Forty years after finding their golden tickets, the lucky kids who first met in Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory have reunited.
No word on whether the snozzberries still taste like snozzberries, but there's good news: no giant purple floating girls this time.
Nearly all of the surviving cast of the 1971 film, based on Roald Dahl's beloved novel, was brought back together by the "Today Show" on Tuesday, all grown adults but no less fond of their magical adventure.
LANGHORNE, Pa. -- Suburban Philadelphia police say a DUI stop involving an ice cream truck led to the discovery of water bottles filled with urine, including one in the freezer where treats are kept.
Police say 46-year-old Yassir Hassan was visibly drunk when he was pulled over Friday in Middletown Township, Bucks County. When police searched the Trenton, N.J. man's truck, they say they found boxes of wine along with the bottles of urine.
Post-Daley Chicago politics publicly began Wednesday as newly inaugurated Mayor Rahm Emanuel took the reins of his first City Council meeting.
Emanuel showed up a half hour early for the 10 a.m. meeting that will approve new council committees and chairmen, including Ald. Edward Burke (14th Ward) as chairman of the Finance Committee and Ald. Patrick O'Connor (40th Ward) as chairman of the new Workforce Development and Audit Committee.
MANILA, Philippines — The president says he is ready to face excommunication from the Roman Catholic Church for advocating free access to condoms. A boxing champion says he is the best example of why birth control should never be allowed.
After simmering for months, a wide-ranging and acrimonious debate over government-funded access to contraceptives in the Philippines has entered the country's Congress.
It strikes me that there is a correlation between attitudes toward marijuana and attitudes toward "counter insurgency." This goes back to the '60s. Peaceniks were in the vanguard of the pot culture. Alcoholics were gung-ho for the war. Read More... More on Mexico's Drug War
The fix was in to let Wall Street off the hook once and for all... until last week when the attorney general of New York refused to go along. Read More... More on Financial Crisis
On Wednesday morning, Air Force One was approaching Bradley International Airport in Connecticut with President Obama on board when it aborted its landing due to bad visibility, the White House reports.
Air Force One's pilot did a "go-round" of the airport, circling due to safety concerns at 9:50am, the FAA reports.
The FAA reported to ABC News that visibility was "below the minimum", indicating that the pilots could not see the runway from the altitude required to guarantee a safe landing.
We went to see The Normal Heart on Broadway last night. (Tickets are 50% off at TKTS.) I had seen the original production in 1985, when we had a President so opposed to acknowledging homosexuals that he didn't speak the name of the disease until 36,058 Americans had been diagnosed with it and 20,849 of them had died. You may imagine what it was like, then and now, to sit in a largely gay audience and watch a play about the start of the AIDS epidemic and the men who tried, with little success, to get the city and medical establishment interested in it. Buckets of tears. A standing ovation. And, this time, the consolation that we have made some progress in the last 25 years.
But when we came home, there was the news, from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, that Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker "believes a new law that gives gay couples hospital visitation rights violates the state constitution and has asked a judge to allow the state to stop defending it." It is my mandate at HeadButler.com not to discuss politics here, but Gov. Walker's denial of human tenderness at a moment of ultimate vulnerability has nothing to do with politics. It's much deeper. In a word, I did not understand how this man --- a churchgoer and the son of a minister --- could call himself a Christian.
SAO PAULO -- A 114-year-old Brazilian woman is the world's oldest living human, Guinness World Records said Wednesday.
Maria Gomes Valentim attributes her longevity to eating a daily roll of bread for breakfast along with fruit – though she indulges in the occasional nip of wine.
Despite having the best chance at winning the top pick in Tuesday night's NBA Draft Lottery, the Minnesota Timberwolves finished the night with the No. 2 pick in the 2011 NBA Draft. T-Wolves GM David Kahn is far less than happy with that result; so unhappy, in fact, that he thinks something foul might be afoot.
Kahn spoke after the Cleveland Cavaliers, represented at the lottery by Dan Gilbert's 14-year-old son who suffers from neurofibrosis (a nerve disorder), were awarded the top pick in the 2011 draft. Brian Mahoney of the Associated Press reports:
"This league has a habit, and I am just going to say habit, of producing some pretty incredible story lines," Kahn said, while smiling, on Tuesday. "Last year it was Abe Pollin's widow and this year it was a 14-year-old boy and the only thing we have in common is we have both been bar mitzvahed. We were done. I told (Utah executive) Kevin (O'Connor): 'We're toast.' This is not happening for us, and I was right."
Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich declined to offer an explanation when asked about a questionable Tiffany & Co. bill during an appearance on Fox News' "On the Record" on Tuesday night.
"My answer to you is, I'm not commenting on stuff like that," said the former House Speaker when the issue was raised by network host Greta Van Susteren. "I'm perfectly happy to talk about what we need to do for America and what we need to do help Americans. But I frankly don't want to play the gotcha games in Washington and I'm just not going to participate."
After being pressed on his reluctance to address the issue, Gingrich said, "Part of running for president is that everything you ever did, every person you ever knew, name it -- sooner or later somebody somewhere is going to run across it. You know, and it will show up. I just decided, if it doesn't relate to a better future for America, if it doesn't relate to helping the American people, if it doesn't relate to solving our problems, from here on out, my answer is going to be I'm not commenting on it and then people can decide if you want to play Trivial Pursuit -- that's fine. But I'm going to play trivial pursuit. I'm going to try to help this country get back on track."
Until recently, if a publisher refused to publish an author's book, it limited an author's ability to reach readers. Now, the e-book printing press is free and available to all. Read More... More on eBooks
Our rockstars are American Idol judges; our most shocking pop culture moment of the past two years was Kanye West interrupting Taylor Swift. So, if all we have left are shoes with penis heels and motorcycle-riding disciples, is that enough? Read More... More on Kanye West
If we want to understand where China is headed (indeed, where the world is headed), we need to stop listening to our diplomats and politicians and pick up books by writers (whether journalists or novelists) who are in touch with China. Read More...
Being a Congressman is an incredible honor - but I won't lie, there are some tough parts to the job. One of them is the time away from my family and the constant travel. Routine helps, and mine is mostly consistent: every week after I cast my last vote for the week, I hop a flight home to see my family in Iowa.
Typically it's uneventful, and most of the time it's pretty painless with short stopovers in Chicago, Atlanta or Detroit. But last Friday, the 13th, was very different. It wasn't quite Freaky Friday...more like Planes, Trains and Automobiles, but like something out of a movie nonetheless.
Here's the real-life script, which explains why I have the best job in the world:
Despite the governor's campaign promise to focus on job creation, Florida Governor Rick Scott and the Florida legislature have focused their attention on other matters.
In the legislative session that ended Saturday, lawmakers passed no job creation bills for Scott to sign. But they did pass five bills restricting abortion rights and a state budget that cuts nearly 4,500 public sector jobs.
The five bills, which Scott is expected to sign, force women to undergo ultrasounds prior to having an abortion, prohibit private insurance coverage of abortion care in the new state health-insurance exchange, require young women to prove the medical necessity of their abortions before a judge in order to bypass parental permission, establish state-sanctioned license plates that funnel money to anti-choice "crisis pregnancy centers" and changes the state constitution to prohibit the government funding of abortion.
Now that gardening season has returned in full force, it's time to revel in the glorious abundant beauty of nature (unless, that is, she is thrashing us with her rages). One of my favorite things about the spring-and-summer season is flowers. So I've made a list of my favorites, and why I adore them.
Peonies: Don't tell the roses, but I think peonies are my favorite. They have all the luscious glory and fragrance of roses, without the thorns or the persnickety-ness. They rise up like little flames from the spring soil, burst like fireworks (covered in ants), and then gently fall back to the earth--perhaps a little mildewy--and hide again until the next spring. I could just stick my face in them forever.
This month we look at several products that allow you to access all the documents and data on your home computer system from anywhere in the world, even letting you stream your music and video wherever you are (including from your handheld mobile devices), and also giving you the option to share the material privately, publicly, or on social media. They fall under the umbrella known as "private clouds," which are home networks.
You've probably heard about "cloud computing." Though they're related, having a "private cloud" is not exactly the same as when people refer to "cloud computing." The latter is when you put all of your data on someone else's distant server off in the Internet, and use their online software. Basically, "cloud computing" is like having your software and data on someone else's really massive hard disk. That's the direction a lot of the computer world is going, and it's so convenient - but with huge risks, most notably if that distant server ever crashes, or your Internet connection goes down, you lose access to everything you have. A private cloud, on the other hand, is - personal. It's material that sits on your own system that you control, whether at home or from afar. There are risks, but less problematic. Data can be breached, though that's a fact of life anywhere. Even your home computer or notebook can be stolen. With private clouds, password protected security is not at the level of the CIA, but it should suffice for most people. (Remember: if you have any data that is SO sensitive, you can encrypt it...or just not put it in your private cloud.) Besides, individuals are far smaller targets than a behemoth cloud company with a bullseye on its back.
So, to repeat. This month's products are about being able to access your data from anywhere.
ROME -- The fight against human trafficking, which for years has focused on rescuing sex slaves and punishing their pimps and smugglers, is now seeking to compel corporations to ensure they aren't unknowingly facilitating modern-day slavery.
United States Congressman Chris Smith told a conference Wednesday inside the palazzo housing the Vatican courts that Delta Air Lines Inc. has already begun training flight attendants to spot potential victims from being trafficked and to notify police upon landing.
The arrogance of allowing Osama to reside in Pakistan makes it evident that we might have to reconsider the use of our very precious funds these days. That we need, and should continue, ties to Pakistan is not an question. We must, but how much? Read More... More on Osama bin Laden
I wish to restore what I believe to be the natural balance of things, an ecosystem of writing and reading. Not out of nostalgia but fundamentally because every time culture becomes more democratic, it becomes better. Read More... More on eBooks
HOUSTON — Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' recovery isn't slowing down while her astronaut husband speeds around the Earth.
Giffords will undergo surgery Wednesday so doctors can replace a piece of her skull with a plastic implant, another encouraging step since the Arizona congresswoman was shot in the head more than four months ago.
BEIRUT -- Syria's president said the country's security forces have made mistakes during the uprising against his regime, blaming poorly trained police officers at least in part for a crackdown that has killed more than 850 people over the past two months.
President Bashar Assad's comments, carried Wednesday in the private Al-Watan newspaper, came even as a human rights activist said Wednesday that Syrian troops have used heavy machine guns to attack a neighborhood in the central city of Homs.
Our rockstars are American Idol judges, our most shocking pop culture moment of the past two years was Kanye West interrupting Taylor Swift. Read More... More on Kanye West
WASHINGTON — If former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman decides to join the Republican presidential race as expected, he would base his campaign in Orlando, Fla.
Huntsman aides on Wednesday said a campaign based in central Florida would show how seriously the just-returned U.S. ambassador to China is taking the state in both the primary and the general elections. Aides point out that Huntsman's wife, Mary Kaye, grew up in the area and her family still lives there.
ATLANTA — An official presidential candidate for less than a week, Newt Gingrich already finds himself in hot water with conservatives for suggesting he supports health care mandates while at the same time deriding a Republican budget proposal that would replace Medicare with vouchers.
The former House speaker has moved quickly to backtrack, arguing he remains "committed to the complete repeal of Obamacare" and supports state lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of President Barack Obama's signature health care law.
You've probably never heard of it, but "Sing and Scream Along" is an award-winning artwork -- and it's made entirely of Scotch tape.
Designed by University of Florida art student Cameron Nunez, the piece depicts a group of animated hard-core music fans jumping in a mosh-pit. It won the "People's Choice" for at the 2011 Scotch Off The Roll Tape Sculpture contest.
Nunez, 20, says he was inspired by his love of punk music, and realized the concept for the project while attending a show.
This year's Preakness mascot is Kegasus, half man, half horse. The whole idea is to draw "party animals." Let's see, music, lots of beer and a bikini contest. And you wonder why ticket sales are up 17%? Read More...
DUBAI (Reuters) â€" Al Qaeda has appointed an Egyptian militant as temporary leader and named a new head of operations following the killing of Osama bin Laden by U.S. commandos, al Jazeera reported on Wednesday, citing its own correspondent.
In a brief news flash, the Arab satellite channel said Saif al-Adel was named interim leader and Mustafa al-Yemeni, whose surname hints he is from Yemen, would direct operations.
For over a decade, we've been running our politics on fear so often that it's hardly noticeable. The debt ceiling kabuki is a prime example: we'll face catastrophic economic consequences if we don't raise the ceiling, and the end of America if we don't cut entitlements. Read More... More on Osama bin Laden
WASHINGTON — A person familiar with the matter says the Justice Department plans to appoint a well-known New York attorney to run the fund that will be used to compensate Ground Zero workers who say they're suffering illnesses due to their work amid the wreckage of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
The person says the appointee is Sheila Birnbaum, who previously served as the mediator in lawsuits brought by families of the victims of Sept. 11. The person who confirmed her selection spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision has not been publicly announced.
KABUL, Afghanistan — Hundreds of protesters, angered by an overnight NATO raid that they believed killed four civilians, clashed on Wednesday with security forces on the streets of a northern Afghan city. Eleven people died in the fighting, government officials said.
There was also deadly violence in the east on Wednesday. A suicide bomber crashed a car into a police bus, killing 14 people and wounding 16, said Zemeri Bashary, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry. Most of the casualties were police officers, he said.
Imagine being thrown in jail for over four years, not because you had violated any laws or because the government thought you were about to, but because they believed you may at some point in the future. This is the story of Tareq Abu Fayad. Read More... More on Immigration
In the 60-year period between 1950 and 2009, China's cumulative foreign aid to the rest of the world totaled only $39 billion. By contrast, for the year 2007 the U.S. had a total foreign operations budget of more than $26 billion. Read More... More on Pakistan
BOISE, Idaho -- Horse owners and organizations nationwide are watching anxiously and some are shutting down shows and other events in an effort to keep a deadly horse virus outbreak that began in Utah from spreading beyond a handful of Western states and Canada.
So far, at least 17 horses in Idaho, Utah, Colorado, California, Washington and Canada have been infected with the highly contagious Equine Herpes Virus-1, and at least three have died. The disease poses no threat to people but is easily spread among horses, alpacas and llamas because it can be airborne and transmitted by touch or by sharing feed, brushes, bits and other equipment.
Motorola and Verizon have officially announced the release date for the DROID X2, the next generation of the DROID X smartphone.
DROID X2 will be available online starting May 19 and is coming to Verizon stores May 26. The phone, which costs $199.99 with a two-year contract, will be running Android 2.2 (with an Android 2.3 update coming), includes a mirror mode for sharing media on a TV via HDMI, and other features.
See the press release here, then check out a photo of the DROID X2 below.
“190 Street Dogs Shot.†“10,000 Stray Dogs To Be Shot.†“Stray Dog Deportation Plan Compared To ‘Concentration Camp’." “Officials Kill 58,000 Stray Dogs.†The headlines speak for themselves, but animals cannot. Activists have stepped up in order to not only protect stray animals, but also find an actual solution to animal overpopulation.
Shanghai recently implemented a policy of one dog per family in an effort to control the animal population and curb rabies -- rabies takes up to 55,000 lives per year (a far cry from the small number of deaths in the U.S. per year, as reported in… The Office). But the city’s efforts have seen a backlash from pet owners with more than one dog who fear losing their additional pets.
Adoption programs are another way to reduce the number of stray animals, an old idea that received a facelift with PetFinder.com and other online websites offering not just the opportunity to adopt a pet, but also the opportunity to procrastinate for hours online. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has a recent ad campaign that goes so far as to blame pet owners who purchase a dog, asking, "If you buy a dog, what will you do with the shelter dog you kill?"
For decades, the United States has made the mistake of equating "Pakistan" with its army and supporting military governments. Despite outward signs that aid will continue to flow to Pakistan's military, there are growing signs that the U.S. is tired of playing the Charlie Brown role. Read More...
DENVER -- Pitching with confidence and command, Jonathan Sanchez was on the brink of another win for the San Francisco Giants. It all slipped away after he fielded a sacrifice bunt and threw wildly to first base.
Sanchez's throwing error opened the door to a four-run eighth inning and the Colorado Rockies surged back into first place in the NL West with a 5-3 win Tuesday over the San Francisco Giants.
Osama Bin Laden's death cast the fear in our politics into stark relief. One of the weirdest cultural reactions after the announcement of his killing was how the Miley Cyrus song "Party in the U.S.A" got a renewed lease on life on Youtube. That song became the unofficial anthem marking the moment. I thought at the time that the partying was mindless cheering, a sports-like spectacle over something somber and important. Yet, while I think it's generally awful to glorify killing, even in righteousness, with some more time to reflect I've changed my mind.
For over a decade, we've been running our politics on fear so often that it's hardly noticeable. Take the debt ceiling kabuki - catastrophic economic consequences if we don't raise the ceiling, the end of America if we don't cut entitlements. This kind of fear-mongering is exactly how the banks justify any and everything to bail them out. And it's disguising the actual problems we have as a nation, the six industries strangling our freedom: health care, banking, agribusiness, defense, energy, and telecom.
The people who made "Party in the U.S.A" a hit song, twice, are mostly kids who have known nothing but a fear-based dialogue from leaders that ignore their lives and their real problems in favor of slogans about the global war on terror. There are ten year olds who have never lived in an America at peace, and 18-year old soldiers that barely remember when we weren't trying to occupy Afghanistan. This is a generation that grew up on fear, and fear is very powerful.
Even if, at the conscious level, we say we want one thing, if our unconscious beliefs are in conflict, those deeply held unconscious beliefs will rule the day. Read More... More on The Inner Life
Other than the fact that they are both technically comedies, Bridesmaids and The Hangover have absolutely nothing in common whatsoever. Read More... More on Movies
The space shuttle Endeavour, which blasted off on Monday for its final mission, docked with the International Space Station on Wednesday.
NASA has released a video of the Endeavour performing the "rendez pitch maneuver" (which NASA dubs a "backflip") as it arrived at the ISS for the last time.
As the AP noted, the shuttle is carrying, "the most expensive payload ever carried by a shuttle, a $2 billion magnetic device that scientists hope will unravel the mysteries of the cosmos." The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer will be attached to the ISS on Thursday.
Pennsylvania officials fined Chesapeake Energy more than $1 million on Tuesday, the state’s largest fine ever to an oil and gas company. In a statement, the Department of Environmental Protection said Chesapeake’s drilling operations had contaminated water supplies for 16 families in Bradford County.
The announcement came just days after the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that the administration of Gov. Tom Corbett, who took office in January, has issued far fewer environmental fines than its predecessor.
“It is important to me and to this administration that natural gas drillers are stewards of the environment, take very seriously their responsibilities to comply with our regulations, and that their actions do not risk public health and safety or the environment,†DEP Secretary Mike Krancer said in the statement on Tuesday.
The fine also cited Chesapeake for a fire at a well site that injured three workers in February. The announcement didn’t mention the blowout at a Chesapeake well in Bradford County last month. That accident leaked a still-undisclosed amount of brine and hydraulic fracturing fluid onto nearby fields and into a creek. The department issued Chesapeake a notice of violation for that incident and is continuing to investigate.
The DEP said the water contamination in Bradford County, which occurred last year, was caused by failures in the casing and cement that surround gas wells, allowing methane to leak into water wells from shallow gas formations. Chesapeake issued a statement saying the company agreed to pay for water treatment for the affected families. The company also said it has enhanced its casing and cementing designs.
“We have worked in coordination and cooperation with the PADEP from the moment we learned a potential problem existed,†Chesapeake spokesman Brian Grove said in the statement. Grove added that although the company has agreed to settle the matter, it hasn’t admitted that it caused the contamination.
The DEP has been under increasing pressure from critics and the federal government to tighten its oversight of the gas industry. Last month, the department asked drilling companies to voluntarily stop sending their wastewater to treatment facilities that discharge the waste into rivers after only partial treatment. But that move only prompted further federal involvement. Last week the EPA ordered the largest drilling companies in the state to disclose where they plan to put the wastewater, indicating that agency officials saw the state’s voluntary request as inadequate
“Since there was not a requirement that they notify DEP or EPA of the new disposal methods, we wanted to ensure that we all had this information,†EPA spokeswoman Terri White wrote in an email last week. “We want to track these wastewater activities regularly to ensure the protection of public health and the environment. “
The EPA also asked the DEP to improve the way it tests wastewater discharges.
So, is the DEP sending a message with the Chesapeake fine? The department hasn’t returned our request for comment yet, but in the statement Secretary Krancer said, “The water well contamination fine is the largest single penalty DEP has ever assessed against an oil and gas operator, and the Avella tank fire penalty is the highest we could assess under the Oil and Gas Act. Our message to drillers and to the public is clear.â€
Lars Von Trier has a hit with his new movie at Cannes, but it was his press conference that is making headlines.
The maverick Danish director, who is receiving accolades for his Kirsten Dunst-starring apocalyptic tale "Melancholia," is no stranger to outrageous statements -- in 2005, he said President Bush dreams of being spanked by Condeleezza Rice -- shocked the assembled press with his answer to a question about his interest in the Nazi aesthetic.
"The only thing I can tell you is that I thought I was a Jew for a long time and was very happy being a Jew, then later on came [Danish and Jewish director] Susanne Bier, and suddenly I wasn't so happy about being a Jew. That was a joke. Sorry. But it turned out that I was not a Jew. If I'd been a Jew, then I would be a second-wave Jew, a kind of a new-wave Jew, but anyway, I really wanted to be a Jew and then I found out that I was really a Nazi, because my family is German. And that also gave me some pleasure. So, I, what can I say? I understand Hitler. I think he did some wrong things but I can see him sitting in his bunker. I'm saying that I think I understand the man. He is not what we could call a good guy, but yeah, I understand much about him and I sympathize with him ... But come on! I'm not for the Second World War. And I'm not against Jews. No, not even Susanne Bier. I am very much for them. As much as Israelis are a pain in the ass. How do I get out of this sentence? Okay, I am a Nazi. As for the art, I'm for Speer. Albert Speer I liked. He was also one of God's best children. He has a talent that ... Okay, enough."
No comments:
Post a Comment