Trick or Treat?: Jeffrey M. Jones' ?Seventy Scenes of Halloween? at ...

Manbites Dog Theater of Durham, NC is celebrating its 25th birthday by restaging ?Seventy Scenes of Halloween? by Jeffrey M. Jones on Nov. 29-Dec. 1 and Dec. 6-9, 12-13, and 15 (photo by Jon Haas)

Trick or treat? Manbites Dog Theater?s inaugural production, Seventy Scenes of Halloween by Jeffrey M. Jones has a little of both. First staged in December of 1987 and repeated on Nov. 29-Dec. 1 and Dec. 6-9, 12-13, and 15, 2012, under the new direction of Akiva Fox and Adam Sobsey, Seventy Scenes of Halloween mixes mirth with terror in a series numbered scenes, performed almost completely out of order. That?s the play?s principal gimmick, and it can be confusing as to what is real and what is a dream, etc.

During the play?s first three scenes, an otherwise nice normal suburban couple named Jeff and Joan (played by Dan VanHoozer and Emily K. Hill) bicker over whether they are ready for Halloween. (Jeff thinks they aren?t, because Joan forgot to buy some Kandy Korn.) Then the trick-or-treaters (portrayed by Carl Martin and Amber J. Wood as a Beast in a goat?s-head mask and a Witch in full witch regalia, pointy hat and all) start to arrive, some of them peering through Joan and Jeff?s picture window.

Ultimately, Seventy Scenes of Halloween becomes a surreal series of flash-forwards and flashbacks in which Jeff and Joan act like the Battling Bickersons and the trick-or-treaters become increasingly sinister, as if a Manson Family Halloween might be imminent. As Bob Dylan famously crooned, ?There is something happening here, and you don?t know what it is, do you, Mr. Jones??

In Seventy Scenes of Halloween, the humor ? and the horror ? is in the details, but it would be unfair to reveal more of them here. Suffice it to say that co-directors Akiva Fox and Adam Sobsey could have clarified some points by sharpening the actors? performances.

Scenic designer Torry Bend?s living room set provides a couple of doors for things that go bump in the night to hide behind, and lighting designer Liz Droessler?s lighting scheme magnifies the creepiness of the situation in which an unbilled fifth actor (assistant stage manager Karen Burns) contributes creepy cameos to this surreal spooktacular.

SECOND OPINION: Dec. 5th Raleigh, NC CVNC review by Kate Dobbs Ariail: http://cvnc.org/article.cfm?articleId=5891; Dec. 5th Durham, NC Independent Weekly review by Byron Woods (who awarded the show 2.5 of 5 stars): http://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/form-follows-theme-in-manbites-dogs-seventy-scenes-of-halloween-revival/Content?oid=3208329 and Nov. 28th review by David Fellerath: http://www.indyweek.com/indyweek/manbites-dog-celebrates-25-years-with-a-return-to-where-it-started/Content?oid=3201453; ; Dec. 5th Chapel Hill, NC WUNC 91.5/North Carolina Public Radio interview with Manbites Dog co-founder Ed Hunt, Seventy Scenes of Halloween co-director Akiva Fox, and actors Carl Martin and Emily Hill, conducted by Frank Stasio for ?The State of Things?: http://wunc.org/tsot/archive/Manbites_Dog_Turns_25.mp3/view; Dec. 4th Raleigh, NC News & Observer review by Roy C. Dicks: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/12/04/2524292/seventy-scenes-confusing-but-intriguing.html; and Nov. 28th Durham, NC Duke Chronicle preview by Danielle Muoio: http://www.dukechronicle.com/article/manbites-dog-celebrates-25-years-70-short-scenes; and Nov. 22nd Durham, NC Herald-Sun preview by Cliff Bellamy: http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story/20909030/article-?Seventy-Scenes??Manbites-Dog-Theater-revisits-production-that-started-it-all-? (Note 1: You must register to read this article.) (Note 2: To read Triangle Arts & Entertainment?s online version of the Nov. 30th Triangle Theater Review preview by Robert W. McDowell, click http://triangleartsandentertainment.org/2012/11/manbites-dog-theater-is-reprising-its-first-show-jeffrey-m-jones-seventy-scenes-of-halloween/.)

Manbites Dog Theater presents SEVENTY SCENES OF HALLOWEEN at 3:15 p.m. Dec 9 and 8:15 p.m. Dec. 12-16 at Manbites Dog Theater, 703 Foster St., Durham, North Carolina 27701.

TICKETS: $12 weeknights and $17 Friday-Sunday, except $5 for students with ID and a $2 discount for seniors 62+ and active-duty military personnel.

BOX OFFICE: 919-682-3343 or http://manbitesdogtheater.tix.com/.

SHOW: http://www.manbitesdogtheater.org/403/.

VIDEO PREVIEW (by Jon Haas): http://vimeo.com/52903324.

SEASON: http://www.manbitesdogtheater.org/season/.

PRESENTER: http://www.manbitesdogtheater.org/.

BLOG: http://theupstager.wordpress.com/.

VENUE: http://www.manbitesdogtheater.org/.

DIRECTIONS/PARKING: http://www.manbitesdogtheater.org/find/.

OTHER LINKS:

The Play: http://www.broadwayplaypubl.com/ssh.htm (Broadway Play Publishing).

The Script: http://books.google.com/ (Google Books).

The Playwright: http://www.doollee.com/PlaywrightsJ/jones-jeffrey-m.html (Doollee.com).

EDITOR?S NOTE:

Robert W. McDowell is editor and publisher of Triangle Theater Review, a FREE weekly e-mail theatrical newsletter that provides more comprehensive, in-depth coverage of Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill theater than all of the other news media combined. This review is reprinted with permission from Triangle Theater Review.

To start your FREE subscription to this newsletter, e-mail RobertM748@aol.com and type SUBSCRIBE TTR in the Subject: line.

To read all of Robert W. McDowell?s Triangle Theater Review previews and reviews online at Triangle Arts & Entertainment, click http://triangleartsandentertainment.org/author/robert-w-mcdowell/.

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Tagged as: Adam Sobsey, Akiva Fox, Jeffrey M. Jones, Manbites Dog Theater, Seventy Scenes of Halloween

Source: http://triangleartsandentertainment.org/2012/12/trick-or-treat-jeffrey-m-jones-seventy-scenes-of-halloween-at-manbites-dog-has-a-little-of-both/

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Three from California family drown in ocean trying to save dog

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A California mother and father and their 16-year-old son were swept out to sea over the weekend after a deadly chain of events set off when the teenager jumped into frigid waters to save the family dog from turbulent Pacific Ocean waves.

The dog escaped on his own from the water off the Northern California coast. But Howard Kuljian, 50, and Mary Scott, 54, of Eureka died while their 16-year-old son, Gregory Kuljian, remained lost at sea, said Deputy Ariel Gruenthal of the Humboldt County Coroner's office.

"The dog was able to get out somehow," said Dana Jones, a state parks and recreation district superintendent. "It's very sad, and we just always have to be aware when we're around the ocean that nature is sometimes out of control."

The tragedy began on Saturday afternoon while the family, including an 18-year-old daughter who was unharmed, was walking with Gregory's girlfriend along a steep beach at Big Lagoon, about 270 miles north of San Francisco, Jones said.

Howard Kuljian threw the dog a stick, she said, and a wave, possibly as high as 10 feet, pulled the animal into the water. The son went in first to try to rescue his dog, Jones said.

"Then the father went in to save the son. The mother was swept in at that point," she said. "The waves are big and powerful, and that's a very steep beach. The waves pound the beach. When the waves are pounding like that, you don't have a chance to breathe."

A bystander summoned help while Olivia Kuljian, 18, and Gregory's girlfriend, Lily Loncar, 16, watched in horror, Gruenthal said.

Rescuers found the bodies of Howard Kuljian and Scott close to the shore, Jones said. The U.S. Coast Guard searched by air and sea for Gregory, but fog, darkness and the impossibility of survival prompted them to quit on Saturday evening, said Lieutenant Bernie Carrigan of the Coast Guard.

He estimated the water temperature at between 55 and 57 degrees, so cold that hypothermia would rapidly set in, though a dog's coat would protect against it.

"It's kind of a reminder to never turn your back on the ocean," Carrigan said. "It's neat to see that kind of power. It's also dangerous."

(Editing By Cynthia Johnston and Andrew Hay)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/three-california-family-drown-ocean-trying-save-dog-225350015.html

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Spain's Catalonia punishes pro-referendum leader

The leader of center-right Catalan Nationalist Coalition (CiU), Artur Mas smiles after casting his vote during elections for the 'Generalitat de Catalunya' (Catalan Autonomous Government) in Barcelona, Sunday, Nov. 25, 2012. Voters in Catalonia begin casting their ballots in regional elections that could determine the future shape of Spain. If voters give the regional government strong support, its leader pledged to hold a referendum asking Catalans if they'd prefer to split from Spain and go it alone in the 27-member EU. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

The leader of center-right Catalan Nationalist Coalition (CiU), Artur Mas smiles after casting his vote during elections for the 'Generalitat de Catalunya' (Catalan Autonomous Government) in Barcelona, Sunday, Nov. 25, 2012. Voters in Catalonia begin casting their ballots in regional elections that could determine the future shape of Spain. If voters give the regional government strong support, its leader pledged to hold a referendum asking Catalans if they'd prefer to split from Spain and go it alone in the 27-member EU. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Voters wait to cast their ballots in a polling station in Barcelona, Spain, on Sunday, Nov. 25, 2012. Voters in Catalonia begin casting their ballots in regional elections that could determine the future shape of Spain. If voters give the regional government strong support, its leader pledged to hold a referendum asking Catalans if they'd prefer to split from Spain and go it alone in the 27-member EU. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

A woman casts her vote in a polling station in Barcelona, Spain, on Sunday, Nov. 25, 2012. Voters in Catalonia begin casting their ballots in regional elections that could determine the future shape of Spain. If voters give the regional government strong support, its leader pledged to hold a referendum asking Catalans if they'd prefer to split from Spain and go it alone in the 27-member EU. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

A voters choices his ballot paper to cast his vote in a polling station in Barcelona, Spain, on Sunday, Nov. 25, 2012. Voters in Catalonia begin casting their ballots in regional elections that could determine the future shape of Spain. If voters give the regional government strong support, its leader pledged to hold a referendum asking Catalans if they'd prefer to split from Spain and go it alone in the 27-member EU. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Voters choice their ballot papers to cast their votes in a polling station in Barcelona, Spain, on Sunday, Nov. 25, 2012. Voters in Catalonia begin casting their ballots in regional elections that could determine the future shape of Spain. If voters give the regional government strong support, its leader pledged to hold a referendum asking Catalans if they'd prefer to split from Spain and go it alone in the 27-member EU. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) ? Voters in the economically powerful region of Catalonia on Sunday punished the leader who made a referendum over breaking away from Spain a central plank of his campaign, seeing his party's majority reduced by a dozen seats.

Regional president Artur Mas called the early election as part of a power struggle with Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy regarding the size of Catalonia's contribution to national coffers. But what began as a quarrel over money turned into a test of Spain's territorial integrity.

Mas had asked the electorate to give him an absolute majority to lend weight to his Convergence and Union party's center-right policies, including the call for a referendum. Instead, voters have left him 18 votes short and in need to make a coalition to guarantee staying in power.

His party now has 50 seats in the 135-seat regional legislature.

The second-most voted party is pro-referendum Republican Left, which has been very critical of Mas' austerity drive.

"The vote is fragmented but the message is clear," said Ferran Requejo, political science professor at Barcelona's Pompeu Fabra University. "Two-thirds of the electorate voted for parties that are in favor of calling an independence referendum, but Mas has been hit hard for his austerity policies."

Mas appeared on television to thank his party for its support and to acknowledge that they could no longer rule alone as a minority government. He also said that "those who think the referendum plan has been aborted" needed to do the math.

Two pro-unity parties ? Rajoy's Popular Party and the Catalan Ciutadans ? did make modest advances, boosting their seats by seven to 28.

Catalonia is responsible for around a fifth of Spain's economic output, and many residents feel the central government gives back too little in recognition of the region's contribution.

Catalans have said during growing public protests that their industrialized region is being hit harder than most by austerity measures aimed at avoiding a national bailout like those needed by Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Cyprus.

Madrid has traditionally said that simplifying the state's financial model by excluding overall costs such as defense only creates a distorted image of how taxation and spending are distributed.

A rising tide of Catalan separatist sentiment was spurred when Rajoy failed to agree to Mas' proposals to lighten Catalonia's tax load and 1.5 million people turned out in Barcelona on Sept. 11 for the largest nationalist rally in the region since the 1970s.

These growing economic concerns have combined with a longstanding nationalist streak in Catalonia, which has its own cultural traditions that were harshly repressed by the military dictatorship of Francisco Franco from the end of Spain's Civil War in 1939, to Franco's death in 1975.

One of the most potent symbols of the divisions distancing Catalonia and the country's capital city can be seen in the bitter rivalry between the Barcelona and Real Madrid soccer clubs.

In recent years grassroots groups have held unofficial referendums on independence in towns throughout the region, while some small villages have gone to the extreme of declaring themselves "free Catalan territories."

Catalans are viewed by most Spaniards as thrifty, hardworking people, and most ? not least many Catalans ? have been shocked by how their regional debt has swelled to ?42 billion ($54.4 billion) of the staggering ?140 billion debt ascribed to all of Spain's regional governments.

The economic crisis has highlighted the high cost of running Spain's 17 semi-autonomous regions alongside a central government. The Catalan government has had to ask for a ?5 billion ($6.5 million) bailout from Spain like other indebted regions.

Mas' government counters that each year it contributes ?16 billion ($21 billion) more than it gets back from Spain. It also complains that important infrastructure projects needed to revive Spain's sick economy are being left unfunded.

Even so, many people feel they are both Catalan and Spanish, and are wary of the idea of trying to divide the country.

"We are not separatists, we want to remain part of Spain," said retired industrial designer Francisco Palau, 69, who emerged from a polling station alongside his wife. "We defend current plurality," he said, adding that setting up a new state and government "would be very expensive."

___

Harold Heckle reported from Madrid.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-11-25-Spain-Regional%20Election/id-425fdb43aa6e43528df5556e44189bbe

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Tonight, on the Greatest Android Podcast in the World!

Two weeks in a row? This could turn into a thing. We're back once again for another edition of the Android Central Podcast. Coming up in Episode 110, we'll have the lowdown on the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 (you've read our review, right?), the Android-powered Nikon Coolpix S800c camera, all the new stuff from HTC, and more of your e-mails and voicemails.

So join Phil and the gang -- and, of course, the chat room -- live tonight at 2 a.m. BST / 9 p.m. EDT / 6 p.m. PDT for the live broadcast. You should be there. You will be there. You must be there. After all, you are what makes it the Greatest Android Podcast in the World.

Not at a computer? Pick up the free UStream Viewer from Google Play [link] and search for Mobile Nations a little before the show (it won't appear until we go live). We'll see you there! AndroidCentral.com/live

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/ZpJ7MI5uHfs/story01.htm

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Striking SAfrican miners find strength in numbers

CARLETONVILLE, South Africa (AP) ? Strikes are slowly paralyzing South Africa's critically important mining industry.

About 80,000 miners, or 16 percent of the country's total mining workforce, are striking across South Africa, according to Lesiba Seshoka of the National Union of Mineworkers.

The strikers are inspired by Marikana, where last month platinum miners got a pay raise of up to 22 percent in an agreement that settled an illegal strike whose level of violence shocked the nation.

In the weeks since the Marikana strike ended, unrest has affected several gold and platinum mines and weakened South Africa's image as an investment destination. The strikes have hit AngloGold Ashanti, a top gold producer in South Africa, and Anglo American Platinum, the world's largest producer of platinum. The labor unrest has even spread to the nation's truckers.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-10-04-South%20Africa-Strikes/id-b99938db755b41caa97f71fa8ec07f1d

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Green Weenie of the Week: David Letterman (Powerlineblog)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

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Video: ISM Non-Manufacturing Index 55.1

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Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/49273163/

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NASA's infrared observatory measures expansion of universe

ScienceDaily (Oct. 3, 2012) ? Astronomers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have announced the most precise measurement yet of the Hubble constant, or the rate at which our universe is stretching apart.

The Hubble constant is named after the astronomer Edwin P. Hubble, who astonished the world in the 1920s by confirming our universe has been expanding since it exploded into being 13.7 billion years ago. In the late 1990s, astronomers discovered the expansion is accelerating, or speeding up over time. Determining the expansion rate is critical for understanding the age and size of the universe.

Unlike NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, which views the cosmos in visible light, Spitzer took advantage of long-wavelength infrared light to make its new measurement. It improves by a factor of 3 on a similar, seminal study from the Hubble telescope and brings the uncertainty down to 3 percent, a giant leap in accuracy for cosmological measurements. The newly refined value for the Hubble constant is 74.3 plus or minus 2.1 kilometers per second per megaparsec. A megaparsec is roughly 3 million light-years.

"Spitzer is yet again doing science beyond what it was designed to do," said project scientist Michael Werner at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. Werner has worked on the mission since its early concept phase more than 30 years ago. "First, Spitzer surprised us with its pioneering ability to study exoplanet atmospheres," said Werner, "and now, in the mission's later years, it has become a valuable cosmology tool."

In addition, the findings were combined with published data from NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe to obtain an independent measurement of dark energy, one of the greatest mysteries of our cosmos. Dark energy is thought to be winning a battle against gravity, pulling the fabric of the universe apart. Research based on this acceleration garnered researchers the 2011 Nobel Prize in physics.

"This is a huge puzzle," said the lead author of the new study, Wendy Freedman of the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Pasadena. "It's exciting that we were able to use Spitzer to tackle fundamental problems in cosmology: the precise rate at which the universe is expanding at the current time, as well as measuring the amount of dark energy in the universe from another angle." Freedman led the groundbreaking Hubble Space Telescope study that earlier had measured the Hubble constant.

Glenn Wahlgren, Spitzer program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said infrared vision, which sees through dust to provide better views of variable stars called cepheids, enabled Spitzer to improve on past measurements of the Hubble constant.

"These pulsating stars are vital rungs in what astronomers call the cosmic distance ladder: a set of objects with known distances that, when combined with the speeds at which the objects are moving away from us, reveal the expansion rate of the universe," said Wahlgren.

Cepheids are crucial to the calculations because their distances from Earth can be measured readily. In 1908, Henrietta Leavitt discovered these stars pulse at a rate directly related to their intrinsic brightness.

To visualize why this is important, imagine someone walking away from you while carrying a candle. The farther the candle traveled, the more it would dim. Its apparent brightness would reveal the distance. The same principle applies to cepheids, standard candles in our cosmos. By measuring how bright they appear on the sky, and comparing this to their known brightness as if they were close up, astronomers can calculate their distance from Earth.

Spitzer observed 10 cepheids in our own Milky Way galaxy and 80 in a nearby neighboring galaxy called the Large Magellanic Cloud. Without the cosmic dust blocking their view, the Spitzer research team was able to obtain more precise measurements of the stars' apparent brightness, and thus their distances. These data opened the way for a new and improved estimate of our universe's expansion rate.

"Just over a decade ago, using the words 'precision' and 'cosmology' in the same sentence was not possible, and the size and age of the universe was not known to better than a factor of two," said Freedman. "Now we are talking about accuracies of a few percent. It is quite extraordinary."

The study appears in the Astrophysical Journal. Freedman's co-authors are Barry Madore, Victoria Scowcroft, Chris Burns, Andy Monson, S. Eric Person and Mark Seibert of the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution and Jane Rigby of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Data are archived at the Infrared Science Archive housed at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at Caltech. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. For more information about Spitzer, visit http://spitzer.caltech.edu and http://www.nasa.gov/spitzer .

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Wendy L. Freedman, Barry F. Madore, Victoria Scowcroft, Chris Burns, Andy Monson, S. Eric Persson, Mark Seibert, Jane Rigby. Carnegie Hubble Program: A Mid-Infrared Calibration of the Hubble Constant. The Astrophysical Journal, 2012; 758 (1): 24 DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/758/1/24

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/Sm4pfJzh-Zc/121003134808.htm

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New Series: Love, Sex and Relationships - New Denver Church ...

October 2, 2012

Flirting. Hanging out. Dating. [Love] Hook ups. Break ups. Will you? I do. Marriage. [Sex] Divorce. Re-marriage. [Relationships] ? they?re a big part of our life. When they?re going well, it seems like our life is so much better. When they?re broken or non-existent, it often seems like life is more difficult or we?re missing out on something important. Why is that? Whether you?re married, single or somewhere in between, we hope you?ll join us October 7, 14, and 21st as we explore the scripture to find what the creator of relationships has to say about Love, Sex, and Relationships.

Comments

Source: http://newdenver.org/2012/10/02/new-series-love-sex-and-relationships/

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Moderate Media Bias And The Illusion Of Debate Over Ex-Gay ...

You are here: Home ? Commentary ? Moderate Media Bias And The Illusion Of Debate Over Ex-Gay Therapy

Posted by: Bridgette P. LaVictoire on October 3, 2012.

Yesterday Think Progress ran a story about CNN giving air time to David Pickup of NARTH. The ex-gay therapist went on the show to try, apparently, to attack California?s ban on children being forced into ex-gay therapy. One of the things that Pickup loves to do is claim that homosexuality is caused by sexual trauma. Here is their transcript of the exchange and the video:

PICKUP: The parent asks for, first of all, what fits for the child? The parent says that the child is distressed, usually because he?s had something happen in his life that has caused his homosexual feelings. And the child, who is the client, most importantly, confirms that, and says he needs help because he?s distressed over homosexual feelings. [...]

There many thousands of people all over the world, probably multiple of thousands, who believe for them, there is a cause-and-effect nature of homosexuality, and usually it happens because of a severe gender identity inferiority, lack of emotional unmet needs from the time one is a child ? from usually the same-sex parent, and there?s a lot of inner wounds we discover in therapy. The short version is: when those wounds get healed, the homosexual feelings ? we don?t force them away, they naturally, spontaneously dissipate.

Let us throw out all the usual run of how this kind of therapy has been proven to not only be ineffective, but damaging to those who are forced to under go it. Yes, there are a very few cases out there where a person may end up being traumatized into same-sex relationships. There are some lesbians who have been so traumatized by their experiences with men- usually through repeated sexual abuse- that they eschew all relationships with men. There are some men who, due to sexual trauma, end up preferring sex with other men. The thing is, these are a tiny, tiny fraction of the overall LGBT population. They are about as common as gay men or lesbians who undergo sex change operations in hopes of avoiding the internal stigma of being gay without, well, realizing that they could come out the other end of the process still being gay.

What is important to discuss is kind of tucked at the end of the article and should be far more elaborated. Think Progress wrote ?Baldwin and Cohen did their best to push back against his quackery, but the better choice would have been not to give him or any ex-gay therapist airtime at all. As the Washington Post?s Erik Wemple responded yesterday, ?The public has heard enough of their garbage.??

People often kvetch about the bias in the media. They scream over the Conservative bias at FOX or the Liberal bias at MSNBC. Bias in the media is nothing new. In fact, bias is woven throughout the media and cannot be avoided. In many ways, it is best to know what the bias is and adjust your reading and viewing habits accordingly.

There is a far more insidious form of media bias called Moderate Bias. In this case, CNN falls into it, but then again, so does MSNBC and FOX. In an effort to appear fair and balanced, the media often brings in people who are not reliable sources of information. For instance, while discussing Climate Change, these networks will try to provide the other point of view. They will show clips from scientists who disagree with the prevailing wisdom and offer a sometimes false sense of balance to their thinking.

This has allowed a lot of dangerous thinking to flourish. For instance, take the ?debate? over Creationism. This is a false debate perpetuated by the media. The evidence that the Christian God created the world some 10,000 years ago is, well, pretty non-existent while the evidence that the world was created millions of years ago is pretty substantial. However, charges of being anti-Christian has lead to the media offering a ?balance? to their coverage whereby they give credence to this idea that the world was created 10,000 years ago. With this tacit media approval of this idea comes power and acceptance.

Part of the problem is, of course, FOX. The network was founded and is run for the sole purpose of giving power to the Conservative mentality, and their anti-fact biases are used to push the rest of the media into accepting the anti-fact groups. Unfortunately, this anti-fact bias creates problems when it comes to everything from education to economics.

For instance, biology relies upon evolutionary theory in order to understand the creation and changes inherent to the various species over time. Can evolution be reconciled with religious beliefs? Certainly, but that discussion?s place is not in the biology classroom, but rather in a church or in a philosophy or theology class.

The point in this, since this could go on for pages, is that it is time to start pushing back against Moderate Bias and to demand less opinion and more fact in the media. It is time to isolate or eliminate those voices that are only willing to rely upon opinion or religious ?fact? and for us to rely upon actual information when it comes to our discussions.

Source: http://lezgetreal.com/2012/10/moderate-media-bias-and-the-illusion-of-debate-over-ex-gay-therapy/

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84-year-old woman rescued after car crashes into ocean (VIDEO)

Rescuers pull 84-year-old Ursula Nixon from her submerged vehicle. (Live Leak)An elderly woman escaped almost certain death after a group of strangers bravely dived into the ocean to save her after her car crashed into the water.

The Portland Press Herald reports that 84-year-old Ursula Nixon lost control of her car, driving through two fences and submerging her blue Nissan into Maine's Portland Harbor.

"It looked like it was barreling pretty fast," Michael Wells, one of the rescuers, told the paper. "I saw it go over the edge and then water splashed up."

Katie Nelson was first in the water, climbing on top of the sinking vehicle and then through the car's rear window to pull Nixon out to safety.

"I just remember pulling myself up and looking in at her and there was water all in the front of the car and she was in the front seat," Nelson told local NBC affiliate WCSH 6. "I said, 'Hi, I'm Katie,' and she's like, 'I don't want to die in here, I'm going to drown.' And I'm like, 'No, no you're not. You're going to grab my hands and we're going to pull you out.'"

In a video taken of the rescue, the car drops beneath the surface of the ocean just moments after Nixon's rescuers pull her from the vehicle.

Luckily for Nixon, two police officers were nearby, along with a group of firefighters, who were in the middle of rescue training exercises.

After Wells and Nixon emerged from the car, Lt. Robert Slaving swam Nixon back to shore. She was then taken to Maine Medical Center, where she was listed as being in fair condition.

Nearly 30 individuals joined in the rescue effort. No one was seriously hurt, though several people were treated on site for hypothermia. Police are still investigating the exact cause of the crash.

"Her only worry when she got out of the water was did she hurt anybody," Wells told the Herald.

You can watch the full video of Nixon's rescue below:

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/84-old-woman-rescued-car-crashes-ocean-video-215819021.html

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NHL, locked-out players meet for 3rd straight day

NEW YORK (AP) ? The NHL and the Players' Association are meeting for the third straight day to try to resolve the lockout.

The sides met for about four hours Saturday, and they agreed to meet again Sunday. The agenda likely will include discussions on health and safety issues.

Core economic issues still weren't on the agenda Saturday when the opposing groups got together again at the NHL office.

Sunday's talks came three days after the league canceled the remaining preseason games. The regular season is scheduled to start Oct. 11.

If a deal isn't reached soon, regular-season games will be in danger of being lost. The NHL canceled the entire 2004-05 season because of a lockout that eventually led to the collective bargaining agreement that expired this month.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nhl-locked-players-meet-3rd-straight-day-152248765--nhl.html

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Re: 'ATM file deleted' message - Family Tree Maker software ...

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://boards.ancestry.co.uk/topics.software.famtreemaker/9008.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1/mb.ashx

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Tattle tell or justified reporting? - Adoption.com Forums

Tattle tell or justified reporting?

---

So I just need your take on this, I'm pretty sure I'm going to call the social worker anyways just because it bothers my husband so much. So Giggles has been having trouble and waking up in the middle of the night (well about 3 am) and she runs screaming through the house. So I called her previous foster parents/hopefully soon to be adoptive parents and asked them for some advice. Her response? Oh yeah, we just put the lock on the outside of the door. I'd put her to bed at 7:30 and lock it and go get her when I woke up at 7. Um what? First off I though it was against the rules to put the lock on the outside of the door. Second I'm certain its not alright to lock a 2 year old in a room and let her scream herself to sleep and not check on her until you feel like waking up. I'm pretty sure this is a reporting to case worker type of thing I just don't want her to be annoyed and think I'm a tattle tell. Opinions?

Source: http://forums.adoption.com/foster-parent-support/408343-tattle-tell-justified-reporting.html

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PFT: Heyward-Bey officially ruled out for Sunday

Reuters

The Giants believe they?ve drawn the blueprint for how to defend Michael Vick, and they?re looking to continue to add pressure.

While many teams are hesitant to rush any athletic quarterback for fear of what happens when they break containment, the Giants want to put the pressure on the Eagles quarterback for the cumulative effect.

?As a quarterback who runs a lot, you should expect to get hit even more even when you stand in the pocket. You?re going to get hit,? Giants defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul said, via Jorge Castillo of the Newark Star-Ledger. ?We?re coming; we?re going to hit you regardless so whether you throw the ball or you run the ball, we?re going to hit you. If you throw the ball and release it, as long as we get there before he releases the ball, we can hit him.

?The ref?s the only one who can tell us no.?

The last time the Giants played him, they broke his right hand, knocking him out of the game briefly. He complained that many teams, including the Giants, were hitting him late. But he?s taking enough legal hits to necessitate a different plan.

?He?s not inhuman,? Giants defensive tackle Rocky Bernard said. ?You can?t take that many hits and survive in this league, so they?re going to have to change something.?

Of course, teams are hitting Vick early and often this year. He?s been hit 29 times and sacked nine in three games, with 13 hits and five sacks by the Cardinals last week.

?A lot of teams took what we did,? Pierre-Paul said. ?I was watching the Arizona game. Whew! They were killing him out there, man. He needs to get rid of the ball faster.?

At the rate he?s taking shots, if he doesn?t get the ball out quicker, he may not make it through another Giants game, or many other ones.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/09/29/raiders-downgrade-darrius-heyward-bey-will-miss-broncos-game/related

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Rob, Kristen y Taylor mandaron un mensaje de despedida por el final de la saga Twilight en Mexico

Source: http://lasagarobsten.blogspot.com/2012/09/rob-kristen-y-taylor-mandaron-un.html

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Honey bees fight back against Varroa

Friday, September 28, 2012

The parasitic mite Varroa destructor is a major contributor to the recent mysterious death of honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Genome Biology finds that specific proteins, released by damaged larvae and in the antennae of adult honey bees, can drive hygienic behavior of the adults and promote the removal of infected larvae from the hive.

V. destructor sucks the blood (hemolymph) of larval and adult bees leaving them weakened and reducing the ability of their immune systems to fight off infections. Not that honey bees have strong immune systems in the first place since they have fewer immunity genes than solitary insects such as flies and moths. These tiny mites can also spread viral disease between hosts. This double onslaught is thought to be a significant contributor to Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD).

But all is not lost - honey bees have evolved a way to fight back: hygienic behavior where diseased or parasitized larvae are removed from their brood cells, and Varroa-sensitive hygienic behavior which they use to reduce the number of reproductive mites on remaining larvae.

To find exactly how bees respond to hive infections, researchers from Canada looked at the natural behavioral of bees in the presence of damaged larvae and compared this to protein differences in the larvae and adults. After scanning 1200 proteins the team found that several proteins, including LOC552009 (of unknown function but similar to ApoO), found in the antennae of adults were associated with both uncapping brood cells and the removal of larvae. Other proteins were involved in olfaction or in signal transduction, probably helping the adults find infected larvae amongst a brood.

In damaged larvae, transglutaminase, a protein involved in blood clotting, was upregulated, which appeared to be a key component in regulating the adult's behavior. Other proteins indicated adaptations to help fight infection, including chitin biosynthesis and immune responses.

Dr Leonard Foster from CHIBI at the University of British Columbia, who led this research said, "Bee keepers have previously focused on selecting bees with traits such as enhanced honey production, gentleness and winter survival. We have found a set of proteins which could be used to select colonies on their ability to resist Varroa mite infestation and can be used to find individuals with increased hygienic behavior. Given the increasing resistance of Varroa to available drugs this would provide a natural way of ensuring honey farming and potentially survival of the species."

###

BioMed Central: http://www.biomedcentral.com

Thanks to BioMed Central for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

This press release has been viewed 86 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/123968/Honey_bees_fight_back_against_Varroa

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'ATM file deleted' message - Family Tree Maker software - Family ...

My ATM tree is NOT deleted, I've looking at it all morning. However, after I did a bit of work there I brought up FTM2012 to sync and it said the linked ATM file had been deleted and it gave me a button to push to unlink from that missing tree!!!

Deep breaths... didn't push the button, closed FTM, checked on Ancestry, confirmed tree is there, brought up FTM again - now it will sync. Hope it finishes... don't panic!

:( Same result. Now what?

Source: http://boards.ancestry.co.uk/topics.software.famtreemaker/9008/mb.ashx

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The money drives them to run

New Delhi, Sep 28

Some take to sport simply for sheer pleasure of playing and some others strive to excel in a competitive world. The Suresh Kumar is seen as a star runner by the fans, but the defending champion of the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon in the elite category for Indian men says he runs only for the money.

"I run only for money," said Suresh, who is essentially a 1500-5000 metres runner.

The 21-year-old Varanasi athlete, who finished 11th in the 1500 metres in the 2010 New Delhi Commonwealth Games, is running in his only second half marathon Sunday.

"Actually, in track and field events your first-place finish will fetch you only Rs.10,000-15,000 as prize money while prize purse for the Delhi Half Marathon is Rs.200,000 so obviously we prefer to run in these events," Suresh told IANS.

Suresh's views were also echoed by Soji Mathew, who won the Mumbai Half Marathon in January, clocking 1:05.29. However, Mathew's best ever performance in Delhi has only been third in 2009.

"The prize money in Mumbai is Rs.100,000. Though the publicity is more in Mumbai the prize money here is better," said the 31-year-old from Alappuzha, Kerala.

Why don't they run a full marathon as the prize on offer is much more?

"We are not suited to that form of racing. We need to train much more for a full marathon. We know the prize money is more but it also takes a toll on the body. To recover from a 42km race we need at least a month while six days of rest is enough for a half Marathon," said Mathew.

The elite Indian athletes also have an added incentive as they can get a bonus of Rs.100,000 if they set a course record.

Source: http://www.prokerala.com/news/articles/a330839.html

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Construction Industry CMIC Sonora Bet to new generations ...

The Mexican Chamber of Construction Industry (CMIC), Socially Responsible Company (ESR), has trained in free at more than 350 college students in new ways of building in 3D projects for developing software with electronic planes Building Information Modeling (BIM), to position Sonora at the forefront in the development of all kinds of works. CMIC Chairman of Delegation Sonora, Jesus Roberto Ayala Sitten, said that through the Training Institute of Construction Industry (ICIC), it is intended that the new generation of professionals in the industry have all the necessary tools so that are the best trained in the country, Latin America and the world

The 50 percent of students qualified belong to the University of Sonora and the rest are from the Universidad del Valle de Mexico (UVM), Durango Santander and Tecnol?gico de Monterrey. This preparation process also involved professors from different universities because the purpose of the CMIC is that top-level institutions impart to students subjects that the labor required for their professional development, to be prepared in the workplace requiring productivity, competitiveness and high performance. Sitten CMIC Ayala said that Sonora, continues to push very hard planning new construction in three dimensions, which is a method of building more practical and economical.

He said that in the United States and can not use the program ?AutoCAD? which is a computer aided drafting, and now the whole procedure and plannings of the buildings are fully digital and three-dimensional. He said the buildings now require programming in Building Information Modeling (BIM), modern and versatile method that allows you to build all types of construction such as roads buildings, structures, cut and fill mining, among others.

Therefore, business Chamber members, architects, builders and students majoring in engineering and architecture from different universities in the state have participated in the training of this advanced software that calculates space, cost and dimensions on buildings to create and also detects failures built for correction, Jesus said Roberto Ayala Sitten.

Source: http://www.optimizacijaspletnihstrani.net/construction-industry/construction-industry-cmic-sonora-bet-to-new-generations.html

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Rwanda economy grows 9.4 pct in 2011/12 fiscal

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Natural Health News: Better Let Go of that Cell Phone

Natural Health News has over 100 posts about cell phone and health, use our search window to read more...

By Allan H. Frey | September 25, 2012

Recently, Congress tasked its investigative arm, the General Accountability Office (GAO), to consider the health risks of mobile phones and to report back to Congress. While a?previous report?published in May 2010 by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stated that there was no evidence of increased health risk resulting from exposure to the radiofrequency (microwave) energy emitted by cell phones, the World Health Organization?reported the following year?that cell phone radiation may be carcinogenic. Also in 2011, the director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse published a paper in?JAMA?reporting that 50 minutes of cell phone use by people altered glucose metabolism in the part of the brain closest to where the cell phone antennas were located. This summer, the GAO completed the task and sent a?report?to Congress stating that the risks were unclear and deserved greater scrutiny from the government.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ??should formally reassess and, if appropriate, change its current RF energy (microwave) exposure limit and mobile phone testing requirements related to likely usage configurations, particularly when phones are held against the body,? the GAO wrote.

The controversy over whether the technology poses a risk to human health is substantial. And while much of science could be considered controversial, what has, and is, happening in microwave research is not a routine scientific dispute. Concerns about the health risks of cell phones, confusion regarding the evidence for or against such risks, and even misinformation in the scientific literature may all be collateral damage of the Cold War between the USSR and the United States. This was a time when the use of microwave-generating equipment, such as radar, was seen by some as critical to the security of the United States, and efforts were taken to ensure that such innovations were not suppressed by findings that suggested such technology to be unsafe.

Hiding data

During the Cold War, a group at Brooks Air Force Base (AFB) was tasked with reassuring residents when the Air Force wanted to install radar (microwaves) in their neighborhood. To meet that responsibility, the Brooks group hired contractors to write Environmental Impact Statements to justify the placing of the radars?an obvious conflict of interest. Even worse, when a scientist did publish findings that might indicate a risk, Brooks selected contractors to do experiments that suggested the scientist?s research was invalid or not relevant to the safety of Air Force radar.

For example, after my colleagues and I?published?in 1975 that exposure to very weak microwave radiation opens the regulatory interface known as the blood brain barrier (bbb), a critical protection for the brain, the Brooks AFB group selected a contractor to supposedly replicate our experiment. For 2 years, this contractor presented data at scientific conferences stating that microwave radiation had no effect on the bbb. After much pressure from the scientific community, he finally revealed that he had not, in fact, replicated our work. We had injected dye into the femoral vein of lab rats after exposure to microwaves and observed the dye in the brain within 5 minutes. The Brooks contractor had stuck a needle into the animals? bellies and sprayed the dye onto their intestines. Thus it is no surprise that when he looked at the brain 5 minutes later, he did not see any dye; the dye had yet to make it into the circulatory system. Another Brooks AFB responsibility that further incentivized the spreading of misinformation was to lead a lab on a classified microwave-bio weapons program. Competition between this effort and the microwave-bio research programs undoubtedly going on in other nations at the time would explain the Brooks group?s attempts to block and discredit unclassified research in the microwave area and the subsequent publication of the results: it did not want advances in knowledge to appear in the scientific literature where the USSR could benefit from it. This is not unlike the?recent uproar?over whether bird flu results should be published?or even done at all?because of the fear that they may help terrorists develop biological weapons.

Stalling funding

In addition to actively suppressing results of microwave-bio research, the Brooks group also attempted to block funding for such research in the first place?and largely succeeded. For example, after we and others published the first papers in the mid- to late-?70s showing that very low intensity microwaves could open the bbb, the Department of Defense (DOD) issued a report, written by a psychologist at a Kansas Veterans Administration hospital who was neither trained nor experienced in research on the bbb, that concluded ??if a real potential for catastrophic effects exists, it would be evident from the research already reported in the literature.? (An original draft of the report also noted that ?DOD funding of research evaluating the effects of microwaves on the bbb should be of low priority,? though this statement was removed before the report was released to the public.)

Largely as a consequence of this report, funding for open microwave-bio research in the United States was essentially shut down. Several months after the report was released, I requested renewal of government funding, which in part supported research on the bbb. I received a letter stating that funding would not be granted unless I dropped the bbb part of the proposal. And in a September 1981 article in?Microwave News, 2 years later, the editor wrote, ?Surprisingly, no new [bbb] work was reported this year.? Even now, the recent GAO report states, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) ?is the only federal agency we interviewed that is directly funding ongoing studies on health effects of RF energy (microwave radiation) from mobile phone use.? And the NIH funded only one relevant completed experiment, by an in-house researcher, during the time the GAO did its assessment. For many years now most of the published microwave research?what little that has been done?has been conducted in other countries. And as I noted in a?recent paper, many, if not most, of those have been epidemiological studies looking for health problems associated with outdated technologies that are not relevant to the phones used today or that will be used in the future.

Thus, the shutdown of normal open microwave research in the U.S. and the misinformation placed in the literature appears to be collateral damage of the actions of people who saw themselves as fighting a war. And since the research was not allowed to proceed in the normal fashion, we don?t have the set of data needed to determine if there is a?health hazard of mobile phone use?and, if so, how serious the hazard is.? This suppression of research has now made hundreds of millions of people subjects in a grand experiment that may involve their health, without their informed consent, and the outcome of which can have substantial medical, legal, and economic consequences.

Source: http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2012/09/better-let-go-of-that-cell-phone.html

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2 G4S officers resign after Olympics debacle

LONDON (AP) ? Two leading officials at G4S have quit following the company's poor handling of the Olympics and Paralympics security contract, but chief executive Nick Buckles has held onto his job.

In a statement Friday, G4S said Chief Operating Officer David Taylor-Smith and Ian Horseman Sewell, managing director of global events, have resigned for the debacle which cost the company both in terms of money and reputation. In the run-up to the Olympics, which started in late July, the British Army was called in to plug gaping holes in G4S's plans.

Though G4S said the CEO has "ultimate responsibility" for the company's performance, it said a review of the debacle did not uncover "significant shortcomings" in Buckles' performance or in his handling of the Olympics contract.

The board's review said the company failed to recognize the challenges the Olympic contract would impose because of its scope, and added that ineffective monitoring and tracking of the security workforce led to problems.

Chairman John Connolly said the company will learn from its mistakes and strengthen its management and governance procedures. The company also announced a series of changes designed to prevent future problems.

Keith Vaz, chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, said G4S had made "the right decision" but cannot yet close the book on the Olympic fiasco because of outstanding fiscal issues, including the waiving of management fees and other payments.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/2-g4s-officers-resign-olympics-debacle-080811923--finance.html

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'Moon River' singer Andy Williams dies at 84

By Bob Thomas and Jim Salter, The Associated Press

ST. LOUIS -- Andy Williams, the silky-voiced, clean-cut crooner, whose hit recording "Moon River" and years of popular Christmas TV shows brought him fans the world over has died, his publicist said. He was 84.

Larry Busacca / Getty Images file

Andy Williams performs during the 40th Annual Songwriters Hall of Fame Ceremony at The New York Marriott Marquis on June 18, 2009.

Williams died Tuesday night at his home in Branson following a yearlong battle with bladder cancer, his Los Angeles-based publicist, Paul Shefrin, said Wednesday.

With an easy style and a mellow voice that President Ronald Reagan once termed "a national treasure," Williams proved ideal for television. "The Andy Williams Show," which lasted in various formats from 1957 to 1971, featured Williams alternately performing his stable of easy-listening ballads and bantering casually with his guest stars. He received 18 gold and three platinum albums over his long career and was nominated for five Grammy awards. He released an autobiography in 2009, "Moon River and Me: A Memoir."

It was on that show that Williams ? who launched his own career as part of an all-brother quartet ? introduced the world to the original four singing Osmond Brothers of Utah. Their younger sibling Donny also made his debut on Williams' show, in 1963 when he was 6 years old.

Check out a sampling of Williams' music in this Spotify playlist:

Four decades later, the Osmonds and Williams would find themselves in close proximity again, sharing Williams' theater in Branson, Mo., during the 2003 season.

The singer's unflappable manner on television and in concert mirrored his offstage demeanor.

"I guess I've never really been aggressive, although almost everybody else in show business fights and gouges and knees to get where they want to be," he once said. "My trouble is, I'm not constructed temperamentally along those lines."

Williams' clean-cut persona, which made him a popular act in conservative Branson, also carried over into his personal life. He was connected with scandal only once ? indirectly ? when his ex-wife, former Las Vegas showgirl Claudine Longet, shot her lover, skiing champion Spider Sabich, to death in 1976. The Rolling Stones mocked the tragedy in the song "Claudine."

Longet, who said it was an accident, spent only a week in jail, and Williams provided support for her and their children, Noelle, Christian and Robert.

Born in Wall Lake, Iowa, on Dec. 3, 1927, Howard Andrew Williams began performing with his older brothers Dick, Bob and Don in the local Presbyterian church choir when he was 8. Their father, a postal worker, was the choirmaster.

Soon after, the Williams Brothers Quartet landed a regular spot on Des Moines radio station WHO's Iowa Barn Dance. The show quickly brought attention from Chicago, Cincinnati and Hollywood.

They joined Bing Crosby in recording the hit "Swinging on a Star" in 1944 for Crosby's film "Going My Way," and Andy, barely a teenager, was picked to dub Lauren Bacall's voice on a song for the film "To Have and Have Not." His voice stayed in the film until the preview, when it was cut because it didn't sound like Bacall's.

Later the brothers worked with Kay Thompson, a singer who had taken a position as vocal coach at MGM studios, working with Judy Garland, June Allyson and others.

After three months of training, Thompson and the Williams Brothers broke in their show at the El Rancho Room in Las Vegas to a huge ovation. They drew rave reviews in New York, Los Angeles and across the nation, earning a peak of $25,000 a week.

Williams, analyzing their success, once said: "Somehow we managed to work up and sustain an almost unbearable pitch of speed and rhythm."

After five years, the three older brothers, who were starting their own families, had tired of the constant travel and left to pursue other careers.

Williams initially struggled as a solo act and was so broke at one point that he resorted to eating food intended for his two dogs.

"I had no money for food, so I ate it," he recalled in 2001, "and it actually was damned good."

A two-year TV stint on Steve Allen's "Tonight Show" and a contract with Cadence Records turned things around.

"The Andy Williams Show" followed, along with a host of gold albums and records. Among his hit records: "Canadian Sunset," "The Hawaiian Wedding Song," "Dear Heart," "Days of Wine and Roses," the theme from the movie "Love Story" and "Charade."

After leaving TV, Williams headed back on the road, where his many Christmas shows and albums made him a huge draw during the holidays. One year in Des Moines, however, a snowstorm kept the customers away, and the band's equipment failed to reach Chicago in time for the next night's show, forcing the musicians to borrow instruments from a high school band.

"No more tours," Williams decreed.

He decided to settle in Branson, the self-proclaimed "live entertainment capital of the country," with its dozens of theaters featuring live music, comedy and magic acts.

When he arrived in 1992, the town was dominated by country music performers, but Williams changed that, building the classy, $13 million Andy Williams Moon River Theater in the heart of the city's entertainment district and performing two shows a night, six days a week, nine months of the year. Only in recent years did he begin to cut back to one show a night.

Not surprisingly, his most popular time of the year was Christmas, although he acknowledged that not everyone in Hollywood accepted his move to the Midwest.

"The fact is most of my friends in L.A. still think I'm nuts for coming here," he told The Associated Press in 1998.

He and his second wife, the former Debbie Haas, divided their time between homes in Branson and Palm Springs, where he spent his leisure hours on the golf course when Branson's theaters were dark during the winter months following Christmas.

Retirement was not on his schedule. As he told the AP in 2001: "I'll keep going until I get to the point where I can't get out on stage."

He continued to perform even after announcing his bladder cancer diagnosis in 2011.

Williams is survived by his wife, Debbie, and his three children, Robert, Noelle and Christian.

Source: http://todayentertainment.today.com/_news/2012/09/26/14111130-singer-andy-williams-dies-at-84-after-battle-with-cancer?lite

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