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Thanks in no small part to Julianne Moore's Oscar win for best actress, Still Alice got a numbers bump from less than 800 venues to just over 1300. That was enough to push it to $2 million this weekend and the number nine spot, the first time in its seven week run that it's hit the top ten.
American Sniper fell just short of breaking past The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 and Guardians of the Galaxy to become the highest grossing movie of 2014. It ended the weekend with $331 million, just $5 million shy of the year's highest. That now inevitable moment will likely hit next Friday, but certainly by next weekend.
Exactly two years after France came to Mali’s aid and fought back Islamic extremists who had seized the north of the country, including the fabled city of Timbuktu, Mali’s President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita marched in the place of honor to President Hollande’s right in the massive rally for unity in Paris.
“Do you understand my emotions? It is impossible for me not to be here,” explained President Keita, remembering the French military operation Serval, which pushed back and eventually expelled the Islamic militants that had terrorized the north of his country and were advancing south.
Equally horrifying, the extremists targeted the treasures of Islamic enlightenment, the medieval and Renaissance period manuscripts of Timbuktu. Through the efforts of Cheick Abdel Kaider Haidara, supported by funding from governments and foundations, hundreds of thousands of irreplaceable manuscripts were spirited away by night.
While the story of the daring rescue of the manuscripts is well known, the content of the ancient manuscripts remains obscure to all but a few specialists. This is especially regrettable because this vast storehouse of science, philosophy, ethics, jurisprudence, literature, music, and poetry represents an authentic Islamic counter-narrative to the twisted ideology of hatred and exclusion that drives extremists like the Paris murderers.
As the vitriolic version of Islam again dominates the news cycle in light of the Paris attacks, it is more important than ever to spotlight the authentic alternative. “Liberté, egalité, fraternité,” or “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness,” may sound foreign to some, but these universal values resonate throughout the ancient Timbuktu manuscripts.
These largely privately-owned documents, numbering in the hundreds of thousands of pages and now secreted away in undisclosed locations, testify to a creative, intellectually curious, tolerant, and rights-oriented Islamic civilization in medieval and Renaissance era Timbuktu – the diametric opposite of the violent, punitive “Islam” of Al-Qaeda, ISIL, and their many offshoots.
The Timbuktu manuscripts contain discourses on human rights, specifically the rights of women, workers, orphans, and even animals. Their pages are filled with debates on the efficacy of slavery, the salutary or deleterious effects of tobacco, good business practices, and governance that will keep corruption out. Some treatises trumpet the importance of tolerance, and others the value of women attending school. In the realm of science the manuscripts delve into astronomy, biology, optics, chemistry, and medicine with a sophistication comparable to contemporary works from Europe.
The Timbuktu Renaissance, a Malian-American initiative launched at the Brookings Institution’s 2014 U.S.-Islamic World Forum, believes that this ancient center of trade, knowledge, and culture offers an unexpected answer to the question plaguing France, and the world, after last week’s attack: how to defeat the terrorists and the violent ideology driving them? The answer is through knowledge, education, and culture: an authentic Islamic counter-narrative of peace, tolerance, curiosity, and human rights provides the bulwark against the viral vitriol of hatred and destruction.
Working in partnership with the Malian government – with the strong and active support of President Keita—the Timbuktu Renaissance aims to foster peace, unity, reconciliation, and economic development in Mali through a focus on its culture and knowledge – past and present. The last element — economic development — is essential to providing a sustainable counter to the well-funded forces of extremism. This has been recognized by Malian Minister of Culture N’Diaye Ramatoulaye Diallo, President Keita’s official delegate to the Timbuktu Renaissance.
Strengthening Mali’s signature culture will revive tourism and drive revenues from creative production. This economic development will enable Malians – whether they number among the many with creative talent – or not, to thrive, to grow their economy, and to develop their society – all part of formidable opposition to extremism.
Mali’s government recognizes the treasure that is Timbuktu, even though the desert town of today bears no resemblance to the “city of gold” from Mansa Musa’s day. Another key item on the Timbuktu Renaissance agenda is the bold initiative to revive the region by creating a great modern university in Timbuktu, inspired by the legendary center of learning of yore. Minister Diallo, who has been tapped by President Keita to spearhead the project, envisions a center of learning both philosophical and practical. The famed manuscripts will receive the extensive research they so desperately need to spread their message of Islamic enlightenment. Through the University of Timbuktu, Mali also aims to become a center of research in agriculture, solar energy, and sustainable resource development.
Within the next month, the Timbuktu Renaissance will launch a “Peace Caravan” series of concerts in Mali, hopefully culminating in a celebration of the Peace Accords between north and south Mali. With a recent cabinet reshuffle, positive signs suggest that the accords will go through soon. And what better way to celebrate peace and reconciliation than with a concert in a country with such a deep, long, and storied musical tradition and heritage? The Timbuktu Renaissance believes strongly in returning the symbolic significance of music to Timbuktu, where it can play its traditional role of uniting people from all over the country and continent.
Other Timbuktu Renaissance initiatives that are already or soon to be underway include the development of a center for innovation and culture in Timbuktu in the former “La Maison” hotel, the erstwhile site of the Islamists’ court and prison; an international travel exhibition on Timbuktu , including manuscripts, instruments, handicrafts, and more; and support for digitization and conservation of the manuscripts.
It was indeed fitting that Malian President Boubacar Keita strode alongside President Hollande in mutual defiance of barbaric violence and in support of peace and unity, especially given the heroic role of Malian Lassana Bathily in the kosher grocery store siege. As the world collectively wonders how to combat the scourge of violent extremism, part of the answer may lie in the renaissance of the least likely of places – Timbuktu.
It's shopping season, and getting a parking space at the mall can be a battle. Volkswagen of Argentina's demonstration of Park Assist suggests that it can also be a Wild West faceoff, complete with a bad guy in black.
Harcore gearheads and Luddites alike may disdain gimmicky features like Park Assist, but it's still entertaining — and slightly eerie — to watch this Tiguan wheel itself into the space without human input as the driver feigns clueless innocence and his opponent looks on in awe and disgust.
No word on whether Volkswagen will offer a system to prevent your car from getting mercilessly keyed after an encounter like this.
At least four killed as protests mark first anniversary of the killing of hundreds of demonstrators at two protest camp.
Four people have been killed in Cairo during protests to mark the first anniversary of the Rabaa crackdown in which at least 1,000 people died.
The protesters were shot dead as Egyptian security forces on Thursday dispersed hundreds of supporters of the ousted president, Mohamed Morsi, who had blocked several highways and roads in Cairo and Giza.
It was the first anniversary of the violent Rabaa al-Adawiya and Nahda Square sit-ins last year.
Human Rights Watch released a report on Tuesday that said last years' killings at the two protest camps were crimes against humanity.
HRW called for an international inquiry, urging the United Nations to look into six incidents involving killings of protesters by security forces.
Kenneth Roth, executive director of the New York-based rights group, and HRW Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitson, were denied entry into the country on Monday.
Egypt's government said the report was "characterised by negativity and bias" and relied on anonymous witnesses rather than neutral sources.
Pelosi: My Grandson's Birthday Wish Was to Have Brown Skin, Brown Eyes; "Face of the Future of Our Country"
During an extended speech on the House floor Wednesday morning, where she read a long list of profiles of DACA recipients, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was reminded of her own grandson.
Pelosi, who noted her Italian heritage, said her grandson comes from Irish, English, “whatever, whatever” descent. She added that he is a “mix.” Pelosi shared that when her grandson blew out the candles at his sixth birthday party he made a wish that he would have “brown skin and brown eyes” like his Hispanic friend Antonio.
NANCY PELOSI: … He said yes, he made a wish. What is your wish? I wish I had brown skin and brown eyes like Antonio.
So beautiful. So beautiful. The beauty is in the mix. The face of the future for our country is all-American. And that has many versions.
Poor little self hating rich kid. Nobody ever told him it’s Okay to be white.
He can still go trans. It’s better than nothing.
Yeah, but he can only go transgender like that wonderfully courageous Caitlyn Jenner, not transracial like that horrible Rachel Dolezal.
The professional atmosphere of Pace Beijing has helped make an impact on the art scene in China.
As Beijing's modern art scene continues to surge into the lime light, the number of its galleries keeps apace. As with any city with a massive art scene, the quality of art you can find ranges from jaw-droppingly phenomenal to stomach-churningly terrible. CRI's William Wang takes you on a tour to galleries which showcase high caliber art, art which impresses via its subtleties, shock-value, craftsmanship or… inaccessibility.
The Pace Gallery made its mark in New York City, where luminaries such as Josef Albers, Willem de Kooning and Picasso have been represented. In Beijing just before the 2008 Olympics, Pace opened its 798 art district gallery in order to be a part of China's booming art scene.
The 2500 square meter space was designed by Richard Gluckman, a New York architect who designed Pittsburgh's Andy Warhol Museum. With all day access to natural light, and large enough to house almost any work of art, the space poses both freedoms and challenges to artists. Artists and curators reconceive every exhibition to maximize the impact of the work. Sometimes doing so requires building and painting walls, or creating tailored lighting systems.
The professional atmosphere has helped Pace Beijing make its impact on the art scene in China. It has exhibited an impressive collection of artists, including some of the most celebrated figures of China's modern art movement.
The ubiquitous smiling faces by Yue Minjun are part of the Pace Beijing collection as well as the emotionally-stifled portaits of Zhang Xiaogang. Artists such as these may represent the crest of the Chinese wave, but Pace Beijing is equally interested in showcasing lesser known upcoming talent, such as female artist Yin Xiuzhen, helping them gain deserved recognition.
On Jan. 22 the Lula administration announced it will increase federal funding for Brazil’s sugar-based ethanol industry by almost US$6 billion over the next four years. One day later, U.S. President George W. Bush declared in the State of the Union address his goal to reduce U.S. use of gasoline 20% by the year 2017.
The United States is currently the largest importer of Brazilian ethanol. Last year it imported 1.74 billion liters, or 58% of the total three billion liters that Brazil exported. For the United States to reach Bush’s target reduction of gasoline use, the country will need an additional 135 billion liters of ethanol annually. Because it will not be able to produce the entire amount, no doubt a large portion will come from Brazil.
Brazil is the global leader in ethanol exports. In 2006, the country exported about 19% of the total 16 billion liters it produced, providing 70% of the world’s supply.
This amount will soon increase. A partnership between the Ministry of Science and Technology and the University of Campinas in São Paulo is currently conducting a study to plan Brazil’s ethanol exports as a substitute for 10% of the global use of gasoline in 20 years.
If this plan is successful, the country’s ethanol exports will total 200 billion liters by 2025—an increase of almost 67%. The geographic area planted with sugarcane will increase from 6 million to 30 million hectares.
Is Ethanol the Solution or the Problem?
Many citizen organizations in Brazil are concerned that what appears to be an economic panacea may be a social and ecological disaster. They claim that as the industry expands and more hectares are planted mono-cropping sugarcane, existing problems in rural areas of landlessness, hunger, unemployment, environmental degradation, and agrarian conflicts will be exacerbated.
There is concern that while expansion of the ethanol industry may boost Brazil’s GDP and some Brazilians will become very wealthy in the process, the majority of the population will not benefit from the ethanol export boom. Given U.S. plans to increase imports of Brazilian ethanol and the alliance slated to be forged during Bush’s South America visit in March, it is likely the livelihoods of many Brazilians, especially the rural poor, will be subordinated to maintain U.S. consumption.
“The era of biofuels will reproduce and legitimize the logic of the occupation of rural areas by multinational agribusiness, and perpetuate the colonial project to subvert ecosystems and people to the service of the production and maintenance of a lifestyle in other societies,” states the Forum. The group alleges that Brazil’s effort to supply the Global North with ethanol is simply a repeat of the same model of economic growth via agro-export that has been practiced since Portuguese colonization.
Agricultural production for export in Brazil has traditionally been a model imposed on the country by more powerful nations in the North, alongside a small group of Brazilian landowners. Agro-export generates vast amounts of wealth for a few Brazilians, and exploitation and poverty for many others. Brazil’s high rate of income inequality is inseparable from the fact that it also has one of the most unequal rates of land distribution. The sugar industry is a classic example of Brazil’s land and income inequality.
Brazilian ethanol is produced from sugarcane, which has always been a primary agricultural commodity for the country. Because ethanol relies on sugarcane as its primary material, the industry is linked to the social and economic dynamics in rural areas that have developed from sugarcane production since the colonial era, most importantly labor exploitation and land concentration.
In many ways, things have changed little on the sugarcane plantations since colonial times.
“The problems with [sugarcane’s] production today are very similar to the problems it generated hundreds of years ago,” says Maisa Mendonça, Director of the São Paulo-based NGO Rede Social. Sugarcane fieldworkers endure some of the hardest labor in the world. According to Mendonça, Brazil has the lowest cost of production in the world because of the industry’s dependence on labor exploitation, including massive slave labor, and its refusal to implement environmental regulations. In São Paulo the cost of production is US$165 per ton; in Europe it is US$700 per ton. I n São Paulo the median monthly salary for a field laborer on a sugar cane plantation is US$195; in Pernambuco it is US$167.
It is estimated that 40,000 seasonal migrant laborers from the Northeast and Minas Gerais state work in the annual harvest in São Paulo. They work long hours in extremely hot temperatures, cutting as fast as they can because their pay is based on the weight of their cuttings.
Maria Aparecida de Morães Silva, at the State University of São Paulo, reports that the required rate of productivity for cane cutters is increasing. In the 1980s, the average rate of productivity demanded of an individual cutter was between five and eight tons of sugarcane cut per day; today it is between 12 and 15 tons. From 2004 to 2006, the Pastoral of Migrants registered 17 deaths from excessive labor in São Paulo, and in 2005 the state’s Regional Delegation of Labor registered 416 deaths of workers in sugar-based ethanol production.
As it grows, the sugar-ethanol industry has undergone a process of increasing concentration and vertical integration, as large corporations invest in land and production. According to a banker who finances loans to the ethanol industry in São Paulo and asked to remain anonymous, in the past control of the industry was dispersed among smaller businesses. Sugar mills were owned by individual owners who controlled both cultivation and milling.
Many of the larger companies that are buying out the smaller companies are multinational agribusiness corporations. “The participation by foreign capital in the production of sugar and ethanol is currently 4.5%, and this number is going to grow. Recently many foreign groups are looking to invest in this industry in Brazil, due to one of the lowest costs of production in the world,” says the banker.
Sugarcane seems to be following the same pattern of foreign investment and concentration as that of soybeans. Today almost all soybean production in Brazil is controlled by a handful of multinational agribusinesses.
Many of the corporations that control soybeans are now investing in the ethanol industry. Among the multinational agribusinesses investing in the industry are, according to the banker, Louis Dreyfus Commodities and Tereos, both based in France, as well as U.S.-based Cargill. The Louis Dreyfus site states the company is one of the three largest sugar traders in the world, and owns three Brazilian sugar mills with a fourth mill currently under construction in Mato Grosso do Sul . The company produces 450,000 tons of sugar and 150,000 cubic meters of ethanol annually.
According to the Cargill website, in addition to being Brazil’s largest soybean exporter and second-largest processor, Cargill is the largest operator of sugar, both in terms of Brazilian sugar production and export sales, as well as global sugar trading.
As more land is planted as a monoculture of sugarcane, and control of the industry becomes more concentrated, rural poverty increases. According to Melo of the CPT, “Monoculture has created a huge dependency on the sugarcane economy in the [Pernambuco] region, and impedes the creation of other forms of work and income. The monoculture of sugarcane also leads to an increasing concentration of lands in the hands of the sugar mills.
Economic Boom or Environmental Bust?
Industry, government, and mainstream media in Brazil generally argue that increasing ethanol exports will boost economic growth and sustainable rural development, while simultaneously helping to curb global warming by helping the world reduce its dependency on fossil fuels.
But contrary to the “green” image evoked by industry advocates, the monoculture of sugarcane leads to massive environmental destruction. According to Melo, in Pernambuco only 2.5% of the original forest of the sugarcane region remains. In order to satisfy future global demand, Brazil will need to clear an additional 148 million acres of forest, says Eric Holt-Gimenez of the NGO FoodFirst, based in Oakland, CA.
As the expanding ethanol industry spreads rural poverty and loss of rural livelihoods due to increased land concentration and environmental destruction, the number and intensity of agrarian conflicts has risen. Brazil has one of the highest rates of income and land inequality in the world, and a well-articulated and organized agrarian reform movement of the rural poor. This has created a smoldering socio-economic fire that could very well be ignited with ethanol.
Melo reports that in 2005, Pernambuco registered 194 conflicts over land—a rate higher than the previous five years. She also reports that in the same year a general strike by sugarcane workers was violently repressed.
“The employed and unemployed workers who struggle for agrarian reform are constantly threatened and coerced by the landowning companies and by the police at their service,” she says. CPT data shows 60 labor conflicts for 2005 alone, while between 2000 and 2004 the highest number of labor conflicts was nine.
What the social movements, many NGOs, and other organizations agree on is that Brazil needs to incorporate the concepts of food sovereignty into its development policy, prioritizing the land to produce food for Brazilians. Food sovereignty includes both the obligation of governments to ensure that their populations have access to nutritious foods in adequate quantities, and the right of people and countries to define their own agrarian policies, and produce foods destined to feed their populations before producing for export.
But food sovereignty will be unattainable without a comprehensive agrarian reform to keep family farmers on the land, producing and distributing healthy food to local populations. As it is currently developing, the Brazilian ethanol industry represents a direct challenge to food sovereignty and agrarian reform. Ethanol production to sustain the enormous consumption levels of the Global North will not lead the Brazilian countryside out of poverty or help attain food sovereignty for its citizens.
Isabella Kenfield is a freelance journalist based in Brazil and a contributor to the IRC Americas Program.
Johnny Carson, in three decades as host of "The Tonight Show," became one of America's most influential entertainers as well as one of television's most powerful figures.
Known for his deadpan expressions and wry delivery, Carson proved that late night could be profitable for the networks, and the wee hours are now crammed with talk shows inspired by his success on "The Tonight Show."
Carson kept growing his audience throughout the 1960s and '70s, even as NBC's competitors cooked up rival shows designed to end his dominance. But TV viewers developed a bond with Carson that others could neither duplicate nor shatter.
In a 1978 New Yorker profile of Carson, writer Kenneth Tynan observed that this was "a feat that, in its blend of staying power and mounting popularity, is without precedent in the history of television."
Virtually every figure of importance from show business and politics eventually wound up on "The Tonight Show," from Martin Luther King Jr. to Bill Clinton to Tom Cruise.
All told, Carson was host to 22,000 guests during his 30 years on "The Tonight Show."
The late-night host became an extraordinarily private figure after he retired, given the national stage he commanded for three decades. He seldom appeared in public and — other than a few cameos on David Letterman's late-night show and a tribute to Bob Hope — completely eschewed television after leaving "The Tonight Show" on May 22, 1992, with a retrospective that drew an audience that rivaled ratings for the Super Bowl.
Yes he deserves a star! He was the greatest TV celebrity of all time! No one can match Johnny.
” — Ron Waite, October 1, 2014 at 9:51 a.m.
Johnny Carson deserve a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame more than 80% of the ones that are there..
” — Terry, October 2, 2014 at 2:32 a.m.
Johnny was the "King" of television. his smile was contagious, along with his wit and humor.He was deserving of every accolade presented to him. When he passed, the World seems a little empty without him.
” — Jay Elliott, October 2, 2014 at 2:37 a.m.
Sat in the tonight show audience when he was hosting, and years later with Jay. No comparison. Johnny played straight man to the comics, he didn't fight them for the laugh. Most hosts don't do that now. Is there even one show on now that is willing to allow guest hosts? NONE. He wasn't afraid. He went head to head with other talk shows and knocked them all out. Johnny was the best. He looked better if his guests looked good. NO ONE UNDERSTANDS THAT NOW.
” — DGREENWALD, October 9, 2014 at 1:34 a.m.
Did you ever meet Johnny Carson? Share your memory.
Which other stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame have connections to Johnny Carson?
Are other places in the world important to Johnny Carson?
Does Johnny Carson deserve this star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame?
A car driven by a suspected drunken driver slammed into a Rohnert Park convenience store across from Sonoma State University early Saturday, but nobody was injured, police said.
Alex Poltoratskiy, 19, was out of the car and was standing outside the 7-Eleven store at 1704 E. Cotati Ave. when officers arrived, according to Rohnert Park police.
The Nissan Altima that Poltoratskiy was driving had crashed through the front of the store about 7 a.m., police said.
Fortunately nobody was injured inside; surveillance photos show there were customers inside a minute before the crash.
Poltoratskiy, a student at Sonoma State, didn't seem to be injured but showed signs of being intoxicated, police said.
After field sobriety tests determined that he was under the influence of alcohol, Poltoratskiy was arrested on suspicion of DUI and taken to Sonoma County Jail.
The store will be closed to the public until the glass storefront is secured or replaced and the merchandise is cleared from the aisles, city officials said. The gas pumps will remain open outside the store.
In a landmark ruling, California’s Labor Commission ruled that Uber drivers are employees, not independent contractors, reports Reuters.
For the most part, drivers for ride-sharing services such as Uber and Lyft are considered freelancers. Because of the drivers’ freelance status, these companies don’t have to worry about higher costs, which include Social Security, unemployment insurance, and workers’ compensation. In addition, drivers must shoulder various costs associated with driving their cars around, such as repairs, insurance, and gas. In part, the drivers’ freelance status is what allowed Uber to expand so quickly across the country and the world, because it didn’t need to pour money into maintaining its drivers or their vehicles.
Even if Uber disputes the decision, the case could set a precedent for how ride-sharing services categorize drivers.

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