Heffernan: Vine app is wicked easy, charmingly retro

By Virginia Heffernan

If you believe a nubile new video app called Vine is sweeping the nation because Vine is a masterpiece or at least a better mousetrap, think again. Vine?which hit the web last week and lets you share looping, six-second videos on Twitter?is just fine, and plenty fun, but Vine is not suddenly everywhere on the Internet because it?s extra-special. It?s not even everywhere because someone used it to tweet porn early in the game, and Vine accidentally endorsed a xxx vid. No. Vine is everywhere because it belongs to Twitter.

In other words, she?s pretty cool and she?s the boss?s daughter. No wonder she?s the d?butante of the season.

The Twitter story reverses the ?Field of Dreams? vision of ?if you build it, he will come.? Instead, with Twitter, we showed up?some 300 million Twitter users now?for what was initially a fairly thin set of text communications protocols. But we stayed on Twitter because other people did, and then they came because we were all there, learning in unison to compose epigrams with #hashtags and @replies and links.

Simultaneously, Twitter built itself in response to our presence, and our activities.? Having begun in 2006 as a place to circulate verbal chips and salsa, it didn?t become the so-called New Twitter until 2010, when it started letting users see photos and videos without leaving Twitter.

For years, third-party developers turned out Twitter add-ons like Tweetdeck and Twistori . But now Twitter has decided to take charge of developing its own Internet real estate. This is like the oil companies getting friendly with the railroads in the 19th century. Ultimately, people in oil and gas like to be in real estate, too. Similarly, people in social networking get into app development. Synergies are discovered; profits are made; markets are happy, then not; oligopolies are busted up. And repeat. It?s the American way.

So what is Vine, besides Twitter?s first foray into owning not just the rails but the stuff that rides the rails? In short, Vine is a way to rediscover, and pleasingly exploit, the magic of animation. (If you?re not on Twitter or Vine, here?s a good place to watch some Vine videos.)

I?ve made a few Vine videos, or ?Vines? (I guess they?re called?), and I enjoyed it. Remember the time you and your brother hauled out your dad?s brandless movie camera, set up Chewbacca and Princess Leia, and prepared thumb and forefinger for a brutal 40-hour marathon of ?stop-action animation?? It?s like that. Neato.

I mean, I realize that childhoods are different, and a few did not take place in the 1970s, in the Dawn of Industrial Light and Magic. But, whether you were born in 1940 or 1990, there?s gotta be a moment when someone showed you how animation works, with a flipbook or maybe a Muybridge zoopraxiscope, if you happen to be 100.

Let that dawning dawn again. To make a Vine video, you open the app on your phone/movie camera and hold a button down. When you let go, the camera stops rolling. You can then point it elsewhere, or move around what you?re shooting, and start it up again. In this way, you can do rad jumpcuts or just start-and-stop-and-move-and-start-again with the wonderful, tedious patience of a claymation animator.

I went for jumpcuts first, and enjoyed catching a panorama with significant missing parts. My video looked hectic and urban and even disturbing with all its motion and gaps, especially when I shot from inside a Manhattan taxi. I then started to try animation, and started to make a glass of water that looked like it was magically emptying. But I was too lazy even to return the glass to the right spot. So it just looked like a glass jumping around on a table. You couldn?t even really tell that the water level was going down.

Vine videos play on an endless loop so they have a kind of glitchy, broken-record look that is maybe retro. I?m not sure I like it, especially after one by Tyra Banks, lost under a bunch of Chrome windows on my desktop, wouldn?t stop repeating its goofy dialogue.

But I do like the wicked-easy sharing and the intuitive controls. I also like the curation: there?s a lot of Exploring and Discovering and Editor?s Picks. For a week-old app, Vine?boosted by Twitter?s marketing and integrating?already seems flush with users and content. Every new Vine video attracts comments, and you?d think users were commenting on some century-old craft, like needlework, as they get into the nitty-gritty of ?how did you do that?!?

Everybody just saw this app a few days ago, guys. We?re all just figuring it out. Some, I guess, are figuring faster than others. The height of achievement on Vine?aside from the promotion of Vine itself, which is Vine?s actual proudest achievement?is a Lego fantasia, as of this writing. Someone named Hunter Harrison put Lego Batman and Lego Robin on a gray Lego surface and had the caped crusaders scope out and destroy their enemies.

?How did you do this without your hand getting in the way?? one commenter, awestruck, asked. Ah. The magic of stop-motion. It never gets old, even when everything else is new.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/appitude--the-newest-twitter-trend%E2%80%94sharing-six-second-videos-on-vine%E2%80%94is-surprisingly-retro-191910937.html

CJ Spiller tracy morgan

Comodo Firewall (2013)

Windows now includes a functional built-in firewall, so consumers expect any third-party firewall to either offer a lot more than Windows does or to come as a freebie. Comodo Firewall (2013) does both. It's completely free, and it includes a wide range of features beyond the expected. Comodo's 2013 edition has gotten a serious makeover, with top-to-bottom streamlining of its user interface.

Like many other products, Comodo Firewall has a main window dominated by a big green security status icon. However, equal emphasis goes to a landing zone for applications to be sandboxed; more about the sandbox feature later on. When you want to dig deeper, you click the Tasks link which visibly "flips" the main window revealing a variety of available security tasks.

New in this edition, Comodo installs a desktop widget that offers a quick view of your security status. Clicking a button on the widget opens the product's main window. It also offers links to launch your browsers in sandboxed (protected) mode, and to follow Comodo on Facebook or Twitter.

Firewall Functions
Like Windows Firewall (and almost every third-party firewall), Comodo had no trouble putting all of my test system's ports in stealth mode. None of my port scans or other Web-based attacks could even detect the test system. A few firewalls, including Outpost Firewall Pro 8, go a step further, actively detecting and blocking port scan attacks.

The flip side of personal firewall protection is what we call program control. The firewall keeps track of what sorts of Internet and network access programs request and allows only appropriate communication. In its default Safe Mode, Comodo automatically configures permission for trusted programs. When an unknown program attempts a connection, it asks the user whether to allow or block the connection.

Like Outpost, Comodo gives the user a choice beyond simply allowing or blocking the program. Predefined rulesets make it easy to configure a program for the type of access appropriate to, for example, a Web browser, or an email client. Other presets relate to the type of access allowed. For example, it's easy to configure a program to allow normal outbound access but block it from receiving inbound connections.

High-end firewalls like what you get in Norton Internet Security (2013) or Kaspersky Internet Security (2013) handle program control internally, with no reliance on user decisions. When a firewall does involve the user in trust decisions, it's important that the firewall catch every attempt at access. Leak test programs try to connect with the Internet "under the radar," undetected by program control.

In its default configuration, a dozen leak tests I tried slipped right past Comodo's protection, making their connections undeterred. However, when I enabled the Behavior Blocker (more about the Behavior Blocker shortly) it detected suspicious activity in every case and offered to run the samples in isolation. Some managed a connection even so, but they didn't get through undetected. ZoneAlarm directly blocked sneaky Internet connection attempts by about three quarters of these samples.

Many modern malware attacks slip into victim systems by exploiting unpatched vulnerabilities in the operating system, the browser, or essential applications. To test Comodo's exploit protection I attacked the test system using 30 exploits generated by the Core IMPACT penetration tool. Like ZoneAlarm Free Firewall 2012, Comodo didn't actively block any of these at the network level and also didn't block their attempts to drop files on the test system. Only the fact that the test system was fully patched prevented it from being compromised. Norton, by contrast, detected every exploit at the network level and identified most by name.

Comodo doesn't expose any significant settings in the Registry; a malicious program couldn't disable it by setting protection to "OFF" in the Registry. However, I had no trouble killing off its processes using Task Manager. That's surprising, because with the previous edition such an attempt yielded "Access Denied." I also managed to set its essential services to be disabled. After reboot it re-enabled some, but not all, of them. This firewall could do with a little toughening up. The same attacks on ZoneAlarm bounced off harmlessly.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/5p7p-FOVncA/0,2817,2414835,00.asp

powerball numbers freddie mercury Horshack Beady Eye

Excessive Alcohol Use When You?re Young Could Have Lasting Impacts on Your Brain

Jan. 30, 2013 ? There is growing evidence for the lasting impact of alcohol on the brain.? Excessive alcohol use accounts for 4% of the global burden of disease, and binge drinking particularly is becoming an increasing health issue. A new review article published in Cortex highlights the significant changes in brain function and structure that can be caused by alcohol misuse in young people.

Functional signs of brain damage from alcohol misuse in young people mainly include deficits in visual learning and memory as well as executive functions. These functions are controlled by the hippocampus and frontal structures of the brain, which are not fully mature until around 25 years of age. Structural signs of alcohol misuse in young people include shrinking of the brain and significant changes to white matter tracts.

Age of first use may be considered to trigger alcohol misuse. According to the researchers however, changing the legal drinking age is not the answer. In Australia the legal drinking age is 18, three years earlier than in the US. Despite the difference in legal drinking age, the age of first use (and associated problems) is the same between the two countries.

Instead, the authors stressed the need for early intervention, by identifying markers and thresholds of risky drinking behaviour at an early stage, while individuals are in vulnerable stages of brain development.

Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

---

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Elsevier, via AlphaGalileo.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. Daniel F. Hermens, Jim Lagopoulos, Juliette Tobias-Webb, Tamara De Regt, Glenys Dore, Lisa Juckes, Noeline Latt, Ian B. Hickie. Pathways to alcohol-induced brain impairment in young people: A review. Cortex, 2013; 49 (1): 3 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2012.05.021

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/mind_brain/child_development/~3/pdW4dbr5uNQ/130130082732.htm

duggars peter facinelli bobby rush supreme court justices 19 kids and counting danny o brien alicia silverstone

App reveals chefs' favorite hot spots

TORONTO (Reuters) - Where do top-rated chefs, sommeliers and bartenders hang out during their time off? A new app uncovers their favorite restaurants, bars and shops in cities around the world, from high-end eateries to dive bars.

The app, Find. Eat. Drink., for iPhones provides recommendations from industry experts. It includes suggestions from Fergus Henderson, the English chef who popularized nose-to-tail dining and the Roca brothers, who run El Celler de Can Roca in Spain, which Restaurant magazine dubbed the second-best eatery in the world.

"The idea was to reach out to people within the culinary community that were doing interesting and unique work, and who were passionate about what they do," said Robin Dorian, co-founder of Find. Eat. Drink., who is based in New York.

Chef Richard Blais, of television's "Top Chef" and "Blais Off," recommends a rotisserie chicken restaurant in a strip mall in Atlanta, and Floyd Cardoz, winner of "Top Chef Masters" Season 3, gives the thumbs up for a dosa restaurant in New York.

"You eat out of Styrofoam, but the food is incredibly delicious," he said in his recommendation for the Dosa Hutt.

Suggestions are made based on the user's location and can be viewed on a map. They are also filtered by price and user ratings.

The app can be used to research a city before setting off and to collect venues by creating customized lists within the app. It includes recommendations for more than 2,000 establishments in 120 cities around the world.

"If you go, for instance, to Chinatown in New York, there's all these places, so it kind of takes that guesswork out and makes it easy to go off the beaten track," Dorian explained.

Dorian got the idea for the company from an experience she had as a Food Network television producer and host. After a day of filming, a chef took her to a restaurant in New York, and she was amazed by the number of chefs she spotted there who were customers.

"I was wondering, ?How come all the chefs know to go here?'" she said.

In addition to restaurants and bars, there are also recommendations for Asian grocers and wine, cheese, candy and salt shops.

"It's about checking out places that inspire them - more interesting, ethnic unique places. That's how they eat and how they travel," she said.

Reservations can also be made at select restaurants from the app, which is available worldwide.

A similar app for iPhones called Chefs Feed provides a visual way of scanning photos of restaurant dishes recommended by top chefs.

The app has more than 600 chefs recommending dishes through the app, including Napa's Thomas Keller of French Laundry and Per Se, Los Angeles' Wolfgang Puck of Spago and Wolfgang Puck Bar & Grill, and New York's Mario Batali of Babbo and Lupa.

(Editing by Patricia Reaney and Jan Paschal)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/app-reveals-chefs-favorite-hot-spots-100104316.html

giants score 2012 golden globe nominations texans lana del rey snl enemy of the state golden globe nominees joe philbin

Fuel Fix ? Steffy: Congress clings to old spending habits

The Chevron Genesis platform in the Gulf of Mexico (AP file photo/Mary Altaffer)

Look deep amid the rubble of last week?s fiscal cliff compromise, and you?ll find the foundations of the next cliff.

While our economy teetered on the brink, while the world watched in worry, our lawmakers somehow managed to find time to salt this most desperate of last-ditch measures with the weeds that continue to rot our fiscal policy.

The bill passed last week avoided mandatory income tax hikes on most Americans, and it raised about $600 billion in new revenue, primarily by increasing tax rates on people with incomes above $400,000 a year.

Yet it is also chock-full of the financial gimmes in which Congress loves to traffic.

An extension of the tax credits for wind farms here, a reinstatement of the tax credit for biofuels there, and handouts all around for railroads, movie producers, Puerto Rican rum makers and even businesses in American Samoa ? namely, tuna giant Starkist, whose fleet is based there.

In all, these measures shaved more than $46 billion from the revenue that would have been raised over 10 years had they not been added to the bill.

It?s chump change in the battle against the deficit. In fact, all the handouts in the fiscal cliff bill are as irrelevant to cutting the deficit as slashing funding for the Public Broadcasting System, which Republican challenger Mitt Romney proposed during the presidential campaign.

Even if you lump them in with all other discretionary spending, they still account for just 19 percent of federal outlays, a smaller piece than the 20 percent for defense and 55 percent for and Social Security and Medicare. (The remaining 6 percent is interest on the debt.)

So from a dollar standpoint, a $250-million kiss to Hollywood, a $43 million helping hand for NASCAR track owners or a not-so-sorry $62 million gift to Charlie the Tuna isn?t worth getting upset over.

Yet what we see in these provisions is a reflection of the far larger problem that Congress now faces.

Giving away money

Too much of the tax code has become a convenient financing tool for corporate welfare. Lawmakers can promise these breaks to companies and their lobbyists because offering tax credits is painless. It doesn?t cost anything. It?s simply giving away money that hasn?t arrived yet.

?There?s a lot of spending through the tax code,? said John Diamond, a tax expert and a fellow in public finance at Rice University?s James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy. ?The tax code is used for a lot of different purposes ? supporting various different industries, or just vote-getting. People come in with ideas that are good for their bottom line.?

In reviewing the list of gimmes in the fiscal cliff bill, it?s easy to shake our heads. Do railroads really need a $330 million tax break for track repairs? Do we need to give an incentive to mining companies to buy safety equipment and train their workers? Shouldn?t these be a cost of doing business?

One person?s tax relief, of course, is another?s wasteful spending. Many in the oil industry extol the virtues of a tax allowance for depletion of reserves, yet deride tax breaks for wind farms and biofuels.

Corporations aren?t alone in these expectations. Individual taxpayers have grown used to them, too. Congress has conditioned us to expect programs that are paid for through the tax code, whether it?s credits for child care or higher education or deductions for mortgage interest.

Social Security

Eliminating these gimmes alone won?t fix the deficit problem. To do that, lawmakers will have to take serious aim at Social Security and Medicare, the biggest slice of government spending.

But attacking the deficit is only part of the tall order Congress faces this year. Reforming the tax code also needs to be a part of the process, and to do that, lawmakers must take a hard look at how they fund programs. Rather than pledge against future revenue the government doesn?t yet have, lawmakers should force themselves to pay for these programs.

Explain it

Perhaps Puerto Rican rum producers deserve the government?s largesse, which, by the way, they have received since 1917. Perhaps we should spend $1 million to designate coal from Indian lands as an alternative fuel or offer subsidies for plug-in electric scooters. If so, then the government?s support should stand on its own merits, and the lawmakers who back it should explain how it will be paid for and why one program is more beneficial than another one that we may then not be able to afford.

Congress needs to do more than cut spending. It needs to change its collective thinking about how it spends.

Otherwise, all we?ve done is avoid one fiscal cliff so that we can immediately begin building another one.

Source: http://fuelfix.com/blog/2013/01/07/steffy-congress-clings-to-old-spending-habits/

j lo j lo sacha baron cohen ryan seacrest octavia spencer meryl streep oscars school shooting ohio billy crystal

Some gun shows canceling after Conn. mass shooting

Tim Wilkes, right, looks down the barrel of a hunting rifle during the 2013 Rocky Mountain Gun Show at the South Towne Expo Center in Sandy, Utah Saturday, Jan. 5, 2013. In spite of the recent school shooting in Newtown, Conn., gun enthusiasts packed in by the hundreds to purchase weapons and ammunition. (AP Photo/The Deseret News, Ben Brewer)

Tim Wilkes, right, looks down the barrel of a hunting rifle during the 2013 Rocky Mountain Gun Show at the South Towne Expo Center in Sandy, Utah Saturday, Jan. 5, 2013. In spite of the recent school shooting in Newtown, Conn., gun enthusiasts packed in by the hundreds to purchase weapons and ammunition. (AP Photo/The Deseret News, Ben Brewer)

Gun owners discuss a potential sale of an AR-15, one of the most popular and controversial weapons, during the 2013 Rocky Mountain Gun Show at the South Towne Expo Center in Sandy, Utah Saturday, Jan. 5, 2013. In spite of the recent school shooting in Newtown, Conn., gun enthusiasts packed in by the hundreds to purchase weapons and ammunition. The gunman in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in December used an AR-15 to kill 20 first-graders and six educators in the school before killing himself as police closed in. (AP Photo/The Deseret News, Ben Brewer)

A sign is posted for an upcoming gun show, Friday, Jan. 4, 2013, in Leesport, Pa. Gun advocates aren?t backing down from their insistence on the right to keep and bear arms. But heightened sensitivities and raw nerves since the Newtown, Conn. shooting are softening displays at gun shows and even leading officials and sponsors to cancel the popular exhibitions altogether. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

A sign at the Saratoga Springs City Center advertises an upcoming arms fair on Friday, Jan. 4, 2013, in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. (AP Photo/Mike Groll)

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. (AP) ? Several gun shows, all about an hour's drive from Newtown, Conn., have been canceled.

A show in White Plains, N.Y. ? brought back a few years ago after being called off for a decade because of the Columbine shooting ? is off because officials decided it didn't seem appropriate now, either. In Danbury, Conn. ? about 10 miles west of Newtown ? the venue backed out. Same with three other shows in New York's Hudson Valley, according to the organizer.

Gun advocates aren't backing down from their insistence on the right to keep and bear arms. But heightened sensitivities and raw nerves since the Newtown shooting have led to toned-down displays at gun shows and prompted some officials and sponsors to cancel the well-attended exhibitions altogether.

Some of the most popular guns will be missing from next weekend's gun show in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., after show organizers agreed to bar the display and sale of AR-15 military-style semiautomatic weapons and their large-clip magazines.

"The majority of people wanted these guns out of the city," said Chris Mathiesen, Saratoga Springs' public safety commissioner. "They don't want them sold in our city, and I agree. Newtown, Conn., is not that far away."

The mayor of Barre, Vt., wants a ban on military-style assault weapons being sold at an annual gun show in February. Mayor Thom Lauzon says he supports responsible gun ownership but is making the request "as a father." The police chief in Waterbury, Conn., just a few miles from Newtown, has halted permits for gun shows, saying he was concerned about firearms changing hands that might one day be used in a mass shooting.

In White Plains, in New York's suburban Westchester County, Executive Rob Astorino had brought back the show in 2010 after a ban of more than a decade following the 1999 Columbine High School shooting in Colorado, but he said the show would be inappropriate now. The shows in the Hudson Valley and Danbury were listed as canceled on the website for Big Al's Gun Shows. A man who answered the site's contact number said it was the venues that canceled the shows, not the promoter.

In Houston, transportation officials temporarily stopped using electronic freeway signs to give directions to gun shows amid complaints following such a show the day after the Dec. 14 school shooting. State-level transportation officials overruled the decision. The signs are routinely used to direct traffic or tell visitors where to exit freeways for rodeos, sporting events and gun shows.

On Wednesday, the City Council in Saratoga Springs urged organizers of a downtown gun show Jan. 12-13 not to display military-style weapons and the high-capacity magazines "of the type used in the Newtown tragedy." About a dozen people gave impassioned pleas at the meeting.

Show organizer David Petronis of New Eastcoast Arms Collectors Associates agreed to the limit.

"I don't think it's fair that we're taking the brunt of the problem," Petronis said, "but I can understand the reaction of people in doing so."

Petronis said his group is a "nice, clean family-oriented ... arms fair" that brings in thousands of visitors and a lot of money for the city. He stressed that buyers at his show undergo background checks, as per New York state law.

The gunman in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in December used an AR-15 to kill 20 first-graders and six educators in the school. The gun belonged to the shooter's mother, but it's not clear where it was bought. The shooting has led to calls for stricter regulation of assault weapons, though the National Rifle Association has steadfastly opposed such measures.

Gun dealers around the country are reporting a spike in sales of semiautomatic rifles amid renewed talk of a federal ban on assault weapons. The possibility of tighter gun control has also pumped up attendance at gun shows in several states.

Marv Kraus, who helped organize a weekend gun show in Evansville, Wis., said business has been especially strong lately.

Kraus said there was never any reason to consider postponing or canceling the Wisconsin event, which was scheduled for Friday through Sunday. One of the few vendors there with semiautomatic weapons, Scott Kuhl of Janesville, Wis., bristled at any suggestion that he temporarily stop selling semiautomatic weapons because of the Connecticut shooting.

"When a plane crashes, should they shut down the airline for six months?" Kuhl said. "This is my business; this is my livelihood."

Jared Hook, 40, who came to the show looking for a .223-caliber gun for coyote hunting, said he was glad vendors did not back away after Newtown.

"If anything, there's a lot more interest in guns now because of the shooting," Hook said. "People want them for protection, and it's good that they still have access to them."

Joel Koehler, a Pennsylvania gun dealer, said a few dealers have dropped out of a show this weekend in the Pocono Mountains, but only "because they have nothing to sell. They are out of inventory."

"The gun sales have been crazy. They are going through the roof," he said.

Koehler said he has felt no pressure to cancel his shows in Pennsylvania.

"The shows are going on," he said. "Nobody's said to us that we can't have them."

President Barack Obama has urged Congress to vote rapidly on measures that he says a majority of Americans support: a ban on the sale of military-style assault weapons; a ban on the sale of high-capacity magazines; and required criminal background checks for all gun buyers by removing loopholes that cover some sales, such as at gun shows in states that don't currently require checks.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett on Friday said he would consider a radio-show caller's suggestion that gun shows be banned on publicly owned property, such as the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg. But he also noted that the complex is open to all businesses.

While government officials take a harder look at gun shows, organizers remain adamant that they run safe, legal businesses. There is no central government database on how guns used in crimes are obtained.

The Brady Campaign, which advocates for stricter state and federal gun laws, has long pushed to close the so-called "gun show loophole" by forcing every state to require background checks of buyers at the shows. They note that three of the weapons used in the Columbine attack were bought by someone who went to a gun show that didn't require a background check. Seventeen states require an extensive background check, according to the campaign.

And in the wake of Newtown is an emboldened group of advocates, like Susan Steer of Saratoga Springs, a 46-year-old married mother of three who started a petition seeking to cancel the local gun show. Steer said she'll continue to push for banning gun shows at the taxpayer-supported venue.

"For many of us," she said, "the shooting in Sandy Hook was the tipping point for taking some action."

___

Hill reported from Albany, N.Y. Contributing to this report were Dinesh Ramde in Evansville, Wis.; Michael Rubinkam in Allentown, Pa.; Peter Jackson in Harrisburg, Pa.; and Lisa Rathke in Montpelier, Vt.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-01-05-US-School-Shooting-Gun-Shows/id-dcb0489a51b345d1921d6d8b57f4a02a

Mcdonalds Restaurants Open on Christmas Day jessica simpson santa tracker happy holidays Stores Open On Christmas Day Santa Claus

Best Film Of 2012: 'Amour' Picked By The National Society Of Film ...

NEW YORK ? The National Society of Film Critics selected "Amour" as the best picture of 2012 during its annual meeting Saturday.

The critics chose the star of "Amour," Emmanuelle Riva, as the best actress, and Daniel Day-Lewis was chosen best actor for "Lincoln."

The group of 60 prominent movie critics from around the country met at Lincoln Center in New York City to make its picks.

Austrian director Michael Haneke won best director for "Amour." The French-language movie depicts the slow deterioration of the elderly woman played by Riva. It has been praised as an unflinching look at old age and life's end.

Playwright Tony Kushner won best screenplay for "Lincoln."

Amy Adams was chosen best supporting actress for "The Master," and Matthew McConaughey was selected best supporting actor for "Magic Mike" and "Bernie."

The prize for best nonfiction film went to "The Gatekeepers," director Dror Moreh's exploration of intelligence operations by Israel's Shin Bet security agency.

Mihai Malaimaire was honored for best cinematography for "The Master."

The film critics' society, founded in 1966, works to promote film preservation and historically important movies.

This year's awards were dedicated to the late Village Voice critic Andrew Sarris, a founding member of the society, who died last year.

"; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); });

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/06/best-film-of-2012-amour-national-society-of-film-critics_n_2420253.html

wilson chandler bristol motor speedway prometheus grand canyon skywalk tonga pid corned beef hash