Forsyth hurt by 'Strictly' criticism

Bruce Forsyth has admitted that he was hurt by criticism of his performance on Strictly Come Dancing this year.

The 80-year-old TV host confirmed that he is unsure about how long he will stick with the programme after struggling to keep up with the pace on the most recent series.

"When you're 80 you don't have many plans for the future. So we'll have to see what happens," he told the Daily Star Sunday.

"This series has been particularly hard, especially with all the criticism I've had to face. If I make a mistake I'm labelled as being doddery and not up to it.

"I had to pace myself. I had to rest a lot and made sure I lay in bed a long time. It was the only way I got through it. I spoke to my doctor as I got quite ill towards the end and he reckoned the reason I was still able to carry on was all to do with my adrenalin."

source digitalspy.co.uk

John Sergeantgate - John Sergeant & Kristina Rihanoff Did They Resign Or Were They Pushed Off Strictly Come Dancing

Who amongst us doesn't like a good conspiracy theory , well it may not rank well amongst the 911 Kennedy or the Diana ones, and wont be of any interest to people outside the UK, but I think the majority of the people have missed a good one in the resignation of john sergeant from this years strictly come dancing (dancing with the stars everywhere else).

Political journalist John Sergeant was by far the peoples choice to win this dancing competition. They voted for him in their droves week after week. Despite being the professional dance judges bottom place selection, and much to those same judges annoyance. Yes in the British public collective consciousness, sense of mischief, love of the underdog, call it what you will, they kept this nice guy in the competition.

However the British public have been cheated of their Saturday night fun by John Sergeants shock resignation from the competition this week. He has given many press conferences, and appearances on TV explaining his decision, but here is where I think the public are missing a chance for a great conspiracy theory fest , or gate (gate being the prefix we add to all conspiracies). Yes in my opinion we are missing the John Sergeantgate story.

Here is the evidence, strictly come dancing or dancing with the stars, is one of the BBC's biggest money making shows, rightly or wrongly (wrongly in my opinion) the BBC thought that John Sergeant, a lesser dancer, was making a mockery of the format and possibly damaging a profitable cash cow, and whereas in recent years they just would have massaged the public vote to get rid of him, at the last minute, recent attention to this practice has made this impossible to achieve this year. So left with the only option available to them they pushed him into resigning, After all he does work for the BBC. Lets see how much work they push his way in the future, for following the party whip so to speak.

The British public should feel cheated (I know I do), by John Sergeantgate. and if the BBC don't want to play by their own rules they should get rid of the public vote entirely, and if not we (the public) should stop voting.

The people should not let the BBC and powers that be get away with removing John Sergeant, People say no to John Sargeantgate and vote with your feet (or fingers in this case), and stop calling in to vote in these reality shows. If they don't want to play nice we should say in the words of Eric Cartman in south park, screw you guys we're going home.

Google CEO: Internet search is actually benefiting from recession

Google announced a 26 percent rise in third quarter profits on, while also dropping strong hints that even the phenomenally successful search engine giant has concerns about how to keep thriving during the tougher economic times ahead.

"Thanks to everybody's hard work. Google had a good quarter. Traffic and revenue were both solid and we kept tight control on costs," summed up Google CEO Eric Schmidt, during a conference call with analysts today.

Google wasn't the only technology company to show good profits during the economic slowdown between July of September of this year. But in a way, Google actually benefited from the slowdown, Schmidt suggested. "Year-on-year, for example, search query traffic is growing in almost every vertical," according to the CEO.

"We believe that these results reflect the fact that as marketing budgets are squeezed, targeted, measurable ads are becoming more valuable to advertisers. As consumer budgets are squeezed, people use the web for comparison shopping to hunt for bargains online and in stores."

Nonetheless, Schmidt also acknowledged during today's call that achieving profitability over upcoming quarters might well be harder.

"I think everybody on the call and listening understands that it is pretty clear the economic situation today globally is worse than people were predicting just a month ago," he told analysts.

Aside from a 26 percent increase in year-over-year third quarter profits, Google this week announced quarterly revenues of $5.54 billion, representing a 31 percent gain over the third quarter of 2007 but only a 3 percent increase over the second quarter of 2008.

How will Google manage in upcoming financial quarters? Google, Schmidt said, will continue to funnel most of its investments into its core business of search -- the same area he pointed to as showing itself rather recession-proof during the third quarter.

"Our user experience is getting much better. Index size is getting much larger, greater personalization for better results globally for every user, lots and lots of language support, more highly relevant ads against as many queries as possible and using more sophisticated tools for advanced bidding and measurement and optimization," according to Schmidt.

"Advertisers, who understand that advertising is directly correlated with revenue, can use those tools to maximize revenue based on the terms that they set and based on the budgets, which is what they care about."

Learn How Anyone Can Survive In An Economic Recession

Japan police fooled by life-sized doll

TOKYO - Police were trying to determine Tuesday whether they were the victim of a hoax after the body they thought they found at a seaside resort was actually a life-sized doll.

Investigators found what seemed like a body wrapped in a sleeping bag in a forest in Izu City, a seaside resort in central Japan, after an anonymous caller reported seeing it, a Shizuoka prefecture spokeswoman said on condition of anonymity, citing department policy.

Investigators never actually looked inside the sleeping bag and brought it back to the city police station for a post-mortem examination, the spokeswoman said. Apparently no one doubted a human body was inside until a medical examiner unwrapped it and found the doll, she said.

The Asahi newspaper said the doll was sophisticated and life-sized and wore a brown wig, a blouse and a skirt.

Thought control: it's the computer world's latest game plan

First came the joystick. Then came the motion-sensing Wii remote. Now get ready for another radical and rather unsettling leap in video games technology: thought control.

Satoru Iwata, the president and chief executive of Nintendo - which is expected to sell about 25million units of its successful Wii video games console this financial year - has no doubts about the next gaming boom. “As soon as we think something in our brain, it will appear within a video game,” he told The Times in an exclusive interview.

“You'll probably need to wear some kind of hat or helmet or something.”

As far-fetched as it sounds, Mr Iwata's claim - which brings to mind the plot of Craig Thomas's bestselling 1977 novel Firefox, about a mind-reading Soviet fighter aircraft - is already coming true: the world's first thought-controlled game is expected to be launched by the Sydney company Emotiv by the end of this year.

Co-founded by Allan Snyder, a neuroscientist and former University of Cambridge research fellow, Emotiv says its EPOC headset features 16 sensors that push against the player's scalp to measure electrical activity in the brain - a process known as electro-encephalography. In theory, this allows the player to spin, push, pull, and lift objects on a computer monitor, simply by thinking.

Despite widespread scepticism, pre-release tests have suggested that the technology works. “This is the tip of the iceberg for what is possible,” said Tan Le, another of Emotiv's co-founders, during a recent press demonstration. “There will be a convergence of gesture-based technology and the brain as a new interface - the Holy Grail is the mind.”

Mr Iwata, in Los Angeles for the video games industry's annual E3 conference, is credited with a revolution of the video games industry with his Wii remote, many of which have been hurled at television screens or living-room walls after overenthusiastic players lost their grip amid virtual tennis tournaments or boxing rounds. He did not comment on Emotiv's headset but said he believed that fully thought-controlled games were still years away: “We don't have that kind of technology right now, but when we're talking about a 20-year time period, anything's possible.

“If you look back 20 years from today, things that were thought impossible are now the reality - for example, it was a distant dream that we would construct a 3D world with computer graphics.”

The US military has been working on thought-control technology for years. Most of the projects that it has made public, however, have focused on thought-reading systems rather than, say, thought-guided missiles.

Last month the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa), an arm of the US Defence Department, said it had awarded a $6.7 million contract to Northrop Grumman to develop “brainwave binoculars”. The binoculars use scalp-mounted sensors to detect objects the user might have seen but not noticed - in other words, the computer is used as a kind of brain-aid, giving the user superhuman vision.

source http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/gadgets_and_gaming/article4354041.ece

Charlton Heston A Tribute To A Hollywood Legend

Charlton Heston, who won a best actor Oscar for his starring role in the epic Ben Hur has died, a spokesman for the star's family has said.

Heston died on Saturday 6th April at his home in Beverly Hills with his wife Lydia, whom he married in 1944, at his side.

Whether starring as Judah Ben Hur, Michelangelo or Moses, Charlton Heston personified the larger-than-life heroes of the Hollywood epic.

Charlton Heston's life story reads like a film script. From the backwoods of Michigan, he became one of the world's most famous faces, a high-profile campaigner for Civil Rights and an unapologetic president of America's National Rifle Association.

He was born John Charles Carter in Evanston, Illinois.

By his own admission "shy, skinny, short and pimply", he studied acting before serving for three years in the US Air Force.

In 1952, after working on Broadway, Heston starred as the ringmaster in the movie, The Greatest Show on Earth. Four years later, he appeared as Moses in The Ten Commandments, the role which would define his career.

Physically imposing at six foot four, with granite-hewn features and a deep, sonorous voice, he radiated screen presence.

No role was too big for Heston. In The Greatest Story Ever Told, he was John the Baptist; he played El Cid, along with Michelangelo in The Agony and the Ecstasy and General Gordon in Khartoum.

And, in 1959, he won an Oscar for Best Actor for his performance in Ben Hur.

The science fiction film, Planet of the Apes, proved a big commercial success in the late 1960s, and Heston almost became a fixture in 1970s disaster movies like Earthquake and Skyjacked.

And his big-screen performance in the environmentally-tinged sci-fi thriller, Soylent Green, brought him cult status among a younger audience.

The 1980s saw a rare foray onto television, as Jason Colby in The Colbys.

But, later in his career, Heston turned increasingly back to the stage

On 9 August 2002, he issued a statement, announcing that his doctors had diagnosed "a neurological disorder whose symptoms are consistent with Alzheimer's disease".

Charlton Heston, along with many critics, felt his best film performance was as the shy, awkward ranch hand in Will Penny.

And while Charlton Heston will always be identified with heroes who lived before the birth of his country, it was perhaps the American pioneer who was closest to his heart.

A passing of a true Hollywood legend, Charlton Heston will be sadly missed.

How is the Olympic flame kept alight?

Visiting 135 cities in 21 countries, covering 137,000 kms in 130 days. How does the Olympic flame remain burning, even on a plane?

When the Olympic torch is paraded through London on Sunday, all eyes will be on stars like Dame Kelly Holmes and cricketer Kevin Pietersen.

According to the strict traditions of the Olympic movement, and to mark the ancient rituals of the Games, the flame must be kept alive until the closing ceremony of the Games in Beijing in August.

That's all very well when the cameras are rolling and the torch is in the safe hands of a double gold medallist or a world-class cricketer.

But what about the more mundane parts of the journey?

A team of about 10 "flame attendants" is responsible for the 24-hour, safe passage of the flame, which has been ignited by the sun's rays on the ancient site of Olympia in Greece.

The torch, which is fuelled by propane, is used to carry the flame during each day's relays, when runners in the relay city carry it, mostly on foot.

But there are several lanterns which are lit from the same source and they keep the flame alive at night or on aircraft when the torch is extinguished.

For air travel, where open flames are not allowed, the flame burns in the enclosed lanterns, which act like miner's lamps.

The torch, the lanterns and the team of attendants, plus other security, fly in a specially-chartered Air China plane bearing an Olympic flame design.

'Always burning'

The lanterns spend each night in a single hotel room with three guards - one of which must be awake at any time.

"Security people try their best to keep the flame safe," says a spokeswoman for the Beijing Organising Committee.

"The flame is always burning, whether on the plane or during the relay or overnight. It's kept in the hotel where the core operation team is staying."

The convoy accompanying the torch while it makes its way through city streets has more than 20 vehicles provided by the relay city and they escort the torch in a set order (a section of which is pictured above).

Most of this journey is on foot, but other modes of transport over the years have included dog sled, horse, canoe and camel.

In London, it will be carried on two boats, a bike, a bus and the Docklands Light Railway.

For a trip across the Great Barrier Reef before the 2000 Olympic Games, a special torch was designed to burn underwater.

The flame made its first trip in a plane in 1952 and has also travelled on Concorde. The torch, but not the flame, has twice been into space.

The torch itself has been produced to withstand winds of up to 65 kilometres per hour and to stay alight in rain up to 50mm an hour. But should it go out, it is lit from one of the lanterns.

This was needed in 2004 when the flame went out in the Panathinaiko Stadium in Athens at the start of the torch relay.

It also went out in 1976 after the Montreal Olympics had started and an official mistakenly relit it using a cigarette lighter. That was doused and it was relit again using the special lantern flame.

Keeping the flame alive is a tradition that began in Olympia in Greece, where the Ancient Olympic Games took place. Fire had divine associations because it was believed Prometheus had stolen it from the Gods.

A flame burned throughout the Games on the altar of the goddess Hestia, situated in the Prytaneum, the building used for the post-Games banquets.

This fire was lit by the sun's rays and it was used to light other fires of the sanctuary, such as the altars of Zeus - the Games were held in his honour - and Hera.

To honour this, the present Olympic torch relay begins at the Temple of Hera several months before the Games, where it is lit by a woman in ceremonial robes using a mirror and the sun.

This gives the flame a purity that is maintained until it enters the Olympics stadium for the opening ceremony.

The final torchbearer, whose identity is kept secret until the last moment, lights the monumental Olympic cauldron in the stadium, which is kept alight until the closing ceremony.

The Olympic flame was reintroduced to the modern Olympics in Amsterdam in 1928 and the first torch relay was held eight years later in Berlin.

This became a global event for the Athens Games in 2004, which meant that honouring the tradition of keeping the flame going became more difficult.

source : BBC

Writer Arthur C Clarke dies at 90

British science fiction writer Sir Arthur C Clarke has died in Sri Lanka at the age of 90.

The Somerset-born author came to fame in 1968 when short story The Sentinel was made into the film 2001: A Space Odyssey by director Stanley Kubrick.

Sir Arthur's vision of future space travel and computing captured the popular imagination.

An aide said he died at 0130 local time in what had been his homeland since 1956 after a cardio-respiratory attack.

Vivid descriptions

A farmer's son, Sir Arthur was educated at Huish's Grammar School in Taunton before joining the civil service.

During World War II, he volunteered for the Royal Air Force, where he worked in the then highly-secretive development of radar, and foresaw the concept of communication satellites.

Sir Arthur's vivid and detailed descriptions of space shuttles, super-computers and rapid communications systems were enjoyed by millions of readers around the world.

In the 1940s, he maintained man would reach the moon by the year 2000, an idea dismissed at the time.

He was the author of more than 100 fiction and non-fiction books, and his writings are credited by many observers with giving science fiction a human and practical face. He collaborated on the screenplay for 2001: A Space Odyssey with Kubrick.

'Great prophet'

British astronomer Sir Patrick Moore had known Sir Arthur since they met as teenagers at the British Interplanetary Society.

Sir Patrick paid tribute to his friend, remembering him as "a very sincere person" with "a strong sense of humour".

Tributes have also come from George Whitesides, the executive director of the National Space Society, with which Sir Arthur served on the board of governors, and fellow science fiction writer Terry Pratchett.

In 1956, after a failed marriage, Sir Arthur moved to Sri Lanka - then called Ceylon - where he lived with a business partner and his family, and pursued his interest in scuba-diving.

His status as the grand old man of science fiction was threatened in 1998 by allegations of child abuse.

He strenuously denied them and was later cleared by an investigation, but the claims caused the confirmation of a knighthood to be delayed.

Since 1995, the author had been largely confined to a wheelchair by post-polio syndrome.

Source BBC News

Airbus A380 to make UK commercial debut

The Airbus A380 "super-jumbo" is due to make its European commercial debut when a flight from Singapore lands at London's Heathrow airport.
Singapore Airlines is the first carrier to operate the new double-decker aircraft on revenue-earning services.

Flight SQ308 is due to arrive at Heathrow at 1505 GMT today 18th march.

British Airways has ordered 12 of the airliners, due to be delivered from 2012, while Virgin Atlantic has ordered six, to arrive from 2013.

The Singapore Airlines flight is expected to have up to 470 passengers on board, each of whom will receive a personalised certificate to commemorate the historic first flight to the UK.

The carrier has three A380s in service, with 16 more on order, and has been using them on flights between Singapore and Sydney, Australia, since October 2007.

Environmental claims

The A380 made its Heathrow debut in May 2006, when a pre-production aircraft arrived to test facilities.

Heathrow's owner BAA has constructed a special pier at Terminal 3 to accommodate A380s, which will also be flown to the airport by Dubai-based Emirates.

Pier 6, as it is known, was completed in 2006 at a cost of £105m and provides space for four of the double-deck airliners.

Other works, costing more than £340m, had to be carried out on the airfield to allow for operations by the world's largest commercial airliner.

Runways had to be resurfaced, lighting upgraded and taxiways changed in preparation for the A380.

Terminal 5, which was opened by the Queen last Friday, will also be able to handle the airliner when it enters service with British Airways.

Airbus is making bold claims for the A380's impact on the environment, saying the aircraft burns 17% less fuel per seat than the current largest airliner.

The company argues that equates to the airliner producing 75g of CO2 per passenger and per kilometre.

Inaugural flight

Friends of the Earth is not convinced by that argument, saying that while cleaner aircraft are required, it expects any benefits to be undermined by the forecast rapid growth in demand for air travel.

Singapore Airlines say the start of commercial A380 services to London will be a "proud moment" for the UK aviation sector.

The airliner's wings are made at Broughton in north Wales and at Filton in Bristol. The Rolls-Royce engines that power Singapore's fleet are built at Derby.

Among those on board the inaugural flight will be Mark Wright from Northamptonshire.

He is a member of the enthusiasts' group First to Fly - who have been onboard a number of inaugural flights.

"I have long been an aviation enthusiast and was really keen on Concorde although I was never fortunate to fly on it," he said.

"I saw the A380 when it came to Farnborough in 2006 and thought it looked terrific. I was particularly impressed with the wings. They were amazing."

source BBC News

New York to Send Construction Crane Remains for Forensics Tests

March 17 (Bloomberg) -- New York City workers will dismantle the remnants of a construction crane that collapsed and killed at least four people and send them to a forensics laboratory for testing, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

The collapse on Saturday of the 200-foot crane at 303 East 51st St., between First and Second Avenues, destroyed adjacent buildings, killed four construction workers and injured two dozen people. Rescue workers were awaiting the removal of the remaining pieces of the crane before searching the rubble with hand tools and sounding devices for additional victims, Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta said.

The city's Department of Buildings had looked at the crane the day before the accident, Bloomberg said. The inspectors had visited because high winds were forecast and they were checking on debris. The forensics test will try to determine whether the crane experienced a mechanical failure, he said. About 250 construction cranes are in use around the city.

``We are not going to shut down all construction,'' Bloomberg said.

Residents in the area were concerned that the construction site was unsafe, said U.S. Representative Carolyn Maloney, a New York Democrat. Over the past 27 months, 38 complaints were answered, and 14 violations cited at the project, a planned 43- story apartment building, said Building Commissioner Patricia Lancaster. None of the violations concerned the crane.

`Breakneck Speed'

``Everyone in the neighborhood I know who lives or works there said this was an accident waiting to happen,'' said Michael Lucas, who lives at 301 East 52nd Street, and has an art gallery, the Phyllis Lucas Gallery, on 52nd Street. ``They were erecting that building at breakneck speed.''

Bruce Silberblatt could see the 200-foot crane towering over the construction site from the window of his apartment in the United Nations Plaza Tower at 48th Street and First Avenue. Silberblatt, 80, was president of S.S. Silberblatt Inc. a building contractor that constructed many of the city's public housing high-rises, he said. He retired in 1980.

``When you install a tower crane like this one, you try to locate it as close as possible to the building you're putting up,'' he said in a phone interview. ``But this particular crane was apart from the building. It was about 12 to 13 feet away as best as I was able to judge.''

On the afternoon of March 4, Silberblatt called the city Building Department to complain.

The department sent inspectors, and they found the crane to be in compliance with building codes.

``They weren't violating the code, but they were violating the laws of nature,'' he said. ``I don't make complaints idly.''

Cascading Metal

A metal collar meant to brace the crane instead fell into the ninth-floor brace, which then cascaded down to the third- floor brace, Lancaster, the city building commissioner, said at a press conference yesterday. A counterbalance caused the crane to pull away from the building, she said, sending it crashing south across 51st Street all the way to 50th street, damaging and destroying buildings as it fell.

``Construction costs go up 1 percent every month, we do have to build fast,'' said Manhattan Borough President Scott Springer. ``But we need safety protocols.''

Calls to Manhattan-based principal developer Kennelly Development Co. LLC, and construction manager Reliance Construction Group of Montreal weren't returned. Nor was a call to New York Crane & Equipment Corp, which owned the crane.

``We think our procedures are adequate,'' Bloomberg said at the news conference yesterday, held at a pizza restaurant that was temporarily closed because of its proximity to the accident.

Bloomberg is the founder and principal owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent of Bloomberg News.

Cranes Dot Skyline

Cranes dot the Manhattan skyline, where spending on construction climbed 7 percent last year to $26.2 billion, according to the New York Building Congress, a trade organization.

On the Upper West Side of Manhattan, two cranes stand above Broadway near West 118th Street, where new buildings are being added to Columbia University's campus.

Neil Fitzgerald, 39, was running yesterday past the cranes, as he does regularly. Though the sidewalk, designated a hardhat area with signs, is blocked off, forcing pedestrians into the street, the cranes still hover over where people walk.

Yesterday's accident ``just made me think, has somebody looked into these closely,'' he said. ``I guess you get two thoughts with regard to this. These look very solid, but they also look very heavy. They could be dangerous.''

source www.bloomberg.com

Neverland Is to Remain Jackson's Property

Michael Jackson has worked out a confidential agreement with Fortress Investment Group to retain ownership of his 2,500-acre Neverland ranch in Los Olivos, Calif., northwest of Santa Barbara, The Associated Press reported his lawyer as saying. Because Mr. Jackson owed $24.5 million on the property, it had been scheduled for auction on Wednesday. Mr. Jackson has not lived on the ranch since his acquittal on child molestation charges in 2005. A close associate of Mr. Jackson’s, who requested anonymity because of the difficult nature of the matter, said it was not clear whether Mr. Jackson would keep Neverland.

Neverland Valley Ranch is a developed property in Santa Barbara County, California, owned by American pop musician Michael Jackson. It operated as his private amusement park and home when the facility opened in 1988, but is no longer in operation. The property was purchased from golf course entrepreneur William Bone. The property is over 2,800 acres (11 km²) in size; it contains, among other things, a zoo and a theme park, with a Ferris wheel, merry-go-round, zipper, spider, sea dragon, wave swinger, super slide, dragon wagon kiddie roller coaster and bumper cars. It is named after Neverland, the fantastical island in the story of Peter Pan, where children never grow up.

The ranch is located at 5225 Figueroa Mountain Rd, Los Olivos, CA 93441,about 5 miles (8 km) north of unincorporated Los Olivos (about eight miles (13 km) north of the town of Santa Ynez), in the Santa Ynez Valley. The area surrounding Neverland previously consisted of working ranches; today, the area is made up of vineyards. A small prep school, the Midland School, is located across the road from the ranch.

British businessmen Liam Collins and David Bone were set to launch a joint £15 million bid to buy Michael Jackson’s ranch, Neverland, in an attempt to alleviate the singer’s financial crisis.

Entrepreneurs Collins and Bone, who are based in Newcastle, are huge fans of Jackson, and told the Daily Star that they began earning their own fortunes by busking in London, copying his dance routines.

“We really want to see Jacko back on his feet,” Bone said. Collins added: “If it wasn’t for Michael’s music and his fantastic dance routines, it is possible that we wouldn’t be where we are today.”

Aggressive marketing is expected to pay off for Fox's animated film

Even if nobody goes to see it at all, a movie is a movie no matter how small.

Of course, that won't be an issue for 20th Century Fox's "Horton Hears a Who!" the latest big-budget comedy based on the classic children's stories of Dr. Seuss. The G-rated animated film, whose voice cast includes Jim Carrey, Steve Carell, Carol Burnett and Seth Rogen, opens today with an elephant-size weekend in store.

"Horton," which goes ultra-wide at 3,954 theaters riding respectable reviews, is expected to easily be No. 1 and could haul in ticket sales of $55 million or more.

Doomsday" and "Never Back Down" -- neither of which is a political documentary about Eliot Spitzer -- also open today across the U.S. and Canada, but both action dramas appear headed for grosses in the mid- to high-single digits.

"Horton," computer animated by Fox's Blue Sky Studios team, cost about $90 million to make, not counting the tens of millions in prints and advertising, so it represents a hefty gamble. Fortunately for Fox, its aggressive marketing campaign appears to be paying off.

Thursday's consumer tracking surveys show that among people who say they are definitely heading to a multiplex this weekend, 35% call "Horton" their first choice. That's on par with March 2006's "Ice Age: The Meltdown," which opened at $68 million.

Wary of losing the ever-dangerous expectations game, however, Fox executives are forecasting an opening weekend of $35 million. Last weekend's top movie, Warner Bros.' prehistoric epic "10,000 B.C.," was deemed only moderately mammoth by certain cynical media types after it opened at $36 million.

In its marketing, Fox has played up "Horton's" high-profile voice cast and the record of Blue Sky, maker of the two "Ice Age" pictures and "Robots." Fox has been successful with animated movies in recent years, so "Horton" could add to that momentum if it clicks with family audiences.

The studio marketed and distributed last summer's "The Simpsons Movie," made by James L. Brooks' Gracie Films, and December's partly animated kiddie hit "Alvin and the Chipmunks." And its Blue Sky team is at work on a third "Ice Age" picture for summer 2009. The first "Ice Age" movie opened on the same mid-March weekend in 2002, launching a successful franchise.

Carrey, who plays the gentle but plucky pachyderm in "Horton," and his costars have been working the TV talk show circuit all week.

Carrey also just happened to be in the audience Wednesday night on Fox's "American Idol" wearing an elephant suit. When host Ryan Seacrest asked about the shameless tie-in, Carrey said, "You like to point out the elephant in the room, don'tcha?"

In a colorful cross-promotion, the IHOP restaurant chain is offering, for a limited time, Seussian specials such as odd-shaped, lollipop-topped "Who cakes" and a green-eggs-and-ham scramble. (This is where a snarkier Projector might make a cheap joke about IHOP's regular menu.)

For Fox, the biggest challenge could be drumming up business overseas. Animated productions often generate 60% of their ticket sales outside the U.S., but Seuss has been more of an American phenomenon, at least on the big screen.

"How the Grinch Stole Christmas," which also starred Carrey, grossed $345 million worldwide in 2000, but 75% of that business was domestic. "The Cat in the Hat," starring Mike Myers, was far less successful in 2003, but it too snagged three-quarters of its theatrical revenue from the U.S. and Canada. Both were live action, however.

"Doomsday," from Universal's genre arm Rogue Pictures, and "Never Back Down," from upstart studio Summit Entertainment, will duke it out for the action audience. But their distributors are focusing on different segments of it and hope the two movies don't hurt each other too much.

Produced for $19 million, "Doomsday" is a hard-edged, apocalyptic thriller aimed at fans of such movies as "Land of the Dead" and "28 Days." It has a low-profile cast and carries an R for "strong bloody violence," as the ratings board put it, as well as language and sexual content.

"Never Back Down," produced for about $20 million, is a PG-13 movie about a rebellious teenager (Sean Faris) who learns mixed martial arts from a wise, veteran mentor (Djimon Hounsou). In other words, it's an inspirational action tale in the "Karate Kid" tradition.

Or at least that's the intention: Early reviews have been mixed.

Both "Never Back Down" and "Doomsday" are tracking well with males younger than 25. But its less restrictive rating should give "Never Back Down" the edge.

Although it is a tad mellower than "Doomsday," those sticklers at the Motion Picture Assn. of America found plenty to warn parents about with "Never Back Down," including "partying."

But if the film beats expectations by getting significantly more than $10 million this weekend, the real party will probably be at the company's Santa Monica offices.

source

latimes.com

Britons conned in US share scam

A father and daughter have been accused of tricking 15,000 mostly elderly British citizens out of more than $70m (£34m) by selling worthless shares.

Investigators allege Paul Gunter, 58, and daughter Zibiah, 25, from Florida, sold fake shares in 50 dormant firms.

The pair have been charged with money laundering, mail fraud and securities fraud, US officials said.

If found guilty, they could face up to 25 years in prison and a fine. They are due to appear in a Florida court later.

The BBC's Andy Gallacher, in Miami, says it is thought the Gunters hijacked the identities of the dormant, publicly traded companies and used high-pressure sales techniques to sell worthless shares to British investors.

They are believed to have started the alleged scam in early 2005, US investigators said.

Deputy chief inspector Robert Wishart, head of the money laundering unit at City of London

Police, said the arrests were part of an ongoing investigation into a "mass-marketing crime scam known as boiler room fraud".

In a statement released by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, he added: "Thousands of British people have fallen victim to this crime - in this inquiry alone, we estimate that around 15,000 mostly elderly people have lost money."

He said the arrests demonstrated the power of international collaboration to bring to justice those suspected of crimes, even if based overseas.

Source BBC News

Discworld Author Terry Pratchett funds Alzheimer's study

Best-selling fantasy author Terry Pratchett is to donate $1m for research into Alzheimer's disease.

The creator of the Discworld series was diagnosed with a rare early-onset form of the disease in December.

Pratchett, 59, will announce the pledge of about £494,000 at the Alzheimer's Research Trust annual conference.

Telling leading dementia specialists of his determination to find a cure, he will say: "I intend to scream and harangue while there is time."

There are 15,000 people in the UK with early-onset dementia, which strikes under the age of 65 years.

Pratchett has a rare form of the disease called posterior cortical atrophy, in which areas at the back of the brain begin to shrink and shrivel.

The author will tell the conference he is prepared to go to extreme lengths in order to beat the disease.

He will say: "Personally, I'd eat the arse out of a dead mole if it offered a fighting chance.
"I am, along with many others, scrabbling to stay ahead long enough to be there when the cure comes along.

"Say it will be soon - there's nearly as many of us as there are cancer sufferers, and it looks as if the number of people with dementia will double within a generation.

"In most cases, alongside the sufferer you will find a spouse suffering as much.

"It is a shock to find out that funding for Alzheimer's research is just 3% of that to find cancer cures."

Lack of funds

In total, an estimated 700,000 people in the UK have Alzheimer's disease.

However, the Alzheimer's Research Trust estimates that just £11 per patient is spent annually on research into the disease - compared with £289 for each cancer patient.

Rebecca Wood, chief executive of the Alzheimer's Research Trust, said the trust currently had to turn down two out of every three research projects due to lack of funds.

She said: "Whilst we were deeply saddened to learn of Mr Pratchett's diagnosis, we are delighted that he has chosen to speak out about his experiences with Alzheimer's disease, to raise awareness about its impact and the desperate need for more research.

"Research is the only way to beat this disease and help people like Terry - to prevent them losing their thinking skills and keep them doing the things they love."

Source BBC Health News

Cheltenham races off amid storms

Cheltenham races off amid storms The second day of the Cheltenham Festivalhas been cancelled because of the stormy weather at the racecourse.

Strong winds had made the marquees in the tented hospitality area unsafe andorganisers were forced to call off the day's racing on safety grounds.


About 55,000 people had been due to attend the prestigious meeting at PrestburyPark on Wednesday.


Cheltenham management say that Wednesday's card will now be run across Thursdayand Friday's meeting.

Managing director Edward Gillespie explained: "On Tuesday night we had aforecast indicating wind speeds with gusts of over 50mph up to and includingWednesday afternoon.

"That means that many of the temporary facilities might not be safe. It's awest wind, which would take any debris onto the racecourse.

"We have had one structure blow over this morning at 0700 while at the momentthe tented village is not a safe site.

"However, the good news is we can race all the races over the next two days.It's very sad. It's the last thing we expected in the build-up to thismeeting."

Wednesday's feature race was due to be the Queen Mother Champion Chase.


Source BBC Sport

European space agency launches Orbital Cargo Ship

The European space agency has successfully launched it's new 'space truck' automated transfer vehicle (ATV), from French Guiana, the orbital cargo ship is on a mission to re supply the international space station (ISS).

It is the largest and most complex spacecraft Europe has ever built. It weighs 20 tonnes and is unmanned. It was launched at 0430 GMT on the 9th of march attached to a ariane 5 rocket from the Kourou spaceport. The night time launch lighting up the south American jungle.

The ATV has been dubbed "Jules Verne" for its maiden flight and is even carrying a first-edition hardback of the 19th-Century French author's book From the Earth to the Moon. It will return on a space shuttle at a later date.

After a successful separation from the rocket 66 minutes into its flight, the launch was declared a resounding success. The ATV will continue into orbit where it will park until the space shuttle Endeavour has completed its forthcoming mission to the ISS, before moving in to make a docking

The ship's own computers will be in charge of the approach, employing an advanced form of GPS and, in the latter stages, optical sensors to guide itself into the correct position on the end of the Russian Zvezda module.

The ATV has bee 11 years in development and with its successful completion, Europe can claim to be a fully paid up member of the international space station project.

Former UK Prime Minister To Teach Faith In USA

Since leaving office in 2007 former prime minister Tony Blair has come out of the religious closet, so to speak, left the Anglican Church and adopted the catholic faith.

Unlike the USA, where strong religious views are seen as a positive advantage in public office, strong religious views in the UK are treated with a certain mistrust, and can damage a politicians public life.

No wonder then that Mr Blair kept his strong faith under wraps until he 'retired'. Mr Blair now looking for further gainful employment seems to have moved his focus to the USA

News released today that as of next year Tony Blair is to teach students at Yale University, when he leads a seminar on faith and globalisation. The former prime minister has today been appointed as a fellow at Yale.

A statement said: "Yale University is pleased to announce the appointment of [former] Prime Minister Tony Blair as the Howland Distinguished Fellow for the next academic year. Mr Blair has demonstrated outstanding leadership in these areas and is especially qualified to bring his
perspective to bear.

I don't think Mr Blair will be short of cash any time soon, as since he left office his income has only grown, with other appointments including Middle East envoy, and an adviser to investment bank JP Morgan.

Whoopi Goldberg pays tribute to Patrick Swayze

Actress Whoopi Goldberg has paid tribute to Patrick Swayze for his contribution and help she says he gave to her in winning her best supporting actress Oscar .

Goldberg won the award in 1990 for her role of psychic medium Oda Mae Brown, in the hit film Ghost, in which she co-starred with Swayze - who was recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer

Goldburg was speaking on the US talk show The View. which she has co hosted since last year, she added Swayze, 55, told director Jerry Zucker: "I'm not making this movie unless you put Whoopi in there."

Goldberg said she had not spoken to Swayze about his health, but added: "We want you to feel better - we'll talk soon, I hope."

Swayze is said to be responding well to treatment, and has a very limited amount of disease. Earlier media reports that he may only have five weeks to live, have been branded totally untrue by his physician Dr George Fisher.

'Forbes': Facebook CEO is youngest self-made billionaire

Billionaires are getting younger. Forbes magazine released its list of the world's mega-rich Wednesday and said Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, 23, became the youngest ever self-made billionaire. Zuckerberg, born during the Ronald Reagan presidency, is worth $1.5 billion four years after launching the social-networking site and the third-youngest to crack the billionaire list since Forbes began tracking ages a decade ago. The other two inherited their money. Facebook did not respond to requests for comment.


The Forbes list often reflects the times. Bill Gates was once himself like Zuckerberg and dropped out of Harvard to launch a technology upstart. Gates is now 52 and slipped from first place in the rankings after being the richest person in the world for 13 straight years. In 1995, Gates replaced Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, a Japanese real estate investor who subsequently fell on hard times and was removed from the Forbes list in 2007.


Gates is worth $58 billion, $2 billion more than last year, but he is now third on the list. He was dislodged by Warren Buffett ($62 billion) and Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim Helu ($60 billion). Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway stock climbed $10 billion; Slim's fortune rose $11 billion.

Buffett is 77 and Slim is 68, but there are now 50 billionaires younger than 40, and 34 of them are self-made. The average age of all billionaires has dropped to 61 from 64 in 2004, partly because of the growth of young, self-made Russian and Chinese billionaires. Mainland China's richest person is 26-year-old real estate heiress Yang Huiyan (No. 125), worth $7.4 billion.
Forbes says that billionaires sometimes slip beneath its radar, but it now counts 1,125 worldwide, worth $4.4 trillion. That's an increase of 179 billionaires from a year ago. Two-thirds of the 1,125 are self-made.


Of the 1,125 billionaires, 469 (42%) are from the USA. But the average U.S. billionaire is worth $3.4 billion vs. $4.3 billion for the average foreign billionaire. The biggest gainer over the last year is 48-year-old Indian businessman Anil Ambani. His wealth jumped $24 billion, or nearly $3 million an hour.


There have been two billionaires who made the Forbes list at a younger age than Zuckerberg. One was Albert II, prince of Thurn and Taxis, who is a German heir of postmasters dating to the Holy Roman Empire. He inherited his wealth at age 7, when his father died in 1990, although he did not gain access to his fortune until he turned 18.

The other was Hind Hariri, youngest of the Lebanese heirs of a banking, real estate, oil and telecommunications fortune that she inherited at 22

http://www.usatoday.com/money/2008-03-05-forbes-billionaires_N.htm

1888 Photo Depicts Helen Keller, Teacher

By MELISSA TRUJILLO

BOSTON (AP) — Researchers have uncovered a rare photograph of a young Helen Keller with her teacher Anne Sullivan, nearly 120 years after it was taken on Cape Cod. The photograph, shot in July 1888 in Brewster, shows an 8-year-old Helen sitting outside in a light-colored dress, holding Sullivan's hand and cradling one of her beloved dolls.

Experts on Keller's life believe it could be the earliest photo of the two women together and the only one showing the blind and deaf child with a doll — the first word Sullivan spelled for Keller after they met in 1887 — according to the New England Historic Genealogical Society, which now has the photo.

"It's really one of the best images I've seen in a long, long time," said Helen Selsdon, an archivist at the American Foundation for the Blind, where Keller worked for more than 40 years. "This is just a huge visual addition to the history of Helen and Annie."

For more than a century, the photograph has belonged to the family of Thaxter Spencer, an 87-year-old man in Waltham.

Spencer's mother, Hope Thaxter Parks, often stayed at the Elijah Cobb House on Cape Cod during the summer as a child. In July 1888, she played with Keller, whose family had traveled from Tuscumbia, Ala., to vacation in Massachusetts.

Spencer, who doesn't know which of his relatives took the picture, told the society that his mother, four years younger than Helen, remembered Helen exploring her face with her hands.

In June, Spencer donated a large collection of photo albums, letters, diaries and other heirlooms to the genealogical society, which preserves artifacts from New England families for future research.

"I never thought much about it," Spencer said in a statement released by the society. "It just seemed like something no one would find very interesting." Spencer has recently been hospitalized and could not be reached for comment.

It wasn't until recently that staff at the society realized the photograph's significance. Advocates for the blind say they had never heard of it, though after they announced its discovery Wednesday they learned it had published in 1987 in a magazine on Cape Cod and a half-century earlier in The Boston Globe. It is unclear whether there was more than one copy of the photograph.

D. Brenton Simons, the society's president and CEO, said the photograph offers a glimpse of what was a very important time in Keller's life.

Sullivan was hired in 1887 to teach Keller, who had been left blind and deaf after an illness at the age of 1 1/2. With her new teacher, Keller learned language from words spelled manually into her hand. Not quite 7, the girl went from an angry, frustrated child without a way to communicate to an eager scholar.

While "doll" was the first word spelled into her hand, Helen finally comprehended the meaning of language a few weeks later with the word "water," as famously depicted in the film "The Miracle Worker." Sullivan stayed at her side until her death in 1936, and Keller became a world-famous author and humanitarian. She died in 1968.

Jan Seymour-Ford, a research librarian at the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, which both Sullivan and Keller attended, said she was moved to see how deeply connected the women were, even in 1888.

"The way Anne is gazing so intently at Helen, I think it's a beautiful portrait of the devotion that lasted between these two women all of Anne's life," Seymour-Ford said.

Selsdon said the photograph is valuable because it shows many elements of Keller's childhood: that devotion, Sullivan's push to teach Helen outdoors and Helen's attachment to her baby dolls, one of which was given to her upon Sullivan's arrival as her teacher.

"It's a beautiful composition," she said. "It's not even the individual elements. It's the fact that it has all of the components."

source :- ap.google.com