Judge tosses 3 NY lawsuits against ex-Elmo actor

NEW YORK (AP) ? Three lawsuits brought by men who said former Elmo puppeteer Kevin Clash sexually abused them when they were underage were tossed out by a judge who said in a decision published Monday that the men waited too long to sue.

U.S. District Judge John G. Koeltl said the claims must be barred because they came more than six years after the men reasonably should have realized that the physical and emotional injuries they're suing over were caused by alleged encounters with Clash. The judge also noted that each man had been over the age of 18 for more than three years before the lawsuits were filed.

Clash was the man behind Elmo, the popular furry red monster, for 28 years.

Attorneys for the men promised an appeal while Clash said through his lawyer that he hoped the ruling would help him recover personally and professionally.

One other lawsuit is pending in Pennsylvania.

Clash resigned from "Sesame Street" in November after college student Cecil Singleton sued him for more than $5 million, accusing Clash of having sex with him when he was 15.

At the time, Clash said he was leaving his job because "personal matters have diverted attention away from the important work 'Sesame Street' is doing."

Singleton's lawsuit was among those thrown out Monday. Koeltl also rejected lawsuits brought by Kevin Kiadii, who claimed that Clash initiated contact with him on a gay chat line in 2004 when he was 16, and a third person, a Florida resident, who remained anonymous in his lawsuit as he claimed that Clash befriended him in late 1995 or early 1996 when he was 16 or 17.

The Associated Press generally doesn't identify people alleging sex crimes, but both Singleton and Kiadii have widely publicized their accusations, including giving several interviews and, in Singleton's case, a news conference.

Sex with a person under age 17 is a felony in New York if the perpetrator is 21 or older.

Koeltl said Singleton's claim expired in 2009, Kiadii's claim became time-barred at some point between 2008 and 2010 and the case brought anonymously would have expired between 2000 and 2002.

Adam D. Horowitz, an attorney for the men who brought the lawsuits, noted that the case was dismissed only on statute of limitations grounds.

"It should not be viewed as a vindication for Kevin Clash or a determination that he is innocent," Horowitz said. He added that lawyers were "still hearing from more of his alleged victims."

Jeff Herman, another lawyer for the plaintiffs, said in a statement: "This is the first battle. We plan to appeal the decision and continue the fight to be a voice for victims."

Herman called the statute of limitations "an arbitrary timeline that silences victims" and demonstrates "the need for a window in New York to allow victims to have their day in court."

Michael G. Berger, Clash's attorney, called the ruling an "important step" for helping Clash to move on. He said Clash was pleased.

"As we have maintained all along, our goal has been to put these spurious claims behind him, so that Kevin can go about the business of reclaiming his personal life and his professional standing," Berger said in a statement. The lawyer noted that Clash, a native of Dundalk, Md., won three Emmys last month.

"Kevin is looking forward to a time in the near future when he can tell his story free of innuendo and false claims," he said.

In the ruling, the judge said that the time in which someone must bring a lawsuit accumulates after the victimization rather than when the individual realizes subsequent psychological harm.

Otherwise, he said, plaintiffs could make claims decades later. He also said the plaintiffs cannot retroactively benefit from a change in law in March that extends the statute of limitations to 10 years.

"While the plaintiffs may not have recognized the extent of their injuries, they were aware of the defendant's conduct toward them and could have brought claims," Koeltl wrote.

The Manhattan judge noted that many courts have similarly refused to delay the counting of time toward the statute of limitations when someone claims they recently made the connection between abuse and the resulting injuries.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/judge-tosses-3-ny-lawsuits-against-ex-elmo-152708838.html

wilson chandler bristol motor speedway prometheus grand canyon skywalk tonga pid corned beef hash

Johnny Depp Kisses Jimmy Kimmel, Loves Barbie

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/07/johnny-depp-kisses-jimmy-kimmel-loves-barbie/

brandy michael pineda charles taylor carl crawford mad cow disease rampart nick collins

WikiLeaks: Snowden requests asylum

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The WikiLeaks website says Edward Snowden, the American who admitted leaking National Security Agency documents, is seeking asylum in 19 more countries, including China.

The website says WikiLeaks legal adviser Sarah Harrison delivered the requests for asylum to an official at the Russian consulate at the Moscow airport on Sunday. WikiLeaks says some of the requests have already been delivered to the appropriate embassies.

The WikiLeaks statement says requests were made to China, Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, India and several European countries. Snowden had planned earlier to seek asylum in Ecuador and has requested asylum in Russia.

The asylum requests reported by WikiLeaks could not be independently authenticated. WikiLeaks is the anti-secrecy group that has adopted Snowden and his cause.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/wikileaks-snowden-requests-asylum-031514257.html

morgan freeman Survivor Philippines Fashion Island shooting Victor Cruz nfl standings Vicki Soto Adam Lanza

Marco Rubio immigration | amnesty | Gang of 8 - Legal Insurrection

It?s fairly well known that prior to his role in the Gang of 8, Marco Rubio was opposed to an across the board amnesty, and was critical of the 1986 amnesty.

In this October?2009 interview, uncovered by Morgen Richmond (formerly of Verum Serum), Rubio takes a particularly hard line, insisting that ?you cannot grant amnesty,? and going on to explain how amnesty undermines the entire immigration system going forward.

The interview is pretty devastating to Rubio?s role in the Gang of 8 immigration bill which puts legalization and a path to citizenship ahead of enforcement of current laws and securing both the borders and the visa system (starting at 0:38):

The problem is the American people have no trust in the federal government, and they?re not going to have a trust in the federal government until the federal government deals with the issue of illegal immigration. Until the federal government gives people confidence that the law is being enforced, that the border is being secured, that our visa process is no longer being abused.

So I think step one is to enforce our?existing laws. Secure our borders, fix our visa entry problem?deal with the illegal immigration problem first.

When the American people have confidence that the federal government has done that then?we can move to step two. And step two is create a legal immigration that works, that once again is a positive for America.

You cannot grant amnesty. If you grant amnesty you will send a message that all you have to do is come into America illegally, stay here long enough, and we will let you stay.

Number 2, you will destroy any hopes you have of having a legal immigration system that works. If the American people see us grant amnesty they will never again believe in legal immigration, they will never again support it. And that?s wrong for our country, bad for our future.

In fact in ?86 when Reagan created an amnesty program, about 3 million people were granted amnesty. The result was that you had a bunch of people standing in line to enter legally who all claimed to be illegal because it was easier to get through the amnesty program. So we can?t have amnesty.

And I think if you have a guest worker program in place that functions, the illegal folks that are here now?will go back home through attrition.

Update: The Shark Tank has an interview with Rubio from February 2009 in which Rubio also came out strongly against amnesty.

?

?0?

?

?7

Marco Rubio 2009: ?You cannot grant amnesty?

8 votes, 4.62 avg. rating (92% score)

?

?

?

Source: http://legalinsurrection.com/2013/06/marco-rubio-2009-you-cannot-grant-amnesty/

hbo luck unc asheville stephen jackson marchmadness mike d antoni nba trade rumors desean jackson

ATD: Microsoft Xbox head Don Mattrick leaving for unknown role (updated)

The president of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business, Don Mattrick, is leaving the company according to a report at AllThingsD. His division oversees the Xbox gaming properties as well as the company's peripheral gaming initiatives. He's most recently known as the man who introduced the world to the Xbox One, as he took the stage on Microsoft's campus this past May to introduce the controller, next-gen Kinect sensor, and new console. He's been with the IEB department since 2010. He's gotten in trouble with consumers lately, after he gave dismissive answers about the Xbox One's always online policy and $499 price point. He's also the man who wrote Microsoft's public DRM reversal letter.

Furthermore, ATD says Mattrick could be headed to social gaming giant Zynga; the Bay Area-based company declined a comment to our sister site Joystiq. It's unclear who would step in to Mattrick's spot if he is indeed leaving. We've yet to hear back from Microsoft, though we'll update this post when we hear more.

Update: It's offical. He's the new CEO of Zynga, and you can read all about it right here.

Filed under: Gaming, HD, Microsoft

Comments

Source: AllThingsD

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/07/01/don-mattrick-leaving-microsoft/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

sunoco titanic ii babe ruth new jersey nets nba playoff schedule rondo morris claiborne

Teaching a computer to play concentration advances security, understanding of the mind

July 1, 2013 ? Computer science researchers have programmed a computer to play the game Concentration (also known as Memory). The work could help improve computer security -- and improve our understanding of how the human mind works.

The researchers developed a program to get the software system called ACT-R, a computer simulation that attempts to replicate human thought processes, to play Concentration. In the game, multiple matching pairs of cards are placed face down in a random order, and players are asked to flip over two cards, one at a time, to find the matching pairs. If a player flips over two cards that do not match, the cards are placed back face down. The player succeeds by remembering where the matching cards are located.

The researchers were able to either rush ACT-R's decision-making, which led it to play more quickly but make more mistakes, or allow ACT-R to take its time, which led to longer games with fewer mistakes.

As part of the study, 179 human participants played Concentration 20 times each -- 10 times for accuracy and 10 times for speed -- to give the researchers a point of comparison for their ACT-R model.

The findings will help the researchers distinguish between human players and automated "bots," ultimately helping them develop models to identify bots in a variety of applications. These bots pose security problems for online games, online voting and other Web applications.

"One way to approach the distinction between bot behavior and human behavior is to look at how bots behave," says Dr. Robert St. Amant, an associate professor of computer science at NC State and co-author of a paper describing the work. "Another way is to look at what humans do. We're focusing on the latter."

"We're looking for distinctions so subtle that they'd be very difficult to replicate outside of a cognitive architecture like ACT-R," says Dr. David Roberts, an assistant professor of computer science at NC State and co-author of the paper. "The level of sophistication needed to replicate those distinctions in a bot would be so expensive, in terms of time and money, that it would -- hopefully -- be cost-prohibitive."

The researchers were also able to modify the parameters of their Concentration model to determine which set of variables resulted in gameplay that most closely matched the gameplay of the human study participants.

This offers a plausible explanation of the cognitive processes taking place in the human mind when playing Concentration. For example, the Concentration model sometimes has a choice to make: remember a previous matching card and select it, or explore the board by selecting a new card. When playing for speed, the model takes the latter choice because it's faster than retrieving the information from memory. This may also be what's happening in the human brain when we play Concentration.

"This is information that moves us incrementally closer to understanding how cognitive function relates to the way we interact with computers," Roberts says. "Ultimately, this sort of information could one day be used to develop tools to help software designers identify how their design decisions affect the end users of their products. For example, do some design features confuse users? Which ones, and at what point? That would be useful information."

The paper, "Modeling the Concentration Game with ACT-R," will be presented at the International Conference on Cognitive Modeling, being held July 11-14 in Ottawa. Lead author of the paper is Titus Barik, a Ph.D. student at NC State. Co-authors include St. Amant, Roberts, and NC State Ph.D. students Arpan Chakraborty and Brent Harrison. The research was supported by the National Security Agency.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/xe-No9svth8/130701100809.htm

Andy Griffith joe johnson scientology Wimbledon 2012 TV Schedule fourth of july IFE Fireworks 2012 4th Of July

How to Disable Haptic Feedback on Galaxy S4

Galaxy S4 gives you more stylish lifestyle and provides you more convenience and high approach towards the latest technology. The users of the Samsung Galaxy S4 prefer using its various features such as using it for calls, messaging and receiving and sending emails on it. They set different ringtones to differentiate among receiving a text message, call or an email. Sometimes they want to keep its Haptic Feedback option on and often they like to keep it off for some personal reasons. The majority of the users do not know how to turn this option on and how to disable it. Even some of the users are not well versed with the term Haptic Feedback. Here you will find how to disable this option if you do not intend to use it.

How to Use Haptic Feedback?

Generally sometimes you need to keep your Smartphone on vibration rather than on ringing state due to some personal reasons. It is called Haptic Feedback. Some people like using this option for their Smartphone, but many users do not like keeping their Smart devices on vibration and they want to disable it. They consider it irritating state when they receive a message or email or any other notification and their Smartphone starts vibrating for notify them.

Steps to Disable Haptic Feedback on Galaxy S4

If you do not like using Haptic Feedback, here is an easy way to disable this feature. The vibration will no more disturb you.

Step 1: First, you need to go to the ?Setting? application.

Step 2: Here, you will see the tab ?My Device? on the top of your screen. You need to click it.

Step 3: Now you will proceed ahead and here you need to click the option ?Sound? that can be found in the list.

Step 4: If you scroll down the list that appears in front of you, there will be an option in the list ?Haptic Feedback?. You will see a box in front of this option and you need to uncheck it to disable this option.

So, now onward you will not find any vibration on your Smartphone because you have successfully disabled Haptic Feedback on Galaxy S4.

Source: http://techmell.net/android-tips/disable-haptic-feedback-galaxy-s4/

sheree whitfield weather dallas pat summitt real housewives of atlanta colton bo ryan the last waltz