The Duchess of Cambridge cast a spell of enchantment over the studios where the Harry Potter films were made Friday on a visit with husband Prince William and his brother Prince Harry. The three young British royals carried out the official opening of the Warner Bros Studios at Leavesden, north of…
Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s YouTube account provides clues about his radicalization
A YouTube account apparently belonging to Tamerlan Tsarnaev gives tantalising hints of his radicalisation before the Boston bombings, and includes a speech by a Russian militant cradling a gun, a bizarre attack on Harry Potter, and songs by a popular Russian rapper. Tsarnaev created a YouTube…
Eden Foods doubles down in birth control flap
“I’ve got more interest in good quality long underwear than I have in birth control pills,” the unfamiliar voice on the phone said to me.It was Michael Potter, the Eden Foods founder and CEO. He was calling to respond to my Salon report from last week, which revealed that his organic food company — which markets itself to a crunchy, liberal crowd — was quietly suing the Obama administration over its requirement that his company’s employee health plan cover birth control. Mostly, he said in the most amiable, avowedly Midwestern way imaginable — at one point he called himself “a pretty simple guy, a Midwestern homemade-soup guy” — he was calling to apologize to me.It wasn’t that he was upset about my reporting or what his company was doing. He was just sorry my request for comment had gone unanswered due to an oversight. I accepted the apology, and asked why he said he didn’t care about birth control, since he filed a suit about it and all.Continue Reading… … Read More
Harry Potter actor Richard Griffiths dies aged 65
British actor Richard Griffiths, best known for his roles in Harry Potter and the cult film “Withnail & I”, has died aged 65, his agent said on Friday. The portly star of stage and screen, one of Britain’s best loved character actors, died on Thursday from complications…
Colbert’s “Ham Rove” conference room in D.C. is now official
The Campaign Legal Center in Washington, D.C. has officially dedicated a conference room to “Ham Rove,” Stephen Colbert’s brutally murdered, meat-based political strategist.Dave Weigel reports:In his long, fruitless, strangely not-Emmy-winning battle for campaign finance transparency, Stephen Colbert has relied on the work of former FEC commissioner Trevor Potter and his Campaign Legal Center. In December, Cobert bestowed the CLC with a portrait of himself holding the FEC ruling that their work had earned him. Last night, the CLC held a small reception to show off the rest of the TV host’s gift: A donation and a plaque, renaming the organization’s conference room after Colbert’s faux, murdered adviser Ham Rove.In December, Colbert announced that the money he raised with his Super PAC would be donated to the “Ham Rove Memorial Fund,” which in turn distributed the funds to charities, as well as the campaign finance reform group. A condition of the donation was renaming the conference room.Continue Reading… … Read More
Freedom of press under pressure: UK to launch media regulator
MPs have reportedly reached a last-minute compromise over newpress regulations following a parliamentary vote. It hasallegedly been agreed that the press watchdog will have theauthority to levy six-figure fines of up to $1.5 million, as wellas require newspapers to print apologies when necessary.Negotiators initially disagreed on the terms of the proposedwatchdog, which would protect individuals from malicious newspaperreporters. While all agreed that the press cannot be trusted togovern itself, many insisted – the Prime Minister among them – thatif regulation of the press is necessary, it should be withoutpolitical involvement.Cameron argued that enshrining media restrictions could erode theconcept of the free press: “The idea of a law, a great,big, all-singing, all-dancing media law … would have been bad forpress freedom, bad for individual freedom,” the ConservativeParty leader was quoted as saying.He proposed to protect victims of unruly newspapers through aroyal charter, an executive document that does not require a votein Parliament.Opposition Labour Party leader Ed Miliband urged lawmakers to”stand up for the victims” of press abuse by formalizing the newpress regulations into law.Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, whose privacy has been repeatedlyviolated by the media, said she and other victims “have beenhung out to dry” by the government.Talks reportedly continued through the night on March 18, withCameron allegedly failing to rally support for his regulatoryscheme. It was reported he was forced to compromise and accept theopposition parties’ terms, some of which he had earlier describedas “bad for press freedom,” in order to avoid an inevitabledefeat in the House of Commons.“After five-and-a-half hours of talks in Ed Miliband’s officewhich ended at 2:30am, we are confident we have the basis of anagreement around our royal charter entrenched in statute,” asenior Labour source told the Daily Mail.The heated debate over media regulation in the UK was triggered byLord Justice Leveson’s inquiry into press ethics, followingrevelations of the illegal practice of phone-hacking by tabloidjournalists.The scandal resulted in the closure of Rupert Murdoch’s ‘News ofthe World’ tabloid in 2011 and a wave of resignations after itemerged that journalists had regularly eavesdropped on voicemailsand hacked into computers in search of dirt on celebrities.The UK already has one government-approved regulatory authority,Ofcom, established in 2003 to protect against “scams and sharppractices.” The Office of Communications operates under theso-called ‘Communications Act 2003,’ a parliamentary act thatdefines the authority of this ‘super-regulator’ in protecting thepublic from what might be considered harmful or offensivematerial. … Read More
Secrets Of People Who Never Get Sick
By Alicia PotterThey survive cold season without a sniffle. They fly in germ-packed airplanes unscathed. And they somehow avoid stomach bugs that decimate the office.Read More…
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