In season three, MacLaine will play the mother of Lady Grantham. NBC?s Brian Williams reports.
>>> news from hollywood or closer to london that shirley mclane is joining the cast of "downton abbey." she will play the mother of lady grantham. maggie smith 's character is about to get, quote, a wonderful combatant.
Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/46196797/
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By Shirley Halperin, The Hollywood Reporter
Dan Steinberg / AP
"X Factor's" inaugural host Steve Jones won't be back for season 2, he tweeted on the afternoon of Jan. 30.?
"I wont be hosting next seasons XFactor which is a shame but I cant [sic] complain as I've had a great time. Good luck to everyone on the show," wrote the 34-year-old Wales native.?
More from THR: Susan Sarandon joins 'The Big C'
The U.S. version of the show was a challenging task for Jones, who struggled during live episodes which were emotionally charged and often spontaneous. He also drew criticism for his handling of sensitive exits by the likes of Lakoda Rayne and Rachel Crow.?
In December, the Hollywood Reporter asked Jones whether he would be returning, to which he responded,??Fingers crossed, I?d love to come back.? Normal protocol, said the six-foot-plus host, ?is the show finishes and they assess. If they want me back, great. If they don't, I'll do something else, it?s as simple as that.?
More from THR: Mindy Kaling comedy gets pilot order
Who would you like to see fill his shoes as the host? Tell us on our Facebook page!
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(Or, A Tale of Two Speeches)
Over at Teacher in a Strange Land, Nancy Flanagan asked, ""Who speaks for public education?"
I'd answer that a lot of people do (for better, and for worse) but we don't all get the same kind of microphone, or the same airtime.
After watching the State of the Union address Tuesday night, I found myself thinking about the differences between President Obama's statements on education and those of California Governor Jerry Brown.
In public statements over the past year, Governor Brown has said what many educators and parents nationwide have been saying for over a decade: that current state and federal education policy has emphasized high-stakes testing so much it has distorted and undermined the learning process. And in his address, he outlined a specific direction for policymakers: that the amount of standardized testing be reduced, that the data be returned to schools more quickly and that more qualitative measures of school performance be developed and used. He ended his education remarks with these words:
The house of education is divided by powerful forces and strong emotions. My role as governor is not to choose sides but to listen, to engage and to lead. I will do that. I embrace both reform and tradition -- not complacency. My hunch is that principals and teachers know the most, but I'll take good ideas from wherever they come.By contrast, in the State of the Union Tuesday night, President Obama made vague allusions to a few existing K-12 education policies. They include paying teachers to increase test scores ("merit" pay) and encouraging states to seek 'waivers' that exchange freedom from NCLB's impossible requirements for the adoption of the Administration's preferred policies, which are just as strict. Hidden in applause lines about rewarding the best teachers and granting flexibility are unproven policies that many researchers and public school stakeholders agree are hurting education.
But, some ask, why does this matter? Neither of these leaders have any direct say over what happens in classrooms. Speaking strictly literally, school systems are typically run by local district officials and school board members (or mayoral appointees... ) overseeing schools, principals and teachers. So why should we care what a president, or even a governor, says or does about schools?
Because aside from the influence and funding at their disposal, their policy advocacy shapes public perceptions of public education, and those perceptions shape our behavior. (They have bigger microphones, and better airtime.)
It pains me to say this, but it's the truth: Most people have no clue what goes on in their local government. Everyone knows who the president is; most people know who their governor is. But how many people can even name their representatives on their town council or school board without a Google search? Of them, how many know what their policy positions are, or how they've voted to spend their neighbors' property taxes? (Answer: Not a whole lot.)
As I talked to Denver voters during our local school board races last fall, it was clear that -- exceptionally involved community members excluded -- most voters were taking their cues on how to vote from what they'd heard about education in the national media. (This is why it's possible for the majority of people to approve of their local schools and teachers, but believe that public education as a whole is failing.)
So when a governor says he believes principals and teachers know the most about education, and asks for policies that reemphasize teaching and learning instead of testing, that matters. And when a president says he wants teachers to teach with creativity and passion, but uses the influence of the federal government to increase high-stakes testing, that matters too.
For starters, voters who consistently hear positive messages about how schools should be funded, and teachers trusted, are probably going to be more inclined to support policies that fund schools and empower teachers. And when under-informed voters hear misleading statements about "merit" and "flexibility," they're being set up to support policies, at all levels of government, that will hurt schools instead of helping them.
Moreover, when the most powerful and visible leaders promote a vision of schooling that works from the bottom up, they empower the local actors who do the work to do what they think is best. But when those leaders deceive the public, and position themselves as the grantors of "flexibility" and the arbiters of "merit," local stakeholders get stuck dealing with inappropriate (and just plain bad) policy, which can create some pretty toxic circumstances where the rubber meets the road.
Of course, we shouldn't (as one Tweeter accused) "blame the POTUS" entirely for bad things happening in our local schools, nor should we give a governor undue credit if and when his state's schools improve. But high-profile leaders wield a disproportionate amount of power over the circumstances under which public school stakeholders work. And we have every right to demand that they wield that power responsibly.
?
Follow Sabrina Stevens Shupe on Twitter: www.twitter.com/TeacherSabrina
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sabrina-stevens-shupe/why-the-edsotu-matters_b_1234236.html
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GIGLIO, Italy?? Divers searching for bodies on the Costa Concordia, the wrecked cruise ship that lies capsized off the Italian coast, suspended work on Sunday after heavy seas and strong winds caused the vessel to shift noticeably, authorities said.
Only on msnbc.com
Operations to begin pumping fuel off the ship had already been called off because of bad weather a day earlier, but the search for bodies had continued and a 17th body was recovered on Saturday.
The victim, a woman, was identified as a member of the crew, leaving one body so far unidentified and 15 people still missing after the disaster on January 13.
"There was greater movement caused by heavy seas, wind and low tide and as a precaution, operations have been suspended," a spokesman for the rescue authorities said.
He said that measuring instruments placed on board the 290 meter long ship showed some 3.5 centimeters of movement in six hours, compared with a normal movement of one or two millimeters.
The ship lies half-submerged just meters from shore on a rock shelf near the Tuscan island of Giglio where it ran aground and foundered more than two weeks ago.
Officials have said it is stable and faces little immediate risk of sliding from its resting place in some 20 meters of water into deeper waters. But even the slight movements posed a potential risk to divers exploring the ship's dark interior.
With cloudy and windy weather and choppy seas expected to worsen in coming days, salvage crews are not expected to be able to start pumping the more than 2,300 tonnes of diesel fuel from the ship until the middle of the week.
The operation, aimed at preventing an environmental disaster in the pristine waters of a marine nature reserve, is expected to take between three weeks and one month.
The 114,500-tonne Concordia struck a rock which gashed its hull and caused it to sink after it sailed to within 150 meters of the shore to perform a display maneuver known as a "salute."
Its captain, Francesco Schettino, has been placed under arrest and faces charges of multiple manslaughter and abandoning ship before the evacuation of more than 4,200 passengers and crew was complete.
An extended legal battle is now in prospect after lawyers in the United States and Italy launched class action and individual suits against the ship's owner Costa Cruises, a unit of Carnival Corp, the world's biggest cruise operator.
Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
? 2012 msnbc.com
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46180291/ns/world_news-europe/
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LeAnn Rimes’ Vanity Keeping Her From Getting Pregnant?
In Touch Weekly had a rather interesting article this week about LeAnn Rimes’ desire to have children, but that she’s afraid her husband won’t find [...]
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NEW YORK (AP) ? The price of natural gas dropped Thursday for the first time in a week after the government said U.S. supplies are still well above what's normal for this time of year.
A report from the Energy Information Administration on Thursday showed the U.S. had 3.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in storage ? a level that's 21.4 percent higher than the five-year average.
Natural gas futures fell 12 cents, or 4.5 percent, to end at $2.6050 per 1,000 cubic feet in New York.
The decline is good news for many Americans. Natural gas is used for heating in more than half of U.S. homes and many utilities also burn natural gas to generate electricity. So falling prices should eventually mean lower bills for many consumers.
The price of natural gas had rebounded by about 17 percent from a 10-year low over the past few days. That followed announcements by major energy companies that they would reduce gas production. Chesapeake Energy Corp. and ConocoPhillips said they would cut natural gas production by about 600 million cubic feet per day. And Consol Energy said Thursday that it will set aside plans to drill 23 wells in the gas-rich Marcellus Shale region in the eastern U.S.
But analysts don't think it's enough to significantly reduce the nation's huge supplies.
"There's an awful amount of gas," said Gene McGillian, a broker and analyst at Tradition Energy. "We need to see more and more producers make cuts."
U.S. natural gas supplies have grown over the past few years as companies use new techniques to tap vast deposits of petroleum-rich shale.
Barring any unseasonable swings in the weather, natural gas companies likely will trim production by another 2 billion cubic feet per day this year, independent energy analyst Stephen Smith said.
"They're just going to have to," Smith said. "Either because they won't want to sell it at the lower price, or because there will be no more room to store it."
Meanwhile, benchmark oil prices rose on Thursday after new reports on jobs and manufacturing pointed to a steadily improving U.S. economy that will need more oil.
The Commerce Department said orders for long-lasting, durable goods rose in December, and a private survey showed a range of economic indicators got stronger at the end of 2011.
The jobs market appears to be improving, even after a modest increase in unemployment claims last week.
Benchmark crude on Thursday rose 30 cents to finish at $99.70 per barrel in New York. Brent crude, which is used to price foreign oil imported by U.S. refineries, rose by 98 cents to end at $110.79 in London.
Meanwhile, retail gasoline stayed at a national average of $3.38 per gallon, according to AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service.
In other energy trading, heating oil rose 3 cents to finish at $3.05 per gallon and gasoline futures rose about a penny to end at $2.85 per gallon.
___
Follow Chris Kahn on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ChrisKahnAP
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There are plenty of off-the-shelf controllers out there, but what if you fancy something a little more... you? How about fully customized, with a good seasoning of affordability and style? Design student Alex S has built a framework to help you build just that. The units shown above are for DJ-based programs, but you can create interfaces for any software that takes HID or MIDI input, and as they're modular, create endless ultra-custom set-ups. Keen to dismantle any technical barriers, Alex created a step-by-step Instructable, but you'll still need to get your hands dirty with Arduino and some circuitry. The whole project is open source, and while it's a step up from Lego, until we can just print these things, it seems like a great option to us.
Continue reading Open source controller framework lets you add the finishing touch
Open source controller framework lets you add the finishing touch originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Jan 2012 18:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Marcus's novel has a meandering beginning but is a masterful examination of love and endurance.
Reviewed by Jeff VanderMeer for The Barnes & Noble Review
Skip to next paragraphIn Ben Marcus's chilly yet passionate new novel, The Flame Alphabet, the world ends not with a bang or a whimper but because of lingering collateral damage from daily speech -- communication as a killer. Marcus, author of Notable American Women and The Age of Wire and String, imagines a sudden universal plague, originating with Jewish children, in which the words of the young render adults sick and then dead. The ghastly symptoms include retching, speech fever, yellow skin, and bruising around the mouth. Victims eventually turn into "leaking sacks of mush."
A man named Sam relates the particulars of the affliction, stage by stage. He also chronicles the erosion of his relationship with his wife, Claire, and their twinned resentment and love of their teen daughter, Esther -- a defiant, sentimental hell-beast typical of the species -- whose words would be knives even without the arrival of a seemingly inexplicable epidemic. As Sam struggles to preserve his loved ones, the narrative continually turns in on itself to share in ever more poignant detail the paralysis of the family unit. The wider crisis is described just well enough to imbue the novel with the necessary semblance of reality, but no more than that.
The particulars of Sam's faith stand out in sharp relief against this backdrop of crisis, and the two seem linked by a second fabulist element in the book -- a network of secret huts through which Jewish couples receive "religious transmissions." The complex process by which Sam and Claire assemble the necessary equipment, attaching uncomfortably fleshy "listeners" to the orifice in the hut floor, would make William Burroughs smile in recognition.
The huts may serve as Marcus's bleak yet humorous comment on the eccentricity of religious ritual, but they also function as an important part of the plot. A man named Murphy believes the huts may hold the solution to the plague and has been "canvassing Jewish families?cornering, manipulating, extracting." After meeting Sam supposedly by accident, Murphy stalks his family and gives him The Proofs, an eccentric collection of documents documenting historical cases of deadly language. Murphy wants Sam to give up the secrets of the huts. This needling presence often sparks more reaction from Sam than his wife or daughter, because Murphy is an acceptable outlet on which to vent his anger, grief, and frustration.
Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/rniLZzRiKTQ/The-Flame-Alphabet
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INDIANAPOLIS ? Indiana is poised to become the first right-to-work state in more than a decade after the Republican-controlled House passed legislation on Wednesday banning unions from collecting mandatory fees from workers.
It is yet another blow to organized labor in the heavily unionized Midwest, which is home to many of the country's manufacturing jobs. Wisconsin last year stripped unions of collective bargaining rights.
The vote came after weeks of protest by minority Democrats who tried various tactics to stop the bill. They refused to show up to debate despite the threat of fines that totaled $1,000 per day and introduced dozens of amendments aimed at delaying a vote. But conceding their tactics could not last forever because they were outnumbered, they finally agreed to allow the vote to take place.
The House voted 54-44 Wednesday to make Indiana the nation's 23rd right-to-work state. The measure is expected to face little opposition in Indiana's Republican-controlled Senate and could reach Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels' desk shortly before the Feb. 5 Super Bowl in Indianapolis.
"This announces especially in the Rust Belt, that we are open for business here," Republican House Speaker Brian Bosma said of the right-to-work proposal that would ban unions from collecting mandatory representation fees from workers.
Republicans recently attempted similar anti-union measures in other Rust-Belt states like Wisconsin and Ohio where they have faced massive backlash. Ohio voters overturned Gov. John Kasich's labor measures last November and union activists delivered roughly 1 million petitions last week in an effort to recall Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.
Indiana would mark the first win in 10 years for national right-to-work advocates who have pushed unsuccessfully for the measure in other states following a Republican sweep of statehouses in 2010. But few right-work states boast Indiana's union clout, borne of a long manufacturing legacy.
Oklahoma, with its rural-based economy that produces comparatively fewer union jobs than Indiana, passed right-to-work legislation in 2001.
Hundreds of union protesters packed the halls of the Statehouse again Wednesday, chanting "Kill the Bill!" and cheering Democrats who had stalled the measure since the start of the year.
House Minority Leader Patrick Bauer said the legislative battle has been an "unusual fight" from the beginning, but Democrats waged a noble effort against majority Republicans determined to pass the bill.
"What did they fight for? They fought for less pay, less workplace safety and less health care. This is their only job plank: job creation for less pay with the so-called right to work for less bill."
Republicans foreshadowed their strong showing Monday when they shot down a series of Democratic amendments to the measure in strict party-line votes. Democrats boycotted again for an eighth day
Republicans handily outnumber Democrats in the House 60-40, but Democrats have just enough members to deny the Republicans the 67 votes needed to achieve a quorum and conduct any business. Bosma began fining boycotting Democrats $1,000 a day last week, but a Marion County judge has blocked the collection of those fines.
The measure now moves to the Indiana Senate which approved its own right-to-work measure earlier in the week. Gov. Mitch Daniels has campaigned extensively for the bill and said he would sign it into law.
___
Tom LoBianco can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/tomlobianco
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FRANKFURT (Reuters) ? SAP, the world's biggest maker of business software, aims to set a fresh profit record this year as it banks on robust corporate spending on technology.
Investors have worried that they may have overestimated the resilience of corporate tech spending in a deteriorating global economy, especially after SAP's big rival Oracle Corp reported weak quarterly results last month.
But there have been increasing signs that the outlook may not be as dim as some feared. IBM Corp, the world's largest technology services company, brimmed with confidence for 2012 as it posted strong results last week.
"We have significant momentum going into 2012," SAP said on Wednesday as it published its full financial results for 2011.
The German company expects operating profit will rise to 5.05-5.25 billion euros ($6.6-$6.8 billion) at constant currencies from a 40-year record level of 4.71 billion in 2011. The outlook compared with a consensus of 4.91 billion euros, according to Thomson Reuters StarMine.
SAP had already reported a better-than-expected rise in fourth-quarter sales and profit on January 13.
It attributed the strong performance to demand for its biggest software products and growing demand for its HANA offering, which allows companies to analyze business data quickly, and said it had won market share overall.
SUCCESS FACTORS BOOSTS TOP LINE
SAP said it expects its 2012 revenue from software and software-related services to increase by 10-12 percent in the full year, of which up to 2 percentage points will be contributed by recently acquired SuccessFactors.
Most analysts had said they expected SAP to aim for 6-10 percent revenue growth from software and software-related services this year.
SAP agreed to buy SuccessFactors for $3.4 billion last month to keep up with rivals in the race for cloud-computing business. Its 2012 earnings will be diluted by the purchase, which will have a positive impact from 2013 on.
"We are well positioned to exceed our 20 billion euro revenue target and reach a 35 percent operating margin in 2015," Chief Financial Officer Werner Brandt said.
The company, based in Walldorf near Heidelberg, built its business on large, integrated software systems sold to many of the world's biggest companies, such as Apple, GE, McDonald's and Pepsi.
SAP has about 176,000 customers and bills itself as the world's leading provider of software for managing supply chains and customer relations.
SAP, whose stock has gained about 10 percent over the past year, trades at about 14.5 times 12-month forward earnings, at a premium to Oracle's multiple of 11.4 and IBM at 12.7, according to ThomsonReuters StarMine data.
($1 = 0.7704 euro)
(Reporting by Maria Sheahan; Editing by Dan Lalor)
Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/software/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120125/tc_nm/us_sap
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? A U.S. aircraft carrier sailed through the Strait of Hormuz and into the Gulf without incident on Sunday, a day after Iran backed away from an earlier threat to take action if an American carrier returned to the strategic waterway.
The carrier USS Abraham Lincoln completed a "regular and routine" passage through the strait, a critical gateway for the region's oil exports, "as previously scheduled and without incident," said Lieutenant Rebecca Rebarich, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Fifth Fleet.
The Lincoln, accompanied by strike group of warships, was the first U.S. aircraft carrier to enter the Gulf since late December and was on a routine rotation to replace the outgoing USS John C. Stennis.
The departure of the Stennis prompted Iranian army chief Ataollah Salehi to threaten action if the carrier passed back into the Gulf.
"I recommend and emphasize to the American carrier not to return to the Persian Gulf. ... We are not in the habit of warning more than once," he said.
The threat led to a round of escalating rhetoric between the two sides that spooked oil markets and raised the specter of a military confrontation between Iran and the United States.
Iran threatened to close the strait, the world's most important oil shipping gateway, while the United States warned such a move would require a response by Washington, which routinely patrols international sea lanes to ensure they remain open.
Iran appeared to ease away from its earlier warnings on Saturday, with Revolutionary Guard Corps Deputy Commander Hossein Salami telling the official IRNA news agency that the return of U.S. warships to the Gulf was routine and not an increase in its permanent presence in the region.
"U.S. warships and military forces have been in the Persian Gulf and the Middle East region for many years and their decision in relation to the dispatch of a new warship is not a new issue and it should be interpreted as part of their permanent presence," Salami said.
Pentagon officials declined to comment directly on Salami's remarks, but reiterated that continued U.S. presence in the region reflected the seriousness with which Washington takes its security commitments to partner nations in the region and to ensuring free flow of international commerce.
The Lincoln's arrival in the Gulf was unrelated to Iran's statement on Saturday.
Tensions between Iran and the United States have been escalating in recent weeks as President Barack Obama prepares to implement new U.S. sanctions against Iran over its nuclear enrichment program, which Tehran says is for energy production but the West believes is aimed at producing atomic weapons.
The EU is preparing to intensify sanctions against Tehran with an embargo on Iran's oil exports and possibly freezing the assets of Iran's central bank. Obama is preparing new U.S. sanctions that target foreign financial institutions that do business with Iran's central bank.
Both sides tried to scale down the rhetoric last week. The White House emphasized the United States was still open to international talks on Iran's nuclear program, even as it denied Iranian assertions that discussions were under way about resuming a dialogue.
The White House would not confirm or deny Iranian reports that Obama had sent a letter to Iranian leaders, but spokesman Jay Carney said any communications with Tehran would have reinforced the statements Washington has made publicly.
The United States supports talks between Iran and the so-called P5 + 1, the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council - Russia, China, France, England and the United States - plus Germany.
Carney urged Iran to respond to the letter sent in October on behalf of the P5 +1 by European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.
"If the Iranians are serious about restarting talks, then they need to respond to that letter," Carney told a White House briefing. "That is the channel by which ... the restarting of those talks would take place."
(Reporting By David Alexander; Editing by Peter Cooney and Stacey Joyce)
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Continue reading Apple now the largest buyer of semiconductors according to Gartner
Apple now the largest buyer of semiconductors according to Gartner originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Jan 2012 10:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
PermalinkPCWorld | Gartner | Email this | CommentsSource: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/24/apple-now-the-largest-buyer-of-semiconductors-according-to-gartn/
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It held on as long as it could, but HDNet is following the path of INHD (which became Mojo before disappearing entirely) and Discovery HD Theater (now Velocity) by rebranding itself, and will see morph into AXS TV this summer. Of course, HDNet has always focused on "lifestyle programming" and from the looks of it the new channel (pronounced: access) will be very similar, at least for now. HDNet is bringing programming like HDNet Fights, Dan Rather Reports, its concerts and more to the joint venture, which will be combined with its partners AEG, CAA and Ryan Seacrest Media. If HDNet is currently on your programming lineup AXS TV will simply take its place when it launches, and Dish Network actually plans to increase the channel's distribution by adding it to the America's Top 120 package. If you're distressed over the future of Art Mann Presents, check out the press release after the break or a Q&A on the site for more information about what's happening to Mark Cuban's baby.Continue reading HDNet joins up with AEG, CAA and Ryan Seacrest to become AXS TV this summer
HDNet joins up with AEG, CAA and Ryan Seacrest to become AXS TV this summer originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 21 Jan 2012 11:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/HBGCWnhg2SA/
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BRUSSELS/ATHENS (Reuters) ? Euro zone finance ministers will decide on Monday what terms of a Greek debt restructuring they are ready to accept as part of a second bailout package for Athens after negotiators for private creditors said they could not improve their offer.
Resolving the issue of a Greek debt swap is key to putting Athens' debt on a sustainable path and avoiding a chaotic default that could threaten the whole currency bloc.
After several rounds of talks, Greece and its private creditors are converging on a deal in which private bondholders would take a real loss of 65 to 70 percent on their Greek bonds, officials close to the negotiations said.
But some details of the debt restructuring, which will involve swapping existing Greek bonds for new, longer-term bonds to bring Greek debt down to a more sustainable 120 percent of GDP in 2020 from 160 percent now, are unresolved.
"What I am confident of is that our offer, that was delivered to the prime minister, is the maximum offer consistent with a voluntary PSI deal," Institute of International Finance chief Charles Dallara, who is negotiating on behalf of banks and insurers holding Greek debt, told Antenna TV on Sunday.
"We are at a crossroads and I remain quite hopeful," said Dallara, who left Athens on Saturday without a deal in place.
"We will listen to the report on the negotiations, see how far they have gotten and have the ministers say what is acceptable and what is not in terms of outcome of the negotiations," one Eurogroup official said.
Once the guidance from the finance ministers, known as the Eurogroup, is clear, talks on the restructuring could be finalized later in the week.
Talks on the extent of Private Sector Involvement (PSI) in the Greek debt restructuring are a vital part of a second financing package for Athens that would keep it funded until 2014.
"We are working for a deal in time for the January 30 summit of EU leaders. The restructuring offer needs to be made in the course of February," the official said.
"Obviously there is a clear link between the PSI and the next programme and what we will be focusing on in the Eurogroup is making the next programme operational."
Without the second bailout from the euro zone and the International Monetary Fund, Greece will not be able to pay back 14.5 billion euros in maturing bonds in March, triggering a messy default that would hurt the whole euro zone economy.
There are doubts that even with a new bailout Greece's mountainous debt can be reduced to a still-painful 120 percent of GDP by 2020.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Sunday the crucial factor was that Athens should have a level of debt that was sustainable by then. "This goal must be achieved," he told German public broadcaster ARD.
STICKING POINT
Euro zone leaders agreed in October that the second bailout would total 130 billion euros, if private bondholders forgave half of what Greece owes them in nominal terms.
But Greek economic prospects have deteriorated since then, which means either euro zone governments or investors will have to contribute more than thought.
The main sticking point is coupon, or interest rate, the new Greek bonds would carry. Officials said the new bonds are likely to be 30 years in maturity and carry a progressively higher coupon, which would average out at around 4 percent.
"The euro zone ministers will examine the proposal and say whether we have a deal. If they say we don't, we're back to the negotiating table," a banking source close to the talks said.
Progress will be presented to euro zone ministers by Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos.
"We then expect a discussion about the coupon," a senior Greek banker close to the negotiations told Reuters.
"I believe that the private sector can accept a lower coupon than the 4 percent average, but the question then is: will the PSI still be on a voluntary basis?" he said.
The voluntary character of the debt restructuring is important to avoid triggering the pay-out of insurance against a Greek default.
While the sums of such insurance appear relatively small, euro zone officials said, such a "credit event" could trigger a chain reaction of events that would entail rapid and large scale contagion in euro zone debt markets, and is thus best avoided.
NEW RESCUE FUND
After dealing with Greece, euro zone ministers will choose a replacement for European Central Bank Board member Jose Manuel Gonzales Paramo, whose term ends in May.
The 17 ministers of the euro zone will then be joined by 10 ministers from the other European Union countries to finalise a treaty setting up the euro zone's permanent bailout fund - the 500 billion euro European Stability Mechanism (ESM). Its predecessor, the EFSF, is widely viewed as insufficient.
The ESM is another crucial element in the bloc's efforts to end the sovereign debt crisis that threatens to engulf Spain and Italy after claiming Greece, Ireland and Portugal.
The fund should boost market confidence in euro zone defences should Spain or Italy need emergency financing. Separately, the IMF has launched a proposal to boost its war chest by $600 billion.
IMF head Christine Lagarde is to discuss this during a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday. She will make a speech on Monday in which she is expected to urge euro zone leaders to act quickly while acknowledging it is not merely Europe's problem because "innocent bystanders" will also be hit by a worsening debt crisis.
The 27 EU finance ministers will also prepare the final draft of another treaty to sharply tighten fiscal discipline in the euro zone, called the fiscal compact, that is designed to ensure another sovereign debt crisis cannot happen in future.
EU leaders are to sign off on both treaties on January 30, allowing the ESM to become operational in July.
To prepare for the January 30 summit, Merkel will meet European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and European Council President Herman Van Rompuy on Monday evening.
(Additional reporting by Lefteris Papadimas and Ingrid Melander in Athens; Reporting By Jan Strupczewski, editing by Mike Peacock)
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Director tells MTV News at Sundance how he plans to keep his latest journey to Middle-earth consistent with the 'Rings' trilogy.
By Josh Wigler, with reporting by Josh Horowitz
Peter Jackson at the Sundance Film Festival on Friday
Photo: MTV News
PARK CITY, Utah — The first trailer for "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" made it quite clear that Middle-earth hasn't changed much in the years since Peter Jackson concluded his "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. That's not a complaint, mind you — fans have come to know and love Jackson's interpretation of the J. R. R. Tolkien fantasy epic with the same passion they have for the source material. When it comes to "The Hobbit," in other words, change is not necessarily welcome.
Speaking with MTV News at the Sundance Film Festival, Jackson explained that it was always his intention to keep "The Hobbit" tonally and visually consistent with the "Lord of the Rings" films.
"We wanted it to be a part of the five-film series," he explained. "Fortunately, Tolkien wrote a lot of extra material in the appendices of 'The Lord of the Rings,' where he himself kind of tied the two stories together, 20 or 30 years after the publication of 'The Hobbit.' So we've been able to use some of that material."
But even though Jackson's "Hobbit" isn't "as much of a children's story as the original book was," he's worked hard to make sure the films still "have some humor" to them. For example, Jackson promised that "some of the songs [from the novel] have made their way in there." Fans can get their first taste of those tunes in the "Hobbit" trailer, when the dwarves gather in Bilbo Baggins' humble abode to sing a somber song.
Finding that balance between staying true to the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy while allowing the "Hobbit" films to stand on their own has been an enjoyable challenge for Jackson, who is more than thrilled to once again be dabbling in dwarves and dragons.
"I'm enjoying the movie [as much as the fans], which is the thing that I'm really excited about," he said. "I love going to work every day. I love shooting it. In February, we start another 100 days of shooting, so by about July, we're done. We will have shot both movies by that stage."
"The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" storms into theaters December 14.
The 2012 Sundance Film Festival is officially under way, and the MTV Movies team is on the ground reporting on the hottest stars and the movies everyone will be talking about in the year to come. Keep it locked with MTV Movies for everything there is to know about Sundance.
Related Videos Related PhotosSource: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1677640/sundance-peter-jackson-hobbit-lord-rings.jhtml
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How many times have you been involved in a critique of an incident or training exercise and listened to participants complain about our number one issue in the fire service, communications?
Regardless of technological breakthroughs and the latest in digital communications, we still are plagued with communications issues. We have attempted to draw attention to this drawback in the acronym LCES:
Lookouts
Communications
Escape Routes
Safety Zones
While initially adopted in the wildland firefighting world, the acronym was quickly adopted by structural firefighters. While this is commendable, we still suffer with communications issues on all incidents, and our personnel, while well trained, still hit their heads against the communications wall.
There are various reasons, some simple, some more complex. Let us explore basic communications issues along with potential solutions.
Communications basics
Do you train your personnel to recognize communications blocks? Many fire academy classes utilize the old basic communications exercise where we whisper a message in one student's ear, and transfer to the next student and so on by whisper until we get to the last student and ask them to state what the message was.
You would be surprised by what comes out after going through 20 or 30 students. Is this an example of real world issues? Absolutely!
In the wildland fire world, we teach the 10 Standard Fire Orders and 18 Situations That Shout Watch Out.
?These form the basis for LCES, and offer valuable insight to activities not just on wildland incidents, but other emergencies as well. Two of my favorite Fire Orders are:
1. Maintain prompt communications with your forces, your supervisor, and adjoining forces.
2. Give clear instructions and ensure they are understood.
This demonstrates our clear understanding of how important communications is to emergency services personnel. In the 18 Situations That Shout Watch Out, we have more examples of the need for communication:
1. Uninformed on strategy, tactics, and hazards.
2. Instructions and assignments not clear.
3. No communication link with crewmembers/supervisors.
4. Cannot see main fire, not in contact with anyone who can.
Out of the 28 total Fire Orders and Watch Out Situations, six cover communications, hence the "C" in LCES.
Training
We train our personnel to don and doff SCBAs in the dark, tie knots behind their back, couple and uncouple hose blindfolded, and perform a myriad of what we consider essential tasks in the dark.
Yet do we truly prepare them to COMMUNICATE? I fear not, and this is what is going to pose one of the most significant threats to our staff.
When you mention communications, the first thoughts revolve around radios, cell phones, microwave links, narrowband compliance, and other technical aspects.
What about BASIC communications. I have met and worked with individuals that can be characterized as poor communicators at best in the non-emergency world. This can translate to disaster on the fireground.
You may be surprised to learn how few of your firefighters know emergency communications signals such as evacuation signals or rope tugs during a structural search.
We all have portable radios, right? Wrong! I am still submitting grant applications for departments that lack sufficient portable radios and there are other departments struggling to meet narrowband radio requirements.
Have you ever had a portable radio malfunction? Have a battery go dead? In the industrial fire world, we struggle with communications during refinery fires or pipeline release due to loud noises that block communications.
Your firefighters and responders need basic communications training, or you are doing them not only a disservice, but you are risking their lives.
Take a few minutes at each training session to practice a form of communication. Instructors are taught to read body language of students, so you should be able to see if your students are uncomfortable or do not understand. Practice "OATH" rope signals:
One tug = OK
Two tug = Advance
Three tug = Take Up Slack
Four tug = Help
Practice hand signals used by your department, and evacuation signals and be sure that everyone understands what they mean.
Talk about emergency procedures of what to do when a portable radio fails, and review department SOPs.
Read, memorize and understand the 10 & 18, and how they apply to all firefighters, and the relationship between them and LCES. After dinner, in lieu of watching TV, take 10 minutes to review communications and discuss how your crew will adapt and overcome.
Communications do not need to be a negative aspect of emergency services. Think of the sense of accomplishment at your next critique when you get to say, "Well, when everything else went badly, our communications was GREAT!"
Does your department have exercises that you use to improve communications? If so, share them so others can learn.
Until next time, stay safe!
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ADVANCE FOR USE MONDAY, JAN. 16, 2012 AND THEREAFTER - In this Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2012 photo, Manuel Araya, former driver and personal secretary of Chilean Nobel laureate poet Pablo Neruda, speaks during an interview in the port city of San Antonio, Chile. Neruda and his close friend, socialist President Salvador Allende, died almost simultaneously under suspicious circumstances in the chaos that followed the country's 1973 military coup. Now Chile's Communist Party is calling for the exhumation of the Nobel Prize-winning poet's body to see if he was poisoned, as many have long suspected, including his driver and personal secretary. (AP Photo/Roberto Candia)
ADVANCE FOR USE MONDAY, JAN. 16, 2012 AND THEREAFTER - In this Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2012 photo, Manuel Araya, former driver and personal secretary of Chilean Nobel laureate poet Pablo Neruda, speaks during an interview in the port city of San Antonio, Chile. Neruda and his close friend, socialist President Salvador Allende, died almost simultaneously under suspicious circumstances in the chaos that followed the country's 1973 military coup. Now Chile's Communist Party is calling for the exhumation of the Nobel Prize-winning poet's body to see if he was poisoned, as many have long suspected, including his driver and personal secretary. (AP Photo/Roberto Candia)
ADVANCE FOR USE MONDAY, JAN. 16, 2012 AND THEREAFTER - In this Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2012 photo, Manuel Araya, former driver and personal secretary of Chilean Nobel laureate poet Pablo Neruda, speaks during an interview in the port city of San Antonio, Chile. Neruda and his close friend, socialist President Salvador Allende, died almost simultaneously under suspicious circumstances in the chaos that followed the country's 1973 military coup. Now Chile's Communist Party is calling for the exhumation of the Nobel Prize-winning poet's body to see if he was poisoned, as many have long suspected, including his driver and personal secretary. (AP Photo/Roberto Candia)
ADVANCE FOR USE MONDAY, JAN. 16, 2012 AND THEREAFTER - In this Tuesday Jan. 3, 2012 photo, tourists visit the grave of Nobel laureate poet Pablo Neruda in Isla Negra, Chile. Neruda and his close friend, socialist President Salvador Allende, died almost simultaneously under suspicious circumstances in the chaos that followed the country's 1973 military coup. Now Chile's Communist Party is calling for the exhumation of the Nobel Prize-winning poet's body to see if he was poisoned, as many have long suspected, including his driver and personal secretary. (AP Photo/Roberto Candia)
ISLA NEGRA, Chile (AP) ? The suspicions have lingered for decades.
Pablo Neruda, Chile's Nobel Prize-winning poet, would have been a powerful voice in exile against the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet. But that all changed just 24 hours before Neruda was to flee the country in the chaos following the 1973 military coup.
He was 69 years old and suffering from prostate cancer when he died, exactly 12 days after the brutal coup that ended the life of his close friend, socialist President Salvador Allende.
The official version was that he died of natural causes brought on by the trauma of witnessing the coup and the lethal persecution of many of his friends. But doubts remained, even after Pinochet relinquished power in 1990 and Chile became one of Latin America's most stable democracies.
Chilean Communist Party lawyer Eduardo Contreras said he believes the poet was murdered, and he is supported by Manuel Araya, who was Neruda's driver, bodyguard and assistant in the year leading up to his death.
While Neruda's widow and his own foundation have rejected the theory, its resurgence nearly 40 years later reflects the suspicions haunting this nation of 17 million that the full story behind the coup and the dictatorship remains untold.
Araya has long contended that a doctor ? not Neruda's regular one ? gave him a fatal injection at the Santa Maria clinic or ordered somebody to do so. Talking to The Associated Press, Araya described the day of Neruda's death at the clinic, where the poet was being treated for his cancer, phlebitis and a hip problem. Araya had accompanied him as his bodyguard to protect him ahead of his departure from Chile. He himself wasn't there,and says the story was told to him by a nurse whose name he has forgotten.
"Coincidentally," Araya said in sarcastic manner, Dr. Sergio Draper "was passing by in the hallway when a nurse called to him and said that Neruda was in a lot of pain, and this doctor, very considerately, goes and gives him a Dipirona (analgesic), and the Dipirona... killed him."
Adding to the conspiracy theories, it was at the same Santa Maria clinic where another prominent Pinochet critic, former President Eduardo Frei, was allegedly poisoned while recovering from hernia surgery in 1982. A judge in Chile has accused four doctors and two of the dictator's agents in Frei's death. The case is ongoing, and Frei's body has been exhumed. One of the doctors questioned in the case, though not accused: Sergio Draper.
The AP was unable to reach the doctor for comment, after contacting the clinic where Neruda was treated and one of Chile's main medical schools.
However, in an interview published in the Argentine newspaper Clarin in September, Draper strongly denied the allegation. he said he was only following the instructions of Neruda's physician, Vargas Salazar, to help relieve the patient's pain by giving him what he remembers was the drug Dipirona.
"I ordered that he be given an injection prescribed by his physician," Draper said. "I was nothing more than a messenger. It's outrageous that we are constantly under suspicion."
Neruda and Allende symbolized a turbulent, confrontational era in Chilean history, and their deaths following the Sept. 11, 1973 coup have long been shrouded by suspicion. Authorities recently exhumed Allende's body and confirmed that the former president committed suicide rather than be captured as troops moved in on the presidential palace.
Pinochet's dictatorship lasted from 1973 to 1990, and left 3,095 opponents of the military regime dead or missing, according to recent government statistics. There were 37,000 political prisoners. Neruda's fame as a poet and dissident was posthumously heightened by "Il Postino," or "The Postman," a semi-fictional 1994 film about his exile that won several Oscar nominations. He is buried on the Isla Negra estate where he lived.
In December, Chile's Communist Party asked that Neruda's body also be exhumed for testing. The judge investigating his death has not ruled, but veteran forensic expert Dr. Luis Ravanal said it could be difficult to find traces of toxic substances that would confirm poisoning.
"It is one thing is to detect a substance, another to demonstrate that it is there in sufficient quantities to kill him," he told the AP. "It is difficult to determine if it is a lethal or therapeutic dosage."
But Contreras says an exhumation is needed. He said medical records and Araya's account proved to him that Neruda's cancer was under control at the time of his death.
"One thing is clear: Neruda didn't die of cancer," Contreras said.
Contreras said the death certificate issued at the clinic listed the cause of death as cachexia, or extreme malnutrition and weight loss that left him unable to carry out minimal activities. But at the moment of his death, Neruda weighed more than 220 pounds (100 kilograms), according to Araya and Mexico's ambassador to Chile at the time of the coup, Gonzalo Martinez Corbala.
Martinez told the AP from Mexico City that he found no change in Neruda between visits to him before and after the coup.
Martinez said that before hearing the driver's statements he had suspected nothing unnatural about Neruda's death. "Now I have doubts," he said.
The Pablo Neruda Foundation, which manages his estate, author rights and house/museum, rejects the claims of his driver.
"It doesn't seem reasonable to build a new version of the death of the poet based only on the opinions of his driver," the foundation said in a statement, contending that Araya does not present any credible evidence to support his claims.
"The Sept. 11, 1973 coup, the death of his friend, President Salvador Allende, and the persecution launched against others of his friends, caused his health to deteriorate to the point that ... he had to be transferred in an emergency from his Isla Negra home to the Santa Maria Clinic on September 19," where he died of natural causes, said the foundation in a statement.
Araya says he went at least eight times to Communist Party directors to tell his story, but they paid no attention.
Contreras explained. "We were in a dictatorship; we weren't at the time interested in information different from that given by Matilde," he said, referring to Neruda's widow, Matilde Urrutia, who supported the foundation's conclusion until her death.
Araya, refuses to speak to Chilean media, finally took his story to the respected Mexican investigative magazine Proceso, and the May 2011 article went viral.
That persuaded the party to pay attention.
"Everything indicates that it was a heart attack (that caused his death)," Contreras said. "What caused the attack? The injection... If you read the literature on Dipirona you are going to find that it is lethal when given in excess."
The Chilean newspaper El Mercurio, which backed the dictatorship at the time, reported in its Sept. 24, 1973, edition that Neruda had died in a way similar to what Araya described. It said that the poet died "of a heart attack ... a consequence of a shock. After receiving an injection of a sedative, his condition deteriorated" and he entered a pre-coma state and died.
Draper was one of several doctors called to testify in the possible killing of former President Frei. Frei was recovering from a hernia operation in the Santa Maria clinic when his health suddenly deteriorated and he died in January 1982. Six people have been accused of poisoning him, according to the judicial file.
Neruda's case since May has been in the hands of Judge Mario Carroza, who also investigated the death of Allende. Advised by a team of international forensic experts, he concluded that Allende had committed suicide.
He is also trying to determine how 725 opponents of the dictatorship died.
Associated Pressusc oregon breaking dawn part 2 breaking dawn part 2 big game jeremy london jeremy london butterball turkey fryer
