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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/TKiPHNixzmQ/'Zero Dark Thirty' Star
The CRAZIEST Part of Navy SEAL Training Was ...
Exclusive Video
Pratt -- who also stars on "Parks & Recreation" -- was out in NY yesterday when we talked about the legendary obstacle course at the Naval Amphibious Base Coronado near San Diego.
"I barely touched the tip of what these guys have to go through," Pratt says ... explaining that the REAL training program "helps to boil down the toughest mofos on the planet."
So, what task was the toughest for Pratt? Check out the clip.
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Mike Doyle and Erin Cummings
Mike Doyle has snagged the starring role in The Last Word, a paranormal thriller being directed by Simon Rumley (Red White & Blue).
Erin Cummings and Sean Patrick Flanery are also joining the project as leads.
A7SLE Films principals Peter Facinelli and Rob DeFranco, along with Eric Gores and Frank Mancuso Jr. of Boss Media, are producing the project, which began shooting in Shreveport, La., this week.
Based on true events, Word centers on the strange and tragic aftermath endured by the participants in the trial of a young man in Texas who was wrongly convicted and executed for the rape and murder of a nun.
In the Ben Ketai-written movie, a convicted man is executed for his crimes, but not before cursing those who sent him to his death. Soon enough, the people involved in the case, from witnesses to jurors, begin dying. When one juror's son's life in threatened, the man sets out to prove that the wrong person was convicted and reverse the curse.
Doyle will play the juror and father while Flanery will portray the district attorney. Cummings will play Doyle's wife.
Doyle, repped by Gersh and Untitled Entertainment, just days ago wrapped Clint Eastwood’s adaptation of Jersey Boys, in which he plays noted record producer Bob Crewe. He also has You’re Not You, with Emmy Rossum and Hilary Swank, in postproduction.
Cummings appeared in the TV series Spartacus: War of the Damned as well as cult movie Bitch Slap, and more recently appeared in The Iceman, the well-regarded drama starring Michael Shannon. She also has Cold Comes the Night, a thriller starring Bryan Cranston and Alice Eve, in the can. She is repped by Paradigm, Untitled and Del Shaw.
Flanery is coming off an extended gig on Dexter’s last season and is repped by APA, Inphenate and Morris Yorn.
Rome (AFP) - Italy contacted Germany on Wednesday over what to do with the body of Nazi war criminal Erich Priebke who has caused outrage even after his death in Rome at the age of 100 last week.
The furore comes at a particularly sensitive time on the day that Italy commemorates the 70th anniversary of the decimation of Rome's historic Jewish community after a raid by Nazi troops.
"We are in contact with Germany," Rome's prefect Giuseppe Pecoraro told reporters.
German foreign ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer said there had been "informal contacts" but no "official request from the Italian side" for the body to be sent back to Priebke's native land.
Schaefer said it was up to Priebke's family to decide what to do with the body, which is currently at a military airport near Rome.
Media reports said it would likely be kept there overnight despite earlier statements from officials that a solution would be found Wednesday.
Under Italian law, decisions on what to do with the body have to be taken by direct heirs but the ANSA news agency reported that neither of Priebke's two sons have travelled to Italy or contacted Italian authorities about their wishes.
Clashes erupted in a town near Rome on Tuesday as a Catholic ultra-conservative sect tried to hold a funeral for the unrepentant former SS officer who took part in a 1944 massacre of 335 civilians.
The funeral was cancelled by a police order after some neo-Nazi sympathisers broke into the seminary in Albano Laziale and tried to stage a rally as hundreds of protesters outside shouted "Assassin!"
Police detained two far-right activists, some of whom were seen fighting with bottles and chains against groups of leftist protesters.
The coffin was then driven out in a van in the night as a rock was thrown at the windscreen.
Protesters had earlier kicked and spat on the hearse as it arrived for the start of the funeral.
The Holocaust denier died on Friday and the Vatican issued an unprecedented order forbidding any Catholic church in Rome from holding a funeral.
The possibility of him being buried in a German military cemetery in Italy was mooted but then rejected because Priebke did not die in wartime.
His lawyer, Paolo Giachini, said one possibility would be "cremation with a Catholic rite".
Priebke had been living under house arrest in the Italian capital after being extradited in 1998 from Argentina, where he had fled with a Vatican travel document soon after World War II.
Priebke had wanted to be buried in Argentina next to his wife but the government there earlier said it would not accept the body.
Jewish groups and relatives of the people he executed said he should be cremated and his ashes scattered to erase every trace.
There is concern that a burial could create a pilgrimage point for neo-Nazi sympathisers.
In any case a spokesman for the mayor of Priebke's birthplace of Hennigsdorf, near Berlin, told Germany's Rbb radio the town would refuse the body.
The row coincides with the anniversary of the round-up of the Jews from the Rome Ghetto on October 16, 1943.
More than 1,000 Jews were taken away to concentration camps and only 16 returned.
As Rome held a day of remembrance, mayor Ignazio Marino said the city "could not accept the funeral of a man who actively took part in the massacre of 335 people, shooting them in the back of the neck."
Nazi German occupiers ordered the mass killing in the Ardeatine caves near Rome as retaliation for a partisan attack which had killed 33 German soldiers.
They shot 10 Italians for every dead German, and five more who were brought to the caves by mistake.
There were 75 Jews among the victims.
President Giorgio Napolitano, wearing a white kippah skullcap, attended a synagogue ceremony with Holocaust survivors, as the head of Rome's Jewish community urged Italy not to forget.
"The Italy which gave birth to Fascism has a duty to nurture memories, for itself and Europe," Riccardo Pacifici told hundreds gathered.
He later unveiled a plaque at Rome's Tiburtina station, where -- six days after the round-up -- 1,024 Jews were put on trains for the camps.
A woman walks by an advertisement of LG Electronics' smartphone G2 in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013. The G2 and the G Pad 8.3, the flagship smartphone and tablet from LG Electronics Inc., are great mobile devices that have fantastic screens, top-end cameras and ample processing power. But making solid devices is not enough to stand apart from the crowd in the ultra-competitive mobile phone market, which probably pushed LG to make some bold design decisions in a bid to differentiate its G series from Samsung’s Galaxy line and Apple’s iPad mini. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
A woman walks by an advertisement of LG Electronics' smartphone G2 in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013. The G2 and the G Pad 8.3, the flagship smartphone and tablet from LG Electronics Inc., are great mobile devices that have fantastic screens, top-end cameras and ample processing power. But making solid devices is not enough to stand apart from the crowd in the ultra-competitive mobile phone market, which probably pushed LG to make some bold design decisions in a bid to differentiate its G series from Samsung’s Galaxy line and Apple’s iPad mini. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
A man touches an LG Electronics' G Pad 8.3 tablet in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2013. The G2 and the G Pad 8.3, the flagship smartphone and tablet from LG Electronics Inc., are great mobile devices that have fantastic screens, top-end cameras and ample processing power. But making solid devices is not enough to stand apart from the crowd in the ultra-competitive mobile phone market, which probably pushed LG to make some bold design decisions in a bid to differentiate its G series from Samsung’s Galaxy line and Apple’s iPad mini. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The G2 and the G Pad 8.3, the flagship smartphone and tablet from LG Electronics Inc., are great mobile devices that have fantastic screens, top-end cameras and ample processing power.
But making an impressive device is not enough to stand apart from the crowd in the ultra-competitive mobile phone market, which probably pushed LG to make some bold design decisions in a bid to differentiate its G series from Samsung's Galaxy line and Apple's iPad mini.
For the G2, which was released last month in the U.S., LG moved the power and volume controls to the back of the phone. For the G Pad, which goes on sale in the U.S. next week, LG added a full HD screen, a rarity in 8-inch tablet computers.
While these design choices set the G2 and the G Pad apart from 'me too' devices trying to catch up with Samsung and Apple, they might also limit their appeal.
Not everyone will be pleased with having to change the basic habits of smartphone operation. They will scratch their heads looking for those buttons just like I did. The full HD screen display makes the G Pad a couple of hundred dollars more expensive than other 8-inch tablets.
It took a couple of days before my index finger ceased pressing a volume key when I intended to press a power key. But after that, I realized having a power button on the back makes it easier to use a big handset with one hand. The G2 has a 5.2-inch screen.
LG came up with a double-tap gesture to activate the phone. I found it easier and quicker than pressing a home button and then sliding to unlock as with my iPhone 4S. This double-tap to start also applies to the G Pad.
LG removed the physical home button on the front for the G2 and the G Pad. Instead, virtual buttons for back, home and menu actions appear when the screen is activated. I preferred these virtual buttons over physical ones because I could touch them with the same gesture and pressure I applied to the touchscreen. One downside of Samsung's Galaxy devices is that the touchscreen and the three buttons for home, back and menu options all need a different level of pressure to be activated.
LG's virtual buttons rotated with the screen when I tilted the G2 or the G Pad to a landscape mode. That made them easy to access when I watched a movie in the landscape mode with the G Pad. Removing the physical home button also gives the screen more space in the phone.
But the design elements that make the G2 and the G Pad different from rivals stopped there.
LG has packed the G2 with other features but many of them were no better than what is already available. For example, a feature called Task Slider allows multitasking by swiping the screen with three fingers to hide or reopen an application. But Android users are familiar with an extended press of the home button to bring up a list of applications in use, which is quick and more intuitive.
The G2 will be a great choice but only for people who don't mind re-learning how to use a smartphone. In the U.S., the G2 smartphone is available at $200 with a two-year contract or $600 without a contract from a carrier.
For people who are willing to pay a premium for the 8.3-inch tablet's full HD screen, the G Pad will also be a decent choice. While the U.S. price is yet to be announced, in South Korea the tablet is offered at 550,000 won ($515).
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Follow Youkyung Lee on Twitter: www.twitter.com/YKLeeAP
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-10-16-Digital%20Life-Tech%20Test-LG%20Smartphone/id-6837c9a98aa4430a967f136335afafa1FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — Two members of a notorious family that authorities say once tried to set up a whites-only nation in America were arrested this week in Arizona on federal firearms charges after a raid on a sprawling ranch where dozens of weapons and thousands of rounds of ammunition were seized.
Kirby Kehoe and his 37-year-old son, Cheyne, had an initial court appearance Tuesday in Flagstaff. Cheyne Kehoe's attorney declined to discuss the case, while a lawyer for Kirby Kehoe did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Authorities received a tip that Kirby Kehoe had weapons on his 40-acre property near Ash Fork, about 140 miles north of Phoenix, said Tom Mangan, a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Both men have previous felony convictions and are banned from possessing firearms.
The Kehoe family has been well-known to law enforcement since the 1990s when authorities say they provided weapons to various white supremacists who committed robberies across the Midwest. Authorities also said the family was involved in a plot to overthrow the federal government and establish the Aryan Peoples Republic in the Pacific Northwest.
Another son, Chevie Kehoe, is serving a life sentence in federal prison for his role in the 1996 killings of an Arkansas gun dealer, his wife and their 8-year-old daughter as part of the plot.
Cheyne Kehoe was sentenced in 1998 to more than 24 years in prison for his role in a shootout with Ohio police during a traffic stop about 40 miles northeast of Cincinnati. His sentence later was reduced to 11 years. No officers were injured in the gun battle, but a passer-by was wounded by a bullet fragment.
The family patriarch, Kirby Kehoe, was sentenced in 1999 to nearly four years in prison for racketeering and possession of illegal weapons in a case related to the plot aimed at overthrowing the government. The elder Kehoe, however, has maintained he was never involved in his sons' efforts to establish a whites-only nation and that he isn't a racist.
Mangan said due to the violent nature of the family's past, authorities planned the Monday raid carefully, first setting up surveillance on the property before moving in with search warrants, heavily armed tactical teams and armored vehicles.
He said the raid was conducted in cooperation with law enforcement from around the country and was planned to avoid the potential for a violent confrontation.
"The reason and rationale for having executed the warrant on the property in that manner was driven by public safety, just based on the past history of this individual and the sons," Mangan said Tuesday. "When a traffic stop was being conducted in Ohio, it turned into a nationwide manhunt, and we obviously didn't want to revisit that issue."
Kirby Kehoe is due back in court Thursday for a preliminary and detention hearing. Cheyne Kehoe's next court appearance is set for Oct. 22.
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Skoloff reported from Phoenix
Pitbull is one of a growing list of celebrities who have opened their wallets or given their names to charter schools.
Pitbull is one of a growing list of celebrities who have opened their wallets or given their names to charter schools.
Rapper Pitbull (Armando Christian Pérez) is the latest in a long list of celebrities lending their star power to the flourishing charter school movement. Alicia Keyes, Denzel Washington, Shakira, Oprah — all support or sponsor charter schools.
The Sports Leadership And Management Academy (SLAM), Pitbull's new public charter school for students in grades six through 12, opened this fall in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood. Pitbull says SLAM's sports theme has a vocational bent as a way to hook kids for whom school is boring.
"If sports is what you love, one way or another, it's a business you can get involved with ... whether you're a therapist, an attorney, a broadcaster," he says. "They're already labeling me 'Mr. Education.' "
It's an interesting twist, considering that at the last school Pitbull attended, the principal couldn't wait to get rid of him. "He literally told me, 'I don't want you in my school ... gonna give you your diploma ... get out of here.' "
Pitbull's parting words were: "Thank you."
Seventeen-year-old Austin Rivera says he transferred to SLAM after Pitbull spoke at his previous school. "He came from nothing and became something huge. ... It shows like not a lot of people are handed everything," Austin says.
"[A] lot of these kids are so creative ... but no one believes in them. ... No one motives them," Pitbull says. "I relate to them ... but then I give it to them raw."
The rapper's parents fled Cuba and settled in Miami, where they struggled. His father went to jail for dealing drugs. And at 16, Pitbull began dealing, too — and rapping. He chose the name "Pitbull" because, he says, pit bulls are too stupid to lose. The name and the "outlaw" image stuck.
Pitbull's breakthrough hit came in 2004 with a song titled "Culo," a vulgar word in Spanish and "booty" in the rap vernacular.
It wasn't long before Pitbull was making millions, touring with rappers Eminem and 50 Cent. Pitbull's problems with drugs and alcohol, his womanizing and his profanity-laced lyrics didn't exactly qualify him for opening a charter school. Surprisingly, parents and educators at SLAM didn't think that should disqualify him, either.
Critics say Pitbull is not the issue. It's the school itself that they find objectionable.
"[I] don't know if it's going to provide something useful at the end of the day," says Raquel Regalado, who is on the Miami-Dade County Public Schools' school board. "I guess you can expect Pitbull to show up every now and then, and that's cool if you're a Pitbull fan ... [but] how does that translate into academic achievement? That's the difficult part of this that parents don't understand. ... I think it's a marketing ploy, honestly."
Nina Reese, who heads the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, says she's not about to apologize for supporting the rapper's school.
"Whether it's Pitbull or Meryl Streep in Rhode Island or Sandra Bullock in Louisiana," she says, "charters do benefit from celebrities because public schools, they do have to market themselves to families because these are schools of choice."
Reese says she has no problem with Pitbull's music, either.
"We're not endorsing his music, but welcoming him as an investor," Reese says. Besides, she adds, everybody is entitled to their own tastes. "I admit that I'm a fan of his music."
Three of Pitbull's six children attend charter schools.
"I'm not just a charter school advocate. ... I'm a charter school parent," Pitbull said when talking at this year's National Charter School Conference in D.C. "And that makes me one of you."
