August 2009

Ted Kennedy remembered and hailed in TV coverage (AP)

NEW YORK – The passing of Sen. Ted Kennedy just a few hours earlier absorbed TV newscasts Wednesday morning.
With the Massachusetts senator's grave medical condition widely known, the networks were ready with tributes, commentators and mournful music to air at each commercial break.
Archival footage was also ready, from glimpses of an impossibly young-looking Senate freshman in 1963 at the funeral of his slain brother, President John F. Kennedy, to excerpts from his rousing "torch will be passed again" speech delivered exactly a year ago at the 2008 Democratic Convention.
ABC News was on the air at 1:18 a.m. EDT reporting Kennedy's death. A fresh West Coast edition of the Tuesday "Nightline" was completed for airing at 2:35 a.m. EDT.
The Wednesday morning news shows (on ABC, CBS and NBC, as well as MSNBC and CNN) mostly cleared the decks to cover Kennedy's death.
At times, the coverage seemed to extend beyond reportage to wardrobe: Ann Curry, co-hosting "Today," was dressed all in black.
Fox News Channel seemed a bit more selective, adding to its mix such reports as unruly health care demonstrations, how prison inmates are getting stimulus plan money and a Muslim girl who worried that her parents will kill her if she converts to another religion. Football coach Lou Holtz paid a visit and country singer Jack Ingram performed.
Friends and colleagues paid homage, as did journalists.
On CBS' "Early Show," veteran correspondent Bob Schieffer likened Kennedy to "a fictional character: in fiction the hero is not someone who's perfect. He is someone who overcomes his own flaws and then goes on to do noble things."
On MSNBC, Chris Matthews spoke of Kennedy as "a brother to his brothers," each of whom had died young and violently. Then, referring to Kennedy's crucial choice of Democrat for the presidency last year, Matthews went on, "I think he extended that brotherhood to Barack Obama. He made him the new brother ... and the Clintons were passed over."
And Fox News Channel anchor Megyn Kelly offered what was less a paean than an impassioned defense, which she framed by saying, "no matter what your thoughts about Sen. Kennedy ... that man was a public servant."
She went on, "We're getting a lot of e-mail from some folks saying, 'You're not mentioning some of the other parts of his legacy of course, Mary Jo Kopechne was killed and he was at the wheel, and was cited and pleaded guilty to abandoning the scene of the accident, something that later derailed his presidential hopes, many believe. ... But the major part of his legacy is the service he provided to this country."
Several networks announced special programs devoted to Kennedy's life and career to air Wednesday night:
• "Ted Kennedy, the Last Brother" (CBS at 8 p.m. EDT).
• "Remembering Ted Kennedy" (ABC at 10 p.m. EDT).
• "Teddy: In His Own Words" (previously aired by HBO, airing on CNN at 7 p.m. EDT).
• "The Kennedy Brothers: A Hardball Documentary" (previously announced by MSNBC, airing 9 p.m. EDT as well as Thursday, 7 p.m. EDT).
• Bio Channel announced "Bio Remembers: Ted Kennedy" to air Thursday at 9 p.m. EDT.

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Associated Press Television Writer David Bauder contributed to this report.

Panasonic ties up with 'Avatar' movie to go 3-D (AP)

TOKYO – Panasonic Corp. has signed on "Titanic" director James Cameron and his upcoming film in an advertising blitz for its TVs equipped with 3-D technology, both sides said Friday.
The deal between the major Japanese electronics maker and Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp.'s "Avatar" the first major Hollywood 3-D release that's not animation comes as competition heats up in flat-panel TVs that show three-dimensional images, or stereoscopic vision.
To watch 3-D TVs, viewers must wear special glasses that block vision in one eye and then the other as the TVs switch rapidly between images for each eye to create an illusion of depth.
Panasonic is planning to start selling 3-D TVs next year. Rivals, including Sony Corp., which has its own movie division, and Samsung Electronics Co. of South Korea have shown prototypes and may offer similar products.
The problem is the scarcity of content to view in 3-D. Skeptics say a number of Blu-ray discs of appealing 3-D movies must come out for 3-D TVs to catch on.
Several animation films are already being shown in theaters in 3-D, but "Avatar," set for release Dec. 18, will be the first major non-animation film debuting worldwide in both 2-D and 3-D.
"I believe 3-D is how we will experience movies, gaming and computing in the near future. 3-D is not something you watch. It's a reality you feel you could step into," Cameron said on video.
Panasonic is hoping its collaboration with Cameron will give it an edge in brand image as a 3-D leader as well as in obtaining suggestions for technological improvements for home TVs, said General Manager Masayuki Kozuka.
"We want to get global interest rolling," he told The Associated Press. "For people to want to watch 3-D at home, the movie has to be a blockbuster."
Panasonic plans to have several trailer-vans driving around in the U.S. and Europe next month with large-screen 3-D TVs inside showing "Avatar." In Japan, footage from "Avatar" a science-fiction "Pocahontas"-like romance set in a futuristic jungle inhabited by creatures evocative of Cameron's "Aliens" will appear in ads for 3-D TVs.
Details on the 3-D Blu-ray release of "Avatar" for TVs have not been set.

Stress Balls

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Although many types of balls are today made from rubber, this form was unknown outside the Americas until after the voyages of Columbus. The Spanish were the first Europeans to see bouncing rubber balls (albeit solid and not inflated) which were employed most notably in the Mesoamerican ballgame. Balls used in various sports in other parts of the world prior to Columbus were made from other materials such as animal bladders or skins, stuffed with various materials.

Its psychological uses are frequently metaphorical rather than literal, used as a catch-all for perceived difficulties in life. It also became a euphemism, a way of referring to problems and eliciting sympathy without being explicitly confessional, just "stressed out". It covers a huge range of phenomena from mild irritation to the kind of severe problems that might result in a real breakdown of health. In popular usage almost any event or situation between these extremes could be described as stressful. The most extreme events and reactions may elicit the diagnosis of Posttraumatic stress disorder.

US military deaths in Iraq war at 4,334 (AP)

As of Thursday, Aug. 20, 2009, at least 4,334 members of the U.S. military had died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
The figure includes nine military civilians killed in action. At least 3,465 military personnel died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.
The AP count is one fewer than the Defense Department's tally, last updated Thursday at 10 a.m. EDT.
The British military has reported 179 deaths; Italy, 33; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 21; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Denmark, seven; El Salvador, five; Slovakia, four; Latvia and Georgia, three each; Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand and Romania, two each; and Australia, Hungary, Kazakhstan and South Korea, one death each.
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The latest deaths reported by the military:
• No new deaths reported.
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The latest identifications reported by the military:
• Army Pfc. William Z. Vanosdol, 23, Pinson, Ala.; died Wednesday at Ad Diwaniyah, Iraq, of wounds suffered when enemy rocket fire struck his quarters; assigned to the 172nd Support Battalion, Schweinfurt, Germany.
• Army Spc. Matthew D. Hastings, 23, Claremore, Okla.; died Monday in Baghdad, Iraq, of injuries sustained from a non-combat related incident; assigned to the 582nd Medical Logistics Company, 1st Medical Brigade, 13th Sustainment Command, Fort Hood, Texas.
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On the Net:
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/

3 share lead at rainy Wyndham (AP)

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Three players share the lead during a delayed first round at the Wyndham Championship.
Chez Reavie, Ryan Moore and former winner Brandt Snedeker each shot a 64 Thursday at the PGA Tour's final event before the playoffs.
But the big story at Sedgefield Country Club was the weather. Heavy rains and lightning forced a mid-afternoon delay of about four hours, and play was suspended shortly before 8 p.m. because of darkness.
PGA official Mark Russell says play will resume at 7:45 a.m. Friday with the second round to follow.
Justin Rose, Kevin Streelman and Colt Knost were one stroke back at 65, with Chris Riley also at 5 under through 14 holes. Fred Couples and John Daly were among those two strokes back.

U.S. sues AT&T for age discrimination (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) –
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued AT&T Inc on Thursday, accusing the nation's largest phone company of discriminating against workers over 40.

In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, the EEOC said Dallas-based AT&T had "no legitimate business or reason" for its nationwide policy not to rehire employees who had retired under various retirement and severance programs.

The EEOC said tens of thousands of retirees covered by the programs, including a Voluntary Retirement Incentive Program and an Enhanced Pension and Retirement Program, are harmed by the policy, which it said took effect in October 2006.

"From what AT&T has told us, there are in excess of 50,000 individuals subject to these plans," said Louis Graziano, an EEOC lawyer handling the case, in an interview. "At most, very few people under 40 would be affected."

Graziano said that for many years prior to 2006, the programs let retirees reapply for jobs after a six-month waiting period. The current AT&T was created in 2005 when SBC Communications Inc bought what had been AT&T Corp.

Marty Richter, an AT&T spokesman, declined to comment on the lawsuit. He said the phone company makes diversity a top priority, and that discrimination of any sort, including on the basis of age, "is not tolerated."

AT&T employs 294,600 people, according to its website.

The EEOC is seeking the rehiring of and payment of back wages to affected employees, an injunction against further discrimination, and other remedies.

It brought the case on behalf of John Yates, who was 57 years old when AT&T turned him down for employment.

Yates could not immediately be reached for comment.

The EEOC filed a similar federal case in Missouri against a unit of the insurer Allstate Corp in 2004. That case is still ongoing.

AT&T shares were up 17 cents to $25.55 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

The AT&T case is EEOC v. AT&T Inc, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan), No. 09-7323.

The Allstate case is EEOC v. Allstate Insurance Co, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Missouri (St. Louis), No. 04-1359.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel; Editing by Steve Orlofsky, Leslie Gevirtz)

Mom, 80, shoots at deputies as son hides in closet (AP)

JACKSON, Tenn. – An 80-year-old West Tennessee woman and her son are being held in jail after deputies said she shot at them when they came to arrest the man. Sheriff Melvin Bond said the elderly woman fired several shots at officers Friday night in a standoff that began when deputies tried to capture her 60-year-old son.
The Jackson Sun quoted Bond who said four deputies went to the woman's mobile home on a tip that her son was there. Bond said officers heard the man talking inside the trailer and when they knocked on the door the woman opened it, slammed it shut and fired a shot through it.
The deputies took cover and, during the hour-long standoff, two more shots were fired through the door.
There were no injuries. The man was found hiding in a closet.
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Information from: The Jackson Sun, http://www.jacksonsun.com

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BEST-SELLERS (AP)

HARDCOVER FICTION
1. "South of Broad" by Pat Conroy (Nan A. Talese)
2. "Smash Cut" by Sandra Brown (Simon & Schuster)
3. "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett (Putnam/Amy Einhorn)
4. "That Old Cape Magic: A Novel" by Richard Russo (Knopf)
5. "The Girl Who Played With Fire" by Stieg Larsson (Knopf)
6. "The Eleventh Victim" by Nancy Grace (Hyperion)
7. "Best Friends Forever" by Jennifer Weiner (Atria)
8. "The Magicians: a Novel" by Lev Grossman (Viking)
9. "Swimsuit" by James Patterson, Maxine Paetro (Little, Brown)
10. "Bad Moon Rising: A Dark-Hunter Novel" by Sherrilyn Kenyon, (St. Martin's)
11. "The Defector" by Daniel Silva (Putnam
12. "Inherent Vice" by Thomas Pynchon (Penguin)
13. "Dead and Gone" by Charlaine Harris (Ace)
14. "Blindmans Bluff: A Decker and Lazarus Novel" by Faye Kellerman (Morrow)
15. "Intervention" by Robin Cook (Putnam)
HARDCOVER NONFICTION
1. "Culture of Corruption: Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies" by Michelle Malkin (Regnery Publishing)

2. "Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume I" by Julia Child, Simone Beck, Louisette Bertholle (Knopf)

3. "Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man: What Men Really Think About Love, Relationships, Intimacy, and Commitment" by Steve Harvey (Amistad)

4. "Outliers: The Story of Success" by Malcolm Gladwell (Little, Brown)

5. "In the President's Secret Service: Behind the Scenes with Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect" by Ronald Kessler (Crown)

6. "Catastrophe" by Dick Morris, Eileen McGann (Harper)

7. "Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto" by Mark R. Levin (Threshold Editions)

8. "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch with Jeffrey Zaslow (Hyperion)

9. "Master Your Metabolism: The 3 Diet Secrets to Naturally Balancing Your Hormones for a Hot and Healthy Body!" by Jillian Michaels and Mariska van Aalst (Crown)

10. "How Did That Happen?: Holding People Accountable for Results the Positive, Principled Way" by Roger Connors and Tom Smith (Portfolio)

11. "Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America" by Douglas Brinkley (Harper)

12. "In Fed We Trust: Ben Bernanke's War on the Great Panic" by David Wessel (Crown Business)

13. "Michael Jackson: The Magic, The Madness, The Whole Story, 1958-2009" by J. Randy Taraborrelli (Grand Central)

14. "My Journey with Farrah: A Story of Life, Love, and Friendship" by Alana Stewart (Morrow)

15. "The Battle for America 2008: The Story of an Extraordinary Election" by Dan Balz, Haynes Johnson (Viking)

MASS MARKET PAPERBACKS

1. "The Quickie" by James Patterson, Michael Ledwidge (Vision)

2. "Dean Koontz's Frankenstein: Dead and Alive" by Dean Koontz (Bantam)

3. "Dead Until Dark" by Charlaine Harris (Ace)

4. "From Dead to Worse" by Charlaine Harris (Ace)

5. "Club Dead" by Charlaine Harris (Ace)

6. "Smoke Screen" by Sandra Brown (Pocket)

7. "My Life in France" by Julia Child, Alex Prud'Homme (Anchor)

8. "The Assassin" by Stephen Coonts (St. Martins)

9. "My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Picoult (Pocket)

10. "Chosen to Die" by Lisa Jackson (Zebra)

11. "Dead to the World" by Charlaine Harris (Ace)

12. "Dead as a Doornail" by Charlaine Harris (Ace)

13. "Living Dead in Dallas" by Charlaine Harris (Ace)

14. "Mastered by Love" by Stephanie Laurens (Avon)

15. "Storm of Visions: the Chosen Ones" by Christina Dodd (Signet)

TRADE PAPERBACKS

1. "The Time Traveler's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger (Mariner Books)

2. "Glenn Beck's Common Sense: The Case Against an Out-of-Control Government, Inspired by Thomas Paine" by Glenn Beck (Threshold Editions)

3. "The Shack" by William P. Young (Windblown Media)

4. "The Weight of Silence" by Heather Gudenkauf (Mira)

5. "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" by Stieg Larsson (Vintage)

6. "Julie & Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously" by Julie Powell (Back Bay Books)

7. "Olive Kitteredge" by Elizabeth Strout (Random House Trade Paperbacks)

8. "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (Dial)

9. "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" by Jane Austin and Seth Grahame-Smith (Quirk Books)

10. "The Art of Racing in the Rain: A Novel" by Garth Stein (Harper)

11. "The Hour I First Believed" by Wally Lamb (Harper)

12. "My Life in France" by Julia Child, Alex Prud'Homme, (Anchor)

13. "Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace ... One School at a Time" by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (Penguin)

14. "The Lucky One" by Nicholas Sparks (Grand Central Publishing)

15. "The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power" by Jeff Sharlet (Harper Perennial)

NASA Wins Emmy for Apollo 11 Moon Broadcast (SPACE.com)

NASA Television has been awarded a primetime Emmy award for
engineering excellence, in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the
technological innovations that led to the first broadcast from the moon by Apollo
11 astronauts on July 20, 1969.

"I congratulate the many NASA staffers who are being
recognized by the academy with this award for contributions to television
engineering excellence," said NASA chief Charles Bolden. "From the
first landing of man on
the moon in 1969 to today's high definition broadcasts of America's ongoing
space exploration initiatives, television has been a powerful communications
tool that enables the agency to share its achievements in exploration and
discovery with the world."

The 2009 Philo T. Farnsworth Award, named after the man
credited with designing and building the world's first working television
system, honors an agency, company or institution with contributions over a long
period of time that have significantly affected the state of television technology
and engineering.

Farnsworth and his wife Elma, whom he called 'Pem,' watched
that first
broadcast from the moon as astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin
touched down on the lunar surface.

"We were watching it and when Neil Armstrong landed on
the moon Phil turned to me and said, 'Pem, this has made it all worthwhile,'"
Elma Farnsworth said in a 1996 interview. "Before then, he wasn't too sure."

The Emmy will be presented to NASA during a ceremony on
Saturday at the Renaissance Hotel in Los Angeles.

Richard Nafzger, an engineer at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., will accept the award along with Apollo 11 Lunar Module
Pilot and moonwalker
Buzz Aldrin on behalf of NASA. Nafzger was 28 years old when he worked with
the team that brought television from the moon to a world-wide audience
estimated at more than 600 million people.

"I am honored to have been selected to accept this
award on behalf of NASA and the hundreds of engineers and technicians who made
the telecast of this historic event possible," Nafzger said.

This is NASA Television's second Emmy Award for 2009. In
January, the Midsouth Chapter of the National Television Academy awarded NASA
TV the Governor's Award for Lifetime Achievement at a ceremony in Nashville, Tenn.

SPACE.com
Video Show: Moon Shots: Apollo Astronauts Remember
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Budget Too Slim to Reach Moon by 2020, Panel Says
SPACE.com
Special Report - THE MOON: Then, Now, Next
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Lockerbie bomber sent home to Libya to die (Reuters)

EDINBURGH (Reuters) –
A former Libyan agent jailed for life for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people flew home on Thursday after Scottish authorities released him on compassionate grounds because he is dying of cancer.

Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, believed to have less than three months to live, was released on the order of Scotland's justice minister despite strong opposition from the United States, which had campaigned to keep him in prison.

Pan Am flight 103 was carrying 189 Americans when it left London for New York on December 21, 1988. In all, 259 people on board and 11 on the ground were killed in the bombing.

"He is a dying man, he is terminally ill," Scottish justice minister Kenny MacAskill told reporters in explanation. "My decision is that he returns home to die."

Megrahi, wearing a white tracksuit and baseball cap and clutching a white scarf to his face, walked uneasily up the steps to a Libyan aircraft at Glasgow Airport with the aid of a stick. The plane then left to fly him home to Tripoli.

In a statement issued by his lawyer after his departure, Megrahi said that he was innocent and had been wrongly jailed, but also thanked the people of Scotland for setting him free.

"To those victims' relatives who can bear to hear me say this: they continue to have my sincere sympathy for the unimaginable loss that they have suffered," he said. "Those who bear me ill will, I do not return that to you.

"This horrible ordeal is not ended by my return to Libya. It may never end for me until I die. Perhaps the only liberation for me will be death."

The United States government, which opposed Megrahi's early release, said it deeply regretted the decision.

"As we have expressed repeatedly to officials of the government of the United Kingdom and to Scottish authorities, we continue to believe that Megrahi should serve out his sentence in Scotland," the White House said in a statement.

Megrahi, 57, is the only person convicted of the bombing. He maintained his innocence, but lost an appeal against his conviction in 2002, though a Scottish review board ruled in 2007 that there might have been a miscarriage of justice. A second appeal was withdrawn this week, opening the way for his release on compassionate grounds.

"NO HERO'S WELCOME"

Relatives of many of the American victims thought Megrahi should have served his full life sentence in prison after being convicted of Britain's deadliest terrorist attack.

Frank Duggan, president of the Victims of Pan Am 103, a group that represents the families of U.S. victims, said he understood the Libyan government had promised that Megrahi would not "go back to a hero's welcome."

"There is going to be no dancing in the end-zone, as the expression goes," he told Reuters.

But that did not seem to be the case as hundreds of young Libyans gathered at Tripoli's Mitiga Airport where Megrahi's plane was expected to land. Many waved the national flag and held banners of praise for Libya's government and for Megrahi.

Many banners carried the name of Libya's National Youth Association. One read: "You promised and you fulfilled the promise and you returned Abdel Basset al-Megrahi to his family."

While the relatives of many American victims were convinced of Megrahi's guilt, the families of many Britons killed have questioned the quality of the evidence used to convict Megrahi and some have campaigned for his release to die back in Libya.

"I am delighted. I don't think he had anything to do with it and I think he was effectively framed," Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora died in the bombing, told Reuters.

While Megrahi's departure from Britain draws a line under an eight-year saga, the implications of his release for British-Libyan relations could be seen for years to come.

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi sees Megrahi's freedom as one of the rewards he has received from Western powers for giving up his nuclear ambitions in 2003, Libya analysts say. The United States, Britain and other nations have normalized relations with Libya in recent years, and business with Libya has grown.

For Scotland, though, the Megrahi affair has been a millstone as it tried to balance American opposition to his release with the support of British companies looking for business deals with Tripoli.

The government, led by the separatist Scottish National Party, has devolved powers from the rest of Britain on justice and other policies, and Scotland has its own legal system.

The British oil company BP ended a 30-year absence from Libya in 2007 when it signed a bilateral deal for its biggest exploration commitment. Royal Dutch Shell also wants to tap Libya's reserves, the biggest in Africa.

Former British ambassador to Libya Oliver Miles played down the benefits to Britain and said the release was only one part of a long process of improving relations.

"It removes an irritant, but it wasn't a great irritant," he told Reuters. "I don't think it is going to give us lots of lovely new business."

(Additional reporting by Ali Shuaib and Salah Sarrar in Tripoli, Matt Spetalnick in Washington and Peter Griffiths and Luke Baker in London; editing by Tim Pearce)

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