Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy get their man in new sneak peek, introduced by McCarthy on MTV Movie Awards red carpet.
By Todd Gilchrist
Sandra Bullock in "The Heat"
Photo: 20th Century Fox
Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1705621/the-heat-mtv-movie-awards-2013.jhtml
WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama's push for tougher gun measures and expanded background checks has placed several moderate Senate Democrats facing re-election next year in a bind, forcing them to take sides on a deeply personal issue for rural voters.
The choice: Either they stick with Obama and gun control advocates ? and give an opening to campaign challengers and the National Rifle Association to assail them ? or they stand with conservative and moderate gun owners back home worried about a possible infringement on their rights.
Five Senate Democrats ? Mark Begich of Alaska, Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Max Baucus of Montana and Kay Hagan of North Carolina ? are seeking another term in states carried by Republican Mitt Romney last fall. For the next few weeks, at least, the spotlight will be on how they maneuver as the Senate debates gun-control legislation pushed by Democrats in response to the deadly Newtown, Conn., elementary school shooting.
Two other GOP-leaning states with large numbers of gun owners ? West Virginia and South Dakota ? will have open seats following Democratic retirements. Republicans have placed many of these states at the top of their priority lists as they try to gain six seats to win back the Senate majority.
Debate begins next week on Senate legislation that would require nearly all gun buyers to submit to background checks, toughen federal laws banning illicit firearms sales and provide more money for school safety measures. The background checks are viewed by gun control advocates as the best step to prevent criminals and the mentally ill from accessing weapons. The NRA has opposed the expansion of background checks, saying it could lead to federal registries of gun owners. It has sought better enforcement of existing laws, which it contends is too easy for criminals to circumvent.
"There's a fear in these states that this is going to go further and farther than anyone has suggested," said Chris Kofinis, a Democratic strategist and former chief of staff to Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. But he said efforts to curb gun violence were aided by the emotional toll of the Sandy Hook shootings, in which 20 children and six adult educators were killed. "Newtown changed everything," he said.
Thus, these Senate Democrats are weighing the possibility of angry voters next year against pressure from fellow Democrats. So far, they're divided.
Baucus, the only Democrat with the NRA's top rating, said he will vote against the bill as it currently stands. He pointed to the 18,000 phone calls his office has received about it ? he said only 2,000 of those callers favored it.
"I represent Montana ? that's my first loyalty," Baucus said. "They're my employers. That's why I'm here."
Baucus knows the perils of a debate over firearms. He supported a 1994 crime bill sought by President Bill Clinton that included an assault weapons ban and survived a vigorous challenge from Republicans two years later.
Two other Democrats have already raised their objections.
Begich and Pryor voted Thursday with Republicans in an unsuccessful bid to block debate on Democrats' gun control legislation.
Begich said the current bill has "serious problems with it" and he wanted Democrats to consider his proposal with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., to improve how the federal background check system prevents weapons from getting to people with certain mental health problems.
"My first priority is Alaska. It's not complicated for me," Begich said. "It doesn't matter if it's election year or non-election year. I've done 4 1/2 years of pro-gun votes here." Asked whether Obama's push on gun violence was complicating matters for him at home, Begich said with a laugh: "The president makes my life difficult on many fronts."
Pryor said the bill in its current form was "too broad and unworkable."
Hagan is taking a different position. She said in a statement she planned to support what's become known as the Manchin-Toomey measure for its sponsors, noting it would "explicitly" ban the federal government from creating a registry.
"As a mother there is nothing more important to me than protecting our kids. I am looking at each proposal to ensure it is common sense, will be effective and will not infringe on Second Amendment rights," she said.
Landrieu has yet to indicate what she might support in a final bill. She said following Thursday's vote that the Second Amendment right to own firearms "is not to be taken away" but that the nation was "plagued by gun violence." Making no commitments, she said it was "worthy of a debate to see if we can find a common-sense solution."
Debate begins next week on a measure forged by Manchin and Republican Patrick Toomey of Pennsylvania that would expand background checks less broadly than the overall legislation. The proposal would subject buyers in commercial settings like gun shows and the Internet to the checks but exempt transactions such as sales between friends and relatives.
The Senate also is likely to hold votes on proposals to ban military-style weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines, two measures that were excluded from the bill and are expected to be defeated. With so many votes ahead, and the potential for a number of procedural votes, any Democrat runs the risk of having one of their votes misconstrued in future TV ads.
All are bracing for negative ads ? and pressure from those they anger.
Gun control advocates holding rallies across the country have the deep pockets of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has pumped $12 million in TV advertising pressuring support for the measures. Bloomberg's group announced plans Friday for more ads next week in seven states, including Landrieu's Louisiana and North Dakota, home to freshman Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp.
An offshoot of Obama's campaign, Organizing for Action, planned to hold rallies in 14 states on Saturday to push for the measures.
On the flip side, the NRA is certain to spend a chunk of money assailing anyone who backs the measure. Republicans, meanwhile, say the issue could serve as a strong motivating factor in rural states next year.
"The discussion is devastating to Democrats ? that's why they stopped talking about it for a long time," said Brad Dayspring, a spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
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Associated Press writer Matt Gouras in Helena, Mont., and Melinda Deslatte in Baton Rouge, La., contributed to this report.
___
Follow Ken Thomas on Twitter: http://twitter.com/AP_Ken_Thomas
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gun-measures-put-moderate-senate-dems-bind-202208983--politics.html
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Electrical items that hum commonly include any device with a speaker (stereo, radio, TV, computer (including external or monitor speakers); any device with a transformer or charger (doorbell, computers, computer monitor, iPod/MP3 player, cell phone charger, etc); bathroom or ceiling fans that might be on but might have had the motor shaft come disconnected from the fan so you only hear the motor running. Also, most household fan motors are current-limited - meaning if the fan jams with lint or debris or the motor freezes up, the current will still run through it and cause a noticeable hum, but may not actually short out or burn out for some days.
A totally different, and in my experience more likely source, is your heating system - either the fan on a forced-air heater, the pump on a hot water baseboard system, or a basement or garage heater fan. Air conditioner and humidifier / dehumidifier are also possibles. All these can hum as bearings get old or as pumps get worn.
Best way to check for the source of a hum is get yourself a common stethoscope (a real one with solid metal pickup head, not cheap plastic one) for about $10 at a drugstore or box store and start holding it against heating ducts or pipes, water pipes, walls, appliances, etc - being sure not to get it into anything electrical, of course. Usually you can track down where the hum is loudest in 5 minutes or less. Once you think you have isolated it, then you should be able to turn the device off, unplug it, or turn off the appropriate breaker so it is deenergized, to be sure that is the source.
Source: http://answers.angieslist.com/Who-I-call-find-loud-continuous-humming-noise-home-q42545.aspx
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SegaAcknowledgment of Roger Ebert?s passing today isn?t reserved to film buffs. His death is being noted by the video game press, thanks to some comments by the movie critic that inspired defensiveness among gamers but also introspection within the industry.
Ebert famously (among gamers anyway) declared ?Video games can never be art,? subsequently explaining and defending his position in a blog post at the Chicago Sun-Times in 2010. He grappled with the always elusive definition of art and what has become these days an elusive definition of what constitutes a ?game.? He concluded:
Why are gamers so intensely concerned, anyway, that games be defined as art? Bobby Fischer, Michael Jordan and Dick Butkus never said they thought their games were an art form. Nor did Shi Hua Chen, winner of the $500,000 World Series of Mah Jong in 2009. Why aren't gamers content to play their games and simply enjoy themselves? They have my blessing, not that they care.
Do they require validation? In defending their gaming against parents, spouses, children, partners, co-workers or other critics, do they want to be able to look up from the screen and explain, "I'm studying a great form of art?" Then let them say it, if it makes them happy.
His attitude didn?t resolve the debate. That one blog post garnered nearly 5,000 comments. A couple months later he addressed the matter again, admitting that it was unfair of him to judge a medium in part because he personally was not interested in engaging in it. He preferred books and movies. He didn?t want to play video games.
And yet, despite his lack of interest in the medium, the medium was still very interested in his thoughts. Ebert?s comments inspired a session at the annual Game Developers Conference in 2011. ?Are video games art?? and ?Can video games be art?? are topics endlessly debated among gaming enthusiasts and creators.
Ebert ultimately, accidentally, symbolized the engagement gap between Baby Boomers and younger generations in the role of video games in culture. It?s a fascinating rift because, really, Baby Boomers invented video games. But very few early video games ever aspired to anything as fancy as being ?art.? Until the development of the adventure game genre they hardly even had what could be called a story.
Ebert could be excused for his ignorance of what has come since then in much the same way as a young millennial could be oblivious to the role of Motown on the development of the popular music we still listen to today. The expansion of video games from a hobby to a subculture to simply part of our culture?? like every other form of entertainment ? happened through Generation X and is now being passed along to subsequent generations. Baby Boomers just weren?t culturally connected to it. Ebert couldn?t include video games as art because video games didn?t include him and thus it inspires no connection. It?s nobody?s fault. Definitions of art are not timeless and rigid. Ebert himself acknowledged it and struggled to come up with a definition that would explain why video games should be omitted, but not other artistic endeavors, like music.
What?s happening now is that the children who grew up on video games are now the ones running the industry and have a cultural interest in creating a lasting legacy. Ebert?s observations were a challenge to them, whether he realized it or not. Generation X is defined in part by video games. Games have as much meaning to many of them as rock music and Motown did for Baby Boomers. The defensiveness and insistence of gamers and the gaming industry about elevating this culture into an art form may well be subconsciously based on the knowledge that games are what Gen. X will be primarily remembered for years down the line.
Source: http://reason.com/blog/2013/04/04/the-time-roger-ebert-dismissed-video-gam
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LONDON (Reuters) - Bogged down by a stagnating economy and sinking poll ratings, British Prime Minister David Cameron ventured into a new swamp when he waded waist-deep into mud to rescue a drowning sheep.
Cameron was on his way back from visiting a farmer near his weekend home in the Oxfordshire countryside last month when he heard bleating and spotted a ewe that had got stuck in the mud after following her two lambs.
In jeans and rubber boots, Cameron waded into the swamp, followed by his two bodyguards, wrestled the sodden sheep and hoisted it onto safe ground, the Sun newspaper reported.
"When I got there, David (Cameron) was in the swamp, waist-deep in mud, along with the two police, who had all gone in there to help drag this sheep out," farmer Julian Tustian told the Daily Telegraph.
"He was brilliant, pulling, pushing and shoving. He was covered in mud, he looked a mess."
The ewe, which has since been nicknamed Swampy, has fully recovered from the ordeal, which unfolded on the evening of March 1, Tustian said. The lambs drowned.
The story of the lost sheep's messy rescue could have passed for an April fool joke but a Downing Street spokeswoman confirmed it had taken place.
Twitter users mocked what they labelled Cameron's "ewe turn", describing it as an unusual show of compassion from a prime minister imposing harsh welfare cuts and talking tough on immigration.
"Are you sure it was not the over way round? The ewe saved #Cameron from the swamp he's in?" wrote one user calling himself @Brianma68.
(Reporting by Natalie Huet; editing by Estelle Shirbon and Guy Faulconbridge)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/waist-deep-mud-cameron-rescues-distressed-sheep-150906581.html
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