2015年4月2日 星期四

Richard Glatzer, filmmaker of Alzheimer’s drama ‘Still Alice,’ dies

By Lindsey Bahr

Richard Glatzer, who co-wrote and directed “Still Alice,” a film that in February earned Julianne Moore an Academy Award for her portrayal of an academic suffering from early onset Alzheimer’s disease, died March 10 in Los Angeles. He was 63.

Mr. Glatzer’s husband, Wash Westmoreland, confirmed the death to the Los Angeles Times. The cause was complications from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Mr. Glatzer was diagnosed in 2011 with ALS and took on the project of “Still Alice” in a very early stage of the disease. He collaborated with Westmoreland, his partner on previous films.

During the 23-day shoot, Mr. Glatzer communicated with one finger using a text-to-speech app on his iPad. By the time of the press tour for the film in late 2014, Mr. Glatzer was only able to communicate by typing on the device with his big toe.

The parallels between Mr. Glatzer and their lead character’s degenerative diseases helped to inform the adaptation of author Lisa Genova’s best-seller.

“Many of the neurological appointments that Alice had in the book echoed appointments that Richard had had when they were testing to see if he’d had a stroke — like what’s today’s date, where are we, all that stuff. It was eerily similar,” Westmoreland told the Associated Press.

Richard Mark Glatzer was born in Queens, N.Y., on Jan. 28, 1952, and grew up on Long Island and in Livingston, N.J. He graduated from the University of Michigan in 1973 and received a doctorate in English from the University of Virginia in 1978.

After settling in Los Angeles in the 1980s, he worked on television shows including “Road Rules,” “Divorce Court” and “America’s Next Top Model.” His first film as a writer and director was “Grief” (1993), which focuses on a tabloid-style show modeled on “Divorce Court.”

He met Westmoreland in 1995. The couple collaborated on four films as co-writers and directors, including “The Fluffer” (2001), a comedy about the gay-porn industry; “Quinceañera” (2006), about a Mexican American family in Los Angeles; and “The Last of Robin Hood” (2013), which starred Kevin Kline as swashbuckling Hollywood actor Errol Flynn in his final years.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/richard-glatzer-filmmaker-of-alzheimers-drama-still-alice-dies/2015/03/12/ccd8499e-c8f5-11e4-b2a1-bed1aaea2816_story.html

 

Structure of the Lead：

   WHO-Richard Glatzer

   WHEN-not given

   WHAT-the story about Richard Glatzer

   WHY-she died on March 10 

   WHERE-not given

   HOW-her husband confirmed the death

Keywords：

   1. complication：併發症

   2. amyotrophic：肌肉萎縮

   3. lateral ：橫向

   4. sclerosis：硬化

   5. neurological：神經系統

   6. collaborate：合作

   7. swashbuckling：虛張聲勢的

2015年3月12日 星期四

Uber Delhi 'rape': India tells states to ban web taxis

9 December 2014 

Delhi has banned Uber and several other web-based taxi firms for failing to carry out adequate driver checks.

The order means taxis from these services will now attract a fine or even be impounded, officials say.

The Uber driver accused of rape has been arrested and remanded in custody.

The 26-year-old woman had used the Uber smartphone app to book a taxi home on Friday night but said she was taken to a secluded area and raped.

Although the driver has not yet given a statement, police say he has confessed to the crime.

"Following the incident of a heinous crime... the government of Delhi has banned Uber to provide any transport related service in Delhi," the home ministry said in a message to state governments around the country.

All internet-based taxi services which are not licensed with the government are also prohibited from operating until they get registered, the letter says, adding that all other states and federally-administered union territories are advised to do the same.

In an order issued late on Monday, the Delhi government said only six registered radio taxi companies were being allowed to continue to operate in the capital.

"All other transport/ taxi service providers through web-based technology, who are not recognised, are prohibited from providing such services... till they get licence/permission from the transport department," S Roy Biswas, Delhi's deputy commissioner of transport, said.

Media reports said the ban could hit a number of taxi services in the city, and thousands of drivers would be out of work.

A BBC correspondent in Delhi says Uber is still accepting bookings on its app and it is not yet clear how the ban will be enforced since Uber taxis do not carry any visible branding.

Uber has not yet commented on the ban.

On Monday, the company described the incident as "horrific" and said it would do everything "to help bring this perpetrator to justice".

The latest allegation of rape has again put the spotlight on the issue of sexual violence against Indian women, following a series of recent incidents.

It comes days before the second anniversary of the gang rape and murder of a student on a bus in Delhi, which prompted global outrage and a tightening of the laws on sexual violence.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-30390691

 Structure of the Lead：

   WHO-not given

   WHEN-not given

   WHAT-Delhi has banned Uber and several other web-based taxi firms for failing to carry out adequate driver checks.

   WHY-not given

   WHERE-India

   HOW-The 26-year-old woman had used the Uber smartphone app to book a taxi home on Friday night but said she was taken to a secluded area and raped.

Keywords：

   1. rape：強姦

   2. adequate：充足的

   3. firm：企業

   4. impound：扣押

   5. remand：還押

   6. custody：保管,拘留

   7. confess：承認

   8. heinous：令人髮指的

   9. secluded：僻靜的

2015年3月5日 星期四

National Taichung Theater starts trial operations

President Ma Ying-jeou said Nov. 23 that National Taichung Theater will help attract more performing art groups to Taiwan and boost the country’s cultural profile.

“The theater is set to become a new landmark on the local cultural and creative landscape,” Ma said during a ceremony marking the commencement of trial operations at the facility in central Taiwan.

“Along with National Theater and Concert Hall in Taipei City and Wei-Wu-Ying Center for the Arts under construction in Kaohsiung City, the facility will help usher in a new era for the performing arts in Taiwan.”

Taking five years to complete, the NT$4.36 billion (US$141.56 million) project features a beamless design and irregular curved walls. It is the brainchild of Pritzker Architecture Prize winner Toyo Ito from Japan, whose work on the Kaohsiung Main Stadium attracted worldwide praise.

Covering 57,024 square meters in downtown Taichung, the facility includes a 2,000-seat grand performing hall, an 800-seat theater and a 200-seat experimental theater. It will officially open to the public in early 2015 under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture.

As part of the celebrations, Taichung City Government is staging dance and theater performances, as well as concerts and light shows, at the site.

The inaugural show was a production of “Cat Man” by traditional opera troupe Ming Hwa Yuan Arts and Cultural Group. It is to be followed by performances of “Don Quixote” by the Paper Windmill Theater Nov. 27 and 28. 

http://www.taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=224373&ctNode=445

 Structure of the Lead：

   WHO-Toyo,Ma Ying-jeou

   WHEN-Nov. 23

   WHAT-National Taichung Theater will help attract more performing art groups to Taiwan and boost the country’s cultural profile

   WHY-not given

   WHERE-Taichung

   HOW-not given

Keywords：

   1. trial：試驗的

   2. commencement：開始

   3. project：項目

   4. irregular：不規則

   5. troupe：主持人

   6. inaugural：開幕
    7. auspices : 贊助

2015年2月25日 星期三

Reaction to Eric Garner Grand Jury Decision

DECEMBER 3, 2014 2:22 PM      

 By THE NEW YORK TIMES

 

Protesters gathered in Midtown Manhattan on Wednesday night after a Staten Island grand jury voted not to indict a police officer in the chokehold death of Eric Garner. 

Chanting “I can’t breathe” — Mr. Garner’s dying words — and carrying signs, they blocked traffic in Times Square, pushed against police barricades near the Christmas tree lighting at Rockefeller Center, and lay down en masse at Columbus Circle.

At least 30 protesters were arrested, the police said.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said he understood the protesters’ anger but urged them to remain peaceful.

“Anyone who believes in the values of this country should feel called to action right now,” the mayor said.

Mr. Garner, 43, died in July after officers tried to arrest him for selling untaxed cigarettes. The medical examiner concluded that Mr. Garner died from a chokehold applied by Officer Daniel Pantaleo and the compression of his chest by police officers.

The decision was awaited across the country as tension lingered from a Missouri grand jury’s refusal last month to indict an officer who fatally shot an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson. Mr. Garner was also black and unarmed. His fatal encounter with the police was captured on video.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/12/03/the-death-of-eric-garner-the-grand-jury-decision/?_r=0

 Structure of the Lead：

   WHO-Eric Garner

   WHEN-not given

   WHAT-Racial discrimination

   WHY-for the death of  Eric Garner

   WHERE-not given

   HOW-protesters gathered in Midtown Manhattan 

Keywords：

   1. chokehold：勒頸

   2. chant：吟詠

   3. barricade：阻塞

   4. compression：壓縮

   5. linger：徘迴；縈繞

   6. indict：起訴

   7. fatal：致命的

2014年12月25日 星期四

Blizzard and Avalanche Kill at Least 20 Trekkers in Himalayas

By BHADRA SHARMA and NIDA NAJAROCT. 15, 2014

Dozens were reported missing and feared buried under snow and avalanche debris in the so-called Annapurna Circuit of central Nepal, a favored destination among mountaineer adventurers.

The death toll eclipsed the last major mountaineering disaster in Nepal’s Himalayas, when 16 Sherpa guides died in an avalanche six months ago on Mount Everest, the worst climbing calamity in Everest’s history.

It was believed that as many as 200 trekkers were caught by the latest weather, a freakish storm that began bearing down on the Annapurna region of the Himalayas on Tuesday, part of the aftermath of a cyclone that ravaged India’s eastern coast two days earlier.

Fearing the worst, friends and relatives of missing climbers reached out to each other via Facebook and Twitter. A Facebook page titled “Annapurna Nepal Avalanche and Blizzard Info Share” became a virtual bulletin board. “Our hearts and minds are on Annapurna, Nepal,” read the caption on a photo of snow-capped Annapurna, the world’s 10th highest peak.

While 22 people were rescued on Wednesday, heavy accumulations of snow — more than two feet in some areas — forced the Nepali Army and the police to suspend further rescue actions until Thursday.

The army, guided by rescued trekkers, recovered 12 bodies near Thorong La, a pass along a popular trekking circuit, according to the Mustang chief district officer, Baburam Bhandari. The dead included two Israeli tourists and two Poles, as well as eight Nepali trekkers who were trapped in a blizzard.

In Manang district, four Canadians and one Indian trekker were buried in an avalanche along the mountain pass. It will take days to dig the bodies out of the snow, said Devendra Lamichhane, the chief district officer in Manang.

Basant B. Hamal, the secretary general of the Himalayan Rescue Association Nepal, a nonprofit group that promotes safe mountaineering, said there might have been up to 200 trekkers making their way Tuesday afternoon from the peak of Thorong La, which is at nearly 18,000 feet, to the Muktinath temple, at about 12,000 feet, when the storm hit.

Some trekkers were able to scramble down to safety at a tea stall nearby. Many were injured in the descent, while others were unable to escape the storm.

Mr. Hamal said that the communication lines were down in much of the region because of the weather, but that he had managed to contact the temple on Tuesday, and was told that many trekkers had been arriving there with broken bones.

In the same district, the bodies of three yak herders who disappeared on Monday, swept away in a separate avalanche, were located, but rescuers were unable to recover them on Wednesday.

October is one of the most popular trekking months in Nepal, when thousands often visit because the weather is usually ideal for hiking.

Mountaineering tourism is one of the most important economic drivers for Nepal. Travel and tourism supported more than half a million jobs in the country last year and generated $420 million in revenue, according to a report released in March by the London-based World Travel and Tourism Council. It said Nepal received nearly 800,000 tourists last year and had been expected to attract more than 860,000 this year. The Nepali government receives $3 million to $4 million annually just in trekking licenses.

But the April disaster on Everest, the world’s highest mountain, was disastrous for tourism, as it led to threats by Sherpas to stop working. Many expeditions were canceled and tourists forfeited tens of thousands of dollars, with many expressing uncertainty about the viability of future treks.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/16/world/asia/himalayas-blizzard-and-avalanche-kill-at-least-20-and-leave-dozens-missing.html

 Structure of the Lead：

   WHO-not given

   WHEN-October

   WHAT-mountaineering disaster

   WHY- not given

   WHERE-Himalayas

   HOW-not given

Keywords：

   1. avalanche：雪崩
    2. debris：碎片

   3. calamity：災難

   4. trekker： 登山者

   5. descent：血統

   6. expedition：遠征