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To: JohnM who wrote (27603)	2/4/2010 9:51:27 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 51753

;-)

To: JohnM who wrote (27603)	2/4/2010 11:45:45 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 51753

New York Under Storm Watch, New Jersey Gets Blizzard Warning By Brian K. Sullivan Feb. 4 (Bloomberg) -- A winter storm watch was posted for New York City and a blizzard warning for southern New Jersey today as a system heading for the East Coast threatened to drop more than 2 feet of snow in the Washington-Baltimore area. The snowfall in New York City will begin after tomorrow’s evening rush, tapering off the following morning, said Rick Castro, a spokesman for the National Weather Service in Upton, New York. Six to 8 inches (15 to 20 centimeters) is possible across most of the city, while 9 inches may fall in Brooklyn and Staten Island, he said. “There has been somewhat of a shift north today in the model guidance, and it has given our forecasters enough confidence to issue the winter storm watch,” Castro said by telephone. The storm, which prompted alerts as far south as Georgia, may cover the Washington-Baltimore area with as much as 24 inches of snow, the agency said. Parts of Virginia, including Charlottesville and Petersburg, may receive 28 inches. “The Baltimore-D.C.-Philadelphia corridor will be hit hard,” said Tom Kines, a senior meteorologist at AccuWeather Inc. in State College, Pennsylvania. Southern New Jersey, including Atlantic City, and Delaware have been placed under a blizzard warning beginning tomorrow at 4 p.m., according to the National Weather Service in Mount Holly, New Jersey. ‘Red Alert’ “We’re preparing to go to red alert,” Sandy Roumillat, a spokeswoman for the Delaware Department of Transportation, said in an interview today. The department is laying in extra road salt and doing equipment checks to get ready. As much as 2 feet of snow is possible in the southern New Jersey and Delaware area and gusts may reduce visibility to less than a quarter-mile. “This will lead to white-out conditions making travel extremely dangerous,” according to the weather service bulletin. The snow is likely to miss most of New England’s resort areas in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, although the storm will be a benefit to ski operations in Virginia and Pennsylvania as the February school vacations approach, Kines said. “While it is bad for some people, some are cheering,” he said by telephone. Slick Roads Kines said the snow will probably be light and fluffy, which makes shoveling easier while making roads slick and driving dangerous. The National Weather Service said the Washington and Baltimore areas should “plan for substantial disruptions to travel Friday afternoon through the weekend.” If more than 8 inches falls in Washington, above-ground Metro service will be suspended, according to a Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority alert. The storm is also expected to drop 6 to 12 inches of snow on Philadelphia and Wilmington, Delaware, the weather service said. Elsewhere, a storm is expected to move ashore in Los Angeles tomorrow, dropping as much as 2 inches of rain in the city and as much as 4 inches in the foothills, said Jamie Meier, a weather service meteorologist in Oxnard, California. The heaviest rain will fall in areas that had fires about six months ago, raising the possibility of mudslides in those areas, she said. Kines said that storm may develop into a major East Coast storm by the middle of next week. To contact the reporter on this story: Brian K. Sullivan in Boston at bsullivan10@bloomberg.net. Last Updated: February 4, 2010 16:31 EST

To: JohnM who wrote (27603)	2/6/2010 7:02:55 AM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 51753

Ellsberg Documentary Attracts Wide Audience / by Tamara Straus Published on Friday, February 5, 2010 by San Francisco Chronicle On first impression, Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith's "The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers [1]" is the kind of documentary that no Sarah Palin-loving red stater would be caught dead seeing. It is made by Berkeley lefties. It is a tribute to a man who leaked 7,000 pages of top-secret Vietnam War documents, revealing that our highest public officials were liars and essentially murderers. Its subtext is that we are awash in government deception again. But the documentary - which follows Ellsberg's path from Harvard wunderkind to Marine commander to White House and Defense Department consultant to political pariah - has been embraced by old and young, dove and hawk, earnest leftist and ardent right-winger as an inspiring story of patriotism and moral courage. Even stranger, the film has widely been described as entertaining. Oscar nomination Ehrlich and Goldsmith, who are preparing for the film's opening in their hometown of Berkeley on Feb. 19, are both thrilled and exhausted by its initial success. "The Most Dangerous Man" has been nominated for an Academy Award for best feature documentary, and has received the Special Jury Award at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam and Audience Awards at the Mill Valley and Palm Springs International Film Festivals. It will be seen around the globe this year, at festivals, in theaters and on TV. Yet the filmmakers say they feel especially rewarded by positive reactions from young Americans. "They're very, very savvy, and immediately get the parallels to today," said Goldsmith. "They get as much as older audiences, maybe more so, that this isn't a film about the past. This is a film about the present." Ehrlich, who recently showed the film to 1,000 students from the Palm Springs, Fla., area, said, "One hundred hands went up after the screening. They said, 'How can I be a better citizen?' 'How can I change this country?' " The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are not directly addressed in the film, but Ehrlich and Goldstein say the parallels to Vietnam were the main reason they both jumped into the project. They are also tremendous fans of Ellsberg, becoming charged with emotion when they talk about the personal risks he took 40 years ago and his work since to support whistle-blowers and anti-war activists. "What has struck me about his character is that he doesn't give himself a break for not doing more," said Goldsmith, noting that Ellsberg has been arrested 79 times for acts of civil disobedience. "I think he's so personally engaged in trying to do all he can to stop injustices and wars that he'll never rest." Ehrlich and Goldsmith were among a handful of award-winning documentary filmmakers who wanted to make a movie based on Ellsberg's 2002 memoir "Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers." Errol Morris was first in line, but when he opted out the two started courting Ellsberg. "Dan had been an adviser on my film about World War II conscientious objectors and on Rick's film about (journalist George) Seldes," said Ehrlich. "He knew our work, so he decided we would give him a fair shake." Editorial control Among the inevitable criticisms of Ehrlich and Goldsmith's film is that Ellsberg is the main subject, star and narrator. In other words, it's as if Ellsberg hired the two to make the movie. But the filmmakers are quick to defend their choices and to point out that although Ellsberg was allowed to have input, they wrote the script, included 20 other people in the film and exercised full editorial control. "For the story, we had to have someone who was on the inside, someone who was in the halls of power," said Goldsmith. "Dan was next to McNamara. He was next to Johnson. He was attacked by Nixon. He was in the middle, so I don't think it's inappropriate to have him tell a lot of the story." Ehrlich also feels that if Ellsberg were sidelined, the movie would not tell a universal story of personal transformation - about "an individual who had this tremendous change of heart and found his conscience and did something that went against everything he was trained to do." Plus, she said, "Dan is an amazing narrator - good as any actor I have ever worked with, if not better." The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers [1]: Co-produced and co-directed by Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith. Opens Feb. 19 in San Francisco and Berkeley. © 2010 San Francisco Chronicle

To: JohnM who wrote (27603)	2/10/2010 2:42:26 AM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 51753

In the article “Winter Wonder Brand,” Michael Ignatieff explores how nations use the Olympics to “brand their identities” as well as how their hosting style reflects national ethos: The Olympics have done their part in replacing war with sport as the way nations earn respect. Modern nations compete by branding their identities, and hosting the Olympic games is the biggest branding opportunity a nation ever gets. The Beijing Games unveiled China as a global power. The Rio Games in 2016 will do the same for Brazil. The Sochi Winter Games in 2014 will showcase the raw power of Vladimir Putin’s Russia. If you’re not trying to demonstrate raw power or announce your arrival on the global stage, however, hosting the Games presents a challenge. We Canadians are immensely proud of our country, but we try to be soft-spoken about it, so we aren’t looking for the Vancouver Games to be a grandiose exercise in self-promotion. Instead, we want to demonstrate that we’re a people the world can count on. We’re proud that we brought in the Games on time and on budget. The venues are ready. Apart from some nail-biting about whether there will be enough real snow for the low-altitude venues, there have been no last-minute panics. The Olympics let us tell the world: Ask us to do a job, and we get it done right... nytimes.com