For many, the issue of post traumatic stress disorder among war veterans is an uncomfortable one, even taboo. But that hasn’t stopped writer/director K. Lorrel Manning from tackling its complexities in the movie, Happy New Year.
“A lot of men and women nike tennis classic shoes
are suffering in silence,” said Manning. “It takes tragedies like what happened in Afghanistan for people to start talking about it.”
Indeed, the massacre of 16 Afghan buy nike air griffey max 1
civilians allegedly at the hands of a U.S. soldier is forcing a public dialogue. Manning is hoping his movie can keep the momentum going.
The Directors Guild of America in Manhattan is hosting a special benefit screening of Happy New Year Thursday. Proceeds will fund a PTSD facility in Israel.
The movie, filmed at the Bronx Psychiatric Center, follows two friends who served together in Iraq who are reunited at a veterans’ facility on New Year’s Eve.
The idea came to Manning over time but started in 2004 when he read the book, “Purple Hearts: Back from Iraq.”
“I wasn’t really following the war effort at that point but I couldn’t put this book down,” he said. “It changed my life.”
Later, while doing another project in Chicago, he met a police officer who was an Iraq war veteran, and their conversations lit a spark.
Manning wrote a one-act play and asked his nike shox cypher
friend Michael Cuomo to play the lead role.
That play evolved into a short film, then the opportunity came to make a feature-length film.
Neither Manning nor Cuomo have served in the military. To tell the story accurately, they spent nine months interviewing 80 veterans from various wars.
To prepare for his role as Staff Sgt. Cole Lewis, Cuomo spent four weeks in a simulated boot camp with a drill instructor and used a wheelchair for a month (his character is paralyzed from the waist down).
“I would wheel around the city at night, kind of incognito,” he said. “I wanted to feel what it was like to see the world from that position and feel how the world sees you.”
While the subject matter may be difficult, even off-putting for some, Cuomo believes there are people willing to put aside their personal politics and focus on the humanity in the story.
“The idea of thinking that your life is heading in a certain direction, then experiencing something catastrophic that changes your course, and how you deal with that, is a dynamic I think anyone can relate to,” he said.
Happy New Year has been well received at 16 film festivals nationwide, picking up some notable endorsements along the way.
Among its fans is retired Army Col. Jack Jacobs, who received the Congressional Medal of Honor for his heroism in Vietnam.
“I’m a career soldier so I’m invariably not happy with war movies,” he said. “(But) I was absolutely enraptured by Happy New Year because the characters seemed so real. I knew all of them.
“It’s a really moving piece,” Jacobs continued. “It’s hard to say you enjoyed something that actually causes you a little bit of pain, but I absolutely enjoyed it.”
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/bronx/movie-happy-year-depicts-war-vets-deal-post-traumatic-stress-disorder-article-1.1039135#ixzz1pBRkWTNP
2012年3月15日星期四
The Hunger Games’ TV rights snapped up by ABC Family: report
A winner has apparently emerged in the cuthroat battle to land the television rights to nike tennis shoes for sale
“The Hunger Games.”
ABC Family has landed the rights to the big screen adaptation of the first book of Suzanne Collins’customize nike dunks high
popular series for a television premiere on track for fall 2014, a source told Broadcasting & Cable magazine.
The deal, which has not been confirmed by either the network or Lionsgate, also may include rights for the sequel, “Catching Fire,” according to the report.
“The Hunger Games” is set in a dystopian future where 12- to 18-year-olds fight to the death for the amusement of the capital city of an unrecognizable America — a battle in which heroine Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) finds herself a competitor.
Even before the film’s March 23 buy nike air max 95
release, it already has become a huge pop culture phenomenon.
Early tracking data predicts the movie is a threat to eclipse the $138.1 million debut of last year’s “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 1.” Last month, when advance tickets went on sale, it broke Fandango.com’s single-day record.
“The Hunger Games.”
ABC Family has landed the rights to the big screen adaptation of the first book of Suzanne Collins’customize nike dunks high
popular series for a television premiere on track for fall 2014, a source told Broadcasting & Cable magazine.
The deal, which has not been confirmed by either the network or Lionsgate, also may include rights for the sequel, “Catching Fire,” according to the report.
“The Hunger Games” is set in a dystopian future where 12- to 18-year-olds fight to the death for the amusement of the capital city of an unrecognizable America — a battle in which heroine Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) finds herself a competitor.
Even before the film’s March 23 buy nike air max 95
release, it already has become a huge pop culture phenomenon.
Early tracking data predicts the movie is a threat to eclipse the $138.1 million debut of last year’s “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 1.” Last month, when advance tickets went on sale, it broke Fandango.com’s single-day record.
2012年1月31日星期二
Big bet on tiny cars a bust
ELKHART, Ind. — For politicians betting on electric vehicles to drive job growth, the view from inside Think City's plant here is their worst nightmare: 100 unfinished vehicles lined up with no word whether they will be completed.
Only two years ago the tiny Think cars — two can fit in a regular parking space — were expected to bring more than 400 jobs to this ailing city and act as a lifeline to suppliers who once made parts for gas-guzzling recreational vehicles.
"We've said we're out to make Indiana the electric-vehicle state. It's beginning to look like the state capital will be Elkhart County," Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels said in January 2010 in announcing government incentives used to lure Think to his state.
Instead, the Hoosier state's big bet has been a bust. The plant is devoid of activity; there are just two employees. A Russian investor who recently purchased Think's bankrupt parent in Norway has been silent about its future. A government-backed Indianapolis battery maker that was to supply Think wrote off a $73 million investment in the car company and on Thursday declared bankruptcy. Two unrelated electric-truck makers Indiana planned to nurture have yet to get off the ground.
Indiana's foray into electric vehicles is a cautionary tale for states in hot pursuit of high-tech manufacturing jobs. Think's story illustrates how politicians wanted to stimulate job growth so badly that they showered it and the battery supplier with tax breaks and incentives while at the same time failing to determine whether there was a market for the car: a plastic two-seater with a top speed of about 65 miles an hour and a price tag approaching $42,000.
"Where's the value?" Gregg Fore, an Elkhart recreational-vehicle-industry executive, said of Think. "I could buy a golf cart for five grand if that's what I wanted to drive."
Fore says the federal and state governments as well as Elkhart subsidized the Think project apparently believing those breaks would drive down the vehicle's price and make the cars more attractive. "By giving money to the battery company and electric-car company, they are saying, 'We want you to buy their products even though we know you don't want them.' "
Indiana's total losses aren't immediately known. Katelyn Hancock, a spokeswoman for the Indiana Economic Development Corp., the state's economic-development arm, declined to disclose how much battery maker Ener1 and Think had received in taxpayer-funded credits and incentives, claiming such information is confidential.
Ener1 also refused to provide the information.
What is known, however, is that both the Obama and Bush administrations poured millions of dollars into battery production in a quest to power thousands of Think City vehicles with lithium-ion batteries. To date, Ener1, parent of the battery company, has spent $55 million in federal funding, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
In hindsight, some analysts say government backing of the car didn't seem like a bad investment. "It looked like electric vehicles were it in 2008. It really did," said Theodore O'Neill, an analyst who has followed the electric-car industry. "You had the government calling the shots and doling the money out with the major (automakers)."
Costly vehicle
Still, O'Neill says he wouldn't buy such a car. "For $40,000, you can get a certified pre-owned BMW convertible and a Vespa scooter. Both of them. And if you want to have a good time, put the top down." General Motors' Chevrolet Volt electric car also comes for about the same price.
Think City's plant, a 10-minute drive from Elkhart's Main Street, appears all but abandoned these days. When a reporter visited recently, the parking lot was empty and the visitor entrance and lobby were laced with cobwebs. A single pickup and a sign telling visitors to ring the buzzer were the only signs of life near the rear of the building. Inside two men were quietly baby-sitting the plant, awaiting headlights and seat belts from Europe so the cars would meet U.S. standards.
What eventually happens to these cars isn't clear. No one in Elkhart could point to a local executive in charge of production. A person identified as a spokesman declined to comment, saying he was no longer on the payroll.
The person who may have the most to say about Think's future also isn't talking. Russian investor Boris Zingarevich bought Think Global, the Norwegian parent company, at auction a month after its bankruptcy.
Reached by phone in Russia, Slava Bychkov, a spokesman for Ilim Group, said he could not provide details of the car company's future.
"The management is now under the restart process and will communicate their strategy in (the) near future," Bychkov said.
Only two years ago the tiny Think cars — two can fit in a regular parking space — were expected to bring more than 400 jobs to this ailing city and act as a lifeline to suppliers who once made parts for gas-guzzling recreational vehicles.
"We've said we're out to make Indiana the electric-vehicle state. It's beginning to look like the state capital will be Elkhart County," Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels said in January 2010 in announcing government incentives used to lure Think to his state.
Instead, the Hoosier state's big bet has been a bust. The plant is devoid of activity; there are just two employees. A Russian investor who recently purchased Think's bankrupt parent in Norway has been silent about its future. A government-backed Indianapolis battery maker that was to supply Think wrote off a $73 million investment in the car company and on Thursday declared bankruptcy. Two unrelated electric-truck makers Indiana planned to nurture have yet to get off the ground.
Indiana's foray into electric vehicles is a cautionary tale for states in hot pursuit of high-tech manufacturing jobs. Think's story illustrates how politicians wanted to stimulate job growth so badly that they showered it and the battery supplier with tax breaks and incentives while at the same time failing to determine whether there was a market for the car: a plastic two-seater with a top speed of about 65 miles an hour and a price tag approaching $42,000.
"Where's the value?" Gregg Fore, an Elkhart recreational-vehicle-industry executive, said of Think. "I could buy a golf cart for five grand if that's what I wanted to drive."
Fore says the federal and state governments as well as Elkhart subsidized the Think project apparently believing those breaks would drive down the vehicle's price and make the cars more attractive. "By giving money to the battery company and electric-car company, they are saying, 'We want you to buy their products even though we know you don't want them.' "
Indiana's total losses aren't immediately known. Katelyn Hancock, a spokeswoman for the Indiana Economic Development Corp., the state's economic-development arm, declined to disclose how much battery maker Ener1 and Think had received in taxpayer-funded credits and incentives, claiming such information is confidential.
Ener1 also refused to provide the information.
What is known, however, is that both the Obama and Bush administrations poured millions of dollars into battery production in a quest to power thousands of Think City vehicles with lithium-ion batteries. To date, Ener1, parent of the battery company, has spent $55 million in federal funding, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
In hindsight, some analysts say government backing of the car didn't seem like a bad investment. "It looked like electric vehicles were it in 2008. It really did," said Theodore O'Neill, an analyst who has followed the electric-car industry. "You had the government calling the shots and doling the money out with the major (automakers)."
Costly vehicle
Still, O'Neill says he wouldn't buy such a car. "For $40,000, you can get a certified pre-owned BMW convertible and a Vespa scooter. Both of them. And if you want to have a good time, put the top down." General Motors' Chevrolet Volt electric car also comes for about the same price.
Think City's plant, a 10-minute drive from Elkhart's Main Street, appears all but abandoned these days. When a reporter visited recently, the parking lot was empty and the visitor entrance and lobby were laced with cobwebs. A single pickup and a sign telling visitors to ring the buzzer were the only signs of life near the rear of the building. Inside two men were quietly baby-sitting the plant, awaiting headlights and seat belts from Europe so the cars would meet U.S. standards.
What eventually happens to these cars isn't clear. No one in Elkhart could point to a local executive in charge of production. A person identified as a spokesman declined to comment, saying he was no longer on the payroll.
The person who may have the most to say about Think's future also isn't talking. Russian investor Boris Zingarevich bought Think Global, the Norwegian parent company, at auction a month after its bankruptcy.
Reached by phone in Russia, Slava Bychkov, a spokesman for Ilim Group, said he could not provide details of the car company's future.
"The management is now under the restart process and will communicate their strategy in (the) near future," Bychkov said.
The Corolla is the best-selling car of all time
The most successful car in history may be the Ford Model T. While other models may have sold more vehicles, Ford managed to sell nearly 17 million cars from 1908 to 1927 -- a period when car ownership was rare compared to today. The Model T was so successful that nearly every other best-selling car adopted its formula.
The Model T was inexpensive to buy, inexpensive to operate, reliable and built by a large company that had hundreds of dealerships and trained mechanics.
The other top-selling vehicles, from the VW Passat to the Toyota Corolla, share all of these characteristics. The best-selling cars through history have appealed to a broad buyer base because they are within the reach of the masses.
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The best-selling vehicles have several other notable features in common. For one, the majority were introduced just before or around the same time that gas prices began to rise rapidly in the early 1970s, primarily because of the Arab oil embargo. Car companies offered 4-cylinder, light and fuel-efficient cars that allowed people to drive without badly hurting household budgets. Many of these cars continue to sell well today as gas prices are relatively high around the world.
Many of these cars also are manufactured and sold around the world. The Beetle is sold in the U.S. and Europe. The Passat is built in both the U.S. and China. Several of the best-selling cars from Japan are sold in most major countries around the world. Once a car proved its appeal with consumers, it made economic sense for a manufacturer to use the same base chassis and engine at plants on different continents.
24/7 Wall St. looked at best-selling car data from a number of sources. The sources included major media outlets that cover the auto industry, research firms, and car companies that keep lists of their own best-selling cars.
The Model T was inexpensive to buy, inexpensive to operate, reliable and built by a large company that had hundreds of dealerships and trained mechanics.
The other top-selling vehicles, from the VW Passat to the Toyota Corolla, share all of these characteristics. The best-selling cars through history have appealed to a broad buyer base because they are within the reach of the masses.
advertisement
The best-selling vehicles have several other notable features in common. For one, the majority were introduced just before or around the same time that gas prices began to rise rapidly in the early 1970s, primarily because of the Arab oil embargo. Car companies offered 4-cylinder, light and fuel-efficient cars that allowed people to drive without badly hurting household budgets. Many of these cars continue to sell well today as gas prices are relatively high around the world.
Many of these cars also are manufactured and sold around the world. The Beetle is sold in the U.S. and Europe. The Passat is built in both the U.S. and China. Several of the best-selling cars from Japan are sold in most major countries around the world. Once a car proved its appeal with consumers, it made economic sense for a manufacturer to use the same base chassis and engine at plants on different continents.
24/7 Wall St. looked at best-selling car data from a number of sources. The sources included major media outlets that cover the auto industry, research firms, and car companies that keep lists of their own best-selling cars.
2011年11月21日星期一
recapture deficit debate, Obama should press the reset button
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that if Congress simply does nothing for the next few years, the fiscal picture will improve by about $7.1 trillion over the next 10 years. About $4 trillion of that is the expiration of the Bush tax cuts. An additional $1.2 trillion comes from the trigger that kicks in when the supercommittee fails. Some Medicare cuts, the expiration of stimulus programs and lower interest payments account for most of the rest. Our projected deficits look so large only because we expect Congress to pursue these policies without paying for them.
Obama could simply say “no” to this: He could say he plans to veto any non-emergency proposals that increase the federal deficit.
But the veto plan shouldn’t be anyone’s ideal policy, least of all Obama’s. Rather, it should be Obama’s trigger: The thing that happens if Congress refuses to agree to a better deal.
Obama could simply say “no” to this: He could say he plans to veto any non-emergency proposals that increase the federal deficit.
But the veto plan shouldn’t be anyone’s ideal policy, least of all Obama’s. Rather, it should be Obama’s trigger: The thing that happens if Congress refuses to agree to a better deal.
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