kenneth Wayne Cherry Jr. was mortally wounded when the dark gray Maserati he was driving was peppered by gunfire from the SUV. Taxi driver Michael Boldon, 62, of Las Vegas, and passenger Sandra Sutton-Wasmund, 48, of Maple Valley, Wash., died in the taxi.
Police say the triple homicide stemmed from an altercation between Cherry and Harris in a valet area of the upscale Aria resort a block south of the crash scene at Las Vegas Boulevard and Flamingo Road.
A passenger in the Maserati was wounded in the arm, and four people from four other vehicles were treated for non-life-threatening injuries after the crash.
Las Vegas police sought help during last week's search for the Range Rover from local and federal authorities in Nevada and neighboring states of Arizona, California and Utah.
___
Associated Press writer Kate Brumback in Atlanta contributed to this report.
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Sunday, February 24, 2013
Mille Mackintosh snuggles up to pet Herby in cute Twitter and Instagram snaps
Posted: Saturday 23 Feb 2013
Above: Milie Mackintosh shared a selection of adorable snaps with her pooch Herby on Twitter
Above: Mille Mackintosh had been chilling with the cute French bulldog the day after the BRITs
Above: Millie Mackintosh's pet pooch Herby is just too cute!
HOW cute do they look together?
Millie Mackintosh has been using her time away from filming Made In Chelsea snuggling up to her adorable pet Herby.Professor Green's girlfriend shared a selection of snaps of her hugging the cute French bulldog on Twitter and Instagram yesterday.
[ See also: Millie Mackintosh flaunts Pilates body in super-skinny leather trousers ]
She posted one pic of her cuddling the pooch with the caption: "Puppy snuggles!"
The 23-year-old was relaxing with her pooch the day after partying at the BRITs 2013, which she was feeling a bit worse for wear from.
[ See more celeb news: Millie Mackintosh flaunts her gorgeous face and new hair extensions ]
In the morning she tweeted the simple message: "#hungover".
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Razzies put bite on 'Twilight' as worst picture
FILE- This undated file photo provided by Summit Entertainment shows, from left, Judith Shekoni, Tracey Heggins, Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Christian Camargo, Peter Facinelli and Casey LaBow in a scene from the film "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2." The finale to the blockbuster supernatural romance dominated the 33rd Annual Razzie Awards on Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013 with seven awards, including worst actress for Kristen Stewart, supporting actor for Taylor Lautner, director for Bill Condon and worst screen couple for Lautner and child co-star Mackenzie Foy. (AP Photo/Summit Entertainment, Andrew Cooper, SMPSP, File)
FILE- This undated file photo provided by Summit Entertainment shows, from left, Judith Shekoni, Tracey Heggins, Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Christian Camargo, Peter Facinelli and Casey LaBow in a scene from the film "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2." The finale to the blockbuster supernatural romance dominated the 33rd Annual Razzie Awards on Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013 with seven awards, including worst actress for Kristen Stewart, supporting actor for Taylor Lautner, director for Bill Condon and worst screen couple for Lautner and child co-star Mackenzie Foy. (AP Photo/Summit Entertainment, Andrew Cooper, SMPSP, File)
FILE - This film image provided by Columbia Pictures shows Adam Sandler, left, and Andy Samberg in a scene from "That's My Boy." On Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013, at the 33rd Annual Razzie Awards, Sandler was named worst actor for ?That?s My Boy,? his second-straight win after 2011?s ?Jack and Jill,? which swept all 10 Razzie categories. (AP Photo/Columbia Pictures - Sony, Tracy Bennett, File)
FILE - This file film image provided by Summit Entertainment shows actresses Mackenzie Foy, foreground, and Kristen Stewart in a scene from "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2." The finale to the blockbuster supernatural romance dominated the 33rd Annual Razzie Awards on Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013 with seven awards, including worst actress for Kristen Stewart, supporting actor for Taylor Lautner, director for Bill Condon and worst screen couple for Lautner and child co-star Mackenzie Foy. (AP Photo/Summit Entertainment, Andrew Cooper, SMPSP, File)
FILE- In this file film image provided by Universal Pictures, Rihanna is shown in a scene from "Battleship." On Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013, at the 33rd Annual Razzie Awards, Rihanna was awarded worst supporting actress for ?Battleship.? (AP Photo/Universal Pictures, File)
In this film image provided by Universal Pictures, Taylor Kitsch, left, and Rihanna are shown in a scene from "Battleship." On Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013 at the 33rd Annual Razzie Awards, Rihanna was awarded worst supporting actress for ?Battleship.? (AP Photo/ILM/Universal Pictures)
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? The "Twilight" team finally has earned some love ? or loathing ? from Team Razzies.
"The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn ? Part 2" was picked as last year's worst picture Saturday by the Razzies, an Academy Awards spoof that hands out prizes for Hollywood's lousiest movies on the eve of the Oscars.
The finale to the blockbuster supernatural romance dominated the Razzies with seven awards, including worst actress for Kristen Stewart, supporting actor for Taylor Lautner, director for Bill Condon and worst screen couple for Lautner and child co-star Mackenzie Foy.
Adam Sandler was named worst actor for the raunchy comedy "That's My Boy," his second-straight win after 2011's "Jack and Jill," which swept all 10 Razzie categories a year ago. Pop singer Rihanna won worst supporting actress for the action dud "Battleship."
"Twilight" movies had been well represented in Razzie nominations over the years but had not won any key awards there. Razzie voters joke that as with "The Lord of the Rings" finale winning best picture at the Academy Awards, they were waiting for the last "Twilight" flick on which to heap their scorn.
"I have a pet theory, which is that the box office on 'Twilight' films is very impressive, but my theory is that instead of 40 million individual girls going to see it, it's 8 million girls going to see it five times each. People who love those movies just adore them," said Razzies founder John Wilson. "I believe the attitude of people who really love 'Twilight' movies toward this subject is very similar to the pomposity with which the Academy Awards addresses the whole rest of the world. Our whole existence is all about making fun of pompous, so 'Twilight' really is right up our alley."
The "Twilight" finale also won for worst screen ensemble and worst remake, rip-off or sequel. For worst picture, it beat out "Battleship," ''That's My Boy," the family flick "The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure" and Eddie Murphy's comedy flop "A Thousand Words."
Stewart's worst-actress prize came for both "Twilight" and her fairy-tale update "Snow White and the Huntsman."
In the five "Twilight" movies, Stewart stars as sullen teen Bella Swan, who falls for ageless vampire hunk Edward Cullen (worst-actor nominee Robert Pattinson) and finds herself at the center of a love triangle with him and her childhood pal, werewolf stud Jacob Black (Lautner).
Stewart set a consistent standard of emotional stoniness throughout the "Twilight" movies, Wilson said.
"Acting should involve having an expression on your face, and she is blank, other than the morose kind of half-Goth thing her character does," Wilson said. "I didn't realize Snow White and Bella were soul sisters, because of the very limited range of what she can do. I think it was Dorothy Parker who said about Katharine Hepburn that she runs the 'gamut of emotions from A to B.' Kristen Stewart is so expressionless she might as well be a brick wall."
Sandler's "That's My Boy," which also won the worst-screenplay Razzie, flopped at the box office and continues a gradual decline in receipts for the comic actor's movies.
"He's an enormous star who is on what I call the 'down-alator' of his career," Wilson said. "He's about to step off the same cliff Eddie Murphy stepped off about 10 years ago. Eddie Murphy has never come back, and Murphy is more talented."
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NBA: Miami 114, Philadelphia 90
Published: Feb. 23, 2013 at 10:59 PM
PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 23 (UPI) -- Dwyane Wade was deadly accurate Saturday, sinking 14-of-18 shots from the field on his way to 33 points in the Miami Heat's 114-90 win over Philadelphia.
LeBron James turned in a triple-double of 16 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists to help Miami rack up its 10th straight victory.
Mario Chalmers put in another 14 points and Chris Bosh added 13 as the Heat continued their dominance of the 76ers with their 12th consecutive triumph in the series.
The Sixers, meanwhile, dropped their fourth straight overall despite 21 points and six assists from Jrue Holiday.
Nick Young (19 points) and Evan Turner (16, seven rebounds, five assists) also reached double figures for Philadelphia.
Source: http://www.upi.com/Sports_News/2013/02/23/NBA-Miami-114-Philadelphia-90/UPI-33861361678365/
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Tumblr, Pinterest, And Twitter User Email Addresses Stolen In Zendesk Hack [Updates]
Zendesk, the email and contact support client used by Tumblr, Twitter, and Pinterest, has been compromised, and user?s email addresses have been stolen during the breach. Tumblr is sending out emails informing users of the situation, but Twitter and Pinterest are also seeing the same ill effects.
If you?ve never emailed support for any of the three social networks, then your email address is safe. Those who have sent an email to Tumblr in the last 2.5 years, which is when the blogging service started using Zendesk, your email address is likely compromised.
The silver lining to all this is that passwords are safe, so all the attackers have access to is email?addresses? They may be able to send you spam or phishing messages, but that?s about it. For Tumblr, some emails may contain the link to a user?s blog in the subject, so the hackers may be able to associate an email with a blog, but there is still little that can be done with that information.
Zendesk is quick to point out that the breach has been fixed, but obviously, any damage the hackers were looking to do has already taken place.
Twitter uses a technology called Domain-based Message Authentication or DMARC. This makes it difficult for people running phishing scams to fake an email from Twitter. Regardless, if you?ve emailed support for any of these three websites, you should be extra careful about what emails you open, as your email address is likely in the hands of the wrong people. Of course, you should be cautious with emails at all times, but right now it is extra important.
Source: Digital Trends
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Pope reflects on "evil" in last address to Curia
VATICAN CITY (AP) ? Pope Benedict XVI has lamented the "evil, suffering and corruption" that has defaced God's creation in a final address to the officials who run the Vatican bureaucracy.
Benedict spoke off-the-cuff Saturday at the end of a weeklong spiritual retreat coinciding with the Catholic Church's solemn Lenten season. For the past week, Italian Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi has led the Vatican on meditations that have covered everything from the family to denouncing the "divisions, dissent, careerism, jealousies" that afflict the Vatican bureaucracy.
Ravasi's blunt critique of the dysfunction within the Vatican Curia, exposed by the leaked document scandal, comes as cardinals from around the world are arriving for the final days of Benedict's papacy and the conclave to elect his successor. Bureaucratic reform is a major priority for the next pope.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pope-reflects-evil-last-address-curia-113902036.html
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Aspiring rapper among dead after Vegas Strip shooting
In a scene witnesses describe as looking like a Hollywood set, a confrontation between a group of men escalated into a shooting, multiple vehicle pileup, and an exploding taxicab. The incident left three people dead. NBC's Miguel Almaguer reports.
By Matthew DeLuca, Staff Writer, NBC News
The driver of a Maserati that was shot up early Thursday morning on Las Vegas? famed Strip, causing the vehicle to crash into a taxi cab and leading to a deadly explosion, was a 27-year-old aspiring rapper, according to his family.
Three people were killed and at least six injured as a result of the 4:30 a.m. shooting and subsequent car crashes in a section of the Strip that includes Caesars Palace, Bally?s and the Bellagio.?
The shooting came after the occupants of a Range Rover and the Maserati got into an altercation in the valet area of the Aria hotel and casino, according to Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie.
?We have numerous witnesses to this,? Las Vegas Police Sgt. John Sheahan said. ?But what is the genesis of this? We don?t know yet.?
A major manhunt is under way for the occupants of the Range Rover.
Kenny ?Clutch? Cherry of Oakland, Calif. was at the wheel of the Maserati, his father told NBCBayArea.com on Thursday, when a black Range Rover with tinted windows and black rims pulled up and allegedly opened fire near a stoplight in the pre-dawn hours.
A passenger was injured by the gunfire and Cherry was killed, causing the car to spin out of control. The careening silver Maserati smashed into a taxicab, trapping the passenger and driver and causing the cab to burst into flames; both occupants were killed, police said. Then, the Maserati smashed into three other cars before coming to a stop.?
The Maserati driver was a Chico State dropout who had gone to Las Vegas to pursue a rap career, father Kenneth Cherry, Sr., told NBCBayArea.com. He had filmed a music video on the Strip featuring his Maserati just months before. Cherry left behind three children, including a toddler and 2-month-old baby girl.
?I heard there was some sort of disagreement and the guys pulled to the side of him, and rolled their window down, and he rolled his window down,? Cherry said. ?They just started shooting. My son for the record did not have any guns in his car. There was no gun battle. Nothing like that.?
Attorney Vicki Greco told Reuters she had represented the deceased Cherry in a civil case and a few traffic issues.
The Clark County Office of the Coroner/Medical Examiner confirmed Cherry's identity and said he died from a gunshot wound to the chest.
The taxi driver was identified as Michael Boldon, 62, of Las Vegas. His passenger was Sandra Sutton-Wasmund, 48, of Maple Valley, Wash. Both died of "multiple blunt force injuries," the office said.
All three deaths were classified as homicide.
In Las Vegas, visitors and law enforcement reacted with shock to the violent spectacle. The Strip has seen other recent incidents of violence, including a man who fired a gun inside the Circus Circus casino on New Year?s Eve and a parking garage shooting on Feb. 6.
?We get stabbings and gang violence,? Mark Thompson, a visitor from Manchester, England, told The Associated Press, ?but this is like something out of a movie. Like ?Die Hard? or something.?
Officers are searching for the Range Rover with paper dealership plates and its male African-American occupants, police said. They are combing through surveillance tape for clues.
?Finding those involved is a top priority for my agency and law enforcement here in southern Nevada,? Sheriff Douglas Gillespie of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department told NBC affiliate KSNV.
Related:
This story was originally published on Fri Feb 22, 2013 9:19 AM EST
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Best apps to help you prepare your taxes
Question: I'm getting ready to do my taxes soon and would like to know if there are any good mobile apps or websites that will make this less painful and stressful (besides the obvious tax prep tools, of course). Help me get all the stuff I need organized!
Answer: Ah, tax season. Just the thought of it gives some of us headaches. The good news is there are lots of free and inexpensive apps and tools that can greatly simplify this awful process, from getting organized to filing your return. Here's what we recommend.
Get your tax documents in orderIf you have an uncomplicated return (one W2, for example, and take the standard deduction), congratulations: You don't have to worry much about organizing your tax records. For everyone else, though, managing the piles of receipts and other documents is a big part of the pain. Several apps can help with that.
Evernote: The Swiss Army knife of note taking and capture tools, Evernote excels at keeping your documents categorized into notebooks. You can set up a tax notebook and then either sub-notebooks or tags for different categories like income statements, interest earned, charitable contributions, and the like. Combine Evernote with compact scanner Doxie or ScanSnap, and you can quickly file your receipts in Evernote. Another strategy is to use webapp automation serviceIFTTT to automatically send any emails you tag in Gmail with a tax label to your Evernote tax notebook. Handy!
Shoeboxed: If scanning and managing all those papers isn't your thing, take a look at receipt scanning solution Shoeboxed. As we've previously mentioned, you can mail, email, or upload your receipts to Shoeboxed and they'll OCR and categorize the documents for you. You can export those receipts to popular tax programs, as well as Evernote, and mobile apps are available. A free account lets you store 5 documents per month, while premium plans starting at $9.95 give you more capacity.
Slice: Slice is a brilliant receipt and package tracking webapp and mobile app. It scans your Gmail for receipts and gives you an overview of your entire purchase history. Last year, I used the convenient listing to find tax-deductible receipts I had forgotten about.
Expensify (pictured right): If you can take deductible expenses like car mileage and meals and entertainment expenses when you travel for business, Expensify has your back. The mobile apps and web receipts extension capture all those stray receipts and attachments and can turn them into IRS-approved eReceipts. It's a great app for independent contractors.
Your personal finance program and financial accounts: Of course, don't forget to consult your personal finance tool, such as popular Mint or Quicken to see spending by category and find all those deductible expenses. Both can port your information to TurboTax.
Also, your year-end statements from your credit card or bank can also come in handy if you're hunting down your tax-related expenses. (American Express has an awesome searchable and sortable view of statements by category.)
TaxCaster by TurboTax (pictured right): Want a sneak peek at how much of a refund (or tax bill) you'll get this year? This free tax refund calculator will estimate your taxes based on your quick inputs. It's available online, for Android, and for iOS.
Bloomberg BNA Quick Tax Reference: This app for Android,iPhone, and BlackBerry gives you instant access to tax rates and other handy information, such as IRA limits, mileage rates, and more. It's developed for financial professionals, but also offers useful tools like quickly calculating your total tax.
TaxACT Central: A companion app to the popular, free tax filing service, TaxACT Central can answer your tax questions and keep you organized, with a convenient checklist of what you need to file. You don't have to use TaxACT for filing to make use of the Android or iPhone app.
File your taxes and monitor your refundWe generally recommend going to a tax professional unless you have a very simple return. If yours isn't complicated, though, mobile and desktop apps can streamline filing your return and tracking your refund.
TurboTax SnapTax (pictured right): You can file your taxes in as little as ten minutes using this simple Android and iPhone app. Snap a photo of your W2, answer a few questions, and file right from the phone or online. (Isn't the future great?) This app is only for those who: make under $100,000 ($120,000 if married); only have W2, interest, or unemployment income; and don't own a home. Free to try, but $24.99 to file both federal and state.
H&R Block also offers mobile tax apps. The 1040EZ for Smartphone prepares your simple federal and state returns for free on Android and iPhone. There's also a iPad app not limited to 1040EZ returns, with free federal filing for simple returns and an additional fee for state filing.
Of course, both of these tax services (and many others) have desktop and/or webapps. Not all tax preparation software will give you the same results, though.ConsumerSearch has rounded up reviews of the top four tax prep applications, and Get Rich Slowly has an excellent (yet older) price comparison of these solutions and services.
IRS2Go: From Uncle Sam himself, IRS2Go doesn't let you file taxes from the Android oriPhone apps, but you can check the status of your refund, get tax law updates, request a copy of your tax records in the mail, and watch IRS YouTube videos. (Perhaps not the most exciting download, but we are talking about the IRS and taxes here.)
Grab these apps and put them in a new tax organization folder and you'll be set for this tax season and beyond.
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Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/gadgetbox/best-apps-help-you-prepare-your-taxes-1C8506274
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Oil sands mining uses up almost as much energy as it produces
? David Dodge, Pembina Institute
Suncor Millenium oil sands mine on the east side of the Athabasca River in Alberta, Canada.
The average "energy returned on investment," or EROI, for conventional oil is roughly 25:1. In other words, 25 units of oil-based energy are obtained for every one unit of other energy that is invested to extract it.
But tar sands oil is in a category all its own.
Tar sands retrieved by surface mining has an EROI of only about 5:1, according to research released Tuesday. Tar sands retrieved from deeper beneath the earth, through steam injection, fares even worse, with a maximum average ratio of just 2.9 to 1. That means one unit of natural gas is needed to create less than three units of oil-based energy.
"They have to use a lot of natural gas to upgrade this heavy, sticky, gooky almost tar-like stuff to make it fluid enough to use," said Charles Hall, a professor at the State University of New York's College of Environmental Science and Forestry. Hydrogen from gas heats the tar sands so the viscous form of petroleum it contains, known as bitumen, can be liquefied and pumped out of the ground. In this way, Hall said, gas helps turn tar sands "into something a bit closer to what we call oil."
With most of the world's highest quality resources already exhausted, companies are turning to formerly undesirable alternatives such as tar sands oil, which come with higher energetic price tags yet lower returns.
"We built our nation, economy and civilization on cheap energy - that's where this incredible growth of the U.S. economy has come from," said Hall, who coined the term EROI in 1979. "But that characteristic high energy return on investment fuel from much of the last century is no longer here."
The latest EROI values for tar sands were calculated by David Hughes, a fellow at the Post Carbon Institute, a non-profit devoted to issues such as climate change and energy scarcity, based in Santa Rosa, Calif. The institute released Hughes' findings on Tuesday.
Hughes' figures include the energy it takes to mine bitumen as well as to upgrade it to synthetic oil that can be put into a refinery. It also includes the liquefied natural gas used to turn it into dilbit (diluted bitumen) so it can flow through pipelines.
Hall, who wasn't involved in Hughes' study, thinks the EROI for oil sands would fall closer to 1:1 if the tar sands' full life cycle - including transportation, refinement into higher quality products, end use efficiency and environmental costs - was taken into account.
Travis Davies, manager of media and issues at the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, disputes Hughes' calculations. He said oil sands create 6 to 10 energy units for each energy unit used, but he did not cite a source for those figures.
Both Hughes and Hall think the new data should be factored into the debate over Canada's tar sands reserves, which cover an area about the size of Florida. Environmentalists argue that the oil sands should be left in the ground, because they produce much more carbon than other fossil fuels. The industry, supported by the Canadian government, says the oil sands are crucial to Canada's economy and can provide the United States with a reliable source of fuel from a friendly neighbor.
What isn't often mentioned, Hughes said, is the energy required to extract the oil, or the rate at which it can feasibly be recovered.
"Unless we talk about all three metrics - size of the resource, net energy and rate of supply - we're not getting the full story," he said.
Canada's Oil Sands Boom
The world currently burns through an estimated 88.25 million barrels of oil per day. As the supply of sweet, light crude diminishes, it is being replaced by unconventional alternatives, including tar sands.
Most unconventional energy sources have much lower efficiencies than conventional gas and oil, which operate at a combined energy-returned-on-investment ratio of about 18:1. Shale gas, for example, performs at about 6.5:1 to 7.6:1 - a bit better than the 2.9:1 to 5.1 for tar sands oil. Corn ethanol, with an EROI of about 1.3:1, sits at the bottom of the barrel for investment pay off.
"If you accept the fact that fossil fuels are finite - and I think most people would - then using a lot more fossil fuels for recovering energy as opposed to doing actual work basically uses them up quicker with no net payback in terms of useful work," Hughes said. "It's an issue of diminishing returns."
Canada is touted as having the third largest oil reserves in the world. But its supply of conventional oil is shrinking, and oil sands extraction has been growing fast in the past decade, from about 700,000 barrels per day in 2000 to 1.7 million today.
Hughes based his calculations on the 25.6 billion barrels of Canadian tar sands oil that are currently under active development. What concerns him more is the EROI of the estimated 143 billion additional barrels of oil sands that are sitting under Alberta's boreal forests, especially since only 8 percent of that oil is accessible via surface mining.
"Those EROI numbers are going to go down as we move away from the highest quality to the lesser quality parts of the resource," Hughes said. "I'd expect that downward shift to probably start about now."
When the entire life cycle of the fuels is considered - including production, transportation and burning the final product - the greenhouse gas differential between conventional oil and tar sands oil is about 20 percent, according to a 2011 study from Stanford University.
While no rigorous studies have been conducted on the association between diminishing EROI values and increased greenhouse gas emissions, Hughes thinks "it's a pretty safe assumption to make" that they are linked.
Those emissions are only going to increase as Canada ramps up to the 5 million barrels per day already approved for extraction, said Simon Dyer, policy director for the Pembina Institute, a Canadian non-profit focused on developing sustainable energy solutions.
"The impacts today are actually irrelevant compared to the tripling of emissions that hasn't yet expressed itself on the landscape," Dyer said. "At a time when we need to be de-carbonizing our economy and making moves to lower our sources of carbon energy, clearly oil sands are a step in the wrong direction."
More Than Just Dollars
Whether mining tar sands oil makes sense financially, depends on the world market price of oil - and on whether a company has already paid off its infrastructure costs or is building a new mine.
With the current price of synthetic crude oil sometimes dipping as low as $30 per barrel, a company that has paid off its infrastructure can still make a profit. For a company that's still building, however, the market price would have to be about $100 per barrel in order to justify construction, Hughes said.
"Cost-wise, this is the most expensive oil being produced today," Dyer said. "It's a pretty clear indicator that our solution to energy needs is not chasing lower and lower quality fossil fuel resources that come with higher impacts."
If oil sands oil eventually finds an easy outlet to the Gulf Coast - perhaps through the proposed Keystone XL pipeline project - the price for upgraded synthetic oil will likely rise to reflect the world market value, currently $110 per barrel.
Profitability aside, the development of Canada's oil sands reserves will never offset declines in crude oil. At the world's current rate of oil consumption - 32.2 billion barrels per year - Canada's tar sands oil reserves remain at a finite 168.6 billion barrels, enough to keep the world fueled for less than six years.
Source: http://www.sott.net/article/258706-Oil-sands-mining-uses-up-almost-as-much-energy-as-it-produces
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San Bernardino hire has twice declared bankruptcy
LOS ANGELES - The bankrupt city of San Bernardino has hired a new city manager who, according to court filings, has twice declared personal bankruptcy and was recently ousted from the board of a small community's water company after being sued by shareholders.
The city council voted unanimously on Tuesday night to hire Allen J. Parker, 71, as its city manager on an annual salary of almost $222,000. He replaces an interim city manager who resigned last month because, according to friends, she was exasperated by the city's internal divisions.
The interim city manager, Andrea Travis-Miller, could not be reached for comment.
Pat Morris, the mayor of the city in California, praised Parker's "wealth of city management experience" and expressed "great confidence" in his ability to oversee the city's affairs. Parker, who began working in the job on Wednesday, will be crucial in guiding the city of 210,000 people through municipal bankruptcy, in a case that could set a national precedent for Wall Street bondholders and pension funds in future municipal bankruptcies.
The mayor and council members knew about both of Parker's personal bankruptcies -- the first in 1991 and the second in 2011 -- and the litigation surrounding his water board tenure before they interviewed him, according to the mayor's chief of staff. They discussed both issues with him when they interviewed Parker last Friday. They say the issues were no impediment: the council interviewed two final candidates but voted unanimously to hire him.
The California newspaper The Press-Enterprise reported on Thursday that Parker filed in 2011 for personal bankruptcy. In comments to the paper, Parker said that his bankruptcy and his ability to handle the city's fiscal problems were "apples and oranges."
Calls and emails to Parker asking about his bankruptcy filings and his tenure on the water board went unanswered. An email to Parker asking if his wife Sara, with whom he jointly filed for bankruptcy in the 2011 petition, would comment also did not elicit a response.
The bankruptcy of San Bernardino, a city 65 miles east of Los Angeles, is a national test case as to whether the pensions of government workers take precedence over other payments in a municipal bankruptcy -- a high stakes issue for pension plans and their beneficiaries, and for the Wall Street bondholders who lend money to governments.
City managers are central to any city's quest to seek bankruptcy protection, because they have a pivotal role in answering questions from creditors and the court. The judge overseeing San Bernardino's case must still rule on whether the city is eligible for bankruptcy before the case proceeds.
Legal dispute
A 2009 lawsuit brought by a shareholder in the Banning Heights Mutual Water Company, where Parker was a director and then president of the board between 2004 and 2010, resulted in Parker being voted off the board in February 2010 after a court-ordered special election.
Banning Heights is a tiny unincorporated community 85 miles east of Los Angeles. The water company was formed in 1913 to provide water and today it serves about 250 residents.
Despite its small size, the water rights and land upon which the community sits are worth millions of dollars, according to John McClendon, the water board's general counsel. At one point under Parker's tenure on the water board, an entity called The Tahiti Group had placed $7 million in an escrow account to purchase the company, according to correspondence attached to court filings.
Court filings in the 2009 lawsuit, and a subsequent separate lawsuit brought by the water company allege that Parker, along with others, used their position on the board to try to sell the water company, against the wishes of shareholders.
Parker and others were also accused of withholding information from shareholders, according to those court filings. The shareholder sued in 2009 because he said Parker and others ignored the results of previous shareholder elections when they were voted off the board. Parker is not a defendant in the second lawsuit which is still active.
According to one court filing by the water company dated September 20, 2010, when shareholders gained access to the water company's office after Parker and others were voted off the board, computers were missing, hard drives had been wiped and bags of shredded documents sat on the floor.
In a deposition dated November 9, 2010 relating to the 2009 lawsuit, Parker said he never shredded documents and did not believe anyone "during our regime" on the water board shredded any documents.
After a judge ruled against Parker and others in the 2009 lawsuit and ordered a special shareholder election, they were voted off the board by shareholders in February 2010.
Background check
According to his resume, which does not mention Banning Heights Water Company, Parker has long experience as a local manager in several other California cities such as East Palo Alto, Half Moon Bay, Seal Beach and Compton.
Jim Morris, the son and chief of staff to Pat Morris, San Bernardino's mayor, said the city had done its own thorough background check on Parker before he was interviewed by the council, last Friday. His bankruptcies, and the Banning Heights Mutual Water Company litigation, were known about by the time the interview took place, Morris said.
"We talked to the attorneys involved, and pulled the court filings. These were disputes over election results," Morris said. He said the Banning Heights litigation did not involve serious issues, and that such disputes occur on small entities such as the water board all the time.
Morris said there was no reason why Parker should have included his tenure on the water board on his resume. "He wasn't employed by the water board," Morris said. "His resume was an employment resume. If someone was a member of their local homeowners' association you wouldn't expect that to be on their resume."
Parker filed for personal bankruptcy in 1991 in San Mateo, Calif., according to court records. No further details were available. In February 2011, he filed for bankruptcy with his wife, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Central District of California.
According to the 2011 bankruptcy filing, Parker and his wife listed among their debts two home mortgages with unsecured balances of $267,500, as well as bank and credit card debt of $137,252.
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters.
Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/bankrupt-san-bernardino-picks-twice-bankrupt-manager-1C8499972
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Saturday, February 23, 2013
Gov't downsizes amid GOP demands for more cuts
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republicans and other fiscal conservatives keep insisting on more federal austerity and a smaller government. Without much fanfare or acknowledgement, they've already gotten much of both.
Spending by federal, state and local governments on payrolls, equipment, buildings, teachers, emergency workers, defense programs and other core governmental functions has been shrinking steadily since the deep 2007-2009 recession and as the anemic recovery continues.
This recent shrinkage has largely been obscured by an increase in spending on benefit payments to individuals under "entitlement" programs, including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and veterans benefits. Retiring baby boomers are driving much of this increase.
Another round of huge cuts ? known in Washington parlance as the "sequester" ? will hit beginning March 1, potentially meaning layoffs for hundreds of thousands of federal workers unless Congress and President Barack Obama can strike a deficit-reduction deal to avert them.
With the deadline only a week off, Obama and Republicans who control the House are far apart over how to resolve the deadlock. While last-minute budget deals are frequent in Washington, neither side is optimistic of reaching one this time.
Even as the private sector has been slowly adding jobs, governments have been shedding them, holding down overall employment gains and keeping the jobless rate close to 8 percent, compared with normal nonrecessionary levels of 5 to 6 percent that have prevailed since the 1950s.
"It's a massive drag on the economy. We lost three-quarter million public-sector jobs in the recovery," said economist Heidi Shierholz of the labor-friendly Economic Policy Institute. "We're still losing government jobs, although the pace has slowed. But we haven't turned around yet."
A larger-than-usual decline in federal spending, notably on defense programs, helped push the economy into negative territory in the final three months of 2012. Economic growth, meanwhile, has been inching along at a weak 1-2 percent ? not enough to significantly further drive down the national unemployment rate, which now stands at 7.9 percent.
Although federal spending is projected to decline from 22.8 percent of the gross domestic product recorded last year to 21.5 percent by 2017, it still will exceed the 40-year-average of 21.0 percent, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Spending peaked at 25.2 percent of GDP in 2009.
The budget office also said the economy is roughly 5.5 percent smaller than it would have been had there been no recession.
The Defense Department already has made deep spending cuts, and outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said 800,000 civilian Pentagon employees were notified this week they likely are to be placed on periods of unpaid leave due to lawmakers' failure to act.
The recent downsizing in government is most pronounced at the state and local levels. Most states have constitutional or statutory requirements for balanced budgets.
That means nearly all states are prohibited from running budget deficits, while the federal government is not.
Not only can the federal government run deficits, but it can print money ? through actions by the Federal Reserve ? something states are prohibited from doing.
Those calling for a smaller government mostly don't take notice of the wave of recent cutbacks. Their clarion call remains Ronald Reagan's mantra: Government doesn't solve problems, it is the problem.
"This spending issue is the biggest issue that threatens our future," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, says. "When are we going to get serious about our long-term spending problem?"
And Florida Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, delivering the GOP response to Obama's State of the Union address, said "a major cause of our recent downturn was a housing crisis created by reckless government policies."
Soaring recent government deficits are partially a side effect of the worst recession since the 1930s, which took a huge bite out of tax revenues at the same time spending increased on recession-fighting programs like unemployment compensation and stimulus measures under both Presidents George W. Bush and Obama.
"The problem going forward is one of demographics and rising health care. It is the baby-boom generation retiring," said Alice Rivlin, a White House budget director under President Bill Clinton. "It's the fact that everybody is living longer."
Republicans argue that entitlement programs should be on the cutting board as well as other government programs. Democrats generally have been more protective of them, although the president and many congressional Democrats acknowledge some paring of these popular programs is in order.
The federal budget deficit for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30 is estimated to be $845 billion ? the first time it's dropped below $1 trillion in five years. But it's on track to rise again as more and more baby boomers retire and qualify for federal benefits and as interest payments on the national debt keep going up.
The national debt first inched past $1 trillion early in the Reagan administration and has grown in leaps and bounds ever since through both Democratic and Republican presidencies. It now stands at $16.6 trillion and is on a path toward soon becoming unsustainable, both parties agree.
Unchecked, entitlement payments will add roughly $700 billion to the debt over the next four years.
For now, though, "the economy is continuing to heal from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression," top White House economic adviser Alan Krueger says.
Under the sequester law, roughly $85 billion in federal spending would be slashed in the remaining seven months of this fiscal year and a total of $1.2 trillion in cuts over 10 years.
While entitlement programs and uniformed military personnel would be exempt, the rest of the government would be hit with indiscriminate across-the-board cuts.
Obama wants government deficits trimmed through a mix of selective spending cuts and new tax revenues, mostly by ending deductions and tax credits frequently claimed by the wealthiest Americans.
Republicans oppose any new taxes, even if for closing loopholes rather than increasing rates.
The president has been making campaign-like trips to highlight the damage the pending sequester cuts would be to various sectors of the economy. On Tuesday he'll go to a shipbuilding company in Newport News, Va., the White House announced.
"In just seven days, a series of automatic cuts could go into effect that would severely affect companies, like this one, that depend on the defense industry and its workers," White House spokesman Jan Carney said Friday.
The looming spending cuts were first scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1. But they were postponed to March 1 as part of year-end "fiscal cliff" negotiations that also raised tax rates on affluent Americans. Republicans insist that's enough tax increasing for now.
___
Follow Tom Raum on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/tomraum
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/govt-downsizes-amid-gop-demands-082533515.html
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'Parade's End' keeps British TV invasion going
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Tom Stoppard is sitting on the patio of a Sunset Boulevard hotel, bathed in California winter sunshine, framed by bamboo landscaping and looking very much out of his element in Hollywood.
The acclaimed British playwright professes to feeling that way as well, despite having pocketed a Writers Guild of America lifetime achievement award the night before for his screenplays, including the Oscar-winning "Shakespeare in Love."
"I was always nervous coming here. The first time I was terrified," he said. "I'm trying not to sound nauseatingly self-deprecating, but I don't think of myself as being a terrific screenwriter or even a natural screenwriter."
Combine that, he said, with the local entertainment industry's perception that "I'm some different kind of animal," a high-minded artist to whom the words "intellectual" and "philosophy" are freely applied.
But if Hollywood can be forgiven anything, it should be that. Stoppard has created a remarkable wealth of two dozen-plus plays, including "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead," ''Travesties" and "The Real Thing," and he's counting on more.
He looks like a proper man of letters, with unkempt gray hair, a comfortably unstylish cardigan and a delicately shaped mouth that hesitates, slightly, before dispensing exacting thoughts on the art of writing (without pretension: he relishes a snippet of "Ghostbusters" dialogue.)
Stoppard also is the master behind "Parade's End," a five-part HBO miniseries (airing Tuesday through Thursday, 9 p.m. EST) that was lauded by U.K. critics as "the thinking man's 'Downton Abbey'" after its BBC airing.
Adapted by Stoppard from a series of novels by British writer Ford Madox Ford, "Parade's End" features rising stars Benedict Cumberbatch ("Sherlock Holmes" and the upcoming "Star Trek" movie) and Rebecca Hall ("Vicky Cristina Barcelona") in the juiciest of roles.
Like PBS' "Downton Abbey," it's set in the early 20th century among aristocrats and encompasses World War I's shattering effect on the social order. Romance is provided by the triangle of Cumberbatch's tradition-bound Christopher, his unfaithful wife, Sylvia (Hall), and a suffragette (Australian newcomer Adelaide Clemens). The uniformly impressive cast includes Janet McTeer, Miranda Richardson, Roger Allam and Rupert Everett.
Stoppard rejects the oft-made comparison to PBS' "Downton" as unfair to it and its writer-creator, Julian Fellowes: "I was embarrassed by it because it's so condescending of Julian's work. He's a good writer and he's done a superlative job," he said. It's also a misguided comparison because "Downton" is heading toward season four and "Parade's End" is "five episodes and that's it, forever."
The self-effacing Stoppard leaves it at that. But there's a wider gap between the two: "Downton" is an easy-to-digest soap opera, while "Parade's End" is a challenging, nuanced view of a slice of British society and a set of singular characters, all dressed to the nines in the heady language of literature.
"There's a wonderful richness to the language and a beauty, which I think is the brilliance of Tom Stoppard, and also this very beautiful language of Ford Madox Ford," said director Susanna White.
The heedless, acid-tongued Sylvia has dialogue to relish, something Stoppard cannot resist.
"The line I like best comes straight from Ford: (the public) likes 'a whiff of sex coming off our crowd, like the steam on the water in the crocodile house at the zoo,'" he said, adding gleefully, "What a line!"
Although careful to credit the novelist with that particular zinger, Stoppard said "Parade's End" is the first adaptation in which his dialogue and that from the original text have become intertwined in his memory.
He attributes that to the year he spent forming Ford's intricate novels into a screenplay, often crafting original scenes, and the several more years he spent helping bring the series to fruition with the producers and White ("Generation Kill").
"It's the closest thing to writing a play which isn't a play that I have ever been involved with," he said.
The stage has been the Czech-born Stoppard's chief occupation since leaving journalism in his 20s. But he's made a number of detours into film, either as a screenwriter or a behind-the-scenes script doctor. His latest big-screen project is the adaptation of "Anna Karenina" with Keira Knightley.
Stoppard's insistence that he isn't an outstanding scriptwriter stems, in part, from his reticence. Then there's what he calls the differing "schools of eloquence" represented by film and plays.
"I envy and admire movies which are eloquent without recourse to long speeches," he said, citing several lines to illustrate his point. One comes from "The Fugitive" ("I don't care," Tommy Lee Jones says after Harrison Ford insists he didn't kill his wife), another from "Ghostbusters."
Bill Murray is confronted by "this kind of Amazonian ghost goddess, spooky thing, and he goes, 'This chick is toast,'" Stoppard said, with a delighted smile.
"It's the sense that precisely the right words have been uttered," he explained.
That's how fellow scribes feel about him. One L.A. film and TV writer said she regularly rereads the famed cricket-bat speech from "The Real Thing," about the challenge of writing, for joy and inspiration: "If you get it right," the character Henry says, "the cricket ball will travel two hundred yards in four seconds, and all you've done is give it a knock like knocking the top off a bottle of stout, and it makes a noise like a trout taking a fly. What we're trying to do is to write cricket bats, so that when we throw up an idea and give it a little knock, it might travel."
For now, the right words for Stoppard would be those of a new play, the first since "Rock 'n' Roll" from seven years ago. He has no regrets about immersing himself in "Parade's End," but is ready for the solitude needed to find the right story for the stage.
He used to steal away to a house in France until the air travel became too much. Now he makes do with a "small, shabby cottage an hour-and-a-half from London, which in theory is supposed to be my French house. But it's not far enough away" to evade commitments, social and otherwise. ("I'm Mr. Available," he laments.)
It's welcome assurance to hear the guild lifetime award he received Feb. 17 doesn't signal a halt for Stoppard. It did pull him up short, at least briefly.
"I was quite surprised. Though I am 75, so I shouldn't be surprised. But I haven't thought of stopping yet."
___
Online:
http://www.hbo.com
___
Lynn Elber is a national television columnist for The Associated Press. She can be reached at lelber(at)ap.org and on Twitter (at)lynnelber.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/parades-end-keeps-british-tv-invasion-going-190932439.html
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