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King of Pop’s “This is It”- moved friends to tears
New York (CNN) — For Kenny Ortega, Travis Payne and Michael Bearden, “It” is a bittersweet feeling.
The three men expected to be spending their time this summer and fall working on Michael Jackson’s concert engagement at London’s O2 Arena, which was scheduled to begin in July. Instead, they are talking about Jackson’s last days and the new movie about that time, “This Is It.”
In an interview, they described “This Is It,” the movie that they’ve made from rehearsal and backstage footage of Jackson, shot just before he died June 25. The film, which has been dominating advance ticket sale outlets, opens wide on Wednesday.
The full movie wasn’t screened for critics, with only 12 minutes of footage available to the media before the interviews. But as director Ortega describes it, the film tries to blend backstage footage with the performance to give an inside glimpse of those last days at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.
The scenes show the superstar working on his dance moves, figuring out choreography, practicing on stage and running the show. From the clips, there’s no question that Jackson was in charge. His physicality is vibrant: At one point, he dances with a troupe of top-notch hoofers and keeps up with all of them. There’s no indication of the infirmities that would ultimately take his life.
All three men — Payne was the show’s choreographer and Bearden its music supervisor — stressed how they wanted this movie to represent the Jackson they knew.
“It was an honor project,” Bearden said.
According to Ortega, the film is for the fans. He said he was inundated with e-mails from fans wanting to know just what Jackson had planned for the concerts he would never give.
Above all, they said they were concerned about Jackson’s three children. They said that they wanted to make a film that his kids — Prince Michael, Paris and “Blanket” — would be able to see in years to come that would make them proud of their father.
-cnn.com- ^C.A^
Global warming is cooling- US beliefs
WASHINGTON – Americans seem to be cooling toward global warming. Just 57 percent think there is solid evidence the world is getting warmer, down 20 points in just three years, a new poll says. And the share of people who believe pollution caused by humans is causing temperatures to rise has also taken a dip, even as the US and world forums gear up for possible action against climate change.
In a poll of 1,500 adults by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, released Thursday, the number of people saying there is strong scientific evidence that the Earth has gotten warmer over the past few decades is down from 71 percent in April of last year and from 77 percent when Pew started asking the question in 2006. The number of people who see the situation as a serious problem also has declined.
The steepest drop has occurred during the past year, as Congress and the Obama administration have taken steps to control heat-trapping emissions for the first time and international negotiations for a new treaty to slow global warming have been under way. At the same time, there has been mounting scientific evidence of climate change — from melting ice caps to the world’s oceans hitting the highest monthly recorded temperatures this summer.
The poll was released a day after 18 scientific organizations wrote Congress to reaffirm the consensus behind global warming. A federal government report Thursday found that global warming is upsetting the Arctic’s thermostat.
Only about a third, or 36 percent of the respondents, feel that human activities — such as pollution from power plants, factories and automobiles — are behind a temperature increase. That’s down from 47 percent from 2006 through last year’s poll.
“The priority that people give to pollution and environmental concerns and a whole host of other issues is down because of the economy and because of the focus on other things,” suggested Andrew Kohut, the director of the research center, which conducted the poll from Sept. 30 to Oct. 4. “When the focus is on other things, people forget and see these issues as less grave.”
Andrew Weaver, a professor of climate analysis at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, said politics could be drowning out scientific awareness.
“It’s a combination of poor communication by scientists, a lousy summer in the Eastern United States, people mixing up weather and climate and a full-court press by public relations firms and lobby groups trying to instill a sense of uncertainty and confusion in the public,” he said.
Political breakdowns in the survey underscore how tough it could be to enact a law limiting pollution emissions blamed for warming. While three-quarters of Democrats believe the evidence of a warming planet is solid, and nearly half believe the problem is serious, far fewer conservative and moderate Democrats see the problem as grave. Fifty-seven percent of Republicans say there is no solid evidence of global warming, up from 31 percent in early 2007.
-gmanews.tv- ^C.A^
Algae- a secret weapon in climate change war?
MIAMI (AFP) – Driven by fluctuations in oil prices, and seduced by the prospect of easing climate change, experts are ramping up efforts to squeeze fuel out of a promising new organism: pond scum.
As it turns out, algae — slimy, fast-growing and full of fat — is gaining ground as a potential renewable energy source.
Experts say it is intriguing for its ability to gobble up carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, while living happily in places that aren’t needed for food crops.
Algae likes mosquito-infested swamps, for example, filthy pools, and even waste water. And while no one has found a way to mass produce cheap fuel from algae yet, the race is on.
University labs and start-up companies across the country are getting involved. Over the summer, the first mega-corporation joined in, when ExxonMobil said it would sink 600 million dollars into algae research in a partnership with a California biotechnology company.
If the research pans out, scientists say they will eventually find a cost-effective way to convert lipids from algae ponds into fuel, then pump it into cars, trucks and jets.
“I think it’s very realistic. I don’t think it’s going to take 20 years. It’s going to take a few years,” said chemical engineer George Philippidis, director of applied research at Florida International University in Miami.
One of the factors fueling enthusiasm is algae’s big appetite for carbon dioxide — a by-product of burning fossil fuels.
“We could hook up to the exhaust of polluting industries,” Philippidis said. “We could capture it and feed it to algae and prevent that CO2 from contributing to further climate change.”
California company Sapphire Energy has already fueled a cross-country road trip with algae-tinged gasoline.
The trip, meant to raise awareness, prompted the headline, “Coast to Coast on Slime”. Another California company is looking at fattening fish on algae and then processing the fish for oil.
“Where algae is very nice is, it’s prolific. It’s everywhere… and you don’t have to do much. Mother Nature has kind of figured it out,” said Roy Swiger, a molecular geneticist and director of the Florida division of the non-profit Midwest Research Institute.
-news.yahoo.com- ^C.A^
From Vista’s frustrations, Windows 7 was born
Windows 7, on sale Thursday, October 22, has already received early positive reviews
If consumers like the new Windows 7 operating system, they’ll have the much-maligned Windows Vista to thank.
In part, that’s because Windows 7 actually builds on the under-the-hood changes that came with Vista. But, it also turns out that the vast headaches created by Vista were just what the PC industry needed to improve their cooperation.
With consumers lukewarm to Vista and many businesses shunning it entirely, both Microsoft and the computer makers realized that the standard way of business just wasn’t cutting it, particularly with Apple coming on strong.
Redmond, in particular, was humbled by the response to Vista. When it came time to planning the next version, newly installed Windows development chief Steven Sinofsky took the company’s earliest ideas and met with PC makers.
That marked a huge change from past releases, where, as some PC makers described it, Microsoft would just develop windows in secret and then “throw it over the wall.”
“Until Vista, Microsoft was fully thinking on their own and implementing their own ideas and then releasing it,” said Gianpiero Morbello, a vice president for Taiwanese PC maker Acer.
This time around, though, Microsoft shared its earliest plans, sought input, and held regular meetings with the PC makers. In addition, it dedicated engineering teams to work with each of the biggest computer makers to help them work through any issues specific to their designs.
The result, which goes on sale Thursday, is Windows 7. Although its changes are more modest than those made in Windows Vista, the product has been both on time and well received by testers and reviewers alike.
Close cooperation with the PC makers has resulted in a product that adds few blockbuster features but is roundly praised for making everyday computing tasks simpler and more elegant.
-cnn.com- ^C.A^
British National Party Leader- denied being a Nazi
Police form a cordon to prevent protesters from gaining access to the BBC
Protesters gather outside the BBC in West London
LONDON, England (CNN) — British National Party leader Nicholas Griffin denied Thursday in a controversial appearance on a popular BBC television program that he is a Nazi.
“I am not a Nazi, I never have been,” the far-right political leader said on “Question Time” after describing himself as the son of a member of the Royal Air Force who fought during World War II.
He said the father of Labour Party leader Jack Straw, who also appeared on the program, had spent the war years “in prison for refusing to fight Adolf Hitler.”
Griffin’s comments came after Straw had drawn parallels between the BNP and the Nazi Party, which he described as “a party and an ideology based on race, just like another party represented here today.”
But Griffin rejected the comparison. “I am the most loathed man in Britain in the eyes of Britain’s Nazis,” he said. “There are Nazis in Britain and they loathe me because I have brought the British National Party from being, frankly, an anti-Semitic and racist organization into being the only political party which, in the clashes between Israel and Gaza, stood full-square behind Israel’s right to deal with Hamas terrorists.”
Griffin’s reception was largely hostile.
“The vast majority of this audience find what you stand for to be completely disgusting,” said one audience member to applause.
Other political parties “have a moral compass,” Straw said. “Nazism doesn’t and neither, I am afraid, does the constitution of the BNP.”
“We only won the First World War and the Second World War because we were joined by millions of black and Asian people from around the world,” he said to sustained applause.
Griffin denied that his party was racist, insisting it supported “indigenous people” without regard to the color their skin.
“The indigenous people of these islands are the English, the Scots, the Welsh and the Irish,” he said. “Skin color is irrelevant, we are the indigenous people here.”
Challenged to explain his description of Islam as a “wicked religion,” Griffin said it did not support free speech or equal rights for women.
“If Muslims do stay in this country, it must be on the understanding that it must remain fundamentally a British and Christian country,” he said, saying he sought a “truce with Islam.”
Griffin’s comments came after Straw had drawn parallels between the BNP and the Nazi Party, which he described as “a party and an ideology based on race, just like another party represented here today.”
-cnn.com- ^C.A^
Biomodd blends technology and ecology
Integrating biology with technology, a new work of art was unveiled at the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (mcad) Tuesday that aims to bring the two presumed conflicting concepts together.
Known as “Biomodd,” the project is “an art installation in which different forms of plant life coexist with a fully functioning computer system,” according to its website.
Enclosed in wood and glass, the installation is about eight feet high and displays various plants growing out of computer parts. The plants are watered manually, and the amazing thing is that the computers are in working condition.
“This system is built almost entirely from recycled computers, and plant growth is stimulated by the excess heat of the working electronics. Visitors can interact with the art installation by playing a multiplayer computer game that runs on this hybrid system,” goes the description of the structure.
Described as an “art installation and more,” Biomodd is a traveling art project. The sculpture adapts to every locale where it is exhibited, and only the main concept of bringing electronics and biology together remains constant.
“After showcasing the project, the piece is disassembled and its components are recycled through thrift stores and recycling centers. Plant life is adopted by the collaborators or taken back to nature,” according to the artist statement.
The project started in Ohio in the US and is recreated in every new place, utilizing indigenous materials and engaging the local community in building the structure. Other Biomodd versions will be exhibited in Singapore and Brazil.
Belgian biologist Angelo Vermeulen, who came up with the idea, said that the project “shows diversity of cultures, but will also show commonalities of the places that [it] visits.”
Dubbed as a “social art project” by its designer, the Biomodd installation in Manila is a six-month collaboration of students from the University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU) and the Biomodd team.
UPOU Chancellor Dr. Grace Javier Alfonso commended the project, saying it highlights the values espoused by the academic institution. “What is important is the interactivity and community it creates,” she added.
The success of the project comes from its portrayal of the idea that humans, technology and biology can interact with one another without threatening each others’ existence.
The installation is open for viewing until September 25 at the mcad in the De La Salle-College of St. Benilde School of Design and Art.
-gma.tv- ^C.A^
Identified smallest fossil bones of dinosaur by US Scientists
LOS ANGELES – Scientists say fossil bones housed at a Los Angeles museum belong to the smallest dinosaur discovered in North America.
Luis Chiappe (chee-AH-peh), director of the Dinosaur Institute of the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles, said Tuesday the newly identified creature weighed less than two pounds and stood about 2 feet tall.
It likely ate plants and hunted bugs during the late Jurassic period, about 150 million years ago.
Chiappe and an international team recently identified and named it Fruitadens haagarorum after the Colorado city of Fruita, where it was found three decades ago, and for Paul Haaga, president of the museum board of trustees.
A description of the dinosaur will appear Wednesday in the British journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.
-gmanews.tv- ^C.A^
