'Shame' slapped with NC-17 rating

Director Steve McQueen's "Shame," a no-holds-barred movie about a man in the grip of sexual addiction, has officially received an NC-17 rating.

The rating was widely expected and Fox Searchlight knew the film, starring Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan, would likely receive an NC-17. It includes full frontal male and female nudity and graphic sex.

Story: Smart, stylish 'Drive' travels down a dark road

The movie opens in limited ? and with the NC-17, extremely limited ? release on Dec. 2.

According to the Motion Picture Association of America, which rates movies, NC-17 films are "patently adult." Children are not admitted, even with their parents.

An NC-17 rating affects a movie's ability to make money for a number of reasons. Among the most important, many theaters won't show them. The rating also makes advertising difficult.

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The movie is an Oscar contender, and Fox Searchlight is aggressively pushing it for a number of awards including Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Director.

"Shame" stars Fassbender as Brandon, a man who is addicted to sex, whose private life is disrupted when his sister, Cissy, played by Mulligan, shows up for an unannounced ? and indefinite ? visit.

Copyright 2011 by TheWrap.com

Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45048460/ns/today-entertainment/

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Proposed Puerto Rico pipeline could face lawsuit (AP)

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico ? Eleven individuals and environmental groups have served notice on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that they will sue to block construction of a proposed natural gas pipeline in Puerto Rico.

The planned 92-mile (148-kilometer) pipeline is the signature infrastructure project of Gov. Luis Fortuno.

The groups say the Corps of Engineers failed to properly research the project's effects on at least 38 animal and plant species.

Nancy Sticht is a spokeswoman for the Florida-based office of the Corps of Engineers. She says the agency will not comment on Wednesday's letter.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/energy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111026/ap_on_bi_ge/cb_puerto_rico_pipeline

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The IPO market, an engine of job growth, stalls (AP)

NEW YORK ? Two companies with quirky names, Ubiquiti Networks and Zeltiq Aesthetics, made their public debuts earlier this month with listings on the Nasdaq Stock Market. Each company's stock went up modestly on the first day of trading.

Ubiquiti pocketed $106 million for the day, and Zeltiq made $91 million. They were the most successful stock debuts of the past two months. Then again, they were the only stock debuts of the past two months.

The market for initial public offerings, or IPOs, is suffering through a drought of Texas proportions. Companies thinking of going public are deciding it's just too risky.

The stock market lost nearly 20 percent of its value in a month this past summer. Swings of 200 points for the Dow Jones industrial average continue to be commonplace. Getting the timing wrong for a coming-out party can mean missing out on millions of dollars.

A dried-up IPO market matters because stock debuts aren't just a chance for tech whizzes to become overnight billionaires and ring the bell at the New York Stock Exchange. Companies use the cash they raise to grow ? and that means hiring people.

And at a time when 14 million Americans are looking for work and the unemployment rate has been stuck near 9 percent for two years, the last thing the economy needs is for one engine of hiring to stall.

There are 215 companies waiting to go public. They've filed the necessary paperwork and lined up bankers, and are just holding out for the right time to unleash their stock. The waiting list is the longest since 2001, according to Renaissance Capital, an investment advice firm.

LogMeIn, a Massachusetts software company, went public in July 2009, raised $107 million and harnessed the cash to hire people. Within two years, its work force grew by a third, to 432 people. Without the IPO, the company might have added only 10 percent to its work force, says Jim Kelliher, the chief financial officer.

"It's cash to expand your business," he says.

That's how it usually works. For upstart companies, IPOs and hiring sprees go hand in hand:

? LinkedIn, the online social network for professionals, went public in May to fanfare, raising $353 million. In the three months through the end of June, it expanded its staff by 17 percent.

? Pandora, which streams music online, debuted in June. It bulked up the product development staff by 74 percent and sales and marketing by 125 percent. Pandora employed about 300 people at the end of January and now has more than 400.

? ReachLocal, an online marketing company, went public in May 2010. From the month before its coming-out party through the end of the year, its work force grew 30 percent, to 1,381.

In good times, an open door for stock market debuts can start a snowball of benefits, says Steven Kaplan, a professor of finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Venture capital firms bankroll small upstarts, like Amazon and Google, years before they go public. A successful IPO enriches the venture capital backers. They then have an easier time raising money from new investors to plow into companies that might be the next Amazon or Google.

"There's a feedback effect," Kaplan says.

For profitable businesses, an IPO can also unlock the door to corporate debt markets, another source of cash that helps a company grow.

Entrepreneurs and investors describe going public as a crucial hurdle for fast-growing companies, one that divides the Amazons and Googles of the world from the graveyard of startups.

Those that clear the hurdle can transform themselves from obscure businesses to household names. A recent study by the National Venture Capital Association, a trade group, and IHS Global Insight, an economic forecasting firm, examined companies that went public from 1970 to 2010 and had been backed by venture capital before their IPO.

It found that 92 percent of the people hired by those companies over the four decades came on after the IPO.

A separate report by Nasdaq OMX, which owns the Nasdaq Stock Market, examined companies that went public from 2001 to 2009 and found that they increased their collective work force by 70 percent. The number of employed people in the United States in that time rose 1.3 percent.

Of course, the economy has bigger problems than a barren IPO market. Even if all the promising upstarts in line for an IPO went public, it might not put a dent in the 9.1 percent unemployment rate.

And it's difficult to know exactly what companies will do with the money. Most are vague in regulatory paperwork about their next steps. And would-be public companies are barred from talking about their plans until a month after their debut.

Before this past summer, fast-growing companies like LinkedIn and Pandora had been jumping into the stock market at a brisk pace. The companies got a good initial price, and their stock generally did well after that. LinkedIn went public May 19, and its stock more than doubled on its first day.

For a while, it appeared that 2011 would be the best year for IPOs since the Internet bubble popped in 2000. Investors were ready for Internet companies like Zynga and Facebook to go public.

They're still waiting. The Dow lost more than 2,000 points from late July through mid-August. And while the market has rallied since early October, the past two months have been a series of up and down lurches.

As dry as it's been, the drought for IPOs is still not as bad as during the financial crisis. Just one company, Grand Canyon Education, managed to go public in six months, August 2008 to February 2009.

Faced with a long wait and a volatile stock market, some companies have decided to give up. At least 15 private companies have withdrawn their IPO paperwork from the Securities and Exchange Commission in the past two months.

Others are getting snapped up by larger corporations. Of the five companies that pulled their IPOs in September, three were acquired. Hitachi, Nestle and private equity firms all picked up companies that gave up their dream of going public.

What will it take to end the drought? Calmer markets. In recent weeks, moves by European officials to end the region's debt crisis have lifted stocks, but the market remains volatile.

In the meantime, companies are warily eyeing the calendar. Groupon, the daily-deal email service, plans to go public in early November. It was valued as high as $25 billion in June, but it now expects less than half that.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111024/ap_on_bi_ge/us_ipo_drought

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Group: Last Javan rhino in Vietnam killed for horn (AP)

HANOI, Vietnam ? Vietnam has lost its fight to save its rare Javan rhinoceros population after poachers apparently killed the country's last animal for its horn, pushing one of the world's most endangered species closer to extinction, a conservation group said Tuesday.

Vietnam's Cat Tien National Park has had no sightings, footprints or dung from live rhinos since the last known animal living there was found dead last April, shot through the leg with its horn chopped off, the WWF said. Genetic analysis of rhino feces had confirmed in 2004 that at least two rhinos were living in the park, raising hopes that Vietnam's population might survive.

Only 40 to 60 Javan rhinos now remain in Ujung Kulon National Park in Indonesia. They are the last known living members of the species, with none in captivity.

Vietnam's Javan rhino population had been shrinking for decades as land conversion and a rising local population threatened the animal's habitat, but poaching and a lack of effective park management and patrols hastened the decline, said Christy Williams, coordinator of WWF's Asian Elephant and Rhino Program.

"It appears that protection is not being given a high priority by the Vietnamese government," he said.

Park director Tran Van Thanh said that while some of his rangers failed to fulfill their duties, it is impossible for them to stop all of the estimated 100,000 people living near the park from hunting exotic animals when the average farmer there earns around 150,000 dong ($7.50) per day.

"We're not trying to avoid our responsibility in the death of the rhinos, but we've done our best to protect them," Thanh said.

Demand for rhino horn has surged in recent years among Vietnamese and Chinese who believe it can cure an array of ailments. Horns can now fetch up to $50,000 per pound (about $100,000 per kilogram), the WWF report said Tuesday. A small amount of ground-up powder can bring hundreds of dollars on the black market. Global demand has also increased in the last four to five years as some people have begun to consider rhino horn a remedy for cancer, Williams said.

WWF, along with the International Rhino Foundation, confirmed that the last rhino had died in Vietnam by collecting and analyzing its feces. Twenty-two of the rhino's dung piles were found in Cat Tien from October 2009 to February 5, 2010, but no dung piles or fresh rhino footprints were seen in the subsequent nine weeks, the 44-page report said.

Before 1988, the Javan rhino was believed to be extinct from mainland Asia. A small population was then discovered in Vietnam's park, and for the past 20 years, a number of wildlife conservationists have worked closely with the government to try to prevent the species from dying out in Vietnam.

But the rhino's habitat has been cut in half since 1988 to about 74,000 acres (30,000 hectares) today.

South Africa is a prime source country for rhino horns. According to the South African government, a record 333 rhinos were poached in 2010 ? a nearly threefold increase from 2009.

In September, Vietnamese officials traveled to South Africa to address the problem, three years after Hanoi recalled a diplomat from its embassy there after she was caught on tape receiving illegal rhino horns. Ha Cong Tuan, an environmental affairs official, called on Vietnamese medical researchers to study what he called the "rumor" that rhino horn cures cancer and then publicize their findings.

The WWF report said Vietnam is on the verge of an "extinction crisis" with several other species ? including the saola and the Tonkin snub-nosed monkey ? threatened by deforestation, widespread poaching and a "largely uncontrolled" illegal wildlife trade.

Cat Tien was established in 1998 as a composite of three existing protected areas. From 1998 to 2004 WWF invested $6.3 million in the park, with up to $600,000 earmarked for rhino conservation work.

In Hanoi, the Vietnamese capital, 100 grams (about 7 ounces) of crushed rhino horn retail for about 43 million dong ($2,150), with the average prescription costing 200,000 dong ($10), a rhino horn vendor in the city's bustling old quarter said Monday, requesting anonymity because the practice is illegal here.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/environment/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111025/ap_on_re_as/as_vietnam_rhino_lost

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NASA telescopes help solve ancient supernova mystery

ScienceDaily (Oct. 24, 2011) ? A mystery that began nearly 2,000 years ago, when Chinese astronomers witnessed what would turn out to be an exploding star in the sky, has been solved. New infrared observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, reveal how the first supernova ever recorded occurred and how its shattered remains ultimately spread out to great distances.

The findings show that the stellar explosion took place in a hollowed-out cavity, allowing material expelled by the star to travel much faster and farther than it would have otherwise.

"This supernova remnant got really big, really fast," said Brian J. Williams, an astronomer at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. Williams is lead author of a new study detailing the findings online in the Astrophysical Journal. "It's two to three times bigger than we would expect for a supernova that was witnessed exploding nearly 2,000 years ago. Now, we've been able to finally pinpoint the cause."

A new image of the supernova, known as RCW 86, is online at http://go.nasa.gov/pnv6Oy .

In 185 A.D., Chinese astronomers noted a "guest star" that mysteriously appeared in the sky and stayed for about 8 months. By the 1960s, scientists had determined that the mysterious object was the first documented supernova. Later, they pinpointed RCW 86 as a supernova remnant located about 8,000 light-years away. But a puzzle persisted. The star's spherical remains are larger than expected. If they could be seen in the sky today in infrared light, they'd take up more space than our full moon.

The solution arrived through new infrared observations made with Spitzer and WISE, and previous data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton Observatory.

The findings reveal that the event is a "Type Ia" supernova, created by the relatively peaceful death of a star like our sun, which then shrank into a dense star called a white dwarf. The white dwarf is thought to have later blown up in a supernova after siphoning matter, or fuel, from a nearby star.

"A white dwarf is like a smoking cinder from a burnt-out fire," Williams said. "If you pour gasoline on it, it will explode."

The observations also show for the first time that a white dwarf can create a cavity around it before blowing up in a Type Ia event. A cavity would explain why the remains of RCW 86 are so big. When the explosion occurred, the ejected material would have traveled unimpeded by gas and dust and spread out quickly.

Spitzer and WISE allowed the team to measure the temperature of the dust making up the RCW 86 remnant at about minus 325 degrees Fahrenheit, or minus 200 degrees Celsius. They then calculated how much gas must be present within the remnant to heat the dust to those temperatures. The results point to a low-density environment for much of the life of the remnant, essentially a cavity.

Scientists initially suspected that RCW 86 was the result of a core-collapse supernova, the most powerful type of stellar blast. They had seen hints of a cavity around the remnant, and, at that time, such cavities were only associated with core-collapse supernovae. In those events, massive stars blow material away from them before they blow up, carving out holes around them.

But other evidence argued against a core-collapse supernova. X-ray data from Chandra and XMM-Newton indicated that the object consisted of high amounts of iron, a telltale sign of a Type Ia blast. Together with the infrared observations, a picture of a Type Ia explosion into a cavity emerged.

"Modern astronomers unveiled one secret of a two-millennia-old cosmic mystery only to reveal another," said Bill Danchi, Spitzer and WISE program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Now, with multiple observatories extending our senses in space, we can fully appreciate the remarkable physics behind this star's death throes, yet still be as in awe of the cosmos as the ancient astronomers."

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. For more information about Spitzer, visit http://spitzer.caltech.edu/ and http://www.nasa.gov/spitzer .

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/bSxiePUbP-Y/111024135111.htm

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Occupy London Update: St Paul's considers taking legal action ...

St Paul?s considers taking legal action

Officials consult lawyers over how to remove Occupy camp as closure costs ?20,000 a day in lost revenues

Peter Walker?and?Riazat Butt??Sunday 23 October 2011 19.56 BST?

Officials from St Paul?s Cathedral and the wider City district are considering legal action to force protesters to remove a camp set up outside the church more than a week ago, following an impasse between the two sides.

Read full story: ?The Guardian

Source: http://citizensnewsdaily.com/2011/10/23/occupy-london-update-st-pauls-considers-taking-legal-action/

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Top 5 early revelations from 'exclusive' Steve Jobs biography (Digital Trends)

The long-awaited biography on the late Apple co-founder and famed chief executive Steve Jobs ? aptly titled Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography, by author Walter Isaacson ? is now available through Amazon?s Kindle, iBooks and in bookstores nation-wide. That means the press is now free to busily pump out stories that reveal all the best tidbits. To take the condensation of the book even further, we?ve compiled here the five most i-teresting revelations from Steve Jobs, available so far. Now you won?t have to read the book at all (Kidding! Kinda?).

1. Jobs thought ?Antennagate? was a smear campaign by Google and Motorola

After reports began to surface that signal strength would drop significantly on the then-newly-released iPhone 4 when the phone was held in a certain way ? a scandal, commonly known as ?Antennagate,? which only affected a relatively small number of devices ? Jobs apparently thought Google and Motorola were trying to ?shoot down Apple,? according to the book.

After holding a special press conference, in which Apple offered customers free bumper cases that prevented the issue, Jobs told Isaacson that the problem was ?blown so out of proportion that it?s incredible.?

Read more

2. Jobs? and Bill Gates? first visit was a ?weird seduction?

From an excerpt of the book published today in Fortune: ?Gates frequently went down to Cupertino for demonstrations of the Macintosh operating system, and he was not very impressed. ?I remember the first time we went down, Steve had this app where it was just things bouncing around on the screen,? he told me. ?That was the only app that ran.? Gates was also put off by Jobs?s attitude. ?It was kind of a weird seduction visit where Steve was saying we don?t really need you and we?re doing this great thing, and it?s under the cover. He?s in his Steve Jobs sales mode, but kind of the sales mode that also says, ?I don?t need you, but I might let you be involved.??

Gates also said that he found Jobs ?fundamentally odd,? and ?weirdly flawed as a human being? because of his practice of either ?saying you were shit or trying to seduce you.?

Read more

3. Jobs and Obama didn?t get along, at first

Steve Jobs almost refused to meet with President Obama in 2010 because he insisted that the president invite Jobs himself. The high-powered pair did eventually meet, at a hotel in San Francisco. And Jobs immediately gave President Obama a piece of his mind.

?You?re headed for a one-term presidency,? Jobs told Obama when the meeting began. He insisted that Obama have more pro-business initiatives, like they do in China where companies aren?t met with ?regulations and unnecessary costs.? Jobs also complained about the restrictions on the US education system imposed by unions.

Despite the cold reception, Jobs and Obama stayed in touch, says Isaacson, and Jobs later offered to help create ads for Obama?s 2012 re-election campaign, an offer he extended in 2008, but didn?t follow through with because he didn?t like the way campaign manager David Axelrod handled the relationship.

?Read more

4. Jobs didn?t want any third-party apps on the iPhone

Third-party apps may be one of the most compelling reasons to buy an iPhone, but they almost weren?t allowed on the device at all. Isaacson reports that Jobs was reluctant to allow third-party apps on the original iPhone after it debuted in 2007.

?When it first came out in early 2007, there were no apps you could buy from outside developers, and Jobs initially resisted allowing them,? writes Isaacson. ?He didn?t want outsiders to create applications for the iPhone that could mess it up, infect it with viruses, or pollute its integrity.?

Apple board member Art Levinson and Apple senior vice president of worldwide marketing Phil Schiller later talked Jobs into allowing third-party apps.

?I couldn?t imagine that we would create something as powerful as the iPhone and not empower developers to make lots of apps. I knew customers would love them,? said Schiller.

Read more

5. Jobs felt ?annoyed and depressed? after iPad announcement due to customer complaints

Following the launch of the original iPad in 2010, Jobs became ?annoyed and depressed,? says Isaacson, when his personal email address became flooded with complaints about the new device.

??There?s no USB cord! There?s no this, no that,?? Jobs told Isaacson. ?Some of them are like, ?F**k you, how can you do that?? I don?t usually write people back, but I replied, ?Your parents would be so proud of how you turned out.? And some don?t like the iPad name, and on and on. I kind of got depressed today. It knocks you back a bit.?

?Read more

This article was originally posted on Digital Trends

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/personaltech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/digitaltrends/20111024/tc_digitaltrends/top5earlyrevelationsfromexclusivestevejobsbiography

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Ask the Commenters Roundup [Hive Mind]

Oct 23, 2011 2:00 PM 1,738 0

• My college does not allow torrents, but it doesn't care about normal downloads. What would be the easiest way to set up a private VPN so I could torrent legal titles from home computer and than transfer the resulting files to my desktop at college.
• My phone (HTC G2 with CM7.1) has been randomly going into "car mode" lately, and it's really getting on my nerves. Any idea what might be causing this?
• Has anyone used KyPass to integrate KeePass with Dropbox on an iOS device?
• I've finally bit the bullet and Joined Twitter. Still a bit lost in all the intricacies of learning how to be productive without following a 1000 people but I'm getting better. Thought I would get on here and find out how you Lifehackers handle your Twitter consumption. Like are there certain scripts, extensions, add-ons, Android Apps, web apps that you guys can't live without?
• Does anybody know of a good video chat client that will work over the local LAN?
• Does anyone know of any online or OS neutral games for improving long-term memory?
• I need a way to sync my wife's, kids' and my calendars onto one shared calendar that we can all use. The wife and kids use iPhones and I have an Android phone. Any suggestions?
• I don't know what's going on with me, but I've been feeling really tired lately. It could be from lack of sleep, depression, anemia or burned-out on working out. I went to go see the doctor and she was really no help. Any suggestions?
• Can someone give me some simple tips for me (that is very used to working with Windows) on how to install Ubuntu next to Windows 7 (64 bit), because the last time I tried I messed up my MBR beyond repair. (Even the rescue discs couldn't rescue it and I needed to wipe the whole drive and reinstall)
• Can anyone recommend a good pumpkin spiced beer for the season? I don't drink often but when I do I want something flavorful! This time of year I go for all things pumpkin.

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Aww: Sony will postpone opening of The Obama Is Totally Awesome blockbuster movie

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A Look At Brazilian Style From Assouline (PHOTOS)

A new book from Assouline, Brazilian Style, explores contemporary Brazil through photography of everything from tiny bikinis to musician Seu Jorge to the monumental architecture of the capital, Brasilia.

With an introduction and captions by Brazil aficionado Armand Limnander, the book "is organized like an informal encyclopedia," which makes it easy to dip in and out of pages, whether they're about the country's most famous movies -- see "City of God" -- or most famous aesthetic procedures -- see "Brazilian Wax". Apropos the latter, the amount of skin in the book is well-suited to the often sexy subject matter -- see "Dental Floss," an entry that's not about oral hygiene products.

Brazilian Style is available for purchase at Assouline Boutiques worldwide and through www.assouline.com.

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Surfing is a big deal in Brazil, and no one in the sport is a bigger deal than Maya Gabeira, Fernando Gabeira's daughter. In 2009 she surfed a 45-foot wave in South Africa -- the largest ever by a female. Courtesy of Assouline

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MC Hammer demos 'deep search'

Jeff Chiu / AP

MC Hammer, Chief Strategy Officer for DanceJam.com, poses for a photograph as a dancer performs near Pier 41 in San Francisco on Nov. 20, 2007.

By Athima Chansanchai

In his latest move as a tech player, MC Hammer demonstrated a new tool that would enhance searches by giving results that would be logical follow-ups, right away.

Hammer, whose real name is Stanley Burrell, made a presentation at the?Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco earlier this week that showed an early peek into his WireDoo project. Still in development, it is a "deep search" service to give users more results related to the keywords. Using "car" and "homes" as examples of searches, he showed how results could yield info about insurance, mileage, community, schools, location, crime rates and shopping.

The benefit, he says, comes from having it all come through in one query, cutting down on the time it takes to get relevant information. His tagline for now: "Search once, see what relates!"

He said this "deep search" or "relationship search" (which makes some of us think it's a dating tool) is "not a competitive attempt to recreate search," but "you can always make things better." Here's the video of his presentation, so you can judge for yourself:

Hammer, who had almost been forgotten as a D-lister whose heyday image is frozen mid-Hammer-Time rapping and dancing with parachute pants, has reinvented himself as a tech entrepreneur. (He also had a reality TV show which put him back in the spotlight.)

Jim Wilson / Redux Pictures

MC Hammer takes pictures with guests at the welcome party of the Web start-up Airbnb, in San Francisco, Aug. 16.

In an example of resilience and resurrection from a 1996 bankruptcy, he has become a presence at tech events and an investor in sites such as DanceJam.com and someone whose longstanding interest in technology has made him an investor in no less than 8 companies.?In social media, he's considered something of an influencer, with 2.2 million followers on Twitter.

? via InformationWeek

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Check out Technolog on?Facebook, and on Twitter, follow?Athima Chansanchai, who is also trying to keep her head above water in the?Google+?stream.

Source: http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/10/20/8412861-mc-hammer-demos-deep-search

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Thai PM admits government overwhelmed by floods

Thai women paddle on a boat through a flooded street at Ban Kadee temple in Phatum Thani province, north of Bangkok ,Thailand, Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2011. Thai authorities were staging a fighting retreat Wednesday against flood waters that threaten Bangkok, after the country's oldest factory park was completely inundated and a nearby one faced imminent threat. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Thai women paddle on a boat through a flooded street at Ban Kadee temple in Phatum Thani province, north of Bangkok ,Thailand, Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2011. Thai authorities were staging a fighting retreat Wednesday against flood waters that threaten Bangkok, after the country's oldest factory park was completely inundated and a nearby one faced imminent threat. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Thai Buddhist novice drains flooded water from Ban Kadee temple in Phatum Thani province, north of Bangkok ,Thailand, Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2011. Thai authorities were staging a fighting retreat Wednesday against flood waters that threaten Bangkok, after the country's oldest factory park was completely inundated and a nearby one faced imminent threat. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Motorcyclists make their way through a flooded street in Phatum Thani province, north of Bangkok ,Thailand, Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2011. Thai authorities were staging a fighting retreat Wednesday against flood waters that threaten Bangkok, after the country's oldest factory park was completely inundated and a nearby one faced imminent threat. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

A Thai person walks through a flooded area at Ku temple in Nonthaburi Province, north of Bangkok ,Thailand, Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2011. Thai authorities were staging a fighting retreat Wednesday against flood waters that threaten Bangkok, after the country's oldest factory park was completely inundated and a nearby one faced imminent threat. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Thai Buddhist monks wade through Ban Kadee temple in Phatum Thani province, north of Bangkok ,Thailand, Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2011. Thai authorities were staging a fighting retreat Wednesday against flood waters that threaten Bangkok, after the country's oldest factory park was completely inundated and a nearby one faced imminent threat. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

BANGKOK (AP) ? Thailand's new premier acknowledged Wednesday that the country's flood crisis has overwhelmed her government, and she pleaded for mercy from the media and solidarity from the country in battling the relentless waters.

In an emotional appearance before reporters, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said her administration is doing all it can and trying to be as clear as possible about where the flooding may strike next.

However, mixed messages from officials in recent days about whether the floodwaters will enter Bangkok have left people confused. A poll by ABAC, associated with Bangkok's Assumption College, found that 87 percent of 415 people surveyed did not trust information from the government's flood command center.

"We have been doing everything we can, but this is a big national crisis," Yingluck said. "I'm begging for mercy from the media here."

Bangkok's city government, headed by the opposition, urged residents in seven northern districts to move belongings to safe places because of likely flooding. The warning came days after some officials had indicated the worst threat had passed. Meanwhile, flooding in areas directly north of the city worsened despite frantic government efforts to stave off the water.

The death toll in nationwide flooding is 317, mostly from drowning, with nearly 9 million people affected and 27 of the country's 77 provinces still inundated. Initial estimates of the economic cost of destroyed shops, paralyzed factories and swamped farmland were $3 billion, but have since been rising.

Floodwaters in northern areas began in August and have slowly crawled south toward the Gulf of Thailand, though the government has notched up the urgency of flood-control efforts only in the past two weeks.

"The government had said over and over again they were able to handle the situation, then what happened? It got flooded from there to here," said Puntip Susuntitapong, a 61-year-old retired banker in Bangkok.

Yingluck had no previous government experience when she came into power in August as the standard-bearer for the party aligned with her brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, who is a fugitive on corruption convictions but still widely popular.

A distraught Yingluck appealed Wednesday to reporters to stop asking whether Bangkok will be inundated.

"The more you ask questions like this, the less useful it is going to be," she said, adding that her role was to coordinate, not disseminate information. She said experts were more qualified than she to give information, and that her own personal views "might lead to lack of confidence and confusion among the people."

"We are telling the truth, not concealing anything from the people," she said. "We have been doing everything we can, but this is a big national crisis. On our own, we can't get it done. We need unity from every side, and today we must set politics aside."

The administration's low point in handling the floods may have been Oct. 13 when Science Minister Plodprasop Suraswadi issued a spur-of-the-moment order on live television to immediately evacuate an area north of Bangkok. Within 20 minutes, he and his colleagues from the government's flood emergency team were back on the air to rescind the order.

"I'm confused every time I hear the warning from the government," said Somjai Dokkam, a 51-year-old female recycling worker in Bang Kradee, north of Bangkok, whose house was flooded Wednesday morning.

Adding to the discontinuity in the public message have been the discrepancies between Yingluck's government and that of Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra, who belongs to a rival party.

Sukhumbhand has consistently said Bangkok will likely face flooding even as Yingluck's government has expressed confidence that the city's defenses will hold up. The governor mobilized droves of citizens to build sand-bag levees Tuesday, saying flooding in many neighborhoods was otherwise imminent.

The city so far has escaped substantial flooding, thanks to dikes, underground tunnels and other defenses, though floodwaters have been seeping into some northern neighborhoods.

In Bang Kradee, 49-year-old Prasit Thamnita, a worker at Thammasat University, said the best approach was to simply rely on his own judgement.

"I've lived here my whole life, so I knew the water was definitely coming. The government doesn't know better than the locals," he said. "I only rely on myself and the local municipality for any news about the water," he said.

Elsewhere in Bang Kradee, defenders were making a last stand at an industrial park threatening to become the sixth major one in Thailand to be swamped.

Flooding of five other industrial parks north of Bangkok has idled hundreds of factories and about 200,000 workers while disrupting regional supply chains for computer hard drives and automobiles.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-10-19-AS-Thailand-Floods/id-c8885485aadc4611aba2f34616b125f8

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Red Cafe Says Debut Album, Shakedown, Coming In 2012

'Fly Together' MC tells 'RapFix Live' that Bad Boy label is supportive.
By Rob Markman, with reporting by Sway Calloway

Red Cafe
Photo: MTV News

It's been a long road, but Red Café insists his debut album, Shakedown, will be out at the top of 2012. The Brooklyn MC has been grinding since the early 2000s, and since 2005, has consistently landed notable singles on New York radio.

First, there was "Bling Blaow," then "Paper Touchin' " in 2008. A year later, Red broke out with "Da Hottest in Da Hood," and in 2010, he dropped "I'm Ill" with Fabolous and "Money, Money, Money" with Diddy.

On Wednesday's (October 19) edition of "RapFix Live," Red assured his fans that thanks to his current deal with Bad Boy Records, the album is on its way.

"I'm working on the album now with the Bad Boy team. [Bad Boy President] Harve [Pierre] and Puff, they in there with me, giving that support that I need to make a great album that I'll be proud of," the MC told Sway on the "RFL" couch.

Throughout his career, the raspy-voiced spitter has been through a number of record deals, including a few with Trackmasters, one with Mack 10's Hoo-Bangin' and a one-shot deal with Koch Records, where he dropped a collaborative album with DJ Envy in 2007.

After a couple of failed ventures and still no solo album in site, Red took matters into his own hands. "At that point, I just felt like I needed to grab the wheel and have control of my own destiny, because I'm goin' into these record companies, and I'm thinking it's good, and it's not really good," Red explained. "A lot of it, I blame myself too, because as a young guy coming into the game, you think when you get the deal, that's the victory."

His current single, "Fly Together," which features Rick Ross and Ryan Leslie, stands as an ode to independent women everywhere. If the growing popularity of the song is any indication, fans should have that LP in no time.

Until then, Red Café is remaining patient. "I was never frustrated," he said of his musical journey. "I felt like my moment would come when it comes."

Are you awaiting Red's debut album? Tell us below!

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1672846/red-cafe-shakedown-album-2012.jhtml

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BSkyB set for solid profit growth (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) ? British pay-TV group BSkyB looks set to post solid first-quarter profit growth on Wednesday, driven by the sales of additional products to existing customers rather than the acquisition of new subscribers.

BSkyB, which was set to be bought by its largest shareholder News Corp until a phone hacking scandal erupted in July, has been focusing on cross-selling products in recent quarters as the increasingly tough economic conditions make it harder to attract new customers.

Analysts expect the group to have signed up 38,000 new customers to the pay-TV service in the three months to the end of September, well down on the 96,000 that joined in the same period in 2010.

However they expect to see strong growth in the sale of broadband, telephony and high definition TV, and a jump in the percentage of customers who are taking the three main products from the current 27 percent.

"We expect a solid quarter, but expect the more challenging consumer environment to weigh on net and high-definition additions," Numis analysts said in a preview note.

"We believe that BSkyB has other areas in its base to drive growth, particularly up-selling existing Sky customers to its attractively-priced broadband/triple-play packages. We ... believe it has numerous cost levers to pull to deliver profit growth even in a tougher macro environment."

Analysts expect BSkyB to post first quarter revenue up 8 percent to 1.65 billion pounds, according to a Reuters poll, and adjusted operating profit up 11 percent to 283 million pounds when it reports on Wednesday.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp was forced to pull its $12 billion bid for BSkyB in July after it admitted that people working for one of its British tabloids had hacked into the phones of thousands of people to generate stories.

The admission heaped pressure on the government to distance itself from News Corp, just as it was about to approve the deal, forcing Murdoch to pull the prized offer.

Some small shareholders and shareholder advisory groups have suggested that Murdoch's son James should no longer remain as chairman to BSkyB, however the board has already given James Murdoch its backing and the company is unlikely to announce any changes on Wednesday.

BSkyB holds a shareholders' meeting at the end of November.

(Reporting by Kate Holton; Editing by Helen Massy-Beresford)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/enindustry/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111018/media_nm/us_bskyb

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U.S. fears more plots from Iran's Quds Force (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? The United States believes Iran's shadowy Quds Force is becoming increasingly aggressive overseas and may be working on other international plots beyond the alleged plan to kill Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Washington, three U.S. officials told Reuters.

U.S. allegations last week of a foiled plot in Washington have escalated tensions between the United States and Iran. They have also renewed Washington's focus on the Quds Force, the covert operations arm of Iran's powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, which is believed to have sponsored attacks on U.S. targets in the Middle East -- but never before in the United States.

"They're being more aggressive ... not only in Iraq but worldwide," one senior U.S. official said in an interview. The official and others insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record and because of the sensitive nature of the matter.

U.S. officials have long charged that the Quds Force -- the Arabic word for Jerusalem -- has used proxies to attack U.S. troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

The Quds Force, whose power within Iran is believed to be growing, is also active in Lebanon, the Gulf, Syria and elsewhere, officials said.

Many Iran specialists have reacted skeptically to the disclosure of an alleged Iranian plot within the United States itself. Tehran has dismissed the charges as a fabrication.

Some foreign nations briefed on the plot have raised questions. While President Barack Obama has so far demanded tougher sanctions on Iran and not a military reprisal, representatives of those nations are nonetheless wary, given the flawed intelligence case President George W. Bush made for war in Iraq.

Even U.S. officials now convinced of the plot's authenticity acknowledged they were initially doubtful due to the case's odd facts, including the bumbling nature of the Iranian-American now in custody, and his approach to a supposed Mexican drug cartel figure who happened to be a U.S. federal informant.

U.S. officials who spoke to Reuters declined to provide details of the evidence that the Quds Force may have other plots in the works. But two officials stressed they were based on more than just speculation or analysis.

"These are not merely aspirational plots dreamed up by the Quds Force. In fact, there is active planning around them," a second senior U.S. official told Reuters. Both senior officials played down concerns any attack was imminent.

A third U.S. official said the recklessness of the alleged attempt to assassinate Saudi Ambassador Adel al-Jubeir in Washington suggested that Quds "may be involved in other actions."

In the wake of the U.S. government's disclosure of the alleged plot, counterterrorism investigators in Britain are examining the possibility that other plots hatched in Iran were under way, a European government source said.

But the source said he and his colleagues were unaware of any current Iranian plots similar to the one the Americans said they had uncovered and disrupted.

IRAN'S 'SECOND MOST POWERFUL MAN'

U.S. officials said they believed Iran's Quds Force had expanded its power in recent years, exerting more control over the country's foreign policy.

Its commander, Qasem Suleimani, a brigadier general, has led the group's efforts to broaden Iran's influence in the Middle East, including by supporting Iraq factions that oppose the U.S. presence.

"His prominence within the Quds Force cannot be overstated. He is directly responsible for everything the Quds Force does," one U.S. military official, who is an expert on Iran, told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Karim Sadjadpour, an associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, described Suleimani as "arguably the second most powerful man in Iran after the supreme leader," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The United States has blamed Iran for an upswing in attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq over the summer that made June the deadliest month for U.S. personnel there since 2008. The United States also accuses Tehran of supplying weapons to Afghan militants, although on a far smaller scale than in Iraq.

In recent years, Suleimani's Quds Force has been "meddling in more places," the first senior U.S. official said.

"There are opportunities they think they can exploit in various places in the Middle East, that either they've got some foothold, and we're on one side, and they're on the other," the official said.

Vali Nasr, a professor of international politics at Tufts University, said the alleged plot cited by U.S. officials tracked with what appeared to be "far more aggressive Iranian behavior everywhere else."

He also cited Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Afghanistan.

"For some, it might be this news came in the context of a trendline that they were seeing with Iran," Nasr said.

U.S. officials have told Reuters they believe Suleimani is connected to the latest U.S. plot.

"Whether he is doing this like other things on his own or whether this is the direction of Khamenei, we can't say right now," the first U.S. official said. "It's a problem no matter what."

Nasr said he doubted the Quds Force would be doing something as risky as a plot on U.S. soil without political clearance from above.

Some Iran watchers were stunned that Tehran would choose to carry out an attack on U.S. soil, a potentially dangerous departure from past protocol. But U.S. officials following Iran told Reuters the behavior was consistent with the activities by the Quds Force and Suleimani.

"It makes a huge difference to us that it's on U.S. soil. But Iran has been, with only the thinnest of veils, seeking to kill U.S. troops and U.S. government individuals for years," the military official said.

(Additional reporting by Tabassum Zakaria in Washington and Mark Hosenball in London, Editing by Warren Strobel and Peter Cooney)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111020/wl_nm/us_usa_iran_plots

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Early McCartney letter offers band tryout

LONDON?? Somewhere, an aging drummer (identity unknown) is probably still kicking himself.

A newly discovered letter found folded in a book at a Liverpool yard sale has shed new light on the Beatles' early days, revealing that Paul McCartney offered an audition to a mystery drummer in 1960, just a few days before the band left for a formative two-month gig in Hamburg, Germany.

The letter, to be auctioned next month by Christie's, has surprised Beatles scholars. It was written two years before the band bounced drummer Pete Best in favor of Ringo Starr, who arrived just in time to help the Beatles' conquer first England and then the world, earning untold millions along the way.

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The Aug. 12, 1960 letter handwritten by McCartney offers an audition to someone who had advertised their availability in the Liverpool Echo newspaper four days earlier. The unsigned ad said simply: "Drummer_Young_Free."

McCartney, who was then playing guitar in the band while the late Stuart Sutcliffe handled bass guitar, offered the drummer an audition with the caveat that if he joins the band he must be ready to travel almost immediately to Hamburg. The Beatles honed their musical chops playing at low-rent clubs in the German's city's famed red-light district.

"Expenses paid 18 pounds per week (approx) for two months," McCartney writes. "If interested ring Jacaranda club."

The letter is signed, "Yours sincerely, Paul McCartney of the BEATLES."

Story: Paul McCartney marries American heiress in London

It is not known if the drummer came for an audition, and failed to impress McCartney and the others, or if he simply didn't follow up.

Christie's spokeswoman Leonie Pitts said the auction house's Beatles experts are certain that the letter was not an early feeler to Starr, who was a successful drummer with a rival Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, before he joined the Beatles.

She said auctioneers had not contacted McCartney to ask if he knew anything about the drummer who had placed the ad.

Story: Newlywed McCartney adds tour dates

"We think he's on his honeymoon," she said. McCartney married U.S. heiress Nancy Shevell eight days ago. His representatives did not immediately return an AP request for comment.

Christie's auction house said Monday the letter would likely draw more than 7,000 pounds ($11,000) when it is sold Nov. 15 along with other pop memorabilia.

The letter was discovered by a man from Liverpool who has asked to remain anonymous. The auction house said he is a devoted collector of antique coins who regularly checks yard sales.

Are you interested in Beatles memorabilia and tidbits, or sick of the band? Tell us on Facebook.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/44927720/ns/today-entertainment/

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Dancing With the Stars Recap: A Sometimes Awkward '80s Night

Week Five of Dancing With the Stars has come and gone, and for some of the competitors on the famed ABC parquet floor, that probably comes as a relief.

J.R. Martinez stole the show again and Rob Kardashian continued to impress judges and fans with his improvement, one of the season's pleasant surprises.

Beyond that, though? Oye.

 

It took about an hour before J.R. Martinez injected some life into this week's show that earned a 10 from Bruno and had Carrie Ann a bit ... hot and bothered?

"Muy caliente!" she exclaimed. "I want more of that!" Same here, Carrie Ann. Same here. J.R.'s samba earned him 28 points, good for a lead of three over ...

Rob Kardashian and David Arquette. Yup, David stepped up big!

First, it was Kim Kardashian's brother, giving his strongest, sexiest effort to date and earning 25 points. This guy is actually looking like a contender!

Give Arquette credit, too, because his tango with Kym Johnson to "Tainted Love" proved how good he is at these slower, intense, passionate dances.

Ricki Lake took a bit of a step back with her foxtrot, scoring a modest 24. We don't think she'll be going anywhere, but it was well below her standards.

Hope Solo notched a 24 as well, but was ripped by the judges for some reason.

Maybe they see unrealized potential in Hope more than other stars? Maybe they just weren't fans of her nude ESPN magazine cover? We'll never know.

In any case, she got an earful after a decent, unspectacular effort. She was also hit hard by Maksim Chmerkovskiy in the literal sense, busting her lip!

Accidentally, of course. Ballroom dancing is a contact sport!

In the bottom tier, Nancy Grace looked full-on awkward getting a ittle raunchy with Tristan MacManus, while Carson Kressley's jive felt totally uninspired.

Chaz Bono won praise for an energetic and rhythmic samba, albeit with the qualifier that it's hard to compare it to one like J.R.'s. Lowered expectations ...

Here's a look at Monday's Dancing With the Stars scores:

• J.R. Martinez & Karina Smirnoff: 28
• David Arquette & Kym Johnson: 25
• Rob Kardashian & Cheryl Burke: 25
• Hope Solo & Maks Chmerkovskiy: 24
• Ricki Lake & Derek Hough: 24
• Nancy Grace & Tristan MacManus: 22
• Chaz Bono & Lacey Schwimmer: 21
• Carson Kressley & Anna Trebunskaya: 19

Who do you think has danced his or her last routine? Do you agree with the pairs on top and in the cellar? Who's going home on tonight's results show?

Comment below, and vote for who you think will win!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2011/10/dancing-with-the-stars-recap-a-sometimes-awkward-80s-night/

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Romney's rise challenges tea party's clout in GOP (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Mitt Romney's early success in the Republican presidential race is challenging the tea party's clout. Will it continue to pull the GOP sharply right? Will it slowly fade? Or merge with mainstream Republican elements in a nod to pragmatism, something it's hardly known for?

On the surface, Romney's strength seems at odds with the tea party's fiery success in ousting Republicans seen as compromisers, and in making the House GOP caucus more ideological, even when its leaders plead for flexibility.

Romney defends the government's 2008 bank bailouts, plus the mandated health insurance he initiated as Massachusetts governor. He says he can work with "good Democrats." Although he later changed, Romney once supported abortion rights, gun control and gay rights.

These positions run counter to the beliefs and goals of many tea party activists scattered throughout the country. Yet Romney is faring better in polls, fundraising and debates than are contenders with stronger tea party credentials, including Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum and Rick Perry.

Several Republican strategists, and even some tea party leaders, say they aren't surprised or alarmed. Their overarching goal is to defeat President Barack Obama next year, they say, and if Romney is best-positioned to do that, they'll endure his shortcomings.

"The perception that tea partyers are ideological purists is wrong," said Sal Russo, a long-time Republican strategist in California and a leader of the Tea Party Express. "We are a broad-based movement," he said, "and we are looking to win in 2012."

Danny Diaz, a Washington-based Republican strategist unaligned with any presidential candidates, agrees.

"The tea party movement is an anti-Washington movement," he said. While Perry and Herman Cain might make a more dynamic claim to that mantle, he said, Romney has never lived in Washington, and tea party activists won't rule him out.

"Many of them are pragmatists," Diaz said. They desperately want to oust Obama, he said, and "they need a candidate that's electable."

A CBS-New York Times poll found that tea partyers are more satisfied with the GOP presidential field than are Republicans in general. Cain was the top choice among tea party activists, with Romney second.

Some campaign veterans see bigger problems ahead for Romney.

Polls of Republicans show Romney holding steady at about 25 percent, while Bachmann, Perry and Cain take turns making surges. "That tells me that 75 percent of the primary voters would really rather have someone else," said GOP lobbyist and consultant Mike McKenna.

Many tea party activists have little or no loyalty to the Republican Party, and McKenna predicts big problems next year if they feel their conservative values were sacrificed for political expediency. "Romney would cause enormous numbers of tea party-type voters to simply not show on game day," he said.

The chief question, he said, "is whether one candidate will be able to aggregate the anti-Romney Republicans before it is too late." Perry seems the likeliest choice, McKenna said, "but the clock is ticking."

Jenny Beth Martin of Atlanta, who is active with Tea Party Patriots, said several groups are having informal talks about whether they should try to coalesce behind an alternative to Romney. Tea partyers cherish their independence, she said, and "over the next eight to 10 weeks, it'll be interesting to see how it all shapes up."

Conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh repeatedly criticized Romney on his radio show last week. "Romney is not a conservative," he said. "The Republican base doesn't want Romney."

For now, Romney seems willing to run some risks, hoping to attract independent voters who will be crucial in the 2012 general election.

In last week's debate in New Hampshire, Romney defended President George W. Bush's 2008 decision to spend billions to rescue banks teetering on collapse, partly because of disastrous home loans. The action was meant not just to save banks, Romney said, "but to keep the entire currency of the country worth something and to keep all the banks from closing and to make sure we didn't all lose our jobs."

Many conservatives despise the bailout, known as TARP, for Troubled Asset Relief Program. In one of their first political victories, tea party activists in Utah chanted "TARP, TARP" at then-Sen. Robert Bennett as they bounced him from the GOP ticket at a 2010 party convention. Bennett, a three-term senator with solid conservative credentials, had voted for the program.

Nonetheless, there was little commentary about Romney's TARP comments after Tuesday's debate, which focused largely on Cain's tax overhaul plan.

It may take hard-hitting TV ads to drive a bigger wedge between Romney and tea partyers, something the well-financed Perry might try soon. Such ads could go into detail, with heavy repetition, about Romney's Massachusetts health care plan, which was a partial model for Obama's 2010 federal overhaul.

Virginia-based Republican strategist Chris LaCivita says the tea party's deliberately decentralized nature makes it ill-suited to play a big role in presidential politics.

"The tea party's strength was always a state-driven or congressional district-driven level," he said. It can continue to influence targeted contests that draw comparatively small turnouts, such as the Utah GOP convention that drummed Bennett out of the party.

Moreover, LaCivita said, the tea party might choke on its own success. If it appears more like the Republican mainstream, he said, it's because tea partyers have shifted that mainstream to the right.

Largely because of their clout in the 2010 elections, LaCivita said, these activists have "changed the conversation, not only among Republicans, but everybody in Washington. Who'd have thought the Democrats would be leading with spending cuts" in deficit-reduction talks?

Those ongoing negotiations, however, could renew tensions between tea party-affiliated House Republicans and the party's more established leaders, including Speaker John Boehner. If presidential candidates are pressed for their views, Romney might find it difficult to keep appealing to independents without antagonizing tea partyers.

The Republican Party "still hasn't resolved all of its ideological internal conflicts," said John Feehery, a top aide to then-Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill. "But they have agreed that they don't like Obama," he said.

Their level of intensity may determine whether Romney can keep prospering against rivals who boast stronger tea party ties.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111016/ap_on_el_pr/us_tea_party_presidential_race

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Pee Wee, Potter, Vader honored at Scream Awards (AP)

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. ? Heroes and villains from the worlds of horror, fantasy and sci-fi shared the stage at Spike TVs annual Scream Awards.

More television event than traditional awards ceremony, the Scream Awards were presented in an amphitheater built on the Universal Studios backlot just for the occasion.

The Saturday night show was as much about how the awards were presented as who got them, but for starters, the top honorees were Harry Potter, Darth Vader, Nicolas Cage, Pee Wee Herman and Robert Downey, Jr.

Resembling a psychedelic circus, one side of the stage was a life-sized dollhouse populated by costumed characters, the other a staircase topped by a giant keyhole, and in the middle was a lake that lit up with fire.

Fans picked the night's winners and also filled the makeshift theater for the 2 1/2 -hour presentation, which is set to air Tuesday as a two-hour special on Spike TV and VH1.

The show literally began with a scream, opening with a giant crane carrying a woman across the sky, then dropping her into the fiery lake. Blasts of fire and various stunts continued throughout the program.

Potter took the night's top prize. The eight-part film franchise was named the Ultimate Scream, which awards presenter Chloe Grace Moretz described as "the most awesome, most rocking thing that the universe has ever seen."

Audience members were given glow sticks before the winner was announced, and when "Potter" star Daniel Radcliffe accepted the prize by video from New York, fans there were waving the same lights. Co-star Ralph Fiennes, who played Lord Voldemort, also appeared by video to accept an award for favorite villain.

Vader, though, won the Ultimate Villain award. "Star Wars" creator George Lucas presented the Sith Lord with his prize.

Vader, who accepted the award personally, said he's found it difficult to concentrate on his work recently because he's constantly "living in fear of how George Lucas is going to digitally enhance you for the next DVD."

Meanwhile, Lucas announced that the first "Star Wars" film converted to 3-D will open in February. He also offered a peek at his latest project, "Red Tails," about the Tuskegee airmen.

Herman, also known as actor-comedian Paul Reubens, rode his shiny red bicycle across the lake (on floaties) to accept the Visionary award. He thanked his fans and "the academy of Spike TV."

When Cage received the Maverick award from Quentin Tarantino, a motorcycle appeared on stage and the lake blasted with fire.

Before Downey accepted the Hero award, audience members were given placards emblazoned with his image and the word "hero" and told to raise the signs when the actor made his entrance. They practiced a few times before the big moment.

Colin Farrell introduced the "Iron Man" star by saying, "No one plays the hero with more swagger than this man." Up went the placards. Fireworks shot from the stage.

"Thank you. It's a great honor," Downey said. "As your hero, I want you to know I would never, ever, consider using this moment to crassly promote an upcoming movie.... Will you please enjoy this very special world premiere of the new trailer for Sherlock Holmes?"

Downey wasn't the only winner who unveiled his latest trailer. Cage showed "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance," Radcliffe introduced "The Woman In Black." Trailers were also shown for "Piranha 3DD" and "Paranormal 3."

The show was punctuated with circus-worthy acts such as aerialists, fire dancers and contortionists who performed inside floating plastic balls. There were also plenty of stars and special effects.

The most anticipated movie was "The Dark Knight Rises," and stars Anne Hathaway, Gary Oldman and Joseph Gordon-Levitt took the stage to thank fans for the honor. Bradley Cooper accepted an award for "Limitless" and J.J. Abrams was on hand to take a sci-fi prize for "Super 8."

When Darren Aronofsky accepted the best director award, a massive black swan floated by in the lake behind him. Peter Dinklage is in Croatia shooting "Game of Thrones," but he somehow managed to accept the supporting actor award from underwater.

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Online:

http://www.spike.com/shows/scream

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Follow AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen on Twitter at www.twitter.com/APSandy.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111016/ap_en_mo/us_tv_scream_awards

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