Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/193360770?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Man kidnapped in Nigeria says he wasn't tortured (AP)
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Monday, January 30, 2012
TiVo Premiere Elite
The TiVo Premiere Elite ($499.99 list) is the souped-up version of the TiVo Premiere DVR ($299.99, 3.5 stars), with a 300-hour HD video capacity and two more TV tuners for the ability to record four simultaneous programs. Like the TiVo Premiere XL, the Premiere Elite is THX certified and comes with an upgraded remote (but not the slide-out QWERTY model). It?s a definite upgrade for current TiVo users, but is it compelling enough to bring more TiVo users into the fold? The outlook isn't so good, compared to DVRs from cable companies, which continue to improve over time.
Design and Features
The TiVo Premiere Elite looks almost identical to the previous TiVo Premiere, built into the same style chassis as the previous model. There are a few differences from the previous version, though. There are four lights, which glow red to show that each of the four tuners are recording a program. You can record up to four programs simultaneously, which are decoded by the mutli-stream CableCARD the TiVo Premiere Elite now requires. Previous models allowed you to record over the air HDTV broadcasts in addition to digital cable, but the Premiere Elite is a strictly digital cable-only model; TiVo has removed the RF tuner and its connector to make room for the added digital tuners. Over-the-air HDTV viewers will want the regular Premiere or Premiere XL.
The TiVo Premiere Elite comes with a 2TB hard drive, which is good for up to 300 hours of HD video, which is an increase from 45 hours for the TiVo Premiere, and 150 hours for the TiVo Premiere XL. Like the TiVo Premiere XL, the Premiere Elite comes with the TiVo Glo remote, not the keyboard-equipped TiVo Slide ($60). The TiVo Slide is a better fit for the DVR junkie who needs to search for programming with the on-screen interface. Truly hardcore TiVo users can download the free TiVo app for their handheld device like an iPad, iPhone, or Android phone: The app replicates the search and remote functions on your handheld, including managing the recorded programs list on your TiVo Premiere Elite. The touch-screen keyboard on your iPhone or Samsung Galaxy S II will be handier than using the on-screen keyboard and TiVo Glo remote on your HDTV. However, you can?t view live TV or the recordings from your TiVo on your iPad/iPhone/Android device. You?ll still need to use a separate place-shifting device for remote viewing over WiFi or 3G.
Competitors From the Cable Company and Elsewhere
The cable companies have caught up to and some cases surpassed TiVo. TiVo?s interface now mostly takes advantage of the extra real estate and resolution of a HDTV screen, though there are still elements in standard definition. The user interface screens on digital cable DVRs like those from Verizon FIOS are fully HD optimized.
More pressing are features like FIOS? DVR apps and Cablevision/Time Warner?s viewing apps on devices like the iPad and Android smartphones. On the FIOS side, the DVR Manager app gives you listings of what?s scheduled and already recorded on your home DVRs, regardless if you?re home or on a 3G network. Need more room to record the next American Idol on your home DVR, but you?re in Des Moines? No problem with FIOS or the other cable companies, just delete those old episodes of Pan Am. In the TiVo app, you have to be physically in range of your home Wi-Fi network to see the recorded list and manage recordings, which means you can only schedule future recordings remotely, not delete existing programs. On the Time Warner and Cablevision side, things are even better when you consider that the TWC app and Optimum app allow you to view live TV as well as on-demand videos on your iPad on your home network. TiVo users need a place-shifting device like a Slingbox to do the same thing, even in your own home. Multi-room viewing was once unique to TiVo, but Cable DVRs now support multi-room viewing, letting you view programs recorded in the living room while you?re in the bedroom.? And with TiVo, there are issues with multi-room viewing and copy-protected content, which could apply to many of the programs you're recording.
Last I checked, most cable companies even let you exchange a broken DVR for free even if the DVR itself is 5 years old. Unfortunately, the TiVo DVR warranty only lasts one year for parts, 90 days for labor, with an option for 2-years parts/labor for $30 and 3 years for $40.? Last, but not least, you?ll still need to subscribe to TiVo, which added to the monthly rental for the CableCARD, equals or surpasses the monthly rental fee for a cable company DVR. TiVo curently charges $19.95 a month, so if you add the $2-5 monthly rate for the CabelCARD, you may pay less in fees on a cable company DVR. Sure, you can purchase a lifetime subscription for $499.99, but that's per TiVo DVR, and is subject to the continued good health of TiVo Inc. If you want Netflix or You Tube on your HDTV as well and your HDTV doesn't already support it, check if there?s a free HDMI port on your TV, then get an Apple TV or Roku; it?s less than $100, and you won?t need to pay a monthly fee to Apple.
The TiVo Premiere Elite is an improved device for an ultimately shrinking market: the hardcore TiVo user. It will give the TiVo fan a lot to crow about while recording 300 hours of HD on four channels simultaneously, but the DVR is unlikely to add brand new customers to the TiVo fold. It's so tied to digital cable that it is unlikely to sway the non-TiVo user from renting a much more convenient and similar HD DVR for much less money. Why buy a TiVo DVR when the cable company DVR is the same amount of money or less, and lets you better manage it with your smartphone or tablet? Five years ago, TiVo had a perceptibly insurmountable lead on the competition. Now that gap is bridgeable by a toddler in brand new shoes.
More Digital Video Recorder reviews:
??? TiVo Premiere Elite
??? TiVo (for iPad)
??? Monsoon Multimedia Vulkano
??? Dish Network ViP922 SlingLoaded DVR
??? TiVo Premiere
?? more
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/g2xpcMjtWhg/0,2817,2399349,00.asp
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Sunday, January 29, 2012
15 Killer Quotes From 'Sh*t People Say' Videos (Mashable)
This meme is certainly making a strong case to be one of the biggest of 2012. Sure, the first episode of "Sh*t Girls Say" was uploaded at the end of last year, but who's counting really? The results that Google yields when you start typing "Sh*t People Say" are as far-ranging in quality as they are in topic.
[More from Mashable: Relax: Twitter?s New Censorship Policy Is Actually Good for Activists]
We're sure you've got your own favorite quotes from the wide array of videos out there. These 15 favorites (and an honorable mention for each) should get the conversation started.
[More from Mashable: Seinfeld?s Kramer Reacts to Hearing Skrillex [VIDEOS]]
1. Sh*t Girls Say - Episode 1
The original that started a whole sh*t revolution. Many great lines, tough to choose a favorite, but this one stood out.
Honorable Mention: "You're the best!"
Click here to view this gallery. This story originally published on Mashable here.
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Wall St edges lower after GDP data (Reuters)
NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Stocks slipped on Friday as data showed the U.S. economy grew less than expected in the fourth quarter, while some disappointing earnings added pressure to the market.
Government data showed U.S. gross domestic product expanded at its fastest pace in 1-1/2 years in the fourth quarter of 2011 but fell shy of expectations. A strong rebuilding of inventories and weak spending by businesses pointed to slower growth early this year, denting recent optimism about an improving economy.
But losses were curbed as Federal Reserve statements this week and economic data kept investors alert for the possibility of another round of monetary stimulus known as quantitative easing, or QE3.
"Out of what the Fed said, you can expect some negative numbers because the Fed obviously saw what the GDP numbers are and they anticipate a slowdown," said Sean Kraus, chief investment officer at CitizensTrust in Pasadena, California.
If the Fed does resort to QE3 to stimulate growth, investors "don't want to be caught flat-footed and be out of risky assets," Kraus said.
Chevron Corp (CVX.N) fell 3.1 percent to $103.26 and was the biggest drag on the Dow after the No. 2 U.S. oil company posted lower earnings, missing Wall Street forecasts. The NYSEArca oil index (.XOI) lost 0.7 percent.
The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) dropped 60.06 points, or 0.47 percent, to 12,674.57. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index (.SPX) dipped 2.69 points, or 0.20 percent, to 1,315.74. The Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) gained 7.46 points, or 0.27 percent, to 2,812.74.
Procter & Gamble Co (PG.N) dipped 0.7 percent to $64.35 after said this year's profit would come in lower than previously expected due to the strong dollar.
Ford Motor Co (F.N) shares fell 1.7 percent to $12.52 after the carmaker reported a lower-than-expected fourth-quarter profit on higher commodity costs and losses in Europe and Asia.
Network equipment makers Juniper Networks Inc (JNPR.N) and Riverbed Technologies Inc (RVBD.O) gave first-quarter outlooks after the close Thursday that were below expectations. Juniper fell 3.9 percent to $21.50 while Riverbed plunged 22.4 percent to $23.22.
According to Thomson Reuters data, 58.7 percent of 184 S&P 500 companies reporting earnings through Friday have topped analysts' estimates, below the beat rate of about 70 percent seen at this stage of earnings season in recent quarters.
Utilities moved lower after results from American Electric Power (AEP.N), off 2.9 percent to $40.07, and Dominion Resources (D.N), down 0.8 percent to $50.44. The S&P utilities index (.GSPU) fell 1.1 percent.
Eastman Chemical Co (EMN.N) offered to buy specialty chemical maker Solutia Inc (SOA.N) for about $3.38 billion in cash and stock to extend its reach in emerging markets, particularly the Asia-Pacific region. Solutia shares rose 41 percent to $27.59.
Euro zone finance officials voiced optimism a deal to avert a disorderly Greek default was imminent. Renewed concern about the crisis has troubled markets this week.
(Reporting By Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Kenneth Barry)
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Saturday, January 28, 2012
Twitter's new censorship plan rouses global furor (AP)
NEW YORK ? Twitter, a tool of choice for dissidents and activists around the world, found itself the target of global outrage Friday after unveiling plans to allow country-specific censorship of tweets that might break local laws.
It was a stunning role reversal for a youthful company that prides itself in promoting unfettered expression, 140 characters at a time. Twitter insisted its commitment to free speech remains firm, and sought to explain the nuances of its policy, while critics ? in a barrage of tweets ? proposed a Twitter boycott and demanded that the censorship initiative be scrapped.
"This is very bad news," tweeted Egyptian activist Mahmoud Salem, who operates under the name "Sandmonkey," Later, he wrote, "Is it safe to say that (hash)Twitter is selling us out?"
In China, where activists have embraced Twitter even though it's blocked inside the country, artist and activist Ai Weiwei tweeted in response to the news: "If Twitter censors, I'll stop tweeting."
One often-relayed tweet bore the headline of a Forbes magazine technology blog item: "Twitter Commits Social Suicide"
San Francisco-based Twitter, founded in 2006, depicted the new system as a step forward. Previously, when Twitter erased a tweet, it vanished throughout the world. Under the new policy, a tweet breaking a law in one country can be taken down there and still be seen elsewhere.
Twitter said it will post a censorship notice whenever a tweet is removed, and will post the removal requests it receives from governments, companies and individuals at the website chillingeffects.org.
The critics are jumping to the wrong conclusions, said Alexander Macgilliviray, Twitter's general counsel.
"This is a good thing for freedom of expression, transparency and accountability," he said. "This launch is about us keeping content up whenever we can and to be extremely transparent with the world when we don't. I would hope people realize our philosophy hasn't changed."
Some defenders of Internet free expression came to Twitter's defense.
"Twitter is being pilloried for being honest about something that all Internet platforms have to wrestle with," said Cindy Cohn, legal director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "As long as this censorship happens in a secret way, we're all losers."
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland credited Twitter with being upfront about the potential for censorship and said some other companies are not as forthright.
As for whether the new policy would be harmful, Nuland said that wouldn't be known until after it's implemented.
Reporters Without Borders, which advocates globally for press freedom, sent a letter to Twitter's executive chairman, Jack Dorsey, urging that the censorship policy be ditched immediately.
"By finally choosing to align itself with the censors, Twitter is depriving cyberdissidents in repressive countries of a crucial tool for information and organization," the letter said. "Twitter's position that freedom of expression is interpreted differently from country to country is unacceptable."
Reporters Without Borders noted that Twitter was earning praise from free-speech advocates a year ago for enabling Egyptian dissidents to continue tweeting after the Internet was disconnected.
"We are very disappointed by this U-turn now," it said.
Twitter said it has no plans to remove tweets unless it receives a request from government officials, companies or another outside party that believes the message is illegal. No message will be removed until an internal review determines there is a legal problem, according to Macgilliviray.
"It's a thing of last resort," he said. "The first thing we do is we try to make sure content doesn't get withheld anywhere. But if we feel like we have to withhold it, then we are transparent and we will withhold it narrowly."
Macgilliviray said the new policy has nothing to do with a recent $300 million investment by Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Mac or any other financial contribution.
In its brief existence, Twitter has established itself as one of the world's most powerful megaphones. Streams of tweets have played pivotal roles in political protests throughout the world, including the Occupy Wall Street movement in the United States and the Arab Spring uprisings in Egypt, Bahrain, Tunisia and Syria.
Indeed, many of the tweets calling for a boycott of Twitter on Saturday ? using the hashtag (hash)TwitterBlackout ? came from the Middle East.
"This decision is really worrying," said Larbi Hilali, a pro-democracy blogger and tweeter from Morocco. "If it is applied, there will be a Twitter for democratic countries and a Twitter for the others."
In Cuba, opposition blogger Yoani Sanchez said she would launch a personal Twitter boycott of unspecified length.
"Twitter will remove messages at the request of governments," she tweeted. "It is we citizens who will end up losing with these new rules..."
In the wake of the announcement, cyberspace was abuzz with suggestions for how any future country-specific censorship could be circumvented. Some Twitter users said this could be done by employing tips from Twitter's own help center to alter one's "Country" setting. Other Twitter users were skeptical that this would work.
While Twitter has embraced its role as a catalyst for free speech, it also wants to expand its audience from about 100 million active users now to more than 1 billion. Doing so may require it to engage with more governments and possibly to face more pressure to censor tweets; if it defies a law in a country where it has employees, those people could be arrested.
Theoretically, such arrests could occur even in democracies ? for example, if a tweet violated Britain's strict libel laws or the prohibitions in France and Germany against certain pro-Nazi expressions.
"It's a tough problem that a company faces once they branch out beyond one set of offices in California into that big bad world out there," said Rebecca MacKinnon of Global Voices Online, an international network of bloggers and citizen journalists. "We'll have to see how it plays out ? how it is and isn't used."
MacKinnon said some other major social networks already employ geo-filtering along the lines of Twitter's new policy ? blocking content in a specific jurisdiction for legal reasons while making it available elsewhere.
Many of the critics assailing the new policy suggested that it was devised as part of a long-term plan for Twitter to enter China, where its service is currently blocked.
China's Communist Party remains highly sensitive to any organized challenge to its rule and responded sharply to the Arab Spring, cracking down last year after calls for a "Jasmine Revolution" in China. Many Chinese nonetheless find ways around the so-called Great Firewall that has blocked social networking sites such as Facebook.
Google for several years agreed to censor its search results in China to gain better access to the country's vast population, but stopped that practice two years after engaging in a high-profile showdown with Chain's government. Google now routes its Chinese search results through Hong Kong, where the censorship rules are less restrictive.
Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt declined to comment on Twitter's action and instead limited his comments to his own company.
"I can assure you we will apply our universally tough principles against censorship on all Google products," he told reporters in Davos, Switzerland.
Google's chief legal officer, David Drummond, said it was a matter of trying to adhere to different local laws.
"I think what they (Twitter officials) are wrestling with is what all of us wrestle with ? and everyone wants to focus on China, but it is actually a global issue ? which is laws in these different countries vary," Drummond said.
"Americans tend to think copyright is a real bad problem, so we have to regulate that on the Internet. In France and Germany, they care about Nazis' issues and so forth," he added. "In China, there are other issues that we call censorship. And so how you respect all the laws or follow all the laws to the extent you think they should be followed while still allowing people to get the content elsewhere?"
Craig Newman, a New York lawyer and former journalist who has advised Internet companies on censorship issues, said Twitter's new policy and the subsequent backlash are both understandable, given the difficult ethical issues at stake.
On one hand, he said, Twitter could put its employees in peril if it was deemed to be breaking local laws.
"On the other hand, Twitter has become this huge social force and people view it as some sort of digital town square, where people can say whatever they want," he said. "Twitter could have taken a stand and refused to enter any countries with the most restrictive laws against free speech."
___
Associated Press writers Paul Schemm in Rabat, Morocco, Michael Liedtke in San Francisco, Peter Orsi in Havana, Cuba, Cara Anna in New York and Ben Hubbard in Cairo contributed to this story.
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Friday, January 27, 2012
Did Demi Moore Suffer a Nitrous Oxide-Induced Seizure?
After Demi Moore was rushed to the hospital following a 911 call Monday night, the 49-year-old actress' rep released a statement blaming "stress" and "exhaustion" for her health scare. But now sources tell People that Demi "was having what seemed like seizures" at her Los Angeles home, prompting "concerned friends" to dial 911.
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BlackBerry in 2012: A (Rumored) Horrible Year of Sadness [Rumors]
Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/pMQJi0u_Bg0/blackberry-in-2012-a-horrible-year-of-sadness
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Thursday, January 26, 2012
Japan's 'Nuclear Alley' conflicted over reactors (AP)
OHI, Japan ? International inspectors are visiting a rugged Japanese bay so thick with reactors it is dubbed "Nuclear Alley," where residents remain deeply conflicted as Japan moves to restart plants idled after the Fukushima disaster.
The local economy depends heavily on the industry, and the national government hopes that "stress tests" at idled plants ? the first of which is being reviewed this week by the International Atomic Energy Agency ? will show they are safe enough to switch back on.
But last year's tsunami crisis in northeastern Japan with meltdowns at three of the Fukushima reactors has fanned opposition to the plants here in western Fukui prefecture, a mountainous region surrounding Wakasa Bay that also relies on fishing and tourism and where the governor has come out strongly against nuclear power.
"We don't need another Fukushima, and we don't want to repeat the same mistake here," said Eiichi Inoue, a 63-year-old retiree in the coastal town of Obama. "I know they added stress tests, but what exactly are they doing?"
"I oppose restarting them," he said.
Other residents said that economic realities made the plants indispensable, including Chikako Shimamoto, a 38-year-old fitness instructor in Takahama, a town that hosts one of the region's nuclear plants.
"We all know that we better not restart them," Shimamoto said. "But we need jobs and we need business in this town.
"Our lives in this town depends on the nuclear power plant and we have no choice," she said.
On Thursday, an IAEA team visited a plant in the village of Ohi to check whether officials at operator Kansai Electric Power Co. had correctly done the tests at two reactors. The tests are designed to assess whether plants can withstand earthquakes, tsunamis, loss of power or other emergencies, and suggest changes to improve safety.
Their visit, at Japan's invitation, appeared aimed at reassuring a skeptical public that authorities are taking the necessary precautions before bringing nuclear plants back on line.
Some experts are critical of the stress tests, saying they are meaningless because they have no clear criteria.
The government idled most plants for mandatory tests and maintenance after the Fukushima disaster. Currently, only four of Japan's 54 reactors are operating. If no idled plants get approval to restart, the country will be without an operating reactor by the end of April.
Before the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that led to the Fukushima crisis, nuclear plants generated about 30 percent of the country's electricity. To make up for the shortfall, utilities are temporarily turning to conventional oil and coal-fired plants, and the government has required companies to reduce their electricity consumption.
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has promised to reduce Japan's reliance on nuclear power over time, but it still needs some nuclear power until next-generation sources are developed.
In Fukui, 13 reactors at four complexes are clustered along a 55-kilometer (35-mile) stretch of coast with snow capped mountains facing the Sea of Japan. It's known as "Gempatsu Ginza," a phrase that roughly translates to "Nuclear Alley."
Only one of the 13 reactors is still running. The rest have been shut down for regular inspections required every 13 months. To start running again, they must pass the stress test.
Another hurdle will be gaining local support for the plants to restart. While local consent is not legally required for that to happen, authorities generally want to win local backing and make efforts to do so.
Fukui Gov. Issei Nishikawa, however, says he will not allow a startup of any of the prefecture's commercial reactors.
And the city assembly in Obama ? a town that briefly enjoyed international fame when it endorsed Barack Obama in the 2008 U.S. presidential race_ has submitted an appeal to the central Tokyo government to make Japan nuclear-free.
But officials in Mihama, another town that hosts a nuclear plant, have expressed support for the town's three reactors also operated by Kansai Electric, also called Kepco.
Fukui is a largely rural area, traditionally focused on fishing and farming, but it has a significant textile and machinery industry, and boasts of being a major producer of eye-glasses. Its nuclear power plants supply approximately half of all the electricity used in the greater Kansai region, which includes Osaka and Kyoto.
Several towns' fortunes are tied closely to the nuclear industry.
Community centers and roads are paid by the government subsidies for hosting the plants. Closing the plants not only means losing jobs for thousands of workers, but hardship for stores, restaurants and other service industries.
Many of those interviewed had family members, relatives or friends with jobs at the plants, and some refused to give their names due to fear of repercussions.
Noda has said the final decision on restarting nuclear plants would be political, suggesting that the government would override any local opposition if Japan's energy needs become dire.
Naozane Sakashita, a taxi and bus driver, said his salary had decreased "substantially" after the Ohi and other plants went offline.
"I think these idle plants should resume as soon as their safety is confirmed," he said. "Our jobs and daily life are more important than a disaster that occurs only once in a million years."
Still, he said he is concerned about the safety of the plants because his son works as a control room operator at the Takahama plant.
"If our economy prospers without compromising our safety, of course it would be best to live without nuclear energy," he said.
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What Legal Authority Does Judge Judy Have? - Mental Floss
Judge Judy reportedly makes $45 million a year. What kind of legal power comes with it?
JIM RUYMEN/UPI /Landov
While Judith?Sheindlin was a real, live judge ? New York City Mayor?Ed Koch?appointed her to criminal court in 1982 and then made her Manhattan?s supervising family court judge in 1986 ? she?s not acting as one on her show. Neither are any of the other daytime TV judges (whether they passed the bar and served as actual judges or not).
TV court show sets are designed to look like courtrooms and the judges wear robes, sit on benches, and use gavels. But they?re not court rooms and they?re not real trials presided over by real judges (though they are real cases ? the producers?often?contact parties who have pending litigation in small claims court and offer them the opportunity to appear on TV instead).??What you?re seeing on these TV court shows may look like small claims court and quack like?small claims court, but it?s really just arbitration playing dress up in small claims court?s clothes.
Arbitration?is a legal method for resolving disputes outside the court. The disputing parties present their cases to a neutral, third-party arbitrator or?arbitrators?who hear the case, examine the evidence, and make a (usually binding) decision. Like a court-based case, arbitration is adversarial, but generally less formal in its rules and procedures.
The power that Judge Judy and the rest of the TV arbitrators have over the disputing parties?is granted by a contract, specific to their case, that they sign before appearing on the show. These contracts make the arbitrators? decision final and binding, prevent the disputing parties from?negotiating the terms of the arbitration, and allow the ?judges? wide discretion on procedural and evidentiary rules during the arbitration.
From one of Judge Judy?s old contracts: ?The Arbitrator?s Decision and her interpretation and application of laws and principles she uses in arriving at the Decision, shall be final and binding upon the parties hereto.?
Court Costs
With jurisdiction over the dispute signed away to them, the TV judges make their decision on the case and either decide for the plaintiff, in which case the show?s producers award them a?judgment fee, or with the defendant, in which case the producers award both parties with an appearance fee. This system seems to skew things in favor of the defendants, and gives them an incentive to take their case from court to TV. If they have a weak case, appearing on the show absolves them of any financial liability, and if they have a strong case, they stand to earn an appearance fee along with their victory.
If one party or the other doesn?t like the arbitrator?s decision, that?s too bad. They already signed the agreement. The decision can really only be successfully appealed if it addresses a matter outside the scope of the contract. In 2000, Judge Judy had one of her decisions overturned for that reason by the Family Court of Kings County. In the case?B.M. v. D.L., the parties appeared in front of?Sheindlin?to solve a personal property dispute.?Sheindlin ruled on that dispute, but also?made a decision on the parties? child custody and visitation rights. One of the parties appealed in court, and the family court overturned the custody and visitation part of the decision because they weren?t covered by the agreement to arbitrate.
While these court shows can be entertaining, social scientists and legal scholars worry about their effect on viewers? perception of how courts work and apply justice. In a survey of litigants in small claims court in 1988, the height of popularity of?The People?s Court, researchers were shocked by how often the show was mentioned when talking about?expectations of the justice system, and suspected that the show may have had a major influence on some people?s decision to even go to court and on the way they prepared their case.
Thanks to reader Marty for suggesting this Big Question.
The Full Details of the Infamous Hot Coffee Lawsuit
*
Who Wrote the Pledge of Allegiance?
*
September 11th and the Hospitable People of Gander, Newfoundland
*
Andrew Jackson?s Big Block of Cheese
*
Who Cleans Up After Seeing Eye Dogs?
Source: http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/114750
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Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Oscar Nominations 2012: Who's Vying for Gold?
Octavia Spencer, George Clooney and Meryl Streep unsurprisingly score nods, while Hugo leads the way with 11 total nominations.
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Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Patriots prevail vs. Ravens, gain 7th Super Bowl
Baltimore misses late TD, FG as N.E. wins AFC Championship 23-20
Getty ImagesThe?Patriots celebrate after Ravens kicker Billy Cundiff misses a game-tying field goal in the final seconds of Sunday's AFC Championship game.
By BARRY WILNER
updated 11:47 p.m. ET Jan. 22, 2012
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. - Tom Brady got all the help he needed to get the New England Patriots into the Super Bowl.
Thank you, Billy Cundiff.
The Baltimore Ravens kicker shanked a 32-yard field goal with 11 seconds left and the Patriots escaped with a 23-20 victory in the AFC championship game on Sunday.
Usually, vintage Brady doesn't need much assistance in championship settings, but the Patriots much-maligned defense came through, and Brady's 1-yard touchdown dive with 11:29 left proved to be the winning points.
"Well, I sucked pretty bad today, but our defense saved us," Brady said after throwing for 239 yards, with two interceptions and, for the first time in 36 games, no TD passes. "I'm going to try to go out and do a better job in a couple of weeks, but I'm proud of this team, my teammates."
Brady waited out the final tense minutes on the sideline, and then celebrated with the rest of his team when Cundiff's attempt went wide left. The Ravens looked on in stunned horror.
Cundiff had no excuse.
"It's a kick I've kicked probably a thousand times in my career," Cundiff said. "I went out there and didn't convert. That's the way things go."Next up as the Patriots chase their fourth Super Bowl trophy in Brady and coach Bill Belichick's tenure in New England is the New York Giants, who beat the San Francisco 49ers 20-17 in overtime Sunday night.
The Patriots were installed as 3-point favorites for the Super Bowl on Feb. 5 in Indianapolis.
In their last trip to the big game, the Patriots had an 18-0 record when they were stunned by the Giants four years ago. They won the NFL championship for the 2001, 2003 and 2004 seasons. This time, they head to the Super Bowl with a 10-game winning streak.
Before Cundiff missed, the Ravens had a chance to go ahead two plays earlier, but wide receiver Lee Evans was stripped of the ball in the end zone by backup cornerback Sterling Moore, who earlier was victimized for a touchdown that gave Baltimore (13-5) the lead 17-16.
On his touchdown, Brady took a huge hit from Ravens star linebacker Ray Lewis, then emphatically spiked the ball as he walked away. Earlier, Brady showed his fire by barking at Lewis following a hard tackle on a 4-yard run.
"It's a pretty mentally tough team," said Brady, whose fifth trip to the Super Bowl will equal John Elway's achievement with Denver. "There's really some resiliency. We've shown that all season. Even in the games we've lost, the three games we lost, we fought until the end. We're always going to fight to the end. It's great to be a part of a team like this."
Baltimore had the touted defense in this matchup, but New England's unit, ranked 31st overall, was just as powerful.
"We stepped up," Pro Bowl nose tackle Vince Wilfork said. "We all stepped up big time. Being in this situation is a great moment. You have to cherish this moment."
The Patriots shut down Ray Rice, the league's total yardage leader, who was limited to 78 yards. Brandon Spikes made a fourth-quarter interception of Joe Flacco, who played well before that and threw for two touchdowns. And when the Ravens were threatening to score a late touchdown to win their first conference title in 11 years, New England clamped down.
"It's two great football teams, two gladiators, I guess, just kind of going at each other at the end, and I'm proud of our guys," Harbaugh said. "You know, we've got 53 guys, mighty men, as we like to call them - and they fought, and we came up a little bit short, as 53. You know, 53 win and 53 lose."
With Rice a nonfactor, Baltimore had to rely on Flacco, and he delivered one of his best performances. Flacco has led the Ravens into the playoffs in all four of his pro seasons, but not to the Super Bowl. He was 22 for 36 for 306 yards and touchdowns of 6 yards to Dennis Pitta and 29 to rookie Torrey Smith.The loss hardly could be blamed on Flacco.
"I don't know if I ever will prove anything," he said. "I just play the same way. We lost; someone has to. But we laid it all out on the field."
Operating against a porous secondary missing its top cornerback, Kyle Arrington, who left in the second quarter with an eye injury, Flacco gave Baltimore its first lead. His short pass on third down to explosive receiver Smith turned into a 29-yard scamper down the right sideline after Moore completely whiffed on the tackle.
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Rosenthal: Tom Coughlin has gone from the hot seat to the Super Bowl. Tom Brady and Bill Belichick have a chance to make history. This all seems familiar, doesn?t it?
Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/46093503/ns/sports-nfl/
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Hume: Republicans in Congress will be ???terrified to run??? with Gingrich, will ???try to defeat him??? [VIDEO] (Daily Caller)
During Saturday night coverage of the South Carolina Republican presidential primary,?Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume said that incumbent Republicans are probably hoping that former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich doesn?t keep up the momentum he will gain from his win.?Hume pointed to Gingrich?s high unfavorabilitymarks in a recent?Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll,?which he said would make it difficult for Republican members of Congress to align with the former speaker.?(RELATED:?Gingrich wins big in South Carolina, heads to Florida as race heats up)
?And they?ll be more to the case to be made against Newt Gingrich as a possible nominee by Republican officeholders ?especially those in the House and the Senate across the country ? and here?s why,? he said. ??From the latest Fox New/Opinion Dynamics poll ? these numbers will change as they do from time to time ? this is favorability versus unfavorability: Mitt Romney, 45 [percent] favorable, 38 [percent] unfavorable; Ron Paul 35?[percent] favorable, 40?[percent] unfavorable; Rick Santorum, 31?[percent] favorable, 34?[percent] unfavorable; Newt Gingrich 27 percent favorable, 56 percent unfavorable.?
That, according to Hume, will force something of a revolt from these members of Congress against Gingrich so they won?t suffer in the November election cycle.
?Believe me, Republicans in Congress will be terrified to run with this man for fear they will lose the House and Senate,? Hume said. ?They will begin to do what they can to try to defeat him because they fear he can?t win the election and, moreover, he may drag many of them down to defeat with him. He has a lot of work to do to change their minds. I?m not sure he can.?
(h/t Brent Baker, Newsbusters)
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Monday, January 23, 2012
Explosions rock Nigeria's Kano, at least six killed (Reuters)
KANO, Nigeria (Reuters) ? At least six people were killed in a string of bomb blasts on Friday in Nigeria's second city Kano and the authorities imposed a curfew across the city, which has been plagued by an insurgency led by the Islamist sect Boko Haram.
Smoke billowed from the police headquarters for the north in Kano after one blast blew out its windows, collapsed its roof and triggered a blaze that firefighters struggled to control.
A Reuters reporter counted three bodies at the scene and three more at the local passport office, which was surrounded by flaming debris.
Some residents ran around shouting and screaming following the attacks. There were at least four other explosions across the city in quick succession.
"I was on the roadside and I just heard a 'Boom!'. As I came back, I saw the building of the police zonal headquarters crashing down and I ran for my life," said local man Andrew Samuel.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the apparently coordinated attacks, which prompted the government to announce a dusk-to-dawn curfew.
Kano, like other northern cities in Nigeria, has been plagued by an insurgency led by Islamist sect Boko Haram, blamed for scores of bombings and shootings against mostly government targets that are growing in scale and sophistication.
Boko Haram became active around 2003 and is concentrated in the northern states of Yobe, Kano, Bauchi, Borno and Kaduna.
Boko Haram, which in the Hausa language of northern Nigeria means "Western education is sinful," is loosely modeled on the Taliban movement in Afghanistan.
The group considers all who do not follow its strict ideology as infidels, whether they be Christian or Muslim. It demands the adoption of sharia, Islamic law, in all of Nigeria.
FLAMES AND SMOKE
Witnesses said the bomber of the police headquarters, which covers most of northern Nigeria, pulled up at the building on a motorbike then got off and ran at it holding a bag.
"We tried to stop him but he ran in forcefully with his bag. All of a sudden there was a blast. You can see for yourself the building is damaged," said a policeman at the scene.
Police said a second blast had hit Kano's passport office and another hit Zaria Road police station in the city.
"The ground was shaking with the explosion. We saw flames and smoke at the police station," said witness Umaru Ibrahim.
A source at the State Security Service said another bomber had tried to attack there but was gunned down before he could detonate his bomb.
Police and military roadblocks were erected in the city within minutes.
"We are trying to reach the scenes of these heavy blasts. Many of the roads are blocked now by security agents," said Abubaker Jibril, head of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) for Kano, told Reuters.
A bomb attack on a Catholic church just outside the capital Abuja on Christmas Day, claimed by Boko Haram, killed 37 people and wounded 57.
The main suspect in that attack escaped from police custody within 24 hours of his arrest, and police have offered a 50 million naira ($309,600) reward for information leading to his recapture.
Police arrested Kabiru Sokoto on Tuesday and while they were taking him from police headquarters to his house in Abaji, just outside Abuja, to conduct a search there, their vehicle came under fire.
Last August a suicide bomber blew up the U.N. Nigeria headquarters in Abuja, killing at least 24 people.
(Additional reporting by Tim Cocks in Lagos; writing by Tim Cocks and James Jukwey; Editing by Jon Boyle)
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Sunday, January 22, 2012
Teen ends globe-circling voyage in St. Maarten (AP)
PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten ? Laura Dekker set a steady foot aboard a dock in St. Maarten on Saturday, ending a yearlong voyage aboard a sailboat named "Guppy" that apparently made her the youngest person ever to sail alone around the globe, though her trip was interrupted at several points.
Dozens of people jumped and cheered as Dekker waved, wept and then walked across the dock accompanied by her mother, father, sister and grandparents, who had greeted her at sea earlier.
Dekker arrived in St. Maarten after struggling against high seas and heavy winds on a final, 41-day leg from Cape Town, South Africa.
"There were moments where I was like, 'What the hell am I doing out here?,' but I never wanted to stop," she told reporters. "It's a dream, and I wanted to do it."
Dekker claims she is the youngest sailor to complete a round-the-world voyage, but Guinness World Records and the World Sailing Speed Record Council did not verify the claim, saying they no longer recognize records for youngest sailors to discourage dangerous attempts.
Dutch authorities tried to block Dekker's trip, arguing she was too young to risk her life, while school officials complained she should be in a classroom.
Dekker said she was born to parents living on a boat near the coast of New Zealand and said she first sailed solo at 6 years old. At 10, she said, she began dreaming about crossing the globe. She celebrated her 16th birthday during the trip, eating doughnuts for breakfast after spending time at port with her father and friends the night before in Darwin, Australia.
The teenager covered more than 27,000 nautical miles on a trip with stops that sound like a skim through a travel magazine: the Canary Islands, Panama, the Galapagos Islands, Tonga, Fiji, Bora Bora, Australia, South Africa and now, St. Maarten, from which she set out on Jan. 20, 2011.
"Her story is just amazing," said one of Dekker's fans, 10-year-old Jody Bell of Connecticut. "I can't imagine someone her age going out on sea all by herself."
Bell was in St. Maarten on a work trip with her mother, Deena Merlen, an attorney in Manhattan, who wanted to see Dekker complete her journey. The two wore T-shirts that read: "Guppy rocks my world."
"My daughter and I have been following Laura's story, and we think it's amazing and inspiring," Merlen said.
Unlike other young sailors who recently crossed the globe, Dekker repeatedly anchored at ports along the way to sleep, study and repair her 38-foot (11.5-meter) sailboat.
During her trip, she went surfing, scuba diving, cliff diving and discovered a new hobby: playing the flute, which she said in her weblog was easier to play than a guitar in bad weather.
Dekker also complained about custom clearings, boat inspections, ripped sails, heavy squalls, a wet and salty bed, a near-collision with two cargo ships and the presence of some persistent stowaways: cockroaches.
"I became good friends with my boat," she said. "I learned a lot about myself."
Highlights of her trip include 47 days of sailing the Indian Ocean, which left her with unsteady legs when she docked in Durban, South Africa, where she walked up and down the pier several times for practice.
While in South Africa, she also saw her first whale.
"It dove right in front of my boat and got all this water on my boat, and that wasn't really nice," she said.
Dekker launched her trip two months after Abby Sunderland, a 16-year-old U.S. sailor, was rescued in the middle of the Indian Ocean during a similar attempt. Jessica Watson of Australia completed a 210-day solo voyage at age 16, a few months older than Dekker.
Dekker had said she planned to move to New Zealand after her voyage, but she said Saturday that she wants to finish school first. If she goes to New Zealand, she said, she'd like to sail there.
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Microsoft and IBM push Dow up, Google falls
In this Jan. 18, 2012 photo, traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Financial markets were cautious Friday, Jan. 20, 2012, ahead of another round of debt-reduction talks between Greece and its private creditors that could determine whether Europe's debt crisis flares up again. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
In this Jan. 18, 2012 photo, traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Financial markets were cautious Friday, Jan. 20, 2012, ahead of another round of debt-reduction talks between Greece and its private creditors that could determine whether Europe's debt crisis flares up again. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
NEW YORK (AP) ? IBM and Microsoft drove the Dow Jones industrial average higher Friday after the tech giants reported stronger earnings than analysts expected.
Microsoft said sales of Xbox games and Office software helped push revenue up in the last quarter of 2011. IBM credited better sales of software and services and raised its earnings outlook for the year. Microsoft rose 6 percent and IBM rose 4 percent.
The Dow rose 96.50 points to close at 12,720.48. That's a gain of 0.8 percent. Without the huge gains in IBM and Microsoft, the Dow would have risen just 24 points.
The S&P 500 index inched up 0.88 to 1,315.38. Both the Dow and S&P ended the week with gains of more than 2 percent.
Plenty of things are going right, said Frank Fantozzi, CEO of Planned Financial Services, an independent wealth manager in Cleveland. Applications for unemployment benefits dropped last week to the lowest level in nearly four years. Housing sales are steadily rising. And most companies are reporting better profits.
"Overall, we're moving in the right direction and it's bolstered the market," Fantozzi said. "The S&P getting over 1,300 this week is a nice sign."
Google lost 8.4 percent after its earnings per share fell a dollar short of analysts' estimates. The misfire stemmed from an 8 percent drop in prices that the Internet search giant charges advertisers for each click.
Google's drop tugged the Nasdaq composite index lower. It fell 1.63 points to 2,786.70.
Even though high-profile companies such as Google and JPMorgan Chase have posted disappointing earnings results in the past week, the trend is moving in the opposite direction. Of the 60 companies in the S&P index that have reported earnings so far, 62 percent have beaten estimates, according to John Butters, senior earnings analyst at FactSet Research.
In another sign that traders were becoming more willing to take on risk, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note crossed above 2 percent for the first time in two weeks. The yield, a widely used benchmark for corporate and consumer borrowing, had inched lower since early December as traders parked money in the safest of assets.
The National Association of Realtors said that home sales rose 5 percent in December, the third straight monthly increase.
Among other companies in the news:
? Capital One Financial lost 5.6 percent. The bank and credit-card company's earnings sank 41 percent as expenses for marketing, salaries and legal fees jumped compared with the year before.
? Schlumberger rose 1.3 percent. The oil-field services company's quarterly profit surged 36 percent, helped by exploration work in the Middle East and Africa. The company also raised its quarterly dividend to 27.5 cents.
- Intel rose 2.9 percent. The world's largest chip maker reported stronger profits after the market closed Thursday. Intel's results got a boost from sales to China and other developing countries, where many people are buying PCs for the first time.
Stocks have been on a slow and steady climb to start 2012. The S&P 500 has closed higher on 11 of 13 days and is now up 4.6 percent for the year.
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Saturday, January 21, 2012
2nd officer recommends Manning be court-martialed
WASHINGTON ?? A second Army officer is recommending a general court-martial for a low-ranking intelligence analyst charged in the biggest leak of classified information in U.S. history.
The Army says Col. Carl Coffman sent his recommendation Wednesday to Maj. Gen. Michael Linnington, commander of the Military District of Washington. Linnington will decide whether to order a trial for Pfc. Bradley Manning.
Coffman concurred with the presiding officer at Manning's preliminary hearing last month. The 24-year-old Crescent, Okla., native faces 22 counts, including aiding the enemy.
Manning allegedly gave more than 700,000 secret U.S. documents to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks for publication.
Defense lawyers say the emotionally troubled soldier should never have been deployed to Iraq or given access to classified material while stationed there from late 2009 to mid-2010.
Check back for more details on this developing story.
? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46059396/ns/us_news/
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A Minute With: Sundance Film Festival director John Cooper (Reuters)
PARK CITY, Utah (Reuters) ? The Sundance Film Festival kicks off on Thursday, starting ten days of movie screenings and providing the launching pad for some of the world's top low-budget features and documentaries at the largest U.S. gathering for independent filmmakers.
The 117 movies to be screened at the festival held in the ski resort of Park City, Utah were selected from 4,042 features submitted, including 24 in competition.
Festival director John Cooper, Sundance's chief programmer, spoke to Reuters about the tone of the films selected and how first time filmmakers can be hopeful with new technology making films easier to turn around and offering a variety of platforms for films to reach audiences.
Q. What are you seeing that's different in the overall tone of the films selected this year?
A. "What I am seeing in general is that the independent film movement or community is maturing a little bit. The bar gets set higher each year. It doesn't seem to be leveling off. Each year the films are coming in with more depth of quality and over arching completeness and vision. This bar is set and other filmmakers coming up through the ranks know that is there."
Q. Some thought that with technology improving cameras and editing and sometimes making it cheaper to make indie films it might go the other way -- that quality might diminish with a more crowded field, why do you think quality is improving?
A. "There are a lot of factors. There is more of a community base now as to how they work. I am noticing much more a sharing of cinematographers, of actors and ideas.
"Also what is a happening is that independent filmmakers are looking at a different artistic life for themselves. They are not quite as fast or may never really want to jump to the big Hollywood film or situation for themselves. What a lot of people have learned and what is coming back in the younger filmmakers especially is they want to work in a way that makes them excited and fulfilled."
Q. What about documentaries that premiered last year such as "Senna" which went on to be popular with critics and audiences? What about this year's batch, what themes are you seeing?
A. "They came in a little different this year. They came in a little more overarching and more comprehensive of the issues that are facing the world. Last year they seemed very character-driven with more of a personal perspective. And this year we shift back and forth a little bit, but there are more about issues like hunger, the war on drugs, about global warming and the healthcare crisis. They are very topical issues on a much bigger more comprehensive scale."
Q. Is Sundance still the place for first-time and second-time directors? How has that changed?
A. "It has ramped up I think. It is not just an event for the filmmakers, it is talent too. There are actors that are going to pop out of this festival. For example, the woman from 'Filly Brown,' - it is multi-level discovery."
Q. Investors began to flee the market beginning around five years ago, but last year Sundance saw a more optimistic mood and numerous business deals. Any predictions for this year?
A. "We had a very successful year last year so people are coming to the festival with expectations, which is scary to me sometimes, because it doesn't really mean that much to me. There seems to have been a bit of a market correction both on the filmmakers side with the cost to make a film and what they sell for. It is a little more realistic. But it's very hard to tell.
"What I do know is when I watch the audiences respond in the theater, there is a market for them. Not even a market - there is an audience for them. Now how we connect the right audience to the films -- and I know that these films aren't for everyone but they are for a lot of people - that is where we are still in a big flux."
Q. Are older distribution methods -- theatrical and DVD -- still the key to making money? What stage are we at with web streaming?
A. "I still think theatrical is very real. But it's trickier. Now the talk is not so much about delivery systems but marketing systems. That is the first big shift. And then it's going to be about how you get the films themselves."
Q. Sundance recently announced a new deal for films selected
to be streamed online on sites including iTunes and YouTube should the filmmaker wish. How should filmmakers feel about this going into the festival?
A. "I hope they will step into the festival and breathe easier knowing that there is this great opportunity for them."
Q. Is the divide between Hollywood and indie film growing or getting less?
A. "I think the divide is growing. As Hollywood has its problems with financial things and needs to make films of a certain size, you are splitting, where maybe 10 years ago there was a blending a little bit."
(Reporting By Christine Kearney; editing by Patricia Reaney)
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Friday, January 20, 2012
Solar Swan Song: NASA Satellite Witnesses a Comet's Plunge into the Sun
News |
Space
A sun-watching spacecraft has for the first time tracked a comet's path all the way into the solar atmosphere
?| January 19, 2012
As dramatic exits go, it's on par with Major T. J. "King" Kong riding a falling nuclear bomb like a rodeo bull at the end of Dr. Strangelove. A NASA spacecraft has documented a comet's demise as it plunged toward the sun at 600 kilometers per second, broke apart and vaporized inside the solar atmosphere.
The comet, known as C/2011 N3 (SOHO), met its fiery fate on July 6. The object's official name designates that it was discovered in early July 2011 by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft. Many comets meet a similar end, but astronomers and solar physicists have never been able to track a comet's trajectory all the way into the depths of the solar corona, the outermost layer of the sun's atmosphere.
With the help of another spacecraft?NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), which was launched in 2010?a group of scientists were able to witness the final minutes of the comet's existence. The observations of C/2011 N3 as it broke apart allowed the researchers to estimate the comet's mass and the size of its nucleus; similar events in the future may provide clues about the origins of comets as well as probe conditions near the sun that are otherwise difficult to explore. The team of researchers published their findings in the January 20 issue of Science.
SOHO has discovered more than 2,000 comets near the sun, most of them thanks to the help of unpaid amateur astronomers who comb through imagery from the spacecraft. Most of the sun-grazing comets, like C/2011 N3, belong to the Kreutz family, which is thought to have originated from a single progenitor that broke apart within the past few thousand years. The smallest of these comets are destroyed by the sun before they draw too close, so C/2011 N3 was rather sizable for a Kreutz-family comet, with a nucleus 10 to 50 meters across.
"It must have been on the large side," says lead study author Carolus Schrijver, a solar physicist at the Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto, Calif. The comet's size contributed not only to its survival deep into the solar atmosphere but also to its receiving close scrutiny during the sunward plunge. "This was noted as a particularly bright one," Schrijver says. "That morning as it was approaching the sun I said, 'Well, let's see if we can see it.'"
An atmospheric imaging camera on SDO was indeed able to track the inbound comet, watching it bear down on the sun in an ultraviolet streak that lasted about 20 minutes before it disappeared. By that time the comet was only about 100,000 kilometers above the solar surface and had broken into a number of fragments, further hastening its vaporization.
"The temperatures [at that point] are so high that things are evaporating," says astronomer Matthew Knight of Lowell Observatory and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, who did not contribute to the new study. "Not just gases and ices, but heavy elements."
The comet's total obliteration in the solar atmosphere let Schrijver and his colleagues estimate how much material was lost in the process. "Because it vanished, we could actually measure its mass," Schrijver says. The researchers estimate that the comet may have shed as much as 60 million kilograms of material in its plunge?about the mass of the Titanic. But the comet's composition is less clear. "We're still trying to understand what was glowing," he says. The imager used to track C/2011 N3 is most sensitive to iron, but Schrijver notes that the glow could also have been produced by carbon or oxygen.
Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=fcb17ee905ce5cab249f2b259206e097
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Thursday, January 19, 2012
Feds challenge credibility of former BP executive (AP)
U.S. officials say a former BP executive was paid $107,000 a month to do consulting for a company lawyer, but allege the money may have been designed to influence her testimony during a deposition in litigation over the Gulf oil spill.
The allegations were made in a court filing Tuesday by government lawyers who want to challenge her credibility at trial with the compensation details. The filing says she was "responsible in great part for actively preventing" implementation of essential safety programs on such rigs as the Deepwater Horizon that exploded, killing 11 workers and prompting the spill.
Her name was redacted from the document, and a related exhibit was filed under seal.
The government says before she was deposed, she was hired as a consultant to a BP attorney, but she did little to earn her fee.
BP spokeswoman Ellen Moskowitz said in an email to The Associated Press that the London-based company had no comment. It previously argued the disaster resulted from a cascade of failures by multiple companies, not the actions of one or two officials who worked for BP.
The Deepwater Horizon was owned by Transocean and was being leased by BP while the oil giant prepared to abandon a well it had drilled a mile beneath the Gulf of Mexico. The rig exploded off Louisiana on April 20, 2010, leading to the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.
Hundreds of lawsuits have been filed over the spill, and a civil trial designed to assign shares of fault to the companies involved in the disaster is scheduled for Feb. 27 in federal court in New Orleans. The trial also is meant to determine whether rig owner Transocean can limit what it pays those making claims under maritime law.
Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange said Tuesday that a possible settlement could be reached before the start of the trial.
For right now, however, lawyers are preparing as if the trial will go forward and are filing motions related to evidence, witnesses and testimony.
The U.S. government, which has accused BP previously of being evasive, has a big stake in the outcome of the litigation.
In their filing Tuesday, Justice Department lawyers say they should be able to use compensation details to show bias on the part of the former BP executive and other witnesses who may testify. They want a judge to allow such details to be weighed on a case by case basis, rather than be excluded across the board as BP has requested.
"There are instances where employee compensation is relevant to bias, credibility, or other issues, such as active efforts by BP ? or certainly the appearance of such efforts ? to hide evidence under the guise of faux privilege," the lawyers wrote.
A Justice spokesman declined to comment on the filing beyond what was included in it.
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