dropper esprit: 2013

Thursday, October 10, 2013

2013 Japanese Grand Prix build-up in pictures | F1 Pictures

F1 Pictures

Pictures from the build-up to the Japanese Grand Prix.

: Fernando Alonso, Kamui Kobayashi, Felipe Massa, Ferrari, Suzuka, 2013

: Fernando Alonso, Kamui Kobayashi, Felipe Massa, Ferrari, Suzuka, 2013

: Kamui Kobayashi, Ferrari, Suzuka, 2013

: Red Bull fan, Suzuka, 2013

: Red Bull fan, Suzuka, 2013

: Red Bull fan, Suzuka, 2013

: Suzuka, 2013

: Suzuka, 2013

: Suzuka, 2013

: Nico Rosberg fans, Mercedes, Suzuka, 2013

: Nico Rosberg fans, Mercedes, Suzuka, 2013

: Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, Suzuka, 2013

: Force India, Suzuka, 2013

: Force India, Suzuka, 2013

: Adrian Sutil, Force India, Suzuka, 2013

: Fernando Alonso fan, Ferrari, Suzuka, 2013

: Ferrari, Suzuka, 2013

: Ferrari, Suzuka, 2013

: Daniel Ricciardo, Jean-Eric Vergne, Toro Rosso, Suzuka, 2013

: Jean-Eric Vergne, Toro Rosso, Suzuka, 2013

: Daniel Ricciardo, Toro Rosso, Suzuka, 2013

: Kimi Raikkonen, Lotus, Suzuka, 2013

: Kimi Raikkonen, Romain Grosjean, Lotus, Suzuka, 2013

: Romain Grosjean, Lotus, Suzuka, 2013

: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Suzuka, 2013

: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Suzuka, 2013

: Mark Webber, Red Bull, Suzuka, 2013

: Max Chilton, Marussia, Suzuka, 2013

: Max Chilton, Marussia, Suzuka, 2013

: Jules Bianchi, Marussia, Suzuka, 2013

: Felipe Massa, Ferrari, Suzuka, 2013

: Ferrari, Suzuka, 2013

: Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, Suzuka, 2013

: Sebastian Vettel, Jenson Button, Suzuka, 2013

: Red Bull, Suzuka, 2013

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Sunday, July 14, 2013

'Glee' star Cory Monteith found dead in hotel in Canada

People we lost in 2013

Photos: People we lost in 2013

People we lost in 2013

Photos: People we lost in 2013

People we lost in 2013

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

NEW: Director says he talked with Monteith day of death, he sounded happy
The Glee actor missed his checkout time, staff found him dead
Police rule out foul play
Monteith, 31, spent time in rehab this year

(CNN) -- Cory Monteith, who played heart throb Finn Hudson in the Fox hit "Glee," was found dead in a Vancouver, Canada, hotel room Saturday, police said. He was 31.

Vancouver police said the cause of death was not immediately apparent, but they ruled out foul play.

Medical examiners will conduct an autopsy Monday.

Monteith's body was discovered by staff members at the Fairmont Pacific Rim Hotel after he missed his checkout time, acting Chief Constable Doug LePard told reporters.

Monteith apparently had several people over to his room at one point Friday night, but LePard said Monteith, who had checked in July 6, was seen on hotel surveillance video returning to his room in the early morning hours by himself.

The glue of Glee

Adam Shankman, who directed an episode for each of the past three seasons, told CNN's Poppy Harlow that he had talked to Monteith on Saturday morning. The actor said he wanted to come down to California to Jet Ski.

Shankman said Monteith was the glue of "Glee." He was always welcoming, whether it was to a guest director or a new cast member, Shankman said.

The actor knew all of his lines when filming began each time and would congratulate his fellow cast members when he thought they did well.

"He showed up every day and he was a delight," Shankman said.

'My heart is broken'

One of his castmates on "Glee," Mark Salling, tweeted a simple "no" after police held their news conference.

Celebrities react to Monteith's death

Dot-Marie Jones, who plays the football coach at the fictional William McKinley High tweeted: "I have no words! My heart is broken. Cory was not only a hell of a friend, he was one amazing man that I will hold close to my heart forever.

"I am blessed to have worked with him and love him so much! My heart is with his family and our whole Glee family! I love you all!"

Share your memories of Monteith

Offscreen, Monteith was dating co-star Lea Michele.

He was madly in love with her, Shankman said. "He felt like it had renewed his spirit."

Struggles with substance abuse

Monteith spent time in rehab this year, checking into a drug addiction treatment facility in late March.

He had been frank about his struggles with substance abuse, telling Parade magazine in 2011 that he began using drugs at 13, and by 19 went into rehab after his mother and friends intervened.

"I had several interactions with him yesterday where he said that he was doing amazing," Shankman said. "He even said I am feeling fantastic. I'm like everybody else, really devastated and confused by what happened."

Awards for show

Monteith had been on the musical comedy show since it began in 2009.

On the show, Monteith played the dim quarterback of the football team at the Ohio high school who is forced to join the glee club. After graduation, he comes back to town and helps direct a musical at the school.

In 2011, he won a Teen Choice Award for top actor in a comedy. The show's cast won a Screen Actors Guild Award for an ensemble in a comedy the previous year.

He was in three projects that are in post-production, according to the Internet Movie Database.

One of them was a movie entitled "All The Wrong Reasons," also starring Kevin Zegers.

"I've never lost a friend this close. This feels like a mistake," Zegers wrote.

Source: http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/cnn_mostpopular/~3/QmdqMTQI4os/index.html

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Texas abortion providers fear major shutdowns

Dr. Howard Novick discusses Texas abortion restrictions at his Houston office Tuesday, July 9, 2013. The new abortion restrictions passed by the Texas Legislature could force Novick to close the Houston abortion clinic he opened in 1980 because, he says, he does not have $1 million to $1.5 million to convert his run-of-the-mill medical office into a fully loaded surgical center with wide corridors and sophisticated air-flow systems. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)

Abortion rights advocates voice their opposition to HB2 from the area outside of the Senate Chamber in the State Capitol in Austin, Texas on Friday night, July 12, 2013. Republicans in the Texas Legislature passed an omnibus abortion bill that is one of the most restrictive in the nation, but Democrats vowed Saturday to fight in the courts and at the ballot box as they used the measure to rally their supporters. More than 2,000 demonstrators filled the Capitol building in Austin to voice their opposition to the bill, including six protesters who were dragged out of the Senate chamber by state troopers for trying to disrupt the debate. The Republican majority passed the bill unchanged just before midnight, with all but one Democrat voting against it. (AP Photo/Tamir Kalifa)

Texas State Troopers block the entrance to the State Capitol rotunda after abortion rights advocates filled it to capacity in Austin, Texas on Friday night, July 12, 2013. Republicans in the Texas Legislature passed an omnibus abortion bill that is one of the most restrictive in the nation, but Democrats vowed Saturday to fight in the courts and at the ballot box as they used the measure to rally their supporters. More than 2,000 demonstrators filled the Capitol building in Austin to voice their opposition to the bill, including six protesters who were dragged out of the Senate chamber by state troopers for trying to disrupt the debate. The Republican majority passed the bill unchanged just before midnight, with all but one Democrat voting against it. (AP Photo/Tamir Kalifa)

Abortion rights advocates protest HB2 from the area outside of the Senate Chamber as anti-abortion rights supporters pass them in the State Capitol in Austin, Texas on Friday night, July 12, 2013. Republicans in the Texas Legislature passed an omnibus abortion bill that is one of the most restrictive in the nation, but Democrats vowed Saturday to fight in the courts and at the ballot box as they used the measure to rally their supporters. More than 2,000 demonstrators filled the Capitol building in Austin to voice their opposition to the bill, including six protesters who were dragged out of the Senate chamber by state troopers for trying to disrupt the debate. The Republican majority passed the bill unchanged just before midnight, with all but one Democrat voting against it. (AP Photo/Tamir Kalifa)

HOUSTON (AP) ? Dr. Howard Novick winces as he recalls treating two and three women a week for infections and complications from botched abortions. It was the early 1970s, before the procedure was legalized, and the experience persuaded him to devote his life to this area of medicine.

Now, more than 40 years later, new abortion restrictions passed by the Texas Legislature could force Novick to close the Houston abortion clinic he opened in 1980 because, he says, he does not have $1 million to $1.5 million to convert his run-of-the-mill medical office into a fully loaded surgical center with wide corridors and sophisticated air-flow systems.

"I have saved some women's lives. They are so grateful we're here for them and nonjudgmental," Novick said. "I really feel a kinship for this."

The legislation, passed early Saturday following weeks of mass protests and a high-profile filibuster, allows abortions only in surgical centers, requires doctors who perform them to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals, dictates when abortion pills are taken and bans abortions after 20 weeks unless the woman's life is in imminent danger.

Abortion-rights advocates argue the costs associated with converting clinics into surgical centers are so high they will force more than 35 clinics to close, possibly leaving only a handful of facilities across the vast state. In rural areas such as the farthest reaches of West Texas or the Rio Grande Valley, that could put the closest facility 300 or more miles away.

The law could also create a backlog so great in the remaining clinics that women seeking abortions will miss the 20-week deadline, said Amy Hagstrom Miller, president and CEO of Whole Woman's Health, a company that runs five clinics in Texas.

Abortion opponents insist, however, that the new rules are designed to guarantee the best health care.

"All we're asking for is better surgical care for women seeking these procedures," said Christine Melchor, executive director of the Houston Coalition for Life.

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst posted on Twitter a link to a map of facilities that would be affected and implied that any shutdowns would be an added benefit. The timeline for closures isn't immediately clear; opponents have vowed to sue to block the regulations from going into effect.

Texas already has stringent abortion laws. Two years ago, the Legislature passed a rule requiring women to get a vaginal ultrasound and a full explanation from the treating physician 24 hours before an abortion. Opponents of that rule say it adds travel costs to the expense of the procedure, and in some cases means women also have to stay overnight.

For Melissa Bradshaw, all of it seems absurd. She spent the past year going through a bitter divorce and readjusting her children to a new life. An unplanned pregnancy was the last straw. So after heart-wrenching deliberation, she decided to terminate the pregnancy, calling Novick's AAA Concerned Women's Center in Houston just as Texas lawmakers held an angry debate over the new restrictions.

"Your mind is made up when you pick up the phone to call ... nobody feels good about it," Bradshaw said, noting the desperation women or teenage girls often feel.

The new requirements may not survive a court challenge. They conflict with the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that established a woman's right to get an abortion until her fetus could viably survive outside the womb at about 22 to 24 weeks of pregnancy.

Federal courts have already struck down parts of similar laws in other states.

Novick says the law is medically unnecessary. The Texas Medical Association, the Texas Hospital Association and the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology agree.

"It's been years and years since we had to send someone to a hospital," Novick said of his clinic.

For Houston, though, the bigger problem may be that its two remaining surgical centers will have to treat women from areas that will no longer have their own clinic.

Rochelle Tafolla, a spokeswoman for the Planned Parenthood Center for Choice in Houston, said between the travel, the 24-hour waiting period and the lack of available clinics, the 20-week deadline could create time constraints.

"I don't think it's unreasonable to think that it's going to have a significant impact on when women can get the care that they need," she said.

About 72,500 abortions are performed annually in Texas, according to the state Health Department. The busiest clinics do up to 4,000 a year. Now the remaining surgical centers will have to conduct about 14,400 each year.

Some, such as the four-bed facility Hagstrom Miller runs in San Antonio, cannot accommodate those numbers.

"With more restrictions, we see more abortions happening later in the pregnancy," she said, adding that since the 24-hour waiting period was implemented, more terminations occur in the second trimester, and now some may miss the 20-week timeline. "It happens already."

The situation will be most dire for women in remote areas, she said.

In McAllen in the Rio Grande Valley, Hagstrom Miller said she will likely close her clinic because architects have estimated it would cost $1.4 million to retrofit a 4,000-square-foot facility to meet all the requirements that come with transforming it into a surgical center. Since the clinic across is not large enough, she would have to move. To build a new facility would cost $3 million, she said.

Women treated under the soft-lighting in the purple rooms in the McAllen clinic already face significant challenges, said Andrea Ferrigno, Whole Woman's Health director of service excellence. They struggle to pay and to arrange for transportation, childcare and days off from work.

After the 24-hour waiting period was instituted, the facility saw a spike in women trying to end their own pregnancies by purchasing prescription drugs at Mexican pharmacies across the border, Ferrigno said.

"I'm pretty sure we're going to see a lot more of that," she said.

Another facility owned by Hagstrom Miller in the southeast town of Beaumont is the only clinic between New Orleans and Houston and serves a 350-mile radius. It will close because the patient load does not justify the cost of moving the facility, which cannot be renovated, she said.

In West Texas, two clinics in Lubbock and Midland serve a population of more than 656,000 people in a 300-mile-wide area. The Planned Parenthood Women's Health Center in Lubbock sees women who travel from New Mexico, Kansas and Oklahoma to the one-story building behind locked wrought-iron gates.

The clinic normally performs about 60 procedures a month. Most of the women are poor and a trip to San Antonio, Dallas or Houston ? each more than 350 miles away ? would be too expensive, Director Angela Martinez said.

The clinic estimates the cost to retrofit just one room would be as much as $500,000, more than it can afford.

"People are really discouraged," Martinez said.

___

Plushnick-Masti can be followed on Twitter at https://twitter.com/RamitMastiAP

___

Associated Press writers Betsy Blaney in Lubbock and Christopher Sherman in McAllen contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-07-13-US-Abortion-Restrictions-Clinics/id-dcfc7d648020405da90b6094ffe60243

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45 Of The Best Wedding Ring Tattoos Photo

As our wedding fast approaches, Swoon and I are figuring out what to do about rings. I really love the idea of doing a wedding ring tattoo. I like the idea of doing it in white ink, so you can see it but it wouldn't be black. There are so many options and I love seeing what other people have done when they have gotten their forever love's tattoo'ed on them.

What would you guys do? Which wedding tattoo do you like??

Source: http://keltiecolleen.buzznet.com/photos/45ofthebestweddingri/

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Sunday, June 30, 2013

Villaraigosa leaves L.A. mayor's office with a solid legacy

Villaraigosa leaves L.A. mayor's office with a solid legacy On his first day as mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa told Los Angeles that it was time to "start thinking big again."
New public transit spending could make Los Angeles' bus and rail network worthy of a great metropolis. A bigger police force could make neighborhoods safer. Renewable energy projects could turn Los Angeles into America's "greenest big city." Public school reforms could reverse decades of decline.
Eight... read more

Source: http://www.newsrt.us/news/villaraigosa-leaves-l-a-mayor-s-office-with-a-solid-legacy-1091440.html

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Friday, March 29, 2013

Memories of near death experiences: More real than reality?

Mar. 27, 2013 ? University of Li?ge researchers have demonstrated that the physiological mechanisms triggered during NDE lead to a more vivid perception not only of imagined events in the history of an individual but also of real events which have taken place in their lives! These surprising results - obtained using an original method which now requires further investigation - are published in PLOS ONE.

Seeing a bright light, going through a tunnel, having the feeling of ending up in another 'reality' or leaving one's own body are very well known features of the complex phenomena known as 'Near-Death Experiences ' (NDE), which people who are close to death can experience in particular. Products of the mind? Psychological defence mechanisms? Hallucinations? These phenomena have been widely documented in the media and have generated numerous beliefs and theories of every kind. From a scientific point of view, these experiences are all the more difficult to understand in that they come into being in chaotic conditions, which make studying them in real time almost impossible. The University of Li?ge's researchers have thus tried a different approach.

Working together, researchers at the Coma Science Group (Directed by Steven Laureys) and the University of Li?ge's Cognitive Psychology Research (Professor Serge Br?dart and Hedwige Dehon), have looked into the memories of NDE with the hypothesis that if the memories of NDE were pure products of the imagination, their phenomenological characteristics (e.g., sensorial, self referential, emotional, etc. details) should be closer to those of imagined memories. Conversely, if the NDE are experienced in a way similar to that of reality, their characteristics would be closer to the memories of real events.

The researchers compared the responses provided by three groups of patients, each of which had survived (in a different manner) a coma, and a group of healthy volunteers. They studied the memories of NDE and the memories of real events and imagined events with the help of a questionnaire which evaluated the phenomenological characteristics of the memories. The results were surprising. From the perspective being studied, not only were the NDEs not similar to the memories of imagined events, but the phenomenological characteristics inherent to the memories of real events (e.g. memories of sensorial details) are even more numerous in the memories of NDE than in the memories of real events.

The brain, in conditions conducive to such phenomena occurring, is prey to chaos. Physiological and pharmacological mechanisms are completely disturbed, exacerbated or, conversely, diminished. Certain studies have put forward a physiological explanation for certain components of NDE, such as Out-of-Body Experiences, which could be explained by dysfunctions of the temporo-parietal lobe. In this context the study published in PLOS ONE suggests that these same mechanisms could also could also 'create' a perception - which would thus be processed by the individual as coming from the exterior - of reality. In a kind of way their brain is lying to them, like in a hallucination. These events being particularly surprising and especially important from an emotional and personal perspective, the conditions are ripe for the memory of this event being extremely detailed, precise and durable.

Numerous studies have looked into the physiological mechanisms of NDE, the production of these phenomena by the brain, but, taken separately, these two theories are incapable of explaining these experiences in their entirety. The study published in PLOS ONE does not claim to offer a unique explanation for NDE, but it contributes to study pathways which take into account psychological phenomena as factors associated with, and not contradictory to, physiological phenomena.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Li?ge, via AlphaGalileo.

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Journal Reference:

Marie Thonnard, Vanessa Charland-Verville, Serge Br?dart, Hedwige Dehon, Didier Ledoux, Steven Laureys, Audrey Vanhaudenhuyse. Characteristics of Near-Death Experiences Memories as Compared to Real and Imagined Events Memories. PLoS ONE, 2013; 8 (3): e57620 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0057620

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/nU6TwYi_i1I/130327190359.htm

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Monday, March 4, 2013

Amazon.com enlists big-name stars for TV-style online shows

Alistair Barr , Reuters ? ? ? 11 hrs.

A new show called "Alpha House," whose pilot filmed in New York late last month, has many of the ingredients necessary for television success.

John Goodman, coming off notable roles in Oscar-winning movies "Argo" and "The Artist," is the star. Bill Murray did a cameo. Stephen Colbert shot a teaser for the next episode of the series, which is written by "Doonesbury" cartoonist Garry Trudeau.

This is not the project of a big movie studio or a television network, but rather of Amazon.com, the world's largest Internet retailer.

Amazon, along with Netflix, Google, Apple, Intel, Microsoft and others, aims to play a major role in the Internet-driven transformation of Hollywood. Like Netflix, it has decided that it must move beyond being a distributor of others' shows to producing top-drawer programming of its own.

"I'm always worried I'm going to be in a YouTube video," Goodman told Reuters during a break in filming at the cavernous Cine Magic Riverfront Studios in Brooklyn, New York. "But this is just the same as a TV set ? full production value, great director, good technical people."

"I'm very interested to see where this is going to go ? TV distribution over your computer," he added.

Hybrid approach
Amazon's approach mixes the tactics of traditional network TV with innovations from the online world. It does not sell a stand-alone video subscription service like Netflix ? instead, it bundles streaming video with its Amazon Prime membership program, in which shoppers pay an annual fee of $79 for two-day shipping on most of their purchases from Amazon.com.

Amazon hopes original shows will encourage more people to sign up for Amazon Prime. The online retailer says Prime members tend to buy more goods, but it does not give specifics.

Unlike Netflix, which turned a lot of heads when it plunked down an estimated $100 million to produce two seasons of the drama "House of Cards," Amazon is creating pilots for about a dozen shows.

Amazon has not disclosed how much money it is investing in original video production, but some media experts estimate it likely will cost more than $10 million to produce the pilots. It will pick the shows to develop into full seasons based on the feedback it receives about the pilots, which will be posted online.

"If Amazon has a breakout hit, Hollywood will take them very seriously quickly," said Dave Davis, founder of Arpeggio Partners, a boutique investment bank focused on entertainment. "With a hit, they will be able to attract subscribers to the only place they can get that show."

'Moving fast and big'
The "Alpha House" set at Riverfront Studios was bustling last week with more than 100 makeup artists, set builders, camera operators and other crew members. A mock-up of the Senate floor dominated the scene, along with a large green screen used to superimpose actors alongside footage of real politicians.

Trudeau said Amazon provided everything needed to get "Alpha House," about four senators living together in a rented house in Washington, done right.

"They're moving fast and big," he said. "They want to go out and make a lot of noise all at once."

Trudeau had been trying to make "Alpha House" into a TV show for several years.

"In the last year, all at once there were new, serious players in this business, like Amazon, Netflix and Hulu," he said. "The project would not have been possible a year ago."

Chasing Netflix
The streaming video business has moved remarkably quickly from reliance on licensing of old movies and TV shows to head-on competition with long-dominant broadcast networks, cable companies and movie studios.

Netflix broke new ground this year, making all episodes of the first season of "House of Cards" available only through its subscription video-streaming service. The political drama boasted A-list movie talent, including two-time Oscar winner Kevin Spacey. Netflix executives say it has been the most-watched show on the service in every country that it operates, and critics gave it solid reviews.

Only-on-Netflix series coming later this year include the revival of onetime Fox comedy "Arrested Development" and murder mystery "Hemlock Grove," directed by horror movie producer Eli Roth.

"Everybody wants to have originals so they can stand apart from their peers, as non-exclusive content becomes a commodity," said Tony Wible, media and entertainment analyst at Janney Montgomery Scott.

"Originals have been very successful for traditional TV networks, and I don't see why it won't be successful for these emerging networks, too," Wible said, citing AMC's success with shows such as "Mad Men," "Breaking Bad" and "The Walking Dead."

Comedies and kid shows
Roughly half the pilots Amazon is shooting are comedies and half are kids shows. They include "Browsers," a musical comedy starring Emmy and Tony winner Bebe Neuwirth, and "The Onion Presents: The News," based on the satirical news service.

Established TV and movie players seem unperturbed by Amazon's efforts, considering the company just another entrant, among many, in the quest for original content.

"We are not nervous. We are aware of the competition and we have reacted accordingly," Eric Kessler, president of HBO, said during a technology industry conference in February.

HBO, a unit of Time Warner, has thrived by producing high-quality TV shows of its own. It created HBO Go in February 2010, giving HBO subscribers access to its content from the Internet and mobile devices. This service has 6.5 million registered users now.

No guarantees
Producing original entertainment carries risks for Amazon; it's expensive, and there's no guarantee that hits will come. The company has spent millions of dollars developing feature-film scripts in recent years and has yet to green-light a movie.

"They want to walk before they run, and TV is a less-expensive way to begin," said Marty Weiss of Martini Shot Films. Weiss has a movie script, "The Alchemist Agenda," on Amazon's development slate. He rewrote the script about five months ago and has not heard back from Amazon Studios since handing the revised version in.

A network TV show costs $2 million to $4 million per hour to produce, depending on whether it is a cheap reality TV show or a more expensive scripted series like a drama, according to Janney's Wible. The first season of a new TV series can range from seven to 13 shows, so it would typically cost $7 million at the low end to $26 million at the high end, he said, stressing that these were very rough estimates.

The price tag varies depending on whether it is a reality show or scripted, the time it takes to film and whether the project is co-produced or not.

No cutting corners
Roy Price, director of Amazon Studios, would not say how much Amazon is spending on its pilots, which take about a week to film and run the standard 22 minutes. Price, who developed TV series at Walt Disney from 1995 to 2000, said the company is not cutting corners.

Amazon has a market value of $120 billion and generated more than $4 billion in cash from operations last year. It spent $4.6 billion on technology and content, including video content, in 2012. That is almost half the market value of Netflix.

"Our process is different from what various other parties are doing," said Price, when asked about Netflix's big bet on "House of Cards." "The pilot process works well for us. We would like some evidence that customers are eager to see a show before committing to a TV series."

Amazon has delved deeply into its gigantic customer database to find the common characteristics of popular TV shows: original, scripted series with strong characters and actors did better than reality TV or special-effects-heavy sci-fi series.

The main requirement was great scripts, so the small Amazon Studios team read more than 3,000 scripts from May 2012 to early 2013. The team included Price; Joe Lewis, a former 20th Century Fox production director who heads original programming at Amazon Studios; Sarah Babineau, a development executive, and about three dozen freelance story analysts.

How the pilots will be picked
This spring, when the pilots are scheduled to be completed, Amazon will post the shows online for free for anyone to watch. It will then collect data on which shows are viewed and shared online the most, and monitor reviews and other customer feedback to decide which projects to pursue further.

Amazon has the option of syndicating a series later if it is popular. There are no plans to create a stand-alone video streaming service or to run ads with the shows, Price said. "The goal is to create great content that will enhance the value and attractiveness of Prime."

Great content, in the end, will depend on simple, non-digital ingredients: quality scripts, high production values and talented stars.

Goodman was planning to jet off to Berlin to shoot another big-budget movie after the "Alpha House" filming ended. But he suggested that he would show up for more Amazon-backed shows if invited.

"They keep me stored in a warehouse and ship me out when they need me," Goodman jokes. "The shipping charges are substantial."

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/whats-amazon-e-tailer-enlists-seasoned-stars-tv-style-online-1C8659107

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Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Jerry Buss, Lakers' flamboyant owner, dies at 80

FILE - In this May 8, 2008 file photo, Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss smiles at the Playmate of the Year luncheon at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles. Buss, the Lakers' playboy owner who shepherded the NBA franchise to 10 championships, has died. He was 79. Bob Steiner, an assistant to Buss, confirmed Monday, Feb. 18, 2013 that Buss had died in Los Angeles. Further details were not available. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, File)

FILE - In this June 18, 1981 file photo, Jerry Buss holds a Los Angeles Lakers shirt in Los Angeles. Buss died Monday, Feb. 18, 2013. Buss, the Lakers' playboy owner who shepherded the NBA franchise to 10 championships, has died. He was 79. Bob Steiner, an assistant to Buss, confirmed Monday, Feb. 18, 2013 that Buss had died in Los Angeles. Further details were not available. (AP Photo/File)

FILE - In this June 15, 1987 file photo, Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss gets doused with champagne from members of his team as he holds the NBA Championship trophy after the Lakers defeated the Boston Celtics 106-93 to win the NBA Championship four games to two in Inglewood, Calif. Buss, the Lakers' playboy owner who shepherded the NBA franchise to 10 championships, has died. He was 79. Bob Steiner, an assistant to Buss, confirmed Monday, Feb. 18, 2013 that Buss had died in Los Angeles. Further details were not available. (AP Photo/Lennox Mclendon, File)

FILE - In this Aug. 13, 2010 file photo, Basketball Hall of Fame inductee, Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss, foreground, speaks as, from background left to right, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Pat Riley react during the enshrinement ceremony in Springfield, Mass. Buss, the Lakers' playboy owner who shepherded the NBA franchise to 10 championships, has died. He was 79. Bob Steiner, an assistant to Buss, confirmed Monday, Feb. 18, 2013 that Buss had died in Los Angeles. Further details were not available. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File)

FILE - In this June 18, 1980 file photo, Jerry Buss, center, poses with players from his teams at a charity event in Beverly Hills, Calif. From left are Los Angeles Lakers' Jamaal Wilkes, Los Angeles Kings' Charlie Simmer, Buss, Lakers' Magic Johnson and Kings' Marcel Dionne. Buss, the Lakers' playboy owner who shepherded the NBA franchise to 10 championships, has died. He was 79. Bob Steiner, an assistant to Buss, confirmed Monday, Feb. 18, 2013 that Buss had died in Los Angeles. Further details were not available. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon, File)

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Jerry Buss, the Los Angeles Lakers' playboy owner who shepherded the NBA team to 10 championships from the Showtime dynasty of the 1980s to the Kobe Bryant era, died Monday. He was 80.

He died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, said Bob Steiner, his assistant.

Buss had been hospitalized for most of the past 18 months while undergoing cancer treatment, but the immediate cause of death was kidney failure, Steiner said. With his condition worsening in recent weeks, several prominent former Lakers visited Buss to say goodbye.

"The NBA has lost a visionary owner whose influence on our league is incalculable and will be felt for decades to come," NBA Commissioner David Stern said. "More importantly, we have lost a dear and valued friend."

Under Buss' leadership since 1979, the Lakers became Southern California's most beloved sports franchise and a worldwide extension of Hollywood glamour. Buss acquired, nurtured and befriended a staggering array of talented players and basketball minds during his Hall of Fame tenure, from Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal and Dwight Howard.

"He was a great man and an incredible friend," Johnson tweeted.

Few owners in sports history can approach Buss' accomplishments with the Lakers, who made the NBA finals 16 times during his nearly 34 years in charge, winning 10 titles between 1980 and 2010. With 1,786 victories, the Lakers easily are the NBA's winningest franchise since he bought the club, which is now run largely by Jim Buss and Jeanie Buss, two of his six children.

"We not only have lost our cherished father, but a beloved man of our community and a person respected by the world basketball community," the Buss family said in a statement issued by the Lakers.

"It was our father's often-stated desire and expectation that the Lakers remain in the Buss family. The Lakers have been our lives as well, and we will honor his wish and do everything in our power to continue his unparalleled legacy."

Buss always referred to the Lakers as his extended family, and his players rewarded his fanlike excitement with devotion, friendship and two hands full of championship rings. Working with front-office executives Jerry West, Bill Sharman and Mitch Kupchak, Buss spent lavishly to win his titles despite lacking a huge personal fortune, often running the NBA's highest payroll while also paying high-profile coaches Pat Riley and Phil Jackson.

Always an innovative businessman, Buss paid for the Lakers through both their wild success and his own groundbreaking moves to raise revenue. He co-founded a basic-cable sports television network and sold the naming rights to the Forum at times when both now-standard strategies were unusual, further justifying his induction to the Pro Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010.

Buss was a "cornerstone of the Los Angeles sports community and his name will always be synonymous with his beloved Lakers," Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said. "It was through his stewardship that the Lakers brought 'Showtime' basketball and numerous championship rings to this great city. Today we mourn the loss and celebrate the life of a man who helped shape the modern landscape of sports in L.A."

Johnson and fellow Hall of Famers Abdul-Jabbar and Worthy formed lifelong bonds with Buss during the Lakers' run to five titles in nine years in the 1980s, when the Lakers earned a reputation as basketball's most exciting team with their flamboyant Showtime style.

The buzz extended throughout the Forum, where Buss used the Laker Girls, a brass band and promotions to keep Los Angeles fans interested in all four quarters of their games. Courtside seats, priced at $15 when he bought the Lakers, became the hottest tickets in Hollywood ? and they still are, with fixture Jack Nicholson and many other celebrities attending every home game.

Worthy tweeted that Buss was "not only the greatest sports owner, but a true friend & just a really cool guy. Loved him dearly."

After a rough stretch of the 1990s for the Lakers, Jackson led O'Neal and Bryant to a three-peat from 2000-02, rekindling the Lakers' mystique, before Bryant and Pau Gasol won two more titles under Jackson in 2009 and 2010. The Lakers have struggled mightily during their current season despite adding Howard and Steve Nash, and could miss the playoffs for just the third time since Buss bought the franchise.

"Today is a very sad day for all the Lakers and basketball," Gasol tweeted. "All my support and condolences to the Buss family. Rest in peace Dr. Buss."

Although Buss gained fame and fortune with the Lakers, he also was a scholar, Renaissance man and bon vivant who epitomized California cool his entire public life.

Buss rarely appeared in public without at least one attractive, much younger woman on his arm at USC football games, high-stakes poker tournaments, hundreds of boxing matches promoted by Buss at the Forum ? and, of course, Lakers games from his private box at Staples Center, which was built under his watch. In failing health recently, Buss hadn't attended a Lakers game this season.

Buss earned a Ph.D. in chemistry at age 24 and had careers in aerospace and real estate development before getting into sports. With money from his real-estate ventures and a good bit of creative accounting, Buss bought the then-struggling Lakers, the NHL's Los Angeles Kings and both clubs' arena ? the Forum ? from Jack Kent Cooke in a $67.5 million deal that was the largest sports transaction in history at the time.

Last month, Forbes estimated the Lakers were worth $1 billion, second most in the NBA.

Buss also helped change televised sports by co-founding the Prime Ticket network in 1985, receiving a star on Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2006 for his work in television. Breaking the contemporary model of subscription services for televised sports, Buss' Prime Ticket put beloved broadcaster Chick Hearn and the Lakers' home games on basic cable.

Buss also sold the naming rights to the Forum in 1988 to Great Western Savings & Loan ? another deal that was ahead of its time.

Born in Salt Lake City, Gerald Hatten Buss was raised in poverty in Wyoming before improving his life through education. He also grew to love basketball, describing himself as an "overly competitive but underly endowed player."

After graduating from the University of Wyoming, Buss attended USC for graduate school. He became a chemistry professor and worked as a chemist for the Bureau of Mines before carving out a path to wealth and sports prominence.

The former mathematician's fortune grew out of a $1,000 real-estate investment in a West Los Angeles apartment building with partner Frank Mariani, an aerospace engineer and co-worker.

Heavily leveraging his fortune and various real-estate holdings, Buss purchased Cooke's entire Los Angeles sports empire in 1979, including a 13,000-acre ranch in Kern County. Buss cited his love of basketball as the motivation for his purchase, and he immediately worked to transform the Lakers ? who had won just one NBA title since moving west from Minneapolis in 1960 ? into a star-powered endeavor befitting Hollywood.

"One of the first things I tried to do when I bought the team was to make it an identification for this city, like Motown in Detroit," he told the Los Angeles Times in 2008. "I try to keep that identification alive. I'm a real Angeleno. I want us to be part of the community."

Buss' plans immediately worked: Johnson, Abdul-Jabbar and coach Paul Westhead led the Lakers to the 1980 title. Johnson's ball-handling wizardry and Abdul-Jabbar's smooth inside game made for an attractive style of play evoking Hollywood flair and West Coast sophistication.

Riley, the former broadcaster who fit the L.A. image perfectly with his slick-backed hair and good looks, was surprisingly promoted by Buss early in the 1981-82 season after West declined to co-coach the team. Riley became one of the best coaches in NBA history, leading the Lakers to four straight NBA finals and four titles, with Worthy, Michael Cooper, Byron Scott and A.C. Green playing major roles.

Overall, the Lakers made the finals nine times in Buss' first 12 seasons while rekindling the NBA's best rivalry with the Boston Celtics, and Buss basked in the worldwide celebrity he received from his team's achievements. His womanizing and partying became Hollywood legend, with even his players struggling to keep up with Buss' lifestyle.

Johnson's HIV diagnosis and retirement in 1991 staggered Buss and the Lakers, the owner recalled in 2011. The Lakers struggled through much of the 1990s, going through seven coaches and making just one conference finals appearance in an eight-year stretch despite the 1996 arrivals of O'Neal, who signed with Los Angeles as a free agent, and Bryant, the 17-year-old high schooler acquired in a draft-week trade.

Shaq and Kobe didn't reach their potential until Buss persuaded Jackson, the Chicago Bulls' six-time NBA champion coach, to take over the Lakers in 1999. Los Angeles immediately won the next three NBA titles in brand-new Staples Center, AEG's state-of-the-art downtown arena built with the Lakers as the primary tenant.

After the Lakers traded O'Neal in 2004, they hovered in mediocrity again until acquiring Gasol in a heist of a trade with Memphis in early 2008. Los Angeles made the next three NBA finals, winning two more titles.

Through the Lakers' frequent successes and occasional struggles, Buss never stopped living his Hollywood dream. He was an avid poker player and a fixture on the Los Angeles club scene well into his 70s, when a late-night drunk-driving arrest in 2007 ? with a 23-year-old woman in the passenger seat of his Mercedes-Benz ? prompted him to cut down on his partying.

Buss owned the NHL's Kings from 1979-87, and the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks won two league titles under Buss' ownership. He also owned Los Angeles franchises in World Team Tennis and the Major Indoor Soccer League.

Buss' children all have worked for the Lakers organization in various capacities for several years. Jim Buss, the Lakers' executive vice president of player personnel and the second-oldest child, has taken over much of the club's primary decision-making responsibilities in the last few years, while daughter Jeanie runs the franchise's business side.

Jerry Buss still served two terms as president of the NBA's Board of Governors and was actively involved in the 2011 lockout negotiations, developing blood clots in his legs attributed to his extensive travel during that time.

Buss is survived by six children: sons Johnny, Jim, Joey and Jesse, and daughters Jeanie Buss and Janie Drexel. He had eight grandchildren.

Arrangements are pending for a funeral and memorial services.

___

Associated Press writer Andrew Dalton contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-02-18-Obit-Jerry%20Buss/id-39b2ff17a8d24cca8e16dcbfde9d19cd

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Tuesday, February 19, 2013

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Monday, February 11, 2013

Northeast commuters hit roads after digging out

Matt Church enjoys his breakfast at a coffee shop in downtown Haverhill, Mass., Monday, Feb. 11, 2013. Beleaguered Massachusetts residents returned to work on Monday for the first time since the weekend blizzard, crawling along narrow snow-covered secondary roads and being greeted by a new wintry mix of sleet and freezing rain. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

A man heads out to clear snow as it falls again, Monday, Feb. 11, 2013 in Concord, N.H. After digging out from two feet of snow over the weekend more snow arrived on Monday. (AP Photo/Jim Cole)

A Southwest Connecticut neighborhood is buried in snow Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013, in the aftermath of a storm that hit Connecticut and much of the New England states. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)

A row of school busses are buried in snow near Bridgeport, Conn., Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013, in the aftermath of a storm that hit Connecticut and much of the New England states. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)

Xiomary Cosme of Haverhill, Mass. waits for her bus at the MRTA station in Haverhill, Mass. Monday, Feb. 11, 2013. State officials urged commuters to take public transportation when possible. The MBTA's regularly scheduled service resumed Monday, but some trolley and commuter rail lines were experiencing delays due to signal problems and weather-related issues. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

NATICK, Mass. (AP) ? As electricity returns and highways reopen, some Northeast residents tried to get back to their weekday routines Monday following the massive snowstorm that had millions digging out from New York to Maine.

But the routine for other New Englanders was disrupted by school and workplace closings, and poor road conditions. For some there's also a new worry: the danger of roof collapses as rain and warmer weather melts snow.

The storm that slammed into the region with up to 3 feet of snow was blamed for at least 15 deaths in the Northeast and Canada, and brought some of the highest accumulations ever recorded. Still, coastal areas were largely spared catastrophic damage despite being lashed by strong waves and hurricane-force wind gusts at the height of the storm.

Most major highways were clear on Monday, though a 10-mile stretch of Interstate 91 from just north of Hartford to the Massachusetts line closed in both directions for more than an hour because of icy conditions. Many secondary roads still had a thick coating of snow, and high snow banks that blocked sight lines at intersections and near highway ramps, making turning and merging hazardous.

"It was definitely a struggle to get here," said Dana Osterling, 24, who lives in Leverett in western Massachusetts but commutes to Boston twice a week to attend Berklee College of Music.

"I live on a dirt road so the plows don't visit us very often," she said at a service plaza in Natick on the Massachusetts Turnpike. She and her six housemates shoveled for about three hours straight to free their cars Sunday.

Around the region, parking spots were filled with snow and many two lane roads were down to one.

Fernando Colon, 48, of South Windsor, Conn., was driving to work Monday morning in heavy sleet on a two-lane highway that was down to one lane because of high snow banks.

"This is awful," he said as he stopped to pump gas during his trek.

Snow banks were piled high on the unusually quiet streets of downtown Hartford, where the big insurance firms encouraged people to work from home Monday.

In Fairfield, Conn., Mary Elizabeth Anderson said she couldn't go to her job as a marketing director Monday because her street had not been plowed yet. She said the town told her streets that normally take about 10 minutes to plow were taking close to an hour.

"You have to be patient," Anderson said. "I'm sure they're doing the best they can. It's a huge undertaking."

The only path on the road was what a neighbor did with a snow blower, she said.

Hundreds of people, their homes without heat or electricity, were forced to take refuge in emergency shelters set up in schools or other places. But by early Monday, outages had dropped to about 130,000 ? more than 110,000 of them in Massachusetts.

Driving bans were lifted and flights resumed at major airports in the region that had closed during the storm. Public transit schedules were being restored.

Aurea Santiago of Shrewsbury drove into work at a Boston bank. The worst part was the side roads, she said.

"A couple of the lanes are pretty narrow," she said. "If you get in the wrong lane it's pretty dicey."

The Boston-area public transportation system, which shut down on Friday afternoon, resumed full service on Monday ? but told commuters to expect delays. The Metro-North Railroad resumed most train service on its New York and Connecticut routes while the Long Island Rail Road said commuters could expect a nearly normal schedule.

On New York's Long Island, Samantha Cuomo was stressed out as her 40-minute commute to work turned into two hours Monday.

She called the roads "an absolute mess."

Cuomo, of Bay Shore, is a manager at a group home and said the street near her work hadn't been plowed and trees were down.

"That's what people pay tax money for," she said.

Some public school systems canceled classes on Monday, including in Boston, Providence and on Long Island, while local governments in some areas told non-essential workers to take the day off.

Long Island was slammed with as much as 30 inches of snow, which shut down roads, including the Long Island Expressway, where many people had been stranded overnight during the worst of the storm. A 27-mile stretch of the road was closed Sunday but the roadway reopened Monday in time for the morning commute.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said more than a third of all the state's snow-removal equipment was sent to the area, including more than 400 plow trucks and more than 100 snowblowers, loaders and backhoes.

"The massive amount of snow left behind effectively shut down the entire region," Cuomo said.

Utility crews, some brought in from as far away as Georgia, Oklahoma and Quebec, raced to restore power. By early Monday, about 130,000 customers still had no electricity ? down from 650,000 in eight states at the height of the storm. In hardest-hit Massachusetts, officials said some of the outages might linger until Tuesday.

Boston recorded 24.9 inches of snow, making it the fifth-largest storm in the city since records were kept. The city was appealing to the state and private contractors for more front-end loaders and other heavy equipment to clear snow piles that were clogging residential streets.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick was visiting Monday with officials in some of the coastal towns hardest hit by the storm, including Scituate and Marshfield. He called the amount of debris and rocks tossed onto waterfront roads "extraordinary."

The National Weather Service was forecasting rain and warmer temperatures in the region on Monday ? which could begin melting some snow but also add considerable weight to snow already piled on roofs, posing the danger of collapse. Of greatest concern were flat or gently-sloped roofs and officials said people should try to clear them ? but only if they could do so safely.

"We don't recommend that people, unless they're young and experienced, go up on roofs," said Peter Judge, spokesman for the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency.

Officials also continued to warn of carbon monoxide dangers in the wake of the storm.

In Boston, two people died Saturday after being overcome by carbon monoxide while sitting in running cars, including a teenager who went into the family car to stay warm while his father shoveled snow. The boy's name was not made public. In a third incident, two children were hospitalized but expected to recover. A fire department spokesman said in each case, the tailpipes of the cars were clogged by snow.

In Webster, a 60-year-old off-duty member of the Worcester Fire Department also died Saturday after suffering a heart attack while clearing snow at his home.

In Maine, the Penobscot County Sheriff's office said it recovered the body of a 75-year-old man who died after the pickup he was driving struck a tree and plunged into the Penobscot River during the storm. Investigators said Gerald Crommett apparently became disoriented while driving in the blinding snow.

Christopher Mahood, 23, of Germantown, N.Y., died after his tractor went off his driveway while he was plowing snow Friday night and rolled down a 15-foot embankment.

Klepper reported from Newport, R.I., and Eltman reported from Patchogue, N.Y. Associated Press writers Stephen Singer in Manchester, Conn., Mike Melia in South Windsor, Conn., John Christoffersen in Fairfield, Conn., and David Sharp in Portland, Maine, contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-02-11-US-Northeast-Snow/id-083284811b27445b858a123c907858fe

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