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Pioneer announces XDJ-R1 all-in-one digital DJ deck with MIDI, iOS control features (video)
Sure, DJ controllers might be the emerging force in spinning, but CDJs are still largely the club standard. Pioneer has always had thumbs in both of these pies, of course, but the new XDJ-R1 sees the brand uniting them for the first time. The all-in-one unit offers two CD players, USB media playback and MIDI controller functionality. Additionally, you can keep things moving wirelessly via an iOS device thanks to a new dedicated "remotebox" app. Wireless direct means that you won't need to worry too much about flaky connections while you wander into the crowd with your iPhone. You'll still be able to control almost everything directly in the app. Back on the physical (and built-in) two-channel mixer you can spice things up with the usual loop, sync, hot cue and sampling features, plus a choice of color effects. The inclusion of XLR outputs and booth out shows that Pioneer wants to see this in the DJ box, and at $1,099, it should appeal to anyone who'd been eyeing up the component parts. It's available in June, but in the meantime there's a video tour cued up past the break.
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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/xQaPyu6TvNc/
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Gene therapy gives mice broad protection to pandemic flu strains, including 1918 flu
May 29, 2013 ? Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania have developed a new gene therapy to thwart a potential influenza pandemic. Specifically, investigators in the Gene Therapy Program, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, directed by James M. Wilson, MD, PhD, demonstrated that a single dose of an adeno-associated virus (AAV) expressing a broadly neutralizing flu antibody into the nasal passages of mice and ferrets gives them complete protection and substantial reductions in flu replication when exposed to lethal strains of H5N1 and H1N1 flu virus. These strains were isolated from samples associated from historic human pandemics -- one from the infamous 1918 flu pandemic and another from 2009.
Wilson, Anna Tretiakova, PhD, Senior Research Scientist, Maria P. Limberis, PhD, Research Assistant Professor, all from the Penn Gene Therapy Program, and colleagues published their findings online this week in Science Translational Medicine ahead of print. In addition to the Penn scientists, the international effort included colleagues from the Public Health Agency of Canada, Winnipeg; the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg; and the University of Pittsburgh. Tretiakova is also the director of translational research, and Limberis is the director of animal models core, both with the Gene Therapy Program.
"The experiments described in our paper provide critical proof-of-concept in animals about a technology platform that can be deployed in the setting of virtually any pandemic or biological attack for which a neutralizing antibody exists or can be easily isolated," says Wilson. "Further development of this approach for pandemic flu has taken on more urgency in light of the spreading infection in China of the lethal bird strain of H7N9 virus in humans."
At the Ready Influenza infections are the seventh leading cause of death in the United States and result in almost 500,000 deaths worldwide per year, according to the Centers for Disease Control. The emergence of a new influenza pandemic remains a threat that could result in a much loss of life and worldwide economic disruption.
There is also interest by the military in developing an off-the-shelf prophylactic vaccine should soldiers be exposed to weaponized strains of infectious agents in biologic warfare.
Human antibodies with broad neutralizing activity against various influenza strains exist but their direct use as a prophylactic treatment is impractical. Now, yearly flu vaccines are made by growing the flu virus in eggs. The viral envelope proteins on the exterior, namely hemagglutinin, are cleaved off and used as the vaccine, but vary from year to year, depending on what flu strains are prevalent. However, high mutation rates in the proteins result in the emergence of new viral types each year, which elude neutralization by preexisting antibodies in the body (specifically specific receptor binding sites on the virus that are the targets of neutralizing antibodies).
This approach has led to annual vaccinations against seasonal strains of flu viruses that are predicted to emerge during the upcoming season. Strains that arise outside of the human population, for example in domestic livestock, are distinct from those that normally circulate in humans, and can lead to deadly pandemics.
These strains are also not effectively controlled by vaccines developed to human strains, as with the 2009 H1N1 pandemic. The vaccine development time for that strain, and in general, was not fast enough to support vaccination in response to an emerging pandemic.
Knowing this, the Penn team proposed a novel approach that does not require the elicitation of an immune response, which does not provide sufficient breadth to be useful against any strain of flu other than the one for which it was designed, as with conventional approaches.
The Penn approach is to clone into a vector a gene that encodes an antibody that is effective against many strains of flu and to engineer cells that line the nasal passages to express this broadly neutralizing antibody, effectively establishing broad-based efficacy against a wide range of flu strains.
A Broad Approach The rational for targeting nasal epithelial cells for antibody expression was to focus this expression to the site of the body where the virus usually enters the body and replicates which is the nasal and oral mucosa. Antibodies are normally expressed from B lymphocytes so one challenge was to design vectors that could deliver antibody genes to the non- lymphoid respiratory cells of the nasal and lung passages and could express functional antibody protein.
Targeting the respiratory cells was achieved through the use of a vector based on a primate virus -- AAV9 -- which was discovered in the Wilson laboratory and evaluated previously by Limberis for possibly treating patients with cystic fibrosis. The team constructed a genetic payload for AAV9 that expressed an antibody that was showed by other investigators to have broad activity against flu.
Efficacy of the treatment was tested in mice that were exposed to lethal quantities of three strains of H5N1 and two strains of H1N1, all of which have been associated with historic human pandemics (including the infamous H1N1 1918).
Flu virus rapidly replicated in untreated animals all of which needed to be euthanized. However, pretreatment with the AAV9 vector virtually shut down virus replication and provided complete protection against all strains of flu in the treated animals. The efficacy of this approach was also demonstrated in ferrets, which provide a more authentic model of human pandemic flu infection.
"The novelty of this approach is that we're using AAV and we're delivering the prophylactic vaccine to the nose in a non-invasive manner, not a shot like conventional vaccines that passively transfer antibodies to the general circulation," says Limberis.
"There's a long history of using antibodies for cancer and autoimmune disease, but only two have been approved for infectious diseases," notes Tretikova. "This novel technique has allowed for the development of a prophylactic passive vaccine that is cost effective, easily administered, and quickly manufactured."
The team is working with various stakeholders to accelerate the development of this product for pandemic flu and to explore the potential of AAV vectors as generic delivery vehicles for countermeasures of biological and chemical weapons.
The research was supported in part by ReGenX, the Public Health Agency of Canada (#531252), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (#246355) and the National Institutes of Health (GM083602).
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/health_medicine/genes/~3/TdOOUl4KLCw/130529144242.htm
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U.S. households still feel the recession
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The average U.S. household has a long way to go to recover the wealth it lost to the Great Recession, a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis concluded Thursday.
The typical household has regained less than half its wealth, the analysis found. A separate Federal Reserve report in March calculated that Americans as a whole had regained 91 percent of their losses.
Household wealth plunged $16 trillion from the third quarter of 2007 through the first quarter of 2009. By the final three months of 2012, American households as a group had regained $14.7 billion.
Yet once those figures are adjusted for inflation and population growth, the average household has recovered only 45 percent of its wealth, the St. Louis Fed concluded.
That suggests that consumer spending could remain modest as many Americans try to rebuild their wealth by saving more and paying off debts.
The number of U.S. households grew 3.8 million to 115 million from the third quarter of 2007 through the final three months of last year, the report said. As a result, the rebound in wealth has been spread across more people and reduced the average wealth for each household.
In addition, though inflation has averaged just 2 percent over the past five years, it's eroded some of the purchasing power of Americans' regained wealth.
The St. Louis Fed's analysis noted that the rebound in wealth hasn't been equally distributed. As a result, many households are even further behind than the average.
Nearly two-thirds of the increase in household wealth since 2009 is due to rising stock prices, the authors note. Stock indexes reached record highs this month. Those gains disproportionately benefit affluent households: About 80 percent of stocks are held by the wealthiest 10 percent of the population.
For middle- and lower-income households, home values represent the biggest chunk of total wealth. And home prices remain about 30 percent below their peak, even after jumping nearly 11 percent in the past year.
The analysis was written by William Emmons, an economist at the St. Louis Fed, and Ray Boshara, who directs its new Center for Household Financial Stability.
"It's like the economy is this airplane and not all the engines are firing," Emmons said.
Still, wealthier households account for a disproportionate share of consumer spending: About 20 percent of Americans account for about 40 percent of spending.
Consequently, the rise in stock prices should provide some lift to spending, Emmons said.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/average-us-household-far-regaining-wealth-192240969.html
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Tale of 2 converts shows Egypt's sectarian divide
In this Monday, May 14, 2013 photo, Maria Sourial, center, mother of Romani Farhan Amir, mourns for her son at the family's home, some 180 miles (300 kilometers) south of Cairo in the province of Assiut, Egypt. Police say Amir, a 35-year-old laborer who did odd jobs for a day's wage, jumped to his death from a fourth-floor window in a court complex in Assiut, a city of 1 million people. His May 11 death came minutes before he was to be questioned by a judge on the stabbing and wounding nearly 12 hours earlier of his estranged wife, Azza William, who had vanished in January and reappeared the following month declaring she had converted to Islam. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
In this Monday, May 14, 2013 photo, Maria Sourial, center, mother of Romani Farhan Amir, mourns for her son at the family's home, some 180 miles (300 kilometers) south of Cairo in the province of Assiut, Egypt. Police say Amir, a 35-year-old laborer who did odd jobs for a day's wage, jumped to his death from a fourth-floor window in a court complex in Assiut, a city of 1 million people. His May 11 death came minutes before he was to be questioned by a judge on the stabbing and wounding nearly 12 hours earlier of his estranged wife, Azza William, who had vanished in January and reappeared the following month declaring she had converted to Islam. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
In this Monday, May 14, 2013 photo, Farhan Amir, 70, father of Romani Farhan Amir, listens as a catholic priest, not pictured, leads the family in prayer for Amir's soul in his house, some 180 miles (300 kilometers) south of Cairo in the province of Assiut, Egypt. Police say Amir, a 35-year-old laborer who did odd jobs for a day's wage, jumped to his death from a fourth-floor window in a court complex in Assiut, a city of 1 million people. His May 11 death came minutes before he was to be questioned by a judge on the stabbing and wounding nearly 12 hours earlier of his estranged wife, Azza William, who had vanished in January and reappeared the following month declaring she had converted to Islam. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
In this Monday, May 14, 2013 photo, Azza William, who gave herself the name Habibah Shaaban after she converted to Islam, speaks to the Associated Press while recovering at Assiut University's Teaching Hospital some 180 miles (300 kilometers) south of Cairo in the province of Assiut, Egypt. The woman suffered stab wounds to her chest, arms and thighs when her husband Romani Farhan Amir attacked her at the office of the headmistress of the school that their son Youssef attends. Police say Amir, a 35-year-old laborer who did odd jobs for a day's wage, jumped to his death minutes before he was to be questioned by a judge on the stabbing and wounding nearly 12 hours earlier of his estranged wife, who had vanished in January and reappeared the following month declaring she had converted to Islam. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
In this Monday, May 14, 2013 photo, Shaaban Ali Ibrahim, a senior leader of the Gamaa Islamiya poses for picture in the Assiut University's Teaching Hospital, some 180 miles (300 kilometers) south of Cairo in the province of Assiut, Egypt. The Gamaa, whose birthplace and stronghold in Assiut, is suspected in the growing number of conversions by Christian women in the province as well as other areas south of Cairo, like Minya which, like Assiut, has a sizable Christian community. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
In this Tuesday, May 15, 2013 photo, Mar Girgis church's priest, Father Angelos, 35, speaks to the Associated press in Wasta, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) away from Beni Suef, 90 kilometers (60 miles) south of Cairo, Egypt. In the town of Wasta in Bani Suef, Christian gold stores have removed their jewelry from their windows, a telltale sign that they feared attacks by Muslims. The Mar Girgis church, which was attacked on April 26 and has been targeted by a series of protests, is guarded by barricades and dozens of policemen. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
ASSIUT, Egypt (AP) ? In one case, an Egyptian Christian man stabs his wife after she converts to Islam with the support of hard-line Islamists. Then after surrendering to police, he dies in mysterious circumstances, falling from a court building window.
At about the same time, a Muslim woman in another small village converts to Christianity and elopes with a Christian man. A crowd of Muslims attacks the local church in outrage. None of the attackers are prosecuted, but police arrest the Christian man's family.
The case is elevated to a national issue as angry Islamist lawmakers in parliament dedicate a whole committee session to demanding the conversion be stopped and decrying an alleged foreign plot to convert Muslims.
The two recent instances that took place in southern Egypt illustrate the deep sensitivities surrounding conversions in Egypt's conservative society.
But they also demonstrate the discrepancies in how the cases are treated. Christians say politically powerful Islamist hard-liners have stepped up efforts to encourage Christians to embrace Islam. Meanwhile, the rare cases of Muslims turning to Christianity often bring violence against the community. In either case, authorities tend to turn a blind eye.
That has heightened Christians' sense of siege amid the increasing influence of Islamists since the 2011 ouster of autocrat Hosni Mubarak.
Under Mubarak, there were two or three cases a month nationwide of Christians converting to Islam, says Ibram Louiz, an activist who tracks conversions and disappearances of Christian women.
"But now I hear at times up to 15 cases coming from just one province," he said.
He estimated some 500 conversions since Mubarak's fall, 25 percent of them involving underage Christian girls, some as young as 15, who end up being married off to older Muslim men.
Public conversions to Christianity are far rarer. Technically, it is not illegal for a Muslim to become Christian ? though under Islamic law it can be punishable by death. But in the handful of cases the past decade, converts were imprisoned for insulting religion, threatening national security or other charges.
With communal feeling strong in Egypt, conversions are rarely seen as simply a matter of personal choice. Among Christians and Muslims alike, families are outraged when a loved one switches religion and often react violently. Questions of honor become mixed in when it involves a daughter or wife.
What begin as domestic family dramas easily spin into wider sectarian tensions as each community tries to punish converts or "defend its own." In 2011, for example, a Cairo church was burned by Islamists determined to protect a woman they believed was being held there to force her to renounce her conversion to Islam.
President Mohammed Morsi, of the Muslim Brotherhood, frequently declares that Muslims and Christians are equal before the law, and the Brotherhood is not known to be involved in conversions. But hard-line Islamists known as Salafis, allied to the Brotherhood, prominently defend converts to Islam, and they have a powerful presence in parliament. The Christian minority, about 10 percent of the population, has far less political power.
Romani Farhan Amir, an impoverished Christian day laborer, had little choice but to accept when his wife marched into a police station in the southern city of Assiut, accompanied by members of the hard-line Gamaa Islamiya group, and registered her conversion to Islam in February, his family says. Amir just told police that he did not want her anywhere near their four children, they say.
On May 11, when she showed up at the school of one of their sons, he believed she was trying to snatch the boy ? something she denies. He stabbed her in the principal's office, leaving her wounded.
Amir surrendered to police, and while he was at a court complex waiting to be questioned, he fell from a fourth-story window. Police say he committed suicide and deny any foul play.
The provincial security chief acknowledges that, while tragic, Amir's death averted Christian-Muslim violence. If the wife had died "there would have been grave consequences," Abul-Qassim Deif said. "So in the end, that he died and she lived quickly ended the whole affair."
His family is convinced he was killed in retaliation for attacking a Muslim, though they balk at accusing anyone specifically.
At a memorial prayer for him in the family's tiny apartment in Assiut, his mother argued with one of his six sisters whether to speak out. The sister tried to silence her, fearing retaliation from Islamists. Even the priest who led the memorial prayer advised them to lay low and avoid trouble.
But the mother, Maria Sourial, screamed, "Romani went into the building walking on his own two feet but came out dead. My son never committed suicide. How could he with so many policemen and suspects around him?"
The Gamaa Islamiya, which waged an armed insurgency in the 1990s but has since forsworn violence, has championed the cause of Amir's ex-wife, Azza William ? now called by her Muslim name Habibah Shaaban.
A local Gamaa leader, Shaaban Ibrahim Ali, denied his group pushes Christians to convert.
"They keep coming and we keep telling them to go back and consider the consequences," he told AP.
But he said if someone is determined to become Muslim, the group is morally obliged to protect them. He said Christians converting is a source of "happiness" for him and that his dream is to see Egypt's entire Christian population turn to Islam.
William disappeared from her husband's home in January and took refuge with the Gamaa, according to the Assiut security chief. Three weeks later, Ali and other Gamaa members accompanied her to the police station, where she registered her new Muslim name and sought a restraining order against Amir.
Speaking in her hospital room, recovering from stab wounds to the chest, arms and thighs, she told AP her husband first found her praying as a Muslim a year ago. He beat her, then got her a job as a cleaner at a church nursery, hoping that would dissuade her from becoming a Muslim.
"It didn't," she said, with Ali standing near her during the brief interview.
When her husband attacked her May 11, "I did not duck to avoid his stabs, I stood still in front of him when all the other women at the room were screaming," she said, with drips connected to both arms and her entire body ? except her eyes ? cloaked in a dark brown veil and robes.
Now, with Amir's death, she now gets custody of her four children. "May God show them the way to Islam while they are with me," she said.
The other conversion story, in Beni Suef province north of Assiut, provides a telling contrast.
In this case, a 22-year-old Muslim woman Rana el-Shenawi disappeared and is believed to have converted and fled abroad with a Coptic Christian she fell in love with.
In retaliation, Muslim mobs hurling rocks and firebombs attacked the Mar Girgis Church in her hometown of Wasta in late April after her father accused a local priest of using witchcraft to convert her. A priest's car was set on fire. Islamist hard-liners forced Christian businesses to shut down for more than a week.
"We want to raise the banner of Islam and not sit and watch our Muslim daughters getting kidnapped and converted to Christianity," said a leaflet distributed in Wasta by Islamists.
Ten people were initially detained for the church attack but were later released. The church is now guarded by police.
Police detained the father, mother and cousin of Ibram Andrews, the Christian with whom el-Shenawi allegedly eloped. They are under investigation on suspicion of helping her disappearance, inciting sectarian tensions, disturbing security and blasphemy.
Salafi groups, meanwhile, drummed up a nationwide uproar, warning of a foreign plot to convert Muslims. Even parliament took an interest. A committee held a hearing April 30, with Islamist lawmakers demanding action to retrieve el-Shenawi. The session devolved into furious arguments between Christian and Islamist lawmakers.
The el-Shenawi family's lawyer ? a member of the Salafi Watan Party ? was granted meetings with senior aides at the presidency to discuss efforts to retrieve the woman and investigate alleged foreign proselytizing.
The lawyer, Ashraf el-Sissi, told the AP he doesn't want the case to fuel sectarian tensions. But "what I am concerned with is whether there are foreign groups trying to undermine our nation."
In Wasta, the priest of Mar Girgis church, Father Angelos, said he didn't understand why his church was blamed for el-Shenawi's disappearance. Andrews never attended services there and lived in the city of Beni Suef, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) away.
"Here, rumors swiftly get treated as facts," said Angelos. Mar Girgis is separated by a narrow alley from a mosque from which Salafis have launched protests against the church.
"Attacks on churches continue to happen because the culprits act with impunity, knowing that there is no law and there is no punishment," he said. "Generally, we suffered as Christians under Mubarak but nowhere near what is happening to us now."
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NKorea sanctions squeeze cash for aid groups
In this Sunday, May 19, 2013 photo, a North Korean woman works at a boutique shop which sells goods including Italian suits and Dior makeup at the newly-opened Haedanghwa Service Complex in Pyongyang, North Korea. U.N. sanctions are meant to stop the financing of North Korea's nuclear and missile programs but also aimed to sting the country's rich by crippling the import of luxury goods. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
In this Sunday, May 19, 2013 photo, a North Korean woman works at a boutique shop which sells goods including Italian suits and Dior makeup at the newly-opened Haedanghwa Service Complex in Pyongyang, North Korea. U.N. sanctions are meant to stop the financing of North Korea's nuclear and missile programs but also aimed to sting the country's rich by crippling the import of luxury goods. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
In this Sunday, May 19, 2013 photo, a North Korean woman works at a boutique shop which sells goods including Italian suits and Dior makeup at the newly-opened Haedanghwa Service Complex in Pyongyang, North Korea. U.N. sanctions are meant to stop the financing of North Korea's nuclear and missile programs but also aimed to sting the country's rich by crippling the import of luxury goods. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
In this Monday, May 20, 2013 photo, North Korean nurses say goodbye to representatives from foreign humanitarian agencies after a U.N. and North Korean government program to give vitamin supplements and deworming pills to children at a nursery school in Pyongyang, North Korea on Child Health Day. New international sanctions aimed at thwarting North Korea's nuclear weapons program are having unintended consequences: halting money transfers by foreign humanitarian groups working to help those most in need and forcing some agencies to carry suitcases of cash in from outside. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
In this Monday, May 20, 2013 photo, North Korean nurses say goodbye to representatives from foreign humanitarian agencies after a U.N. and North Korean government program to give vitamin supplements and deworming pills to children at a nursery school in Pyongyang, North Korea on Child Health Day. New international sanctions aimed at thwarting North Korea's nuclear weapons program are having unintended consequences: halting money transfers by foreign humanitarian groups working to help those most in need and forcing some agencies to carry suitcases of cash in from outside. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) ? New international sanctions aimed at thwarting North Korea's nuclear weapons program are having unintended consequences: halting money transfers by foreign humanitarian groups working to help those most in need and forcing some agencies to carry suitcases of cash in from outside.
At the same time, some restrictions are meant to sting the country's elite by crippling the import of luxury goods, such as yachts, fancy cars and jewelry. But they do not appear to be stopping the well-heeled from living large in the capital Pyongyang.
Much of the aid group difficulties are linked to the state-run Bank of China's decision earlier this month to follow Washington's lead and sever ties with the North's Foreign Trade Bank, the main money transfer route for most foreign organizations, U.N. agencies and embassies in Pyongyang. With that line cut, aid workers in North Korea say they are left with few other options to receive foreign currency for expenses including rent, bills and salaries for local staff.
The sanctions are not supposed to affect humanitarian aid, but six Pyongyang-based aid organizations headquartered in Europe issued a communique earlier this month spelling out their frustrations and calling the difficulties in transferring money to North Korea a "big problem." They warned that they may be forced to suspend their operations if they cannot find ways to access cash. A handful of American non-governmental organizations also work in North Korea, but they cycle in and out and do not maintain a permanent presence.
Gerhard Uhrmacher, program manager for German humanitarian aid organization Welthungerhilfe, said when recent bank transfers failed, he managed to keep projects running by routing 500,000 euros ($643,000) to Chinese or North Korean accounts in China to pay for building supplies and other goods.
He said Welthungerhilfe, which signed the communique and works on agriculture and rural development projects in North Korea, has some reserves in Pyongyang but must also resort to carrying cash into the country by hand.
"It doesn't give a good impression. We're trying to be transparent, to be open to all sides and now we're more or less forced to do something that doesn't really look very proper because people who carry a lot of cash are somehow suspect," said Uhrmacher who is based in Germany and has worked in North Korea for the past 10 years.
"Whatever you're doing, everybody looks at you very closely," he said. "That's why we don't like it because bank accounts are proper. Everybody can have a look at it and everybody can control it. Now we are forced to do something else."
Some analysts said aid groups were simply "collateral damage" and that they will find a way to work around the sanctions as they have been forced to do in other countries. Others said the poorest North Koreas would be hurt if some humanitarian groups have to pull out of the country. The aid groups work on a range of issues from food security to improving health and assisting with disabilities.
Aid groups "may not provide as much support as governments, but they have the ability to reach the deep corners of the impoverished North where people are in most need," said Woo Seongji, a professor of international relations at Kyung Hee University in Seoul. "Their help is both symbolic and substantial. It reaches kids, hospitals and food shelters that outside governments may not be able to support consistently because of political considerations."
The U.S. State Department said Wednesday it was aware of the concerns of humanitarian groups and was exploring ways to address them. But spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the onus was on North Korea to provide for its people and make alternative financial services available to international organizations.
"This is essentially on the plate of the North Korean government which has made the decision not to provide funding and the necessary aid to their own people, which is the reason why this (aid) is so necessary from the outside," spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters in Washington. "We are aware of the challenges. We want aid to make its way to the people of North Korea."
The latest sanctions have added challenges to the already difficult system of getting money into North Korea since ally China has restrictions on how much foreign currency can be legally taken beyond its borders.
Sanctions and trade embargoes have long been used by the international community to put an economic squeeze on troublesome regimes from Iraq and Myanmar to Cuba. But they are a blunt tool that can unintentionally add to the suffering of people living under oppressive rule by hindering development and the delivery of aid.
In North Korea's case, the sanctions are meant to stop financing and the smuggling of cash that could help its nuclear and missile programs. They also aim to send a message to the country's elite by crushing the import of luxury goods.
Yet last week at the newly opened six-story Haedanghwa Service Complex in Pyongyang, well-dressed North Koreans chatted on mobile phones and browsed in a high-end boutique that sold everything from fine Italian suits and Dior makeup to glass showcases glittering with diamonds and gold.
The opulent center boasted 17 different themed dining rooms and cavernous banquet halls, some with their own bathrooms and round tables big enough to seat 30 people. Upstairs, young couples played pool, lounged in the sauna and munched on sushi while sipping cans of Coke and beer. Others splashed in a heated indoor swimming pool replete with waterfalls or worked out at a fitness center filled with state-of-the-art equipment. Downstairs at a popular restaurant, a chef delighted guests by cooking on a grill in front of them ? at a cost of $50 a plate, not including drinks.
Meanwhile, at the airport, a Toshiba 42-inch flatscreen TV slowly made loops on the baggage carousel. All proof that high-end merchandise is still making its way to the upper class in an impoverished country where two-thirds of its 24 million people don't have enough to eat.
Uhrmacher said that despite repeated European Union vows that sanctions will not affect humanitarian aid, the pinch is being felt by all the organizations working in North Korea. The EU has not sanctioned Foreign Trade Bank, but he said due to U.S. political pressure and fears of becoming entangled in controversy, European banks do not want to be associated with it. Bank of China had typically been used as a channel to route money to the aid groups' North Korean accounts. Foreign embassies and NGOs can only have accounts with the FTB.
"We are concerned regarding possible unintended effects of certain sanctions, in particular with regard to humanitarian assistance, and stress the need to overcome these unintended effects," said Maja Kocijancic, spokeswoman for EU foreign policy head Catherine Ashton.
The U.S. Treasury Department hit the North Korean bank with sanctions in March, effectively cutting it off from the U.S. financial system after accusing the country's main foreign exchange institution of funding Pyongyang's missile and nuclear programs. Washington pressured Beijing to also impose restrictions on the bank a month after new leader Kim Jong Un angered his biggest economic supporter by conducting an underground nuclear test.
The U.N. responded to that move by slapping Pyongyang with its toughest-ever sanctions. Tensions then boiled and North Korea spewed threats for weeks, including plans to launch nuclear strikes against the U.S. and its allies. The mood has since cooled, with the North sending a high-level envoy to Beijing last week to deliver a message that they were willing to take steps toward rejoining stalled nuclear disarmament talks.
Embassies and U.N. agencies are also affected by the banking transfer issues, but several officials refused to comment due to the sensitivity of the issue. However, the U.N. in Pyongyang said last month that the sanctions were hurting its ability to raise funds, resulting in a shortage of drugs and vaccines. The World Health Organization also said it's harder to import equipment and medicine because everyone has become over cautious at all levels before clearing materials.
The World Food Program said it has not yet been affected by the banking problems. It only needs limited funding within North Korea as financial transactions for its food aid are completed outside the country.
____
Associated Press writers Sam Kim in Seoul, South Korea, Frank Jordans in Berlin, Raf Casert in Brussels and Matthew Pennington in Washington contributed to this report.
____
Follow Margie Mason on Twitter: twitter.com/MargieMasonAP
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Old Torah scroll found in Italy university library
ROME (AP) ? An Italian expert in Hebrew manuscripts said Wednesday he has discovered the oldest known complete Torah scroll, a sheepskin document dating from 1155-1225. It was right under his nose, in the University of Bologna library, where it had been mistakenly catalogued a century ago as dating from the 17th century.
The find isn't the oldest Torah text in the world: the Leningrad and the Aleppo bibles ? both of them Hebrew codexes, or books ? pre-date the Bologna scroll by more than 200 years. But this is the oldest Torah scroll of the Pentateuch, the five books of Moses, according to Mauro Perani, a professor of Hebrew in the University of Bologna's cultural heritage department.
Two separate carbon-dating tests ? performed by the University of Salento in Italy and the Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign ? confirmed the revised dating, according to a statement from the University of Bologna.
Such scrolls ? this one is 36 meters (40 yards) long and 64 centimeters (25 inches) high ? are brought out in synagogues on the Sabbath and holidays, and portions are read aloud in public. Few such scrolls have survived since old or damaged Torahs have to be buried or stored in a closed room in a synagogue.
In a telephone interview Wednesday, Perani said he was updating the library's Hebrew manuscript catalogue when he stumbled upon the scroll in February. He said he immediately recognized the scroll had been wrongly dated by the last cataloguer in 1889, because he recognized that its script and other graphic notations were far older.
Specifically, he said the scroll doesn't take into account the rabbinical rules that standardized how the Pentateuch should be copied that were established by Maimonides in the late 12th century. The scroll contains many features and markings that would be forbidden under those rules, he said.
The 1889 cataloguer, a Jew named Leonello Modona, had described the letters in the scroll as "an Italian script, rather clumsy-looking, in which certain letters, as well as the usual crowns and strokes show uncommon and strange appendices," according to the University of Bologna release.
Perani, however, saw in the document an elegant script whose square letters were of Babylonian tradition, the statement said.
Perani told The Associated Press it was "completely normal" for a cataloguer to make such a mistake in the late 1800s, given the "science of manuscripts was not yet born."
Outside experts said the finding was important, even though older Hebrew bibles do exist.
"It is fairly big news," said James Aiken, a lecturer in Hebrew and Old Testament studies at Cambridge University. "Hebrew scholars get excited by very small things, but it certainly is important and clearly looks like a very beautiful scroll."
However, Giovanni Garbini, a leading expert on ancient Semitic languages and retired professor at Rome's La Sapienza university, said the discovery doesn't change much about what the world knows about Hebrew manuscripts.
"It's an example of an ancient scroll, but from the point of view of knowledge, it doesn't change anything," he said in a telephone interview.
But Stephen Phann, acting president of the University of the Holy Land in Jerusalem and an expert in ancient Jewish manuscripts, said if accurately dated, the scroll is a rare and important find. "We don't have anything much from that period," Phann said.
There are far older scraps of Torah scrolls that can be dated back to the 8th century, but Phann said it was rare to find a complete manuscript.
The find was also emotionally important, he said because the scroll, as opposed to a bound book, is used for reading Torah portions throughout the year in synagogue.
"It's almost a friendship ? that they have come to know the Torah scroll in their midst, and they draw their knowledge and focus on worship on how they live their daily life," Phann said.
Perani said it remains a mystery how the scroll came to be part of the Bologna university library but that he anticipated further study would now begin.
The scroll remains in the library and doesn't require any extra conservation precautions beyond what it already has, he said.
___
Diaa Hadid contributed from Jerusalem.
___
Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/old-torah-scroll-found-italy-university-library-152438195.html
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মঙ্গলবার, ২৮ মে, ২০১৩
Bell intros Fibe TV Wireless Receiver, takes Canadians multi-room for $199
Some Canadians can get multi-room TV through their providers, but a truly wire-free option has never been on the table -- no doubt a disappointment for backyard viewing parties. Bell is filling that void today with what it says is the first carrier-supplied wireless TV package in Canada. Fibe TV subscribers can now pick up as many as five Wireless Receivers (really, Motorola VIP2502 boxes) to extend their HD viewing and DVR control to the whole home without cables. It sounds easy; the real challenge, we figure, will be getting a Wireless Receiver in the first place. Customers have to live in Montreal, Quebec City or Toronto for Fibe TV to even be an option, while each Wireless Receiver costs either $7 per month or $199 up front.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Peripherals, HD
Source: Bell
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NY plane crash passengers ID'd as patient, wife
EPHRATAH, N.Y. (AP) ? A brain cancer patient and his wife were on board the volunteer medical flight piloted by a Connecticut man that crashed in a wooded area of central New York, authorities said Sunday.
Frank and Evelyn Amerosa of Utica were aboard an Angel Flight on Friday night when the twin-engine aircraft went down in Ephratah, a sleepy town about an hour west of Albany, according to police and family members.
Officials and family said John Campbell, 70, of Stamford, Conn., was flying the couple back from the Boston area, where Frank Amerosa was being treated for brain cancer.
The bodies of Campbell and Evelyn Amerosa have been recovered from the rural crash site. Dozens of searchers, including a helicopter crew, continued searching the woods and water Sunday for Frank Amerosa, 64, who was presumed dead, said Sgt. Brian Van Nostrand of the Fulton County Sheriff's Department.
Frank Amerosa, a retired trucker, had been diagnosed with brain cancer more than a year ago. Evelyn Amerosa, 58, worked at an area nursing home directing residents in activities like bingo and trips ? a job she loved, said her daughter Heather Theobald. She said her mother had been with her step-father for at least 16 years. The couple loved to travel and had recently returned from the Bahamas.
"Very happy, very much love, very optimistic, they did everything for anybody," Theobald told The Associated Press. "There were just very good people. They were loved by a lot of people."
Campbell was volunteer pilot for Angel Flight, a nonprofit group that arranges free air transportation for the sick. Angel Flight Northeast said it has set up free air transportation and medical care for more than 65,000 children and adults on about 60,000 flights covering more than 12 million miles. It was founded in 1996.
"John loved to fly and truly believed in the mission of Angel Flight. He loved volunteering his time and we take some solace in the fact he died doing something he loved while trying to help others," according to a family statement read to The Associated Press by his daughter Kimberly Conti, of Rutherford, N.J.
Rescue workers on Sunday scoured the woods and searched a big, murky pond where the bulk of the aircraft was submerged. Wreckage from the crash was dispersed over a large area, with pieces of the plane found as far as 5 miles away.
"They're doing ground and air and water searches, everything is being covered at this point," Van Nostrand said.
National Transportation Safety Board investigators who returned to the crash site Sunday aim to retrieve the bulk of the wreckage from the water over the next few days, said agency spokesman Eric Weiss. They are looking for smartphones, GPS devices, computer tablets or other items that could "give the investigators some electronic evidence of what happened in the last minutes of flight," he said.
The Piper PA 34 had departed from Hanscom Field in Bedford, Mass., and was headed to Rome, N.Y., before it crashed just after 5 p.m. Friday, Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen said. The plane did not issue a distress call before losing radar and radio contact, the NTSB said.
Terence Kindlon, an Albany attorney who is a volunteer pilot for Angel Flight, said he and another lawyer, Dale Thuillez, had flown the couple to Boston on Friday morning in Thuillez's plane. He quickly found out he had something in common with Frank Amerosa.
"We were both former Marines and had been in Vietnam pretty close together in time," Kindlon said. "We hit it right off. He was a nice guy."
The two lawyers flew back to Albany in Thuillez's plane after dropping off the couple in Boston.
While the cause of the crash remains under investigation, Kindlon stressed that "the standards for being an Angel Flight pilot are rigorous."
Authorities had initially said the bodies of two passengers were found after the aircraft went down Friday night. But Van Nostrand corrected that report Sunday, saying the bodies of the Evelyn Amerosa and Campbell had been found.
Witnesses described the destruction that started in the air above Ephratah.
Joan Dudley, owner of Granny's Ice Cream Shanty, which is less than a mile from the crash site, said she and her employees saw the plane flip, then fall apart Friday night.
"Parts and pieces of it were flying through the sky, and a body fell out," Dudley said.
They called 911 as they parked their car and ran to the crash site in the rain to see if they could rescue anyone.
"Airplane parts were all over the place," she said. "They were picking them up all over."
Ephratah resident Roger Berry, 75, said he was outside chopping wood when the plane crashed.
"When I heard it, I knew something was wrong," Berry said.
Berry said he heard a bang, then saw pieces of the plane fall from the sky. The motor fell 50 feet from his neighbor's bedroom, where she was sleeping, Berry said.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ny-plane-crash-passengers-idd-patient-wife-184910540.html
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So you have found an interesting old family tree - Hertfordshire ...
Recently Glen asked me about the origins of William Costain of St Stephens, St Albans, 1754-1827, as he had recently inherited a family history drafted by a great uncle, and this reminded me of my early days researching my ancestors. Finding old family histories can lead to important breakthroughs in your research - but there are also pitfalls - so you should always check against modern online records.
My Grandfather Walter Richard Locke (1867-1957) had acquired the family history researches of his eldest sister Eliza Mary Locke (1850-1926). She had inherited the extensive family history notes of her uncle, Robert Gibbs (1816-1893), who wrote The History of Aylesbury. His papers included a family history in verse written in about 1820 by his great uncle, John Rolls (1756-1838). A significant part of Robert Gibbs' papers were of significant local history interest and fortunately my grandfather donated the collection to what is now the Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies. If he had not done so they would almost certainly have ended up in the rubbish when he died.
My Grandfather Walter Richard Locke (1867-1957) had acquired the family history researches of his eldest sister Eliza Mary Locke (1850-1926). She had inherited the extensive family history notes of her uncle, Robert Gibbs (1816-1893), who wrote The History of Aylesbury. His papers included a family history in verse written in about 1820 by his great uncle, John Rolls (1756-1838). A significant part of Robert Gibbs' papers were of significant local history interest and fortunately my grandfather donated the collection to what is now the Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies. If he had not done so they would almost certainly have ended up in the rubbish when he died.
Of course the find was a gold mine and as a beginner I lapped it up and transferred hundreds of names to my family tree on the assumption that everything was correct.. In particular some branches of the family were non-conformists and the records of the relevant chapels have not survived. The problem was that while there was invaluable material in the old family records there was also some real problem areas when I looked more closely.?
For instance John Rolls had recorded an incident during the Civil War involving a direct ancestor - but when I tracked down the appropriate parish records I found William Rolls was too young to have been involved in the way described. The story might have applied to William's eldest brother, Ralph, who John failed to mention. In addition, while in some of his records John mentioned large numbers of relatives he may well have met during his lifetime there were few dates or places to tie them down precisely.
In his researches Robert Gibbs had tried to find out even earlier Rolls ancestors, writing to vicars (including a "donation") to ask whether the registers contained the details he was seeking - and much of this now appears to have been mere speculation. He had also documented the genealogy of the Gibbs family of Winslow where six sons all married and had large families. Virtually all the boys were named either their father, their paternal grandfather or an uncle - so there were many identically named children of about the same age. His family tree might have sorted out which one was which - but on the main ancestral line there are two copies - which are different. Which was the draft and which was the corrected version we may never know.
Eliza Mary Locke's notes were interesting in that she had tried to explore some of the lines - but getting access to the records 100 years ago clearly limited what she could do. However one thing she could have easily done was missing. She would undoubtedly have known her paternal grandfather William Speed Locke (1796-1873) but he is omitted from her notes. I eventually found the reason for this omission - She was a prim and proper Victorian lady - and her grandfather was illegitimate.?
The important lesson to learn is that old family records should be cherished - but they should also be looked at critically. Reminiscence type records are extremely useful, but can be uncertain about dates, and can be very selective - with the disreputable side being omitted. The old documents may well have been a draft which included speculations which the original author never checked out. In addition they may include information from original documents that no longer exist. But remember that your ancestors had far less access to key records than we have today. So if you come across old family history research remember that it should be thoroughly checked against modern indexes to verify the genealogy. Not only will the result be more relaible, but you may also make significant new discoveries on the way.
Source: http://hertfordshire-genealogy.blogspot.com/2013/05/so-you-have-found-interesting-old.html
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European stocks claw back ground as markets steady
By Marc Jones
LONDON (Reuters) - European stocks, bonds and the dollar traded more calmly on Monday after last week's turbulence, though another 3 percent dive in Japan's main share index kept investors on edge.
UK and U.S. holidays kept European equity and bond markets quieter than usual, but with last week's falls tempting buyers, the Euro STOXX 50 was up 0.8 percent and Italian and Spanish bonds eyeing their first gains in three sessions.
The dollar was also steadier, though it slid back to 101 against the yen as the latest lurch in Japanese equities encouraged investors who have been unwinding their dollar hedges on share portfolios and heading for bonds.
The 3.2 percent drop on Tokyo's Nikkei brought its losses since Thursday to more than 10 percent, although the index is still up 35 percent this year.
Last week's shakeout of equity, bond and currency markets was triggered by concerns the U.S. Federal Reserve could wind in its monetary support sooner than had been expected, weak Chinese data, and doubts over how low Japan will allow the yen to go.
But despite the wobble, analysts largely foresee a period of moderation in risk assets, rather than a big correction.
"The transition to a post U.S. QE (quantitative easing) world will be turbulent," said J.P. Morgan global strategist Dan Morris. "But with fundamental drivers for equities still supportive, investors should tighten their seatbelts instead of reaching for the parachute."
CHILLY TO SUB-ZERO
Whereas the Fed appears to be eyeing an exit from its crisis measures, the European Central Bank may still have some scope to counter a long-running euro zone recession triggered largely by efforts to contain the bloc's sovereign debt crisis.
On Wednesday, the European Commission will release its review of countries' debt-cutting policies, which will confirm that the likes of France, Spain and Slovenia are to be given more time to trim their budget deficits to target. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development will publish a review of major economies on the same day.
Three Italian government bond auctions this week will also test demand after the talk of Fed stimulus withdrawal.
Italian and Spanish bonds were caught in the sell-off in risk assets last week but yields on both have eased back as focus turns to the ECB's next step.
Policymaker Joerg Asmussen said the bank would remain accommodative "as long as needed" although he sounded cautious about charging banks to put money on deposit at the ECB, something that could help hold down national borrowing costs.
"One should be very cautious regarding the discussion if the ECB could introduce negative deposit rates ... This can have advantages, but it can also have disadvantages," Asmussen said in a speech in Berlin.
OIL SLIPS
The mood was once again cautious in the commodities markets. Brent crude slipped towards $102 per barrel, extending last week's 2 percent drop, as the patchy economic outlook in a well-supplied market pressured prices.
The broader market nerves also helped safe-haven gold firm to $1394.39 an ounce as it built on last week's best run in a month, while growth-attuned copper fell 0.2 percent.
After disappointing data from China last week dimmed the outlook for global oil demand, oil producer cartel OPEC is expected to keep policy unchanged at a meeting on Friday.
The shale revolution in the United States, still the biggest oil consumer, may even bring an end to the relentless rise in fuel prices seen over the past decade.
"OPEC is in a hard situation," said Chakib Khelil, Algeria's oil minister from 1999 to 2010. "The demand for OPEC oil is going down, while increasing demand is being met by others..."
(Additional reporting by Alex Lawler and Peg Mackey; Editing by Catherine Evans)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/asian-stocks-still-shaky-nikkei-slides-3-percent-003037377.html
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সোমবার, ২৭ মে, ২০১৩
Audioquest DragonFly Digital Audio Convertor review
In the portable world of digital music, it seems that most people are happy with whatever setup they have – whether it’s a laptop, iPod or smart phone. Ironically, the most expensive device from this list also has the worst audio output: your computer. That laptop or desktop (iMAC, for instance) computer has about the [...]
Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2013/05/26/audioquest-dragonfly-digital-audio-convertor-review/
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An Amazon Platform for Fan Fiction - NYTimes.com
Fan fiction, a labor of love for die-hard fans of popular characters and intellectual properties, previously? relegated to the back alleys of the Internet, has now been legitimized.
Amazon has announced a new publishing platform through its Kindle store that will allow fans to digitally publish ? and, more important, be compensated for ?? stories inspired by their favorite books, movies, television shows and comics.
Although a starting date for the initiative, Kindle Worlds, has yet to be announced, Amazon has secured the licenses for three properties: ?Gossip Girl,? ?Pretty Little Liars? and ?The Vampire Diaries.? All are owned by Warner Brothers Television Group?s Alloy Entertainment.
The arrangement, and the promise from Amazon that more licenses are on the way, opens the door to a bounty of publishing possibilities. The involvement of Warner Brothers, which owns DC Entertainment, has already created hopeful speculation among comic book fans that they will one day be paid for writing new adventures for DC?s superhero characters like Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman.
According to its news release, Amazon Publishing will pay royalties to both the rights holder of the original work and the authors of the new works. The standard royalty rate for authors will be 35 percent of the net revenue for works of at least 10,000 words, and 20 percent for short stories of? 5,000 to 10,000 words. The remaining profits will be split between Amazon and the rights holder in terms that the company has not disclosed.
Source: http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/27/amazon-offers-fan-fiction-writers-a-new-platform/
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Wireless: 5 signs your computer is infected -- USA Today Column for ...
Oh, the not-so-humble computer virus. For decades, it's been making computer users miserable.
It's like the common cold. You'd think someone would have cured both by now. Unfortunately, it looks like computer viruses are just getting stronger and smarter.
In the early days, a virus would delete your files and spread to other computers. It was annoying, but the effects were easy to detect and contain.
Today, in addition to traditional viruses, there are Trojans, worms, ransomware, spyware, adware and plenty of other "wares." The computer industry term for all this is "malware."
Even state-of-the-art computer security can't always keep up with new threats. Of course, everyone should still be running up-to-date security programs. Fortunately, there are excellent free anti-virus, spyware and firewall programs. Click here to see my top free security software picks.
Every type of malware does something a little differently. You might not even recognize that your computer is infected. To help you out, here are five signs you can look for.
To help you out, here are five signs you can look for.
Source: http://wirelessworldnet.blogspot.com/2013/05/5-signs-your-computer-is-infected-usa.html
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রবিবার, ২৬ মে, ২০১৩
How can Chuck Hagel fix military sexual assault epidemic?
President Obama and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel have stressed to graduates of the US military academies that rampant rates of sexual assault could corrode the force.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel (l.) and Superintendent Lt. Gen. David Huntoon Jr. stand for the national anthem during a graduation and commissioning ceremony at the US Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., on Saturday.
Mike Groll/AP
EnlargeOn consecutive days, President Obama and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel have told the next generation of military leaders that sexual assault is threatening the dignity and effectiveness of the force.
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Though the war in Afghanistan continues, the Obama administration has, in many ways, already begun to turn the Pentagon toward a new set of challenges. Mr. Obama's address to the National Defense University Friday spoke to the strategic parts of that shift ? from stricter rules for drone strikes to new rules for the detention facility at Guant?namo Bay.
But the president's speech the same day to graduates of the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., stressed that stamping out an epidemic of sexual assault within the military must also be a primary goal. Secretary Hagel made the same point Saturday in a speech to graduates at the US Military Academy in West Point, N.Y.
But what can be done?
There is ample evidence to suggest that no solution will be easy or quick. A survey released earlier this month suggests that 26,000 people in the military were sexually assaulted in the previous year ? a rate of 70 a day. Moreover, only 3,400 incidents were reported, suggesting a widespread lack of confidence in the military justice system on the issue.
Due to a lack of research, the trend line is unclear. The current number is up from the previous year (19,000) but down from 2006 (34,000).
Meanwhile, recent weeks have brought a flood of troubling allegations. This month, two members of military sexual-assault prevention units ? one for the Air Force and one at the Army's Fort Hood in Texas ? have been accused of sexual assault. And last week, a sergeant at West Point was charged with secretly videotaping female cadets in the shower.
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D) of Missouri has introduced a bill to ensure that ?never again will a victim have to salute an assaulter," according to NBC News. It would require a member of the military who has been found guilty of sexual assault to be dismissed or dishonorably discharged. While it would also prohibit a commander from nullifying or changing a sexual-assault conviction, it would not remove sexual-assault cases from the chain of command entirely.
That has been a point of contention for critics, who note that commanders often reduce or eliminate punishments resulting from sexual-assault investigations. To address this, a competing bill by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D) of New York would create a separate procedure for dealing with sexual-assault cases.
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AP PHOTOS: Bayern beats Dortmund 2-1 in final
Violence and fear travel swiftly, and faster still in the era of tweets and status updates and 24-hour rolling news. Just after 2 pm on May 22, police answered a call to an incident in Woolwich, southeast London. A 25-year-old soldier, Drummer Lee Rigby, leaving the local barracks, had been hit by a car and then hacked to death in front of horrified onlookers. One of his alleged killers, later identified as Michael Adebolajo, linked the attack to the British military presence in Muslim countries. ...
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ap-photos-bayern-beats-dortmund-2-1-final-225941240.html
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91% Gimme The Loot
All Critics (57) | Top Critics (23) | Fresh (52) | Rotten (5)
'Gimme the Loot' is ... meandering and a little shallow. And even at 79 minutes it feels a little too long for what's essentially the film equivalent of a short story.
A thousand-watt jolt of mischief, a spunky, funky, ebullient indie that packs its 81 minutes with cinematic exhilaration.
It may be a slight movie, but it has its sunny charms.
A movie about teenage taggers in the Bronx should be fast and raw, scruffy and loose, and Adam Leon's Gimme the Loot is just that.
As it lopes along, the movie offers a warm but very sharp portrait of New York's have-nots and their uneasy relationship with the haves.
"Gimme the Loot" shouldn't be as appealing and exuberant as it is, it really shouldn't.
First-time feature director Adam Leon's shots are precise and full of detail.
The film's strong suit is its use of locations.
The film is episodic and determinedly offbeat, funny at its best, boring at its worst.
Shot on the streets of New York in a loose, freeform style, this lively comedy-drama feels somewhat underdeveloped, leaving us doubtful about its realism.
It's a great deal of fun, emotionally touching, and even surprisingly old-fashioned.
Some of the movie doesn't exactly convince, and some of the scenes have an actors-improv feel to them, but there's always plenty of humour and energy.
Endlessly entertaining, refreshingly light-hearted and bursting with summer soul, Gimme The Loot joins the pantheon of great New York movies.
It's a shaggy dog story with a certain amount of charm but not nearly enough drama.
The movie is unpolished, and it matters not a jot, because Leon has written super roles for these kids and invests their relationship with such sly feeling.
Hickson walks the line between bravado and vulnerability, while Washington has a charisma, spark and beauty that should ensure this won't be the last we see of her.
Bolstered by a low-key but assured aesthetic and a soundtrack of vintage soul and doo-wop, the film is infectiously enjoyable, with frequently amusing insights and an affable shagginess.
Out of nowhere, Adam Leon might just have delivered the first great New York film of the decade.
Charming and engaging low-budget indie with a witty script, likeable characters, a strong sense of time and place and a pair of terrific performances from its two young leads.
Funny and freewheeling, it's a joy.
A slim, low-budget coming-of-age tale whose richness lies entirely in its interstices. A keenly observed work that celebrates the unfettered joys of youth, and rewards by reminding of the power of a simple tale told well.
Simultaneously real and hopeful, "Loot" has almost no plot, but when the setting is so fresh and the characters feel so raw and alive, who needs one?
Ghetto laughs with a sophisticated point of view.
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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/gimme_the_loot_2012/
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