Dec
12

‘The Hobbit’: Like One Bad Video Game

Perhaps the most exciting thing about Peter Jackson‘s landmark, blockbuster Lord of the Rings films was that they made fans, through a combination of stunning landscapes and intricate special effects and soaring music and dramatic spectacle, feel as though we were seeing an almost impossible elevation of the potential size and scope of movies. Here was a rich, dense, sprawling series of films that...
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Shhhh! A new law says TV ads can't blare anymore

NEW YORK (AP) — TV viewing could soon sound a little calmer. The CALM Act, which limits the volume of TV commercials, goes into effect on Thursday.CALM stands for Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation. The act is designed to prevent TV commercials from blaring at louder volumes than the program content they accompany. The rules govern broadcasters as well as cable and satellite operators.The...
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Dec
11

At Least 1 Dead in Portland-Area Mall Shooting

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A gunman opened fire Tuesday in a Portland, Ore., area shopping mall Tuesday, killing at least one person and wounding an unknown number of others, sheriff's deputies said. "We believe there's at least one deceased and maybe more," said Clackamas County sheriff's Lt. James Rhodes. Rhodes said he was still trying to get more details about the situation at the Clackamas...
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'Evita' to close in January when Big 3 leave

NEW YORK (AP) — The Broadway revival of "Evita" — faced with trying to replace Ricky Martin, Elena Roger and Michael Cerveris — will instead close when the Big Three leave early next year.Producers of the Tony Award-nominated revival of Tim Rice's and Andrew Lloyd Webber's landmark musical said Tuesday night they have decided against plans for an open-ended run after Martin, Roger and Cerveris leave...
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Rate of Childhood Obesity Falls in Several Cities

Jessica Kourkounis for The New York TimesAt William H. Ziegler Elementary in Northeast Philadelphia, students are getting acquainted with vegetables and healthy snacks. PHILADELPHIA — After decades of rising childhood obesity rates, several American cities are reporting their first declines. The trend has emerged in big cities like New York and Los Angeles, as well as smaller places like...
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Daily Stock Market Activity

Stocks rose on Tuesday, led by gains in technology companies, helping the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index to end at its highest level since Election Day. A 2.18 percent gain, to $541.39, in Apple’s stock lifted the Nasdaq composite index, as the company rebounded from a week in which investors took profits before a possible tax increase next year. Before Tuesday’s trading, Apple...
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Dec
10

Drought and Economic Woes Vex Sheep Farmers

Matthew Staver for The New York TimesLambs inside pens at the Mountain View Lamb Feeders feed lot in Eaton, Colo., last week. SEVERANCE, Colo. — Since he was a boy in western Colorado, John Bartmann seemed destined to become a sheep man. He raised lambs with the local 4-H club and sheared them for elderly German farmers. His office is lined with paintings of sheep and a plaque honoring him for “promoting...
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Behind the New Modern Seinfeld Twitter Account, Which Is Not About Nothing

Seinfeld has never left our pop culture lexicon. Just recently we’ve seen it referenced in the presidential race and in Game of Thrones parodies. But what would the seminal “show about nothing” be like if its characters could use cell phones or Facebook? The @SeinfeldToday Twitter account, which popped up Sunday evening, ventures to propose of-the-moment plots for a modern Seinfeld....
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Vital Signs: Smoking Tied to Less Dense Bones for Girls

Smoking in teenage girls is associated with slower development of bone mineral density, a new study reports.The scientists studied 262 healthy girls ages 11 to 19, using questionnaires and interviews to assess their smoking habits. The researchers also measured the girls’ bone density at the hip and lumbar spine three times at one-year intervals.Smokers entered adolescence with the same lumbar and...
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Euro Watch: Bonds in Spain and Italy Shaken by Italian Politics

ROME — Italian stock and bond prices fell on Monday after a weekend of political turmoil in Italy gave rise to fears that the country was headed for renewed instability. Shares of Italian banks, which are big holders of the government’s bonds, were among the hardest hit. The action occurred in the first day of trading after Prime Minister Mario Monti said over the weekend that he would...
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