Skydance Productions signs Orci and Kurtzman to a deal (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) ? Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, the writing team behind "Transformers," "Star Trek," "Mission: Impossible 3" and "Cowboys & Aliens," are joining Skydance Productions, TheWrap has learned.

It's not clear exactly what their role will be; an individual close to negotiations between the producers and Skydance characterized it as "a uniquely structured deal," but did not provide further details.

The two currently run Kurtzman Orci Paper Products, which produces the CBS hit "Hawaii Five-O." In 2010, they signed a development deal with Fox television. And they have a two-year production deal at DreamWorks. That deal expires this December.

Producer David Ellison -- son of Oracle co-founder and billionaire Larry Ellison -- runs Skydance.

Kurtzman-Orci are writing and producing the "Star Trek" sequel with Ellison; all three are producing "Without Remorse," based on the Tom Clancy novel. Over the years, they have developed a friendship as well as a professional relationship.

Skydance has a $350 million fund it uses to co-finance movies at Paramount. Its projects include "Mission: Impossible 4 -- Ghost Protocol" and "World War Z."

An individual close to DreamWorks told TheWrap that the two spoke with DreamWorks higher-ups before accepting the Skydance deal and explained that they had been offered something too good to turn down.

DreamWorks likes Kurtzman and Orci and has their project, "Racing Dreams" in development now. It's also releasing Kurtzman's directorial debut, "Welcome to People," in 2012. That movie is about a man who has to deliver $150,000 of his deceased father's fortune to his sister -- whom he never has met.

Skydance declined to comment.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111025/film_nm/us_orcikurtzman

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Murphy hopes 'not to drop the ball' as Oscars host

NEW YORK (AP) ? With four months to go until the Academy Awards, Eddie Murphy is already feeling the pressure about hosting the ceremony.

At the premiere of his new comedy film "Tower Heist" he said he's "excited" about the job but "hoping not to drop the ball."

The film's director, Brett Ratner, is also producing the Academy Awards and approached Murphy with the idea of hosting.

On the comic's to-do list between now and then is to watch some movies.

"What's the front-runner? Who knows?" he asked on the red carpet.

Murphy was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 2007 for his performance in "Dreamgirls" but lost to Alan Arkin.

The 84th Annual Academy Awards are Sunday, Feb. 26, 2012.

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Online:

http://www.oscars.org/

http://www.towerheist.net/

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Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-10-24-People-Eddie%20Murphy/id-b375da1d1767408d8689b941dcbaf26b

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Voters with housing woes giving up on politicians (AP)

MESA, Ariz. ? Like just about everyone in the Phoenix area, Jen Pollock has lost several neighbors to foreclosure and short sales. And, like hundreds of thousands of others in Arizona, Pollock and her husband are upside down on their mortgage, owing about twice as much as their suburban house is now worth.

They don't want to walk away from it. They just wish someone would let them renegotiate their mortgage.

"The banks keep telling us they won't talk to us unless we miss some payments. But that would ruin our credit," said the 36-year-old mom as her son climbed around a north Phoenix playground.

Asked if she was upset by the lack of solutions being offered by presidential candidates for the housing crisis, she said she doesn't pay much attention to politics.

Across America, despite the hundreds protesting for limited government or more government action, a broad swath of the middle class hit hard by the crash in housing prices is quietly resigned, given up on seeing any relief ? particularly from politicians.

"No one's come up with the answer," said Mesa Mayor Scott Smith, who hosted President Barack Obama in 2009 when the president launched his first foreclosure relief plan.

"People are just holding on and thinking that as life generally is, somehow this thing will work its way out. I think they have zero confidence in the politicians' ability to work it out for them," said Smith, a Republican leading a Republican-dominated suburb.

Obama unveiled another relief plan Monday in Las Vegas, the nation's foreclosure capital. The new plan eases eligibility for people like Pollock to qualify for new loan terms. But banks are not required to participate, leaving many questions about whether the plan will be any more effective than the other measures that have been offered up over the past four years.

"Most of the programs have been based on ideas of reducing your monthly payments for a period of time," said Jay Butler, a professor emeritus at Arizona State University's W.P. Carey School of Business who has closely tracked the housing and foreclosure crisis in Arizona. "I think a lot of these ideas started in the Bush administration with the idea that was going to be relatively short-lived, one or two years, and things would get back to great and glorious. And none of that has happened."

And many of those programs, Butler said, are not being used by the people who really need them.

"It's difficult to understand programs," he said. "Who do you contact? The loan servicer? The lender? They might not even have the mortgage anymore. Then you have all these scams going on. ... It's sort of like this snowball running down the crest. It just keeps getting bigger and bigger and sooner or later it just runs you over."

Housing, Butler said, is just part of the issue.

"Food and energy prices went up. People are not getting pay raises. A lot of people who have jobs find health care and pension costs going up, so net take-home pay is going down," he said. "So it's just sort of like you are getting hammered."

And that makes it far too complex for politicians to put their arms around.

At the Republican presidential candidates' debate in Las Vegas last week, a property owner asked the candidates what specifically they would do to fix the housing crisis. The discussion on the stage quickly dissolved into bickering about who supported Obama's economic stimulus package.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who has released an Internet ad chastising Obama for the housing crisis in Nevada, said government programs to fix the crisis haven't worked. A day earlier, he told a local newspaper the crisis needs to run its course and hit bottom.

Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann sympathized with mothers who are in a foreclosure crisis, but none of the candidates offered an answer.

The Democratic National Committee unveiled a television ad Monday, set to run in Arizona, attacking Romney's statements to the Las Vegas newspaper. And Arizona Democratic Chairman Andrei Cherny said that while voters are resigned, he expects Obama to make more announcements on the housing issue in coming months.

But Butler says there is not much more they can do.

"Politicians get too much credit when it's good and too much blame when it's bad," he said.

One of his colleagues, real estate professor Mark Strapp, said that while Obama seems to be trying to fix past wrongs that sent the help to the wrong people, Republicans will probably continue to ignore the issue because they don't want to alienate Wall Street.

"They don't want to deal with it because there is not an easy solution," Strapp said.

When the housing crisis first hit his city, Smith said about 8 percent of the housing stock in Mesa was empty ? about 12,000 homes. While fewer for-sale and foreclosure signs dot the landscape now, he those numbers have held steady for about four years now.

A former builder, Smith says most of his friends from that business have been out of work for three years. Most have lost their homes and spent all their savings. Now they are just scraping by.

Are they even talking about presidential politics?

"Not really. Maybe some are," Smith said. "But they've lost so much hope in what Washington can do. They are so turned off by the posturing, the bickering, the partisanship, that it's not even worth talking about."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111025/ap_on_go_ot/us_housing_politics

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Buying NFL Sports Memorabilia

October 19th, 2011 | Football Memorabilia, Sports, Sports Memorabilia?

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Every fan of the NFL would absolutely love the chance to own a piece of real NFL Sports memorabilia. This may be an old match program or a signed shirt or a signed football. The NFL Sports game is a well loved game worldwide, and it has a huge amount of popularity. Because NFL Sports are so vitally popular, the concept of owning NFL Sports memorabilia is an extremely valuable proposition. Not only is owning NFL Sports memorabilia a smart idea financially and in terms of making an investment, but it also has a sort of emotional attachment to it. In fact, owning the right NFL Sports memorabilia is a dream of nearly every single sports fan out there, and because there is so much NFL Sports memorabilia out there, this is a dream that is certainly going to be easily achievable.

As it has been mentioned, NFL Sports memorabilia is capable of taking a wide variety of different forms. Some forms of NFL Sports memorabilia is going to be very rare to find. On the other hand, there are plenty of other pieces of NFL Sports memorabilia that will be significantly easier for you to find, especially online. Many people turn to websites like eBay in an attempt to find and obtain the NFL Sports memorabilia that they are looking for. Sometimes eBay can be the more expensive route to take, however.

Another option that is worth considering when it comes to finding the right NFL Sports memorabilia is to do an online search for NFL memorabilia and to look for online dealers that collect and resell this kind of stuff. They are not looking to make a mint on their products like the collectors on eBay, they are simply looking to make a living, and selling NFL Sports memorabilia is part of the living that they are making.

Not only are you going to be able to find plenty of NFL Sports memorabilia online, but you are also going to find an endless selection of other NFL gifts and goodies that any NFL fan is going to love. This is a fantastic purpose that the internet is capable of serving because it connects you, the fan, with the dealers that have the kinds of NFL Sports memorabilia that you are looking for. There are a wide variety of different types of NFL Sports memorabilia that you can invest in depending on what your needs are.

Are you a fan of the Steelers, or the Bears? Are you a Charger fan, or a Cowboys fan? Are you looking for autographed helmets or signed jerseys? Are you looking for an autographed football or a Charger girl uniform? No matter what your interests are when it comes to the NFL and NFL Sports memorabilia, there is bound to be an online dealer that has unique gifts and plenty of sports memorabilia for you to invest in.

Photo Credits: Twinkie420

Originally posted 2009-06-24 05:24:30. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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1,000-Year-Old Viking Found Buried In His Boat

Archaeologists announced this week that they have found a 1,000-year-old Viking burial site in the Scottish Highlands of Ardnamurchan. Host Scott Simon takes note of the find, which has been called "one of the most important Norse graves ever excavated in Britain."

Copyright ? 2011 National Public Radio?. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.

SCOTT SIMON, host: Archaeologists announced this week they found a 1,000-year-old Viking burial site in the Scottish Highlands of Ardnamurchan. Dr. Hannah Cobb of the University of Manchester told the BBC that the intact artifacts and preservation make this one of the most important Norse graves ever excavated in Britain. The Ardnamurchan Viking, as he will now be known, was found buried in his boat, with an axe, a decorated sword, a spear, a shield, and a bronze ring pin; all of which indicated that the deceased was a high-ranking warrior.

Copyright ? 2011 National Public Radio?. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to National Public Radio. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/10/22/141613693/1-000-year-old-viking-found-buried-in-his-boat?ft=1&f=1007

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AAR buying 2 aviation-related businesses for $280 million ...

October 21, 2011

(Reuters) ? Aircraft parts supplier AAR Corp. said it would buy two businesses from rival Teleflex Inc. for $280 million to expand its aircraft cargo systems business.

Wood Dale-based AAR Corp. expects the acquisitions of Telair International and Nordisk Aviation Product to add over $225 million to revenue and 20 to 25 cents per share to earnings in 2013.

It will fund the deal through an existing revolving credit facility.

Teleflex chief executive Benson Smith said in a separate statement that the deal was part of the company's strategy to transform from a cyclical, diversified-industrial conglomerate into a pure-play medical technology company.

Teleflex, which has a market capitalization of $2.25 billion, plans to use the deal proceeds to reduce debt.

Telair, which has manufacturing units in Germany, Sweden and Singapore, supplies on-board cargo loading systems to aircraft manufacturers like Airbus-maker EADS and Boeing.

Nordisk designs and manufactures heavy-duty pallets and lightweight cargo containers for commercial airlines.

Earlier this month, Goodrich Corp., an aircraft parts maker, acquired Winslow Marine Products, which provides life rafts for business jets and commercial helicopters.

Shares of AAR, which has a market capitalization of $713 million, closed at $17.63, while those of Teleflex closed at $55.34 on Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange.

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Source: http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20111021/NEWS05/111029949/aar-buying-2-aviation-related-businesses-for-280-million

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Here's Who to Thank for Gadhafi's Downfall (ContributorNetwork)

"You have won your revolution." That's how President Barack Obama summed up the news of Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi's death, in an address to the Libyan people. Gadhafi's regime terrorized Libyan citizens as well as people worldwide, was believed responsible for several bombings of aircraft, and just months ago was about to crush a rebellion against him.

Republican senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham released a joint statement about the event that opened by thanking the Libyan rebels, as well as America's European and Arab allies, for making the downfall of the Gadhafi regime possible. Almost as a footnote, it mentioned the United States' role in defeating Gadhafi, but simultaneously chastised the administration for not doing it fast enough.

Here's a quick rundown of who actually made it possible:

United States

It is true that in some ways the United States' actions have been a hindrance to the cause of Libyan freedom. Just two years ago, McCain and Graham visited Gadhafi -- Graham at the dictator's home, with video captured of the two shaking hands -- discussing ways to improve America's ties with his regime and transfer military equipment to it.

Despite the chastisement the two gave the Obama administration for "waiting to employ the full weight of our airpower," however, American bombers were making strikes on Libyan airfields and ground forces on the same day that French and British forces began their attacks. America later sent millions of dollars' worth of non-weapon supplies to the rebels.

NATO and Arab allies

NATO Operation Unified Protector coordinated French, British, American, Canadian, and other countries' air attacks on Gaddafi's forces and bases. Only a few weeks into the air strikes, NATO officials reported that over a third of Gaddafi's military had been destroyed. Meanwhile, Turkey set aside $100 million to help the rebels rebuild, while Qatar helped to supply the rebels with weaponry.

Libyan rebels

While NATO attacks demolished Gaddafi's forces by air, and imposed a no-fly zone on Libya, no overt ground forces were sent to the country. The rebels had to fight more or less on their own, in battles where the odds would have been substantially against them if not for other countries having destroyed much of Gaddafi's military.

Oil

The Libyan rebels signed an oil export deal with Qatar, and Libya's refineries and oilfields are prizes eyed by many.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20111022/us_ac/10262257_heres_who_to_thank_for_gadhafis_downfall

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