The 80th Oscar Nominations Announced

Nominations for the 80th Academy Awards® were announced on Tuesday morning by Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Sid Ganis at the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2007 will be presented on Sunday, February 24, 2008, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live by the ABC Television Network beginning at 5 p.m. PT. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 200 countries worldwide.

"The 80th Annual Academy Awards"

BEST MOTION PICTURE OF THE YEAR
Atonement
Juno
Michael Clayton
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood

ACHIEVEMENT IN DIRECTING
Julian Schnabel - The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Jason Reitman - Juno
Tony Gilroy - Michael Clayton
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen - No Country for Old Men
Paul Thomas Anderson - There Will Be Blood

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
George Clooney - Michael Clayton
Daniel Day-Lewis - There Will Be Blood
Johnny Depp - Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Tommy Lee Jones - In the Valley of Elah
Viggo Mortensen - Eastern Promises

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Cate Blanchett - Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Julie Christie - Away From Her
Marion Cotillard - La Vie en Rose
Laura Linney - The Savages
Ellen Page - Juno

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Casey Affleck - The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Javier Bardem - No Country for Old Men
Philip Seymour Hoffman - Charlie Wilson's War
Hal Holbrook - Into the Wild
Tom Wilkinson - Michael Clayton

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Cate Blanchett - I'm Not There
Ruby Dee - American Gangster
Saoirse Ronan - Atonement
Amy Ryan - Gone Baby Gone
Tilda Swinton - Michael Clayton

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Christopher Hampton - Atonement
Sarah Polley - Away From Her
Ronald Harwood - The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Joel Coen & Ethan Coen - No Country for Old Men
Paul Thomas Anderson - There Will Be Blood

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Diablo Cody - Juno
Nancy Oliver - Lars and the Real Girl
Tony Gilroy - Michael Clayton
Brad Bird - Ratatouille
Tamara Jenkins - The Savages

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM OF THE YEAR
Beaufort (Israel)
The Counterfeiters (Austria)
Katyn (Poland)
Mongol (Kazakhstan) 12 (Russia)

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM OF THE YEAR
Persepolis
Ratatouille
Surf's Up
ACHIEVEMENT IN ART DIRECTION
American Gangster
Art Direction: Arthur Max; Set Decoration: Beth A. Rubino
Atonement
Art Direction: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie Spencer
The Golden Compass
Art Direction: Dennis Gassner; Set Decoration: Anna Pinnock
Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Art Direction: Dante Ferretti; Set Decoration: Francesca Lo Schiavo
There Will Be Blood
Art Direction: Jack Fisk; Set Decoration: Jim Erickson
ACHIEVEMENT IN CINEMATOGRAPHY
Roger Deakins - The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Seamus McGarvey - Atonement
Janusz Kaminski - The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Roger Deakins - No Country for Old Men
Robert Elswit - There Will Be Blood

ACHIEVEMENT IN COSTUME DESIGN
Albert Wolsky - Across the Universe
Jacqueline Durran - Atonement
Alexandra Byrne - Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Marit Allen - La Vie en Rose
Colleen Atwood - Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
No End in Sight
Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience
Sicko
Taxi to the Dark Side
War/Dance
ACHIEVEMENT IN FILM EDITING
Christopher Rouse - The Bourne Ultimatum
Juliette Welfling - The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Jay Cassidy - Into the Wild
Roderick Jaynes - No Country for Old Men
Dylan Tichenor - There Will Be Blood

ACHIEVEMENT IN MAKEUP
Didier Lavergne and Jan Archibald - La Vie en Rose
Rick Baker and Kazuhiro Tsuji - Norbit
Ve Neill and Martin Samuel - Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC WRITTEN FOR MOTION PICTURES (ORIGINAL SCORE)
Dario Marianelli - Atonement
Alberto Iglesias - The Kite Runner
James Newton Howard - Michael Clayton
Michael Giacchino - Ratatouille
Marco Beltrami - 3:10 to Yuma
ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC WRITTEN FOR MOTION PICTURES (ORIGINAL SONG)
"Falling Slowly" - Once
Music and Lyric by Glen Hansard and: Marketa Irglova
"Happy Working Song" - Enchanted
Music by Alan Menken; Lyric by Stephen Schwartz
"Raise It Up" - August Rush
Nominees to be determined "So Close" - Enchanted
Music by Alan Menken; Lyric by Stephen Schwartz
"That's How You Know" - Enchanted
Music by Alan Menken; Lyric by Stephen Schwartz

ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND MIXING
Scott Millan, David Parker and Kirk Francis - The Bourne Ultimatum
Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter Kurland - No Country for Old Men
Randy Thom, Michael Semanick and Doc Kane - Ratatouille
Paul Massey, David Giammarco and Jim Stuebe - 3:10 to Yuma
Kevin O'Connell, Greg P. Russell and Peter J. Devlin - Transformers

ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND EDITING
Karen Baker Landers and Per Hallberg - The Bourne Ultimatum
Skip Lievsay - No Country for Old Men
Randy Thom and Michael Silvers - Ratatouille
Matthew Wood - There Will Be Blood
Ethan Van der Ryn and Mike Hopkins - Transformers

ACHIEVEMENT IN VISUAL EFFECTS
Michael Fink, Bill Westenhofer, Ben Morris and Trevor Wood - The Golden Compass
John Knoll, Hal Hickel, Charles Gibson and John Frazier - Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Scott Farrar, Scott Benza, Russell Earl and John Frazier - Transformers

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
Freeheld
La Corona (The Crown)
Salim Baba
Sari's Mother

BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM
I Met the Walrus
Madame Tutli-Putli
Même Les Pigeons Vont au Paradis (Even Pigeons Go to Heaven)
My Love (Moya Lyubov)
Peter & the Wolf

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
At Night
Il Supplente (The Substitute)
Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets)
Tanghi Argentini
The Tonto Woman

Source: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

December 21 2012 - Real Doomsday Or Not?

According to the History Channel Decoding the Past Doomsday 2012: The End of Days,

“The Maya were legendary astronomers and timekeepers — their calendar is more accurate than our own. By tracking the stars and planets they assigned great meaning to astronomical phenomena and made extraordinary predictions based on them — many of which have come true.”

On the winter solstice December 21, 2012, Mayan astronomers and timekeepers predicted an astronomical event occurs that will herald a profound world change or end of the world as we know it. Check your local television listing for date and times when History Channel Decoding the Past Doomsday 2012: The End of Days is scheduled to air.

American Idealist - The Story of Sargent Shriver

“American Idealist: The Story of Sargent Shriver” is not a title that prepares you for an hour and a half of heartbreak and indignation. But watching this Chicago Video Project biopic about the man who launched the Peace Corps and the War on Poverty, it is difficult not to feel both these things. Along with pride, regret, rage and hope. But mostly heartbreak. Because so many of the things Sargent Shriver stood for, fought for, are now simply absent from our national conversation. Indeed, even the term American idealist seems nostalgic at best; at worst, it’s an oxymoron.

“Idealist,” which airs tonight on PBS, reminds us of a powerful man too often eclipsed in public memory by the family he joined when he married Eunice Kennedy and now known more widely as the father of Maria, first lady of California. Which says as much about the vagaries of politics as anything else because “Sarge” Shriver was as powerful a politician as any of the Kennedys. Good looking, funny, well-spoken and incredibly driven, he both touted and lived “the politics of service,” unapologetically and seemingly without guile.

Shriver played social conscience to two presidential administrations while creating programs that continue to serve millions of people. He convinced his brother-in-law to step up his support of civil rights and then to start the Peace Corps. After Kennedy’s assassination, Shriver headed Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty, keeping the president focused on the progressive social programs even as racist Southern politicians attempted to derail them and everyone’s attention strayed increasingly, and fatally, to Vietnam.

Written and directed by Bruce Orenstein, “Idealist” is clearly a labor of love. Why, the effective use of the French horn and lone trumpet in the score is enough to evoke the word “haunting.” Indeed, as portrayed in “Idealist,” Shriver seems almost too good to be true. The son of Catholic activists — his mother and father founded Commonweal — the young Shriver watched as the stock-market crash ruined his well-to-do family. On the charity of friends and family, he went to Yale; he was briefly an editor at Newsweek before becoming a lawyer. Then he met, and wed, Eunice Kennedy, became part of the dynasty and the rest is baby boomer history.

Seemingly always on the side of the oppressed and disenfranchised, Shriver believed that the only way to break down barriers of class and race was to do just that — by sending young educated Americans into the slums and ghettos and struggling neighborhoods abroad and at home. And he often went with them. The only criticism Shriver receives from the folks interviewed in “Idealist” is that he was too demanding, too hard-working.

Even those who may not agree with his politics or pedigree cannot deny the work he did or the effect it continues to have on this country — we did not win the War on Poverty, but at least poverty was acknowledged as an enemy; Head Start alone has improved the lives of millions. And if the Peace Corps is not the post-college draw it once was, it remains vital and has spawned other groups with similar goals.

Oh, and if that’s not enough of a legacy, the Shrivers created the Special Olympics. In their backyard.

There is, mercifully, no airing of Kennedy laundry in “Idealist,” save the complicated effect the family had on Shriver’s career. Yes, he was part of the inner circle, but when it seemed as though Hubert Humphrey was going to put him on the ticket as a vice presidential nominee, it was the Kennedy's who apparently intervened. The line of succession did not apply to brothers-in-law, though Shriver later joined George McGovern on his unsuccessful presidential bid.

For all we may praise less famous men, the power of “Idealist” stems as much from its portrayal of this nation as it does from this one man’s attempt to improve it. The issues that Shriver tried to address — poverty, education, health care, public participation in the democratic process and the domestic cost of pursuing an aggressive foreign policy — are precisely the issues this country faces today. Imagine a politician who could rally today’s privileged youth into signing up for programs like the Peace Corps or VISTA. Imagine a man or woman who would sincerely pledge to end severe poverty in this country, soon and permanently. A politician who made controversial decisions simply because they were the right thing to do.

Watching “Idealist,” it is almost impossible not to wonder just what has happened to this country. How did we lose all that energy, that hope and dedication, that call for personal duty as members of a democracy, that belief not only that we the people could make a difference, but also that we had a responsibility to make a difference? Now 92 and in the advanced stages of Alzheimer’s disease, Sargent Shriver has slipped beyond the demands of his nation. We can only hope that someone at some point will try to take his place.

Dextromethorphan

Dextromethorphan is a cough suppressant used for short-term treatment of nonproductive coughs. It is available in nonprescription products alone and in combination with other nonprescription drugs to treat symptoms of allergy, colds, and upper respiratory infections.

Summary of Interactions with Vitamins, Herbs, and Foods

In some cases, an herb or supplement may appear in more than one category, which may seem contradictory. For clarification, read the full article for details about the summarized interactions.

Depletion or interference	None known
Side effect reduction/prevention	None known
Supportive interaction	None known
Reduced drug absorption/bioavailability	None known
Adverse interaction	None known

An asterisk (*) next to an item in the summary indicates that the interaction is supported only by weak, fragmentary, and/or contradictory scientific evidence.

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