Wednesday, October 16, 2013

'Captain Phillips' And The Terrible Excitement Of Real Action





Tom Hanks and Barkhad Abdirahman share close quarters in Captain Phillips.



Columbia Pictures


Tom Hanks and Barkhad Abdirahman share close quarters in Captain Phillips.


Columbia Pictures


Captain Phillips, Paul Greengrass' tense movie about the April 2009 hijacking of the freighter Maersk Alabama by four Somali pirates, is a love song to the patience-through-overwhelming-fire-superiority of the U.S. military.


Unless, of course, it's a Dog Day Afternoon-style chronicle of the final days of a few sympathetically inept criminals who want money, not blood, but who end up dead anyway. What's empirical is that the film spends more screen time on the hapless, teenage pirates than on any of its other characters, save for Richard Phillips himself — played by America's everydad, Tom Hanks, whose next role will be that of Walt Disney.


Like last year's Zero Dark Thirty, Greengrass' new movie is Based On A True Story and climaxes with a successful operation by Navy SEALs, those precision instruments that we rightly revere. And while Captain Phillips tells a far simpler story, covering days rather than years, both films strike me as Rorschach blots onto which anyone can project individual beliefs about how and when America swings its big stick.


Except­ — and I'll label this paragraph as a spoiler, mostly because Dana Stevens considered it as such in her Slate review — Captain Phillips doesn't quite end with the SEALs grimly/awesomely taking care of business. It takes an extra few minutes, after the Navy has rescued Phillips from his captors, to show us see how exhausted, frightened, and sickened he is by the ordeal — and no one is likely to mistake that response for ingratitude. Maybe those tears Jessica Chastain shed in the last shot of Zero Dark Thirty were for our national soul (I doubt it), but I don't think this pair of scenes, wherein Phillips is too drained to speak, walk unassisted or do anything other than howl and weep is intended as a metaphor for anything.


Unlike the concurrent Gravity, which brilliantly sustains tension by never cutting away from its protagonist, Captain Phillips lets us in on the turning of wheels to which neither Phillips nor his opponent/captor, the pirate leader Abdulwali Abdukhad Muse (Barkhad Abdi, giving a performance at least as persuasive as Hanks'), are privy. That lower left-hand corner of the screen keeps flashing datelines. Interchangeable Naval personnel give and receive orders via radio. We see the SEALs board their plane in Virginia to fly halfway around the world and skydive into the Indian Ocean, where three naval warships have converged to block the pirates from escaping to Somalia with Phillips as their hostage. (The SEAL team leader is played by Max Martini, whose freakishly right-angular jaw has damned him to be cast only as soldiers or cops. It's a weird problem for a guy whose name literally means "peak capacity fancy cocktails" to have.)


The SEALs' arrival by parachute is as it happened in real life. Still, it must be expensive to film a parachuting sequence, and this one is brief and unspectacular — so why is it in the movie? Is Greengrass trying to underline the vast expense the U.S. will accept to send the message that if you mess with one 55-year-old Merchant Marine seaman from Vermont, you mess with us all? Or, more likely, that disruption of the shipping lanes will not be tolerated? This incident was the first (briefly) successful hijacking of an American ship in 200 years. Few that get taken have the benefit of such a response, a fact the film seems to acknowledge with a single line, conveyed via radio from an Admiral whose face we never see.


When the eroding hostage negotiation is suddenly resolved by three snipers' bullets in three pirates' heads, Greengrass presents it as a moment of horror, not of triumph. It plays like a moral counterweight to news reports like this one, which celebrated the SEALs' marksmanship as a feat of athleticism — which, let's not kid ourselves, it was. (The lifeboat Phillips was taken captive in is on display at the Navy SEAL museum in Fort Pierce, Florida.)


Nothing about Captain Phillips smacks of exploitation. By casting Hanks as the curt but honorable captain, Greengrass has spared us any further intervention to make the "character" more "likeable." Still, I'm never sure how much I'm supposed to enjoy depictions of recent tragedies, even ones as seriously and well-made as this.


Greengrass has earned the freedom to do more or less what he wants, having made the second and third films in the have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too Bourne series — high-end popcorn movies that at once condemn and delight in mayhem. (As the soulfully amnesiac super-assassin Jason Bourne, Matt Damon never looks like he's enjoying all that kneecap shattering and windpipe punching, which makes us feel better about enjoying it.) He started his career as a documentarian, and he continues to make documentary-ish films like this one.


I doubt this can be said of Greengrass' United 93 — despite its sterling critical reputation, I've never been able to bring myself to watch it — but Captain Phillips offers substantial entertainment value. I don't recall any jokes, but there are a couple of expertly staged action scenes. A sequence wherein the crew of the Maersk Alabama uses fire hoses and evasive maneuvers to try to prevent the pirates from affixing a ladder to the hull and climbing aboard, is, with apologies to John Woo and my beloved James Bond franchise, the only exciting boat chase in any movie, ever. Surely it's okay to feel caught up in moments like these.


Ridley Scott's film Black Hawk Down was the first film I can recall to trigger this queasiness. Based on Mark Bowden's superb nonfiction book about the a botched 1993 attempt to capture a Somali warlord—resulting in an all-night firefight that left 18 U.S. soldiers and hundreds of Somalis dead — the movie was made before, but released soon after, 9/11. Like the book, the film expresses awe at the talents of U.S. Special Forces operators (the Army's Delta Force in this case, not the SEALs), even as it depicts a failed mission. The film retains some of Bowden's observations about the workplace culture of the elite sections of the Army, and a little bit of his geopolitical analysis. But it's overwhelmingly a war movie, an action movie. In translating Bowden's 486-page prose account to the most visceral story medium, Scott can't help but trivialize the event somehow.


Captain Phillips doesn't do that. There's something appealingly 1970s-like in its refusal to editorialize. It can afford its humanism because Phillips lived to write a book. It has patience, albeit through overwhelming fire superiority.


Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2013/10/15/234676998/captain-phillips-and-the-terrible-excitement-of-real-action?ft=1&f=1048
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Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Updates | Preferences

Yay!!!! I can't wait for this RP to begin. So excited to see everyone's characters in action :D

By the way, most people have never met Red and think she's a man. Eve leaves Hei (orange) "in charge" most of the time. She might communicate through Hei and work with her co-leader to lead the Colours from time to time but she never actually appears in person. Even amongst the Colours Red's more of a myth than a person. But she's almost always behind the rebellions against the council, always screwing with their plans, attacking and defying them. Besides that of the Colours, of course.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/PSwO-p1IZgg/viewtopic.php
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Yahoo Reduces Planned Sale Of Alibaba Shares By 20%, Will Keep More Skin In The Game When It IPOs

2013-10-15_13h26_20Today in conjunction with its third quarter earnings release, Yahoo announced that it has come to a new agreement with Alibaba that will force the company to sell less of its shares in the Chinese ecommerce firm when it goes public. The number of shares that Yahoo will be required to sell now totals 208 million. That figure represents a 20.4 percent decrease on the former 261.5 million share requirement. Yahoo owns 523.6 million ordinary shares of Alibaba. Yahoo’s Alibaba stake is worth tens of billions of dollars, provided that Alibaba goes public in the $100 billion to $120 billion range that is usually discussed. Yahoo was required to sell half its Alibaba stake when the retail giant goes public. Yahoo claims to be “pleased” to hold onto more of its stake, post-IPO. Joe Tsai, a member of Alibaba’s board, said that “[u]nder its new leadership, Yahoo has made it a priority to build a good relationship with Alibaba.” So, this reduction can be chalked up to Mayer’s influence as CEO. Also, in late 2012, Yahoo exec Jacqueline Reses joined Alibaba’s board. As a company, Yahoo doesn’t need to sell its Alibaba stake to stay solvent, but as a bank account, the more it taps the resource, the more shiny things it can buy. Yahoo will net plenty, even with the reduction. Early-stage, mobile-first companies in the Bay Area beware, Yahoo is still hungry and well-funded.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/yAd6BAmBDz4/
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Talks Heat Up as Obama, Leaders Set Meeting (WSJ)

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Romneys approved to build beachfront mansion in California


LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and his wife, Ann, can demolish their beachfront home in a tony enclave near San Diego and build a larger 11,000-square-foot replacement, the California Coastal Commission ruled on Friday.


A neighbor of the Romneys had sought to block the project on the grounds that the couple's property in La Jolla was too small to justify a house of that size, under regulations determining the ratio between lot and house sizes, according to documents before the commission.


Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, was estimated during his 2012 presidential campaign to have a net worth of up to $250 million.


The Coastal Commission voted 7-4 at a meeting in San Diego to deny the appeal and allow the project to go forward, said Sarah Christie, spokeswoman for the panel.


The Romneys' neighbor had contended the couple had wrongly claimed a sandy beach area as part of their property to win approval for a larger house than they would otherwise be allowed to build, the commission report said.


Coastal Commissioner Greg Cox said the Romneys' proposed house will not be "intrusive or blocking the views that people have right now," according to a report from the City News Service.


The couple's current house in La Jolla measures 3,100 square feet (288 square meters), Christie said. The planned home is approaching three times the size of the existing home, and will have two stories and a basement.


(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Lisa Shumaker)



Source: http://news.yahoo.com/romneys-approved-build-beachfront-mansion-california-014443656.html
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Gold in tight range amid US budget talks, fund outflows


By A. Ananthalakshmi


SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Gold hovered near three-month lows on Tuesday as outflows from gold funds continued and as lawmakers made some progress towards resolving the U.S. budget impasse.


Gold, whose safe-haven appeal is usually burnished during times of geopolitical and economic uncertainty, has failed to gain despite protracted wrangling over the fiscal deadlock in the United States.


It has dropped about 4 percent to below $1,300 an ounce since a partial government shutdown began on October 1.


"Based on historical analysis, we think the weeks following a (possible) default would be the time for gold to rally," said Amber MacKinnon, an analyst at Nomura Securities in Sydney.


"Unless we actually see that, gold will be in a holding pattern. The upside is more likely if we get a (credit) downgrade."


During the last fiscal debate over raising the U.S. debt ceiling in 2011 - when a deal was only reached at the last minute - gold did not react sharply until after Standard & Poor's downgraded the U.S. credit rating, MacKinnon said. Prices eventually hit an all-time high of $1,920 in September that year.


"It appears that gold doesn't rally on a safe-haven basis in times of political tensions in the U.S. until after the event has occurred," MacKinnon said.


Spot gold had slipped 0.2 percent to $1,270.70 an ounce by 0641 GMT, after snapping a four-day losing streak in the previous session.


SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, said its holdings fell 1.85 tonnes to 889.13 tonnes on Monday to hit fresh four-year lows - reflecting diminishing investor confidence.


A month of combat in the U.S. Congress over government spending showed signs of giving way to a Senate deal to reopen shuttered federal agencies and prevent an economically damaging default on federal debt.


Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, and his Republican counterpart, Mitch McConnell, ended a day of constant talks with optimistic proclamations, as details leaked out of the pact they were negotiating.



Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gold-tight-range-amid-us-budget-talks-fund-073229385--finance.html
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Astronauts See Strange Cloud in Space from Missile Launch (Photos)



Astronauts on the International Space Station have beamed home photos of an eerie space cloud outside their orbital home, a strange sight apparently created by a recent missile launch.



The astronaut photos were captured on Oct. 10 by NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins and European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano who took to Twitter under their pen names (@AstroIllini and @astro_luca, respectively) to share the unnatural looking space cloud formation with Earth.



"Saw something launch into space today," Hopkins wrote. "Not sure what it was but the cloud it left behind was pretty amazing." At first, Hopkins wasn't sure what created the odd looking cloud outside the window of the orbiting laboratory, but Parmitano cleared up the confusion with a Twitter post of his own. [Amazing Space Photos by Astronaut Luca Parmitano]



"A missile launch seen from space: an unexpected surprise!" Parmitano wrote in a post on Oct. 11. One of the Italian astronaut's photos shows a curving contrail left in the missile's wake and another features a wispy cloud formed in space after the missile disintegrated.



Russia's Strategic Rocket Forces launched the missile, according to a blog post on RussianForces.org. The Topol/SS-25 missile launched from Kapustin Yar to the Sary Shagan test site in Kazakhstan.



"According to a representative of the Rocket Forces, the test was used to confirm characteristics of the Topol missile, to test the systems of the Sary Shagan test site, and 'to test new combat payload for intercontinental ballistic missiles,'" RussianForces.org wrote on Oct. 10.



Russia also conducted a similar test from Kapustin Yar to Sary Shagan in June 2012, RussiaForces.org said.




Parmitano and Hopkins are joined by four other spaceflyers on the International Space Station. NASA's Karen Nyberg and Russian cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin, Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy round out the Expedition 37 crew. Ryazanskiy, Hopkins and Kotov launched to the station at the end of September. Current station commander Yurchikhin, Nyberg and Parmitano are scheduled to fly back to Earth on Nov. 11.



Although NASA is currently closed due to the government shutdown, astronauts on the station are apparently still able to post photos on social media websites.



Twitter is just one of the ways that astronauts are able to communicate with people on the ground. Nyberg actively posts post photos on the website Pinterest and Parmitano blogs about his adventures in spaceflight through ESA. The station astronauts can also video chat with their loved ones on the surface of Earth.



The $100 billion orbiting laboratory is the size of a five-bedroom house with the wingspan of a football field. It is the largest structure ever built in space and has been continually staffed by a rotating crew of astronauts and cosmonauts since 2000.  



Follow Miriam Kramer @mirikramer and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on SPACE.com.



Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/astronauts-see-strange-cloud-space-missile-launch-photos-215952140.html
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Sunday, October 13, 2013

Cyclone Phailin Leaves Debris And Relatively Few Casualties






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    A woman returns to the cyclone-hit Arjipalli village on the Bay of Bengal coast in Ganjam district, Orissa state, India, Sunday. The state's Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik says that a full recovery will be a "big challenge."





    Biswaranjan Rout/AP






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    A family uses a motorcycle to cross a flooded road as they return to their village near Gopalpur, Orissa state, India, Sunday.





    Bikas Das/AP






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    A displaced Indian man carries his children at Sonupur village, around 15 kilometers from Gopalpur, Sunday.





    MANAN VATSYAYANA/AFP/Getty Images






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    People try to remove an electric pole that fell down at the cyclone-hit Arjipalli village on the Bay of Bengal coast in Ganjam district, Orissa state, India, Sunday. Mass evacuations spared India the widespread deaths many had feared from a powerful cyclone that roared ashore over the weekend.





    Biswaranjan Rout/AP






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    An Indian woman carries empty water pots at the fisherman's colony in Gopalpur Sunday. Cyclone Phailin left a trail of destruction along India's east coast after a large evacuation helped minimize casualties.





    MANAN VATSYAYANA/AFP/Getty Images






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    A municipal workers cuts an uprooted tree from Cyclone Phailin to clear a main highway in Berhampur, India, Sunday. The immense and powerful cyclone that lashed the Indian coast forced nearly a million people to evacuate from the coast.





    Bikas Das/AP






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    A woman rests near her damaged house after returning to the cyclone hit Podampeta village on the Bay of Bengal coast in Ganjam district, Orissa state, India, Sunday.





    Biswaranjan Rout/AP






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    Residents walk through floodwaters Sunday near where cyclone Phailin made landfall at Gopalpur one day earlier. Phailin left a trail of destruction along India's east coast and at least 14 people dead, officials say.





    MANAN VATSYAYANA/AFP/Getty Images






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    An Indian man rides a bicycle past an uprooted tree following the cyclone in Gopalpur on Sunday, Oct. 13, 2013.





    MANAN VATSYAYANA/AFP/Getty Images





Indian officials are reporting far fewer casualties than had been feared when the large and powerful cyclone Phailin struck the country's east coast Saturday. But the storm, which forced the evacuation of nearly one million people, has left flooding and destruction in its path.


One day after the storm struck the states of Orissa and Andhra Pradesh with winds of at least 125 mph, crews are working to clear fallen trees off roads and to open railway lines. And officials were voicing relief that the cyclone didn't approach the devastation brought by a 1999 "super-cyclone" that killed some 10,000 people in the same area.


Phailin has been blamed for 17 deaths, many caused by falling tree branches and collapsed houses. On Sunday, National Disaster Management Authority Marri Shashidhar Reddy said the mass evacuation had been effective. And he criticized international groups that had warned of more damage and stronger winds.


"After the exaggerated manner international agencies tried to portray it (the cyclone and disaster), the NDMA has done an excellent job," he said, according to Agence France-Presse.


The fact that this year's storm didn't exact such a staggering human toll as in 1999 is due to advances in India, according to Victor Mallet, the South Asia bureau chief for The Financial Times.


"Many more people have mobile phones. In the old days, it was just very hard to make contact with remote areas by landline, and now almost everybody has a mobile phone," Mallet tells NPR's Rachel Martin on today's Weekend Edition.



"So, I think that the better infrastructure plus the predictions that the storm was coming and the preparations that were made meant that the human damage, at least, was not as severe as it was back then," he says.


While India's chief weather agency has a website, it also used Facebook to raise alerts about the cyclone. Visits to the agency's site on Saturday found that its servers seemed to be overwhelmed — but the alerts were appearing on Facebook, making social media efforts even more vital.


The storm has left cars and trucks, trees and utility poles strewn across streets. Thousands of people who were displaced by the cyclone remain in temporary housing. The storm also destroyed hundreds of thousands of hectares of crops, officials say.


In Orissa, the state's Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik says that recovering from the strike will be a "big challenge," reports NDTV.


Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/10/13/233264356/cyclone-phailin-leaves-debris-and-relatively-few-casualties?ft=1&f=1001
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