Presidential race in Iowa quieter than in the past

Republican presidential candidate, Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., signs an autograph during a campaign stop at at Tangleberries in Centerville, Iowa, Friday, Dec. 23, 2011. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Republican presidential candidate, Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., signs an autograph during a campaign stop at at Tangleberries in Centerville, Iowa, Friday, Dec. 23, 2011. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Republican presidential candidate, Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., listens to a question during a campaign stop at Lodge Pizza & Steakhouse in Corydon, Iowa, Friday, Dec. 23, 2011. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Republican presidential candidate Texas Gov. Rick Perry speaks to workers and local residents after touring the TPI Iowa wind blade manufacturing facility, Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011, in Newton, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Republican presidential candidate Texas Gov. Rick Perry signs an autograph for Jeanne Dietrich, of Omaha, Neb., after speaking to local residents and workers at the TPI Iowa wind blade manufacturing facility, Thursday, Dec. 22, 2011, in Newton, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) ? It's been a different presidential race in Iowa this year ? quieter.

Campaign headquarters have hardly been buzzing with activity, unlike the around-the-clock nature of past contests. Candidates have barely visited the state, compared with years when most all but moved here. And they have largely refrained from building the grass-roots armies of yesteryear, in favor of more modest on-the-ground teams of paid staffers and volunteers.

The final rush of campaigning here gets under way Monday, just a week before the Jan. 3 caucuses, and, to be sure, there will be a flurry of candidate appearances and get-out-the-vote efforts all week.

But that will belie the reality of much of 2011, a year marked by a less aggressive personal courtship of Iowans in a campaign that, instead, has largely gravitated around a series of 13 nationally televised debates, a crush of television ads and interviews on media outlets watched by many Republican primary voters, like Fox News Channel.

"We just haven't had as much face time," Republican chairwoman Trudy Caviness in Wapello County said. "That's why we're so undecided."

Indeed, people here simply don't know the Republican presidential candidates that well. And it's a big reason why the contest in Iowa is so volatile and why the caucus outcome could end up being more representative of the mood of national Republicans than in past years when GOP activists here have gone it alone by launching an unlikely front-runner to the top of the field.

With a week to go, the state of the race in Iowa generally mirrors the race from coast to coast.

Polls show Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, having lost ground and Texas Rep. Ron Paul having risen, with both still in contention with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney at the head of the pack. All the others competing in Iowa ? Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum ? are trailing.

But, in a sign that the contest is anyone's to win, most polls have shown most Republican caucusgoers undecided and willing to change their minds before the contest in a state where the vote typically breaks late in the campaign year.

There are a slew of reasons why the Iowa campaign is a much more muted affair than in 2008 ? marked by the iconic clash of Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, who together employed almost 300 staff in Iowa and held blockbuster rallies. This year, there is no contested Democratic primary, given that President Barack Obama has no serious challenger. Only Republicans are competing, and those candidates are approaching the state differently, both visiting and hiring less. Also, like it did everywhere else, the race here started slowly ? months later than usual ? as a slew of GOP politicians weighed candidacies, only to abort White House bids.

Long-time Republican activists here, who often joke that they like to meet the candidates several times before deciding, have barely seen the candidates once, much less at all, and no campaign has more than 20 paid staff in the state.

All that's partly a consequence of how technology has changed both the political and media environments in recent years. Campaigns now can more precisely ? and cheaply ? target their pitches to voters from afar, sending personalized e-mails and YouTube video messages from the candidates to voters directly, and more campaign outreach is being handled by volunteers and through central national websites. And voters, themselves, now can go online and find information about the candidates without having to wait for the White House hopeful to show up in the town square.

"Caucuses don't exist in a vacuum. They're not the same every time," said John Stineman, a West Des Moines Republican activist who ran Steve Forbes 2000 Iowa campaign. "But everything else has changed. Why wouldn't the caucuses change?"

Part of the change has been driven by Romney's approach to the state.

The nominal GOP front-runner for most of the year, Romney has been far less aggressive in cultivating support in Iowa than in his failed bid of 2008. He's only spent 10 days in the state this year, compared to 77 days four years ago, in an attempt to lower expectations in the leadoff state where evangelical conservatives have harbored doubts about Romney in light of his Mormon faith and changed positions on some social issues.

Paul, the Texas congressman, has been focused more on building a national following than being a one-state candidate.

Gingrich only became a serious contender in the state a few weeks ago. And, until recently, he didn't have the money or manpower to launch a full-scale Iowa campaign, meaning more sporadic visits and a smaller team. He's struggled to reach all parts of the state more than once; it was just last week that he visited Ottumwa, seat of the county Caviness represents and a medium-size Iowa city uniquely situated in the southeast with its own small media market.

Likewise, Perry has not been to Marshalltown, a central Iowa GOP hub about the same size as Ottumwa and home of the state-run veterans home. It would seem like a natural spot for Perry, a former Air Force officer who has sought veterans support. But he also hasn't visited Fort Dodge, also another mid-size Iowa city in north-central Iowa on the way to heavily Republican northwest Iowa.

Those who have been struggling to gain traction ? and who lack the money of better-funded, better-known rivals ? are turning to old-fashioned retail campaigning in hopes of wooing voters the traditional way.

Bachmann is in the midst of a bus tour that has her crisscrossing the state. And Santorum, who never has broken out of the back of the pack, is betting that a year of one-on-one campaigning will pay off in the end.

Barb Livingston is proof that, for all the changes, there's still something to be said for the personal approach. She has struggled all year to find a candidate to back and is basing her decision on a personal impression she had ? except that impression was established four years ago, riding around Marshall County with Romney.

"When push comes to shove, I had a chance to meet him and travel around with," said Livingston, a former Marshall County GOP chairwoman. "He's someone personally I connected with."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2011-12-25-Iowa-Different%20Campaign/id-5b28bae8234b4260ab9d5e39febee70f

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IPad Beat on Power, Speed by New Non-Clones: Rich Jaroslovsky

December 22, 2011, 9:26 PM EST

By Rich Jaroslovsky

Dec. 22 (Bloomberg) ? We?re finally beginning to see some distinctive 10-inch Android tablets that are more than iPad knockoffs.

Earlier this year, Sony released its wedge-shaped Tablet. now, two more entries provide features and functionality beyond Apple inc.?s offerings: Asustek Computer inc.?s Eee Pad Transformer Prime and the Droid Xyboard 10.1 from Motorola Mobility Holdings inc. and Verizon Wireless.

Granted, every Android tablet comes at an automatic disadvantage to the iPad: unlike in wireless phones, where the Google inc. operating system is attracting a rapidly growing number of applications, the marketplace for tablet apps remains thin. Meanwhile, the iPad has more than 140,000 apps, and they tend to be higher-quality.

a prerequisite for luring developers is getting more Android tablets into users? hands. And that means giving customers more reasons to buy them.

The Transformer Prime offers several. It is as pretty a tablet as you?re likely to find anywhere. It weighs about 1.3 pounds and measures less than a third of an inch thick, making it marginally thinner and lighter than the iPad 2. The metallic back has a cool, spun finish marred only by the ill fit of the Apple-style multipin cable used for charging the device. The tablet?s angled edges leave even more of the connector?s metal exposed than does the iPad?s, which has a similar issue.

my time with the Transformer Prime didn?t start auspiciously. The unit from Asus appeared to charge normally but refused to boot. Eventually, with the help of a handy paperclip, I was able to reset it.

under the hood, the Prime is powered by Nvidia Corp.?s Tegra 3 quad-core microprocessor. a chip that powerful is overkill for many tablet tasks, like reading e-books. But if you play games, you?ll quickly gain an appreciation, as I did through many sets of Zen Pinball and frantic races in Riptide GP. The play was fast and fluid and graphics on the 10.1-inch screen were little short of stunning.

All that, of course, requires battery power and a lot of it. The Transformer does pretty well on that score. I got more than seven hours on a charge, using it to surf the Web, check e- mail and watch a movie. While that?s considerably less than on an iPad, the Transformer also offers an option to downshift the computer into two lower-power modes to extend battery life.

Transforming the Transformer

There?s one other way to keep things going: buying and attaching the optional $150 metallic keyboard that gives the Transformer Prime its name, converting it into a netbook-PC replacement. The keyboard has its own six-hour battery, plus an SD expansion-card slot and a USB port. Using the keyboard and intense battery management, Asus claims you can coax up to 18 hours of use between charges.

The Transformer Prime comes in two Wi-Fi-only models, one with 32 gigabytes of storage for $500, the other with 64 gigabytes for $600 ? both $100 cheaper than the comparable iPads. They run ?Honeycomb,? Google?s first-generation tablet operating system. An upgrade to the new version of Android, ?Ice Cream Sandwich,? is promised. If you?re looking for an iPad alternative, you can?t do much better.

Unless, that is, your most important criterion for a tablet is how fast it connects to the Internet when you?re on the move or don?t have a Wi-Fi connection. in that case, the Droid Xyboard 10.1 ? known outside the U.S. as the Xoom 2 ? is the way to go.

The Droid Xyboard runs on Verizon?s LTE 4G network, the fastest wireless data network out there, and it is mighty swift: Using Ookla?s SpeedTest app, I regularly registered download speeds of 10 to 20 megabits per second in the San Francisco Bay Area.

That?s faster than many home broadband connections, and it makes the Xyboard roar when it?s engaged in Internet-intensive tasks like surfing the Web, downloading apps or streaming movies and videos. unlike some LTE phones, battery life isn?t terrible.

I got about six hours of continuous use on the high-speed Verizon network. you can expect to do better in normal use, since I was deliberately trying to stress the battery by doing things like streaming videos and not taking advantage of Wi-Fi networks. And at 1.3 pounds, the Xyboard is right in line with the Transformer Prime and iPad 2.

unfortunately, several other aspects of the Xyboard are less satisfying. Although it also runs the Honeycomb operating system (and will be upgradeable), it feels noticeably more sluggish than the Transformer when it comes to things like scrolling through apps or even waiting for the screen to reorient itself when you turn the unit sideways.

perhaps some of the difference stems from its less powerful dual-core processor ? but I?ve used plenty of tablets with dual-core processors that felt zippier than this.

Matters aren?t helped by a water-repellent coating Motorola has added to the Xyboard?s touchscreen. It?s supposed to help protect against accidental spills, but I found it a little tacky to the touch.

Then there?s the price. The Xyboard starts at $530 for a 16-gigabyte version, up to $730 for 64 gigabytes. at first glance, that seems to be $100 cheaper than the comparable iPad 2 models. But there?s a big difference: While Verizon and AT&T inc. allow users of 3G-equipped iPads to decide month by month whether they want service, Verizon requires Xyboard buyers to sign a two-year contract. otherwise, the price zooms to an uncompetitive $700 for even the least expensive model.

at those prices, the Droid Xyboard?s appeal may be limited to those with a real need for speed. Still, being the fastest tablet ? or in the case of the Transformer Prime, the most powerful ? counts for something.

(Rich Jaroslovsky is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.)

?Editors: Jeremy Gerard, Zinta Lundborg.

To contact the reporter on this story: Rich Jaroslovsky in San Francisco at .

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Manuela Hoelterhoff at .

Source: http://www.appleipadonline.info/ipad-beat-on-power-speed-by-new-non-clones-rich-jaroslovsky.html

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The FDA Thinks It's Totally Cool For Us To Eat ... - Business Insider

A new study has concluded that the FDA severely underrated the risk of contaminants in seafood following the BP oil spill of 2010, according to Environmental Health Perspectives (via Alternet).

The report, conducted by?non-governmental scientists, says that 53 percent of Gulf shrimp samples tested revealed "levels above concern" of carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).

Some cases showed carcinogenic levels up to 10,000 times more than what is considered safe.

This leaves pregnant women, children and big seafood eaters at risk to develop issues stemming from the consumption of these chemicals. Prenatal exposure to PAHs has been shown to lower IQs and increase the risk of asthma, heart malformations and low birth weight.

The researchers at the Natural Resources Defense Council also included internal FDA emails ? procured using the Freedom of Information Act ? that showed a concerted effort to downplay the effects of the contaminants. Emails also showed decisions to ignore alarms raised by FDA staff concerning this issue.

The report calls on the FDA to update their current risk assessment of seafood.

In response, the FDA says that setting higher protective health measures will "do more harm than good," since people would have to remove more food from their home than necessary. Both the NRDC and Alternet have noted that there was no scientific backing provided for this claim.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/seafood-10000-times-more-carcinogens2011-12

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School absenteeism, mental health problems linked

Public release date: 22-Dec-2011
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Contact: Sarah Hutcheon
shutcheon@srcd.org
202-289-7905
Society for Research in Child Development

School absenteeism is a significant problem, and students who are frequently absent from school more often have symptoms of psychiatric disorders. A new longitudinal study of more than 17,000 youths has found that frequently missing school is associated with a higher prevalence of mental health problems later on in adolescence, and that mental health problems during one year also predict missing additional school days in the following year for students in middle and high school.

The study, published in the journal Child Development, was conducted by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), the University of Florida, Boston University, the Child and Adolescent Services Research Center, the Oregon Social Learning Center, and Johns Hopkins University.

"We've long known that students who are frequently absent from school are more likely to have symptoms of psychiatric disorders, but less clear is the reason why," says Jeffrey Wood, associate professor of educational psychology and psychiatry at UCLA, who led the study. "These two aspects of youths' adjustment may at times exacerbate one another, leading over the course of time to more of each."

The study found that between grades 2 and 8, students who already had mental health symptoms (such as antisocial behavior or depression) missed more school days over the course of a year than they had in the previous year and than students with few or no mental health symptoms. Conversely, middle and high school students who were chronically absent in an earlier year of the study tended to have more depression and antisocial problems in subsequent years. For example, 8th graders who were absent more than 20 days were more likely to have higher levels of anxiety and depression in 10th grade than were 8th graders who were absent fewer than 20 days.

"The findings can help inform the development of programs to reduce school absenteeism," according to Wood. "School personnel in middle schools and high schools could benefit from knowing that mental health issues and school absenteeism each influence the other over time. Helping students address mental health issues may in turn help prevent the emergence of chronic absenteeism. At the same time, working to help students who are developing a pattern of chronic absenteeism come to school more consistently may help prevent psychiatric problems."

The researchers looked at more than 17,000 children in 1st through 12th grades using three datasets: the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a longitudinal study of a nationally representative sample of adolescents in grades 7 to 12; the Johns Hopkins Prevention Intervention Research Center Study, a longitudinal study of classroom-based interventions involving children in grades 1 to 8; and the Linking the Interests of Families and Teachers trial, a longitudinal study of children in grades 1 through 12.

Researchers interviewed students and parents annually or biennially, and they gathered information from school attendance records. In addition, students, parents, and teachers filled out questionnaires.

###

The study was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 17 other agencies.

---

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?

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

Public release date: 22-Dec-2011
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Sarah Hutcheon
shutcheon@srcd.org
202-289-7905
Society for Research in Child Development

School absenteeism is a significant problem, and students who are frequently absent from school more often have symptoms of psychiatric disorders. A new longitudinal study of more than 17,000 youths has found that frequently missing school is associated with a higher prevalence of mental health problems later on in adolescence, and that mental health problems during one year also predict missing additional school days in the following year for students in middle and high school.

The study, published in the journal Child Development, was conducted by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), the University of Florida, Boston University, the Child and Adolescent Services Research Center, the Oregon Social Learning Center, and Johns Hopkins University.

"We've long known that students who are frequently absent from school are more likely to have symptoms of psychiatric disorders, but less clear is the reason why," says Jeffrey Wood, associate professor of educational psychology and psychiatry at UCLA, who led the study. "These two aspects of youths' adjustment may at times exacerbate one another, leading over the course of time to more of each."

The study found that between grades 2 and 8, students who already had mental health symptoms (such as antisocial behavior or depression) missed more school days over the course of a year than they had in the previous year and than students with few or no mental health symptoms. Conversely, middle and high school students who were chronically absent in an earlier year of the study tended to have more depression and antisocial problems in subsequent years. For example, 8th graders who were absent more than 20 days were more likely to have higher levels of anxiety and depression in 10th grade than were 8th graders who were absent fewer than 20 days.

"The findings can help inform the development of programs to reduce school absenteeism," according to Wood. "School personnel in middle schools and high schools could benefit from knowing that mental health issues and school absenteeism each influence the other over time. Helping students address mental health issues may in turn help prevent the emergence of chronic absenteeism. At the same time, working to help students who are developing a pattern of chronic absenteeism come to school more consistently may help prevent psychiatric problems."

The researchers looked at more than 17,000 children in 1st through 12th grades using three datasets: the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a longitudinal study of a nationally representative sample of adolescents in grades 7 to 12; the Johns Hopkins Prevention Intervention Research Center Study, a longitudinal study of classroom-based interventions involving children in grades 1 to 8; and the Linking the Interests of Families and Teachers trial, a longitudinal study of children in grades 1 through 12.

Researchers interviewed students and parents annually or biennially, and they gathered information from school attendance records. In addition, students, parents, and teachers filled out questionnaires.

###

The study was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 17 other agencies.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

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

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-12/sfri-sam121511.php

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Gingrich blasts Congress for no tax-cut extension (AP)

DES MOINES, Iowa ? Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich says Congress's failure to extend a payroll tax cut for millions of workers is an "absurd dereliction of duty." His chief rival, Mitt Romney, declined to comment.

Gingrich especially faulted the Senate, saying its decision to adjourn without extending the tax cut for a full year is an example of why the public is sick of Washington and sick of politics.

The Democratic-controlled Senate had voted to extend the tax cut for two months. But the Republican-led House killed that bill and called for opening negotiations on a yearlong extension of the tax break.

Campaigning in New Hampshire, Romney said he wasn't going to "get into the back and forth-of-the congressional sausage-making."

The tax cut is set to expire at the end of December.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney argued Wednesday that if rival Newt Gingrich can't handle the criticism generated by negative campaign ads, the former House speaker will wilt going up against President Barack Obama. Gingrich, in turn, asked supporters to sign a petition urging GOP candidates to run positive campaigns, free of attack ads, as he has pledged to do.

It was the latest bit of maneuvering in an increasingly heated standoff between the two over hard-hitting campaign tactics.

Romney said Wednesday that there are limits to what he can say to an independent organization that supports his candidacy and is paying to air anti-Gingrich ads on his behalf.

"I'm sure I could go out and say, `Please, don't do anything negative.' But this is politics," Romney said on Fox News Channel. "And if you can't stand the heat in this little kitchen, wait until the Obama's Hell's Kitchen turns up the heat."

Gingrich is collecting signatures from like-minded people who don't want to see the Republican candidates ripping into each other.

"Attacking fellow Republicans only helps one person: Barack Obama," the petition states.

Gingrich has said the attacks by the pro-Romney group Restore Our Future are false. They have poked at Gingrich's past support for climate-change legislation and his work for Freddie Mac, the quasi-governmental mortgage agency.

He declined to say during a news conference in Des Moines on Wednesday what specifically is inaccurate about the ads, citing instead independent reviews that have questioned their validity.

The group's latest ad in Iowa pokes anew at Gingrich's "baggage," including ethics violations that led him to step down as speaker. The group has run $1.4 million in TV ads in Iowa this month and plans to spend another $1.4 million before the Jan. 3 caucuses.

"It would be nice if Gov. Romney was either honest about his former staff and his supporters running negative ads, and either disown them ? ask that they take them off the air ? or admit this is his campaign," said Gingrich, whom activists have credited for taking a positive tone in his campaign.

Gingrich is trying to end his slide in Iowa, where the attacks have taken hold in the past two weeks, with a show of force from establishment Republican leaders in early voting states endorsing his candidacy.

Iowa House Speaker Kraig Paulsen and New Hampshire House Speaker Bill O'Brien endorsing Gingrich at the Iowa Capitol. "They have lots of legislators who like them," Gingrich said. "They have a network in their states of organizers."

Gingrich's campaign also was dispatching former Oklahoma Rep. J.C. Watts to Iowa to meet with privately with GOP leaders and the media in an attempt to stabilize the campaign.

The spat over ads has dominated the GOP campaign in recent days as Gingrich and Romney, who is touring New Hampshire by bus, endeavored to fit in as much face time with voters as possible before Christmas.

On Tuesday, both candidates criticized the campaign finance system that has allowed groups like Restore Our Future to thrive. Romney called it "a disaster" and Gingrich described it as "a nightmare." But both benefit from so-called super PACs.

Romney also refused to urge the group backing him to halt its attacks, citing federal law that prohibits contact between his campaign and Restore Our Future. He also declined to disavow the ads.

"If we coordinate in any way whatsoever, we go to the big house," Romney said on MSNBC.

Gingrich later read Romney's remarks for reporters and then labeled them "baloney." Said Gingrich, "His comments are palpably misleading, clearly false and are politics at its worst form."

The ad standoff comes as Gingrich has lost ground in Iowa and elsewhere in the face of attacks by the Romney-aligned super PAC and others, including Texas Rep. Ron Paul. The ads have knocked Gingrich off message just as he's seeking to make his closing argument to Iowa voters.

With Gingrich flailing, Romney took on Obama in a speech Tuesday accusing the president of deepening the economic crisis and backing policies that will redistribute wealth instead of creating equal opportunity for people to do well.

Polls show Romney, Gingrich and Paul in contention for the lead in Iowa and elsewhere.

Paul, the blunt-spoken Texas congressman, was campaigning Wednesday in Iowa, along with other candidates in the field. The race there remains unpredictable, as voters weigh electability against conservative credentials.

The bickering over negative ads has highlighted the role of super PACs, independent groups that may accept unlimited donations but are not supposed to directly coordinate with candidates. Such groups have sprung up to support every serious Republican candidate following a U.S. Supreme Court decision last year that said individuals, unions and corporations can donate unlimited sums of money to outfits advocating the election or defeat of candidates.

Two pro-Gingrich groups have started raising money and Gingrich's longtime aide Rick Tyler just signed on with one of them.

Romney's supporters, however, have had a yearlong head start in raising money. Restore Our Future is slated to spend roughly $3 million on ads, most of which paint Gingrich as an ethically-challenged Washington power broker.

Gingrich, who trails Romney badly in fundraising, said he would disavow any group that runs negative ads on his behalf.

In a sign of his fundraising and organizational deficiencies, Gingrich was rushing home to Virginia later Wednesday to help ensure he has the needed signatures to get on the ballot there.

___

Hunt reported from Keene, N.H. McCaffrey and Beaumont from Des Moines, Iowa.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111221/ap_on_el_pr/us_gop_campaign

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No Xmas at home for detained ex-Philippine leader (AP)

MANILA, Philippines ? A Philippine court rejected on Wednesday requests by arrested ex-President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to celebrate Christmas at home and use her cellphone and computer in detention, underscoring recent stunning reversals for a woman once considered among the world's most powerful.

Judge Jesus Mupas of the Pasay Regional Trial Court cited security reasons for denying Arroyo's request to leave a military hospital where she is detained on electoral fraud charges. She wanted to celebrate Christmas and New Year at her upscale home in the capital.

But she obtained small concessions. Mupas allowed her family, children and grandchildren to celebrate the holidays with her in her heavily guarded hospital suite from Dec. 24 to 26 and Dec. 31 to Jan. 2. She will also be allowed to watch TV, listen to the radio, attend Mass and get an hour of sunshine each day.

"The court is not inclined to grant (Arroyo) a Christmas furlough," Mupas said in his order. He said he was allowing her family to visit because "the court is fully aware of the fact that everybody wants to be with his loved ones during Christmas."

Court sheriff Rodelio Buenviaje said Arroyo was upset when he relayed the order to her.

"We are saddened but we will follow," Arroyo lawyer Ferdinand Topacio told reporters. "I was just hoping that the judge will see through his heart that this is a season for unity and forgiveness."

Arroyo's Nov. 18 arrest curtailed her rights even though she remains a member of the House of Representatives, Mupas said.

Mupas had ordered Arroyo's arrest on Nov. 18 in her hospital room, where she had sought treatment for a bone ailment, on suspicion of ordering the rigging of 2007 senatorial elections to favor her candidates. She has denied any wrongdoing and has hired a battery of lawyers.

Last month, the Supreme Court lifted a travel ban on her, and she attempted to leave the country with her husband. President Benigno Aquino III's justice secretary, however, defied the Supreme Court order and directed airport authorities to stop her from leaving, fearing she might try to escape from prosecution.

Aquino, who won election on a promise to uproot corruption, blames Arroyo for a decade of graft and corruption scandals that eroded public trust in government and held back foreign investment.

Arroyo, however, accused her successor of resorting to "demagoguery to completely destroy my reputation."

Aquino has accused Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona, a former Arroyo chief of staff whom she appointed shortly before her term ended last year, of obstructing Arroyo's prosecution. Although Corona has denied favoring Arroyo in his rulings, Aquino's allies in the House of Representatives impeached the chief justice last week.

Arroyo, a 64-year-old former economics professor and daughter of an ex-president, survived four opposition impeachment bids and four attempted coups during her nine stormy years in power.

Arroyo once landed near the top of a Forbes magazine list of the 100 most powerful women in the world.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/personaltech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111221/ap_on_re_as/as_philippines_arroyo

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Regina Weinreich: Animated States: Rango And The Adventures Of Tintin

In the category of Best Animated Feature, the Foreign Press Association has just nominated both Rango and The Adventures of Tintin for Golden Globes. This awards nod comes as no surprise -- expect Oscar nominations as well -- each is state of the animation art, but so different. In Rango, director Gore Verbinski used the quirky story telling techniques that made his Pirates of the Caribbean franchise so special -- well, at least the first two. The plots are frankly forgettable, but the characters remain fresh, a product of brilliant casting. In Rango, Johnny Depp's voice animates the central character, a chameleon, of all creatures, and it's like he's retained a residual high from his Rum Diary persona in this sheriff who must solve the mystery (a la Polanski's Chinatown) of the disappearing water supply for the desert town of Dirt.

Last week Verbinski introduced a Rango screening, part of a MoMA series called The Contenders. In conversation with the museum's Chief Curator of Film, Rajendra Roy, Verbinski explained the process for Rango, a different kind of filmmaking for him: "There's no real path," he said about making animation, allowing him to play with a Greek chorus of mariachi musicians, "A Man with No Name," and references to the classic Sergio Leone westerns and Hitchcock. For 18 months, he worked on the story with the artists in a house in Pasadena. Then he recorded the actors for 20 days and reworked the story reel.

Of course on the question about the choice not to make this 3D, so much of a filmmaking trend this season, Verbinski responded that in the end, they decided that 3D would not enhance the storytelling in Rango.

3D, however, is perfectly suited to the swirls, shifts and swoops in The Adventures of Tintin, Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson's new swashbuckling motion-capture animated epic to open in time for Christmas. Coming from the French Tintin series by Herge, the script (Edgar Wright, Steven Moffat, Joe Cornish) merges three stories to craft a tale about the reporter Tintin (Jamie Bell), his trusted dog Snowy, a sea captain Haddock (Andy Serkis) who can barely hold his course or his drink, and a villain named Sakharine (Daniel Craig is extra good as the bad guy).

The 3D is especially effective in illustrating the landscape of North Africa, the desert dunes and the seacoast towns with their winding medinas, arabesques and minzahs. And best of all, like the books on which this film is based, this wonderful adventure is sequel ready.

A version of this post also appears on Gossip Central.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/regina-weinreich/rango-adventures-tintin_b_1156429.html

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