Jason Wahler of The Hills Talks Suicide Attempt, Addiction: "I Was in the Fight For My Life"

Lauren Conrad will always be known as the "girl who didn't go to Paris" because she decided to stay in California with then-boyfriend Jason Wahler. But their summer ended in unexplained heartbreak. What The Hills didn't show was Wahler's intense struggle with alcohol addiction, which contributed to their failed relationship. 

Wahler returned to the show in 2007, claiming to be cleaning up his act, but it wasn't until his 2010 stint on Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew that the reality bad boy finally made a commitment to getting clean and sober. 

PHOTOS: The Hills stars: Then and now

In a telling new blog post for HuffPost Celebrity, Wahler opened up about his struggles with addiction and how his reality TV background fueled the flame and led to him almost dying. 

"I was in the fight for my life, but I didn't realize it," the newlywed star revealed. "My mistakes and run-ins with the law always hit the wires because of my time spent on MTV's Laguna Beach and The Hills. I was quickly becoming known as the non-stop partier from Orange County, when truthfully, I was just like any other alcoholic who was humiliated because of their spiral out of control. I knew that Laguna and The Hills weren't the source of my addiction, but the overnight success, fame and cash ignited my addiction much quicker."

Wahler's addiction became so bad that he almost took his own life at one point.

PHOTOS: Lauren Conrad's love life

"I was so uncomfortable in my own skin that I contemplated suicide a number of times, and even attempted it once," he revealed. "I took 10 times more Antabuse (a popular drug that helps alcoholics abstain from drinking) than I was supposed to in an effort to take my own life, but was saved after being rushed to the hospital and receiving treatment for my overdose. That was about four years ago, and I have now been sober for three."

After completing Season 4 of Celebrity Rehab, Wahler was in a much better place. He made amends with Conrad, who got engaged to boyfriend William Tell last weekend -- the same weekend Wahler himself got married.

PHOTOS: Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew: Stars we've lost

The California native credits much of his sober success to model Ashley Slack, his new bride. It's been a long journey for the star, but he remains committed to keeping clean. 

"I now take pride in how I look, and live a healthy lifestyle that is reflected in my physicality," he said. "I could see the obvious difference between who I was then at 19 and who I have become now -- and believe the public can see the same, too, despite my past reputation."

Source: http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/the-hills-star-jason-wahler-talks-suicide-attempt-addiction-i-was-in-the-fight-for-my-life-20131810
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High-speed chase closes US-Mexico border crossing (Providence Journal)

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Leaders Express 'Cautious Optimism' Over Iran Nuclear Plan

Catherine Ashton, the EU high representative for foreign affairs, and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif share a light moment Tuesday at the start of two-day talks on Iran's nuclear program.

Fabrice Coffrini/AP

Catherine Ashton, the EU high representative for foreign affairs, and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif share a light moment Tuesday at the start of two-day talks on Iran's nuclear program.

Fabrice Coffrini/AP

Iran's proposal for easing the standoff over its nuclear program got seemingly positive initial reviews at Tuesday's start of multiparty talks in Geneva.

A spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said the Iranian delegation had made a PowerPoint presentation outlining the plan at the beginning of the two-day session. The spokesman said the plan had been received with "cautious optimism" but gave no further details of the close-door meeting, describing the proceedings as "confidential."

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said there had been a "good" first reaction to Tehran's proposals, according to Reuters.

As the BBC reports:

"The discussions bring together Iran officials and representatives of the 'P5+1 group,' made up of Britain, China, France, Russia and the US plus Germany.

"In a Facebook entry posted at the weekend, [Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad] Zarif said the talks were the 'start of a difficult and relatively time-consuming way forward.' "

The talks are the first since moderate President Hasan Rouhani was elected four months ago. Since then, Rouhani has ratcheted down the bombastic rhetoric of his predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. As The Associated Press writes, the talks are seen as "a key test of Iran's overtures to the West."

Foreign Policy says: "While there is little optimism that this week's talks will resolve the matter of Iranian nuclear weapons development entirely, U.S. officials have hinted that progress made could result in immediate relief from U.S. imposed sanctions."

Update At 1:45 p.m. ET:

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney warned that "despite positive signs" from the Geneva talks, "no one should expect a breakthrough overnight."

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/10/15/234638759/leader-express-cautious-optimism-over-iran-nuclear-plan?ft=1&f=1009
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WIRED Space Photo of the Day: Saturn From Above

This portrait looking down on Saturn and its rings was created from images obtained by NASA's Cassini spacecraft on Oct. 10, 2013. It was made by amateur image processor and Cassini fan Gordan Ugarkovic. This image has not been geometrically corrected for shifts in the spacecraft perspective and still has some camera artifacts.The mosaic was created from 12 image footprints with red, blue and green filters from Cassini's imaging science subsystem. Ugarkovic used full color sets for 11 of the footprints and red and blue images for one footprint.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo. For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.

Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute/G. Ugarkovic [high-resolution, seriously click this]

Caption: NASA

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After Escape, Fla. Killers Signed In With Authorities

A story that already sounded like something out of the movies has gotten even harder to believe:

Joseph Jenkins and Charles Walker — convicted killers who were recently released from a state prison in Florida thanks to faked documents featuring forged signatures of a judge and prosecutors — later walked into an Orlando County jail to register as felons.

Convicted killer Charles Walker in a photograph taken on Oct. 11 by the Orange County, Fla., Sheriff's Office — after he escaped from prison. Walker went to the Orange County Jail to register as a felon.

AP

Convicted killer Joseph Jenkins in a photograph taken on Sept. 20 by the Orange County,Fla., Sheriff's Office — after he escaped from prison. Jenkins went to the Orange County Jail to register as a felon.

AP

According to The Associated Press:

"They signed paperwork. They were fingerprinted, and they were even photographed before walking out of the jail without raising any alarms."

As The Orlando Sentinel says, the killers went to the jail in Orlando "not to turn themselves in, but to re-enter society."

The AP adds that:

"Felons are required to register by law. When they do, their fingerprints are digitally uploaded to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and a deputy at the jail verifies that they don't have any outstanding warrants, said jail spokesman Allen Moore.

"By registering as the law required, they likely drew less attention.

" 'If there's no hit that comes back, they're free to go,' said Isaiah Dennard, the Florida Sheriff's Association's jail services coordinator. If felons do not register, a warrant is put out for their arrest, Dennard said."

Jenkins and Walker are still at large. NPR's Greg Allen tells our Newscast Desk that a nationwide alert has been issued. He adds that "Florida's Department of Corrections says it's now changed its procedures — requiring verification by the sentencing judge before any inmate is released."

Authorities are also, obviously, looking into who created the forged documents.

According to the Sentinel:

"Jenkins, 34, was found guilty of first-degree murder in the 1998 killing and botched robbery of Roscoe Pugh, an Orlando man. ... Walker, 34, was convicted of second-degree murder in a 1999 slaying in Orange County. He told investigators that 23-year-old Cedric Slater was bullying him and he fired three shots intending to scare him."

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/10/19/237613871/after-escape-fla-killers-signed-in-with-authorities?ft=1&f=1003
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With Shutdown Over, The Race To Feed Low-Income Seniors Is On

Meal deliveries to some low-income seniors stopped during the shutdown, and distributors are now racing to get meals out.

iStockphoto.com

Meal deliveries to some low-income seniors stopped during the shutdown, and distributors are now racing to get meals out.

iStockphoto.com

The USDA is back to funding its meals program for low-income seniors. That's good news for those who depend on the weekly food deliveries, which stopped during the government shutdown.

Across Michigan, tens of thousands of seniors turn to dozens of agencies for assistance. In Grand Rapids, where we first reported on the program freeze, a local agency is playing catch-up, relying on volunteers to fill the void.

The race to feed low-income seniors is on. In a warehouse half the size of a football field, more than a dozen volunteers form an assembly line, filling boxes with government surplus food.

They're surrounded by stacks of cereal, canned veggies, soup and dried milk from the USDA's Commodity Supplemental Food Program.

"I'm hoping we can get 3-, 400 boxes packed today," says Stacie Nobles, a volunteer from Feed America.

It's a lofty goal, but she's confident it will get done. She's disturbed by the idea the food here has been sitting the past two weeks, not getting to the stomachs of vulnerable seniors.

"You know, that's our grandparents. What do you do? You go hungry. And how long do you go? Two weeks is a long time," Nobles says.

Kent County's Community Action Agency is pushing to make sure its weekly deliveries go out on Friday. Nobles says 600 boxes are ready to go — but there are 1,500 low-income seniors to serve.

"We've got to try to get everything in by the end of the month now," says Ron Cusin, who runs the warehouse and makes deliveries.

He says those 60 or older with an annual income under $15,000 qualify.

"They'll be very happy to see me, I'll tell you that much," Cusin says. He says he'll be happy to see them, too.

Across the country, in warehouses like this one, the scene is being repeated as volunteers quickly try to put food back on the plates of the elderly poor who rely on them.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/10/17/236368853/with-shutdown-over-the-race-to-feed-low-income-seniors-is-on?ft=1&f=1053
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Teams Take A Step Closer To World Series

The Cardinals beat the Dodgers Friday night, and Detroit and Boston are back at Fenway on Saturday. Host Scott Simon talks with Howard Bryant of ESPN about the games and what's ahead for the World Series.

Copyright © 2013 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

You know, this week there's been no shutdown of sports.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

SIMON: The pennants are falling into place. The St. Louis Cardinals going back to the World Series after beating the Los Angeles Dodgers last night by a score of, I don't know, I had to go to sleep. It looked like about 50 to nothing. And tonight, in the American League, the Detroit Tigers roar back into Fenway Park. But would you bet against the Red Sox to win a game there? They lead the series three games to two. A bunch of reds could be in the World Series. For more we go to Howard Bryant of ESPN.com and ESPN The Magazine. He's at the studios of New England Public Radio. Howard, thanks for being with us.

HOWARD BRYANT: Good morning, Scott. It wasn't that bad. It wasn't 50 to nothing. It was 9 to nothing, but it felt like 50 to nothing.

SIMON: This is the fourth World Series the Cardinals will be going to in ten years. Now of course, as you realize, for a Cub fan, this is hard to say, b-b-b-b-b-but year in and year out the Cardinals are one of the great franchises, not only of all time, but of all now. How do they do it?

BRYANT: It's a fantastic thing. When you start looking at the Cardinals, I always refer to Major League Baseball as there are four legs to the table in terms of the four franchises that have been historically and successfully the most popular teams, is the Cardinals, the Red Sox, the Dodgers and the Yankees. And those teams stand above the rest every year for some reason, whether it's the Red Sox - even when the Red Sox underachieve, they were somehow the team that people wrote about and talked about and they were always, they had so much influence in Major League Baseball.

The Cardinals are the Midwest team. In a year where Stan Musial, the greatest Cardinal, passed away, they win the pennant. They've won 19 pennants, 22 pennants overall since 1883; they've won nine since 1996. And they do it the old-fashioned way, in a lot of different ways. They still go out and they get free agent players, but they have a lot of homegrown players.

They don't overspend, and gee, the kid, Michael Wacha - this kid has played - he's pitched nine starts in his career and he is the difference-maker right now. And how did they get Michael Wacha? By not giving Albert Pujols the $250 million and letting him go, and now this young homegrown talent pitched them into the World Series last night, giving up only two hits.

SIMON: Yeah. Let's go to the American League. As we mentioned, Boston is ahead three to two. So Detroit's not down by much, but did that second game put the series into a kind of groove?

BRYANT: Second game changed everything. You've got back-to-back guys throwing no-hitters. You've got a 1-nothing lead on the road, you're up 5 to nothing, and then 5 to one with two outs in the eighth inning, so you're about to go home for three games, up two games to none, with your best pitcher on the mound.

David Ortiz hits a grand slam, you lose the game in the next inning. And all of a sudden everything turns around. Then they beat Verlander at home, you know, in Detroit, and so now instead of having a chance to go up three games to none, the Tigers are facing elimination. And the good news for the Tigers is that they've got their two best pitchers.

You've got Max Scherzer going tonight, who's probably going to win the Cy Young Award next month, and you've got Verlander if they win tonight, going to a game 7 and you don't want to face Verlander in a game 7. So on the one hand, the Red Sox are a game away from going to the World Series, but if you're the Tigers, you are the defending American League Champions. You went to the World Series last year, and you've got your two best pitchers going the next two games if it gets that far.

SIMON: Got to ask you quickly about Prince Fielder. I saw him slide into second base this week. It was like dredging the Panama Canal. He hasn't had a successful playoff series in a long time.

BRYANT: No, and it's tough. You look at all the stat guys and the Bill James people that I completely disagree with so many times when they talk about how there's no such thing as clutch hitting and there's a small sample size in the postseason. And I disagree with that. I think that what you do in the postseason, it's pressure. It's not comparing you to the regular season. It's what you do in this moment when everybody's watching.

If you look at Carlos Beltran last night...

SIMON: Oh, what a catch. Yeah.

BRYANT: What a catch. He got them going and he wins game 1 for them. He's an amazing, amazing offensive player and defensive player, and then you look at Prince Fielder who's had a terrible postseason. He needs to break out or people are going to wonder if he's a pressure player - at $214 million over nine years.

SIMON: Yeah. We actually have 20 seconds left. We're building into the clock. I got a tweet last night as you and I were watching the game I want to run by you. Thomas Alma writes: Sorry I don't share your love of the game. Professional sports are corrupt, child-like and pathetic. Howard, he's talking about us.

BRYANT: He really is. And he's not wrong, but we love them anyway.

SIMON: Thanks very much, Howard Bryant of ESPN.com and ESPN The Magazine. And you're listening to WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News.

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Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=237545159&ft=1&f=7
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Americans win Nobel prize for work on predicting markets

By Johan Ahlander and Alister Bull

STOCKHOLM/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Three American scientists won the 2013 economics Nobel prize on Monday for research that has improved the forecasting of long term asset prices, a hot topic since the collapse of the U.S. housing market bubble prompted a global financial meltdown.

"There is no way to predict the price of stocks and bonds over the next few days or weeks," The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in awarding the 8 million crown ($1.25 million) prize to Eugene Fama, Lars Peter Hansen and Robert Shiller.

"But it is quite possible to foresee the broad course of these prices over longer periods, such as the next three to five years. These findings ... were made and analyzed by this year's Laureates," the academy said.

Better understanding of what drives prices over the long term can make markets function better, while failure of investors to recognize when rising asset prices become detached from underlying fundamentals can create bubbles.

Such was the case in U.S. housing, where collapse of the market caused the 2007-2009 global financial crisis. Some observers warn other bubbles have since developed in emerging markets, driven by ultra-easy U.S. monetary policy.

Shiller's work had led him to suggest back in 2005 that the U.S. housing market might be over-heating, and its recent strength has won his attention again.

"It is up 12 percent in the last year. This is a very rapid price increase right now, and I believe that it is accelerated somewhat by the Fed's policy," Shiller told Reuters.

Shiller helped create a closely watched gauge of U.S. housing prices and in June this year warned of a potential new housing bubble in some of America's largest cities.

"This financial crisis that we've been going through in the last five years has been one that seems to reveal the failure to understand price movements," Shiller told Reuters after learning that he had been chosen for the prize.

Fama, tipped as a Nobel winner for many years, has been called the father of modern finance and is well-known for research showing that certain groups of stocks tend to outperform over time.

Their work helped the emergence of index funds in stock markets, the award-giving body said.

Peter Englund, professor of banking at the Stockholm School of economics and member of the prize committee, said their research had deeply influenced modern finance.

"The most obvious application, that follows on from Fama's research, is the insight that you can't beat the market. It is impossible to prove that equity analysis is worth the money," he told Reuters.

"That has led to the development of index funds and that most households actually put their savings in index funds."

In addition, the behavior of asset prices are key to decisions such as savings or house buying, and therefore play a vital role national economic policy, the academy said.

"Mispricing of assets may contribute to financial crises and, as the recent global recession illustrates, such crises can damage the overall economy," it added.

NEXT BUBBLE

Fama and Hansen are professors at the University of Chicago, while Shiller is a professor at Yale University.

"A lot of people had told me they hoped I would win it, but I am aware that there are so many other worthy people that I had discounted it, so I would say no, I did not expect it," Schiller told a news conference.

The economics prize, officially called the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, was established in 1968. It was not part of the original group of awards set out in dynamite tycoon Nobel's 1895 will.

The U.S. Federal Reserve has held interest rates near zero since late 2008 and almost quadrupled its balance sheet to around $3.7 trillion through a campaign of bond buying, or quantitative easing, to hold down long term borrowing costs.

Placing more emphasize on avoiding asset price bubbles, and financial stability in general, has been a controversial topic for many years in policy-making circles.

Central bankers traditionally try to avoid targeting asset bubbles with a blunt instrument like interest rates. But the severe harm done when a bubble bursts means that, in the United States at least, they are thinking more broadly about the unintended consequences of their monetary policy decisions.

"When asset prices are getting way out of line it should be cause for alarm. The monetary authorities should lean against extreme asset price movements," Shiller said.

(Reporting by Niklas Pollard and Johan Ahlander; Editing by Alistair Scrutton and Ralph Boulton)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/three-u-economists-win-nobel-prize-economics-111246460.html
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Defense: Madoff kept employees in dark about fraud

JoAnn Crupi, right, arrives to federal court in New York, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2013. The longtime secretary of imprisoned financier Bernard Madoff and four other back-office subordinates of the Ponzi king are going to trial Tuesday as the government for the first time shows a jury what it has collected in its five-year probe of one of history's biggest frauds. Prosecutors say fictitious trades and phantom accounts were created with help from Madoff's secretary, Annette Bongiorno, a supervisor in his private investment business; Daniel Bonventre, his director of operations for investments; Crupi, an account manager; and computer programmers Jerome O'Hara and George Perez. All have pleaded not guilty. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

JoAnn Crupi, right, arrives to federal court in New York, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2013. The longtime secretary of imprisoned financier Bernard Madoff and four other back-office subordinates of the Ponzi king are going to trial Tuesday as the government for the first time shows a jury what it has collected in its five-year probe of one of history's biggest frauds. Prosecutors say fictitious trades and phantom accounts were created with help from Madoff's secretary, Annette Bongiorno, a supervisor in his private investment business; Daniel Bonventre, his director of operations for investments; Crupi, an account manager; and computer programmers Jerome O'Hara and George Perez. All have pleaded not guilty. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Annette Bongiorno arrives to federal court in New York, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2013. The longtime secretary of imprisoned financier Bernard Madoff and four other back-office subordinates of the Ponzi king are going to trial Tuesday as the government for the first time shows a jury what it has collected in its five-year probe of one of history's biggest frauds. Prosecutors say fictitious trades and phantom accounts were created with help from Madoff's secretary, Bongiorno, a supervisor in his private investment business; Daniel Bonventre, his director of operations for investments; JoAnn Crupi, an account manager; and computer programmers Jerome O'Hara and George Perez. All have pleaded not guilty. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Daniel Bonventre arrives to federal court in New York, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2013. The longtime secretary of imprisoned financier Bernard Madoff and four other back-office subordinates of the Ponzi king are going to trial Tuesday as the government for the first time shows a jury what it has collected in its five-year probe of one of history's biggest frauds. Prosecutors say fictitious trades and phantom accounts were created with help from Madoff's secretary, Annette Bongiorno, a supervisor in his private investment business; Bonventre, his director of operations for investments; JoAnn Crupi, an account manager; and computer programmers Jerome O'Hara and George Perez. All have pleaded not guilty. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

George Perez arrives to federal court in New York, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2013. The longtime secretary of imprisoned financier Bernard Madoff and four other back-office subordinates of the Ponzi king are going to trial Tuesday as the government for the first time shows a jury what it has collected in its five-year probe of one of history's biggest frauds. Prosecutors say fictitious trades and phantom accounts were created with help from Madoff's secretary, Annette Bongiorno, a supervisor in his private investment business; Daniel Bonventre, his director of operations for investments; JoAnn Crupi, an account manager; and computer programmers Jerome O'Hara and Perez. All have pleaded not guilty. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

FILE - In this April 12, 2010 file photo, Jerome O'Hara, former computer programmer for Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, exits Manhattan federal court in New York. O'Hara, and four other back-office subordinates of the Ponzi king go to trial Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2013 as the government for the first time shows a jury what it has collected in its five-year probe of one of history's biggest frauds. (AP Photo/ Louis Lanzano, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — Bernard Madoff was a Wall Street rock star who charmed and deceived billionaires, celebrities, government regulators and his employees, including five of his ex-workers who are on trial for fraud, defense attorneys told a jury Thursday in opening statements.

Attorney Andrew Frisch said Madoff and his former finance chief — government cooperator Frank DiPascali — were "depraved and pathological," delivering millions of lies to disguise a fraud that cheated thousands of investors out of billions of dollars.

Defense lawyers described Madoff as god-like at his firm, a former NASDAQ chairman who hid his heartless, corrupt and greedy side with extraordinary generosity. They said he was a swaggering Wall Street icon, a control freak, a great liar, a genius manipulator, extremely demanding, eccentric and temperamental, private and secretive, domineering and controlling.

"Celebrities, movie stars, Sandy Koufax. They all believed in Bernie Madoff," said Eric Breslin, an attorney for JoAnn Crupi, 52, an account manager for Madoff for 25 years. "He literally had millionaires eating out of his hand, begging him to invest their money. ... The world was taken in. The government will not be able to prove JoAnn Crupi knew any better."

He said Madoff, 75, who is serving a 150-year prison sentence, would not appear in court but "his shadow will be in this courtroom every day."

On Wednesday, a prosecutor accused the former employees of being crucial components of a fraud that remained hidden for decades, but defense lawyers insisted Madoff fooled their clients just as he did Securities and Exchange Commission inspectors and sophisticated financial experts.

Frisch portrayed his client, Daniel Bonventre, as enamored by Madoff. Bonventre, 66, rose to a position of director of operations after joining the firm in the late 1960s. He oversaw the legitimate side of Madoff's business, not the secretive private investment wing, Frisch said.

"Dan believed Madoff, like so many others," Frisch said. "He devoted his life to Madoff. ... Dan is broken but he is not guilty."

Roland Riopelle, attorney for Madoff's longtime secretary, Annette Bongiorno, 64, said his client too was taken in by "a kind of rock star in the securities industry."

"The government simply cannot prove that she knew there was a fraud and intended to hurt anyone," he said.

Bongiorno started working for Madoff in the 1960s when she was 19, eventually becoming a supervisor responsible for maintaining the accounts of longtime customers, Riopelle said.

He noted she kept her money in company's accounts until the fraud was revealed and encouraged family and friends to invest, something she would not do if she was "really some kind of monster."

Frisch described Madoff as a "Wall Street icon," someone as large in stature in the securities industry as Donald Trump in real estate, LeBron James in basketball or Oprah Winfrey on television. He said Madoff's clients included filmmaker Steven Spielberg and actors Kevin Bacon and John Malkovich.

Attorney Gordon Mehler, representing computer programmer Jerome O'Hara, 50, warned jurors to beware of the government's star witness, DiPascali, saying he was such an architect of the fraud that his blaming other Madoff employees would be like "the Big Bad Wolf getting on the witness stand and condemning Little Red Riding Hood."

He said O'Hara and another computer programmer on trial, George Perez, 47, were duped by Madoff.

The trial follows the 2008 collapse of Madoff's private investment business, which cost clients nearly $20 billion. A court-appointed trustee has recovered much of the money.

When the fraud was revealed, Madoff admitted that the nearly $68 billion he claimed existed in accounts was actually only $300 million.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-10-17-Madoff%20Fraud-Trial/id-7cbb82028484407bb6e62f2195ae38e8
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Twitter User Growth Decelerating: +6% In Q3 To 231.7 Million Now Vs +10% In Q1

Twitter's percent user growth is slowing. In a new S-1 amendment to its IPO filing, Twitter notes it hit 231.7 million monthly users by at the end of Q3 2013, up 6.13% from 218.3 million at the end of Q2. If you look back, you'll see Twitter had 6.86% growth in Q2, 10.27% in Q1, and 10.77% in Q4 2012. The slowing growth could indicate trouble signing up new users or retaining older ones.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/XT9ScKAs6Ms/
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Flowers' First Bloom Captured in Fossil Record (Voice Of America)

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Android Central 156: Petting a $3000 Goat

Podcast MP3 URL: 

http://traffic.libsyn.com/androidcentral/Android_Central_156__Petting_a_3000_Goat.mp3

Thing 1: The Nexus 5 cometh

• Nexus 5 makes a brief appearance on Google Play, listed at $349
• White Nexus 5 spied on alleged retail packaging
• Telus is ready for the Nexus 5
• Nexus 5 appears in clearest leak yet, gets the full hands on

Thing 2: Wrapping up the HTC One Max

• HTC One Max and HTC Sense 5.5 video walkthrough
• HTC One Max review
• The HTC One Max Power Flip Case
• How to turn off BlinkFeed in Sense 5.5
• Yes, you can unlock an HTC One Max with your nipple

Thing 3: Software, software everywhere

• SwiftKey 4.3 beta debuts with new keyboard layouts, we go thumbs-on
• Aviate isn't 'spying' on anyone, it's just being sloppy with your data

Thing 4: Big Android BBQ

• So long, Big Android BBQ 2013

 

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/Ni5DYoel7GM/story01.htm
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Did Al Gore Invent the Internet?

Anytime someone online writes about internet history, the comments inevitably fill up with jokes about Al Gore. There's a popular myth that Gore once claimed to have invented the internet, which means many people think that "Al Gore" works as both a set-up and a punchline. What these jokesters might be surprised to learn is that Gore actually deserves some credit.

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Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/uUlYup-pxYk/@barrett
Tags: ohio state football   national coffee day   emmy winners   Richard Sherman   mick jagger  

Tangled Web: Internet-based opera to open at Met

NEW YORK (AP) — Little did Nico Muhly know when he composed "Two Boys" that the type of Internet deception he based the opera on would keep repeating over and over.

So when reports surfaced last winter that Notre Dame football star Manti Te'o was duped into an online relationship with a nonexistent woman, Muhly took notice.

"I was so happy," he said, "in a perverse way."

Then he explained how the Web had created such a tangled web.

"It wasn't just some sort of man and girl in the suburbs. So that to me was very satisfying," he added with a laugh, going on to cite the case of a physicist duped into smuggling cocaine while believing he was courting a bikini model.

"It happens to random people, to famous people, to really smart people, to educated people, to uneducated people. There's a real kind of egalitarian nature to deceit, you know what I mean?"

The work by the 32-year-old New Yorker receives its North American premiere at the Metropolitan Opera on Monday night, a fictionalized account of a British teenager who used the Internet in an attempt to arrange his own murder in 2003. The first composition to reach the Met stage from the company's 7-year-old commissioning program with Lincoln Center Theater, "Two Boys" has been revised since its world premiere two years ago at the English National Opera.

Starring mezzo-soprano Alice Coote as Detective Anne Strawson and tenor Paul Appleby as Brian, a 16-year-old accused in the stabbing of a 13-year-old named Jake, "Two Boys" is a starkly contemporary piece.

Met General Manager Peter Gelb said the adult themes ruled out the opera from inclusion in the company's high-definition theater simulcasts.

"It's full of such darkness, such personally really upsetting things that I have to witness that, yeah, I feel very tired," Coote said. "There's a lot of sexual and emotional abuse going on in this piece."

Gelb first became aware of Muhly when he was an executive at Sony. They started talking soon after Muhly was a pianist for a workshop of what became Rufus Wainwright's "Prima Donna."

Muhly wrote the opera with librettist Craig Lucas in a method Mozart, Verdi and Wagner would be unfamiliar with. When he had drafts of music ready, he would email them to Lucas as PDF files. Muhly composes at home and on the road — and on Amtrak trains.

"The cafe car is the best," he said. "I find out in advance where it's going to be and then wait by the staircase in Penn Station."

Reviews at the original run were lukewarm. Rupert Christiansen wrote in The Telegraph that it was "a bit of a bore — dreary and earnest rather than moving and gripping, and smartly derivative rather than distinctively individual. Yet I wish that I could have heard it again before passing judgment."

Since the London premiere, they've switched the beginnings of the two acts to make the work more linear, created more of a backstory to the detective, added about 1½ minutes of music, inserted dancing to the online chat room choruses and made minor changes to the orchestration,

"I think most operas after their first performance get revised, since the beginning of time," Muhly said. "And others go through a period of heavy, heavy revision, and then you realize the first instance was right."

Gelb has instituted a commitment to contemporary operas at the Met since he took over as general manager in 2006, presenting the company premieres of John Adams' "Nixon in China," Thomas Ades' "The Tempest" and Philip Glass' "Satyagraha." Trying to fill its 3,800 seats, the Met has put up posters in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, erected signs in New York City subways and advertised on MTV's "Catfish: The TV Show," a reality program about Manti Te'o-style trickery in online dating.

"In general a piece that is completely unfamiliar to the audience is harder to sell, obviously, than a piece that is familiar," Gelb said.

For all the modern technology, Appleby says the emotions of the story are familiar. He compares it to plays of Shakespeare and the French dramatist Cyrano de Bergerac.

"A very, old traditional story about people trying to reach out and looking, longing for a connection or longing for love and not feeling comfortable expressing themselves," he called it.

Everyone involved describes "Two Boys" as troubling.

"This is written in such a way that it almost expresses the disjointedness of daily life that we all live," Coote said. "What has become of us as humanity when we're so dominated now by the Internet, by technology, as our lives are quite a lot of the time being lived within those realms?"

• Performing Arts
• Arts & Entertainment
• Nico Muhly

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tangled-internet-based-opera-open-met-191726984.html
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Social psychologists say war is not inevitable, psychology research should promote peace

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

17-Oct-2013

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Contact: Janet Lathrop
jlathrop@admin.umass.edu
413-545-0444
University of Massachusetts at Amherst

Authors from the UMass Amherst Psychology of Peace and Violence program say that if social psychology research focuses only on how to soften the negative consequences of war and violence, 'it would fall far short of its potential and value for society'

AMHERST, Mass. In a new review of how psychology research has illuminated the causes of war and violence, three political psychologists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst say this understanding can and should be used to promote peace and overturn the belief that violent conflict is inevitable.

Writing in the current special "peace psychology" issue of American Psychologist, lead author Bernhard Leidner, Linda Tropp and Brian Lickel of UMass Amherst's Psychology of Peace and Violence program say that if social psychology research focuses only on how to soften the negative consequences of war and violence, "it would fall far short of its potential and value for society."

"In summarizing psychological perspectives on the conditions and motivations that underlie violent conflict," says Tropp, "we find that psychology's contributions can extend beyond understanding the origins and nature of violence to promote nonviolence and peace." She adds, "We oppose the view that war is inevitable and argue that understanding the psychological roots of conflict can increase the likelihood of avoiding violence as a way to resolve conflicts with others."

Political leaders can be crucial in showing people different paths and alternatives to violent confrontation, the researchers point out. Leidner mentions Nelson Mandela, a leader who "offered South Africans an example of how to deal with the legacy of apartheid without resorting to further violence by making statements such as, 'If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.'"

Leidner and colleagues recall how political and social psychology researchers have in recent decades steadily gained more understanding, through research, of such psychological factors as intergroup threat, uncertainty, group identity, emotions, moral beliefs and how intergroup conflict affects views of the world and of oneself.

They review theory and research that specify psychological factors that contribute to and perpetuate intergroup violence through emotional responses and belief systems fostered by conflict. Finally, they summarize ideas of how psychological "defenses of peace" a phrase in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) preamble can be constructed in the human mind.

The authors acknowledge that conflict and violence between groups persist because they often give people ways to address psychological needs, for identity, safety, security and power. Nonviolence has received far less media and research attention, they point out, but this should change. The UMass Amherst team urges social psychologists to consider factors that increase empathy and understanding of others, along with factors that increase the capacity for critical evaluation of the "ingroup."

They conclude, "Research that investigates how to mitigate negative consequences of war and violence is valuable," and the studies they summarize, grounded in "realistic insights," support the view that psychology can be applied to promote peace. "It is our contention that psychology can and should be applied to promote peace, not war."

###

The UMass Amherst Psychology of Peace and Violence Program was launched in 2004 by a private endowment with matching university support. The only program of its kind in the United States, it uses scientific knowledge to resolve conflict between groups, promote reconciliation and build peace through cooperation. Faculty and students join a wide range of academic and community partners to decrease violence and promote peace through the application of research findings to real-world situations. The program hosts an international speakers series to bring peace and nonviolence research to the campus and local community.

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

17-Oct-2013

[


| E-mail



| Share

]

Contact: Janet Lathrop
jlathrop@admin.umass.edu
413-545-0444
University of Massachusetts at Amherst

Authors from the UMass Amherst Psychology of Peace and Violence program say that if social psychology research focuses only on how to soften the negative consequences of war and violence, 'it would fall far short of its potential and value for society'

AMHERST, Mass. In a new review of how psychology research has illuminated the causes of war and violence, three political psychologists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst say this understanding can and should be used to promote peace and overturn the belief that violent conflict is inevitable.

Writing in the current special "peace psychology" issue of American Psychologist, lead author Bernhard Leidner, Linda Tropp and Brian Lickel of UMass Amherst's Psychology of Peace and Violence program say that if social psychology research focuses only on how to soften the negative consequences of war and violence, "it would fall far short of its potential and value for society."

"In summarizing psychological perspectives on the conditions and motivations that underlie violent conflict," says Tropp, "we find that psychology's contributions can extend beyond understanding the origins and nature of violence to promote nonviolence and peace." She adds, "We oppose the view that war is inevitable and argue that understanding the psychological roots of conflict can increase the likelihood of avoiding violence as a way to resolve conflicts with others."

Political leaders can be crucial in showing people different paths and alternatives to violent confrontation, the researchers point out. Leidner mentions Nelson Mandela, a leader who "offered South Africans an example of how to deal with the legacy of apartheid without resorting to further violence by making statements such as, 'If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.'"

Leidner and colleagues recall how political and social psychology researchers have in recent decades steadily gained more understanding, through research, of such psychological factors as intergroup threat, uncertainty, group identity, emotions, moral beliefs and how intergroup conflict affects views of the world and of oneself.

They review theory and research that specify psychological factors that contribute to and perpetuate intergroup violence through emotional responses and belief systems fostered by conflict. Finally, they summarize ideas of how psychological "defenses of peace" a phrase in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) preamble can be constructed in the human mind.

The authors acknowledge that conflict and violence between groups persist because they often give people ways to address psychological needs, for identity, safety, security and power. Nonviolence has received far less media and research attention, they point out, but this should change. The UMass Amherst team urges social psychologists to consider factors that increase empathy and understanding of others, along with factors that increase the capacity for critical evaluation of the "ingroup."

They conclude, "Research that investigates how to mitigate negative consequences of war and violence is valuable," and the studies they summarize, grounded in "realistic insights," support the view that psychology can be applied to promote peace. "It is our contention that psychology can and should be applied to promote peace, not war."

###

The UMass Amherst Psychology of Peace and Violence Program was launched in 2004 by a private endowment with matching university support. The only program of its kind in the United States, it uses scientific knowledge to resolve conflict between groups, promote reconciliation and build peace through cooperation. Faculty and students join a wide range of academic and community partners to decrease violence and promote peace through the application of research findings to real-world situations. The program hosts an international speakers series to bring peace and nonviolence research to the campus and local community.

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| Share

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-10/uoma-sps101713.php
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