Thursday, May 9, 2013

NHK and Mitsubishi develop the first H.265 encoder for 8K video

NHK and Mitsubishi develop the first H265 encoder for 8K video

NHK's 8K Super Hi-Vision is an extremely bandwidth-heavy format -- so much so that earlier tests used gigabit-class internet links rather than traditional TV broadcasting methods. Thankfully, both the broadcaster and Mitsubishi have developed an encoder that could keep data rates down to Earth. The unassuming metal box (above) is the first to squeeze 8K video into the extra-dense H.265 (HEVC) format, cutting the bandwidth usage in half versus H.264. Its parallel processing is quick enough to encode video in real time, too, which should please NHK and other networks producing live TV. We'll still need faster-than-usual connections (and gigantic TVs) to make 8K an everyday reality, but that goal should now be more realistic.

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Source: NHK (translated)

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/CMXiwO9EaZU/

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Wednesday, May 8, 2013

'The World's End' Trailer Is As Hilarious As You Hoped It Would Be

With "The World's End," Edgar Wright brings the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy, a series of films starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, to a close. The first UK trailer for the final installment just debuted over at MSN UK, and it already looks like the final leg of the trilogy could live up to the [...]

Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2013/05/08/the-worlds-end-trailer/

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Green Mountain Coffee Brewers: Cloud Laser Art

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A new art form in the future will be CLA. Cloud Laser Art. People can go to a place where there are laser units, sit out side in a small shielded area and draw on the clouds. It would be fun and a great form of self expression, which would make humans very happy. We know that mankind likes to use the natural environment for self expression from cave drawings to rock piles near road ways and graffiti on rock formations. The idea of drawing on clouds is much better, because the cloud eventually dissolves and like an etch-a-sketch is ready to start over. This will be similar to what happens after Ice Carvings, Ice Sculpting is alive and well in North America.
We have all heard of Sand Castle building and contests, which go on around the world.

Often you will watch kids throw rocks into a glass clear pond or lake. They will throw one rock in and then another and say; ?Okay, those are the eyes.? Often people star up into the clouds and try to imagine a face, shape or resemblance to something in the 3D physical world. We have often seen pictures where the clouds appear in the shape of Jesus or a face and everyone calls it a miracle. Many people gaze up at the clouds and attempt to allow their minds to find a familiar shape or form. One might call this a frame burst from the brains memory and the mind fills in the rest and a seemingly regular cloud takes on the imagination and a new meaning. An interesting sub topic could be this article on visual stimulation and the brain:

[http://worldthinktank.net/wttbbs/index.php?showtopic=276]

[http://worldthinktank.net/wttbbs/index.php?showforum=28]

People are fascinated by these coincidences. Rock formations often look like people from certain angles. The fallen ?Old Man on The Mountain? was one such anomaly. Today we look to Mars and see faces in sediment and erosion features.

http://www.ascrocco.it/home/img/sf_desk/ar...o_marseface.jpg

You will have to admit this looks pretty real, so either we are not the only species which re-designs our natural surrounding or our mind automatically is filling in the blank, either way since kids, teens and adults do this and we find this interesting, it is an innate tendency and therefore a relevant idea to promote weather control research and manipulation, what better way to find research dollars than through entertainment?
This is something man has done for thousands of years. Some obvious examples are the Sphinx in the Valley of the Kings, cave paintings. We have heard of some famous stone artists, who claim they can see the inner sculpture within a stone before they start, as were comments by Michael Angelo. Freeing the statue inside. Today we have the famous rock carvings of Crazy Horse, which is nearly completed.

Why not put it on a cloud also? It is possible you know? Weather control, cloud art, etc. Mother Nature often does it for us, but if we focus our energies on controlling heat and light within a cubic artificial grid of air, then we will be able to control the clouds completely.

Art is certainly interesting and our obsession with nature and art is interesting in that it seems to be an innate need of mankind to be able to control his environment and to provide some order to the complexity born out of simplicity, which we see everywhere, a concept that Steven Wolfram would most certainly agree. Los Alamos is doing just that and soon will be able to do it on a larger scale with super computers. This will entail lots of number crunching, but well worth the energy and time and money to develop. We maybe able to control not only the weather but stop Hurricanes too.

As we learn to control the weather for purposes of drought mitigation, famine and disease control, feeding peoples of the world through abundant agriculture yields, flushing and controlling environmental pollutants or even giving us an edge on war planning, defensive barriers or safety during assaults, this technology to a lesser degree will be used as art.

Many things that come to be in the way of innovation are funded through entertainment, war or the mother of invention (necessity). Certainly as we look at the innovations in TV (high definition), Digital Displays (plasma screens), Transportation (race cars), General Hobby Aviation (composites, ultra-lights, exploits of Dick Rutan), Virtual Reality (theme parks, animation, portable mini-simulators).

we see that entertainment can provide the money flows to increase the speed at which these things come to market and the speed at which they are adopted by the users and thus entertainment has always been a quick way or short cut to the future inventions of mankind. The list is so long in fact in the area of art and entertainment and the innovations brought forth that it might be considered the largest single factor towards the contributions to the forward progress of mankind. Necessity as previously mentioned and War and Defense being close seconds. Art should never be discounted as it is generally coupled with entertainment and imagination and let?s not forget the words of Albert Einstein on imagination.

?Imagination is more important than knowledge...?

Is it possible that art can be the lead in to weather control? For instance drawing designs in the clouds instead of painting ?I Love you Charlene? on a Hwy over pass cutting through rural Alabama, Mississippi or Georgia in John Dear Green, would be something of value as a way of self expression. A portable laser cloud drawing device could also be mounted in a semi truck if not a fixed location site for tourists or expressionists with a few extra bucks. A semi truck mounted unit could be hired to write a computerized message on the clouds for events, parties, etc. At a fixed site people would come for miles just to sit and watch what someone would write today. You can learn a lot from cloud watching.

You can learn about life, weather, flows of nature and you can unleash your imagination. Manipulating the clouds and localized weather can be done with modern and current technologies. This concept is simple really in terms of physics. The truck moves to the center of where the cloud will be and send up ELF waves and creates a small Terminal Gradient Cloud, then drives about 2 miles away and has a design already made on the computer and approved by the buyers of the message: ?Congratulations Graduating Class of West Point? or ?God Bless America and our Troops? when as they de-plane or get off a ship. Great for weddings, bar mitzvah, country fair or you be the judge. In areas of big events people could pay to write their own message on the computer and the laser cuts the cloud and shades in the design or words and letters.

This is simple and not much different than the cutting of vinyl lettering by computers used by modern day sign makers. Very simple, using a 3-D program which knows the power intensity levels, based on the distance which is measured by laser which senses the moisture content in the clouds based on the distance from the device. On one side of the semi truck is a chemical laser and the other side another, when combined at exactly the right distance at very low power settings they interact in various amounts, which have been designed into the computer program coinciding with the amounts of energy and chemical needed to dissolve the cloud. Since the Lasers are chemical based even though quite low, color could also be added and chemicals normally found in atmospheric make-up, thus no harm no foul with environmentalists. This form of art is not too dissimilar to the smoke signal communication of the Native American Indians, the only difference it is done with modern technology and therefore the versatility is so much greater.

Once the design is entered into the computer on a CadCam type program or graphic art program it is sent to the laser system and it starts pulsating the lasers under extreme accuracy using sophisticated algorithms and data sets. After the system is built and configured it is ready to go and during transportation the laser heads and chemicals are stored at proper temperatures in stable tanks. And remember art is not the only use for this, for instance see some ideas below. Now you must note at the WTT we like to have a little fun and the night we discussed this at a local coffee shop in Springfield, MO we definitely were in a comedy mood with a touch of sarcasm. However these ideas will make you think and isn?t that the point of this exercise? Sure you will get a chuckle out of it also we did. The World Think Tank is a lot of fun.

A. ) For advertising things could be written in the clouds too. ?Drink Coke,? ?Fly Delta, but Hurry! We need the money,? ?Vote for Dog Catcher, NJ Former Governor,? ?CT former governor runs for Hartford County Auditor,? ?Gray Davis for Public Treatment Facility Director.? We all know aerial advertising is big business, look at the Blimps, Skywriters, etc.

B.) ?.For safety, things could be written in the clouds during rush hour. ?Mixing Bowl? four hour wait, use different route, ?HWY 1? three hour wait go back to work, you are better off there? ?Free Parking on 405 to La Cienega use alternate.? Bridge out ahead. New York Toll Way Fees raised today to .86 please have exact change ready to prevent delays, no refunds?? Just write it in the clouds, since you will be looking up praying to your god for break in traffic for this cluster muck you have to drive in everyday? Perfect solution, with an artistic flair? But in all seriousness you can see the benefits, ?Dense Fog Ahead, slow down, multi-car pile-up, freeway closed all traffic exit at mile 122.? In Montana during deer migration, ?Watch out for Deer, Do Not Eat Road Kill? Public Service announcements are often put on Blimps:

C.) For big events; ?Use Shuttle at Parkway for NASCAR event, Parking .00.? ?Olympic Check Point, have ID ready.? ?Democratic National Convention Ahead, Lots of parking available.? ?Cody WY Nightly Rodeo, 7 PM.? But these of course are merely words on clouds, for the RNC they might want a Giant American Flag? The DNC might want a big tree with a couple of guys hugging it? You see big events can stay in the spirit of things and get out the true message. NASCAR might want a holographic design of Dale Earnhardt at the Daytona Speedway before the event. Blue Angels might wish to have a message about ?Fly Navy? with a picture of an F-18 or JSF on the cloud for the crowd?

D.) For the People; Perhaps a Smog alert warning to warn people in Los Angeles due to a temperature inversion that day. In NY during Labor Day, perhaps a ?High Terror Alert? in red? During the election, ?Do Not Forget to Vote Today? in Florida with a reminder of how to press the right button in the computerized voting machines? On the beaches in San Diego, Fort Lauderdale, the Keys, Santa Monica, ?Solar Flair Today, Use Sun Screen.? After Hurricane Charley, ?USAA and State Farm go to MLK Jr. High School GYM,? ?Relief assistance: FEMA and Salvation Army at Civic Center Auditorium.? ?New Mobile Homes For Sale; Tornado Magnet IV Custom Deluxe on sale, financing available, OAC.? ?Asteroid to Hit Earth Tomorrow, Run.?

E.) For National Security; Border Patrol, ?You are being tracked by automated aircraft, turn back or you could be shot or killed? In Spanish of course. For USMC, ?Dear Iranian Insurgents, give up or you will be killed in 12 seconds.? For US Navy, ?This is a blockade, turn around now or you will be sunk.? For US Army Recruiting; ?Keep America Green, Join the Army.? DHS; “Today?s Threat Level is Green.? Psych Wars: ?This is Allah, you have been bad, go home and do not return.?

Cloud Laser art could do all these things much cheaper and safer from the ground and also such a new idea would gather much interest and the word of mouth of any message or image would travel quickly. CLA or Cloud Laser Art is possible and fairly easy to do, we currently have the technologies to do this, and it makes sense. This is the ultimate in self-expression and can be used for entertainment, safety, homeland security, big events and even advertising if used in good taste.

Cloud Sculpting is the next logical progression of this idea, where you could make a cloud in the shape of a dog, cat or a dolphin. Perhaps you might want to make a UFO out of the clouds to see how many people call in during the annual UFO conference in Las Vegas? Think of the PR for the city, such a publicity stunt would certainly draw a crowd.

Although they might rather have you inside the casinos spending your money than out on the street corner looking up in the sky just in time to get hit by a middle-eastern taxi cab, shuttle bus or limo driver? In this age of International Terrorism perhaps we ought to all pay attention to what?s happening in front of us and leave the cloud watching for recreational times?



Green Mountain Coffee Brewers


Green Mountain Coffee Brewers

Cloud Laser Art



Cloud Laser Art
Cloud Laser Art


Green Mountain Coffee Brewers

Source: http://greenmountaincoffeebrewers.blogspot.com/2013/05/cloud-laser-art.html

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Coach cleared of charges no longer at MSU, Mankato

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) ? A former head football coach for Minnesota State University, Mankato, who was cleared of child pornography charges last year but reassigned to an administrative position, is no longer employed at the university, the school said Wednesday.

Todd Hoffner's last day on the university's payroll was Tuesday, school spokesman Dan Benson told The Associated Press. He declined to say whether Hoffner was fired or left on his own, calling it was a private personnel matter, and declined to give further details.

Hoffner was charged with possession of child pornography in August after school officials found videos of his naked children on his work-issued cellphone, which he had turned in to be repaired. A judge cleared him in November, ruling that the short videos of his children acting silly after a bath were not child porn and showed nothing illegal.

After the criminal case was dismissed, university officials removed Hoffner as head football coach, reassigned him to an administrative role, as assistant athletic director for facilities development, and suspended him for 20 days for an unspecified reason. He tried to fight his reassignment and suspension though his union, the Inter Faculty Organization, which represents faculty in the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system.

His attorney, Chris Madel, referred questions to the union. Officials there did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment.

Hoffner does not have a listed phone number. KEYC-TV reported that Hoffner declined to answer questions from a reporter who went to his house in Eagle Lake.

KTOE radio first reported Hoffner's separation from the school.

Hoffner had a 34-13 record in his four years at Mankato. He was beginning a new four-year contract when he was escorted off a practice field in August, a few days after he returned his malfunctioning phone to the school. University technicians found the videos and notified university officials, who contacted police. Hoffner was not allowed back and had to miss the Mavericks' 13-1 season, including their appearance in the NCAA Division II semifinals Dec. 8 under acting head coach Aaron Keen. In January, the school named Keen interim head coach pending a national search for a permanent head coach.

The MnSCU system has a policy prohibiting the use of university-issued cellphones or mobile devices for personal business.

On Friday, the judge ruled that the investigative file in his criminal case should remain sealed, citing his family's right to privacy. Some news organizations had sought access to the file. But Blue Earth County District Judge Krista Jass wrote that because she had already found insufficient evidence of any harm to the family, their right to privacy outweighed the rights of the media to see the material.

___

Follow Steve Karnowski on Twitter at http://twitter.com/skarnowski

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/coach-cleared-charges-no-longer-msu-mankato-162709912.html

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Elle Fanning Met Gala 2013: The Starlet's Eye Makeup Screams Ziggy Stardust (PHOTOS)

It is a well known fact that Elle Fanning is a certified fashion plate. So it's no surprise that the young style icon showed up on the 2013 Met Gala red carpet in an amazing Rodarte gown (she's good friends with the designers, obviously). But what grabbed our attention wasn't her tie-dye dress, rather it was her insane eye makeup.

Elle upstaged her big sister Dakota (yet again!) with her extreme blue eye shadow that was highly reminiscent of something that Ziggy Stardust would wear. (She really channeled the punk theme on this one). She completed her look with a risque ear cuff and simple half-up, half-down hairstyle.

What do you think of Elle's Met Gala eye makeup? Too much or just the right amount of punk?

PHOTOS:

elle fanning met gala makeup

elle fanning met gala makeup

Check out all the punk fashions from the 2013 Met Gala red carpet:

  • Beyonc?

    Givenchy

  • Sarah Jessica Parker

    In a headpiece by Phillip Treacy and dress by Giles Deacon

  • Kim Kardashian

    in Riccardo Tisci

  • Madonna

    In Givenchy and Casadei shoes

  • Cameron Diaz

    In Stella McCartney

  • Jessica Biel

    In Giambattista Valli

  • Miley Cyrus

    In Marc Jacobs

  • Anne Hathaway

    In Valentino

  • Taylor Swift

  • Jennifer Lawrence

  • Gwen Stefani

    Maison Martin Margiela dress and Fred Leighton jewelry

  • Katy Perry

    In Dolce & Gabbana

  • Kelly Osbourne

  • Alison Williams

    In Altuzarra

  • Jennifer Lopez

  • Kristen Stewart

  • Katie Holmes

    In Calvin Klein

  • Katie Holmes

    In Calvin Klein

  • Ginnifer Goodwin

    In Tory Burch

  • Carey Mulligan

    In Balenciaga, Tiffany & Co. jewelry

  • Beyonc?

    In Givenchy

  • Miranda Kerr

    Michael Kors dress, Tabitha Simmons shoes, Cartier jewels, Christian Louboutin purse.

  • Florence Welch

    Givenchy

  • Gisele Bundchen

  • Gwyneth Paltrow

    in Valentino Couture

  • Kirsten Dunst

    Rodarte

  • Alicia Keys

  • Nicole Richie

    In Topshop

  • Maggie Gyllenhaal

    Calvin Klein

  • Ashley Greene

    Marchesa gown with Harry Winston jewels

  • Emma Watson

    In Prabal Gurung

  • Rooney Mara

    In Givenchy

  • Elizabeth Banks

    Atelier Versace dress with Brian Atwood shoes and Kara Ross jewels

  • Ashley Olsen

  • Mary-Kate Olsen

  • Lena Dunham and Erdem Moralioglu

    Dunham wears Erdem Moralioglu

  • Sofia Coppola and Marc Jacobs

    Jacobs wears Commes des Gar?ons

  • Diane Kruger and Joshua Jackson

    Kruger wears Chanel Haute Couture

  • Jessica Alba

    Tory Burch dress, Jack Vartanian jewelry, Christian Louboutin shoes

  • Julianne Hough

    In Topshop

  • Christina Ricci

    Vivienne Westwood gown, Casadei shoes, Ferragamo bag, Harry Winston jewelry

  • Julianne Moore

  • Diane Von Furstenberg

  • Aubrey Plaza

    Marios Schwab dress with Barbara Bui heels

  • Coco Rocha

    In Emanuel Ungaro by Fausto Puglisi

  • Kylie Minogue

    In Moschino

  • Kerry Washington

    In Vera Wang

  • Giovanna Battaglia

  • Elle Fanning

  • Rose Huntington-Whitely

  • Kate Bosworth

Want more HuffPost Style beauty content? Check us out on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest and Instagram at @HuffPostBeauty. (For everything else check out our main HuffPost Style Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest and Instagram @HuffPostStyle.)
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Do you have a beauty story idea or tip? Email us at beautytips@huffingtonpost.com. (PR pitches sent to this address will be ignored.)

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/06/elle-fanning-met-gala-makeup-photos_n_3225927.html

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Mark Sanford talks meditating and campaigning

Mark Sanford meets with voters at Whole Foods. (Yahoo News)

CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Mark Sanford is going to be rude and say hello.

That is, at least, how he describes it when he introduces himself to strangers in grocery stores, ice cream parlors, diners and auto repair shops throughout South Carolina's first congressional district. On Monday, the day before polls open for a special election here that will send a new lawmaker to Washington, the former governor-turned-House candidate spent most of his time driving around the district in search of people to meet.

Between stops around town, Sanford ditched his campaign driver and started hitching rides with reporters. He asked to ride in Yahoo News' rental car and we zoomed off toward the next event. On the way, I asked him about his unorthodox campaign tactics. After all, Sanford was meeting only a couple people at each stop. The entire exercise seemed grossly inefficient.

"My view is, bigger the crowd, the fewer the votes," Sanford said. "If you can just keep moving as an individual and you're present--I don't want to sound Buddhist on you--but you're in the moment. You're present with them, you actually can have a real conversation. You can talk about issues that they like, what they don't like, in a way that you can't if you have a crowd."

I asked him about Buddhism. (Let's face it, it's not every day that a southern candidate for national office will drop a Siddhartha Gautama reference in casual conversation.)

Sanford told me that his interest in Buddhism stretched back three years, when he retreated to his remote family farm after the scandalous end to his term as governor when he secretly left the country to have an affair with an Argentine woman who he now plans to marry.

While in exile, Sanford began studying meditation, a practice he continues to this day.

"A buddy of mine said, Mark, you're becoming a Buddhist Christian. I come from the Christian faith. That's my faith tradition. But what I do like about Buddhism is the idea of being present," Sanford said during the car ride. "I think that that's missed in Western culture, where we're so busy looking a week out, two weeks out, a month out, a year out and we're hurried and we're busy. And I think if there's any one thing I learned from that year I spent on the farm in the wake of getting out of office and just having a very, very quiet year, is the importance of stillness and quietness. And that extends beyond just the physical location. It extends really into the moment of, Are you really with that person or are you thinking of the next thing you've got to do? So I do like very much that part of Buddhism. I think it's right."

Sanford declined to describe his meditation techniques, but said, "I've tried to be disciplined about a quiet time each day."

Earlier that day, Sanford's began his campaign swing at a coffee shop and a diner just outside of Charleston. At the diner, he sat at a table with former South Carolina Gov. James Edwards and State Rep. Chip Limehouse, where the group discussed the race, and why they thought this small contest in a small district in a small state had national implications.

"It's a battle for the soul of America," Edwards, who served as governor from from 1975-1979, said. "If we don't get every vote we can out, Obama will be a dictator. He's practically a dictator now."

After their conversation, Sanford greeted others in the diner and stepped outside. With plenty of time left before he next "scheduled" stop, he declared that he wanted to go visit the nearby Whole Foods, an upscale purveyor of organic groceries.

Why Whole Foods?

Because there will be people there, he explained.

Sanford's day-before-election day approach is like nothing any of the reporters covering him had seen before. As soon as he walked into the grocery store, Sanford approached the first person he saw, a young woman in the vegetable aisle, and struck up a conversation. He introduced himself, asked her name and said he hoped she would support him. Then it was off to the organic fruit department. Then to the cereal aisle. And finally, one final stop near the check-out counter to deliver the spiel again to someone else.

Most people seemed to recognize him--or at least pretended to--and some just smiled and nodded. For others, it was just a guy in old shoes and a blue shirt who called himself Mark and wanted to shake your hand.

On his way out of the grocery store, Sanford recognized an elderly woman pushing a cart passed him. It was his neighbor, Marion Sullivan, a staunch Democrat, who was buying food for his campaign volunteers working for his Democratic opponent, Elizabeth Colbert Busch.

"I think Mr. Sanford has let this state down and embarrassed it," Sullivan said after he walked away. "I would be voting for anybody other than that."

Just as she said that, a grinning Sanford returned and put his arm on her shoulder. "We've been giving each other a hard time for how many months now?" he said.

"I told him he shouldn't run and embarrass the state anymore but he didn't take my advice" she said, while Sanford giggled next to her.

"Good seeing you, Marion," Sanford said, still smiling, before walking out.

"He thinks it's really funny for some reason that I can't imagine," Sullivan said.

Mark Sanford speaks with a woman at Whole Foods. (Yahoo News)

Sanford pressed on, visiting tire shops, a store that sells motorboats, a Mediterranean deli and a women's clothing boutique. He talked to every human being in sight: Check-out clerks, cooks, auto mechanics deliverymen and managers, you name it.

With each interaction, Sanford attempted a bit of small talk. While he was standing on a sidewalk between stops Monday morning, he spotted two air-conditioning repair men walking toward him. "I'm gonna harass these two here," he announced and approached them. When he discovered their occupation, he asked how to keep his air conditioning from dripping. "They're supposed to drip," one of the men said.

Later, while visiting the boat shop, Sanford stood with his hand on a two-stroke engine and listened as one a technician described the motor he was working on. Near the end, Sanford admitted to the man, "Yeah, I didn't understand any of this."

Mark Sanford at a tire shop. (Yahoo News)

It perhaps goes without saying that Sanford's style could hardly be further from that of his opponent, Colbert Busch.

Across town that same day, Colbert Busch's sleek campaign bus was darting from one event to another.

While Colbert Busch has made herself available to reporters over the past few days, she is constantly flanked by an entourage of staffers and volunteers. Unlike Sanford, her events seem like they are actually planned, and they bear the signs of a coordinated effort with national Democratic groups who have flown in from Washington, D.C. to help her run the campaign. (Don't be fooled by Sanford's scrappy appearance, however: His campaign has plenty of help from Republican volunteers flooding the state for the party's get-out-the-vote effort.) But with the bus, the aides, her large family and even traveling performer Jon "Bowzer" Bauman from the Greaser band "Sha Na Na" by her side, Colbert Busch's organization is simply more visible.

Elizabeth Colbert Busch at her campaign headquarters. (Yahoo News)

On Monday afternoon, Colbert Busch's bus stopped at the Canterbury House in Charleston, a retirement home. In the building's common area, she greeted each person one by one before giving a brief speech in which she vowed to preserve Social Security and Medicare without "privatizing" it.

At the end, Colbert Busch invited of her family members who were joining her on the campaign trail to the front of the room, where everyone, including the candidate, sang "Goodnight Sweetheart Goodnight" together.

It remains unclear which candidate has the most momentum heading into the Election Day. The most recent Public Policy Polling survey showed Sanford leading by a percentage point this week, just days after the same polling firm showed Colbert Busch ahead. Sanford's campaign approach would suggest that he think he has it wrapped up--although it's possible that he's doing it because Republicans want to keep him out of sight--but with Colbert Busch's national Democratic backing, she could still muscle her way to Washington.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/mark-sanford-talks-buddhism-daily-meditation-practice-unique-000939600.html

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Sunday, May 5, 2013

Kyle Richards: 'RHOBH' reunion was 'torture'

TV

28 minutes ago

Image: Kyle Richards

AP

Kyle Richards supports March of Dimes I'm Born To campaign, to help every baby be born strong and healthy, at an NBC taping in Manhattan on Tuesday, April 30.

Here's hoping season five of "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" goes more smoothly for Kyle Richards.

While promoting her partnership with the March of Dimes' I'm Born To campaign, the reality star told TODAY that that last month's contentious reunion show "was absolute torture."

In fact, "it was torture leading up to it, that day," when she joined her sister, Kim Richards, and their co-stars Lisa Vanderpump, Brandi Glanville, Taylor Armstrong and Yolanda Foster to rehash a season marked by catfights and controversy.

"The previous seasons I really felt like even though we had our differences, at the end of the day we all came together and supported each other," she explained. "Whether it was supporting Camille through her divorce with Kelsey or my sister going to rehab, or what Taylor went through with Russell. I really felt like we all came together and supported each other. ? At the reunion I felted ganged up on."

"It felt like it was very strategic on all their parts," she said about the hits she took from her co-stars, especially Foster. "Yolanda and I have never had an issue all season, and all of a sudden she came at me. ? I was probably hurt the most by Lisa because I was the closest with her from the beginning, and I think the things she said were not very nice. ? It was very hurtful. ? It was really awful, I have to admit."

But Adrienne Maloof, who clashed with Glanville after the leggy blonde revealed a family secret, was MIA. "When you sign up for something like this, it's our job to -- none of us want to go to the reunion," said Richards when asked about her former co-star's no-show. "I personally felt it was her chance to explain things -- by her not talking about, not explaining, she was just hurting herself really. So I think that she would've been a lot better off if she showed up and explained her side of the story."

And although Richards even shed tears of sympathy when Maloof revealed she was splitting with her husband on the season finale, they haven't been in touch since.

"I actually haven't spoken to her," Richards admitted. "I was with Camille (Grammer) one day at the Beverly Hills Hotel and we bumped into her, but we haven't seen her."

Kyle insisted she doesn't know who will replace Grammer and Maloof on season four, or even when it's set to begin filming.

"They like to keep us hanging like they do everybody else," she said with a laugh. "They like to leave us hanging and wondering until the very last second!"

When asked whom she'd pick to join the "RHOBH" gang, Richards mused, "I can't think of any particular person, but I would like someone on there who's a girl's girl, someone intelligent, someone who likes to have fun, and someone who's honest. And then I feel like we can get through anything if I can have someone like that."

Meanwhile, Richards is focusing on the positive. In addition to her new boutique and her philanthropic efforts, Richards said, "My No. 1 job is being a mom and a wife," she said, "so I've got my hands full!"

Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/kyle-richards-real-housewives-beverly-hills-reunion-was-absolute-torture-6C9770530

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