Dwayne Johnson Picks Up The Monster Hunter's Survival Guide

The Rock is ready to take on monsters. It was announced today that Dwayne Johnson is now attached to star in the feature film adaptation of John Paul Russ? comic book miniseries The Monster Hunter?s Survival Guide. The book ?is a comprehensive guide to hunt monsters, the undead and unnatural beasts, and survive the confrontations.? Simon Kinberg (X-Men: First Class) will produce through his Genre Films shingle. It?s not a terrible idea for a film, though I sincerely hope they steer clear of the Van Helsing approach. Is it too much to hope for an R-rated version with Johnson violently taking on ginormous, gnarly monsters?

Johnson is currently filming G.I. Joe 2: Retaliation, where he plays Roadblock. He?ll follow G.I. Joe 2 with the action thriller Snitch, where he stars opposite Susan Sarandon and Michael K. Williams. He?s also attached to play Goliath in a retelling of the David and Goliath story in Goliath, but that film is currently lacking a David. Johnson will next be seen in Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, which opens February 10th, 2012.

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1923983/news/1923983/

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Herman Cain's Secret Service Request Prompted by Journalist Skirmishes (The Atlantic Wire)

Herman Cain, who's security team manhandled?multiple reporters recently, became the first GOP candidate to receive Secret Service protection in this election cycle--and Cain's spokesman, J.D. Gordon said skirmishes with journalists prompted the decision,?The Washington Post?reported. "Cain spokesman J.D. Gordon said Thursday night that the campaign asked for the protection after The Washington Post posted an article online that morning?detailing a series of physical skirmishes involving journalists at Cain rallies."

Related: Introducing Herman Cain, the Lovable GOP Candidate

From The?Post's take, Gordon's remark could mean "we needed protection from aggressive journalists" or "we needed protection for journalists because they were getting trampled," which?Slate's David Weigel?notes and clears up. He asked Gordon: "Was the campaign concerned about injured journalists; was that why the request was made?" Gordon said,??"No. It wasn't the reason."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/atlantic/20111118/pl_atlantic/hermancainrequestedsecretservicehelpprotecthimmedia45164

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The Romney ceiling: Can he ever win over conservatives? Does he need to?

No matter what, Mitt Romney appears unable to get more than 25 percent of likely GOP primary voters to choose him in a poll. But the other candidates' shortcomings could be all he needs.

What does Mitt Romney have to do to win his party?s base? And does he even need to?

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As the former Massachusetts governor?s eventual nomination as the GOP presidential candidate becomes ever more likely, there seems to be an increased desperation among those conservatives willing to ally themselves with anyone but him.

The momentum has swung from Michelle Bachmann to Rick Perry to Herman Cain to Newt Gingrich as candidate after candidate flies high, only to crash. (Ron Paul has his own coterie of intensely loyal supporters, but also has a hard time winning the GOP base.)

So, why not Mitt?

Media speculation about the search for an ?anti-Romney? candidate has been rampant for months, but polling suggests the idea isn?t just a fabrication of pundits looking for something to talk about.

Despite his success ? and his consistency throughout the campaign ? Mr. Romney seems to have hit a ceiling of about 25 percent in virtually any poll.

A recent Bloomberg News poll of likely Republican caucus-goers in Iowa suggests one reason, with 58 percent of those polled saying they would rule out any candidate who had favored a mandate to buy health insurance.

There was more opposition on that score than on any other point the voters were asked about, including how they felt about a candidate who had been married three times and had extramarital affairs (48 percent said they?d rule him out), or who had been accused of sexual harassment (30 percent).

To many core Republicans, Romney can?t shake his image as a liberal-to-moderate Northerner ??a former GOP governor of a Democratic state who used to favor abortion rights and pushed through a health-insurance mandate that was the model for Obama?s.

One conservative blogger recently called his run ?a hostile takeover of the conservative movement.?

The fact that he?s a Mormon only makes him more suspect. (Romney?s faith has been attacked directly by at least a few conservatives, including intellectuals like Christopher Hitchens and prominent pastors like Robert Jeffress.)

All of which seems to make some Republicans more willing to embrace a thrice-married philanderer (Mr. Gingrich) than Romney. At least, the former House Speaker seems the current choice of the anti-Romney Republicans. A Fox News poll released Wednesday shows him doubling his support in the past three weeks to 23 percent, essentially tying Romney (22 percent) for the lead, and several other national polls now put him at or near the top.

None of this is news to Romney. Despite moving ever farther to the right, he knows his challenges with conservative Republicans.

It?s one reason he seems to be making less of an effort in Iowa (where committed caucusgoers tend to be further to the right), despite recently earning the censure of Iowa?s powerful governor for passing up events like this weekend?s Christian conservative candidate forum and the governor?s birthday fundraiser.

?I think he?s making a big mistake by not coming here ? and spending more time,? Gov. Terry Branstad said Wednesday at a Politico-sponsored forum.

But does it really matter?

So far, Romney?s strategy seems to be working, as one after another of his opponents self-destructs. It?s hard to picture any of them, at this point in the campaign, rallying enough support to win the nomination, however much the conservative wing of the party dislikes Romney.

One irony to all that opposition: Repeated polls suggest that Romney has a far greater chance than Gingrich, Mr. Perry, or almost any other GOP candidate of beating President Obama in the general election.

Which, according to most of the Republican base, is their top goal.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/Fa-V2uyFMTQ/The-Romney-ceiling-Can-he-ever-win-over-conservatives-Does-he-need-to

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Italy's Monti center stage, France "alarm bells" (Reuters)

ROME (Reuters) ? Prime Minister-designate Mario Monti raced to assemble a new government for Italy on Tuesday while a sharp rise in French borrowing costs raised fears that the two-year debt crisis may spread to the euro zone's second biggest economy.

European shares and the euro fell on Tuesday as investors renewed selling of Italian and Spanish bonds and any relief from having new leaders in Italy and Greece proved short-lived with investors seeking safe-haven assets like German bonds.

Italy's 10-year bond yield rocketed back above 7 percent, pushing its borrowing costs to a level widely seen as unsustainable and which helped trigger the fall of Silvio Berlusconi's government last week.

Global markets harbor deep concerns about whether Monti and new Greek leader Lucas Papademos, unelected European technocrats without a domestic political base, can impose the needed tough austerity and far-reaching economic reform.

A think-tank report said the situation in triple-A rated France should also be "ringing euro zone alarm bells" because of the country's inability to make rapid adjustments to its economy.

Germany and France posted solid growth in the third quarter, statistics released on Tuesday showed, but euro zone nations on the front line of the debt crisis fared much worse and analysts expect bleaker times ahead in the core economies.

"The German economy has lost its immunity," said Carsten Brzeski of ING, a Dutch bank. "With the latest stage of the sovereign debt crisis, today's numbers are as good as it gets for the German economy."

As the euro zone's largest economy and growth engine for the past two years, any hiccups in the coming business quarters in Germany would have wider effects in the region.

A rebound in household consumption lifted France's growth to a better-than-expected 0.4 percent in the third quarter, after a contraction in the second, but economists warned it was just a lull before a likely return to recession.

"You could call this the lull in the storm," said Marc Touati of Assya Compagnie Financiere. "What's worrying is that industrial investment has started going down, which proves that the virtuous circle of investment, growth and job creation is not working."

"ALARM BELLS"

The urgency of resolving the crisis was underscored by a report by the Lisbon Council, which said France's inability to make rapid adjustments to its economy was a serious worry and should be of acute concern for the euro zone.

"Among the six euro zone countries with a AAA rating, France achieves by far the lowest ranking in the study's fundamental health check," the Brussels-based think-tank found in the 75-page report, called the Euro Plus Monitor.

"The results are too mediocre for a country that wants to safeguard its place in the top league ... Alarm bells should be ringing for France.

With the survival of the 17-state currency zone in its current form now at risk, EU governments have until a summit on December 9 to come up with a bolder and more convincing strategy, involving some form of massive, visible financial backing.

Prospects are uncertain as the German government, the Bundesbank and hardliners in the European Central Bank have so far blocked key policy options.

These include issuing common euro zone bonds, mutualizing the euro zone's debt stock, letting the ECB create money to fight the crisis, or having it act as lender of last resort, directly or via the euro zone rescue fund.

The debt crisis is likely to make matters worse in the next months with nations such as Italy, Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain forced to adopt politically unpopular cuts to stop the bond market driving them toward default.

Economists say there is no visible growth strategy in place to counter those austerity measures.

EUROPE FACES "TOUGHEST HOUR"

German Chancellor Angela Merkel caught the mood of crisis with a stark warning on Monday that Europe could be living through its "toughest hour since World War Two." She told her CDU party she feared Europe would fail if the euro failed and vowed to do anything in her power to stop this from happening.

Monti pursued his efforts on Tuesday to secure support from feuding politicians to allow his cabinet of experts to speed up reform of pensions, labor markets and business regulation needed to put Italy's finances on a sustainable footing.

Italy has to refinance some 200 billion euros ($273 billion) of bonds by the end of April, a daunting prospect.

High borrowing costs and the release of figures showing industrial production slumped by 2 percent in the euro zone in September, raised the specter of recession and provided a gloomy backdrop to Monti's talks with the heads of smaller parties.

"Monti spoke about a significant program with many sacrifices," Francesco Nucara, a lawmaker from one of the myriad tiny parliamentary groups involved in the talks, said after meeting the prime minister-designate.

Monti, a respected former European commissioner, on Tuesday met leaders of the two largest parties of the center-right and the center-left, unions, and representatives of women and youth groups.

Expected to seek a confidence vote by Friday, Monti has said that he aimed to serve until scheduled elections in 2013, not just until reforms had been pushed through.

Far-reaching reforms are seen as crucial if Italy is to end years of stagnant growth, trim a debt mountain equal to 120 percent of gross domestic product and avoid the sort of crisis that forced bailouts of Greece, Ireland and Portugal.

GREEK DEFAULT FEARS

Papademos said late on Monday that Greece had no choice but to stay in the euro zone, telling lawmakers reforms were the only solution.

But conservatives on whom Papademos must rely for support demanded pro-growth policies and rejected any more cuts, fueling fears of a Greek default that may force Athens out of the currency group triggering a euro zone debt meltdown.

Austerity measures had deepened Greece's recession but reforms -- including widening the tax base and fighting rampant tax evasion -- could mitigate the problem, said Papademos, who oversaw Greece's entry to the euro zone in 2002.

But New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras said he would not vote for new austerity measures. Spending cuts and tax rises agreed with foreign lenders should be changed in favor of economic growth, he said.

Inspectors for Greece's international lenders, known as the troika, were due to meet Papademos's administration after the confidence vote, but an EU official said the visit might not happen until the end of the week.

Most Greeks hailed Papademos's appointment, but thousands of people angry at more than a year of austerity are expected to rally on Thursday, the anniversary of a 1973 student uprising that helped to bring down the colonels' junta of 1967-74. ($1 = 0.734 Euros)

(Additional reporting by Luke Baker in Brussels; Writing by Peter Millership; Editing by Giles Elgood)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111115/bs_nm/us_eurozone

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What does a chair leg sound like?

Chelsea Whyte, contributor

Five artists have come together for an show that excites your senses - in surprising ways.

(Image: Owl Project, 9v Sound System, acoustic 11-sided horn (elm, reclaimed oak), electronics, 2011, Sound Lathe, wood, electronics, 2007, courtesy the artists, photo: Tomas Rydin, thisistomorrow.info)

The entrance to the brightly lit main gallery of the TERRA exhibition at Jerwood Space in London?s Southbank is lined with a handful of glass urns, translucent pots with pointed lids all standing on pedestals about four feet high. Artist Edwina fitzPatrick presents these thin glass vessels as one piece, called Arboreal laboratory: In mythology the Gods always smelled good. They are beautiful on their own, and as I leaned in to look closer at the carefully placed holes around the rims, I caught a whiff of something that smelled of sandalwood and saltwater. It was strong but fleeting and it brought back a memory of playing on the beach when I was a child.

FitzPatrick created this series of scent-filled urns as an exploration of Jacobson?s organ, a pair of small pits on either side of the nasal septum just above the nostril. The role of this organ in humans is disputed, though it?s known in animals to aid in sensitive chemical detection, and some say humans use it to sense pheromones.

Once I realised the seemingly empty vases held scents, I moved along to each one, leaning carefully over the delicate glass and inhaling deeply. One smelled of roses and my grandmother?s perfume. One smelled of grass and honey and somehow, strangely, sunshine. I wondered if every scent smelled a little differently to each person, because they each brought back a specific memory for me. Those memories flashed in my mind, almost sculpted out of thin air.

(Image: Edwina fitzPatrick, Arboreal Laboratory: In mythology the Gods always smelled good, glass vessels, scent, perspex plinths, 2004, courtesy the artist, Arboreal Laboratory was created through a Stour Valley arts residency, funded by the Arts Council and the Esm?e Fairburn Foundation, photo: Tomas Rydin, thisistomorrow.info)

Moving through the exhibit, I came to a large installation called Sound Lathe by Owl Project, an artistic collaborative made up of Simon Blackmore, Antony Hall and Steve Symons. The sculpture consists of two wooden structures that look like elongated gramophones connected to a lathe, which is used to carve a piece of wood that is fitted with sensors. Although I didn?t see it being played, the Sound Lathe is a musical instrument. The sculpture amplifies the sound of woodworking as the rhythm from the machine travels through electric cords to the cone-shaped wooden speakers - you can hear a chair leg or stair railing being made.

In the back room of the gallery I encountered more sobering work. In a piece made specifically for the TERRA exhibition, Luke Jerram created a three-dimensional representation of a portion of the seismogram of the 2011 Tohuku earthquake in Japan. Seismograms are graphs made from the measurement of ground motion and are composed of vertical lines of varying heights that correspond to the size of a tremor. Jerram converted this two-dimensional readout into a three-dimensional representation using discs printed with a 3D layering technique and stacked together.

(Image: Luke Jerram, Tohoku Earthquake (rotated 9-minute-long seismograph from Tohoku earthquake, Japan 2011), 3D printed data in resin, 2011, courtesy the artist)

It?s curious to be able to visualise 9 minutes of history. It?s also strange, and somewhat relieving, to see such an enormous and tragic event reduced to an object no bigger than a toaster. Standing in front of it, I was glad for the protective glass box the museum has set it in. I almost wanted to pick it up, to throw it, to smash it even. It is physically beautiful, with a pleasant honey colour that almost glows from the light beneath it, but what it represents - loss, terror, the uncontrollable power of nature - is frightening.

Continuing in his exploration of things invisible to the naked eye, Jerram?s piece from his Glass Microbiology series steals the show. A large, clear glass sculpture of an E.coli virus cell sits atop a table lit from within. It is an arresting piece: beautiful but, again, almost frightening. They say you have to face your fears to conquer them, so I stepped up to the table to inspect the fine tendrils of hair all around the body of the cell. The sculpture is about 5 feet long in total, half of it devoted to two delicate tails that looked like they might snap if I touched them.

Jerram employs scientific glass blowers - those who made beakers and bottles for laboratories before automation took over - and their expert craftsmanship is shown off in the intricate curls of the hairs and the twisted tube of cloudy glass that makes up the inner workings of the cell.

These small pieces are fitting for the meek gallery space and, though it may only take a few minutes to walk through, this exhibit has small moments of surprise built in to the displays that will keep you looking, listening, and smelling for a long time.

TERRA runs at Jerwood Space until 11 December.

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Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/1a24f8bb/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Cblogs0Cculturelab0C20A110C110Cwhat0Edoes0Ea0Echair0Eleg0Esound0Elike0Bhtml0DDCMP0FOTC0Erss0Gnsref0Fonline0Enews/story01.htm

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Wall Street lower after new warnings on Europe (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Stocks fell early Wednesday as policymakers warned Europe's debt crisis posed dangers to the global economy and on signs the contagion was starting to spread to larger European nations.

The yield spread of 10-year French government bonds over their German equivalents widened to a euro-era high on fears the crisis was moving to economies that had been considered more isolated from the problems.

Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa said the crisis was already affecting emerging nations and Japan in multiple ways, while the Bank of England forecast Britain was on the brink of a contraction and warned against inaction.

In what has become a familiar "risk off" trade, cyclical sectors of the stock market that are more sensitive to signs of economic weakness were among the worst performers. The S&P materials sector fell 1.1 percent.

But reflecting a belief by some U.S. investors that equities may be able to weather the storm, Bruce Zaro, chief technical strategist at Delta Global Asset Management in Boston, said while the crisis would affect some U.S. companies he believed it would be slight.

"I believe that market participants are really overreacting to the turmoil in Europe," he said. "The impact of the euro zone will have some effect on U.S. corporations, particularly S&P 500 companies with respect to their exports."

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 116.40 points, or 0.96 percent, to 11,979.76. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 12.24 points, or 0.97 percent, to 1,245.57. The Nasdaq Composite Index lost 25.10 points, or 0.93 percent, to 2,661.10.

The European Central Bank bought euro zone government bonds to stop a selloff, traders said. European equities rose on the move, then lost ground as the yield on Italian 10-year bonds continued to hover near 7 percent.

U.S. equity investors have closely watched European sovereign debt prices and the euro currency, which are currently barometers of risk aversion for the wider market. Trading has been volatile, with large intraday swings as sentiment oscillates with developments is Europe.

Still, U.S. stocks have shown resilience, clinging to the higher end of their recent trading range at around 1,250 on the S&P 500. Traders watched for a break below 1,230 as a potential warning sign.

In U.S. company news, Dell Inc, the computer maker, missed quarterly revenue estimates, and said full-year revenues could be hurt by an industrywide shortage of hard drives. The shares fell 1.9 percent to $15.34.

Shares of Abercrombie & Fitch Co slumped 12.6 percent to $48.72 after the teen clothing retailer's quarterly profit missed estimates by a huge margin.

Target Corp posted higher quarterly profit on higher food sales and as a 5 percent discount to cardholders drew shoppers. The shares rose 2.1 percent to $54.33.

(Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/stocks/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111116/bs_nm/us_markets_stocks

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Panetta details impact of deeper cuts in military (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warned Congress on Monday that deeper defense cuts would leave the military with the smallest ground force since 1940, lead to possible months-long furloughs of civilian employees and force the Pentagon to recalibrate its national security strategy to accept "substantial risk."

The Pentagon is already facing $450 billion in cuts to projected spending over the next 10 years, an amount that could more than double if members of Congress' supercommittee fail to produce a $1.2 trillion deficit-cutting plan by Nov. 23. Panetta, who repeatedly has argued against further reductions, offered the most detailed description of the implications of the automatic, across-the-board cuts that would kick in ? half coming from defense.

In the first year alone of 2013, it would add up to a 23 percent cut that Panetta called devastating.

"Such a large cut, applied in this indiscriminate manner, would render most of our ship and construction projects unexecutable -- you cannot buy three quarters of a ship or a building and seriously damage other modernization efforts. We would also be forced to separate many of our civilian personnel involuntarily and, because the reduction would be imposed so quickly, we would almost certainly have to furlough civilians in order to meet the target," Panetta wrote in a letter.

By his calculations, "we would have the smallest ground force since 1940, the smallest number of ships since 1915, and the smallest Air Force in its history" at the end of the decade, Panetta said.

Panetta, who has used apocalyptic terms such as "doomsday," "hollow force" and "paper tiger" to describe the cuts, spelled out the details in a letter to Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the top Republican on the Armed Services Committee, and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a member of the panel. The two had written to Panetta earlier this month seeking specifics.

While painting a dire picture of the military if the automatic cuts are triggered, Panetta also implored the lawmakers to stave off such reductions.

If they did not, the Pentagon chief said the military would have to rethink its strategy.

"We would have to formulate a new security strategy that accepted substantial risk of not meeting our defense needs. A sequestration budget is not one that I could recommend," said Panetta, a former California congressman and head of the House Budget Committee.

At least two of the potential cuts outlined by Panetta would strike at the heart of U.S. defense strategy.

One is the elimination of missile defense in Europe. The Obama administration's commitment to building a network of radars and interceptors to defend all of Europe against a potential missile strike from Iran is central to U.S. efforts to update NATO defense priorities, improve defense cooperation with Russia and deter Iran.

The other ? eliminating one of three "legs" of the U.S. nuclear arsenal ? would force a historic shift in nuclear planning. Panetta said he would be forced to eliminate intercontinental ballistic missiles, the globe-circling missiles based in underground silos. These currently consist of 450 Minuteman III missiles based in the north-central U.S. The other two legs of the nuclear arsenal are submarine-launch ballistic missiles and air-launch missiles and bombs.

In his letter, Panetta said the deeper reductions would affect the military's ability to support the war in Afghanistan and lead to a fleet of fewer than 230 ships, the smallest number since 1915.

He offered a list of weapons programs that would be cut back, delayed or terminated such as the Joint Strike Fighter, the next generation ballistic missile submarine and new Army helicopters. Any reductions in weapons programs would set off a fierce fight in Congress as lawmakers look to protect programs and jobs in their districts.

Delaying or terminating surveillance drone programs would stifle a critical new technology that has allowed the U.S. to better track and eliminate terrorists in countries where American troops are not present.

Recent examples include the strike that killed al-Qaida-linked cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen and the surveillance that led to the death of ousted Libyan Leader Moammar Gadhafi. Drones are also the weapon of choice for the CIA as it hunts and kills insurgents in Pakistan that routinely target U.S. and coalition troops in Afghanistan.

Panetta's comments add pressure to the supercommittee just 10 days before its deadline as panel Republicans and Democrats struggle to fulfill their mandate. The Pentagon letter also stirs the recent talk in Congress about trying to nullify the automatic cuts, a step McCain and Graham have discussed. However, President Barack Obama said last week that he wouldn't accept any legislation that tries to undo the automatic cuts.

In a statement, McCain and Graham said the automatic cuts "would set off a swift decline of the United States as the world's leading military power. ... This is not an outcome that we can live with, and it is certainly not one that we should impose on ourselves. The sequester is a threat to the national security interests of the United States, and it should not be allowed to occur."

___

Associated Press writers Robert Burns and Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/usmilitary/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111114/ap_on_go_co/us_defense_budget

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