December 5, 2017

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Entertainment December 5, 2017

Today in Movie Culture: The Best Tommy Wiseau Cosplay, Imagining Samuel L. Jackson in 'Star Trek' and More

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

Cosplay of the Day:

See a bunch of Tommy Wiseau fans cosplaying as the infamous filmmaker for a contest promotion tied to The Disaster Room:

Very proud to announce the runners up and grand prize winner of The Tommy®, the 1st and only award for uninhibited creative expression inspired by Tommy Wiseau. #ImADisasterArtistpic.twitter.com/GHyTPLoxN5

— A24 (@A24) December 1, 2017

Dream Casting of the Day:

With Quentin Tarantino working on a Star Trek movie, BossLogic jokingly shows us what it could look like with the obligatory Samuel L. Jackson role:

Next @StarTrek is going to be lit @SamuelLJacksonpic.twitter.com/sQfcY1puXD

— BossLogic (@Bosslogic) December 5, 2017

End of Year Countdown of the Day:

Here’s a video list by Leigh Singer counting down Sight & Sound’s poll results for the best movies of 2017:

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Fan Theory of the Day:

Just in time for this week’s new Jurassic World 2: Fallen Kingdom trailer, here’s MatPat with a theory that the premise of Jurassic World was an inside job:

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Mashup of the Day:

We’ve seen fan art of Yondu from Guardians of the Galaxy as Mary Poppins, but now he’s been inserted into the eponymous classic Disney movie:

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Vintage Image of the Day:

Fritz Lang, who was born on this day in 1890, directs a big scene for the 1927 sci-fi masterpiece Metropolis:

Actor in the Spotlight:

Learn all about Armie Hammer, who is garnering Oscar buzz for his performance in Call Me By Your Name in this video by Jacob T. Swinney for Fandor:

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Remixed Movie of the Day:

Eclectic Method turned Die Hard into a Christmas dance mix using sounds from the holiday-set action movie:

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Movie Homages of the Day:

Jarvis City compiled all the movie and TV shows paying tribute to The Shining in this supercut:

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Classic Trailer of the Day:

Today is the 75th anniversary of the release of the original Cat People. Watch the re-release trailer for the horror classic below.

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and

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Business December 5, 2017

'Grinch Bots' Attempt To Steal Christmas By Driving Up Toy Prices

The Grinch, played by Jim Carrey, conspires with his dog Max to deprive the Whos of their favorite holiday in the live-action adaptation of “Dr. Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas.”

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Then he got an idea, an awful idea. The Grinch got a wonderful, awful idea.

I know just what to do, the Grinch laughed in his throat. All it will take is a few keystrokes.

But of course he didn’t actually muse. Because the Grinch in this case is a bot. It’s automatic. It doesn’t snooze.

Online scammers with an arsenal of cyber bots are stealing Christmas by buying up the most popular toys of the season and selling them for a hefty markup on third-party sites such as Amazon and eBay.

While the demand for the hottest toys is particularly high this time of year, shoppers are competing against a growing army of bots. For years, scalpers have taken advantage of software robots to scoop up event tickets, but now scammers are employing the same tactics to cheat Christmas shoppers, says MSNBC anchor and economics correspondent Ali Velshi.

“Regular people could never buy them at face value,” he tells Here & Now’s Robin Young. “The idea that it was bots — scalpers using algorithms — to buy up all the tickets in the first place, and then sell them either via a third-party vendor or independently to people, and this has now moved its way into the hot holiday toy sales industry.”

Sen. Chuck Schumer is calling on retailers to crack down on “Grinch bots” who use complex software to identify the product page of a popular toy before it even goes on sale. The program rapidly purchases thousands of products before customers have time to buy them. Oh, the Whomanity!

“Grinch bots cannot be allowed to steal Christmas, or dollars, from the wallets of New Yorkers,” Schumer said. “Middle class folks save up — a little here, a little there — working to afford the hottest gifts of the season for their kids but ever-changing technology and its challenges are making that very difficult. It’s time we help restore an even playing field by blocking the bots.”

Velshi says consumers are encountering hundreds of percent markups over retail on these products. For instance, the must-have Fingerlings, the interactive animal-shaped toys, sell at a retail price of $14.99, but have been showing up on websites for as much as $1,000. The Super Nintendo NES Classic Edition, which is currently out of stock on most sites, is being sold for nearly $13,000 by third-party sellers.

Schumer wrote a letter to the National Retail Federation and the Retail Industry Leaders Association this week urging them to investigate infiltration of their members’ websites by these computer programs. Both retail associations agreed to heed the New York Democrat’s call.

“Retailers want to ensure that items purchased from their stores and online are purchased legitimately. The industry is committed to taking precautions to mitigate fraud and illegal transactions to ensure American consumers have a safe and secure holiday shopping experience,” Christin Fernandez, a spokesperson for the Retail Industry Leaders Association, said in a statement.

Last year, Congress tried to block cyber scalping by passing the Better Online Ticket Sales Act of 2016, but that law only applies to event tickets.

“There is simply no competition between a bot and even the most organized human,” Omri Iluz, co-founder and CEO of PerimeterX, a Silicon Valley-based startup that designs anti-bot technology, told Consumer Reports, adding that bots aggressively mine thousands of sites at hundreds of times per second, preparing to pounce when a product is launched.

Velshi says people should find out the retail price of a product before they begin shopping to avoid being scammed.

“The problem is these bots find out things are popular before people do themselves,” he says. “So by the time you’ve decided this is all the rage because you’ve heard about it from your kid’s friends or from someone else, it’s hard to” buy it.

While avoiding the “holiday who-be what-ee” may explain the appeal of online shops, Velshi says maybe this year, consider the store to keep away from bots.

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Sports December 5, 2017

CEO Of U.S. Anti-Doping Agency On Suspension Of Russia In 2018 Winter Olympics

NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly speaks with Travis Tygart, the CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency about the International Olympic Committee’s decision to ban Russia from competing in the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. Russian athletes can still compete, but it will be under the Olympic flag.

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

For reaction to the decision to ban Russia from the Olympics let’s bring in Travis Tygart. As CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, he has long argued for a tougher stance on doping. Mr. Tygart, welcome.

TRAVIS TYGART: Hey, Mary Lou, it’s great to be here.

KELLY: Glad to have you with us. I’m guessing you’re pleased with this decision from the IOC today. Are you also surprised?

TYGART: You know, I think clean athletes’ voices were finally heard, which is pleasing. Of course, no one’s totally satisfied. And we can’t remember or forget, rather, all of the, you know, athletes who were robbed. I think you mentioned in the top, you know, 33 medals were won by Russia in the Sochi Winter Olympic Games back in 2014. Eleven of those have now been disqualified. And those are 11 individual athletes at a minimum who were robbed of their opportunity to, you know, have their moment on the podium.

KELLY: Do you believe this process, the IOC review, was fair? I mean, we heard Tom Goldman just talking there about how Russia feels like they’re being singled out for political reasons.

TYGART: Yeah, look; I think that, you know, when we were in the middle of our Postal Services case, the Armstrong case, we were accused of being anti-American. I think it’s play one from, you know, criminal defense attorney and other politicians’ handbook – playbook to accuse those who are just doing their job to uphold the rules in a fair manner of playing politics. I don’t think at all in – you know, in our case in Postal as well as this situation our eye has always been on what’s best for clean athletes and the principle of fair play. And I think today is a significant victory in that regard.

KELLY: Your agency put out a statement today calling, as you did, this as a victory for clean athletes, but also saying this is a sad day. How come?

TYGART: Yeah, listen; I think we’re – you know, the Olympic movement is based on inclusion. And, you know, we want to – our athletes we hear all the time want to compete against the best. And unfortunately, when you have a country that’s not there as powerful and competitive as Russia is that’s sad. But on the other hand, that can’t come – that inclusion can’t come at the expense of clean athletes’ rights. And I think that ultimately today is why this decision is the right decision and that clean athletes will see as, you know, a step in a victory towards – for their rights.

KELLY: What about this other aspect to the decision that some Russian athletes will be allowed to compete, just not as part of Team Russia?

TYGART: Well, it’s a critical piece of it. And, you know, certainly some called for an outright ban and no allowance for any athletes from Russia to compete. And so now the eyes will be on this process to ensure that it’s done in a robust fashion and ensuring that a very, very narrow category, if any, athletes from Russia who weren’t tainted or got the advantage of this drug program are allowed to compete at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. And I think that will be, you know, incumbent upon the task force to do that in a robust and transparent manner.

KELLY: You know, this decision, of course, will send a strong message to Russia, which as we heard they’re planning to appeal. Is it also designed to send a strong message to other countries where athletes have been found to have been doping but countries that are still sending teams to South Korea in February?

TYGART: I think absolutely. And, you know, our – there were 37 countries as well as athlete committees from around the world that asked for this – basically this outcome. And I think in part it was to ensure a message was sent that, hey, you know, fair play and clean sport matters. And if you intentionally violate the rules as was done and the evidence clearly showed in this situation, there are going to be consequences.

KELLY: That’s Travis Tygart. He is CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. Thanks so much for speaking with us.

TYGART: Thanks for having me.

Copyright © 2017 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

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 December 5, 2017

U.S. Fugitive Eric Conn, Guilty In $550 Million Fraud, Is Captured In Honduras

Eric Conn, who was sentenced in absentia to 12 years in prison after fleeing justice this summer, has been arrested in Honduras. He’s seen here in a photo released by the Public Ministry of Honduras.

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Public Ministry of Honduras

Eric Conn, the Kentucky lawyer who defrauded the Social Security system of more than half a billion dollars before fleeing the U.S. in June, has been arrested in Honduras, according to that country’s Public Ministry. Wanted by the FBI, he also sent taunting messages while on the lam.

Conn had been under house arrest when he cut off his ankle monitor a month before his sentencing hearing and left it in a backpack along I-75 in Lexington, Ky. He was later traced to New Mexico, where a truck he had been using was found near the border. The FBI says the vehicle had been provided by a co-conspirator.

Conn eventually made it to Honduras, where agents of the Technical Agency for Criminal Investigation arrested him in the northern city La Ceiba, along the Caribbean coast. At the time, he was leaving a restaurant in a shopping center. Honduran officials say Conn is being sent back to the U.S. on Tuesday.

Eric C. Conn fled from house arrest in June, days before he was slated to testify against a co-conspirator in a massive fraud involving Social Security benefits.

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Known as “the E-Man” in splashy ads and billboards, Conn once headed the largest Social Security law firm in Kentucky, promising to help clients get money from the government. But he was actually at the center of a corrupt group that included doctors, two federal administrative law judges and others who conspired to rig Social Security’s disability benefit system, authorities said.

“The negative impact of Conn’s presence in our community will be felt for generations,” FBI Special Agent in Charge Amy S. Hess said this summer. “His flight from prosecution has diminished any legitimacy and integrity he once held as an attorney and officer of the court.”

Members of the ring were indicted in April 2016 on federal charges that included conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud and making false statements. Conn entered a guilty plea in March 2017, agreeing to testify against others. But two months later, he disappeared.

After Conn fled, federal agents spotted him in surveillance video at a gas station and at a Walmart in New Mexico, where one image showed him pushing a bicycle.

From Louisville, Ky., member station WFPL, Eleanor Klibanoff reports that federal charges were recently lodged against Curtis Lee Wyatt, who allegedly “bought Conn a car, tested security protocols at the U.S.-Mexico border so Conn would know what to expect and helped him escape from house arrest.”

Klibanoff adds, “The pair allegedly spent a year on the plan — twice as long as Conn managed to remain on the run.”

Reporting on Conn after his flight from the law this summer, Klibanoff noted that he seems to have insisted on getting in touch with people in his home community. Here’s a portion of the transcript from her story:

“KLIBANOFF: Bill Estep, a newspaper reporter with the Lexington Herald-Leader, started getting emails from Conn or someone who knew a lot about him. He said he’d fled to a country without an extradition treaty and provided details on his escape. Conn wanted to correct news stories, asked for unflattering mugshots to be taken down and demanded stricter sentences for his co-conspirators.

“ESTEP: I thought it was odd to — for someone who’s supposedly on the run to reach out to a reporter that way. But the more I learned about him, the more I became convinced that fits with his personality.

“KLIBANOFF: Conn has also sent taunts via fax to former colleagues like Ned Pillersdorf. Pillersdorf represents Conn’s former clients, 800 of whom lost their benefits as a result of the fraud. Pillersdorf says the scheme caused a crisis for whole communities in eastern Kentucky. At least two people who lost their benefits committed suicide.”

On July 12, Conn was sentenced in absentia to 12 years in prison. A federal judge also ordered him to pay nearly $170 million in restitution, along with a $50,000 fine and a forfeiture judgment of $5,750,404. That figure of some $5.7 million represents money the Social Security Administration paid to Conn.

The case got its start in late 2011, when two Social Security Administration employees filed a whistleblower lawsuit against Conn and a federal judge, David B. Daugherty — who was sentenced to four years in prison in August, for accepting more than $600,000 in bribes from Conn.

Daugherty approved at least 3,149 disability cases filed by Conn, the Herald-Dispatch reports in Huntington, W.Va., where Daugherty heard disability appeals cases. The newspaper adds, “More than 1,700 have been deemed fraudulent by government investigators.”

The Department of Justice joined the civil case against Conn and Daugherty in 2016. In a civil judgment earlier this year, Conn and his firm were ordered to pay $31 million to the government and the whistleblowers.

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