3 posts tagged “greenman”
230th day of 2009 - 135 remaining
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
1998: Prospector Rob Mitchell’s football-size gold nugget sold in Australia for $263,000. Mitchell said he found the nugget in 1992 and buried it in his backyard. He decided to sell it when he came home one day to find that his dog had dug it up.
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2003: Authorities estimated as many as 10,000 people had died in heat-related deaths in France during a brutal European heat wave.
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BIRTHDAYS
1904 - Max Factor Jr.
cosmetic mogul; died June 7, 1996
1936 - Robert Redford
actor: All the President’s Men, Quiz Show, The
Sting, Sneakers, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Out of
Africa; Academy Award-winning director: Ordinary People [1980]; A
River Runs Through It, Quiz Show
1952 - Patrick Swayze
dancer, actor: Dirty Dancing, Ghost, Father Hood, Red Dawn,
Point Break, North and South
1958 - Madeleine Stowe
actress: Unlawful Entry, The Last of the Mohicans, Gangster Wars
1969 - Edward Norton
actor: Fight Club, American History X, Keeping the Faith, The
People vs. Larry Flynt, The Score
1969 - Christian Slater
actor: Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Murder in the First, Untamed
Heart, Young Guns, Interview with the Vampire
1970 - Malcolm-Jamal Warner
actor: The Cosby Show, Tyson; writer: Theo & Me
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Twitter tweets are 40% 'babble'
A short-term study of Twitter has found that 40% of the messages sent via it are "pointless babble."
Carried out by US market research firm Pear Analytics, the study aimed to produce a snapshot of what people do with the service.
Almost as prevalent as the babble were "conversational" tweets that used it as a surrogate instant messaging system.
The study found that only 8.7% of messages could be said to have "value" as they passed along news of interest.
Message stream
To get an idea of what Twitter was being used for, Pear Analytics dipped into the Tweet stream every 30 minutes between 11:00 and 17:00 on weekdays for a fortnight.
"...a source for people to share their current activities that have little to do with everyone else"
Ryan Kelly, Pear Analytics
MP is named Labour 'Twitter tsar'
In total it grabbed 2,000 messages and then put each message it grabbed into one of six categories; news, spam, self-promotion, pointless babble, conversational and those with pass-along value.
Conversational tweets were those that bounced back and forth between two users, and those dubbed "pointless babble" were of the "I'm eating a sandwich" type.
When Pear Analytics started its short-term study, it assumed that most of the tweets would be either spam or self-promotion. This belief, it said, was driven by the growing number of firms starting to use Twitter as a tool to drum up sales.
Instead, it found that 40.5% could be classified as pointless babble, 37.5% as conversational and 8.7% as having pass-along value. Self promotion and spam stood at 5.85% and 3.75% respectively.
"With the new face of Twitter, it will be interesting to see if they take a heavier role in news, or continue to be a source for people to share their current activities that have little to do with everyone else," said Ryan Kelly, founder of Pear Analytics, writing about its analysis.
Pear Analytics intends to repeat its study every quarter to track trends in usage.
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Musicians pay tribute to Les Paul
Guns N' Roses star Slash has paid tribute to guitar pioneer Les Paul, who has died aged 94, calling him "vibrant and full of positive energy".
Paul died from complications of pneumonia in New York, according to Gibson, the firm that sold his guitars.
In a statement Slash said: "He was an exceptionally brilliant man, musician, inventor, mentor and friend."
U2's The Edge, The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson and Billy Gibbons of band ZZ Top have also paid tribute to the musician.
'Genius inventor'
Paul is credited with developing one of the first solid-body electric guitars, which went on sale in 1952 and contributed to the birth of rock.
He also developed other influential recording innovations such as multi-track recording, overdubbing and the eight-track tape recorder.
The Edge, who is closely associated with the Les Paul sound, called him a "legend of the guitar and a true renaissance man".
"His legacy as a musician and inventor will live on and his influence on rock and roll will never be forgotten"
The Edge
He added: "Les Paul disproves the cliche that you can only be famous for one thing.
"His legacy as a musician and inventor will live on and his influence on rock and roll will never be forgotten."
Fellow guitarist Joe Satriani called Paul "the original guitar hero," saying: "Les Paul set a standard for musicianship and innovation that remains unsurpassed."
Gibbons called him an "innovator, a groundbreaker, a risk taker, a mentor and a friend".
And US rock artist Joan Jett called Paul a "genius inventor, musical innovator, and a wonderful person".
FROM THE TODAY PROGRAMME
She added: "I and everyone at Blackheart Records mourn the passing of our dear friend, Les Paul.
"Without the advances he pioneered, the recording sciences and the electric guitar would have been left years behind."
Paul was also a successful performer in his own right, notching up 11 number one singles and 36 gold discs with his wife Mary Ford.
He was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1978 and the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in 1988.
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the wake up wacky.... News Story Of The Day:
A three-year-old boy has been granted a
special license to ride a motorcycle by judges in India. Azeem Khan had
to prove he could control the powerful Royal Enfield Bullet after his
dad added special extensions to the controls so he could reach them.
But Azeem, who turns four next month, is not allowed out on the main
roads on his own. The kid wants his next bike to be a Harley.
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wake up dunggu of the day
A
55-year-old Salisbury, Massachusetts man brought coffee to a police
station to apologize for creating a ruckus 12 years ago, and was
violently arrested the next day by the same department. Salisbury
police say he threatened an officer, punched a Breathalyzer machine and
tried to flood his jail cell after his arrest. The man brought three
large coffees to the station a day earlier. He said he wanted to
apologize for what happened in 1997, when he behaved in a similar
fashion during a disorderly conduct arrest.
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when salad isnt just salad
A customer shopping at a discount supermarket store in Germany found stems of a poisonous weed in mixed salad bags, triggering concerns about potential health risks. Traces of common groundsel that can cause extensive liver damage if ingested in large amounts, were discovered by a customer with a specialized knowledge of plants in a store in the northern city of Hanover. The store immediately took all affected bags off the shelves. What is the world coming to when your salad can hurt you?
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GIVIN ME THE FINGER ARE YA ???
Authorities said a patient at a Cape Coral, Florida, doctor's office bit part of the doctor's finger off after being denied a prescription. Police reported that a 45-year-old man went to see Dr. Paul Arnold Wednesday morning, and the man became upset about not receiving prescription medication. There is a warrant for the finger biter's arrest.
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ITS A BIRD...YIKES....A FISH ?????
A woman in Ohio is telling a fish story about one that got away - from a bird, and damaged her car. Authorities in northwest Ohio say the fish - a Lake Erie freshwater drum, known as a sheepshead - smashed a car windshield when an eagle dropped its catch from a height of about 40 feet. Leighann Niles says the impact felt like a brick hitting her Toyota's windshield. The woman was vacationing the lake in Marblehead, Ohio. Niles says she had thought herself lucky to escape damage in another animal encounter shortly before the fishy one. She says a truck hit a small bird, which struck her back passenger door and startled her 5-year-old daughter. Sounds like her vacation went to the birds.
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Baby biker gets licence
A three-year-old boy has been granted a special licence to ride a motorcycle by judges in India.
Azeem Khan had to prove he could control the powerful Royal Enfield Bullet after his dad added special extensions to the controls so he could reach them.
"He is much safer than most adult drivers I know," said proud dad Shantanu, of New Delhi.
"I used to sit him on my bike and he would always grab at the controls. One day he will be a professional racer for sure," he added.
But Azeem, who turns four next month, is not allowed out on the main roads on his own.
"Of course I won't let him drive on the busy roads without me on the bike as well. I trust Azeem but I don't trust other drivers," he said.
And the pint-sized biker already has his sights set on his next set of wheels.
"What he really wants is a Harley Davidson but he'll have to wait a few more years for that," added his father.
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Girl's miracle escape
An 11-year-old girl had an incredible escape after she leapt out of a moving car seconds before it plunged over a 250ft cliff.
Paige Dean, 11, had been listening to music in her grandfather's parked car when she accidentally knocked off the hand brake, reports the Daily Mail.
She tried to steer the vehicle and put the brake on but as it picked up speed over 200 yards and she threw herself out as it careered towards the precipice at a campsite at Benllech in Anglesey.
Paige, of Kinmel Bay, near Rhyl, said: "I was listening to music on my mobile phone when I dropped it. As I reached over to get it I accidentally knocked the hand brake off.
"I was rolling towards the edge of the cliff and I was petrified. I thought: "I've got to get out". I was shouting: "Help me granddad"."
Paige managed to manoeuvre the car around one tent but ploughed into two other empty ones before hitting some gorse bushes.
She said: "In the end I decided to jump out and let the car go. I'm so glad I did. I saw the car fall off the cliff. I definitely would have died."
Witnesses estimate the car was doing around 30mph when it plunged 250ft into the sea. Grandfather Billy Dean, 63, had parked the Citroen C4 on a grassy slope.
He was horrified when he saw the vehicle go over the edge because he thought Paige was still inside, and that her younger brother Cameron, seven, was in the car with her.
Grandfather Billy Dean, 63, said: "It was a
nightmare. The car will have to be hauled out of the sea and I don't
know what the insurers will say. But all I'm bothered about is that
Paige is all right."
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Hotel's one cent room gaffe
A four-star hotel near Venice is counting the cost after mistakenly offering a romantic weekend in the Italian city for just one cent.
The Crowne Plaza in Quarto D'Altino, 15 miles from Venice, received bookings for the equivalent of 1,400 room nights on the night the rate was posted on its website, reports Metro.
The hotel initially thought the offer had been posted by a hacker, said sales manager Fulvio Danesin, but it turned out to be a mistake by the hotel's owners, the Intercontinental Hotels Group.
The offer was supposed to be for a two-night stay at half price. A night at the 151-room hotel normally costs between about £80 and £130.
The one euro cent rate was only available on Sunday night, but that was long enough for travellers to book dates running from October through to 2010.
The hotel stands to lose nearly £80,000 after 228 guests made reservations for the equivalent of 1,400 room nights while the error was on the website.
Spokeswoman Monica Smith said:
"Although a pricing error, IHG is committed to honoring the one cent
rate for guests who have a valid confirmation."
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| Christina Aguilera Reveals Collaborators For New Album | |
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August 17, 2009
According to MTV News, Aguilera said that she is working with a number of electronic and indie acts on the new material, including M.I.A., Santigold, Ladytron and Sia. "I think I'm most proud of this work than I've ever been, just because I worked with so many amazing and incredibly talented people," she said. "[Sia and I] did a lot of work on this record together, and she's just a complete gem. She's truly just such a talented force to be reckoned with. And I so enjoyed her company, and I think we really created some super crazy magic together. I got a chance to sort of write with Santigold, M.I.A., Ladytron — artists that I really love." Aguilera continued, "The overall versatility of this record is truly something special for me. I experimented with so many different types of textures and sounds with my voice that I've never showcased and that I never really knew that I could do." She added, "The result was just crazy magic. There truly is something for everyone to enjoy on the record. Lots of good stuff in store!" Aguilera's next album is expected out before the end of 2009. |
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Death of the Guitar Man: Les Paul (1915-2009)
In the popular mind, guitarist Les Paul existed for half a decade: the
years 1950-54, when he and his vocalist-wife Mary Ford enjoyed 16 Top
10 hits, including "How High the Moon" (No. 1 for nine weeks) and "Vaya
Con Dios" (No. 1 for 11). Scanning the Great American Songbook for
standards 20 or 30 years old, Paul would roast the chestnut into 2/4
time, add Ford's silky stylings and serve up a million seller like "The
World Is Waiting for the Sunrise," "I'm Sitting on Top of the World" or
"Bye Blue Blues." Musical satisfaction guaranteed.
hat should suffice, for anyone whose memory contained chips of
Paul's amazing facility with a sound he invented and perfected. As he
told Stephen K. Peeples in the 60-page booklet that comes with the
four-CD set Les Paul: The Legend and the Legacy (on the Gold
Rush label), "That big, fat, round, ballsy sound with the bright
high-end is the Les Paul sound. Nobody else has it." And if that's not
enough, he was the original do-it-all recording mastermind: a
producer-arranger-performer who carried his recording studio with him,
courtesy of a few portable machines he built. Les was more.
(See pictures of Les Paul's life in music.)
Yet Paul, who died today at 94 in White Plains, N.Y., was no mere antique hitmaker to the rock generations that both learned from him and put his kind of music out of business. He was an inventor and an inspiration. He pioneered recording on tape, creating dozens of layers of sound with an early reel-to-reel tape machine. He designed (though he did not construct) one of the first synthesizers. He devised the first eight-track tape recording system, which would not become generally accepted until 15 years later, when the Beatles made their White Album. And he invented the Gibson Les Paul, an instrument used in various models by Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and loads of other Guitar-zans.
In an interview with Frank Beacham, Paul joked that a lot of people didn't know he played a guitar. "They think I am one," he said. He was something more: a genius of a tinkerer, with machines and music — the Edison of pop.
Waiting for the Sunrise
He was born Lester Polsfuss (the family soon simplified the name to
Polfus) in Waukesha, Wis., 18 miles west of Milwaukee. Encouraged by
his mother, he learned piano, guitar and harmonica. His curiosity led
him to all sorts of precocious experiments, like poking new holes in
player-piano music to make new melodies, or, at 13, disconnecting a
console-radio speaker and attaching a phonograph pickup. He bought his
first Gibson guitar, an L-5 acoustic, which he promptly electrified. In
local performances, he wired his guitar to radios stage right and left
— voilà, stereo! "If you can be an engineer and a musician," he told
David John Farinella for a biographical sketch in the 1999 Encyclopedia of Record Producers, "that's very complementary."
Billing himself as Rhubarb Red, Paul soon had a country-music act out of Chicago. He played harmonica and guitar and, between numbers, peddled rube humor. By the early '30s he was making $1,000 a week at the country stuff, but in the bustling Chicago music scene, there was so much more to hear and play. In the morning he was hillbilly, and at night he was playing jazz with Roy Eldridge, Coleman Hawkins, Nat Cole and Art Tatum. He cut his first records in 1936, backing blues singer-pianist Georgia White as she belted out Andy Razaf's raunchy threat, "If I can't sell it, I'll keep sittin' on it, before I give it away." A year later, he formed his first trio, with bass player Ernie Newton and rhythm guitarist Jim Atkins (the elder half brother of Chet Atkins, with whom Paul cut the 1995 album Chester and Lester). They went east, and the Les Paul Trio got a New York City club date. More than 70 years later, another Paul trio was playing weekly gigs at Iridium, across from Lincoln Center.
In the '40s he got some flashy gigs — like a Jazz at the Philharmonic session with Nat Cole on piano and Illinois Jacquet on sax — but spent more time on electronic experimentation. He built a new guitar out of Epiphone parts and called it the Log. He used it in his recordings for the next decade. After assembling a recording studio in his garage (total cost: $415), he produced such performers as Gene Austin, the Andrews Sisters and his pal and patron Bing Crosby. His work with White, Crosby and the Andrews Sisters, as well as some Les Paul Trio sides, can be found on Les Paul: The Trio's Complete Decca Recordings Plus (1936-47).
Just after World War II, Crosby gave him one of the first Ampex tape recorders. It helped stoke in Paul the familiar dream of a trailblazing artist: to put on wax the music in his head. What emerged, in 1948, with the two-sided hit "Lover" and "Brazil," was something he called the New Sound. It comprised several tracks of brisk, intricate guitar work meticulously laid on top of one another; if he made a mistake with the final track, he had to start over again. The New Sound, which he refined in a later home studio in Mahwah, N.J., amounted to a one-man musical revolution.
To sell the sound to a mass audience, the one man needed one woman: a vocalist. Gene Autry recommended a singer who had worked with him, Colleen Summers. Paul and Summers were lovers from 1946, though they didn't marry until the end of 1949, back in Milwaukee. (Paul got his blood test from the father of Steve Miller, the blues-guitar man.) Summers was with Paul when their car crashed and he broke his back, both collarbones, six ribs and his nose. His right arm and elbow were crushed. Doctors suggested it be amputated, but he said no, so they took part of his leg and grafted it onto the pulpy bone. Fearing that his arm wouldn't regain its movement, Paul insisted that it be set at a right angle so he could still play guitar.
Paul had thought that Summers, schooled in country, would not feel at ease singing the jazz-inflected pop he wanted to play. But he finally decided that his domestic partner could be his professional one. For a two-star act, she needed a name nearly as short and simple as his; thus Mary Ford. They hit immediately: five Top 10 hits ("Tennessee Waltz," "Mockin' Bird Hill," "How High the Moon," "The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise" and "Whispering") in nine months. From August 1952 to March '53, they scored five more Top 10 hits ("My Baby's Coming Home," "Lady of Spain," "Bye Bye Blues," "I'm Sitting on Top of the World" and "Vaya Con Dios"). And when they weren't recording, the duo starred in a radio show, did guest spots on Ed Sullivan's Toast of the Town and played midtown Manhattan movie houses. Lines stretched up Broadway to see "America's musical sweethearts."
How High the Moon
For all the attention paid to Les Paul the technical innovator, not
enough was paid to his skill as an arranger of guitar solos and vocal
parts. Similarly, Ford didn't get her due as a singer. She looked the
way she sang: smooth, clear, pretty. Her voice, tripled or sextupled in
harmony, was the vocal version of his slide-guitar style. Her glissandi
were intimate, as if she had been singing inside the microphone. (She
was, in fact, the first vocal artist to sing not a foot or so away from
the microphone, as most studio singers did then, but virtually on top
of it, the way it's done today.) Her vocal approach was less an attack
than a seduction — sensuous in an elevated, healthy way, like aerobic
sex in a ski lodge. She sold those old tunes with a modern attitude
that never stooped to irony or anachronism. And she never put more into
a song than she did with "How High the Moon."
" 'How High the Moon' had terrific verve," said Bill Wyman, long the Rolling Stones' bassist, "proof at last that pop could provide stylish, instrumental inventiveness." So it's instructive to listen closely to "How High the Moon" — not a chore, since the song provides as much musical exhilaration now as it did when it was released, in March 1951. It encapsulates the lithe popular art of all those Les and Mary singles — the density and clarity, the distinctiveness of his guitar voice and her intimate vocal instrument, the heart and the fun. It's a number that expresses the choral lilt of early-'50s pop and the electric drive of mid-'50s rock, as if "Mr. Sandman" had married "Peggy Sue."
Right from the start, Paul's arrangement has more hooks than a
Chicago abattoir. ("We used to start our gigs with the opening riffs
from 'How High the Moon,' " said another Paul, the one with the
Beatles. "Everybody was trying to be a Les Paul clone in those days.")
Do you remember that descending pattern (C, C7, F, F-minor, G) that
concluded primal rock-'n'-roll numbers like Billy Haley's "Rock Around
the Clock"? Here, Paul begins with that lick; he also anticipates and
reverses the fade-out ending of so many early rock-'n'-roll songs by
beginning with a very quick fade-in. Four seconds into the record, Paul
is already making history.
Then Ford takes over with her menthol-smooth voice, multiplied into
three-part harmony by Paul's studio gizmonics. She coos, "Somewhere
there's
mu-u-u-sic," coaxing four syllables out of the word by gliding
over them rather than hiccuping through them. She wants the listener to
know this is an up-tempo love song, not a stuttering novelty. In the
bridge — "There is no moon above, and love is far away too" — she
lightly swings "above" and "and love," almost gulping each first
syllable. You expect her to do the same with "is far," but she smartly
refuses to surrender to giddy syncopation. She gives the final words in
the phrase their full traditional value. When she reaches the last
couplet — "Until you will, how still my heart,/ How high the moon" —
she extends the "high" into a sighing "hiiiiigh," then softens "the
moon" into almost a whisper of regret. The diminuendo is a subtle
reminder that, for all its drive and bounce, this is a song of longing.
Until the lover returns, the moon is just a distant prop for
melancholy.
The softening also leads smartly into Paul's solo. He feeds out of Ford's vocal with a wah-guitar wail that seems to hunch the shoulders of a note, then relax into some fleet picking in Paul's trademark bubbly style as if he's somehow playing underwater and the notes have quickly risen to the surface to pop in the clear air. That's the first chorus. The second features a lot of the power chords that later rock guitarists would borrow. It climaxes in an ascending "aaaah" from the Ford voices that transports us into the third instrumental chorus, where a few more Lawrence Welky bubbles return the number to vocal land.
Uncharacteristically naked (her voice alone, not double- or triple-tracked) for a few syllables, Ford reprises the first chorus, giving each word double value, again asserting the lyric's wistfulness before revving for the finale. Her voice ascends — "How! High! The! Moon!" — and Les' guitar descends, ending as he began, with the rock riff and adding a puckish triple grace note. He and Ford get in and out of this 21-track mini-masterpiece in a breathless two minutes and four seconds.
Just One More Chance
In 1955, the first official year of rock 'n' roll, the hits stopped
coming. A nice married couple was suddenly sooooo 1954. Paul looked
less like a genius-guitarist than an irrelevant uncle. Paul and Ford
did commercials for the Robert Hall clothing chain ("When the values go
up, up, up/ And the prices go down, down, down") and Rheingold Beer.
They broke up the act — and their marriage. (Ford died at 52 in 1976.)
Paul pretty much retired. He survived quintuple-bypass heart surgery.
It was one of the first operations of its kind — another Les Paul
innovation. Back from the dead, he was named to the Rock Hall of Fame
in 1988. At the induction ceremony, Jeff Beck said, "I've copied more
licks off Les Paul than I'd care to admit." Paul subsequently said to
Stephen Peeples, "I'm glad I was able to give the kids some toys to
play with."
In later days, the Merlin of Mahwah could hardly play with the toys he invented. Arthritis froze all the digits on his right hand and all but two on his left. His fingers, which once flew over the frets at Mach 2, could hardly do the walking. "You know, I can't do what I used to do when I was 20 or 30," he told David John Farinella. "With the arthritis I got — Christ, I got no fingers. But what I got, I play. A knuckle here, a knuckle there. You forget about the arthritis and everything else when you're playing."
He was like Henri Matisse, in a wheelchair in his 80s, who
continued to create art — cutting out bits of colored paper, painting
with his brush in his mouth, supervising his decoration of the Chapel
of the Rosary in St.-Paul de Vence because it was what he did, because
it kept him alive. That's why Les Paul continued to play weekly gigs at
Iridium well into his 90s, until shortly before his death, putting the
final touches, grace notes, on the edifice of his achievement. Each
Monday evening, two legends would fill that tiny stage: a living
legend, Les Paul, and the precious memory of his partner. One night he
closed a set with the plaintive ballad "Just One More Chance." He was
playing it, he said, "in remembrance of my partner Mary."
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Story Of The Day:
Joke
signs banning naked hiking have been ordered for real by Swiss
officials. Designer Dan Walter originally created the design as a prank
and sent it in to the government for a laugh. But he was astonished
when orders started to flood in and the signs are now going up around
the country. Switzerland's mountain footpaths have been plagued by a
craze for naked nature trails that has shocked more traditional walkers.
****
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A joke scarecrow in Brancaster, Norfolk, UK, dressed as a policeman with a fake speed radar gun was arrested by a real officer. The 7ft tall scarecrow was put on the roadside to promote a village scarecrow festival while also encouraging motorists to slow down. However, a passing policewoman thought it "inappropriate" and took it away in her patrol car within four hours of it being put up.
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thought to ponder:
Before borrowing money from a friend, decide which you need most.
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Early Morning Chuckle:
There was a hound dog laying in the yard. An old man in overalls was sitting on the porch.
"Excuse me, Sir, but does your dog bite?", the visiting salesman asked.
The old man replied, "Nope."
So the salesman stepped out of his car. The dog ran over snarling and growling and bit him on his arms and legs.
As the dog was dragging him away, the salesman was flailing around in the dust and yelled, "I thought you said your dog didn’t bite!"
The old man replied, "Ain’t my dog."
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thought to ponder:
A man is incomplete until he is married...then he is finished.
THANKS RICH
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Pool got my daughter pregnant'
A Polish mum is suing an Egyptian hotel after claiming her daughter got pregnant using their mixed swimming pool.
The bizarre claim surfaced as Magdalena Kwiatkowska demanded compensation after her 13-year-old daughter came back from the family holiday expecting a baby.
Tourist authorities in Warsaw confirmed they had received the complaint which states that the girl conceived because of stray sperm in the pool.
"The mother is adamant that her daughter didn't meet any boys while she was there and is determined to go ahead with the case," said one travel industry source.
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Girl called Chicken Dung changes her name
A Chinese girl who was named 'Chicken Dung' has had it legally changed now that she is an adult.
Zhu Xiansheng, the father of the girl, gave her the name on the advice of a doctor after she was ill as a baby and chicken manure was used to treat her.
She was named Ji Shi, which means Chicken Dung, but always hated the name, reports the Southwest Morning Post.
However, she was stuck with it until she was 18, the legal age for name changing in China, when she changed it to Yingzi.
"At last, she is no longer afraid to show anybody her ID card," said her father, of Lindong village, Fujian province.
"She had a serious illness when she was one, and she was sick for two to three months.
"We didn't think she would survive, but a local medical practitioner advised us to paste her with chicken dung while taking medications he prescribed," added Xiansheng.
The girl made a miraculous recovery and her parents formally named her Chicken Dung in tribute to her treatment.
But she hated the name and pleaded with her parents to change it from age of five when she would throw tantrums whenever anybody called her name.
"I always felt embarrassed when filling in forms or signing my name," said Yingzi==============================================================================
Bride pans her own gold for wedding rings
A Leeds student has told how she turned gold panned from British rivers into wedding rings for herself and her new husband.
Daisy Thurkettle-Roper, 25, has been panning for gold in Britain since she was a toddler, reports the Daily Telegraph.
"I've kept all the gold I have ever found and there seemed to be nothing more perfect and romantic than using it for our wedding rings."
Mrs Thurkettle-Roper, a student at Leeds University, has spent years exploring the rivers of Scotland and Wales with her dad Vince Thurkettle.
"There is a point I always remember when your back is aching and you have been in the river for five hours and you are covered in mosquito bites," she said.
"Then you get to the bottom of the pan and see a flake of gold and it gleams and sparkles and you soon forget you are cold and wet."
She collected the final flakes for the wedding bands together with her husband, Martyn Roper, 28, during a trip to Wales.
"My husband had never prospected before and it was really romantic to be able to spend the weekend looking for the gold for our wedding rings together," she said.
Daisy's gold collection was then taken to a jeweller, who crafted it into two special wedding rings worth £600 each.
"It's absolutely amazing to think we found the tiny flakes of gold in bits of dirt and now they have all been put together into rings which fit our fingers perfectly. It was a wonderful idea and will make our wedding day special for us forever======================================================================================
Women spend a year deciding what to wear
Women spend almost a year of their lives deciding what to wear, according to a new study.
Choosing outfits for work, nights out, dinner parties, holidays and other activities means the average female will spend 287 days rifling through their wardrobe.
Clothes retailer Matalan compiled the results after polling 2,491 women, reports the Daily Telegraph.
A spokesman said: "What you wear has a direct impact on how you feel about yourself and it is important a woman feels exceptional in her outfit.
"Whatever the occasion your clothes portray an image and we understand this is fundamentally important to women."
The study, which was based on the adult years from the age of 16 to 60, found most women spend around 20 minutes deciding what to wear before hitting the town on a weekend night.
Week nights out can take up to 20 minutes a time too. Deciding on what clothes to take on holiday uses up to 52 minutes each time.
While on holiday, ten minutes a morning will be taken up trying to find an acceptable outfit with another ten minutes spent picking evening clothes.
On top of that dinner parties, Christmas parties and black tie events - at around 36 minutes a time six times a year - adds up to three and a half days.
The study also found on average women will try on two outfits each morning before coming to a final decision. And one in two women spend 15 minutes the night before work working out what to wear
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Rollerskating babies
A mineral water advert featuring roller-skating babies has become an internet sensation.
The special effects video of infants in nappies performing skating stunts has notched up four million hits on YouTube in a week.
The daredevil 'roller-babies' leap over park fences and railings as well as each other in a city park, reports the Daily Mail.
After pressing play on a giant ghetto blaster, they execute all manner of flips and somersaults.
The troupe of 96 special-effects roller-babies groove to a remix of the Sugarhill Gang's Rapper's Delight in a city park.
The 60-second film was shot at London's Pinewood Studios as part of Evian's Live Young international TV and web video campaign.
The Evian babies were last screened 11 years ago performing an underwater ballet.
Evian's worldwide director of brand Michael Aidan said that the firm was trying to sell drinkers a 'dream'.
He said: "In the majority of countries in recent years, our communication has been very fact-based.
"But consumers expect more from a big brand emotion, dream. This is what we want to achieve - hence this breakaway and back to roots campaign."
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Spears Critics Silenced By Untouched Candie's Photo
Representatives for Britney Spears have hit back at criticisms of the superstar's seemingly airbrushed ad campaign for Candie's by releasing an original "untouched" snap.
The Barbie-style photo shoot for the clothing company's latest collection, which shows the "Toxic" hitmaker looking impossibly perfect and coiffed, stunned fans.
Internet gossip Perez Hilton lashed out at the images, insisting the photos were "practically paintings."
But a representative for Spears has tried to quash rumors the pictures were completely overhauled by sending out a very similar snap to Hilton's Web site insisting Spears looked almost identical pre-airbrushing. (See the 'untouched' photo here)
The re-touched version shows the only differences in the two images
are that the singer's tan has been deepened and her dark roots have
been lightened.
PerezHilton.com says : We eat our own words! A rep for Britney Spears has told us that the pop star's new Candie's campaign is not as heavily Photoshopped as we previously speculated. To prove the point, an exclusive image of the singer was released to PerezHilton.com (top pic). We're told the picture is "raw" and unretouched. Hmmm….inneresting. If you compare the two photos (untouched above, retouched below), we're pretty sure you can spot at least a couple differences. Can ya??? What are they???
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Reports: Madonna And Guy Reconnect?
Madonna and Guy Ritchie are heading for a romantic reconciliation, according to astonishing new U.S. tabloid reports.
The pair confirmed months of speculation by splitting late in 2008 after almost eight years of marriage. Since their quickie divorce, Madonna has enjoyed reported romances with baseball star Alex Rodriguez and model Jesus Luz.
However, Star magazine alleges the former couple has reconnected after Ritchie publicly praised his ex during her bid to adopt Malawian baby Mercy and that they have been meeting in secret to establish if they want to reunite.
A source tells Star, "She was touched by Guy's gesture. It made her start to fall for him all over again.
"For now they are seeing what happens. She's just really happy to have him back in her life."
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Jackson Asked Shields To Marry Him
Brooke Shields turned down countless marriage proposals from late pal Michael Jackson, the actress has revealed in a new magazine tribute.
Shields fought back tears as she honored her "little prince" at the King of Pop's memorial in Los Angeles on Tuesday, recalling how much fun the pair had as teenage friends, and now she's revealing more about her relationship with the late pop superstar.
She tells the upcoming Jackson tribute issue of Rolling Stone, "There were times when he would ask me to marry him, and I would say, 'You have me for the rest of your life, you don't need to marry me, I'm going to go on and do my own life and have my own marriage and my own kids, and you'll always have me.'
"I think it made him relax. He didn't want to lose things that meant something to him."
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Theron Hospitalized After Health Scare?
Hollywood actress Charlize Theron spent four nights in a Los Angeles hospital last week after contracting a painful stomach virus, according to a tabloid report.
The star is alleged to have suffered severe abdominal pains, which she attributed to food poisoning.
But when the sharp stomach pangs failed to go away, her boyfriend Stuart Townsend took her to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center to seek treatment.
According to the National Enquirer, doctors ran a series of tests on Theron and diagnosed her with a serious virus, which may have been contracted during her travels overseas.
And Townsend was left shaken by Theron's health scare, reportedly telling pals, "I was scared to death. I had no idea what was happening to her, but this is a woman who never complains, so I knew it had to be serious."
The publication claims the actress was discharged from hospital after being given a series of antibiotics and is now back to full health.
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Watson Flashes Underwear At Potter Premiere
Actress Emma Watson suffered an embarrassing wardrobe malfunction at
the latest "Harry Potter" movie premiere on Tuesday when the daring
split in her designer dress opened to reveal her underwear.
The 19-year -old braved the heavy rain to hit the red carpet in London with her co-stars Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint for the world premiere of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince."
But, as Watson gathered up the flowing skirt of her long dress to avoid stepping on the hem, she was snapped accidentally flashing her panties to the throng of fans and paparazzi.
ooooooopppppppsssssssss.....................................
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'No rush' for new Jackson songs
New music recorded by Michael Jackson before his death is likely to be released - but not yet, the president of his record label Epic has said.
"We just want to pay our respects to Michael," Amanda Ghost said: "We don't want to be seen to be jumping on any bandwagon associated with his death."
Jackson had been working on new music for several years with hip-hop and R&B stars like Will.i.am, Ne-Yo and Akon.
"The appetite is definitely there" for new material, Ghost told BBC 6 Music.
"If we do release anything of unreleased material, it has to be fantastic and it can't damage in any way his legacy or his legend and I won't let that happen at Epic.
"I have no idea when it's coming out, but it will come out on Sony/Epic. We haven't made any decisions because we just want to be respectful for his memory and not be seen in any way as trying to cash in."
The release of new music is also likely to be delayed as legal negotiations over his estate.
Earlier this week, a Los Angeles judge gave control to his lawyer John Branca and music executive John McClain, rejecting a claim by Jackson's mother Katherine.
Instrumental album
Bruce Swedien, a producer and engineer who worked on Off The Wall and Thriller, has said he believed Jackson was working on instrumental music as well as a pop album.
Ghost, best known for her work as a producer and writer with the likes of Beyonce, Shakira and James Blunt, is the first recording artist to be appointed head of a major label.
She first met Jackson in February this year when presenting him with an award for being the label's biggest selling artist.
"I walked up to him and said 'Hi, I'm the president of Epic,' and he said 'Wow, things have changed since I was there,'" Ghost said.
"He knew my work and he thought it was fantastic that a creative had been put in charge."
US music sales tracker Nielsen SoundScan has revealed that 800,000 copies of Jackson's albums were bought last week - almost double sales for the previous week.
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Friday, November 21, 2008
WORLD HELLO DAY
Here’s one event that you can participate in without it costing you a dime
or even one red cent. It’s easy, and it’s good for everyone. What could
possibly be so wonderful? World Hello Day, that’s what.
This friendly annual event began on this day in 1972 and has grown enormously since. People in 180 countries have participated and the heads of state of 114 countries have given their approval.
Now here’s what you do to participate: you just say, “hello” to ten people on this day. Greet them warmly and with a smile. And you can say, “hello” in any language.
The reason: World Hello Day will put us all one step further ahead in the attempt to advance world peace through personal communication.
Say Hello to the World
The
36th Annual
World Hello Day
November
21st, 2008
Greet Ten People for Peace
|
WORLD
HELLO DAY |
November 21, 2008 is the 36th annual World Hello Day. Anyone can participate in World Hello Day simply by greeting ten people. This demonstrates the importance of personal communication for preserving peace.
World Hello Day was begun in response to the conflict between Egypt and Israel in the Fall of 1973. Since then, World Hello Day has been observed by people in 180 countries.
People around the world use the occasion of World Hello Day as an opportunity to express their concern for world peace. Beginning with a simple greeting on World Hello Day, their activities send a message to leaders, encouraging them to use communication rather than force to settle conflicts.
As a global event World Hello Day joins local participation in a global expression of peace. The World Hello Day web site address is http://www.worldhelloday.org.
31 winners of the Nobel Peace Prize are among the people who have realized World Hello Day's value as an instrument for preserving peace and as an occasion that makes it possible for anyone in the world to contribute to the process of creating peace.
Brian McCormack, a Ph.D. graduate of Arizona State University, and Michael McCormack, a graduate of Harvard University, work together to promote this annual global event.
