Shopping: Sundance Review - The Hollywood Reporter

Julian Dennison and Kevin Paulo

The Bottom Line

A coming-of-age story infused with obvious personal investment but too undisciplined to have much dramatic impact.

Venue

Sundance Film Festival (World Cinema Dramatic Competition)

Cast

Kevin Paulo, Julian Dennison, Jacek Koman, Alistair Browning, Laura Peterson

Director-screenwriters

Mark Albiston, Louis Sutherland

PARK CITY ? There?s a lot of heart and raw emotion in Shopping, which to some extent helps overcome the film?s shaky storytelling and skimpy social context. New Zealander filmmaking team Mark Albiston and Louis Sutherland?s first feature centers on a teenager torn between a difficult home life with his Pacific Islander family and the lure of reckless freedom with a roving band of criminals. Many of the elements are familiar, but the setting in a lonely village on the Kapiti Coast, north of Wellington, is distinctive.

PHOTOS: Sundance's Greatest Hits: The Movies That Broke Through

News footage early in the film provides rudimentary background on the immigration situation in 1981, when the story is set. Having been invited to the country in the 1950s to fill the need for unskilled labor, Polynesian immigrants to New Zealand found the welcome-mat withdrawn when the national economy took a dive in the decades that followed. Random checks and dawn raids on immigrant homes fueled racial tensions.

While the writer-directors clearly have made a conscious choice to minimize exposition, greater detailing of this sociopolitical canvas might have helped draw out parallels with many countries around the world, including the U.S. But as evidenced by its thick accents, mumbled dialogue and regional vernacular, this is a film that places a premium on unvarnished authenticity, even at some minor cost to its accessibility.

The son of a Samoan mother (Maureen Fepuleai), teenage Willie (Kevin Paulo) is regularly browbeaten by his white father Terry (Alistair Browning) with reminders that his dark skin means he has to work harder and act smarter than other boys, just to stay out of trouble. In between shifts at a local department store, Willie takes care of his little brother Solomon (Julian Dennison), a sweet-natured, imaginative kid who has created an elaborate fantasy world in his head, perhaps partly to shut out the animosity that surrounds them.

Early scenes of the two brothers biking along coastal roads to Grayson Gilmour?s gentle melodic music establish the loving bond between them. Willie is almost a parent to Solomon, given that their religious mother remains a somewhat remote presence, stuck in her own cultural isolation, and their father is a volatile drunk prone to violent explosions. His brutal beating of Willie over a perceived infraction gives the story an ugly visceral jolt.

Terry?s simmering menace drives Willie to start skipping work and spending time with Bennie (Jacek Koman), a Central European immigrant whose rowdy entourage includes his daughter Nicky (Laura Peterson) and assorted lowlifes. Willie earns Bennie?s paternalistic embrace when he inadvertently provides cover for the eccentric stranger?s shoplifting and then starts actively participating in the group?s robberies.

In the unworldly teenager?s attraction to this wild life of booze, pills, sex and thievery, the co-directors appear to have been influenced stylistically by early Gus Van Sant films. A scene in which Willie fakes an epileptic seizure in a music store while Nicky lifts a cassette seems a direct citation from Drugstore Cowboy. Being absorbed into Bennie?s posse allows Willie to feel a part of something instead of stuck on the outside.

Despite the open hostility of some of his new companions and the potential dangers of involvement with Nicky, Willie seems open to Bennie?s offer to take him along when they pack up their caravan and move on. But Solomon?s vulnerability at home forces his brother to reconsider.

As a coming-of-age drama laced with quiet humor, Shopping has its charms, many of them stemming from the unaffected performances of Paulo and Dennison. But overall, the acting is uneven.

Albiston and Sutherland too often sacrifice clarity and character involvement in favor of a messy visual and narrative approach that tries to make an aesthetic virtue of the film?s rough-edged style.

Venue: Sundance Film Festival (World Cinema Dramatic Competition)

Cast: Kevin Paulo, Julian Dennison, Jacek Koman, Alistair Browning, Laura Peterson, Maureen Fepuleai, Byron Coll, Matthias Luafutu

Production company: Warp Films Australia

Director-screenwriters: Mark Albiston, Louis Sutherland

Producers: Sarah Shaw, Anna McLeish

Director of photography: Ginny Loane

Production designer: Josh O?Neill

Music: Grayson Gilmour

Costume designer: Lucy McLay

Editor: Annie Collins

Sales: NZ Film Sales

No rating, 98?minutes.

Source: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/shopping-sundance-review-415635

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Liquid crystal's chaotic inner dynamics

Public release date: 24-Jan-2013
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Contact: Ann Koebler
ann.koebler@springer.com
49-622-148-78414
Springer

Scientists have unearthed a new dynamic process induced by strong electric fields in thin liquid crystal cells

Liquid crystal displays are ubiquitous. Now, Polish physicists have demonstrated that the application of a very strong alternating electric field to thin liquid crystal cells leads to a new distinct dynamic effect in the response of the cells. The theory of spatio-temporal chaos explains this effect. It was elucidated by Wojciech Je?ewski and colleagues from the Institute of Molecular Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, in Pozna?, Poland, and is about to be published in EPJ E. This effect has implications for the operation of liquid-crystal devices because their operation is based on the electro-optic switching phenomenon, subject to the newly discovered effect.

The authors first applied an alternating electric field to semi-transparent, conducting plates of cells containing a liquid crystal substance. Such systems are characterised by a spontaneous electric polarisation that can be reversed by the application of an external electric field.

The Je?ewski team then registered the resulting molecular reorientations by recording changes in the intensity of light transmitted by the liquid crystal sample, or spectra. In particular, the authors experimentally identified a distinct high-frequency band in the response, reflecting the activation of a specific dynamic process inside the sample.

Theoretical studies of the complex molecular reorientation dynamics confirmed experimental observations. The team explained the response of the sample by numerically solving the equation describing the motion of molecules subjected to very strong alternating fields. Unlike previous approaches, these simulations did not make any assumption about the sample dynamics.

The effect they showed was associated with a chaotic molecular reorientation induced by a strong field of sufficiently high frequency. Furthermore, a unique experimental setup led to signals, due to strong excitations of liquid crystals at frequencies less than the frequency of the external electric field, being registered.

###

Reference:

W. Je?ewski, I. ?liwa, and W. Kuczy?ski (2013), Strongly nonlinear dynamics of ferroelectric liquid crystals, European Physical Journal E, DOI 10.1140/epje/i2013-13002-7

For more information, please visit www.epj.org.

The full-text article is available to journalists on request.

---

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?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 24-Jan-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Ann Koebler
ann.koebler@springer.com
49-622-148-78414
Springer

Scientists have unearthed a new dynamic process induced by strong electric fields in thin liquid crystal cells

Liquid crystal displays are ubiquitous. Now, Polish physicists have demonstrated that the application of a very strong alternating electric field to thin liquid crystal cells leads to a new distinct dynamic effect in the response of the cells. The theory of spatio-temporal chaos explains this effect. It was elucidated by Wojciech Je?ewski and colleagues from the Institute of Molecular Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, in Pozna?, Poland, and is about to be published in EPJ E. This effect has implications for the operation of liquid-crystal devices because their operation is based on the electro-optic switching phenomenon, subject to the newly discovered effect.

The authors first applied an alternating electric field to semi-transparent, conducting plates of cells containing a liquid crystal substance. Such systems are characterised by a spontaneous electric polarisation that can be reversed by the application of an external electric field.

The Je?ewski team then registered the resulting molecular reorientations by recording changes in the intensity of light transmitted by the liquid crystal sample, or spectra. In particular, the authors experimentally identified a distinct high-frequency band in the response, reflecting the activation of a specific dynamic process inside the sample.

Theoretical studies of the complex molecular reorientation dynamics confirmed experimental observations. The team explained the response of the sample by numerically solving the equation describing the motion of molecules subjected to very strong alternating fields. Unlike previous approaches, these simulations did not make any assumption about the sample dynamics.

The effect they showed was associated with a chaotic molecular reorientation induced by a strong field of sufficiently high frequency. Furthermore, a unique experimental setup led to signals, due to strong excitations of liquid crystals at frequencies less than the frequency of the external electric field, being registered.

###

Reference:

W. Je?ewski, I. ?liwa, and W. Kuczy?ski (2013), Strongly nonlinear dynamics of ferroelectric liquid crystals, European Physical Journal E, DOI 10.1140/epje/i2013-13002-7

For more information, please visit www.epj.org.

The full-text article is available to journalists on request.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-01/s-lcc012413.php

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Emotional Freedom Techniques

The Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) is an innovative approach to healing that is gaining attention from medical professionals and laypersons all over the world. EFT can be applied to any emotional and physical issues you can name and often gets results when nothing else works. The basics of EFT can be learned by anyone and can be self-applied (usually in minutes).

The success of EFT lies in the balancing of the body's subtle energies that flow through the body, in much the same way as blood flows through veins. This balancing is done with an elegant sort of emotional acupuncture. Instead of using needles, specific points on the body are stimulated by tapping with the fingertips.

EFT theory states that negative emotions are created in the following sequence: in response to a negative experience negative emotions are born, thereby leading to negative programming in the body which leads to a disruption in the body's energy field. EFT proponents believe tackling the negative experience alone is not enough to restore health. They believe that the energy imbalance must be remedied along with curing the negative emotions in order to remove the negative responses i.e. illness, phobia, etc

Studies have been conducted on the efficacy of EFT with varied and ultimately inconclusive results. One study focused on four groups of people who reported phobias. One group received regular EFT, another received EFT with false tapping points, a third group tapped on a doll and a fourth group received nothing. The three tapping groups did better than the fourth group, but there were no significant differences between the three tapping groups.

One potentially excellent source of training in EFT comes from DVD-based courses. The advantage here is that you can learn the core skills in a structured manner whilst seeing EFT being used on real people with real issues. There is nothing like watching this technique being used in practice both for learning the process itself and also because it is so great to be able to watch while someone's issue is being (hopefully) resolved in front of your eyes.

Eastern and western health philosophy differ in the way the two systems handle psychology. Asian philosophy emphasizes the unity of body and mind, whereas western philosophy separates the body and mind. The classical Chinese associate the emotions directly with the organs and they do not perceive the emotions as being stuck in the brain as the westerners do. Taoist and Buddhist philosophers link the emotions to each organ and have developed deep theories of psychology based on these relationships. Thus, the state of mind and the stage of one's body are intimately connected. In the West, although it is understood that certain physiological conditions can influence the mind, mental and emotional disorders are generally not connected to specific organs or organic functions, but are believed to be wholly centered in the brain. Fundamentally, the Chinese associated the emotions and related mental states to the five elements (wood, fire, earth, metal and water) and to the organs associated with them. In general, the emotions are related to the organ associated with each element.

According to Huang Di Neijing, "In the human body located on each channel are a set of points identified with each of the five elements. On the yang channels they are represented by jing/well-metal, rong/spring-water, shu/stream-wood, jing/river-fire, and he/sea-earth. On the yin channels they are represented by jing/well-wood, rong/spring-fire, shu/stream-earth, jing/river-metal, and he/sea-water. By acupuncturing the corresponding elemental point of the organ system that is the most susceptible, that organ system will become balanced and thus avert any potential disorder."

As an EFT Practitioner, I have made important additions and modifications to Gary Craig's EFT procedure to avoid side effects called 'Qi deviation' and also increase its effectiveness a hundred-fold with a variant of EFT called "EFT Qi-healers Method." The Jing-Well acu-points of the liver, spleen, kidneys, stomach, gall bladder and bladder in the feet are added to balance the Yin (lower) and Yang (upper) meridians, and Pan Gu Shen Gong, Sheng Zhen Qigong, Wuji Qigong, Maitreya (Shiva) Shen Gong, Tibetan Shamanic Qigong with tonic herbs are also integrated with EFT to remove the energy toxins and restore the Three Treasures - Jing (essence), Qi (vitality) and Shen (Spirit) - leaked by the negative emotions held in the five organs.

The connection between the mind and body has been a subject of fascination for decades, and there is no doubt that the mind plays a vital part in the well being of the body. What is unclear is how effective EFT is in tapping into the connection between the two. Its popularity and vague results when put to the test make it difficult to determine hype from reality, and further scrutiny is necessary before it can be accepted or rejected. We are only in the beginning phases of learning just how powerful the mind/body connection is, and it would be irresponsible to completely dismiss the power of alternative therapies including EFT, and equally irresponsible to accept them without proper and in depth study.

For now it would be appropriate to say that the power of EFT is unproven, but the possibilities it offers are worth looking into. The field it is exploring is a vital one, and any opportunity to learn more about the connection between mental health and physical health should be welcomed. Skeptics and proponents alike should take more time examining the possibilities before casting judgment, negative or positive.

Source: http://artselfdevelopment.blogspot.com/2013/01/emotional-freedom-techniques.html

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Retrovirus in the human genome is active in pluripotent stem cells

Thursday, January 24, 2013

A retrovirus called HERV-H, which inserted itself into the human genome millions of years ago, may play an important role in pluripotent stem cells, according to a new study published in the journal Retrovirology by scientists at UMass Medical School. Pluripotent stem cells are capable of generating all tissue types, including blood cells, brain cells and heart cells. The discovery, which may help explain how these cells maintain a state of pluripotency and are able to differentiate into many types of cells, could have profound implications for therapies that would use pluripotent stem cells to treat a range of human diseases.

"What we've observed is that a group of endogenous retroviruses called HERV-H is extremely busy in human embryonic stem cells," said Jeremy Luban, MD, the David L. Freelander Memorial Professor in HIV/AIDS Research, professor of molecular medicine and lead author of the study. "In fact, HERV-H is one of the most abundantly expressed genes in pluripotent stem cells and it isn't found in any other cell types."

In the study, Dr. Luban and colleagues describe how RNA from the HERV-H sequence makes up as much as 2 percent of the total RNA found in pluripotent stem cells. The HERV-H sequence is controlled by the same factors that are used to reprogram skin cells into induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, a discovery that garnered the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. "In other words, HERV-H is a new marker for pluripotency in humans that has the potential to aid in the development of iPS cells and transform current stem cell technology," said Luban.

When a retrovirus infects a cell, it inserts its own genes into the chromosomal DNA of the host cell. As a result, the host cell treats the viral genome as part of its own DNA sequence and begins making the proteins required to assemble new copies of the virus. And because the retrovirus is now part of the host cell's genome, when the cell divides, the virus is inherited by all daughter cells.

In rare cases, it's believed that retroviruses can infect human sperm or egg cells. If this happens, and if the resulting embryo survives, the retrovirus can become a permanent part of the human genome, and be passed down from generation to generation. Scientists estimate that as much as 8 percent of the human genome may be comprised of extinct retroviruses left over from infections that occurred millions of years ago. Yet these sequences of fossilized retrovirus were thought to have no discernible functional value.

"The human genome is filled with retrovirus DNA thought to be no more than fossilized junk," said Luban. "Increasingly, there are indications that these sequences might not be junk. They might play a role in gene expression after all."

An expert in HIV and other retroviruses, Luban and his colleagues were seeking to understand if there was a rationale behind where, in the expansive human genome, retroviruses inserted themselves. Knowing where along the chromosomal DNA retroviruses might attack could potentially lead to the development of drugs that protect against infection; better gene therapy treatments; or novel biomarkers that would predict where a retrovirus would insert itself in the genome, said Luban.

Turning these same techniques on the retrovirus sequences already in the human genome, they discovered a sequence, HERV-H, that appeared to be active. "The sequences weren't making proteins because they had been so disrupted over millions of years, but they were making these long, noncoding RNAs," said Luban.

Specifically, the HERV-H sequence was making abundant amounts of RNA in human embryonic stem cells?and only stem cells. In total, there are more than 1,000 HERV-H retrovirus genomes scattered throughout the human genome. The Luban lab also found high levels of HERV-H RNA in some iPS cells. Other iPS cells, perhaps those lines that were not sufficiently reprogrammed to pluripotency, had lower levels of the HERV-H RNA, another indication that HERV-H may be an important marker for pluripotency.

Interestingly, the HERV-H genes that were expressed in human pluripotent stem cells are only found in the human and chimpanzee genomes, indicating that HERV-H infected a relatively recent ancestor to humans, said Luban.

"Once upon a time HERV-H was an invader to our genome and perhaps caused diseases like AIDS or cancer," said Luban. "Now it seems that a kind of d?tente has been reached. Not only that, but this ancient invader may one day be exploited by clinicians to cure people of a wide range of diseases using stem cell therapies."

Luban and colleagues will next try to determine the specific mechanisms by which HERV-H contributes to pluripotency.

###

University of Massachusetts Medical School: http://www.umassmed.edu

Thanks to University of Massachusetts Medical School for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/126435/Retrovirus_in_the_human_genome_is_active_in_pluripotent_stem_cells

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Hey, lead foot! You're throwing away money?

5 hrs.

Paul A. Eisenstein , The Detroit Bureau

Studies show that fuel economy has become the number one concern among American car buyers ? but motorists have also been pressing for higher speed limits, which can sharply reduce the mileage a car gets.

While that might seem common sense, a new study clearly quantifies the impact of putting the pedal to the metal. And it finds that there are surprisingly few differences between vehicles, whether brick-like SUVs or sleek, wind-cheating sports cars.?

The Detroit Bureau:?Subaru Readying First Hybrid Model

?People really like rules of thumb, and if you?re increasing your speed from 50 to 60 miles an hour, we find for the largest number of vehicles fuel economy will go down about 12 percent,? said Brian H. West, a researcher at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, in Knoxville, Tenn., where the study was conducted.

Pushing a little faster, you?ll see mileage drop about 14 percent going from 60 to 70 mph, while fuel economy will dip yet another 16?percent if you nudge the speedometer up to 80.

While West says he ?wasn?t surprised? by the general results of the new study, he and the rest of the research team did make an unexpected discovery.? They had expected to see some types of vehicles do better than others, but the reduction in fuel economy was consistent across all vehicle classes, even the heaviest and boxiest SUVs, with only a one or two percent variations from the least to most efficient models.?

The Detroit Bureau:?Toyota, BMW Launch Fuel Cell Partnership

That included hybrid vehicles which are really designed for stop-and-go city driving where their batteries are constantly being recharged. At freeway speeds, there is little opportunity for them to regenerate energy that can be used to offset the gasoline they consumer. And, in fact, many hybrids actually have lower highway mileage ratings than what the EPA estimates they get in city driving.

While West declined to discuss the political ramifications, the new study could be used by proponents of increased fuel economy ? and opponents of higher speed limits.? A vehicle that might get 40 miles per gallon at 50 miles an hour would see something closer to just 25 mpg at 80 mph.

Highway speeds have risen significantly since Congress lifted federal restrictions first passed during the energy crises of the 1970s that, at one point lowered the maximum U.S. speed to 50 mph and then raised it to 55, the infamous ?double-nickel.??

The Detroit Bureau:?Despite Rebound, US Auto Sales Unlikely to Meet Prior Peaks

Late last year, Texas opened the country?s fastest highway, a toll road stretch near Austin with a top speed of 85 mph.

The increase in speeds has created havoc for both the EPA, which is mandated by Congress to oversee automotive fuel economy standards and testing, and the automakers depending on EPA results.

The tests that determine the figures on a new vehicle?s window label, the so-called ?Munroney Sticker? have been revised a number of times over the past four decades, most recently with the start of the 2012 model-year. The latest procedures include a brief burst at 80 miles per hour but the results generally reflect much less aggressive, low-speed driving, which means that a large percentage of American motorists will get lower fuel economy than indicated.

And the faster they go, the new Oak Ridge study confirms, the faster the gap will grow.

Copyright ? 2009-2012, The Detroit Bureau

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/hey-lead-foot-youre-throwing-away-money-1C8087459

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An Insurance Company With an Army - NYTimes.com

Jonathan Chait and Greg Sargent both weigh in on the absurd Republican claim that they?ll produce a plan to balance the budget in 10 years, without a penny in additional revenue. Chait points out that the Ryan plan, even if you accepted all its magic asterisks, still didn?t produce a balanced budget until 2040. Sargent, armed with numbers from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, points out that if the GOP were to honor its promises not to cut military spending or benefits for those over 55, you?d have to impose savage cuts on everything else.

What all this comes down to is a collision between GOP deficit scare tactics and the reality of what the federal government does. The government really is an insurance company with an army; if you demand rapid deficit reduction without raising taxes or cutting military spending, you have to cut deeply into programs that the public values.

Republicans have, for the most part, managed until recently to skate over this reality, simultaneously calling for lower spending in the abstract while posing as the defenders of seniors against Obama?s Medicare cuts.They?ve been aided in this by pundits and reporters unwilling to seem ?unbalanced? by pointing out the realities. But they?ve now run out of room, and are facing a crisis of arithmetic.

Source: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/24/an-insurance-company-with-an-army-3/

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Baby on the Way for Michael Bubl

The singer-songwriter and wife Luisana Lopilato are expecting their first child, they announced in a video message Thursday.

Source: http://feeds.celebritybabies.com/~r/celebrity-babies/~3/jw_5w5erT28/

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