May 17, 2017

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Entertainment May 17, 2017

Today in Movie Culture: Why 'Deadpool' Should've Been an Oscar Contender, Why 'Alien' is a Classic and More

Here are a bunch of little bites to satisfy your hunger for movie culture:

Reworked Movie of the Day:

Remember when Deadpool had Oscar buzz for a second? Here’s a reworking of the movie so it’s more of an awards-bait drama:

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Video Essay of the Day:

With Alien: Covenant out this week, Frame by Frame explores what makes the original Alien such a classic:

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Vintage Image of the Day:

Bill Paxton, who should have turned 62 today, Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen and Carrie Henn celebrate someone’s birthday(?) on the set of Aliens:

@lazygamereviews Love these behind the scenes pics ?? pic.twitter.com/0AUtw74I9Z

— Kaarlo Moran (@Padawanmage) February 26, 2017

Bad Film Analysis of the Day:

Still on the subject of the Alien movies, here’s the “hidden meaning” of Prometheus according to an alien in the future:

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Actor in the Spotlight:

Fandor honors Harvey Keitel with a video essay highlighting his career as a “director’s actor”:

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Alternate Poster of the Day:

Mondo has an awesome new poster for Labyrinth by Laurent Durieux plus cool new pins also honoring its 30th anniversary:

Celebrating Jim Henson’s ’86 classic, LABYRINTH w/ a great poster by Laurent Durieux + pins by @DKNGstudios! Info: https://t.co/U8vqEkYRpTpic.twitter.com/lWZDc7Jz6k

— MONDO (@MondoNews) May 17, 2017

Movie Comparison of the Day:

Who needs a live-action remake of Disney’s Aladdin when according to Couch Tomato Kazaam is already that:

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Cosplay of the Day:

It’s not exactly cosplay if this woman is a paid portrayer of Mary Poppins, but either way this photo with Michael Rooker is a great second nod to her reference in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 this week (via Heroic Hollywood):

???????? pic.twitter.com/omhCzCScpF

— Marvel Studios (@MarvelStudios) May 16, 2017

Supercut of the Day:

Speaking of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, this video set to “Southern Nights” collects a lot of evidence that saving the day is harder than it looks (via Live for Film):

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Classic Trailer of the Day:

Today is the 15th anniversary of the release of About a Boy. Watch the original trailer for the classic Hugh Grant movie below.

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Business May 17, 2017

Dow Industrials Drop On Worries Over Political Turmoil In Washington

The Dow Jones industrial average and other stock indexes fell sharply Wednesday, as investors worried about political turmoil in Washington.

Richard Drew/AP

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Richard Drew/AP

Washington politics spilled over into the financial markets Wednesday, as the week’s turmoil — including questions over what President Trump said to former FBI Director James Comey before firing him — has put the administration’s pro-business legislative agenda in question, most notably the president’s proposed tax cuts.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 372 points, or 1.78 percent. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite was down 2.57 percent, and the S&P 500 down 1.82 percent.

Congress, it appears, will be tied up in investigations instead of passing legislation, says Aron Szapiro, director of policy research at the investment analysis firm Morningstar.

“All these things take time, and these investigations are going to eat up a lot of it,” he says. (After Szapiro made his comments, a fresh investigation was initiated, with the Justice Department appointing former FBI Director Robert Mueller as a special counsel.)

Szapiro shies away from saying that political turmoil is the main reason investors sought the relative safe havens of gold and bonds today. And, he argues, politics has always been unpredictable, and a tax overhaul — even without scandal — would have been a difficult feat for the administration to pull off.

“There are tough choices, there are difficult conversations, and there is just a lot of work that has to go into it,” he says.

The surprise victory of Trump in November had ushered in a long market rally that sent the Dow and other stock indexes into record-high territory. Bank stocks in particular rallied, as did the stocks of industrial companies, on pledges of rolling back financial regulations and big boosts in infrastructure spending. Those sectors were particularly hard-hit Wednesday.

“I don’t think it’s a surprise that financials and industrials are getting harder today than most, but the sell-off today is really across the board,” says David Kretzmann, an analyst with the personal finance firm Motley Fool. He, too, says he advises investors to look at the long game and think of the underlying business dynamics for companies — and those things don’t change because of a scandal.

Even with the day’s losses, Kretzmann says, investors are enjoying a bull market.

“We’re just back to where we were at the end of April. So it’s not like the sky is falling; no one was worried about the world ending in April, so you have to keep things in perspective,” he says. “The S&P 500 is still up 5 percent for the year. It’s up over 15 percent for the past year.”

He says he is advising clients to diversify their stock portfolios, to balance out the political volatility and ride out any scandal that might befall Washington.

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Sports May 17, 2017

Star Player's Injury Prompts Calls To Tighten NBA Rules

An injury to a star player following an aggressive defensive play has changed the tenor of the NBA playoffs. An uproar has ensued over whether the move was intentional and whether the league should tighten its rules.

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

Kawhi Leonard is one of the best players in the NBA, and last night it showed. Without Leonard, the San Antonio Spurs lost a playoff game to the Golden State Warriors by 36 points. Leonard was out because of a previous injury caused by a Warriors player. The injury has prompted talk of dirty play and possible changes to league rules. NPR’s Tom Goldman has more.

TOM GOLDMAN, BYLINE: Last night’s game two of the Western Conference finals on ESPN basically was over by halftime.

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UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER #1: An unbelievable first half performance from the Warriors.

GOLDMAN: Golden State led by 28, and the only potential drama left was what might San Antonio head coach Gregg Popovich say post-game. He had gone off the day before talking about whether the Warriors’ Zaza Pachulia meant to injure Kawhi Leonard this past Sunday.

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GREGG POPOVICH: Who gives a damn about what his intent was? You ever hear of manslaughter?

GOLDMAN: But after last night’s shellacking Popovich sounded much more philosophical.

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POPOVICH: I think we’ve maybe felt it too much, Kawhi being gone, in the sense that I don’t think they believed. And you have to believe.

GOLDMAN: Sunday, midway through game one, the Spurs were dominating the favored Warriors, largely due to Leonard’s offense, 26 points, and his defense. But in the third quarter he rose for a jump shot and landed on Pachulia’s foot. Replays show Pachulia took an extra step and slid his foot directly under Leonard. Leonard turned at an already gimpy ankle and left the game with his team up 23. The Warriors came back and won.

DAVID THORPE: I’ve studied that play, you know, 40, 50 times. At the very least it was an extremely reckless or sloppy play by Pachulia.

GOLDMAN: David Thorpe is a longtime basketball coach, analyst and author.

THORPE: You have to give him that room so we can land without fear of being hurt.

GOLDMAN: Pachulia denies claims that he’s a dirty player. He was charged with a foul on the play. Many howled he should have received a flagrant foul and been ejected from the game. The NBA is standing by the official’s call. Joe Borgia is the NBA’s senior vice president of replay and referee operation.

JOE BORGIA: It was almost a normal basketball play. Maybe he took an extra step too far.

GOLDMAN: But, Borgia says, Pachulia didn’t extend his leg unnaturally or make a kicking motion, which, he says, would warrant a flagrant foul. Beyond Pachulia, the closeout move on jump shooters has become more of an issue. With the long-range three-point shot an important part of today’s NBA, more defenders, says coach David Thorpe, are trying to disrupt and distract.

THORPE: You want to make that player think of you as you’re shooting the ball, not focus on his form, without any risk for a fouling.

GOLDMAN: But the fouls are happening. In the 2011-2012 season the NBA made what it calls a point of emphasis. Officials were told to watch more closely for defenders taking away shooters’ landing areas. Of course, shooters aren’t always innocent. They often jump into defenders to try to draw a foul. The question now – with such a prominent player as Leonard going down at a critical time, will the league do more like baseball did?

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UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER #2: It is 2-2 and Tejada’s hurt. It was a hard, hard fly to second base by…

GOLDMAN: In the 2015 playoffs, this play helped prompt baseball’s adoption of the slide rule to protect infielders from hard-charging baserunners. The NBA’s Joe Borgia doesn’t know if the Leonard incident alone will prompt a similar change, although it may lead to more discussion about the issue. For now, the time off until Saturday’s game three should help Kawhi Leonard heal, but it won’t end debate about what the NBA should do to ensure jump shooters have happy landings. Tom Goldman, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF SABZI’S “DRIVING THE WET PAVEMENT”)

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NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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Health May 17, 2017

Common Lead Test Can Give False Results, FDA Warns

The FDA says blood lead tests manufactured by Magellan Diagnostics can give falsely-low results if they are used with blood drawn from a vein, as opposed to a finger or heel prick.

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Common blood tests for lead can give falsely-low results in certain cases, according to a new warning from the Food and Drug Administration.

The tests, manufactured by Magellan Diagnostics, are commonly used in doctors’ offices and clinics, and on its website the company calls itself “the most trusted name in lead testing.” But the FDA now says that its tests can give inaccurate results when used to test blood drawn from a vein.

The majority of lead tests are not conducted with that kind of blood sample, but rather blood from a heel or finger prick, says Dr. Jeffrey Shuren, director of the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health.

“We have no evidence that Magellan’s tests, when used with blood obtained from a finger or heel stick, are impacted,” says Shuren. “We believe most people will not be affected by this issue.”

For example, in 2016, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that all children under the age 6 years in Flint, Mich., get re-tested as part of the response to the crisis there. Patrick Breysse, director of the CDC’s National Center for Environmental health, says they have a lot of information about that testing, and have determined that “less than one percent, perhaps, might be at risk for being under-estimated because they were a venous draw that were tested on the Magellan system.”

Officials are recommending retesting for certain children, pregnant women and nursing mothers who did get tested using blood from a vein.

And the FDA says it’s aggressively investigating why these tests can give inaccurate results.

Officials say the company first became aware of a potential problem through complaints received in the fall of 2014, and developed a mitigation plan, which was to basically just delay processing of the sample for 24 hours.

“And that completely resolved the problem. They communicated with their customers, their customers acknowledged receipt, and that was it,” says Shuren.

But earlier this year, when FDA officials became aware of the problem, Shuren says the agency believed that the company had underestimated the risk to the public, and that the data supporting the mitigation plan wasn’t sufficient.

Between the beginning of 2014 to today, officials say, an estimated 8 million blood lead tests have been run using the Magellan systems, and the majority of those were for capillary blood from finger or heel sticks.

“From a coverage perspective, particularly for those kids on Medicaid, we would expect that the Medicaid programs in those states would be covering and paying for the retesting,” says Timothy Hill, the Acting Director for the Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services, which is part of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. “For those who are covered privately, we would encourage folks to consult with their health plan.”

Asked why taxpayers or insurance companies should have to pay for retesting, Hill said the first priority is to get kids retested if they need retesting, and officials do not want reimbursement to hold that up.

“It’s my understanding that the, sort of, conversations with Magellan are ongoing,” says Hill. “Speaking as to whether or not Magellan has liability or not is not something I can speak to.”

In response to NPR’s inquiries, a spokesperson with Magellan pointed to a letter to its customers that the company published this morning.

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