TRAXXFM,THE WAKE UP SHOW TRAXXFM on Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Aug 18, 2009
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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'

Screengrab of Twitter page, PA

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

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

Les Paul's 'beautiful' guitar

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

Death of the Guitar Man: Les Paul (1915-2009)

By Richard Corliss Thursday, Aug. 13, 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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TRAXXFM WAKE UP SHOW TRAXXFM UPDATED FRIDAY JULY 10 2009

Jul 10, 2009
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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.

A swimming pool /PA pics

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.

Chickens /PA pics

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

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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.

Gold panning /Rex

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

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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.

Women clothes shopping /Rex

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.

Skating babies /Ext

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."

traxxfm wake up show has roller babies

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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

Michael Jackson

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.

.

news,interesting,compiled,the wake up show traxxfm,

May 12, 2009
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132nd day of 2009 - 233 remaining

Tuesday, May 12, 2009
LIMERICK DAY

Edward Lear was born on this day in 1812 in Highgate, England. Lear was a poet and a talented illustrator.
A big champion of the limerick (which dates back to the early 18th century), Lear wrote Edward Lear’s Book of Nonsense and other such amusing pieces. The Nonsense book especially helped the limerick to become very popular. The limerick is the only fixed-verse form indigenous to the English language.
So, what are you waiting for? Write a limerick today! Here’s one to get you started:
There once was a man named Nation,
Who worked for a radio station.
Although he was tall,
His hands were too small,
Wee paws for station identification.

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Hubble fix mission set for launch

By Paul Rincon
Science reporter, BBC News

Shuttle Atlantis (Getty)

The Hubble Space Telescope is set to receive its final overhaul when a space shuttle mission launches from Florida.

The shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to blast off on Monday in an attempt to repair the stricken space observatory.

Hubble has been hit by failures to its science instruments and to its onboard gyroscopes.

Engineers hope the challenging flight will give a new lease of life to one of the most important scientific tools ever built.

A successful mission would make Hubble up to 90 times more powerful than it was in its original guise and extend its operating lifetime until at least 2014.

Shuttle Atlantis is due to lift off at 1901 BST (1401 EDT) from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The seven crew have arrived at the pad and have begun boarding the vehicle.

Nasa said the weather remained favourable, with a 90% chance of good conditions at the time of launch.

The fifth and final servicing flight was delayed last year, when a critical component of the telescope failed. No more such missions are planned because of the space shuttle's impending retirement in 2010.

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE

Named after the great US astronomer Edwin Hubble

Launched in 1990 into a 600km-high circular orbit

Equipped with a 2.4m primary mirror and five instruments

Length: 15.9m; diameter: 4.2m; Mass: 11,110kg

"Our workload is going to be very high," the mission's lead spacewalker John Grunsfeld told BBC News.

"There's no time to take a breather and look around, it's just going to be work, work, work."

He added: "It's going to be a marathon at a sprint pace for 11 days on orbit."

But if all goes well, it could trigger a magnificent renaissance for the much-loved space telescope.

Martin Barstow, professor of astrophysics and space science at the University of Leicester, UK, has been closely involved in planning for the mission.

He told BBC News: "If (the mission) is successful, as we all hope, it will not just return Hubble to health but increase its capability tremendously with the addition of two new, even more powerful instruments.

"It is a testament to the ingenuity and commitment of many scientists and engineers. I have no doubt that we will continue to be amazed by Hubble's new discoveries during the next few years."

After launch, Atlantis will rendezvous with Hubble, grab the telescope with its robotic arm and pull it on to a work platform to give astronauts easy access to its interior.

Infographic (BBC)

Crew members will install new instruments and thermal blankets, repair two existing instruments, replace gyroscopes, batteries and a unit that stores and transmits science data to Earth.

The overhaul will be carried out over five spacewalks. Astronauts will remove the existing Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 instrument to make way for the new Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3).

WFC3 will be Hubble's first "panchromatic" camera with a wide field of view and is able to take amazingly sharp images over a broad range of colours.

"Wide Field Camera 3 is just going to blow people away with the pictures it is going to be able to take across a very wide wavelength spectrum, from the infrared to the ultraviolet," Mr Grunsfeld said.

It will enable astronomers to carry out new studies of dark energy and dark matter and search for remote galaxies previously beyond Hubble's vision.

"People have devoted their lives, their hearts, their souls, their blood in some cases to building, operating and servicing Hubble"
John Grunsfeld, shuttle astronaut

In pictures: The best of Hubble

The Cat's Eye Nebula (Nasa/The Hubble Heritage Team)

Spacewalkers will also take out the Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement (COSTAR) device, installed during Hubble's first servicing mission to correct the telescope's flawed mirror.

This is no longer needed as instruments installed since have been designed individually to correct for the faults.

In COSTAR's place, astronauts will install the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS), designed to help researchers probe galaxy evolution, the formation of planets, the elements required for life and the web of gas between galaxies.

Repairs will be made to the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS), which suffered a power failure in 2004, and to the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), which was hit by an electrical short in 2007.

"Personally, I'm hoping that the astronauts will have time to repair the ACS camera. It may not get done because there are higher priorities on the schedule," said Dr Richard Massey, a fellow in astronomy at the Royal Observatory Edinburgh.

The WFC3 will seek out even earlier galaxies

Peering into Hubble's future

Referring to the two European Space Agency satellites, Herschel and Planck, which launch on Thursday, Dr Massey said it was a "make-or-break week for astronomy".

Astronauts will also replace a worn-out fine guidance sensor, helping to maintain a robust ability to point the telescope.

After the work to Hubble is complete, Atlantis will boost the telescope to a higher altitude, ensuring that it survives the tug of Earth's gravity for the remainder of its operating lifetime.

Professor Barstow commented: "I have to say that it has been a nail biting time waiting for this with all the problems that have got in the way, the most recent being the failure of the command and data handling module just about a week before the mission was due to launch last October.

"I think the team have done an amazing job of solving the problem of adding that repair to the programme and I wish them well for the mission."

'Unique beast'

Launched in 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope is now regarded as one of the most important instruments in the history of astronomy. It has made a remarkable contribution to our understanding of the origin and evolution of the Universe.

Hubble has obtained the deepest views of the cosmos, finding high-interest objects for other observatories to investigate in detail. Its studies of the Universe's expansion also dramatically refined the best estimates for the age of the cosmos.

Its pictures have produced hard evidence for the existence of black holes and confirmed theories of planetary formation.

Mission astronaut Mike Massimino practises repairs (Nasa)

Three of the seven shuttle crew are veterans of previous Hubble servicing missions. This will be Mr Grunsfeld's third consecutive flight to the orbiting observatory.

Speaking to me at a conference last year, he said: "Hubble is something that has a huge family here on planet Earth. People have devoted their lives, their hearts, their souls, their blood in some cases to building, operating and servicing Hubble.

"The results that we get - the science - are a bit like the love you would get from a pet. Hubble is this unique beast. When we go up into orbit, I really do feel this kinship with it. Even more so after spending five days up close and personal working on it.

"When it's time to leave, I do feel a little bit of sadness... but my big goal is not to break it, and to send it off so it can do new science."

Following the Columbia disaster in 2003, which claimed the lives of seven astronauts, another mission to service Hubble was considered too hazardous.

The reason was astronauts would not be able to use the International Space Station (ISS) as a safe haven if the shuttle sustained damage on launch.

Nasa has now accepted the risk of the mission, but will have the shuttle Endeavour ready to launch immediately to bring the crew home if the servicing mission is endangered.

This unprecedented measure comes at a cost, however: a shuttle mission costs upwards of $450m (£298m; 333m euros).

==============================================================================

Web murderer given life sentence

Heiss became angry when his obsessive messages were blocked

Murder reveals hidden online life

A man from Germany has been jailed for life for stabbing a Nottingham student 86 times after stalking his girlfriend.

David Heiss, 21, from Limburg, became infatuated with 20-year-old Matthew Pyke's girlfriend Joanna Witton, 21, during repeated internet exchanges.

Heiss, who denied the murder charge and said he was acting in self defence, was found guilty at Nottingham Crown Court.

The judge described Heiss's motive as "bizarre" and ordered him to serve at least 18 years for the 2008 attack.

During the trial the jury heard that on 18 September, 2008, Heiss flew from Frankfurt to Birmingham with a knife and made his way to the flat Mr Pyke shared with Miss Witton on North Sherwood Street in Nottingham.

He waited until Miss Witton left for work the following morning and confronted Mr Pyke, originally from Stowmarket in Suffolk.

Heiss had claimed he was acting in self defence after Mr Pyke charged at him with a knife.

The court heard Miss Witton, who was originally from Selby in North Yorkshire, met Heiss through a website she ran with Mr Pyke.

Heiss spent six months pestering her with declarations of love and visited the couple twice in Nottingham before the attack.

He became infuriated when the couple, who conducted their entire social life online, blocked Heiss from their website, preventing him from sending further messages to Miss Witton.

'Wonderful man'

Mr Justice Keith said Heiss had remained in denial about the murder.

He told Heiss: "The law permits only one punishment for the crime of murder and the sentence I pass on you is one of imprisonment for life.

"The fact that your motive for murder was so bizarre doesn't make your killing of Matthew any the less serious."

Speaking after the trial, Mr Pyke's brother Adam said: "All it takes is one stab wound and somebody dies.

"He was a great brother to have and it's still difficult to come to terms with the fact that he's not going to be here any more."

Matthew Pyke and Joanna Witton

A statement issued on behalf of Mr Pyke's family and Miss Witton said: "We will never truly come to terms with what happened to Matthew that morning.

"While we have wanted justice throughout the course of this trial, all we really want is Matthew back with us.

"There will always be a massive part of our family missing and not a day goes by without us thinking about Matthew and what might have been.

"It's not fair that we should all have to live like this for the rest of our lives because of one man's actions. He has taken a wonderful, caring, loving young man from all of us."

Det Ch Insp Tony Heydon from Nottinghamshire Police warned people about the dangers of the internet.

"It is the worst case I have dealt with. It is a horrific incident, a very pre-planned premeditated murder.

"The scene we found on the day was horrific and what happened to Matthew was a terrible act, everyone is shocked about what happened.

Web warning

"David Heiss was very clever on the internet, and he learned a lot of information about Joanna Witton and Matthew Pyke and others.

"It is very, very interesting that he could do that.

"One of the things that's important here is that people need to realise that on their computers there is a lot of personal information that other people can gather.

"We know that Heiss found out a lot of information about where they lived and where they worked and all sorts of things about their social network that perhaps now with hindsight they wouldn't want him to know.

"So people need to bear that in mind when they are on their own systems using Facebook, people need to be careful."

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on this date :

1971 - The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger married Bianca Perez Morena de Macias. Mick couldn’t remember her whole name very well, so she became known as Bianca the world over.

1977 - The Eagles earned a gold record for the hit, Hotel California. The award was the second of three gold record singles for the group. The other million sellers were New Kid in Town and Heartache Tonight. Two number one songs by The Eagles -- Best of My Love and One of These Nights -- didn’t quite make the million-seller mark.

hotel california on the wake up blog

eagles reunion 2004 ..on the wake up show traxxfm blog

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Pupils urged to attack dummy teachers

Pupils at a Chinese school are being encouraged to attack punchbag dummies of their teachers to relieve stress.

Pupils work off their stress /Quirky China News

Lichang 1st Middle School in Jinan attached pictures of teachers to sandbags and gave pupils boxing gloves to work off their frustrations.

Vice principal Meng Fanxiang said: "Adolescent students may have a lot of problems and be under great pressure from studies. It's better for them to release it within the school than other places."

Meng's own picture, as well as those of other teachers and admin staff, has been attached to the sandbags.

But the vice principal told the Qilu Evening Post: "I don't care if they beat up my dummy."

The 'physical release' room is part of a new programme of support services for students which also include a private chatroom and a consultation room.

The school says that most boys prefer the physical release room for the release of stress, while the majority of girls prefer the private chatroom

===================================================================================

'Little old lady' robs bank

Police are hunting a crook who got clean away with more than £10,000 after robbing a bank dressed as a little old lady.

Comedian Dick Emery as a little old lady /Rex

The bandit shuffled into the bank in Hamburg, Germany, wearing a headscarf, thick glasses and a long coat before pulling a gun on cashiers.

More than 100 police officers took part in a chaotic city-wide search for the cross-dressing blagger - and arrested five real-life old ladies as suspects before letting them go.

A police spokesman said: "A cashier said they saw a smiling little old lady come up to the cash desk, but then she suddenly whipped out a gun, roared in a deep male voice to hand over the cash and then fled like as quickly as an Olympic athlete.

"A lot of bank robbers just put a balaclava over their heads to hide their face, but this particular disguise was very well thought out and makes catching them especially hard."

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Brits use wallabies as lawnmowers

British gardeners are increasingly buying wallabies as pets to trim their lawns.

Wallabies /PA pics

Private orders for the marsupials have jumped in recent years as landowners seek new ways of keeping their grass neat, reports The Times.

Wallaby enthusiasts say the animal is a cuter, friendlier and more exotic alternative than sheep.

A pair of wallabies are not cheap, with males costing £150 and females around £650, in addition to food and bedding costs.

But Waveney Wildlife, Britain's biggest private supplier, reports a doubling in wallaby orders in five years, driven by growing interest from individuals.

Trevor Lay, who runs the centre in Bungay, Suffolk, now sells 35 a year and says he could find homes for three times as many.

"It's crazy. To be honest, if I had 100 I could easily get rid of them," he said.

Quintin Spratt, a breeder from near Diss in Norfolk, also told the newspaper that he had received a surge of inquiries from would-be owners.

Anyone looking to keep a wallaby should have enough land for them to roam, half an acre, and fences at least 5ft high to ensure they cannot jump for freedom

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Man sues over sex ban

A Kenyan man is suing the organisers of a politically motivated sex ban for causing him "anxiety and sleepless nights".

Kenya Prime Minister Raila Odinga

James Kimondo is seeking damages for the ban which was called by women's groups in a bid to force political leaders to put their rivalries aside, reports the Daily Telegraph.

"Since the women called for the sex boycott, my wife has denied me my conjugal rights. This has caused me anxiety and sleepless nights," he said.

"I have been suffering mental anguish, stress, back aches, lack of concentration," Mr Kimondo told reporters outside the Nairobi High Court.

The strike ended on Wednesday with the organisers claiming it had been a success.

The leaders of the G10, a coalition of women's groups, argued that the country's male leaders should not have time for matters of the flesh when the country is ensnared in economic and political turmoil.

President Mwai Kibaki and his rival Raila Odinga, pictured, were pressured into a power-sharing deal by international mediators following violence which accompanied December 2007 polls.

But lingering tensions have crippled the coalition government and fuelled widespread discontent.

The two, who have hardly met recently, held brief talks last Monday and held a cabinet meeting on Thursday, the first in a month.

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3 posts tagged “nigel green”

TRAXXFM,THE WAKE UP SHOW TRAXXFM on Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Twitter tweets are 40% 'babble'

Musicians pay tribute to Les Paul

Death of the Guitar Man: Les Paul (1915-2009)

TRAXXFM WAKE UP SHOW TRAXXFM UPDATED FRIDAY JULY 10 2009

thought to ponder:
Before borrowing money from a friend, decide which you need most.

thought to ponder:
A man is incomplete until he is married...then he is finished.

Spears Critics Silenced By Untouched Candie's Photo

Reports: Madonna And Guy Reconnect?

Jackson Asked Shields To Marry Him

Theron Hospitalized After Health Scare?

Watson Flashes Underwear At Potter Premiere

'No rush' for new Jackson songs

news,interesting,compiled,the wake up show traxxfm,

Hubble fix mission set for launch

Web murderer given life sentence

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3 posts tagged “nigel green”

TRAXXFM,THE WAKE UP SHOW TRAXXFM on Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Twitter tweets are 40% 'babble'

Musicians pay tribute to Les Paul

Death of the Guitar Man: Les Paul (1915-2009)

TRAXXFM WAKE UP SHOW TRAXXFM UPDATED FRIDAY JULY 10 2009

thought to ponder:Before borrowing money from a friend, decide which you need most.

thought to ponder:A man is incomplete until he is married...then he is finished.

Spears Critics Silenced By Untouched Candie's Photo

Reports: Madonna And Guy Reconnect?

Jackson Asked Shields To Marry Him

Theron Hospitalized After Health Scare?

Watson Flashes Underwear At Potter Premiere

'No rush' for new Jackson songs

news,interesting,compiled,the wake up show traxxfm,

Hubble fix mission set for launch

Web murderer given life sentence

About Me

OUR OTHER BLOGS

My Groups

Neighborhood

Tags

Archives

Subscribe

thought to ponder:
Before borrowing money from a friend, decide which you need most.

thought to ponder:
A man is incomplete until he is married...then he is finished.