Interesting people

Strange girl in a Norvegian woods

2011-09-16T05:42:00.000-07:00

SCARYYYY!!! Strange girl in a Norvegian woods. Is she talking in some strange language? Unfortunately now. It's Tiril Skardal from The Way of Purity.

Drunk stranger ruined a wedding in Canada

2011-06-25T03:18:00.000-07:00

So, what happened? A young couple, Shellee Ritzman and Richard Johnson had got married on February 2010. On the wedding day, they were taking photo session outside of the Union Bank Inn, in Edmonton, Canada. Then, a very intoxicated Timmy Pahtaykan came up, parked his used car, and said he had just lost $10,000. Then he surprisely asked a wedding pair if he could be in the pictures. After they declined he asked if he could take a photo of them with his mobile camera. When they declined that, too, Timmy became agitated and lunged at Johnson. He just punched the groom's brother and the maid of honour. The court judged him a six-month conditional sentence to be served in the community and 18 months of probation after pleading guilty to two counts of assault.

Classic car theft in Australia

2011-05-09T13:33:00.000-07:00

Australian police searched a property in Bayswater and found 1965 Ford Mustang coupe, stolen from in Wattle Grove, Australia. They didn't find six men who obviously stole it.

The group, who were armed with a gun, broke into the house early in the morning.

They held the owner at gun point and demanded he sign over ownership of the old car Mustang.

The vehicle as many used cars in Australia has a GPS tracking device which led the police to a factory placed in White street in Bayswater.

Police used armoured vehicle (Bearcat) and tactical response unit searching the property since they believed the armed men was inside.

The car was found in a laneway.

It looked as if the car has been dumped. Anyway, investigation is continuing.

The owner of the property is assisting police with their enquiries and forensics will examine the Ford Mustang later.

Mark Oglesby

2010-08-30T14:35:00.000-07:00

Efax.Com vs Mark Oglesby

Prior to 1998 the Claimant, an American company which was formerly known as Jetfax Inc until it changed its name to efax.com in February 1999, carried on business as a supplier of computer hardware. In February 1998 the company launched a new service on the internet converting fax to e-mail messages. This was a free service and involved the subscribers, who logged on at www.efax.com, being allocated a US telephone number for use as their fax number. Faxes sent to that number would be automatically converted into digital form and forwarded to the subscriber’s e-mail address. In November 1999 the Claimant relaunched its efax service in the UK using UK telephone numbers.

Since January 1998 the Defendant’s business had offered services which included a fax to e-mail service similar to that offered by the claimant. In February 1998 the Defendant had acquired and registered the name efax.co.uk on the internet. The service was not made available to the general public, however, until August 1999 when the service became automated and available on the internet. The Defendant charged for the service.

In February 1999 the Claimant’s European operations manager had discovered that the name efax.co.uk was already taken up. He therefore contacted the Defendant on a number of occasions and offered to purchase the domain name; these offers were refused. In November 1999 an action was commenced for passing off. The Claimant applied for interim injunctive relief restraining the Defendant from passing off his services as and for those of the Claimant by the use of the name “efax”. The Defendant cross-applied for the claim to be struck out on the grounds that it was bound to fail or, in the alternative, for summary judgment in his favour.

The Claimant contended that it had established a substantial reputation and goodwill in the UK, based on the fact it had approximately 17,000 UK subscribers of whom 5,000 had used the service. Further the Claimant argued that the word “efax” was a good trade mark as it carried connotations of fax and the internet but yet it was not part of the English language.

The Defendant argued that the name “efax” was descriptive of the service offered and therefore the Claimant had no real prospect of establishing an exclusive goodwill in the mark. In addition the Defendant claimed that the Claimant had not built up a reputation in that mark in the UK by November 1999 and, that the risk of confusion was likely to be very small given the different names of the businesses and the fact that one service was free.

efax.com vs efax.co.uk

Efax.com has got a big struggle on its hands to win control of the efax.co.uk domain name, following its failure to secure an injunction against a small British company. In court, efax.com argued before Mr. Justice Jonathan Parker that that the name efax.co.uk was confusingly similar to its own name. This is cybersquatting with a twist: efax.com, a US company offering fax-to-email conversion services has been trading under this name since February 1999, while efax, a UK company owned by businessman Mark Oglesby offering inter alia fax-to-email conversion services, has been trading under its name since 1997. Mr. Justice Jonathan Parker disagreed with efax.com, finding "considerable force" in Oglesby's submission that the word efax was highly descriptive of the services being provided: "e" being the universal prefix for Internet services and there being universal familiarity with the word "fax" as a shorthand for facsimile. It was likely that efax would be taken to be a fax over the Internet service. The ruling effectively scuppers efax.com's chances of bulldozing the .co.uk address away from a triumphant Oglesby. He says he never had any intention of passing himself off as efax.com -- a bit unnecessary that, considering he's been trading a year longer than the US interloper. Now he urges settlement -- shorthand for Efax.com for scrapping further legal action and, we assume, stumping up a lot of cash for the domain. Efax.com is in a bit of a pickle: in Britain, it signed up only 17,000 subscribers, 12,000 of which are dormant accounts, it revealed in court. As of February 7, efax.com claims 50,000 subscribers, a representative said. The company had launched the legal action prior to launching an advertising campaign in Britain. It said today that it has not put any media campaign on ice.

Mark Oglesby moved

FIVE years ago Clare Oglesby lived in a four-bedroom detached house. So far so normal. Today she is chatelaine of a 40-bedroom royal estate that was once home to the present Queen’s aunt.

But behind this amazing leap up the property ladder lies a fascinating tale of two women, two family generations removed and a world apart in terms of upbringing and life-style. Yet they are united by a love for one house.

Home today for Clare Oglesby is 400-year-old Goldsborough Hall. She shares it with husband Mark, 40, their daughter Charlotte, four, and Lucy, 14, Mark’s daughter from a previous relationship.

The hard-working couple have ploughed their savings and lives into renovating the once-dilapidated estate in North Yorkshire, restoring it to its glory days where it was a home fit to receive kings and queens.

Just over 80 years ago the lady of the house was Princess Mary, a great- granddaughter of Queen Victoria. She shared the house with husband Henry, Viscount Lascelles, and their two sons George and Gerald.

Mary and Henry were given the 80-room house after they wed in 1922 in a lavish royal ceremony. It was their first family home and the Princess created much of the gardens which exist today. But there any similarities end.
Mark had spotted the hall for sale in 2003 and suggested they take a look at it with a view to moving his telecom business there. Despite their falling in love with the property, which was still in good condition, their offer was rejected and they heard nothing more until two years later when they were contacted by the estate agents to say: “Put your best offer in – it’s between you and a developer.”

Cosplay Girls

2010-07-28T04:08:00.000-07:00

Cosplay Girls at Tokyo, Japan

gothic cosplay girls

Gravity photogenic bunny girl (with bunny ears)

Cosplay girl represents the upcoming king kong video game

Borg cosplay girl in Harijuku answering a call

Kunoichi, The ninja Girl. Sexy and lethal.

ati booth 2 girls

Power girl

Little Martian girl on San Diego Comic Conference

Nepal spiritual men

2010-05-10T01:56:00.000-07:00

The overwhelming majority in Nepal follow Hinduism. Shiva is regarded as the guardian deity of the country. Nepal is home to the largest Shiva temple in the world, the famous Pashupatinath Temple, where Hindus from all over the world come for pilgrimage. According to mythology, Sita Devi of the epic Ramayana was born in the Mithila Kingdom of King Janaka Raja.

Sadhus or Hindu holy men wander the Indian subcontinent on a perpetual barefoot pilgrimage to holy places. Picture has been taken in the temple of Pashupatinath in Kathmandu valley which is considered as one of the holiest shrines of the Hindus glorifying Lord Shiva.

Fashionable Nepal man. Covered with ashes and some mysterious orange mixture, an incredibly colourful saddhu with a great haircut on the ghats in Pashupatinath temple.

Jai Nepal! He is apparently meditating with more performance following.

Sadhu - Interesting and colorfull man from Nepal.

Interesting man in Nepal. Sleeping or meditating?

Thanks for all the pictures to e-zamprogno, kkcondon and jmhullot.

Costa Rica "Kiss me" girl

2010-04-26T15:21:00.000-07:00

Costa Rica "Kiss me" girl. Pura Vida

photo by Whappen

Officers of Courts in Virginia

2009-08-27T14:22:00.000-07:00

Clerks.

In all Justices' Courts, the justices are required to make and
preserve their own dockets. The Clerk of the Court of Appeals is
appointed by the court; the Clerks of the Circuit and Corporation
Courts are elected by the people of the county or corporation in
which the court is held. They hold office for a term of eight
years. Salary, fees and special allowances.

Duties. Shall record the proceedings of their respective courts
and issue writs in their name; shall be the custodians of all
papers lawfully returned to or filed in the Clerk's office; shall
perform such other duties as are imposed upon them by law.

The Tipstaff and Crier are the executive officers of the Court of
Appeals.

For meaning of DOCKET, see under Chancery Court of the City of
Richmond. DOCKETS here mean entries in a book giving lists of
names of persons connected with the cases tried, and particulars
of the proceedings in each case. In justices' courts such dockets
are made and kept by the justice himself.

The clerks of the courts mentioned have no salaries. They are paid
by fees and special allowances. For example, when a clerk of court
makes out a writ or bond or a copy of any court document, he gets
a fee for doing it. A special allowance is an allowance (or a grant of money)
made by the court for special work done.

The TIPSTAFF and CRIER are executive officers of the Court of
Appeals--that is, they execute or carry out certain orders of the
court. In some places a sheriff's officer is called a tipstaff,
the name being derived from the custom of such officers bearing a
STAFF TIPPED with metal.

Criers sometimes are appointed for other courts besides the Court
of Appeals. The name is derived from the practice of proclaiming
or CRYING out in court the commands or orders of the judge.

Sheriff.

The Sheriff is the executive officer of the Circuit Court, and of
the Circuit and Chancery Courts of the city of Richmond; the City
Sergeant is the executive officer of the Corporation Courts and
Circuit Courts held for cities, and the Hustings Court for the
city of Richmond; the Constable is the executive officer of the
Justice's Court.

Though the sheriff is an officer of the courts, he is more
particularly a county officer. His principal duties will,
therefore, be found set forth and explained under County Officers. The city
sergeant is also a court officer, but his
duties are limited to cities. They are stated and explained under
Government of Cities and Towns. The duties of the constable, who
is a magisterial district officer, are explained under District
Organization.

Commonwealth's Attorney.

Elected by the people at the general election in November for a
term of four years; must reside in the county or corporation for
which he is elected; shall hold no other elective office. Salary,
allowance by the Board of Supervisors and fees.

Duties. Gives legal advice to the county and district officers,
and prosecutes criminals in the Circuit and Corporation Courts.


LEGAL ADVICE is advice on matters of law. The commonwealth's
attorney prosecutes criminals--that is, he attends in court and
makes the charge, or states the case, and examines witnesses,
against persons charged with crime.

A WITNESS is a person who tells on oath, in answer to questions,
what he knows about the crime charged against the accused, or
about the facts in a civil case or process.

Attorney-at-Law.

Must hold license granted by any three or more judges of the
Supreme Court of Appeals acting together under such rules and
regulations and upon such examination both as to learning and
character as may be prescribed by the said Court; must be a male
citizen over the age of twenty-one years; must have resided in the
State six months preceding application for a license; and must
qualify before the Court in which he proposes to practice.

An ATTORNEY-AT-LAW is a person legally qualified and licensed to
act as attorney. A person not a lawyer might be called an attorney
if appointed to do any business on behalf of another, but to be an
attorney-at law a person must be qualified as stated in the text.
(See under Attorney-General, page 29.) A LICENSE is a permission
to perform certain acts. It is usually in writing, and is issued
by persons having legal authority to do so.

An attorney-at-law must QUALIFY before the court in which he
wishes to practice. This means that he must produce evidence that
he is legally licensed, that he must take an oath that he will
perform his duties as an attorney, and also that he must take an
oath that he will be faithful to the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Who May Practice Law in Virginia.

Any person duly authorized and practicing as Counsel or Attorney at Law in any
State or Territory of the United States, or in the District of Columbia. But if
he resides in Virginia he must pay the prescribed license fee.

DULY AUTHORIZED means having received the proper license, and
having qualified. PRESCRIBED LICENSE FEE is a certain fee or
charge for the issuing of a license to practice in Virginia.

Juries.

Drawn by lot from a list of those well qualified to serve as
jurors, furnished by the Judge of the Circuit or Corporation
Courts. The list shall contain not less than one hundred nor more
than three hundred names.

All male citizens over twenty-one years of age who have been
residents of the State for two years, and of the county, city, or
town in which they reside for one year next preceding their being
summoned to serve as such and competent in other respects, are
WELL QUALIFIED to SERVE as jurors within the State. But certain
persons are disqualified as not competent, such as idiots,
lunatics, and persons convicted of bribery, perjury, embezzlement
of public funds, treason, felony or petit larceny.

Certain public officers and persons belonging to certain
professions are exempt from jury service. The governor, the
lieutenant-governor, postmasters, practicing physicians (doctors),
and many others, are exempt from the duty of serving on juries.

Juries in civil and misdemeanor cases are chosen by lot. Once
every year the judge of each circuit and corporation court makes
out a list containing the names of not less than one hundred and
not more than three hundred persons resident in the county or
corporation and well qualified to serve as jurors. These names are
written on slips of paper or ballots (each name on a separate
ballot) and the ballots, after being folded so that the names may
not be seen, are put into a box kept for the purpose by the clerk
of the court.

Ten days before any term of a court at which a jury may be
required, the clerk draws sixteen ballots from the box, without
looking at the names until they are all drawn out. The persons
whose names are thus drawn are summoned to attend at the term of
court. Should more than sixteen be required, more are summoned,
and on the day they attend the court their names are written on
ballots and placed in a box, and from them the juries for the
trial of cases are drawn in the manner already stated. This is
what is called choosing or selecting BY LOT, the word lot meaning
chance. It is considered the fairest way of forming a jury.

If jurors were appointed instead of being selected by lot, persons
having prejudice or ill feeling against one of the parties in the
case might be put on the jury, and the verdict rendered by such
jury might be a very unjust one. But when the selection is by lot
nobody knows who is to be on it, and so it is equally fair to both
sides.

The number of persons on a jury is usually twelve, but in a civil
case, if both parties consent, there may be a jury of only seven;
or, the case may be tried and decided by a jury of three persons,
one selected by each of the two parties to the suit, and the third
by the other two; or, by the judge without a jury.

For juries in cases of felony the names of twenty persons residing
at a distance from the place where the crime or offence is said to
have been committed are taken from a list furnished by the circuit
or the corporation court. Those twenty are summoned to attend the
court, and from them a jury panel of sixteen is selected. The
accused person may, without giving any reason, object to, or
strike off, any four of the sixteen, and the remaining twelve will
be the jury to try the case.

If the accused does not strike off any, or strikes off less than
four, a jury of twelve is selected from the panel by lot. The
attorney for the commonwealth--that is, the attorney who
prosecutes the accused--may CHALLENGE--that is, object to - a
juror, but he must assign a reason for his objection, and if the
judge decides in favor of his objection, the person challenged is
not put on the jury. A panel is a list of persons summoned to
serve as jurors.

To SUMMON is to call or notify a person or persons to appear in
court. A person who is summoned to attend as a juror and who,
without sufficient reason, fails or neglects to do so, may be
punished by a fine of not less than five nor more than twenty
dollars.

Persons summoned as jurors are entitled to receive one dollar per
day for service on a jury, and mileage at the rate of four cents
per mile travelled in going to and returning from court.

Grand Jury.

Consists of not less than nine nor more than twelve persons taken
from a list of forty-eight selected by the Judge of the Circuit or
Corporation Court from the qualified jurors of the county or city
in which his Court is held. A Special Grand Jury shall consist of
not less than six nor more than nine persons.

The principal duties of the GRAND JURY are mentioned under Circuit
Courts, page 55. The law requires that "the grand jury shall
inquire of and present all felonies, misdemeanors, and violations
of penal [criminal] laws committed within the jurisdiction of the
respective courts wherein they are sworn."

To PRESENT is to make a statement or PRESENTMENT to the court as
explained on page 55. Every grand jury has a chairman or speaker,
who is appointed by the court and is called the FOREMAN. The
foreman is required to take an oath or swear that he will "present
no person through prejudice or ill-will, nor leave any unpresented
through fear or favor," but that in all presentments he "shall
present the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth."

In this way the foreman is SWORN, and the other grand jurors must
swear that they will "observe and keep" the same oath taken by the
foreman. An oath is a solemn statement or declaration with an
appeal to God, or calling God to witness that what is stated is
true or that the person shall tell the truth.

Witnesses before giving evidence in courts at the trial of a case
must make oath or swear to "tell the truth, the whole truth and
nothing but the truth." While the witness is repeating the words
of the oath he holds a Bible or Testament in his hand, and kisses
it when he has repeated the words.

There are two kinds of grand juries--regular and special. There is
a regular grand jury at two terms in each year, of the circuit,
corporation, or hustings court. But a grand jury may be ordered by
a circuit, corporation, or hustings court at any time there may be
special or urgent need for it, and such grand jury is called a
SPECIAL grand jury.

Grand jurors are entitled to the same compensation and mileage as
petit jurors (see next section).

Petit Jury.

Consists of twelve members.

Duties. Hear evidence before the court in civil and criminal cases
and render a verdict according to the law and evidence.

The PETIT JURY is the jury impanelled--that is, put on a panel or
list--to try cases in court. How such a jury is formed is stated
under Juries (see page 68). Petit jurors, like grand jurors, must
take an oath to do their duty honestly. (The word jury is derived
from the Latin word jurare, which means to swear.)

It is the duty of the petit jury to hear the evidence in the case
it is to try, and to give a verdict in accordance with that
evidence. If the evidence presented before the court proves the
accused to be guilty, the jury must give a verdict of "guilty"; if
the evidence is not sufficient to show that he is guilty, they
must give a verdict of "not guilty." (For verdict, see page 11.)

The verdict of the jury must also be ACCORDING TO LAW. This means
that the jury must give heed to the law of the case as explained
by the judge. Evidence might be offered which would not be lawful.
It is the duty of the judge to decide whether evidence is lawful
or not, and if he decides that any evidence is illegal or
unlawful, then the jury must not pay any regard to it in
considering their verdict.

Virginia Contractor

Wrist watch inventors

2009-06-18T18:09:00.000-07:00

The wrist watch was invented by the Swiss watch maker, Patek Phillippe in the late 1800s, 1868 to be precisely. Though at first only women wore them. They have also pioneered the perpetual calendar, split-seconds hand, chronograph, and minute repeater in watches. Amongst manufacturers, PP has a long history. Polish watchmaker Antoni Norbert Patek started making pocket watches in 1839 in Geneva, along with his fellow Polish migrant Franciszek Czapek. They separated in 1844, and in 1845 Patek joined with the French watchmaker Adrien Philippe, inventor of the keyless winding mechanism. In 1851, Patek Philippe & Co was founded. The man's wristwatch was invented by Louis Cartier in the early 1900s for Mr. Alberto Santos-Dumont. Dumont was working on the development of aircraft and found a pocket watch inconvenient to look at while in the aircraft. He asked his friend Cartier to design a watch for him.
To become part of mainstream culture, wristwatches needed to be relatively easy to use and maintain. The self-winding watch, invented by Abraham-Louis Perrelet in 1770 and perfected in 1923 by John Harwood, ensured that the watch would keep time without the wearer needing to maintain the watch's time-keeping ability constantly. Today, watches are powered by batteries, the wearer's motion or by the self-winding mechanism that is part of the watch.

Wtf people all over the World

2009-03-18T06:46:00.000-07:00

Rick Murray has spent over $4000 USD and 24 tattoo hours turning himself into a tattooed Zombie.

This guy, Ru Anting of Henan province, creates art in an unusual way. Ru sucks water up his nose then squirts it out his tear ducts to write messages on paper. Ru discovered the ability when he was a boy, swimming in the river with his friends. After three years of training, he can now accurately shoot up to 10 ft from his eyes at will.

Gunter Voelker owns a German restaurant in Northern Iraq and was proud to recently present a German tradition: Oktoberfest! The festivities included traditional German food, music and beer. He was glad to share the event with Iraqi people, Turkish people, Kurdish people, Americans and Germans alike. Voelker hoped the three-day party helped to show Iraq as a holiday destination where beer can bring people together.

Earl Henry of Lexington, Kentucky has been arrested 1,333 times and counting! None of his offenses are of violent nature; most are for public intoxication or trespassing. His first offence was in 1970 for carrying a concealed weapon, and he has spent more than 5,000 days in custody in his life. Not too bad when you realize that averages less than 5 days per offense.

Jenna Jameson relationships

2008-02-29T06:17:00.000-08:00

Jenna Jameson has stated that she is bisexual, and that she has slept with 100 women and 30 men off-screen in her life. She has stated the best relationship she ever had was her lesbian love affair with porn actress Nikki Tyler, which she documents in her autobiography. They lived together at the start of her porn career and again before her second marriage. Famous male boyfriends discussed in her autobiography include Marilyn Manson and Tommy Lee.

On December 20, 1996, Jena Jameson married porn star Brad Armstrong (whois real name is Rodney Hopkins). They were together for only ten weeks, informally separating in March 1997, though continuing to act together in pornographic films. They legally separated and divorced in March 2001.

In the summer of 1998, Jameson met former pornographic studio owner Jay Grdina (born as John Grdina), scion of a wealthy cattle-ranching family, who had entered pornographic film production after college. Since 1998, he has been Jameson's only on-screen male sex partner, acting under the name Justin Sterling. They were engaged in December of 2000 — before her divorce from Hopkins — and married June 22, 2003 in a Roman Catholic-style ceremony. They unsuccessfully tried to have children since mid-2004, and Jameson planned to retire from acting in pornographic movies permanently after having their first child. The couple resided in Scottsdale, Arizona, in a 6,700-square-foot (620 m²) Spanish-style palace, bought for $2 million in 2002.

In November of 2004, Jameson was diagnosed with skin cancer. Though surgery successfully removed the cancer, she miscarried shortly after the diagnosis, possibly due to stress. She was unable to get pregnant again, even with in vitro fertilization. Jameson said the in vitro process "wasn't a good thing for me"; she gained weight and did not get pregnant. According to Jameson, the stress of the cancer and then being unable to conceive resulted in the collapse of her marriage.

In August 2006, Star magazine and TMZ.com confirmed with Jameson's publicist that she and Grdina had separated, and that Jameson was dating musician Dave Navarro. A more serious relationship seems to be with mixed martial artist and former UFC champion Tito Ortiz. Ortiz cancelled a November 12, 2006 appearance as the guest of honor at the United States Marine Corps birthday ball at the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego, when the Corps refused to let him bring Jameson as his guest. On November 30, 2006, in an interview on The Howard Stern Show, Ortiz stated that he is in love with Jameson, that she is no longer acting in pornography, and that they are in a monogamous relationship. On December 12, 2006, Jameson filed for divorce from Grdina.

In March 2007, Jameson blamed her anemic and gaunt appearance at the AVN Awards on the harsh divorce proceedings.

Baron Karl Amadeus Mordo

2008-02-28T05:35:00.000-08:00

Baron Karl Amadeus Mordo was a fictional villain created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, in comic books featuring his opponent Doctor Strange. He first appeared in Strange Tales.

Originally a Transylvanian nobleman (born in Varf Mandra), Mordo became a student of the Tibetan sorcerer known as the Ancient One. When Mordo plotted to kill his teacher, the Ancient One's newer student Dr. Stephen Strange learned of the plot, and was forced to develop great magical skills in order to overcome Mordo. Mordo was exiled by the Ancient One. Mordo's abilities were similar to those of Dr. Strange, but Mordo was particularly skilled at astral projection and mesmerism. He was more than willing to use powerful black magic and invoke demons, both of which Strange was reluctant or unable to do, although both acts would sometimes backfire on Mordo.

The evil Mordo became an open foe of Doctor Strange, serving as one of Strange's primary antagonists early in his career as Sorcerer Supreme. Mordo disguised himself as Sir Clive Bentley, and trapped Doctor Strange. He opposed Dr. Strange's discipleship to the Ancient One. He set a series of new traps for Strange in a bid to wrest magical secrets from the Ancient One. Mordo stole Strange's body while Strange was astral projecting. He imprisoned the Ancient one. Mordo made a deal with his new master, the demonic Dormammu, to amass additional power to defeat Doctor Strange. He dispatched agents to search for the incognito Strange, and then banished him from the Earth. He fled from Strange, and then dispatched agents to kill Strange. He engaged in personal combat with Strange. Mordo was exiled to the Dimension of Demons by Dormammu. He battled Dr. Strange once more at Stonehenge, but was ultimately banished from Earth.

Mordo would return in time to continue to bedevil Doctor Strange. He impersonated Doctor Strange during Strange's brief retirement, but was soon vanquished. Mordo discovered the Book of Cagliostro, and battled Strange in 18th-Century Paris. He then accompanied Strange and Sise-Neg to the dawn of time. After suffering a mental breakdown, he was placed in Doctor Strange's care, but later escaped. Mordo transformed the dead Lord Phyffe into Azrael, angel of death, and dispatched him against Strange. He sent the Man-Thing to kill Strange, and assembled thirteen people for human sacrifice to the Chaos Demon. Mordo was defeated by Strange, Jennifer Kale, and the Man-Thing. He attacked Strange, and escaped into the 1940s, but was manipulated by Dormammu.

Mordo later sold his soul to both Mephisto and Satannish for power, gaming that Strange would save him. He was trapped with Sara Wolfe, and later rescued her. Mordo himself was later imprisoned, and Sara Wolfe freed him from imprisonment. Mordo battled Dormammu to defend the Earth. He was defeated, and pretended to ally himself with Dormammu, and then allied himself with Umar to defeat Dormammu.

Umar and Mordo were eventually deposed by Clea Mordo eventually contracted terminal cancer as a side effect of his use of black magic, and renounced evil just before his death. He later returned to life.

David Philippe Desrosiers

2008-02-25T07:50:00.000-08:00

David Philippe Desrosiers, born in August 29, 1980, is a Québécois musician known as the bassist and backing vocalist for pop punk band Simple Plan. He grew up in Matane, Quebec, Canada.
Desrosiers joined the band Reset, after former lead singer, Pierre Bouvier, left the band. Desrosiers was involved with Reset for 6 months, although did not record any studio albums. He was subsequently recruited to join Simple Plan in 1999, which was originally a four-piece, with Bouvier playing bass thus relieving Bouvier so he could concentrate on singing. It is sometimes rumoured that the original four members of Simple Plan almost 'stalked' Desrosiers until he agreed to join their band. He has an older sister named Julie. His parents separated when David was 13, which deeply affected him. His mom (Charlotte) lives in Matane, Quebec, Canada. and his father lives in Québec City.
He has been known to briefly play the drums or guitar during shows for Simple Plan as well as for many of his favorite bands such as The Used, Good Charlotte and MxPx. Desrosiers has developed into almost a co-frontman as dialogue between him and lead singer Pierre Bouvier enlivens the show.
Has an older sister, Julie. His parents divorced when David was quite young. Has a girlfriend, which he mentions in the 'thank you' section for the new self-titled album 'Simple Plan'.
He is the only member of Simple Plan who didn't attend Collège Beaubois. His first job was as a fast-food worker in McDonalds in his hometown.
David and the rest of the band once starred their voices as themselves in the What's New Scooby Doo? episode 'Simple Plan And The Invisible Madman', in which he mistakes Scooby for a 'fearless guard dog', before being the second to be kidnapped by the Invisible Madman. David Desrosiers uses a Fender P-Bass. He once threw a mini-fridge out of a hotel window

Winston Churchill and Alexander Fleming story

2008-01-10T12:47:00.000-08:00

A British family journeyed to Scotland for a summer vacation. The mother and father were looking forward to enjoying a beautiful Scottish countryside with their young son.

But one day the son wandered off all by himself and got into trouble. As he walked through the woods, he came across an abandoned swimming hole, and as most boys his age do, he took off his clothes an jumped in!

read whole story about Winston Churchill and Sir Alexander Fleming on this work from home online blog.

Famous gay and bisexual people

2007-09-02T12:38:00.000-07:00

Fergie

Stacy Ann Ferguson (born March 27, 1975), better known by her stage name Fergie, is an American pop and R&B singer, songwriter, and actress. She is a former member of the kids' television series Kids Incorporated, and the girl group Wild Orchid. Ann Ferguson was also a co-host of the television show Great Pretenders. She is currently a vocalist for the hip hop/pop group the Black Eyed Peas, as well as a solo artist, releasing her debut album, The Dutchess, in 2006. The album has so far spawned three US Hot 100 number ones, making Ferguson the first female solo artist to have three number ones from the same album since Christina Aguilera did so in 2000 with her debut.
In April 2007, she gave an interview in which she admitted that she went on a sex and drugs spree when she turned 18, saying: "I have had lesbian experiences in the past. I won't say how many men I've had sex with - but I am a very sexual person."

Christina Aguilera

Christina María Aguilera, born December 18, 1980, is an American pop singer and songwriter.She revealed in an interview "I love to look at naked women. I am open with my sexuality."

Billie Joe Armstrong

Billie Joe Armstrong (born February 17, 1972, in Oakland, California) is best known as the lead singer, main lyricist, and guitarist for the punk rock band Green Day. “I think I’ve always been bisexual,” Armstrong says. “I mean, it’s something that I’ve always been interested in. I think everybody kind of fantasizes about the same sex. I think people are born bisexual, and it’s just that our parents and society kind of veer us off into this feeling of Oh, I can’t. They say it’s taboo. It’s ingrained in our heads that it’s bad, when it’s not bad at all. It’s a very beautiful thing.”

Lindsay Lohan

Lindsay Dee Lohan (born July 2, 1986) is an American actress and pop music singer. Lohan started in show business as a child fashion model for magazine advertisement and television commercials. At age ten, she began her acting career in a soap opera. Lindsay chose "bi" for her orientation on her MySpace profile as well as "in a relationship" for her status selection. She is currently said to be romantically linked with Samantha Ronson, an openly gay female celebrity DJ.

Drew Barrymore

Drew Blyth Barrymore (born February 22, 1975) is an American actress and movie producer, the youngest member of the Barrymore family of American actors. She has her own production company, Flower Films. Barrymore made her screen debut in Altered States (1980). Her breakout role two years later was in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. She quickly became one of Hollywood's most recognized child actresses going on to establish herself in mainly comic roles. Drew says she's had numerous affairs with women and will continue to do so. "Do I like women sexually? Yes, I do. Totally," she admits. US magazine reported in 2007 Jane Pratt, the former editor of Jane magazine says she and Drew Barrymore had sex.
Although she didn't elaborate or say when this happened, Drew Barrymore was on the cover of Jane in 1997.
Drew says, "I think a woman and a woman together are beautiful, just as a man and a woman together are beautiful."

Angela Bowie

Angela Bowie, most commonly known as Angie Bowie, was born 1949 in Cyprus, as Mary Angela Barnett. She is an American citizen who has been a covergirl, model, actress, musician, groupie and, most recently, a best-selling author. She has publicly proclaimed that she is proudly and openly bisexual. Angela is also famous as ex-wife of David Bowie.

Melanie Brown

Melanie Janine Brown (born 29 May 1975), professionally known as Mel B and Melanie Brown, is an English pop singer and songwriter turned actress and television personality best known as one of the members of the girl group the Spice Girls, one of the most successful female groups of all time.

Debbie Harry

Deborah Ann Harry (born July 1, 1945, in Miami, Florida) is a Grammy-winning and Golden Globe-nominated musician most famous for being the lead singer for the punk-rock and new wave band Blondie. Following her success, she went on to moderate success as a solo artist.
In one interview, she said: "I am probably more heterosexual than I am homosexual, or even bisexual."

Nina Hartley

Nina Hartley (born Marie Louise Hartman on March 11, 1959 in Berkeley, California) is an American porn actress and sex educator.
Hartley is openly bisexual in her private life, and had what has been described as the longest stable relationship in the adult business, living in a ménage a trois with her husband Dave (whom she met when she was 19), and "wife" Bobby Lilly for 20 years.

Missy Higgins

Missy Higgins (born Melissa Morrison Higgins on August 19, 1983) is an award-winning Australian singer-songwriter, best known for her hit singles "Scar" and "The Special Two" off her debut album The Sound of White. Her second album, On a Clear Night was released in April 2007.
Higgins' sexuality has been brought into question due to the content of her lyrics and her demeanour. It is also notable that she does not use male or female pronouns to describe her partner during her concerts. She has neither denied nor confirmed any stance, although she has been quoted as saying: "I think everyone is a bit bisexual but not everyone admits it. Or not everyone has realised it yet".

Jenna Jameson

Jenna Jameson (born Jenna Marie Massoli on April 9, 1974), an American porn actress and entrepreneur.
She has stated the best relationship she ever had was her lesbian love affair with porn actress Nikki Tyler, which she documents in her autobiography. They lived together at the start of her porn career and again before her second marriage. Famous male boyfriends discussed in her autobiography include Marilyn Manson and Tommy Lee.

Angelina Jolie

Angelina Jolie (born June 4, 1975) is an American movie actress, a former fashion model, and a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Refugee Agency. She is often cited by popular media as one of the world's most beautiful women and her off-screen life is widely reported. She has received three Golden Globe Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and an Academy Award.
Jolie has said in interviews that she is bisexual and has long acknowledged that she had a sexual relationship with her Foxfire co-star Jenny Shimizu, "I would probably have married Jenny if I hadn't married my husband. I fell in love with her the first second I saw her." In an interview with Barbara Walters in 2003, asked if she was bisexual, Jolie responded, "Of course. If I fell in love with a woman tomorrow, would I feel that it's okay to want to kiss and touch her? If I fell in love with her? Absolutely! Yes!"

Alanis Morissette

Alanis Nadine Morissette (born in Ottawa, 1 June 1974) is a Canadian and naturalized American singer-songwriter, record producer, and occasional actress. She has won twelve Juno Awards and seven Grammy Awards, and has sold more than forty million albums worldwide.

Kate Moss

Katherine Ann Moss (born January 16, 1974), known as Kate Moss, is an iconic English supermodel and fashion designer. She is known for her waifish figure and many advertising campaigns and is also notorious for her high-profile relationships and party lifestyle. She has appeared on over 300 magazine covers.
On 15 September 2005, London's Daily Mirror ran front page and inside photos that seemed to show Moss snorting several lines of cocaine at a Babyshambles recording session. It was also reported that Moss snorted five lines in 40 minutes. It has been alleged by Babyshambles' singer Pete Doherty that James Mullord, his former manager, sold the photos to the newspaper for more than L150,000. Within a short time of publication, Kate Moss lost major modeling contracts with several international companies. The story was followed up the following weekend, with the tabloids suggesting Moss had a long-standing lesbian affair with best friend Sadie Frost, having had drug fuelled sex sessions with both Frost and Sadie's then husband Jude Law several times, and that she has also been involved in lesbian threesomes with Frost and British TV star Davinia Taylor.

Martina Navratilova

Martina Navratilova (born October 18, 1956, in Prague, Czechoslovakia) is a former World No. 1 woman tennis player.
Martina's parents, especially her father, were disturbed by the knowledge of her sexual orientation, which her father characterized as a "sickness." During one of the many arguments that followed Navratilova's coming out, her father said that he would have preferred for her to have been a prostitute. Navratilova said she feared her sexual orientation might disrupt her application for American citizenship following her defection from Czechoslovakia, a country in which, she points out, "gays were sent to insane asylums and lesbians never came out of the closet." In 1981, shortly after being granted U.S. citizenship, Navratilova came out publicly about her sexual orientation. From 1983 to 1991, Navratilova had a long-term relationship with partner Judy Nelson. Their split in 1991 included a much-publicized legal wrangle. Navratilova was featured in a WITA (Women's International Tennis Association) calendar, shot by Jean Renard with her Wimbledon trophies and Nelson's children in the background.
Martina Navratilova also made a humorous guest appearance on the gay-themed NBC sitcom Will & Grace in a 2000 episode in which a flashback revealed that she had been a heterosexual until a 1985 relationship with Karen Walker turned her gay.

Pink

Born Alecia Beth Moore on September 8, 1979, known professionally as Pink (often stylized as P!nk), is an American singer-songwriter who gained prominence in 2000. As debate over gay marriage began, Pink told The Advocate: "If you want to marry Joe Millionaire, go ahead. If you're a celebrity and you want to marry your high school sweetheart for hours, go right ahead. If you're J.Lo and you want to marry 18 people for six days each, hey go right on ahead! But if you happen to be reasonably minded and have fallen in love and want to marry your soul mate and make a life of it - and you just so happen to be the same sex - then, no, how dare you! You demon creatures! We'd rather you just buy gasoline and support our war and continue to consume and fear in our country so we can make money off you. But do us a favor: Don't hold hands in public."

Lou Reed

Lewis Reed (born March 2, 1942) is an American rock singer-songwriter and guitarist. Reed first found prominence as the guitarist and principal singer-songwriter of The Velvet Underground (1965-1973).
He said once: "They put the thing down your throat so you don't swallow your tongue, and they put electrodes on your head. That's what was recommended in Rockland County to discourage homosexual feelings."
Lou Reed was in The Primitives, with musician John Cale. The Welsh Cale had recently moved to New York to study music and was playing with the composer La Monte Young's Theater of Eternal Music along with Tony Conrad. Cale and Conrad were both surprised to find that for "The Ostrich" Reed tuned each string of his guitar to the same note. This technique created a drone effect similar to that which Cale and Conrad were experimenting with in their avant garde ensemble. By contrast, according to Cale's memoirs, Reed demonstrated little interest in Cale's musical pedigree and continually propositioned him for sex.

Leonid Stadnyk Tallest man in the World

2007-08-07T05:52:00.000-07:00

Leonid Stadnyk (born 1971 in Zhytomyr Oblast, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union) is a controversial claimant to the status of the world's tallest living man. He is a certified veterinarian and veterinary surgeon and lives with his mother in the village of Podolyantsi, Ukraine. He claims to be 2.53 meters (8 feet 4 inches) tall, weighs about 200 kg (440 pounds) (April, 2004) but has stopped growing, because the tumor in his pituitary gland which caused him to grow so large has disappeared. He also claims to have the largest palm size recorded, at 31 centimeters (12¼ inches) long. These claims have not been independently verified.

Leonid Stadnyk's excessive growth began after brain surgery when he was 13 years old. He developed a pituitary gland tumor which caused the gland to secrete large amounts of growth hormone, resulting in what doctors describe as acromegalic gigantism.

Although claiming to be the tallest man in the world, he refused to be measured by Guinness World Records.

Guinness commented:

A number of people claim to be tallest, but unless they are measured three times in 24 hours, they cannot be considered for the category. Leonid Stadnyk refuses to be measured by us. We have been told that it is because he doesn't want to court publicity — yet he continues to claim to be the tallest. Unfortunately we can only conclude due to previous experience, that he refuses to be measured officially by us because he is not the height he claims to be.

Guinness currently recognizes Bao Xishun, at 2.361 meters (7 feet 8.95 inches), as the world's tallest living human being.

Most recently, a Pravda news report in Spring 2006 reported that Leonid Stadnyk grew 2 centimeters (about one inch) in the last year, not accounting the time between the original Spring 2004 report and Spring 2005. Therefore Stadnyk would have to be at least 2.56 meters (8 feet 5 inches) and possibly taller. According to Pravda, his health is slowly failing in that he needs to hold on to limbs of trees and the side of his house to walk about. Also a group of Ukraine business people donated a satellite dish and a computer to Stadnyk and now he is on the Internet.

Chris Benoit

2007-07-07T07:03:00.000-07:00

Christopher Michael Benoit (IPA: [bə'nwɑ]) (May 21, 1967 – June 24, 2007) was a Canadian professional wrestler who performed in Extreme Championship Wrestling, World Championship Wrestling, and World Wrestling Entertainment. He was regarded as one of the best technical professional wrestlers of his time.
Benoit, his wife Nancy, and their 7-year-old son Daniel were found dead in their Fayetteville, Georgia home on June 25, 2007. Subsequent investigations confirmed that Benoit murdered his wife, then killed his son before hanging himself in the house's weight room.

Benoit idolized the Dynamite Kid growing up, and styled himself after him. This prompted him to be a wrestler, so when he began wrestling, he wrestled as "Dynamite" Chris Benoit, as a tribute to the Dynamite Kid. He also began using the Diving Headbutt and the Snap Suplex, some of the Kid's trademark moves.

It is believed Stu Hart was not the first one who knew about Chris Benoit, but rather Bruce Hart who brought him to the Hart house. After years of strenuous training in the legendary Hart family "Dungeon", Chris Benoit began his career in 1985 in Stu Hart's Stampede Wrestling promotion. His debut match was a tag team match on November 22, 1985 in Calgary, Alberta, where he teamed with "The Remarkable" Rick Patterson against Butch Moffat and Mike Hammer. During his tenure in Stampede, he won several International Tag Team and British Commonwealth titles, and had a lengthy feud with Johnny Smith that lasted for over a year. In 1989, Stampede closed its doors later that year, and with a recommendation from Bad News Allen, Benoit departed for New Japan Pro Wrestling.

Upon arriving in New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW), Benoit spent about a year training in their "New Japan Dojo" with the younger wrestlers to improve his abilities before debuting, wearing a mask and assuming the name The Pegasus Kid. While with NJPW, he came into his own as a performer in matches with luminaries like Jushin Liger, Shinjiro Ohtani, The Black Tiger, and El Samurai.

In 1990, he won his first major championship, the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship, from Jushin Liger. He eventually lost the title (and his mask) back to Liger, forcing him to reinvent himself as Wild Pegasus. He went on to win the Super J Cup Tournament in 1994, defeating Black Tiger, Gedo, and Great Sasuke in the finals, solidifying his status as one of the foremost junior heavyweights in the world.

Benoit eventually left New Japan to compete in Mexico and Germany, where he won a few regional championships including the WWF Light Heavyweight Championship.

After controversy surrounding a US title defense against Booker T, Theodore Long set up a "Best of Seven" series between the two. Booker T won three times in a row, due largely to his wife's interference, and Chris Benoit faced elimination in the series. Benoit won the fourth match to stay alive, but after the match, Booker suffered a legitimate groin injury, and Randy Orton was chosen as a stand-in. Benoit defeated Orton twice by disqualification. However, in the 7th and final match, Orton defeated Benoit with the help of Booker T, Sharmell, and Orlando Jordan, and Booker captured the US title. Benoit feuded with Orton for a short time, only to compete against Booker for the US title. Benoit was given one last chance at the US title at No Way Out 2006 and won it by making Booker submit to the Crippler Crossface, ending the feud. Soon after, Benoit defeated Randy Orton in a No Holds Barred match on Smackdown via Crippler Crossface.

The next week on SmackDown!, Benoit (kayfabe) broke JBL's hand (JBL actually needed surgery to remove a cyst). A match was set up for the two at WrestleMania 22 for Benoit's title, and for the next several weeks, they would attack each other. When it came time for their match, JBL won the match with an illegal cradle to win the title. Benoit used his rematch clause two weeks later in a steel cage match on SmackDown!, but JBL again won with illegal tactics.

Benoit entered the 2006 King Of The Ring tournament, only to be defeated by Finlay in the opening round, after Finlay struck Benoit's neck with a chair and delivered a Celtic Cross. At Judgment Day 2006 Benoit gained some revenge by defeating Finlay with the Crippler Crossface in a grudge match. On the following edition of SmackDown!, Mark Henry attacked Benoit during a match, giving him back and rib injuries. Benoit then announced a sabbatical to heal nagging shoulder injuries. On October 8, Benoit made his return at No Mercy, defeating William Regal by submission in a surprise match. Later that week, he won his fifth United States Championship from Mr. Kennedy also by submission.

Benoit then engaged in a feud with Chavo and Vickie Guerrero. He wanted answers from the Guerreros for their rash behavior towards Rey Mysterio, but was avoided by the two and was eventually assaulted. Benoit retained his United States Championship at Survivor Series 2006 and Armageddon 2006, both times defeating Chavo Guerrero. The feud finally ended after a match with no-disqualification rules in play, which Benoit won to retain his United States title.

After defeating Guerrero, Montel Vontavious Porter (MVP) claimed that he was the best man to hold the US title, so he challenged Benoit for the title at WrestleMania 23, where Benoit retained. Their rivalry continued with similar results again at Backlash. At Judgment Day, however, MVP gained the upperhand and the title in a two-out-of-three falls match.

On the June 11 edition of RAW, Benoit was drafted from SmackDown! to ECW as part of the 2007 WWE Draft, after losing a match to Bobby Lashley. Benoit won his ECW debut match teaming up with CM Punk and defeating Elijah Burke and Marcus Cor Von by disqualfication.

On June 19, 2007, Benoit wrestled his last match, defeating Elijah Burke in a match to determine who would face CM Punk for the vacated ECW World Championship at Vengeance. Benoit missed the weekend house shows, telling WWE officials that his wife and son were vomiting blood due to food poisoning (see below). When he failed to show up for the pay-per-view, viewers were informed that he was unable to compete due to a "family emergency," and that he would be replaced in the title match by Johnny Nitro. Nitro went on to win the match and became ECW Champion.

Sasa Curcic

2007-06-04T06:07:00.000-07:00

Last night, the first Serbian VIP Big Brother finished. And the winner is - Sasa Curcic, former football midfielder.

About Sasa Curcic

Aleksandar "Sasa - Djani" Curcic (born February 14, 1972 in Belgrade, Serbia, SFR Yugoslavia) is a former football midfielder. Known for his eccentricity, Curcic played for OFK Beograd (1991-93), Partizan Belgrade (1993-95), Bolton Wanderers (1995-96), Aston Villa (1996-98), Crystal Palace (1998-99), MetroStars (1999), and Motherwell (2000). He also turned out 14 times for the national team of Yugoslavia, and scored one of the most memorable goals in the history of the Premier League whilst with Bolton. Curcic has been known to sport a shaved head and a fu manchu beard sans moustache. Upon his arrival to Major League Soccer in 1999, he declared his intention to become the "Dennis Rodman of MLS". Curcic's stint in the league, however, lasted only nine games. On 16 March 2000, Curcic joined Motherwell. He only made five appearances for the club, before joining Obilic Belgrade in his native Serbia. In an interview on Sky Sports in April 2001, Curcic stated that he had retired from football. On 5th May 2007, Curcic entered the Serbian Celebrity Big Brother house and 3th Jun he won in VIP Big Brother. He won 50.000 euros prize, and after leaving the house, while he was taking the check, he promised he will spend the money together with other VIP Big Brother housemates in next 12 hours.

I have to mention that in the last 29 days, Sasa Curcic wanted to leave the house twice and he barely decided to stay. Unofficial voting results for final was:
Saša: 158.270 votes
Maca: 28.650 votes
Danijel: 18.393 votes
Olja: 5.193 votes

Sasa Curcic about Dennis Rodman, fights, prison, cops

I wasn't leader in fight where Dennis Rodman took part. It was very bloody. I was standing in one part of disco club with top-models Helen Kristensen and Eva Herzigova when some Americans started shouting to us. Little provocation, little drink, little freedom and there you go. It finished with scandal. In prison and newspapers.

I was in prison several times and lucky me - I can meditate. I have an klaustrofobia.

I can't stand US cops. Whole that things are money and business. I prefer European cops. There, they are ten times worse.

Curcic testimonial game

Sasa's former football club - Partizan, will organize testimonial game for him. Sasa Curcic would like to see Sten Kolimor, Albert Nađ, Dragan Ćirić, Lotar Mateus, Mario Stanić, Dragan Stojković Piksi and some other soccer players with him in that team.

Here's video with Sasa Curcic and Lombardo, Jansen, Shipperely and Marcus Bent rip Derby apart to give us our first home win of the 1997/98 season. Crystal Palace vs Derby County.

Article about Sasa in US magazine

Many suggested that Curcic was waived due to his love of the 'illegal drugs'.
Sasa Curcic. He of the bald head, spaghetti beard and Buddest tattoos, is no more. No longer will we see his graceful stride through the stadia of Major League Soccer. No longer will the passion of a swift judo kick to a fallen opponent's skull be featured in soccer highlights.

Oh Sasa how could you! We've heard the stories. We've heard the tales. There's so many of them that it's hard not to believe! They say you spent too much time out ravaging the New York nights, galavanting with lady friends and downing a pint or two... or three. We've heard stories that you failed piss tests. Oh Sasa, how could you?

And off you'll go, back to Europe where you'll forget about all us. All about MLS. But MLS will never forget you. How could it? How could WE?

What were you thinking? That night when you smoked your doob? That afternoon when you bought your crack? That evening when you poked that prostitute? Did you think about us, your fans? Did you think how it would affect us to see you leave? For you knew it would come to that when you got caught. If you got caught. Did you think of it? Or did it not matter.

Maybe, Sasa, you couldn't help yourself. Maybe you just are what you are. Maybe no league can hope to hold you... to fully have you. You are a free spirit, and so goes your life. Never to settle, never to rot. Never to stay too long in one place. And if that is the case, if that is the way it must be, than happy are those who have been given the chance to see you once... twice... thrice... on the field of play.

Goodbye Sasa, and take care. The world seeks to conquer those like yourself. Don't let them. You must fly... fly... fly away on the wings of the freebird

Women steal sperm

2007-06-01T09:00:00.000-07:00

Men accusing women of "stealing" their sperm appeared in a pair of 2005 stories, including that of a Chicago doctor who impregnated herself with her doctor-boyfriend's sperm (from oral sex). (He sued her for theft, but an appeals court called the sperm a "gift.") In a less spectacular lawsuit filed in March 2007 in New York City, Quoc Pham charged that girlfriend Neli Petkova had exploited him to father a baby, and that as soon as she was pregnant, she discarded him, publicly terming him sexually inadequate and allegedly announcing that she had met another man, who "could make her cervix orgasmic just by thinking." Pham wants $1 million and visitation rights to the now-3-year-old.

Ian Robert Astbury

2007-05-26T06:18:00.000-07:00

Ian Robert Astbury (born May 14, 1962, in Heswall, Cheshire) is an English rock singer and lyricist.
Astbury's career began in 1981, with the gothic rock band Southern Death Cult. At that time, he was going by the name "Ian Lindsay." Southern Death Cult gigged to support its "Moya" single, and secured a slot as an opening act for Bauhaus in 1983. Shortly after that tour, the band split up.
Along with guitarist Billy Duffy bassist Jamie Stewart and drummer Ray Mondo, Ian (now going by the surname "Astbury"), formed a new band, Death Cult and later dropped Death from the name.
The Cult band was one of the most successful British rock bands of the late 1980s and early 1990s. With the 1984 release of their first album Dreamtime, The Cult were the darlings of the Indie post-punk scene, their chart topping "Spiritwalker" single having held at number one for three months. Their second album, Love, evoked memories of 1960s psychedelia such as The Doors, and the Pretty Things. It also featured their now classic hit "She Sells Sanctuary", which introduced them to an international audience. On their third album, Electric, The Cult made a radical transformation to hard rock reminiscent of AC/DC and Aerosmith with the help of Rick Rubin. This further broadened their audience as rock began making a comeback in the late 1980s. Guns N' Roses, who were heavily influenced by Electric, opened for The Cult on their 1987 North American tour, before going on to sell millions of copies of their debut album Appetite for Destruction.
Although The Cult went on to greater heights with their mainstream hit single "Fire Woman," (on the follow up 1989 Sonic Temple album), they began to get criticized by many hardcore fans on artistic merits. Soured on the band's more commercial direction, The Cult were now characterized as pretentious and as having sold out, particularly among their British fan legion. Around this time, Ian Astbury relocated to Los Angeles California. He became friends with The Fuzztones, often jumping up onstage with them at live concerts. One such concert,at Scream in Downtown LA,was recorded and a cover of "The Stooges" song "Down On The Street" was released as a picture disc in the UK on Situation Two Records. It features Ian Astbury on vocals & the "In Heat" era Fuzztones (John Carlucci, Jordan Tarlow, Mike Czekaj & Jason Savall) as his backing band.
The dent in their reputation was amplified by the loss of many Sonic Temple fans, when their next album (Ceremony, 1991) delivered dissapointingly in the wake of an oncoming grunge fad.

In 1994, The Cult returned with their untitled album and a musical change of pace. Gone was much of their overblown rock trappings, replaced instead by Astbury's growing interest in electronica and introspective lyrics. To support the album they set out on tour, but in Brazil, Astbury's creative differences with guitarist Billy Duffy reached their peak, and Astbury walked out on The Cult.
Inspired by his sudden change in direction, Astbury immediately assembled another group of musicians and began writing new songs. He called the group The Holy Barbarians, and in 1996 the band released an album, "Cream". Although the Barbarians were not a commercial success, they were well received by many who had regained respect for Astbury as an artist.
Personal difficulties and a drive for further introspection drove Astbury away from his new group, as he began working on a solo album (eventually released as Spirit/Light/Speed), to mixed reviews and low sales.
In 1999, Ian Astbury and Billy Duffy regrouped The Cult to head one of the most financially successful tours that year. A new contract with Atlantic Records was inked, and in 2001 came the release of Beyond Good And Evil. Early radio success was being had by the single Rise, until the band had a falling out with Atlantic and they killed any and all commercial promotions and radio play for BG&E. The fight with Atlantic was described by Ian as Soul Destroying and a disillusioned Astbury, brought The Cult onto another hiatus in 2002.
Having long been influenced by Jim Morrison, in 2002 Ian Astbury filled his hero's footsteps by becoming lead singer in an updated version of The Doors, with original members Robby Krieger and Ray Manzarek, known as The Doors of the 21st Century, renamed in 2005 to become Riders On The Storm. In 2003, Astbury also performed with surviving members of MC5 at the 100 Club in London, before finally reforming The Cult with Billy Duffy again in 2006, for a series of live dates and rumours of reissues and another greatest hits compilation in the works.
2007 THE CULT will enter the studio to begin pre-production on the group's first album since 2001's "Beyond Good and Evil". A Autumn release is expected. Also planned for release is a DVD of the band's November 13, 2006 concert at Irving Plaza in New York City, tentatively due in April.
THE CULT's current touring lineup includes principals Ian Astbury (vocals) and Billy Duffy (guitar) alongside bassist Chris Wyse, drummer John Tempesta (ex-WHITE ZOMBIE, TESTAMENT, EXODUS, HELMET) and rhythm guitarist Mike Dimkich.

Jack Tramiel - Commodore man

2007-05-10T01:56:00.000-07:00

Jack Tramiel is a businessman, famous for founding Commodore International, manufacturer of the Commodore PET, Commodore 64, and Commodore Amiga home computers, and later President and CEO of Atari Corp.
In 1970, Tramiel started work on electronic calculators, and in the early 1970s Commodore became a major supplier of calculators based on a Texas Instruments chip-set. In 1975 TI decided to take over the market, and started producing their own complete calculators which sold at a cost lower than the price of the chip-set alone. This drove most manufacturers out of business, but by this time Commodore had enough of a war chest to survive.
Tramiel started looking for a chip producer to buy, thereby guaranteeing a supply of chips in the future. The obvious solution was MOS Technology, a small company in Pennsylvania that had been set up as a second-source of the TI chips, and was currently struggling with cash-flow problems. MOS was bought in 1976, becoming a part of Commodore.
One of the engineers at MOS was Chuck Peddle, the man who had designed the ground-breaking 6502 chip. Peddle convinced Tramiel that the calculator was a dead-end as a product, that the computer would take over, and that the 6502 was the first in line for success. Peddle showed him a "test system" using the 6502, the KIM-1, and while Tramiel was interested he demanded that Peddle and Tramiel's son Leonard put it into an all-in-one form in time for the COMDEX in six months.
Combining the KIM with a new display driver chip, 4kB of RAM, a version of Microsoft's BASIC programming language, and an all-in-one case including a monitor and cassette tape drive for storage resulted in the PET 2001. At US$599, it became a hit, notably in schools where its tough construction was a major advantage over technically superior machines like the Apple II and Atari 8-bit family, which came out a year later.
Although Peddle left the company in 1980, improvements were made to the platform. In 1980 a new graphics chip with basic color output and a RF modulator for television display produced the Commodore VIC 20, which became a huge seller. In 1982, another new graphics chip, a new state-of-the-art sound chip and 64K of RAM resulted in the Commodore 64 (C64), which was an even more popular and went on to become the best selling home computer in history, with about 22 million units shipped. In 1984, Commodore's sales surpassed US $1 billion.
The success of the C64 was based on a massive manufacturing effort that cost a huge amount of money to set up — borrowed money that should have been easy to pay off in profits on the sales. However, Texas Instruments entered the market, and it appears that Tramiel was so upset about their earlier dealings in the calculator market that he decided to kill them in this one. Publicly declaring "Business is war", he started a price war, with the C64 quickly dropping from US$595 to US$199. While sales continued to skyrocket, profits plummeted, and Commodore's cash flow along with it. It seemed Commodore would soon be in command of a market worth nothing.
By late 1983 Jack and the Board of Directors argued over the direction of the company, which resulted in Jack resigning or being forced out, and several Tramiel loyalists quit Commodore in protest. Jack took a brief hiatus but decided to come back to the computer industry under the claim that he felt no current US computer company was strong enough to compete against the Japanese, who were now moving to enter the US market. So, he formed a new company named Tramel Technologies, Ltd., in order to design and sell a next-generation home computer. (According to Leonard Tramiel, "Our name Tramiel was constantly being mispronounced as 'Tra-meal' and my dad hoped that the other spelling would get people to say 'Tra-mell' (it rhymes with 'done well'). It didn't work."). Several former Commodore employees (including his son Sam and lead Commodore engineer Shiraz Shivji) soon joined him at the new startup, and by March Jack had his new computer design underway.

Michael Dell the founder of Dell Inc

2007-05-02T06:14:00.000-07:00

Michael Saul Dell (born February 23, 1965, in Austin, Texas) is the founder and CEO of Dell, Inc. Dell is the son of an orthodontist and grew up in a Jewish family. He went to Herod Elementary. He had his first encounter with a computer at the age of 15 when he broke down a brand new Apple II computer and rebuilt it, just to see if he could. Dell attended Memorial High School in Houston, Texas, where he did not excel scholastically. After graduating high school, he attended the University of Texas at Austin intending to become a physician. While at the university, he started a computer company called PC's Limited in his room in Dobie Center.

The company became successful enough that, with the help of an additional loan from his grandparents, Dell dropped out of college at the age of 19 to run PC's Limited, which later became Dell Computer Corporation, then ultimately Dell, inc. Over time, and despite a number of setbacks (including laptops that caught on fire in 1993, temporarily losing the consumer market to Gateway in the mid 1990s, and others), Dell survived the race to become the most profitable PC manufacturer in the world, with sales of US$49 billion and profits of US$3 billion in 2004. As Dell expanded its product line to more than computers, shareholders voted to rename the corporation Dell, Inc. in 2003. On March 4, 2004, he stepped down as CEO of Dell but stayed as chairman of the board, while Kevin B. Rollins, then president and COO, became president and CEO. On January 31, 2007, Michael Dell was reinstalled as CEO of Dell, replacing Kevin Rollins (who resigned earlier in the day).

Accolades for Dell include: "Entrepreneur of the Year" from Inc. magazine; "Man of the Year" from PC Magazine; "Top CEO in American Business" from Worth Magazine; "CEO of the Year" from Financial World and Industry Week magazines. Dell is famous for his eating prowess, and once ate two dozen boiled eggs in a single sitting, earning him the unofficial title of 'The Egg King of Austin.'

Dell resides in Austin with his wife, Susan, and their four children (ages 10 to 14).

On May 15, 2006, The University of Texas at Austin announced a US$50 million grant from the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation to "bring excellence in children's health and education to Austin". The grant will enable the construction of 3 new facilities at the university. The first is the Dell Pediatric Research Institute which is expected to complement the new Dell Children's Medical Center nearby. The second is a new computer science building on the UT campus named Dell Computer Science Hall. The third is the Michael and Susan Dell Center for Advancement of Healthy Living, which is intended to address issues that affect healthy childhood development.

As of 2007, Forbes estimates Michael Dell's net worth at 15.8 Billion, making him the 30th richest person in the world.

In 1998 Michael Dell founded MSD Capital LP, a private investment firm, to invest in various small companies on Dell's behalf. According to reports, the firm tends to invest in "late stage" investments, rather than early in a company's startup.

Dell had a public war of words with Apple CEO Steve Jobs, starting when Jobs first criticized Dell for making "un-innovative beige boxes". On October 6, 1997, when Dell was asked what he would do if he owned then-troubled Apple Computer, he said "I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders." The feud has since appeared to be over as Dell and Apple reached an agreement for Dell's online store to sell iPods. On January 13, 2006, Apple's market cap surpassed Dell's

In 2000, Forbes magazine named Dell Computer Corporation the third most admired company in the U.S. Furthermore, Michael Dell holds the notable distinction of being the computer industry's longest-tenured chief executive officer.

Early life of Bill Gates

2007-04-26T13:13:00.000-07:00

William Henry Gates III was born in Seattle, Washington to William H. Gates, Jr. (now Sr.) and Mary Maxwell Gates. His family was wealthy; his father was a prominent lawyer, his mother served on the board of directors for First Interstate Bank and the United Way, and her father, J. W. Maxwell, was a national bank president. Gates has one older sister, Kristi (Kristianne), and one younger sister, Libby. He was the fourth of his name in his family, but was known as William Gates III or "Trey" because his father had dropped his own "III" suffix. Several writers claim that Maxwell set up a million-dollar trust fund for Gates. A 1993 biographer who interviewed both Gates and his parents (among other sources) found no evidence of this and dismissed it as one of the "fictions" surrounding Gates's fortune. Gates denied the trust fund story in a 1994 interview and indirectly in his 1995 book The Road Ahead.

Gates excelled in elementary school, particularly in mathematics and the sciences. At thirteen he enrolled in the Lakeside School, Seattle's most exclusive preparatory school where tuition in 1967 was $5,000 (Harvard tuition that year was $1,760). When he was in the eighth grade, the school mothers used proceeds from a rummage sale to buy Lakeside an ASR-33 teletype terminal and a block of computer time on a General Electric computer. Gates took an interest in programming the GE system in BASIC and was excused from math classes to pursue his interest. After the Mothers Club donation was exhausted he and other students sought time on other systems, including DEC PDP minicomputers. One of these systems was a PDP-10 belonging to Computer Center Corporation, which banned the Lakeside students for the summer after it caught them exploiting bugs in the operating system to obtain free computer time.

At the end of the ban, the Lakeside students (Gates, Paul Allen, Ric Weiland, and Kent Evans) offered to find bugs in CCC's software in exchange for free computer time. Rather than use the system via teletype, Gates went to CCC's offices and studied source code for various programs that ran on the system, not only in BASIC but FORTRAN, LISP, and machine language as well. The arrangement with CCC continued until 1970, when it went out of business. The following year Information Sciences Inc. hired the Lakeside students to write a payroll program in COBOL, providing them not only computer time but royalties as well. At age 14, Gates also formed a venture with Allen, called Traf-O-Data, to make traffic counters based on the Intel 8008 processor. That first year he made $20,000, however when his age was discovered business slowed.

As a youth, Bill Gates was active in the Boy Scouts of America where he achieved its second highest rank, Life Scout.

According to a press inquiry, Bill Gates stated that he scored 1590 on his SATs. He enrolled at Harvard University in the fall of 1973 intending to get a pre-law degree, but did not have a definite study plan. While at Harvard, he met his future business partner, Steve Ballmer. At the same time, he co-authored and published a paper on algorithms with computer scientist Christos Papadimitriou.

Kurt Barthel - father of naturism

2007-04-17T11:59:00.000-07:00

could be called the father of the American Nudist Club. He began the American League for Physical Culture in 1929 with an ad in the newspaper requesting like-minded folks to join him. Some people say this organization was the evolutionary beginning of the American nudist movement in general and the American Sunbathing Association (now called the American Association for Nude Recreation or (AANR).

He founded America's first official nudist camp, Sky Farm in New Jersey at a time when nudists and nudism were not accepted at all by the American public in the throes of a depression.

Charlie Chaplin

2007-04-13T04:47:00.000-07:00

Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin, Jr. KBE (April 16, 1889 – December 25, 1977), better known as Charlie Chaplin, was an English comedy actor, becoming one of the most famous performers in the early to mid Hollywood cinema era, and also a notable director and musician. He is considered to be one of the finest mimes and clowns caught on film and has greatly influenced performers in this field.

Chaplin was one of the most creative and influential personalities in the silent film era: he acted in, directed, scripted, produced, and eventually scored his own films. His working life in entertainment spanned over 65 years, from the Victorian stage and music hall in England as a child performer, almost until his death at the age of 88.

His principal character was "The Tramp" (known as "Charlot" in France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Portugal and Turkey): a vagrant with the refined manners and dignity of a gentleman who wears a tight coat, oversized trousers and shoes, a bowler hat, carries a bamboo cane, and has a signature toothbrush moustache. Chaplin's high-profile public and private life encompassed highs and lows of both adulation and controversy.

Chaplin's relationships with various women were an important part of his life and career, in both positive and negative ways.

Charlie Chaplin and Hetty Kelly

Hetty Kelly was Chaplin's 'true' first love, a dancer Chaplin instantly fell in love with when she was 15 and he almost 19, when Kelly was performing before him in a London music hall. Chaplin asked if she would meet him the following weekend and she agreed.[citation needed] Chaplin fell madly in love with her and asked her to marry him. When she refused, Chaplin suggested it would be best if they did not see each other again. He was crushed when she agreed. Years later, her memory would remain a 'fetish' with Chaplin. He was devastated in 1921 when he found out that she had died of influenza during the great epidemic of 1918.

Charlie Chaplin and Edna Purviance

Chaplin and his first major leading lady, Edna Purviance, were involved in a close romantic relationship during the production of his Essanay and Mutual films in 1916–1917. The romance seems to have ended by 1918, and Chaplin's marriage to Mildred Harris in late 1918 ended any possibility of reconciliation. Purviance would continue as leading lady in Chaplin's films until 1923, and would remain on Chaplin's payroll until her death in 1958. She and Chaplin spoke warmly of one another for the rest of their lives.

Charlie Chaplin and Mildred Harris

On October 23, 1918, the 29-year-old Chaplin married the 16-year-old popular child-actress, Mildred Harris. The marriage resulted from a false-alarm pregnancy claim from the under-age Harris. They had one child, Norman Spencer Chaplin (also known as "The Little Mouse"), who died in infancy; they divorced in 1920. During the divorce, Chaplin claimed Harris had a lesbian affair with noted actress of the time Alla Nazimova, well known for seducing young actresses. Harris in turn claimed Chaplin was a sexual addict.

Charlie Chaplin and Pola Negri

Chaplin was involved in a very public relationship and engagement to the actress Pola Negri in 1922–23. Negri was a Polish actress who had recently arrived in Hollywood to star in films. The stormy on-off engagement was halted after about nine months, but in many ways it foreshadowed the modern stereotypes of Hollywood star relationships. Chaplin's public involvement with Negri was unique in his public life. By comparison he strove to keep his other romances and relationships very discreet and private (usually without success). Many biographers have concluded the affair with Negri was largely for publicity purposes.

Charlie Chaplin and Lita Grey

Firstly, Chaplin met Lita Grey during the filming of The Kid. Then, at 35, he became involved with 16-year-old Lita Grey during preparations for The Gold Rush. They married on November 26, 1924 after she became pregnant. They had two sons, the actors Charles Chaplin Jr. (1925–1968) and Sydney Earle Chaplin (1926–). The marriage was a disaster, with the couple hopelessly mismatched. Their extraordinarily bitter divorce in 1928 had Chaplin paying Grey a then-record-breaking $825,000 settlement, on top of almost one million dollars in legal costs. The stress of the sensational divorce, compounded by a federal tax dispute, allegedly turned his hair white. The publication of court records, which included many intimate details, led to a short-lived campaign against him. The Chaplin biographer Joyce Milton asserted in Tramp: The Life of Charlie Chaplin that the Grey-Chaplin marriage was the inspiration for Vladimir Nabokov's 1950s novel Lolita.

Charlie Chaplin and May Reeves

May Reeves was originally hired to be Chaplin's secretary on his 1931-1932 extended trip to Europe, dealing mostly with reading his personal correspondence. She worked only one morning, and then was introduced to Chaplin, who was instantly infatuated by her. May became his constant companion and lover on the trip, much to the disgust of Chaplin's brother Syd. After Reeves also became involved with Syd, Chaplin ended the relationship and she left his entourage. Reeves chronicled her short time with Chaplin in her book, "The Intimate Charlie Chaplin".

Charlie Chaplin and Paulette Goddard

Charlie Chaplin and Paulette Goddard in Modern Times (1936), the final screen appearance of the Tramp.

Chaplin and actress Paulette Goddard were involved in a romantic and professional relationship between 1932 and 1940, with Goddard living with Chaplin in his Beverly Hills home for most of this time. Chaplin "discovered" Goddard and gave her starring roles in Modern Times and The Great Dictator. Refusal to clarify their marital status is often claimed to have eliminated Goddard from final consideration for the role of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind. After the relationship ended in 1940, Chaplin and Goddard made public statements that they had been secretly married in 1936. But these claims were likely a mutual effort to prevent any lasting damage to Goddard's career, because Chaplin privately confirmed they were never officially married. In any case, their common-law marriage ended amicably in 1942, with Goddard being granted a settlement. Goddard went on to a major career in films at Paramount in the 1940s, working several times with Cecil B. DeMille. She lived her later life in Switzerland, like Chaplin.

Charlie Chaplin and Joan Berry

Chaplin had a brief affair with Joan Berry in 1942, whom he was considering for a starring role in a proposed film, but the relationship ended when she began harassing him and displaying signs of severe mental illness (not unlike his mother). Chaplin's brief involvement with Berry proved to be a nightmare for him. After having a child, she filed a paternity suit against him in 1943. Although blood tests proved Chaplin was not the father of Berry's child, the tests were then inadmissible as evidence in court, and he was ordered to support the child. The injustice of the ruling later led to a change in California law to allow blood tests as evidence. Federal prosecutors also brought Mann Act charges against Chaplin related to Berry in 1944, of which he was acquitted. Chaplin's public image in America was permanently damaged by these sensational trials.[2]

Oona O'Neill

During Chaplin's legal trouble over the Berry affair, he met Oona O'Neill, daughter of Eugene O'Neill, and married her on June 16, 1943. He was 54; she had just turned 18. The elder O'Neill refused all contact with Oona after the marriage, up until his death. O'Neill and Chaplin each seemed to provide elements missing in the others' lives: she longed for the love of a father figure, and Chaplin craved her loyalty and support as his public popularity declined. The marriage was a long and happy one, with eight children. They had three sons: Christopher, Eugene and Michael Chaplin and five daughters: Geraldine, Josephine, Jane, Victoria and Annette-Emilie Chaplin. Oona survived Chaplin by fourteen years, but her final years were unhappy, with grief over Chaplin's death eventually leading to alcoholism. She died from pancreatic cancer in 1991.

Alfred Hitchcock biography

2007-04-10T12:25:00.000-07:00

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Alfred Hitchcock

Birth name Alfred Joseph Hitchcock
Born August 13, 1899
Leytonstone, London, England, UK
Died April 29, 1980, aged 80
Bel Air, Los Angeles, USA
Spouse(s) Alma Reville (married December 2, 1926) 1 child
Academy Awards
Nominated: Best Director Nominations
1940 Rebecca
1944 Lifeboat
1945 Spellbound
1954 Rear Window
1960 Psycho

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE (August 13, 1899 – April 29, 1980) was a highly influential film director and producer who pioneered many techniques in the suspense and thriller genres. He directed more than fifty feature films in a career spanning six decades, from the silent film era, through the invention of talkies, to the colour era. Hitchcock was among the most consistently successful and publicly recognizable directors in the world during his lifetime, and remains one of the best known and most popular directors of all time, famous for his expert and largely unrivalled control of pace and suspense throughout his movies.

Hitchcock was born and raised in Leytonstone, London, England. He began his directing career in the United Kingdom in 1922, but from 1939 he worked primarily in the United States and applied for U.S. citizenship in 1956. Hitchcock and his family lived in a mountaintop estate high above Scotts Valley, California, from 1940 to 1972. He died of renal failure in 1980.

Hitchcock's films draw heavily on both fear and fantasy, and are known for their droll humour. They often portray innocent people caught up in circumstances beyond their control or understanding.

Rebecca was the only one of his films to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, although four others were nominated. However, Hitchcock never won an Academy Award for Best Director. He was awarded the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award for lifetime achievement in 1967, but never personally received an Academy Award of Merit.

Until the later part of his career, Hitchcock was far more popular with film audiences than with film critics, especially the elite British and American critics. In the late 1950s the French New Wave critics, especially Éric Rohmer, Claude Chabrol, and François Truffaut, were among the first to see and promote his films as artistic works. Hitchcock was one of the first directors to whom they applied their auteur theory, which stresses the artistic authority of the director in the film-making process.

Hitchcock's innovations and vision have influenced a great number of filmmakers, producers, and actors. His influence helped start a trend for film directors to control artistic aspects of their movies without answering to the movie's producer.

Hitchcock once commented, "The writer and I plan out the entire script down to the smallest detail, and when we're finished all that's left to do is to shoot the film. Actually, it's only when one enters the studio that one enters the area of compromise. Really, the novelist has the best casting since he doesn't have to cope with the actors and all the rest."

Hitchcock would storyboard each movie down to the finest detail. He was reported to have never even bothered looking through the viewfinder, since he didn't need to do so, though in publicity photos he was shown doing so. He also used this as an excuse to never have to change his films from his initial vision. If a studio asked him to change a film, he would claim that it was already shot in a single way, and that there were no alternate takes to consider. However, respected film critic Bill Krohn in his book Hitchcock At Work has questioned the popular notion of Hitchcock's reliance on storyboards. In his book, Krohn after researching script revisions of Hitchcock's most popular works, concludes that Hitchcock's reliance on storyboards has been exaggerated and argues that Hitchcock only storyboarded a few sequences and not each and every scene as most think. He also notes that this myth was largely perpetuated by Hitchcock himself.

Similarly much of Hitchcock's hatred of actors has been exaggerated. Hitchcock simply did not tolerate the method approach as he believed that actors should only concentrate on their performances and leave work on script and character to the directors and screenwriters. In a Sight and Sound interview, he stated that, ' the method actor is OK in the theatre because he has a free space to move about. But when it comes to cutting the face and what he sees and so forth, there must be some discipline'. During the making of Lifeboat, Walter Slezak, who played the German character, stated that Hitchcock knew the mechanics of acting better than anyone he knew. Several critics have observed that despite his reputation as a man who disliked actors, several actors who worked with him gave fine, often brilliant performances and these performances contribute to the film's success.

Regarding Hitchcock's sometimes less than pleasant relationship with actors, there was a persistent rumor that he had said that actors were cattle. Hitchcock later denied this, typically tongue-in-cheek, clarifying that he had only said that actors should be treated like cattle. Carole Lombard, tweaking Hitchcock and drumming up a little publicity, brought some cows along with her when she reported to the set of Mr. and Mrs. Smith. For Hitchcock, the actors, like the props, were part of the film's setting.

The first book devoted to the director is simply named Hitchcock. It is a document of a one-week interview by François Truffaut in 1967. (ISBN 0-671-60429-5)

The Story of A Stupid Boy

2007-04-06T08:23:00.000-07:00

"Alas! What a stupid son I have! I am worried that he will not be ableto preserve all of the property if I hand down to him. There was a wealthy man who was very astute and capable. However, he had a son who was very stupid and good-at-nothing. Hence the wealthy man had been very distressful.
One day he was again sat down in the living room and sighed. His son was sitting opposite to him and was just mindlessly giggling, "Hihi, hehe!!" "Ai", the wealthy man could not help making a sigh. Then the family old maid came in and said,
"Master, there's a monk looking for you for donation."
The wealthy man had been a person who knew how to respect the Buddhists. Therefore upon hearing that, he said,
"Please invite him in immediately."
Soon an old monk who looked very compassionate came in. The wealthy man very politely requested him to sit down. The old monk did not sit down. Instead he directly walked towards the stupid son and looked at him. Then the old monk slowly touched his head for a few times and said,
"In fact,this child is very clever and is good at studying. It's a pity that there's too much killing in your home. And this prevent him from being clever."
He left without looking back when he finished the remarks. There left the wealthy man to think of the remarks of the old monk,
"The old monk was right. Truly our family have been consuming big fishes and much meat without stopping. Also we always throw dishes away when we cannot finish them. And every festivals we will have delicacies from land and sea. Perhaps it has been because we have been slaughtering many animals at home that resulted in having an idiotic son."
From then onwards, the wealthy man changed himself completely - The wholefamily started to become vegetarian. He banned anyone to take all liveanimals into the kitchen. In addition, he spent much money to buy animalsto release them in the wild as a work of merit. Thus he had been doing for many years.
Suddenly one day the stupid son of the wealthy man ran to the father held his stomach and shouted,
"Papa, my stomach's aching and I want to vomit."
The wealthy man was very worried. He was just about to invite a doctor to treat his son when the son started to vomit some "black liquid". Everyone was astonished upon seeing it. However, the stupid son became very intelligent since then. No longer anidiot any more, he mastered anything he learnt in no time. The wealthy man was very happy so he let his son studied. Finally the son attained the best results in the government examination. This confirmed what the oldmonk had said before.

Flora - The oldest porn star in the world

2007-01-11T12:43:00.000-08:00

Flora, bubbly, tiny, maybe 5 feet tall, woman in her 83 years is the oldest porn star in the world. Before she get into adult movies business, Flora was a dancer, she produces movies (B production - "Mother of the Vampire", "Criminally Insane II", "Cemetery Sisters", ...), and she has been married seven times. She lives with her niece in Las Vegas suburbs, goes to nightclubs, drives car like a race driver, ... Now, she is a porn star. Flora says she loves sex. And she loves man. Young man, especially. The last partner in movie was 26 years old. And Flora is proud on that position.
Flora started with her new business only 6 months ago. Her 73 years old friend Jeanette, is a model. And her introduced Flora with adult movies produces. He offered her $700 for a scene in a series called "Century Sex". And Flora accepted. Since that she already made several porn movies. Now, she is writing script for a movie about her life.

Steve Irwin

2006-12-04T04:59:00.000-08:00

Steve Irwin - wild animals expert

Steve Irwin was born on February 22. 1962, in Essendon, Victoria, Australia. He was mixed TV entertainer and wildlife expert. Almost everyone in the World know about Irvin's "The Crocodile Hunter", TV series he made with his wife Terri. Animal Planet presented that famous documentary series about life in jungle, swamp, wild rivers, ... And lots of networks wide republished show for people. Steve Irwin had no any scientific degree but he knew about wild animals very, very much. Sometimes lots more that some scientists. He worked in Australia Zoo at start, where he felled in love with crocodiles . In 1991, Steve and his wife Terri spend part of their honey-moon with crocodiles filming them. In 1992 they produced "The Crocodile Hunter" first time, and 1996. Animal Planet decided to air that fabulous TV show, and people in more than 200 countries around the World had a chance to watch it. Stewe Irwin was very enthusiastic and had no fear of crocodiles, snakes, spiders and other creatures filming them. Although, danger was there in every show. He become so famous, "South Park" and "The Simpsons" wad some parodies on his Crocodile Hunter in some episodes.

On September 4, 2006, Snorkeling near a stingray, Steve was pierced in the chest by its barb, which hit his heart and he died.

Helene Grimaud - wolf woman

2006-11-15T04:12:00.000-08:00

Helene Grimaud is a French pianist with one more big passion besides music. Wolves. She fallen in love with wolves back in 1991. in Florida, when she took her friends dog in a walk, and meet wolf. In fact, that was part she-wolf, part dog, but there was chemistry between Helene and that part-wolf.

In 1999. Helene Grimaud and J. Henry Fair, her companion in that time, opened "The Wolf Conservation Center". That educational facility is placed in South Salem, New York. To be more precisely, about 80 km from Manhattan. Wolf Center is 12 hectares big, and 17 wolves live in it. 13 wolves are shielded from public, living in real nature and preparing to be returned into wild nature. 4 wolves are just like pets there. They are socialized, and they are on view to public.
At first year, Wolf Conservation Center had about 500 visitors, but last year we could see real popularity of it. About 20.000 people came to visit wolves in Center. Helene is so proud on it.

And just a little about Helene - pianist. In 2006, she played concerts with concerts with the London Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, St Petersburg Philharmonic, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Gulbenkian Orchestra and many others. Like she said, music and wolves are her life and salvation.

Mikael Genberg - fun artist

2006-11-01T11:34:00.000-08:00

Mikael Genberg is a Swedish artist and sculptor with very interesting and unusual ideas. He designs hotels, cafes and other buildings on fun way. He is trying to mix usability and fun on original way.

Woodpecker Hotel

This unusual hotel, opened in 1998, is placed on oak tree, in city park, Vasaparken, Sweden. Hotel is 13 meters above the ground and guests must climb up with rope ladder to their room. In fact, there is only one room with one bed, so hotel is prepare for one guest in a time. Two guests are welcome, too if they don't mind share a bed. Meals are served to guests via a basket attached to a fun pulley. Woodpecker Hotel have bedroom, kitchen, veranda with hammock and a toilet. Place is interesting to tourists, so it's quite popular during the summer.

Utter Inn

Another interesting hotel design of Mikael Genberg, made in year 2000. Utter Inn is placed on the Lake Mälaren in Västerås, Sweden. Hotel have two parts. One, above water and another under water. On water is little red house, where visitors can look at the lake, drink coffee and enjoy the sightsee. Three meters underwater is room for sleeping (if you can sleep in that conditions), with hard glass windows, so you will feel like you are in aquarium. Feel of adventure will make your adrenaline high, that's for shore. The guests starts the tour at the port of Vasteras. They will be taken the 1 km out on the lake Malaren with a boat. There guests shall get instructions and then they are left alone.

Cafe Koala

Since there are lots of coffee drinkers in Sweden, Mikael come to another fun idea. He made "Cafe Koala", cafe for eight brave guests. Tables and chairs are placed five meters above ground and you will have to climb up ladders first. You will get your coffee in a basket which is winched up by a rope.

Blog about Tourism and hotels.

Another Best destinations source.

Al Yeganeh, The Soup man

2006-10-21T03:02:00.000-07:00

Did you watched The Soup Nazi episode from Seinfeld, TV show? Thom Barry was the souper, man who owns the unusual soup place. Costumers must stay in line, without making any sounds except order a soup when it's their turn. If the say something in line, or make some unwanted move, The soup man says: "No soup for you! Get out of my place!"

Well, Jerry Seinfeld came to idea by real place - Soup Kitchen International and "Original Soup Man", Iranian Al Yeganeh. Al Yeganeh founded the company in 1984 in New York City . Now, he have restaurants all over the USA. And he have some rules, like "the soup man" in Seinfeld.

Rules for costumers are:
- The line must be kept moving!
- Pick the soup you want
- Have your money ready
- Move to the extreme left after ordering

He have rules for press, too:
- No tabloids
- No "N" word
- No personal questions
- No follow up questions
- Only some of the questions emailed may be answered
- Method and timing of interviews by Al's discretion.

Vlad Tepes Dracula

2006-09-30T13:18:00.000-07:00

Vlad Tepes, known also as Drakula, Dracula or Drăculea.
He was son of Vlad II Dracul, voivode of Wallachia (1390 - 1447). Vlad Tepes Dracula was born at the and of 1431, in the fortress of Sighisoara, Romania. More precisely in Transylvania. They say he was a member of "Order of the Dragon", something like "Knights of the Hospital of St. John" at the west. "Dracul" in Romanian language, means "Dragon". Their goal was to protect Christians from Turks. Drakula became known for his brutal punishment techniques. He often ordered people to be decapitated, skinned, hanged, boiled, blinded, strangled, burned, nailed, buried alive, cut off noses, ears, ... He was particularly known throughout his land for his fierce insistence on honesty and order. Almost any crime, from stealing and lying to killing, would be punished by impalement.

One of the first movies about Dracula was Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens , ("Terror of Dracula") in 1922, with Max Schreck playing Graf Orlok.

Papadizi video messages

2006-09-05T03:22:00.000-07:00

This is Papadizi, and he published his dramatic video message. He will kill himself if he don't find American woman in 30 days.

Papadizi is Greek shepherd, he lives in mountines and have very healthy life. He is also man of honor. Papadizi made a list of American woman who are invited to contact him. And that list is: Cameron Diaz, Paris Hilton, Jessica Simpson, Britney Spears, Uma Thurman, Madonna, Julia Roberts and Gwyneth Paltrow. Here is his fun video with that list.

papadizi is very sad. He is afraid he can be last Papadizi if he don't find woman and make baby. He have the message for all american woman: "Don't forget Papadizi! Please come and sleep with me. Why? Because Papadizi is very romantic. I am better that mister George Clooney. Better than Brad Pitt. Better than the great American actor, mister Arnold Schwarzenegger." Maybe you think that's funny? But not for Papadizi.

In this video Papadizi is showing us Playboy with women without honor and without recpect. He asked Mr Hugh Hefner - what is he doing? Why Playboy is bad boy? But Papadizi will forget him that, if he find him American woman. But one with clothes. Not naked.

More about Aleksandros Papadizi on his Youtube profile .