MacRumors

10 new products will be out in Macworld 2008 (rumors) Jan 15, 2008 17:12

I found rumors of Macworld 2008 from Macrumors. There will be 10 new products appearing and introducing by Steve Job's keynote. I can't say this is true or not at the moment, but looks like some of the products are expected ones. Like MacBook Nano (a.k.a. MacBook Air??) and MacTouch (UMPC from Apple).

Let's see what will be the truth and what will be out soon by Apple. I really want to be there!!!

Engadget

Gizmodo’s main rival Engadget silent about CES monitor prank

Posted by Russell Shaw @ 2:17 pm

Truthfully, many of us in the online “press,” as well as in dead-tree media, probably spend a bit too much time analyzing ourselves.

In the blogosphere, one of the more egregious examples of this is our examination of whether or not that unnamedGizmodo blogger was just having fun.using a, well, gizmo to shut off monitors at the Motorola and Panasonic booths at CES- or whether his actions were childish and commercially harmful electronic vandalism.

Seemingly, everyone weighed in, including most all of Gizmodo’s direct and indirect competitors. Here in our shop, some of us got in on the action.

But unless I am overlooking something, Gizmodo’s most direct competitor has remained totally silent about the incident.Not a peep about it on Engadget.

Having formerly worked for another site in the same stable as Engadget is, my take is that Engadget chose not to get into the fray as to not stoop down to the level Gizmodo did here.

From Ryan on down, Engadget properly views themselves through a serious journalism prism.

That said, It would be unthinkable for any Engadget blogger to do something as childish as the Gizmodo blogger does. So for Engadget to go on at length about childish pranks, it would be as if Foreign Policy magazine wrote about Paris Hilton rather than Paris, the city.

A Nice Engadget Commercial

topic from "http://blogs.zdnet.com/ip-telephony/?p=3044 "

Mac Air

MacBook Air - First thoughts

At Macworld 08 Steve Jobs introduced us to Apple’s latest addition to the Mac family - MacBook Air. What’s so special about the MacBook Air? It’s the world’s thinnest, most portable notebook.

The dimensions of the MacBook Air are unbelievable - 0.16-0.76 inch (0.4-1.94 cm) high by 12.8 inches (32.5 cm) by 8.94 inches (22.7 cm) and the whole package comes in at 3.0 pounds (1.36 kg). Despite the small size, the MacBook Air is equipped with a 13.3-inch widescreen TFT panel capable of 1280 by 800 native resolution, and a full-size keyboard (which is backlit) with 78 (U.S.) or 79 (ISO) keys

The system is based on Intel’s Core 2 Duo processor range and comes in either 1.6 or 1.8GHz flavors and 2GB of DDR2 RAM. Also squeezed in to this tiny aluminum box is an 80GB drive or an optional 64GB solid-state drive.

It seems that Apple has also caught the environmental bug - the MacBook Air seems like it’s a little better for the sky (and the water, trees and everything else) than other Macs:

• Highly recyclable, mercury-free aluminum enclosure
• Mercury-free LCD display with arsenic-free glass
• PVC-free internal cables
• Largely recyclable, low-volume packaging
• Meets ENERGY STAR requirements
• MacBook Air received a Silver rating from EPEAT

Peripheral connections seem a little mean - a single USB port, an audio out port and a micro-DVI port. No Ethernet, no modem (sold separately as USB adaptors)

Also, the MacBook Air doesn’t ship with an optical drive. If you want one you have to buy the optional MacBook Air SuperDrive($99).

Here are some prices for you to mull over:

• 1.6GHz, 80GB MacBook Air - $1,799.00
• 1.6GHz, 64GB SSD - $2,798.00
• 1.8GHz, 80GB MacBook Air - $2,099.00
• 1.8GHz, 64GB SSD - $3,098.00

One downside that I can see - the battery is not user replaceable. This is starting to become a trend for Apple. I guess it’s a good way to build a level of obsolescence into a product so people come back in the future and buy again. Not sure how ethical, customer-friendly or environmentally-friendly that is thought.

Apple sure has a way of making the small seem big. My prediction is that this is going to be a huge hit for Apple.

MacBook Air & MacTouch



topic from "http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=1155"

vampira

Email Picture

Heather Saenz / Associated Press

Maila Nurmi, in a 2005 photo, portrayed Vampira, a vivacious vampire who hosted scary late-night movies during the 1950s.

Maila Nurmi; actress created early TV's Vampira character

By Jocelyn Y. Stewart, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
8:52 AM PST, January 15, 2008

In the early days of television, when horror movies were often campy by nature, actress Maila Nurmi created the character Vampira, a glamorous ghoul who as hostess of late-night fright films in the 1950s layered on her own brand of camp.

Vampira played with her pet tarantula, gave gruesome recipes for vampire cocktails and bathed in a boiling caldron. With a knack for the double-entendre and the requisite blood-chilling scream, Vampira was a hit.

Maila Nurmi

Vampira

The character won Nurmi short-lived fame and a dedicated cult following. Nurmi claimed Vampira was also the uncredited inspiration for later ghoulish yet glamorous female characters in film and television, including Elvira.

Nurmi, who also appeared in the 1959 Edward D. Wood Jr. movie "Plan 9 From Outer Space," was found dead in her Hollywood home Jan. 10. The cause of death was still being investigated, said Lt. Fred Corral of the Los Angeles County coroner's office. Nurmi was believed to be 85, although sources offer conflicting dates of birth.

Born Maila Syrjäniemi in Finland, Nurmi immigrated to the United States when she was a toddler. By 17, she had dropped her surname and taken on that of her famous uncle Paavo Nurmi, a world-class runner known as the "Flying Finn." In her teens, she moved to New York, and then Los Angeles, to pursue a career in acting.

Little came of Nurmi's efforts to land conventional leading roles in theater or on-screen. The unconventional came calling in 1953, after Nurmi attended a Hollywood masquerade ball dressed as the ghoul of Charles Addams' New Yorker cartoons.

"I bound my bosoms, so that I was flat-chested," Nurmi said, "and I got a wig, and painted my body a kind of a mauve white pancake with a little lavender powder so that I looked as though I'd been entombed."

Nurmi's costume was judged the best at the ball, according to an article that was posted last week on vampirasattic.com, her website. Months later, a KABC-TV producer tracked her down and offered her work as hostess of a late-night horror show.

In creating Vampira, Nurmi said she went beyond the Addams cartoon, developing an alter ego influenced by beatnik culture and her experiences as a child of the Depression.

Vampira wore a low-cut tattered black dress that showed off her impossibly small waist (courtesy of a waist cincher) and displayed more cleavage than was common for the day. With her 6-inch-long nails and dark, dramatically arched eyebrows, watching Vampira was "a release for people."

"The times . . . were so conservative and so constrained," Nurmi said in a video interview that was posted on her website. "There was so much repression, and people needed to identify with something explosive, something outlandish and truthful."

Shortly after her debut, Vampira appeared in Life magazine, and soon there were fan clubs around the world.

"I was high-rolling in Hollywood, and I was quite full of myself," Nurmi said in a 1994 interview with People magazine.

But in 1955, KABC canceled her show, and the result was a stinging decline. When she met Wood at a party during the height of her career, she felt nothing but disdain, she told People magazine, but when he approached her in 1956 and offered her $200 to appear in his movie, she accepted the offer.

"I was scraping by on $13 a week," she said in the People article. "I thought, 'Well, here I go. I'm going to commit professional suicide right now.' "

"Plan 9 From Outer Space," a zombie movie, has been called the worst movie ever. She appeared in a few more movies, but by the 1960s, Nurmi's career had taken a turn toward oblivion.

"I'm a lady linoleum-layer," she told a Times reporter in 1962. "And if things are slow in linoleum, I can also do carpentry, make drapes or refinish furniture." And for 99 cents an hour, she cleaned celebrity houses, she told Entertainment Weekly in 1994.

Nurmi opened a Vampira antique shop, but she continued to struggle to make ends meet. In the late 1980s, Nurmi filed a lawsuit against another glamorous ghoul. She alleged that Elvira had ripped off her character, copying features such as a "distinctive, low-cut, tattered black dress, emphasizing cleavage and a voluptuous figure."

The courts disagreed.

Nurmi's influence can be seen in the teen "goth" look of today, said Dana Gould, a longtime friend of Nurmi.

"She really sort of cast the mold for a look that is still around," said the comedy writer and comedian.

Director Tim Burton's film about Wood, starring Johnny Depp, introduced a new audience to Wood and Nurmi.

Later in life, Nurmi, who was divorced and had no children, began creating Vampira drawings and selling them on the Internet. She remained proud and protective of the character she created, Gould said.

"I don't have any babies or any social history that's remarkable, so I'm leaving something behind, you know, when the time comes to say goodbye, I'm leaving something," she said in an interview with KABC's Eyewitness News.

A memorial service is being planned

Vampira - The Glamour Ghoul

topic from "http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-nurmi16jan16,0,5653344.story?coll=la-home-local "

bobby jindal

Jindal Takes Helm of Troubled Louisiana

Matthew Hinton

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who was inaugurated Monday, has been praised by residents — even those frustrated at the government — as bright, capable and energetic. AFP/Getty Images

Nishant, Dahiya, NPR

William Doxey, shown here in a shack next to his trailer where he stores his oysters, says it seems that the government is trying to drive people out of the coastal areas.

Nishant Dahiya, NPR

New building laws in Cameron Parish on the Gulf of Mexico require houses to be built 12 to 14 feet off the ground.

All Things Considered , January 14, 2008 · Bobby Jindal, Louisiana's new governor, was sworn in to office Monday afternoon. Jindal takes over a state that's still struggling to recover from hurricanes Rita and Katrina which pounded the region in 2005.

More than two years later, people all along coastal Louisiana are still trying to rebuild their homes, lives and communities. And while Jindal handily won the governor's race, many in Louisiana are still leery of a government they think let them down after the storms hit two years ago.

Cameron, La.

Cameron is a small, gritty port town in the western Louisiana bayou near the border with Texas. Boats that service the oil and gas rigs in the Gulf of Mexico tie up along Cameron's docks next to shrimp and fishing boats.

Hurricane Rita hit here on Sept. 24, 2005, less than a month after Katrina slammed into New Orleans. Before Hurricane Rita, the town had 2,000 residents; immediately after, it had none.

William Doxey, 78, runs a small seafood business in Cameron buying and selling oysters and shrimp. He remembers what the town looked like after the hurricane.

"Not nothing here. Nothing. Everything was gone," Doxey said.

The storm surge from Rita drove 14 feet of water through Doxey's property. The water took his house and business with it. Doxey now lives in a beat-up, second-hand trailer that he has parked next to the concrete slab of his old house.

After the storm, he got $37,000 from the state's housing recovery program, called Road Home program. He says it's not enough to rebuild, but he's sick of fighting with the state about it.

If he had the money to rebuild, new zoning regulations would require him to elevate his house 14 feet above sea level. It seems that the government is trying to drive people out of the coastal areas, Doxey said.

Why does Doxey stay? He says he was born and raised in Cameron, and it's where he lives and works now. "Why should I go somewhere else and starve? They're not going to feed you once you move out of here," Doxey said.

Doxey doesn't expect things in his part of Louisiana to change with the inauguration of Jindal as governor. If Cameron gets rebuilt, he says, it will be as a result of the locals — not the politicians in Baton Rouge.

Lake Charles , La.

Thirty miles north of Cameron, the city of Lake Charles was also battered by Hurricane Rita, and it's still dealing with the effects of the storm. The airport terminal hasn't yet been rebuilt. Some houses are still draped in the blue tarps FEMA handed out after the storm to prevent further damage.

And as the economy continues to sputter, Macy's announced last week that it will close its department store in Lake Charles.

Randy Roach, mayor of Lake Charles, says the Rita recovery effort in southwest Louisiana is making progress, but it's been hampered by so many contractors heading east to deal with the Katrina damage in New Orleans.

By capturing 54 percent of the vote, Bobby Jindal won the governor's office outright in the primary. Mayor Roach says the rush of voters to Jindal was, in part, a response to the storms.

"I think they made people think about what's really important: What do we really need to be focusing on, what do we really need to be doing and how do we want to go about doing it?" Roach said.

Jindal offered vision and leadership for the ailing state, Roach said.

Jindal is a conservative Republican and a devout Catholic. He was first elected to the U.S. Congress in 2004. At 36, he's young, but Roach says Jindal's youthful energy is one of his greatest assets.

New Orleans

Two hundred miles east of Lake Charles, New Orleans continues to clean up from the worst natural disaster in American history — although many city residents say the damage from Katrina wasn't natural.

Darlene Martin, who lives in the Gentilly neighborhood of New Orleans, says her house wasn't damaged by Hurricane Katrina itself. Instead, her house was destroyed by the flooding of her neighborhood that followed the hurricane. Martin blames the federal government, pointing out that, had the New Orleans branch of the Army Corps of Engineers properly maintained the city's levee system, she would have been back in her home two days after Katrina hit.

Martin had flood insurance, which covered the $200,000 in damages to her property. But because the Road Home program does not cover properties that had flood insurance, she got no compensation from the program.

"I think the government should compensate us for what we have endured — eight months in isolation up in Baton Rouge, commuting back and forth and then having to live in my house while it is rebuilt," Martin said.

More than two years later, her neighborhood is still a long way from normal. Some houses, like Martin's, are completely rebuilt. The lawns are mowed. Mardi Gras decorations are up. But the new homes are often right next to gutted houses with weeds and debris covering the yard.

Martin is angry at how the Louisiana government dealt with Katrina and its aftermath. Her neighborhood is coming back, she says, thanks to volunteers.

Ask Martin about Bobby Jindal taking over as governor, and her tone softens. She praises Jindal as bright, capable and energetic.

Despite her frustration and anger toward the public sector right now, she's hopeful the new governor can do "a lot of good" for Louisiana.

Bobby Jindal - War on Corruption - TV Ad

topic from " http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18081095

belinda gavin

American Gladiators: Preview of Tonight's Episode

Monday, January 14, 2008

After the successful premiere of NBC's American Gladiators and the promising debut in its regular time slot last Monday, the competitive series will attempt to flex its ratings with tonight's new episode.

Read on to find out what's in store for the third episode of American Gladiators.


Last week, life coach Siene Silva took on Christie Phillips, a karate instructor and mother of two, while Satellite Engineer Adonis Locket fought radiation control technician Jeff Big Country Chapman for the men's side. Tonight, another round of rough competition will take place as a soccer mom attempts to defeat a rodeo queen.

Episode 3 features Monica Carlson as she battles it out with rodeo pro Belinda Gavin. Carlson is a 32-year-old mother of twins and a former Portland Trailblazer dancer, while Gavin is a 36-year-old bull rider originally from Australia.

On the men's side, Adam Levin, who lost his home in the Hurricane Wilma, goes up against high school teacher Sharaud Moore. Levin is a 29-year-old shark fisherman who moved to Bedford, Texas in attempt to start a new life. Moore, on the other hand, is a 30-year-old teacher who specializes in algebra and is one of the original “Freedom Writers.”

Described by the network as “one of the hardest hitting episodes to date,” this installment finds the gladiators as they defend their arena with increased strength and viciousness, while they try to make their contenders pay the price.

Hosted by wrestling icon Hulk Hogan (Hogan Knows Best) and Laila Ali (Dancing with the Stars) , American Gladiators matches a cast of amateur athletes against each other, as well as against the show's own "gladiators" in contests of strength and agility. In the end , the winners will receive $100,000, a 2008 Toyota Sequoia, as well as the right to become a Gladiator in season 2, which is scheduled to be taped in spring 2008 for a summer airing.

Fans can catch American Gladiators tonight at 8pm EST on NBC.

American Gladiators Returns!

topic from "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSSJdEuT0p8

"

lisa del giocondo

Yes, Lisa del Giocondo was da Vinci's "Mona Lisa"
www.chinaview.cn 2008-01-15 19:15:51

German academics citing notes scribbled in the margin of a book by it owner in October 1503 have confirmed Lisa del Giocondo, the wife of a wealthy Florentine merchant, was the model for Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa."(File Photo)

BEIJING, Jan. 15 (Xinhuanet) -- German academics citing notes scribbled in the margin of a book by it owner in October 1503 have confirmed Lisa del Giocondo, the wife of a wealthy Florentine merchant, was the model for Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa."

Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo, has long been regarded as the most likely model for the 16th-century painting. But art historians have often wondered whether the smiling woman may actually have been da Vinci's lover, his mother or the artist himself.

"All doubts about the identity of the Mona Lisa have been eliminated by a discovery by Dr. Armin Schlechter," a manuscript expert, the Heidelberg University library said in a statement on Monday.

Until then, only "scant evidence" from sixteenth-century documents had been available. "This left lots of room for interpretation and there were many different identities put forward," the library said.

The notes were made by a Florentine city official Agostino Vespucci, an acquaintance of the artist, in a collection of letters by the Roman orator Cicero.

Art experts, who have already dated the painting to this time, say the Heidelberg discovery is a breakthrough and the earliest mention linking the merchant's wife to the portrait.

"There is no reason for any lingering doubts that this is another woman," Leipzig University art historian Frank Zoellner told German radio. "One could even say that books written about all this in the past few years were unnecessary, had we known."

Mona Lisa - Why so Famous?

topic from "http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-01/15/content_7427566.htm "

american cannibal

Doug Gillard:
Creative Process 101

By Randy Harward

Beneath the bombast and triumph of Doug Gillard’s guitar leads in Guided by Voices, there was a workmanlike quality, a craftsmanship that served the songs. It has made him a popular sideman (most recently backing up Knoxville singer-songwriter Stewart Pack on his new album, which also features Emily Haines on bass) and, now that GBV is dead the Charlotte-based musician is plying his trade in the film industry. In addition to 2005’s feature-length Donnybrook and the short films Creative Process 473 (for which a soundtrack was released in 2003) and porn spoof 101 Salvations (starring Ron Jeremy), Gillard has scored Acme Pictures’ reality documentary spoof American Cannibal. The film, released on DVD this fall, follows a pair of writer-producers as they try to hop on—and eventually fall off—the reality TV gravy train.

HARP: Did you whip out the wah pedal for 101 Salvations?

I really did, yeah. It’s about a gal and her husband… they throw a 101-man gangbang. It’s not graphic, visually—it’s clean—but it alludes to things.

HARP: What is it about the wah and porn?

It’s the stereotypical thing that everyone expects. So, since it’s the stereotype, people who do porn-themed films want that. I think [its sound] lends itself to porn, but I also think they started using it in the early 1970s because it… became popular in any sort of suspense situation in movies and TV shows, Mission: Impossible and Mod Squad and stuff like that. And the porn industry at the time probably [recognized] that it was the lowest budget thing you can do.

HARP: How do you score a reality documentary?

I worked with Terry and Michael, the directors of [American Cannibal], pretty closely for a lot of the scenes. What I would go for, in my mind? Turns out [it] wouldn’t be right for what they wanted. So it really helps to work with your directors intimately. A lot of times we had the computer with a QuickTime version of the movie and they’d give me dialogue cues. They knew what they wanted, which was good. There’s certainly an element of free reign with these film scores, too. Sometimes I’ll just do some beds of music that I think might fit in—there’s a few of those in American Cannibal.

HARP: You’re making music to order—was it similar to working in Guided by Voices where Robert Pollard wrote the songs?

I co-wrote a few things with him, but it was largely Bob. I would get these demo tapes of Bob playing into a boom box and… if there were any leads or licks involved, I would have free reign; I could bring it to the table. If it was something he didn’t think fit the song he would say so. And there were a few times that he did.

Reality Remix: American Cannibal

topic from " http://www.harpmagazine.com/articles/detail.cfm?article_id=6389"

burl

Burl. Twp. man on a computer mission for families

By LAURI SHEIBLEY
Burlington County Times

BURLINGTON CITY — There are many low-income families that do not have a computer, but LaMonte Reed is on a mission to change that.

Reed, a volunteer with the nonprofit Sisterhood Inc., collects used computers, refurbishes them, and distributes them to families in Burlington City and Willingboro.

In the past year and a half, Reed has given away about 50 such computers.

Reed, a computer technician and videographer from Burlington Township, said it is important for every family to have a computer in this technological age. He said children especially need computer access to work on school assignments and conduct research on the Internet.

In return for a computer, the Sisterhood asks each family to volunteer time at the organization, or make a small donation of $50 to $100. Reed said the contribution is determined on a case-by-case basis and no one is turned away.

Reed credited his friend Joe Steele for starting the program about 10 years ago. When Steele began working as a teacher at the Burlington County Special Services School in Lumberton, he could no longer dedicate the time necessary to the computer program, and he asked Reed to take over. Reed said he enjoys the work.

“I feel I am on this Earth to help other people,” he said.

Reed has outfitted a computer lab at the Sisterhood office, located at the corner of York and East Broad streets in Burlington City, where he teaches children how to use the computers.

He has dreams of someday opening a school for adults, where he can teach them how to become computer technicians.

“We are trying to show them there is another way,” he said. “They can make $100 a day without selling drugs or beating someone up.”

Reed said the Sisterhood collects old computers from the Burlington County Special Services School, the Germantown Academy in Fort Washington, Pa., the Burlington County Chapter of the American Red Cross, the Boys & Girls Club of Burlington County, and individual donors. He thanked the principal of the Burlington County Special Services School in Lumberton, Paul W. Houser, for his support.

About a month ago, Reed said he donated 20 computers to a charitable foundation, which sent them to a high school in Nigeria. He said he is always looking for more computer donations.

“Other people's junk is our gold,” he said.

Reed also is in need of volunteers to help him make repairs. He said he would be happy to teach volunteers how to do the work.

Anyone interested in donating an old computer, or in need of a computer, should contact Reed by calling the Sisterhood at (609) 747-9333.

topic from "http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/112-01132008-1470254.html"