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Monday, April 23, 2012
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Laura Prudom: Gossip Girl Recap: Top 5 OMG Moments in 'The Backup Dan'
Note: Do not read on if you have not seen Season 5, Episode 14 of The CW's "Gossip Girl," entitled "The Backup Dan."
This week's "Gossip Girl" picked up right where the milestone 100th episode left off, with Blair turned Runaway Bride and the rest of the Manhattan apparently on the hunt for her. After the twists and turns of last week, "The Backup Dan" seemed choppy and strangely paced in comparison, lurching across New York as Blair and Dan tried to escape the evil Grimaldi clan and their Bond villain accents. Serena, Chuck and Georgina were hot on their heels, but since we ended up almost exactly where we started -- with Blair reluctantly departing for her honeymoon with a man she doesn't love -- it kind of felt like a wasted hour to me (not to mention one that offered up some deeply disturbing subtext for Blair's relationship with Louis -- but more on that later).
Regardless, here are the stand-out moments in an otherwise underwhelming episode.
1. My Love Don't Cost a Thing
Apparently, nothing creates a stronger foundation for marital bliss than prenuptial blackmail, at least, if you're royalty. After Blair discovered that Louis intended to keep her as a loveless trophy wife, she (understandably) decided to escape the display case, with her heart set on divorcing her new hubby without his consent in the Dominican Republic, Elizabeth Taylor-style.
Sadly, the pesky pre-nup that she was so reluctant to sign had some truly dastardly small print; if Blair defaulted on the marriage, then the Grimaldi family could reinstate the dowry they'd waived, forcing the Waldorfs to fork over a right royal fortune for the embarrassment. One would think that having a soulmate who happens to be a billionaire would come in handy during such a crisis, but Blair, masochist that she is, refused Chuck's offer to pay off the dowry. Their scene was as heartfelt as it was heartbreaking, with Chuck once again pleading for Blair to reconsider her pact with God and abandon Louis once and for all. While her refusal was undoubtedly frustrating for all the fans still rooting for Chuck and Blair to work things out, her reasoning was actually pretty solid, in this case: If and when the star-crossed couple finally ends up together, Blair wants them to be equals, without one owing the other anything. Considering how unequal their relationship has been in the past, I was actually impressed that she wanted to find her own way out of the mess she'd gotten herself into, without letting a man save her.
I suppose she was also morally right in stopping her mother from selling her business to help her, but that won't ease the stress and worry it'll place on her parents. Even though the story gave Blair a good opportunity to try and solve her own self-made problem, the overall plot point of a man blackmailing a woman into a marriage in exchange for money was an extremely troubling concept for me. (See Moment 5.)
2. Georgina Isn't Gossip Girl?
Nothing is ever as simple as it appears on this show, so even with last week's revelation still ringing in our ears, it didn't take long for Georgina to drop another bombshell. She confirmed what many predicted after last week: She is Gossip Girl's self-appointed successor, but not the original troublemaker. Isn't it nice to have your cake and eat it too? She's still sticking around to cause optimum damage, though -- stalking Serena and Chuck around town to discover where Blair was hiding from Louis -- but her evil plan backfired when the princess ended up back with her frog. Still, she obviously has another plan up her sleeve, since she knows who really leaked Blair and Chuck's video. Judging by the lingering shot of Dan we closed out the show with, he's our prime suspect. Was he simply hoping to drive a wedge between Blair and Chuck, since he knew everyone would assume that our resident Basstard was the sabotaging type?
3. A Dan For All Seasons
Though Humphrey spent most of the hour being treated like Blair's chauffeur, butler and personal bank account, the long-suffering Lonely Boy did finally put his foot down and insist that Blair should treat him less like a slave and more like a friend. And, horror of horrors, Queen B actually listened to him. Not only did she admit that she cares for him, she also gave him a thank you and an apology -- it just got very chilly in Hell. While I still don't think that Blair's in the right place mentally or emotionally to reciprocate Dan's obvious feelings, they undeniably have a real friendship now, and it's clear that Blair believed that she could rely on him to help her without all the baggage that Chuck or Blair would bring. What the girl really needs is a break from guys altogether -- some "me" time in the Dominican Republic probably would do. Still, their honest moment in the hotel bar was one of the most genuine of the episode.
4. Family Matters
Poor Lola Rhodes. No matter how well she thinks she's hidden herself from her mom's influence, there's no escaping family. Even when she's minding her own business and picking up odd jobs to pay for the dorms at Julliard, she just keeps getting pulled back into her aunt's orbit. Now we know why Carol seemed so convinced that her relatives would never run into the real Charlie: She thinks her daughter is safely hidden away in Michigan, not flirting with a guy whose family is almost as messed up as hers is. It's only a matter of time before Nate or Lily figure out the real family connection, (you can certainly see the fake resemblance -- kudos to the casting team) but will she get to confront Ivy in some kind of Charlie catfight, winner take all the inheritance?
5. OMG WTF? (a.k.a. What is "Gossip Girl's" obsession with treating its women like property?)
I hate to end on a sour note, but this time around, I feel like it's warranted. This is more of a meta OMG moment than a plot-driven one, but are the show's writers seriously unaware of how deeply problematic it is that they continue to write Blair as a commodity to be bought and sold by the men in her life? First, Chuck sold Blair for his hotel, and now, Louis has bought her for a year of marriage in exchange for a dowry. "Gossip Girl" has always walked a very dangerous line in failing to delineate between consensual and non-consensual acts (especially in storylines relating to Chuck). The entire premise of the series is built upon the idea of commodifying a bunch of rich teenagers' lives so that complete strangers can interfere in their romantic and personal interactions, like they exist purely for the entertainment of Gossip Girl's site visitors.
Similarly, there is no way to skew this current Louis/Blair arc into anything but a forced marriage, in which Louis will at least kiss Blair in public without her consent, if not more. Yes, this show is vapid and frothy and silly in the extreme, but Blair and Serena are also characters that -- wisely or not -- are role models to young women. Maybe most of us don't take "Gossip Girl" seriously, but if there is even one girl out there who thinks that she needs to compromise her integrity or desires to please an overbearing and emotionally manipulative man, the show has done a great disservice to its audience and its actresses. I'm disappointed that the writers couldn't find a more responsible storyline to keep Blair and Chuck apart without needing Blair to both martyr herself and give in to psychological abuse. Rationalize away, but nothing will convince me that this is a worthwhile narrative to pursue.
"Gossip Girl" airs Mondays at 8 p.m. EST on The CW.
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Follow Laura Prudom on Twitter: www.twitter.com/lauinLA
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/laura-prudom/gossip-girl-recap-top-5-omg-moments_b_1258983.html
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Saturday, January 7, 2012
GOP senator seeks to cap Conn. gas tax
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - A Republican state senator from Meriden says he plans to introduce legislation next month that caps one of Connecticut's two taxes on gasoline sales.
Sen. Leonard Suzio said Thursday that his bill would cap the gross receipts tax whenever the price of gas hits $3 a gallon. The gross receipts tax fluctuates when the wholesale price of gasoline fluctuates.
Connecticutcurrently has some of the highest gas taxes and gas prices in the country. Besides the fixed 25-cent-per-gallon state tax, the gross receipts tax adds about another 25 cents or more per gallon.
Suzio and the Stamford-based Gasoline and Automotive Service Dealers of America are circulating a citizens' petition, urging Gov. Dannel P. Malloy to back the proposed gas tax cap. They say they've already collected more than 1,000 signatures.
Source: http://www.wwlp.com/dpp/news/connecticut/gop-senator-seeks-to-cap-conn-gas-tax
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Wall Street cuts losses, Nasdaq up (Reuters)
NEW YORK (Reuters) ? U.S. stocks cut losses and the Nasdaq turned positive on Friday after a strong jobs report and strength in large-cap Internet stocks.
The U.S. economy added 200,000 jobs in December, the Labor Department reported, topping forecasts, and the jobless rate fell to 8.5 percent, a near three-year low. The data added to strong employment reports on Thursday.
The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) was down 49.42 points, or 0.40 percent, at 12,366.28. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index (.SPX) was off 2.87 points, or 0.22 percent, at 1,278.19. The Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) was up 1.78 points, or 0.07 percent, at 2,671.64.
Losses on Nasdaq were limited by Netflix Inc (NFLX.O), which gained 5.3 percent to $83.50, and Amazon.com (AMZN.O), up 3.5 percent to $183.77.
(Reporting By Ryan Vlastelica; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)
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Friday, January 6, 2012
George Washington Hospital CEO out; search ongoing
George Washington University Hospital? has been without a CEO since Sept. 30, when former top executive Trent Crable quietly resigned, we learned Friday.
The hospital provided us with a letter distributed to employees in late September by Marc Miller, president of parent company Universal Health Services Inc.? , based in King of Prussia, Pa. In the letter, written only eight days before Crable's departure, Miller praised his tenure but offered few other details.
"Trent has been a dedicated employee for many years and his efforts have been greatly appreciated," Miller wrote. "However, Trent has decided that this is an appropriate time for him to pursue other interests and we have reached a mutually agreeable separation date."
Universal Health Services owns 80 percent of a joint venture that owns the hospital in Foggy Bottom. George Washington University owns the remaining 20 percent.
Two other D.C. hospital CEOs have recently announced their resignations: Children's National Medical Center's Ned Zechman Jr. retired after 17 years in the spring, and Sibley Memorial Hospital? CEO Robert Sloan announced in 2011 that he'll step down after 27 years this coming July.
Both Children's and Sibley widely distributed press releases announcing the pending change at the top. George Washington did not and had not formally announced Crable's departure until today. Spokesman Steven Taubenkibel declined to explain the relative secrecy.
A search is ongoing for a replacement, Taubenkibel said.
Crable stepped down nearly three years after he became CEO of the hospital in January 2009. Before that, he served as the hospital's chief operating officer since 2005 and was interim CEO for six months before officially landing the job.
Chief Operating Officer Kimberly Russo and Chief Financial Officer Rick Davis are sharing duties as co-acting CEOs.
Ben Fischer covers health care and law.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/vertical_36/~3/3LpseQhjkM4/george-washington-hospital-ceo-out.html
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Premier League ? the global game. How English football is seen in ? New Zealand
SJA Internet Sports Writer of the Year
5 January 2011
England?s Premier League is, by far, the nation?s most successful sporting export, watched live each week in more than 200 countries, and earning from foreign TV rights alone ?1.437bn for the current three-year overseas deals (or ?479m a year) as reported by?sportingintelligence?last year?here?and?here.
But who exactly watches? And where? At home? In pubs or bars?
What channels carry the games? How much does it cost to subscribe? Why do foreign fans tune in?
Is is just popular in a few key markets, or can you really find PL fanatics in Tonga and Papua New Guinea and Gambia and Peru and all points in between??Find out what we?ve discovered so far (A-Z of nations, and listed by continent).
Over the coming months, we aim to find out, inviting PL viewers from around world (from as many of the 200+ different countries as possible), to share details of a single game watched.
Elsewhere in this series, find out how the League is viewed in:
KENYA and AZERBAIJAN and INDIA and SWEDEN and the CZECH REPUBLIC and SERBIA and AUSTRALIA and MONTENEGRO and ISRAEL and MALTA and the U.S.A and CANADA AND PAKISTAN and the UAE and MALAYSIA and NIGERIA.
Without further ado, here ?s a view of what it?s like to watch the Premier League in . . . . .
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Name:?Paul Tancell.
Age:?30.
Occupation:??Marketing communications.
Game watched:?Fulham 2 Arsenal 1?Date:?Tuesday 3 January?Time:?10am local time. (Delayed coverage).
Where:?At home, Auckland, New Zealand.
Who else was watching: ?The cat appeared to be taking some limited interest but offered little in the way of conversation or opinion. With kick-off times for live games varying (depending on daylight savings) between 11.30pm for Saturday?s early kick off and 9am for midweek games, it?s not unusual to watch games at home at the end of a night or over breakfast.
TV Channel carrying the game:??Sky Sports 1,2,3 & highlights channel.
Auckland: biggest city in big rugby nation
Live coverage is substantial, with at least three live games on Sky Sports 2 on a Saturday night and two on Sunday. Additional to this, if there are no other live sport events taking place, more live games may be found on Sky Sports 1 when kick off times clash. This is often the case with midweek games as the early morning kick offs rarely clash with other events.
As well as the live coverage, virtually all other games are shown after the event with delayed coverage. On Sundays this often means back to back games from the early hours through to lunch time. Most games are also replayed at night at some stage during the week.
We have a one hour highlights package on a Monday evening and regular half hour slots on the highlights channel to cover live games shown earlier that week.
Who do you support and why??I?m a Manchester United fan. I was born in Manchester about half-way between Old Trafford and Main Roade and had a brother supporting United and a sister supporting City. When I was about five, Dad took me to United first then City the week after to see which I preferred. No contest after a Wednesday night cup tie at Old Trafford with a full house and a 5-1 win!
How much does it cost to watch Premier League games:?As is standard for Sky packages worldwide, we?re forced to buy the entertainment package along with the Sports one. This sets me back around $110NZD a month (roughly ?55 at the time of writing). The cost is justified (in my mind, if not my partner?s) by the fact that my only other option for watching would be to spend the late hours of Saturday and the early ones of Sunday in a city centre bar.
What?s the local tipple and how much does it cost:?There are a few local brewers available, Macs brewery, Tui, Speights, Monteiths, all much of a muchness, and all extortionately priced. With kick-off times more often than not falling outside the opening hours of local pubs, trips to the city are usually required to watch games in a more natural habitat, where a pint, or more usually a ?glass? of beer will dent your wallet to the tune of 7-8NZD (?3.50 to ?4).
What?s the popularity of the English Premier League in the country where you live:?Football is viewed a minority sport by most Kiwis outside the major centres. With a large immigrant population however, it is still extremely well followed.
As far as TV coverage is concerned, if you want to watch Football, the English Premier League is just about your only choice. There?s La Liga, the Champions League and Europa League on ESPN, but nothing that compares to the amount of English coverage. In recent years we have lost Serie A and our international round-up show and while this stunts the growth of football in New Zealand, it does however mean that those interested in football consume almost their entire fill of the game via the English Premier League.
Away from the TV, there are a number of supporters associations representing Premier League clubs and despite the ridiculous cost ($150NZD), a large number of replica shirts can be seen around town. As you would expect, Manchester United and Liverpool seem to have the largest representation, though a wide range can be seen, especially across the first generation immigrants who grew up with a local side. Amongst the younger fans an increasing number of Chelsea and Manchester City shirts to appear to be popping up.
Any other observations: New Zealand is a rarity in the English speaking world; in fact it?s a rarity in the human populated world, where football is still widely regarded as minority sport.
The country has a vast history dating back centuries to its original colonization by tribes from the pacific islands, but in its modern incarnation as a member of the British Commonwealth it is a relatively young nation. Modern sports arrived here along with the British settlers and there are records of teams almost as old as the country itself. However, by the time mass population and industrialization arrived and opened the door to wide spread participation in sport, football had already taken steps towards professionalism in England and Scotland. This led the immigrant population, keen to participate in the games of the empire and to have the ability to compete against their home land, to take up the amateur games of rugby and cricket in much larger numbers.
The highly successful ?All backs?(*) tour to England in 1905, cemented the status of rugby as the national sport and it has remained unchallenged since. The physical make-up of the country?s Maori and Pacific Island community also lends itself particularly well to Rugby Union and Rugby League making these games even more dominant in those areas of society.
Football has had its moments, namely the 1982 and 2010 World Cups, where the country has shown more than a fleeting interest in the game, but with such a small population (four million, one million of which live in Auckland) the country struggles to support its one professional club -Wellington Phoenix of the A-League ? never mind a professional league of its own. There are signs however that the tide may just be beginning to change.
Video: NZ getting thumped 4-0 in 1982 by Brazil. Article continues below.
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Despite this uphill struggle against the popularity of rugby, football is more widely played at youth level than its egg-shaped cousin. Offering as it does, an opportunity for children of all shapes and sizes to participate and excel, while calming the nerves of concerned mothers eager not to see their nearest and dearest at the bottom of a ruck. At social level too, football remains the country?s most regularly participated sport, although not necessarily given the amount of access to council playing fields this fact deserves.
In addition to this, the ever expanding immigrant communities are creating a market for the game like never before. Evident in the TV coverage, but noticeable too in other media, New Zealand is starting to digest football and in particular English football. While many may not have a team, or regularly follow the game, most are aware of the main protagonists, the major narratives and the relevance of key games.
It may not sound like much, but in the scheme of things this is a major step forward for New Zealand football. Players like Ryan Nelson and Chris Wood have started to pave the way for a new generation of Kiwis who, through their parents, peers or popular culture, are taking to the game and sticking with it.
With Australia?s defection from Oceania to the Asian confederation, New Zealand has been presented with an opportunity to follow up the success of 2010 with future World Cup appearances which can only serve to further establish the beautiful game in one of its most distant outposts.
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* The team were described to have played like they were all backs, in reporting this back to the New Zealand press this was misreported as ?all blacks? ? a nickname that has stuck ever since.
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This feature will be updated on a regular basis.?Sportingintelligence?invites readers who watch the Premier League overseas to send your own experiences to?submissions@sportingintelligence.com, answering the questions posed above, and including a JPEG of yourself. We cannot guarantee to use all submissions (although if we?ve not had one from your country it?s almost certain we will) and we?ll be appealing via Twitter from time to time for viewers from specific nations.
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Sportingintelligence?s home page today?
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Thursday, January 5, 2012
Arena says addressed FDA concerns on weight loss drug (Reuters)
(Reuters) ? Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc said on Tuesday it submitted data to health regulators that should squash cancer concerns tied to the company's experimental weight loss drug lorcaserin, and believes it will gain U.S. approval.
Arena's shares rose more than 14 percent in afterhours trade following the company's statement.
Lorcaserin, which is being developed in partnership with Japanese drugmaker Eisai Co Ltd, is one of three new potential obesity treatments rejected by the Food and Drug Administration over safety issues.
New data included in Arena's official response to the FDA's complete response letter is intended to alleviate agency concerns over cancerous tumors found in rats in two-year animal studies of lorcaserin. The company said those rats received doses of the drug many times what would be taken by humans and that the tumors were connected to a hormone that has not been linked to tumors in people.
"With these last group of experiments, which had to do with mammary tumors in female rats, we believe that we have addressed all of the issues that the FDA raised in the complete response letter," Christy Anderson, head of Arena's lorcaserin development program, said in a telephone interview.
However, the companies cautioned that "the FDA may analyze or weigh the data differently than Arena and Eisai."
Arena expects that the FDA later this month will confirm acceptance of the official response and set a new action date for an approval decision, likely about six months from the time of submission.
Obesity, a leading cause of diabetes, heart disease and other serious health problems, has reached epidemic proportions in the United States with nearly a third of the population falling into the growing category. But the FDA has set a very high approval bar for weight loss drugs because such a large portion of the general population is likely to want to take them.
Many industry observers believe approval of any new weight loss drug is a longshot. Arena's Chief Executive Jack Lief, however, remains optimistic.
"We believe that lorcaserin will be approved both in this country as well as in Europe and other countries," Lief said.
While significantly better than a placebo in late stage clinical trials, lorcaserin led to only about a 5 percent drop in weight.
Vivus Inc and Orexigen Therapeutics are also working to convince the FDA of the worth of their weight loss drugs after initial rejections.
In data submitted to the FDA last week, Arena said it found that the rats that received the highest dose of lorcaserin without developing malignant tumors were getting 24 times more of the drug than a person taking the recommended dose. The rats that did develop tumors were taking even more of the drug than that, Anderson explained.
In addition to demonstrating what they called a safety margin of 24, the companies believe they have shown that the mechanism for tumor formation was relevant to rats but not humans. The drug leads to an increase in the hormone prolactin.
"Prolactin is a hormone that can cause mammary tumors in rats but is not known to cause mammary tumors in people," Anderson said.
In clinical trials of some 7,000 patients taking lorcaserin for up to two years there was "no excess of any sort of tumors in humans," Lief said.
Arena does not believe the FDA will require a lengthy, expensive study to show that its drug does not cause heart problems -- a so-called outcomes study -- as a condition of approval.
"We think that is not likely primarily because we haven't shown any increase in any risk factors in clinical trials," Lief said.
Added Anderson: "We Showed beneficial effects on blood pressure and heart rate in some of our Phase III studies, so there would be no reason to pursue an outcomes study based on data."
Arena's beaten down shares rose 14.6 percent to $2.20 in extended trading from a Nasdaq close at $1.92. They were trading at nearly $8 a share in late July of 2010, prior to the initial FDA rejection of lorcaserin.
(Reporting by Bill Berkrot; Editing by Carol Bishopric and Tim Dobbyn)
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