How They Pulled Off 'The Impossible'

The true story of the devastating 2004 tsunami that consumed the coast of Phuket, Thailand -- and how one family survived it -- is reenacted by Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor in The Impossible. Watch the video to go behind the scenes...

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In theaters December 21, The Impossible finds Naomi as Maria and Ewan as her husband Henry, who are enjoying their winter vacation in Thailand with their three sons. On the day after Christmas, their relaxing holiday in paradise becomes an exercise in terror and survival when their beachside hotel is pummeled by an extraordinary, unexpected tsunami.

Video: Watch the Trailer for 'The Impossible'

The Impossible tracks just what happens when this close family and tens of thousands of strangers must come together to grapple with the mayhem and aftermath of one of the worst natural catastrophes of our time.

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Woman gives birth at Syracuse zoo








SYRACUSE — An upstate New York zoo got a surprise visit from the stork.

A woman gave birth on a wildlife path at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse on Friday, delivering her baby girl with the help of zookeepers not far from the bear exhibit.

Zoo educator Liz Schmidt tells The Post-Standard that she rushed over from the reindeer pen to find the 21-year-old woman pushing out the baby.

Other zoo workers arrived with blankets to keep mom and baby warm.

The zoo's elephant expert herded away curious zoo patrons.

An ambulance soon arrived to take the newborn to a hospital. Zoo Director Ted Fox says the zoo plans to send a gift to the family.











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Events showcase Miami’s growth as tech center




















One by one, representatives from six startup companies walked onto the wooden stage and presented their products or services to a full house of about 200 investors, mentors, and other supporters Thursday at Incubate Miami’s DemoDay in the loft-like Grand Central in downtown Miami. With a large screen behind them projecting their graphs and charts, they set out to persuade the funders in the room to part with some of their green and support the tech community.

Just 24 hours later, from an elaborate “dojo stage,” a drummer warmed up the crowd of several hundred before a “Council of Elders” entered the ring to share wisdom as the all-day free event opened. Called TekFight, part education, part inspiration, and part entertainment, the tournament-style program challenged entrepreneurs to earn points to “belt up” throughout the day to meet with the “masters” of the tech community.

The two events, which kicked off Innovate MIA week, couldn’t be more different. But in their own ways, like a one-two punch, they exuded the spirit and energy growing in the startup community.





One of the goals of the TekFight event was to introduce young entrepreneurs and students to the tech community, because not everyone has found it yet and it’s hard to know where to start, said Saif Ishoof, the executive director of City Year Miami who co-founded TekFight as a personal project. And throughout the event, he and co-founder Jose Antonio Hernandez-Solaun, as well as Binsen J. Gonzalez and Jeff Goudie, wanted to find creative, engaging ways to offer participants access to some of the community’s most successful leaders.

That would include Alberto Dosal, chairman of CompuQuip Technologies; Albert Santalo, founder and CEO of CareCloud; Jorge Plasencia, chairman and CEO of Republica; Jaret Davis, co-managing shareholder of Greenberg Traurig; and more than two dozen other business and community leaders who shared their war stories and offered advice. Throughout the day, the event was live-streamed on the Web, a TekFight app created by local entrepreneur and UM student Tyler McIntyre kept everyone involved in the tournament and tweets were flying — with #TekFight trending No. 1 in the Miami area for parts of the day. “Next time Art Basel will know not to try to compete with TekFight,” Ishoof quipped.

‘Miami is a hotbed’

After a pair of Chinese dragons danced through the audience, Andre J. Gudger, director for the U.S. Department of Defense Office of Small Business Programs, entered the ring. “I’ve never experienced an event like this,” Gudger remarked. “Miami is a hotbed for technology but nobody knew it.”

Gudger shared humorous stories and practical advice on ways to get technology ideas heard at the highest levels of the federal government. “Every federal agency has a director over small business — find out who they are,” he said. He has had plenty of experience in the private sector: Gudger, who wrote his first computer program on his neighbor’s computer at the age of 12, took one of his former companies from one to 1,300 employees.

There were several rounds that pitted an entrepreneur against an investor, such as Richard Grundy, of the tech startup Flomio, vs. Jonathan Kislak, of Antares Capital, who asked Grundy, “why should I give you money?”





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Nutcracker performances set for Pinecrest and West Dade




















Here’s a Nutcracker with a twist. The young production company, What if Works, will present a different take on E.T.A. Hoffmann’s The Nutcracker featuring a string quartet, a special narrative with dance, and artwork by Miami-Dade County’s middle school students. The art will be projected on stage as part of the scenery.

Collective proceeds from the performances at different locales will go toward the Children’s Movement of Florida, the ROXY Performing Arts Center scholarships, and the Hurricane Sandy New York/New Jersey Relief Fund.

Devised and directed by Phillip M. Church, this one-act version of the holiday classic will introduce the newly formed WiW String Quartet in their debut performance under the musical direction of Amernet String Quartet Member Marcia Littley. Musical arrangements are by Carlo Martelli.





The musicians in the quartet are Kyle Meerbott of Coral Reef High School on cello, Meagan Slattery of the Florida International University School of Music on violin, Colin Lee of Westminster Christian High School on viola, and Jorge Vasquez of the FIU School of Music on violin.

“We are very excited about college and high school students working and creating together in a professional world,” Church said. “WiW will be developing more projects with young musicians in the near future.”

All performances are scheduled for 7 p.m. On Dec. 9 the event is at Coral Gables Congregational Church, 3010 De Soto Blvd. in Coral Gables. Cost is $10 and $5 for children under 12. On Dec. 13 it is at Roxy Performing Arts Center, 1645 SW 107th Ave. Cost is $10 for all. And on Dec. 14, the show is at Pinecrest Gardens, 11000 SW 57th Ave. The cost is $10 and $5 for children under 10. For more, call Church at 305-271-1073 or visit www.whatifworks.com.

GIVE MIAMI DAY

Want to help a cause but not sure how to do it? On Dec. 12, for 24 hours, the community of South Florida can join in the inaugural Give Miami Day, hosted by The Miami Foundation. More than 300 local organizations are already registered to participate.

Habitat for Humanity of Greater Miami, South Florida Art Center and American Red Cross of Greater Miami & The Keys are just a few of the groups involved in the Give Miami Day. The Miami Foundation, with support of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, is launching the event to help build a greater Miami through philanthropy.

During the 24-hour fundraiser members givers can search profiles for nonprofits across Miami-Dade at www.GiveMiamiDay.org. They can see the mission, work and impact of each organization. Every donation between $25 and $10,000 received on Dec. 12 through the website will be partially matched by The Miami Foundation.

“From social networks to the media, Miami is abuzz as residents and organizations spread the word about our inaugural Give Miami Day,” Javier Alberto Soto, president and CEO of The Miami Foundation, said in a release. “Our Give Miami site lets donors find and give to organizations doing the work they believe is best for Miami-Dade. It’s a new and easy way to support the causes most important to them.”

Donors can make charitable gifts to local nonprofits beginning at midnight on Dec. 12 and ending at midnight on Dec. 13.

"We’re excited by the prospect of new digital tools making it easier for residents to connect more deeply with nonprofits in the community," said Matt Haggman, program director/Miami at Knight Foundation. "By making it easier to donate online, we hope to merge people’s personal passions with needs in the greater Miami area."





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‘Post-PC’ is more than just marketing buzz for Apple CEO Tim Cook












Apple (AAPL) is no stranger to ditching technologies when it deems them to no longer be useful. The company dropped the floppy disk for a CD-ROM drive on the first iMac and most recently has shifted to building MacBooks and iMacs without any physical disc drives. In his first televised interview on NBC’s Rockcenter with Brian Williams, Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed that he has “ditched physical keyboards” now that he spends 80% of his time using his iPad “authoring email” and “working on things.” Cook says he’s gotten quite good at typing on the screen and advises people to trust auto-correction as it’s “quite good” — though it’s a feature we still blast iOS for some five years after the first iPhone launched. But what does it mean when the boss of the country’s most valuable company and the most revered technology company in the world doesn’t even use physical keyboards anymore? Perhaps the “post-PC” era will become mainstream sooner than we thought.


For years, Apple has touted the idea that we’re entering the “post-PC” era – a period when touchscreen-equipped smartphones and tablets will eclipse desktops, notebooks and complex operating systems as they slowly fade away into a niche reserved for professionals.












While there will still be a need for notebooks, Windows PCs and Macs, the increasing numbers of smartphones and tablets sold and continued decline of worldwide PC sales support Apple’s claim that mobile is where the next tech battleground is, even if Microsoft (MSFT) thinks otherwise.


The term “dogfooding” is often thrown around between tech blogs and Cook is doing exactly that — using his “own product to demonstrate the quality and capabilities of the product.”


As Steve Jobs once said, Apple only builds products its own engineers and designers would use themselves.


Cook’s not saying, “iPads are great” for some people and some tasks. The fact that Cook uses his iPad for 80% of his work and an iPhone all the time suggests he and Apple are serious about this post-PC era. Apple wants iPads and iPhones to be great for all of your computing needs.


Apple is serious enough about it that the big boss has shifted his habits from old-school typing on actual keyboards to using virtual keyboards. And for all we know, Cook could be using even more natural human interfaces such as more voice recognition (ex: Siri in iOS and built-in dictation in OS X Mountain Lion).


Will physical keyboards go the way of the dodo in the next handful of years? It’s doubtful, but don’t be surprised if you see fewer and fewer offices with QWERTY keyboards attached to PCs and more desks and execs just carrying tablets and a smartphone on the side.


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Shonda Rhimes Talks Katherine Heigl Greys Anatomy Emmy Snub

Shonda Rhimes and her Scandal star Kerry Washington are the focus of Sunday's all-new episode of Oprah's Next Chapter, and in addition to talking about the importance of their addictive Thursday night series, Rhimes looks back on one of her more frustrating professional moments.


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In 2008, Katherine Heigl notoriously pulled her name from Emmy contention, saying that she didn't feel the material she was given that year warranted consideration. "On some level, it stung," Rhimes tells Oprah Winfrey. "But on some level I was not surprised. When people show you who they are, believe them. I carry that with me a lot. It has served me well."


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Winfrey then goes on to ask Rhimes what accomplishment she's most proud of. "I'm most proud of the fact that I have figured out how to exist as both a creative person and artist and a businesswoman and a manager," she says.

"Because those two things do not go together. For a long time I really had a hard time with the idea that I was supposed to be this person who lived inside her head and created things, but also managed a bunch of people and had to lead a group of people."

Rhimes adds, "But those two things came together, and I'm really proud of how that works now."

Check out a sneak peek clip and tune in to Oprah's Next Chapter every Sunday at 9 p.m. on OWN.

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Supreme Court will hear gay marriage cases








WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court will take up California's ban on same-sex marriage, a case that could give the justices the chance to rule on whether gay Americans have the same constitutional right to marry as heterosexuals.

The justices said Monday they will review a federal appeals court ruling that struck down the state's gay marriage ban, though on narrow grounds. The San Francisco-based appeals court said the state could not take away the same-sex marriage right that had been granted by California's Supreme Court.

The court also will decide whether Congress can deprive legally married gay couples of federal benefits otherwise available to married people. A provision of the federal Defense of Marriage Act limits a range of health and pension benefits, as well as favorable tax treatment, to heterosexual couples.











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High-flying Miami businessman charged with fraud




















Claudio Osorio once boasted that he climbed the world’s iconic mountains: Fuji, Kilimanjaro and the Matterhorn.

But the jet-setting Venezuelan-born entrepreneur has now taken the steepest fall of his life. On Friday, Osorio, along with his business partner, Craig Stanley Toll, were arrested as part of a 23-count federal indictment charging them with bilking investors out of $40 million.

Osorio and Toll, the principals of a failed business venture, InnoVida Holdings, are also charged with defrauding the federal government out of $10 million in loans they were given to help finance construction of a Haitian factory to build homes for hurricane victims.





Osorio built his company in 2005, selling it to investors as a cutting-edge producer of fiber-composite panels that could build affordable housing and post-disaster shelter in developing countries. His business model entailed forming joint ventures all over the world.

He splashed his wealth in Miami social circles and soon was hobnobbing with a who’s who of rich, famous and politically connected people, many of whom he lured into investing in his company under false pretences, authorities allege.

Osorio filed for bankruptcy last year and his $12 million Star Island mansion was auctioned off. As part of his Chapter 11 filing, the embattled entrepreneur promised to repay creditors and investors $50 million. The company, which once had former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush as a board member, was shut down last year, and its formula for building the resin-structured housing was sold to a Brazilian firm.

Miami businessman Chris Korge and Chicago Bulls star Carlos Boozer were among the investors accusing Osorio of using lies, fraud and theft to prop up his and his wife’s lavish lifestyle, not to invest in his company.

His wife, Amarilis, is not charged in the indictment.





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Genting abandons gambling petition drive




















In a major shift in strategy, the Genting Group, the Malaysian-based casino giant, told legislative leaders this week that it will stop a petition drive to get a casino amendment on the 2014 ballot, leaving it to lawmakers to decide the future of gambling in Florida.

“We are not going forward with a petition drive effort and there have not been any petitions gathered,’’ said Brian Ballard, a lobbyist for Genting, after meeting with legislative leaders. “The approach the Legislature is taking with this — a thoughtful analysis — we think makes absolute sense and we want to be a constructive player in it.”

Genting led a failed effort earlier this year to bring destination resort-style casino gambling to Florida. The measure never made it out of a House committee and was loaded down with provisions in the Senate before it was declared dead.





During the past election cycle, Genting created a political committee — New Jobs and Revenue For Florida — and spent money on voter petition consultants, constitutional scholars and pollsters in an effort to set the stage for a constitutional amendment to make casinos legal. The goal was to have it go before voters in 2014.

As Florida’s legislative leaders changed strategy on the gambling issue, the company decided it would take a less aggressive strategy.

House Speaker Will Weatherford and Senate President Don Gaetz, both of whom are vocal opponents of expanding gambling, have each said it was time to put gaming regulation on center stage in the next two years. Their plans also include renegotiating — a year earlier than scheduled — the revenue-sharing compact with the Seminole Tribe, which now brings the state $233 million a year.

“We currently have a lot of gambling in the state of Florida, but we have to take a very holistic view,” said Weatherford, a Wesley Chapel Republican, told the Herald/Times earlier this year. “There needs to be clarity and direction as to where the state is going,” he added, and the tribal compact will “very likely” be part of that.

Gaetz created a Gaming Committee, intended to deal with the issue exclusively for the first time in recent legislative history. He named Sen. Garrett Richter, R-Naples, to be the committee’s chairman.

Genting had spent more than $905,000 this election cycle gearing up for a possible petition drive. It hired Nation Voter Outreach, a Nevada-based political consulting firm that specializes in organizing signature drives. It hired constitutional scholar, Bruce Rogow, of Fort Lauderdale, to work on amendment language and paid political consultant and pollster Tony Fabrizio to devise a political strategy.

Ballard said the company has abandoned those plans because the next two years provides “a good opportunity to look at all aspects of the regulatory and strategic environment.”

A pivotal player in the debate will the Broward-based Seminole Tribe, the owner of the Hard Rock Casinos in Hollywood and Tampa, and five other casinos in Florida. Its agreement with the state gives the Seminoles the exclusive right to offer blackjack and other table games in Miami-Dade and Broward counties through 2015 in exchange for annual payments to state and local governments.

Legislators imposed the expiration date when they ratified the compact in 2010 to give the state time to take a comprehensive look at Florida’s gambling laws.

Genting wants to build a gambling resort on land now occupied by the Miami Herald Building near downtown Miami. Genting paid Herald parent McClatchy Co. $236 million for the 13.9-acre site in 2011.





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'GMA' Team Joins Robin Roberts to Deck the Halls

As Robin Roberts continues her recovery at home from a bone marrow transplant, her Good Morning America colleagues paid her a visit after Thursday's broadcast to help her get into the holiday spirit!

The GMA team -- including George Stephanopoulos, Josh Elliott, Sam Champion and Lara Spencer -- all wore Santa hats as they delivered plenty of holiday decorations to Robin's apartment and helped her deck the halls.

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As shown in the photo, Robin handed out pairs of her favorite frog slippers for the anchor team to wear for the occasion.

Robin recently gave her first extensive interview since undergoing a bone marrow transplant in September in an attempt to combat Myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), a rare blood disorder that she contracted after undergoing treatment for breast cancer.

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