Hobbits, superheroes put magic in NZ film industry

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A crate full of sushi arrives. Workers wearing wetsuit shirts or in bare feet bustle past with slim laptops. With days to go, a buzzing intensity fills the once-dilapidated warehouses where Peter Jackson's visual-effects studio is rushing to finish the opening film in "The Hobbit" trilogy.The fevered pace at the Weta Digital studio near Wellington will last nearly until...

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Indian Prostitutes’ New Autonomy Imperils AIDS Fight

Kuni Takahashi for The New York TimesSex workers in Mumbai’s long-established red-light district, where brothels are dwindling. MUMBAI, India — Millions once bought sex in the narrow alleys of Kamathipura, a vast red-light district here. But prostitutes with inexpensive mobile phones are luring customers elsewhere, and that is endangering the astonishing progress India has made against AIDS. ...

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Rising Consumer Optimism Fuels an Annual Spree

Worries about the economy and fiscal austerity be damned. On Black Friday, consumers were ready to shop till they dropped. And some even did, dozing off on the furniture displays in department stores offering predawn deals. Consumers have voiced increasing optimism in recent months as employment rises and their home values (finally) go up, or at least stabilize, even as government talks about...

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Secret message found with carrier pigeon may never be deciphered

British man finds carrier pigeon skeleton in his fireplace with unbreakable secret code (Reuters)Before military forces had secure cell phones and satellite communications, they used carrier pigeons. The highly trained birds delivered sensitive information from one location to another during  World War II. Often, the birds found the intended recipient. But not always.A dead pigeon was recently...

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'Dallas' star Larry Hagman dies in Texas

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Larry Hagman, whose predatory oil baron J.R. Ewing on television's long-running nighttime soap opera "Dallas" became a symbol for 1980s greed and coaxed forth a Texas-sized gusher of TV ratings, has died. He was 81.Hagman, who returned as J.R. in a new edition of "Dallas" this year, passed away Friday afternoon due to complications from his battle with cancer, according to a statement...

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Scientists See Advances in Deep Learning, a Part of Artificial Intelligence

Hao Zhang/The New York TimesA voice recognition program translated a speech given by Richard F. Rashid, Microsoft’s top scientist, into Mandarin Chinese. Using an artificial intelligence technique inspired by theories about how the brain recognizes patterns, technology companies are reporting startling gains in fields as diverse as computer vision, speech recognition and the identification of promising...

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TV Sports: Change in YES Ownership Unlikely to Alter Yankees-Heavy Format

Michael Heiman/Getty ImagesNews Corporation on Tuesday agreed to purchase a 49 percent stake in the YES Network. Fear not, Yankees fans: the YES Network’s Yankees propaganda will continue even if News Corporation increases its ownership stake in the channel from 49 percent, which it agreed to purchase Tuesday, to as much as 80 percent in three years. The deal cedes to the Yankees continued...

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Lido Beach Journal: Lido Beach Towers Face Major Work After Storm

LIDO BEACH, N.Y. — In the beginning were the marshy sandbars on the Atlantic bought in 1906 by a flamboyant entrepreneur for $3 million, envisioned as the site of an American Venice. Over the years, there was a little of everything — the elephants brought to Long Beach Island as a publicity stunt for the construction of the Boardwalk; the pink, six-story, 300-room Moorish-style Lido Beach...

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Halle Berry's ex arrested after fight at her house

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Halle Berry's ex-boyfriend Gabriel Aubry was arrested for investigation of battery Thursday after he and the Oscar-winning actress's current boyfriend got into a fight at her Hollywood Hills home, police said.Aubry, 37, was booked for investigation of a battery, a misdemeanor, and released on $20,000 bail, according to online jail records. He's scheduled to appear in court Dec....

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Recipes for Health: Pear Clafoutis — Recipes for Health

Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times NYTCREDIT:If you don’t want to make a crust but want something tartlike for your Thanksgiving dessert, a clafoutis, which is something like a cross between a flan and a pancake, is a great choice. It’s a very easy dessert, yet it’s always impressive. 2 tablespoons pear eau-de-vie or liqueur (optional) 2 tablespoons...

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