New Jersey one step closer to outlawing conversion therapy for gay youths

By Victoria Cavaliere

(Reuters) - New Jersey's senate approved a bill on Thursday to prevent licensed therapists from counseling gay and lesbian youths to change their sexual orientation, a day after the Supreme Court handed the gay rights movement two significant victories.

The measure will now go to Republican Governor Chris Christie. Christie's office did not comment on whether he would sign or veto the bill, but gay rights advocates expressed optimism that New Jersey would become the second state after California to outlaw conversion therapy for people under the age of 18.

Citing medical and psychiatric research that sexual orientation is determined at birth, the bill would ban state-licensed counselors, therapists and social workers from practicing a method of talk therapy that opponents have said is deeply damaging to the self esteem and identity of gay youths.

The state Senate voted 28 to 9 to outlaw the therapy for minors. The bill was approved by New Jersey's lower house on Monday.

"I think Governor Christie will sign it," said Troy Stevenson, executive director of the gay rights group Garden State Equality. "He's given indication he will and he's fair-minded."

Stevenson said New Jersey's action, "sends a message that this is wrong and that society won't accept it anymore."

Conversion therapy has become increasingly controversial, and last week the California-based Exodus International, a Christian group championing it, apologized for the harm it caused and said it was shutting its doors after 38 years.

The New Jersey measure could face a legal challenge.

"It absolutely violates parental rights," said John Tomicki of the League of American Families.

On Wednesday the Supreme Court struck down a provision of the 17-year-old Defense of Marriage Act that denied federal benefits to same-sex couples in states where they are legally married. The court also declined to rule on a case overturning a lower court decision striking down California's proposition 8, which banned gay marriage. The decision paves the way for same-sex marriage to resume in California.

(Editing by Dina Kyriakidou and Carol Bishopric)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/jersey-one-step-closer-outlawing-conversion-therapy-gay-192750366.html

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Analysis: Top court's gay marriage ruling won't be last word

By Joan Biskupic

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Whatever the U.S. Supreme Court decides this month, gay marriage appears destined to face several more years of legal debate and at least one more round of argument at the high court.

That's because a majority of the court's nine justices, based on their record and comments during March's oral arguments, are unlikely to proclaim a national right to same-sex marriage in the pending cases, and momentum for it in the states may soon slow as the battleground moves beyond the Northeast. Any right to gay marriage will come only if the Supreme Court declares it, probably years from now if it should happen.

Gay rights advocates are already girding for the next round of a struggle that stirs cultural, religious and political passions in the United States as elsewhere.

Among the nearly two dozen cases left to decide in the final weeks of the court's term, the two gay rights disputes are among the most closely watched. One is over a provision of the 1996 federal Defense of Marriage Act that denies U.S. benefits such as Social Security survivor checks for married same-sex couples. In their March hearing the justices appeared poised to invalidate the provision.

The other dispute, with potentially greater impact, tests California's 2008 ban on same-sex marriage. Challengers urged the court to break the ban and rule that gays and lesbians have a constitutional right to marry. But during arguments in March the justices appeared likely to rule in a way that would affect only Californians. Lower federal courts struck down Proposition 8, and it is improbable that a majority on the high court would reverse that trend and endorse the ban.

By and large, the justices typically keep an eye on the states as they take up major social-policy dilemmas. They may not want to get too far out in front of social changes, aware of the backlash generated 40 years ago when the court established a constitutional right to abortion. The 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, issued just as states were considering related legislation, remains one of the court's most controversial modern rulings.

NEEDED: A NATIONAL WIN

Twelve of the 50 states and the District of Columbia permit gay men and lesbians to marry. Three of the dozen - Delaware, Minnesota and Rhode Island - legalized such unions this year, and the laws take effect this summer, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Close observers of state legislatures say that action in Democrat-dominated states may soon run its course and that about half the states are likely to remain entrenched against gay marriage because of their conservative cast.

Interviewed this week, Theodore Olson, who argued in the Supreme Court against the California ban on gay marriage, said advocates believe they eventually will need a ruling rooted in the U.S. Constitution to make gay marriage legal nationwide.

"We have to win at some point on a national level because not all the states are going to legalize it," Olson said. He would not discount the possibility that the justices would rule broadly this month for gay men and lesbians but said advocates were thinking of the next phase anyway.

Olson and other lawyers seeking a constitutional marriage right say a model state for the next court challenge would be one that meets two main criteria. It would be a place where voters were unlikely to approve gay marriage in the near future, because approval would render any lawsuit moot. Ideally the state also would be in a region where judges are inclined to strike down a ban on same-sex unions, as happened in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit covering California.

One such state might be Virginia, which defined marriage as only between a man and woman in a 2006 state constitutional amendment. It also is one of the five states in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit. Because of Democratic President Barack Obama's appointments in recent years, that bench has a strong majority of Democratic appointees and may vote more liberally.

Charles Cooper, who argued for the California ban at the Supreme Court in the case of Hollingsworth v. Perry, declined to comment on his side's next steps pending a ruling.

A CIVIL RIGHTS SAGA

While more developments lie ahead, the legal fight over gay marriage already constitutes one of the most concentrated civil rights sagas in U.S. history. Just 20 years ago the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled that its state constitution could allow gay marriage, prompting a nationwide backlash and spurring Congress and a majority of states, including Hawaii, to pass laws defining marriage as between only a man and woman.

In 2003, when the top court of Massachusetts established a right to same-sex marriage under its constitution, the action triggered another backlash as states then adopted constitutional amendments against such unions. Five years later, the tide began to reverse, and states slowly began joining Massachusetts in permitting lesbians and gay men to marry. Most of those states are in the Northeast.

Opinion polls show a steady increase in public support for gay marriage, and this month the Pew Research Center found that 51 percent of Americans now favor allowing it. That poll also found that three-quarters of people responding believed legal recognition of same-sex marriage nationwide would happen one day.

That day might not be so soon.

"There may be a slim national majority for same-sex marriage, but there isn't a majority in a large number of states," said Jack Tweedie, director of the children and families program at the National Conference of State Legislatures. Tweedie noted that a majority of states have reinforced their opposition to gay marriage with constitutional amendments in the past decade. About 30 states now have such bans on the books.

Gay rights advocates say if the court strikes down the law denying federal benefits in the case of United States v. Windsor, state action on same-sex marriage might accelerate, especially in states that already allow civil unions for gays and lesbians. Still, lawyer David Codell, who specializes in gay legal rights and is a director at UCLA's Williams Institute, predicted some states would never go that route on their own.

"It seems likely that at some point a constitutional ruling from the court will be necessary for full equality nationwide," he said. "The issue remains tougher than people think."

(Reporting by Joan Biskupic; Editing by Howard Goller and Prudence Crowther)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/analysis-top-courts-gay-marriage-ruling-wont-last-051440256.html

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Michael Solomonov's Down The Shore Party At Morgan's Pier Is ...

This year, when Michael Solomonov and Zahav throw their 4th annual Down The Shore Extravaganza ? this year subtitled Klezmer Inferno ? it?s all going down at Morgan?s Pier on July 1st. Featuring foods from your favorite chefs (including Jen Carroll, Terence Feury, David Katz, Nick Macri, Erin O?Shea, Lucio Palazzo, John ?Chainsaw? Taus and Peter Woolsey), a buffet from Solomonov and Zahava, an open bar, and a bunch more; the Klezmer Inferno will feature ?a Studio 54 vibe,? according to Solo. He continued, ?We?ll be getting down all night to the disco-fied beats of the Klezmer band with dishes from some of Philly?s best chefs, dressed in their Disco-best.? We recommend you do the same.

And don?t worry about the weather you dopes, the rain location is set for Union Transfer. Tickets available here, and they?re bound to go quickly, so get on it.

Source: http://www.phoodie.info/2013/06/11/michael-solomonovs-down-the-shore-party-at-morgans-pier-is-going-all-studio-54-this-year/

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Fed stimulus jitters drive Asian shares to 2013 lows

By Chikako Mogi

TOKYO (Reuters) - Asian shares slipped to fresh 2013 lows on Thursday as growing uncertainty on whether the U.S. Federal Reserve would roll back its stimulus this year kept markets on edge, while choppy Japanese equities put pressure on the dollar against the yen.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan extended losses to drop as much as 0.9 percent to its lowest in six months. It had just snapped a four-day losing streak on Tuesday.

Australian shares, tracking a fall on Wall Street overnight, were off 0.6 percent after hitting a fresh 4-1/2-month low earlier. Hong Kong and Shanghai shares were also down. The fall in U.S. equities triggered by soft U.S. data spurred safe-haven bids into U.S. Treasuries on Wednesday.

A report by payrolls processor ADP showed U.S. private employers added 135,000 jobs in May, less than the 165,000 expected, while the Fed's Beige Book also provided a sober reading on hiring. Service-sector data from the Institute for Supply Management also showed employment in that part of the economy grew at its lowest rate in nearly a year in May.

Wednesday's set of U.S. data suggested the country's labour conditions may not yet prompt the Fed to trim its massive bond-buying programme. Still, it has sharpened the markets' focus on the more important monthly nonfarm payrolls data due on Friday.

The U.S. central bank has made an improving jobs situation a precondition for softening its strong stimulus measures. While the latest patch of news undershot expectations, economic reports have generally backed views there is a mild recovery.

"It means the Fed is between a rock and a hard place... There is not really much they can do," said Credit Suisse equity strategist Damien Boey in Sydney.

Japan's Nikkei stock average was back down 0.2 percent on a day of gyrations. After Thursday's opening, it fell 0.9 percent to a two-month-low, then rebounded to be up 1.7 percent before sliding again.

On Wednesday, the Nikkei skidded 3.8 percent, extending a selloff that began on May 23, a day after Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke suggested the U.S. central bank could start paring bond purchases as soon as the Fed's next few meetings if the economy improves further.

On top on the shaky global mood, Tokyo's tumble in the last session was sparked by disappointment that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's latest tranche of measures to revive the world's third-biggest economy dodged some of the tough issues.

"Abe should have delivered a simple message clarifying the image of what Japan will look like in a few years, giving something concrete such as a potential growth rate or how many jobs may be created as a result of these steps," said Tetsuya Inoue, a senior researcher at Nomura Research Institute.

"The government is on the right track, but the announcement was ill-timed, coming just when jittery markets were looking for something to soothe their battered sentiment. But the Nikkei now offers a good value for long-term investors who missed the sharp and rapid rally into the May peak," Inoue said, referring to the Nikkei's 5-1/2-year peak scaled just before the sell-off.

Currency markets have been taking their cues from the Nikkei and its volatility put a cap on the dollar.

The dollar was up 0.1 percent against the yen at 99.20, after suffering a one-percent fall overnight. The dollar index, measured against a basket of six key currencies, was steady but near Monday's three-week low of 82.428.

"The dollar's longer-term bullish outlook remains intact as the Fed will eventually start scaling down its stimulus if jobs continue to be added, while the Bank of Japan will expand its monetary base. Current market sentiment is very bearish, but it's hard to see a sharper dollar selling from here," said Yuji Saito, director of foreign exchange at Credit Agricole in Tokyo.

The euro was steady around $1.3092, showing resilience despite weak data.

European shares dropped to six-week lows on Wednesday after data indicated business activity in the euro zone eased in May and retail sales in April indicated weak consumer demand.

The data kept pressure on the European Central Bank to do more to stimulate growth, but was not seen as changing the prevailing view that the ECB will leave monetary policy unchanged at a Thursday meeting.

U.S. crude futures held steady around $93.75 a barrel while Brent eased 0.2 percent to $102.83.

(Additional reporting by Maggie Lu Yueyang in Sydney; Editing by Shri Navaratnam and Richard Borsuk)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fed-stimulus-jitters-volatile-nikkei-weigh-asian-shares-010932109.html

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Connecticut, Canada make strides in legalizing MMA

June 5, 2013 was a special day for MMA as two different North American governments took steps to legalize MMA. Connecticut's legislature voted to regulate MMA and Canada officially made MMA legal.

The Connecticut bill still has to be signed by the governor, but it passed by such a wide margin that a signature is expected. With Connecticut's acceptance of MMA, only Montana and Alaska are unregulated, but they still allow the sport. Professional MMA is still illegal in New York.

Canada's criminal code was vague in its description of MMA. A law from the 19th century made prize fighting illegal. In the 30s, boxing was given an exemption, but MMA technically wasn't allowed. That's right, Georges St-Pierre was breaking the law the many times he fought in his country. They removed the vagueness of the law to ensure MMA was legal all over the MMA-crazy country.

The only state with pending legislation is New York, a fact that UFC president Dana White mentioned on Twitter.

Hey I have a question for everyone, who looks stupid on this map? twitter.com/danawhite/stat?

? Dana White (@danawhite) June 6, 2013

As Kevin Iole noted, legalization in New York doesn't look good for this year. The UFC has poured millions of dollars in lobbying in trying to get the law changed, but they've met resistance based on political and union issues. The UFC is confident that the MMA will be passed if they get a vote, but that may not happen.

"It was supposed to be heard yesterday in conference by the Democrats in the Assembly, but it wasn't," said UFC VP of regulatory affairs Marc Ratner to MMA Fighting. "Next week, it'll be heard. All we want is a vote. If we get out of the conference and have a vote, we'll win. It would be very sad if it gets stuck in committee."

But New York's resistance doesn't dull what happened in Canada and Connecticut on Wednesday.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/connecticut-canada-strides-legalizing-mma-134224192.html

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NASA Teams With LEGO To Offer Model Competition

I mean, why NASA has to go the LEGO route when free and opensource 3D raytracing programs are available to all ?

Furthermore, constructing space crafts using LEGO means people are unnecessarily being restricted by availability of the shape/size/color of the LEGO blocks

On 3D programs people get to create whatever shape/size and use whatever color they want, on their creations

Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/P5X37iazbNo/story01.htm

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Judge accepts Holmes' insanity plea

Attorney Daniel King shows James Holmes his advisement at Tuesday?s hearing. (AP)

[Updated at 1:50 p.m. ET]

CENTENNIAL, Colo.?After a judge allowed Aurora, Colo., shooting suspect James Holmes to plead not guilty by reason of insanity on Tuesday, he dealt a major setback to the defense by granting the prosecution access to a key piece of evidence.

By Monday at the earliest, prosecutors will get to see a notebook and package Holmes mailed to his university psychiatrist, Dr. Lynne Fenton, days before the July 20, 2012, shooting spree. Fenton never received the package, and it has since been sealed.

Judge Carlos A. Samour ruled that any evidence pertaining to Holmes? mental illness was no longer shielded by doctor-patient privilege now that the court has accepted the insanity plea. This includes the notebook, which defense attorney Daniel King argued was a unique piece of evidence that the prosecution shouldn?t see because Fenton herself hadn?t seen it, and it could have altered her opinion of Holmes? mental health.

?The argument advanced by Mr. King is a creative one,? Samour said on Tuesday, ?but I am not persuaded by it.?

Under Colorado statute, once a defendant pleads insanity, any evidence related to mental illness is no longer protected and is covered under an evidence waiver.

?I conclude that the package that was sent, even if it was privileged, is covered by the waiver,? Samour said.

The release of the notebook and the insanity plea mark significant movement in the case, which has been mired in arguments over the notebook and Colorado?s laws related to the death penalty.

Holmes is accused of fatally shooting 12 Aurora movie theater patrons last summer during a midnight screening of ?The Dark Knight Rises,? the latest Batman movie. Fifty-eight others were injured. The Arapahoe County district attorney is seeking the death penalty.

Marcus Weaver, a victim who was shot in the arm, hailed Tuesday?s developments.

?The trial is moving forward finally,? Weaver said after the hearing. ?I feel it is a step forward for a lot of the victims. We?re happy there is momentum.?

The decision is a defeat to Holmes? defense team, which since August has sought to keep the prosecution and other witnesses from learning the contents of the notebook, which reportedly contains violent imagery and detailed descriptions of the attack. Law enforcement officials thumbed through the notebook in the University of Colorado?s mail room days after the attack. But because the court ruled last fall that Holmes was under Fenton?s psychiatric care at the time, lawyers and witnesses couldn?t discuss or see the notebook?s contents.

Also at Tuesday?s hearing, Samour advised Holmes that the state will administer an evaluation at the Colorado Mental Health Institute in Pueblo, south of Denver. The exam will be finished by Aug. 2 after the doctors and clinicians conducting the exam sift through thousands of pages of evidence provided by prosecutors.

?Every person is presumed to be sane,? Samour said.

However, he noted that in Colorado, once an issue of insanity is raised, the burden is on the prosecution to prove the defendant is sane. The judge will allow Holmes? defense team to have a doctor of its choice also evaluate Holmes.

In an order last week, Samour denied the defense?s request for more time to prepare to discuss the notebook in court.

?The privilege issue related to the [notebook] has been briefed and discussed before,? Samour wrote. ?It is true, of course, that the defendant?s not guilty by reason of insanity plea, if accepted, may alter the analysis, but the parties have been aware of that for some time.?

Indeed, attorneys have discussed the notebook vis-a-vis Holmes? mental state as far back as August, when prosecutors tried to convince the first judge in the case that Fenton was more akin to a general practitioner than a mental health professional and, thus, the notebook wasn?t privileged. The prosecution abandoned its quest for the notebook at the time.

Courtroom sketch of Dr. Lynne Fenton and shooting suspect James Holmes (Bill Robles)

Samour read a lengthy advisement to Holmes during the hearing that detailed what his insanity plea means, including what happens to Holmes should he not cooperate with the mental illness exam. The defense lost its bid last week to strike down portions of Colorado state law, arguing that government psych exams could violate Holmes? right to a fair trial in a capital case.

The hearing, originally scheduled for last Thursday, was moved to Tuesday at the defense?s request. The prosecution agreed on the condition the hearing would address the notebook privilege issue.

The defense filed its objection to that compromise on Friday, noting that it was pulling ?extremely long hours? to comply with the court?s Monday deadline on noncapital-punishment motions as well as work related to Holmes? insanity plea.

?Counsel simply cannot complete all the work that needs to be done on those motions,? the defense wrote in that filing.

The defense filed dozens of motions late Monday, most related to noncapital issues, including a request to move the trial to a different Colorado county.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/prosecutors-could-soon-look-james-holmes-notebook-094230715.html

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Helicopter takes to the skies with the power of human thought

June 5, 2013 ? A remote controlled helicopter has been flown through a series of hoops around a college gymnasium in Minnesota.

It sounds like your everyday student project; however, there is one caveat -- the helicopter was controlled using just the power of thought.

The experiments have been performed by researchers hoping to develop future robots that can help restore the autonomy of paralysed victims or those suffering from neurodegenerative disorders.

There were five subjects (three female, two male) who took part in the study and each one was able to successfully control the four-blade helicopter, also known as a quadcopter, quickly and accurately for a sustained amount of time.

Lead author of the study Professor Bin He, from the University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering, said: "Our study shows that for the first time, humans are able to control the flight of flying robots using just their thoughts, sensed from noninvasive brain waves."

The noninvasive technique used was electroencephalography (EEG), which recorded the electrical activity of the subjects' brain through a cap fitted with 64 electrodes.

Facing away from the quadcopter, the subjects were asked to imagine using their right hand, left hand, and both hands together; this would instruct the quadcopter to turn right, left, lift, and then fall, respectively. The quadcopter was driven with a pre-set forward moving velocity and controlled through the sky with the subject's thoughts.

The subjects were positioned in front of a screen which relayed images of the quadcopter's flight through an on-board camera, allowing them to see which direction it was travelling in. Brain signals were recorded by the cap and sent to the quadcopter over WiFi.

"In previous work we showed that humans could control a virtual helicopter using just their thoughts. I initially intended to use a small helicopter for this real-life study; however, the quadcopter is more stable, smooth and has fewer safety concerns," continued Professor He.

After several different training sessions, the subjects were required to fly the quadcopter through two foam rings suspended from the gymnasium ceiling and were scored on three aspects: the number of times they sent the quadcopter through the rings; the number of times the quadcopter collided with the rings; and the number of times they went outside the experiment boundary.

A number of statistical tests were used to calculate how each subject performed.

A group of subjects also directed the quadcopter with a keyboard in a control experiment, allowing for a comparison between a standardised method and brain control.

This process is just one example of a brain-computer interface where a direct pathway between the brain and an external device is created to help assist, augment or repair human cognitive or sensory-motor functions; researchers are currently looking at ways to restore hearing, sight and movement using this approach.

"Our next goal is to control robotic arms using noninvasive brain wave signals, with the eventual goal of developing brain-computer interfaces that aid patients with disabilities or neurodegenerative disorders," continued Professor He.

Their study has been published today, 5 June 2013, in IOP Publishing's Journal of Neural Engineering and is accompanied by a video of the helicopter control in action which can be viewed here http://youtu.be/6LWz4qa2XQA.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/strange_science/~3/4oq-F0fqUSM/130605090259.htm

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Soldier due to plead guilty in Afghan massacre

SEATTLE (AP) ? The American soldier charged with killing 16 Afghan civilians during nighttime raids on two slumbering villages last year is expected to recount the horrific slaughter in a military courtroom Wednesday when he pleads guilty to avoid the death penalty.

Staff Sgt. Robert Bales faces premeditated murder and other charges in the March 2012 attacks near the remote base in southern Afghanistan where he was posted.

Most of the victims were women and children, and some of the bodies were burned; relatives have told The Associated Press they are irate at the notion Bales will escape execution for one of the worst atrocities of the Afghanistan war.

Under the terms of his agreement with Army prosecutors, Bales will plead guilty Wednesday at Joint Base Lewis-McChord south of Seattle, and a sentencing-phase trial will be held this summer to determine whether he receives life in prison with the possibility of parole, or without it.

Bales' attorney, John Henry Browne, said Tuesday he expects the judge, Col. Jeffery Nance, to question the soldier closely about what happened before deciding whether to accept the plea. It's unclear whether Nance will make a decision Wednesday.

"Tomorrow is going to be about what happened, then in August is going to be a jury trial about why it happened," Browne said. "Obviously, avoiding the death penalty is our No. 1 goal. We've accomplished that, assuming the judge accepts the plea, and we believe he will."

Bales, a 39-year-old father of two from Lake Tapps, has signed a detailed stipulation of facts admitting his actions, Browne said. However, the document remains under seal, and the lawyer declined to provide details about it.

Browne said last week that Bales was "crazed" and "broken" but not legally insane at the time of the killings.

Although Wednesday's proceedings will provide Bales' account for the first time, survivors who testified by video link from Afghanistan during a hearing last fall vividly recalled the carnage.

A young girl in a bright headscarf described hiding behind her father as he was shot to death. Boys told of hiding behind curtains as others scrambled and begged the soldier to spare them, yelling: "We are children! We are children!" A thick-bearded man told of being shot in the neck by a gunman "as close as this bottle," gesturing to a water bottle on a table in front of him.

Prosecutors say that before dawn on March 11, 2012, Bales slipped away from Camp Belambay in Kandahar Province, armed with a 9 mm pistol and M-4 rifle outfitted with a grenade launcher.

He first attacked one village of mud-walled compounds, Alkozai, then returned to the base, woke up a fellow soldier and told him about it. The soldier didn't believe him and went back to sleep. Bales then left to attack a second village, Najiban.

The massacre prompted such angry protests that the U.S. temporarily halted combat operations in Afghanistan, and it was three weeks before Army investigators could reach the crime scene.

Bales was serving his fourth combat deployment and had an otherwise good if undistinguished military record in a decade-long career. The Ohio native suffered from PTSD and a traumatic brain injury, his lawyers say, and he had been drinking contraband alcohol and snorting Valium ? both provided by other soldiers ? the night of the killings.

The case raised questions about the toll multiple deployments were taking on American troops. For that reason, many legal experts believed it was unlikely he would receive the death penalty, as Army prosecutors were seeking. The military justice system hasn't executed anyone since 1961, but five men currently face death sentences.

"Any time you can strike a deal that saves your client's life, I would call that a win," said Dan Conway, a civilian military defense lawyer who is not involved in the case. "This is the right result for both parties."

___

Johnson can be reached at https://twitter.com/GeneAPseattle

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/soldier-due-plead-guilty-afghan-massacre-070242198.html

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88% In the House

All Critics (66) | Top Critics (23) | Fresh (58) | Rotten (8)

Ozon and the script move a little too far afield and hold on a bit too long as the film approaches its end. Still, "In the House" has enough trippy truth to it to grab your interest and shake your mind.

It's fiction about life that becomes fiction that might be life - and the viewer happily dives in.

The expected punch line... never materializes, so I guess this must be a drama after all.

Savor In the House for its meta-exploration of adolescence, class resentment and suppressed desire, but don't expect much more.

The seductions of storytelling drive "In the House," a cleverly structured comic thriller rich with narrative trickery and macabre humor.

"In the House" might well be called "In the Story" because that's where it plays out: the house in the story and the story in the house.

Director/scriptwriter Francois Ozon knows his Hitchcock well. He employs him effectively, but the clutter is his own.

An almost perverse delight, an egghead thriller that slyly shell-games its truer purpose as an inquiry into the construction -- and deconstruction -- of fiction. Scratch deconstruction: Make that tear-the-house-down demolition.

It's partly real and partly a fable, full of events that might have happened or could never have happened, with intrigues that defy us to take them seriously.

In the House is a structurally solid thriller that is both inventive and absolutely seductive in nature.

Inviting photography and a relentless pace complement Claude's unfolding narrative, but the big thrills are in the deftly drawn characters...and the incisive satire...

A slick psychological thriller that veers into dark comedy the more absurd it gets, "In the House" demonstrates the dangers of addiction -- not to sex or drugs, but to story.

Captures why we do what we do, and the extent to which stories reflect both the writer and the reader.

It's amusing and unexpected, capturing the compulsive spirit of writing with wit and attention to mischief that keeps it unpredictable to the very end.

A little kinky, a little creepy, and quite clever and literary.

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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/in_the_house_2013/

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Timeflies In 'Perfection Mode' On Debut Album

'Everything is coming together,' MTV's Artist To Watch say of upcoming LP, featuring 'I Choose U.'
By Christina Garibaldi

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1708443/timeflies-debut-album-i-choose-you.jhtml

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