as found in TIME

Superstar Taylor Swift is releasing a Taylor Swift Baby Taylor guitar,
similar to the one she wrote songs on while on her radio tour a few
years ago. Pre-orders are now being taken: http://j.mp/35RgtZ



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In Michigan a pet store employee likely set a world record after he
stuff 16 Madagascar hissing cockroaches into his mouth. The old record
was 11.




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

MAY THERE BE LOTS'A THOSAI AND CHICKEN CURRY AND PATATOES

Gas mask bra wins science award

The designer of a bra that turns into two gas masks was among the winners of the 2009 Ig Nobel prizes.

The aim of the awards is to honour achievements that "first make people laugh and then make them think".

Dr Elena Bodnar won the public health prize for the bra that, in an emergency, can be converted into two gas masks.

She demonstrated her invention and gave one to each of the Nobel laureates as a gift, reports the BBC.

The only British winners were Catherine Douglas and Peter Rowlinson who found that cows with names produce more milk.

Dr Douglas, from the agriculture, food and rural development department of Newcastle University, said she was "thrilled" to have been selected and was a "big fan of the Ig Nobel awards".

She dedicated the award to Purslane, Wendy and Tina - "the nicest cows I have ever known".

The peace prize went to a Swiss research team who determined whether it is better to be hit over the head with a full or empty bottle of beer.

The prize for economics went to the executives of four Icelandic banks.

And the governor of Zimbabwe's Reserve Bank received the prize for mathematics for printing bank notes with such a wide range of denominations.

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

Women drivers pay lip service to safety

Nearly half a million road accidents a year are caused by women drivers applying make-up, according to a new survey.

One in five female motorists admit touched up their make-up on the move - and three per cent had caused an accident while applying cosmetics.

Young women, aged between 17 and 21, were found to be the most likely to put beauty before safety in the poll of 4,000 women drivers by motor insurer Diamond.

Twenty-seven per cent confessed to putting on make-up and nine per cent of those aged 18 or younger have had a crash while doing so - three times the average.

Diamond managing director Sian Lewis said it was "worrying" that so many women put themselves and other road users at risk.

"We all have busy lives but applying your make-up when you're driving means your full attention is not on the road ahead," she said.

"Is your mascara more important than yours and other road users' safety? Even if you're lucky enough to arrive at your destination safely, you could be charged with careless driving if spotted by the police.

"Women are generally great at doing more than one thing at once but this is definitely one area where multitasking should not be practised."

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

Fisher-dog catches attention

A Chinese man says his dog has become something of a local celebrity - after taking up fishing.

Mr Lin, of Wuchang in central China's Hubei province, told the Wuhan Evening Post that Ding Ding had always loved water.

"I often swim in Donghu Lake, and used to leave him on the bank to take care of my clothes and valuables. But he couldn't stop jumping into the water and swimming with me," he said.

"When he was swimming, he would bite anything floating in the water, like bottles, foam rubber, or dead fish, and bring them back to the bank.

"But several days ago he suddenly started catching live fish from the lake. Within 10 minutes he had brought back three big fish, weighing more than 3kg."

Lin says Ding Ding now regularly leaps into the lake and comes back with a live fish in his mouth - to the amazement of passers-by.

"He can tell where the fish are located by seeing the bubbles coming from the water," he added.

Shocked local angler Mr Zhao commented: "I've been fishing in Donghu Lake for decades but this is the first time I've ever seen a fishing dog."

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

News anchor's slip sparks web craze

A US news anchor who made an obscene verbal slip live on air has unwittingly spawned a viral web craze.

Ernie Arnastos, who works for Fox 5 WNYW in New York, told the station's weatherman to "keep f***ing that chicken".

In a scene reminiscent of the 2004 film Anchorman, Mr Anastos appeared oblivious to the slip, while co-presenter Dari Alexander's eyes bulged with shock.

It is believed that Mr Anastos meant to say "keep plucking that chicken", possibly meaning "persevere" or "don't give up".

However, the obscene version has taken on a life of its own. It is a regularly searched term on Twitter and Google, while T-shirts are available with the catchphrase across the chest.

The phrase has even made it into slang bible urbandictionary.com, with the definition "keep up the good work".

The Rev Al Sharpton has speculated on the meaning of the slogan.

He told the New York Times: "It could be a kind of phrase: 'Well, keep doing what you are doing. Keep going after it'. Even if you are tired or distracted, keep on doing that chicken, that kind of thing."

Mr Arnastos has since apologised for the slip while Fox 5 WNYW vice president Lew Leone said the company was "disappointed with Ernie's comment".

In the 2004 film Anchorman, a rival uses the autocue to trick news anchor Ron Burgundy, played by Will Ferrell, into replacing his usual catchphrase "stay classy, San Diego" with "go f*** yourself, San Diego".

keep errr rocking !!!!

hi all :)

here's what we have to talk about on the show today....
of course lots and lots of "on the spot" topics will emerge...
and theres that fav SHIP dining experience we have for you to win...

theres also formula one news for F1 fans ...and thats on our

"formula 1 with the wake up " BLOG

OUR OTHER BLOGS YOU MAY WANNA CHECK OUT :

ROCK IT ...the blog
OUR FAVOURITE VIDEOS ..blog
THE GREEN FARM

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

NOW ON WITH DA'SHO !!!

237th day of 2009 - 128 remaining

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

1984 - Ghostbusters, by Ray Parker, Jr., started week #3 at the top of the pop music charts. The hit song was from the movie of the same name starring Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Rick Moranis and Harold Ramis.

2002: Petri Valta of Finland bested over 90 contestants from seven countries when he hurled a Nokia 5510 handset over 66 meters, setting a new world record at the Mobile Phone Throwing World Championships in Savonlinna, Finland.

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

birthdays

actor Sean Connery is 79;

singer-dad Billy Ray Cyrus 48;

singer-actor Gene Simmons 60;

Q: Was Sir Sean Connery discharged from the British Navy in 1950 because of:

(a) chronic seasickness; (b) ulcers; or (c) an enlarged heart?
  

answer : ulcers

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

     Q: The female pigeon cannot lay eggs if she is alone. In order for her ovaries to function, she must be able to see another pigeon. If you have no other pigeon, should you:

(a) fatten up a morning dove; (b) try a photo of another pigeon; or (c) let her see her own reflection in a mirror?
  

  Answer : Pigeonologists say the mirror will work.

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

Tarantino strikes box office gold

Quentin Tarantino's World War II movie Inglourious Basterds, starring Brad Pitt, has entered the North American box office chart at number one.

The film took $37.6m (£22.2m) in its opening weekend, replacing low-budget alien saga District 9 at the top.

It gives Tarantino the best opening weekend of his career, beating the mark set by Kill Bill: Vol 2 in 2004.

His latest outing also scored big debuts in other countries including France and Germany.

The movie tells the story of a group of Jewish-American commandos who plot to take violent revenge against the Nazis.

Big hitters

Its performance provides a success for movie moguls Harvey and Bob Weinstein, who have failed to make an impact at the box office and the Oscars since the launch of their new company in 2005.

US BOX OFFICE TOP FIVE

• 1 Inglourious Basterds - $37.6m
• 2 District 9 - $18.9m
• 3 GI Joe - $12.5m
• 4 The Time Traveler's Wife - $10m
• 5 Julie & Julia - $9m

Source: Hollywood.com

The pair were previously behind a string of big hitters including Shakespeare In Love, Chicago and Tarantino's 1994 hit Pulp Fiction.

The weekend's box office showed little change, with last week's hits including GI Joe and The Time Traveler's Wife remaining in the top five.

District 9, produced by Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson, is on course to surpass the $100m mark.

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Police investigate Lohan break-in

Los Angeles police are investigating after Mean Girls star Lindsay Lohan's home was broken into for the second time in three months.

Police said the Hollywood Hills home was burgled on Sunday morning while the 23-year-old and her younger sister, Ali Lohan, were out.

A statement from her publicist said many of Lohan's personal belongings were taken "without remorse".

No arrests have yet been made in connection with either incident.

Publicist Leslie Sloane-Zelnik added that police had been given the security surveillance video from Lohan's home.

Celebrity news website TMZ reported that the actress found the house had been broken into after coming home at about 0300 local time and called her father, Michael Lohan, who called the police.

Mr Lohan told TMZ that a safe was ripped off a wall in the home and that a couple of watches had been taken.

Police said a previous burglary attempt was reported at Lohan's home in May.

It had been reported the suspects in that incident were apparently frightened off by the alarm, but were captured on videotape trying to gain entry.

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

Pitt criticizes Cruise's 'Valkyrie'

Brad Pitt has declared battle against Tom Cruise for the title of best World War II movie, branding the Hollywood actor's recent film "Valkyrie" "ridiculous."

Pitt teamed up with director Quentin Tarantino for "Inglourious Basterds," which was released less than a year after Cruise's 2008 drama about a plot to kill Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

However, the actor insists his portrayal of Nazi hunter Aldo Raine in Tarantino's violent film is no comparison to Cruise's character.

He tells German magazine Stern, "The second World War could still deliver more stories and films, but I believe that Quentin put a cover on that pot. With 'Basterds,' everything that can be said to this genre has been said. The film destroys every symbol. The work is done, end of story ... ('Valkyrie') was a ridiculous movie."

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

Cyrus' father downplays pole dance

Miley at the Teen Choice Awards.

Miley Cyrus' father has brushed off the controversy surrounding the teen sensation's pole dancing exploits at the recent Teen Choice Awards, insisting the pop star is simply trying to entertain.

Cyrus' provocative performance prompted family values groups to criticize the 16-year-old for bringing strip club dancing to the stage of the year's most wholesome awards show.

But Billy Ray Cyrus insists his daughter's critics always go too far.

He says, "I just think that Miley loves entertaining people."

And he has urged his daughter not to pay attention to the negative comments being leveled at her.

He tells "Access Hollywood," "I always tell her to love what you're doing and stay focused for the love of the art and not worry so much about opinion."

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Ferrigno shocked over 'Dancing with the Stars' snub

"The Incredible Hulk" star Lou Ferrigno is angry after learning he won't be among the celebrities talking part in the new season of hit "Dancing with the Stars."

The bodybuilder-turned-actor, who recently hit the headlines when it was revealed he was Michael Jackson's personal trainer up to the King of Pop's death in June, originally auditioned for the show in 2007, and had been in talks to appear in the new series.

But he was surprised to find out he had not been selected as a contestant once again after holding promising talks with TV executives just a week before the 16 celebrities were announced on Monday.

Ferrigno's wife, Carla, has blasted producers for the snub and criticized them for not even letting her husband know they had decided against picking him.

She tells RadarOnline.com, "They never even had the class to give Lou a call and tell him that he was not going to be chosen -- this is the second time they haven't selected him but it will be the last. Lou is an American icon and we had a lot of fans contacting us who were excited about him appearing on 'Dancing with the Stars.'

"The producers told us he would have made an excellent contestant and when you compare him to some of the 'so-called' celebrities they picked it just does not make any sense at all.

"We couldn't believe some of the people they picked. ... I mean Tom Delay, a corrupt politician, a skateboarder (Louie Vito) who nobody has ever heard of and what exactly has Ashley (Hamilton) ever done?"

The other celebrities picked include pop stars Macy Gray and Aaron Carter, reality TV star Kelly Osbourne and model Joanna Krupa.

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

Diaz spotted on date with Reeves?

Cameron Diaz has been spotted enjoying a date with Keanu Reeves a month after she was seen out with both Leonardo DiCaprio and Jude Law on separate nights.

The beauty, who previously dated Justin Timberlake and Matt Dillon, split from British model Paul Sculfor earlier this year.

In July she was seen enjoying an evening out with her "Gangs of New York" co-star DiCaprio in London before heading out with Law to party at the British capital's Boujis nightclub a few days later.

And now Diaz has been seen dining at a restaurant with the "Matrix" star in Los Angeles, before heading to watch a movie together.

During the date the actress was seen making Reeves laugh by fitting a whole hamburger into her mouth. The pair then left arm in arm, according to Britain's The Sun newspaper.

A source tells the publication, "Cameron was stuffing her burger in her mouth and playing up the fact that she has that wide mouth. Keanu was laughing -- it was strange to see him giggling like that as he's regarded as a bit serious."

The pair appeared together as lovers in the 1996 film "Feeling Minnesota."

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

Ashanti and Nelly reportedly split

R&B star Ashanti and rapper Nelly have reportedly called off their romance.

The hip-hop supercouple managed to keep their four-year romance secret until Nelly confirmed in November they are in fact a couple.

Ashanti even admitted in March that a wedding was "absolutely in the cards" for the pair

.

But now the twosome has split amid claims the "Hot in Herre" rapper wasn't ready to settle down with Ashanti, reports the New York Daily News.

The publication alleges Nelly has recently been spotted spending time with Canadian beauty Melyssa Ford, a model who has starred in music videos for R. Kelly and Usher.

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

Washington thrills Tokyo commuters at train conductor

Oscar-winning actor Denzel Washington gave commuters in Tokyo a thrill on Thursday after taking command of a Japanese train station

.

The star plays a train dispatcher forced to negotiate with hijacker John Travolta in the movie remake "Taking of Pelham 1 2 3," and he conducted traffic at the Kokuritsu Kyogijo station as a train departed mid-afternoon to promote the movie.

Commanding the airwaves Washington told passengers in Japanese, "The train is leaving now."

However, the actor has laughed of the idea of switching careers, and admits he should have warned passengers before taking over. He says, "To be a train dispatcher for one day... Be very careful... if I'm in charge."

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

quirkie news bits

Rice and easy for robot chefs

A new restaurant has opened in China - and is serving meals cooked by robot chefs.

The 'I Robot' restaurant, in Nanning, Guangxi province, bought two robots from a Shenzen-based technology company for more than £50,000.

Huang Xianghao, the restaurant manager, says his robot chefs can make hundreds of traditional Chinese dishes, each of which takes just two or three minutes.

"We charge exactly the same price as other local restaurants, even though the robot chefs' dishes probably taste better," he told the Wuzhou Daily.

"Chinese cuisine is known for its delicacy and deliciousness. It's amazing to many customers that robots can make such good dishes.

"Our robot chefs are more efficient and hygienic. And they don't complain."

Hundreds of recipes have been stored in the databases of the computers which control the robots' movements.

However, the robots still need human assistant to help them prepare the ingredients, like washing and chopping the vegetables.

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

Rhyming slang for cash machine

A cash machine operator has introduced Cockney rhyming slang to a number of its ATMs.

People wanting cash out of Bank Machine's ATMs in East London can choose to have their instruction given to them in rhyming slang, reports BBC online.

Customers will be asked to enter their Huckleberry Finn, rather than their Pin, and will have to select how much sausage and mash or cash they want.

The company plan to trial the rhyming slang in five cash machines for three months.

Ron Delnevo, managing director of Bank Machine, said: "We wanted to introduce something fun and of local interest to our London machines.

"Whilst we expect some residents will visit the machine to just have a look, most will be genuinely pleased as this is the first time a financial services provider will have recognised the Cockney language in such a manner."

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

Magician provokes riot

An Indian conjuror needed an armed guard out of town after his 'magic' provoked a riot.

Rajeev Patel had been performing on the street in Berhampur, eastern India, when he asked a young boy to join him for a special magic trick.

Witnesses said he then pulled down the boy's pants and asked him to hold a piece of clay before saying he would change it into a sweet.

One man in the crowd said: "We were all shocked when he just pulled the boy's pants down but if that wasn't enough he didn't even manage to do the spell and a lot of people though he was just putting it on so he could look at the boy's backside.

"They got furious and started shouting at him and then when he said he would try it again they just went mad."

"He failed and the crowd turned violent," added a police spokesman, after officers took two hours to quell a riot and give the hapless magician an armed guard out of town.

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

Sleepwalker survives 55ft fall

A Romanian man escaped with only minor injuries after he fell from a fourth floor window while he was asleep.

Marius Purcariu, 32, from Arad, was found wrapped in a curtain on the bonnet of a car parked under his bedroom window.

He told doctors he could not remember how he got there.

He said: "I remember turning off the TV and going to sleep around 2am. Then I heard noises and my wife was calling my name from the window. I was very lucky I guess."

Doctors said it was a miracle he suffered nothing worse than a leg fracture and a broken rib in the fall.

They believe it was a clear case of sleepwalking and say the fact his body was relaxed during the fall because he was still asleep may have saved his life.

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

Sultan's £15,000 haircut

The Sultan of Brunei has spent an incredible £15,000 on getting a haircut.

The wealthy royal paid the massive fee to fly his favourite barber, Ken Modestu, from London to Brunei earlier this month.

But the Sultan was so worried about catching swine flu that he paid £11,000 for a private luxury cabin for the hairdresser - so that he didn't mix with other passengers on the plane.

Modestou runs a barber's at the Dorchester hotel in Mayfair, central London, and usually charges £30 for a trim, reports The Sun.

But the 63-year-old Sultan - one of the richest men in the world - pays the barber thousands every time he makes the 7,000 mile round trip to Brunei.

George Kadi, who works with Modestou at the Dorchester, told a client yesterday: "Ken has been cutting the hair of the sultan for 16 years.

"He goes regularly, sometimes every three or four weeks. The sultan flies him first-class at a cost of about £9,000. Everything is paid for, hotel, luxury food. It's a case of 'just keep signing, that's all'.

"Kadi said that the Sultan - whose fortune is estimated at £12billion pays Modestou with a "thick envelope" full of cash.

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Man uses live mortars as dumbells

A man from China decided to keep fit using two old mortars before a friend noticed the devices were still live.

Former army officer Xie Long, 87, said: "A colleague told me they were defused and because they were heavy and in the right shape I took two home to use as dumbbells. "Even my two sons used to use them as well for training. I can't believe we trained with them for 30 years with nothing happening." The mortars were discovered by chance when a friend from the local police force who also specialised in explosives visited Long at his home in the Hechuan district of Chongqing. "When I saw one of the mortars, I was sweating. The firing pin was in the position of readiness, and can explode if violently hit or shaken," said police officer Li Guangkui. Li said: "Once exploded, the result is beyond imagination."

Police have defused the mortars, and they will now be put on display in a military museum.

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

Shuttle to deliver 'hot and cold'

By Jonathan Amos
Science reporter, BBC News

The US shuttle Discovery is all set for its latest mission to the International Space Station (ISS).

The 13-day flight will deliver science equipment to the platform, including a new freezer to store biological samples and a furnace for baking materials.

The lab equipment was made in Europe, which is represented in Discovery's crew by Swede Christer Fuglesang.

The mission will be the 30th shuttle flight dedicated to station assembly and maintenance.

The current plan is for a further six sorties to be made to the ISS before America's re-useable spaceship fleet is retired at the end of next year or early in 2011.

The lift-off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida is timed for 0136 local time (0536 GMT) on Tuesday.

The latest mission has a strong European focus.

European Space Agency (Esa) astronaut Christer Fuglesang will conduct two of the three spacewalks planned during Discovery's stay at the ISS.

On one of these walks, the Swede will move cabling on the exterior of the station in readiness for the arrival next year of a connecting unit, called Node 3 or "Tranquility", and a huge window referred to as the Cupola.

The two modules will be Europe's final large-scale contributions to the assembly of the ISS.

Discovery's payload bay is taken up with the Italian-built Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM), which acts as a giant packing box on shuttle logistics missions.

For this flight, the MPLM contains almost seven tonnes of cargo. This mass includes two more important European donations to the ISS project.

One is a Melfi (Minus Eighty Laboratory Freezer for ISS), which can store biological samples.

"This is the second such freezer," explained Martin Zell, Esa's head of ISS Utilisation.

"This first one is already up there since three years and working extremely well.

"It's the main freezer element on the station and can operate between plus-4C, at the upper temperature, down to minus-80 degrees; and even in different temperatures in its four cold volumes, or compartments," he told BBC News.

The additional Melfi will facilitate the increased science workload taking place on the station now that its resident crew has been raised from three to six.

All manner of biological samples will be stored in the new facility, including blood taken from the astronauts.

This is routinely drawn for study, to further scientists' understanding of the impacts of long-duration spaceflight on the human body.

Growing issue

The other notable European cargo item is the Materials Science Laboratory.

This contains a safe furnace (up to 1,400C) in which astronauts can first melt and then solidify a range of samples, such as metal alloys.

The weightless conditions on the station mean the fine-scale structures in these cooling samples will grow in a different way from how they would at the surface of the Earth.

Scientists expect these experiments to provide novel information that can be applied to everyday industrial manufacturing processes.

With MSL and the Melfi units, Europe is providing both the coldest and the hottest conditions for science on the station.

As well as preparing the platform for the arrival of Tranquility and the Cupola, the mission's spacewalks will replace experiments that currently live on the outside of Esa's Columbus laboratory.

They will also exchange one of the tanks for storing ammonia, which is used to move excess heat from inside the station to the radiators located outside.

Discovery will also drop off US astronaut Nicole Stott for a three-month stay on the ISS, and pick up colleague Tim Kopra for the ride home. Kopra has been living on the platform for the past five weeks.

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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.

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

2003: Authorities estimated as many as 10,000 people had died in heat-related deaths in France during a brutal European heat wave.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

More from 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.

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

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.

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

August 17, 2009 Christina Aguilera (photo: Jim Rinaldi) Christina Aguilera revealed last week that she is wrapping up work on her new album. On her Clear Channel-powered A.P.E. Radio station, the Pop star said, "I know I can't let too much out the bag too soon. I just can't, 'cause I really want you guys to be surprised and to experience firsthand what I'm talking about or what I'm not talking too much about. Too soon in the game, but wrapping everything up now." 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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