Anna-Lou “Annie” Leibovitz (IPA: /ˈliːbəvɪts/) (born October 2, 1949) is an American portrait photographer whose style is marked by a close collaboration between the photographer and the subject.
Contents
1 Early life and education
2 Career
2.1 Rolling Stone magazine
2.2 Vanity Fair magazine
2.3 Lennon and Ono
2.4 Other noted projects
3 Personal life
3.1 Children
4 Selected Leibovitz photos
5 Leibovitz’s photo books
6 References in popular culture
7 References
8 External links
Early life and education
Born in Waterbury, Connecticut, Leibovitz is Jewish. She is one of six children ; her father was a lieutenant colonel in the United States Air Force and the family moved frequently when she was young. Leibovitz’s mother was a modern dance instructor.
In high school, she became interested in various artistic endeavors, and began to write and play music. She attended the San Francisco Art Institute. She became interested in photography after taking pictures on a trip to visit her family in Japan. For several years, she continued to develop her photography skills while she worked various jobs, including a stint on a kibbutz in Israel for several months in 1969.[1]
Career
Rolling Stone magazine
When Leibovitz returned to America in 1970, she worked for the recently-launched Rolling Stone magazine. In 1973, publisher Jann Wenner named Leibovitz chief photographer of Rolling Stone. Leibovitz worked for the magazine until 1983, and her intimate photographs of celebrities helped define the Rolling Stone look.[1]
In 1975, Leibovitz served as a concert-tour photographer for The Rolling Stones’ Tour of the Americas.
Vanity Fair magazine
Since 1983, Leibovitz has worked as a featured portrait photographer for Vanity Fair.
Leibovitz sued Paramount Pictures for copyright infringement of her Vanity Fair cover photograph of a pregnant Demi Moore from a 1991 issue titled “More Demi Moore.” Paramount had commissioned a parody photograph of Leslie Nielsen, pregnant, for use in a promotional poster for the 1994 comedy Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult. The case, Leibovitz v. Paramount Pictures Corp.[2], has become an important fair use case in U.S. copyright law. At trial, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York found that Paramount’s use of the photo constituted fair use because parodies were likely to generate little or no licensing revenue. On appeal, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed.
Lennon and Ono
On December 8, 1980, Leibovitz had a photo shoot with John Lennon for Rolling Stone, promising him he would make the cover.[3] After she had initially tried to get a picture with just Lennon alone (she would recall that, “nobody wanted [Ono] on the cover.”[4]), Lennon insisted that both he and Yoko Ono be on the cover. Leibovitz then tried to recreate the kissing scene from the Double Fantasy album cover, a picture that she loved.[4] “What is interesting is she said she’d take her top off and I said, ‘Leave everything on’…not really preconceiving the picture at all. Then he curled up next to her and it was very, very strong. You couldn’t help but feel that she was cold and he looked like he was clinging on to her[5]… I shot some test Polaroids first and when I showed them to John and Yoko, John said, ‘You’ve captured our relationship exactly. Promise me it’ll be on the cover.’ I looked him in the eye and we shook on it.” She was the last person to professionally photograph Lennon—he was shot and killed five hours later.
Other noted projects
Leibovitz at “Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer’s Life, 1990-2005″, San Francisco, California, 2008In the 1980s, Leibovitz photographed celebrities for an international advertising campaign for American Express charge cards.
In 1991, Leibovitz mounted an exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery.
Also in 1991, Leibovitz emulated Margaret Bourke-White’s feat, when she mounted one of the eagle gargoyles on the 61st floor of the Chrysler Building in Manhattan, where she photographed the dancer David Parsons cavorting on another eagle gargoyle. Noted Life photographer and picture editor John Loengard made a gripping photo of Leibovitz at the climax of her danger. (Loengard was photographing Leibovitz for the New York Times that day).
A major retrospective of Leibovitz’s work was held at the Brooklyn Museum, Oct. 2006 – Jan. 2007. The retrospective was based on her book, Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer’s Life, 1990 – 2005, and included many of her professional (celebrity) photographs as well as numerous personal photographs of her family, children, and partner Susan Sontag. This show, which was expanded to include three of the official portraits of Queen Elizabeth II, then went on the road for seven stops. It was on display at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., from October 2007 to January 2008, and as of April 2008 is at the Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. The show included 200 photographs.[6] At the exhibition, Leibovitz said that she doesn’t have two lives, career and personal, but has one where assignments and personal pictures are all part of her works. This exhibition and her talk focused on her personal photos and life. [7]
In 2007, Leibovitz was asked by Queen Elizabeth II to take the queen’s official picture for her state visit to Virginia. This was filmed for the BBC documentary A Year with the Queen. A promotional trailer for the film showed the Queen reacting angrily to Leibovitz’s suggestion (”less dressy”) that she remove her crown, then a scene of the Queen walking down a corridor, telling an aide “I’m not changing anything. I’ve had enough dressing like this, thank you very much.”[8] The BBC later apologised and admitted that the sequence of events had been misrepresented, as the Queen was in fact walking to the sitting in the second scene.[9] This led to a BBC scandal and a shake-up of ethics training. See The Queengate Affair.
In 2007, the Walt Disney Company hired her to do a series of photographs with celebrities in various roles and scenes for Walt Disney World’s “Year of a Million Dreams” campaign. [10][11][12]
On April 25, 2008, the televised entertainment program Entertainment Tonight reported that 15 year old Miley Cyrus had posed topless for a photo shoot with Vanity Fair.[13] [14] The photo, and subsequently released behind-the-scenes photos, show Cyrus without a top, her bare back exposed but her front covered with a bedsheet. The photo shoot was taken by photographer Annie Leibovitz.[15] The full photograph was published with an accompanying story on The New York Times’ website on April 27, 2008. On April 29, 2008, The New York Times clarified that though the pictures left an impression that she was bare-breasted, Cyrus was wrapped in a bedsheet and was actually not topless.[16] Some parents expressed outrage at the nature of the photograph, which a Disney spokesperson described as “a situation [that] was created to deliberately manipulate a 15-year-old in order to sell magazines.”[16]
In response to the internet circulation of the photo and ensuing media attention, Cyrus released a statement of apology on April 27:
“I took part in a photo shoot that was supposed to be ‘artistic’ and now, seeing the photographs and reading the story, I feel so embarrassed. I never intended for any of this to happen and I apologize to my fans who I care so deeply about.”[16]
Personal life
Leibovitz had a close romantic relationship with noted writer and essayist Susan Sontag. They met in 1989, when both had already established notability in their careers. Leibovitz has suggested that Sontag mentored her and constructively criticized her work.
After Sontag’s death in 2004, Newsweek published an article about Leibovitz that made reference to her decade-plus relationship with Sontag, stating that “The two first met in the late ’80s, when Leibovitz photographed her for a book jacket. They never lived together, though they each had an apartment within view of the other’s.”[17]
Neither Leibovitz nor Sontag had ever previously publicly disclosed whether the relationship was familial, a friendship, or romantic in nature. However, when Leibovitz was interviewed for her 2006 book A Photographer’s Life: 1990-2005, she said the book told a number of stories, and that “with Susan, it was a love story.”[18]
In the preface to the new book, she speaks in greater detail about her romantic/intellectual relationship with Sontag and her lesbianism, briefly discussing a book they were working on together and describes how assembling her new book was part of the grieving process after Sontag’s death. The book and accompanying show include many photographs of Sontag throughout their life together, including several on her deathbed.
Leibovitz acknowledged that she and Sontag were romantically involved. When asked why she used terms like “companion” to describe Sontag, instead of more specific ones like “partner” or “lover,” Leibovitz finally said that “lover” was fine with her.[19] She later repeated the assertion in stating to the San Francisco Chronicle: “Call us ‘lovers’. I like ‘lovers.’ You know, ‘lovers’ sounds romantic. I mean, I want to be perfectly clear. I love Susan.”[20]
Children
Leibovitz has three children: Sarah Cameron Leibovitz (b. October 2001) was born when Annie was 51 years old. Her twins Susan and Samuelle were born to a surrogate mother in May 2005.[20]
Selected Leibovitz photos
Yoko Ono and John Lennon, cover of Rolling Stone #335: Originally intended to feature both subjects nude, Ono’s reluctance led to the photograph featuring a disrobed Lennon hugging his clothed wife. Taken on the morning of December 8, 1980, this was one of the last photographs of Lennon, who was murdered by a deranged fan later in the day.[21]
Linda Ronstadt in a red slip,on her bed, reaching for a glass of water in a 1976 cover story for Rolling Stone magazine. Linda’s comments about the notorius photoshoot predated Miley Cyrus’s similar comments by thirty-two years. Apparently there were no hard feelings since Leibovitz shot Linda for a 1980 Rolling Stone cover as well.
Demi Moore has been the subject of two highly publicized covers taken by Leibovitz. The magazine featured a nude Moore who, at the time, was seven months pregnant with her daughter Scout LaRue. Moore also appeared later on the cover of the same magazine nude with a suit painted on her body.[1]
Brooke Shields, pregnant for the cover of VOGUE in April 2003. This is the first image of a visibly pregnant woman on it’s cover. Ironic, since Shields also holds the record for the magazines youngest cover model. She was fourteen when Richard Avedon shot her first cover in 1980.
Whoopi Goldberg lying in a bathtub full of milk, shot from above.[2]
Christo, fully wrapped so the viewer must take the artist’s word that Christo is actually under the wrapping.[3]
Dolly Parton vamping for the camera while Arnold Schwarzenegger flexes his biceps behind her.
Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi, as The Blues Brothers, with their faces painted blue.[4]
Queen Elizabeth on occasion of her state visit in United States in 2007.[5]
Sting in the desert, covered in mud to blend in with the scenery.[6]
Closeup portrait of Pete Townshend framed by his bleeding hand dripping real blood down the side of his face.
“Fire” portrait and caption “Patti Smith Catches Fire”. [22][23]
Cyndi Lauper, She’s So Unusual and True Colors album covers
Bruce Springsteen, Born in the U.S.A. album cover.
Gisele Bündchen and LeBron James on the April 2008 cover of Vogue America. That was the third American Vogue’s issue with a cover featured by a man and the first time, specifically, with a “black” man.
Source:wikipedia
Giant squid are squid of the Architeuthidae family, represented by as many as eight species of the genus Architeuthis. They are deep-ocean dwelling animals that can grow to a tremendous size: recent estimates put the maximum size at 43 ft for females and 33 ft for males from caudal fin to the tip of the two long tentacles (second only to the colossal squid at an estimated 46 ft, one of the largest living organisms). The mantle is about 2 metres (7 ft) long (more for females, less for males), and the length of the squid excluding its tentacles is about 5 metres (16 ft). There have been claims reported of specimens of up to 20 metres (66 ft), but no animals of such size have been scientifically documented.
On September 30, 2004, researchers from the National Science Museum of Japan and the Ogasawara Whale Watching Association took the first images of a live giant squid in its natural habitat.[1] Several of the 556 photographs were released a year later. The same team successfully filmed a live giant squid for the first time on December 4, 2006.[2]
Contents
1 Anatomy
2 Size
3 Reproductive cycle
4 Ecology
4.1 Feeding
4.2 Range and habitat
5 Species
6 Timeline
7 Cultural depictions
8 See also
9 References
10 External links
Anatomy
See also: squid and cephalopod
Like all squid, a giant squid has a mantle (torso), eight arms and two longer tentacles. The arms and tentacles account for much of the squid’s great length, so giant squid are much lighter than their chief predators, sperm whales. Scientifically documented specimens have weighed hundreds, rather than thousands, of kilograms.
Tentacular club of ArchiteuthisThe inside surfaces of the arms and tentacles are lined with hundreds of sub-spherical suction cups, 2 to 5 centimetres (1 to 2 in) in diameter, each mounted on a stalk. The circumference of these suckers is lined with sharp, finely serrated rings of chitin. The perforation of these teeth and the suction of the cups serve to attach the squid to its prey. It is common to find circular scars from the suckers on or close to the head of sperm whales that have attacked giant squid. Each arm and tentacle is divided into three regions — carpus (”wrist”), manus (”hand”) and dactylus (”finger”) [1][2]. The carpus has a dense cluster of cups, in six or seven irregular, transverse rows. The manus is broader, close to the end of the arm, and has enlarged suckers in two medial rows. The dactylus is the tip. The bases of all the arms and tentacles are arranged in a circle surrounding the animal’s single parrot-like beak, as in other cephalopods.
A piece of sperm whale skin with giant squid sucker scars.Giant squid have small fins at the rear of the mantle used for locomotion. Like other cephalopods, giant squid are propelled by jet — by pushing water through its mantle cavity through the funnel, in gentle, rhythmic pulses. They can also move quickly by expanding the cavity to fill it with water, then contracting muscles to jet water through the funnel. Giant squid breathe using two large gills inside the mantle cavity. The circulatory system is closed, which is a distinct characteristic of cephalopods. Like other squid, they contain dark ink used to deter predators.
Giant squid have a sophisticated nervous system and complex brain, attracting great interest from scientists. They also have the largest eyes of any living creature except perhaps colossal squid — over 30 centimeters (1 ft) in diameter. Large eyes can better detect light (including bioluminescent light), which is scarce in deep water.
Giant squid and some other large squid species maintain neutral buoyancy in seawater through an ammonium chloride solution which flows throughout their body and is lighter than seawater. This differs from the method of flotation used by fish, which involves a gas-filled swim bladder. The solution tastes somewhat like salmiakki and makes giant squid unattractive for general human consumption.
Like all cephalopods, giant squid have organs called statocysts to sense their orientation and motion in water. The age of a giant squid can be determined by “growth rings” in the statocyst’s “statolith”, similar to determining the age of a tree by counting its rings. Much of what is known about giant squid age is based on estimates of the growth rings and from undigested beaks found in the stomachs of sperm whales.
Size
Giant squid measuring over 4 metres without its two long feeding tentacles.The giant squid is the second largest mollusc and the second largest of all extant invertebrates. It is only exceeded in size by the Colossal Squid, Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, which may have a mantle nearly twice as long. Several extinct cephalopods, such as the Cretaceous vampyromorphid Tusoteuthis and the Ordovician nautiloid Cameroceras may have grown even larger.
Yet, giant squid size, particularly total length, has often been misreported and exaggerated. Reports of specimens reaching and even exceeding 18 m (59 ft) in length are widespread, but no animals approaching this size have been scientifically documented. According to giant squid expert Dr. Steve O’Shea, such lengths were likely achieved by greatly stretching the two tentacles like elastic bands.
Based on the examination of 105 specimens and of beaks found inside sperm whales, giant squid’s mantles are not known to exceed 2.25 m (7.4 ft) in length.[3] Including the head and arms, but excluding the tentacles, the length very rarely exceeds 5 m (16 ft).[3] Maximum total length, when measured relaxed post mortem, is estimated at 13 m (43 ft) for females and 10 m (33 ft) for males from caudal fin to the tip of the two long tentacles.[3] Giant squid exhibit reverse sexual dimorphism. Maximum weight is estimated at 275 kg (606 lb) for females and 150 kg (331 lb) for males.
Reproductive cycle
Little is known about the reproductive cycle of giant squid. It is thought that they reach sexual maturity at about 3 years; males reach sexual maturity at a smaller size than females. Females produce large quantities of eggs, sometimes more than 5 kg, that average 0.5-1.4 mm long and 0.3-0.7 mm wide. Females have a single median ovary in the rear end of the mantle cavity and paired convoluted oviducts where mature eggs pass exiting through the oviducal glands, then through the nidamental glands. As in other squid, these glands produce a gelatinous material used to keep the eggs together once they are laid.
In males, as with most other cephalopods, the single, posterior testis produces sperm that move into a complex system of glands that manufacture the spermatophores. These are stored in the elongate sac, or Needham’s sac, that terminates in the penis from which they are expelled during mating. The penis is prehensile, over 90 centimeters long, and extends from inside the mantle.
How the sperm is transferred to the egg mass is much debated, as giant squid lack the hectocotylus used for reproduction in many other cephalopods. It may be transferred in sacs of spermatophores, called spermatangia, which the male injects into the female’s arms. This is suggested by a female specimen recently found in Tasmania, having a small subsidiary tendril attached to the base of each arm.
Post-larval juveniles have been discovered in surface waters off New Zealand, and there are plans to capture more and maintain them in an aquarium to learn more about the creature.
Ecology
Feeding
The fabled underwater encounter between the sperm whale and giant squid, from a diorama at the American Museum of Natural History.Recent studies show that giant squid feed on deep-sea fish and other squid species. They catch prey using the two tentacles, gripping it with serrated sucker rings on the ends. Then they bring it toward the powerful beak, and shred it with the radula (tongue with small, file-like teeth) before it reaches the esophagus. They are believed to be solitary hunters, as only individual giant squid have been caught in fishing nets. Fish such as the Hoki are among the giant squid’s diet.[4]
Adult giant squids’ only known predators are sperm whales and possibly Pacific sleeper sharks, found off Antarctica, but it is unknown whether these sharks hunt squid, or just scavenge squid carcasses. Juveniles are preyed on by deep sea sharks and fishes. Because sperm whales are skilled at locating giant squid, scientists have tried to observe them to study the squid.
Range and habitat
Worldwide giant squid distribution based on recovered specimens.Giant squid are very widespread, occurring in all of the world’s oceans. They are usually found near continental and island slopes from the North Atlantic Ocean, especially Newfoundland, Norway, the northern British Isles, and the oceanic islands of the Azores and Madeira, to the South Atlantic around southern Africa, the North Pacific around Japan, and the southwestern Pacific around New Zealand and Australia. Specimens are rare in tropical and polar latitudes. boboboobobobo
Species
The taxonomy of the giant squid, as with many cephalopod genera, has not been resolved. Lumpers and splitters may propose as many as eight species or as few as one. The broadest list is:
Architeuthis sanctipauli was described in 1877 based on a specimen found washed ashore in Île Saint-Paul three years earlier.It is probable that not all of these are distinct species. No genetic or physical basis for distinguishing between them has been proposed, as evidenced by the placenames — of location of specimen capture — used to describe several of them. The rarity of observations of specimens and the extreme difficulty of observing them alive, tracking their movements, or studying their mating habits militates against a complete understanding.
In the 1984 FAO Species Catalogue of the Cephalopods of the World, C.F.E. Roper, M.J. Sweeney and C.F. Nauen wrote:
“Many species have been named in the sole genus of the family Architeuthidae, but they are so inadequately described and poorly understood that the systematics of the group is thoroughly confused.”
Kir Nazimovich Nesis (1982, 1987) considered that only three species were likely to be valid.
In 1991, Frederick Aldrich of the Memorial University of Newfoundland wrote:
“I reject the concept of 20 separate species, and until that issue is resolved, I choose to place them all in synonymy with Architeuthis dux Steenstrup.”
In a letter to Richard Ellis dated June 18, 1996, Martina Roeleveld of the South African Museum wrote:
“So far, I have seen nothing to suggest that there might be more than one species of Architeuthis.”
In Cephalopods: A World Guide (2000), Mark Norman writes the following:
“The number of species of giant squid is not known although the general consensus amongst researchers is that there are at least three species, one in the Atlantic Ocean (Architeuthis dux), one in the Southern Ocean (A. sanctipauli) and at least one in the northern Pacific Ocean (A. martensi).”
Timeline
Main article: List of giant squid specimens and sightings
Tales of giant squid have been common among mariners since ancient times, and may have led to the Norwegian legend of the kraken, a tentacled sea monster as large as an island capable of engulfing and sinking any ship. Japetus Steenstrup, the describer of Architeuthis, suggested a giant squid was the species described as a sea monk to the Danish king Christian III c.1550. The Lusca of the Caribbean and Scylla in Greek mythology may also derive from giant squid sightings. Eyewitness accounts of other sea monsters like the sea serpent are also thought to be mistaken interpretations of giant squid.
The Alecton attempts to capture a giant squid in 1861Steenstrup wrote a number of papers on giant squid in the 1850s. He first used the term “Architeuthus” (this was the spelling he used) in a paper in 1857. A portion of a giant squid was secured by the French gunboat Alecton in 1861 leading to wider recognition of the genus in the scientific community. From 1870 to 1880, many squid were stranded on the shores of Newfoundland. For example, a specimen washed ashore in Thimble Tickle Bay, Newfoundland on November 2, 1878; its mantle was reported to be 6.1 metres (20 ft) long, with one tentacle 10.7 metres (35 ft) long, and it was estimated as weighing 2.2 tonnes. In 1873, a squid “attacked” a minister and a young boy in a dory in Bell Island, Newfoundland. Many strandings also occurred in New Zealand during the late 19th century.
Giant squid from Logy Bay, Newfoundland in Reverend Moses Harvey’s bathtub, November/December, 1873Although strandings continue to occur sporadically throughout the world, none have been as frequent as those at Newfoundland and New Zealand in the 19th century. It is not known why giant squid become stranded on shore, but it may be because the distribution of deep, cold water where squid live is temporarily altered. Many scientists who have studied squid mass strandings believe that they are cyclical and predictable. The length of time between strandings is not known, but was proposed to be 90 years by Architeuthis specialist Frederick Aldrich. Aldrich used this value to correctly predict a relatively small stranding that occurred between 1964 and 1966.
The search for a live Architeuthis specimen includes attempts to find live young, including larvae. The larvae closely resemble those of Nototodarus and Moroteuthis, but are distinguished by the shape of the mantle attachment to the head, the tentacle suckers, and the beaks.
The first footage of live larval giant squid ever captured on film was in 2001. The footage was shown on Chasing Giants: On the Trail of the Giant Squid on the Discovery Channel.[5]
As of 2004, almost 600 giant squid specimens had been reported.[6]
The first photographs of a live giant squid in its natural habitat were taken on September 30, 2004, by Tsunemi Kubodera (National Science Museum of Japan) and Kyoichi Mori (Ogasawara Whale Watching Association). Their teams had worked together for nearly two years to accomplish this. They used a five-ton fishing boat and only two crew members. The images were created on their third trip to a known sperm whale hunting ground 970 kilometers (600 mi) south of Tokyo, where they had dropped a 900 metre (2953 ft) line baited with squid and shrimp. The line also held a camera and a flash. After over 20 tries that day, an 8 meter (26 ft) giant squid attacked the lure and snagged its tentacle. The camera took over 500 photos before the squid managed to break free after four hours. The squid’s 5.5 metre (18 ft) tentacle remained attached to the lure. Later DNA tests confirmed the animal as a giant squid.
On September 27, 2005, Kubodera and Mori released the photographs to the world. The photo sequence, taken at a depth of 900 meters (2953 ft) off Japan’s Ogasawara Islands, shows the squid homing in on the baited line and enveloping it in “a ball of tentacles.” The researchers were able to locate the likely general location of giant squid by closely tailing the movements of sperm whales. According to Kubodera, “we knew that they fed on the squid, and we knew when and how deep they dived, so we used them to lead us to the squid.” Kubodera and Mori reported their observations in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society.
One of the series of images of a live giant squid taken by Kubodera and Mori in 2004.Among other things, the observations demonstrate actual hunting behaviors of adult Architeuthis, a subject on which there had been much speculation. The photographs showed an aggressive hunting pattern by the baited squid, leading to it impaling a tentacle on the bait ball’s hooks. This may disprove the theory that the giant squid is a drifter which eats whatever floats by, rarely moving so as to conserve energy. It seems that the species has a much more belligerent feeding technique.
In December 2005, the Melbourne Aquarium in Australia paid AUD$100,000 (around £47,000GBP or $90,000US) for the intact body of a giant squid, preserved in a giant block of ice, which had been caught by fishermen off the coast of New Zealand’s South Island that year.[7]
Still image from the first video of a live adult giant squid, filmed on December 4, 2006 by researchers from the National Science Museum of Japan led by Tsunemi Kubodera.In early 2006, another giant squid, later named “Archie”, was caught off the coast of the Falkland Islands by a trawler. It was 8.62 metres (28 ft) long and was sent to the Natural History Museum in London to be studied and preserved. It was put on display on March 1, 2006 at the Darwin Centre.[8][9] The find of such a large, complete specimen is very rare, as most specimens are in a poor condition, having washed up dead on beaches or been retrieved from the stomach of dead sperm whales.
Researchers undertook a painstaking process to preserve the body. It was transported to England on ice aboard the trawler; then it was defrosted, which took about four days. The major difficulty was that thawing the thick mantle took much longer than the tentacles. To prevent the tentacles from rotting, scientists covered them in ice packs, and bathed the mantle in water. Then they injected the squid with a formol-saline solution to prevent rotting. The creature is now on show in a 9 metres (30 ft) long glass tank at the Darwin Centre of the Natural History Museum.
On December 4, 2006, an adult giant squid was finally caught on video by Kubodera near the Ogasawara Islands, 1,000 km (620 mi) south of Tokyo. It was a small female about 3.5 m (11 ft 6 in) long and weighing 50 kg (110 lb). It was pulled aboard the research vessel but died in the process.[10]
source:wikipedia
William “Will” Emerson Arnett (born May 5, 1970; pronounced /) is an Emmy Award-nominated Canadian actor known for his role as George Oscar “G.O.B.” Bluth II (pronounced Job, like the biblical figure[1]) on the FOX comedy Arrested Development. Since his success on Arrested Development, Arnett has landed major film roles. He recently played a supporting role in the comedy film Blades of Glory and the antagonist in Hot Rod. He played the starring roles in 2006’s Let’s Go To Prison and 2007’s The Brothers Solomon. Arnett has also done work as a voiceover artist for commercials, films, and television programs. Even more recently, Arnett plays a funeral director in Dave McLaughlin’s On Broadway, set entirely in Boston, Massachusetts.
Early life
Arnett was born in Toronto,[1] the son of Alexandra and E. James Arnett, a corporate lawyer, and brewer among many other occupations.[2][3] In Toronto, he attended French-speaking schools.[4] He still speaks French, but has stated that he is not currently fluent in the language.[5] He graduated from Leaside High School and briefly attended Lakefield College School in Lakefield, Ontario.[6] He attended Concordia University in Montreal for a semester, but dropped out. When he was a teenager, Arnett’s mother encouraged him to pursue an acting career and he began to audition for commercials in Toronto. He decided that he really enjoyed acting and that it was something that he wanted to do with his life. At age 20, in 1990, Arnett moved from Toronto to New York in order to study acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute.[7] He began appearing in plays in New York and his first acting role was in the Felicity Huffman independent film Erie, which was filmed on the Erie Canal.[8]
Career
Early struggles
In February of 1996, Will Arnett began acting in television pilots. His first was a pilot with Kevin Pollak and his wife, Lucy Webb, for CBS, that was not picked up.”[8] The pilot was The Underworld which revolved around “The head of an organized crime family [who] hounds an ex-con who only wants to go straight.”[9] After the show was not picked up, he appeared in the movie Southie, which was directed by Arnett’s friend Dave McLaughlin. In 1999, Arnett was cast in another pilot for The Mike O’Malley Show on NBC. Arnett was a regular on the series, playing the protagonist’s friend Jimmy. The show was picked up, but it was canceled after only two episodes.[8] Arnett has referred to 2000, the year after that show was cancelled, as “the darkest year of [his] life” and he admits that he “didn’t get a lot of work” and “drank those years away.”[8] Arnett considers the summer of 2000 to have been a turning point for him because a friend helped pull him out of his battle with alcoholism and he began to get his career back on track.
In 2001, Arnett was cast in another television pilot, Loomis, for CBS. The pilot starred comedian Cheri Oteri as a local news reporter, and Arnett played her slacker brother. The pilot was not picked up. In 2002, Arnett was cast in a fourth television pilot. This pilot was for the CBS sitcom Still Standing; but even though the show was picked up and ran for many years, his character was cut from the series after the pilot.[1] Arnett became so frustrated, after his fourth failed pilot, that he “swore off pilots”[1] altogether, until his agent persuaded him to audition for the pilot for Arrested Development.
Career breakthrough
In 2003, Will Arnett finally found success in television when he was cast in the role of George Oscar “G.O.B.” Bluth II in the Fox comedy series Arrested Development. Arnett’s character was one of the show’s most popular and he was nominated for an Emmy for his role.”[10] The show was canceled due to low ratings, despite its critical acclaim and cult following. His favorite episodes of the show are “Pier Pressure” and “Afternoon Delight.”[11]
Arnett as G.O.B. in Arrested DevelopmentAfter the cancellation of Arrested Development, Arnett leveraged his newly gained credibility into a number of large roles in feature films. Although he had worked largely as a dramatic actor in films before Arrested Development, the roles he has taken since have been mostly comedic, often playing smug bad guys. Despite the fact that Arnett has emerged as a comedic actor, Arnett “never considered himself a comic” and considers himself an “actor first.” [12]
Arnett’s first major starring role was in Let’s Go to Prison, a comedy film directed by Bob Odenkirk. The film was made on a small budget of $4 million.[13]. It made over $4 million at the box office and over $13 million in rentals, making it a minor success.[14] Arnett’s most recent film was Blades of Glory, an ice skating comedy in which Arnett and his wife Amy Poehler played supporting roles to Will Ferrell. In an ironic twist they played a brother/sister skating duo whose relationship seemed to cross a few lines more often than not. The film was number one at the box office during its first two weeks[15] and has grossed approximately $118 million domestically[16] and $36 million on home video.[17] Because the film’s budget was only $61 million, the theatrical gross and home video gross made the film a huge success.
Arnett recently appeared as a guest star on King of The Hill and 30 Rock. In 30 Rock, he played Devon Banks, a scheming network executive who plays a rival to Alec Baldwin’s character Jack Donaghy. He also has recently finished filming supporting roles in Spring Breakdown, Hot Rod, The Comebacks, and On Broadway. In On Broadway, he once again works with director Dave McLaughlin who is a close friend of Arnett’s and gave him one of his first movie roles in Southie.[4]
Arnett’s next starring role was in the comedy The Brothers Solomon, in which he again teamed with director Bob Odenkirk and starred opposite Saturday Night Live’s Will Forte. He recently appeared in a major supporting role in the basketball comedy Semi-Pro, his second film with Will Ferrell.[18] He plays Lou Redwood, the commentator of the team, who is “a former player, a bit of a womanizer, and a boozer”.[19]Arnett’s next movie role will be in Ye Olde Times, along with Jack Black, which will commence filming this September.[20]
Will Arnett is signed on to many new projects in which he will play starring roles. He is signed on to Jeff the Demon for New Line Cinema, in which he will play a demon who is summoned by a pair of high school losers.[21] He is also signed on to the lead role in The Ambassador for DreamWorks and Paramount Pictures, in which he will play “a former U.S. vice president’s privileged son, who is assigned an ambassadorship in Europe, where he quickly becomes the quintessential ugly American.”[22] Arnett is also signed on for the lead in Space Invader for Fox Atomic, which will center on a love triangle set on a space station.[23] He is also attached to lead roles in the projects Dad Can’t Lose, Get ‘Em Wet, and Most Likely to Succeed.[21] Arnett was originally attached to play the lead role of David Miller in the film We’re the Millers, but he had to pass on the project due to “scheduling reasons” and the part went to Steve Buscemi.[24] Arnett has also stated in an interview that he’s “working with Mitch [Hurwitz] on something right now”[13], but the details of the project have not yet been revealed, although there seems to be an “Arrested Development” film in production, with Arnett set to reprise his role of GOB. Arnett has also stated in interviews that he is not sure that he would return to television for another series anytime soon.[11]
Voice work
Will Arnett has a distinctive gravelly voice and has also done voice-over work for CBS TV promos, film trailers, and numerous advertisements, including Lamisil medication. Perhaps most recognizable is Arnett’s voice saying, “It’s not more than you need, just more than you’re used to” in ads for GMC trucks.[25]
Arnett has also lent his voice to a number of television shows and commercials. In 2006, Arnett lent his voice to the character Duncan Schiesst for the Comedy Central animated program Freak Show, which was created by and also stars the voice of his former Arrested Development co-star David Cross. Recently, Arnett took the role of announcer for the faux trailer “Don’t” in the movie Grindhouse. He also lent his voice to the film Horton Hears a Who!, and the upcoming Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.[26]
In 2007, he was part of the hugely successful Ratatouille, voicing Horst, the sous-chef at Gusteau’s Restaurant.
Arnett was to be the voice of the new K.I.T.T. in Universal’s Knight Rider (2008 film) which is a sequel to the popular 1980s series, but has been replaced by Val Kilmer due to conflicting contractual agreements due to K.I.T.T. being a Ford Mustang.[27]
Personal life
Arnett has twin sisters who are three years older and a brother younger by nine years.[28] His father James Arnett was a corporate lawyer and became the president and CEO of Molson Breweries in 1997, until he stepped down in 2000.[29] James had previously worked as a director for the company[30] and he attended Harvard Law School.[31]
In 1994, Arnett married actress Penelope Ann Miller, and they divorced in 1995.[4] Arnett dated actress Missy Yager, with whom he lived with for four years. They starred on The Mike O’Malley Show together and broke up around the time that the show began.[8]
Arnett began dating comedic actress Amy Poehler in 2000; the couple moved to New York in 2001 when she became a featured player on NBC’s Saturday Night Live.[8] On August 29, 2003, Arnett and Poehler married.[4] Poehler appeared in four episodes of Arrested Development in 2004 and 2005. She played a woman whom his character G.O.B. marries during a drunken night of increasingly outrageous dares. Arnett and Poehler starred alongside each other in the films Blades of Glory and Horton Hears a Who!, and will star together in the upcoming films On Broadway, Spring Breakdown, and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.[26] He and Amy have two dogs, Toby and Elliott.[11]
Arnett lists Steve Martin and Chevy Chase as his two biggest comedic influences.[11] His favorite band is Built to Spill, his favorite movie is Shaun of the Dead, his favorite television show is The Office.[11] Will grew up watching hockey in Canada, and is an avid Toronto Maple Leafs supporter.[32]
On April 28, 2008 it was announced in People that the couple are expecting their first child together, due in the fall.[33]
Source:wikipedia
As a dating coach, people come to my blog every day and ask me this question: ”David, there’s this great woman that I want to date who works with me at the same company. How do I get her to date me and still keep my job?”
Dating in the workplace is very tricky, because you don’t want to jeopardize your status in the company or her status in the company. You also don’t want to create any bad blood between you and a fellow coworker if it doesn’t work out.
Now, I’m not saying that this is something that can’t work.
There are a lot of people who have fallen in love with coworkers… you just need to know how to approach it the right way
There are a lot of people who have fallen in love with coworkers… you just need to know how to approach it the right way, and how to “feel out” things as you do that, so you don’t put either of you in a precarious situation.
Approaching a woman who is a coworker must be done somewhat differently (and more carefully) than approaching women with whom you don’t work. With that in mind, here are my five steps to determine whether to (and, if so, how to) ask out your fellow coworker:
1. Start off by having lunch with her and a group of other people in the company cafeteria or the company lunch room. Get to know her in a group setting with no pressure at all. This way she gets to know you and what you’re all about in a very casual way.
2. Get a group of coworkers together and go out for happy hour one day after work. Now that you’ve already had some time in the cafeteria to get to know this group of coworkers better (including the woman in whom you’re interested), going to a happy hour with this group is a great way to get to know each other outside of the work environment. Being outside the work environment will also give you the opportunity to do a bit of flirting with her. This will be a good way to see if she’s also flirting with you.
So the key to liking someone at work is not to let your coworkers know it.
So the key to liking someone at work is not to let your coworkers know it. You want to be able to casually get to know each other so there’s no pressure. During the happy hour, notice with which people she’s hanging out more. Is she paying extra attention to you? Is she flirting with you? If so, then proceed to Number 3.
3. IM her one day and ask her what she’s doing for lunch. Be playful and tell her that you really need to get out of the office, and that you couldn’t think of anyone more fun with whom to have a lunch escape. Make it casual. You’ve already hung out with her in a group setting at lunch and at happy hour.
This is your chance to be alone with her, and to find out more about her. This is also her chance to get to know you better. Keep in mind, though, that this is not a date. It’s just two coworkers having lunch. If this lunch is successful, then proceed to Number 4.
4. Start sending some emails to her during the day – just funny and light stuff. For instance, you could tell her about an office rumor you heard and say that you wanted to tell her about it first. You could also pass along a funny email that your friend forwarded to you. Tell her that you’re forwarding it to her because you know she’d appreciate it.
Once again, keep it light and friendly. If she responds positively, you’ll probably end up IM’ing with each other periodically during the day when you are both bored. If this stage is successful, then move on to Number 5… the close!
5. “The close.” On a Wednesday or Thursday when you’re speaking with her, casually find out what she’s doing that Friday night. Tell her you are going out with a bunch of your guy friends, and that it would be great if she came with some of her girl friends so you could all hang out together. Once again, this is very casual… but it is also the final tell-tale sign you need to learn so that you can decide whether or not to ask her out on a date.
When you meet her group, start talking to her friends and watch what she does. If she keeps coming over, “claiming you,” and trying to pull you away from her friends, then she is interested in dating you. If she ends up making out with one of your friends in the corner, then she’ll never know about your secret crush and you will never have to worry about work-related issues or tension. If she’s hanging out primarily with you (or even better hanging all over you and no one else), then it’s time to confront her and ask her out on a real date.
You never know where you are going to find someone you like. There are no impossible situations. So the next time you find a woman in your office to whom you’re attracted, follow these 5 easy steps so that you can see if she is also interested in you without worrying about what life at work will be like if she isn’t. Explore the possibilities… you never know what may end up developing.
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A new study has found that it may be possible to train people to be more intelligent, increasing the brainpower they had at birth.
Get Health News From The New York Times » Until now, it had been widely assumed that the kind of mental ability that allows us to solve new problems without having any relevant previous experience — what psychologists call fluid intelligence — is innate and cannot be taught (though people can raise their grades on tests of it by practicing).
But in the new study, researchers describe a method for improving this skill, along with experiments to prove it works.
The key, researchers found, was carefully structured training in working memory — the kind that allows memorization of a telephone number just long enough to dial it. This type of memory is closely related to fluid intelligence, according to background information in the article, and appears to rely on the same brain circuitry. So the researchers reasoned that improving it might lead to improvements in fluid intelligence.
First they measured the fluid intelligence of four groups of volunteers using standard tests. Then they trained each in a complicated memory task, an elaborate variation on Concentration, the child’s card game, in which they memorized simultaneously presented auditory and visual stimuli that they had to recall later.
The game was set up so that as the participants succeeded, the tasks became harder, and as they failed, the tasks became easier. This assured a high level of difficulty, adjusted individually for each participant, but not so high as to destroy motivation to keep working. The four groups underwent a half-hour of training daily for 8, 12, 17 and 19 days, respectively. At the end of each training, researchers tested the participants’ fluid intelligence again. To make sure they were not just improving their test-taking skills, the researchers compared them with control groups that took the tests without the training.
The results, published Monday in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, were striking. Although the control groups also made gains, presumably because they had practice with the fluid intelligence tests, improvement in the trained groups was substantially greater. Moreover, the longer they trained, the higher their scores were. All performers, from the weakest to the strongest, showed significant improvement.
“Intelligence has always been considered principally an immutable inherited trait,” said Susanne M. Jaeggi, a postdoctoral fellow in psychology at the University of Michigan and a co-author of the paper. “Our results show you can increase your intelligence with appropriate training.”
Why did the training work? The authors suggest several aspects of the exercise relevant to solving new problems: ignoring irrelevant items, monitoring ongoing performance, managing two tasks simultaneously and connecting related items to one another in space and time.
No one knows how long the gains will last after training stops, Dr. Jaeggi said, and the experiment’s design did not allow the researchers to determine whether more training would continue to produce further gains.
Source:nytimes
By DEE-ANN DURBIN, AP Auto Writer
DETROIT – General Motors Corp. struggled to a $3.3 billion first-quarter loss, due in part to a weak U.S. market, a strike at a major parts supplier and plummeting sales of sport utility vehicles and pickups.
The nation’s biggest automaker also cut its industrywide U.S. sales outlook for the year. GM disclosed earlier this week it was cutting production of some of its slow-selling trucks and SUVs.
But its earnings excluding one-time items beat Wall Street expectations, and GM shares rose more than 13 percent.
GM’s loss reported Wednesday for the January-March period amounted to $5.74 per share and also reflected one-time charges. It compares with a profit of $62 million, or 11 cents per share, in the first quarter of 2007.
The company said a two-month strike at American Axle and Manufacturing Holdings Inc. has cost it $800 million and 100,000 vehicles. The strike has affected 30 GM plants.
Fritz Henderson, GM’s president and chief operating officer, said despite the costs GM is trying to stay out of the talks between the United Auto Workers and American Axle.
“What we’ve tried to do is be helpful where we could be with the UAW and American, but we really do not want to be involved,” Henderson said in a conference call.
In light of the results, GM cut its U.S. sales outlook for the year. The Detroit-based automaker now expects total U.S. sales in the high 15-million range, down from the low 16-million range at the beginning of this year.
“We want to run our business conservatively. We want to be realistic,” said Ray Young, GM’s chief financial officer.
Young said GM expects the second quarter to be a tough one for the industry. He said the company still predicts a recovery in the second half of 2008, although it will not be as robust as believed at the beginning of this year.
GM’s loss included a $1.45 billion charge to reflect a change in the value of its interest in GMAC Financial Services and $731 million to increase its liability in Delphi Corp.’s ongoing bankruptcy.
Excluding the one-time items, GM lost $350 million, or 62 cents per share, beating Wall Street’s expectations. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had expected a loss of $1.60 per share. Its shares rose $2.79, or 13 percent, to $23.94.
Analysts expressed concern about GM’s $3.9 billion cash burn for the quarter. Calyon Securities analyst Mark Warnsman said the company entered the year too optimistically and failed to manage its production. He also said GM isn’t holding its own in North America, where its market share dropped from 22.5 percent to 21.7 percent in the quarter.
“It has become increasingly clear that GM is caught in a quagmire of its own making in North America,” Warnsman said in a note to investors.
GM lost $812 million in North America, compared with a loss of $208 million in the year-ago quarter. Its U.S. market share remained flat at 22 percent. The company said earlier this week that it is cutting production of some trucks and SUVs at four U.S. plants, resulting in 3,500 layoffs.
GM’s total revenue for the quarter was $42.7 billion, down from $43.4 billion a year ago. GM said revenues were up 20 percent outside North America thanks to strong growth in China, Russia, Brazil and India. Total revenue was hurt by the slowdown in North America and losses at GMAC.
Young said analysts may be underestimating GM’s overseas growth. He also said GM is making progress in cutting costs in North America. Young said the company isn’t giving any earnings guidance in the near term.
“The North American turnaround is occurring,” he said.
GM reported a gain of $600 million due to hedging on the price of platinum, copper, aluminum, natural gas and other commodities. Jonathan Steinmetz, an analyst with Morgan Stanley, said such gains inflate GM’s earnings but are likely unsustainable. Young said GM can’t predict whether it will see similar gains in future quarters.
GM lost $276 million in the first quarter due to its minority stake in GMAC, which was hurt by losses in its ResCap residential mortgage division. Young said GM revalued its stake in GMAC because it doesn’t expect the mortgage market to recover soon.
GM sold 2.25 million vehicles worldwide in the first quarter, down less than 1 percent from a year ago. GM said a record 64 percent of those sales came outside the U.S.
“We continue to leverage our global product portfolio to take advantage of tremendous growth in key emerging markets, while at the same time taking the appropriate actions to deal with the challenging economic conditions in the U.S.,” GM Chairman and Chief Executive Rick Wagoner said in a statement.
Source:news.yahoo
By JEANNINE AVERSA, AP Economics Writer
WASHINGTON – The bruised economy limped through the first quarter, growing at just a 0.6 percent pace as housing and credit problems forced people and businesses alike to hunker down.
The country’s economic growth during January through March was the same as in the final three months of last year, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. The statistic did not meet what economists consider the classic definition of a recession, which is a retraction of the economy. This means that although the economy is stuck in a rut, it is still managing to grow, even if modestly.
Many analysts were predicting that the gross domestic product (GDP) would weaken a bit more — to a pace of just 0.5 percent — in the first quarter. Earlier this year, some economists thought the economy would actually lurch into reverse during the opening quarter. Now, they say they believe that will likely happen during the current April-to-June period.
“The economy is weak but not collapsing,” said Lynn Reaser, chief economist at Bank of America’s Investment Strategies Group. “A recession can’t be ruled out, although the stars are not lined up at this point to definitively say one way or the other.”
Gross domestic product measures the value of all goods and services produced within the United States and is the best measure of the country’s economic health. Voters are keenly worried about the country’s economic problems and so are politicians — in Congress, in the White House and on the campaign trail.
The housing situation turned more bleak in the first quarter, as record-high foreclosures dumped more unsold homes on the market, adding to builders’ headaches. Builders slashed spending on housing projects by a whopping 26.7 percent, on an annualized basis, the most in 27 years. That was the big drag on the economy.
Consumers — whose spending is vital to the country’s economic health — turned much more cautious, also restraining overall economic growth in the first quarter. Their spending rose at just a 1 percent pace. That was down from a 2.3 percent growth rate and was the slowest since the second quarter of 2001, when the United States was suffering through its last recession.
Soaring energy and food prices are walloping people’s pocketbooks, leaving them with less to spend on other things. The credit crunch also has made it harder for people to finance big ticket items, such as cars and homes. And, many homeowners — watching their homes — often their single-biggest asset — slump in value, also are feeling less wealthy and less inclined to spend.
Another report from the Labor Department Wednesday showed that workers’ compensation — including wages and benefits — grew 0.7 percent in the first quarter, the slowest pace in two years. Many economists were expecting a 0.8 percent rise. The report suggests that the weak labor market is making employers a bit less generous with their compensation.
Businesses, meanwhile, cut back spending on equipment and software at a 0.7 percent pace, the most since the final quarter of 2006. And, they trimmed spending on commercial construction at a 6.2 percent pace, the most since the third quarter of 2005.
However, businesses boosted their investment in building up stocks of supplies in the first quarter, a big force adding to GDP. Exports of U.S. goods and services also helped first-quarter growth. U.S. exports are being helped by the falling value of the U.S. dollar, which makes U.S. made goods and services less expensive to foreign buyers.
Spending by the government was another factor helping out GDP in the first quarter. That spending rose at a 2 percent pace for the second quarter in a row.
To bolster the economy, the Federal Reserve is expected to lower a key interest rate by one-quarter percentage point to 2 percent later Wednesday. That would mark a more moderate-sized rate reduction after a recent string of hefty cuts. Many economists believe the Fed, which started dropping rates last September, may be nearing the end of its rate-cutting campaign because policymakers don’t want to aggravate inflation. Those rate reductions, which take months to affect economic activity, can sow the seeds of inflation down the road.
An inflation measure linked to the GDP report showed that prices grew at a rate of 3.5 percent in the first quarter, down from a 3.9 percent pace in the prior quarter.
Another gauge showed that the core prices excluding food and energy rose at a rate of 2.2 percent in the first quarter. That was a lower than the 2.5 percent pace registered in the fourth quarter but still outside the Fed’s comfort zone. The upper level of the Fed’s inflation tolerance is 2 percent.
Gas and food prices, however, have moved higher since the start of the year, adding to inflation pressures. Gasoline prices, which have recently set new record highs, have climbed to $4 a gallon in some parts of the country.
A growing number of economists believe the economy is in a recession and is indeed contracting now.
Under one rough rule, if the economy contracts for six straight months it is considered to be in a recession. That didn’t happen in the last recession — in 2001_ though. A panel of experts at the National Bureau of Economic Research that determines when U.S. recessions begin and end uses a broader definition, taking into account income, employment and other barometers. That finding is usually made well after the fact.
During the first three months of this year, job losses neared the staggering quarter-million mark. The unemployment rate has climbed to 5.1 percent and is expected to move higher in the coming months.
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, earlier this month, acknowledged for the first time that a recession this year was possible.
President Bush on Tuesday said the country was dealing with “difficult times.” Bush said he understood Americans’ anxiety over soaring gas prices, record-high home foreclosures and other economic woes.
The government’s $168 billion economic-stimulus package — including tax rebates that started flowing to bank accounts on Monday — should help energize the economy in the second half of this year, the Bush administration and Federal Reserve officials say. Democrats in Congress insist more relief needs to be provided, including additional unemployment benefits to cushion the pain of joblessness. The administration has resisted, saying the rebates and other stimulative efforts should be sufficient once they fully kick in.
Source:news.yahoo
By FELICITY BARRINGER
A federal judge on Monday gave the Interior Department until May 15 to come to a decision on whether to give polar bears protection under the Endangered Species Act. The ruling, coming after nearly four months of departmental delays, rejected the government’s contention that the case was too complicated to decide before June 30.
Dot Earth: Court Forces Action on Polar Bears (April 29, 2008) “Defendants have been in violation of the law requiring them to publish” their decision on the bear’s status “for nearly 120 days,” Judge Claudia Wilken of Federal District Court in Oakland, Calif., wrote. In addition to setting a May 15 deadline, Judge Wilken ordered that the decision take effect immediately, setting aside the usual 30-day grace period.
In January 2007, the federal Fish and Wildlife Service issued a proposal to list the polar bear as threatened because warming global temperatures were melting the sea ice the animals use as a platform to hunt seals, breed and make dens.
The retreating ice covers an area of Arctic seas that is also the latest frontier for offshore oil and gas development — an activity that could be curtailed if the federal government gives polar bears protection under the Endangered Species Act.
Shortly after the Interior Department missed its original January deadline for a final rule, the agency held a $2.6 billion oil lease sale covering a 46,000-square-mile area of the Chukchi Sea off northwestern Alaska. Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California and chairwoman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, earlier this month accused the department of delaying the listing to ensure it did not affect the lease sale, an accusation Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne has denied.
At a news conference earlier this month, the White House spokeswoman, Dana Perino, said environmentalists were inappropriately trying to use existing environmental laws, like the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Air Act, to address climate change. The result, Ms. Perino said, would be a “regulatory train wreck.”
A draft of a final rule was prepared by the Alaska office of the Fish and Wildlife Service in December, Interior Department lawyers told the court in a brief filed earlier this month. This was reviewed by agency lawyers, who produced another draft on Feb. 22. The department said that the February draft was being reviewed by the Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks and that the issues involved were complex.
The environmental groups that had sued to force the Interior Department to act on the bear’s status were elated by the ruling. “Today’s decision is a huge victory for the polar bear,” said Kassie Siegel, climate program director at the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the groups involved.
“By May 15th the polar bear should receive the protections it deserves under the Endangered Species Act,” Ms. Siegel said, “which is the first step toward saving the polar bear and the entire Arctic ecosystem from global warming.”
Shane Wolfe, Mr. Kempthorne’s press secretary, issued a brief statement on Tuesday saying: “We have received the court’s decision and are reviewing it. We will evaluate the legal options and will decide the appropriate course of action.”
Source:nytimes
Hillary Rodham Clinton picked up another powerful superdelegate Tuesday, Rep. Ike Skelton of Missouri, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.
Barack Obama won Missouri back on Feb. 5, but Mrs. Clinton carried Mr. Skelton’s district. Overall, Mrs. Clinton leads in superdelegates 268 to 242. Among members of Congress she has a narrow lead, 90 to 88.
Does the Skelton endorsement offer any indication which way other uncommitted congressional superdelegates are going to go? The Politico reports Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri, an Obama supporter, hinted that many of her colleagues are privately lining up for Mr. Obama.
While more than 80 Democrats in the House and Senate have yet to state their preferences in the race for the Democratic nomination, sources said Tuesday that most of them have already made up their minds and have told the campaigns where they stand.
“The majority of superdelegates I’ve talked to are committed, but it is a matter of timing,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.). “They’re just preferring to make their decision public after the primaries are over. … They would like someone else to act for them before they talk about it in the cold light of day.”
Clinton spokesman Phil Singer disagreed: “Considering the rough patch Senator Obama is going through, it’s understandable that Sen. McCaskill would want to change the subject, but her observations don’t jibe with what automatic delegates are actually saying.”
Mr. Obama picked up two superdelegates of his own on Tuesday, Rep. Ben Chandler of Kentucky and Richard Machacek, a party leader from Iowa. But instead of celebrating those endorsements, Mr. Obama spent most of Tuesday focused on his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.
Senator Obama “broke forcefully” from Reverend Wright at a news conference addressing the pastor’s recent contentious TV appearances, write Jeff Zeleny and Adam Nagourney of The New York Times.
In tones sharply different from those Mr. Obama used on Monday, when he blamed the news media and his rivals for focusing on Mr. Wright, and far harsher than those he used in his speech on race in Philadelphia last month, Mr. Obama tried to cut all his ties to — and to discredit — Mr. Wright, the man who presided at Mr. Obama’s wedding and baptized his two daughters.
“His comments were not only divisive and destructive, but I believe that they end up giving comfort to those who prey on hate, and I believe that they do not portray accurately the perspective of the black church,” Mr. Obama said, his voice welling with anger. “They certainly don’t portray accurately my values and beliefs.”
The Wall Street Journal says Mr. Obama “chose to go beyond last month’s speech on racial healing to repudiate the minister for ‘the insensitivity and the outrageousness’ of his latest comments. The lawmaker called them ‘a bunch of rants that aren’t grounded in truth.’ ”
Senator Obama hopes that press conference will assuage any doubts voters in upcoming states might have about his authenticity, writes Karen Tumulty of Time.
The most important audience Obama was trying to reach in that news conference was not the voters in the upcoming Democratic primary states of Indiana and North Carolina. He was speaking most directly to 300 or so remaining undecided Democratic superdelegates, the party regulars who are likely to determine the eventual nominee — and who have become increasingly concerned in recent days that the Democratic frontrunner lacks the fire and the fight he will need to prevail in November. As one Democratic strategist put it: “You could sense, if not a turning of the tide over the past couple of days, that people were getting back on the fence.”
John McCain rolled out a health care plan that would allow for some federal money to be spent on covering patients who have been denied health insurance because of preexisting conditions. He made his remarks Tuesday at a stop in Tampa, Fla., Michael Cooper and Kevin Sack of The Times report.
Mr. McCain’s health care plan would shift the emphasis from insurance provided by employers to insurance bought by individuals, to foster competition and drive down prices. To do so he is calling for eliminating the tax breaks that currently encourage employers to provide health insurance for their workers, and replacing them with $5,000 tax credits for families to buy their own insurance.
His proposal to move away from employer-based coverage was similar to one that President Bush pushed for last year, to little effect. And his call for expanding coverage through market-based competition is in stark contrast to the Democrats’ proposals to move toward universal health care coverage, with government subsidies to help lower-income people afford their premiums.
Whether or not Mrs. Clinton gets her party’s nomination, she told The Indianapolis Star on Tuesday that it would be wrong for any Democrat to vote for John McCain in the general election because of any lingering ill-will toward the Democratic nominee. (USA Today says today that Democratic voters are becoming increasingly sour on their inter-party opponent.)
“Anyone, anyone, who voted for either of us should be absolutely committed to voting for the other” in the general election, Clinton said during an hourlong meeting with The Indianapolis Star Editorial Board. “I’m going to shout that from the mountaintops and the valleys and everywhere I can, no matter what the outcome of the nominating process is.”
During that meeting, Senator Clinton also urged Senator Obama to debate her in Indiana. “It’s not too late, if you’re watching,” she said, looking into a camera that was streaming the meeting on the Web.
In Indiana, writes Timothy Aeppel of The Wall Street Journal, the bulk of Mrs. Clinton’s speeches are about economic issues like globalization and job loss, which “plays to the insecurities of blue-collar voters — a successful strategy in other states.”
Carl Hulse of The Times describes the unease some House Republicans feel about Mr. McCain representing the party at the top of the 2008 ticket.
Mr. McCain, the go-his-own-way Arizona lawmaker, has had an up-and-down relationship with Republican colleagues for years, particularly those in the House. He feuded openly with the former Republican leaders, whom he often treated with disdain and suspicion — a sentiment they often returned.
That checkered past has stirred mixed emotions among House Republicans, who embrace the candidate McCain as a potential savior whose maverick reputation could rescue them in an off-year for the party brand.
Mr. McCain’s in a tricky spot when it comes to the farm bill, which is up for renewal. The Hill says Senator McCain is staying out of the debate and may vote against it this year.
If McCain opposes the final bill, Democrats are eager to use his position to characterize the senator as out of touch with rural states hurt by the economic downturn and in line with a president who called the bill “bloated” at a news conference on Tuesday.
But if McCain supports it, he is certain to anger some of the fiscal conservatives he has won over by vowing to eliminate congressional earmarks and pledging his support for President Bush’s tax policies.
Campaign trail roundup:
* In Indiana, Hillary Rodham Clinton meets with Deluxe Sheet Metal employees in South Bend, holds town hall meetings in Portage and Lafayette, and holds a rally in Kokomo. Bill Clinton holds events in Apex, Sanford, Lillington, Dunn, Hope Mills, Lumberton and Whiteville, N.C.
* John McCain holds a town hall meeting in Allentown, Pa.
* Barack Obama sits down for a discussion with Indiana working families and tours and meets with employees at the C.N.W. factory in Indianapolis. Later, he attends a rally in Bloomington, Ind. Michelle Obama holds an event with Caroline Kennedy in Boonville, Ind.
Source:
No sane man, who is an Obama supporter, would do what Jeremiah Wright has done in the last week. Many pundits are saying he’s an ego maniac, he’s been swept up, he’s trying to pay for his new house, blah, blah. After thinking about it, I disagree. This was deliberate, planned and timed to inflict maximum damage to Obama. Think about it. What could Wright do to get maximum attention? Answer: speak at the National Press Club, with a large group of supporters present, and with Nation of Islam security on stage with you. Make inflammatory statements, dredging up every outrageous thing you’ve ever said, and inflating them even more. Be cocky, arrogant, and rude. Make sure that the Nation of Islam guy is in the background of every shot. Scare people to death.
Wright’s not crazy. He supports Hillary. It is well known that Wright knows the Clintons. He went to the White House during the Clinton administration. I now believe that he is a Hillary supporter and either did this on his own or was goaded into acting by a supporter. I don’t know if he’s in communication with the Clinton campaign itself, but I wouldn’t be surprised.
This was intentional to hurt Obama, and it sure is working.
SOurce:chron
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