Family of four killed on I-95 crash laid to rest




















Four caskets sat in a row at the front of Fort Lauderdale Baptist Church; mother, daughter, step sister and nephew.

The four family members who died last week after their car plunged into a Deerfield Beach lake were eulogized together at a four-hour funeral service Saturday in front of more than 1,000 family members, friends and classmates.

“They are not dead. They are living in the eternal life,” Yolette Fabre, a pastor at Christian Life Restoration Center, where the family attended church. “Let us stand strong, firm together.”





Remembered Saturday were: Nadege Theodore, 37, her daughter Lyne Theodore, 15; step sister Standalie Jean-Baptiste, 20; and nephew Guivens Daverman, 16.

The family had been heading home from a shopping trip at Town Center at Boca Raton Mall the night of Jan. 2 when the Lexus sports utility vehicle they were riding in was involved in a three car crash. The silver SUV careened off the side of Interstate 95 and ended up in a lake. The others involved in the accident were not injured.

Daverman, Nadege Theodore and Jean-Baptiste were pulled out immediately. Lyne Theodore’s body was not pulled out until the following morning, after police notifying next of kin learned she had been in the vehicle as well. Nadege Theodore and Daverman were pronounced dead at the hospital. Jean-Baptiste died Jan. 6.

The funeral service — which was mostly in Haitian Creole and French — was not only a way to remember the four family members, but many hoped it would serve as lesson to all of the young people who attended.

“I ask the friends of those individuals that they carry out their dreams,” said Karlton O. Johnson, the principal of Blanche Ely High School, where both Lyne Theodore and Daverman were sophomores.

Johnson remembered Lyne as a great student and Daverman, he said, “was the life of the party.”

Many of those in attendance were friends, classmates, teacher and faculty from the Pompano Beach high school. Many donned the school’s orange and green colors.

Throughout the emotional ceremony, the prayers on stage were drowned out by sobbing and wailing from mourners.

There were three white steel caskets adorned with pink and white flower bouquets for the three females. Daverman was laid to rest in a black casket.

Pictures of each of them sat next to their casket.

Throughout the service, a slide show flashed on a large screen, telling the story of their lives through pictures:

Nadege as an adult with a red flower in her and a red dress, and one of her with her daughter. Lyne Theodore in a pink tank top and jeans, posing for the camera. Guivens posing with the number 4 on his fourth birthday, and later as a teenager sporting a black baseball cap with “Jesus” embroidered on it. Standalie as a child making a sassy pose, and later grown up wearing a business suit.

Nadege Theodore was born Jan. 23, 1975, in Cap-Haitien, Haiti. In 1999, she moved to South Florida with her daughter. She later had a son, who survives her, named Deemily Charles. He is now 8. She worked as a nurse’s assistant.

At 15, Lyne Theodore was the youngest in the car. She was born in Cap-Haitian, Haiti on Feb. 11, 1997. She was in the medical magnet program in her school and wanted to become a nurse.

Jean-Baptiste was born Nov. 18, 1992 in l’Artibonite, Haiti. She came to South Florida in 2005. She attended Lyons Middle School in Coconut Creek and then Deerfield Beach High. She graduated from Broward College in 2012 and dreamed of becoming an anthropologist.

Guivens Daverman was born Sept. 9, 1996 in Fort Lauderdale, the son of Theodore’s sister Myrlande Theodore. He was known as Papi, and loved to help others. He was on the football team and ran track.

A composed 10-year-old Princeley Dorvil took the podium to talk about his brother and his other family members.

““My brother was a very cool brother, he taught me a lot of things in life,” said Princeley, fighting back tears. “My brother was a very cool brother, he taught me a lot of things in life. He taught me how to respect others. He taught me how to use my manners. He taught me how to be well dressed.”

Daverman’s coach at Blanche Ely gave the family the boy’s football jersey and a team photo.

Before the final prayer, teammates of Daverman donned white gloves and blue ribbons with Daverman’s picture and a poem, and helped remove all the flower bouquets as condolences were read aloud.

When the ceremony was over, the pall bearers carried each of the four caskets into the hearses as family and friends gathered around.

A cousin of Daverman, sobbing and in tears, put his hands on the outside of the black hearse as it slowly drove away.

The four family members were laid to rest at Forest Lawn North Memorial Gardens.

Miami Herald staff reporter Nadege Green and photographer Marsha Halper contributed to this report.





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Biden seeks video game industry input on guns






WASHINGTON (AP) — Looking for broader remedies to gun violence, Vice President Joe Biden is reaching out to the video game industry for ideas as the White House seeks to assemble proposals in response to last month’s massacre at a Connecticut elementary school.


Biden is scheduled to meet with video game representatives Friday as the White House explores cultural factors that may contribute to violent behavior.






The vice president, who is leading a task force that will present recommendations to President Barack Obama on Tuesday, met with other representatives from the entertainment industry, including Comcast Corp. and the Motion Picture Association of America, on Thursday.


Friday’s meeting comes a day after the National Rifle Association rejected Obama administration proposals to limit high-capacity ammunition magazines and dug in on its opposition to an assault weapons ban, which Obama has previously said he will propose to Congress. The NRA was one of the pro-gun rights groups that met with Biden during the day.


NRA president David Keene, asked Friday if the NRA has enough support in Congress to fend off legislation to ban sales of assault weapons, indicated it does. “I do not think that there’s going to be a ban on so-called assault weapons passed by the Congress,” he said on NBC’s “Today.”


In previewing the meeting with the video game industry, Biden recalled how the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York lamented during crime bill negotiations in the 1980s that the country was “defining deviancy down.”


It’s unclear what, if anything, the administration is prepared to recommend on how to address the depiction of violence in the media.


White House press secretary Jay Carney last month suggested that not all measures require government intervention.


“It is certainly the case that we in Washington have the potential, anyway, to help elevate issues that are of concern, elevate issues that contribute to the scourge of gun violence in this country, and that has been the case in the past, and it certainly could be in the future,” Carney said then.


In a statement, a half dozen entertainment groups, including the Motion Picture Association of America, said they “look forward to doing our part to seek meaningful solutions.”


On gun control, however, the Obama administration is assembling proposals to curb gun violence that would include a ban on sales of assault weapons, limits on high-capacity ammunition magazines and universal background checks for gun buyers.


“The vice president made it clear, made it explicitly clear, that the president had already made up his mind on those issues,” Keene said after the meeting. “We made it clear that we disagree with them.”


Opposition from the well-funded and politically powerful NRA underscores the challenges that await the White House if it seeks congressional approval for limiting guns and ammunition. Obama can use his executive powers to act alone on some gun measures, but his options on the proposals opposed by the NRA are limited without Congress’ cooperation.


Obama has pushed reducing gun violence to the top of his domestic agenda following last month’s mass shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., where a gunman slaughtered 20 children and six adults before killing himself. The president put Biden in charge of an administration task force and set a late January deadline for proposals.


“I committed to him I’d have these recommendations to him by Tuesday,” Biden said Thursday, during a separate White House meeting with sportsmen and wildlife groups. “It doesn’t mean it’s the end of the discussion, but the public wants us to act.”


The vice president later met privately with the NRA and other gun-owner groups for more than 90 minutes. Participants in the meeting described it as an open and frank discussion, but one that yielded little movement from either side on long-held positions.


Keene told NBC there is a fundamental disagreement over what would actually make a difference in curbing gun violence.


Richard Feldman, the president of the Independent Firearm Owners Association, said all were in agreement on a need to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill. But when the conversation turned to broad restrictions on high-capacity magazines and assault weapons, Feldman said Biden suggested the president had already made up his mind to seek a ban.


“Is there wiggle room and give?” Feldman said. “I don’t know.”


White House officials said the vice president didn’t expect to win over the NRA and other gun groups on those key issues. But the administration was hoping to soften their opposition in order to rally support from pro-gun lawmakers on Capitol Hill.


Biden’s proposals are also expected to include recommendations to address mental health care and violence on television, in movies and video games. Those issues have wide support from gun-rights groups and pro-gun lawmakers.


As the meetings took place in Washington, a student was shot and wounded at a rural California high school and another student was taken into custody.


During his meeting with sporting and wildlife groups, Biden said that while no recommendations would eliminate all future shootings, “there has got to be some common ground, to not solve every problem but diminish the probability that our children are at risk in their schools and diminish the probability that firearms will be used in violent behavior in our society.”


Several Cabinet members have also taken on an active role in Biden’s gun violence task force, including Attorney General Eric Holder. He met Thursday with Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest firearms seller, along with other retailers such as Bass Pro Shops and Dick’s Sporting Goods.


The president hopes to announce his administration’s next steps to tackle gun violence shortly after he is sworn in for a second term. He has pledged to push for new measures in his State of the Union address.


___


Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC


Gaming News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Buzzmakers: Dina Lohan's Black Eye And New The Voice Clips

What had ET readers buzzing this week?

1. Dina Lohan's Black Eye Photos

Following Dina Lohan's shocking claims that her husband Michael abused her during their marriage (and Michael's denial), ET has obtained vintage photos of the mother of four with a black eye.

Click here for the shocking pics.

2. 'The Voice' Coaches Dish on New Season

It looks like Adam Levine is off the hook for the upcoming season of The Voice, as Blake Shelton has a new man crush on Usher.

During the Television Critics Association Press Tour, the singers revealed that Shelton's uncomfortable advances towards Levine -- done in jest -- have now been turned to the newest male addition on the coaching panel.

"He's left me for Usher now," Levine joked. "So he gets to spend the season making Usher feel uncomfortable."

"And I think I'm doing a really good job of that, by the way," Shelton added. "I've said and done about everything that crosses the line."

While Shelton's focused on Usher, the rest of the fellas seem to have eyes for Shakira, who will also be joining the show for the upcoming season.

"She's so sexy," said host Carson Daly.

"She's a sweetheart," Levine agreed.

Season four of The Voice premieres March 25 on NBC. Click here for the panel's new interviews!

3. Miranda Lambert Defends Her Chris Brown Comments

Country crooner Miranda Lambert has no intention of retracting her statements made this past year about R&B singer Chris Brown and his domestic abuse in 2009 towards his on-again, off-again girlfriend Rihanna.

At the Grammy Awards this past year, Lambert, 29, tweeted following Brown's performance, writing: "He beat on a girl. not cool that we act like that didn't happen."

"I didn't feel right about not saying something. The loudmouth that I am, I say what I think," she told Redbook magazine of the tweet. "I wanted everyone to know that I don't agree with the message it's sending to young women."

Adding to her opinion of Brown, Lambert, who is married to The Voice judge Blake Shelton, said, "It's not okay. At all. To be celebrated after doing something like that. I don't think it's right, I never will, and I will stand by what I said till the day that I die."

4. Diane Lane After Husband Josh Brolin's Arrest

As news broke of Josh Brolin's New Year's Day arrest, ET caught up with Brolin's wife Diane Lane at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, where she appeared sans her husband.

Lane arrived cheerful and relaxed alongside her Nights of Rodanthe co-star Richard Gere, whom she presented the Chairman's Award.

"[Brolin] is actually with my wife [actress Carey Lowell] tonight, so everything's fine," joked Gere when asked how Brolin felt about missing the event.

"We have an arrangement," Lane kidded. "It's all good."

5. Fierce Fashions: The 2013 People's Choice Awards

The sparkling stars of film, TV and music donned their red carpet best as they kicked off awards season Wednesday night at the 2013 People's Choice Awards in Los Angeles.

Visit our gallery for all the stunning styles!

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Everybody off! City school bus strike is likely to happen Wednesday








A school bus strike that threatens to strand 150,000 children is likely to begin on Wednesday and could be announced as early as tomorrow, sources told The Post.

The Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1181 has already printed strike posters, assigned members to future picket lines at bus yards across the city, and distributed a list of “do’s and don’ts” for conduct during a strike, sources said.

Members will not have to take any additional action this week to initiate a strike because a May vote pre-authorized it.

The city has been anticipating the strike, and has announced contingency plans that include handing out MetroCards to students and parents. Where public transit is not available, private drivers and taxi or car service would be reimbursed. All field trips will be cancelled, but after-school programs would remain open.




Some predict chaos will ensue outside schools as many parents idle and jockey for parking during arrival and dismissal times.

“We are still taking the threat of a strike seriously and communicating our contingency plans to families,” so that they are prepared in the event of a strike,” Department of Education spokeswoman Erin Hughes said.

The union, comprised of 9,000 drivers, mechanics and escorts, is battling the city to retain employee protection provisions in case a yellow-bus company they work for loses its contract with the city.

Those protections — in place since 1979 but ruled illegal in a 2011 court decision — enabled senior people at a jilted bus company to get hired by the winning bidder.










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Miami Beach builder Robert Turchin looks back — and ahead




















If former Miami Beach vice mayor Robert Turchin had been a Miami decision maker during the recent vote that decided the fate of The Miami Herald building, he would probably have voted with the ‘nays’ allowing its demolition.

“There’s nothing special about it,” says the 90-year-old Turchin as he cruises Collins Avenue between 63rd and 48th streets, a strip dense with buildings from the same period as the Herald’s — specimens of post-war Miami Modern (MiMo) architecture that he constructed.

It is no exaggeration to say that Turchin built much of post-war Miami Beach, collaborating with Melvin Grossman, Morris Lapidus and other MiMo period architects. From 1945 to 1985, his firm was the busiest in the building trade. Royal York, Montmartre, Moulin Rouge, King Cole, Charter Club, Four Ambassadors — the list goes on, numbering upward of 100 buildings.





“I grew up when Miami Beach was a small town. It was 1945, and the hotels would close during the summer for renovations because they had no air conditioning. I couldn’t wait for summers, when I would return from school and work on the construction sites,” Turchin says.

In an era when hotel signs sometimes read “No Jews or dogs,” Turchin’s father was a successful builder who hoped his son would be a diplomat. It was not to be. After serving in World War II, for which he recently received a French Legion of Honor medal, he started his first project. Like subsequent ones, it broke the mold.

“The GI Bill made housing affordable for veterans, but it was single-family housing. I wanted to build a four-family unit under the bill,” Turchin says. It was an unprecedented proposal that went from city to state to federal agencies before it was approved. The multi-unit buildings launched the concept of condominiums.

As did other builders, he began to experiment with air conditioning. “Once we were able to air condition them, the hotels stayed open year-round. The beach boomed then,” he says.

Buildings came down to make way for new ones. Turchin’s Morton Towers went up where Carl Fisher’s circa 1920 Flamingo Hotel stood on 15 acres. “The land had become more valuable than the building,” he explains.

Turchin became known as “the builder’s builder” for riding to the top floor of construction sites on the hook of a crane, and walking the beams to inspect the work. His view of the built landscape was daring, pragmatic, and often at odds with those of preservationists like Nancy Liebman, a Miami Beach city commissioner from 1993 to 2001 who served with Turchin on the city’s first historic preservation board.

“A lot of the beautiful mansions on the bay and beach were lost to that kind of development,” laments Liebman. “It was the typical mentality of throw it away and build something new.”

But Turchin was building for the next generation. To him, the Art Deco buildings of his father’s generation — Edgewater Beach, the Sands and the Sea Isle where he honeymooned with his wife — were old school.

“They made no sense. They were all building with a few trees in front. They weren’t called Deco back then. Curlicues on concrete is how we thought of them,” he says.





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Drummers bring beat to Arsht Center




















Mirlanta Petit Homme speaks softly, but her cowbell doesn’t.

In rehearsal, the bell’s tinny tones rise above the drums, just enough to stand out but always on the beat.

“If I get an instrument, I’m going to make sure I’m heard,” she said.





This weekend, the 18-year-old will be heard when she performs with 34 other students in renowned drummer Willie Stewart’s Rhythms in Africa production.

The youth, all members of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Miami, were chosen from some of the lowest-performing schools in the county.

On Saturday, 10 weeks of hard work will culminate in a performance during Family Fest at the Adrienne Arsht Center.

Starting at 1:30 p.m., the young musicians, along with Stewart and a group of professional musicians, will perform a selection of African songs.

The idea of getting some kind of music program going started last year when Big Brothers Big Sisters officials were brainstorming program ideas for a group of older teenagers.

“This is a very difficult group to engage, and to serve,” said Marianne Weiss, director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Miami’s Mentoring and Resource Center. “They have to be cool.”

After hearing about Stewart’s Rhythms of Africa production with Fort Lauderdale children in 2011, she knew a music program would be a perfect fit.

Weiss called every kid in the program who she thought would be interested. In particular, she said, she reached out to those with behavioral problems or those who didn’t have anything to do after school. She ended up with 35, mostly high school students.

At the first rehearsal at Elizabeth Virrick Park in Coconut Grove, Stewart set up his drums and invited his new students to come forward.

He picked a few to lead by creating a drum beat. Everyone had to follow and learn the beat. It wasn’t long before they were all drumming in unison.

“At the end of the activity, they sound like an orchestra,” Weiss said. “It’s insane.”

The Grove neighborhood became accustomed to the Sunday drumming rehearsals. Passersby often stopped to listen, sometimes forming a crowd of up to 25 people.

Once, a jogger stopped to ask Weiss about the program and said she wanted to help. She jogged home, then came back with a check for $100 made out to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Miami.

The help is appreciated. Although Stewart received a $25,000 Knight Foundation grant for the program, there are still costs left over that Rhythms of Africa and Big Brothers Big Sisters had to raise funds for.

Weiss and Stewart would like to form an ongoing percussion ensemble, but again, its success would depend on funding.

This is the third year Stewart - who spent 23 years playing percussion with the internationally known reggae band Third World - has involved youth in the performance of Rhythms of Africa.

After sharing the stage with such illustrious acts as Bob Marley, Stevie Wonder and Carlos Santana, he established the Embrace Music Foundation to restore music to schools and communities.

Several years ago, Stewart used to present the music to the children, but he felt he needed to introduce them to a new way of learning.

He decided to bring them onstage. As well as learning about music and African culture, he said, the kids learn focus, discipline and self-esteem.





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Factbox: Video game industry meets with Biden gun task force






WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Representatives from the companies that make “first-person shooter” games such as “Call of Duty,” “Medal of Honor” and “Grand Theft Auto” met with Vice President Joe Biden on Friday as the Obama administration looks for ways to curb U.S. gun violence.


Biden is heading a task force formed after a gunman shot dead 20 children and six adults last month at a Connecticut elementary school. Biden plans to make recommendations on reducing gun violence to President Barack Obama by next Tuesday.






The vice president has held discussions with a wide range of groups including gun retailers, gun owners, the National Rifle Association gun rights lobbying organization, the film industry, victims of gun violence, and law enforcement authorities.


Following is a list of groups present at Friday’s meeting with Biden, Attorney General Eric Holder and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.


Activision Blizzard Inc


Electronic Arts Inc


E-Line Media


Entertainment Software Association


Entertainment Software Ratings Board


Epic Games


GameStop Corp


Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop


Take-Two Interactive Software Inc


Texas A&M University


University of Wisconsin at Madison


Zenimax Media Inc


(Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Editing by Will Dunham)


Gaming News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Tim Allen and Richard Karn's Home Improvement Reunion on Last Man Standing

No, your eyes aren't playing tricks on you! It's 2013 and Tim Allen is once again sharing the small screen with his old Tool Time sidekick Richard Karn. 

For the first time in over a decade, the Home Improvement stars are reuniting and ET was there as Tim and Richard slipped comfortably back into their chummy Tim and Al days while filming an episode of Last Man Standing.

"It's almost [as if] I'd rather be doing Tool Time… When we get together, I miss doing that show," admits the 59-year–old comic who, adorably, spent much of the interview joshing with Richard.

Video: Tim Allen Talks Life After 'Home Improvement'

The episode, airing tonight, casts Richard as a star architect (and Tim's close friend) competing for a job opposite a hot, female colleague preferred by Tim's TV wife, Nancy Travis.

Though Richard's appearance is brief, Tim promises viewers will see more of the dynamic duo.

"I didn't want to get into this if it wasn't something [long term]," says Tim of wrangling his old co-star, a now-dedicated theater actor, back to television.

Watch the video for more!

Last Man Standing airs Fridays at 8 p.m. on ABC.

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Suspect in city's first 2013 murder caught in Ohio

Police have nabbed a suspect wanted for New York City's first murder this year in Ohio, law-enforcement sources said today.

Raymond Mayrant, 25, will be extradited back to New York for the murder of a Bronx school crossing guard, sources said.

Mayrant was dating her daughter, and allegedly shot them both in a confrontation at a Soundview apartment on Jan. 3.

Elzina Brown, 59, was shot in the chest, while her daughter was shot in the nose, authorities said.

It was not immediately clear why he went to Ohio after the slaying.




NYPD



Raymond Mayrant, caught in Ohio.



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Should children be used to develop an anthrax vaccine?




















The Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues will hold an open meeting in Miami beginning Monday on the tough issue of whether children should be used in attempts to develop an anthrax vaccine.

The public is welcome to the meeting, to be held at University of Miami Hospital’s Seminar Center at 1400 NW 12th Ave., starting at 9 a.m. Monday and continuing to noon Tuesday.

The discussion concerns the scenario of terrorists creating weapons in which deadly bacteria could kill thousands of people. There’s discussion of developing a vaccine to counter such attacks, but could it proved to be effective for children if it were not tested on them? And what parents would permit such testing?





The panel is chaired by Amy Gutmann, president of the University of Pennsylvania. President Barack Obama created the commission in 2009 to advise him on bioethical issues.

A live webcast will be available at bioethics.gov.





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Sen. Bill Nelson is going python hunting




















Sen. Bill Nelson has taken some ribbing for his focus on Pythons in the Everglades. But the problem is real. So little surprise the 70-year-old Democrat will participate in Florida’s first snake hunt, which begins Saturday and offers cash prizes.

Nelson will go out Thursday with a rancher in Davie.

“He’s had a hand in drawing attention to the problem and it has, in fact, proven to be a very serious problem,” spokesman Dan McLaughlin said. “Bill doesn’t mind the heat, the mosquitoes, the alligators and the poisonous snakes. It puts him in touch with natural Florida.”





Nelson and another hunter will wield machetes and pistols, McLaughlin said.

Hundreds of people have signed up for the python challenge. Grand prizes of $1,500 for harvesting the most Burmese pythons will be awarded to winners of both the general competition and the Python permit holders competition, with additional $1,000 prizes for the longest snake, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said.

As of Thursday morning, 670 people had signed up for the python challenge. Grand prizes of $1,500 for harvesting the most Burmese pythons will be awarded to winners of both the general competition and the Python permit holders competition, with additional $1,000 prizes for the longest snake, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said.





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Jimmy Dushku: The 25-year-old who is North Korea’s one true Twitter friend






Mother Jones takes a look at a globetrotting young investor who’s the only American — and the only human being — Pyongyang follows


Google Chairman Eric Schmidt capped a controversial four-day visit to North Korea on Thursday with a call for the country’s censorship-happy communist government to give its people access to the internet, or face further economic decline due to the country’s global isolation. It was a strong message from one of the web’s most powerful figures, although North Korea watchers seem pretty confident the country’s young leader, Kim Jong Un, will ignore it. There’s one American, however, Pyongyang does appear to listen to. That would be Jimmy Dushku, a young investor who is one of exactly three Twitter users Kim’s government follows on Twitter. What’s the story behind this unlikely online bromance? Here, a guide:






Who is Jimmy Dushku?
He’s a 25-year-old financial whiz kid from Austin, Texas. Dushku, who also goes by the nicknames “Jimmer” and “Jammy,” started a website development business when he was 14, according to Mother Jones, and he parlayed his early earnings into investments that now include everything from construction projects in Europe to real estate in Texas to mines in South America. He’s also a rabid Coldplay fan, and when he isn’t jetting around the world, he says he likes to play Rachmaninoff on his piano and zoom around on his Ducati Monster motorcycle.


SEE MORE: North Korea’s rocket launch: 3 consequences


So how did he become buddies with North Korea?
Dushku tells Asawin Suebsaeng at Mother Jones he’s not really sure. “People always ask me how it happened, and I honestly can’t remember,” he says. “It started sometime back in 2010. I was initially surprised.” North Korea followed him, he followed North Korea “out of courtesy.” He tweeted back, “Hello my friend,” and a relationship was born. Then, the North Korean government, which has piled up some 11,000 followers in two-and-a-half years on Twitter, abruptly whittled down the number of accounts it follows, leaving just three. Dushku made the cut (along with a Vietnam account and another official North Korean handle).


What has Dushku gotten from the relationship?
Death threats, for one thing. Not long after he linked up with North Korea’s account, which goes by @uriminzok (or “our nation”), Dushku says he started getting angry messages from exiles and South Koreans. Since then, he has mostly kept a low profile, just to be safe, although he does occasionally grant interviews to foreign publications. For its part, North Korea gets a rare glimpse at the outside world through Dushku, as his is the only account North Korea follows that is regularly updated — the other two haven’t tweeted in months. He’s also the only human being in the bunch.


Will @JimmyDushku and @uriminzok ever meet in real life?
That’s always the question for acquaintances who meet online, isn’t it? Dushku says his friendly relationship has won him a standing offer to visit North Korea. Casual observers, however, advise him to proceed with caution. “Am I the only one thinking they picked some random guy so they can lure him into North Korea and use him as a political prisoner/bargaining chip?” one commenter at Gizmodo said. Another suggests that Dushku play it cool, without making Pyongyang angry, saying, “Never unfollow anybody with nuclear weapons.”


Sources: Austinist, CNN, Gizmodo, Mother Jones


View this article on TheWeek.com Get 4 Free Issues of The Week


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Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News




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Shanola Hampton Talks Shameless Season Three


Shameless
secured a spot on my Best of 2012 list thanks to a startlingly fresh combination of honesty, heartache and humor -- and the third season doesn't stray from that fantastic formula.

All the characters get exhilarating new story arcs beginning January 13, particularly Veronica and Kevin, who board the baby train and, according to Shanola Hampton, take fans to uncharted territory. ETonline caught up with the divine Hampton to find out why people love this scrappy family and if they're capable of earning (or accepting) their Happy Endings.


ETonline: I got to check out the first four episodes of this season, and I just adored them. What's your take on season three?


Shanola Hampton: Season three is epic. It's my favorite season so far. You're in their lives and it goes to a whole new level. The dynamic between Fiona and Jimmy is totally different now that they're past the wooing stage and living together. Lip is all about life after Karen and what it means to be in this new relationship with Mandy, who loves him more than he loves her. Kevin and Veronica are really focused on having a baby, no matter what it takes. Everyone has something so juicy going on.


RELATED - Best TV Shows of 2012


ETonline: Did the experience with Ethel change things for Veronica?


Hampton: For sure. It really triggered something in Veronica, who, in the first season, was all about going out and partying. She wasn't thinking about a child. Then you thought she took in Ethel for the money, but her hard shell softened and that biological clock starting ticking -- hard. She really wants a baby, and the one thing we know about Veronica is that when she wants something, she gets it. No matter what. That opens up a whole new passion and way of going about doing things. The storyline that happens as a result has never been seen on television before. I swear.


ETonline: Despite their drama, I find myself wanting to be a part of The Gallagher family -- and I know I'm not alone. Why do you think so many people feel that way?


Hampton: There's something so grabbing about people who will do anything for one another. Veronica may not be related, but she loves every Gallagher like a blood relative. There's that sense of "If we're going down, we're going down together." It's that love, loyalty and togetherness that makes fans want that kind of friend, brother, sister or family.


VIDEO - Exclusive Season Three Trailer


ETonline: This season also shines a light back on Veronica's relationship with Fiona. What do you like about that dynamic?


Hampton: What's great about their relationship is that Veronica does give that sound advice and brings reality into the conversation. She wants to guide Fiona and be that angel on her shoulder. But in the same sense, when Veronica needs her, Fiona is right there backing her up. It's a very mutual friendship.


ETonline: The Season Three poster played off the idea of Happily Ever After. Do you think the characters are capable of getting -- and accepting -- a Happy Endings?


Hampton: No, I don't. I think that you see this with Lip a lot. That's an incredibly smart character who just can't get out of his own way. You get so used to a world that you complain, but never actually want anything different. Why crave the unfamiliar? That's why I think the typical Happily Ever After will never happen on Shameless -- but all of the characters will get their own version of Happily Ever After.


Shameless
premieres Sunday at 9 p.m. on Showtime.

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Goat-loving oddball accused of sexually assaulting drunk teen








A goat-loving oddball, known for dining in Manhattan with his livestock in tow, is accused of sexually assaulting a teen who was too drunk to consent, prosecutors said.

Cyrus Fakroddin, 51, picked up a 19-year-old girl who had partied with friends at a Manhattan nightclub and was physically and mentally incapacitated when she encountered the eccentric early in the morning of Nov. 17, prosecutors added.

Fakroddin, whose “Pizza Goat,” Cocoa, is a New York animal celebrity, got the inebriated teen in his van and took her to his home in Summit, N.J., where he sexually assaulted her, prosecutors said.





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Cyrus Fakroddin.





The victim regained consciousness several hours later and had no memory of meeting the goat-herder or going to his house, according to New Jersey authorities. The teen called a friend and made her way back to New York, where she sought medical attention, authorities said.

Fakdroddin, known for leading his leashed four-legged friend all over town, was arrested Wednesday after police gathered physical evidence and statements supporting the teen's claims, prosecutors said.

He is being held in Union County Jail on $250,000 bail.

Prosecutors refused to identify the club where the teen party. They did not immediately respond to questions about whether they tipped off Manhattan authorities about a nightspot that may be serving underage girls.

kconley@nypost.com










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Cellphone use hits a record during BCS snoozer




















How boring was the BCS game? Fans were turning to their cellphones in record numbers.

AT&T announced Thursday it had never seen so much cellphone use at a sporting event than it did for the Monday night game at Sun Life Stadium, when the Alabama Crimson Tide quickly dominated the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. In fact, data traffic was 150 percent more than the 2012 Super Bowl in Indianapolis when the New York Giants eked out a 21-17 win over the New England Patriots.

At least part of the spike had nothing to do with the game itself: the still-growing popularity of smart phones, the increasing amount of data that can be streamed easily, the enhanced coverage at Sun Life for the large event. But the lopsided 42-14 game certainly didn’t provide much distraction. Spectators sent and received more than 360,000 texts and 75,000 calls — roughly one call per ticket holder.





DOUGLAS HANKS





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Wounded Iraq, Afghanistan vets cycling to Keys




















Army Staff Sgt. Russell Dennison and Spc. Calvin Todd, both 24, served together and lost legs together, just three months ago in Afghanistan.

Now, they’re on their first outing together from Walter Reed Hospital — among dozens of U.S. military veterans taking part in a Soldier Ride from Miami through the Florida Keys.

“I haven’t been on a bike since I got blown up,” said Todd, a combat medic who was learning how to fit his prosthetic leg into a new bicycle Wednesday in the parking lot of a hotel in Aventura.





Nearby, his platoon sergeant, Dennison, was being fitted with a recumbent bike to fit both prosthetic legs, replacements for the limbs he lost in battle Oct. 4 in Afghanistan.

“He and I got hit 30 second apart,” explained Todd. “He got blown up, and I took off running to him, and I got blown up.”

This year is the eighth year of the Soldier Ride through the Keys, now under the banner of the Wounded Warrior Project. And Walter Reed occupational therapist Harvey Naranjo signed 10 of his U.S. Army and Marines patients up for their first full-fledged outing from the military hospital since their injuries.

Or, as Todd put it, using the lingo that is commonplace back at his base, Fort Stewart, Ga., he was “volun-told” to take the trip.

So like a good soldier, he declared himself eager to do it.

“These guys are all studs. They’re all athletes,” declared Naranjo, himself a former U.S. Army combat medic. ”The expectations are going to be high for them.”

The Soldier Ride starts this morning on South Beach, a warm-up spin that takes the cyclist across the Venetian Causeway to Marlins Stadium.

Friday, they start their ride south in Key Largo, including across the fabled seven-mile bridge — the latest journey in a series of trips that ride founder Dan Schnock estimate has put 1,000 disabled veterans on a range of styles of bikes across the country and in Europe and Israel since 2004.

This trip also includes a swim with the dolphins in Marathon, a trolley ride in Key West

Most of the cyclists are medically retired service members, like retired Air Force Staff Sgt. Brian Scheifer, 29, who broke his spine in a Humvee roll in a training exercise in California between his third and fourth deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq.

This week he has brought his hand-cycle from his Miramar Beach home, near Destin. He has never ridden his bike further than 15 miles and now is about to take his longest hand-pedaled ride ever through the Keys.

“I’m up for the challenge,” he said, noting, “I work out a bit.”

Plus, after a recent deer hunting outing to Georgia with the Wounded Warriors, the airman turned Defense Department contractor is bullish about the comradery.

“You’re as fast as your slowest guy,” he said, noting that since he can hand pedal the bike to speeds of 20-25 miles-per-hour he didn’t want to be at the back of the pack. “Hope not,” he said.

For many of these men, who’ve seen the world in the uniform of the U.S. military, this is their first visit to Miami. Dennison is from Illinois, Todd is from New Hampshire and Scheifer is a Michigan native who moved south after his injury to set up a business as a Defense Department contractor, and also for the weather.

At 29, he sounds like a classic snowbird on his first ever visit to Miami. “I love warm weather,” he said.





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Men and Women of (Limited) Letters: Must-Follow Twitter Accounts of 2013






Scientific American editors voted in recent weeks on the 20 most informative Twitter accounts to stay abreast of the latest ideas, issues and developments in science and technology. We weeded through hundreds of lists and feeds to select the most brilliant and engaging, as well as the quirkiest of the bunch.Our picks are often witty, sometimes eccentric and occasionally silly, but each brings valuable insights to his or her area of expertise. For the latest, greatest tweets on science, technology, journalism, astronomy, physics, mathematics and more, check out these top 20 Twitter accounts of 2013, listed here in alphabetical order.





 Must-Follow Twitter Accounts of 2013Next »
BBC Science
@BBCscience

 Pay attention to BBC Science for breaking science and environmental news from a global perspective. Tweets are most often serious, with the occasional story about whether a toilet seat really is the dirtiest item in the house. The BBC offers variety suitable to both the casual consumer and the diehard nerd.









« Previous
Intro
Must-Follow Twitter Accounts of 2013Next »
Deborah Blum
@DeborahBlum

Deborah Blum’s tweets about poison, murder and other interesting articles and quips aren’t all that make her Twitter feed unique. It also stands out for her insights into science journalism. Blum often posts jobs, tips and tricks of the trade that will motivate any aspiring science blogger to break out the laptop and start posting.
By day, Sean Carroll is a theoretical physicist. By night he’s a “truth vigilante.” The Caltech researcher writes lofty pieces about eternity and dark matter, and tweets fascinating facts about his field.


 This NASA Twitter account gained notoriety when the car-size rover Curiosity landed on Mars in August 2012. With its witty persona, pop culture references and updates on its forays across the surface of the Red Planet, @MarsCuriosity is a must-follow for 2013—and the rest of its multiyear tour. Also check out the “Curiosity Explorer” badge on Foursquare and watch the rover’s New Year’s Eve message on YouTube
David Dobbs is an accomplished science journalist who is big on audience engagement in the new media milieu. His Twitter feed is punctuated with responses to readers weighing in on a wide variety of topics, especially cognitive science. Dobbs also tweets sporadically about his personal life and his work for Wired. He’s working on his fifth book.
Maryn McKenna, a specialist on food policy, public health and infectious disease, has built and cultivated a dedicated online following. Her tweets and posts are smart, quirky and highly informative. A seasoned science journalist, she uses social media to nerd out on a daily basis, so join in the geeky fun.
Former Scientific American special projects guru Christopher Mims isn’t shy. Opinionated and straightforward, the technology and sustainability journalist, now at QuartzNews, stays ahead of the pack. Mims frequently engages with his audience and uses crowd-sourcing to gather material for many of his stories.
Scientific American editors enjoy checking in on Nature News‘s hard-nosed, clever twitter feed.  One might suspect that our favor for it derives from the fact that Scientific American is also part of Nature Publishing Group, but we actually operate as editorially independent units. Follow Nature News especially for investigative reporting on science scandals and international science policy, as well as the latest important biomedical and physics news.


 Founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media Tim O’Reilly reports technology trends and comments on advocacy issues. His Twitter feed is dominated by references to Silicon Valley and e-book deals. Follow his tweets for insightful coverage of the technical world.
John Allen Paulos is a PhD with character. He’s wearing a bow tie in his profile picture, and his favored emoticon is a winking smiley face. Paulos’s tweets can be a tad cryptic for the layperson, but the mathematician has such a great sense of humor that you’re sure to laugh out loud at some point—even if you don’t quite understand the joke.
Accomplished blogger Phil Plait has just migrated his popular “Bad Astronomy” blog to Slate. The author, skeptic, father and punster primarily covers the ins and outs of the solar system. The best part about Plait’s Twitter feed is his daily #BAFact, wherein he throws strange-but-true scraps of science to his curious followers.


 Veteran science journalist Paul Raeburn has turned his eye in recent years to good-natured meta-media, covering science reporting itself for the Knight Science Journalism Tracker while also covering reseach on fatherhood. Raeburn takes reporters to task for sloppy thinking, points out inaccuracies and addresses ethical dilemmas. Follow his account just to read the back-and-forth between him and his targets.
Andy Revkin is a leader in the environmental reporting field, covering everything from fracking to global warming. Check out Revkin’s DotEarth blog in The New York Times too for his breaking news coverage—it’s all the environmental news that’s fit to cover.


 Science Friday, part of National Public Radio’s Talk of the Nation radio program, packs its Twitter feed with tantalizing links that just beg to be clicked on. @SciFri looks at daily news through a scientific lens, including live tweets to provide context during the weekly broadcast. The result is an entertaining bundle of scientific discoveries, intrigues and debunkings.
Scientific American‘s contributors are a brilliant group of reporters, bloggers and commentators, if you’ll pardon this moment of pride. Creativity, skepticism and authoritative context are a big part of what makes our coverage so engaging and worthwhile. Check out this Twitter list and follow your favorites.
Nate Silver, the most celebrated political statistician of the 2012 election, started out as a forecaster of baseball player performance. When he turned his attention to U.S. presidential elections, using statistical models to accurately predict what was thought to be unpredictable, he became a sensation. Although this past year’s electoral frenzy is behind us, Silver is still at work making predictions we’d be foolish to ignore.
Steven Strogatz holds the esteem of math wunderkinds as well as those who are iffy on formulas. He’s hardly a typical numbers-cruncher. The Cornell University professor has a knack for taking on complex topics and making them interesting, even to full-on mathphobes. In his recent book, The Joy of X, discussions range from the number of people one should date before settling down to how HBO’s The Sopranos can help us understand calculus. His Twitter account is similarly entertaining.
Not following Neil DeGrasse Tyson on Twitter? Beware: science nerds who don’t wake up each morning to the rational witticisms of NGT in their feed risk losing all geek cred. If you fit this description, please remedy that situation—now.
Blogger Ed Yong diligantly weaves a love of data into his prose, while still managing to craft posts that are accessible to readers with little to no science background. By covering new findings skeptically and tweeting prolifically, he has built a readership that relies on him for science news. Join the club.
A self-described “champion of underappreciated life-forms,” Carl Zimmer tends to tackle stories about parasites, viruses and quantum earthworms. Follow his feed, probably the most followed of any science writer, for solid reporting and captivating writing.





« Previous
Ed Yong
@EdYong209
Must-Follow Twitter Accounts of 2013Restart the list »
Introduction

Follow Scientific American on Twitter @SciAm and @SciamBlogs.Visit ScientificAmerican.com for the latest in science, health and technology news.
© 2013 ScientificAmerican.com. All rights reserved.
Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Five Things You Don't Know About Damian Lewis

Fredrick M. Brown/ Getty Images

He's already picked up an Emmy and is nominated for a Golden Globe for his portrayal of tortured U.S. Marine Nicholas Brody on the Showtime series Homeland. Here are five things you probably don't know about Damian Lewis.

1. Born February 11, 1971 in London, England -- his father was an insurance broker and his mother served on the board of Britain's prestigious Royal Court Theatre.

RELATED: Homeland Stars Cover TV Guide

2. After seeing him in a stage production of Shakespeare's Hamlet, Steven Spielberg cast him in the leading role of Major Richard Winters in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers.

3. Says that during filming for Homeland, he stays in his American accent both on and off set because it's less confusing than constantly switching back and forth from his native British English.

VIDEO: Homeland Exclusive Season One Deleted Scene

4. Revealed to People.com that during his first kissing scene with Homeland co-star Claire Danes, the two "hit teeth" and "felt like teenagers." 

5. Plays the role of Lord Capulet in a new film adaptation of Romeo and Juliet -- set for release this year.

RELATED: Homeland Tops Primetime Emmys

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90-year-old grandma hurt in B'klyn drive-by shooting








A 90-year-old grandma was grazed by a single stray bullet today in Brooklyn in a drive-by shooting, cop sources said.

The woman was walking with a shopping cart and a home health aid when a silver car pulled up to a group of kids at Blake and Miller avenues around 4:30 p.m., cops said. Several shots were fired into the group, with one bullet grazing the elderly woman in the elbow. The car then fled the scene.

The woman lives on Miller Avenue, just one block away from the incident.

Police believe the kids were the intended target. They located a parked car a few blocks away but have been unable to find the driver.



The woman was taken to Brookdale Hospital and is expected to survive.










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Florida company provides electrical power for the world




















More than 4,000 miles from its home base in Doral, Energy International is helping keep the lights on and the power grid humming in Gibraltar, the British territory on the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula.

Energy International, a global provider of power plants and energy solutions, sent a temporary plant that will provide power for at least the next two years while a more permanent fix is sought for the territory’s erratic and aging electrical system.

The Doral company was founded 14 years ago as MCA Power Systems and its initial goal was to pursue energy contracts in Latin America. It began in 2000 with a name change and in recent years its focus has become global.





“The world needs energy,’’ said Brett Hall, EI’s vice president of finance.

While the 2007-2008 recession curtailed the growth of worldwide energy demand, the U.S. Energy Information Agency has projected that global demand for electricity will increase by 2.3 percent annually from 2008 to 2035.

The potential is especially strong in developing nations. The International Energy Agency estimated that in 2009, 21 percent of the world’s population — 1.4 billion people — didn’t have access to electricity. In sub-Saharan Africa, the percentage of people without power rises to 69 percent.

Energy International has expanded sales from Latin America and the Caribbean to Europe, Africa and the Middle East, boosting revenue from $100 million annually in 2009 to more than $300 million today, Hall said. This year, EI is anticipating revenue of $350 million to $375 million.

In the next seven years the company, which is privately owned by American shareholders and affiliated with Gecolsa — the Caterpillar dealership in Colombia — hopes revenue will top $1 billion, he said.

Even though Energy International is based in the United States, it does little work domestically. Its sweet spot is emerging economies and projects that require an investment on its part of $100 million or less.

“Our focus is to do whatever makes the most economic sense for a particular market,’’ said Hall.

“We’re not going to be building a nuclear power plant,’’ he said. But EI will accommodate its solutions to local fuel supplies whether it’s biofuel, natural gas or heavy fuels that are more prevalent.

When it comes to the type of temporary power solution needed by Gibraltar, which had been plagued by a string of power outages at its archaic electrical facilities, EI can have a temporary plant up and running in 30 to 40 days, supplying the engineering, rental turbines and other equipment and doing the installation.

“We were able to support Gibraltar’s power needs on short notice,’’ said Andres Molano, EI’s vice president of sales. “Some of their equipment required major maintenance and they needed to stop their plants.’’

EI, one of the world’s largest suppliers of interim energy solutions, signed a $12 million contract with the government of Gibraltar in November and the plant was operational by Dec. 21. The agreement includes an option for a three-year extension.

The equipment now in use in Gibraltar is considered part of EI’s fleet and will move on to other energy emergencies when its service in the territory famed for the Rock of Gibraltar is complete.

But when it comes to its permanent power plants, EI will build a facility for a client looking to generate its own power or construct a plant, run it and sell power directly to the final user.

“We can do all the work ourselves. We have all the skills in house — finance, design, operations, maintenance, building and the equipment,’’ said Hall.

Energy International moved into the Middle East last year, completing projects in Oman and Yemen and establishing a subsidiary in Dubai to pursue business in Africa and the Middle East, said Molano.

“Africa is new to us, but we believe there are opportunities there,’’ he said.

The company also is looking for continued growth in Latin America, especially in Colombia, which is now attracting foreign investors who previously had been spooked by violence.

Remote areas of the Amazon where temporary power solutions are needed also represent opportunity for the company.

“EI is very fortunate to be in a position in which we have more excellent opportunities than capital.’’ said Hall, so this year it will be concentrating on raising equity to finance growth.

“One of our biggest challenges in 2013,’’ Hall said, “will be to find investors or joint venture partners to provide capital that will enable EI to perform these projects so our aggressive revenue growth targets can be achieved.’’





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Man gets life sentence for murder over 1996 Impala




















A 26-year-old Miami man who carjacked and gunned down a West Miami-Dade paper company employee will spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge William Thomas on Tuesday sentenced Cesar Ruiz, 26, to life in prison for the June 2007 murder of Andres Felipe Del Castillo, who worked for Dade Paper Co.

Prosecutors said Ruiz targeted Castillo for his 1996 Impala, then shot him dead even as Castillo — a born-again Christian — showed him his Bible and urged him to find God.





A jury convicted Ruiz in October. The trial of his co-defendant, Emilio Perez-Tejon, began this week.

Ruiz, on Tuesday, insisted he was innocent. Judge Thomas said he was disturbed by Ruiz’s lack of remorse despite “overwhelming evidence of guilt.”





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Google offers New York City neighborhood free WiFi






(Reuters) – Google Inc and a New York redevelopment organization are providing a Manhattan neighborhood with free public WiFi Internet access, making it the largest area of coverage in New York City.


The search giant and the non-profit Chelsea Improvement Co are making Internet access available outdoors in Chelsea, which is home to Google’s New York offices and several technology start-ups.






The neighborhood is also home to many students, as well as residents of one of the city’s public housing developments.


Google does not plan to extend the program, a company spokesman said on Tuesday.


The company also provides free Internet access to the city of Mountain View, California, where its main campus is located.


New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and U.S. Senator Charles Schumer helped unveil the initiative.


(Reporting by Jennifer Saba in New York; Editing by Dan Grebler)


Tech News Headlines – Yahoo! News





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Golden Globes Flashback Jennifer Aniston Matt LeBlanc 2004

From its premiere in 1994, the cultural significance of NBC's Friends was felt through the developing relationship between seven Manhattan-ites and audiences everywhere, that many still hold dear today.

And that bond was not lost on the cast members themselves. After 10 seasons together, Aniston and LeBlanc both admitted to some tear-jerking final days of shooting.


Jennifer Aniston: Ben Stiller 'Makes Smart Sexy'

"You want to say [it was just] me, but it was everybody," said Aniston. "You've never seen anything quite like it."

"The whole crew, everyone was just as emotional as Jennifer," added LeBlanc.

Although nominated for a second time that night, LeBlanc would never take home a Golden Globe for his role as Joey. Actually, in all its years, only Aniston took home a Globe for the NBC hit show, in 2003. LeBlanc would have to wait until 2011 for his Golden Globe, for his work on the showtime series Episodes. He is once again nominated for the sitcom, which is written by Friends co-creator David Crane, and premieres early this year.


ET to GO: Globe Nominees on Wardrobe Plans

The proof of Friends' impact is really not in awards however, but in the lasting recognition of the characters on the show, which remains in syndication to this day.

To catch the Globes this year, tune to NBC this Sunday, at 8 pm (5 PT).

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Body found in Marine Park ID'd as missing girl








A body found naked and burned in Marine Park this weekend was missing 14-year-old Shaniesha Forbes, police said.

The girl was identified today, two days after a 911 caller reported finding her body on a sandy clearing next to a foot path through heavy brush in Marine Park early Sunday morning. She had been reported missing from her Brooklyn home on Friday.

No cause of death has been determined but sources said it looked like a homicide.

"She was naked," a source said. "She was burned. She was buried in the sand. It looks bad."

Forbes, a student at the Academy for Young Writers in Williambsurg, was found just over a mile from her home.



The victim was a Justin Bieber fan, according to her Facebook profile, which is plastered with pictures of the teen hearthrob.

kconley@nypost.com










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What you don’t know about workplace rules could cost you your job




















The holidays are over, your boss is still a jerk and now you’re deciding whether to set him straight about how to treat you in 2013.

What you do next could cost you your job, shut you out of your industry for awhile or help you win a case against your employer.

As we launch into a new year, it’s an ideal time to brush up on your workplace rights.





“What you think you know about your employment rights is probably dead wrong,” says Donna Ballman, a Fort Lauderdale employee-side labor attorney and author of Stand Up for Yourself Without Getting Fired: Resolve Workplace Crises Before You Quit, Get Axed or Sue the Bastards.

If you think your boss needs a reason to fire you, you’re wrong. In every state in the nation, with the exception of Montana, employers can fire employees for any reason or no reason at all. But you can learn strategy to help you come out ahead in career-threatening situations.

Let’s say you choose to tell your boss he’s a bully or publicly criticize his style of management. Know that not a single state has a law against workplace bullying and that your criticism could get you fired in most states.

“When you work for a private sector employer, you have no constitutional right of free speech,” says Mark Neuberger, a management-side employment attorney with Foley & Lardner in Miami. “Most workers think they do and think they can speak out, but they are wrong. They get fired and learn the hard way that they might have been better off addressing their issues differently.”

Knowing your workplace rights starts even before you land the job.

Prospective employees are getting tripped up in the hiring process by answering questions on job applications and in interviews without knowing what’s legally allowed. An employer isn’t supposed to ask questions that reveal a protected status such as age or race. If an employer asks, “What race are you?” or “Do you have any kids?” you should answer truthfully, Ballman says, but keep a copy of the application or make a note of the inappropriate question.

Also, an employer isn’t supposed to do credit checks without your written permission. If you have bad credit, be ready to explain your situation. “They are supposed to give you a copy of the report and an opportunity to respond,” Ballman says.

Once hired, new employees face another quandary. They often sign paperwork without carefully reading what’s shoved in front of them. Big mistake.

“You should understand what you are agreeing to, and assume it will be enforced,” Ballman says. “And, if you are bound by an agreement, make sure you have a copy.”

Increasingly, non-compete agreements are at the center of workplace conflict. By signing one, if you leave or get fired, you may be forfeiting your right to work in your industry for a year or more after you stop working for this employer.

Ballman has discovered employers are slipping non-compete language into employee handbooks and job applications. Sometimes they are even told these agreements are never enforced. “Don’t sign anything if you aren’t sure what you are agreeing to or if you can’t live with it,” Ballman says. “Florida is one of the worst in the nation. Non-competes are being misused to bully employees into staying in terrible workplaces.”





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Mystery of empty Cuban raft found on Black Point appears to be solved




















The mystery of the Cuban raft found over the weekend near Black Point in south Miami-Dade appears to be solved.

The cruise ship Carnival Valor rescued four Cubans on Dec. 30 aboard a Styrofoam raft that appears to be the same one that washed up empty, sparking fears that its passengers had drowned.

U.S. Coast Guard spokesperson Marilyn Fajardo confirmed Monday that the Valor picked up four Cubans and transferred them to a cutter, but added that officials were still checking whether the two rafts were the same.





A passenger on the Valor on Monday emailed El Nuevo Herald cell phone photos of the Cubans and the raft, which looked to be the same one that was found Saturday near the Black Point Marina in Cutler Bay.

The brief email noted the four rafters were picked up by the Valor at about midnight on Dec. 30. The U.S. Coast Guard was “a few miles away and was witness to the rescue,” it added, and the four “were returned to the American Coast Guard on Saturday 5 January.”

The passenger did not reply to emailed requests for an interview or further details, and could not be independently located.

The discovery of the empty raft Saturday sparked fears that its occupants might have died.

Nancy Perez, who spotted the beached raft during a nature walk and took photos of it, told El Nuevo Herald Sunday that a Florida Fish and Wildlife agent at the scene told her the occupants probably died. An agency spokesman Monday denied its agents made any such comment.

Perez also noted the raft contained an altar to Eleguá, a god of Afro-Cuban religions, and a Cuban national ID card. “No one abandons an Eleguá. If you believe in that and you put it in the raft, you don’t,” she added.

Cuban citizens who set foot on U.S. territory can stay under the “wet-foot, dry-foot” policy. Those who are intercepted at sea are returned to Cuba by the Coast Guard unless they indicate a “credible fear” of persecution if repatriated.

The raft found near the Black Point Marina was made of Styrofoam blocks and wood planks, had an olive green tarp for sail and four oar posts.

It contained a large water container, several small bottles with sugared water and honey, empty juice cans, plastic bags with food crumbs, a blue lighter and what seemed to be a container of coffee.

U.S. authorities intercepted more than 1,270 Cuban migrants at sea during the 12 months that ended Sept. 30. Another 350 rafters made it to U.S. shores during the same period.





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Mark Zuckerberg faces fine in Germany over Facebook privacy violations









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Steve Burton to Star on The Young and the Restless

Only a few short months after announcing his leave from General Hospital, Steve Burton has found a new home on another popular soap.

The Veteran GH star, who won a Daytime Emmy in 1998 for his turn as Jason Morgan in the series, sat down with the ladies of The Talk to make the big announcement that, starting Tuesday, Burton will join the CBS daytime drama The Young and the Restless playing character Dylan McAvoy.

Related: 'General Hospital' Star Quits After 21 Years'

Watch the clip to see Burton break the news, confetti and all, to the overjoyed crowd.

Catch up with The Talk and The Young and the Restless weekdays on CBS. Check your local listings.

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Cops on lookout for man who sexually abused 10-year-old girl in Queens








Cops are hunting a man wanted for sexually abusing a 10-year-old girl inside the child’s apartment building, authorities said.

The victim was walking home from the store Saturday afternoon when the man followed the girl into her apartment building near Broadway and Pettit Avenue in Elmhurst, according to cops.

The man tried to engage the girl in conversation before touching her groin over her pants, cops said. He then exposed himself to her before the girl fled into her apartment uninjured.

Police described the perp as a white male with a beard and glasses, approximately 30 years old between five-feet-ten and six-feet-tall. He is believed to be between 170 and 190 pounds.




Cops said he was last scene wearing a black sweatsuit, a black knit cap and pushing a black mountain bike.

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477).










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Florida company provides electrical power for the world




















More than 4,000 miles from its home base in Doral, Energy International is helping keep the lights on and the power grid humming in Gibraltar, the British territory on the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula.

Energy International, a global provider of power plants and energy solutions, sent a temporary plant that will provide power for at least the next two years while a more permanent fix is sought for the territory’s erratic and aging electrical system.

The Doral company was founded 14 years ago as MCA Power Systems and its initial goal was to pursue energy contracts in Latin America. It began 2000 with a name change and in recent years its focus has become global.





“The world needs energy,’’ said Brett Hall, EI’s vice president of finance.

While the 2007-2008 recession curtailed the growth of worldwide energy demand, the U.S. Energy Information Agency has projected that global demand for electricity will increase by 2.3 percent annually from 2008 to 2035.

The potential is especially strong in developing nations. The International Energy Agency estimated that in 2009, 21 percent of the world’s population — 1.4 billion people — didn’t have access to electricity. In sub-Saharan Africa, the percentage of people without power rises to 69 percent.

Energy International has expanded sales from Latin America and the Caribbean to Europe, Africa and the Middle East, boosting revenue from $100 million annually in 2009 to more than $300 million today, Hall said. This year, EI is anticipating revenue of $350 million to $375 million.

In the next seven years the company, which is privately owned by American shareholders and affiliated with Gecolsa — the Caterpillar dealership in Colombia — hopes revenue will top $1 billion, he said.

Even though Energy International is based in the United States, it does little work domestically. Its sweet spot is emerging economies and contracts of $100 million or less.

“Our focus is to do whatever makes the most economic sense for a particular market,’’ said Hall.

“We’re not going to be building a nuclear power plant,’’ he said. But EI will accommodate its solutions to local fuel supplies whether it’s biofuel, natural gas or heavy fuels that are more prevalent.

When it comes to the type of temporary power solution needed by Gibraltar, which had been plagued by a string of power outages at its archaic electrical facilities, EI can have a temporary plant up and running in 30 to 40 days, supplying the engineering, rental turbines and other equipment and doing the installation.

“We were able to support Gibraltar’s power needs on short notice,’’ said Andres Molano, EI’s vice president of sales. “Some of their equipment required major maintenance and they needed to stop their plants.’’

EI, one of the world’s largest suppliers of interim energy solutions, signed a $12 million contract with the government of Gibraltar in November and the plant was operational by Dec. 21. The agreement includes an option for a three-year extension.

The equipment now in use in Gibraltar is considered part of EI’s fleet and will move on to other energy emergencies when its service in the territory famed for the Rock of Gibraltar is complete.

But when it comes to its permanent power plants, EI will build a facility for a client looking to generate its own power or construct a plant, run it and sell power directly to the final user.

“We can do all the work ourselves. We have all the skills in house — finance, design, operations, maintenance, building and the equipment,’’ said Hall.

Energy International has moved into the Middle East, completing projects in Oman and Yemen and establishing a subsidiary in Dubai in 2012 to pursue business in Africa and the Middle East, said Molano.

“Africa is new to us, but we believe there are opportunities there,’’ he said.

The company also is looking for continued growth in Latin America, especially in Colombia, which is now attracting foreign investors who previously had been spooked by violence.

Remote areas of the Amazon where temporary power solutions are needed also represent opportunity for the company.

“EI is very fortunate to be in a position in which we have more excellent opportunities than capital.’’ said Hall, so this year it will be concentrating on raising equity to finance growth.

“One of our biggest challenges in 2013,’’ Hall said, “will be to find investors or joint venture partners to provide capital that will enable EI to perform these projects so our aggressive revenue growth targets can be achieved.’’





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Police sweep planned for counterfeit BCS National Championship gear




















In an effort to ensure fans purchase authentic BCS National Championship gear in Miami-Dade, a sweep for counterfeit material will be conducted at Sun Life Stadium on Monday, Miami-Dade police announced Sunday.

Hours before kick-off for the national game between Alabama and Notre Dame, officials from the Collegiate Licensing Company, the bowl, both universities, along with Miami-Dade police, will scrutinize vendors in search of unlicensed merchandise, police said.

All counterfeit merchandise is subject to seizure.





The trademark sweep will take place following a security sweep of the stadium at 9 a.m. Monday.





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Riches in niches: U.S. cops, in-flight movies may be model for Panasonic survival






TOKYO (Reuters) – Panasonic Corp’s answer to the brutal onslaught on its TV sales may be in a product the Japanese firm launched 17 years ago and which is a must-have for U.S. police cars.


Two thirds of the 420,000 patrol cars in the United States are equipped with the company’s rugged Toughbook computers, and Panasonic chief Kazuhiro Tsuga sees the niche product as a model for how the sprawling conglomerate can make money beyond a gadget mass market increasingly dominated by Samsung Electronics and Apple Inc.






“What we need are businesses that earn, and they don’t necessarily have to have big sales,” Tsuga told reporters after his appointment as company president was approved in June.


Tsuga also sees avionics – Panasonic is the world’s leading maker of in-flight entertainment systems – automated production machinery, and lighting as profit earners as income from TVs and other consumer electronics dwindles.


Panasonic, Sony Corp and Sharp Corp have been hit hard by South Korean-made TVs, Blu-ray players and mobiles and Apple tablets that threaten to wipe out Japan as a global consumer electronics hub. The Toughbook, sold only to businesses and governments, was conceived as a response to the type of profit sapping competition that is now roiling TVs.


“At the time, we were losing in personal computers to Compaq and IBM,” said Hide Harada, who heads the Toughbook unit from the group’s headquarters in Osaka, western Japan. IBM later sold its laptop business to China’s Lenovo Group and Compaq was absorbed by Hewlett Packard.


“It was a guerilla strategy,” Harada said, recalling the Toughbook’s launch in 1996. Panasonic’s promotion campaign included driving jeeps over its computers, dropping them on the ground and dousing them with coffee on morning TV shows.


At rival Sony, too, signs of a niche strategy are emerging in a battle with Apple and South Korean brands that are making gains from a weaker won currency. Combining technologies from several divisions – from projectors to video cameras and headphones – Sony’s 3D Viewer head-mounted visor gives users the feel they are sitting in the middle of a 500-seat movie theater.


The target audience, says product manager Hideki Mori, are those consumers looking to immerse themselves in computer graphics and high quality movies. “Demand has been greater than anticipated,” he said, declining to give specific sales numbers.


LOSING GROUND


The two Japanese firms will show off their wares at this week’s annual CES consumer electronics show in Las Vegas, an event usually dominated by prototypes for next-generation TV technology. Tsuga is due to deliver the event’s keynote speech.


In the past, the Japanese have showcased ultra high-definition 4K televisions, while Samsung and LG Electronics Inc have displayed their ultra-thin OLED (organic light-emitting diode) screens. But, at a price tag likely 10 times that of conventional LCD screens, consumers will take a while to make the generational leap.


Meanwhile, losses at Panasonic, Sony and Sharp mount up. Panasonic has predicted a net loss of $ 8.9 billion in the year to end-March, while Sharp, which has been bailed out by banks, expects an annual loss of $ 5.24 billion. Helped by asset sales, Sony should eke out a small profit.


Japan’s share of the flat panel TV market has shrunk by around a quarter in the past two years, to around 31 percent, according to the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association. Amid a prolonged strong yen squeeze, the industry lobby expects Japan’s share of the DVD and Blu-ray disc player market to have dropped to around half last year from nearly two-thirds in 2010. Just 8 of every 100 mobile phones sold globally are now Japanese. Manufacturers have shifted TV production overseas, with output in Japan now less than a tenth of what it was two years ago.


Tsuga, who acknowledges Panasonic is a “loser” in consumer electronics, has warned his business units they will be closed or sold if they fail to match Toughbook’s success, giving each two years to deliver at least a 5 percent operating margin.


Any niche-winning strategy that takes his company away from mass market products means Tsuga will need fewer workers, investors say. Panasonic is Japan’s biggest commercial employer with a workforce of more than 300,000. It plans to axe 10,000 jobs in the year to March on top of the 36,000 that were cut in the previous year. More big cuts in Japan, where major lay-offs are uncommon and severance packages expensive, won’t be easy, said Yuuki Sakurai, CEO at Fukoku Capital Management in Tokyo, which manages assets worth $ 18.4 billion, but doesn’t own Panasonic stock.


“It’s like trying to chase the course of a battleship. If they want to become a light cruiser or destroyer, they’ll have to lose employees,” Sakurai said.


GLOBAL STANDARD


Workers Panasonic will likely keep are those in Kobe in western Japan who build the Toughbook PCs – a category defined by a U.S. military quality benchmark that serves as a de facto global standard. Its market share is on a par with Apple’s in tablets, with most U.S. police departments willing to pay as much as $ 3,000 for the rugged laptops which can withstand bumpy high-speed chases and other rigors of street policing.


“They have been near bullet-proof. We had a patrol car catch fire and after all the heat, smoke and water dissipated the computer continued to function,” said Bill Richards, logistics commander for the Tucson police in Arizona, whose force owns close to 650 Toughbooks that connect patrol cars with dispatchers, license records and other police databases.


Other customers include the New York Police Department, California Highway Patrol, Brazilian Military Police and British and U.S. military, which use them on unmanned aerial drones.


“Panasonic is the bellwether, the most recognized brand. The Toughbook is almost synonymous with rugged notebooks,” said David Krebs, a vice president at VDC Research.


While margins in the global PC market are getting slimmer – research firm IHS iSuppli sees annual sales growth of around 7 percent over the next four years from about 216 million PCs last year – the premium-price, fatter margin, rugged PC niche is seen growing by around 10 percent a year to nearly 1.2 million computers by 2016, according to VDC Research.


ANALOG EDGE, DIGITAL SAMENESS


At the Kobe factory, Toughbooks are put through their paces: hosed down to test water resistance, baked to 50 degrees Celsius, chilled to minus 20 degrees and dropped on their tops, bottoms, sides and corners.


Harada describes it as an analog edge in digital products.


“Whoever makes them, the insides of a computer are pretty much the same. It’s the mechanical side that makes us different,” he explained.


The creators of Sony’s 3D Viewer, too, are looking for mechanical appeal as much as electronic prowess. A second, redesigned model, which is now on sale in Japan, is 25 percent lighter at 330 grams, has a better grip and gives users the option of headphones or earplugs, said Mori. “We want to make it lighter,” he added, noting engineers are looking to slim down the heaviest component, the lenses.


While Sony keeps chasing consumers, Panasonic is pursuing a business-to-business niche market model that Tsuga has put at the heart of his revival plan. High on Harada’s target list for the Toughbook are Japanese police forces, which don’t yet buy the computers.


There are no plans, he said, to make cheaper mass market models – which could protect some jobs in the group.


“We aren’t going to put it in Best Buy or Walmart. I don’t think it would turn out well.”


($ 1 = 85.9250 Japanese yen)


(Editing by Ian Geoghegan)


Gadgets News Headlines – Yahoo! News




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Texas Chainsaw 3D Beats Les Miserables Django Unchained

Texas Chainsaw 3D ripped through theaters in its weekend debut, scoring $23 million and the top spot at the box office.

The Christmas Day champion, Les Miserables dropped to fourth place over the weekend, behind Django Unchained ($20.1 million) and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey ($17.5 million). The popular musical pulled in $16.1 million.

WATCH: The Best Moment from Les Miserables

Quentin Tarantino's Spaghetti "Southern," starring Jamie Foxx and Leonardo DiCaprio, is on pace to pass Inglourious Basterds as his top-grossing film in North America, as its current cumulative gross has just hit $106.4 million. Comparatively, Basterds took in a cumulative $120 million at the box office.

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Labor issues could mean NYC school bus strike








The New York City schools chancellor on Sunday accused the union representing school bus drivers of “jerking our kids around” by threatening a strike that would force 152,000 students to find alternative ways to get to class.

“A strike would affect our most vulnerable students,” Chancellor Dennis Walcott told a news conference at the Manhattan headquarters of the Department of Education.

The children who use the yellow school buses include 54,000 with disabilities, the chancellor said, and the “union should stop playing games, issuing threats of striking” — but not saying which day it might happen.




“The union has said, ‘Well, maybe on Monday, well maybe Wednesday, maybe we’ll do it, maybe we won’t do it.’ They’re jerking our kids around,” Walcott said. “We can’t allow that to happen.”

Officials of Local 1181 of the Amalgamated Transit Union say they’re trying to avert a strike. But as Walcott spoke inside, thousands of drivers and their supporters packed City Hall Park for a boisterous rally with talk of walking out. cm-bd

The city is looking to cut transportation costs and has put contracts with private bus companies up for bid. The union is decrying the lack of employee protections, saying many current drivers could suddenly lose their jobs once their contracts are up in June.

A decision on the new bids is to be made in May, city officials said.

“They’re trying to replace us with inexperienced drivers working for new companies for minimum wage,” said Samuel Rivera, 38, who’s been driving for almost a dozen years.

Driver Rick Meli scanned the spirited throng in the park, standing shoulder to shoulder, and said, “This is going to get ugly.”

“I’ve been working 35 years driving kids to school in the Bronx, and now you’re going to tell me, ‘You don’t have a job no more’?” said the 67-year-old union member. “How do you tell this many people they could lose their jobs?”

In case of a strike, students will be given MetroCards to get to school. If they’re younger, a parent or guardian also would get a MetroCard to escort a child. And in the case of special needs children, families would get reimbursed for non-public transportation.

The union argues that child safety is at stake if less experienced drivers are hired for lower wages.

Walcott countered that bids include stringent safety requirements for the drivers — as well as savings that could be used for educational purposes. He said New York has not used significant competitive bidding for new yellow bus contracts since 1979, resulting in a $6,900 annual busing cost per child — compared with $3,124 in Los Angeles.

A strike would impact all students who use the buses, including parochial and private schools.

New York City has 1.1 million students in its school district.










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