Monthly Archives: March 2012

Liberty County suspends search for missing toddler

Posted: March 31, 2012 at 8:15 pm

Search teams to use drones to look for missing 2-year-old

The Liberty County Sheriff's Department said it has suspended the search for 2-year-old Devon Davis.

An Amber Alert was issued for Davis on Tuesday. Liberty County sheriff's deputies said Devon wandered off into a wooded area while his mother, April Davis, and 1-year-old sister were napping at their new home in the Sam Houston Lake Estates area near Tarkington at about 3:30 p.m.

Davis said she found the door open and her son was gone. Investigators said Davis told them that Devon opened a latch on the door.

Searchers have spent days looking for the toddler. Before the search was called off, searchers used a drone to try to look for signs as to where he may be.

"The best benefit of that is unmanned and it can fly for hours," Liberty County Sheriff's Capt. Rex Evans said. "Whereas the aircraft that we've been able to have come over can only stay for a short amount of time."

The drone is like a miniature plane with cameras that will fly around and take pictures of the area.

Davis appealed to the public for help on Friday. It was the first time she spoke to the media.

"I'm April. I'm Devon's mom. If you know anything, if you've seen anything, please just call somebody. Bring him home with me. He needs to be home with his family. Somebody has to know something, somewhere. Please, help me find my son," April Davis said.

Davis said her son was recently ill and asked that he be taken to a hospital if he's found.

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'Fringe' recap: In The World To Come, We Will All Be Monsters

Posted: at 8:14 pm

An alternate reality riff on the season 1 episode The Transformation (aka the one where the nerdy Bruce Banner hulked out into an incredibly rubbery human porcupine), Nothing As It Seems was chockablock with strange mutations. Many of them were crammed into the episodes final moments, which gave us a hideous menagerie of creature feature monsters locked away on a ship cruising the ocean. Call it: The Super-Tanker of Dr. Moreau. We saw a spider leg and a rattlesnake tail protruding between the bars of cages, as well as a squid thing squirting through an aquarium jail. All of them were presumably human beings once the latest members of an ancient cult known by a Sumerian tat and organized around the principle of guided evolution. (Were these abominable critters call-backs to other Fringe freaks, too? Many readers say: Yes.) And so Fringe gave us a major new mythological idea, one thats something of a hybrid itself, a blend of ZFT and The First People. Call these extreme science whackjobs: The Next People. Their motivation: To become gods. Or maybe they just want to morph into cockroach-tough genetic constructs capable of surviving the catastrophic extinction event that is imminent. (It is the year 2012, after all. The year that the Mayan celestial ship emerges in the heart of the galaxy, turns into a bearded snake, and gives us all enlightenment. OR EATS US.) Their new leader: David Robert Jones, of course. Only the brainiac with the David Bowie name could be behind something so spacey and odd. The zany zoo of scary monsters and super creeps reminded me of any number of comic book ideas, from The Un-Men to The Ani-Men,Swamp-Thing to Man-Thing,and more. Also: spider-man + reptile-man = The writers of Fringe are, like me, eagerly anticipating the forthcoming reboot of the Spider-Man movie franchise. Are they also gearing up for a story that comments on a calamity-spooked culture thats gone crazy for stories about super-humans? My brain: A heaving Heap of geeky muck and mildewed newsprint. I will not apologize for it.

The opening sequence of Nothing As It Seems impressively restaged the opening sequence of The Transformation except this time, Marshall Bowman (again played by Neal Huff) didnt erupt into the Were-porcupine aboard Vertus Air flight 718 and crash the plane. Instead, Bowman blew up on the ground, during an interrogation by TSA agents. In the old timeline, Bowman was an undercover NSA agent working with two other men a guy named Daniel Hicks and Olivias former partner and lover, John Scott -- to hunt a bioweapons baddie. In Rebootlandia, Bowman was a transhuman cultist, one of many in the world, experimenting with serums developed by David Robert Jones during his days at Massive Dynamic. (Bowman + David = David Bowman, the astronaut turned plus-human Star Child of 2001: A Space Odyssey?) He had a partner, also named Hicks, who had a lover, a Beauty who dug his Beastly cheese especially when he unfurled his leathery bat wings and took her flying across the city. (I was suddenly reminded of Lois Lanes soaring date with the Man of Steel in the first Superman movie.) (You can fly! You belong to the sky! You and I belong to each other!)

The investigation into the mystery of these artificially-induced lusus naturae -- a cornucopia of porcupine people; a porcucopia! -- took Peter and Olivia to a new version of an old friend: Rebootlandia Ed, the near-neckless, manners-challenged proprietor of Markham's Used Books and gnome-like know-it-all specializing in undergound and esoteric knowledge. I always liked Ed, always wished Fringe would do more with him. Peter and Olivia curried Ed's favor by name-dropping Gene Wolf's sci-fi novel Lake Of The Long Sun(the second book in The Solar Cycle series; Peter said it was for "the lady," which left Ed doubly dazzled) and pushed his buttons by suggesting they had a research challenge he couldn't possibly meet. In between his clumsy-funny attempts to hit on Olivia, Ed explained the cuneiform brand on Bowman's body and sketched the framework for this new dimension of Fringeverse mythology. The Sumerian mark means "renewal" or "rebirth." Ed explained there had been "some rumblings lately about a group out there... obsessed with the guided evolution of man. They want to create a new species. A better species. Mutation by design." Mutation By Design -- sounds like an HGTV show that Charles Xavier would love. Later, Astrid would find a website that elaborated on the cult's ambitions: "Each generation of gods is overthrown by its children who become new gods with new tools." Sounds like David Robert Jones -- by seizing control of the creative powers of nature or God (depending on your perspective, as Walter noted) -- wants to pull aTitanomachy and become our new Zeus.

Searching for porcu-rogue Hicks, the agents of Fringe division got the final breakthrough they needed when Walter realized The Next People were using medical waste specifically, human fat to fuel and manage their changes. A gunfight within a plastic surgery clinic inside a Boston skyscraper left the Hicks dead and his heartbroken Lois in a pool of tears. In a beat prior to the super-tanker finale, we saw two more Next People -- Bowmans sister and her boyfriend, played by Battlestar Galacticas Alessandro Juliani shooting up with super-serum. "We can be born anew," she enthused, "children of the new world!" They shot up... and then we faded to the super-tanker, and saw two porcupine creatures stuck in a cell together. Was that the sister and her lover? Gaeta! Don't leave us so soon!

It should be noted that David Robert Jones himself never appeared, and the episode did not specify the relationship between these experimental life forms and the villains other passion project, next-gen shape-shifters, though I suspect these different endeavors are but varied iterations of the same ambition. As much as I worry that TV show special effects arent going to be able to do this mash of monsters the justice they deserve, I like them better than the shape-shifters, as the shape-shifters havent been capturing my imagination the way they did in earlier seasons. That said: My guess is that the next time Fringe revisits this story, The Next People will be more superman than super-beast, thanks to improvements in the formula. That super-tanker? A prison for mutant mistakes a floating island of misfit X-Men.

BURNING QUESTION: Remember the scene when Peter was trying to recall the Bowman case that he investigated in the original timeline? What did you make of the moment when Peter couldn't remember Daniel Hicks' name? Was it just a way to get Olivia involved in the story? (She had been ordered to take leave because "the tenth floor" was worried about the implications of her rapidly dissolving Rebootlandia identity.) Or did you wonder if Peter might now be losing hismemory? Is this Peter Bishop's cosmic function? To keep falling into and out of alternate realities? To love all possible Olivias and save all possible worlds?

NEXT: Agent Lincoln Lee = Gregor from Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis. Yes?

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Religious Freedom at Risk

Posted: at 9:59 am

By Father John Flynn, LC

ROME, MARCH 30, 2012 (Zenit.org).- The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released its 2012 annual report, along with its recommendations to the Secretary of State as to which nations should be included on the list of countries of particular concern or CPCs.

On the list were: Burma, China, Egypt, Eritrea, Iraq, Iran, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.

Nations that trample upon basic rights, including freedom of religion, provide fertile ground for poverty and insecurity, war and terror, and violent, radical movements and activities, commented USCIRF Chair Leonard Leo.

The report, at more than 300 pages long, contained detailed information both on the CPC countries and another group that are on a Watch List for the period from April 1 last year up to the end of February.

In its introduction the report noted that while much attention has been paid to the ongoing economic problems there has been an unnoticed crisis of equal severity regarding religious freedom.

To an alarming extent, freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief was being curtailed, often threatening the safety and survival of innocent persons, including members of religious minorities, the report affirmed.

The introduction also criticized the lack of action by the federal government regarding USCIRFs recommendations. Currently only eight countries have been listed by the State Department as CPCs and for two of them, Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan, Presidential waivers have been granted, meaning that no actions have been taken against them.

Arab Spring

The report examined the consequences of the Arab Spring in Egypt. In general it has led to a dramatic worsening of religious freedom. Coptic Christians and their churches have suffered repeated attacks and instead of defending them military forces have, instead, turned their guns on Christians, the report denounced.

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Liberty University debuts first round of classes in new film school

Posted: at 9:59 am

Down the hall from Liberty University's cinematography class, Hollywood veteran Stephan Schultze surveys a storage room packed floor to ceiling with video cameras, computers, lights and sound gear the makings of a movie set.

Since Liberty announced plans for a film school last May, the school has invested nearly $1.5 million in professional equipment and has recruited Schultze who has credit lines in such movies as The Abyss and Tremors to lead the program.

The gear that we use is the same gear that youd find on The Hobbit, if you walked out onto the set. The same cameras, the same lighting gear, so the students wont have to relearn anything, said Schultze, executive director of the Zaki Gordon Cinematic Arts Center at LU.

This semester, Liberty debuted its first round of film classes, which are prerequisites for the major. Demand was high, and each course reached its maximum capacity of 60 students.

Come fall, Liberty will launch the full-fledged major, a two-year program that will train students in directing, screenwriting and cinematography. Liberty plans to accept about 40 students in its inaugural class, and eventually expand to 160 students.

During the first year, students will produce and direct a short film and write a full-length screenplay. They also will learn how to produce films for non-conventional and emerging platforms, such as cell phones and YouTube.

The second year culminates in a large-scale theatrical project and a film festival. Students also will be required to write a business and fundraising plan for producing their own screenplay.

By the time they graduate, theyll have a reel, Schultze said. Theyve got a screenplay thats really polished and well written. Theyve got a business plan ready to go. Theyve got a short film to start sending around to festivals and theyll have worked on a feature film.

The goal is to produce well-rounded graduates who can pursue a broad range of careers, from big-budget movies to nonprofit documentary work.

Schultze brings more than a decade of experience from Hollywoods film industry.

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SiriusXM fights Liberty Media takeover move

Posted: at 5:03 am

Did Sirius XM Radio Inc. make a Faustian bargain when it decided to accept $530 million from Liberty Media Corp.to stave off bankruptcy in early 2009?

The New York-based satellite radio companyfiled a petition late Friday afternoon with theFederal Communications Commission, urging that the agency deny a request by Liberty Media Corp. that soughtto transfer several of SiriusXM's operating licenses to Liberty's control. Liberty owns 40% of SiriusXM and occupies fiveof its 13board seats.

Liberty's request, filedMarch 20,include SiriusXM'searth station licensesanditsterrestrial repeaterlicense. The FCC requires SiriusXM to have all three licenses to operate.

But SiriusXM fought back, arguing in a 24-page petition that Liberty failed to get proper signatures from the companys board for its transfer request.

This is the equivalent of trying to cash an unsigned check and explaining the lack of a signature by saying nothing more than the account holder refused to sign it, SiriusXM's attorneys wrote.

Liberty Media's intent, and the intent ofChairman John Malone, is unclear.The company did not state a reason for seeking control of those licenses and messages to Liberty Media's spokeswoman were not immediately returned.

At issue is whether Liberty's 40% stake in SiriusXM allows Malone to assume ownership of the satellite radio company, which last year earned a $427-million profit on more than $3 billion in revenue.

What's clear is that SiriusXM's last-minute arrangement with Libertyaverted financial disaster, allowing the New York satellite radio company to make a $172-million payment on its high-interest loans justdays before it was due in February 2009. The transaction also gave Liberty Media fiveof 13 seats on the company's board.

The deal also barred Liberty Media from trying to take over SiriusXM by acquiring 39.9% or more of SiriusXM's stock. That provision expired March 6.

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Sirius Jumps on Speculation of Liberty Media Stake Increase

Posted: March 30, 2012 at 9:53 pm

By Alex Sherman - Fri Mar 30 21:11:44 GMT 2012

Sirius XM Radio Inc. (SIRI), the largest U.S. satellite-radio broadcaster, rose the most in more than a month in New York trading, on speculation John Malones Liberty Media Corp. will increase its stake and spin it off.

Sirius advanced 4.5 percent to $2.31 at the close, the largest one-day gain since Feb. 24.

Liberty, based in Englewood, Colorado, owns preferred stock convertible into about 40 percent of the common shares of New York-based Sirius. Speculation about a stake increase intensified after Liberty asked U.S. regulators this month for permission to gain majority control of Sirius, said Brett Harriss, a Gabelli & Co. analyst in Rye, New York. He has a hold rating on Sirius.

Theres speculation they will increase their stake to go from 40 percent to 51 percent and then divest the stake, Harriss said.

Liberty Media could avoid paying taxes on a spinoff of Sirius if it increases its stake to 50 percent or more, according to U.S. Internal Revenue Service rules, Harriss said.

A standstill agreement between the companies concluded this month, allowing Liberty to buy more shares of Sirius, Harriss said. Liberty asked the Federal Communications Commission for consent to take de facto control of Sirius, in a filing dated March 20.

A Sirius spokesman, Patrick Reilly, and Liberty Media spokeswoman, Courtnee Ulrich, didnt return calls seeking comment.

Sirius said in a March 22 filing it intends to seek dismissal or denial of Libertys application for control. Sirius disagrees that Liberty has the right to take control of the company, according to the filing.

Sirius has gained 35 percent in the past 12 months. In 2009, the company averted bankruptcy after Liberty agreed to buy a 40 percent stake in exchange for $530 million in loans.

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Liberty Media Filing Seeks Control Of SiriusXM

Posted: at 9:53 pm

In arecent FCC filing from Liberty Media, the company revealed it is seeking "de facto control" of SiriusXM, despite not owning the majority of stock in the satcaster. Seeking Alpha reports that in the FCC application, which was filed on March 20, Liberty Media asks for consent of the transfer of control of SiriusXM's assets and of the company itself from its shareholders.

Siriusreplied ina letter to the FCC dated March 22, saying, "Sirius XM disagrees that the expiration of certain provisions in the 2009 investment agreement changes control of Sirius XM and intends to file a formal response seeking dismissal or denial of the applications."

Seeking Alpha interprets Liberty's application to be a potential "hostile takeover" of the satcaster, adding that Liberty may be interpreting a potential loophole in a 2009 agreement with SiriusXM to mean that when its agreement expired on March 6, it allowed for the transfer of the satcaster to Liberty. However, Seeking Alpha notes that the FCC would need to approve such a transfer, which "could take years to resolve." The move could also be interpreted as a play to affect the stock price for Sirius and allow Liberty to buy up more shares of the satcaster.

Liberty Media has owned approximately 40 percent of SiriusXM since infusing the company with cash in a 2009 agreement.

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Liberty Property Trust Hosts First Quarter 2012 Results Conference Call

Posted: at 9:53 pm

MALVERN, Pa., March 30, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --Liberty Property Trust (NYSE: LRY - News) will host its first quarter results conference call on Tuesday, April 24, 2012, at 1:00 P.M., ET. The call can be accessed by dialing (888) 870-2815 and entering the passcode 68152370. The conference call will also be available live at http://www.libertyproperty.comin the "Investor Relations" section of the site. Liberty will issue a press release detailing results the same day before the market opens.

If you are unable to join the conference call, you may access the archived webcast, also in the Investor Relations section of the web site. In addition, a recording will be available telephonically until May 8, 2012 by dialing (855) 859-2056 and using the passcode 68152370.

Liberty Property Trust is a leader in commercial real estate, serving customers in the United States and United Kingdom, through the development, acquisition, ownership and management of superior office and industrial properties. Liberty's 79 million square foot portfolio includes nearly 700 properties which provide office, distribution and light manufacturing facilities to 1,900 tenants.

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Old-time hacktivists to Anonymous: You've crossed the line

Posted: at 9:52 pm

Despite shared concerns, pioneers in the movement say the methods of a newer generation abridge free speech and hurt the cause.

In December 1998, a U.S.-based hacker group called Legions of the Underground declared cyberwar on Iraq and China and prepared to protest human rights abuses in those countries by disrupting their Internet access.

About a week later, a coalition of hackers from groups including Cult of the Dead Cow (cDc), L0pht, Chaos Computer Club in Germany, and hacker mags 2600 and Phrack issued a statement condemning the move. "We - the undersigned - strongly oppose any attempt to use the power of hacking to threaten to destroy the information infrastructure of a country, for any reason," the statement said. "One cannot legitimately hope to improve a nation's free access to information by working to disable its data networks."

Oxblood Ruffin of Cult of the Dead Cow and Hacktivismo

Legions of the Underground got the message and backed down. The hackers went back to embarrassing Microsoft by exploiting security weaknesses in Windows, partying at DefCon in Las Vegas, and testing the line between white hat and gray hat security as they explored the limits and frontiers of technology.

But the line that was drawn back then is again being crossed.

This time it's hackers and online activists working under the banner of Anonymous who are using Web site defacements, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, and data theft, ostensibly to press their campaign for Internet freedom and human rights. The group, because of its lack of leadership and organization, also finds itself calling for seemingly contradictory operations including both urging people to vote in the elections this year as part of Occupy the Vote and a "declaration of war" on the U.S. over proposed cybersecurity legislation, urging a vague destruction of the government but not a computer attack or physical protest.

The former "chief evangelist for hacktivism" at the cDc, Oxblood Ruffin, says this is not the way of a true hacktivist.

"Anonymous is fighting for free speech on the Internet, but it's hard to support that when you're DoS-ing and not allowing people to talk. How is that consistent?" Oxblood Ruffin said in an interview this week with CNET. "They remind me of awkward teenagers. I think they're trying to do the right thing, but they're stumbling around and doing some really stupid sh**."

Hacktivismo The cDc members were early hacktivists. A member named Omega coined the term "hacktivist" in an e-mail to the group in 1996, partly tongue-in-cheek. "We were providing ridicule and social commentary," Oxblood Ruffin said. "We were opinion leaders in the computer underground."

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Old-time hacktivists: Anonymous, you've crossed the line

Posted: at 4:24 pm

Despite shared concerns, pioneers in the movement say the methods of a newer generation abridge free speech and hurt the cause.

In December 1998, a U.S.-based hacker group called Legions of the Underground declared cyberwar on Iraq and China and prepared to protest human rights abuses in those countries by disrupting their Internet access.

About a week later, a coalition of hackers from groups including Cult of the Dead Cow (cDc), L0pht, Chaos Computer Club in Germany, and hacker mags 2600 and Phrack issued a statement condemning the move. "We - the undersigned - strongly oppose any attempt to use the power of hacking to threaten to destroy the information infrastructure of a country, for any reason," the statement said. "One cannot legitimately hope to improve a nation's free access to information by working to disable its data networks."

Oxblood Ruffin of Cult of the Dead Cow and Hacktivismo

Legions of the Underground got the message and backed down. The hackers went back to embarrassing Microsoft by exploiting security weaknesses in Windows, partying at DefCon in Las Vegas, and testing the line between white hat and gray hat security as they explored the limits and frontiers of technology.

But the line that was drawn back then is again being crossed.

This time it's hackers and online activists working under the banner of Anonymous who are using Web site defacements, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, and data theft, ostensibly to press their campaign for Internet freedom and human rights. The group, because of its lack of leadership and organization, also finds itself calling for seemingly contradictory operations including both urging people to vote in the elections this year as part of Occupy the Vote and a "declaration of war" on the U.S. over proposed cybersecurity legislation, urging a vague destruction of the government but not a computer attack or physical protest.

The former "chief evangelist for hacktivism" at the cDc, Oxblood Ruffin, says this is not the way of a true hacktivist.

"Anonymous is fighting for free speech on the Internet, but it's hard to support that when you're DoS-ing and not allowing people to talk. How is that consistent?" Oxblood Ruffin said in an interview this week with CNET. "They remind me of awkward teenagers. I think they're trying to do the right thing, but they're stumbling around and doing some really stupid sh**."

Hacktivismo The cDc members were early hacktivists. A member named Omega coined the term "hacktivist" in an e-mail to the group in 1996, partly tongue-in-cheek. "We were providing ridicule and social commentary," Oxblood Ruffin said. "We were opinion leaders in the computer underground."

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