Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/166812329?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Monday, November 28, 2011
'Dark Knight Rises' Trailer Of My Nightmares
Clichés Warner Bros. needs to avoid in trailer, which premieres December 16, in this edition of <i>The Weekly Rising.</i>
By Kevin P. Sullivan
Christian Bale and Tom Hardy film "Dark Knight Rises"
Photo: Getty Images
A great trailer is a challenge to pull off. It needs to strike a delicate balance between not showing enough and giving everything away. A trailer establishes the tone and look of a film without getting too deep into the story to ruin the actual movie.
The pressure is now on for "The Dark Knight Rises" and its theatrical trailer, which will premiere in front of "Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows" on December 16. With so many looking forward to the conclusion of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, the first full-length trailer needs to make the appropriate impact. Unfortunately, a great trailer doesn't always get made. Studio execs can tinker with it into oblivion in the hopes of hitting all four quadrants.
Here's an outline for the "Dark Knight" trailer I don't want to see.
Vrooommmm, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick.
Fade into the Warner Bros. logo surrounded by falling building debris, just like the teaser trailer.
Vrooommmm, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick.
Fade into the Legendary Pictures logo surrounded by falling building debris, just like the teaser trailer.
Vrooommmm, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick.
Suddenly, an "Inception"-esque Bwooonnng! rings outs to remind everyone of how much we all liked that movie. That's always a good way to get people's attention. Every other vaguely sci-fi action movie since last summer has used it in their trailer. Why shouldn't we?
We pan over the Gotham cityscape. Pay no attention to the fact that it doesn't look like Chicago anymore. This is just a different part of the city, the Little Pittsburgh district. From that, we take a closer look at the city. It's seven years later and things aren't great. The homeless riddle the streets. Someone smashes a window with a brick. A street vendor feeds his kids the falafel he sells from his cart.
"Gotham!" yells the muffled voice of Tom Hardy, as the villainous Bane, in a voice-over, sounding kind of like an elderly British woman. "Take back your city!" While the voice speaks, we cut to a slightly older Commissioner Gordon staring at the broken Bat signal, then John Blake slamming some handcuffed punk against the hood of a car. Finally, there's a slow fade onto Bruce Wayne. He's staring at his Batsuit, stored behind a thick pane of glass in the fully restored Batcave.
Transition to soft piano music. Tell Hans to string together four or five chords. Play them each 10 seconds apart. This will let them know there's some really heavy stuff going on here. "Master Wayne?" Alfred calls from the top of the stairs. He's in his bathroom, and it's clearly late. Bruce turns to look at his loyal butler.
"Are you all right?" Alfred asks, with sadness in his face. We're back with Bruce. He turns to face the encased suit and studies it for a moment. "I'm fine."
Now tell Hans to start up that cool chanting he had all those nerds do online. The one they yelled into their parents' computer.
Deshy! Deshy!
Bah-Sah-Rah! Bah-Sah-Rah!
The citizens are gathering, and it's not for "The Taste of Gotham" — that's next week. They're revolting. There are riots in the streets. Things are on fire. People are jaywalking all over the place. It's chaos! Everyone in Gotham is heading in one direction, toward something that looks like courthouse steps.
Toward Bane! He's there in his new fur-lined coat from the Burlington Coat Factory. He watches as people approach him and the mercenaries flank him on each side. The picture of Harvey Dent is in his hand. The mercenaries drag forward a hostage. He looks like a businessman, clearly some government type. Let Nolan figure it out. Bane is going to kill him.
We're back in the Batcave. Bruce watches on a set of monitors everything that's taking place. When he sees the hostage, he bolts for his suit. Finally decked out as Batman, he heads for the Batpod, but someone is already there. It's Catwoman! She kicks the bike to life and takes off out of the cave. "Perfect," Batman says.
From there, just cut together a few seconds of each awesome set piece, and let the audience know about everything cool that's going to happen.
Bane and Batman fight. Batman leads the police against Bane and his army of ticked-off citizens. Hint at the origin of Bane. We finish at a party. Alfred brings Bruce over to a most delightful young lady he just met. He's hoping to get his master over the whole "Rachel blew up" thing. We approach a raven-haired beauty from behind.
"Master Bruce, I have to introduce you to the most delightful young lady. Miss, you were saying your name was?" She turns. "Selina Kyle."
Everyone's minds explode. That's how you make a trailer. If Warner Bros. wants to make the fans happy with the first theatrical trailer, they should focus on tone and not the story. We're fast-forwarding seven or eight years, so a lot has changed. There's more than enough to catch up on just within the city of Gotham to fill a trailer. What kind of shape is Bruce Wayne in? Has he been gone all these years? The detail about the chronological jump forward is just the right note to whet appetites and keep people hooked until July.
Be sure to check out all of our updates from over the weekend on our Splash Page.
What do you want to see in the trailer? Let me know on Twitter via @KPSull, and we'll discuss next week. Also, be sure to check out our new weekly discussion show, "Talk Nerdy to Me."
Check out everything we've got on "The Dark Knight Rises."
For breaking news and previews of the latest comic book movies — updated around the clock — visit SplashPage.MTV.com.
Related PhotosSource: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1674970/dark-knight-rises-trailer.jhtml
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ECB's Noyer: Italy not weak, euro breakup out of (Reuters)
TOKYO (Reuters) ? Italy's economy is fundamentally sound and should be able to win back market confidence if it shows fiscal discipline, European Central Bank member Christian Noyer said on Monday, ruling out a collapse of the euro zone because of the sovereign debt crisis.
Noyer, also Bank of France governor, said he could not comment on reports that Italy was talking to the International Monetary Fund about possible support if investors continue to push up its borrowing costs.
The euro, under selling pressure for weeks, rose on Monday on reports that debt-strapped Italy could turn to the IMF as a lack of consensus hampers Europe's response to its debt problems which threaten to undermine the global economy.
"Italy should not be considered a weak economy," Noyer told reporters in Tokyo.
"A breakup of the euro zone is out of the question. There is no plan B."
Though Italy's debt levels are relatively high, it runs a primary budget surplus and has a strong industrial base, Noyer said. A primary budget balance excludes debt servicing costs and income from bond sales.
One source with knowledge of the matter said contacts between the IMF and Italy had intensified in recent days as concern grows that German opposition to an expanded role for the ECB could leave Italy without a financial backstop.
The source said it was unclear what form of support the IMF might offer, such as a traditional standby arrangement or a precautionary credit line, if a market selloff on Monday forced immediate action.
Policymakers and economists have floated a few possible solutions for Europe's woes, which include common bonds for the euro zone, increased sovereign debt purchases by the ECB and increasing the size of a bailout fund for the region.
Opposition from Germany and other hardliners in the ECB to some of these proposals has fueled speculation that a crisis sparked by Greece's high public debt will spread through Europe largely unchecked.
Noyer said he opposed expanding the ECB's government debt purchases so as to preserve price stability and protect the value of the euro over the long term.
"I believe that virtue will eventually be rewarded," Noyer said earlier in a speech.
"In the next decade, markets and lenders will trust those currencies that, whatever the circumstances, are managed with one overriding priority: preserving price stability and the intrinsic value of the currency unit."
It is up to European governments to provide a lasting backstop for liquidity, Noyer added.
French banks do not face significant problems with funding, so there is no need for the government to re-enact emergency lending facilities used in 2008 at the height of the U.S. subprime loan crisis, he said.
He termed "unreasonable" recent gains in French government bond yields and declines in French bank shares, saying France's fiscal position is stronger than that of many other countries.
Yields are low now in countries whose central banks purchase government debt, but this could become unstable if the inflation environment changes, Noyer said.
A rise in sovereign yield spreads and a loss of confidence in Europe shows there are downside risks to price stability, he said.
Noyer said marking banks' sovereign debt holdings to market prices has unintentionally created more problems as banks felt they would be penalized in the future for holding such debt.
Involving private-sector investors in restructuring Greek debt also shows that sovereign debt is no longer risk free, he said.
(Reporting by Stanley White; Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Jonathan Thatcher)
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NASA launches super-size rover to Mars: 'Go, Go!'
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity rover lifts off from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Saturday, Nov. 26, 2011. The rocket will deliver a science laboratory to Mars to study potential habitable environments on the planet. (AP Photo/Terry Renna)
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity rover lifts off from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Saturday, Nov. 26, 2011. The rocket will deliver a science laboratory to Mars to study potential habitable environments on the planet. (AP Photo/Terry Renna)
A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket carrying NASA's Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) and Curiosity rover lifts off from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Saturday, Nov. 26, 2011. The rocket will deliver a science laboratory to Mars to study potential habitable environments on the planet. (AP Photo/Terry Renna)
Backdropped by the Atlantic Ocean, the 197-foot-tall United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket rolls toward the launch pad at Space Launch Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida Friday Nov. 25, 2011. Atop the rocket is NASA's Mars Science Laboratory rover nicknamed Curiosity enclosed in its payload fairing. Liftoff is planned during a launch window which extends from 10:02 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. EST on Saturday Nov. 26. Curiosity, has 10 science instruments designed to search for signs of life, including methane, and will help determine if the gas is from a biological or geological source. (AP Photo/NASA
In this 2011 artist's rendering provided by NASA/JPL-Caltech, the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover examines a rock on Mars with a set of tools at the end of its arm, which extends about 2 meters (7 feet). The mobile robot is designed to investigate Mars' past or present ability to sustain microbial life. (AP Photo/NASA/JPL-Caltech)
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) ? A rover of "monster truck" proportions zoomed toward Mars on an 8?-month, 354 million-mile journey Saturday, the biggest, best equipped robot ever sent to explore another planet.
NASA's six-wheeled, one-armed wonder, Curiosity, will reach Mars next summer and use its jackhammer drill, rock-zapping laser machine and other devices to search for evidence that Earth's next-door neighbor might once have been home to the teeniest forms of life.
More than 13,000 invited guests jammed the Kennedy Space Center on Saturday morning to witness NASA's first launch to Mars in four years, and the first flight of a Martian rover in eight years.
Mars fever gripped the crowd.
NASA astrobiologist Pan Conrad, whose carbon compound-seeking instrument is on the rover, wore a bright blue, short-sleeve blouse emblazoned with rockets, planets and the words, "Next stop Mars!" She jumped, cheered and snapped pictures as the Atlas V rocket blasted off. So did Los Alamos National Laboratory's Roger Wiens, a planetary scientist in charge of Curiosity's laser blaster, called ChemCam.
Surrounded by 50 U.S. and French members of his team, Wiens shouted "Go, Go, Go!" as the rocket soared into a cloudy sky. "It was beautiful," he later observed, just as NASA declared the launch a full success.
A few miles away at the space center's visitor complex, Lego teamed up with NASA for a toy spacecraft-building event for children this Thanksgiving holiday weekend. The irresistible lure: 800,000 Lego bricks.
The 1-ton Curiosity ? 10 feet long, 9 feet wide and 7 feet tall at its mast ? is a mobile, nuclear-powered laboratory holding 10 science instruments that will sample Martian soil and rocks, and with unprecedented skill, analyze them right on the spot.
It's as big as a car. But NASA's Mars exploration program director calls it "the monster truck of Mars."
"It's an enormous mission. It's equivalent of three missions, frankly, and quite an undertaking," said the ecstatic program director, Doug McCuistion. "Science fiction is now science fact. We're flying to Mars. We'll get it on the ground and see what we find."
The primary goal of the $2.5 billion mission is to see whether cold, dry, barren Mars might have been hospitable for microbial life once upon a time ? or might even still be conducive to life now. No actual life detectors are on board; rather, the instruments will hunt for organic compounds.
Curiosity's 7-foot arm has a jackhammer on the end to drill into the Martian red rock, and the 7-foot mast on the rover is topped with high-definition and laser cameras.
With Mars the ultimate goal for astronauts, NASA will use Curiosity to measure radiation at the red planet. The rover also has a weather station on board that will provide temperature, wind and humidity readings; a computer software app with daily weather updates is planned.
No previous Martian rover has been so sophisticated.
The world has launched more than three dozen missions to the ever-alluring Mars, which is more like Earth than the other solar-system planets. Yet fewer than half those quests have succeeded.
Just two weeks ago, a Russian spacecraft ended up stuck in orbit around Earth, rather than en route to the Martian moon Phobos.
"Mars really is the Bermuda Triangle of the solar system," said NASA's Colleen Hartman, assistant associate administrator for science. "It's the death planet, and the United States of America is the only nation in the world that has ever landed and driven robotic explorers on the surface of Mars, and now we're set to do it again."
Curiosity's arrival next August will be particularly hair-raising.
In a spacecraft first, the rover will be lowered onto the Martian surface via a jet pack and tether system similar to the sky cranes used to lower heavy equipment into remote areas on Earth.
Curiosity is too heavy to use air bags like its much smaller predecessors, Spirit and Opportunity, did in 2004. Besides, this new way should provide for a more accurate landing.
Astronauts will need to make similarly precise landings on Mars one day.
Curiosity will spend a minimum of two years roaming around Gale Crater, chosen from among more than 50 potential landing sites because it's so rich in minerals. Scientists said if there is any place on Mars that might have been ripe for life, it may well be there.
The rover should go farther and work harder than any previous Mars explorer because of its power source: 10.6 pounds of radioactive plutonium. The nuclear generator was encased in several protective layers in case of a launch accident.
NASA expects to put at least 12 miles on the odometer, once the rover sets down on the Martian surface.
McCuistion anticipates being blown away by the never-before-seen vistas. "Those first images are going to just be stunning, I believe. It will be like sitting in the bottom of the Grand Canyon," he said at a post-launch news conference.
This is the third astronomical mission to be launched from Cape Canaveral by NASA since the retirement of the venerable space shuttle fleet this summer. The Juno probe is en route to Jupiter, and twin spacecraft named Grail will arrive at Earth's moon on New Year's Eve and Day.
Unlike Juno and Grail, Curiosity suffered development programs and came in two years late and nearly $1 billion over budget. Scientists involved in the project noted Saturday that the money is being spent on Earth, not Mars, and the mission is costing every American about the price of a movie.
"I'll leave you to judge for yourself whether or not that's a movie you'd like to see," said California Institute of Technology's John Grotzinger, the project scientist. "I know that's one I would."
___
Online:
NASA: http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/
Lego: http://legospace.com/
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Sunday, November 27, 2011
In 2012 race, GOP candidates rely less on fill-ins (AP)
MANCHESTER, N.H. ? At Mitt Romney's New Hampshire headquarters, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie played a time-worn shtick for the cameras, picking up a telephone alongside volunteers who were dialing undecided voters on behalf of the candidate they support.
Christie actually called Romney and the two chatted about an upcoming debate.
"Be yourself," Christie advised, as he accomplished what he needed to while a dozen reporters watched: He generated positive media attention for a candidate who was elsewhere at the time.
When they can't be in New Hampshire, Iowa and other early voting states, presidential hopefuls traditionally have sent others in their stead.
But this campaign season, surrogates such as Christie have been scarce, in large part because the field of candidates was so slow to develop. Christie, for example, thought of jumping in until October.
"In the past, you would have had full campaign staffs for all the candidates six to eight months out at least, and some campaigns here are still just starting to put boots on the ground," said South Carolina political consultant Luke Byars.
He said aside from the candidates' wives and adult children, no stand-ins have spoken in his state, though he expects activity will pick up.
"I still think that's going to happen, it's just a question of time," he said. "It takes resources and staff to make that happen."
In Iowa, Rick Perry's wife, Anita, has campaigned and one of Romney's sons Josh, filled in for his father this month at the Iowa Republican Party's Ronald Reagan dinner in Des Moines. But that's nothing compared with 2008, when Romney's five sons traveled the country in a Winnebago that became known as the "Five Brothers Bus," while Josh Romney drove through all 99 Iowa counties.
New Hampshire has seen a bit more activity beyond politicians' family members. In addition to Christie making pitches for Romney, former Homeland Security Secretary and Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge has campaigned for Jon Huntsman. But otherwise traffic has been light.
Tom Rath, a veteran New Hampshire political operative who has advised Romney's presidential campaigns in 2008 and this year, said surrogates are of limited use in states where voters are accustomed to close encounters with the candidates.
"Frankly, New Hampshire doesn't take kindly to surrogates. We like the candidate. We're spoiled. We see the candidate a lot. We expect to see the candidate. So you have to be very careful," he said. "You can't do them a lot here."
He does consider Christie the ideal type of surrogate, someone who can bring independent validation of a candidate's message and explain clearly how he came to his endorsement.
That's exactly what Christie did recently when he attended an evening house party for more than 100 people in Nashua. He emphasized what he said were Romney's strengths, criticized Obama and described why he decided to back Romney. He threw in the requisite local references, praising former Gov. John H. Sununu and Sen. Kelly Ayotte, though he mispronounced the latter's last name (AY'-aht).
He finished with a blunt line that drew laughter.
"If there are any of you here tonight who are not yet committed, you better be committed by the time I come back the next time," he said. "I've been real nice to you tonight, and I will not be the next time if you are still on the fence."
In the audience, Paul Laflamme of Nashua said he remained undecided but enjoyed hearing from Christie.
"I wouldn't make a decision. I wouldn't commit, without meeting the candidate themselves," he said. "However, Gov. Christie is incredibly smart, someone whose opinion I would respect and take into consideration. And hearing what his thought process was very helpful."
Laflamme said he's looking to be inspired by a candidate. Romney is his second choice, but he doesn't have a first one yet.
"Gov. Christie definitely made sense. He talked about not necessarily agreeing with somebody 100 percent of the time but finding the person who's the right person to be president at this time, and that very well could be Gov. Romney," he said.
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Saturday, November 26, 2011
The 'increasingly intolerable' glut of GOP debates: 4 consequences (The Week)
New York ? Republicans have already squared off nearly a dozen times ? and they're only halfway through the debate season
With the Republican presidential candidates constantly slugging it out in a seemingly endless stream of televised showdowns, it seems likely that 2011 will be remembered as the "year of the debate," says Michael Calderone at The Huffington Post. The 11th major debate of the campaign season was held on Tuesday, Nov. 22, and there are nearly a dozen more GOP primary debates still to come. Plenty of people are watching, and the candidate forums appear to be having a major impact on the race. How? Here, four consequences of the "increasingly intolerable" glut of debates:
1. Gaffes are blown way out of proportion
The media has been "lapping up every big 'viral' moment, making the most of the gaffes and stumbles and eternally questing for the next meltdown," says Jason Linkins at The Huffington Post. As a result, the slip-ups are overshadowing the substance of many of the debates, making them matter more than they should. "The early debates helped introduce the candidates to the Republican primary electorate," says Byron York in the Washington Examiner, and the later ones will help undecided voters make up their minds. But many in the middle served little purpose ? other than to provide another "occasion for a major gaffe or gotcha."
SEE MORE: The GOP's 'elimination round' debate: 4 key questions
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2. Serious candidates are taken less seriously
"We are essentially witnessing Republican presidential politics morph into a kind of right-wing reality TV series," says Ryan Lizza at The New Yorker. This popular elimination format has been good news for "'politainment' conservatives like Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, and Newt Gingrich, and not so great for successful governors like Tim Pawlenty, Jon Huntsman, and Rick Perry." Some veteran Republicans worry this is the wrong image to project when picking a candidate for the job of leading the free world, says Michael D. Shear in The New York Times. The cumulative effect of all the embarrassing moments, they fear, may be the weakening of "the party brand, especially in foreign policy and national security, where Republicans have typically dominated Democrats."?
3."Retail" campaigning isn't what it used to be
"Once, it was the vaunted campaign machine, or the bulging bank accounts, or the number of key endorsements that defined who was up and who was down," says Ken Rudin at NPR. But this year, those elements of "retail" campaigning aren't all that critical. It really just seems to be the debates that matter. "Never before in a campaign cycle has the story line ? the rise and fall of frontrunners, the fluctuations in the polls ? been almost exclusively about what comes out of the debates."
SEE MORE: The 'disgraceful' CBS debate: Did the network mess up?
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4. Candidates are getting tired
This isn't easy for the Republicans, says Rupert Cornwell in Britain's Independent. Sure, they "get free exposure" from the nationally televised debates, but in each forum, they have to keep tacking to the right to win over conservative primary voters. As the debate season drags on, every appearance means another occasion to let something slip that will be "fodder for the Obama campaign" in the general election, when the challenge will be wooing moderates and independents. No wonder "some candidates have suggested they might skip a few, if only to conserve their energy."
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Sony VAIO VPC-F237FX/B
Do you want to quibble? OK, let's quibble: Considering its $1,399 street price, it would be nice if the Sony VAIO VPC-F237FX/B laptop came with 8GB instead of 6GB of RAM. Also, its Nvidia graphics adapter is a midrange model, not the high-end component that would permit blazing gameplay at full-screen resolution. Otherwise, we're having trouble finding serious fault with the 16.4-inch Sony, which straddles the desktop replacement and media center laptop categories with style and speed.
The VPC-F237FX/B is the 2D cousin of the 3D Sony VAIO VPC-F215FX/BI ($1,799, 4 stars). While both systems' screens have the same full 1080p (1,920-by-1,080) resolution, the Sony VPC-F215FX/BI's 3D display measures a slightly smaller 16 inches, as well as coming with a pair of active-shutter glasses not included with the 2D model. (Both come with Nvidia's 3D Vision video and photo viewers, which may confuse some 2D buyers.)
Design
In an age of aluminum laptops like the Dell XPS 15z ($999, 4 stars) and Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch (late 2011) ($1,799, 4 stars), the VPC-F237FX/B is unabashedly plastic; the screen flexes when pressed in the middle or grasped by the corners, but doesn't feel flimsy or show LCD artifacts when you press or knock the lid. Finished in somewhat fingerprint-prone basic black, the system measures 10.7 by 15.7 by 1.7 inches (HWD) and weighs 6.6 pounds. It has a handsome angular design, with a jutting front edge or lower lip when the case is closed.
The keyboard has a bright backlight, with a distracting halo of light around each key. The island-style keys offer a soft, comfortable typing feel and dedicated numeric keypad, with half-sized Home, End, Page Up, and Page Down keys above the latter. Comfortable is also a good word for the subtly textured touchpad; I prefer separate left and right buttons, but the unified button bar clicks softly and unobtrusively.
One exceptional thing about the VPC-F237X/B is its display. The 16.4-inch LCD is sunny and bright, with colors that pop and text that's clear?since the 1080p resolution is so fine, Sony's out-of-the-box setting is to show Windows text and icons at 125 percent size to make them easier to read, but my bifocal'd eyes had no trouble with the smaller type at 100 percent. Blu-ray movies looked terrific?and sounded great, too, thanks to what Sony calls S-Force Front Surround 3D, as well as Dolby Home Theater audio technology.
Features
The VPC-F237FX/B has a plethora of ports, including two USB 3.0 and one USB 2.0; HDMI and an oddly protruding VGA port; headphone and microphone jacks; Gigabit Ethernet; 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi; and Bluetooth. At the front edge are a memory-card slot (SD/Memory Stick Pro) and a FireWire 400 (what Sony calls i.Link) port for digital video buffs, though external storage addicts will look in vain for an eSATA port. An HD (default 1,280-by-720 resolution, max 1,280-by-1,024) webcam boasts special technology for low-light performance, though its video still looked grainy to me.
The 7,200-rpm Toshiba hard drive offers a generous 640GB of storage. The Pioneer BD-RW drive can burn BD-R and BD-RE discs as well as playing Blu-ray titles and reading and writing CDs and DVDs. A warm breeze comes from a cooling vent on the left side.
Along with a scanty 30-day trial of Norton Internet Security, Sony bundles a variety of house-brand software utilities such as VAIO Gate, a Mac Dock-like program launcher that floats at the top of the screen, and Remote Keyboard, which lets users make a wireless connection to a PlayStation3 console or Bravia HDTV to input text from the laptop's keyboard (not tested here). The plums of the software assortment for multimedia fans are the Vegas Movie Studio video editing and Acid and Sound Forge music and audio editing programs, which are less friendly than Apple's iMovie and GarageBand but provide plenty of flexibility and special effects.
Performance
We can grouse about 6GB rather than 8GB of RAM, but let's give credit where credit is due: The VPC-F237FX/B has Intel's "Sandy Bridge" Core i7-2670QM, a quad-core, eight-thread processor that runs at 2.2GHz with Turbo Mode up to 3.1GHz. With the help of the Nvidia GeForce GT 540M graphics adapter with a full 1GB of memory allows the system to go through complex applications and multimedia operations like Cookie Monster with a bag of Milanos.
In benchmark test after benchmark test, the VPC-F237FX/B outran even its recently tested relation the Sony VPC-F215FX/BI (the latter perhaps slowed slightly by its 3D overhead). The VPC-F237FX/B ran roughshod over our Photoshop CS5 image processing test in 3 minutes 46 seconds and our Handbrake video encoding test in 1:32. The Photoshop time edged even that of the speedy Acer Aspire AS8950G-9839 (3:52), as did the Sony's score of 5.34 points in our Cinebench 11.5 rendering test (the Acer AS8950G-9839 scored 4.96).
The VPC-F237FX/B also impressed in our gaming tests at 1,024 by 768 resolution with medium detail settings. It scored 58.6 frames per second (fps) in Crysis and 40.7 fps in Lost Planet 2. Cranked up to its full 1,920 by 1,080 glory with top image-quality options enabled, however, the VPC-F237FX/B began to huff and puff, dropping to an unplayable 6.9 and 13.2 fps, respectively. It did break the 10,000 barrier in 3DMark06 (10,169 at XGA resolution).
Performance-wise, the VPC-F237FX/B more or less battled to a tie with our brand-new Editors' Choice for media center laptops, the HP Pavilion dv7-6163cl ($949.99, 4 stars), which uses the same Core i7-2670QM processor. The HP was fractionally faster in Handbrake and Photoshop, but the VPC-F237FX/B won in PCMark 7 (2,556 to 2,438). The VPC-F237FX/B 's relatively small 54Wh battery, however, conked out after 4 hours 9 minutes in MobileMark 2007, while the HP dv7-6163cl 's 100Wh battery lasted for 8:24.
The HP Pavilion dv7-6163cl retains our Editors' Choice because it's such an impressive value at under $1,000?though, to be sure, it lacks two key features, a Blu-ray drive and a true 1080p display, that make the Sony VAIO VPC-F237FX/B a temptation even at $450 more. Not only will Blu-ray movie watchers gravitate toward the VPC-F237FX/B; so will shoppers seeking much of the elegance of an Apple MacBook Pro in a Windows 7 laptop, albeit a plastic- instead of aluminum-cased one.
BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS:
COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the Sony VAIO VPC-F237FX/B with several other laptops side by side.
More laptop reviews:
??? Asus Zenbook UX31-RSL8
??? HP ProBook 4430s
??? HP Pavilion dv7-6b55dx
??? Sony VAIO VPC-F237FX/B
??? Samsung Series 9 (NP900X3A-B01UB)
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/lZtV-crI3TY/0,2817,2396789,00.asp
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Screen Grabs: Covert Affairs exposes secret Rogers service in Washington DC
Screen Grabs chronicles the uses (and misuses) of real-world gadgets in today's movies and TV. Send in your sightings (with screen grab!) to screengrabs at engadget dot com.
[Thanks, Mike G]
Fans of USA's Covert Affairs know that Annie Walker's stomping ground is Washington DC, where she pretends to be a buyer for the Smithsonian. So, there's only two plausible explanations for her iPhone 4 being able to connect to Rogers Wireless Canadian network: Either she's got a nuclear powered antenna on that thing, or the company is running a south-of-the-border service for Government agencies. Some might point out that the show is filmed in Toronto for cost purposes and the art directors aren't too hot at spotting continuity errors, but we'd dismiss that as paranoid fantasy.
[Thanks, Mike G]
Screen Grabs: Covert Affairs exposes secret Rogers service in Washington DC originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 26 Nov 2011 00:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Strong winds leave 7 dead in southern Sri Lanka (AP)
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka ? Strong winds have killed seven people along Sri Lanka's southern coast.
Pradeep Kodippili, the spokesman for the government's disaster management center, says three people were killed by fallen trees Friday in the southern coastal town of Matara.
Also on Friday, the bodies of four fishermen who had ventured out to sea from Matara were recovered. Kodippili says it was possible that their boats had been damaged by the bad weather.
He says the winds damaged about 1,000 homes in the area.
The strong winds subsided by Friday evening.
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Friday, November 25, 2011
JK Rowling: Children 'deserve privacy'
LONDON?? Author J.K. Rowling told the U.K. phone-hacking hearing that she felt under siege from intrusive journalists who staked out her house and went as far as to slip a letter into her 5-year-old daughter's school bag.
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The creator of boy wizard Harry Potter said Thursday that children "deserve privacy," The Guardian newspaper reported in its live blog of events.
Rowling said media interest began shortly after the publication of her first novel in 1997, and soon escalated, with photographers and reporters frequently stationed outside her home.
Once, her daughter came home from primary school and Rowling found a letter from a journalist in her backpack. Rowling said she felt a huge sense of invasion at the move.
"In the first burst of publicity surrounding [Harry Potter]. I unzipped her school bag in the evening, among the debris I found an envelope addressed to me from a journalist," she said, according to The Guardian's report.
"It's my recollection that the journalist said he intended to ask a mother at the school to put this my daughter's bag. I know no more than that, I don't know if that is how the journalist [put it in the bag]," she added.
'Angry'
"I felt such a sense of invasion that my daughter's bag ...??it's very difficult to say how angry I felt that my five-year-old daughter's school was no longer a place of complete security from journalists," Rowling said.
She also told how she had chased a photographer a week after she had given birth, The Guardian reported.
Video: Hugh Grant testifies in phone hacking inquiry (on this page)Rowling? said she had been "besieged for a week" in her house, but had thought the photographers had left. She went outside with her daughter, but then saw a paparazzi photographer with a long lens.
"How I thought I was going to outrun a 20-something paparazzi ... my daughter was saying 'Calm down, mum, calm down, it doesn't matter,' but it mattered enormously to me," Rowling said, according to The Guardian's reported.
"The cumulative effect [of the media attention] becomes quite draining," she added.
Rowling said she thought children should not be targeted by the media.
"They deserve privacy. They have no choice who their parents are how their parents behave.... Where children are concerned the issue is fairly black and white," she said.
She also told about how two journalists from a Scottish tabloid, who were outside her house, had told her they were there because it was a "boring day at the office."
"My family and I were literally under surveillance for their amusement," she said. "There's a twist in the stomach as you wonder what do they want, what have they got? It feels incredibly threatening to have people watching you."
The inquiry into media ethics and practices is being held following the phone-hacking scandal in the U.K.
No Nazi theme at orgy
Earlier, the tribunal heard first from former Formula One motorsport boss Max Mosley, who has campaigned for a privacy law since his interest in sadomasochistic sex was exposed in a tabloid.
In 2008, Mosley won ?60,000 ($93,000) in damages from the News of the World over a story in which the paper published photos of him at a sadomasochistic orgy. The paper said incorrectly that the orgy had a Nazi theme and a judge decided the article had infringed Mosley's privacy.
Mosley, a son of Sir Oswald Mosley, former leader of the British Union of Fascists, said Thursday at the hearing that he had "never" sought publicity, BBC News reported.
Story: Phone-hacking scandal: James Murdoch insists he didn't mislead British lawmakers"I first learnt of it (the article) about 10 o'clock on a Sunday morning," Mosley added, according to the BBC.
The Nazi allegations "were completely untrue and enormously damaging," he said. The journalist responsible for the story "simply invented the entire article," Mosley said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45427605/ns/world_news-europe/
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Fresh iPhone Apps for Nov. 23: Macy?s Thanksgiving Day Parade, SaleLocator, Major Mayhem, Blood & Glory (Appolicious)
With only one more day before Thanksgiving, get into the spirit with Macy?s Thanksgiving Day Parade, the official app of the New York City parade, with lots of information about both the parade and New York, so you can see it in person. After that, you can get ready for the day after Thanksgiving with SaleLocator, an app that makes it easy to find the sales you?re looking for on Black Friday. Arcade shooter Major Mayhem leads our games selection today, pitting you as a lone soldier against hordes of ninjas that you?ll have to tap to kill. It?s followed by Infinity Blade-alike Blood & Glory, a gladiator title that scores extra points by being free-to-play.
For the first time, the Thanksgiving Day Parade has its own official iPhone app. You get everything you might want to know about the parade before and during the event. Macy?s Thanksgiving Day Parade packs all kinds of information about both the parade and New York City in general. But it?s not just information. The app also let you tie into NYC?s traffic cameras to get the best seats possible for the parade as it happens.
Macy?s Thanksgiving Day Parade includes a listing of all the participants with floats in the event, the parade route mapped out so you can track it as it moves through New York, information on the parade?s history and a shop where you can buy parade merchandise. You also get handy info about NYC?s subway system, nearby popular coffee shops and restaurants, and more that will help you enjoy the parade in person.
Black Friday is just two days away: Get a leg up on the competition with the help of SaleLocator, an app that helps you find the best deals in your area using your iOS device?s GPS capabilities. SaleLocator finds the nearest in-store sales and presents them to you in either a list or on a map, and gives you a rundown of just what?s covered by each store so you can plan your attack.
StoreLocator will run down nearby sales by category so you can skip the sales that don?t interest you, and it?ll aggregate especially for holidays, making it handy for events like Black Friday. You can also share sales with your friends using Facebook or Twitter, and bookmark your favorite sales so you can check them out later.
Taking a page from arcade shooting games in which players take cover from enemy fire, then stand up and shoot back, Major Mayhem puts you in the shoes of a lone soldier tasked with shooting approximately 1 million evil ninjas. The simple touch controls have players tapping at ninjas as quickly as they can to shoot them down, then taking a finger off the screen to allow Major Mayhem to drop back into cover to avoid getting shot.
You?re scored in Major Mayhem by how much mayhem you can cause ? the more shots you put in a bad guy, for example, the bigger your combo score. You?ll also shotguns, rifles, grenades and other weapons to turn the tide of war in your favor. The more enemies you blast (and friendlies you save) without taking a hit, the higher the combo you can put together. And Game Center support means you can share your best scores on the game?s online leaderboards.
Put ChAIR and Epic Games? Infinity Blade in the Roman Coliseum and Blood & Glory is what you get. It might be lifting much of its gameplay from the very popular and award-winning sword-fighting title, but Blood & Glory brings its own vibe, with the Roman setting and quite a bit of blood and gore. This one isn?t for children ? enemies look like they?re really taking injuries from your sword strikes ? but if you?re into a more hardcore style, Blood & Glory is for you.
With its simple and effective touch controls in which you?ll block, parry or dodge enemy attacks before following up with your own, you?ll also need to gather weapons and equipment to better your character and purchase potions to make sure you can save your life when an enemy gets the upper hand.
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Thursday, November 24, 2011
Rihanna's "Talk The Talk" release tops iTunes (Reuters)
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) ? Grammy-winning singer Rihanna may soon be headed to the top of the album charts after her latest record, "Talk That Talk" reached No. 1 on iTunes on Tuesday, one day after its release.
The singer released early teasers online as much as a week in advance, helping push the album into the top 10 on iTunes. Fans took to Twitter and Facebook to call the album Rihanna's best yet. Critical reviews, however, were mixed.
"Talk That Talk" is the sixth studio album from the 23-year-old Barbadian singer, following CDs like "Rated R" and "Loud," which have seen her steadily evolve from teen pop star to adult performer since her 2005 debut. She has earned international success over the years with singles like "Umbrella," "Rude Boy" and "What's My Name."
The 11-track "Talk That Talk" features themes of love and sexuality with a mixture of up-tempo dance tracks and reggae beats on "Where Have You Been," "Birthday Cake" and "You Da One," along with ballads "We All Want Love" and "Farewell."
Rihanna also collaborated with rapper Jay-Z -- whose Roc Nation label manages her -- on the single "Talk That Talk" and Scottish producer Calvin Harris on chart-topping dance anthem "We Found Love." The record also features a sample of British indie rock group The xx's "Intro" on single "Drunk On Love."
The singer's fans were upbeat on Twitter.
@OhMy_Kayla said, "This TALK THAT TALK album by @rihanna is by far the best one yet!!!!,, I FREAKING LOVE HER," and @gabixballa tweeted, "I've only been listening to Talk That Talk since yesterday. Lowkey @rihanna's best album ever."
Despite the positive fan reception, critics delivered mostly mixed reviews, acknowledging the singer's move toward dance music but criticizing the lyrics.
New York Times' Jon Caramanica called the record "the blithest Rihanna album" and criticized the singer's voice for being "certifiably blank." Randall Roberts at the Los Angeles Times gave the album two out of four stars, saying it "contains little sweat, slobber or fluids and a lot of plasticized, inflatable insinuation."
British music magazine NME scored the album a five out of ten, and called it "annoyingly safe with just glimpses of what it might have been."
But not all critics were put off. TheWrap.com's Chris Willman called the record "less dark and more high-spirited" than her last two records, adding "the album is at its musical best when it sticks to dance music."
(Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)
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Motorola XT615 Android phone arriving in Taiwan: slim, but not RAZR-thin
Side-stepping the moody design tones of its RAZR brethren, Motorola has announced a new Android-powered smartphone for Taiwan. Measuring in at 9.8mm thin, this Gingerbread-powered slab sports the outfit's MotoBlur-derived Moto Switch UI, with an eight megapixel camera on the back and a VGA shooter on the front. The XT615 packs quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900), WCDMA (900/2100) and HSPA (7.2Mbps) radios, while processing power comes from a slightly underwhelming 800MHz Qualcomm MSM7227A-0, possibly explaining the NTD$10,900 ($360) price tag. The pearly-toned phone hasn't revealed any plans to leave the island nation of Taiwan just yet, but that doesn't mean you can't familiarize yourself with the full specifications in the PR below.
Continue reading Motorola XT615 Android phone arriving in Taiwan: slim, but not RAZR-thin
Motorola XT615 Android phone arriving in Taiwan: slim, but not RAZR-thin originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Nov 2011 06:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Libya vows to work with ICC in case of Gadhafi son (AP)
TRIPOLI, Libya ? A prosecutor of the International Criminal Court says that Libya's transitional leaders have vowed to work with his institution and with the United Nations in investigating alleged crimes committed by Moammar Gadhafi's recently captured son and one-time heir apparent.
ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo told The Associated Press on Thursday that he received the pledge in a letter from National Transitional Council chairman Mustafa Abdul-Jalil.
Moreno-Ocampo said he was satisfied with that move, despite Libya's continued refusal of the court's request to surrender Seif al-Islam Gadhafi.
In the letter, Abdul-Jalil writes that the Libyan judiciary has "primary responsibility" to try Seif al-Islam, the only Gadhafi family member in Libyan custody.
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Review: An ode to silents, the mute 'Artist' sings (AP)
NEW YORK ? The best validation for the nostalgia of "The Artist" is the film, itself.
A silent movie in tribute to silent movies, "The Artist" puts its money where its mouth is, so to speak. Or not to, rather.
Michel Hazanavicius' black-and-white, near-wordless film is a loving, irresistibly charming ode to a long-ago movie era that not only summons the dormant conventions of silent moviemaking, but makes them dance again.
The film opens with old-style titles and the first bursts of Ludovic Bource's spirited, nimble score, which (as in most silents) plays a starring role throughout. The camera pulls back on a man being electrocuted by captors.
"I won't talk," he says ? or so reads a title card. "I won't say a word."
It's the first of many puns, but it's also Hazanavicius' promise, too. To make a silent film nowadays, he's suggesting, is to subject oneself to torment. But the French filmmaker's boldness has already been much rewarded: The film was feted at the Cannes Film Festival, snapped up by Harvey Weinstein and is now considered a favorite horse in the Oscar race.
The opening scene is merely a fiction within "The Artist." The man is silent film star George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) ? a kind of Douglas Fairbanks, swashbuckling matinee idol ? and this is the premiere of his latest hit: "A Russian Affair." The year is 1927, and the packed auditorium greets the movie with a standing ovation and raucous cheers that we can only infer.
The grinning, mustachioed Valentin glides across the stage in a tuxedo, basking in the adulation. A born entertainer, he casually and eagerly keeps the audience in his thrall, pantomiming tricks with his faithful sidekick, on screen and off, his Jack Russell terrier.
The dog (Uggie) deserves credit here. Obviously raised on "The Awful Truth" and "The Thin Man," he puts shame to the digital Snowy of the upcoming "The Adventures of Tintin."
But the good times are soon to end: The Talkies are coming. When sound movies arrive, Valentin finds himself squeezed out of the business that so recently championed him. (The particular reason for Valentin's inadaptability is revealed later.)
Kinograph Studios head Al Zimmer (John Goodman, robbed of his booming voice but not of his character-filled face) is quickly transitioning to talkies and a new bevy of stars. Among them is Peppy Miller (Berenice Bejo), an upstart whose rise Valentin aided.
Valentin's fall is greased not just by irrelevancy but by the stock market crash and ego, (he self-finances an extravagant, belated silent film). Nearly destitute, he has little left besides his dog and his loyal chauffer (James Cromwell).
Miller, always quietly enamored with Valentin, ascends to stardom. Her "Beauty Spot," released on the same day as Valentin's "Tears of Love," draws lines around the block. That their paths will finally align is of little surprise in Hazanavicius' smart if predictable script.
Naturally, the image is the supreme element in a silent film (and a talkie, too, but that's another story). But "The Artist" is disappointing staid visually. Though it's remarkably true in style and production (design by Laurence Bennett), it doesn't bear the visual flare that perhaps it should.
Instead, "The Artist" is propelled by its performances, particularly Dujardin's. He has an exquisite elegance, and builds a whole movie with only his gestures. It's impossible to imagine "The Artist" without him, the wellspring of its charm.
But it doesn't take a masterpiece to remind us of the power of silent films. It most succeeds in this mission, an altogether welcome whisper of "Don't forget."
The most moving shots in "The Artist" are of audiences in the grip of a movie, whether silent or not. Hazanavicius captures moviegoers collectively on their edge of their seats, reacting in worry or laughter. It's this romance for the movies ? and the melancholy wistfulness for the silent era ? that makes "The Artist" affecting, urging us to remember the simple, captivating beauty of moving images in a theater.
"The Artist," a Weinstein Company release, is rated PG-13 for a disturbing image and a crude gesture. Running time: 100 minutes. Three stars out of four.
___
Motion Picture Association of America rating definitions:
G ? General audiences. All ages admitted.
PG ? Parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.
PG-13 ? Special parental guidance strongly suggested for children under 13. Some material may be inappropriate for young children.
R ? Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
NC-17 ? No one under 17 admitted.
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Wednesday, November 23, 2011
US general warns of al-Qaida as troops exit Iraq (AP)
BAGHDAD ? The top American general in Iraq said Monday that al-Qaida and other insurgent groups might seek to step up operations after U.S. forces leave at the end of the year.
Gen. Lloyd Austin also told reporters in Baghdad that while he expected "turbulence," he did not see the situation completely disintegrating. He noted that security did not collapse after U.S. forces pulled out of Iraqi cities in 2009.
"As we leave, you can expect to see some turbulence in security initially, and that's because you'll see various elements try to increase their freedom of movement and freedom of action. Al-Qaida will be one of those elements," Austin said.
The capabilities of al-Qaida in Iraq have deteriorated greatly since the height of the insurgency in 2004-2007 when the organization essentially controlled cities such as Fallujah and regularly carried out large-scale suicide attacks with seeming impunity.
But the organization is still able to carry out deadly, sometimes sophisticated attacks. While they originally targeted American troops, now their focus is mainly the Iraqi government and security forces, along with Shiite mosques or Shiite neighborhoods.
Austin also highlighted the risk that Shiite militias, which have so far mostly attacked American forces, will pose to the Iraqi government once U.S. forces have left. He warned that they could become the equivalent of Lebanon's powerful, Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement.
"I think the Iraqi government has to treat them based upon what they really are. These are elements that are really focused on creating a Lebanese Hezbollah kind of organization in this country. A government within a government, and those elements would have their own militia," he said.
The U.S. says that Shiite-majority Iran has cultivated ties with many Iraqi Shiite militias, as it has with Hezbollah. Austin nonetheless played down concerns that Iraq would fall under Iran's sphere of influence.
"I think at the end of the day, the Iraqis will do what's best for Iraq, and I think they will make their own decisions," said Austin.
He acknowledged he is concerned about the threat Shiite militias, supported by Iran, will pose to American diplomats who will remain in the country. Even after American forces leave Iraq, the U.S. will have a massive American diplomatic presence in the country.
The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad will be the largest in the world, and the State Department will have offices in the northern cities of Irbil and Kirkuk and in the southern oil city of Basra.
Austin highlighted other problems that Iraq's military faces, saying it does not yet have the ability to protect the country's borders.
Iraq's top general has also said his forces will not be able to protect their own borders until at least 2020.
"I don't think they have very much of a capability at all to address an external threat," Austin said.
The Iraqis have been bolstering their capability for conventional warfare with purchases of American tanks, howitzers and other armaments, and Baghdad has said that it would like to purchase as many as 36 F-16 fighter jets. But for the most part, the Iraqi security forces have been focused on fighting the insurgency that has raged inside the country almost since Saddam Hussein was ousted.
All American forces must be out of Iraq by the end of this year according to a security agreement signed by the U.S. and Iraq in 2008. Austin said there are just under 20,000 troops and eight American bases left in the country as the military rapidly packs up its equipment and people, down from 170,000 at the height of the deployment.
The U.S. and Iraq negotiated for months this year about extending the American troop presence in Iraq. They were never able to come to an agreement over what type of legal protections to give those forces, however, and the Americans had to stick to their original withdrawal deadline.
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