Sunday, February 3, 2013

Movie Review: 'Warm Bodies' an Awesome Zombie Valentine ...

No, it's not an ode to necrophilia. It is a charming and whimsical movie that goes deeper than anyone would expect about connectedness, trust and a willingness to change.?

I never thought I'd say "this zombie flick is a great date movie," but now I have. As a matter of warning, it should be rated "Z" for brain-eating zombies. Still, a large cross-section of movie lovers will enjoy it, making it a far better choice?February 14th?than that new Diehard (coming out that day! Wah?),?for everyone from girlfriends hanging out and Twihards, to couples who don't mind a bit of edge in their flicks.?

Playing at AMC Hoffman Center 22.?

To all those who have heard or bought into the press about it being a wannabe Twilight clone, I say yes, the Twihards will appreciate it. But it will be even more appreciated by all of us who grew tired of Twilight's whining and negativity (however much it was dressed in sparkle), and those of us who wanted to scream at that mopey sad-sack Edward to suck it up and get an afterlife.

Warm Bodies plays fast and loose with zombie rules

Here, in this movie, the undead are anything but resigned to their plight. ? Warm Bodies has an optimism, unabashed romanticism and earnestness that is perfect for a holiday about love.?It might be too much for the most cynical filmgoers, even with the dried blood and rotting body bits with which it's smeared. ?

Stay far away if you only like your zombies terrifying and the stuff of nightmares. Stay away as well if you are a stickler for the rules of zombie-ism, as you will find Warm Bodies plays a little too fast and loose with those rules.? As yet another mash-up, this time of zombies and coming-of-age romcoms (a "zomcom," if you will) Cinema Siren does believe it adds something worthwhile to both genres.?

The story is about R, a zombie who lets us into his conflicted, less-dead-than-we-think brain, as he trudges with the rest of the rotting pack. He takes a Cupid's bullet to the heart when he sees gun-toting Julie, out with her med-foraging friends, about to become the next zombie Happy Meal. He rescues her and whisks her away to the nick-nack-filled jet airplane this nostalgic zombie packrat calls home, where they share a few sweetly awkward days and nights getting to know each other.?

Actor Nicholas Hoult, as 'R,' is the star

Love spreads like a scarlet pillow? The rest of the movie is them against the world, which includes Julie's protective dad (the underused John Malkovitch), a post-apocalyptic general with a quick trigger finger for all things undead. ?

Aussie ingenue Teresa Palmer, who forever strains against the label of the "blonde Kristen Stewart," does well enough as Julie, the love interest for an undead 20-something who finds he feels more and more alive when she is near.?

R is the star. Actor Nicholas Hoult (About A Boy, X-Men: First Class) is the one who must carry the film on his slumped and shambling frame. He plays a character who feels isolated, misunderstood and trapped inside a shell that belies his inner sweetness.?

Director enhances novel on the big screen

It's probably hard to make friends and make time when you smell like death, speak in grunts and eat human flesh to survive. He works his way through a wide range of emotions, in scenes that require him to play both broadly and with subtlety in quick succession. ?With natural talent, expanding skill and now adult and undeniable good looks, Hoult will catapult himself into position as an "A" actor with his pick of constantly revolving projects. ?

Rob Coddry's "M," R's "BZF," allows the actor to bring his great character acting and perfect timing to the proceedings, and gets big laughs that mean his memorable role might quickly become a fan favorite. He makes impressive use of scant screen time, further perking up the auds with his every arrival.

Director and screenplay writer Jonathan Levine (who made the surprisingly successful cancer dramedy 50/50) makes the depth of the original novel, written by Isaac Marion, translate very well to the screen, keeping and sometimes even enhancing the metaphoric lessons both great and small, which range from tackling racism and bigotry, to youth alienation, to cocooning and isolation in the computer age.?

There is also a literary reference you might already have heard about or figured out that is far more meaningful if you know well the original from which it takes inspiration.

Soundtracks builds emotional atmosphere

The soundtrack proves to be a mix of clever and poignant. Levine allows the music, some of which is made up of cheesy '80s hits you'll never hear the same way again, to be an integral part of the scene. It builds an emotional atmosphere and adds a component that connects with the audience during the extended times where voiceover narration and slowly shuffling zombies might call a screeching halt to the movie's forward movement. The best soundtracks do that.

To be sure, the end of the movie arrives in a swell of sweet that might as well have us all singing Todd Rundgren's "Love Is The Answer," but that's what romcoms do. The difference is this is a zomcom. Either you can abide this funky freaky little film, with its conceits and exposed beating heart or you can't.

I can, and I absolutely loved it. You might find you do, too. One thing's for sure, your significant other is probably not going to be willing to sit through The Walking Dead on Valentine's Day. With Warm Bodies, you get zombies and love, all tied up in a big bloody-caked bow. Make it a Valentine's Day present to yourself. ?

Source: http://mountvernon.patch.com/articles/movie-review-warm-bodies-an-awesome-zombie-valentine-1bcc4e0d

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Thursday, January 31, 2013

China sentences two Tibetans for "inciting" self-immolations

BEIJING (Reuters) - A court in China has handed down heavy sentences to a Tibetan monk and his nephew for inciting eight people to set themselves on fire in anti-Chinese protests, media said on Thursday, the first time punishment has been meted out over such protests.

Nearly 100 Tibetans have set themselves on fire to protest against Chinese rule since 2009, with most of them dying from their injuries.

Lorang Konchok, 40, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve in the Aba prefecture in Sichuan province, while his nephew, Losang Tsering, 31, was sentenced to 10 years in prison, the Xinhua state news agency said.

In practice, a death sentence with a two-year reprieve is commuted to life imprisonment or reduced to a fixed-term later.

"The two incited and coerced eight people to self-immolate, resulting in three deaths," Xinhua said, citing the Intermediate People's Court in Aba prefecture.

Last December, Xinhua reported that Lorang Konchok, who was detained with his nephew in August, confessed to police that he had followed instructions from exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and his followers.

Lorang Konchok and his nephew passed on information about each self-immolation, including photographs, to overseas contacts belonging to a Tibetan independence organisation with mobile telephones, Xinhua said.

China has repeatedly denounced the Dalai Lama and exiled Tibetan groups for fomenting the self-immolations.

Beijing considers Nobel peace laureate the Dalai Lama, who fled from China in 1959 after an abortive uprising against Chinese rule, a separatist. The Dalai Lama says he is merely seeking greater autonomy for his Himalayan homeland.

He has called on China to investigate the self-immolations. He has said he is not encouraging them has called them "understandable".

China has defended its iron-fisted rule in Tibet, saying the remote region suffered from dire poverty, brutal exploitation and economic stagnation until 1950, when Communist troops "peacefully liberated" it.

Tibetan areas in China have been largely closed to foreign reporters, making an independent assessment of the situation there impossible.

Chinese police arrested a Tibetan man last week for allegedly encouraging a monk to burn himself to death, as part of a new tactic to discourage suicide protests against Chinese rule.

(Reporting by Sui-Lee Wee; Editing by Robert Birsel)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/china-sentences-two-tibetans-inciting-self-immolations-054011821.html

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Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Immigration reform: Will 'amnesty' produce more illegal immigration?

Immigration reform is in the air. A bipartisan Senate group unveiled its proposals on Monday, and the president is scheduled to announce his own package on Tuesday. Both contain provisions for legalizing some 11 million undocumented immigrants now in the US.

But, just as there promises to be no easy consensus on a final deal, there is little agreement about how much the overall reforms will actually stem the flow of illegal immigration across America?s borders. Critics of the proposals say a path to citizenship invites more undocumented migrants, while supporters of the move to legalize many who have lived and worked in the US for years say it is not an open invitation to new illegal immigration.

Critics point to the lessons from the last time Congress tackled his issue, the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA), a 1986 law that legalized 3 million undocumented immigrants. Both sides acknowledge the law produced substantial fraud, leading to nearly triple the number of new residents created by the law.

RECOMMENDED: Could you pass a US citizenship test?

"The message will go out,? says Ira Mehlman, Seattle-based national spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), ?telling people to bring their rent receipts and pay stubs real or not.? The situation will be a replay of the 1986 law, only on a larger scale, he says. It?s simple math, says Mr. Mehlman, adding, ?how can you possibly do background checks on 11 million people? It just won?t happen.?

This expectation sells this target population short, says Jorge-Mario Cabrera, spokesman for the Coalition for Humane Immigrants Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA). ?Nobody wants to go where they are not wanted and cannot legally find a job to support them or their family,? he says. ?I do not foresee a wave of illegal immigration, because most of these people realize the political situation in the US is very dire when it comes to undocumented immigrants.?

Census data released at the end of 2012 show a slowing of the immigration tide. The number of undocumented immigrants fell to 11.1 million, down from a high of some 12 million in 2007, following more than a decade of increases. A Pew Center analysis of these data finds that ?there is net zero migration taking place from Mexico to the United States,? points out Villanova University immigration specialist Catherine Wilson, via e-mail.

The proposed reforms will not encourage illegal immigration in the future for three reasons, says David Koelsch, director the Immigration Law Clinic at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law.

  • The proposed pathways to legal status will be long and expensive, he says via e-mail, ?So any reward for future illegal immigration is distant.?
  • The birth rate in Mexico is in rapid decline and domestic industry's wages are rising, ?making the US less attractive,? he says.
  • The US economy is still not recovered, "so there is not a strong draw for illegal immigration,? he adds. A sustained 1.75 to 2.25 percent growth rate does not even keep our native population employed, he says.

The reality ?is that our border is more secure than it has been in years past and as immigration talks heat up, our border agents and patrol will be well aware of the need for greater vigilance,? says immigration lawyer and law professor Michael Wildes, who is managing partner of Wildes & Weinberg in New York City and represented the government in immigration cases in his time as a US Attorney.

The law needs to have enough teeth that it doesn't open the door to greater illegal immigration, he adds. ?Whether that means tougher sanctions or steeper fines is up to Congress to decide. But the penalties need to be more stringent because once a pathway to citizenship is defined, there is even less of an excuse for employers to hire undocumented workers and for folks to come here illegally and remain illegal.?

While the numbers tell a story of declining illegal immigration, still a path to citizenship for those now in the country illegally may be a political problem for those who want to pass comprehensive immigration legislation, says David Mark, editor-in-chief of the website, Politix.

?It just seems like common sense to most people that if you make it easier to become legal, that will attract others as well,? he adds. ?It is naive to think otherwise.?

RECOMMENDED: Could you pass a US citizenship test?

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/immigration-reform-amnesty-produce-more-illegal-immigration-013500775.html

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Friday, January 25, 2013

Welfare lottery ban: N.C. lawmakers discuss prohibition for welfare recipients, the bankrupt

Rep. Paul 'Skip' Stam (R-Wake) said the measure is among several targeting the N.C. Education?Lottery?that may come up during the legislative session.

By Associated Press / January 25, 2013

North Carolina lawmakers are discussing a draft proposal that would prohibit sales oflottery?tickets to people who receive public assistance or who are in bankruptcy.

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The Insider reports?that Rep. Paul "Skip" Stam, R-Wake, said the measure is among several targeting the N.C. Education?Lottery?that may come up during the legislative session.

"We're giving them?welfare?to help them live, and yet by selling them a ticket, we're taking away their money that is there to provide them the barest of necessities," Stam said.

Stam it would be difficult for store clerks to know which players get help. But Stam suggested that in obvious cases, such as when customers pay for groceries with food stamps, they shouldn't be allowed to buy?lotterytickets at the same time.

Another proposal would remove the word "Education" from the N.C. Education?Lottery?for advertising purposes. Stam said the word "education" shouldn't be used to sell "something that is essentially a scam," especially because?lottery?proceeds account for a small percentage of state education funding.

"It's just inappropriate to take what is a very important function of state government ... and use that as a selling point, when obviously the more educated you are, the less likely you are to play the?lottery," he said.

Stam said he believes many?lottery?ads are deceptive because they don't state the probabilities of winning particular prize amounts. The?lottery?advertises large cash payouts, he said, but the actual prizes are smaller after taxes and other deductions. The fact that the?lottery?doesn't give the actual values of prizes when advertising larger amounts is "just fraudulent," he said.

Alice Garland, executive director of the?lottery, said last week that she believed taking "Education" out of the title would cut into?lottery?sales.

Lottery?spokesman Van Denton said officials haven't fully reviewed all of the legislative proposals to gauge the impacts, but he did say the?lottery?tries to keep up with best practices in the industry, he said.

"We work hard to make sure players have the information they need to play the?lottery?... and to make good choices about how to spend their money," Denton said.

Although the odds of winning each different prize amount aren't listed on each ticket, they are available on thelottery?website and in the?lottery?"play centers" at retail locations. The?lottery?also publishes on its website the number of prizes remaining at all prize levels in scratch-off games.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/Lxhi8SZRZDE/Welfare-lottery-ban-N.C.-lawmakers-discuss-prohibition-for-welfare-recipients-the-bankrupt

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Diverse Slate of Established, New Authors to Speak at Weeklong ...

Wednesday, January 23rd, 2013
Issue 04, Volume 17.


RIVERSIDE - Established authors, poets and creative writing professors will share insights regarding what it takes to get published during UC Riverside's 36th annual "Writers Week," which begins Feb. 4.

"We have an amazing line-up this year," said Tom Lutz, a UCR creative writing professor and editor-in-chief of the Los Angeles Review of Books. "As Southern California's longest-running literary event, Writers Week provides extraordinary opportunities for LARB. For writers, the combination is great, especially writers who are launching new books."

Opening day will feature a lecture by Los Angeles Times Editor-in-Chief Davan Maharaj, who will assess contemporary journalism and spotlight where he believes the industry is going.

The reservation-only talk is scheduled for 7:30 p.m., Feb. 4, at the UCR University Theatre.

Several of the campus's resident authors, including Tod Goldberg, who teaches Writing for Advertisement
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the Performing Arts at UCR-Palm Desert, will be on hand, as well as others involved in the university's Master of Fine Arts Program.

Authors about to debut new works are slated to speak, including Reyna Grande, Ruben Martinez and David Shields.

Poets Jacqueline Berger, Wanda Coleman, Patricia Hampl and Sheila Sanderson will be giving talks, as will novelists Aimee Phan, Jayne Anne Phillips and Mariah Young.

The event will also feature interactive panel discussions and opportunities to engage Writers Week authors one-on-one, as well as purchase their books on-site.

All activities -- free and open to the public -- will be centered at the CHASS Interdisciplinary Building, except for the closing night keynote address, which Phillips is scheduled to deliver at the UCR Culver Center of the Arts on the downtown Riverside Main Street pedestrian mall.

Source: http://www.myvalleynews.com/story/68939/

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Thursday, January 24, 2013

Pavlov's rats? Rodents trained to link rewards to visual cues

Jan. 23, 2013 ? In experiments on rats outfitted with tiny goggles, scientists say they have learned that the brain's initial vision processing center not only relays visual stimuli, but also can "learn" time intervals and create specifically timed expectations of future rewards. The research, by a team at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, sheds new light on learning and memory-making, the investigators say, and could help explain why people with Alzheimer's disease have trouble remembering recent events.

Results of the study, in the journal Neuron, suggest that connections within nerve cell networks in the vision-processing center can be strengthened by the neurochemical acetylcholine (ACh), which the brain is thought to secrete after a reward is received. Only nerve cell networks recently stimulated by a flash of light delivered through the goggles are affected by ACh, which in turn allows those nerve networks to associate the visual cue with the reward. Because brain structures are highly conserved in mammals, the findings likely have parallels in humans, they say.

"We've discovered that nerve cells in this part of the brain, the primary visual cortex, seem to be able to develop molecular memories, helping us understand how animals learn to predict rewarding outcomes," says Marshall Hussain Shuler, Ph.D., assistant professor of neuroscience at the Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

To maximize survival, an animal's brain has to remember what cues precede a positive or negative event, allowing the animal to alter its behavior to increase rewards and decrease mishaps. In the Hopkins-MIT study, the researchers sought clarity about how the brain links visual information to more complex information about time and reward.

The presiding theory, Hussain Shuler says, assumed that this connection was made in areas devoted to "high-level" processing, like the frontal cortex, which is known to be important for learning and memory. The primary visual cortex seemed to simply receive information from the eyes and "re-piece" the visual world together before presenting it to decision-making parts of the brain.

To monitor the vision-reward connection process, the team fitted rats with special goggles that let researchers flash a light before either their left or right eye. Thirsty rats with goggles were given access to a water spout inside a testing chamber. When they approached the water spout, a brief visual cue was presented to one eye.

If light was sent to the left eye, the water spout would have to be licked a few times before water came to the rat; if light was sent to the right eye, the rat would have to lick many more times before water came. After a few daily sessions of such "conditioning" (not unlike Pavlov's famous dog-bell-reward experiments), the rats learned how long they would have to lick before getting a water reward. If they didn't get the reward in the expected amount of time, they would give up and leave the spout.

Monitoring the pattern of electrical signals given off by individual nerve cells in the rat brains, the researchers found that the signals' "spikes" weren't just reflecting the visual cue alone. Rather, the signals seemed to relay the time of expected reward delivery through altered spiking patterns. They also saw that many nerve cells seemed to report one or the other visual cue-reward interval, but not both. In cells stimulated by a flash to the left eye, the electrical signal returned to its baseline after a short delay, in sync with the timing of the water reward; a cue to the right eye correlated with a longer delay, also in sync with the reward. According to the researchers, the amount of time that passed before nerve cells returned to their resting state was the brain's way of setting up a "timed expectation."

Knowing that the basal forebrain is implicated in learning, the researchers wanted to know if their observations could be explained by nerves from the basal forebrain delivering ACh to the vision-processing center. To remove those nerve cells from the equation, they paired a neurotoxin with a "homing device" that targets only ACh-releasing neurons coming from the basal forebrain. They then repeated their experiments in trained rats that received the neurotoxin and in those that didn't, and found that the nerve cell signals continued to relay the old time intervals, suggesting that ACh and the basal forebrain weren't needed to express previously learned time information.

The researchers next used those same rats to ask if ACh is necessary for nerve cells to learn new time delays. To do that, they switched the visual cues so that a flash in the left eye meant a long delay and one in the right eye meant a short one. Vision-processing nerve cells in the rats in which ACh delivery was left intact adapted their signals to the new associations; but those in the rats that no longer received ACh continued to relay the old associations, suggesting that ACh is necessary to make new associations but not to express old ones.

Hussain Shuler explains, "When a reward is received, ACh is sent throughout the brain and reinforces only those nerve cell connections that were recently active. The process of conditioning continues to strengthen these nerve connections, giving rise to a timed expectation of reward in the brain."

According to Hussain Shuler, studies have shown that Alzheimer's patients have low levels of ACh and have trouble forming new memories. Though medication may elevate ACh, alleviation of symptoms is limited. "Our research explains that limitation," he says. "Therapeutically, we predict that the problem isn't just low levels of ACh -- the timing of ACh delivery is key."

Other authors of the report include Emma Roach of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Alexander Chubykin and Mark Bear of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

This work was supported by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH084911), the National Institute on Drug Abuse (F31DA026687), the National Eye Institute (R01EYO12309), the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01HD046943) and The Johns Hopkins University.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Johns Hopkins Medicine.

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/rtJTFV9gCXA/130123195834.htm

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