Jackson's 'Bad' jacket, costumes sold at auction

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Costumes worn by Michael Jackson commanded hundreds of thousands of dollars at auction, and Lady Gaga was among the collectors.

Gaga tweeted Sunday that she bought 55 pieces in the sale administered by Julien's Auctions and said she plans to keep the items "archived and expertly cared for in the spirit and love of Michael Jackson, his bravery and fans worldwide."

Auctioneer Darren Julien said the jacket Jackson wore during his "Bad" tour fetched $240,000. Two of Jackson's crystal-encrusted gloves sold for more than $100,000 each, as did other jackets and performance costumes.

The auction featuring the collection of Jackson's longtime costume designers Dennis Tompkins and Michael Bush raised more than $5 million. Some proceeds benefited Guide Dogs of America and Nathan Adelson Hospice of Las Vegas.

___

Online:

www.juliensauctions.com

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/jacksons-bad-jacket-costumes-sold-auction-083719838.html

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3-D printed gun fires 6 shots ? then falls apart

26 min.

The idea of using a 3-D printer to create a gun is controversial and interesting, but it seems to still be a ways off from?equaling?the quality of machined parts. A gun with a major part printed that way failed after just six shots when some enthusiasts decided to give the tech a try.

Creating a printable gun is the project of Defense Distributed, which is working on what it calls the WikiWeapon. But the effort isn't far enough along to create a working firearm, so Defense Distributed used a design created by another printed-gun creator who goes by the name HaveBlue.

HaveBlue claimed in July to have fired his printed gun hundreds of times, which doesn't seem impossible given the quality of the printing.?The part printed by the group is called the lower receiver, which is where a round is received from the magazine. Pictures show it to be very well made, and it appears to fit exactly to the other parts in the gun kit they used.

But the pressure of the recoil appears to have been too much for the "buffer ring," which separates the stock from the upper receiver. After firing just six shots, the gun split in two. It's a serious setback, especially considering they were firing a lower-caliber cartridge than the gun would normally shoot.

The legality of all this is unknown, not to say in dispute. It is legal to create your own firearms, but not to distribute them ? and in the case of printed guns there's a bit of both going on. The ATF is looking at the subject, but for now it's all something of a grey area.

The technical aspects of the part, the failure, and the team's plans to improve it can be found at Defense Distributed's blog. You can watch the video of the test below.

Devin Coldewey is a contributing writer for NBC?News Digital. His personal website is?coldewey.cc.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/futureoftech/3-d-printed-gun-fires-6-shots-then-falls-apart-1C7404226

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Google staffer Android comic alludes to Key Lime Pie as a lark, stokes fans all the same

Google staffer's Android evolution alludes to Key Lime Pie 'just for fun,' can't help but stoke speculation

We know precious little about the next major version of Android, unofficially thought to be called Key Lime Pie, other than that it isn't Android 4.2. You can imagine what happens when actual Google employee Manu Cornet makes a reference to Key Lime Pie in a comic outlining Android's dessert-flavored evolution, then: fans go wild. Surely that's confirming the roadmap, isn't it? As it turns out, not quite. Cornet tells us that he drew the comic "just for fun," and there's "not much" point to reading the tea leaves, even if he's open to interpretations. It's just as well -- Cornet is part of the Gmail team at last check, not Android, and isn't as likely to have an inside track on Google's mobile plans. Still, if you happen to see a familiar-looking pie sitting on Google's lawn sometime in the months ahead, you'll know where you saw it first.

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Families grieve in wake of Belcher murder-suicide

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) ? Breaking their silence for the first time, the family of the woman shot and killed by Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher said Monday their "hearts are truly broken" and asked for privacy while they grieve the loss of two loved ones.

Belcher shot and killed his 22-year-old girlfriend, Kasandra Perkins, at their Kansas City home Saturday before driving to Arrowhead Stadium, where Belcher committed suicide in the practice facility's parking lot, police said. The couple had a 3-month-old daughter, Zoey.

"Our hearts are truly broken for Kasi was a beloved daughter, granddaughter, sister, mother, cousin and friend," the family said in an emailed statement. The family also asked that the media "respect our privacy during this difficult time."

"Please keep us in your hearts and prayers as well as the Belcher family," the statement said.

Kansas City police Sgt. Marisa Barnes said Monday that authorities hope to deliver an investigative report to prosecutors on Tuesday.

"They're moving it along just like any other case. There's a formal process it has to go through," she said.

Dan Ferguson, a spokesman for Jackson County, said the medical examiner's office has completed examinations on the bodies of both Belcher and Perkins. A full autopsy report would not be available for six to eight weeks, he said.

In an incident report released Monday, police said officers were called to the Kansas City home of Belcher, 25, and Perkins about 7:50 a.m. Saturday. Police found Perkins on the floor of the master bathroom. The report said she died from apparent gunshot wounds, but did not say how many times she had been shot.

Belcher then drove about five miles to Arrowhead Stadium. There, he was met by general manager Scott Pioli and coach Romeo Crennel, and Belcher thanked them for all they'd done for him.

The police report said that when officers arrived at Arrowhead about 8 a.m., they saw several people in the practice facility parking lot.

"As they approached, a subject later identified as Jovan Belcher, observed their presence and moved to an area behind a vehicle," the report said. "From that position Belcher shot himself one time in the head." Belcher was taken to a hospital, where he died, the report said.

Barnes said Monday that firearms found at the couple's home were legally registered to Belcher. It is unknown how many guns were found.

"The majority of people own them, you know, especially in the places that they're legal," Chiefs linebacker Brandon Siler said. "People don't go out and shoot other people. Most of the time they're for self-defense or sport. Yeah, people own guns, but did you ever hear him say anything about harming someone with a gun? No."

Chiefs defensive tackle Shaun Smith bristled when asked about a "gun culture" in professional sports, and said players that carry them usually do so for protection.

"Just because we're in the NFL, that doesn't make us no different," he said. "You never know when someone would try to rob you or whatever. ... I've worked hard to get where I am. I'll be damned if I'd let someone just take it away from me, period."

Police spokesman Darin Snapp said Monday that Belcher's mother, who had been staying with the couple, was given temporary custody of the couple's daughter. But, he said, it was unclear Monday if the grandmother and baby were still in the Kansas City area or if they had returned to Belcher's home in West Babylon, N.Y. Perkins was from the Austin, Texas, area.

Chiefs running back Jamaal Charles and his wife, Whitney, also released a statement Monday asking for privacy. In it, the Charles' confirmed that Perkins and Whitney Charles were cousins, and that Perkins was a "not only family, but a friend and a loving mother."

"As my actual family and my Kansas City Chiefs family have been altered forever, we ask that you keep us and most importantly their child in prayer," the Charles' statement said.

Brianne York, 21, a friend of Perkins, said Sunday that Perkins met Belcher through Whitney Charles.

Belcher's relatives also provided statements Monday, as several relatives gathered outside of Belcher's boyhood home, looking somber and sad. Yamiesse Lawrence, a cousin of Belcher's, said the weekend's events were an "inconceivable tragedy."

"As a family, no words can express the sorrow we feel over the loss of Jovan and Kasandra," Lawrence read aloud.

She said the family is "overwhelmed with both sadness and confusion," and extends thoughts and prayers to the Perkins family.

Belcher's niece, Quaresha Boston, said the football player "embraced life and excelled at all he put his energy behind" and that God alone could "mend our hearts."

"We loved Jovan. His kindness, humility, respect and gratitude for family and friends were steadfast," she said. "... He was happy to be a new father and both he and Kasandra loved Zoey greatly."

___

AP Sports Writer Dave Skretta in Kansas City, Mo., and AP Writer Frank Eltman in West Babylon, N.Y., contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/families-grieve-wake-belcher-murder-suicide-213153750--nfl.html

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'Twilight' wins weekend, 'Skyfall' trails closely

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Holdover films remained tops at the weekend box office as the "Twilight" finale finished at No. 1 again with $17.4 million and the James Bond tale "Skyfall" ran a close second with $16.6 million.

The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Monday by Hollywood.com are:

1. "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn ? Part 2," Summit, $17,416,362, 4,008 locations, $4,345 average, $254,598,866, three weeks.

2. "Skyfall," Sony, $16,555,894, 3,463 locations, $4,781 average, $245,585,083, four weeks.

3. "Rise of the Guardians," Paramount, $13,388,852, 3,672 locations, $3,646 average, $48,836,105, two weeks.

4. "Lincoln," Disney, $13,376,696, 2,018 locations, $6,629 average, $83,566,169, four weeks.

5. "Life of Pi," Fox, $12,151,853, 2,928 locations, $4,150 average, $48,512,994, two weeks.

6. "Wreck-It Ralph," Disney, $6,948,550, 3,087 locations, $2,251 average, $158,184,813, five weeks.

7. "Killing Them Softly," Weinstein Co., $6,812,900, 2,424 locations, $2,811 average, $6,812,900, one week.

8. "Red Dawn," FilmDistrict, $6,500,245, 2,781 locations, $2,337 average, $31,272,953, two weeks.

9. "Flight," Paramount, $4,479,067, 2,603 locations, $1,721 average, $81,465,903, five weeks.

10. "The Collection," LD Entertainment, $3,104,269, 1,403 locations, $2,213 average, $3,104,269, one week.

11. "Silver Linings Playbook," Weinstein Co., $3,090,131, 371 locations, $8,329 average, $10,740,112, three weeks.

12. "Anna Karenina," Focus, $2,245,570, 384 locations, $5,848 average, $4,106,921, three weeks.

13. "Argo," Warner Bros., $2,010,349, 1,043 locations, $1,927 average, $100,990,766, eight weeks.

14. "Talaash," Reliance Big Pictures, $1,638,706, 172 locations, $9,527 average, $1,638,706, one week.

15. "Taken 2," Fox, $467,975, 496 locations, $943 average, $137,163,554, nine weeks.

16. "Hitchcock," Fox Searchlight, $408,692, 50 locations, $8,174 average, $787,574, two weeks.

17. "Pitch Perfect," Universal, $387,070, 403 locations, $960 average, $63,099,243, 10 weeks.

18. "The Sessions," Fox, $333,315, 226 locations, $1,475 average, $4,582,181, seven weeks.

19. "Cloud Atlas," Warner Bros., $243,338, 194 locations, $1,254 average, $26,181,455, six weeks.

20. "Here Comes the Boom," Sony, $224,797, 334 locations, $673 average, $42,352,250, eight weeks.

___

Online:

http://www.hollywood.com

___

Universal and Focus are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp.; Sony, Columbia, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc.; Disney, Pixar and Marvel are owned by The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is owned by Filmyard Holdings LLC; 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a group of former creditors including Highland Capital, Anchorage Advisors and Carl Icahn; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC is owned by AMC Networks Inc.; Rogue is owned by Relativity Media LLC.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/twilight-wins-weekend-skyfall-trails-closely-223808826.html

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Dick Cheney working on book about heart treatment

NEW YORK (AP) ? Former Vice President Dick Cheney, one of the world's most prominent heart patients, is working on a book about his many battles with coronary disease and the revolutionary changes in treatment that helped keep him alive.

The 71-year-old Cheney is collaborating with his cardiologist, Dr. Jonathan Reiner, and with his daughter, Liz Cheney. Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, announced Monday that the book is scheduled for next fall. It is currently untitled.

"It explains and talks about all the developments in cardiology by going through my own case," the former vice president said Monday during a brief telephone interview. "I'm alive today because of the tremendous advances that have been made."

Financial terms were not disclosed, although a "portion of the authors' net proceeds from the book will be donated to charity," according to Scribner. Cheney was represented by Washington attorney Robert Barnett, whose clients also include President Obama and former President George W. Bush.

Cheney and his daughter also worked together on his memoir "In My Time," published in 2011 by the conservative Simon & Schuster imprint Threshold Editions. Cheney said the new book will be completely "non-political." Authors at Scribner range from Stephen King, a longtime liberal, to former first lady Laura Bush.

Cheney, who received a heart transplant in March, said that the idea for the book came from Reiner after they appeared together at the Cleveland Clinic for a conference on heart treatment. As Cheney explained, the clinic wanted him to speak because in his case "They've done everything they can to a patient."

As he wrote in "In My Time," Cheney was just 37 and running for Congress when he had his first heart attack, in 1978. Over the next 30 years, he had four more heart attacks, including one soon after Election Day in 2000 that required a stent to be inserted. In 2010, a year after he and President Bush left office, he had a battery-powered device installed to help his heart pump blood.

Cheney noted Monday that the procedures he had undergone were crucial steps ahead from the days when he was simply advised to quit smoking.

The former Vice President said that his current condition was "nothing short of a miracle." Two years ago, he was in "end-state heart failure." Now, "I'm better than I've been in years," well enough to indulge his beloved pastime of fly fishing.

"I spent a lot of time on the river this summer," he said, "and enjoying the finer things in life."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/dick-cheney-working-book-heart-treatment-220214040--politics.html

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Dana White stirs up controversy in role as homeless man during Fox NFL Sunday

A tiny role as a homeless guy in a not-so-funny betting skit on the Fox NFL Sunday show has created yet another Internet uproar about UFC president Dana White.

In a skit in which comedian Rob Riggle was doing a rather flat impersonation of a pro football tipster, White appeared toward the end as a homeless man in a box. In the skit, Riggle had been bragging about his network of sources and said he'd take information from anyone who could help him make his picks.

The video cuts to White, who said in an odd voice, "Cam Newton is pregnant. Ha ha ha ha!"

The cast on the Fox NFL Sunday show laughed and pointed out that it was White and that the UFC has a card airing on Saturday from Key Arena in Seattle. It seemed like a harmless, though not very funny, way to get a free mention of his fight card during a highly watched NFL broadcast.

But then, one of White's nearly 2.4 million Twitter followers, Jason Wozny, chastised him. Wozny, whose handle is @UFCWozny, gave the UFC president a bit of blowback.

Wozny wrote, "Ahh, done in bad taste Dana. Not funny for those who actually live out of a box. Should apologize"

If you know White even remotely well, you knew there would be a response but that it wouldn't be an apology. And, of course, White's response created a firestorm of its own.

He took a shot at Wozny and referred to him with a slang word for coward.

Wozny stuck to his guns and told White the thought the skit was in bad taste. White responded with another insult and urged him to get a sense of humor.

Let's start by saying that Riggle's writing for the skit isn't going to earn him an Emmy nomination for comedic writing. Nor will White be nominated for his, ahem, acting.

But White was hardly trying to poke fun at homeless people or make light of their plight. He was using unconventional, and probably not very effective, means to try to promote his fight. The UFC's most highly watched Fox card to date was its first, on Nov. 12, 2011, when Junior dos Santos knocked out Cain Velasquez to win the heavyweight title.

It's no coincidence that show got by far the highest ratings of any of the four Fox cards to date, given that it was the only one aired during NFL season and that it got a ton of promotional assistance on Fox NFL broadcasts.

White took the opportunity to access the massive NFL audience to pump up his fight.

He's been way in the wrong on things before. He used a slur used to describe homosexuals during an unbelievably over-the-top rant in 2009 against then-Sherdog reporter Loretta Hunt. He later apologized to the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation and has subsequently said that's the one thing in his career he regrets.

He's also looked the other way as some of his fighters have openly harassed female reporters with lewd and suggestive comments.

But White did nothing wrong here. He certainly didn't offend homeless people, and he wasn't trying to lessen their plight in any way.

Wozny deserves much respect for at least standing up for the downtrodden, though I think he was overcome by a bad case of political correctness.

Read the rest of this post »

Analysis: Steel reprieve comes at price for France's Hollande

PARIS (Reuters) - Francois Hollande's bid to rescue steel furnaces in France's historic industrial heartland was to be the mark of a president on the side of the workers and a state with the courage to bring a multinational to heel.

But the two-month stand-off over steel giant ArcelorMittal's Florange plant in Lorraine has unnerved investors in the euro zone's second largest economy, confused France's unions and exposed his six-month-old government to international ridicule.

His Socialist allies have hailed as a victory a late-Friday compromise under which ArcelorMittal agreed to invest 180 million euros to expand the site near the German border over five years and hold off making forced redundancies.

But as the European steel sector struggles to cope with over-capacity, the furnaces themselves will remain shuttered for now, and questions remain over the exact fate of the some 630 workers employed there and further funding needed for expansion.

With unemployment at 14-year highs of 10 percent and his popularity ratings at record lows for a president only half a year into his mandate, there was clear political advantage for Hollande to lock horns with Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal.

But the result is at best a no-score-draw, and the tactics used - anti-business rhetoric and the threat of nationalization - could damage his wider reform effort.

While his pugnacious, micro-managing predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy led from the front, Hollande let his ministers lead the fight, creating confusion over who runs industrial policy.

Arnaud Montebourg, the firebrand leftist industry minister who pushed the nationalization option hardest, declared Mittal a persona non grata in France and revealed he had found an anonymous potential buyer ready to invest in the plant.

That was lapped up by international critics including London mayor Boris Johnson, who told executives in New Delhi that the "sans culottes" revolutionaries had taken control in Paris and advised them to bring their investment rupees to Britain.

RHETORIC VS REALITY

Montebourg later retracted his personal attack on Mittal but then had to watch as aides of Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, who announced the final accord, briefed media that his putative investor was neither "credible or solid".

Facing opposition calls to resign, Montebourg went on local television on Saturday to announce he had Hollande's support and insist he felt "not betrayed, merely let down" by the outcome.

But worse than the damage done to the credibility of one of Hollande's most high-profile ministers, many fear the cacophony further shakes France's image as a place to do business just when it needs all the help it can get to avert recession.

"It has been a disaster," a senior French banker said last week as the episode unfolded.

"Even for sophisticated investors who understand that in France there is a difference between the rhetoric and the reality, this is hugely unnerving."

Elie Cohen, economist at the CNRS public research institute, told the commercial i>Tele television network that by raising the option of nationalization, Montebourg risked encouraging copy-cat demands by workers at other struggling sites.

It is still too early to say whether the Florange wrangling will hurt foreign investment in France, which Bank of France data show has grown modestly since the 2008/2009 global turndown to hit 30 billion euros or 1.5 percent of output last year.

Barely noticed last week, U.S. online giant Amazon said it was opening a new distribution center in northern France that will create up to 2,500 jobs - four times the number at the Florange furnaces and a reminder that 80 percent of France's economy is now in the services sector.

UNIONS FEEL BETRAYED

Vital to France's long-term prospects is whether Hollande obtains in coming weeks the overhaul of the country's unwieldy and expensive labor regulations which he has tasked employers and unions to achieve in negotiations by year-end.

For that, France's trade unions must make unprecedented concessions to allow business more flexibility in hiring and firing. But the government handling of the Florange tussle has left many labor leaders feeling betrayed.

"Until the last minute, basically, we were made to believe that temporary nationalization was essentially a given," Edouard Martin, head of the Florange chapter of France's large CFDT union, told RTL radio.

"We did not understand this last-minute fix-up in which Jean-Marc Ayrault unveils an option never before discussed ... We get the feeling he was lying to us all along."

A big test now will be whether unions have been riled so much that they stonewall in the labor reform talks. It could also make some more prone to protest if the government makes the extra public spending cuts that analysts say could be needed next year to ensure France hits its deficit-cutting target.

For now, both sides hope the battle of Florange is over.

ArcelorMittal has welcomed a deal that includes commitments on voluntary redundancies and re-deployment of furnace workers elsewhere in its French activities that go little beyond what it would likely have offered without government intervention.

Hollande's office concedes he did not manage to get the furnaces re-opened as he promised during his election campaign, but argue the deal to expand activity in the current poor economic climate is a victory of sorts.

Whether the accord goes ahead in its entirety partly depends on variables outside the two parties' control, including 400 million euros' worth of European Commission funding.

It may not be quite the end of the story.

Referring to the nationalization threat, one Hollande aide noted: "We are still keeping that revolver on the table."

(Additional reporting by Nicholas Vinocur, Julien Ponthus and Elizabeth Pineau; Editing by Will Waterman)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/analysis-steel-reprieve-comes-price-frances-hollande-104049536--finance.html

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Fracking firm ready to press on

The head of a company involved in fracking has said it is ready to press on quickly with production if a UK ban on the technique is lifted.

Cuadrilla Resources chief executive Francis Egan told the Sunday Telegraph that the development of gas resources in the UK was an economic necessity.

A government review has concluded that fracking - extracting shale gas - is safe if adequately monitored.

Mr Egan warned his company may "walk away" if the ban is not lifted soon.

Fracking is a controversial process that involves pumping water and chemicals into shale rock at high pressure to extract gas.

'New industry'

It was temporarily banned in the UK after it was blamed for two earth tremors in Blackpool in 2011.

Cuadrilla has four exploration drilling sites in Lancashire - three on the Fylde at Westby, Singleton and Weeton and one at Banks in West Lancashire.

Mr Egan said Cuadrilla believed it could be producing shale gas in the UK by March next year. However, the firm stressed that this would be a test process and not full production.

Continue reading the main story

?Start Quote

We have proven that there is gas and that it will flow?

End Quote Francis Egan Cuadrilla Resources

"We are starting a whole new onshore gas industry. In our licence alone we can supply a quarter of the UK's gas demand," he said.

Fracking is widely used in the US and supporters of the process have said it could have significant benefits for energy policy in the UK.

It has been reported that Energy Secretary Ed Davey will soon end the moratorium on the process, while Chancellor George Osborne has said he is considering tax incentives for the industry.

It is believed he may provide further details in his Autumn Statement on Wednesday.

'Patience not infinite'

But Mr Egan indicated that his company was not prepared to wait for ever for the go-ahead.

"Britain is spending tens of billions of pounds importing gas," he said, adding: "We have proven that there is [shale] gas and that it will flow.

"In the three years we have been doing tests, they have drilled 60,000 wells in the US. We don't have infinite patience and our investors don't have infinite patience."

On Saturday, the Department of Energy and Climate Change dismissed an Independent report that said 60% of the UK countryside could be used for fracking, describing the figure as "nonsense".

Opponents have said fracking is a dangerous process that threatens to pollute water supplies.

About 300 people held an anti-fracking protest outside Parliament on Saturday.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20571700#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa

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