Nurturing Next Nature

Nature is a slippery word. Nature is the opposite of culture but ?natural? behaviors are culturally expected from us. Nature is serene and wholesome, but nature is red in tooth and claw. Nature is the opposite of technology, but any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from nature. Nature is wild and untouched by humans, but there is no place on Earth unaffected by the changing climate. When we follow our trash from our homes to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch we realize that there is no nature ?over there,? separate from human societies. How can we change our concept of nature to encompass this hybrid nature, where artificial and natural are blurred in a scale of aliveness and a spectrum of artificiality? Next Nature in inextricably tied to human technology, never ?over there,? but co-evolving with us as we design nature.

The Next Nature book is a nearly 500-page exploration of the science and art of designer nature. It?s a beautiful, thoughtful, and thought-provoking collection of images and essays curated by a team of Dutch researchers led by Koert van Mensvoort. You can check out an excerpt below:

The book is split up into seven National Geographic look-alike sections, covering work, play, food, bodies, societies, and ecosystems, confronting us with the strange artificiality of our cultivated nature and the uncontrollable forces of Next Nature. We are all cyborgs at the mercy of an atmosphere we thought we could never change.

It?s not all hopeless and terrifying; Next Nature offers us images of art, design, science, and technology that can begin to deal with the ecological crises we are facing, crises that are in large part due to the old ways of thinking about the nature/culture and society/ecology divide. Like Timothy Morton?s Ecology without Nature: Rethinking Environmental Aesthetics and Bruno Latour?s ?A Cautious Prometheus? A Few Steps Toward a Philosophy of Design,? when we let go of nature and embrace Next Nature, we can begin to design technologies and natures that are ecological and sustainable.

How does technology change when ?the made? and ?the born? converge? How can we design ecologically when nature is technology? Next Nature provides countless examples, but one page struck me in particular, featuring the Maple of Ratibor and the living bridges of Cherrapunji, India. These are incredible examples of guided growth, ecological building that steers natural processes to create unique, sustainable, and context-dependent technologies. I?ve seen images of the root bridges used before as examples and inspiration for synthetic biology, that someday we will be able to program the DNA of organisms from the top-down using modular parts and computer-aided design to create new shapes and buildings. But Next Nature isn?t just about applying old technological top-down design paradigms to the control of living things, but changing how we think about technology and nature and how they interact, working with ecology and nurturing new technologies.

The blurring of nature and technology is interpreted and presented through the blurring of art and science, and here the slipperiness of words pops up again in interesting ways. In talks about Synthetic Aesthetics, artist and designer Daisy Ginsberg discusses the different definitions of ?experiment? and ?artifact? when introducing the unique challenges of art/science collaboration. For a scientist, an artifact is an error or noise in the data that distracts from the results of the experiment that is trying to uncover something about how the world works. For an artist, an artifact is the result of an experiment that is about trying to see the world in new ways. But just as nature is never ?over there,? science and art are never that far apart, and new ways of seeing and new ways of doing come from many kinds of experiments. Next Nature can give us a new vocabulary and a new philosophy to see and design the world.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=89668eb852d2fce4fff09c3728025be9

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Elephants race, play soccer in Nepal festival (AP)

CHITWAN, Nepal ? Soccer-playing elephants used all four feet and even their trunks trying to score goals. Racing pachyderm thundered to the finish line to the cheers of the crowds. And in the elephant beauty pageant, contestants sported nail polish on their not-so-dainty toes.

It was all part of an elephant-themed festival in Nepal that wrapped up Wednesday. The three-day event was held to promote conservation awareness and lure foreign visitors to Nepal.

The elephants were trained for weeks for the games, taking time off their normal jobs carrying tourists through protected jungles near Chitwan. The conservation forest has rhinos, several species of deer and crocodiles and is a popular tourist spot some 106 miles (170 kilometers) south of the capital, Katmandu.

"We hope that the elephant festival will help bring more tourists to Chitwan. We need both foreign and domestic visitors," said Ghanashyam Shrestha, one of the organizers.

Tourism is picking up in Nepal as it slowly recovers from a 10-year Maoist insurgency that killed more than 13,000 people. The conflict ended after the rebels gave up their armed revolt and joined a peace process in 2006.

But the tourists who mainly come to hike the Himalayan country's many mountains aren't returning fast enough for some. Nepal received some 600,000 visitors in 2010, short of the goal of 1 million set by the government declaring the Nepal Tourism Year.

Organizers of events like the elephant festival ? which draws on a popular elephant polo event held elsewhere in Nepal ? hope more colorful events will increase interest in tourism.

The final event, a 300-meter race, was won by an elephant named Bajadur Gaj, who pounded his way to the finish line in 69 seconds as thousands of locals and foreign tourists cheered.

Teams of four elephants also played soccer matches using a standard-size ball. The elephants blocked passes, kicked the ball and batted it with their trunks, pushing each other for control of the play.

"Training the elephants to play soccer was not easy but they learned the basic command. They understood they need to hit the ball when I yell 'kick' at them," said Basudev Mahato, 37, an elephant mahout who has been training and riding elephants for 15 years.

The elephants are between 4 and 5 years old. Young ones are easier to train and run faster, Mahato said.

At the Hattishar elephant camp, trainers and workers cleaned up the elephants, fed them a special meal of rice and sugar wrapped in grass and painted them to prepare them for the event.

Over at the beauty pageant, a trainer painted white patterns on an elephant named Loktantrakali, then varnished her toenails bright red.

Judges ? who checked contestants bodies' for scars and overall beauty and also watched them perform tricks ? picked Loktantrakali as the second-prize winner.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111228/ap_on_re_as/as_nepal_elephant_racers

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Letter airs harassment claims against HP's ex-CEO

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd's efforts to impress an HP event hostess included showing her his checking-account balance holding over $1 million, according to a letter detailing the sexual harassment allegations that led to his ouster.

The letter was obtained late Thursday by The Associated Press after the Delaware Supreme Court ruled that Hurd's lawyers, who had attempted to keep it confidential, didn't show that disclosing it would violate California privacy rights. The ruling said information that is only "mildly embarrassing" is not protected from public disclosure.

The letter, it added, does not contain trade secrets about the Palo Alto-based technology company or non-public financial information. Some sentences concerning Hurd's family were ordered redacted.

Celebrity attorney Gloria Allred sent the letter last year on behalf of Jodie Fisher, who was hired as a contract employee to help with HP networking events and who later accused Hurd of sexual harassment.

Although an HP investigation did not find any evidence to support the harassment claim, it uncovered inaccurate expense reports for his outings with Fisher. Hurd was ultimately forced out in August 2010. He now works as co-president at rival Oracle Corp.

Allred alleged in the letter that, while Fisher was ostensibly hired an HP event hostess in late 2007, she was really brought on to accompany Hurd to HP events held out of town. Throughout 2008 and 2009, Hurd made it clear he expected to have a sexual relationship with Fisher, using his "status and authority as CEO of HP," Allred alleged.

Allred claimed that Hurd made several sexual advances toward Fisher, which Fisher rejected. In 2008, while walking with Fisher in Madrid, Hurd stopped at an ATM and showed her his checking-account balance "to impress her," according to the letter.

After Fisher rejected him a final time in October 2009, she was not hired for any future HP events, Allred alleged.

Allred also alleged that in March 2008, Hurd told Fisher that HP was likely to purchase technology services vendor EDS. HP announced the $13 billion acquisition in May of that year.

HP shareholder Ernesto Espinoza had sued to have the letter unsealed. Hurd's attorney, Amy Wintersheimer, said his lawyers had requested that the letter be kept confidential because "it is filled with inaccuracies."

"The truth is, there never was any sexual harassment, which HP's investigation confirmed, and there never was any sexual relationship, which Ms. Fisher has confirmed," Wintersheimer said in a statement.

Both Allred and Hewlett-Packard Co. had no comment on the letter's contents.

___

Ortutay reported from New York.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-12-30-US-TEC-Mark-Hurd-Letter/id-9082e74489da4ca5857ee4fd726cab12

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Consumer confidence perks up, house prices sag (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? Improving labor market conditions lifted U.S. consumer confidence to an eight month high in December, but persistently weak house prices remain an obstacle to faster economic growth.

The sharp rise in sentiment reported by the Conference Board on Tuesday offered hope for a pick-up in consumer spending after an anemic performance in November.

"It suggests there is some real improvement in the economy. Consumer confidence really boils down to how people feel about the labor market," said Mark Vitner, a senior economist at Wells Fargo Securities in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The Conference Board's index of consumer confidence rose to 64.5 this month from 55.2 in November, beating economists' expectations for a reading of 58.3.

A separate report from Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller showed house prices in 20 major metropolitan areas declined 1.2 percent on an unadjusted basis in October after falling 0.7 percent the prior month.

Other data offered a mixed picture of manufacturing this month, with the Dallas Federal Reserve saying factory activity weakened in its region.

But manufacturing in the central Atlantic region firmed after being flat in November as new orders and shipments increased, offsetting a modest decline in employment, the Richmond Fed said.

Still, consumers are increasingly upbeat. The Conference Board's present situation index jumped to a three-year high, with the expectations index the highest in seven months.

Last month's rise in consumer confidence largely reflects a better tone in the labor market. The unemployment rate dropped to a 2-1/2 year low in November and applications for first-time jobless benefits are the lowest since April 2008.

Despite the show of resilience, the debt crisis in Europe continues to cast a shadow over the U.S. economy.

"This good news is likely to be tested in the new year by slowing global growth and ongoing risk from Europe," said Eric Green, chief economist at TD Securities in New York.

"Still, the stronger momentum going into year-end is for real and at face value puts the economy in better position to withstand what is sure to be stronger headwinds to growth in the first half of 2012."

Stocks on Wall Street ended little changed in light trading, while U.S. Treasury debt prices rose. The dollar weakened marginally against a basket of currencies.

DEMAND FOR HOUSING PICKING UP

Despite the persistent drop in prices, housing is becoming less of a drag on the economy. Demand for housing is picking up and home sales volumes have increased in recent months.

Builders have been breaking more ground on new residential projects and home construction is expected to add to U.S. gross domestic product next year. If so, it would be the first increase since the second quarter of 2010.

"While some other housing indicators have improved over the past few months, we have yet to see most house prices measures pick up," said Daniel Silver, an economist at JPMorgan in New York.

With the labor market improving, housing could get some support. In the Conference Board survey, consumers' outlook of job market conditions brightened significantly.

The share of consumers viewing jobs as "plentiful" rose to 6.7 percent this month from 5.6 percent in November. The proportion of those viewing jobs as "hard to get" slipped to 41.8 percent from 43 percent in November.

These are the best readings for both components since January 2009.

"Households are beginning to perceive an improvement in the labor market," said Carl Riccadonna, a senior U.S. economist at Deutsche Bank.

"This could provide an important contribution to what we think may be a burgeoning positive feedback loop of improving confidence, rising consumption, expanding output and additional income growth."

The share of consumers anticipating more jobs in the months ahead rose to 13.3 percent from 12.4 percent, while those expecting fewer jobs declined to 20.2 percent from 23.8 percent.

More consumers are expecting their incomes to increase, with that proportion rising to 17.1 percent from 14.1 percent in November.

(Reporting By Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Padraic Cassidy and Jan Paschal)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111227/bs_nm/us_economy

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NFL Playoff Scenarios

AFC

CLINCHED: New England-East Division and first-round bye; Houston-South Division; Baltimore and Pittsburgh-wild-card spots.

NEW ENGLAND

-- Clinches home-field advantage throughout AFC playoffs with:

Win or tie OR

Baltimore loss or tie AND Pittsburgh loss or tie

BALTIMORE

-- Clinches AFC North Division and first-round bye with:

Win OR

Tie AND Pittsburgh loss or tie OR

Pittsburgh loss

-- Clinches home-field advantage throughout AFC playoffs with:

Win AND New England loss

PITTSBURGH

-- Clinches AFC North Division and first-round bye with:

Win AND Baltimore loss or tie OR

Tie AND Baltimore loss OR

-- Clinches home-field advantage throughout AFC playoffs with:

Win AND Baltimore loss or tie AND New England loss

DENVER

-- Clinches AFC West Division with:

Win OR

Tie AND Oakland loss or tie OR

Oakland loss

OAKLAND

-- Clinches AFC West Division with:

Win AND Denver loss or tie OR

Tie AND Denver loss

-- Clinches wild-card spot with:

Win AND Cincinnati loss AND Tennessee loss or tie OR

Win AND Cincinnati loss AND N.Y. Jets win

CINCINNATI

-- Clinches wild-card spot with:

Win or tie

N.Y. Jets loss or tie AND Oakland loss or tie

N.Y. Jets loss or tie AND Denver loss or tie

N.Y. JETS

-- Clinch wild-card spot with:

Win AND Cincinnati loss AND Tennessee loss or tie AND Oakland loss or tie

Win AND Cincinnati loss AND Tennessee loss or tie AND Denver loss or tie

TENNESSEE

-- Clinches wild-card spot with:

Win AND Cincinnati loss AND N.Y. Jets win AND Oakland loss or tie

Win AND Cincinnati loss AND N.Y. Jets win AND Denver loss or tie

Win AND Cincinnati loss AND N.Y. Jets loss or tie AND Oakland win AND Denver win

NFC

CLINCHED: Green Bay-North Division and home-field advantage throughout NFC playoffs; San Francisco-West Division; Atlanta, New Orleans and Detroit-wild-card spots.

SAN FRANCISCO

-- Clinches first-round bye with:

Win OR

Tie AND New Orleans loss or tie either remaining game OR

New Orleans loss either remaining game

NEW ORLEANS

-- Clinches NFC South Division with:

Win or tie either remaining game OR

Atlanta loss or tie either remaining game

-- Clinches first-round bye with:

Win both remaining games AND San Francisco loss or tie OR

Win and tie remaining games AND San Francisco loss

N.Y. GIANTS

-- Clinch NFC East Division with:

Win or tie

DALLAS

-- Clinches NFC East Division with:

Win

ATLANTA

-- Clinches NFC South Division with:

Win AND New Orleans loses both remaining games

Source: http://www.heraldonline.com/2011/12/26/3622679/nfl-playoff-scenarios.html

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Google Chrome Browser Shortcut

All apps ? Tools ? Google Chrome Browser Shortcut

1,000-5,000 downloads, 5 ratings (4.20 average), 19 kb

This app will give you the sleek look of the Google Chrome logo with your favorite browser.

This is not a web browser! This app only launches your web browser.

Recent changes:
Initial Release

Latest version: 1.0 (for Android version 2.1 and higher)

User reviews of Google Chrome Browser Shortcut

Write the first review for this app!

Android Market Comments (2)

Changelog for Google Chrome Browser Shortcut

Source: http://www.appbrain.com/app/google-chrome-browser-shortcut/com.bba.chrome

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Legally port Siri to unsupported iPhones, iPad with Spire [Jailbreak]

iPhone jailbreak developer chpwn, along with the help of planetbeing and Ryan Petrich, have released Spire — a legal way to port Siri to currently unsupported iOS devices like iPhone 4 and iPad 2.

Spire uses a new method to obtain the files necessary for Siri, so

...

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/Wmv_xN2kDhs/story01.htm

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Shelby church serves annual Christmas dinner

SHELBY ? The clatter of utensils and the smell of Christmas dinner filled a Shelby church.

Inside, volunteers wearing red and white Santa caps scurried around tables and filled plates with piping hot food.?

Central United Methodist Church in Uptown Shelby has served a Christmas meal for the community?s hungry since 2007. This year, the volunteers nearly outnumbered the people they served.

?Most of the (volunteers) who are here today have been here before,? said Barbara Schafer, a Central United Methodist Church member.

Schafer said the expected to serve about 50 people Sunday at the church. Nearly 40 people volunteered their time on Christmas Day to serve the annual holiday meal. Many others helped by cooking and preparing food for the meal several days in advance.

People who ate during the Christmas meal also received a bag of toiletries and other necessities. Children received special gifts, too, Schafer said.

?

Food prepared

-Five spiral hams

-Eight large-size containers of macaroni and cheese

-About eight green bean casseroles

-Rolls

-Numerous desserts including pies and cakes

?

What do you like about volunteering?

?We started doing this a couple years ago. It?s a family thing.?

-Christian Mabry, Shelby

?

?It?s Christmas, and God?s love needs to be shared with those less fortunate.?

-Bob Yelton, Shelby

?

?I love doing this. I just like helping people.?

-Virginia Lloyd, Shelby

?

Reach reporter Jordan-Ashley Baker at 704-669-3332.?

Source: http://www.shelbystar.com/news/shelby-60906-serves-annual.html

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Mariah Carey: My Son Is the ?Life of the Party?

"It's so funny ... there's a picture of the two of us together and we look identical and we have the identical smile," Carey says in a new interview special, Mariah Carey: On The Record with Fuse, which airs Sunday.

Source: http://feeds.celebritybabies.com/~r/celebrity-babies/~3/FvoqOwVQt6k/

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More accurate view of Washington crossing debuts (AP)

NEW YORK ? One of America's most famous images, a painting of George Washington crossing the Delaware River, got much of the story wrong: The American commander wouldn't have stood triumphantly on a rowboat in daylight, but on a ferry bracing himself against a fierce snowstorm on Christmas night.

That's the historic scene depicted in a new painting that goes on display this week at the New-York Historical Society museum in Manhattan.

"No one in his right mind would have stood up in a rowboat in that weather," artist Mort Kunstler said. "It would have capsized."

He told The Associated Press that he's "not knocking the original" ? the well-known 1851 painting by German-born artist Emanuel Leutze, who Kunstler says "was glorifying Washington using what he knew at the time." But Kunstler said his new piece is aimed at righting the historical mistakes.

Washington and his troops crossed the Delaware from Pennsylvania to New Jersey to mount a surprise attack on Hessian forces at the Battle of Trenton on Dec. 26, 1776. The Americans killed 22 Hessians, wounded 98 and captured nearly 900 while losing only three of their own men.

It was a daring feat led by the man who would become the nation's first president, and boosted the morale of the fledgling American army.

Relying on military experts and historians, plus visits to the river site, Kunstler came up with a list of inaccuracies in Leutze's painting and set out to correct them in his new work.

The most obvious is that Washington would not have used the earliest stars-and-stripes flag that appears in the Leutze work; it wasn't adopted until 1777.

Instead of a rowboat, the troops probably boarded a flat-bottomed ferry big and stable enough to carry cannons, plus the horses to pull them, Kunstler said. Such boats were hitched to cables to stabilize them.

The Leutze painting shows the New Jersey shore clearly in the distance. But Kunstler says documents show a nor'easter had swept in that night, bringing freezing rain, hail and snow that would have cut the visibility.

The new painting shows a determined Washington holding onto a cannon, illuminated by a torch as he heads into battle outnumbered and underequipped.

His troops were a ragtag bunch. Instead of military uniforms, they likely wore hunting jackets and wool caps, Kunstler said.

While he was able to verify the weather, time of day and vessel type, the artist said, he based other details like clothing "on probability."

"I don't see any reason you can't make this scene dramatic and exciting ? and historically correct," said Kunstler, an 81-year-old Brooklyn native.

His painting, entitled "Washington's Crossing: McKonkey's Ferry, Dec. 26, 1776," debuts Monday.

Leutze's painting is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, on the other side of Central Park. But art lovers will have to wait a few more weeks before they can compare the two paintings in real life: The Leutze piece is in storage pending the opening of the new American Wing on Jan. 16.

"It's always been the one work of art people ask for," Met spokesman Harold Holzer said. The museum recently had the painting reframed in the style in which it was first shown in New York in 1895 at a charity benefiting Civil War soldiers.

Leutze "made the scene as dramatic as he could, and it obviously has had an impact on people," Holzer said.

Holzer, who is himself a historian, planned to participate in Monday's presentation of Kunstler's painting.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111224/ap_en_ot/us_washington_s_crossing

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ArmorGames: RT @Jayisgames: @ArmorGames I can't stop playing Kingdom Rush! It's such a great game on the iPad, and no doubt one of the best availabl ...

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@ArmorGames I can't stop playing Kingdom Rush! It's such a great game on the iPad, and no doubt one of the best available for it. Il y a environ 5 heures via Tweetie for Mac Retweeted by 4 people

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Japan looking to buy Chinese government bonds (Reuters)

BEIJING (Reuters) ? Japan will seek to buy Chinese government bonds, the Japanese government said in a statement issued after Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda held talks in Beijing with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Sunday.

The statement given to reporters gave no details of when Japan might seek to buy the bonds or on what scale.

Japan had earlier indicated it is in talks to buy Chinese government debt to strengthen economic ties.

Despite sometimes rancorous political ties between the two neighbors, Japan's economic fortunes are increasingly tied to China's economic growth and consumer demand.

China has been Japan's biggest trading partner since 2009.

In 2010, trade between the two nations grew by 22.3 percent compared to levels in 2009, reaching 26.5 trillion yen ($339.3 billion), according to the Japan External Trade Organization.

China and Japan are also the world's first and second-biggest holders of foreign reserves.

(Reporting by Chris Buckley; Editing by Yoko Nishikawa)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111225/bs_nm/us_japan_china_bonds

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Video: President signs payroll tax cut extension

Inside Syria: The Free Syria Army's mission

Members of the Free Syria Army - soldiers who have defected from Syria's feared military - are denying any connection to recent car bombings, and instead blame Syrian security forces. CBS News correspondent Clarissa Ward slipped into the country and managed to link up with the opposition who explain their mission.

Source: http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~r/CBSNewsPolitics/~3/Zq6wydDt5lk/

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Israel Release 55 But 106 Palestinian Children Remain in Jail as Shackling Continues

On Sunday, Israel released 550 Palestinian prisoners, the second and final phase of the prisoner swap which secured the release of Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, in October.

Israel reserved the right to make the final decision on which Palestinian prisoners to release, and which should remain in jail. Not surprisingly then, it attracted widespread criticism when not one of the 164 Palestinians held by Israel under the age of 18 were released in the first round of the prisoner swap. This time it was different. On Sunday, 55 Palestinians aged between 14 and 17 were freed by Israel.

Whether or not it took place in response to the international pressure, Israel's change of heart is welcome. But it is no more than a start. Like many other countries, Israeli law defines under 18s as children. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child requires member states to uphold standards of judicial behaviour in respect of children, including only using imprisonment as a last resort. According to Defence for Children International (DCI), however, even after Sunday, 106 Palestinian children still remain in Israeli detention.

Each year around 700 Palestinian children are held by Israel. Unlike Israeli children, they are subject to military, not civil jurisdiction. Widespread concerns about their treatment have been catalogued by DCI and a range of other Israeli and international human rights organisations.
Children are frequently taken from their homes in the middle of the night, without telling their parents why they are being arrested or where they are being taken. Painful hand ties and blindfolds are used for extended periods of time. Prior to interrogation, children are often not informed of their right to silence or allowed to meet with a lawyer. Rarely are they even allowed to speak to their parents.

Threats and physical and mental abuse during arrest, transfer and interrogation are widespread, making prosecutions based on evidence regularly extracted from confessions more than worrying.

It's shocking when you hear about these things. It's worse still when you see them for yourself and meet some of the young people who have been through it. I'll certainly never forget the sight of 13-year-old boys being led into Israel's military courtrooms at Ofer prison in leg shackles and handcuffs. The leg shackles stayed on throughout the hearing. Necessary to prevent them absconding? I don't think so; the courtroom was inside the walls of a high security prison.

Last month I met half a dozen young ex-prisoners from the Hebron area of the West Bank who are now receiving support from a psychological counselling centre run by the YMCA near Bethlehem. As their answers to my questions unfolded, the sheer extent of the Israeli military's practice of shackling child prisoners became clear.

I was told how some of them would be picked up from a jail near Haifa by prison vans at around 1.00am to take them to the court at Ofer. The journey should take just a couple of hours. In practice, prisoners are regularly kept in the prison vans for eight or nine hours at a time as they travel to different parts of Israel to pick up more prisoners before arriving at Ofer. By the time the vans get there, they are often overcrowded. The 14 to 17-year-olds inside are shackled throughout the journey. Sometimes they are hand cuffed together too.

When I asked the young people about food, water or even how they go to the toilet during the journey, they shrugged. If you are lucky, they told me, you may get a break outside the van during the journey. Often you do not.

When I raise this kind of treatment with representatives of the Israeli government, I am usually cautioned to remember Israel's security concerns, and its need to be vigilant to the threat of suicide bombs. In fact, most of the children are detained for offences such as throwing stones. But that is hardly the point. Mistreatment of prisoners - especially child prisoners - does not stop being mistreatment depending on the offence they are accused of.

That is why DCI calls for Palestinian children to have the same rights as Israeli children to recognised standards of juvenile justice rather than military courts. It is why they say all children should be accompanied by a lawyer and parent during questioning, and all interrogations of children should be audio-visually recorded as a means of independent oversight.

And it is why - as we approach a new year in the 21st Century - Israel's shackling of child prisoners must stop.

?

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/richard-burden/israel-release-55-but-106-palestian-children-remain-shackled_b_1163932.html

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Video: Tick by Tick: 4 Charts to Watch in 2012

Jordan Kotick, Barclay's Capital takes a technical look at the charts to see where the market is headed.

Related Links:

Business & financial news headlines from msnbc.com

Source: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/cnbc/45769458/

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Ohio jobs at risk from Europe debt crisis

By Randy Tucker, Staff Writer 8:19 PM Thursday, December 22, 2011

The continuing threat of a European recession could have a chilling effect on Ohio?s economy, based on a recent report from Wells Fargo Securities, which determined Ohio is among 20 states at ?high risk? of an economic slowdown tied to the debt crisis in Europe.

A European recession could stifle U.S. exports and stall the domestic recovery and job gains that have helped bring unemployment in Ohio down to its lowest level in nearly four years, said Mark Vitner, a senior economist at Wells Fargo.

?A slowdown is pretty much inevitable because Europe is already slipping into recession, and that?s likely to last right through the middle of next year,?? Vitner said.

?It?s not something that?s likely to tip the U.S. into recession, but it may cause growth to be a little slower than folks expect in 2012,? he added.

The European Central Bank earlier this week said it would loan more than $640 billion to European banks at super low interest rates to encourage the banks to help bail out governments drowning in debt.

But most economists still expect the euro zone economy to show little or no growth next year, which could hurt U.S. production and manufacturing employment.

European countries accounted for 19 percent of Ohio?s total exports of $41.1 billion last year. And more than 362,000 Ohio jobs ? or about 8 percent of all private sector employment ? are linked to manufactured exports, according to the latest figures from the Ohio Department of Development.

In Ohio, manufacturers of factory equipment, chemicals, computer and electronics products would be most affected by a European recession, Vitner said.

Rich Porter, president of Union-based TE-CO, which makes equipment such as vices and clamps, said he?s keeping an eye on the situation in Europe, especially fluctuations in the currency that binds the 17-nation euro zone.

The debt crisis has driven?down the value of the euro against the dollar in recent weeks, and a weak euro makes U.S. exports more expensive.

?We?ve been benefiting from a weak dollar for about the past two years,? he said. A strengthening dollar ?would definitely affect our exports to Europe. They would decline.?

Initially, though, a European slowdown wouldn?t have much impact on the company, which sends about 5 percent of the products it makes in Ohio and 30 percent of goods produced in New Hampshire to Europe.

?We would work less overtime; watch our cost structure more closely,? he said. But ?I don?t think it would be a big enough impact to change head count or delay expansion.?

Still, a protracted downturn like the most recent U.S. recession could lead U.S. exporters to take more drastic measures, Vitner said, though it?s too early to tell exactly what the consequences might be.

?It?s not something we?re going to see right away,? he said. ?It?ll take some time to show up in reduced orders and export flows. It?s probably something that we?ll begin to see in the numbers around the spring of next year.?

Mike Dillon, president of Germany-based Seepex Inc.?s. U.S. operations, said the maker of industrial pumps with a plant in Enon isn?t overly concerned about the euro zone?s problems.

?As one economy becomes weaker, other economies will strengthen,?? Dillon said. ?We?re already selling more products to China, and we?re also seeing that in Latin America. Yes, we do expect to see Europe decline,? he said. But ?Being diversified is the key to our strength.?

Thomas Speh, director of MBA programs at Miami University?s Farmer School of Business, said the euro zone?s impact on Ohio would also be mitigated by the size of the Buckeye State?s trading partners. ?The good news, in my opinion, is that most of the trade from industries in Ohio is done with more stable countries in Europe,?? he said. ?They?re better off than most of the rest of the European Union.?

But Speh doesn?t expect Ohio to go unscathed.

Source: http://www.journal-news.com/news/hamilton-news/ohio-jobs-at-risk-from-europe-debt-crisis-1303142.html?cxtype=rss_local-news

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Gross can't stop the bleeding from flagship bond fund (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Bill Gross's PIMCO Total Return Fund, the world's largest bond fund, keeps shrinking as investors look to put their money with some of his competitors.

In November, the mutual fund led by Gross saw about $500 million in outflows, bringing its cash outflow over the past 12 months to $17 billion, said Morningstar editorial director Kevin McDevitt.

By contrast, November was a banner month for most other taxable bond funds, which took in nearly $10.2 billion in money as a group, according to Morningstar. Over a 12-month period, taxable bonds fund accumulated $105.8 billion in new money.

An outflow of $17 billion might not seem too bad for a fund that still oversees $241 billion in assets, but it's an indication that investors are losing some faith in Gross, whose fund has underperformed all year and in November once again missed out on a big move away from stocks and other risky assets and into bonds and Treasury notes.

"The PIMCO Total Return fund has been seeing a steady stream of outflows," McDevitt added. "Gross's fund has underperformed this year and a lot of it goes back to his misplaced bet on Treasuries."

Pacific Investment Management Co., or PIMCO, did not immediately return calls or emails seeking comment.

Based in Newport Beach, California, PIMCO oversees more than $1.35 trillion in assets. It came under heavy criticism earlier this year when Gross bet heavily against U.S. Treasuries, which have turned out to be one of the biggest outperformers of 2011.

Gross, who is known as "the Bond King", apologized to his investors in October for his poor performance, saying "I'm just having a bad year."

In a letter to investors, Gross wrote that he underestimated the contagion effect from the European debt crisis and U.S. deficit concerns. "As Europe's crisis and the U.S. debt ceiling debacle turned developed economies towards a potential recession, the Total Return Fund had too little risk off and too much risk on," said Gross, who also shares the title of co-chief investment officer at PIMCO with Mohamed El-Erian.

The Total Return portfolio is up 3.48 percent so far this year, lagging his peer category which is up an average of 5.87 percent. Put another way, his fund ranks in the 90th percentile, or 163rd out of 181 funds in his category, said Jeff Tjornehoj, head of Lipper Americas Research.

At the same time, the so-called risk-off trade has benefited other taxable-bond funds, which saw nearly $10.2 billion in inflows, of which $8.5 billion was collected in the conservative intermediate-term bond category.

The DoubleLine Total Return Bond, which is run by one of Gross's arch rivals Jeffrey Gundlach, was one of the primary beneficiaries of the risk-off trade in November with nearly $1 billion in inflows.

DoubleLine now manages $21 billion, up from roughly $7 billion at the end of December 2010. Meanwhile, index-driven funds Vanguard Total Bond Market II Index and Vanguard Total Bond Market Index fared even better with nearly $2 billion in combined inflows.

BETTING BIG ON HOUSING DEBT

Gross's latest move is another bold one.

In September, he ramped up buying of mortgage-backed securities, albeit by using leverage, on the likelihood the Federal Reserve's reinvestment program in those securities will boost prices significantly. Analysts says Gross is moving to recalibrate his fund in the expectation the U.S. Federal Reserve will seek to prop up the American housing market by buying mortgage securities.

Last week, PIMCO said mortgage-backed securities now account for about 43 percent of the holdings of the PIMCO Total Return Fund, as of the end of November.

By loading up on mortgage bonds, Gross is making a bet on higher-yielding securities. But in doing so, he is effectively extending the average duration of his fund's investments, making them potentially more exposed to a rise in interest rates.

For now, the performance of housing debt is still trailing Treasuries. Since June 30, the total return of mortgage-backed securities is roughly 3.15 percent -- more than 200 basis points less than U.S. government bonds.

(Reporting by Jennifer Ablan and Matthew Goldstein; Editing by Claudia Parsons and Martin Howell)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111215/bs_nm/us_pimco_outflows_gross

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GOP candidates to debate in Sioux City, Iowa (AP)

Some of the Republican presidential candidates are squeezing in campaign events before participating in a televised debate in Sioux City, Iowa. It's their last debate before the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3.

The debate, scheduled for 9 p.m. EST Thursday, is sponsored by Fox News and the Iowa Republican Party.

Earlier Thursday, Rick Santorum is set to meet with voters in Rockwell City, Sac City and Holstein, Iowa.

Newt Gingrich will be in Fort Dodge, Iowa, and Rick Perry will be in the Iowa town of Le Mars.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111215/ap_on_el_pr/us_gop_campaign

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At Fort Bragg, Obama marks coming end to Iraq war by thanking troops for years of service (Star Tribune)

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China vows crackdown on leaders of village revolt

BEIJING (AP) ? China's government is trying to defuse a revolt in a small fishing village, offering to investigate the land seizures that touched off the rebellion and vowing to punish leaders of the uprising.

The village of Wukan has for months been the site of simmering protests by locals who say officials sold farmland to developers without their consent. Protests against official misconduct are increasingly common in fast-developing China, but the residents of Wukan have taken things a step further, erecting barricades over the weekend to keep police out and posing a challenge to the authoritarian government.

On Wednesday, the mayor of Shanwei city ? which oversees Wukan, a village of 20,000 ? threatened to take strong measures against those who instigated others to create trouble and damage public property, the official China News Service said.

At the same time, Mayor Wu Zili promised to investigate local officials for wrongdoing and impose a temporary freeze on one farmland development project until a majority of villagers are satisfied with the conditions of the land transfer.

The government frequently deploys such carrot-and-stick tactics to deal with protests. But while successful in ending confrontations, the approach does not often produce fair deals for protesters ? and leaders of the protesting Wukan villagers expressed skepticism.

"It's all a pretense. That's only a small part of the problem," said Huang Hancan, a fisherman who is one of the village's representatives in the land dispute, referring to the mayor's promises of an investigation and a freeze of the development deal.

"The bigger problem is that we want to get our land back. We want to re-elect our village officials because the current corrupt officials were not elected ... and we want those detained to be released," Huang said by phone.

Locals like Huang have essentially taken over the village after officials either fled from earlier protests, absconded with the money from land sales or were fired, according to various accounts from villagers and Chinese media.

Problems in Wukan date back to September, when hundreds of villagers smashed buildings and clashed with police in protest against the sale of their farmland without their consent. In the months that followed, villagers have submitted petitions and sought meetings with higher level officials without success.

Last Friday, police entered the village and took away several key representatives and when police tried to come back the next day, villagers blockaded the roads with tree trunks and barriers to prevent them from entering. Huang said police fired tear gas and water cannons at the villagers, who had armed themselves with sticks, clubs, hoes and other farming tools.

"If we didn't have hoes and sticks in hand, they might have taken more of us," Huang said.

Police then retreated and set up blockades on the main roads into Wukan, preventing villagers from entering and leaving and food from being transported in, villagers reached by phone have said.

Anger boiled over on Sunday after Xue Jinbo, one of the key representatives from the village, died in police custody. Family members and supporters suspected he was beaten. Chinese media reported that local police and provincial authorities said Xue died of cardiac failure.

With a booming economy, demand for land to build factories and housing complexes in China has soared. Land disputes have grown apace, becoming one of the leading causes of the tens of thousands of large-scale protests that hit China every year.

Around Wukan village and in much of the rest of Guangdong province, conflicts have been intense because the area is among China's most economically developed, pushing up land prices.

In announcing the freeze on the development project, the Shanwei mayor said the government would ensure that it would only proceed when a majority of villagers consent to the terms of the deal.

But local officials often put heavy pressure on villagers to force them to agree to conditions less favorable to them, said Sally Sargeson, an expert on Chinese rural issues at the Australian National University.

In one village she visited for research, Sargeson said, the heads of households were rounded up, taken into town and kept in separate rooms without any food or water until they agreed to approve a land deal. In the meantime, she said, their families back in the village were surrounded by police vehicles.

"So, they exert the most terrible pressure," Sargeson said. "By law, they're not allowed to coerce people to sign off on these things, but of course it happens all the time."

In a separate case, villagers in the eastern province of Zhejiang province have described similar tactics by their local officials who attempted to get them to agree to sell their land to build a state-owned power plant. The Zhaiqiao village leader who opposed the land deal was later found crushed by a large truck last Christmas in what authorities called an accident.

___

Follow Gillian Wong on Twitter at http://twitter.com/gillianwong

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-12-15-AS-China-Village-Riot/id-8dac2cc384364591b320d1e048677d00

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House backs tough sanctions on Iran (AP)

WASHINGTON ? The House on Wednesday endorsed harsher sanctions on Iran as it seeks to weaken Tehran economically and derail its pursuit of nuclear weapons.

The overwhelming votes of 410-11 and 418-2 were largely symbolic, however, as the Senate was not expected to act on the legislation in the few remaining days of the congressional session.

Separately, Congress was poised to back a sweeping defense bill that already included crippling sanctions on foreign financial institutions that do business with Iran's Central Bank, a provision that the Senate backed unanimously last week.

Determined to show their hawkish stand on Iran and pro-Israel credentials, House lawmakers voted for two bills that would strengthen current sanctions while expanding the list of companies and individuals subject to penalties.

The legislation builds on sanctions that Congress overwhelmingly passed ? and President Barack Obama signed ? last year. Those penalties targeted exports of gasoline and other refined petroleum products to Iran and banned U.S. banks from doing business with foreign banks providing services to Iran's Revolutionary Guard. The United Nations and the European Union have also imposed sanctions on Iran.

"Our fundamental strategic objective must be to stop Iran before it obtains nuclear weapons capabilities and to compel it to permanently dismantle its pursuit of such weapons," said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

The United States has tried repeatedly to coax Iran into international negotiations with the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany over its nuclear program. Iran contends that its program is designed to generate electricity, not build weapons.

Among the new provisions, the House bills would restrict foreign subsidiaries of U.S. companies from doing business with Iran. Bartering is included among the activities that could be sanctioned, and Americans would be prohibited from conducting commercial or financial transactions with the Revolutionary Guard.

Directing its ire at Syria and North Korea as well, one provision would strengthen the prohibition on granting landing rights in the United States to vessels that have visited Iran, North Korea or Syria in the last two years.

The defense bill would impose tough new penalties on Iran, targeting foreign financial institutions that do business with the Central Bank in Tehran. The legislation requires the president to prohibit or impose strict conditions on that financial institution and its ability to maintain corresponding accounts in the United States.

The sanctions appear to be taking a toll in Tehran. Last month, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad acknowledged that the current penalties were impeding Iran's financial institutions, saying, "our banks cannot make international transactions anymore."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iran/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111215/ap_on_go_co/us_iran_sanctions

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Pope: sex abuse 'scourge' for all society (AP)

VATICAN CITY ? Pope Benedict XVI insisted on Saturday that all of society's institutions and not just the Catholic church must be held to "exacting" standards in their response to sex abuse of children, and defended the church's efforts to confront the problem.

Benedict acknowledged in remarks to visiting U.S. bishops during an audience at the Vatican that pedophilia was a "scourge" for society, and that decades of scandals over clergy abusing children had left Catholics in the United States bewildered.

"It is my hope that the Church's conscientious efforts to confront this reality will help the broader community to recognize the causes, true extent and devastating consequences of sexual abuse, and to respond effectively to this scourge which affects every level of society," he said.

"By the same token, just as the church is rightly held to exacting standards in this regard, all other institutions, without exception, should be held to the same standards," the pope said.

An official of a U.S. group advocating for victims of clergy abuse lamented that Benedict, with his remarks, was setting a "terrible example" for bishops.

"No public figure talks more about child safety but does little to actually make children safer than Pope Benedict," David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, told The Associated Press in an emailed statement.

"The pope would have us believe that this crisis is about sex abuse. It isn't. It is about covering up sex abuse," Clohessy said. "And while child sex crimes happen in every institution, in no institution are they ignored or concealed as consistently as in the Catholic church."

The pedophile scandal has exploded in recent decades in the United States, but similar clergy sex abuse revelations have tainted the church in many other countries, including Mexico, Ireland, and several other European nations, including Italy.

But the most high-profile sex abuse case in the United States at the moment doesn't involve the church. Penn State university's former defensive football coordinator Jerry Sandusky has been charged with sexually abusing eight boys, and the fallout has led to the firing of longtime coach Joe Paterno and the departure of university president Graham Spanier.

College football in the U.S. is highly popular. The scandal has shaken the reputation of a college program that long had prided itself on integrity.

Benedict didn't address accusations by many victims and their advocates that church leaders, including at the office in the Vatican that Benedict headed before becoming pontiff, systematically tried to cover up the scandals, and that they have rarely been held accountable for that.

Investigations, often by civil authorities, revealed that church hierarchy frequently transferred pedophile priests from one parish to another.

Benedict told the bishops that his papal pilgrimage to the United States in 2008 "was intended to encourage the Catholics of America in the wake of the scandal and disorientation caused by the sexual abuse crisis of recent decades."

Echoing sentiment he has expressed in occasional meetings with victims of the abuse on trips abroad, Benedict added: "I wish to acknowledge personally the suffering inflicted on the victims and the honest efforts made to ensure both the safety of our children and to deal appropriately and transparently with allegations as they arise."

Benedict seemed to be reflecting some churchmen's contentions that the church has wrongly been singled out as villains for the abuse, a view that angered victims' advocates.

"The pope is again setting a terrible example for the world's bishops, echoing the claim by some of them that the church hierarchy is somehow being picked on by the public, the press and their parishioners," Clohessy said .

Despite criticism over U.S. bishops' handling of the abuse scandals, Benedict exhorted the churchmen to be moral compasses for U.S. society. The bishops, in Rome for consultations with the pope that are scheduled every five years, were urged to speak out "humbly yet insistently in defense of moral truth."

Benedict lamented what he called efforts to stop the church from speaking out publicly.

Earlier this month, U.S. Roman Catholic bishops vowed to defend their religious liberty in the face of growing acceptance of gay marriage and what they called attempts by secularists to marginalize faith.

In Illinois, for example, government officials ceased working with Catholic charities on adoptions and foster-care placement because the religious agencies refuse to recognize a new civil union law. Illinois bishops are suing the state.

Bishops have also pressed federal officials for broader religious exception to U.S. President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, which mandates that private insurers to pay for contraception.

"Despite attempts to still the church's voice in the public square, many people of good will continue to look to her for wisdom, insight and sound guidance in this far-reaching crisis," Benedict said, citing what he called a "growing sense of dislocation and insecurity" in the face of economic woes.

But he acknowledged that some of the bishops' own flock are turning away from the church, which he blamed on effects of a "secularized culture." Many U.S. Catholics shun Sunday Mass attendance or disregard such Vatican positions against contraception and divorce.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111126/ap_on_re_eu/eu_vatican_sex_abuse

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Michelle Williams talks Marilyn, Matilda and musicals (omg!)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Michelle Williams takes on the iconic role of Marilyn Monroe in the indie film "My Week with Marilyn." Currently in theaters, the film is based on Colin Clark's book of the same name and chronicles his time spent working with Monroe while she was in England shooting the romantic comedy "The Prince and the Showgirl" in 1956.

Williams sat down with Reuters to talk about portraying Monroe, the film, shooting her current role of Glinda the good witch in Sam Raimi's "Oz: The Great and Powerful" and her six-year-old daughter Matilda with late actor Heath Ledger.

Q: Did you have an awareness of Marilyn Monroe and her starpower when you were younger?

A: "I was interested in her, but then I kind of lost track of her over the last 10 years or so. I had a poster of her up in my room. It wasn't a picture of her as the icon, it was a picture of her looking like an ordinary joyful girl. So I definitely had some kind of connection. (Working on this film) reignited whatever initial, sort of, attraction I had to her when I was a teenager."

Q: Did you do your own singing in the film?

A: "Yes and my mother is going to be so excited when she sees this. She always wanted me to sing and dance. I had so much fun doing that!"

Q: So doing a musical could be in the cards for you?

A: "I would love to. What's so liberating about singing and dancing is that it turns your head off. You coast on this wave of muscle memory. You literally can't think while you're performing. There's a kind of transcendence to it. I think maybe that's why Marilyn was so especially talented at it. Her singing and dancing are unparalleled and her musical numbers are just breathtaking."

Q: The film used many of the same locations in shooting "Prince and the Showgirl." Did that add to the production?

A: "There was a lot of synchronicity. We shot in the actual Parkside house (that Marilyn lived in). My dressing room at Pinewood was Marilyn's actual dressing room. That was so special. The stage where she shot that song and dance number was the stage where I shot mine. So many of the props in our movie were in the original 'Prince and the Showgirl' movie."

Q: Did it ever feel ghostly?

A: "Well, it's all energy. And it's what you make of it. I like to make things out of nothing! (laughs) I like to spin things out of thin air, so that stuff works for me."

Q: Did you wear wigs for the part, or grow out your hair?

A: "I wore wigs, but I had to keep my hair really bleached underneath because it would show through the wigs. My eyebrows had to be dark and they were reshaped. You go through so many grotesque phases making movies (laughs). I never really feel quite like myself. I just feel like a mutant -- always halfway in between some other person and myself. I don't know what belongs to me and what doesn't!"

Q: After filming ended was it hard to let go of Marilyn?

A: "I think when you work in a way that really gets under your skin, its not an easy break. You make a little extra room for these people that you play and then they leave. You're left with this hollow space. I wish I could play her again."

Q: Does your daughter Matilda come to set?

A: "She comes with me everywhere."

Q: How do you balance getting into character and then going home at the end of the day to be a mom?

A: "What works for me is to have a commute from where we live to where I work. So that in the morning, I leave the house behind and walk clean and fresh into my professional life. And then the same thing on the way home. I find that a 20 or 30 minute commute makes a kind of passageway for me that I need."

Q: You're currently shooting "OZ," playing Glinda. Matilda must love coming to that set.

A: "It's the best thing professionally that's happened to us. It has brought her on board my work in a way that wasn't possible in a movie like 'Marilyn' or 'Blue Valentine.' On those, there was no space for a kid to come visit and be a kid. (With 'Oz') she comes every single day after school because it's like a playground. She says, 'There's only one good witch and it's my mom.' She's very excited about it."

Q: It's interesting that you said the project was the best thing to happen professionally to "us" not "me."

A: "Definitely. Every choice that I make is about how it's going to affect our life -- where it films, how long it is, what else is going on in her year, what's the last job I did, how much time I've had off in between, how much time we had to really deeply connect and how long can we sustain a period of time where I'm working. So when 'Oz' came along, it was very clear to me that it was the right decision for us."

(Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/omg_rss/rss_omg_en/news_michelle_williams_talks_marilyn_matilda_musicals140050552/43711530/*http%3A//omg.yahoo.com/news/michelle-williams-talks-marilyn-matilda-musicals-140050552.html

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