Man convicted in Travolta car theft ordered to pay (AP)

LOS ANGELES ? A man who stole John Travolta's vintage 1970 Mercedes-Benz convertible is serving a jail term and been ordered to pay the actor $50,000 in restitution, court records show.

D L Rayford Jr. was sentenced to serve 16 months in jail after pleading no contest to grand theft auto on Jan. 5, nearly three weeks before authorities announced his arrest on Wednesday. Rayford and Michael T. Green were arrested last month on suspicion of taking the car and each was charged with grand theft auto.

Travolta parked the convertible on a residential street in Santa Monica, Calif., for about 10 minutes in September when it was stolen. The Oscar-nominated actor had the car keys with him while he stopped in at a nearby Jaguar dealership and returned to find the car missing.

Santa Monica Police Sgt. Richard Lewis said Travolta's car had been dismantled by the time it was recovered. Among the pieces recovered by authorities were seats, the speedometer, hubcaps and other assorted parts from the vehicle.

Lewis said authorities waited to announce the arrests because their investigation into Rayford and Green had been ongoing. He said Santa Monica Police were able to clear eight stolen car cases after their arrests.

Police recovered the pieces after arresting Rayford and Green, who has pleaded not guilty to two counts of grand theft auto. Robert Conley, a public defender representing him, said he could not comment on the case.

An email message sent to Travolta's publicist Samantha Mast was not immediately returned.

Rayford, 52, has a previous conviction for robbery and Green, 58, have prior convictions, court records show. Green is due back in court on Feb. 8.

___

Follow Anthony McCartney at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_en_ot/us_john_travolta_mercedes_stolen

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Alfred (for Mac)

Alfred (for Mac) (free, power pack upgrade available for ?15GBP) sat installed but hardly used on my Mac at home for nearly two months before I figured out why I would want to use it. But one day I launched it and I awoke to its possibilities. Now, Alfred is indispensible for increasing productivity and reducing mouse-related repetitive motions. Alfred works so simply and cleanly that it's possible to install it on a whim (seeing as it doesn't cost a dime), and never take the five minutes to figure out what it can do for you. Sure, you might understand how it works and what it does in an instant, but until you experience an awakening about how it can increase your productivity and change the way you interact with your computer, Alfred could largely hang around, unused and overlooked.

The above paragraph may sound a tad overzealous for what is a very simple and straightforward application, but it's meant to drive home a point. Alfred only becomes worthwhile when you figure out what your use case for it is. You can deploy Alfred for a number of different purposes, but until you find the few that speak to your daily work and typical computing patterns, you probably won't think much of Alfred. The program replicates a lot of functionality that's already available to Mac users in Spotlight, the built-in tool (since OS 10.4) for searching your computer for applications and files. But Alfred works a little differently, is faster, and for many other reasons is a preferable tool for many users.

Alfred for Mac System Requirements
Alfred for Mac version 1.0 is compatible with Intel Macs running OS X 10.6 and higher. The developers, Running with Crayons, report optimal results with Lion (10.7). A download is available for Leopard (OS X 10.5) for both Intel and Power PC Macs. See Alfred's requirements page for further details.

Alfred Hotkey
Alfred's primary purpose is to enable simple yet powerful keyboard shortcuts for searching your computer and launching application and files. You can keep the default hotkey to toggle to Alfred, or set your own. I used option + space bar.

The hotkey will pull Alfred's search bar?a relatively small and unobtrusive box on the screen, with legibly large font for characters?which you then use to search your computer for applications or files, or search online. Type any characters in the field and Alfred will match them to programs and files that contain that combination of letters. Press enter or the down arrow key or the keyboard shortcut shown at the right of the item you want (see the slideshowfor an image), and Alfred launches the application or file.

Type "Tw," and Alfred might suggest launching Twitter in a Web browser. It will also suggest any files, including program applications, on your computer that use the letters, such as the "iTwin installer" or an entry in your address book for "Mark Twain." Alfred can also track your patterns and learn from your behavior. After using Alfred only a handful of times, it learned that when I type "ch," I'm probably looking to launch Google Chrome because that's the most common selection I've made in the past?even if a file labeled "chicken-recipe" is a closer match, alphabetically speaking.

Notice that with Alfred, you can do everything I just described without taking your hands off the keyboard. If you've ever suffered wrist and thumb strain, or other symptoms of repetitive motion injuries caused by frequent mouse usage, you will immediately "get" Alfred. If not, keep reading, as I'll try to describe some other use cases in this review.

Alfred Looks, Finds, and Executes
Beyond being a quicklaunch and computer search tool, Alfred has other uses that can increase productivity, too.

Alfred enables hotkeys for showing Preferences, switching to Finder or Spotlight to complete the search, and switching to Google to search. System functions work, too: empty trash, log out, put Mac in sleep mode, restart, shut down, turn on the screensaver, and more. Writers will appreciate Alfred's ability to suggest the correct spelling of words or pull up definitions, while others might like the fact that Alfred can work as a calculator, too.

Within the app, you can enable and customize some of these extra functions through the settings, but I found this official Alfred "cheat sheet" even more helpful for learning commands and figuring out what the app can do.

Smoother Searching, Less Stress
Because it's fast, not at all intrusive, free, reduces mouse use, and can increase your productivity, Alfred for Mac easily wins over plenty of users, myself included. If you like the app and can't get enough of it, an optional powerpack (?15GBP, direct) can add even more functionality. Certainly, some users will see Alfred as unnecessary because it replicates a lot of Spotlight's capabilities, while the rest of us enjoy a clean little app that works wonderfully.

More Productivity Software Reviews:
??? Alfred (for Mac)
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?? more

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Some Wash. wheat farmers back labels for GM foods (AP)

YAKIMA, Wash. ? Some Washington state wheat farmers have thrown their support behind legislation requiring labeling of genetically modified foods, giving food safety advocates fresh hope that lawmakers also will get behind the bill.

They haven't been receptive to the idea in the past, and lawmakers at the national level and in more than a dozen states have rejected similar proposals in the past year.

But in an unusual pairing, a handful of Washington wheat farmers have joined so-called "foodies" to back the latest bill, fearing exports will be hurt if and when genetically modified wheat gains federal approval. The U.S. exports half of its wheat, and in Washington, the only bigger export is Boeing Co.'s airplanes.

Biotechnology giants Monsanto and Syngenta have announced plans to begin testing genetically modified wheat, though the product is likely a decade or more from being offered commercially.

Resistance from the European Union and Japan led Monsanto to abandon similar efforts in 2004. Pacific Rim countries haven't historically been friendly to genetically modified products, and they remain the biggest buyers of Washington wheat.

"If we do nothing, we will be destroyed," said Tom Stahl, a fourth-generation farmer in the small town of Waterville, Wash., about 100 miles east of Seattle. "We will lose our markets and that will be devastating for the eastern Washington economy."

Monsanto and Syngenta representatives didn't immediately return messages left after a Thursday hearing on the bill.

Dozens of people testified at a packed Senate committee hearing in Olympia, Wash., where the committee chairman raised concerns about passing a bill that may conflict with federal law.

About 50 countries require genetically modified foods to be labeled, but the U.S. isn't one of them. Only Alaska has enacted legislation at the state level, requiring the labeling of genetically engineered fish and shellfish products.

Supporters said that bill was needed to protect one of Alaska's most lucrative and important industries, though genetically engineered fish are not yet on the market.

The Washington bill would require genetically engineered foods or foods containing genetically engineered ingredients to be labeled with the ingredients listed effective July 1, 2014. The rule would apply to all foods sold in the state, although those in which GM ingredients make up less than half of 1 percent would be exempt.

The federal government's position is that approved genetically modified foods are not substantially different than conventional products. Critics say requiring GM foods to be labeled will increase packaging costs and state spending on enforcement.

More than 90 percent of corn and soybeans in this country are grown from genetically modified seed, said Karen Batra, spokeswoman for the Washington, D.C.-based Biotechnology Industry Association, a trade group that advocates for biotechnology members, including Monsanto and Syngenta.

"Ultimately, you're not providing any meaningful information to consumers, because you end up labeling the majority of products," she said by telephone. "Consumers already have a choice: If they don't want biotech foods, they can buy organic."

Batra declined to speculate on whether opponents would challenge the bill in court if it passed.

Wheat has lagged behind other crops in terms of innovation, and biotechnology offers tools to deal with problems like drought and increase sustainable production, said Jane DeMarchi, the National Association of Wheat Grower's director of government affairs for research and technology.

DeMarchi said in a telephone interview that her group has been talking to people who buy wheat, including those overseas, to determine what they want from U.S. farmers and educate them about genetically modified wheat.

She said she recognized the farmers' concerns but stressed that each one has a choice of what to grow and how to label it.

"We support voluntary labeling of food products, provided it's consistent with U.S. law and trade agreements and that it's truthful and not misleading," she said.

The problem with voluntary labeling is that it puts the burden on companies whose products aren't a problem, said Trudy Bialic, director of public affairs for PCC Natural Markets, the largest consumer owned and operated grocery retailer in the U.S. It supports the bill as a means of educating consumers, preserving the identity of non-GM foods and protecting export sales.

"In my view, a lot of federal law has started at the state level," Bialic said. "This has to start at a state level, because the federal government won't take it up."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/science/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_re_us/us_food_and_farm_gmo_labeling

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Fight over changing constants reaches stalemate

It's time to declare a ceasefire in the fight to find out whether the constants of nature vary. What was supposed to be a new superweapon in the battle has turned into something of a damp squib.

Some observations of how hydrogen gas in space absorbs light at ultraviolet wavelengths have hinted that the fine structure constant, responsible for the strength of electromagnetism, is not the same throughout the universe. That would point to exotic new physics, including the existence of extra dimensions and universes other than our own.

But the measurement is tricky, and researchers had hoped that studying how hydroxyl molecules emit and absorb light at radio wavelengths would give a more precise, independent measurement of the effect.

In theory, radio instruments can measure wavelengths 50 to 100 times more accurately than those that detect hydrogen absorption, says Nissim Kanekar at the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics in Pune, India.

But he and colleagues discovered the reality is more complicated. They observed the emission and absorption of radio waves from hydroxyl molecules in a gas cloud 6.7 billion light years from Earth that was absorbing light from a more distant galaxy.

No silver bullet

Quantum mechanics predicts that a particular set of emission and absorption lines in the hydroxyl molecule should be mirror images of each other, but in this case they found that was not true. Kanekar thinks the puzzling observation may be due to a second hydroxyl cloud lying along the same line of sight. It may absorb some of the radio waves, fouling the measurement.

"We thought we had the silver bullet, but it didn't pan out," says team member Chris Carilli of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Socorro, New Mexico.

Whatever is causing the odd measurement, the observation is simply not accurate enough to determine whether the fine structure constant is changing. "Their measurement is entirely consistent with our result ? and with zero," says John Webb of the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, who has previously found hints that the constant varies.

Carilli says it may take 20 years to make enough observations with the new technique to settle the question. Only a handful of gas clouds are known that exhibit the hydroxyl signal, but new surveys and radio arrays, such as the Square Kilometer Array, should turn up more examples.

Journal reference: arxiv.org/abs/1201.3372v1

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Tax Returns and Tithing: How Mitt Romney Gives Away 16% of His Income (Time.com)

When Mitt Romney released his 2010 tax returns on Tuesday, the one number that probably stood out to many Americans wasn't his 14% effective tax rate or his $20 million-plus annual income. It was the $7 million he gave to charity over the last two years, including some $4.1 million to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Where does that money go? In addition to donating to his family's Tyler Foundation, Romney does his duty as an active LDS member. The Mormon Church requires its members to tithe 10% of their income, and Romney's contributions match that responsibility. (PHOTOS: The Rich History of Mitt Romney)

Designed to follow the Biblical mandate to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, the Mormon tithing system supports a giant welfare infrastructure. In addition to financing temple construction and missionary programs, tithing supports more than 300 employment resource centers and 80 family services offices around the world. The church employs some 8,500 missionaries who teach English, give agricultural aid, provide medical practices and distribute clothing. It even stores a 3-6 month food supply so its members won't go hungry in the event of a disaster, and most families forgo two consecutive meals a month to give money as a "fast offering" for the poor. Local bishops -- a position Romney once held -- work with members of their local church wards to overcome economic hardships, and are even empowered to pay a family's mortgage in the hardest of times.

Structured or not, these donations set Romney apart from his political colleagues. In 2010, Romney gave away 16% of his income while Newt Gingrich's returns show he gave only 2.6%. The portion Gingrich donated to his Washington D.C. home church, the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, was even smaller -- 0.3%, or $9,540. Because the Gingrichs' also reported an earned income of $5,918 from the National Shrine -- Callista sings as an alto in the church's professional choir, which pays $80 per mass and rehearsal -- so the net balance of their contributions sinks below $4,000. The rest of Gingrich's charitable donations went to unspecified cash contributions through the Gingrichs' businesses, some $68,500, and to miscellaneous donations, near $3,100. The Obamas, meanwhile, gave 14% of their income to a total of 36 different charities in 2010. Much of that went to the Fisher House Foundation, a charity that works with veterans, and smaller amounts went to the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund and the Boys and Girls Club of America. A religious body was not listed on their returns, but the Obamas have not become members of a church while living in Washington. (VIDEO: Explaining Mitt Romney's 14% Federal Tax Rate)

In Monday's debate, Romney said he is "proud of the fact that I pay a lot of taxes." Though he's at times reluctant to speak publicly about his Mormon faith, his charitable giving, half of which goes to the socially-active LDS church, is something to be proud of as well.

View this article on Time.com

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Apple doubles iPhone sales in 1Q

FILE - In this May 23, 2011 file photo, customers look at the Apple MacBook Air and the iPad 2 at the Apple Store in San Francisco. Apple Inc., reports quarterly financial results Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012, after the market close. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)

FILE - In this May 23, 2011 file photo, customers look at the Apple MacBook Air and the iPad 2 at the Apple Store in San Francisco. Apple Inc., reports quarterly financial results Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012, after the market close. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)

In this Jan. 19, 2012 photo, Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, discusses iBooks 2 for iPad, in New York. Apple Inc., reports quarterly financial results Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012, after the market close. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

(AP) ? The iPhone is taking over Apple.

For the first time, the device that changed how people use mobile phones, accounts for more than half of the behemoth company's sales.

Apple Inc. on Tuesday said it sold 37 million iPhones in the last three months of 2011, vastly exceeding analyst estimates and propelling the company to record quarterly results.

The phone accounted for 53 percent of Apple's revenue in the quarter. Though it has other hit products, like MacBooks and the iPad, they can't keep up with the iPhone, whose sales more than doubled over last year from an already high level.

The sales mean Apple is set to regain the position it briefly held earlier last year of being the world's largest maker of smartphones. Nokia Corp., the earlier No. 1, in transition to a new generation of smartphones, and more recent competitor Samsung Electronics Co. has announced preliminary figure of 35 million smartphones sold in the October to December period.

October saw Apple launching the iPhone 4S in the U.S. and some other countries. The phone was delayed for a few months, which meant that Apple's results for the July to September quarter were uncharacteristically tepid.

It came back with a vengeance in the holiday season. On Tuesday, Apple said net income in the fiscal first quarter, which ended Dec. 31, was $13.06 billion, or $13.87 per share. That was up 118 percent from $6 billion, or $6.43 per share, a year ago.

Analysts polled by FactSet were expecting earnings of $10.04 per share for the latest quarter, Apple's fiscal first.

Revenue was $46.33 billion, up 73 percent from a year ago. Analysts were expecting $38.9 billion.

"It was a pristine quarter," said ISI Group analyst Brian Marshall. "The investment community has never seen a company like this, inside or outside technology."

The stellar performance could re-establish Apple as the world's most valuable company, again toppling Exxon Mobil Corp. Apple first unseated Exxon last summer, and the two have been trading places since then.

Apple shares rose $30.67, or 7.3 percent, to $451.08 in extended trading, after the company released its results. If that rally sticks in Wednesday's regular trading sessions, Apple's market value will be hovering around $420 billion. Exxon's market value stood at $417.9 billion Tuesday, while Apple's was $391.9 billion at the end of regular trading.

Apple shipped 15.4 million iPads in the quarter, again more than doubling sales over the same quarter last year. The November launch of Amazon.com Inc.'s $199 Kindle Fire tablet didn't appear to put much of a dent in the iPad's sales, as some analysts predicted it would.

Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer said the company expects earnings of $8.50 per share in the current quarter, and sales of $32.5 billion. Both figures are above the average estimate of analysts polled by FactSet, even though Apple usually low-balls its estimates.

The Cupertino, California company ended the quarter with a cash balance of a staggering $97.6 billion. That's more than enough to buy Citigroup Inc. outright, or issue a special dividend of $100 per Apple share.

For years, investors have been frustrated with Apple's unwillingness to put the cash to use, but complaints have been muted as Apple continues to generate record-breaking results and as the stock price keeps rising. Apple executives have said the cash hoard gives the company flexibility to make acquisitions and long-term supply deals.

Apple's results lifted shares of smaller companies that supply chips for the iPhone, like TriQuint Semiconductor, up 7.7 percent, Cirrus Logic Inc., up 6.8 percent, Broadcom Corp., up 4.2 percent, and Skyworks Solutions Inc., up 3.7 percent.

Apple co-founder and longtime CEO Steve Jobs died Oct. 5, just as the record-breaking quarter started.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-24-Earns-Apple/id-1e6ff1f49f42497184936ae433c47715

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Olympus turns to Sony to help it get its feet back on the ground

Olympus might have some good news soon: it might have found a hero to rescue it from its woes. The "troubled" (read: it hid $1.7 billion worth of accounting losses, was nearly de-listed from the Tokyo Stock Exchange and is currently suing its leadership team for fraud) company is reportedly about to negotiate a capital-and-business alliance with Sony. The TSE gave the optics-maker three years to clean up its act, which it's hoping Big S (that already owns a 0.03 percent stake in the company) will assist with some know-how, a big pot of cash, and maybe loaning them a competent accountant, or something. Whatever happens, the rumors are that all will be revealed at a press conference next week, we're just hoping Will Smith turns up to announce it.

Olympus turns to Sony to help it get its feet back on the ground originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Jan 2012 10:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/23/olympus-sony-talks/

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Oscar Nominations 2012: JC Chandor On Original Screenplay Nomination For 'Margin Call'

JC Chandor earned his first Oscar nomination on Tuesday, getting a Best Original Screenplay nod for his star-studded, independent financial meltdown thriller, "Margin Call." The film stars Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irons, Zachary Quinto, Penn Badgley, Demi Moore, Simon Baker and Paul Bettany as the employees of a hedge firm about to bust, making dramatic decisions that will ripple through the world economy.

Chandor joins a field that includes an all-time great, Woody Allen ("Midnight in Paris"), and the star of a smash hit comedy, Kristen Wiig ("Bridesmaids"), but as a first-time filmmaker, just being there is a thrill for him. Speaking to The Huffington Post on Tuesday, he discussed his excitement about the nomination, his film's timely message, and what his nomination means for the future of video on demand and independent filmmaking.

What does this mean to you, as a first-time filmmaker getting nominated?
From where this project started for us, for me personally, to have had it ended up here and frankly, we weren't the most touchy feely, feel good movie of the year, it takes a little bit for people to sit down and actually watch this movie. But the good news is, when people actually do watch it, it's usually a lot better than they thought it was going to be. So in this case, it's just so exciting for me, to actually realize that 350 or whatever it is people at the Academy, who are writers and my heroes, they sat down and thought this movie was worthy, it's pretty darn exciting.

It wasn't a big studio project; take me through the process of it being an idea to being an indie film to going to Oscar nomination.
Yeah! A little over three years ago, I sat down to write it and wrote it to originally shoot it for under a million bucks, because I wanted to direct it. It was written to be shot, it wasn't written to be a script. It was written to be a movie -- a little movie but a movie -- and it's been, after sitting around for 15 years, struggling, trying to do whatever the heck I can, to have had this project, it's been a bit of under a favored cloud, it's gotten kind of carried along. I think in a neat way, I hope this nomination reflects back on the performances, because this was an actors' driven piece from the minute I sat down to write it, I knew that's what I wanted to write.

I saw a number of For Your Consideration ads for the film, and this was your first go around in an Oscar campaign. What was that experience like?
It was a really interesting process. I think the cool thing for me, all of those ads and everything else, we certainly weren't going to have the money that a lot of those films that we're competing against did. As far as sort of independent, small distributors, we're even on the small end of that. So we knew that was never going to carry the day, so really all you're hoping for is for people to see the movie. I'm now a member of the Writers Guild, so I get a lot of those screeners that come in.

You now realize that studios aren't trying to buy the votes -- well I don't know, maybe some of them are -- they're trying to put the DVD into the player. Because you've got 50 films you've got to watch. So, I think just learning that this is about kind of drawing attention to the film and trying to get people to watch the film was pretty exhilarating, to then realize that it wasn't just some popularity contest, it was actually kind of meaningful. And when I look at our little category, the scripts that got nominated, those seem very well thought out and it's been reaffirming for me.

Do you think the timeliness of the film's message helped?
I don't know -- I think it could hurt it, too. Sometimes people, when something like that is going on in their world, don't want to go sit in a movie for it. The neat thing in our film is that it's entertaining enough so that word of mouth on is fairly good. But the other thing is I actually think there's a meaningful dialogue going on, with the way the Occupy movement sort of happened, where no one was throwing molotov cocktails, no one was being crazy, people were actively trying to engage in something that happened in their lives and they wanted to speak out about it. So for the film to come along at a time when that was going on, if someone had started throwing rocks through windows, people probably would have been like, I don't want to engage in this topic. But the fact that it was a fairly mature response, it was sort of Gandhi at his best, non-violent protest, the film got to be a part of that dialogue, which is pretty awesome.

It's really the only film that deals with it in this year's Oscars. Do you feel like you're representing the Occupy movement or people upset with the financial crisis?
A lot of Occupy people don't think I was critical enough. Some people in that movement think the film let these people off the hook a little bit. But I'm a big, big believer than dramatic performances and dramatic writing and fictional writing can shed a light and shed a truth on what's going on in our world. I'm a huge fan of the films of the '70s and even into the '80s, Sidney Lumet, all those films that used what was going on in people's lives as drama. And not only are you entertained, but hopefully have a greater understanding of your world coming out of it. That was clearly inspiration for me, not only in my life but as a filmmaker. Obviously this film is very unapologetic about the fact that it's about right now.

You're the first real Oscar contender to have had his or her film be seen mostly through video on demand, so you're also leading a charge in that way.
Obviously, for the majority of all of us, unless you're 22 years old and just directed a film, for most people that are making films, either as actors or filmmakers, going straight to video was a bad thing. Your film had not reached where it needed to be and was being dumped. And I think with the fact that there is this tremendous opportunity to access people on their couches, so that they're not watching the 50th version of some police drama that they've seen, but can actually sit there and watch an art film and pay $8 for it or something, it's a market place for us, and to say it doesn't exist and just put our heads in the sand is ridiculous.

So what was really interesting about our film is that it made $5.5 million in the theaters, only going out on 199 screens, and it made probably $5-6 million in first run VOD, not including DVD or anything else. And the theater owners would not allow us to go over 199 screens, they basically capped it because the film was over-performing and they don't want a film to show that that can be done, but if you talk to our distributors, their argument is there are two audiences and there always will be.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/24/oscar-nominations-2012-jc-chandor-margin-call_n_1228434.html

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Apple doubles iPhone sales in 1Q

(AP) ? After uncharacteristically tepid sales in the July-to-September quarter, Apple came back with a vengeance in last three months of 2011, vastly exceeding analyst estimates and setting new records.

Apple Inc. on Tuesday said it sold 37 million iPhones in the quarter, double the figure of the previous quarter and more than twice as many as it sold in last year's holiday quarter.

The result may make Apple the world's largest maker of smartphones. Samsung Electronics, which held that position for most of last year, has said it expects to report shipping about 35 million smartphones in the October to December quarter.

October saw the launch of the iPhone 4S, and the addition of Sprint Nextel Corp. as an iPhone carrier in the U.S.

Apple said net income in the fiscal first quarter was $13.06 billion, or $13.87 per share. That was up 118 percent from $6 billion, or $6.43 per share, a year ago.

Analysts polled by FactSet were expecting earnings of $10.04 per share for the latest quarter, Apple's fiscal first.

Revenue was $46.33 billion, up 73 percent from a year ago. Analysts were expecting $38.9 billion.

The Cupertino, California, company shipped 15.4 million iPads in the quarter, again more than doubling sales over the same quarter last year.

Apple shares rose $33.03, or 7.9 percent, to $453.53 in extended trading, after the release of the results.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2012-01-24-Earns-Apple/id-b677352fb0714a2f94e5099df99609fb

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AP Exclusive: US talks to Afghan insurgent group (AP)

ISLAMABAD ? Anxious to accelerate peace moves, top-level U.S. officials have held talks with a representative of an insurgent movement led by a former Afghan prime minister who has been branded a terrorist by Washington, a relative of the rebel leader says.

Dr. Ghairat Baheer, a representative and son-in-law of longtime Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar (Gul-bu-DEEN HEK-mah-tyar), told The Associated Press this week that he had met separately with David Petraeus, former commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan who is now CIA director, and had face-to-face discussions earlier this month with U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and U.S. Marine Gen. John Allen, currently the top commander in the country.

Baheer, who was released in 2008 after six years in U.S. detention at Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan, described his talks with U.S. officials as nascent and exploratory. Yet, Baheer says the discussions show that the U.S. knows that in addition to getting the blessing of Taliban chief Mullah Mohammad Omar ? a bitter rival of Hekmatyar even though both are fighting international troops ? any peace deal would have to be supported by Hekmatyar, who has thousands of fighters and followers primarily in the north and east.

Hizb-i-Islami, which means Islamic party, has had ties to al-Qaida but in 2010 floated a 15-point peace plan during informal meetings with the Afghan government in Kabul. At the time, however, U.S. officials refused to see the party's delegation.

"Hizb-i-Islami is a reality that no one can ignore," Baheer said during an interview last week at his spacious home in a posh suburb of Pakistan's capital, Islamabad. "For a while, the United States and the Kabul government tried not to give so much importance to Hizb-i-Islami, but now they have come to the conclusion that they cannot make it without Hizb-i-Islami."

In Washington, National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden would not confirm that such meetings took place but said the U.S. was maintaining "a range of contacts in support of an Afghan-led reconciliation process."

A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the high-level meetings, said Petraeus last met with Baheer in July 2011 when he was still commanding NATO forces in Afghanistan. Petraeus took over as CIA director in September.

On Saturday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said he also had met recently with Hizb-i-Islami representatives. Baheer said he attended those meetings but added that the party considers the Afghan government corrupt and lacking legitimacy.

Karzai's announcement appeared intended to bolster his position as the key player in the search for peace. The U.S. repeatedly has said that formal negotiations must be Afghan-led, but Karzai has complained that his government has not been directly involved in recent preliminary talks with Taliban representatives and plans for setting up a Taliban political office in the Gulf state of Qatar.

Baheer said his meeting with Petraeus, whom he described as a "very humble, polite person," was marked by a few rounds of verbal sparring with each boasting a battlefield strength that the other dismissed as exaggerated.

"There was a psychological war in these first meetings," he said.

Baheer said Crocker and Allen tried to persuade Hizb-i-Islami to become part of Afghanistan's political network, accept the Afghan security forces and embrace the nation's current constitution. He said Hizb-i-Islami was ready to accept the security forces and the constitution, but wants a multiparty commission established to review and revise the charter.

"We are willing to make compromises," said Baheer. "We already have said we will accept the Afghan army and the police."

He said Hizb-i-Islami envisioned a multiparty government in postwar Afghanistan. At the same time, the group wants all U.S. and NATO forces, including military trainers, to leave Afghanistan, he said.

"The presence of any foreign forces will be not acceptable to us under any cover," he said. "Daily, there is another American killing of civilians. The longer they stay, the more they are hated by the Afghan people."

Overtures to Hekmatyar's group show not only the degree of U.S. interest in pursuing a settlement but also the complexity of putting together an agreement acceptable to all sides in factious Afghanistan. The U.S. formally declared Hekmatyar a "global terrorist" in 2003 because of alleged links to al-Qaida and froze all assets which he may have in the United States.

Hekmatyar, who is in his mid-60s, was among the major recipients of U.S. aid during the Afghan war against the Soviets in the 1980s. He and other anti-Soviet commanders swept into Kabul in 1992 and ousted the pro-Soviet government, only to turn against one another in a bitter and bloody power struggle that destroyed vast sections of the Afghan capital and killed an estimated 50,000 civilians before the Taliban seized the city.

A bitter rival of Mullah Omar, Hekmatyar fled to Iran and remained there until the Taliban were ousted in the 2001 U.S.-led invasion. He declared war on foreign troops in his country and rebuilt his military forces, which by 2008 had become a major threat to the U.S.-led coalition.

Contacts with Hekmatyar's group as well as parallel efforts to negotiate with the Taliban have taken on new urgency following the NATO decision to withdraw foreign combat forces, transfer security responsibility to the Afghans by the end of 2014 and bring an end to the unpopular war, which is increasingly seen as a drain on the financially strapped Western countries that provide most of the troops.

On Sunday, the U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Marc Grossman, completed two days of meetings about the peace process with Karzai and other Afghan officials. Grossman, who was to travel to Qatar on Monday, urged the Taliban to issue a "clear statement" against international terrorism and affirm their commitment to the peace process "to end the armed conflict in Afghanistan."

U.S. officials also have reached out to the Pakistan-based Haqqani militant network to test its interest in peace talks. Haqqani fighters, the second largest insurgent group after the Taliban, have been blamed for most of the high-profile attacks in the heart of the Afghan capital.

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Kathy Gannon is AP special regional correspondent covering Pakistan and Afghanistan. She can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/kathygannon

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Associated Press writers Deb Riechmann in Kabul and Kimberly Dozier and Anne Gearan in Washington contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120122/ap_on_re_as/as_afghan_talks

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