Broadway’s “Spider-Man” producers, Taymor, near settlement, again

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The producers of “Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark” and Julie Taymor, the musical’s ousted director, are once again ready to settle their long-running court case, a court filing showed on Wednesday.“We anticipate notifying the Court within the next week that a final settlement agreement has been executed,” attorney Charles T. Spada, who represents Taymor, wrote in a January 22 letter...

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Media Decoder Blog: A Resurgent Netflix Beats Projections, Even Its Own

9:12 p.m. | Updated For all those who have doubted its business acumen, Netflix had a resounding answer on Wednesday: 27.15 million.That’s the number of American homes that were subscribers to the streaming service by the end of 2012, beating the company’s own projections for the fourth quarter after a couple of quarters of underwhelming results.Netflix’s growth spurt in streaming — up by 2.05 million...

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LAPD honors man who sprang into action after temblor

It took 19 years, but the LAPD finally thanked Mike Kubeisy on Tuesday.Like the other residents of the Northridge Meadows apartment...

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Open Source Outfit Bags $30M in Funding — And That Seems Small

Open source software is now big business. Last year, Red Hat became the first $1 billion open source company, and there are dozens — if not hundreds — of companies competing for second place.Attitudes towards open source software have changed so much in recent years, some outfits are now swimming in venture capital. Code hosting service GitHub grabbed $100 million dollars from Andreessen-Horowitz...

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Did she or didn’t she? Beyonce causes lip-synching stir

(Reuters) – Never mind President Barack Obama’s inauguration address or what Michelle Obama was wearing at the ball.Was Beyonce lip-synching the U.S. national anthem on Monday, or wasn’t she?The Grammy-winning singer remained silent on Tuesday amid a media storm over whether she was lip-synching, singing over her own pre-recorded track, or performing live when she delivered a flawless version of “The...

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Well: Is There an Ideal Running Form?

In recent years, many barefoot running enthusiasts have been saying that to reduce impact forces and injury risk, runners should land near the balls of their feet, not on their heels, a running style that has been thought to mimic that of our barefoot forebears and therefore represent the most natural way to run. But a new study of barefoot tribespeople in Kenya upends those ideas and, together with...

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DealBook: Allergan to Buy MAP Pharmaceuticals for $958 Million

Allergan has agreed to pay nearly $1 billion to acquire MAP Pharmaceuticals and gain full control of its experimental treatment for migraine headaches, the two companies announced Tuesday night.The purchase price of $25 a share in cash is a 60 percent premium over MAP’s closing price on Tuesday of $15.58 a share. The deal, valued at $958 million in total, suggests that Allergan has considerable faith...

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County official calls car leasing contract procedure 'embarrassing'

Auditors reviewing a $1.75-million car leasing contract given to a company with a politically connected lobbying firm found...

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A 'Courage Board' for All Conditions

Rating: 9/10 Nearly flawless; buy it now It’s easy to guess what The Hovercraft was built for just by looking at it: The short swallowtail and the big blunted nose all scream “powder hound.”I did my first series of tests in early December up in Lake Tahoe, and there was a lot more crust, ice and grooms than powder, so I took it out without expecting...

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Michelle Obama again picks designer Wu for inaugural gown

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – It was one of the biggest questions of Monday’s inaugural celebrations: not what would President Barack Obama say, but what would his wife, Michelle Obama, wear?The first lady cemented her reputation as an international style trend-setter with her choice of a Jason Wu red sleeveless ball gown in the evening, and a striking business-style blue navy coat and dress for the ceremonial...

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