Joe Pesci settles dispute over 'Gotti' film payday

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Joe Pesci has settled a lawsuit filed against a company planning a biopic on the Gotti crime family.

The Oscar-winner sued Fiore Films in July 2011 claiming the filmmakers reneged on a deal for a $3 million role in the film and were offering him a lesser part in the project and a lower payday.

Pesci's attorney Jessica Trotter confirmed Monday that a settlement had been reached in the case but said she could not provide any details.

Michael Froch, an attorney for Fiore Films, said he could only confirm the case had been dismissed.

Pesci's lawsuit stated the actor gained 30 pounds in anticipation of playing a childhood friend and enforcer of crime boss John Gotti Sr.

The film, "Gotti: In the Shadow of My Father," has not started filming.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/joe-pesci-settles-dispute-over-gotti-film-payday-232037510.html

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'Wikipedia' is in space ? as an asteroid

Wikipedia is loaded with articles on space. And now Wikipedia is in space, too ? specifically, as an asteroid newly named "Wikipedia." The Committee for Small Body Nomenclature has renamed a main belt asteroid, previously labeled number 274301, with an official moniker: Henceforth, it's known as Wikipedia.

Astronomers at the Audrushivka Astronomical Observatory in Ukraine first spotted the asteroid in August 2008. Observatories in Caussols-ODAS in France and Mt. Lemmon Survey and Steward Observatory in Arizona also observed the asteroid. The Committee handed down the official name on Jan. 27, based on a suggestion from a member of the Wikimedia Foundation in Ukraine.

Researchers also posted some scientific facts about Wikipedia (the asteroid), including its measurement of one to two kilometers (about a mile) in diameter and its orbit, which takes it around the sun every 3.68 Earth years. And it won't collide with Earth, so no need to call Bruce Willis.

Astronomers around the world, and at NASA, regularly scan the night sky in order to search for near-Earth asteroids and other objects that could potentially pose an impact threat to Earth. (The latest, with the less-elegant name " 2012 DA14," is due to pass within 17,200 miles of the Earth on Feb. 15.)

? 2012 TechNewsDaily

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/50709792/

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Backed Or Whacked: Life, Liberty And The Pursuit Of Laziness

Editor?s note:?Ross Rubin?is principal analyst at?Reticle Research?and blogs at?Techspressive. Each column will look at crowdfunded products that have either met or missed their funding goals. Beyond making their way in the dark, modern humans have many basic needs -- maintaining well-being, feeling secure, and enforcing as much control over their domain as possible while exerting as little effort as necessary. The ability to achieve them with the aid of a smartphone, though, has arrived relatively recently, and the ability to crowdfund them via Indiegogo as per all of this week?s projects, even more so.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/yqo856Jdrh8/

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Small asteroid to whiz past Earth safely

Feb. 4, 2013 ? The small near-Earth asteroid 2012 DA14 will pass very close to Earth on February 15, so close that it will pass inside the ring of geosynchronous weather and communications satellites. NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office can accurately predict the asteroid's path with the observations obtained, and it is therefore known that there is no chance that the asteroid might be on a collision course with Earth. Nevertheless, the flyby will provide a unique opportunity for researchers to study a near-Earth object up close.

Asteroid 2012 DA14 will be closest to Earth on Feb. 15, at about 11:24 a.m. PST (2:24 p.m. EST and 1924 UTC), when it will be at a distance of about 27,700 kilometers (17,200 miles) above Earth's surface. Although this is close enough for the asteroid to pass inside the ring of geosynchronous satellites, located about 35,800 kilometers (22,200 miles) above the equator, it will still be well above the vast majority of satellites, including the International Space Station. At its closest, the asteroid will be only about 1/13th of the distance to the moon. The asteroid will fly by our planet quite rapidly, at a speed of about 17,400 mph (7.8 kilometers per second) in a south-to-north direction with respect to Earth.

Even though 2012 DA14 is coming remarkably close, it will still only appear as a point of light in the biggest of optical telescopes, because of its small size. Based on its brightness, astronomers estimate that it is only about 45 meters (150 feet) across. It will brighten only to magnitude 7.5, too faint to be seen with the naked eye, but easily visible with a good set of binoculars or a small telescope. The best viewing location for the closest approach will be Indonesia, from which the asteroid will be seen to move at a rate of almost 1 degree per minute against the star background. Eastern Europe, Asia and Australia are also well situated to see the asteroid around its closest approach. But by the time Earth rotates enough for observers in the continental United States to have a chance to see the asteroid, it will have receded and faded to about the 11th magnitude. Radar astronomers plan to take images of the asteroid about eight hours after closest approach using the Goldstone antenna in California's Mojave Desert, which is part of NASA's Deep Space Network.

2012 DA14 has not been in the catalogues for very long -- it was discovered in February of 2012 by astronomers at the La Sagra Sky Survey program in southern Spain and reported to the Minor Planet Center, which designates minor bodies in our solar system. At the time of the discovery, the asteroid had just made a fairly distant passage by Earth, about seven times farther than the distance to the moon. Since 2012 DA14's orbital period around the sun has been about 368 days, which is very similar to Earth's, the asteroid made a series of annual close approaches. This year's is the closest approach, and is the closest the asteroid will come for at least three decades. But this encounter will shorten 2012 DA14's orbital period to about 317 days, changing its orbital class from Apollo to Aten, and its future close approaches will follow a different pattern.

This passage of 2012 DA14 by Earth is a record close approach for a known object of this size. A few other known asteroids have flown by Earth even closer, but those asteroids were smaller. On average, we expect an object of this size to get this close to Earth about once every 40 years. An actual Earth collision by an object of this size would be expected much less frequently, about once every 1,200 years, on average.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/xk2rab1oyG8/130204131341.htm

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Silver and Gold Prices: The Gold Price Closed the Week $13 Higher ...

Gold Price Close Today : 1,669.40
Gold Price Close 25-Jan :?1,656.40
Change : 13.00 or 0.78%

Silver Price Close Today : 31.96
Silver Price Close 25-Jan :?31.18
Change : 0.78 or 2.50%

Gold Silver Ratio Today : 52.24
Gold Silver Ratio 25-Jan :?53.12
Change : -0.88 or -1.66%

Franklin didn't publish commentary today, if he publishes later it will be posted here.

Argentum et aurum comparenda sunt -- -- Gold and silver must be bought.

- Franklin Sanders, The Moneychanger
The-MoneyChanger.com
1-888-218-9226
10:00am-5:00pm CST, Monday-Friday

? 2013, The Moneychanger. May not be republished in any form, including electronically, without our express permission.

To avoid confusion, please remember that the comments above have a very short time horizon. Always invest with the primary trend. Gold's primary trend is up, targeting at least $3,130.00; silver's primary is up targeting 16:1 gold/silver ratio or $195.66; stocks' primary trend is down, targeting Dow under 2,900 and worth only one ounce of gold; US$ or US$-denominated assets, primary trend down; real estate bubble has burst, primary trend down.

WARNING AND DISCLAIMER. Be advised and warned:

Do NOT use these commentaries to trade futures contracts. I don't intend them for that or write them with that short term trading outlook. I write them for long-term investors in physical metals. Take them as entertainment, but not as a timing service for futures.

NOR do I recommend investing in gold or silver Exchange Trade Funds (ETFs). Those are NOT physical metal and I fear one day one or another may go up in smoke. Unless you can breathe smoke, stay away. Call me paranoid, but the surviving rabbit is wary of traps.

NOR do I recommend trading futures options or other leveraged paper gold and silver products. These are not for the inexperienced.

NOR do I recommend buying gold and silver on margin or with debt.

What DO I recommend? Physical gold and silver coins and bars in your own hands.

One final warning: NEVER insert a 747 Jumbo Jet up your nose. No, I don't.

Source: http://silver-and-gold-prices.goldprice.org/2013/02/the-gold-price-closed-week-13-higher-at.html

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Prescription overdose rate reaches epidemic levels in NYC

Feb. 3, 2013 ? The rate of drug overdose from prescription opioids increased seven-fold in New York City over a 16-year period and was concentrated especially among white residents of the city, according to latest research at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. The study is one of the earliest and most comprehensive analyses of how the opioid epidemic has affected an urban area.

The findings are published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

There are two classes of prescription opioids: analgesics, or painkillers like Oxycontin (oxycodone), and methadone, which is used to treat heroin addiction but which carries a risk of overdose. Using data from the city's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for the period 1990-2006, the researchers examined the factors associated with death from prescription opioids versus heroin, which historically has been the most common type of opioid fatality in urban areas.

They found that the increase in the rate of drug overdose was driven entirely by analgesic overdoses, which were 2.7 per 100,000 persons in 2006 or seven times higher than in 1990. Meanwhile, methadone overdoses remained stable, and heroin overdoses declined.

Whites were much more likely to overdose on analgesics than blacks or Hispanics. By 2006, the fatality rate among white males was almost two times higher than the rate among Latinos and three times higher than the rate among blacks.

Deaths were mostly concentrated in neighborhoods with high-income inequality but lower-than-average rates of poverty.

"A possible reason for the concentration of fatalities among whites is that this group is more likely to have access to a doctor who can write prescriptions," says Magdalena Cerd?, DrPH, assistant professor of epidemiology at Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health and the lead author on the study. "However, more often than not, those who get addicted have begun using the drug through illicit channels rather than through a prescription."

Price may also play a role, since heroin costs less than analgesics. Additionally, users of prescription opioids may perceive they are safer than other drugs.

Although methadone overdose rates did not increase overall, fatalities among whites increased almost nine-fold while among blacks decreased by 2%. This shift may reflect a change in the nature of methadone use, from a treatment for heroin addiction to a treatment for chronic non-cancer pain.

The study suggests that the profile of a recreational prescription opioid user is very different from the heroin consumer, with less involvement in street-based forms of drug-trafficking and use of other drugs such as cocaine. Because of the different demographics between heroin and prescription opioid users, a different public health approach is needed to target the latter group, say the authors. "It's a different type of drug with a different profile, and we need a different type of response to it," said Dr. Cerd?.

Over the last 20 years, prescription drug overdoses have risen dramatically in the U. S. By 2006, overdose fatalities exceeded the number of suicides, and by 2009, they exceeded the number of motor vehicle deaths.

Most studies on recreational opioid use have focused on rural areas, which have been hit the hardest by the epidemic, but this study suggests that urban areas are contending with a growing health burden from opioid use.

The authors recommend regulating the aggressive marketing of potent drugs like Oxycontin, controlling over-prescribing of analgesics, and taking stricter measures to regulate sales. They also say there should be more law enforcement measures to identify illicit networks of distribution of these drugs and education outreach for physicians and patients.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/f8WWY1oXyXA/130203085130.htm

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Iran positive but noncommittal about talks with US

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, center, arrives for the Security Conference in Munich, Germany, on Sunday, Feb. 3, 2013. The 49th Munich Security Conference started Friday afternoon until Sunday attended by experts from 90 delegations. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, center, arrives for the Security Conference in Munich, Germany, on Sunday, Feb. 3, 2013. The 49th Munich Security Conference started Friday afternoon until Sunday attended by experts from 90 delegations. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

Ehud Barak, Defence Minister of Israel, left, arrivesat the International Security Conference in Munich, southern Germany, Saturday, Feb. 2, 2013. The Munich Security Conference started Friday afternoon with experts from 90 delegations including U.S. Vice President Joe Biden. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, right, hugs Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak as he arrives for the Security Conference in Munich, southern Germany, on Saturday, Feb. 2, 2013. The 49th Munich Security Conference started Friday afternoon with experts from 90 delegations, including Biden. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, right, hugs former NATO Secretary General Javier Solana as he arrives for the Security Conference in Munich, Germany, on Sunday, Feb. 3, 2013. The 49th Munich Security Conference started Friday afternoon until Sunday attended by experts from 90 delegations. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

MUNICH (AP) ? Iran's foreign minister on Sunday welcomed the United States' willingness to hold direct talks with Tehran in the standoff over its nuclear program but didn't commit to accepting the offer ? insisting that Washington must show "fair and real" intentions to resolve the issue and complaining about "threatening rhetoric."

Ali Akbar Salehi insisted that no Iranian "red line" is getting in the way of direct negotiations with Washington, but also pointed to deep mistrust between the two countries.

Salehi was speaking at the same international security conference where Vice President Joe Biden on Saturday said the United States was prepared talk directly to Iran. Biden insisted that Tehran must show it is serious and that Washington won't engage in such talks merely "for the exercise."

Washington has indicated in the past that it's prepared to talk directly with Iran on the nuclear issue, but so far nothing has come of it. Meanwhile, talks involving all five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany have made little headway, while several rounds of international sanctions have cut into Iran's oil sales and financial transactions.

The next round of talks with the six powers will be held Feb. 25 in Kazakhstan, Salehi told the Munich Security Conference.

Diplomats from some of those world powers have expressed frustration in recent weeks about what they say are Iran's tactics of proposing several venues but not committing to any single one for the talks.

The EU had proposed dates and venues since December, "so it is good to hear that the Foreign Minister finally confirmed now," said Michael Mann, a spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton. "We hope the negotiating team will also confirm."

Salehi said Biden's comments marked "a step forward," but indicated getting the U.S. and Iran together for one-to-one talks will be no easy task.

"We have no red line for bilateral negotiations when it comes to negotiating over a particular subject," Salehi said. "If the subject is the nuclear file, yes, we are ready for negotiations but we have to make sure ... that the other side this time comes with authentic intention, with a fair and real intention to resolve the issue."

Salehi said it was "contradictory" if the U.S. voices willingness to hold direct talks "but on the other side you use this threatening rhetoric that everything is on the table ... these are not compatible with each other."

"We are ready for engagement only when it is on equal footing," he said.

Iran insists it does not want nuclear arms and argues it has a right to enrich uranium for a civilian nuclear power program, but suspicion persists that the real aim is to build an atomic bomb.

Last month Iran, in a defiant move, announced plans to vastly increase its pace of uranium enrichment. That can be used to make both reactor fuel and the fissile core of warheads.

Vali Nasr, dean of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, sounded a skeptical note about direct Iran-U.S. talks any time soon.

"I think these are good statements that both sides are at least open to this, (but) I think there have to be some ideas about how you get them to the table in a credible way," he said. "One of the worst things is that if they went to the table and then they fail ... then we really will be at an impasse."

"So I think that's very key, that when that moment comes there's actually some forward momentum built into the talks," Nasr said.

Salehi underlined Iran's role as "an important regional player" and told the conference: "We are the golden key to the region."

Iran is a key ally of embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad. On the sidelines of the Munich meeting, the minister met the top Syrian opposition leader, Moaz al-Khatib.

Salehi welcomed al-Khatib's statements over the past week that he would be willing to sit down with representatives of Assad's regime as "a good step forward."

But amid international calls for Assad to go, he insisted that "we do not need prescriptions from outside."

"Iran has talked to the opposition, we are not categorizing the opposition, we are ready to talk to all opposition," Salehi said.

"We are ready to be part of the solution," he insisted. "The sooner that we resolve the issue, the better it is."

_____

Associated Press writer Don Melvin contributed to this report from Brussels.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-02-03-Germany-Security%20Conference/id-d8f8169d66704a4ca5f761eec47a38b6

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