Tech hype vs. tech help: 3 must-have gadgets from CES 2013

It's just peachy to be mesmerized by $20,000 TVs and iPad accessories for potty training -- all part of last week's Consumer Electronics Show in $4-cup-of-Joe Las Vegas. But few of these gadgets are likely to change your life this year (unless you've got an iPad-addicted pre-schooler who has exhausted your potty patience).

Fortunately, not all of CES was about gawking gadget giddiness. There was some practical news about products and services that could actually save you money and make your life easier too. Here are my top three from the desert:

Cable Comes to Roku
All those streaming media players and so-called over-the-top set top boxes are chasing one leader, and that's Roku. It's inexpensive (the Roku 2 XD is just $80), dead simple to use, and offers over 700 channels of entertainment. Soon, for the first time, a cable company -- Time Warner -- will add its channels to Roku's lineup.

But wait, aren't those Internet streaming boxes supposed to cause owners to cut the cord and kill off cable?

Well, in an if-you-can't-beat-em-join-em move, a slew of companies (including FoxNews.com parent News Corp.) chipped in and invested $45 million in Roku last July. Now that investment is bearing fruit, delivering on something people have wanted for years: the ability to watch their home channels wherever they are, no hassle, no extra charge.

In this case, if you're a Time Warner subscriber, you will be able to hook your Roku box to a set, say, at a vacation home, and tune in some 300 stations as if you were back sitting in your home living room. It's similar to a feature already offered by several companies that allows you to watch your channels on an iPad, except in this case you're not restricted to your home Wi-Fi network. The service is expected to be available by the spring.

One other note about Roku: This year you'll see a number of "Roku Ready" TVs from inexpensive brands like Coby, Haier, and Westinghouse. It means you can have Roku bundled with a budget-priced set and still get all those snazzy smart TV features.

A Cheaper and Better Phone
Phone companies are not high on anyone's popularity poll, so cutting them off has been a favorite pastime of budget hawks. Substitute, Internet-based phone services like Vonage have been popular, but you still pay a monthly fee nearly as high as your old bill. One low-cost exception is Ooma, which introduced new hardware at CES that makes cutting off Ma Bell even easier.

Basic monthly phone service on Ooma costs roughly $4 a month (depending on local fees and taxes), but you pay for the hardware up front. Its Telos box costs $180. Ooma is now making its calls even clearer and making it a snap to add extensions all over the house.

Its improved HD2 wireless handset ($60) now syncs your phone book with Google and pops up color photos of callers. Better still is the Linx, a wireless adapter that plugs into any regular power outlet and can then be used to connect any standard phone to your Ooma line.

I've been testing the new Ooma products for months. The call clarity is excellent and for the first time I've been able to put an old favorite corded phone in the living room without installing a special jack.

Have a small business? Ooma is launching a five-line SMB product with an automated receptionist, customized hold music, and a slew of other features starting at just $20 a line.

A Cheaper iPhone
Not everyone has an iPhone--or can afford one. With monthly contracts topping out at over $130 a month and the constant threat of extra hidden fees, plenty of us find touch-screen phones just too expensive. Last week, Walmart debuted an alternative.

For just $45 a month, the discount chain is offering a Straight Talk unlimited voice, text, and data plan--without a contract. All you need is an iPhone, but you'll have to pay for that up front: $649 for the 16 GB iPhone 5; $449 for the 8 GB iPhone 4. But don't let the phone's cost put you off: other carriers charge as much as $200 for an iPhone 5 and then lock you into a $130-a-month contract. That's $1,760 in the first year versus Straight Talk's $1,189. 

So if someone in your family is still hankering after an iPhone, it now may finally be within reach.

Follow John R. Quain on Twitter @jqontech or find more tech coverage at J-Q.com.

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Do reality shows that makeover schools do more harm than good?

ESPN confirmed this week that it has no plans for another season of “Rise Up,” a reality series that was supposed to give needy high schools’ athletic facilities an upgrade. 

It sounds like that's fine with Ingraham High.

Traci Huffer, Athletic Director at Ingraham High School, which participated in “Rise Up,” said the school will need to wait “a few years” before agreeing to do a makeover-type program again.

“I am still cleaning up some of the things that didn’t go the way they were supposed to go,” Huffer said, adding that she would rather “remain gracious to the things they gave us” instead of elaborating on what went wrong.

“Overall it was a positive experience, but there are a few things we have to clean up,” she said. “It was also a little time consuming and with the district being short on funds, it’s now in our hands.”

(An ESPN rep said said that the school's renovation was not the sole responsibility of "Rise Up,"  and that many goods and services were donated by local businesses and people in the community.)

"Rise Up" is the latest school makeover show to get the axe.

ABC’s “Food Revolution,” which focused on overhauling unhealthy school lunch menus, was canceled midseason with slipping ratings. NBC’s “School Pride,” which renovated aging school buildings, was not renewed for a second season. And ratings aside, several of the schools involved in the shows ended up on the short end of things.

The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) refused to allow Jamie Oliver’s “Food Revolution” cameras inside their campuses last year on the heels of a “bad experience” filming NBC’s “School Pride.”

“‘School Pride’ wanted us to re-do some things on our campus and we ended up with a $106,000 tab for work they were suppose to do,” LAUSP rep Robert Alaniz claimed. “They did one coat of paint on one building and the paint was peeling in two weeks. They reneged on reimbursing us and we had to use tax payer money to fix that.”

Alaniz said the decision to turn way Oliver was cemented after someone from the Cabell County School District – which was featured on Season One of Oliver’s show – told them the show ran their finances into the red and didn’t pay its end of the deal. A rep for the Cabell County School District declined to comment. 

Tracy Handline, a teacher at Needles High School in California which also took part in “School Pride,” said that while the show did benefit the community, it wasn’t all it was fluffed up to be on the small screen.

“They did make some improvements, but they didn’t do major change. It was pretty cosmetic, there was no systematic change in the way things happened,” she explained. “What the show tried to do was expose some kind of dirty dealing. They come in and do all this interviewing like they are exposing some big thing, then they leave. We are this little tiny town that has to deal with all the people that may have gotten their feelings hurt. (Producers came to us) asking for referrals and our involvement, but the show made it look is that the students wrote in and sent a video but that is not actually what happened."

“It's no surprise that (being featured) can end up costing already cash-strapped schools lots of taxpayer money. This is money better spent on good teachers, renovation and new technology,” communications and PR expert Jason Maloni, of Levick Strategic Communications, told FOX411’s Pop Tarts column. “It's unfair to cast students in the roles of ‘savior.’”

However, L.A.-based television producer, Dianne Namm, argued that school makeover shows do shed light on important issues.

“America's school system is in need of attention. Hollywood's desire to make us aware of that is a genuine one,” she explained. “Perhaps the (reality show) format isn't yet right, but the basic story premise, that our schools need our help, as do our children who attend them, is what matters.”

Justin Hochberg of The Hochberg Ebersol Company, an unscripted television-focused production company, agreed that in focusing on school-related concerns, rather than ignoring them, helps the end goals of raising money, increasing community involvement and creating necessary change.

“As an example, our USA Network special “NFL Characters Unite” featured a student at Clairton High School in Pennsylvania.  Our efforts not only changed one teen’s life, but transformed his school’s community,” he claimed. “They felt listened to and had a greater sense of togetherness as a result of participating in our program, and that is a fantastic example of the positive power of television.”

But based on the mixed grades many school “makeover” shows seem to have earned from schools and audiences, some industry experts predict that this reality sub-genre that will stay in Hollywood detention for a little while longer.

 “The only ‘school on TV’ that’s ever gotten high attendance was Flavor Flav’s ‘Charm School,”  former reality television producer Mikey Glazer added. “Right now, ratings suggest that America would rather watch bikini bachelor cattiness, or women throwing champagne glasses at each other’s head or social climbers marrying NBA players.” 

ABC did not respond to a request for comment and NBC declined to comment.

Danielle Jones-Wesley contributed to this report.

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The day the muzak (didn't) die

With the digital revolution, the drumbeat of failing music-related businesses has been a constant rhythm for several years now. So when it was announced last week that the Muzak brand was retiring, it was hardly a surprise. 

However, it turns out that the Mantovani of music isn't as moribund as many of us thought.

Purchased by Canadian firm Mood Media two years ago, Muzak continues to deliver custom music channels to retailers and public spaces (yes, including elevators) around the world. That includes those saccharine cover songs we've all come to deride, but what will now simply be called Mood also offers stations with original tracks from the likes of the Beatles and Inxs. However, there's a lot more competition today than there was in 1934 when the Muzak name first appeared.

There are countless streaming music options now, with services of every stripe (Slacker, Pandora, Rhapsody, Spotify, Rdio, Mog, 8tracks, Grooveshark). And traditional radio stations have also gone online, including Internet radio aggregators like TuneIn and Shoutcast. These Internet services, it is often said, are killing the traditional music business softly with their songs (never mind about pirated songs).

Certainly, CD sales continue to decline. A Nielsen SoundScan and Nielsen BDS report notes that disc sales fell a further 13 percent last year (although it's still a dominant format). And while digital track sales are up -- just over 5 percent compared to the previous year -- as more people switch to smartphones and smart TVs, streaming music services are expected to supplant digital downloads someday.

In the U.S. streaming music services, while still in their nascent stage, threaten to overturn the music applecart. Pandora has 65.6 million active users, a 38 percent jump from the same time last year. Spotify, which has been in the U.S. about a year, has 20 million active users worldwide, with about 5 million paid subscribers. Rhapsody has about 1 million subscribers. Depending the service and their licensing arrangements, listeners have access to 16 to 20 million songs online.

'Internet delivery is more of an opportunity for us.'

- Randal Rudniski, a senior vice president at Mood Media

You can listen to streaming services any where, in your car, on your phone, and at home. The other day I glanced out my window, and saw not American Idol or the Knicks but Pandora on my neighbor's TV. (And no, I'm not a peeping Tom; they've just got a really big flat screen.)

What is truly amazing about Muzak, er, Mood, is how it has withstood the digital revolutions in the music business. While labels have fallen, local radio stations have succumbed to corporate pre-programming, and many bands have seen sales dwindle, Mood has continued to chug right along.

"Internet delivery is more of an opportunity for us," points out Randal Rudniski, a senior vice president at Mood Media. Traditionally, Mood's music came into stores using satellite receivers, but a growing percentage is now delivered over the Web. And the company has plans to take further advantage of the Internet. A new partnership with Shazam will allow customers to identify a song they hear in a store using their smart phone and then have the retailer offer a special promotion to the customer while they are still standing in the store.

Furthermore, Mood is holding steady. It has north of 400,000 commercial customers in the U.S., with another 100,000 in Europe. The company has decades of experience dealing with convoluted licensing and copyright fees, as well. (Yes, it's technically illegal for your local pizzeria to pipe in their own iPod playlists.)

Moreover, most of the streaming services can't compete with Mood, yet. Pandora has had a similar commercial subscription service for some time, but it works through hardware partner DMX, which is owned by (you guessed it) Mood.

Unfortunately, even with millions of tracks available in streaming and downloadable form, the music market still can make a fan's ear drums ring. Some artists come and go online, depending on licensing arrangements. One day I'm listening to Liz Phair and Chris Isaak; the next day, they're offline (and then Chris came back, go figure). Others, like Led Zeppelin are all-but complete holdouts--although Zep is reportedly in negotiations with streaming companies now. And still others are available exclusively on particular services. Spotify has an exclusive deal with Metallica; Rdio boasts Pink Floyd.

(Pandora has an unusual advantage: it's got Metallica, too. It even has the same Rovi-written biography that Spotify posts. Punch in Metallica and you'll get your own fist-pumping station that even includes AC/DC. The catch: you can't call up a particular artist or song on demand.)

Nevertheless, the music business' VU meters continue to swing back and forth. One week, online music is killing the labels and shortchanging the artists, the next, the services themselves are on death's door. One thing is for certain at least for the time being: This is not the day the Muzak died.

Next week, John R. Quain will be speaking at the DMW Music conference in New York City. Follow him on Twitter @jqontech or find more tech coverage at J-Q.com.

Mood Media, a firm outside of Toronto, bought Muzak Corp. two years

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Perry's Path to GOP Nomination Could be the Clearest

Maybe Texas Gov. Rick Perry said he’s decided to test the waters on a presidential run just because he’s feels left out.

For all the attention paid to the presidential possibilities of two members of the House (Paul Ryan and Michele Bachmann) and a reality show host (you know who), you’d never know that the Republicans had on their bench the three-term governor of the state with the nation’s best economy and the largest Republican population.

But for some reason, when Perry told people he wasn’t running, reporters believed him. If Chris Christie even flies over Iowa, the blogosphere goes into meltdown mode, but the political press for some reason mostly took Perry at his word.

It seems strange that they would have.

Perry, who has been governor for more than a decade, is a favorite of the Tea Party movement for his tough stands on state sovereignty, border security, taxes and gun rights. Anybody who packs heat when he jogs so he can blow away coyotes that mess with his Labrador retriever and hangs out with Ted Nugent at a Tax Day rally is going to have serious street cred with the Republican base.

As the Perry talk heats up, these primary election positives will be reinforced by liberals who find his Texas-fried politics to be repellant. Every time Democratic cable news talkers remind viewers that Perry once warned that Texas might secede from the union if Washington kept piling on new federal powers, somewhere in Iowa or South Carolina a Republican primary voter thinks, “Not bad.” When Perry gets chided for declining photo-ops with President Obama on visits to the state, somewhere in New Hampshire a guy with a “Don’t tread on me” flag on his bumper thinks, “Cool!”

But unlike some of the other Tea Party favorites, Perry has an easier case to make to establishment Republicans. His state has a $1.3 trillion economy now on track to pass California's as the nation’s largest. Perry has also avoided some of the hardest stands of the conservative movement. Consider that while Perry is constantly hectoring Obama for more border security, he declined to sign onto the movement for an Arizona-style crackdown on illegal immigration when it was very hot among Republican circles.

Raised on a cotton farm and prone to a strong Texas twang, Perry won’t be grabbing the wonk vote from Mitch Daniels’ fans. But as a 28-year political veteran who started his career as a Democrat and pushed his way to the head of the state GOP and now the national Republican Governors Association, Perry knows how to adapt, survive and compromise when he needs to.

Plus, Republicans are almost certain to pick a nominee who is or was a governor. It makes for more gravitas when running against a sitting president and the GOP just seems more comfortable with the strong, decisive type than coalition-building congressmen.

Republican’s haven’t lost a presidential election with a former governor since Thomas Dewey in 1948. All six of the Republican presidential losses in the same period have been with a current or former member of Congress.

So how could it be that the GOP hasn’t been looking harder at Perry, the 61-year-old Methodist who’s married to his high-school sweetheart? It’s partly because Perry has no ties to the East Coast media establishment. The people around him are pure Texas and he’s never done much that would catch the eye of the political press. He’s not exactly a symposium kind of guy.

So maybe Perry is just engaging in this presidential flirtation to make a point and raise his profile ahead of fundraising season when he will be hitting the road to raise money for his fellow governors. Maybe he thought it would nice just to be asked.

But whatever has brought him to this point, if he does take a serious look, he may find that he has clearer path to the nomination than anyone else.

Perry has a natural alliance with the most important potential kingmaker of the cycle, if Sarah Palin doesn’t run herself. He would provide the sharpest contrast – politically and culturally – with frontrunner Mitt Romney at a time when Republicans are eager for an alternative. And being from a large, wealthy state, he has the best chance to turn on the kind of fast fundraising necessary to contend with Romney’s mega bucks.

Now that he’s moseyed over to the pool, Perry may find good reason to dive in.

Chris Stirewalt is FOX News’ digital politics editor. His political note, Power Play, is available every weekday morning at FOXNEWS.COM.

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Pro-life 'October Baby' rejected by major studios, blitzes box office

“The Hunger Games” wasn’t the only film to hit box office paydirt this past weekend. Although it only opened in 390 theaters, the anti-abortion drama “October Baby,” starring John Schneider,earned the second-highest-per-screen average, bringing in almost $2 million in ticket sales.

“I was shattered when I first learned about the story. I was moved and mesmerized. I wasn’t an activist, I was just someone who was shattered by the truth,” director Jon Erwin told FOX411’s Pop Tarts. “Here is our little film, small budget, in the top ten (at the box office). We are thrilled, blown away.”

“October Baby” follows the emotional journey of a young woman who learns that she was almost aborted, but at the last minute was instead given up for adoption. The film almost didn’t see the light of day.

“This film couldn’t find a home, no studio wanted to touch it. It was considered too controversial,” Erwin continued. “There was a real moment of despair at one point, the film wasn’t finished and nobody would take a look at it. But every time we screened it, it attracted such intense emotional reactions. So we had to raise the money ourselves, and the release process took much longer than we wanted.”

According to Dr. Ted Baehr, founder of the Christian movie site Movieguide.org, the success of “October Baby” can be attributed to a strong Christian and moral world view that touched the hearts of those who saw it. He says it’s important for more audiences to have the chance to see it, too.

“All who see it should be transformed, so considering the importance of the message, everyone should see it,” he said. “It needs more theatrical exposure.”

Erwin said they are hoping for a wider release next month, and communities are so desperate to see the film they are forming “action squads” in which Christian schools, churches and residents are coming together and agreeing to buy a certain amount of tickets to cover costs.

“We don’t have the deep pockets and resources that big studios have,” Erwin added. “So we have to take the long approach. But people are really getting behind this and rallying. People identify with it, that’s why the film worked.”

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'Make it or Break It': Family series promotes hard work, friendship, abstinence

ABC Family’s “Make It or Break It” is quite the departure from your typical teen high school drama centered on parties, boys, behaving badly and vying for a spot on the cheerleading squad.

For the elite teen gymnasts on this show, which premieres its third season Monday night, the stakes are much higher. At such a young age, these girls have an unwavering goal to make it to the Olympic Games – encouraging young audiences to not only dream big, but find a passion beyond Facebook, texting and trying to fit with the “in” crowd. 

“It embodies so many great morals and storylines, and teaches young girls about the ups and downs of life and to never give up,” star Cassie Scerbo told FOX411’s Pop Tarts column. “I also really encourages young people to be passionate about something in general, you see these young people that have really dedicated their lives to something.”

This season Scerbo’s character Lauren is struck down by a life-threatening illness right before the Olympic team cuts, and her persona as the “bully” in the group takes on a whole new spin.

“She is a bully and a bad girl – but it shows you that its often the bully that is the one who is insecure and has the issues,” Scerbo continued, adding that there’s even been times she’s been afraid to “walk down the street” as young fans of the show can get so incensed over her character’s schemes.

Co-star Alya Kell – who plays lovable good girl Payson – said the series, and in particular the forthcoming season, sheds light upon the importance of friendship and teamwork, and understanding the difference between winning for your country and winning for yourself. Season two explored the complicated issue of anorexia, and Kell hopes that teens will find inspiration in seeing healthy girls on their small screen.

“This isn’t a petty high school drama. It’s not about being only as good as your next boyfriend,” she explained. “And we look like normal girls standing there in our leotards. It all relates to dedication – you have to make sacrifices, eat properly and work hard to achieve your dreams.”

This past season also dealt with the controversial issue of teen pregnancy when one of the main characters, Emily, had to choose between having an abortion or surrendering her life long battle to be an Olympic medalist tobecome a young mother. She chose the latter.

“One little trip up and you can lose everything you’ve worked so hard for,” said Kell, while Scerbo added that the story line also posed the question as to whether certain things do happen for a reason.

Beyond just portraying the heavy consequences of teen sex, “Make it or Break it” also presents a strong argument for abstinence, with gym manager Summer, played by “Full House” alum Candace Cameron Bure, frequently voicing the importance of faith and God in her life, believing in something greater than oneself, and waiting for marriage to consummate a relationship.

“Abstinence is a choice that empowers you, supports self-respect and statistically ensures a more satisfying and stable marriage in the future,” she told the young gymnasts. “You have all chosen to do something very exciting with your young lives, so why put that at risk? The wisdom of knowing what you do today can affect you forever, that’s blessing.”

And despite the heavy content embedded into the otherwise “family” orientated show, Caroline Knorr, Parenting Editor of Common Sense Media, said television programs like this one present a fantastic opportunity for parents to have tough – but important – conversations with their kids.

“Whether it’s sex, violence, teen pregnancy, homosexuality, or other complicated issues, it can be a lot easier to have conversations outside your comfort zone when you're discussing fictional characters or situations,” she added. “It’s also amazing how kids are much more willing to open up when talking about other people rather than themselves. And because our kids are so inundated with media from all sides – taking advantage of the time you have with your kid to give your input goes a long way toward informing your kids’ values when they are away from you.”

“Make It or Break It” airs Monday at 9 p.m. on ABC Family.

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Grapevine: Obama birth certificate case finally closed?

And now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine...

Case Closed

Arizona's Secretary of State says the case is closed in the birth certificate kerfuffle stemming from his request that Hawaii provide additional verification President Obama was, in fact, born there.

As we have reported, Aloha State officials have repeatedly confirmed President Obama's birth in the state and last April the White House released his long-form birth certificate.

Today, Secretary of State Ken Bennett in Arizona, explained he only pursued the issue on behalf of constituent requests, adding -- quote -- "[Hawaiian officials] complied with the request and I consider the matter closed."

Bennett said Tuesday if his actions embarrassed the state of Arizona he was sorry.

Hard-Hitting

A pinata with South Carolina Republican Governor Nikki Haley's face on it was the guest of dishonor at a retirement dinner for the outgoing president of the state's AFLCIO union.

Here you can see Donna Dewitt repeatedly bashing the Haley effigy to the enthusiastic delight of her fellow progressives.

Dewitt says she has no regrets because it was all in good fun.

However, the Washington-based AFLCIO disagreed saying it was an inappropriate joke.

Governor Haley tweeted the video adding -- quote -- "Wow. I wonder if the unions think this kind of thing will make people take them seriously."

1915-2012

Finally, the man who made channel surfing possible died over the weekend at age 96.

Eugene Polley invented the wireless television remote control back in 1955.

Polley began his career with Zenith Electronics in the stockroom before rising through the engineering ranks.

Ten years ago, Polley proudly said his Flash-Matic remote was the next most important civilized invention after the flush toilet.

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Game over for Atari? An ode to Pong

Eventually, all of one's childhood idols fall on hard times. Now, it's Pong.

Atari's U.S. subsidiary, the creator of Pong, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, slain by a flock of Angry Birds and a school of Fruit Ninjas. The company has gone through numerous owners in its 40-plus-year history, adapting to the vicissitudes of the video game market along the way. And it will probably resurrect itself once again, but the glory days of gaming and Pong will probably never return.

Synonymous with games like Breakout and Centipede, Atari was once a suburban phenomena and as much as a part of American culture as disco and earth shoes. During the first season of Saturday Night Live back in 1975, Tom Davis and Al Franken used Pong as a prop for several sketches (all the viewer saw was the rather inept game play on the black-and-white Pong screen). Who would have thought that Franken would become a U.S. Senator, or that in the years to come people would rather post pictures of their food online rather than play games?

But while no one misses polyester leisure suits (well, almost no one), many of us long for the early days of video games.

A large portion of the appeal of these original games was their low-fi approach. The controls didn't have elaborate physics programs behind them. They were crude and inaccurate as all getout. And that was half the fun. If you wanted accuracy, you could go out in the backyard and throw a football around.

While no one misses polyester leisure suits (well, almost no one), many of us long for the early days of video games.

Of course, Pong isn't quite dead, but it sure isn't the same. Consider Atari's own update of Pong called Pong World, available for iPads and iPhones. Its glitzy iridescence is intended to compete against the Fruit Ninjas of today, but the very fact that it's more sensitive to accelerometer and gyroscopic movements means that it's, well, less fun. In case you were wondering, there's also Centipede Origins for iPhones and Android devices, but its 3D graphics are blasphemous to anyone who played the original.

The trouble is as computing power increased--and thus graphics engines and programs gained in sophistication--the fun got sucked out. Video games got to be, well, just too good. Never mind the troubling issues about violence and realistic bloodspatter patterns thanks to state-of-art physics engines and millions of polygons. By improving the sound and graphics of games, the games required less imagination. It's something Marshall McCluhan pointed out in his distinction between hot and cool media. As video games got hotter, they became somehow less interesting. Pong was cool; Descent and Halo were red hot.

The other major change was that video games went from faux wood-paneled basements to objects of public annoyance and kid soothers. ("Here, take my iPhone and quit bugging daddy.") In other words, video games have come out of the closet and into public. They're on smart phones and tablets, on the subway and on the bus. Along the way, they lost their allure.

Of course, big companies with big investments in video game consoles don't think so. Nintendo introduced its Wii U before Christmas. Sony is rumored to be on the verge of announcing a PlayStation 4, and Microsoft has been ramping up for a new Xbox for quite some time. However, they face competition from TV makers, who now include casual games in connected TVs. And there are inexpensive streaming media boxes like Roku that include popular games like Angry Birds.

The real market killer, however, has been the mobile handset. And Atari says it's seeking bankruptcy protection so that it can regroup and focus on the mobile market. It's certainly where the customers and culture is going (if it's not already completely there). Rather than sketches using Pong, today's Disney and Nick shows feature SMS jokes on smart phones and Twitter popularity competitions.

So can Atari make a go of it as it approaches middle age? It already has Pong World and Centipede Origins on the iPhone. There's just one problem, both games are free. Sure, there's still some money to be made in video games. Halo 4 sold roughly 4 million copies at $40 a pop leading into the holidays, but hits like that are extremely rare nowadays. It's incredibly risky for a gaming company to invest $1 million in a new console game when they can develop 20 new mobile games for the same price.

As for me, you won't catch me playing Temple Run on the bus. But I admit that I still throw on the original version of Centipede every once in while, except that now I play it on my PlayStation 3.

Follow John R. Quain on Twitter @jqontech or find more tech coverage at J-Q.com.

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Pamela Anderson okay with sons experimenting with alcohol and drugs

Long gone are the days of running up and down the beach in slow motion. Instead, Pamela Anderson says she's busy being mom to her sons with ex-husband Tommy Lee, Brandon Thomas, 15, and Dylan Jagger, 13.

But the former “Baywatch” beauty isn’t stressing about keeping her kids away from the temptations of Tinseltown. In a “diary” entry entitled “Intuitive Parenting,” posted on her website last year, Anderson wrote about her desires for her young ones to “learn to eat right,” “honor their instincts,” “never bully” and…

“We want them to practice safe sex, drink and experiment with drugs in moderation, find true love,” the post continued.

Hold up. Experiment with drugs in moderation?

“I really believe in my kids. My kids have had a great foundation, they have seen the world,” Anderson explained to FOX411’s Pop Tarts column when we asked about her approach to parenting. “They’ve made great choices. They are really smart people, I am not afraid of my kids surfing the Internet. I think they are making proper decisions and you can’t be in denial of what life has to offer. I don’t know how much of a role model their parents are, but we’ve had a lot of fun.”

Anderson told us about her parenting style at a press conference announcing her spokeswoman role with FrogAds.com, a giant classifieds site.

“My kids are technologists, I’m not, and it is easy for me to use,” she said. “It’s Craiglist for blondes. If I can do it, anyone can do it.”

Danielle Jones-Wesley contributed to this report.
 

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Grapevine: Elizabeth Warren's new comments about heritage

And now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine...

Indian Summer

Massachusetts Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren is acknowledging she told officials at Harvard and University of Pennsylvania she had Native American heritage.

Her campaign insists she gave that information to the schools after she was hired.

Up until now, Warren had said she learned that Harvard was promoting her as a Native American from reading a newspaper.

She has claimed to be 1/32 Cherokee though she has provided no evidence other than family lore.

Meanwhile, conservatives are jumping on another statement by Warren late last year that -- quote -- "I was the first nursing mother to take a bar exam in the state of New Jersey."

A Garden State bar exam administrator told the Herald there is no way to verify that claim.

The Big Ban

New York City wants to ban the sale of large sodas and other sugary drinks in an effort to curb obesity.

The ban would not apply to diet or juice beverages but would limit sugary non-alcoholic drinks over 16 ounces from being sold in restaurants, movie theaters and sports venues.

Critics call it yet another intervention by nanny state nutritionists.

The Face of Tourism?

Finally, you apparently don't have to be eligible to travel the world to be named a tourism ambassador by the United Nations.

Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe was appointed a new international envoy for tourism despite being banned from Europe because of human rights abuses in his own country.

Mugabe is accused of ethnic cleansing and rigging elections among other things.

Canada is now withdrawing from the tourism agency over the appointment saying it symbolizes what is wrong with the United Nations.

View the original article here

Grapevine: Fight for your right to potty

And now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine...

Family Tree

Questions about Democratic Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren's purported Native American heritage are not going away and are actually taking a more prominent placement in some left-leaning publications asking whether she used a self-proclaimed minority status to get ahead.

The Boston Globe reports that new documents show Harvard University reported for six straight years in federal diversity statistics its employment of a Native American woman in the law school Elizabeth Warren

And while Warren has claimed she was unaware of how Harvard was promoting her heritage until she read it in the paper, only days ago, Harvard officials and federal guidelines say those statistics are usually based on the employee's self-descriptions.

The administrator for Harvard's diversity statistics from that time, and a citizen of the Cherokee nation himself, also said the school always accepted faculty members' identification.

Meanwhile, the candidate is desperately trying to move on from reporters' questions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Elizabeth, can you put this issue to bed and tell us whether or not you are in fact a member of a minority group?

ELIZABETH WARREN, D - MA, SENATE CANDIDATE: So, I uh -- middle class families are getting hammered.

REPORTER: Members of the Cherokee Nation want to know, they say you should come clean

WARREN: I have made the facts clear, and what I'm trying to do is talk about in this Senate race what matters to America's families.

REPORTER: Why did you claim you were a minority and then stop?

WARREN: I have told you, I have answered these questions; I am going to talk about what's happening to America's families.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

One Washington Post reporter blogged -- Warren has -- quote-- "met the repeated questions with a good, old-fashioned, political stonewall."

Fight for your Right to Potty

CampusReform.org reports a transgendered student at the University of Arkansas Fort Smith sued the school in order to use women's only bathrooms.

The school suggested the student, who is biologically male, use the gender-neutral bathrooms that are available.

When that didn't mollify that student, the Justice Department got involved and the school eventually reversed its policy.

DOJ said that the letter did not imply whether the school had broken a federal law and -- quote --"This was an initial inquiry, and the department never directed the University to take a specific action or change any of its policies."

A Daily Caller reporter who covers the Fast and Furious investigation says -- quote--"It's pretty clear the DOJ's priorities are out of whack...Eric Holder's troupe focuses on trivial matters while demonstrably failing to comply with all 22 parts of the congressional subpoena into Operation Fast and Furious."

Keep away from children

And finally, those little packets of detergent called Tide pods may be easy to carry to the next load of laundry but, they're not so great if your child is eyeing the packages too closely.

Apparently, children have mistaken the small boxes of detergent for candy and then eaten them

No children have died fortunately, but, Poison Control has been called several times already.

The brand's parent company Proctor and Gamble plans to create double latch lids to help keep the candy cravers away.

View the original article here

Alicia Silverstone chews food for her 11-month-old child, Bear Blu

Celebrities have a tendency to be a little on the quirky side, but is "Clueless" star Alicia Silverstone’s unique method of feeding her 11-month-old son Bear Blu clever or, well, clueless?

The actress and animal rights activist posted a video herself feeding her son breakfast on her popular health food website TheKindLife.com over the weekend.

“I fed Bear the mochi and a tiny bit of veggies from the soup…from my mouth to his. It’s his favorite...and mine,” Silverstone wrote. “He literally crawls across the room to attack my mouth if I’m eating. This video was taken about a month or 2 ago when he was a bit wobbly. Now he is grabbing my mouth to get the food!”

The video shows the actress taking a spoonful of food, chewing it, and then passing it open-mouth to her little one.

Which may not be such a great idea, say some medical and nutrition experts.

“There are those who think that a mom chewing a baby’s food provides helpful enzymes from her mouth but it doesn’t seem like a hygienic practice. Various viruses and bacteria, but especially herpes virus, may be passed from mother to baby,” Dr. Jennifer Landa, M.D Chief Medical Officer of BodyLogicMD told FOX411’s Pop Tarts column. “These microbes present a challenge that the infant’s immune system may not be ready for. So the practice is questionable for safety, and then, there’s a certain ick factor here that needs to be considered.” 

Dallas-based family therapist Melody Brooke said the bigger question was whether it is appropriate, on a psychological level,  for a toddler to be diving at their mom’s mouth for food. Mira Jacob, deputy editor of parenting site Babble.com, noted that while the concept itself isn’t all that unique, it does come across as – odd.

“A lot of moms chew a portion of their baby’s food; it’s often a very natural transition. But this just looks really funny, like Alicia is making out with her son,” Jacob mused. “There is nothing terribly wrong with it, it just looks really weird.”

Even JJ Virgin, Certified Nutrition Specialist and star of TLC’s “Freaky Eaters,” was a little freaked out.

“Sounds like she is taking eating like a bird to the extreme. While this could help predigest some of it as we start carbohydrate digestion in the mouth it could also pass along any bad oral bacteria she has too,” Virgin said. “I think a food processor and a spoon are a better bet!”

On the flipside, Heather Lounsbury, founder of LiveNaturalLiveWell.com said the Silverstone’s baby would have already been exposed to anything mom might have through being carried inside her and through her breast milk.

“I'm sure Alicia is brushing her teeth regularly as to not expose her baby to bacteria in her mouth. It is dangerous to try and live in a completely sterile environment, because it's impossible,” Lounsbury said. “And it doesn't allow for the body to fight minor infections so it can fight more serious illnesses it may be exposed to.”

The interesting feeding approach has generated mostly positive reactions from Silverstone’s blog followers.

“I had never thought of this before but it's the cutest way of feeding your baby! I have a 7 month old and I think I will try this method...she is always trying to lick my mouth anyways might as well give her a reward,” commented one fan, while another wrote that it was “so sweet.”

Jackie Keller, executive chef of Los Angeles healthy food company NutriFit still thinks such behavior would be better suited in the wild.

“I've never seen anything like this – except in the animal world where birds and some other species pre-chew their offspring's food,” she added. “I wonder what benefit there could possibly be to the child and the mom? Certainly there is no scientific literature that I'm aware of that promotes this type of behavior among humans.”

A rep for Silverstone did not respond to a request for comment.

View the original article here

Android, iPhone? Nope. The new battle is to be number 3

Remember when the high-tech hype came from trade shows focused on consumer electronics and computers? Today, it's shifted to mobile phones and wireless devices, and Mobile World Congress currently underway in Barcelona.

And some of the most interesting new introductions are aimed not at well-heeled techno-geeks but at regular folks with budgets and responsibilities.

Just last year, analysts and reviewers were ridiculing the new wave of phablets or super phones being announced at the 2012 Mobile World Congress. Those are the oversized, big-screen smartphones that were even mocked on Nickelodeon's teen sitcom "iCarly." Samsung proved the critics wrong, ushering in an era of phones with 4.5-, 4.7-, and even 5-inch screens. 

The company recognized that since we rarely use phones to make phone calls any more, larger screens are better for surfing the Web, posting to Facebook, and finding your way to the nearest Starbucks.

However, this year the big news is the fight not to be number one in the market or even number two. Google and Apple have already nailed down those positions. No, the battle over the next 12 months is going to be for the number three spot.

Blackberry has already announced its touch-screen BlackBerry Z10 model, which will launch in the U.S. in a few weeks. But while the company still has a foothold with some business users, the Z10 is expected to be priced at around $200, with a contract commitment. That's in the same pricing wheelhouse as high-end Android and iOS handsets; tough competition indeed. Those prices may also subvert BlackBerry's goals as other companies rush to cut prices.

For example, another former star of the cell phone galaxy, Nokia, is introducing an inexpensive Windows Phone 8 at the show. The snazzy Lumia 520 will cost roughly €140 in Europe, without any subsidies. So that means when it rolls out in the U.S. later this year on T-Mobile it will be probably be free -- with a contract, of course.

And then there's the Chinese firm Huawei, which is rolling out its own inexpensive Windows Phone 8 model, the Ascend W1. Priced at €120 without a contract, it will doubtless be subsidized as a free phone in the U.S. (The company will try to burnish its brand with a high-end model, too, that supports the LTE Cat 4 high-speed wireless standard with a theoretical download speed of 150Mbps -- depending on the network.)

Can you get cheaper than free? Maybe.

Web browser killer, Mozilla, announced in Barcelona that it will introduce a slew of Firefox OS-based handsets around the world this year. Firefox is already the number two browser behind Microsoft's Internet Explorer; now it's taking aim at the smartphone market.

In its announcement, Firefox said more than a dozen companies have promised to support the new OS, including Sprint Nextel in the U.S. and Deutsche Telekom, the parent company of T-Mobile USA. LG and Huawei plan to make Firefox OS phones, and an early Alcatel model looked sleek and simple. Companies like Twitter have already outlined their plans to make specific apps for the phone.

Mozilla is a non-profit company. And the apps for Firefox OS will be based on HTML 5, the Web language that promises to break open Apple's App store and enable a new generation of software. It could also mean lower costs for developers and the rapid introduction of supporting apps.

A non-profit company competing in the smartphone space?! After the Firefox announcement, I'm betting people at Microsoft were spewing a stream of expletives. How can they compete for the third spot against a(nother) company that essentially gives away its software for free. They must be thinking, "What kind of a &%#@ business is this?"

It's a mature business, that's what it is. That means Windows Phone 8 and BlackBerry 10 may be too late. There are already a billion smartphones in use around the world. The competition now is how to put the technology into the hands of the next billion users. Price is likely to be the major factor.

Some analysts may see this trend as a familiar phenomena in mature electronics and technology markets: the race toward the bottom. But that's a good thing for consumers. You'll no longer have to pony up hundreds of dollars for a smartphone that's obsolete in six months. 

Now if only the major carriers would lower their prices, too.

Follow John R. Quain on Twitter @jqontech or find more tech coverage at J-Q.com.

View the original article here

Paid to party: Celebs demand more money to do less 'work'

LOS ANGELES –  Last week, Paris Hilton, Paula Abdul and Holly Madison got their groove on a the Miami Music Week AVICII Pool Party, while former “Girl Next Door” Kendra Wilkinson-Baskett spent her Saturday basking in the sun at Wet Republic at MGM Grand Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. 

And they did not float around in their respective pools for free, or even for what they were paid to perform the exact same type of floating act the year before.

“The cost of hiring a celebrity to attend or host an event has risen over the past couple of years,” Elliot Stares, of the Miami-based PR consultancy ESPR, told FOX411’s Pop Tarts. “It's increasingly more difficult for a publicist or brand to garner editorial coverage for an event without a celebrity association.”

Kim Kardashian raised the paid-to-party bar, earning an unprecedented $600,000 to ring in last New Year’s at TAO Las Vegas, beating the records of other “professional partiers,” like Britney Spears, who raked in a reported $350,000 for her efforts sitting on a VIP stage at PURE nightclub on New Year’s Eve 2006, and Paris and Nicky Hilton, who together banked an estimated $500,000 to usher in 2008 at Vegas hotspot LAX.

So what does one earn to briefly show their C- to B-list face at an average function?

“At minimum, celebrities are getting $10,000 to $15,000 for a straight appearance, which often includes no more than ... a couple of photo ops,” one New York event publicist dished. “For a store opening in NYC last year, Blake Lively was paid $50,000 to just walk the carpet. She left ten minutes later.”

According to L.A publicist Ben Russo of EMC Bowery, the quest to get “talent” to an event is such a challenge, luring them with less “work” is becoming the norm.

“Gone are the days when they were contracted to stay all night and do a certain amount of interviews. All celebrities have to do now is a quick PR stunt. It’s usually in the contract that they only have to stay for an hour – and that includes the time taken to pick them up in a car,” Russo explained.

Corporate event sponsors -- the ones ultimately funding a star’s appearance -- are aware of the cheese factor associated with budgeting for celebrity guests, so they're often reaching out earlier in the PR process to secure a celebrity face.

“Brands are getting smarter about structuring deals, and ... using funds to secure a celebrity 'brand ambassador,'" a PR insider told us. "It makes the relationship seem more ‘organic.’’

This way, stars can earn thousands wearing a certain clothing brand, perfume line, or promoting a specific charity. “Every celebrity has their own charity now, so there needs to be some incentive,” Russo explained. “Stars are hit up dozens of times a month to attend these types of events, so they tend to choose wisely knowing that the charity is using their name and their likeness will stay online forever.”

And Hollywood types are also trying to guard against being branded as someone who just makes a living going to store openings and pool parties. This pushes publicists to find other ways for sponsors to pony up.

“Sometimes we provide hair and makeup or a car service, or benefit the celeb’s charity,” said Jose Martinez, VP of Brandlink Communications. Another source said stars are often “paid” with lavish gifts, or offered equity in the brand they are promoting. 

Take “Black Eyed Peas” singer Fergie for example, who announced her partnership with a Voli Light Vodka at an event in New York last week.

But for companies that can’t keep up with the celebrity demand for bigger bucks or bigger shares, it’s a problem.

 “This trend is getting worse. Celebrities are not showing up to support launches and celebrations unless they are paid, which as hurt the business drastically,” sniped one PR business owner. “Big brands get big names because they can afford it, while smaller companies are left struggling to either pay beyond their means, or suffer without a known name.”
 

View the original article here

'Make it or Break It': Family series promotes hard work, friendship, abstinence

ABC Family’s “Make It or Break It” is quite the departure from your typical teen high school drama centered on parties, boys, behaving badly and vying for a spot on the cheerleading squad.

For the elite teen gymnasts on this show, which premieres its third season Monday night, the stakes are much higher. At such a young age, these girls have an unwavering goal to make it to the Olympic Games – encouraging young audiences to not only dream big, but find a passion beyond Facebook, texting and trying to fit with the “in” crowd. 

“It embodies so many great morals and storylines, and teaches young girls about the ups and downs of life and to never give up,” star Cassie Scerbo told FOX411’s Pop Tarts column. “I also really encourages young people to be passionate about something in general, you see these young people that have really dedicated their lives to something.”

This season Scerbo’s character Lauren is struck down by a life-threatening illness right before the Olympic team cuts, and her persona as the “bully” in the group takes on a whole new spin.

“She is a bully and a bad girl – but it shows you that its often the bully that is the one who is insecure and has the issues,” Scerbo continued, adding that there’s even been times she’s been afraid to “walk down the street” as young fans of the show can get so incensed over her character’s schemes.

Co-star Alya Kell – who plays lovable good girl Payson – said the series, and in particular the forthcoming season, sheds light upon the importance of friendship and teamwork, and understanding the difference between winning for your country and winning for yourself. Season two explored the complicated issue of anorexia, and Kell hopes that teens will find inspiration in seeing healthy girls on their small screen.

“This isn’t a petty high school drama. It’s not about being only as good as your next boyfriend,” she explained. “And we look like normal girls standing there in our leotards. It all relates to dedication – you have to make sacrifices, eat properly and work hard to achieve your dreams.”

This past season also dealt with the controversial issue of teen pregnancy when one of the main characters, Emily, had to choose between having an abortion or surrendering her life long battle to be an Olympic medalist tobecome a young mother. She chose the latter.

“One little trip up and you can lose everything you’ve worked so hard for,” said Kell, while Scerbo added that the story line also posed the question as to whether certain things do happen for a reason.

Beyond just portraying the heavy consequences of teen sex, “Make it or Break it” also presents a strong argument for abstinence, with gym manager Summer, played by “Full House” alum Candace Cameron Bure, frequently voicing the importance of faith and God in her life, believing in something greater than oneself, and waiting for marriage to consummate a relationship.

“Abstinence is a choice that empowers you, supports self-respect and statistically ensures a more satisfying and stable marriage in the future,” she told the young gymnasts. “You have all chosen to do something very exciting with your young lives, so why put that at risk? The wisdom of knowing what you do today can affect you forever, that’s blessing.”

And despite the heavy content embedded into the otherwise “family” orientated show, Caroline Knorr, Parenting Editor of Common Sense Media, said television programs like this one present a fantastic opportunity for parents to have tough – but important – conversations with their kids.

“Whether it’s sex, violence, teen pregnancy, homosexuality, or other complicated issues, it can be a lot easier to have conversations outside your comfort zone when you're discussing fictional characters or situations,” she added. “It’s also amazing how kids are much more willing to open up when talking about other people rather than themselves. And because our kids are so inundated with media from all sides – taking advantage of the time you have with your kid to give your input goes a long way toward informing your kids’ values when they are away from you.”

“Make It or Break It” airs Monday at 9 p.m. on ABC Family.

View the original article here

Paid to party: Celebs demand more money to do less 'work'

LOS ANGELES –  Last week, Paris Hilton, Paula Abdul and Holly Madison got their groove on a the Miami Music Week AVICII Pool Party, while former “Girl Next Door” Kendra Wilkinson-Baskett spent her Saturday basking in the sun at Wet Republic at MGM Grand Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. 

And they did not float around in their respective pools for free, or even for what they were paid to perform the exact same type of floating act the year before.

“The cost of hiring a celebrity to attend or host an event has risen over the past couple of years,” Elliot Stares, of the Miami-based PR consultancy ESPR, told FOX411’s Pop Tarts. “It's increasingly more difficult for a publicist or brand to garner editorial coverage for an event without a celebrity association.”

Kim Kardashian raised the paid-to-party bar, earning an unprecedented $600,000 to ring in last New Year’s at TAO Las Vegas, beating the records of other “professional partiers,” like Britney Spears, who raked in a reported $350,000 for her efforts sitting on a VIP stage at PURE nightclub on New Year’s Eve 2006, and Paris and Nicky Hilton, who together banked an estimated $500,000 to usher in 2008 at Vegas hotspot LAX.

So what does one earn to briefly show their C- to B-list face at an average function?

“At minimum, celebrities are getting $10,000 to $15,000 for a straight appearance, which often includes no more than ... a couple of photo ops,” one New York event publicist dished. “For a store opening in NYC last year, Blake Lively was paid $50,000 to just walk the carpet. She left ten minutes later.”

According to L.A publicist Ben Russo of EMC Bowery, the quest to get “talent” to an event is such a challenge, luring them with less “work” is becoming the norm.

“Gone are the days when they were contracted to stay all night and do a certain amount of interviews. All celebrities have to do now is a quick PR stunt. It’s usually in the contract that they only have to stay for an hour – and that includes the time taken to pick them up in a car,” Russo explained.

Corporate event sponsors -- the ones ultimately funding a star’s appearance -- are aware of the cheese factor associated with budgeting for celebrity guests, so they're often reaching out earlier in the PR process to secure a celebrity face.

“Brands are getting smarter about structuring deals, and ... using funds to secure a celebrity 'brand ambassador,'" a PR insider told us. "It makes the relationship seem more ‘organic.’’

This way, stars can earn thousands wearing a certain clothing brand, perfume line, or promoting a specific charity. “Every celebrity has their own charity now, so there needs to be some incentive,” Russo explained. “Stars are hit up dozens of times a month to attend these types of events, so they tend to choose wisely knowing that the charity is using their name and their likeness will stay online forever.”

And Hollywood types are also trying to guard against being branded as someone who just makes a living going to store openings and pool parties. This pushes publicists to find other ways for sponsors to pony up.

“Sometimes we provide hair and makeup or a car service, or benefit the celeb’s charity,” said Jose Martinez, VP of Brandlink Communications. Another source said stars are often “paid” with lavish gifts, or offered equity in the brand they are promoting. 

Take “Black Eyed Peas” singer Fergie for example, who announced her partnership with a Voli Light Vodka at an event in New York last week.

But for companies that can’t keep up with the celebrity demand for bigger bucks or bigger shares, it’s a problem.

 “This trend is getting worse. Celebrities are not showing up to support launches and celebrations unless they are paid, which as hurt the business drastically,” sniped one PR business owner. “Big brands get big names because they can afford it, while smaller companies are left struggling to either pay beyond their means, or suffer without a known name.”
 

View the original article here

Alicia Silverstone chews food for her 11-month-old child, Bear Blu

Celebrities have a tendency to be a little on the quirky side, but is "Clueless" star Alicia Silverstone’s unique method of feeding her 11-month-old son Bear Blu clever or, well, clueless?

The actress and animal rights activist posted a video herself feeding her son breakfast on her popular health food website TheKindLife.com over the weekend.

“I fed Bear the mochi and a tiny bit of veggies from the soup…from my mouth to his. It’s his favorite...and mine,” Silverstone wrote. “He literally crawls across the room to attack my mouth if I’m eating. This video was taken about a month or 2 ago when he was a bit wobbly. Now he is grabbing my mouth to get the food!”

The video shows the actress taking a spoonful of food, chewing it, and then passing it open-mouth to her little one.

Which may not be such a great idea, say some medical and nutrition experts.

“There are those who think that a mom chewing a baby’s food provides helpful enzymes from her mouth but it doesn’t seem like a hygienic practice. Various viruses and bacteria, but especially herpes virus, may be passed from mother to baby,” Dr. Jennifer Landa, M.D Chief Medical Officer of BodyLogicMD told FOX411’s Pop Tarts column. “These microbes present a challenge that the infant’s immune system may not be ready for. So the practice is questionable for safety, and then, there’s a certain ick factor here that needs to be considered.” 

Dallas-based family therapist Melody Brooke said the bigger question was whether it is appropriate, on a psychological level,  for a toddler to be diving at their mom’s mouth for food. Mira Jacob, deputy editor of parenting site Babble.com, noted that while the concept itself isn’t all that unique, it does come across as – odd.

“A lot of moms chew a portion of their baby’s food; it’s often a very natural transition. But this just looks really funny, like Alicia is making out with her son,” Jacob mused. “There is nothing terribly wrong with it, it just looks really weird.”

Even JJ Virgin, Certified Nutrition Specialist and star of TLC’s “Freaky Eaters,” was a little freaked out.

“Sounds like she is taking eating like a bird to the extreme. While this could help predigest some of it as we start carbohydrate digestion in the mouth it could also pass along any bad oral bacteria she has too,” Virgin said. “I think a food processor and a spoon are a better bet!”

On the flipside, Heather Lounsbury, founder of LiveNaturalLiveWell.com said the Silverstone’s baby would have already been exposed to anything mom might have through being carried inside her and through her breast milk.

“I'm sure Alicia is brushing her teeth regularly as to not expose her baby to bacteria in her mouth. It is dangerous to try and live in a completely sterile environment, because it's impossible,” Lounsbury said. “And it doesn't allow for the body to fight minor infections so it can fight more serious illnesses it may be exposed to.”

The interesting feeding approach has generated mostly positive reactions from Silverstone’s blog followers.

“I had never thought of this before but it's the cutest way of feeding your baby! I have a 7 month old and I think I will try this method...she is always trying to lick my mouth anyways might as well give her a reward,” commented one fan, while another wrote that it was “so sweet.”

Jackie Keller, executive chef of Los Angeles healthy food company NutriFit still thinks such behavior would be better suited in the wild.

“I've never seen anything like this – except in the animal world where birds and some other species pre-chew their offspring's food,” she added. “I wonder what benefit there could possibly be to the child and the mom? Certainly there is no scientific literature that I'm aware of that promotes this type of behavior among humans.”

A rep for Silverstone did not respond to a request for comment.

View the original article here

Do reality shows that makeover schools do more harm than good?

ESPN confirmed this week that it has no plans for another season of “Rise Up,” a reality series that was supposed to give needy high schools’ athletic facilities an upgrade. 

It sounds like that's fine with Ingraham High.

Traci Huffer, Athletic Director at Ingraham High School, which participated in “Rise Up,” said the school will need to wait “a few years” before agreeing to do a makeover-type program again.

“I am still cleaning up some of the things that didn’t go the way they were supposed to go,” Huffer said, adding that she would rather “remain gracious to the things they gave us” instead of elaborating on what went wrong.

“Overall it was a positive experience, but there are a few things we have to clean up,” she said. “It was also a little time consuming and with the district being short on funds, it’s now in our hands.”

(An ESPN rep said said that the school's renovation was not the sole responsibility of "Rise Up,"  and that many goods and services were donated by local businesses and people in the community.)

"Rise Up" is the latest school makeover show to get the axe.

ABC’s “Food Revolution,” which focused on overhauling unhealthy school lunch menus, was canceled midseason with slipping ratings. NBC’s “School Pride,” which renovated aging school buildings, was not renewed for a second season. And ratings aside, several of the schools involved in the shows ended up on the short end of things.

The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) refused to allow Jamie Oliver’s “Food Revolution” cameras inside their campuses last year on the heels of a “bad experience” filming NBC’s “School Pride.”

“‘School Pride’ wanted us to re-do some things on our campus and we ended up with a $106,000 tab for work they were suppose to do,” LAUSP rep Robert Alaniz claimed. “They did one coat of paint on one building and the paint was peeling in two weeks. They reneged on reimbursing us and we had to use tax payer money to fix that.”

Alaniz said the decision to turn way Oliver was cemented after someone from the Cabell County School District – which was featured on Season One of Oliver’s show – told them the show ran their finances into the red and didn’t pay its end of the deal. A rep for the Cabell County School District declined to comment. 

Tracy Handline, a teacher at Needles High School in California which also took part in “School Pride,” said that while the show did benefit the community, it wasn’t all it was fluffed up to be on the small screen.

“They did make some improvements, but they didn’t do major change. It was pretty cosmetic, there was no systematic change in the way things happened,” she explained. “What the show tried to do was expose some kind of dirty dealing. They come in and do all this interviewing like they are exposing some big thing, then they leave. We are this little tiny town that has to deal with all the people that may have gotten their feelings hurt. (Producers came to us) asking for referrals and our involvement, but the show made it look is that the students wrote in and sent a video but that is not actually what happened."

“It's no surprise that (being featured) can end up costing already cash-strapped schools lots of taxpayer money. This is money better spent on good teachers, renovation and new technology,” communications and PR expert Jason Maloni, of Levick Strategic Communications, told FOX411’s Pop Tarts column. “It's unfair to cast students in the roles of ‘savior.’”

However, L.A.-based television producer, Dianne Namm, argued that school makeover shows do shed light on important issues.

“America's school system is in need of attention. Hollywood's desire to make us aware of that is a genuine one,” she explained. “Perhaps the (reality show) format isn't yet right, but the basic story premise, that our schools need our help, as do our children who attend them, is what matters.”

Justin Hochberg of The Hochberg Ebersol Company, an unscripted television-focused production company, agreed that in focusing on school-related concerns, rather than ignoring them, helps the end goals of raising money, increasing community involvement and creating necessary change.

“As an example, our USA Network special “NFL Characters Unite” featured a student at Clairton High School in Pennsylvania.  Our efforts not only changed one teen’s life, but transformed his school’s community,” he claimed. “They felt listened to and had a greater sense of togetherness as a result of participating in our program, and that is a fantastic example of the positive power of television.”

But based on the mixed grades many school “makeover” shows seem to have earned from schools and audiences, some industry experts predict that this reality sub-genre that will stay in Hollywood detention for a little while longer.

 “The only ‘school on TV’ that’s ever gotten high attendance was Flavor Flav’s ‘Charm School,”  former reality television producer Mikey Glazer added. “Right now, ratings suggest that America would rather watch bikini bachelor cattiness, or women throwing champagne glasses at each other’s head or social climbers marrying NBA players.” 

ABC did not respond to a request for comment and NBC declined to comment.

Danielle Jones-Wesley contributed to this report.

View the original article here

Pamela Anderson okay with sons experimenting with alcohol and drugs

Long gone are the days of running up and down the beach in slow motion. Instead, Pamela Anderson says she's busy being mom to her sons with ex-husband Tommy Lee, Brandon Thomas, 15, and Dylan Jagger, 13.

But the former “Baywatch” beauty isn’t stressing about keeping her kids away from the temptations of Tinseltown. In a “diary” entry entitled “Intuitive Parenting,” posted on her website last year, Anderson wrote about her desires for her young ones to “learn to eat right,” “honor their instincts,” “never bully” and…

“We want them to practice safe sex, drink and experiment with drugs in moderation, find true love,” the post continued.

Hold up. Experiment with drugs in moderation?

“I really believe in my kids. My kids have had a great foundation, they have seen the world,” Anderson explained to FOX411’s Pop Tarts column when we asked about her approach to parenting. “They’ve made great choices. They are really smart people, I am not afraid of my kids surfing the Internet. I think they are making proper decisions and you can’t be in denial of what life has to offer. I don’t know how much of a role model their parents are, but we’ve had a lot of fun.”

Anderson told us about her parenting style at a press conference announcing her spokeswoman role with FrogAds.com, a giant classifieds site.

“My kids are technologists, I’m not, and it is easy for me to use,” she said. “It’s Craiglist for blondes. If I can do it, anyone can do it.”

Danielle Jones-Wesley contributed to this report.
 

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Pro-life 'October Baby' rejected by major studios, blitzes box office

“The Hunger Games” wasn’t the only film to hit box office paydirt this past weekend. Although it only opened in 390 theaters, the anti-abortion drama “October Baby,” starring John Schneider,earned the second-highest-per-screen average, bringing in almost $2 million in ticket sales.

“I was shattered when I first learned about the story. I was moved and mesmerized. I wasn’t an activist, I was just someone who was shattered by the truth,” director Jon Erwin told FOX411’s Pop Tarts. “Here is our little film, small budget, in the top ten (at the box office). We are thrilled, blown away.”

“October Baby” follows the emotional journey of a young woman who learns that she was almost aborted, but at the last minute was instead given up for adoption. The film almost didn’t see the light of day.

“This film couldn’t find a home, no studio wanted to touch it. It was considered too controversial,” Erwin continued. “There was a real moment of despair at one point, the film wasn’t finished and nobody would take a look at it. But every time we screened it, it attracted such intense emotional reactions. So we had to raise the money ourselves, and the release process took much longer than we wanted.”

According to Dr. Ted Baehr, founder of the Christian movie site Movieguide.org, the success of “October Baby” can be attributed to a strong Christian and moral world view that touched the hearts of those who saw it. He says it’s important for more audiences to have the chance to see it, too.

“All who see it should be transformed, so considering the importance of the message, everyone should see it,” he said. “It needs more theatrical exposure.”

Erwin said they are hoping for a wider release next month, and communities are so desperate to see the film they are forming “action squads” in which Christian schools, churches and residents are coming together and agreeing to buy a certain amount of tickets to cover costs.

“We don’t have the deep pockets and resources that big studios have,” Erwin added. “So we have to take the long approach. But people are really getting behind this and rallying. People identify with it, that’s why the film worked.”

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Grapevine: Facebook a marriage killer?

And now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine...

Not News

The big story Monday that 43 Catholic institutions across the country have filed more than a dozen lawsuits against the Obama administration was pretty much absent from the network evening newscasts.

Neither NBC Nightly News nor ABC World News included any mention of the legal fight specifically targeting the president's health care law and the HHS contraception mandate that the plaintiffs say is a threat to religious freedom.

CBS Evening News spent 19 seconds on the subject -- a significant legal action by a cross-section of Catholic institutions against an administration in an election year.

Media Research Center President Brent Bozell said quote -- "If this isn't 'news' then there's no such thing as news."

It's Complicated

A status update for Facebook's troubled initial public offering could be described as "it's complicated."

Facebook stock fell again today, down $11-a-share from Friday's high as questions mount over the company's financial prospects and ability to grow fast enough to meet the hype surrounding its stock.

Meanwhile, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has changed his relationship status to married, tying the knot over the weekend to his college sweetheart.

However, the social networking site apparently can become a problem for couples. A recent survey out of the United Kingdom says more than a third of divorce filings last year contained the word Facebook.

To the LGBT Rescue

And has Superman been hiding a super secret?

DC Comics raised eyebrows today by announcing plans to "out" one of its major superheroes next month as openly gay.

Insiders say it will be an existing well-known character previously assumed to be straight. Some of DC Comics iconic characters include Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and the Green Lantern.

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Grapevine: Fight for your right to potty

And now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine...

Family Tree

Questions about Democratic Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren's purported Native American heritage are not going away and are actually taking a more prominent placement in some left-leaning publications asking whether she used a self-proclaimed minority status to get ahead.

The Boston Globe reports that new documents show Harvard University reported for six straight years in federal diversity statistics its employment of a Native American woman in the law school Elizabeth Warren

And while Warren has claimed she was unaware of how Harvard was promoting her heritage until she read it in the paper, only days ago, Harvard officials and federal guidelines say those statistics are usually based on the employee's self-descriptions.

The administrator for Harvard's diversity statistics from that time, and a citizen of the Cherokee nation himself, also said the school always accepted faculty members' identification.

Meanwhile, the candidate is desperately trying to move on from reporters' questions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Elizabeth, can you put this issue to bed and tell us whether or not you are in fact a member of a minority group?

ELIZABETH WARREN, D - MA, SENATE CANDIDATE: So, I uh -- middle class families are getting hammered.

REPORTER: Members of the Cherokee Nation want to know, they say you should come clean

WARREN: I have made the facts clear, and what I'm trying to do is talk about in this Senate race what matters to America's families.

REPORTER: Why did you claim you were a minority and then stop?

WARREN: I have told you, I have answered these questions; I am going to talk about what's happening to America's families.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

One Washington Post reporter blogged -- Warren has -- quote-- "met the repeated questions with a good, old-fashioned, political stonewall."

Fight for your Right to Potty

CampusReform.org reports a transgendered student at the University of Arkansas Fort Smith sued the school in order to use women's only bathrooms.

The school suggested the student, who is biologically male, use the gender-neutral bathrooms that are available.

When that didn't mollify that student, the Justice Department got involved and the school eventually reversed its policy.

DOJ said that the letter did not imply whether the school had broken a federal law and -- quote --"This was an initial inquiry, and the department never directed the University to take a specific action or change any of its policies."

A Daily Caller reporter who covers the Fast and Furious investigation says -- quote--"It's pretty clear the DOJ's priorities are out of whack...Eric Holder's troupe focuses on trivial matters while demonstrably failing to comply with all 22 parts of the congressional subpoena into Operation Fast and Furious."

Keep away from children

And finally, those little packets of detergent called Tide pods may be easy to carry to the next load of laundry but, they're not so great if your child is eyeing the packages too closely.

Apparently, children have mistaken the small boxes of detergent for candy and then eaten them

No children have died fortunately, but, Poison Control has been called several times already.

The brand's parent company Proctor and Gamble plans to create double latch lids to help keep the candy cravers away.

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Grapevine: Obama birth certificate case finally closed?

And now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine...

Case Closed

Arizona's Secretary of State says the case is closed in the birth certificate kerfuffle stemming from his request that Hawaii provide additional verification President Obama was, in fact, born there.

As we have reported, Aloha State officials have repeatedly confirmed President Obama's birth in the state and last April the White House released his long-form birth certificate.

Today, Secretary of State Ken Bennett in Arizona, explained he only pursued the issue on behalf of constituent requests, adding -- quote -- "[Hawaiian officials] complied with the request and I consider the matter closed."

Bennett said Tuesday if his actions embarrassed the state of Arizona he was sorry.

Hard-Hitting

A pinata with South Carolina Republican Governor Nikki Haley's face on it was the guest of dishonor at a retirement dinner for the outgoing president of the state's AFLCIO union.

Here you can see Donna Dewitt repeatedly bashing the Haley effigy to the enthusiastic delight of her fellow progressives.

Dewitt says she has no regrets because it was all in good fun.

However, the Washington-based AFLCIO disagreed saying it was an inappropriate joke.

Governor Haley tweeted the video adding -- quote -- "Wow. I wonder if the unions think this kind of thing will make people take them seriously."

1915-2012

Finally, the man who made channel surfing possible died over the weekend at age 96.

Eugene Polley invented the wireless television remote control back in 1955.

Polley began his career with Zenith Electronics in the stockroom before rising through the engineering ranks.

Ten years ago, Polley proudly said his Flash-Matic remote was the next most important civilized invention after the flush toilet.

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