Violence, pepper spray mar Black Friday shopping (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Black Friday turned into a black mark against American shoppers as riotous crowds brawled over video games, waffle irons and towels, drawing international condemnation and even raising questions about the state of humanity.

One of the most outrageous incidents of the day was in the Los Angeles area, where up to 20 people were injured after a woman at a Walmart used pepper spray to get an edge on other shoppers in a rush for Xbox game consoles.

Walmart seemed to have a worse day than many other retailers as shoppers screamed, shoved and elbowed each other to save a few bucks.

Incidents across the country included a man shot by robbers in the parking lot outside the San Leandro, California store and shoppers pepper sprayed by security at a store in Kinston, North Carolina.

A fight for bath towels, purportedly recorded at a Michigan store, has become a YouTube sensation. Cheap towels also caused mayhem at a Walmart in Oregon, Ohio.

"They were fighting over bath towels on sale for $1.88, as ridiculous as that sounds," Police Sergeant Jason Druckenmiller said. "A woman tried to get her hands on some towels when she was pushed from behind, and that's when she came out swinging."

Company spokesman Greg Rossiter said violence at a handful of stores marred an otherwise safe start to the holiday shopping season at thousands of Walmart stores.

COMMENTARY ON HUMANITY?

Videos of shopping pandemonium crowded YouTube by late Friday. One clip showed a crowd crushing and tearing apart boxes in a free-for-all for inexpensive cell phones. Another showed people flooding into a store as the gates were raised.

"This is what the human race has come to huh??" asked one person who commented online. Another said it "looked like a piranha feeding frenzy."

The instant classic of the day was a video of an Arkansas melee over a $2 waffle iron. The shaky, 48-second clip shows a mass of squealing and shouting men, women and children climbing over each other, grabbing and tossing boxes, with one woman seemingly unaware that her pants were sliding down her backside.

"Oh my God!" a woman screamed in the only sentence discernible among the high-pitched shrieks. One person commenting on the video wrote: "The pinnacle of Western Civilization has arrived."

A Walmart in Cave Creek, Arizona, was evacuated Thursday night after a suspicious package was found in an employee break room, Maricopa County Sheriff's Department spokesman Christopher Hegstrom said. A police robot retrieved the package, and bomb-sniffing dogs searched the store before it was reopened.

A video of a grandfather injured when he was knocked down by police at an Arizona Walmart went viral on YouTube. The video showed the man unconscious and bleeding from his face as police rolled him over and mopped up blood. Witnesses screamed at the police, accusing them of brutality and shouting for someone to call "911" for emergency medical assistance.

According to reports, the man was knocked down by police after putting a video game in his belt to free his hands so he could pick up his grandson as the crowd surged around them.

In the Manhattan borough of New York City, shoppers unhappy that Hollister's flagship store was not opening at midnight, as other locations were, broke into the store and stole clothing, police said.

DAY DRAWS MOCKERY

Black Friday drew bad press and mockery outside the United States.

In Toronto, a headline on the website of the Globe and Mail proclaimed: "Pepper-spray, shootings and other Black Friday madness."

Dutch state television showed an overhead shot of hundreds of people camped outside a west coast store. "No tents from the Occupy movement here in California, but clients waiting hours until the stores open," the anchor said.

(Reporting by Barbara Goldberg in New York, Harriet McLeod in South Carolina, Joe Rauch in North Carolina, Jessica Wohl and Eric Johnson in Chicago, Aman Ali in Ohio, Mary Slosson in Colorado; Writing by Barbara Goldberg and Ben Berkowitz in New York; Editing by David Bailey and Paul Simao)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111126/bs_nm/us_usa_retail_violence

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Online video series celebrates the Pittsburgh dad

PITTSBURGH (AP) ? A new online video series about a stereotypical Pittsburgh father is attracting tens of thousands of viewers.

"Pittsburgh Dad" celebrates and makes fun of the unique speech of the working-class city, where yinz means you all, nebby means nosy and redd up means clean up.

The series is available on YouTube. It's so successful that creator and director Chris Preksta plans more than a dozen new episodes, starring his actor friend Curt Wootton as the dad.

Preksta is known for the SyFy channel series "The Mercury Men." He's filming "Pittsburgh Dad" on an iPhone.

The dad character tells his children not to be wasteful by leaving out half-empty cans of soda pop and promises they'll be drinking "hose water" if the behavior continues.

Wootton say the character is modeled off his own father.

___

Online:

http://www.youtube.com/user/pittsburghdad

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/apdefault/aa9398e6757a46fa93ed5dea7bd3729e/Article_2011-11-25-Pittsburgh%20Dad/id-fd0ab0d62e9142e9b9aca4ae0f6412e1

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Moroccans hold Arab Spring-inspired election (AP)

RABAT, Morocco ? Moroccans voted for a new parliament Friday in Arab Spring-inspired elections that are facing a boycott by democracy campaigners who say the ruling monarchy isn't committed to real change.

A moderate Islamist party and a pro-palace coalition led by the finance minister are competing for the top spot, but a key test for the authorities' legitimacy will be how many voters cast ballots.

The king amended the constitution over the summer giving the prime minister new powers, including the ability to dissolve parliament and make certain appointments, in response to pro-democracy protests. But the ultimate authority remains with the king.

The election result will be closely watched by Morocco's U.S. and other Western allies, as well as European tourists who cherish its beaches and resorts, to see how this North African kingdom navigates its own Arab Spring.

In the affluent Agdal neighborhood of Rabat, a steady stream of professionals lined up early in the morning at a polling station to vote before work.

"I've always voted, but this time it is more important," said Dr. Mohammed Ennabli. "Before it was the king who chose, now it is the people who choose."

Many people, however, scorned a process they say has been going on for decades without any tangible effect on their lives.

"I won't vote, the promises are never kept ? with or without the new constitution, it is the same," said Abdallah Cherachaoui, an unemployed 45 year old in the lower income district of Akkari. "They are laughing at us."

In the working class city of Sale, across the river from the capital Rabat, there was a steady trickle of voters to the school acting as a polling station, but some stayed outside.

"I voted in 2007 because the candidate was a member of my family, but he also disappointed me and as soon as the elections were over, I never saw him again, so I'm not making that mistake again," said Brahim Errami, 25, from his seat in a nearby cafe. "I pity the people going in and out of that school."

Morocco's reputation as a stable kingdom in North Africa has taken a hit with this year's protests over government corruption and heavy handed security forces. And its once-steady economy is creaking from the amount of money the government has pumped into raising salaries and subsidies to keep people calm amid the Arab world turmoil.

The election campaign has been strangely subdued, unlike the lively politicking in nearby Tunisia when it held the first elections prompted by the Arab uprisings last month.

Morocco with its many political parties and regular elections under the tight control of an all-powerful monarch was once the bright star in a region of dictatorships.

But all that has changed with the Arab uprisings that toppled dictators in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt. Now a political system that holds elections but leaves all powers in the hands of a hereditary king does not look so liberal.

Some 31 political parties are fielding 5,392 candidates to compete for 395 seats in parliament, including 60 set aside for women and 30 for "youth," under 40.

A complex proportional system of representation means no party is likely to take more than 20 percent of the seats.

Under the new constitution, the king asks the party with the most seats to form the government, which could well be the Islamist Justice and Development party, known by its French initials PJD. But there's uncertainty over whether it can truly change anything in the face of the palace's power.

The Islamists' biggest rival for the top spot is Finance Minister Salaheddine Mezouar's Rally of Independents, which leads an alliance of seven other pro-palace parties.

"This is a very important election for the Moroccan people and it confirms the choice made for an open process of democratization that is being consolidated by this election," he told The Associated Press after voting. "This is really a moment of great emotion."

Like elsewhere in the Arab world, Moroccans hit the streets in the first half of 2011 calling for more democracy, and King Mohammed VI responded by amending the constitution and bringing forward elections.

But since then the sense of change has dissipated, and while the king remains a respected figure, few have much confidence in parliament or the politicians in it.

"I voted because we need to elect a new parliament, but I voted blank for the simple reason that there is no one I can trust from the people that are being elected," said Chamseddin Baba, the manager of an IT company who voted in the wealthy suburb of Souissi. "I would like to vote for the best, but the best are not there."

The 2007 elections, the first with widespread international observation, had just 37 percent turnout, and some fear it could be even lower this time around.

Now, however, the number of registered voters has dropped from 15 million to 13.5 million, despite population increases, so turnout will almost certainly be higher.

There will be 3,200 election observers, though they will likely only cover a fraction of the 40,000 polling stations scattered across the country.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111125/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_morocco_elections

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Gun issue represents tough politics for Obama

WASHINGTON (AP) ? They are fuzzy about some issues but the Republican presidential candidates leave little doubt about where they stand on gun rights.

Rick Perry and Rick Santorum go pheasant hunting and give interviews before heading out. Newt Gingrich and Herman Cain speak to the National Rifle Association convention. Michele Bachmann tells People magazine she wants to teach her daughters how to shoot because women need to be able to protect themselves. Mitt Romney, after backing some gun control measures in Massachusetts, now presents himself as a strong Second Amendment supporter.

President Barack Obama, on the other hand, is virtually silent on the issue.

He has hardly addressed it since a couple months after the January assassination attempt on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson, Ariz., when he promised to develop new steps on gun safety in response. He still has failed to do so, even as Tucson survivors came to Capitol Hill last week to push for action to close loopholes in the background check system.

Democrats have learned the hard way that embracing gun control can be terrible politics, and the 2012 presidential election is shaping up to underscore just how delicate the issue can be. With the election likely to be decided largely by states where hunting is a popular pastime, like Missouri, Ohio or Pennsylvania, candidates of both parties want to win over gun owners, not alienate them.

For Republicans, that means emphasizing their pro-gun credentials. But for Obama and the Democrats, the approach is trickier.

Obama's history in support of strict gun control measures prior to becoming president makes it difficult for him to claim he's a Second Amendment champion, even though he signed a bill allowing people to take loaded guns into national parks. At the same time, he's apparently decided that his record backing gun safety is nothing to boast of, either, perhaps because of the power of the gun lobby and their opposition to anything smacking of gun control.

The result is that while Republicans are more than happy to talk up their support for gun rights, Obama may barely be heard from on the issue at all.

"Gun control is a fight that the administration is not willing to pick. They're not likely to win it," said Harry Wilson, author of a book on gun politics and director of the Institute for Policy and Opinion Research at Roanoke College in Virginia. "They certainly would not win it in Congress, and it's not likely to be a winner at the polls. ... It comes down to one pretty simple word: Politics."

Administration officials say they are working to develop the gun safety measures promised after the Giffords shooting, and they say have taken steps to improve the background check system. White House spokesman Matt Lehrich says the White House goal is to "protect the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens while keeping guns out of the hands of those who shouldn't have them under existing law."

But when it comes to guns and politics, Democrats haven't forgotten what happened in 1994. That year, President Bill Clinton was pushing for passage of a landmark crime bill featuring a ban on assault weapons, and then-House Speaker Thomas Foley, D-Wash., twisted Democrats' arms to get it through the House. Come November, Democrats suffered widespread election losses and lost control of the House and the Senate. Foley was among those defeated, and Clinton and others credited the NRA's campaigning with a big role in the outcome. And when the assault weapons ban came up for congressional reauthorization in 2004, it failed.

Given that history, the NRA expects to see Obama treading carefully on guns through 2012.

"It's bad politics to be on the wrong side of the Second Amendment at election time," said Wayne LaPierre, NRA executive vice president. "They're trying to fog the issue through the 2012 election and deceive gun owners into thinking he's something he's not, which is pro-Second Amendment."

For gun control advocates, it adds up to frustration with Obama and the Democrats. The group Mayors Against Illegal Guns argues that polling shows voters support certain gun safety measures like stronger background checks ? although a recent Gallup poll also finds more support for enforcing current laws than for passing new ones.

"Good policy here is good politics," said John Feinblatt, an adviser to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is a co-chair of the mayors' group. "Unfortunately, for too long the administration has bought the conventional wisdom" that gun control is bad politics.

But the NRA outspends gun-control groups by wide margins, and analysts say that when it comes time to vote, the gun issue is more likely to motivate gun rights activists than gun control supporters.

Since becoming president, Obama has been extremely cautious on the issue. In his 2004 Senate race, for example, Obama said it was a "scandal" that then-President George W. Bush didn't force renewal of the assault weapons ban. But Obama himself has done nothing to promote that issue since becoming president.

Obama's commitment to act on gun safety may also be complicated by an unrelated controversy over a Justice Department program aimed at stanching gun trafficking into Mexico. The government lost track of numerous weapons in connection with the program.

Obama has vowed to figure out what went wrong with the operation and make sure it's corrected, but with Republicans seizing on the issue to attack the White House, the politics around taking action on guns hasn't gotten any easier.

So for now, supporters who hoped to see Obama adopt a stronger stance on guns and act in the wake of the Giffords shooting look like they're going to be disappointed. "We haven't given up hope," said Dennis Henigan, acting president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, "but our impatience is growing with each passing day."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2011-11-24-Obama-Guns/id-e76444114fd24e53b76b2e4993e6cd3f

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Mexico acknowledges 2nd Mayan reference to 2012 (AP)

MEXICO CITY ? Mexico's archaeology institute downplays theories that the ancient Mayas predicted some sort of apocalypse would occur in 2012, but on Thursday it acknowledged that a second reference to the date exists on a carved fragment found at a southern Mexico ruin site.

Most experts had cited only one surviving reference to the date in Mayan glyphs, a stone tablet from the Tortuguero site in the Gulf coast state of Tabasco.

But the National Institute of Anthropology and History said in a statement that there is in fact another apparent reference to the date at the nearby Comalcalco ruin. The inscription is on the carved or molded face of a brick. Comalcalco is unusual among Mayan temples in that it was constructed of bricks.

Arturo Mendez, a spokesman for the institute, said the fragment of inscription had been discovered years ago and has been subject to thorough study. It is not on display and is being kept in storage at the institute.

The "Comalcalco Brick," as the second fragment is known, has been discussed by experts in some online forums. Many still doubt that it is a definite reference to Dec. 21, 2012 or Dec. 23, 2012, the dates cited by proponents of the theory as the possible end of the world.

"Some have proposed it as another reference to 2012, but I remain rather unconvinced," David Stuart, a specialist in Mayan epigraphy at the University of Texas at Austin, said in a message to The Associated Press.

Stuart said the date inscribed on the brick "'is a Calendar Round,' a combination of a day and month position that will repeat every 52 years."

The brick date does coincide with the end of the 13th Baktun; Baktuns were roughly 394-year periods and 13 was a significant, sacred number for the Mayas. The Mayan Long Count calendar begins in 3114 B.C., and the 13th Baktun ends around Dec. 21, 2012.

But the date on the brick could also correspond to similar dates in the past, Stuart said.

"There's no reason it couldn't be also a date in ancient times, describing some important historical event in the Classic period. In fact, the third glyph on the brick seems to read as the verb huli, "he/she/it arrives."

"There's no future tense marking (unlike the Tortuguero phrase), which in my mind points more to the Comalcalco date being more historical that prophetic," Stuart wrote.

Both inscriptions ? the Tortuguero tablet and the Comalcalco brick ? were probably carved about 1,300 years ago and both are cryptic in some ways.

The Tortuguero inscription describes something that is supposed to occur in 2012 involving Bolon Yokte, a mysterious Mayan god associated with both war and creation.

However, erosion and a crack in the stone make the end of the passage almost illegible, though some read the last eroded glyphs as perhaps saying, "He will descend from the sky."

The Comalcalco brick is also odd in that the molded or inscribed faces of the bricks were probably laid facing inward or covered with stucco, suggesting they were not meant to be seen.

The Institute of Anthropology and History has long said rumors of a world-ending or world-changing event in late December 2012 are a Westernized misinterpretation of Mayan calendars.

The institute repeated Thursday that "western messianic thought has twisted the cosmovision of ancient civilizations like the Maya."

The institute's experts say the Mayas saw time as a series of cycles that began and ended with regularity, but with nothing apocalyptic at the end of a given cycle.

Given the strength of Internet rumors about impending disaster in 2012, the institute is organizing a special round table of 60 Mayan experts next week at the archaeological site of Palenque, in southern Mexico, to "dispel some of the doubts about the end of one era and the beginning of another, in the Mayan Long Count calendar."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/fossils/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111125/ap_on_sc/lt_mexico_apocalypse2012

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It's time to thank teachers (hamptonroads)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

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Faye Dunaway gives up NY home after landlord sues

FILE - In this April 17, 2009 file photo, actress Faye Dunaway arrives at a tribute event and screening for director Norman Jewison at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in Los Angeles. Dunaway is moving on from a fight with a landlord over a New York apartment _ by moving out. The New York Times reported Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2011, the "Bonnie & Clyde" and "Chinatown" actress agreed this month to give up her rent-stabilized, $1,048-a-month Manhattan apartment. The paper says an agreement filed last week gave her until this past Monday to move out. Her landlord's lawyer told the paper she has. (AP Photo/Dan Steinberg, file)

FILE - In this April 17, 2009 file photo, actress Faye Dunaway arrives at a tribute event and screening for director Norman Jewison at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in Los Angeles. Dunaway is moving on from a fight with a landlord over a New York apartment _ by moving out. The New York Times reported Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2011, the "Bonnie & Clyde" and "Chinatown" actress agreed this month to give up her rent-stabilized, $1,048-a-month Manhattan apartment. The paper says an agreement filed last week gave her until this past Monday to move out. Her landlord's lawyer told the paper she has. (AP Photo/Dan Steinberg, file)

NEW YORK (AP) ? Faye Dunaway is moving on from a fight with a landlord over a New York City apartment ? by moving out.

The New York Times reported Wednesday the "Bonnie and Clyde" actress agreed this month to give up her $1,048-a-month apartment.

The newspaper says an agreement filed last week gave her until this past Monday to move out. Her landlord's lawyer tells the newspaper she has.

Dunaway's agent has declined to comment.

The landlord sued Dunaway in August, seeking to evict her. The lawsuit said she didn't use the apartment as her primary residence as required by rules that keep the rent stabilized.

Dunaway had rented the place since 1994.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2011-11-23-People-Faye%20Dunaway/id-932a6d9d47ed4eae851067d61f9ed5e8

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Can You Get a Good Night's Rest in Your Airplane Seat?

Yes. As long as you're able to get comfortable and recline slightly, you'll sleep as well sitting up as you would lying down. However, sleeping upright does present some concerns. First of all, sitting motionless with bent limbs for more than a couple of hours can lead to the development of deep vein thrombosis, a type of blood clotting in large veins which can be fatal if it travels to the lungs. For this reason, passengers should remember to stretch their legs or shift positions periodically, and should avoid strong sleeping pills that may immobilize them. One study found that travelers are three times more likely to develop DVT when taking flights of three hours or more. For the best slumber, sleep experts suggest sitting back at an angle of at least 40 degrees.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=eb106ae447a3b5d0003aa7bdd8f06d11

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PFT: Eagles might get Vick back for Pats game

AP

It?s a nice, feel-good Thanksgiving week story.? Bears quarterback Jay Cutler breaks a thumb.? The Broncos have cut a former Bears quarterback who?d like to play in Chicago again.? And there?s nothing more natural than a homecoming on the fourth Thursday in November.

The only problem?? At least 22 teams can provide the flight delay and/or the traffic jam that prevents Kyle Orton from scarfing down sausage with the Superfans.

After the trading deadline, all players who are released must pass through waivers.? Priority is determined by record.? And so every team higher than the Bears in the pecking order will have dibs on Orton, if they choose to exercise it.

The Bears reportedly are No. 30 on the list.? Which means that every team except the 49ers and Packers will be able to grab him.

It doesn?t matter whether Orton ?wants? to play for the Bears.? If another team claims him, he has 2.5 million reasons to show up.

At the top of the stack, what better way to test whether the Colts are in full-blown ?Suck for Luck? mode than to see whether they?d bring in a quarterback who is significantly better than Curtis Painter or Dan Orlovsky?? They?d be crazy not to make a claim.? Unless they?re truly crazy for Andrew Luck.

The 4-6 Chiefs also need help, given the performance of Tyler Palko on Monday night.? (And with the Chiefs playing the Broncos again on January 1, there could be some strategic benefit to having him around.)? Ditto for the Redskins, whose head coach could be coaching for his job, with Rex Grossman and John Beck as the blanks in the bazooka.

And how about NFC teams that hope to pick off a wild-card berth if/when the Bears slide with Caleb Hanie or Nathan Enderle?? The 7-3 Lions, 6-4 Falcons, the 6-4 Cowboys (whose primary backup, Jon Kitna, is banged up), the 6-4 Giants, the 4-6 Bucs, and even the 4-6 Dream Team would have an incentive to block the Bears from getting their way.

Let?s also not forget about the Texans, who may not be completely sold on Matt Leinart, despite the decision to put all their eggs in a beer bong.

Finally, it would be foolish to overlook good, old-fashioned spite.? In 2002, Deion Sanders wanted to emerge from retirement and hop onto the silver-and-black bandwagon.? So the Redskins released his rights.? And former Redskins coach Marty Schottenheimer, the man whose presence in 2001 prompted Sanders to pick retirement over playing, put in a waivers claim on Sanders, short-circuiting his plan.? With three NFC North teams on track to make it to the playoffs, maybe the 2-8 Vikings would be tempted to keep the Bears from getting Orton, in the hopes that they?ll have company in the non-playoff party.

That?s highly unlikely.? But the point is that there are many possible motivations, and just because the Bears want Orton and Orton wants the Bears, it doesn?t mean he?ll end up there.? Indeed, the fact that the Bears and Orton are trying to rendezvous could be the tiebreaker for a team that is thinking about disrupting that plan.

UPDATE 10:35 p.m. ET:? As a reader pointed out on Twitter, claiming Orton has another benefit.? When he leaves as a free agent in March 2012, the team that employs him for six weeks would be in line of a compensatory draft pick.? So there?s one more good reason to consider doing it.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/11/21/eagles-optimistic-vick-could-return-for-patriots-game/related/

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Miami Beach getting ready for Art Basel Dec. 1-4 (AP)

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. ? Live graffiti painting. A colossal rose bed soaring 20 feet high. Early photos of Andy Warhol, a Picasso up for auction and a naked woman living in a pig pen. They're all part of the lineup for Art Basel Miami Beach, which runs Dec. 1-4, with a host of related events beginning Nov. 30.

The pig pen installation will undoubtedly be the most jaw-dropping event at the art fair. Known for photographing herself nude in subway tunnels or in front of graffiti walls, performance artist Miru Kim will be living with pigs for her performance "The Pig That Therefore I Am."

"The immediate connection between pigs and me will be felt through seeing the living bodies mingle through skin," Kim told The Associated Press. A glass barrier will act as "an insatiable gap between the spectacle and the onlooker, just like in a zoo."

The international art fair, sister event to Art Basel in Switzerland, is celebrating its 10th year in South Florida this December. Miami's art scene has grown tremendously since it started, and last year 46,000 people attended, not counting thousands more who took in ancillary events piggy-backing on the main arts-filled weekend. The trendy exhibits, films, parties and performances attract not just art collectors but also art-lovers of all means, tourists and many others who want to see and be seen.

"The cultural growth emerged about 20 years ago when the world discovered Miami through the lens of South Beach," said Tony Goldman, chairman and CEO of The Goldman Properties Co., which has helped transform the city's historic districts into thriving, trendy neighborhoods like South Beach and the Wynwood Arts District.

"Ten years ago when we brought Art Basel to Miami, we moved into warp speed and it's been growing every year since," the real estate investor said.

Organizers for this year's event are promising another round of great art, with thousands of works by more than 2,000 artists from around the world. Painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, print, photography, film, performance, video and digital art will all be on display at various venues, galleries, satellite fairs, outdoor exhibitions and private parties. New this year is Art Video, a 7,000-square-foot outdoor projection wall on the New World Center building designed by architect Frank Gehry.

The art experience will begin for many at Miami International Airport with Harmonic Convergence, a 72-foot-long window wall with diamond-shaped panes of glass in 150 transparent colors. The installation by architect and composer Christopher Janney creates a gradually changing pattern of colors, similar to a rainbow. It was installed a few months ago in an airport entrance by a people-mover walkway. Travelers will hear sounds Janney recorded during trips to the Florida Everglades, scuba dives in the ocean, and other natural environments. At the top of each hour, a short composition with percussion instruments plays, marking the time of day.

Images of art world stars Warhol and Robert Indiana taken in the early 1960s by photographer William John Kennedy will be on display for a pop-up event on the heels of Art Basel. "Before They Were Famous: Behind the Lens of William John Kennedy" will be part of the special programming at SCOPE Miami in the Wynwood Arts District.

"I photographed Andy and other Pop Artists because I believed they were creating something different," Kennedy said. "Andy was completely devoted to his art. I'm sure at the time I photographed him, he believed the photos would become an important record of what he was trying to accomplish."

The exhibit will include images of Warhol creating his Marilyn Monroe painting and Indiana holding his iconic LOVE piece, printed from original negatives as silver gelatin fiber prints.

SCOPE president and founder Alexis Hubshman said the photos offer a look at Warhol and Indiana "at a time when Americans were undergoing radical changes both politically and culturally." He said the 1960s images present "a distinct reference point for many emerging and contemporary artists working today."

Elsewhere in the Wynwood district, which is known for open-air museums of street murals, street artists will be "buffing" ? or painting over ? dozens of the neighborhood's graffiti-clad walls. An organization called Primary Flight will help nearly 30 artists find walls to make art, and work by 16 artists will be on display at the organization's gallery space.

The pig pen installation will be among the Primary Flight shows. "Some people are really going to love it. Some are going to be shocked. And a handful won't really don't get it," said Primary Flight founder Books Bischof.

For the first time, works by artists from the outdoor art park Wynwood Walls will be for sale at "Shop at the Walls," its first pop-up gallery.

Miami gallery owner Gary Nader will launch an auction house during Art Basel featuring modern and contemporary work by big names like Fernando Botero, Damien Hirst and Roy Lichtenstein. Nader expects prices from $50,000 to $5 million, including for Picasso's "Buste de Femme," priced at $3.5 million to $4.5 million, and Lichtenstein's large-scale aluminum painted sculpture "Three Brushstrokes," estimated at $3 million to $5 million.

"Auctions like this only happen in New York and London," Nader said.

Hundreds of volunteers will help lift a 20-foot sculptural platform with models of attractions from the 1939 New York World's Fair for an installation by Los Angeles-based artist Glenn Kaino at Art Public.

Will Ryman's "65th Street" installation of four colossal rose buds will bloom 20 feet over the Sagamore Hotel in Miami Beach. The pink and red buds, 5 to 10 feet in diameter, with a brass aphid and beetle nesting in the tallest bud, were recently in New York City. Ryman said Art Basel is "the perfect platform to introduce them to another extraordinary city of the arts, one that offers a completely different backdrop."

Another side event, Design Miami, includes 28 galleries and explores the relationship between design and architecture, including furniture and lighting. One theme will be vintage and contemporary jewelry with pieces designed by sculptors Alexander Calder and Harry Bertoia. Design Miami also includes an installation of utopian architect Buckminster Fuller's 1970s Fly's Eye Dome alongside Lord Norman Foster's reconstruction of Fuller's Dymaxion car.

Art Miami, which predates Art Basel by a dozen years, will unfold in Wynwood with works by 1,000 artists including Henry Moore and Robert Rauschenberg, along with an installation by Finnish artist Kaarina Kaikkonen called "As A Tree, I Can Feel the Wind" consisting of palm trees strung with secondhand clothing.

Miami's Mandarin Oriental hotel will show work by 16 contemporary Chinese artists reflecting ancient traditions as well as Western influence. Among the artists on display will be Liu Bolin, who uses himself as a blank canvas by painting his body to blend with the background.

Ten Steinway pianos decorated with art ranging from graffiti and acrylic paints to 3D sculptures will be scattered throughout Miami and South Beach for Pop-Up Pianos Miami. The pianos will eventually be donated to public schools and other organizations.

___

If You Go...

ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH: http://www.artbaselmiamibeach.com/. Dec. 1-4, with related events like Art Miami ? http://www.art-miami.com/_ and Design Miami ? http://www.designmiami.com_ beginning Nov. 30.

TOURS: Art critics will also be giving walking guided tours ? in English and Spanish ? each day for an hour, $20; details from ArtNexus, 305-891-7270, ext. 4, http://www.artbaselmiamibeach.com/go/id/ijb/

WYNWOOD: Wynwood Walls: http://www.thewynwoodwalls.com/home.html. Primary Flight: http://www.primaryflight.com.

Vespa tours of street art in Wynwood are available from Roam Rides, $75, http://www.roamrides.com/ and walking tours are $50.

Volunteers interested in helping with the Glenn Kaino installation can visit: http://www.glennkainostudio.com/levitating

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/arts/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111122/ap_en_ot/us_travel_trip_art_basel_miami

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Video: A wedding proposal five years in the making

There?s a real life love story that's capturing the hearts of people all over the world. A wedding proposal so elaborate that it took five years and several thousand miles to complete. ITV?s Annabel Roberts reports.

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Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/45386946/

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Justice Ginsburg Speaks About Gender Equality (ABC News)

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McDonald's dumps egg supplier after safety, cruelty concerns (Reuters)

CHICAGO (Reuters) ? McDonald's said on Friday it dumped a McMuffin egg supplier after a government agency found filthy conditions and "unacceptable rodent activity," and an animal rights group exposed cruel treatment of the chickens.

The Food and Drug Administration issued a warning letter to the owner of Sparboe Farms on Wednesday stating the agency inspected five egg production facilities in Iowa, Minnesota and Colorado and found "serious violations" of a federal rule designed to prevent salmonella and protect consumers.

The FDA letter warned the eggs may have been contaminated by filth and could be a health hazard. The agency also warned of unacceptable rodent activity.

Bob Langert, a McDonald's vice president, said in a written statement on Friday that McDonald's decision was based on "concern regarding the management of Sparboe's facilities."

McDonald decision also came after Mercy For Animals, an animal rights group, released findings of a three-month, three-state investigation of Sparboe's facilities, which it said exposed unsanitary and inhumane treatment of the animals.

The group's executive director, Nathan Runkle, said Sparboe hired a worker, who really was an undercover investigator for the animal rights group. The investigator "was wired with a pin-hole camera and documented case after case of egregious animal abuse and neglect," he said.

Video on the group's website showed dead hens in cages with living ones, chicks having their beaks broken then thrown into cages, a worker talking about other workers torturing the animals, and living chicks being discarded in plastic bags with dead ones.

"Regarding the undercover videos, the behavior on tape is disturbing and completely unacceptable. McDonald's wants to assure our customers that we demand humane treatment of animals by our suppliers," Langert said.

But he noted that the most alarming actions on video did not occur at Sparboe's Vincent, Iowa, facility, which is the only one that supplied fresh eggs to McDonald's.

Sparboe Farms' website states: "our commitment to food safety, humane animal care and environmental protection are just some of the key ingredients to providing our customers and friends with the highest quality eggs and egg products."

Reuters' call seeking comment was not returned by the company, which says is it is the fifth largest shell egg producer and marketer in the United States.

Last year, more than half a billion eggs were recalled after Salmonella sickened more than 1,000 people, the largest egg recall in U.S. history. The recall did not involve Sparboe Farms.

(Editing by Greg McCune)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/pets/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111118/us_nm/us_mcdonalds_egg

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Newspaper owners team up in deal-finding venture (AP)

SAN FRANCISCO ? A group of newspaper publishers and other media companies are teaming up to sell more advertising aimed at people looking for online deals.

Eight companies formed a joint venture that has acquired Find n Save, a search engine focused on discount offers made by merchants in cities across the U.S. The venture acquired Find n Save as part of its purchase of Travidia, an online shopping service. Financial terms of that deal weren't disclosed in Thursday's announcement.

The joint venture's initial owners include: Advance Digital, part of Advance Publications Inc., whose newspapers include The Plain Dealer in Cleveland; A.H. Belo Corp., owner of The Dallas Morning News; Cox Media Group, owner of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and more than 100 radio and TV stations; and Gannett Co.; owner of USA Today and more than 80 other newspapers as well as more than 20 TV stations.

Discussions are being held with other media companies interested in joining the venture.

Find n Save is tapping into the coupon craze that helped turn Groupon's daily-deal service into a hot commodity. Although it's still losing money, Groupon Inc. is growing so fast that the 3-year-old company already has a $15 billion market value.

Unlike search engines such as Google, Find n Save specializes in showcasing discounts offered by advertisers within local markets. A consumer can type, say, "burrito" into a search field, and receive a list of nearby Mexican restaurants and the deals they're offering.

The search engine makes money from the advertisers in its database. Other ads can be placed by companies looking to connect with people whose search engine requests have signaled their interest in certain products and services.

The participating newspapers will share in the revenue and contribute daily deals covering their markets to Find n Save's index.

Find n Save currently tracks local deals in 19 of the top 50 U.S. markets. The joint venture plans to add 21 more top markets to the list during the next month. By the end of 2013, the joint venture expects more than 400 newspapers to be affiliated with Find n Save.

Newspapers have been mining the Internet for more revenue to offset a steep decline in print advertising that has triggered bankruptcies and massive cutbacks during the past three years. The drop has been driven by the Internet's appeal to advertisers looking for less expensive ? and in some cases, more effective ? alternatives to print advertising.

The joint venture overseeing Find n Save will be run by acting CEO Christopher Trippe, who helped newspapers put together a partnership with Yahoo Inc. that began five years ago.

The venture's other partners include Hearst Corp., whose newspapers include the San Francisco Chronicle and 14 other dailies; MediaNews Group, owner of the San Jose Mercury News, The Denver Post and more than 50 other newspapers; McClatchy Co., owner of The Sacramento (Calif.) Bee, The Miami Herald and 28 other dailies; and The Washington Post Co., publisher of the largest newspaper in the nation's capital.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/search/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111117/ap_on_hi_te/us_newspapers_shopping_search_engine

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Fisker Automotive, the Finnish Solyndra - Big Government

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

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On today?s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Lachlan Markay to discuss the latest developments in the Solyndra scandal, get a preview of Steven Chu?s testimony before Congress today, and one of the next Solyndras, Fisker Automotive.

We?re brought to you as always by BigGovernment and Stephen Clouse and Associates. If you?d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

Related Links:

Chu to defend Solyndra loan to House panel
House GOP Poised to Grill Energy Secretary Chu at Solyndra Hearing
Solyndra: Energy Dept. pushed firm to keep layoffs quiet until after midterms
Fisker?s Political Connections
Coffee and Markets: Obama Doubles Down on Solyndra
Lachlan Markay at the HEritage Foundation

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The hosts and guests of Coffee and Markets speak only for ourselves, not any clients or employers.

Source: http://biggovernment.com/newledger/2011/11/17/fisker-automotive-the-finnish-solyndra/

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Ruben Studdard and Surata Zuri McCants: It's Over

American Idol winner Ruben Studdard has filed for divorce from Surata Zuri McCants, his wife of more than three years, according to reports.

The Velvet Teddy Bear filed the papers in his native Alabama citing the catch-all "irreconcilable differences" as the impetus for the breakup.

They have no children together.

A rep for Studdard did not elaborate on the reasons for the divorce, but did confirm that it's a go, saying, “Ruben and Zuri have gone their separate ways.”

Ruben won the second season of American Idol back in 2003, besting a young fella by the name of Clay Aiken to take the crown. Those were the days.

Season 11 kicks off in January on Fox.

[Photo: WENN.com]

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2011/11/ruben-studdard-and-surata-zuri-mccants-its-over/

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Sentinel at Saturn chronicles a stormy year

NASA / JPL-Caltech / SSI

Saturn's northern storm marches through the planet's atmosphere in the top right of this false-color mosaic from NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

Alan Boyle writes

"Over the past year, a great disquiet has swept across the face of Saturn..." It sounds like the beginning of a science-fiction movie, but it's actually the latest missive from Carolyn Porco, head of the imaging team for the Cassini mission to Saturn. Today, Porco and her colleagues presented a visual chronicle of the largest Saturnian storm in more than a decade.

The storm was first noticed almost a year ago, as a spot near the line between day and night?on the northern hemisphere. Since then, it's grown into a wide,?bright band?stretching around the entire planet.

---

"With a 200-day interval of intense, hissing convection, it holds the record as the longest-lasting Saturn-encircling storm ever," Porco writes. "And it has become the largest by far ever observed on the planet by an interplanetary spacecraft, giving us an unparalleled opportunity to study in great depth the subtle changes on the planet that preceded the storm's formatin and the mechanisms involved in its development."

The imaging team has bumped up the colors on a few of the images, like the one shown above, but the true-color images taken over the course of the past year tell a story that's just as dramatic.

NASA / JPL-Caltech / SSI

Images from Cassini show the evolution of a giant Saturnian storm over the course of months.

It's been 14 years and a month since Cassini was launched, and?for seven and a half years it's been observing Saturn?and many of its 60-plus moons. That puts Cassini right up there with the Mars rovers among NASA's most successful?interplanetary missions. "And with any luck, there'll be a great deal more to come," Porco writes.

More from Cassini:

---

Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding me to your Google+ circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds.

Source: http://photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/17/8868011-saturnian-storm-goes-wild

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What If the Law Required Campaign Contributions To Be Kept Secret? (Atlantic Politics Channel)

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Pogoplug Cloud Launches With 5 GB Of Free Storage For Mobile Users

Cloud storage service and device maker Pogoplug is unveiling its latest offering today: a new service for mobile users that offers 5 GB of free online storage. To use "Pogoplug Cloud," you first sign up directly from your mobile phone or tablet (iOS or Android?2.2+), then download the app and begin the upload process. And that's where Pogoplug really begins to shine: it automatically uploads the photos and videos from your device to the cloud - no sync required.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/TbN3OfTz7mk/

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Judge upholds eviction of Wall Street protesters (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) ? A judge upheld New York City's legal justification for evicting Occupy Wall Street protesters from a park on Tuesday after police in riot gear broke up a two-month-old demonstration against economic inequality.

Protesters were allowed to return but Justice Michael Stallman found the city, at least for now, can ban them from camping in tents and sleeping bags at Zuccotti Park between Wall Street and the World Trade Center reconstruction site in lower Manhattan.

As a fellow protester read the judge's decision from a Twitter feed, Julietta Salgado and her friend Tajh Sutton, both Brooklyn College students, embraced and cried.

"It's just a snag," Salgado said, her eyes rimmed with tears. "Every time they beat us down, we come back stronger."

Police removed barricades at two points, letting people back in one by one. Shortly after dark, several hundred protesters were in the park under a light drizzle as hundreds more waited for a chance to get in.

Since September 17, protesters have occupied the park to protest what they see as an unjust economic system that favors the wealthiest 1 percent at a time of persistently high employment. They also decry a political system that bailed out banks after reckless lending sparked the financial crisis.

The Occupy Wall Street movement triggered similar protests in cities throughout the United States and the world.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg decided the protesters had become a health and fire safety hazard and ordered police to evict them from the camp, where city officials cited reports of sexual assaults, thefts and drug dealing.

Hundreds of police stormed the camp around 1 a.m. and dismantled tents, tarpaulins, outdoor furniture, mattresses and signs, arresting 147 people, including about a dozen who had chained themselves to each other and to trees.

With the park cleared of protesters, sanitation workers dismantled tents, hauled away trash and blasted the square with water cannon, erasing odors of urine and human waste.

The New York Civil Liberties Union said it was "deeply concerned" about the police department's "heavy-handed tactics" and said seven journalists covering the events were arrested.

The eviction followed similar actions in Atlanta, Portland and Salt Lake City. Unlike in Oakland, California, where police used tear gas and stun grenades, New York police said most protesters left peacefully.

In London, authorities said they were resuming legal action to try to shift anti-capitalism protesters who have set up camp at St Paul's Cathedral.

Toronto officials also told protesters to break camp and leave on Tuesday.

BLOOMBERG'S CALCULATION

Bloomberg, a self-made billionaire whose wealth made him a target of the protesters, ordered the eviction at the request of the park owner, commercial real estate company Brookfield Office Properties.

The mayor's loyalties have been divided since the protests began. Socially liberal and a supporter of free speech rights, Bloomberg is also a former Wall Street trader who made a fortune selling news and information to the financial industry through his eponymous company, Bloomberg LP.

The police raid came two days before protesters planned to stage a rally outside the New York Stock Exchange that could have disrupted floor trade.

New York officials had been set to allow protesters back into the park without tents and sleeping bags but then they got notice of a court challenge, at which point they left the barricades up pending legal clarification.

The National Lawyers Guild got a temporary restraining order allowing the protesters back in with tents and sleeping bags.

Stallman then overturned that order after a hearing, saying protesters' rights to free speech under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution were still protected.

The judge ruled merely that the case lacked the urgency to approve or strike down the new park rules immediately. The underlying case will be heard at a later date.

Bloomberg expressed satisfaction with the ruling while lawyers for the protesters considered whether to appeal.

"The court's ruling vindicates our position that First Amendment rights do not include the right to endanger the public or infringe on the rights of others by taking over a public space with tents and tarps," Bloomberg said in a statement.

Yetta Kurland, a lawyer for the protesters, said they will consider legal options but have not decided what to do next.

"They will continue to occupy Wall Street. They will continue to demonstrate," Kurland said. "We're going to continue to battle in the courts and our clients will continue to battle in the streets." (Additional reporting by Joseph Ax and Karen Freifeld; Writing by Daniel Trotta and Michelle Nichols; Editing by John O'Callaghan)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111116/ts_nm/us_usa_protests_newyork

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Around the Web?

Happy Monday! Kick off the week with today’s must-read links: Educational toys your tots will love ? lilSugar.com Minneapolis school district saves $200,000 by creating online curriculum ? StarTribune.com Should you be using a Nanny Cam? ? iVillage.com Rub-a-dub-dub! The best-loved bath products for baby ? BabyZone.com VIDEO: Crying baby calmed down by Notorious B.I.G.‘s [...]

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GOP Rivals Split Over Foreign Policy (WSJ)

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Filmmakers imagine finance ? Truth on the Market

Margin Call is the best film to come out of the recent financial crisis. This is no polemic masquerading as a ?documentary? (Inside Job) or good vs. evil melodrama (Money Never Sleeps). It is serious film, with superb acting, script, direction and photography, which uses the financial crisis as the realistic backdrop for a timeless story.

And yet the film is fatally flawed. Its serious qualities make more transparent its defects, which it shares with most films about business?filmmakers? sour view of capitalists, which colors their view of business and perennially hobbles their efforts to make credible films about the business world.

In a nutshell: Eric Dale (Stanley Tucci), a risk management employee of a large securities firm becomes one of many casualties of a downturn in the firm?s business. On the way out the door he hands subordinate Peter Sullivan (Zachary Quinto) a USB drive. Sullivan, a rocket scientist who chose a career in finance, learns from this information that the firm?s substantial mortgage-backed security portfolio was based on a flawed real estate pricing model, and now threatens the firm?s financial soundness. Moreover, since the rest of Wall Street used the same model, the whole financial world is vulnerable (obviously an oversimplification of the causes of the financial crisis, but this is movieland). The revelation works its way up the corporate hierarchy, including executive Sam Rogers (Kevin Spacey), all the way to the top, CEO John Tuld (Jeremy Irons). Tuld and Rogers must decide whether to solve the firm?s problem by dumping the portfolio on its unsuspecting customers.

Unlike so many films about business, this one makes the business credible. The audience understands the setup. Though a few of the firm?s employees, including Dale, had an inkling this could happen, nobody acted on this information. The firm?s dilemma is also clear: selling the securities could save the firm in the short term but destroy it in the longer term because the firm will lose its customers? trust. Hence the tension between the coldblooded Tuld and the conscience-ridden Rogers. This realism contrasts starkly with the hokey business scenarios in films like Wall Street I and II, which derived their limited dramatic power more from foreboding atmospherics than inherent logic.

Margin Call also differs from other business films in the depth of its characters and absence of obvious villains. There is no looming ?corporation? that somehow is able to motivate its employees to behave like evil automatons. Here the corporation dissolves into its all-too-human employees.

Having shed the defects of the typical business film, Margin Call had a chance at greatness. Lurking in the film is an existentialist core, the story of how a crisis brings people to question the worth of what they are doing. While they were surfing the financial wave the universe was in a perfect harmony, where hard work created deserved wealth and happiness all around. But when the wave crashes their world loses its meaning. Finance looks like a zero-sum game, a way to transfer wealth from starving dogs to fat cats, as Tuld says. Nothing is immune. Dale laments leaving his former career as an engineer where he built a bridge that saved time and money. But his former subordinate Will Emerson (Paul Bettany) points out that maybe the drivers wanted to take the long way around. Rogers says digging holes would be better than what he does. At least he loves his dying dog and clings to it as his anchor. But then the dog dies and ends up in the hole he has dug. Where is the value?

In a better world, the film?s characters might have confronted the void and, possibly, found something to hold on to. But instead the deeper message vanishes leaving the simplistic point that the problem lies in the financiers and their sandcastles built of money. The characters are moral monsters obsessed with how much they and others make. When they flank a cleaning lady on the elevator we see and hear through her eyes their nasty conversations.

The characters? search for meaning might, in this better world, have started with their jobs. But their self-rationalizations are lame. Tuld says, ?It?s not wrong,? but the only reason he can offer is that ?it?s all just the same thing over and over; we can?t help ourselves,? ?followed by a list of years of financial crashes in recent world history. Will Emerson says, ?If you really wanna do this with your life, you have to believe you?re necessary.? But the only necessity he finds is that ?people wanna live like this in their cars and big . . . houses they can?t even pay for.? The film judges the characters for us ? the cleaning lady, Rogers left with nothing but his dead dog, his childless woman subordinate, Sarah Robinson (Demi Moore) who threw her life away for an empty career, Tuld?s death?s-head face.

This is what happens to so many films about business. In my study of films about business and my law review articles How Movies Created the Financial Crisis and Imagining Wall Street?I see a common theme: The artists who make films resent and distrust the capitalists who provide their money under the condition that the artists satisfy merciless markets that have no time for art. Of course the market?s judgment has to be shown to be irrational. So capitalism is often presented as a zero-sum game, where results depend on chance. Crashes happen, and people suffer. It has nothing to do with anything real.

In most business films (e.g., Oliver Stone?s Wall Street), this diminutive narrative of business shrinks the whole film: the characters are cardboard, the drama forced, the technical features marshaled to shore up the weaknesses. But since Margin Call is a serious film, its failure to fulfill its promise is more obvious. This film forces us to consider why filmmakers are so unable to reckon with the lives that so many Americans lead within large firms.

Perhaps the most prominent American filmmaker who could create a plausible narrative of big business was Billy Wilder. His films, such as The Apartment and Double Indemnity, had characters who found personal meaning even if some of their co-workers had not. But, then, Wilder was not subject to the anti-capitalist disease of modern filmmakers. He had not led his entire life in Hollywood or in movie theaters. His early years in Nazi Germany made him appreciate that free enterprise was not the worst thing in the world.

There was another story to be told in Margin Call, if only the filmmakers had been receptive to it. Finance is not basically a zero-sum game. It brings the resources together that create the worthwhile dreams that people do have. Where did the money come from to build Eric Dale?s bridge? The financiers who assembled the cash to build the construction and design firms were as responsible for the bridge as the engineers who worked for those firms. Financial engineering doesn?t create just instruments only rocket scientists can understand, but also the institutions that encourage investors to hand over their money.

If finance, even so envisioned, is worthless, then we can more readily believe that the rest of the world is, too. But we are also receptive to an existentialist construction of a reason to live. In the end, Rogers might have found that reason in constructing a financial solution to the financial dilemma instead of caving in to Tuld?s demand for a short-term solution that sacrificed both the firm?s customers and its own reputation. Or Rogers might have rejected this solution and taken the cash, just as Fred McMurray succumbed to murder in Double Indemnity. But at least we would have seen that finance gave him the same kind of choices that people have in other walks of life.

In the end the film can claim at least one important accomplishment. It shows that a realistic portrayal of business can be dramatic. Business does not have to be a generic prop. But it also shows that filmmakers? anti-finance bias has real artistic costs. Filmmakers? impoverished narrative of business can dilute the drama inherent in what so many people do with their lives.

Note:? This review was written for the Atlas Society?s Business Rights Center and was first published on their website.? My thanks to the Atlas Society for encouraging me to think and write about this film.

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Source: http://truthonthemarket.com/2011/11/14/filmmakers-imagine-finance/

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