Nik Wallenda said he was prepared to wear a harness when walking over Niagara Falls but would rather not.
via NYT > Most Recent Headlines http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/22/nyregion/for-niagara-falls-walk-abc-tells-wallenda-he-must-wear-harness.html
HBO Developing Comedy Series Starring Catherine Keener And Written & Directed By Charlie Kaufman
EXCLUSIVE: Frequent feature collaborators Charlie Kaufman and Catherine Keener are teaming for a TV series project. In a competitive situation, a half-hour comedy starring Oscar nominee Keener and to be written and directed by Oscar winner Kaufman has landed at HBO, which has put it on fast-track development. The untitled comedy is described as an exploration of one day in a woman’s life and how the events leading up to it can affect, or not, the reality in which she lives. Kaufman is executive producing; Keener serves as producer.
Over the last decade, Keener had been frequently pursued to do TV series, something she had declined to do until now. For her first series starring vehicle, she opted to team with a writer-director whom she has worked with before and who knows her well. Keener starred in Kaufman’s feature directorial debut Synecdoche, New York. She appeared in two movies written by him – Synecdoche and Being John Malkovich – and also did a cameo in the Kaufman-penned Adaptation. Keener also is set to co-star in Kaufman’s next movie, Frank Or Francis, opposite Steve Carell and Jack Black. Both Keener and Kaufman earned Oscar nominations for Being John Malkovich. Gersh-repped Keener also was nominated for Capote; WME-repped Kaufman was nominated for Adaptation and won a best screenplay Oscar for Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind. Following a stint on the short-lived drama series Ohara early in her career, Keener has been focused on features for the past 25 years. She is filming Sony’s Captain Phillips opposite Tom Hanks for director Paul Greengrass and will next be seen in Peace, Love & Misunderstanding.
HBO has been building a slate of comedy series with female leads, including recent entries Enlightened starring Laura Dern and Veep starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
via Deadline.com http://www.deadline.com/2012/05/hbo-developing-comedy-series-starring-catherine-keener-and-written-directed-by-charlie-kaufman/
Emails reveal new details about Arianna’s role in HuffPo founding
A series of emails between Arianna Huffington, her partners and the late conservative journalist Andrew Breitbart shed new light on the early days of The Huffington Post.
The story of the site’s founding is the subject of a bitter lawsuit filed by two Democratic political advisers who claim Huffington blatantly stole their idea for a leftwing alternative to the conservative Drudge Report.
In October, a New York judge dismissed a number of claims but allowed Peter Daou and James Boyce, both former advisers to Presidential candidate John Kerry, to go forward with a state claim based on theft of an idea. The judge later allowed them to conduct document discovery of the defendants.
The discovery process produced a number of emails and minutes from meetings that are described in the amended complaint filed today.
The complaint argues that the emails help show that Huffington and her business partner Kenneth Lerer build the Huffington Post on a stolen idea and that they actively sought to recruit others to implement it while stringing along Daou and Boyce:
Huffington and Lerer likewise were secretly communicating in December 2004 with a political activist named Andrew Breitbart in an effort to persuade Breitbart to participate, without Boyce and Daou [..] the timing of these discussions exposes Defendants’ fraudulent intentions, because Defendants were already in discussions with Breitbart about Plaintiffs’ ideas … at a time they were still pretending to be working with Plaintiffs. […]
Breitbart’s “quick first email pass at the idea†identifies the very same two primary components of the website that Plaintiffs had previously identified for Huffington and Lerer: […]  This “quick idea†– which became The Huffington Post – is the very idea that was stolen from Boyce and Daou.
The late Breitbart was a prominent conservative journalist who, after falling out with Huffington, claimed that he “created the Huffington Post†and that “I drafted the plan. They followed the plan.â€
The new complaint also includes emails from Daou to his aunt, writer Erica Jong, in which he claims credit for founding the website. In another email to President Obama’s former press secretary, Robert Gibbs, that was allegedly forwarded to Huffington herself, Boyce refers to being “involved with the Huffington Post†from the beginning.
In public statements and legal filings, Huffington and Lerer have downplayed the role of Daou and Boyce and claimed that the ideas they presented in an ideas memo are different from what the website actually became.
The new complaint also contains allegations of a cover-up based on minutes of a meeting held between Huffington, Lerer, Breitbart and an editor in which the group debated what “narrative†to offer the media about the Huffington Post’s origins:
Breitbart proposed this answer: “I knew what was missing in the blogosphere, I just needed the rolodex to be able to put it all together, and Arianna provided that. … Arianna called Andrew to talk about an alternative to the Drudge Report. Andrew called Arianna about the group blog – there’s nobody he knows besides Arianna who could make this work.†[…]Deceitfully, however, the “narrative†wrote Boyce and Daou out of the picture entirely.
The emails and other documents cited in the new complaint don’t appear to contain smoking gun proof that Huffington schemed to cut out Daou and Boyce after stealing their idea. But the new allegations, including an email in which Huffington appears to have forwarded a confidential business plan written by Boyce to a subordinate, could strengthen the plaintiffs’ case.
The plaintiffs also use the documents to reassert new claims for fraud and breach of contract that the judge had initially struck out last October. The overall legal process is likely to drag on for many more months.
AOL bought the Huffington Post for $315 million in the spring of 2011. The acquisition has proved rocky in recent months and led to rumors that the two entities might part ways.
Here is the amended complaint:
What baboons can teach us about social status
High-ranking male baboons recover more quickly from injuries and are less likely to become ill than other males, biologists have found.
via ScienceDaily: Latest Science News http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120521163851.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29
Man Survives 180-Foot Plunge Down Niagara Falls in Apparent Suicide Attempt
A man survived a plunge of at least 180 feet down Niagara Falls on Monday after climbing over a rail and “deliberately jumping” into the Niagara River. “Based on witness statements and surveillance video, it doesn’t appear in any way, shape, or form that this was anything other than a suicide attempt,” said Niagara Parks Police Sergeant Chris Gallagher.
Rescuers reached the man at the bottom of the Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side of the river about two hours after the jump. Members of the fire department rappelled down slick, steep shale and boulders and pulled him up the cliff in a basket. Estimated to be in his thirties or forties, the man somehow managed to swim to the shore despite suffering chest injuries, including broken ribs and a collapsed lung. According to the Associated Press, the man is the only the third person known to survive a plunge over the falls without a safety device. After luck like that, this man has some serious living to do.
Read more posts by Brett Smiley
Filed Under:
niagara falls
,sad things that turn into happy things
via Daily Intel http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/05/man-survives-180-foot-plunge-down-niagara-falls.html
Booker Hits Back, Calls Bain Attacks ‘Fair Game’
Newark Mayor Cory Booker hit back on Monday night after the GOP pounced on his comments that the negative advertising by both campaigns is “nauseating†and that he is “uncomfortable†with the Obama campaign’s attacks on presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney’s time at the private equity firm Bain Capital. Â
The rising Democratic star said on MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show that the GOP crossed a line on Monday with press releases, sound bites, and even a petition on the GOP website urging voters to “Stand with Cory.â€
Booker stressed that he has been an Obama supporter for his entire political career, and is “upset†with how the GOP has twisted his words. He posed a challenge to the GOP, invoking the Obama campaign’s new rallying cry. Â
via Homepage http://www.nationaljournal.com/2012-presidential-campaign/booker-hits-back-calls-bain-attacks-fair-game–20120521
40 Percent Alcoholics? Ctd
The new mental health diagnostic guide may broaden the definition of alcohol abuse. Deni Carise calms fears:
[T]he new DSM will not cause more people to be diagnosed with addiction. Instead, more people who may not yet be addicted (but whose drug use is nonetheless problematic and unhealthy) will be able to access very inexpensive but proven effective treatment earlier and easier. Treating these folks is no different from treating those in the early stages of diabetes — it requires minimal professional help, some education, and simple lifestyle changes. We wouldn’t wait until a pre-diabetic started experiencing the symptoms of full-blown diabetes before we offered him or her help. Instead, we would intervene early in hopes of preventing such a difficult future. The same should apply for those with early substance misuse.
Keith Humphreys, meanwhile, argues that labeling risky behavior risky isn’t a moral judgement.
via The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/andrewsullivan/rApM/~3/5LQCz_Xbnn4/40-percent-alcoholics-ctd.html
Cory Booker walks back criticism of Obama campaign attacks
President Obama’s re-election campaign is doing some damage control after a top surrogate Sunday sharply criticized a major Democratic assault on Mitt Romney’s record at Bain Capital.
via Yahoo! News – Latest News & Headlines http://news.yahoo.com/cory-booker-walks-back-criticism-obama-campaign-bain-105420351–abc-news-politics.html
Yahoo Sells Back Stake in Alibaba
Chinese Internet company will pay $7B in deal.
How Fast Can You Read?
Sohowfastcanyouread?Really?Areyousure?Well,we’llseeaboutthat,whydon’twe.*
Head on over to this nifty webpage over at Staples to see how you stack
up against the national average: Link
– via Metafilter
*This is how I felt after I
completed the test.