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суббота

The mangled tail section of an AirAsia A320 that went down in the Java Sea last month has been lifted to the surface, but the "black boxes" searchers hoped to find in the debris were not immediately located.

The flight-data recorders that might tell investigators what caused Flight QZ8501 to crash, killing all 162 aboard, appear to have separated from the tail section recovered today, officials say.

Michael Sullivan, reporting for NPR from Thailand, says search teams took advantage of a break in the weather to bring the tail of the plane to the surface.

The Associated Press writes: "The red metal chunk, with the word "Asia" written across it, was brought to the surface using inflatable balloons. ... The debris was hoisted from a depth of about 100 feet, and local TV footage showed it resting on a ship."

In a statement issued today, the Asia-based low-cost carrier said that the tail piece "has been transported to Pangkalan Bun and will be handed over to Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) for further investigation.

"The sonar [equipment] continued to detect more objects which are suspected to be the plane's front section and detected pings suspected to be from the plane's black box flight recorders near the location where the tail was found," the statement, posted on Facebook, reads. "Sea divers, vessels and helicopters were deployed to observe the focused searched area.

Reuters reports that so far, 48 bodies have been recovered from the sea.

AirAsia flight QZ8501

The Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry crude oil from Canadian oil sands down to the U.S. Gulf Coast, isn't just an infrastructure project. It's also a symbol for the fight over the future of energy.

Energy

Infographic: How Tar Sands Oil Is Produced

Producing oil from Alberta's tar sands emits more pollution than traditional oil drilling, so many environmentalists want that crude left in the ground. And more broadly, they want the world to turn away from climate-changing fossil fuels toward cleaner forms of energy, like wind and solar.

Mike Hudema, who works with Greenpeace Canada as a climate and energy campaigner, is one of those activists. He says he sympathizes with people who need jobs: He has family members who work in Alberta's oil fields. Still, Hudema considers it a victory when big oil companies announce delays in new oil sands projects.

Last September, Norway's Statoil postponed one project for at least three years. Before that, French oil giant Total S.A. shelved a planned project.

"Total cancelled its multi-billion-dollar tar sands project," Hudema says, "And they've stated fairly openly that part of the reason for the cancellation is because of lack of pipeline capacity."

Energy

Canadian Regulators Investigate Mysterious Tar Sands Spills

The Keystone XL pipeline is one project that would boost capacity. And companies do say the ability to transport crude out of Canada is one reason they delay projects. But there are other reasons that are just as important, says Greg Stringham, vice president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.

"It hasn't been one single pipeline that has been the cause of that re-evaluation," he says. "It has been labor; it has been competitiveness; it has been the corporate decisions."

Those corporate decisions include the question of where a global company will choose to invest its money. And today — especially with low oil prices — it's not hard to find more lucrative investments.

Energy

What You Need To Know About The Keystone XL Oil Pipeline

The Keystone XL approval delay is just one setback for an industry Stringham says has a bright future. Canada's oil sands produced more than 2 million barrels of crude per day last year.

New projects are in the works, Stringham says, and output will grow.

"It is to the point where it has gone from just a Canadian industry to a North American industry and we're on the verge of moving it to a global industry," he says.

So, Stringham says, companies aren't waiting for the Keystone XL pipeline. There are other ways to move oil: trains, barges and alternate pipelines. He says as long as the U.S. and the world wants oil, Alberta will find a way to supply it.

Energy

Blocking Keystone Won't Stop Oil Sands Production

For opponents who want to keep that oil in the ground, like Hudema at Greenpeace, that means more battles ahead.

"When we talk about tar sands development we're talking about going against the biggest carbon bullies on the plant," Hudema says. "Every major multinational oil company is involved in this development."

Comparing their resources to his, Hudema says he thinks environmental groups are doing a pretty good job. And every day that Alberta's tar sands oil stays in the ground is another victory.

oil sands

greenpeace

Keystone XL Pipeline

oil

More than a dozen United Airlines flight attendants who were fired for their insistence on additional screening measures after discovering "menacing" graffiti scrawled on an airplane have filed a federal complaint against their former employer.

The Los Angeles Times reports: "On July 14, 2014, United crews departing from San Francisco International Airport bound for Hong Kong found the words 'BYE BYE' in six-inch high letters alongside two faces, one smiling and the other one also smiling, but with eye brows drawn in a more sinister expression. The writing was traced in an oil slick from the auxiliary engine in the [Boeing 747] aircraft's tail cone. "

The 13 flight attendants have filed a federal whistleblower complaint with the Department of Labor. They say they found the drawing "menacing" and "devilish" and that they requested that more than 300 passengers aboard the July 14 flight be taken off for an additional security sweep.

Reuters says:

"The flight attendants, all with 18 or more years of experience, said the airline refused to deplane the passengers and conduct a security inspection. They said they disobeyed orders to work, believing the lives of more than 300 passengers and crew on the jumbo jet could be endangered.

"After a delay, the July 14 flight was eventually canceled. United accused the flight attendants of insubordination and fired them all, according to the complaint."

United spokeswoman Christen David said on Wednesday that: "All of FAA's and United's own safety procedures were followed, including a comprehensive safety sweep prior to boarding, and the pilots, mechanics and safety leaders deemed the aircraft entirely safe to fly."

United Airlines

Terrorism

пятница

Boko Haram extremists, who seized a northern garrison town in Nigeria less than a week ago, have reportedly carried out a massacre of its inhabitants, with Amnesty International saying as many as 2,000 have been killed.

"The attack on Baga and surrounding towns, looks as if it could be Boko Haram's deadliest act in a catalogue of increasingly heinous attacks carried out by the group," says Daniel Eyre, a Nigeria researcher for Amnesty International. "If reports that the town was largely razed to the ground and that hundreds or even as many as two thousand civilians were killed are true, this marks a disturbing and bloody escalation of Boko Haram's ongoing onslaught against the civilian population."

However the BBC cautions that while there are fears of of thousands dead, "other reports have put the number in the hundreds."

Journalists are unable to report freely from the area and most reports come from telephone contact with local officials and debriefing refugees from the area.

As we reported on Sunday, Boko Haram captured the town of Baga – the only major holdout to the group's control of the northern state of Borno. Baga had been the headquarters of a multinational force, including troops from Niger, Nigeria, Chad and Cameroon that were charged with securing the area from the Islamist militants.

The Wall Street Journal reports: "Boko Haram fighters swept through the surrounding villages outside Baga, killing residents of communities who they consider to be opponents, as well as men who tried to escape, according to Mr. Masta and other survivors, as well as officials and local vigilantes. On Wednesday, Boko Haram burned down the entire town."

Since last weekend's attack, Niger has now said that it will not help the multinational force retake the town, the BBC says.

The violence has seen a bloody uptick in the run-up to next month's presidential elections in Nigeria.

The Associated Press quotes local officials as saying that about 140 children who have fled Baga and arrived in Yola, in neighboring Adamawa state, have no idea whether their parents are alive or dead. Seven others have been reunited with parents, the AP says.

By way of background, The Washington Post says: "In August, Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau announced the establishment of his "Islamic Caliphate," quickly taking over every corner of Borno State in northeast Nigeria. But one town called Baga, populated by thousands of Nigerians along the western shores of Lake Chad, held out. Anchored by a multinational military base manned by troops from Niger to Chad, it was the last place in Borno under the national government's control. Over the weekend, that changed."

Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for the mass kidnapping of schoolgirls from the town of Chibok in Borno last April. The plight of the girls, many of whom have not been seen since, has a movement around the Twitter hashtag #BringBackOurGirls.

Boko Haram

Nigeria

On his first day in his new job, freshly-minted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., designated the Keystone XL pipeline bill as Senate Bill 1 —the first legislation introduced under his leadership.

That signaled more than just McConnell's own support for the bill. The prestige of being S-1 also conveys a sense of the priority and urgency Senate Republicans in general attach to the project, which would permit the pipeline to cross the U.S.-Canada border and carry crude oil from the tar sands of Alberta to the Gulf Coast.

But being number one does not guarantee that a bill will become law. The history of past S-1 designees is rather mixed, neither a ticket to enactment nor a kiss of death.

At a glance, the Keystone XL bill would seem an excellent prospect to be among the winners. The House has approved Keystone before and will do so again Friday. Moreover, the latest Senate iteration has enough co-sponsors to break a filibuster threat.

Yet the travails of the new S-1 began on Day One. Shortly after the swearing-in ceremonies, Senate Democrats blocked a hearing on S-1 and the White House issued a formal veto threat. Rumors of a compromise in the works proved overly optimistic.

If there is a veto, the fate of the latest S-1 will likely rest with a handful of Democrats who did not co-sponsor the bill but might still be open to argument. If enough of them could be persuaded to buck the president, the GOP could seek a two-thirds override vote in the House as well.

It is also possible that, down the road, existing obstacles to the project in a Nebraska court and in the federal regulatory process could be cleared. The White House could also change its view.

But if you had to bet right now, based on the cards on the table, you'd have to say the president's veto looked like a trump.

Looking back at recent iterations of S-1, it's clear the Senate's priorities fare far better when they coincide with the president's. But even that degree of consensus is no guarantee of success.

The Fate of Previous S-1s

The last bill to be S-1, when the Democrats still controlled the Senate, was the Immigration Reform that Works for America's Future Act. Sponsored by 16 Democrats in January 2013, it served as an opening bid in a negotiation with Senate Republicans. Eventually, a bipartisan group reached a compromise and enough votes were found to forestall a filibuster. But that bill died in the House, which did not take it up and did not pass a comprehensive immigration bill of its own in the last Congress.

Two years earlier, in 2011, then Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, put forward the American Competitiveness Act. It was a collection of measures such as broadband access to bolster business-related activities, encourage U.S. exports and eliminate tax incentives for American businesses to relocate jobs in foreign countries. It represented a refocusing on jobs and the economy after two bruising years of battle over Obamacare. Parts of this S-1 made it into other legislation but the original package was consigned to the Finance Committee. In the House, the new Republican majority gave its HR-1 designation to a stopgap spending bill.

In 2009, with President Obama taking the oath of office for this first time and Democrats holding nearly three-fifths of the seats in the Senate and House, Democrats decided their first order of business was to stimulate the economy. With millions being laid off, S-1 and HR-1 were formally called the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. That name would subsequently appear on countless billboards next to road projects, but nearly everyone called it simply "the stimulus." It contained some tax cuts for wage earners and other provisions but was generally regarded as a public works jobs bill. Reactions to it generally divided along party lines, and controversy over its effectiveness continued until it was by the storm over the health care bill that would become Obamacare.

In 2007, his first year as Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid observed his party's return to majority status with the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007. A joint effort with the Democrats running the House, this attack on the "revolving door" between government and lobbying activities was signed into law by President George W. Bush in the summer of that year. The new law extended the time during which senior federal executives are banned from lobbying their former agencies and made similar changes for members of Congress and their staffs.

In 2005, right after George W. Bush had been re-elected, his stated top priority for Congress was a revision of Social Security to provide for some private investment of retirement funds. But the president left the details of such a proposal up to Congress, and Republican leaders were hesitant to tackle the issue until more consensus had been reached. Both the S-1 and HR-1 designations were reserved for a bill that did not emerge. The Senate eventually used S-1 for a commemorative bill honoring former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

In 2003, the new Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., had the strong support of the White House, especially presidential adviser Karl Rove. Frist, a physician, designated as S-1 the Prescription Drug and Medicare Improvement Act, which would establish the pharmaceutical benefits Medicare recipients still receive today under Part D. The bill was supported by House leadership, which also made it HR-1, but fiercely opposed by some House conservatives. The vote on the bill in the House that June had to be held open for hours while GOP leaders found the final vote to pass it 216-215.

In 2001, the first year George W. Bush was president, the S-1 designation went to Better Education for Students and Teachers Act (BEST), a longtime project of Senator Jim Jeffords, R-Vt. The Bush White House had some ideas of its own about education, better captured in the House bill HR-1, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Relations with Jeffords deteriorated and in the summer the Vermonter bolted the GOP to become an independent. That tipped what had been a 50-50 Senate in favor of the Democrats, who took over running the floor and committee process in that chamber for the next 18 months.

Updated at 10:05 a.m. ET

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who presided over the end of a prolonged and brutal civil war that divided the country for decades, has suffered a narrow election defeat at the hands of a former ally and Cabinet minister, Maithripala Sirisena.

Sirisena, who defected from the ruling party in November to challenge an increasingly unpopular Rajapaksa, won 51.2 percent of the vote in national elections in the island-nation.

I value and respect our democratic process and the people’s verdict, and look forward to the peaceful transition of power. -MR

— Mahinda Rajapaksa (@PresRajapaksa) January 9, 2015

In a tweet, Rajapaksa, who won 47.5 percent of the vote, promised a peaceful transition of power.

Rajapaksa's supporters credit him with ending a quarter-century-long conflict between predominately Hindu ethnic Tamils and the country's majority, and largely Buddhist, Sinhalese. The civil war claimed between 60,000 and 100,000 lives from 1983 to 2009.

However, the BBC says that Rajpaksa's critics accuse him of becoming increasingly authoritarian and corrupt.

"Mr Sirisena had already received promises of support from Tamil and Muslim leaders before the election.

"But the result shows he also picked up a significant portion of the majority Sinhalese vote, most of whom solidly supported Mr Rajapaksa in previous elections."

The Associated Press, too, cites Rajapaksa's "unpopularity among this island's ethnic and religious minorities, as well as grumbling among the Sinhalese majority about his growing power," as an explanation for the upset.

According to the AP:

"Sirisena, 63 and a longtime politician, called on his supporters to remain peaceful in the wake of victory, telling them at a gathering at the Election Commission that they shouldn't 'even hurt anybody's feelings.'

"'The honor of this victory is in your peaceful conduct,' he said, thanking Rajapaksa for ensuring the transition had so far gone smoothly."

Bloomberg says the election of Sirisena could be a blow to China, which has leaned heavily on its good relations with Rajapaksa in its plans to expand dominance in the region: "The result, considered improbable just two months ago, risks disrupting President Xi Jinping's moves to increase China's presence in the Indian Ocean. China has invested heavily in Sri Lanka over the past decade and supported Rajapaksa in the face of U.S.-led inquiries into human rights abuses allegedly committed during the end of [the] civil war."

Sri Lanka

четверг

Foie gras, the luxe delicacy made from fatty duck or goose livers, is no longer contraband on California menus.

A federal judge on Wednesday lifted a statewide ban on the sale of foie gras, which is made from the engorged liver of ducks or geese that have been force-fed to create the food's signature rich, creamy taste.

Animal rights activists have long denounced foie gras as a product of animal cruelty. In 2004, California voters approved a ban on the production and sale of foie gras in the state, but it didn't take effect until eight years later. Now U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson has ruled that the ban clashes with an existing federal law that regulates the sale and distribution of poultry products.

The three plaintiffs in the case include two foie gras producers and Los Angeles-based Hot's Restaurant Group, which filed suit the day after the ban took effect in 2012.

Indeed, Hot's Kitchen, based in Hermosa Beach, Calif., is among the many restaurants in the state that have been skirting the ban ever since it took effect, illicitly stashing and serving foie gras. Chefs and foodies likened the ban to Prohibition, and "duckeasies" popped up to satisfy demand for foie gras, which usually sells at a premium in high-end restaurants. But by offering it free as a gift from the kitchen, restaurants argued they weren't "selling" foie gras or violating the ban.

Last night, California chefs rejoiced on Twitter. Chef David Bazirgan of San Francisco's Dirty Habit wrote:

CALI FOIE BAN OVERTURNED . GOOD THING I ALWAYS HAVE IT ANYWAY!!! We have lots of FOIE gras for tonight… http://t.co/qQNfQ33gw5

— david bazirgan (@bazsf) January 7, 2015

After Wednesday's announcement, Bazirgan quickly created a four-course foie gras tasting menu that sold out within a few hours. "We were slammed and the chef sold out, but we're doing it again tonight," Jamie Law, public relations manager for Dirty Habit, tells The Salt.

Animal rights groups have vowed to appeal. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals President Ingrid Newkirk says force-feeding ducks and geese is akin to torture and won't be tolerated.

"A line will be drawn in the sand outside any restaurant that goes back to serving this "torture in a tin," and whoever crosses that line identifies themselves with gluttony that cannot control itself even to the point of torturing animals," Newkirk told us in an email.

The state has not said whether it will appeal the decision. A representative from California Attorney General Kamala Harris' office told us, "We are reviewing the ruling."

Meanwhile, restaurants from Los Angeles to San Francisco are offering celebratory treats, from seared foie gras on a stick wrapped in pink cotton candy to foie gras and beef burgers.

Celebrity chef Thomas Keller, who has been a vocal opponent of the ban, said both of his Yountville Calif. , restaurants, The French Laundry and Bouchon, will start serving foie gras again this spring.

"We are thrilled to be offering our guests the opportunity to enjoy this delicacy again," Keller said in a statement.

It is still illegal to produce foie gras in California, but Wednesday's ruling makes it legal to sell it, which means the state's restaurants are free to import it.

Although a handful of celebrity chefs, including Wolfgang Puck, oppose serving foie gras, most welcomed the recent news.

"It's like a right of passage to be able to serve it," says Chef Josiah Citrin of Melisse, a French restaurant in Santa Monica with two Michelin stars. "It'll be on our menu all this week."

foie gras

The Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry crude oil from Canadian oil sands down to the U.S. Gulf Coast, isn't just an infrastructure project. It's also a symbol for the fight over the future of energy.

Energy

Infographic: How Tar Sands Oil Is Produced

Producing oil from Alberta's tar sands emits more pollution than traditional oil drilling, so many environmentalists want that crude left in the ground. And more broadly, they want the world to turn away from climate-changing fossil fuels toward cleaner forms of energy, like wind and solar.

Mike Hudema, who works with Greenpeace Canada as a climate and energy campaigner, is one of those activists. He says he sympathizes with people who need jobs: He has family members who work in Alberta's oil fields. Still, Hudema considers it a victory when big oil companies announce delays in new oil sands projects.

Last September, Norway's Statoil postponed one project for at least three years. Before that, French oil giant Total S.A. shelved a planned project.

"Total cancelled its multi-billion-dollar tar sands project," Hudema says, "And they've stated fairly openly that part of the reason for the cancellation is because of lack of pipeline capacity."

Energy

Canadian Regulators Investigate Mysterious Tar Sands Spills

The Keystone XL pipeline is one project that would boost capacity. And companies do say the ability to transport crude out of Canada is one reason they delay projects. But there are other reasons that are just as important, says Greg Stringham, vice president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.

"It hasn't been one single pipeline that has been the cause of that re-evaluation," he says. "It has been labor; it has been competitiveness; it has been the corporate decisions."

Those corporate decisions include the question of where a global company will choose to invest its money. And today — especially with low oil prices — it's not hard to find more lucrative investments.

Energy

What You Need To Know About The Keystone XL Oil Pipeline

The Keystone XL approval delay is just one setback for an industry Stringham says has a bright future. Canada's oil sands produced more than 2 million barrels of crude per day last year.

New projects are in the works, Stringham says, and output will grow.

"It is to the point where it has gone from just a Canadian industry to a North American industry and we're on the verge of moving it to a global industry," he says.

So, Stringham says, companies aren't waiting for the Keystone XL pipeline. There are other ways to move oil: trains, barges and alternate pipelines. He says as long as the U.S. and the world wants oil, Alberta will find a way to supply it.

Energy

Blocking Keystone Won't Stop Oil Sands Production

For opponents who want to keep that oil in the ground, like Hudema at Greenpeace, that means more battles ahead.

"When we talk about tar sands development we're talking about going against the biggest carbon bullies on the plant," Hudema says. "Every major multinational oil company is involved in this development."

Comparing their resources to his, Hudema says he thinks environmental groups are doing a pretty good job. And every day that Alberta's tar sands oil stays in the ground is another victory.

oil sands

greenpeace

Keystone XL Pipeline

oil

When I asked Tina Fey how she felt about the attack at the offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, I wasn't aiming for a big headline — though that's exactly what her answer produced.

She was facing a roomful of journalists at the TV Critics Association's winter press tour Wednesday, talking up her latest television series — an eccentric comedy, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, that was developed for NBC but will be unveiled to the world on Netflix.

And although she looked supremely uncomfortable every second she was answering the question, the woman who led the writers' room at Saturday Night Live when the World Trade Center was attacked on Sept. 11 seemed a perfect person to ask about the importance of satire in a free society when gunmen kill a dozen people at the offices of a magazine for the humor it has published.

"Obviously, that news is terrible and tragic and upsetting," Fey said. "When you look at that, or you look at even the controversy surrounding The Interview, it makes you remember how important free speech is, and it absolutely must be defended, and you cannot back down on free speech in any way."

I had a follow-up question: Did she ever face pressure to limit her satire? "I think the closest memory I would have of that would have been back doing [Saturday Night Live's] 'Weekend Update,' which was a long time ago," she added. "But even that was a different era. Because in a social media era where you make a joke on American TV and it can go worldwide, it's a different environment. But ... we're Americans. ... Even if it's just dumb jokes in The Interview," we have the right to make them.

Fey's answer landed in stories published everywhere from Time magazine to the Toronto Sun, Huffington Post, Glamour magazine online and BuzzFeed. And — along with heartfelt commentaries from Jon Stewart and Conan O'Brien — it offered a stark reminder that even as we hunker down inside the bubble of a press tour focused on the next six months of TV, this stuff we television critics obsess over can have a much larger meaning.

The struggle to cut through the nonsense of the industry to expose that meaning can be a central challenge at the TV critics press tour, where publicists, stars, producers and network executives are trying hard to both avoid hurtful controversy and maximize attention.

Television

TV In 2015: Late-Night Shuffles, Big Goodbyes And More

Even Fey's Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, focused on a woman trying to build a new life after she is rescued from a doomsday cult, finds its roots in a dark scenario that recalls the crimes of polygamist Warren Jeffs and the man who kidnapped several women in Ohio, Ariel Castro.

"The first several weeks that we were with the writers we spent talking about all the heaviness," said Fey, acknowledging the show had to at least acknowledge the dark side of its concept before trying to make people laugh. "In a weird [way] it reminded me of going back to SNL after 9/11 and [saying], 'OK, we're going to do comedy. We're going to find it.' "

Schmidt co-creator Robert Carlock said their show was a modern take on Mary Tyler Moore's now-classic sitcom setup: a suddenly liberated, boundlessly optimistic single woman in the city. It may say something about TV in 2015 that they are telling such a traditional tale by giving Kimmy Schmidt an outrageous personal back story. In an age where 500 streams are accessible with a mouse click, subtlety may be the new buggy whip.

As critics here try sorting through the quickly changing nature of television, one guy who helped kick-start that revolution, Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos, uses the oldest of old-school media technologies to explain how people's TV-watching habits are changing in a video-streaming age.

So far, the company is resolute in refusing to reveal specific viewership figures for each of its shows. But he did say that their data reveal that Netflix users tend to watch more than one episode of a show in one sitting and they tend to finish one show before moving on to another. Just like people read books.

Later, Sarandos told me that their data on House of Cards revealed that users reacted badly to a scene in the first episode in which Kevin Spacey's character strangled a dog. His character, powerful Congressman Frank Underwood, was also speaking to the camera, which their data showed viewers also didn't like.

And while some users who didn't like the dog-killing came back to the show, many viewers who reacted badly to Spacey's speaking to the camera — a technique that is a central feature of the series — did not, Sarandos said.

His point was that their data didn't really lead Netflix to try to change how Spacey, executive producer/director David Fincher and creator/executive producer Beau Willimon were shaping the series.

But I also noted that no matter how much technology is changing how we consume media — essentially leading consumers to expect as much content as possible, as cheaply as possible, as soon as possible — some patterns are as old as the printed word itself. Much as we change, we also stay the same.

That's a lesson worth remembering as critics here sort through press conferences outlining the next six months of TV, even while the turbulence of the real world occasionally intrudes.

Great art reveals us like nothing else. The struggle, over the next 12 days of the winter press tour, is to suss out exactly what the next few months of TV shows really say about what we value, what we hate and what moves us in a media world where boundless tragedy is just a mouse click away.

When I asked Tina Fey how she felt about the attack at the offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, I wasn't aiming for a big headline — though that's exactly what her answer produced.

She was facing a roomful of journalists at the TV Critics Association's winter press tour Wednesday, talking up her latest television series — an eccentric comedy, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, that was developed for NBC but will be unveiled to the world on Netflix.

And although she looked supremely uncomfortable every second she was answering the question, the woman who led the writers' room at Saturday Night Live when the World Trade Center was attacked on Sept. 11 seemed a perfect person to ask about the importance of satire in a free society when gunmen kill a dozen people at the offices of a magazine for the humor it has published.

"Obviously, that news is terrible and tragic and upsetting," Fey said. "When you look at that, or you look at even the controversy surrounding The Interview, it makes you remember how important free speech is, and it absolutely must be defended, and you cannot back down on free speech in any way."

I had a follow-up question: Did she ever face pressure to limit her satire? "I think the closest memory I would have of that would have been back doing [Saturday Night Live's] 'Weekend Update,' which was a long time ago," she added. "But even that was a different era. Because in a social media era where you make a joke on American TV and it can go worldwide, it's a different environment. But ... we're Americans. ... Even if it's just dumb jokes in The Interview," we have the right to make them.

Fey's answer landed in stories published everywhere from Time magazine to the Toronto Sun, Huffington Post, Glamour magazine online and BuzzFeed. And — along with heartfelt commentaries from Jon Stewart and Conan O'Brien — it offered a stark reminder that even as we hunker down inside the bubble of a press tour focused on the next six months of TV, this stuff we television critics obsess over can have a much larger meaning.

The struggle to cut through the nonsense of the industry to expose that meaning can be a central challenge at the TV critics press tour, where publicists, stars, producers and network executives are trying hard to both avoid hurtful controversy and maximize attention.

Television

TV In 2015: Late-Night Shuffles, Big Goodbyes And More

Even Fey's Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, focused on a woman trying to build a new life after she is rescued from a doomsday cult, finds its roots in a dark scenario that recalls the crimes of polygamist Warren Jeffs and the man who kidnapped several women in Ohio, Ariel Castro.

"The first several weeks that we were with the writers we spent talking about all the heaviness," said Fey, acknowledging the show had to at least acknowledge the dark side of its concept before trying to make people laugh. "In a weird [way] it reminded me of going back to SNL after 9/11 and [saying], 'OK, we're going to do comedy. We're going to find it.' "

Schmidt co-creator Robert Carlock said their show was a modern take on Mary Tyler Moore's now-classic sitcom setup: a suddenly liberated, boundlessly optimistic single woman in the city. It may say something about TV in 2015 that they are telling such a traditional tale by giving Kimmy Schmidt an outrageous personal back story. In an age where 500 streams are accessible with a mouse click, subtlety may be the new buggy whip.

As critics here try sorting through the quickly changing nature of television, one guy who helped kick-start that revolution, Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos, uses the oldest of old-school media technologies to explain how people's TV-watching habits are changing in a video-streaming age.

So far, the company is resolute in refusing to reveal specific viewership figures for each of its shows. But he did say that their data reveal that Netflix users tend to watch more than one episode of a show in one sitting and they tend to finish one show before moving on to another. Just like people read books.

Later, Sarandos told me that their data on House of Cards revealed that users reacted badly to a scene in the first episode in which Kevin Spacey's character strangled a dog. His character, powerful Congressman Frank Underwood, was also speaking to the camera, which their data showed viewers also didn't like.

And while some users who didn't like the dog-killing came back to the show, many viewers who reacted badly to Spacey's speaking to the camera — a technique that is a central feature of the series — did not, Sarandos said.

His point was that their data didn't really lead Netflix to try to change how Spacey, executive producer/director David Fincher and creator/executive producer Beau Willimon were shaping the series.

But I also noted that no matter how much technology is changing how we consume media — essentially leading consumers to expect as much content as possible, as cheaply as possible, as soon as possible — some patterns are as old as the printed word itself. Much as we change, we also stay the same.

That's a lesson worth remembering as critics here sort through press conferences outlining the next six months of TV, even while the turbulence of the real world occasionally intrudes.

Great art reveals us like nothing else. The struggle, over the next 12 days of the winter press tour, is to suss out exactly what the next few months of TV shows really say about what we value, what we hate and what moves us in a media world where boundless tragedy is just a mouse click away.

среда

A week after she was arrested over a tantrum on a tarmac in New York, former Korean Air executive Cho Hyun-ah faces charges of breaking aviation safety laws and then interfering with the inquiry into the incident.

Cho was indicted on those charges today, placing her under the threat of possibly spending years in prison. She was arrested on Dec. 30 along with two others — an airline executive and an official at the Transport Ministry — who are accused of working to undermine the investigation.

On Dec. 5, Cho forced a plane that had left its departure gate at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport to return to its gate so it could leave behind the senior steward.

Cho had insisted on the step after becoming enraged over being served macadamia nuts in a bag instead of on a plate while she was seated in first class.

Before the outburst, Cho, who has also been called by the first name Heather, had served as Korean Air's head of in-flight services. She is the daughter of airline chairman Cho Yang-ho.

The episode quickly became notorious (we called it a "nut rumpus" last month), putting new scrutiny on the privileged lives of South Korea's wealthy, and corporations' ties to government.

From the Korea Herald:

"The prosecution said it would launch an additional investigation into the Transport Ministry over suspicions that public servants had received special favors from Korean Air. Some ranking officials were accused of having their seats upgraded regularly for free."

This week, Cho's attorney told a judge that "Cho was in an excited state and may not have been aware of the fact that the plane had started to move," the Chosun Ilbo reports.

In other recent developments in the case, prosecutors said that Cho's younger sister, Cho Hyun-min, who's also a Korean Air executive, sent her embattled big sister a text message "promising to 'take revenge' on her behalf," the Ilbo says. The younger Cho apologized for that note after officials introduced the phone's contents as part of the evidence against Cho.

The AP tells us more about the charges Cho faces:

"She could face up to 15 years in prison if found guilty of all four charges she faces, according to Attorney Park Jin Nyoung, spokesman for the Korean Bar Association. Prosecutors accused her of forcing a flight to change its normal route, which Park said was the most serious charge with a maximum prison sentence of 10 years. The three other charges she faces are the use of violence against flight crew, hindering a government probe and forcing the flight's purser off the plane."

nut rage

вторник

Like many devoted fans, I jumped on the release of newly reconfigured, high-definition versions of HBO's classic cop series The Wire, binge-watching much of the show's five seasons on the HBO GO streaming service over the holidays.

And what I discovered — along with the sharper visuals — was the immediacy of the show's themes. Every episode felt as if it had been written last week, despite the fact that it debuted more than a dozen years ago and finished its run in 2008. Nowhere is that prescience on better display than the ways The Wire talks about race, culture and class.

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David Simon, creator of the HBO series The Wire, on the set in 2002. GAIL BURTON/ASSOCIATED PRESS hide caption

itoggle caption GAIL BURTON/ASSOCIATED PRESS

David Simon, creator of the HBO series The Wire, on the set in 2002.

GAIL BURTON/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Series creator David Simon's potent stew of on-point television offered a knowing take on the decay eating at Baltimore, and by extension, many American cities. The show highlighted the overly aggressive policing of poor black communities, the way drug-dealing became the only viable business in too many neighborhoods, the stigmatization of the poverty-stricken and the ways that middle-class black people often fell short in attempts to help African-Americans stuck in the underclass.

In fact, I'd argue The Wire has a greater resonance today than when it was originally broadcast, because so many of its messages about urban failure, policing and race have become a depressing reality.

Here are some examples of scenes that speak to issues we're grappling with now.

These Lives Matter

The scene that opens the very first episode of The Wire feels like a mission statement. A teen, nicknamed Snot Boogie, lies dead in the street. The show's protagonist, Baltimore police Detective Jimmy McNulty, gets another street kid who witnessed the shooting, to explain that the victim was killed for trying to steal money from the pot at a dice game.

First, Simon shows viewers they are entering a world where the rules are different, the language is different and the danger is obvious. But he's also focusing on a situation that many Americans pay little attention to: a young black man with a criminal past getting killed in a senseless shooting. We hear some of Snot Boogie's personal story, and we feel a pang of pity when McNulty expresses sympathy over the insulting nickname (even if he is probably exaggerating that feeling to get the witness to talk to him). Most importantly, we learn that Simon is going to make viewers care about people who many of us have preferred to ignore.

That idea is central to real-life efforts by protesters in Ferguson, who looked beyond Michael Brown's past and fought to make their fellow citizens care about him and the other young men who lose their lives in overlooked neighborhoods. Part of the message is that, even if someone is guilty of a crime, they deserve to be treated like a human being by police and society in general.

The Thin Blue Line, Beyond Black And White

Another scene from the first season features a black police official, Lt. Cedric Daniels, berating a knucklehead officer who, in a fit of temper, struck an unarmed kid. While Daniels is reprimanding the young white officer, he's also coaching him to spin his story to avoid official sanction.

Real-life protests over the grand jury decision in Eric Garner's death show concerns about this very issue — questioning whether law enforcement is capable of policing itself, and whether the justice system can be truly impartial when a police officer stands accused of assaulting or killing a black man.

The show also lays bare how and why it's so tough to fix failing police policies. Consider a scene from The Wire's third season. An experienced police major, Howard "Bunny" Colvin, decides to herd drug dealers into "free zones," areas in his district where police essentially won't enforce drug laws. The short-lived experiment reduces crime in all the other areas he policed and allows the drug trade to progress without its usual violence.

Before it all comes crashing down, Colvin explains to a young sergeant how drug enforcement tactics have disconnected police from the communities they are supposed to be protecting.

"This drug thing, it ain't police work," he says, remembering how old-school cops walked a beat, got to know their communities and learned tips from local residents that helped solve crimes. "You call something a war, and pretty soon, everybody going to be acting like warriors ... and when you're at war, you need a [expletive] enemy. And pretty soon, damn near everybody on every corner is your [expletive] enemy. And the neighborhood you're supposed to be policing, that's just occupied territory."

Real-life activists today fear those are the attitudes fueling stop-and-frisk policies where thousands of innocent young people of color are searched and sometimes detained. Look at the "you're with us or you're against us" stance many New York police have demonstrated in dealing with Mayor Bill de Blasio, and you see more evidence of the war attitude at work.

Neighborhoods Collapse, Crime Thrives

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Actors Jermaine Crawford, Maestro Harrell, Tristan Wilds and Julito McCullum portrayed Baltimore students in the fourth season of HBO's The Wire. Paul Schiraldi/HBO hide caption

itoggle caption Paul Schiraldi/HBO

Actors Jermaine Crawford, Maestro Harrell, Tristan Wilds and Julito McCullum portrayed Baltimore students in the fourth season of HBO's The Wire.

Paul Schiraldi/HBO

I didn't speak to Simon for this piece, but I did interview him several times during the show's run. He told me back in 2003 that the show often detailed how people land in the drug economy when traditional options fail them — whether it's the black kids in crumbling schools and struggling families in the fourth season, or the white kids trying to land a shrinking number of jobs on the city's docks in the second season.

"Whenever the economy shrugs and throws off people it doesn't need, the underground economy finds a place for them," Simon said. "You start seeing the intersection between the drug culture and the lack of meaningful work."

At a time when both incarceration rates and income inequality are reaching staggering levels, that seems to be yet another prediction Simon and The Wire nailed many years ago. Throughout the series, young people are taunted by career criminals, police and each other about the futility of pursuing education and legitimate work.

Simon has said often that The Wire is, in part, about the failure of institutions and the mediocrity of bureaucracy, even in the drug trade. But it's also about how those failures work along fissures of race and class.

As books like The New Jim Crow and documentaries like The House I Live In argue that the war on drugs has become a war on the poor and the non-white, the case for The Wire's view of an America hobbled by the desire for order at any cost — especially if that cost mostly falls on poor black and brown people — seems seriously prescient.

eric deggans

Baltimore

The Wire

David Simon

HBO

I'm aware of the responsibility, let's put it that way. I wouldn't go there if I didn't think I could do it and do it well. I do feel like that's what a writer does is he goes into other people's heads. Growing up [in D.C.], around here, in a city that was, when I was a kid, 75 percent black, you pick up the voices. And my dad had a diner and I was always out on the street, working with people, playing sports, things like that, and listening all the time. ... I sort of picked that up. I'm still very interested in that. A lot of what I do now, when I say I'm "researching" — it's really just being out there in the world and listening to people and trying to respect them when I get to the point where I'm putting it down on the page.

On racism in America

In general, you take the race thing and people seem to be surprised that there's still racism. It was supposed to end when Obama got elected, right? "Post-racial America." So I'll say in general that what I think, unfortunately, is that this problem will be solved when people of my generation and older die off, basically. Because you see it very rarely now in kids — and kids, juveniles, people in their 20s, they just don't care about it. Even people of my generation who have these bad feelings, they know enough, they've been smart enough not to pass it on to their kids, and so that is what's going to happen. I think things are going to get better in probably 20, 30 years, when people my age and older are gone.

On his experience adopting two kids from Brazil, which inspired the story "When You're Hungry"

Everybody thinks that adopting kids is some kind of noble calling, but I wanted to demystify it, take the mystery out of it and also show the humor of it. Because there are some sort of ridiculous things that happen when you adopt kids, and one of them is when you go to the lawyer's office — or whoever you're dealing with – [and] they throw a bunch of pictures on the table, of babies, and they'll say ... "Choose a baby."

I would say to my wife, "Well, OK, that's all well and good, but when I choose this baby, what happens to all the other ones? I'm rejecting them, it's a pretty big decision." Then we were in a meeting at some point and the attorney says to us, "What kind of baby do you want?" And I said, "What do you mean 'what kind'? Like, what color?" And he's like, "Well, yeah." I was sort of dumbfounded by that. ...

“ I saw the police pull into the parking lot and I was all jacked up on adrenaline and I just got in my car and I took off. I had to drive down the sidewalk to do it and a high-speed chase ensued, let's put it that way.

- George Pelecanos

It's relatively easy to adopt kids if you're not trying to get kids that look exactly like you. Because you hear how hard it is. But actually it happened very quickly for us.

On writing for The Wire

Laura Lippman, who was [series creator] David Simon's girlfriend at the time and she's a great writer out of Baltimore ... she gave David one of my books. It was a book called The Sweet Forever, which was one of my deep, urban, dark books that were set back in a time in Washington when things were pretty crummy.

I think she said to him, "Read this guy. He's doing in Washington what you're sort of doing in Baltimore." So David read it and I met him — I saw him at a funeral, actually, of a mutual friend ... and he says, "Ride back with me to the wake." So we're riding back and he says kind of casually, "I just sold a series to HBO about drug dealers and police." He downplayed it. He didn't tell me about his ambition or really what the show was going to be about. But I knew his work from Homicide and especially The Corner, which he co-wrote the book with Ed Burns. ... He offered me an episode for that first season. I accepted David's offer and I wrote the episode, which was the penultimate episode of season one.

On the last time he was arrested when he was 28 years old

I had been to a wedding in the daytime, which is always a bad idea, especially for my group of guys. So I got in a little accident, a little fender-bender in a parking lot and it escalated — more than one guy and me. There was shoving and stuff like that. Somebody called the police and one of those guys blocked my car from behind so I couldn't leave. I saw the police pull into the parking lot and I was all jacked up on adrenaline and I just got in my car and I took off. I had to drive down the sidewalk to do it and a high-speed chase ensued, let's put it that way. I lost them because it was in my neighborhood where I grew up and I knew all the alleys and side streets, but it was very dangerous what happened because I was blowing red lights and cars were spinning. ...

Anyway, the next day they called me at my apartment said "Would you like to come in or would you like us to come arrest you?" Because they had my license plate numbers. So I went by my parents' house ... I told them, "Mom and Dad, I'm about to go turn myself in," this and that. Anyway, I got charged with a bunch of stuff, including driving on the sidewalk, which is my favorite charge of that checkered night.

I ended up having to do go to this class at night for six weeks and I was looking around at the people in the classroom and I saw a bunch of guys who, to me, they were losers, you know what I mean? And then I came to the realization that I was one of them. So I sort of grew up and that's what happens. I got married shortly thereafter; two or three years later I wrote my first novel, started a family. People do change. I believe in that.

Read an excerpt of The Martini Shot

Here's the background: A group calling itself Pegida — Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West — has protested since October against Germany's asylum and immigration policies, which it views as lax. Germany takes in more refugees and asylum-seekers than other European Union countries.

Pegida's views aren't in the political fringe. One German journalist told the BBC that many of its supporters felt "hard done-by" by the media and politicians. And a recent poll in Stern magazine showed 1 in 8 Germans would join an anti-Islam march.

Pegida says it is not racist or xenophobic, says it opposes extremism and calls for the preservation of the country's Judeo-Christian culture. One demonstration organized by the group in Dresden before Christmas drew 17,500 people; another one on Monday in the same city attracted 18,000 people.

But attempts to replicate that turnout elsewhere have been met with counterprotests.

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People protest against Pegida in Hamburg, Germany, on Monday. Bodo Marks /EPA /LANDOV hide caption

itoggle caption Bodo Marks /EPA /LANDOV

People protest against Pegida in Hamburg, Germany, on Monday.

Bodo Marks /EPA /LANDOV

Counterdemonstrations that drew thousands of people were held in Berlin, Cologne, Dresden and Stuttgart. Efforts by Pegida supporters to march in Berlin on Monday were thwarted by counterdemonstrators who blocked their way. About 80 German politicians, celebrities and athletes signed a petition — headlined No to Pegida — in the Bild newspaper. They include former Chancellors Helmut Schmidt and Gerhard Schroeder, as well as Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Family Minister Manuela Schwesig.

And in her New Year's Day speech, Chancellor Angela Merkel called on her fellow Germans to be wary of groups such as Pegida.

"Do not follow people who organize these, for their hearts are cold and often full of prejudice, and even hate," Merkel said.

In some of most striking images of the counterprotests, Germany turned off the lights at its most famous landmarks, including Berlin's Brandenburg Gate and Cologne Cathedral.

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The lights at Cologne Cathedral are switched off Monday to make a statement against Pegida. Maja Hitij/EPA /LANDOV hide caption

itoggle caption Maja Hitij/EPA /LANDOV

The lights at Cologne Cathedral are switched off Monday to make a statement against Pegida.

Maja Hitij/EPA /LANDOV

"We don't think of it as a protest, but we would like to make the many conservative Christians [who support Pegida] think about what they are doing," Norbert Feldhoff, the dean of the cathedral, told the BBC.

Kathrin Oertel, one of Pegida's main organizers, told a rally in Dresden that there was "political repression" once again in Germany.

"Or how would you see it when we are insulted or called racists or Nazis openly by all the political mainstream parties and media for our justified criticism of Germany's asylum-seeker policies and the non-existent immigration policy?" she asked, according to the BBC.

Pegida

Germany

понедельник

Auntie Anne's logo is a pretzel wearing a halo. This is probably supposed to connote a pretzel that's good for you. Or heavenly, maybe? But when you look at it long enough, it makes you think: Pretzels can die. And there's an afterlife for them.

Is pretzel heaven the same as people heaven? Where do bad pretzels go? These are the things that go through your head when you're waiting for your Pretzel Dog — a hot dog wrapped in soft pretzel.

Ian: This is indistinguishable from a Nerf Blowgun.

Eva: I think this is just what a hotdog looks like after the holidays.

Robert: You know, if you put two of these together, it steps down the voltage to 120!

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Robert takes the bite less traveled by. NPR hide caption

itoggle caption NPR

Robert takes the bite less traveled by.

NPR

Ian: What?

Ian: It looks like a pretzel boa constrictor is trying to kill a hot dog.

Eva: Isn't the idea that a pretzel is bread in a knot? This is a pretzel that can't touch its toes.

Miles: You know, people are taking workplace safety too seriously when they start foam-padding the hot dogs.

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My pretzel is not fully cooked. D'ough! NPR hide caption

itoggle caption NPR

My pretzel is not fully cooked. D'ough!

NPR

Robert: See, a transformer works by placing two electrical coils with different windings side by side, allowing different input and output voltages. This pretzel looks like an electrical coil.

Miles: This is just a hot dog with a bun that's a little too clingy.

Lorna: If you're in a rush, attach it to a drill for faster consumption.

Robert: These coils are inside every computer and phone charger you own. Trust me, this is killing it with the electricians. Killing it.

[The verdict: It combines two things that are good and creates one thing that is good.]

Sandwich Monday is a satirical feature from the humorists at Wait, Wait ... Don't Tell Me!

pretzels

sandwich monday

The euro fell today to a nine-year low against the dollar amid continuing doubts over Greece's future in the currency union and renewed prospects of monetary easing in the eurozone, the club of 19 EU countries that share the common currency.

The euro fell 1.2 percent against the dollar to $1.1864 — the lowest level since March 2006; it later recovered to $1.19370.

Here's why this is happening:

Political Instability In Greece: Greeks vote in elections Jan. 25, and polls show the left-wing opposition Syriza party with a lead. The group opposes the IMF- and EU-mandated austerity plan imposed after Greece's economy was bailed out. This is prompting fears a Syriza victory means Greece could exit the eurozone. The euro's slide today came after an article in the German news magazine Der Spiegel that said Germany could allow Greece to drop out of the currency union.

Possible Quantitative Easing: Europe's economy has struggled to recover from the global recession, and there is speculation the European Central Bank could introduce quantitative easing to stimulate the eurozone. The ECB has already lowered interest rates to record lows, and it could now embark on a program to buy billions of euros in bonds to spur the economy. This usually has the effect of currencies losing ground, which is what is happening with the euro. But news reports note the situation in Greece could persuade the ECB to hold off on any announcement until after the Greek election.

The Dollar: The U.S. Federal Reserve introduced quantitative easing in 2008, lowering interest rates to near zero and buying trillions of dollars of bonds and mortgages to boost the economy. The dollar fell against major currencies, making U.S. exports cheaper. But since those days, the U.S. economy has become stronger. In the third quarter of 2014, it grew by 5 percent and created jobs. The Fed has eased the policy of quantitative easing and is now considering when to start raising interest rates. All this is making the dollar stronger against other major currencies – another reason for the euro's decline.

erozone

EU

Euro

Europe

Greece

Columbia? Taken. Mississippi? Taken. Sacramento? El Nio? Marlin? Grizzly? Sorry, they're all taken.

Virtually every large city, notable landscape feature, creature and weather pattern of North America — as well as myriad other words, concepts and images — has been snapped up and trademarked as the name of either a brewery or a beer. For newcomers to the increasingly crowded industry of more than 3,000 breweries, finding names for beers, or even themselves, is increasingly hard to do without risking a legal fight.

Candace Moon, a.k.a. The Craft Beer Attorney, is a San Diego lawyer who specializes in helping brewers trademark ideas and also settle disputes. Moon tells The Salt she has never seen a brewery intentionally infringe upon another's trademarked name, image or font style. Yet, with tens of thousands of brands in the American beer market, it happens all the time.

"There are only so many words and names that make sense with beer, so it's not surprising that many people will come up with the same ideas," Moon says.

A frequently recurring issue, she says, is different breweries thinking they've coined the same hop-centric puns and catchphrases for their beers. A quick Google search reveals multiple beers named "Hopscotch," and at least three India Pale Ales with the name "Bitter End."

Name overlaps may not matter as long as the beers are sold in different regions, but in such cases, Moon says, would-be conflicts often go unresolved.

When two large breweries with broad distribution are involved, the matter is almost always settled, sometimes amicably.

For example, when the brewers at Avery in Colorado and Russian River in California discovered that they each had a beer named Salvation, they met at an annual Colorado beer festival to talk it out. Vinnie Cilurzo, co-owner and brewmaster of Russian River Brewing Company, says that neither he nor Adam Avery knew who first coined the name. Nor were they particularly worried about it. Still, they took the opportunity to come a clever conclusion. They combined their beers in a blend and named it "Collaboration Not Litigation."

Other cases get ugly. In July 2013, Lagunitas Brewing Co.'s owner, Tony Magee, received a cease-and-desist order from SweetWater Brewing Co. in Atlanta demanding that the Northern California brewing giant stop using the marijuana code "420" in the cryptic artwork and messaging found on many Lagunitas beer labels. Since the 1990s, SweetWater had made a beer called 420 Extra Pale Ale. Magee, who responded to the demand with a volley of Twitter jabs at SweetWater, quickly agreed to the demand.

"I decided, 'You want to own 420, fine, you can have it,' " Magee says. "And it's true: They legitimately owned it."

Magee admits he has called out others — like Knee Deep Brewing Co. — when they printed IPA labels too similar to his own. The Lagunitas IPA label features three stencil-style letters, bold and black, in serif font and without periods in between.

"It's not that we trademarked the alphabet, but we trademarked the arch presentation of those letters," Magee explains. "From a design standpoint, I found the most elegant way to put 'IPA' on a label, so it's likely that others would have landed on the same design."

American trademark law lumps breweries together with wineries and distilleries, making the naming game even chancier. A widely circulating rumor has it that Yellow Tail Wines, of Australia, came after Ballast Point Brewing Co., in San Diego, for naming a beer "Yellowtail." Ballast Point's pale ale is now conspicuously lacking a fish-themed name (a signature, if not a trademark, of the brewery), though an image of a brightly colored yellowtail still resides plainly — and legally, it seems — on the label. A spokesperson for Ballast Point said the company could not discuss the matter.

Even imagery can be trademarked and protected in court. San Diego's Port Brewing Company, for instance, applied several years ago for a trademark on using Celtic cross-shaped tap handles at its brewpub, specifically for its Lost Abbey label. When Port, which first installed its stylized tap handles in 2008, discovered that Moylan's Brewery and Restaurant, near San Francisco, was serving beer with similar handles, Port sued Moylan's.

"I'd been using Celtic crosses for 16 years when [Port's owner] came after me," Brendan Moylan tells The Salt. Moylan says he lost time and money fighting the lawsuit—but not his crosses. He thumbed his nose at the San Diego brewery and kept his tap handles.

Moylan's has been involved in other trademark battles, too. Moylan says he was the first brewery to name a beer Kilt Lifter. However, he didn't trademark the two words. Over the years, other craft breweries put the same name on their own beers—often dark and malty Scotch-style ales. Moylan, who says he isn't a "trademarkey kind of guy," wasn't concerned.

Then, as Moylan tells it, a brewing company in Arizona called Four Peaks not only adopted the name but applied for a trademark on it. Foreseeing legal troubles, Moylan voluntarily took the name off bottles of his beer that were shipped to states where Four Peaks' beers are sold. Four Peaks' representatives could not be reached for comment.

Moylan says the owners of Four Peaks recently visited his brewpub with a peace offering: a Four Peaks T-shirt and some beer. Moylan drank the beer and has even worn the shirt. It might not have been the happiest ending for his Kilt Lifter, but it wasn't a, um, bitter end.

craft beer

воскресенье

What do a woman freed from a religious cult, a crooked lawyer and TV's longest serving late-night host have in common?

That's not the setup to an oddball joke. Instead, they're all part of the hottest trends coming to television in 2015, when a deluge of new shows combined with a boatload of new platforms threatens to transform the TV business over the next year.

And one of the most unique fictional characters among 2015's crop of new shows is Kimmy Schmidt, a bubbly young woman who survived years in a dehumanizing cult that told her the world was destroyed by nuclear fire.

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Ellie Kemper, right, stars with Tituss Burgess in the Netflix series Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Eric Liebowitz/NBC/Netflix hide caption

itoggle caption Eric Liebowitz/NBC/Netflix

Ellie Kemper, right, stars with Tituss Burgess in the Netflix series Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.

Eric Liebowitz/NBC/Netflix

But surviving her first interview on the Today show after she and her friends were rescued from the cult? Well, that might be even tougher.

"Ladies, you've been given an amazing second chance at life," Today host Matt Lauer tells her in the opening moments of Netflix's comedy Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. "People have donated thousands of dollars to the Mole Women Fund."

"And we are so grateful," Schmidt says, "but, honestly, we don't love that name."

"So, Mole Women, what happens next?" Lauer answers. "What do you do now?"

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is a new series from Tina Fey and Robert Carlock, who worked together on Fey's NBC series 30 Rock. The program was made for NBC but sold to Netflix, which picked up the canceled show before it even aired on the network.

It's a growing trend: TV shows moving online from more traditional starting points. Yahoo will continue to produce new episodes of NBC's canceled comedy Community. And a show originally developed for FX, the superhero series Powers, will debut not on FX but on The Playstation Network.

Yes, there will be an original TV series made just for a videogame console.

But the biggest sea change in television this year comes courtesy of David Letterman's surprise announcement last year.

"I said when this show stops being fun ... I will retire 10 years later," he joked, just before letting the world know he was retiring in 2015 after more than 30 years in the game.

Television

Dave Letterman Signals He'll Soon Put Down The Microphone

Letterman, TV's longest-serving late-night host, officially retires on May 20. But he's already changing television, prompting Stephen Colbert to leave his Colbert Report to take over Letterman's Late Show, which made room at Comedy Central for a new voice: Larry Wilmore.

"I'm Larry Wilmore, host of the new Nightly Show," he tells a disbelieving senior citizen in one teaser commercial for the show. "Who?" she shoots back, confirming Wilmore's status as a guy who doesn't yet have the profile of the comic he's replacing at 11:30 p.m. weeknights.

Television

Larry Wilmore Knows: Heavy Lies The Late-Night Mantle

Wilmore, best known as The Daily Show's "senior black correspondent," takes over Colbert's timeslot with The Nightly Show on Jan. 19.

Wilmore's show was originally called The Minority Report, but Comedy Central changed it after learning the 2002 film of the same name would be made into — you guessed it — a TV pilot.

Still, Wilmore will be the only African-American hosting a late-night entertainment show in 2015. Along with Colbert and new Late, Late Show host James Corden, he's expected to bring lots of fresh voices to a big block of TV's late-night neighborhood.

And there are some other big goodbyes coming in 2015.

NBC's critically beloved Parks and Recreation begins its final season Jan. 13. It's among several TV shows taking a final lap this year, including CBS' Two and Half Men and AMC's Mad Men.

Monkey See

'Justified' Brings Back Raylan Givens, Another Working-Class Man From FX

But I'm really going to savor the final season this year of FX's show about a gunslinging federal marshal, Justified — mostly because of the way producers bounce hero Marshal Raylan Givens off his bitter rival, bank robber Boyd Crowder.

In one scene from the second episode of this season, Givens is facing down Crowder, who was trying to use stolen documents to blackmail a property seller. Crowder, a silky-tongued charmer, insists he was returning the documents out of the goodness of his heart, "following my instincts, kinda like a higher power slipping me a word."

Givens' response: "Well, I slip a Glock [handgun] in my holster every morning. So when you hand me those items, do it slow. Or I'll shoot ya."

In a TV world filled with Honey Boo Boos and Duck Dynasties, it's a pleasure to watch a show set in the South with sharp, smart characters.

That's not, however, the best description for a guy at the heart of another series, which just happens to be cable TV's most anticipated new show: Better Call Saul.

Saul Goodman, also known as Walter White's shady lawyer from Breaking Bad, gets his own spinoff series on AMC. It debuts over two nights on Feb. 8 and 9, showing how small-time lawyer Jimmy McGill transforms himself into the full-on sleazebag Breaking Bad fans love, with a real talent for recruiting new clients.

"I'm No. 1 on your speed-dial, right next to your weed dealer," he tells one potential client in a teaser ad for the series.

"I think I'd look guilty if I hired a lawyer," another possible client tells him.

"It's getting arrested that makes people look guilty," Goodman replies.

Who could say no to that?

Ultimately, the word which best sums up TV in 2015 is: more.

More new series in unexpected places, more new voices in late-night and more high-quality shows than anyone can keep up with — except maybe a highly motivated TV critic.

So if you thought TV was good last year, you might want to buckle up.

Because the pace only gets faster — and more fun — in 2015.

Donna Douglas, the actress best known for her role as Elly May Clampett on the 1960s television hit comedy The Beverly Hillbillies, has died at age 81, a family member confirms.

Douglas played a scrappy tomboy with a fondness for animals on the CBS sitcom that ran from 1962-1971. The show featured the antics of her family, from the Ozark Mountains, who strikes it rich after a chance discovery of oil on its land. The family proceeds to pack up its meager belongings and "move to Beverly" (Hills, that is), where it assumes the life of millionaires amid the "swimmin' pools and movie stars."

Max Baer describes Donna Douglas as "Elly May until the day she died": http://t.co/x1YHNNVAGR (CBS) pic.twitter.com/Ub1LeJIySz

— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) January 2, 2015

The series, which also starred Buddy Ebsen as Jed Clampett, the family patriarch; Irene Ryan as the cantankerous "Granny," and Max Baer Jr., as the well-meaning but slow-witted Jethro Bodine, Jed's nephew, became a No. 1 hit for CBS within its first two years on the air.

A niece of Douglas', Charlene Smith, confirms that the actress died on Thursday of pancreatic cancer.

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A photo of Douglas taken in 2008 in Baton Rouge, La. Bill Haber/AP hide caption

itoggle caption Bill Haber/AP

A photo of Douglas taken in 2008 in Baton Rouge, La.

Bill Haber/AP

Hollywood Reporter says Douglas was a native of Pride, La., who won the Miss New Orleans beauty contest in 1957. She "started out making $500 a week on the show. That rose to $3,000 in the ninth and final season of the series," the trade publication says.

Douglas also appeared opposite Elvis Presley in the 1966 film Frankie and Johnny and played in a classic 1960 episode of The Twilight Zone called "The Eye of the Beholder."

The Reporter says: "Douglas didn't appear much onscreen after [The Beverly Hillbillies] ended but reprised her role for the 1981 telefilm The Return of the Beverly Hillbillies. She also appeared in a 1993 TV documentary about the show and made appearances at conventions that celebrated the series."

Correction Jan. 2, 2015

A previous version of this story incorrectly said that Jethro Bodine was Jed Clampett's son. He was actually his nephew.

Television

In the new movie Cake, Jennifer Aniston plays a woman suffering from chronic, debilitating pain. Her pain is both emotional and physical — her anger is so uncontrollable that she has been kicked out of her chronic pain support group. "You really do not know what happened to this woman," Aniston tells NPR's Rachel Martin. "As the story unfolds you slowly start to discover bits of information as to what happened and why she is in this state."

Aniston says that's not the kind of narrative that generally gets approved in Hollywood, and so she's glad this was an independent film. "It's a little bit more risky, but I think the audiences have really been appreciating it," she says.

Aniston talks with Martin about her new film, about the time she spent working on Friends, and about her hopes for the future.

Interview Highlights

On how she played a character who is experiencing pain

It was a lot of studying the back, the leg, the neck. Pretty much every single part of her body was hurt, injured. And you really do start to manifest odd little, you know, cricks and ... pinches in your neck and lower back pain. ... Every week I would have some form of body work, just to make sure, you know, my body didn't kind of lock into any of that permanently....

Talking to women, or men, who are suffering from chronic pain on a daily basis — it is so unimaginable. I mean, I was so grateful for my body at the end of the day.

On whether she is at a point in her career where she can pick her projects.

Well, you can and you can't. The truth is: you can become established in a certain category, and I think you are given, you know, offers and opportunities based on how the industry sees you fitting into that — that job. And sometimes you have to kind of take the reins yourself or take a project on and get it made independently so that you can do that work [that] not necessarily another director or studio would see you, you know, fit for. It is, I've said, such a catch-22. It's like, "I know I can do this, you just have to give me the opportunity" and then what comes back is: "Well, we can't give you the opportunity because we've never seen you do this."

On the time she spent on the sitcom Friends

It was awesome. It was the greatest 10 years. The greatest people to work with every day, the greatest crew, killer writers. Funny. Beloved by people. Not only were we having so much fun ourselves, but the amount of love that people felt for that show, still feel for that show, we tapped into something. I don't know what the hell, but it was something, really kind of struck a nerve that continues to sort of be hit. And I think that's so special to be a part of something like that.

On the way she thinks about the future

I kind of live in the moment. And I don't have a five-year-plan and I don't have, "OK, so what we're going to do now is we're going to go for a character that takes you into a real dark territory ..." It's not a strategy.

On whether she's seeking out dramatic roles

I see what comes to me. I mean, I'd love to play more dramatic roles but I love comedic roles. I love just good material. But honestly, after doing Cake, I feel like I scratched an itch that's been needing to be scratched and I want very much to play really wonderful characters and telling a story, exposing a human experience, comedy or drama or both infused. I mean I think comedy and drama go hand in hand. You know, life isn't one or the other.

Four more bodies and a fifth large piece of debris have been recovered from the Java Sea near the crash site of AirAsia Flight QZ8501, which went down a week ago with 162 people aboard.

The BBC quotes search-and-rescue chief Bambang Soelistyo as saying today that:

"Singapore navy vessel RSS Persistence had recovered one body, while US navy ship USS Sampson had brought three more back to the Indonesian town of Pangkalan Bun.

"Nearly 30 ships are now involved in the search operation, as well as six planes and 14 helicopters."

A Reuters photographer at the scene said bad weather was making the search difficult. He said that four divers in the water had recovered the four additional bodies.

As the search continued, relatives of the victims sang and cried at a tiny Christian chapel in Surabaya, Indonesia, where a quarter of the passengers had been members, The Associated Press said:

"Rev. Philip Mantofa, who heads the congregation at the city's Mawar Sharon Church ... urged those gathered to find comfort in their faith while embracing the reality that no one survived the disaster.

"'If God has called your child, allow me to say this: Your child is not to be pitied,' Mantofa told one Indonesian man seated in the front row. 'Your child is already in God's arms. One day, your family will be reunited in heaven.'"

Only about 10 percent of Indonesia's 250 million people are Christian in a country that is predominately Muslim.

Meanwhile, the English-language Indonesian daily The Jakarta Post writes that "leaked official documents have given rise to allegations that AirAsia Indonesia violated procedures"

The first allegation, the newspaper said, was that "the pilots of the flight had not received a required weather report" from Indonesia's national weather agency. The Post also reports that the airline did not have permission to fly the Surabaya to Singapore route on Sundays.

The newspaper quotes AirAsia Indonesia Safety and Security Director Achmad Sadikin denying that the flight had been unauthorized.

AirAsia flight QZ8501

Indonesia

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