Five Favorite Films with Kevin Clash

It's hard not to envy Kevin Clash's day job: he gets to build puppets, perform silly voices and create characters for the entertainment of millions of kids around the world. The subject of Constance Marks' acclaimed documentary Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey, Clash is a key player in the Jim Henson team, serving as a perforrmer, producer and creative consultant on the Muppets and Sesame Street, where his impossibly popular little red avatar continues to enthrall young audiences. But he's more than just Elmo's engine. As the documentary reveals, Clash's career as a puppeteer goes way back to his childhood, when he was entertaining neighborhood kids as a peer and later scouted to perform on national TV shows while still in his teens. A mentorship with his idol, the late Jim Henson, would follow, with Clash performing characters in Henson productions like Labyrinth and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles while developing Sesame Street's Elmo -- a second-string fuzzball who would soon, to everyone's surprise, became a superstar. We spoke with Clash recently as he was en route to New York's Muppet workshop, where he reflected on his experience working with Henson, how he creates his characters, and that time Elmo testified before Congress. But first, we asked him to name his five favorite films...

I think I would say The Color Purple. It pulls you in. When the characters are written and directed so well that your heart goes out to all of them, even the ones that are supposed to be the villains, that's a good movie to me. I really connected to Steven [Spielberg] in that movie, having the kids, you know, play it out with the whole frog scene -- that was wonderful. I mean, just so clever. There was even a little clip of Sesame Street in it. [Laughs]

Man... just magic. I remember a friend coming back from seeing it and him saying, "You know, E.T. could have been built out of a sock, the story was so good." It just had the heart, and the excitement, from beginning to end; it's something that you wanna go to the movies for.

As a puppeteer, what did you think of the way they created and performed E.T.?

Beautifully. I mean, I knew the ins and outs of what they were doing and I thought it was beautiful. It was just enough to believe, you know. Just enough to believe. I know that Spielberg and Lucas, you know... you look back at stuff that you've done and you say, "Wow, wouldn't it have been great to have that technology that we have now to make it work," but you know what? It worked in the way they wanted it to in that movie and they did a beautiful job, with just enough movement and just enough expression to believe that character.

Midnight in Paris, wow. A very imaginative film. Woody Allen at his best. Just wonderful. I wanna go and really get caught up in a movie when I go, and that one definitely did it for me.

The Silence of the Lambs... You know, I never thought I would like a thriller but it was so phenomenally directed, and just suspenseful.

I'd have to pick Toy Story 3. It hit the heart, the way it should, that movie -- reminiscing about the transition from child to kind of a man. That transition, with toys and stuff, that was wonderful. When he's saying goodbye to his toys for the last time, that was wonderful.

Next, Clash talks about his experience working with Jim Henson, how he creates characters, and the cultural phenomenon of Elmo.

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1923895/news/1923895/

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A test for America's reading skills in NAEP scores

Latest test scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reveal slow progress in reading skills since 1992. Fortunately, Congress may refocus the No Child Left Behind law on better teaching of literacy.

Having fun reading this sentence?

Skip to next paragraph

Probably not. But if you understand it at all, then you likely learned how to read very well as a child by reading for pleasure almost every day.

It turns out, regular ?fun? reading is critical for progress in raising America?s education levels. In the latest ?nation?s report card? issued today, fourth- and eighth-graders who routinely read for fun fared far better in their reading skills than those who didn?t.

Alas, that particular insight for parents and educators isn?t quite widespread enough yet ? despite the best efforts of authors from Dr. Seuss to J.K. Rowling. The new test results from the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) showed little progress in reading skills since 1992, when such testing began.

For fourth-graders, reading performance rose only four points (on a 500-point scale) over the past two decades. For eighth-graders, the increase was a similarly disappointing five points.

In sharp contrast, the increases in the NAEP?s math scores were much higher ? 28 and 21 points for those respective grades.

That?s quite a gap. Teaching of math has improved far more than literacy education ? despite intense pressure for public schools to better perform under the 2002 No Child Left Behind Act.

Overall, about a third of the students are proficient or better in reading. In math, 40 percent of the fourth-graders and 35 percent of the eighth-graders are at that level ? a poor showing for both categories, despite differences in progress.

The No Child law, which requires schools to reach 100 percent proficiency in reading and math by 2014, is long overdue for reform itself. About 80 percent of schools would fail its requirements today ? which is quite a statement about America?s ability to change education. In September, the Obama administration began to grant waivers to states ? effectively ending the law ? if they come up with new reforms. In the meantime, Congress has finally begun work on revising the act.

Last month, a Senate panel passed a version that would wisely focus on reading skills, including the wide gaps between whites and both blacks and Hispanics. Congress has recently gutted much of the funding for reading programs during cutting sprees.

The Senate bill would set up a competitive grant program for states to provide high-quality literacy instruction, especially to struggling students with disabilities or those who are still learning English. One provision would distribute books free of charge to low-income children in hopes their parents would read to them ? for fun.

In this visual and digital age, reading remains fundamental. Even colleges are forced to offer remedial reading to many high school graduates.

Let?s hope every young American can read a sentence like this one someday.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/Yp8TFFnRhPc/A-test-for-America-s-reading-skills-in-NAEP-scores

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Amazing Multicopter Could Be Your Ticket to The Heavens [Video]

Why screw around with one propellor when your personal multicopter can have 16. I cannot wait to hover around my neighborhood making everyone jealous and finding frisbees stuck on roofs. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/wfHx7ZfbJiQ/amazing-multicopter-could-be-your-ticket-to-the-heavens

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Video: Tweet the Street

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Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/45121056#45121056

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Liberia's election chief resigns ahead of runoff (AP)

MONROVIA, Liberia ? The embattled chairman of Liberia's National Elections Commission has resigned only a week before the country's presidential runoff vote.

Liberia's top opposition party had said it would boycott the Nov. 8 election unless James Fromoyan stepped down. The party also wants the rest of the commission replaced and the first round results re-counted.

Fromoyan said Sunday that he hoped the opposition now would take part in the poll following his resignation.

The opposition has alleged that the electoral commission favors incumbent Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who is Africa's first democratically elected female leader.

Sirleaf, a Nobel Peace laureate, won the first round but failed to reach the threshold needed to avoid a runoff.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/africa/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111031/ap_on_re_af/af_liberia_election

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Breast cancer risk: It's not all in the family (Reuters)

CHICAGO (Reuters) ? Women do not automatically have a higher risk of getting breast cancer just because someone else in the family has tested positive for breast cancer genes, U.S. researchers said Monday.

The findings may bring comfort to women from high-risk families after a 2007 study suggested that simply having a relative with a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation raised their risk of developing breast cancer, even if they had tested negative for the genes.

"The results are encouraging and reassuring," said Dr. Allison Kurian of Stanford University School of Medicine, whose study appears in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

The average woman in the United States has about a 12 to 13 percent chance of developing breast cancer in her lifetime.

Some 5 percent to 10 percent of breast cancers are genetic, and most of these cases are caused by abnormalities in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes.

Women with these mutations have a five to 20 times higher risk of developing breast or ovarian cancer, and must undergo intensive cancer screenings and take other precautions to reduce their cancer risk.

Many of these women elect to have their breasts or ovaries removed to keep from developing cancer.

Once these mutations turn up in a family, other family members are screened as well. Women from these families who test negative have traditionally been told they have about the same risk as women in the general population.

But a 2007 study published in the Journal of Medical Genetics challenged that notion, suggesting that even though women did not carry the family breast cancer mutation, they still had a two to five times higher risk of developing breast cancer.

That created a considerable amount of anxiety among doctors and patients, Kurian said in a telephone interview.

To study this, her team analyzed data on more than 3,000 families with BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations from three countries: the United States, Canada and Australia.

They compared breast cancer rates among carriers and noncarriers of family mutations of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes.

They found no evidence of an increased breast cancer risk among women who were noncarriers.

"It's reassuring that we don't see a signal for elevated breast cancer risk from women who test negative for a familial mutation," Kurian said.

(Editing by Michele Gershberg and Cynthia Osterman)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/health/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111031/hl_nm/us_cancer_breast

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Latest developments in the global Occupy protests (AP)

Some of the latest developments in the Occupy protests taking place in cities across the world:

UNITED STATES

VIRGINIA

Police in Richmond, Virgina, have broken up an Occupy Wall Street camp where protesters had set up a tent city, complete with a makeshift library, kitchen and portable toilets.

Police spokesman Gene Lepley says officers began clearing the park early Monday around 1 a.m. He says most of the dozens of protesters there left when told to and around a dozen who stayed were arrested for trespassing.

Lepley said nine people were charged with either trespassing or obstruction of justice.

TEXAS

Police in Austin, Texas, made 39 arrests early Sunday as they moved to enforce a new rule banning food tables in the City Hall plaza where protesters have camped out. Some protesters surrounded the tables with arms linked.

Most were charged with criminal trespass, Police Chief Art Acevedo said. No injuries were reported.

CALIFORNIA

The roommate of an Iraq War veteran seriously injured in a clash with police during an anti-Wall Street protest says Scott Olsen is doing well and doctors say he'll make a full recovery. Keith Shannon served with the 24-year-old former Marine in Iraq.

He tells The Associated Press that he visited Olsen at a medical facility Sunday and he "seems to be doing well." Shannon says Olsen still can't talk but doctors expect him to make a full recovery. Olsen suffered a fractured skull and other head injuries during the clash Tuesday. Police are investigating how Olsen was struck by a projectile.

OREGON

Police arrested about 30 anti-Wall Street protesters in Portland early Sunday after they refused to leave a park in an affluent district. Hundreds gathered in Jamison Square Saturday evening to defy a midnight curfew to vacate.

As police moved in around 2 a.m. most of the protesters backed off, but a core group of 27 to 30 people sat in a circle in the park and awaited arrest. An Associated Press photographer said most of the protesters went limp and police carried or dragged them away. There was no violence during the arrests, which took about 90 minutes.

The protesters ? all appearing to be in their 20s and 30s with many were wearing Halloween-style face paint ? were handcuffed before they were place in police vans and driven off.

COLORADO

Denver's Civic Center Park was calm Sunday a day after Occupy Wall Street protesters clashed with police in the city's most violent confrontation yet. About 100 people slept overnight in the park, lying near sidewalks under sleeping bags and tarps. There were no tents to be seen, after Denver police and other agencies entered the park Saturday afternoon to tear down tents put up by protesters earlier in the day.

Denver Police say 15 people who tried to interfere with the tent removal were arrested. Earlier Saturday afternoon, five additional people were arrested after a scuffle with police in which one officer was knocked to the ground and others were allegedly kicked. About 2,000 people participated in Saturday's march, the fourth weekend for Occupy Wall Street marches through Denver.

EUROPE

ENGLAND

Graeme Knowles, the Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral in London, says he is resigning following criticism over the church's handling of anti-capitalist protests on its grounds. He said Monday that as criticism of the cathedral has mounted in the press and public opinion, his position has become untenable.

Last week, Giles Fraser, a senior St. Paul's Cathedral priest who had welcomed the anti-capitalist demonstrators to camp outside the landmark, also resigned. He said he did so because he feared moves to evict the protesters could end in violence.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111031/ap_on_re_eu/occupy_glance

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