SEATTLE - Microsoft Corp. is pulling back from a system that disables programs on users' computers if it suspects the software is pirated, opting instead for a gentler approach based on nagging alerts.
Microsoft said late Monday it will roll out the new version of Windows Genuine Advantage with the first "service pack" for Windows Vista, due in the first quarter of 2008.
When computer users activate a copy of Windows Vista or try to download certain software from Microsoft's Web site, the Windows Genuine Advantage system scans their PCs for signs of pirated software. Today, if the tool finds an unauthorized copy of Vista, the glassy Vista user experience disappears and other features are suspended.
In the new version, PC users found to have a pirated copy of Vista will continue to be able to use their computers, but with unmistakable signs their operating system is a fake. The desktop wallpaper will turn black, and a white notice will appear alerting users to the problem. Each time they log in, they will be prompted to buy legitimate software, and every hour, a reminder bubble will appear on the screen.
Users with a high tolerance for irritation can put off switching to genuine software indefinitely, but those who relent and buy a real copy of Windows can do so at reduced prices — $119 for Windows Vista Home Premium, half the regular retail price.
"We want to make sure unwitting victims get a great treatment," said Mike Sievert, a corporate vice president in Microsoft's Windows marketing group.
Windows Genuine Advantage collects several pieces of information about a PC during the check, including the serial number on the hard drive and its IP address, but Sievert says none of that can be used to identify individual PC users.
In August, the Windows Genuine Advantage team at Microsoft accidentally updated its servers with computer code that wasn't quite ready for prime time. As a result, Microsoft said "fewer than 12,000" people who tried to validate software over a two-day period couldn't.
Some found legitimate copies of Windows hobbled after the tool labeled them pirated, and an outcry spread across Web forums and technology news sites.
Sievert said the glitch in August was unrelated to the change in how the Windows Genuine Advantage tool will work.
"Microsoft realizes it has to take a different approach with their customers," said Chris Swenson, a software industry analyst for market researcher NPD Group. "If you shut down someone's computer, you're going to anger customers."
Microsoft also said Monday the package of Vista updates will fix two holes in the operating system that have allowed pirates to create counterfeit copies — one that mimics the activation of software by computer makers before a PC is sold, and one that extends a grace period given to people who install new software, before they must activate it.
Sievert said Microsoft plans to offer an update for Windows Genuine Advantage that will run the piracy check regularly without the computer user initiating the process.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Young chimp beats college students
NEW YORK - Think you're smarter than a fifth-grader? How about a 5-year-old chimp? Japanese researchers pitted young chimps against human adults in tests of short-term memory, and overall, the chimps won.That challenges the belief of many people, including many scientists, that "humans are superior to chimpanzees in all cognitive functions," said researcher Tetsuro Matsuzawa of Kyoto University.
"No one can imagine that chimpanzees — young chimpanzees at the age of 5 — have a better performance in a memory task than humans," he said in a statement.
Matsuzawa, a pioneer in studying the mental abilities of chimps, said even he was surprised. He and colleague Sana Inoue report the results in Tuesday's issue of the journal Current Biology.
One memory test included three 5-year-old chimps who'd been taught the order of Arabic numerals 1 through 9, and a dozen human volunteers.
They saw nine numbers displayed on a computer screen. When they touched the first number, the other eight turned into white squares. The test was to touch all these squares in the order of the numbers that used to be there.
Results showed that the chimps, while no more accurate than the people, could do this faster.
One chimp, Ayumu, did the best. Researchers included him and nine college students in a second test.
This time, five numbers flashed on the screen only briefly before they were replaced by white squares. The challenge, again, was to touch these squares in the proper sequence.
When the numbers were displayed for about seven-tenths of a second, Ayumu and the college students were both able to do this correctly about 80 percent of the time.
But when the numbers were displayed for just four-tenths or two-tenths of a second, the chimp was the champ. The briefer of those times is too short to allow a look around the screen, and in those tests Ayumu still scored about 80 percent, while humans plunged to 40 percent.
That indicates Ayumu was better at taking in the whole pattern of numbers at a glance, the researchers wrote.
"It's amazing what this chimpanzee is able to do," said Elizabeth Lonsdorf, director of the Lester E. Fisher Center for the Study and Conservation of Apes at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago. The center studies the mental abilities of apes, but Lonsdorf didn't participate in the new study.
She admired Ayumu's performance when the numbers flashed only briefly on the screen.
"I just watched the video of that and I can tell you right now, there's no way I can do it," she said. "It's unbelievable. I can't even get the first two (squares)."
What's going on here? Even with six months of training, three students failed to catch up to the three young chimps, Matsuzawa said in an e-mail.
He thinks two factors gave his chimps the edge. For one thing, he believes human ancestors gave up much of this skill over evolutionary time to make room in the brain for gaining language abilities.
The other factor is the youth of Ayumu and his peers. The memory for images that's needed for the tests resembles a skill found in children, but which dissipates with age. In fact, the young chimps performed better than older chimps in the new study. (Ayumu's mom did even worse than the college students).
So the next logical step, Lonsdorf said, is to fix up Ayumu with some real competition on these tests: little kids.
Creative Consumer: Beware of Those Holiday 'Sales'
By ELISABETH LEAMY ABC NEWS Consumer Correspondent
Dec. 3, 2007
The frenetic holiday shopping season is here. Personally, I haven't even dipped my toe in yet. But when I do, I know I'll see all sorts of misleading sales advertised.
Here's the bottom line, sacrilegious as it may sound to the shop-till-you-drop set: Not every sale is a bargain and not every bargain is on sale.
Say you buy a gallon of milk every week for $2.50. Then one day you walk into the supermarket and see a huge sign: "Today Only! Milk Just $2.50!" You would know that's ridiculous because that's what you always pay for milk.
But what about things you don't buy so often -- like refrigerators, stereos and winter coats? How will you know if the big sale claims are for real? To be a truly savvy consumer, you need to be a good comparison shopper. If it's any consolation, to be a good comparison shopper, you need to be a truly frequent shopper.
Retailers play games to get our greedy little hearts going. What do you think those "compare at" price tags are all about? You know, the ones where the store states its price right underneath the "compare at" price, which is supposedly what some other retailer charges. I know of a popular clothing store that marks its classic lines "50% off" one month, then "buy one, get one free" the next month -- and continues this cycle year round.
The New York attorney general cracked down on a store that claimed to be offering huge savings off the regular price. The attorney general's office ruled that since the store always offered the products at the sale price, that was the true price and the items weren't discounted at all.
Some retailers will actually mark merchandise up just so they can mark it down. That way, you think you're getting a great deal, but the store is charging the amount it always wanted in the first place. This practice is actually illegal in some jurisdictions, but it's hard to prove because consumer watchdogs can't monitor stores every day all year round.
Shop Smart Magazine, a publication of Consumer Reports, found major department stores claiming to offer more than 50 percent off on items like knives, toaster ovens, irons and dishes. But when the magazine checked the actual manufacturer's suggested retail prices for the items, the savings were much more modest.
Stores that offer a "low-price guarantee" in which they promise to beat their competitors' prices can be crafty too. Often these stores deliberately invent their own names and model numbers for their merchandise so it's difficult for you to shop and compare.
"Buy one, get the second at 50% off." Don't fall into this trap. If the extra item is something you really want, then great. But if you won't use it then don't pay the extra money. Same goes for jumbo-size products that you buy in bulk. If the medicine will expire or the food will spoil before you can use it, it's not worth paying the extra money to "supersize" it.
Do Your Homework
Let's revise the old rhyme. It should be "comparison shop till you drop."
If you have big-ticket purchases planned, check prices online before heading to the store, so you'll know when you spot a bargain.
Latest Battle in the Stars vs. Paparazzi War
The latest battle in the war between celebrities and paparazzi pits "America's sweetheart" Julia Roberts against a photographer she spotted videotaping kids near a Malibu, Calif., school attended by her 2-year-old twins.
Roberts chased the photographer and pulled him over. Then she insisted the photographer turn off the camera and gave him a piece of her mind, witnesses said.
"I am going to talk to you about the fact that you are at a school where children go," Roberts said sternly.
The shocking confrontation was the buzz of the entertainment shows. Roberts told "Access Hollywood" enough is enough.
"I just told him a school is not a place for a grown man to be crawling around trying to take pictures," the 40-year-old actress said. "I think there needs to be some kind of line. I don't think the magazines and the newspapers should show celebrities' children."
Roberts is not alone. Many celebrity parents have complained about paparazzi stalking their children.
"I get annoyed when my kids, you know, it's really hard to tell a 4-year-old why he's being, you know, a guy with a camera is running after him at the park," said actress Catherine Zeta-Jones.
Everyone Is Fair Game
Dealing with the paparazzi has always been a necessary evil for celebrity parents. Many remember an angry Princess Diana confronting an intrusive cameraman during a ski vacation with her young sons.
"As a parent I want to protect my children because I brought the children out here for a holiday and would really appreciate the space. We have had 15 cameras following us today," she was heard saying.
But in today's market the competition for pictures of famous children is even more intense, the gloves are off and kids are considered fair game.
"These stalkarazzis are trying to create incidents with kids to get a reaction from the famous parents or from the kids themselves," said publicist Ken Sunshine.
Under First Amendment protections, the photographers are usually on the right side of the law."What we find is as long as there is a market for these pictures, paparazzi are going to continue to do it," privacy expert Rick Avery said.
It's not just stars with children who have had it. George Clooney recently confronted a paparazzo when he was riding a motorcycle with girlfriend Sara Larson.
"How many people did you put in danger? Stop ignoring me," Clooney yelled at a photographer.
But will the celebrities ever win the war against paparazzi? Sunshine said that day might be coming soon.
"I think people at the highest level can't take it anymore and won't take it anymore," Sunshine said.
Roberts chased the photographer and pulled him over. Then she insisted the photographer turn off the camera and gave him a piece of her mind, witnesses said.
"I am going to talk to you about the fact that you are at a school where children go," Roberts said sternly.
The shocking confrontation was the buzz of the entertainment shows. Roberts told "Access Hollywood" enough is enough.
"I just told him a school is not a place for a grown man to be crawling around trying to take pictures," the 40-year-old actress said. "I think there needs to be some kind of line. I don't think the magazines and the newspapers should show celebrities' children."
Roberts is not alone. Many celebrity parents have complained about paparazzi stalking their children.
"I get annoyed when my kids, you know, it's really hard to tell a 4-year-old why he's being, you know, a guy with a camera is running after him at the park," said actress Catherine Zeta-Jones.
Everyone Is Fair Game
Dealing with the paparazzi has always been a necessary evil for celebrity parents. Many remember an angry Princess Diana confronting an intrusive cameraman during a ski vacation with her young sons.
"As a parent I want to protect my children because I brought the children out here for a holiday and would really appreciate the space. We have had 15 cameras following us today," she was heard saying.
But in today's market the competition for pictures of famous children is even more intense, the gloves are off and kids are considered fair game.
"These stalkarazzis are trying to create incidents with kids to get a reaction from the famous parents or from the kids themselves," said publicist Ken Sunshine.
Under First Amendment protections, the photographers are usually on the right side of the law."What we find is as long as there is a market for these pictures, paparazzi are going to continue to do it," privacy expert Rick Avery said.
It's not just stars with children who have had it. George Clooney recently confronted a paparazzo when he was riding a motorcycle with girlfriend Sara Larson.
"How many people did you put in danger? Stop ignoring me," Clooney yelled at a photographer.
But will the celebrities ever win the war against paparazzi? Sunshine said that day might be coming soon.
"I think people at the highest level can't take it anymore and won't take it anymore," Sunshine said.
abcnews.com
Who wants to marry a US citizen?
By RUSSELL GOLDMAN
Dec. 4, 2007
A California-based production company says it's looking for a network to air a new dating show that promises to set up American singles with immigrants looking to fall in love and maybe score a Green Card too.
In the midst of a national debate on immigration, "Who Wants to Marry a U.S. Citizen," could be seen as a mirror of national sentiment, a critique of the Byzantine bureaucracy foreigners must negotiate to become citizens or as its producer claims, just as fun.
In the tradition of "The Dating Game," which ran in the 1960s and 1970s, three legal immigrants looking to meet a citizen are quizzed by an American national, before they are chosen for a date.
"The show is basically a dating show with a twist," said Executive Producer Eddie Rivera.
The show's producers have filmed one bare-bones episode, which has been posted on the Internet and aired on a local cable station in Los Angeles.
"One will get to stay in the country; two others will possibly be deported," goes the tagline on an Internet promotion.
Rivera said that "Who Wants to Marry a U.S. Citizen" makes no promises of legal U.S. citizenship, and is only an opportunity to meet someone for a date.
"I think people will be surprised to see how the show really works. No one will get a free pass; we're not giving away the chance to be a citizen."
The show is being produced by Morusa Media, a company with no Web site. ABC News could find no evidence of its registration in California. In different reports the creator of the program has been called both Adrian Martinez and Adrian Rodriguez.
Rivera insisted the program was not a hoax and that the show's producers were in touch with several interested networks, though he would not name them. He said Morusa was an established company that was also behind an Internet radio site that plays music for pets called dogcatradio.com.
Falling in love and getting married, no matter how a couple meets, are the first -- and perhaps most enjoyable steps -- in a long succession of hurdles toward applying for U.S. citizenship.
Meeting someone through a game show is not an automatic disqualifier for citizenship, but it would raise flags with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said Shawn Saucier, a spokesman for the department's Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services.
"If the game show is specifically to meet a U.S. citizen, it could call into question the legitimacy of a marriage. That's not to say that the marriage isn't necessarily legit; we'd just have to look at the case closely," Saucier said.
To become a citizen through marriage, both the national and foreigner have to provide documentary proof that they have been married. They are then interviewed to determine whether the marriage is legitimate or simply a ruse to gain citizenship.
Cathy, 29, a student and part-time bartender who declined to give her last name, said it took a year and half from the time she married her German journalist husband to the time she had her first interview with Homeland Security.
"We spent four hours at Homeland Security for a 15-minute interview, and when it was over he still hadn't been granted a Green Card. … We showed them pictures from our wedding, and they asked us each who everybody was. … We also brought photos from our honeymoon. … It was clear we had spent a lot of money on the wedding, and that we were legit."
In a sort of game show twist of its own, some couples when interviewed by Homeland Security are separated and asked personal questions about each other and then brought together again to compare their responses.
"We ask them questions that a reasonable person would know about their spouse. It is not the sort of deal where if you don't know what hair products your wife uses, you don't get in. … We're living in 2007, and people have a lot of different lifestyles; one spouse might maintain a residence on the East Coast and the other on the West Coast," Saucier said.
Last year, 339,843 people became legal permanent residents and received their Green Cards (a document that gives non-U.S. citizens permanent residence and the right to work) through marriage.
"The penalty for entering a fraudulent marriage for the purposes of gaining citizenship is five years and $250,000 fine," he said.
Two years after a couple has been approved, they must be evaluated again by the government. Even if a couple has divorced, if they can prove they tried to make things work as any other couple would, the foreign spouse is still eligible for citizenship, Saucier said.
Though the pilot episode of "Who Wants to Marry a U.S. Citizen" included only Latin contestants, the show's producers say casting will be open to all legal aliens.
"We've received a flood of e-mails. … The show isn't just about Hispanic immigrants, contestants can be Chinese, Bolivian, German," the executive producer Rivera said.
Some immigrant rights groups are already calling into question the motives behind the show.
"The existence of the show speaks to the problems with immigration legislation, and why people sometimes enter sham marriages to gain citizenship," said Arnoldo García, director of the immigrant justice program at the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.
Dec. 4, 2007
A California-based production company says it's looking for a network to air a new dating show that promises to set up American singles with immigrants looking to fall in love and maybe score a Green Card too.
In the midst of a national debate on immigration, "Who Wants to Marry a U.S. Citizen," could be seen as a mirror of national sentiment, a critique of the Byzantine bureaucracy foreigners must negotiate to become citizens or as its producer claims, just as fun.
In the tradition of "The Dating Game," which ran in the 1960s and 1970s, three legal immigrants looking to meet a citizen are quizzed by an American national, before they are chosen for a date.
"The show is basically a dating show with a twist," said Executive Producer Eddie Rivera.
The show's producers have filmed one bare-bones episode, which has been posted on the Internet and aired on a local cable station in Los Angeles.
"One will get to stay in the country; two others will possibly be deported," goes the tagline on an Internet promotion.
Rivera said that "Who Wants to Marry a U.S. Citizen" makes no promises of legal U.S. citizenship, and is only an opportunity to meet someone for a date.
"I think people will be surprised to see how the show really works. No one will get a free pass; we're not giving away the chance to be a citizen."
The show is being produced by Morusa Media, a company with no Web site. ABC News could find no evidence of its registration in California. In different reports the creator of the program has been called both Adrian Martinez and Adrian Rodriguez.
Rivera insisted the program was not a hoax and that the show's producers were in touch with several interested networks, though he would not name them. He said Morusa was an established company that was also behind an Internet radio site that plays music for pets called dogcatradio.com.
Falling in love and getting married, no matter how a couple meets, are the first -- and perhaps most enjoyable steps -- in a long succession of hurdles toward applying for U.S. citizenship.
Meeting someone through a game show is not an automatic disqualifier for citizenship, but it would raise flags with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said Shawn Saucier, a spokesman for the department's Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services.
"If the game show is specifically to meet a U.S. citizen, it could call into question the legitimacy of a marriage. That's not to say that the marriage isn't necessarily legit; we'd just have to look at the case closely," Saucier said.
To become a citizen through marriage, both the national and foreigner have to provide documentary proof that they have been married. They are then interviewed to determine whether the marriage is legitimate or simply a ruse to gain citizenship.
Cathy, 29, a student and part-time bartender who declined to give her last name, said it took a year and half from the time she married her German journalist husband to the time she had her first interview with Homeland Security.
"We spent four hours at Homeland Security for a 15-minute interview, and when it was over he still hadn't been granted a Green Card. … We showed them pictures from our wedding, and they asked us each who everybody was. … We also brought photos from our honeymoon. … It was clear we had spent a lot of money on the wedding, and that we were legit."
In a sort of game show twist of its own, some couples when interviewed by Homeland Security are separated and asked personal questions about each other and then brought together again to compare their responses.
"We ask them questions that a reasonable person would know about their spouse. It is not the sort of deal where if you don't know what hair products your wife uses, you don't get in. … We're living in 2007, and people have a lot of different lifestyles; one spouse might maintain a residence on the East Coast and the other on the West Coast," Saucier said.
Last year, 339,843 people became legal permanent residents and received their Green Cards (a document that gives non-U.S. citizens permanent residence and the right to work) through marriage.
"The penalty for entering a fraudulent marriage for the purposes of gaining citizenship is five years and $250,000 fine," he said.
Two years after a couple has been approved, they must be evaluated again by the government. Even if a couple has divorced, if they can prove they tried to make things work as any other couple would, the foreign spouse is still eligible for citizenship, Saucier said.
Though the pilot episode of "Who Wants to Marry a U.S. Citizen" included only Latin contestants, the show's producers say casting will be open to all legal aliens.
"We've received a flood of e-mails. … The show isn't just about Hispanic immigrants, contestants can be Chinese, Bolivian, German," the executive producer Rivera said.
Some immigrant rights groups are already calling into question the motives behind the show.
"The existence of the show speaks to the problems with immigration legislation, and why people sometimes enter sham marriages to gain citizenship," said Arnoldo García, director of the immigrant justice program at the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.
Hmmmm. Something's different about you
STOYSTOWN, Pa. - Police said a Somerset County man fled a traffic stop, went home, shaved his mustache and changed his clothes, and reported the truck he was driving as stolen.
Conemaugh Township police said they stopped Robert Sadlon, 50, for a broken taillight on Thanksgiving night and he ran off. Later, the same officer went to Sadlon's home near Stoystown to investigate the reported theft. There, he found a just-shaven Sadlon in different clothes.
Sadlon is charged with drunken driving, escape and related charges.
Conemaugh Township police said they stopped Robert Sadlon, 50, for a broken taillight on Thanksgiving night and he ran off. Later, the same officer went to Sadlon's home near Stoystown to investigate the reported theft. There, he found a just-shaven Sadlon in different clothes.
Sadlon is charged with drunken driving, escape and related charges.
Mafia boss arrested while watching Mafia TV show
PALERMO, Italy (Reuters) - Italian police burst into the room of a suspected Mafia mobster in Sicily and arrested him as he watched a television show about the arrest of a Mafia boss, investigators said Friday.Police said Michele Catalano was watching the concluding chapter late Thursday of the TV mini-series "The Boss of Bosses," recounting the arrest in 1993 of real-life Cosa Nostra leader Salvatore "Toto" Riina, when he was detained.
They Catalano, 48, was suspected of being a senior commander serving under the latest "boss of bosses" Salvatore Lo Piccolo, who was arrested this month after nearly 25 years on the run.
Catalano faces charges of drug trafficking and extortion.
Lo Piccolo had taken over the reins of the Sicilian crime syndicate from Riina's successor Bernardo Provenzano, who was arrested last year after 40 years on the run. The arrests have seriously weakened the Mafia, police say.
Politicians and cultural figures criticized Channel 5's mini-series for portraying Riina as a hero and lobbied its owner Mediaset, belonging to former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, to take the final episode off the air. Mediaset declined.
Nicknamed "the Beast" for his brutality, Riina has been convicted on more than 100 counts of murder.
Santa Claus is coming to town -- for 34 microseconds
STOCKHOLM (AFP) - Christmas is hectic for all but particularly for Santa, who must live in Kyrgyzstan and make his rounds at lightning speed if he is to deliver gifts to all the world's children on time, a Swedish consultancy has concluded.Between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, Santa Claus's route around the planet includes stops at 2.5 billion homes, assuming that children of all religions receive a present from the jolly man in the red suit, Anders Larsson of the engineering consultancy Sweco told AFP.
"We estimated that there are 48 people per square kilometer (120 per square mile) on Earth, and 20 metres (66 feet) between each home. So if Santa leaves from Kyrgyzstan and travels against the Earth's rotation he has 48 hours to deliver all the presents," he said.
Father Christmas has long been believed to reside at the North Pole, although a number of northern towns, including Finnish Rovaniemi, claim to be his true home.
But Sweco's report on Santa's most efficient route -- which takes into account factors like geographic density and the fewest detours -- shows that he wouldn't be able to make his round-the-world trip from there in time.
"He has 34 microseconds at each stop" to slide down the chimney, drop off the presents, nibble on his cookies and milk and hop back on his sleigh, Larsson said.
Santa's reindeer must travel at a speed of 5,800 kilometers (3,604 miles) per second to make the trip on time.
Another report circulating on the Internet suggested however that Santa's sleigh, weighed down with presents and travelling at supersonic speed, would encounter such massive air resistance that the entire contraption would burst into flames and be vaporised within 4.26 thousandths of a second.
Miss China on top of the world
SANYA, China (AFP) - Pre-contest favourite Miss China won the Miss World 2007 title in her own country late Saturday, much to the delight of the audience, in front of an estimated two billion viewers around the globe.Twenty-three-year-old Zhang Zilin was crowned the winner in Sanya, China. Miss Angola came second and Miss Mexico third at the beauty pageant, held on the southern holiday island of Hainan, dubbed China's answer to Hawaii.
Viewers in 200 countries were expected to tune in to watch the show, which saw Miss China take the crown ahead of 105 of the world's most beautiful and talented women.
The audience in the 2,000-capacity Beauty Crown Theatre, specially built for when Sanya first hosted the event in 2003, roared in delight as Zhang was crowned the winner at the end of the two-hour-long contest, which was conducted mainly in English.
The secretary from Beijing was the pre-contest favourite with British bookmakers, along with Miss Dominican Republic.
At 182 centimetres (six feet), Zhang was also the tallest contestant.
"There are 1.3 billion people behind me," she said during the interview stage of the contest, referring to China's population.
"If I win I want to become a link between the Olympic Games (in Beijing next year) and the Miss World Organisation."
"I want to use the power and beauty of Miss World to support those in need," she said, speaking throughout in hesitant English, adding a few words in Chinese.
Zhang earlier told the contest her favourite pasttimes were the 100-metre hurdles and the high jump.
Fireworks exploded above the crown-shaped theatre, where visitors had paid up to 300 dollars for tickets, after the popular decision was made.
Miss Mexico had also been strongly fancied, while Miss Angola was an outsider.
"I want to tell you that I am a strong woman and also a dreamer girl and I don't accept failures in my life," Carolina Moran Gordillo, Miss Mexico, said earlier in the contest.
"This is my dream and I worked very very hard to get here," the 19-year-old student added.
Portuguese-born Miss Angola, Micaela Reis, 18, said she wanted to win the coveted crown so she could spread awareness about AIDS/HIV.
Contestants were rated on an array of disciplines including physical fitness, style, dress, personality and beauty.
The 106 were whittled down to 16, then five, with hotly tipped Miss Dominican Republic not making the final five despite strong support from the mainly Chinese crowd.
The 57th edition of the contest was being held on World AIDS Day as organisers wanted the annual showcase of gloss and glitz, seen by critics as a sexist throwback, to help increase awareness of the fight against HIV/AIDS.
To underline their commitment to AIDS awareness, organisers invited former South African president Nelson Mandela's eldest daughter Maki to serve on the panel of nine judges.
The Noble laureate's son Makgatho died of an AIDS-related illness in 2005, and the family has since been active in the global fight against HIV/AIDS.
As well as being held on World AIDS Day, Miss World 2007 came a week after Chinese state media reported hotels in Beijing have been ordered to stock condoms in every room in response to a spike in new HIV infections in the capital.
British teacher arrives home from Sudan
LONDON - A British teacher jailed in Sudan for letting her students name a teddy bear Muhammad as part of a writing project arrived home Tuesday after being pardoned and said she was "very upset to think that I might have caused offense to people."
Gillian Gibbons told reporters after arriving at London's Heathrow Airport that she was looking forward to seeing her family and friends.
"I'm just an ordinary middle-aged primary school teacher. I went out there to have an adventure, and got a bit more than I bargained for," Gibbons said at a brief news conference.
"I don't think anyone could have imagined it would snowball like this," she added.
Gibbons, 54, jailed for more than a week, was freed after two Muslim members of Britain's House of Lords met with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and the teacher sent the president a statement saying she didn't mean to offend anyone with her class project.
"It has been an ordeal but I'd like want you to know that I was well-treated in prison and everybody was very kind to me," she said. "I was very sorry to leave Sudan. I had a fabulous time there. It's a really lovely place, and I managed to see some of the beautiful countryside while I was there."
Gibbons said she didn't want her experience "to put anyone off going to Sudan — in fact I know of a lovely school that needs a new Year Two teacher."
The incident was the latest in a tense relationship between the West and Sudan's president, an Islamic hard-liner who has been accused by the United Nations of dragging his feet on the deployment of peacekeepers to the country's war-torn Darfur region.
Al-Bashir insisted Gibbons had a fair trial, in which she was convicted of insulting Islam's Prophet Muhammad, but the president agreed to pardon her during the meeting with the British delegation, said Ghazi Saladdin, a senior presidential adviser.
Gibbons left Sudan Monday night, flying via Dubai to London.
"I'd like to thank the government for all they have done, the hard work behind the scenes, especially the two peers who went out there," said her 25-year-old son, John. "Everyone's been really great."
When asked her feelings about the offense she was accused of, Gibbons said: "I don't think I really know enough about it to comment really. It's a very difficult area and a very delicate area."
"I was very upset to think that I might have caused offense to people," she added.
Gibbons said she learned of the intense media coverage of the story on her second day in prison.
Asked if she was terrified of prison, she said: "That's an understatement."
"I was treated the same as any other Sudanese prisoner in that you were given the bare minimum," she said. "Then I was moved to another prison and there the Ministry of the Interior sent me a bed which is possibly the best present I've ever had."
What Britain and Gibbons' supporters said was a misunderstanding over the teddy bear escalated into a diplomatic flap between London and Khartoum — and the show of outrage in Sudan that puzzled many in the West.
Hard-line Muslim clerics in Sudan denounced Gibbons, saying she intentionally aimed to insult Islam. A day after her Thursday trial, several thousand Sudanese massed in central Khartoum to demand that Gibbons be executed. Many of the demonstrators carried swords and clubs.
But it was never clear how deep anger over the incident really flowed among Sudanese, although the affair was influenced by the ideology that al-Bashir's Islamic regime has long instilled — a mix of anti-colonialism, religious fundamentalism and a sense that the West is besieging Islam.
"Common sense has prevailed," British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in a statement expressing delight over Gibbons' release.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband praised Gibbons, saying that "she's shown very good British grit in very difficult circumstances."
Gibbons, who was arrested Nov. 25, was sentenced to 15 days in prison and deportation under Sudan's Islamic Sharia law for having the teddy bear project for her class of 7-year-olds at the private Unity High School. She could have been punished with up to 40 lashes, six months in prison and a fine.
In the project, she had a student bring in a teddy bear, then asked her pupils to vote on a name for it. They chose Muhammad, a common name among Muslim men. The students took the bear home individually to write diary entries on it, which were then compiled into a book with the bear's picture on it and the title "My Name is Muhammad," school officials said.
Gibbons' defenders said the project was a common one in British schools.
The trial was sparked when a school secretary complained to the Education Ministry that Gibbons aimed to insult Islam's prophet.
The private English-language school, with elementary to high school levels, was founded by Christian groups, but 90 percent of its students are Muslim, mostly from upper-class Sudanese families.
Lord Nazir Ahmed, part of the British delegation that met with al-Bashir, said the case was an "unfortunate misunderstanding" and stressed that Britain respected Islam. He added that he hoped "the relations between our two countries will not be damaged by this incident."
Many Muslim groups in the West had sharply criticized Gibbons' arrest. On Monday, Inayat Bunglawala, a spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain, welcomed her pardon.
"Gillian should never have been arrested in the first place, let alone held in jail. She had done nothing wrong," he said. "It will be wonderful to see her back in the U.K. I am sure she will be welcomed by both Muslims and non-Muslims after her quite terrible ordeal at the hands of the Sudanese authorities."
Muslim scholars generally agree that intent is a key factor in determining if someone has violated Islamic rules against insulting the prophet.
But hard-liners in Sudan touted the incident as part of a Western plot to undermine Islam, echoing accusations from controversy raised early in the year by the publication of cartoon caricatures of the prophet in European newspapers.
Al-Bashir's opponents in Sudan have said his government likely let the Gibbons case move forward to stir up anti-Western anger at a time when he is resisting allowing Western peacekeepers in the Darfur peacekeeping force. He has said he will bar any Scandinavians from the force since newspapers in their countries ran the prophet cartoons.
___
Associated Press Writer Alfred de Montesquiou in Khartoum, Sudan contributed to this report.
Gillian Gibbons told reporters after arriving at London's Heathrow Airport that she was looking forward to seeing her family and friends.
"I'm just an ordinary middle-aged primary school teacher. I went out there to have an adventure, and got a bit more than I bargained for," Gibbons said at a brief news conference.
"I don't think anyone could have imagined it would snowball like this," she added.
Gibbons, 54, jailed for more than a week, was freed after two Muslim members of Britain's House of Lords met with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and the teacher sent the president a statement saying she didn't mean to offend anyone with her class project.
"It has been an ordeal but I'd like want you to know that I was well-treated in prison and everybody was very kind to me," she said. "I was very sorry to leave Sudan. I had a fabulous time there. It's a really lovely place, and I managed to see some of the beautiful countryside while I was there."
Gibbons said she didn't want her experience "to put anyone off going to Sudan — in fact I know of a lovely school that needs a new Year Two teacher."
The incident was the latest in a tense relationship between the West and Sudan's president, an Islamic hard-liner who has been accused by the United Nations of dragging his feet on the deployment of peacekeepers to the country's war-torn Darfur region.
Al-Bashir insisted Gibbons had a fair trial, in which she was convicted of insulting Islam's Prophet Muhammad, but the president agreed to pardon her during the meeting with the British delegation, said Ghazi Saladdin, a senior presidential adviser.
Gibbons left Sudan Monday night, flying via Dubai to London.
"I'd like to thank the government for all they have done, the hard work behind the scenes, especially the two peers who went out there," said her 25-year-old son, John. "Everyone's been really great."
When asked her feelings about the offense she was accused of, Gibbons said: "I don't think I really know enough about it to comment really. It's a very difficult area and a very delicate area."
"I was very upset to think that I might have caused offense to people," she added.
Gibbons said she learned of the intense media coverage of the story on her second day in prison.
Asked if she was terrified of prison, she said: "That's an understatement."
"I was treated the same as any other Sudanese prisoner in that you were given the bare minimum," she said. "Then I was moved to another prison and there the Ministry of the Interior sent me a bed which is possibly the best present I've ever had."
What Britain and Gibbons' supporters said was a misunderstanding over the teddy bear escalated into a diplomatic flap between London and Khartoum — and the show of outrage in Sudan that puzzled many in the West.
Hard-line Muslim clerics in Sudan denounced Gibbons, saying she intentionally aimed to insult Islam. A day after her Thursday trial, several thousand Sudanese massed in central Khartoum to demand that Gibbons be executed. Many of the demonstrators carried swords and clubs.
But it was never clear how deep anger over the incident really flowed among Sudanese, although the affair was influenced by the ideology that al-Bashir's Islamic regime has long instilled — a mix of anti-colonialism, religious fundamentalism and a sense that the West is besieging Islam.
"Common sense has prevailed," British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in a statement expressing delight over Gibbons' release.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband praised Gibbons, saying that "she's shown very good British grit in very difficult circumstances."
Gibbons, who was arrested Nov. 25, was sentenced to 15 days in prison and deportation under Sudan's Islamic Sharia law for having the teddy bear project for her class of 7-year-olds at the private Unity High School. She could have been punished with up to 40 lashes, six months in prison and a fine.
In the project, she had a student bring in a teddy bear, then asked her pupils to vote on a name for it. They chose Muhammad, a common name among Muslim men. The students took the bear home individually to write diary entries on it, which were then compiled into a book with the bear's picture on it and the title "My Name is Muhammad," school officials said.
Gibbons' defenders said the project was a common one in British schools.
The trial was sparked when a school secretary complained to the Education Ministry that Gibbons aimed to insult Islam's prophet.
The private English-language school, with elementary to high school levels, was founded by Christian groups, but 90 percent of its students are Muslim, mostly from upper-class Sudanese families.
Lord Nazir Ahmed, part of the British delegation that met with al-Bashir, said the case was an "unfortunate misunderstanding" and stressed that Britain respected Islam. He added that he hoped "the relations between our two countries will not be damaged by this incident."
Many Muslim groups in the West had sharply criticized Gibbons' arrest. On Monday, Inayat Bunglawala, a spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain, welcomed her pardon.
"Gillian should never have been arrested in the first place, let alone held in jail. She had done nothing wrong," he said. "It will be wonderful to see her back in the U.K. I am sure she will be welcomed by both Muslims and non-Muslims after her quite terrible ordeal at the hands of the Sudanese authorities."
Muslim scholars generally agree that intent is a key factor in determining if someone has violated Islamic rules against insulting the prophet.
But hard-liners in Sudan touted the incident as part of a Western plot to undermine Islam, echoing accusations from controversy raised early in the year by the publication of cartoon caricatures of the prophet in European newspapers.
Al-Bashir's opponents in Sudan have said his government likely let the Gibbons case move forward to stir up anti-Western anger at a time when he is resisting allowing Western peacekeepers in the Darfur peacekeeping force. He has said he will bar any Scandinavians from the force since newspapers in their countries ran the prophet cartoons.
___
Associated Press Writer Alfred de Montesquiou in Khartoum, Sudan contributed to this report.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Mother Teresa Biography
Born: August 27, 1910Died: September 5, 1997
Achievements: Started Missionaries of Charity in 1950; received Nobel Prize for Peace in 1979; received Bharat Ratna in 1980.
Mother Teresa was one of the great servants of humanity.
She was an Albanian Catholic nun who came to India and founded the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata. Her selfless work among the poverty-stricken people of Kolkata (Calcutta) is an inspiration for people all over the world and she was honored with Nobel Prize for her work. Mother Teresa's original name was Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu.
She was born on August 27, 1910 in Skopje, Macedonia. Her father was a successful merchant and she was youngest of the three siblings. At the age of 12, she decided that she wanted to be a missionary and spread the love of Christ. At the age of 18 she left her parental home in Skopje and joined the Sisters of Loreto, an Irish community of nuns with missions in India. After a few months of training at the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Dublin Mother
Teresa came to India. On May 24, 1931, she took her initial vows as a nun. From 1931 to 1948, Mother Teresa taught geography and catechism at St. Mary's High School in Calcutta. However, the prevailing poverty in Calcutta had a deep impact on Mother Teresa's mind and in 1948, she received permission from her superiors to leave the convent school and devote herself to working among the poorest of the poor in the slums of Calcutta.After a short course with the Medical Mission Sisters in Patna, she returned to Calcutta and found temporary lodging with the Little Sisters of the Poor. She started an open-air school for homeless children. Soon she was joined by voluntary helpers, and she received financial support from church organizations and the municipal authorities. On October 7, 1950, Mother Teresa received permission from the Vatican to start her own order. Vatican originally labeled the order as the Diocesan Congregation of the Calcutta Diocese, and it later came to known as the "Missionaries of Charity".
The primary task of the Missionaries of Charity was to take care of those persons who nobody was prepared to look after.The Missionaries of Charity, which began as a small Order with 12 members in Calcutta, today has more than 4,000 nuns running orphanages, AIDS hospices, charity centres worldwide, and caring for refugees, the blind, disabled, aged, alcoholics, the poor and homeless and victims of floods, epidemics and famine in Asia, Africa, Latin America, North America, Poland, and Australia. In 1965, by granting a Decree of Praise, Pope Paul VI granted Mother Teresa permission to expand her order to other countries. The order's first house outside India was in Venezuela. Presently, the "Missionaries of Charity" has presence in more than 100 countries.Mother Teresa's work has been recognised and acclaimed throughout the world and she has received a number of awards and distinctions. These include the Pope John XXIII Peace Prize (1971), Nehru Prize for Promotion of International Peace & Understanding (1972), Balzan Prize (1978), Nobel Peace Prize (1979) and Bharat Ratna (1980).On March 13, 1997, Mother Teresa stepped down from the head of Missionaries of Charity and died on September 5, 1997, just 9 days after her 87th birthday.
Following Mother Teresa's death, the Holy See began the process of beatification, the second step towards possible canonization, or sainthood.
This process requires the documentation of a miracle performed from the intercession of Mother Teresa. In 2002, the Vatican recognized as a miracle the healing of a tumor in the abdomen of an Indian woman, Monica Besra, following the application of a locket containing Teresa's picture. Monica Besra said that a beam of light emanated from the picture, curing the cancerous tumor. Mother Teresa was formally beatified by Pope John Paul II on October 19, 2003 with the title Blessed Teresa of Calcutta. A second miracle is required for her to proceed to canonization.
Mahatma Gandhi Quote
Here are some famous quotes by Mahatma Gandhi. These quotes reveal his thinking and are a guiding light and source of inspiration to others.- I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man [woman] whom you may have seen, and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him [her]. Will he [she] gain anything by it? Will it restore him [her] to a control over his [her] own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to swaraj [freedom] for the hungry and spiritually starving millions? Then you will find your doubts and your self melt away.
- Abstinence is forgiveness only when there is power to punish; it is meaningless when it pretends to proceed from a helpless creature.
Action for one's own self binds, action for the sake of others delivers from bondage. - What is faith worth if it is not translated into action?
You assist an administration most effectively by obeying its orders and decrees. An evil administration never deserves such allegiance.
Ahimsa is the highest ideal. It is meant for the brave, never for the cowardly. - Ahimsa is the eradication of the desire to injure or to kill.
- Ahimsa is an attribute of the brave. Cowardice and ahimsa don't go together any more that water and fire.
True ahimsa should mean a complete freedom from ill-will and anger and hate and an overflowing love for all. - The removal of untouchability is one of the highest expressions of ahimsa.
- The strength to kill is not essential for self-defence; one ought to have the strength to die.
- Khadi has been conceived as the foundation and the image of ahimsa. A real khadi-wearer will not utter an untruth. A real khadi-wearer will harbour no violence, no deceit, no impurity.
- No power on earth can subjugate you when you are armed with the sword of ahimsa. It ennobles both the victor and the vanquished.
- The votary of ahimsa has only one fear, that is, of God.
- The hardest heart and the grossest ignorance must disappear before the rising sun of suffering without anger and without malice.
The power of unarmed nonviolence is any day far superior to that of armed force. - I know nothing of the science of astrology and I consider it to be a science, if it is a science, of doubtful value, to be severely left alone by those who have any faith in Providence.
- God is conscience. He is even the atheism of the atheist.
Facts About Mahatma Gandhi
Here is a brief summary of some of the major facts associated with Mahatma Gandhi. These facts highlight some of the major achievements of Mohandas Gandhi and provide valuable information on Mahatama Gandhi.
Birth: October 2, 1869
Death: January 30, 1948
Place of Birth: Porbandar, Gujarat
Father: Karamchand Gandhi
Mother: Putlibai
Wife: Katurbai
1888-1891: Studied law in London
1893: Sailed for South Africa
1906: Began Satyagraha campaign in South Africa to protest the requirement that Indians be fingerprinted and carry identification cards
1915: Returned to India from South Africa
1917: Initiated Champaran Satyagraha to alleviate the condition of indigo planters
1919: Instituted Satyagraha campaign in India to protest the Rowlatt Acts, which deprived all Indians of important civil liberties.
1922: Ended Non-Cooperation movement against British Raj after his followers were involved in a series of riots and disturbances that violated his policy of nonviolence
1930: Led Dandi March to collect salt in protest of the British salt tax.
1931: Signed a pact with Lord Irwin to suspend the Civil Disobedience Movement and went to London to attend Round Table Conference.
1932: Fasted to protest the treatment of people who belonged to no Hindu caste, the Harijans or Untouchables
1942: Launched Quit India Movement against British Raj.
January 30, 1948: Assassinated by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu extremist.
Birth: October 2, 1869
Death: January 30, 1948
Place of Birth: Porbandar, Gujarat
Father: Karamchand Gandhi
Mother: Putlibai
Wife: Katurbai
1888-1891: Studied law in London
1893: Sailed for South Africa
1906: Began Satyagraha campaign in South Africa to protest the requirement that Indians be fingerprinted and carry identification cards
1915: Returned to India from South Africa
1917: Initiated Champaran Satyagraha to alleviate the condition of indigo planters
1919: Instituted Satyagraha campaign in India to protest the Rowlatt Acts, which deprived all Indians of important civil liberties.
1922: Ended Non-Cooperation movement against British Raj after his followers were involved in a series of riots and disturbances that violated his policy of nonviolence
1930: Led Dandi March to collect salt in protest of the British salt tax.
1931: Signed a pact with Lord Irwin to suspend the Civil Disobedience Movement and went to London to attend Round Table Conference.
1932: Fasted to protest the treatment of people who belonged to no Hindu caste, the Harijans or Untouchables
1942: Launched Quit India Movement against British Raj.
January 30, 1948: Assassinated by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu extremist.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Success for 1st Russian rocket since crash
A Russian rocket carrying a European SIRIUS 4 satellite has successfully launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. It's the first launch of a Proton-M spacecraft since a carrier of this type crashed during take-off on September 6.
The SIRIUS 4 satellite is designed to provide telecommunication services for European and North African consumers.Satellites operated by the same provider are used to broadcast our very own Russia Today to viewers in Northern Europe and the Baltic States.
New map brings Antarctic to life
Researchers hope to closely track climate change in the Antarctic after the world's most detailed map of the continent was developed. It offers the most geographically accurate view of the world's southern-most and least inhabited continent. The map has been made from satellite images collected by NASA with a resolution ten times higher than ever before. Researchers say they are able to track geological and climate change in the region using the new technique.
Space station gets ready for new laboratory
Astronauts at the International Space Station are preparing a new module for the arrival of the space shuttle Atlantis. The NASA spacecraft is due to be launched on 6 December and will carry the European Columbus laboratory to the ISS. The new research facility will allow Earth based scientists and the Space Station crew to conduct thousands of experiments over the next ten years. NASA astronauts will be working on the module for about six hours.
Russian military find their 'Top Gun'
The Russian armed forces have chosen their top man. More than thirty career troops took part in a week of competitions from shooting to singing. Sergeant Roman Galkin, a 21-year-old from the city of Tula, joined the service after completing his studies in law. Many of those participating have already displayed their courage in hot spots such as Chechnya and Dagestan.For six days they showed off their abilities both at shooting and on the assault course in bidding to claim the title. They also demonsted their knowledge of Russian history and, of course, their stamina.The Defence Ministry hopes the contests will attract more young people to take up a career in the armed forces.
Russian Entertainment & Media Industry worth $27.9 bn by 2011
28 June 2007 — Russia’s entertainment & media industry (E&M) had the highest growth rate in Europe in 2006, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers Global Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2007–2011. The industry grew by 7.1%, with the cumulative annual growth rate in 2007–2011 forecast at 6.9%. PricewaterhouseCoopers valued the Russian E&M market in 2006 at $19.9 bn, to reach $21.1 bn this year.
Internet advertising and access had the highest spending in Russia (and globally), coming to $3.7 bn. This will continue to be the fastest growing segment for the next five years, expanding at 20% a year on average. The television distribution market was second in terms of growth, at 18.3% a year. Book publishing will have the slowest growth rates (3.1%), in line with international trends. The casino and recording segments will slow on average by 22.7% and 7.7% respectively.
E&M segments in Russia
Filmed Entertainment
Spending in filmed entertainment (box office and rentals in various formats) grew in 2006 by almost 13% to $703m, of which $412m were cinema box office takings, an 18% rise on 2005. The box office market is expected to more than double in size over the next five years to $941m. The segment as a whole will be worth $1.4 bn.
Television, radio and out-of-home advertising
The Russian television advertising market in 2006 was worth almost $3 bn—28% higher than in 2005. The forecast for 2007 is growth to $3.7 bn. Radio advertising grew at an even faster rate—total sales in 2006 were $350m, a 40% hike on the previous year. Analysts expect growth to slow, but to remain at the relatively high level of around 3.6% a year. Out-of-home advertising saw much lower growth rates. In 2006 this segment was worth $1.1 bn and growth in 2007 is forecast at just 9%, much lower than in previous years. This fall-off is expected to continue, the segment growing by just 2.7% to 2011.
Print media
Newspaper purchases in Russia amounted to $1.5 bn, with advertising spending increasing by 19% to reach $345m in 2006. The print advertising market is expected to grow at 6.4% a year on average. Due to changes in advertising legislation, the Russian magazine advertising market will see healthy growth. In 2006 advertisers paid around $700m for space in magazines, and the market is expected to reach $800m in 2007. Magazine purchases in 2006 came to $286m, while the compound annual growth rate over the next five years in this segment is forecast at just 4.4%.
Book publishing
Russia’s book publishing sector had a volume of $1.88 bn in 2006. The cumulative annual growth rate (CAGR) over the next few years will be small, at just 3.1%. Fiction, entertainment and children's books make up half the market, educational books 35% and business literature 15%. These market shares will continue in the future.
Internet advertising and access
PricewaterhouseCoopers estimates show that Russia had 11.5 million dial-up Internet subscribers and 2.5 million broadband users in 2006; the latter group is expected to grow in the next five years by almost 50% a year. The Internet will expand primarily through broadband, with subscribers expected to number 17.5 million by 2011. Dial-up households will drop in number, but not significantly. Consumer spending on internet access in 2006 was $3.6 bn and is expected to grow on average by 18.7% over the next five years. By 2011, Russia will represent two-thirds of total spending on Internet access in Central and Eastern Europe.
Notes to Editor
1, For additional information please contact Vera Totskaya, PR Manager, or Olesya Kuzminskaya, PR Assistant Manager.
2, About the Outlook
PricewaterhouseCoopers Global Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2007–2011, the eighth annual edition, contains in-depth analyses and forecasts of 14 major industry segments across five regions of the globe — the United States, EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa), Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Canada – plus a Global Overview. It is available in hard copy or electronically (PDF) for US$995 on our website. The Global Overview is available separately for US$95 in hard copy or electronically, and individual segment chapters are also available for US$95 in electronic format only.
3 About PricewaterhouseCoopers PricewaterhouseCoopers provides industry-focussed assurance, tax and advisory services to build public trust and enhance value for its clients and their stakeholders. More than 140,000 people in 149 countries across our network share their thinking, experience and solutions to develop fresh perspectives and practical advice.“PricewaterhouseCoopers” refers to the network of member firms of PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited, each of which is a separate and independent legal entity.
Internet advertising and access had the highest spending in Russia (and globally), coming to $3.7 bn. This will continue to be the fastest growing segment for the next five years, expanding at 20% a year on average. The television distribution market was second in terms of growth, at 18.3% a year. Book publishing will have the slowest growth rates (3.1%), in line with international trends. The casino and recording segments will slow on average by 22.7% and 7.7% respectively.
E&M segments in Russia
Filmed Entertainment
Spending in filmed entertainment (box office and rentals in various formats) grew in 2006 by almost 13% to $703m, of which $412m were cinema box office takings, an 18% rise on 2005. The box office market is expected to more than double in size over the next five years to $941m. The segment as a whole will be worth $1.4 bn.
Television, radio and out-of-home advertising
The Russian television advertising market in 2006 was worth almost $3 bn—28% higher than in 2005. The forecast for 2007 is growth to $3.7 bn. Radio advertising grew at an even faster rate—total sales in 2006 were $350m, a 40% hike on the previous year. Analysts expect growth to slow, but to remain at the relatively high level of around 3.6% a year. Out-of-home advertising saw much lower growth rates. In 2006 this segment was worth $1.1 bn and growth in 2007 is forecast at just 9%, much lower than in previous years. This fall-off is expected to continue, the segment growing by just 2.7% to 2011.
Print media
Newspaper purchases in Russia amounted to $1.5 bn, with advertising spending increasing by 19% to reach $345m in 2006. The print advertising market is expected to grow at 6.4% a year on average. Due to changes in advertising legislation, the Russian magazine advertising market will see healthy growth. In 2006 advertisers paid around $700m for space in magazines, and the market is expected to reach $800m in 2007. Magazine purchases in 2006 came to $286m, while the compound annual growth rate over the next five years in this segment is forecast at just 4.4%.
Book publishing
Russia’s book publishing sector had a volume of $1.88 bn in 2006. The cumulative annual growth rate (CAGR) over the next few years will be small, at just 3.1%. Fiction, entertainment and children's books make up half the market, educational books 35% and business literature 15%. These market shares will continue in the future.
Internet advertising and access
PricewaterhouseCoopers estimates show that Russia had 11.5 million dial-up Internet subscribers and 2.5 million broadband users in 2006; the latter group is expected to grow in the next five years by almost 50% a year. The Internet will expand primarily through broadband, with subscribers expected to number 17.5 million by 2011. Dial-up households will drop in number, but not significantly. Consumer spending on internet access in 2006 was $3.6 bn and is expected to grow on average by 18.7% over the next five years. By 2011, Russia will represent two-thirds of total spending on Internet access in Central and Eastern Europe.
Notes to Editor
1, For additional information please contact Vera Totskaya, PR Manager, or Olesya Kuzminskaya, PR Assistant Manager.
2, About the Outlook
PricewaterhouseCoopers Global Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2007–2011, the eighth annual edition, contains in-depth analyses and forecasts of 14 major industry segments across five regions of the globe — the United States, EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa), Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Canada – plus a Global Overview. It is available in hard copy or electronically (PDF) for US$995 on our website. The Global Overview is available separately for US$95 in hard copy or electronically, and individual segment chapters are also available for US$95 in electronic format only.
3 About PricewaterhouseCoopers PricewaterhouseCoopers provides industry-focussed assurance, tax and advisory services to build public trust and enhance value for its clients and their stakeholders. More than 140,000 people in 149 countries across our network share their thinking, experience and solutions to develop fresh perspectives and practical advice.“PricewaterhouseCoopers” refers to the network of member firms of PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited, each of which is a separate and independent legal entity.
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Japan's robot industry forecasts strong growth
Japan's robotics industry is expected to show robust growth and remain the world leader thanks to growing exports to emerging economies, an industry group said Thursday.
While Japan has become famous for its cutting-edge humanoid robots, the industry's sales are almost all for industrial robots, particularly those that help manufacture cars, electronics and other products.
Japan in the calendar year 2007 is set to produce a record 760 billion yen (6.5 billion dollars) worth of robotics, a rise of 4.1 percent from the previous year, the Japan Robot Association said.
The industry is expected to post growth of another 3.9 percent next year, with production seen hitting one trillion yen by 2010.
The growth will be sustained by growing production of flat panel and liquid crystal display televisions, whose sales are rising as competition brings down prices for consumers, the robot association's chairman Kensuke Imura said.
The association, which groups 138 companies, said that exports of Japanese robotics will continue to expand, boosted by firm demand from emerging markets in Asia and Latin America.
"Investment in China is increasing due to growing demand for personal computers, cell phones, digital electronic products and flat screen televisions," Imura said.
The association said that Japan would remain the world leader in robotics "for some time," brushing aside the growing research and development from South Korea, China and India.
"Unlike foreign firms that buy up technology and leave it to a second party to manufacture, Japanese firms produce products from the bottom-up, leading to high-quality products," said the group's executive director Tokuo Iikura.
Chairman Imura added: "I don't think there's any other population in the world that enjoys creating products as much as the Japanese do."
Clapton opens up about life, love, music and drugs
Arguably the best guitarist to ever live tells TODAY he’s got more to do
More than once, Eric Clapton contemplated taking his own life, and the only thing that stopped him was the realization that if he were dead, he wouldn’t be able to drink anymore.
Sober now for 20 years and really self-aware for just the past 10, the titan of the guitar listened as TODAY co-host Matt Lauer recited a litany of his trials — addictions to heroin and alcohol, the suicide attempts, medical problems, car crashes — and then asked him why he’s still alive.
“I still must have something left to do,” the 62-year-old Clapton, who’s won 18 Grammys and been enshrined in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame three times, finally decided.
One of those things was to pack his life into a book, “Clapton: The Autobiography,” which is being released along with an accompanying CD of his life’s work: “The Complete Clapton.”
“It was like I was writing a letter to myself,” he said of the book. “We started out with a ghostwriter, and then I had to rewrite it because ghostwriting allowed me to blame people.”
Dressed in a T-shirt and a rumpled and nondescript jacket, the stubble-faced Clapton, with his sensible haircut and plain glasses, looked more like a retired teacher than one of the greatest guitarists the world has ever known.
Dressed in a T-shirt and a rumpled and nondescript jacket, the stubble-faced Clapton, with his sensible haircut and plain glasses, looked more like a retired teacher than one of the greatest guitarists the world has ever known.
He spoke softly and simply, like someone who didn’t need to punctuate his self-importance. Like someone who’s finally discovered who he is.
It’s not surprising that self-discovery took a while.
It’s not surprising that self-discovery took a while.
Clapton was born in March of 1945, at the dreg ends of World War II, in the town of Shipley in England. His mother had been a girl of 15 when she got pregnant by a Canadian serviceman who shipped out to the war before he was born and returned home to Canada when it was finished.
He was raised by his grandparents, unaware through his early years that they weren’t his real parents or that the children with whom he shared a house that had neither electricity nor plumbing weren’t his brothers and sisters but were, rather, his aunts and uncles.
It was only at the age of 9 that he finally was told that the woman he had thought was an older sister who had moved away from home was really his mother. The little boy asked her if he could call her “Mummy.” She told him he couldn’t.
It was only at the age of 9 that he finally was told that the woman he had thought was an older sister who had moved away from home was really his mother. The little boy asked her if he could call her “Mummy.” She told him he couldn’t.
Was that, Lauer wondered, what forced Clapton to escape into music?
“It made me very cautious, shall we say, about approaching members of the opposite sex,” Clapton replied.
But, he said, his childhood — at least until that revelation — was not unhappy. “What was good about it for me was I was being raised like any other normal kid with a great deal of love — maybe even more, because sometimes love from grandparents can be more objective in a way, and so I had a kind of blissful childhood,” he said.
His passion for music preceded his discovery of his origin. “It comes back to the other question, ‘Why am I still here?’” he said. “It may have been just intuitively knowing things weren’t 100 percent without really knowing why. But I did go to music really early on, even when I was 4 or 5, I was responding to music probably in ways other kids were not.”
His first guitar was a Hoya he got when he was 13, and trying to learn to play like the great blues guitarists he admired nearly defeated him.
His first guitar was a Hoya he got when he was 13, and trying to learn to play like the great blues guitarists he admired nearly defeated him.
But he stuck with it, figuring out the chords and progressions through painful practice and experiment.
“Music became a healer for me,” he writes. “And I learned to listen with all my being. I found that it could wipe away all the emotions of fear and confusion relating to my family.”
A withdrawn student in school, he turned his passion into work with local bands as a teenager, joining his first big band, the Yardbirds, in 1963, at the dawn of what would be called the British Invasion of rock ’n’ roll. When the Yardbirds began to abandon their blues roots for such pop hits as “For Your Love,” Clapton left and joined John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers in 1965, just after he turned 20.
A withdrawn student in school, he turned his passion into work with local bands as a teenager, joining his first big band, the Yardbirds, in 1963, at the dawn of what would be called the British Invasion of rock ’n’ roll. When the Yardbirds began to abandon their blues roots for such pop hits as “For Your Love,” Clapton left and joined John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers in 1965, just after he turned 20.
Their album, “Blues Breakers,” established him as a great guitarist and inspired someone to scrawl the graffito “Clapton is God” on a subway wall in 1967.
Clapton had already formed the band Cream by then, one of many groups he would play with in a career that he describes as really being a solo artist who played with bands for specific projects and purposes. His other groups include Blind Faith and Derek and the Dominos.
Lauer asked whether the “Clapton is God” slogan helped push him into the drugs and alcohol that almost destroyed him.
Lauer asked whether the “Clapton is God” slogan helped push him into the drugs and alcohol that almost destroyed him.
“I don’t think the two things were connected, to be honest with you,” he said. “The fast life — I didn’t get onto that particular elevator until I was in my late 20s.”
His early years, when he was establishing his reputation among his peers, were glory years in retrospect.
His early years, when he was establishing his reputation among his peers, were glory years in retrospect.
“I think something about my obsession with music and my belief in the mission I was on kept me from really getting involved in other stuff too heavily,” he said. “It was only when I started becoming really well known — with bands like Cream and Blind Faith — that I was really prey to that.
“I think I got a little bit insecure.”
Long, difficult roadThe tumultuous years, so well chronicled, followed. The most famous chapter was his affair with and marriage to Pattie Boyd, the wife of his best friend, former Beatle George Harrison. His classic song, “Layla,” is about her.
“She represented security, to a certain extent because she was the complete woman,” he told Lauer. He said that he didn’t know what he wanted himself, so he went with what his best friend was so enamored of, because, if that was what Harrison wanted, “It must be good. It was validation. I don’t know that love, in the early days, was really what it was about.”
“She represented security, to a certain extent because she was the complete woman,” he told Lauer. He said that he didn’t know what he wanted himself, so he went with what his best friend was so enamored of, because, if that was what Harrison wanted, “It must be good. It was validation. I don’t know that love, in the early days, was really what it was about.”
But Clapton said alcohol got in the way and the relationship never really was normal.
"It's very hard to make a clear appraisal of what that relationship would have done without the other thing being in there - the need to drink and drug all the time, which we were both wrapped up in."
"It's very hard to make a clear appraisal of what that relationship would have done without the other thing being in there - the need to drink and drug all the time, which we were both wrapped up in."
Love wasn't the only aspect of Clapton's life that was affected by drinking.
“I thought there was something otherworldly about the whole culture of drinking, that being drunk made me a member of some strange, mysterious club,” he wrote. “It also gave me courage to play and, finally, to get off with a girl.”
“I thought there was something otherworldly about the whole culture of drinking, that being drunk made me a member of some strange, mysterious club,” he wrote. “It also gave me courage to play and, finally, to get off with a girl.”
He claims no special virtue for finally sobering up. He hit several horrible rock bottoms, he said, but they were no worse than any other alcoholic’s. What allowed him to come to grips with his addiction, he said, was that he finally admitted he needed help.
“Up until then I’d been totally self-reliant,” he told Lauer. “The stuff that happened to me as a child made me made me totally insular — I thought I could do all of this on my own. It wasn’t until I was quite a bit older that I finally did ask for help.”
His marriage to Boyd would eventually come to a crashing end, as would others until he finally met Melia McEnery, an artist, in 1999. He was 54 at the time and she was 23, but they married in 2002 and have three daughters together. Clapton also has a 22-year-old daughter with Yvonne Kelly, with whom he had an affair while he was married to Boyd. In 1986, he had a son, Conor, by Lory Del Santo.
In 1991, Conor fell from a window in the 53rd-story New York apartment where he was staying with a friend of his mother's.
The song he wrote about Conor, “Tears in Heaven,” won a Grammy.
Lauer recounted how Clapton’s editors weren’t happy with his treatment of Conor’s death, feeling that he held back in writing about it.
Lauer recounted how Clapton’s editors weren’t happy with his treatment of Conor’s death, feeling that he held back in writing about it.
“It’s impossible to really totally assimilate what happened there,” said Clapton, who had driven past the place where he died on the way from the airport to Manhattan on Monday. “My metabolism will only allow so much of it to enter my consciousness at any one time.
“It’s kind of a grief that I’ve dealt with as best I can, but it will always come back in some kind of measure for as long as I live.”
“It’s kind of a grief that I’ve dealt with as best I can, but it will always come back in some kind of measure for as long as I live.”
‘A nightmare with no end in sight’
Ex-commander of coalition forces in Iraq lambastes ‘failure of leadership’
ARLINGTON, Va. - A "failure of the national political leadership" is responsible for the “nightmare” of the Iraq war, retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez said Friday.
If some of America’s political leaders were in the military they would have been relieved or court-martialed long ago, Sanchez told a conference of military journalists.
"Neglect and incompetence" by the National Security Council has led to an intractable situation in Iraq, the former commander of coalition forces in Iraq said.
Sanchez said that the NSC, Congress, the State Department and the national political leadership are all responsible for the "crisis in leadership." He refused to identify specific individuals responsible for the failure, saying that he thought the media should be able to figure it out for themselves.
His comments appeared to be a broad indictment of White House policies and a lack of leadership in the Pentagon to oppose them. Such assessments — even by former Pentagon brass — are not new, but they have added resonance as debates over war strategy dominate the presidential campaign.
Sanchez said the war in Iraq is "a nightmare with no end in sight," adding America has no choice but to continue fighting or the country will sink into chaos, which will spread throughout the Middle East. America will be there "for the foreseeable future," he said.
‘A desperate attempt’The so-called surge of troops in Iraq is "a desperate attempt by the administration," and the best the U.S. can do at this point is to "stave off defeat," Sanchez said.
Asked when he realized the war was on the skids, Sanchez said, "15 June 2003" — the day he took over as commander of coalition forces.
The officers and military leadership involved in the planning for the war in Iraq suffered from "an absolute lack of moral courage to stand up and do what was right in terms of planning," Sanchez said. "We allowed ourselves to believe we would be greeted as liberators," he said.
Sanchez said that the decision to disband the Iraqi army disenfranchised 300,000 to 400,000 Iraqis and put them out on the streets, fueling the insurgency.
Asked whether he had an obligation as commander to speak up if he saw problems in the strategy for the war he said, "Of course."
Sanchez was caught up in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, and although he was cleared of any involvement, the scandal cost him a fourth star and he was forced to retire.
Asked whether he is happy with the investigation and prosecutions in the case, Sanchez answered sarcastically, "Is America happy with destroying the careers and the reputations of everyone in the military chain of command involved in Abu Ghraib?"
Sanchez also railed on the media during his speech, saying that many people covering the war have political agendas and little concern about collateral damage when their stories are wrong. These members of the media are doing "a tremendous disservice to America," he said.
AP
ARLINGTON, Va. - A "failure of the national political leadership" is responsible for the “nightmare” of the Iraq war, retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez said Friday.
If some of America’s political leaders were in the military they would have been relieved or court-martialed long ago, Sanchez told a conference of military journalists.
"Neglect and incompetence" by the National Security Council has led to an intractable situation in Iraq, the former commander of coalition forces in Iraq said.
Sanchez said that the NSC, Congress, the State Department and the national political leadership are all responsible for the "crisis in leadership." He refused to identify specific individuals responsible for the failure, saying that he thought the media should be able to figure it out for themselves.
His comments appeared to be a broad indictment of White House policies and a lack of leadership in the Pentagon to oppose them. Such assessments — even by former Pentagon brass — are not new, but they have added resonance as debates over war strategy dominate the presidential campaign.
Sanchez said the war in Iraq is "a nightmare with no end in sight," adding America has no choice but to continue fighting or the country will sink into chaos, which will spread throughout the Middle East. America will be there "for the foreseeable future," he said.
‘A desperate attempt’The so-called surge of troops in Iraq is "a desperate attempt by the administration," and the best the U.S. can do at this point is to "stave off defeat," Sanchez said.
Asked when he realized the war was on the skids, Sanchez said, "15 June 2003" — the day he took over as commander of coalition forces.
The officers and military leadership involved in the planning for the war in Iraq suffered from "an absolute lack of moral courage to stand up and do what was right in terms of planning," Sanchez said. "We allowed ourselves to believe we would be greeted as liberators," he said.
Sanchez said that the decision to disband the Iraqi army disenfranchised 300,000 to 400,000 Iraqis and put them out on the streets, fueling the insurgency.
Asked whether he had an obligation as commander to speak up if he saw problems in the strategy for the war he said, "Of course."
Sanchez was caught up in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, and although he was cleared of any involvement, the scandal cost him a fourth star and he was forced to retire.
Asked whether he is happy with the investigation and prosecutions in the case, Sanchez answered sarcastically, "Is America happy with destroying the careers and the reputations of everyone in the military chain of command involved in Abu Ghraib?"
Sanchez also railed on the media during his speech, saying that many people covering the war have political agendas and little concern about collateral damage when their stories are wrong. These members of the media are doing "a tremendous disservice to America," he said.
AP
Hope for ovarian cancer vaccine
The vaccine is designed to enhance the body's own immune response to the cancer, said the Roswell Park Cancer Institute, based in Buffalo, New York.Most patients with advanced disease respond to chemotherapy, but more than 70% die from a recurrence of the cancer within five years of diagnosis.
Cancer Research UK welcomed the study but said further trials were needed.
Details of the study appear in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
We are confident that the vaccine will eventually be widely available
Professor Kunle Odunsi
The vaccine contains an ovarian cancer protein fragment coupled with a molecule known to induce immune response.
It targets a protein produced in a high proportion of ovarian cancer cells, but not in healthy cells.
The researchers tested it in women with epithelial ovarian cancer, a cancer type that originates in the covering of the ovaries.
They said although their study was designed as a phase one clinical trial - a preliminary study - it had produced "encouraging" results.
Dual effect
The vaccine induced the immune system to produce antibodies, and to mobilise specialised T cells which were able to target cancer cells producing the key protein.
The researchers detected vaccine-induced immune cells in patients up to 12 months after immunisation, suggesting a long-lasting effect.
Lead researcher Professor Kunle Odunsi said: "There is now compelling evidence that the immune system has the capacity to recognise and kill ovarian cancer cells.
"Our vaccine strategy is simply taking advantage of this knowledge in an effort to improve the outcome for ovarian cancer patients.
"We are confident that the vaccine will eventually be widely available."
Dr Alison Ross, of the charity Cancer Research UK, said: "We welcome any research that could lead to improved survival for people with ovarian cancer, and cancer vaccines have exciting potential.
"This early trial shows encouraging results but it's important to remember that much larger studies will be needed before we know for sure whether the vaccine is safe and effective.
Ginger 'may fight ovarian cancer'
University of Michigan researchers announced at the American Association of Cancer Research that tests show ginger kills cancer cells.
The study also found that the spice had the added benefit of stopping the cells from becoming resistant to treatment.
But UK cancer experts said that, while ginger may in the future form a basis of a new drug, more research was needed to corroborate the findings.
Ginger is already known to ease nausea and control inflammation, but the findings by the US team offer cancer patients new hope.
Researchers used ginger powder, similar to that sold in shops, which they dissolved in a solution and applied to ovarian cancer cells.
They found it caused the cells to die in all the tests done.
But it was the way in which the cells died which offered even more hope. The tests demonstrated two types of death - apoptosis, which is essentially cell suicide, and autophagy, a kind of self-digestion.
Report author Rebecca Liu said: "Most ovarian cancer patients develop recurrent disease that eventually becomes resistant to standard chemotherapy, which is associated with apoptosis.
"If ginger can cause autophagic cell death in addition to apoptosis, it may circumvent resistance to conventional chemotherapy."
The researchers warned the results were very preliminary and they plan to test whether they can obtain similar results in animal studies.
Side-effects
But they added the appeal of ginger was that it would have virtually no side-effects and would be easy to administer as a capsule.
Henry Scowcroft, science information officer for Cancer Research UK, said previous research had shown that ginger extract can stop cancer cell growing so it was possible that ginger could form the basis of a new drug.
But more work was needed before firm conclusions could be drawn, he added.
"This study doesn't mean that people should dash down to the supermarket and stockpile ginger.
"We still don't know whether ginger, in any form, can prevent or treat cancers in animals or people."
Madonna 'to leave record label'
Madonna is widely expected to leave her longtime record label and sign a $120m (£59m) recording and touring contract with concert promoter Live Nation.
The pop star, 49, has been with Warner Music for her entire career, stretching back to her 1983 debut album.
The proposed 10-year deal would give Live Nation the rights to distribute albums, promote tours, sell merchandise and license her name.
The deal is expected to be sealed early next week.
The deal would bring to an end her 25-year relationship with Warner, which has led to 200 million records and CD sales.
Falling sales
However, Warner would retain the rights to sell and license Madonna's back catalogue of hits such as Like a
Virgin and Music.
Madonna's possible move highlights how falling CD sales are changing the industry landscape.
Traditionally, companies like Warner Music Group have focused on recorded music, while other firms have arranged tours, managed artists and sold merchandise.
But shrinking sales have led artists and entertainment companies to consider wide-ranging deals that bring all activities under one roof, helping cross-promotion and boosting profit margins.
bbc.co.uk
The pop star, 49, has been with Warner Music for her entire career, stretching back to her 1983 debut album.
The proposed 10-year deal would give Live Nation the rights to distribute albums, promote tours, sell merchandise and license her name.
The deal is expected to be sealed early next week.
The deal would bring to an end her 25-year relationship with Warner, which has led to 200 million records and CD sales.
Falling sales
However, Warner would retain the rights to sell and license Madonna's back catalogue of hits such as Like a
Virgin and Music.
Madonna's possible move highlights how falling CD sales are changing the industry landscape.
Traditionally, companies like Warner Music Group have focused on recorded music, while other firms have arranged tours, managed artists and sold merchandise.
But shrinking sales have led artists and entertainment companies to consider wide-ranging deals that bring all activities under one roof, helping cross-promotion and boosting profit margins.
bbc.co.uk
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Pirates Top Charts
It’s not often Hollywood enjoys the piracy culture. Lambasted as one of the key reasons for over 2 billion dollars in purported losses, piracy has been Hollywood’s publicity scapegoat. This stigma has resulted in numerous enforcement actions against individuals and various indexing servers.
There’s no secret that theater ticket sales have been steadily decreasing. Like the music industry, Hollywood has blamed piracy and file-sharing as major co-conspirators. However, this explanation only provides superficial insight into the decline. The motivating factor behind the fall of ticket sales provides greater substance. Similar to the motivating factor behind the decline of CD sales, once again the general populace is technologically superior to
Hollywood’s distribution methods. People want quick, cheap, and extremely portable solutions. When Hollywood or the music industry is 5 years behind the technological eight ball, the tech savvy Internet populace is compelled to find solutions elsewhere.The theater experience appears to be slowly fading as Internet distribution heads to the mainstream. With home theaters and surround sound systems falling to prices more justifiable than long term theater commitment, studios are rushing to accommodate this shift. The MPAA and BitTorrent agreed to work together for online movie distribution, while Movielink stands ready to allow transportability to blank DVD media. Does this mean we’ll all be sitting at home watching “Pirates of the Caribbean: Part 6†in the comfort of our home theater one day?
Here’s where the fly in the piracy ointment comes into play.Although ticket sales are dropping, this affliction only pertains to a certain number of movies. Mega-blockbusters such as Spiderman, Star Wars, The Chronic of Narnia, and a select others appear immune from the box office slump. Event movies such as these are not affected by piracy, theater ticket prices, or many of the other factors that play into a consumer’s decision making process. Another movie seemingly immune from the shift to home theater is Hollywood’s latest Pirates of the Caribbean release.Despite marginal reviews, Pirates has already smashed two movie records – greatest weekend earning with over $132 million in gross; and quickest to earn $300 million. If Pirates maintains its momentum, it could possibly become the top earning movie ever – beating Titanic’s $600 million domestic earning.Has Hollywood or the MPAA solved the piracy issue? Surely “Pirates of the Caribbean†has been so well protected that no one dares to download this latest Hollywood blockbuster.In reality, quite the opposite is true. According to BigChampagne, a P2P tracking firm, Pirates of the Caribbean continues to be downloaded by the greatest number of people via BitTorrent at any given moment. Because of technical limitations, the volume of individuals represented by BigChampagne is actually a much smaller representation of the greater whole. In other words, when BigChampagne states that approximately 49,000 simultaneous individuals are downloading Pirates of the Caribbean, the actual number is significantly higher. It should be noted this number represents the number of individuals downloading the movie at any given time, not the total number of downloads.Whatever the total number of individuals via BitTorrent, or any other P2P/file-sharing protocol, its clear that Pirates of the Caribbean is a highly popular film online. The fascinating aspect is while this moviein in high demand online, the excessive rate of unauthorized downloads is having no ill effect on its theatrical performance. This quandary exemplifies a growing trend in Hollywood – big event movies are becoming the true money makers. Piracy-immune movies may one day be the de facto standard for theatrical release, while those more financially susceptible to unauthorized downloading will find their release in a home theater near you.
There’s no secret that theater ticket sales have been steadily decreasing. Like the music industry, Hollywood has blamed piracy and file-sharing as major co-conspirators. However, this explanation only provides superficial insight into the decline. The motivating factor behind the fall of ticket sales provides greater substance. Similar to the motivating factor behind the decline of CD sales, once again the general populace is technologically superior to
Hollywood’s distribution methods. People want quick, cheap, and extremely portable solutions. When Hollywood or the music industry is 5 years behind the technological eight ball, the tech savvy Internet populace is compelled to find solutions elsewhere.The theater experience appears to be slowly fading as Internet distribution heads to the mainstream. With home theaters and surround sound systems falling to prices more justifiable than long term theater commitment, studios are rushing to accommodate this shift. The MPAA and BitTorrent agreed to work together for online movie distribution, while Movielink stands ready to allow transportability to blank DVD media. Does this mean we’ll all be sitting at home watching “Pirates of the Caribbean: Part 6†in the comfort of our home theater one day?
Here’s where the fly in the piracy ointment comes into play.Although ticket sales are dropping, this affliction only pertains to a certain number of movies. Mega-blockbusters such as Spiderman, Star Wars, The Chronic of Narnia, and a select others appear immune from the box office slump. Event movies such as these are not affected by piracy, theater ticket prices, or many of the other factors that play into a consumer’s decision making process. Another movie seemingly immune from the shift to home theater is Hollywood’s latest Pirates of the Caribbean release.Despite marginal reviews, Pirates has already smashed two movie records – greatest weekend earning with over $132 million in gross; and quickest to earn $300 million. If Pirates maintains its momentum, it could possibly become the top earning movie ever – beating Titanic’s $600 million domestic earning.Has Hollywood or the MPAA solved the piracy issue? Surely “Pirates of the Caribbean†has been so well protected that no one dares to download this latest Hollywood blockbuster.In reality, quite the opposite is true. According to BigChampagne, a P2P tracking firm, Pirates of the Caribbean continues to be downloaded by the greatest number of people via BitTorrent at any given moment. Because of technical limitations, the volume of individuals represented by BigChampagne is actually a much smaller representation of the greater whole. In other words, when BigChampagne states that approximately 49,000 simultaneous individuals are downloading Pirates of the Caribbean, the actual number is significantly higher. It should be noted this number represents the number of individuals downloading the movie at any given time, not the total number of downloads.Whatever the total number of individuals via BitTorrent, or any other P2P/file-sharing protocol, its clear that Pirates of the Caribbean is a highly popular film online. The fascinating aspect is while this moviein in high demand online, the excessive rate of unauthorized downloads is having no ill effect on its theatrical performance. This quandary exemplifies a growing trend in Hollywood – big event movies are becoming the true money makers. Piracy-immune movies may one day be the de facto standard for theatrical release, while those more financially susceptible to unauthorized downloading will find their release in a home theater near you.
The Legendary Stories of the Chinese Moon Festival
I. The Lady - Chang Er
The time of this story is around 2170 B.C. The earth once had ten suns circling over it, each took its turn to illuminate to the earth. But one day all ten suns appeared together, scorching the earth with their heat. The earth was saved by a strong and tyrannical archer Hou Yi. He succeeded in shooting down nine of the suns. One day, Hou Yi stole the elixir of life from a goddess. However his beautiful wife Chang Er drank the elixir of life in order to save the people from her husband's tyrannical rule. After drinking it, she found herself floating and flew to the moon. Hou Yi loved his divinely beautiful wife so much, he didn't shoot down the moon.
II. The Man - Wu Kang
Wu Kang was a shiftless fellow who changed apprenticeships all the time. One day he decided that he wanted to be an immortal. Wu Kang then went to live in the mountains where he importuned an immortal to teach him. First the immortal taught him about the herbs used to cure sickness, but after three days his characteristic restlessness returned and he asked the immortal to teach him something else. So the immortal to teach him chess, but after a short while Wu Kang's enthusiasm again waned. Then Wu Kang was given the books of immortality to study. Of course, Wu Kang became bored within a few days, and asked if they could travel to some new and exciting place. Angered with Wu Kang's impatience, the master banished Wu Kang to the Moon Palace telling him that he must cut down a huge cassia tree before he could return to earth. Though Wu Kang chopped day and night, the magical tree restored itself with each blow, and thus he is up there chopping still.
III. The Hare - Jade Rabbit
In this legend, three fairy sages transformed themselves into pitiful old men and begged for something to eat from a fox, a monkey and a rabbit. The fox and the monkey both had food to give to the old men, but the rabbit, empty-handed, offered his own flesh instead, jumping into a blazing fire to cook himself. The sages were so touched by the rabbit's sacrifice that they let him live in the Moon Palace where he became the "Jade Rabbit."
IV. The Cake - Moon Cake
During the Yuan dynasty (A.D.1280-1368) China was ruled by the Mongolian people. Leaders from the preceding Sung dynasty (A.D.960-1280) were unhappy at submitting to foreign rule, and set how to coordinate the rebellion without it being discovered. The leaders of the rebellion, knowing that the Moon Festival was drawing near, ordered the making of special cakes. Backed into each moon cake was a message with the outline of the attack. On the night of the Moon Festival, the rebels successfully attacked and overthrew the government. What followed was the establishment of the Ming dynasty (A.D. 1368-1644). Today, moon cakes are eaten to commemorate this legend.
chinesefortunecalendar.com
The time of this story is around 2170 B.C. The earth once had ten suns circling over it, each took its turn to illuminate to the earth. But one day all ten suns appeared together, scorching the earth with their heat. The earth was saved by a strong and tyrannical archer Hou Yi. He succeeded in shooting down nine of the suns. One day, Hou Yi stole the elixir of life from a goddess. However his beautiful wife Chang Er drank the elixir of life in order to save the people from her husband's tyrannical rule. After drinking it, she found herself floating and flew to the moon. Hou Yi loved his divinely beautiful wife so much, he didn't shoot down the moon.
II. The Man - Wu Kang
Wu Kang was a shiftless fellow who changed apprenticeships all the time. One day he decided that he wanted to be an immortal. Wu Kang then went to live in the mountains where he importuned an immortal to teach him. First the immortal taught him about the herbs used to cure sickness, but after three days his characteristic restlessness returned and he asked the immortal to teach him something else. So the immortal to teach him chess, but after a short while Wu Kang's enthusiasm again waned. Then Wu Kang was given the books of immortality to study. Of course, Wu Kang became bored within a few days, and asked if they could travel to some new and exciting place. Angered with Wu Kang's impatience, the master banished Wu Kang to the Moon Palace telling him that he must cut down a huge cassia tree before he could return to earth. Though Wu Kang chopped day and night, the magical tree restored itself with each blow, and thus he is up there chopping still.
III. The Hare - Jade Rabbit
In this legend, three fairy sages transformed themselves into pitiful old men and begged for something to eat from a fox, a monkey and a rabbit. The fox and the monkey both had food to give to the old men, but the rabbit, empty-handed, offered his own flesh instead, jumping into a blazing fire to cook himself. The sages were so touched by the rabbit's sacrifice that they let him live in the Moon Palace where he became the "Jade Rabbit."
IV. The Cake - Moon Cake
During the Yuan dynasty (A.D.1280-1368) China was ruled by the Mongolian people. Leaders from the preceding Sung dynasty (A.D.960-1280) were unhappy at submitting to foreign rule, and set how to coordinate the rebellion without it being discovered. The leaders of the rebellion, knowing that the Moon Festival was drawing near, ordered the making of special cakes. Backed into each moon cake was a message with the outline of the attack. On the night of the Moon Festival, the rebels successfully attacked and overthrew the government. What followed was the establishment of the Ming dynasty (A.D. 1368-1644). Today, moon cakes are eaten to commemorate this legend.
chinesefortunecalendar.com
'Saawariya' to open South Asian film festival in US
New York, Oct 9 (IANS) "Saawariya", the first Bollywood production from a Hollywood studio, is to open a prominent festival of South Asian films here on Nov 7 and release commercially two days later in over 80 theatres in North America.
Produced by Sony Pictures and directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, it is the much awaited debut film of Ranbir Kapoor (son of actor Rishi Kapoor) and Sonam Kapoor (daughter of actor-producer Anil Kapoor).
"Saawariya" is the timeless tale of two young star-crossed lovers from different religions whose passions almost take them to the brink of self-destruction. It is based on Dostoevsky's short story "White Nights".
It is the main draw at the five-day Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council (MIAAC) Film Festival, which will screen 70 films, including diaspora, Bollywood and short films.
The festival's closing film is "The Last Lear" by Rituparno Ghosh, considered heir to the legendary Satyajit Ray. The film has Amitabh Bachchan playing an ageing Shakespearean actor who takes on the bard's most challenging role. It is based on Utpal Dutt's play "Aajker Shahjahan".
The festival will conclude with six awards being presented for best film, best director, best actor, best actress, best documentary and best short film.
MIAAC film festival's executive director Aroon Shivdasani said 2007 marks a groundbreaking year as Hollywood studios such as Warner Brothers, Viacom, Disney and Sony Pictures have started to invest in Bollywood films.
The festival, now in its seventh year, has earlier featured films by Mira Nair, Ismail Merchant, Deepa Mehta, Gurinder Chaddha and Nagesh Kukunoor.
The festival is organised by the Indo-American Arts Council (IAAC), which is a not-for-profit organisation that promotes Indian artistes in the fields of performing, literary, visual and folk and fusion arts
bollywood.com
Produced by Sony Pictures and directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, it is the much awaited debut film of Ranbir Kapoor (son of actor Rishi Kapoor) and Sonam Kapoor (daughter of actor-producer Anil Kapoor).
"Saawariya" is the timeless tale of two young star-crossed lovers from different religions whose passions almost take them to the brink of self-destruction. It is based on Dostoevsky's short story "White Nights".
It is the main draw at the five-day Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council (MIAAC) Film Festival, which will screen 70 films, including diaspora, Bollywood and short films.
The festival's closing film is "The Last Lear" by Rituparno Ghosh, considered heir to the legendary Satyajit Ray. The film has Amitabh Bachchan playing an ageing Shakespearean actor who takes on the bard's most challenging role. It is based on Utpal Dutt's play "Aajker Shahjahan".
The festival will conclude with six awards being presented for best film, best director, best actor, best actress, best documentary and best short film.
MIAAC film festival's executive director Aroon Shivdasani said 2007 marks a groundbreaking year as Hollywood studios such as Warner Brothers, Viacom, Disney and Sony Pictures have started to invest in Bollywood films.
The festival, now in its seventh year, has earlier featured films by Mira Nair, Ismail Merchant, Deepa Mehta, Gurinder Chaddha and Nagesh Kukunoor.
The festival is organised by the Indo-American Arts Council (IAAC), which is a not-for-profit organisation that promotes Indian artistes in the fields of performing, literary, visual and folk and fusion arts
bollywood.com
'Bhool Bhulaiyaa' is not a comedy: Bhushan Kumar
Mumbai, Oct 10 (IANS) The promotional clippings of "Bhool Bhulaiyaa" may give the impression that it is a really funny film, but producer Bhushan Kumar says its not a full-fledged comedy.
"Of course, 'Bhool Bhulaiyaa' has a lot of funny moments. But those moments are combined with a supernatural element. This is a supernatural comedy, something never done before," Kumar told IANS.
The film -- starring Akshay Kumar, Paresh Rawal, Rajpal Yadav, Shiney Ahuja, Vidya Balan and Amisha Patel -- releases Friday.
The T-Series head honcho feels the days of out-and-out comedies are numbered.
"'Partner' did well. But 'Dhamaal' and 'Dhol' were not the hits they were expected to be. I think the audience is looking for a twist in their comedy. 'Bhool Bhulaiyaa' provides that twist."
There is also some controversy surrounding the film. While the chant "Hare Krishna Hare Rama" in the film had some right-wing elements incensed, another song "Allah hafiz" seems to be targeting the Muslim audience to coincide with Eid.
Kumar, however, completely denies this.
"'Partner' did well. But 'Dhamaal' and 'Dhol' were not the hits they were expected to be. I think the audience is looking for a twist in their comedy. 'Bhool Bhulaiyaa' provides that twist."
There is also some controversy surrounding the film. While the chant "Hare Krishna Hare Rama" in the film had some right-wing elements incensed, another song "Allah hafiz" seems to be targeting the Muslim audience to coincide with Eid.
Kumar, however, completely denies this.
He said: "We had the catchy phrase 'Allah hafiz' in mind for a long time. You know how these lines like 'Mashaa Aallah' and 'Ya Ali' are working with the younger generation.
"So there was a situation for a road song in 'Bhool Bhulaiyaa' where 'Allah hafiz' worked fine. That the film is being released on Eid and that Muslim audiences would like the number is just a coincidence."
"So there was a situation for a road song in 'Bhool Bhulaiyaa' where 'Allah hafiz' worked fine. That the film is being released on Eid and that Muslim audiences would like the number is just a coincidence."
As for the "Hare Rama" chant, Kumar explained: "Yes there was some objection to the visuals of a Buddha statue and some glamour element. We removed them. Even then some people objected to the song. But since it was approved by the censors there isn't much that anyone can do."
Two of Kumar's forthcoming films aren't comedies either.
"We have Nagesh Kukunoor's 'Aashayein' and the other project is tentatively titled 'Tasveer'. Both are serious films."
"We have Nagesh Kukunoor's 'Aashayein' and the other project is tentatively titled 'Tasveer'. Both are serious films."
bollywood.com
McCanns Thank Ben Affleck
HOLLYWOOD - The parents of a missing British child have thanked Ben Affleck for postponing the release of his new movie, which is about the same subject. Gone Baby Gone was shelved in the U.K. after Madeleine McCann, 4, went missing from a vacation resort in Portugal in May.
The movie was directed by Affleck and stars his brother Casey as a private detective searching for a missing 4-year-old girl. Gerry and Kate McCann have issued a statement through their spokesman--thanking Affleck. It reads, "We thank him for being thoughtful enough and sensitive enough to Gerry and Kate's position to make such a commercial decision. "Obviously, we hope Madeleine will be found very soon to enable Kate and Gerry to move on, but also to enable him and the movie to go ahead in due course.
hollywood.com
Monday, October 8, 2007
Sting tops list of worst lyricists
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Maybe Sting should start writing more instrumentals.
The school teacher-turned-rock star topped Blender's list of the worst lyricists, thanks to lines that betray "mountainous pomposity (and) cloying spirituality," the music magazine said.
The survey, contained in the November issue that hits newsstands next week, placed Rush drummer Neil Peart at No. 2, Creed frontman Scott Stapp at No. 3, Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher at No. 4, and soft-rocker Dan Fogelberg at No. 5.
Blender assailed Sting for such alleged sins as name-dropping Russian novelist Vladimir Nabokov in the Police tune "Don't Stand So Close to Me," quoting a Volvo bumper sticker ("If You Love Someone Set Them Free"), and co-opting the works of Chaucer, St. Augustine and Shakespeare.
A spokeswoman for the English rocker, who is currently in Belgium on the Police's reunion world tour, did not respond to a request for comment.
Blender described Canadian rocker Peart's lyrics as "richly awful tapestries of fantasy and science," and said Gallagher "seemed incapable of following a metaphor through a single line, let alone a whole verse."
Further down the ranks, Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant (No. 23) was derided for his Tolkienesque musings on Gollum and Mordor in "Ramble On."
Carly Simon (No. 31) was mocked for rhyming "yacht," "apricot" and "gavotte" in "You're So Vain."
Paul McCartney made No. 38, thanks in part to "Ebony and Ivory," his socially conscious duet with Stevie Wonder.
Reuters/Nielsen
The school teacher-turned-rock star topped Blender's list of the worst lyricists, thanks to lines that betray "mountainous pomposity (and) cloying spirituality," the music magazine said.
The survey, contained in the November issue that hits newsstands next week, placed Rush drummer Neil Peart at No. 2, Creed frontman Scott Stapp at No. 3, Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher at No. 4, and soft-rocker Dan Fogelberg at No. 5.
Blender assailed Sting for such alleged sins as name-dropping Russian novelist Vladimir Nabokov in the Police tune "Don't Stand So Close to Me," quoting a Volvo bumper sticker ("If You Love Someone Set Them Free"), and co-opting the works of Chaucer, St. Augustine and Shakespeare.
A spokeswoman for the English rocker, who is currently in Belgium on the Police's reunion world tour, did not respond to a request for comment.
Blender described Canadian rocker Peart's lyrics as "richly awful tapestries of fantasy and science," and said Gallagher "seemed incapable of following a metaphor through a single line, let alone a whole verse."
Further down the ranks, Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant (No. 23) was derided for his Tolkienesque musings on Gollum and Mordor in "Ramble On."
Carly Simon (No. 31) was mocked for rhyming "yacht," "apricot" and "gavotte" in "You're So Vain."
Paul McCartney made No. 38, thanks in part to "Ebony and Ivory," his socially conscious duet with Stevie Wonder.
Reuters/Nielsen
Mila Kunis says Culkin cooks every night
NEW YORK - Put away your assumptions about Macaulay Culkin. The former child star's girlfriend says he's a homebody. Culkin, star of the 1990 comedy "Home Alone," has been dating actress Mila Kunis for nearly six years; Kunis, who co-starred on TV's "That 70's Show," says they make a low-key couple.
"We enjoy each other's company," the 24-year-old actress says in an interview on Parade.com. "We like to read books or play video games or watch TV or go to the movies. And he's an amazing cook. He makes dinner every night."
Culkin made headlines several years ago when he was arrested in Oklahoma City on misdemeanor charges of possessing medication without a prescription and marijuana. He later pleaded guilty and was given a deferred sentence.
Kunis says Culkin, now 27, is more mature than people might think.
"He's an amazing, simple guy, who is probably the most brilliant person I've ever met," Kunis gushes. "He's so, so smart and so aware and so kind and so sweet. Unfortunately, that's not what people want him to be, so they write stuff."
Kunis says journalists misconstrue facts — or "just make stuff up" — about their relationship.
"At one point, they were like, `Seen shopping in Beverly Hills for engagement rings,'" she says. "We were in Japan working. What is wrong with these people?"
Kunis, who recently appeared in the film "Moving McAllister," will next be seen in the upcoming comedy "Forgetting Sarah Marshall." She portrayed princessy Jackie Burkhart for eight years on "That 70's Show," where her brunette beauty was prominently on display.
But Kunis is no girly girl.
"Listen, I am such a nerd," she says. "I'm not one of those girls that goes, `Ha, ha, hee, hee. I'm a nerd.' No, no, no — my brain mentality is the same as a 12-year-old little boy. The video games that I play, the things that I like to watch — I'm a Trekkie."
Yahoo.com
"We enjoy each other's company," the 24-year-old actress says in an interview on Parade.com. "We like to read books or play video games or watch TV or go to the movies. And he's an amazing cook. He makes dinner every night."
Culkin made headlines several years ago when he was arrested in Oklahoma City on misdemeanor charges of possessing medication without a prescription and marijuana. He later pleaded guilty and was given a deferred sentence.
Kunis says Culkin, now 27, is more mature than people might think.
"He's an amazing, simple guy, who is probably the most brilliant person I've ever met," Kunis gushes. "He's so, so smart and so aware and so kind and so sweet. Unfortunately, that's not what people want him to be, so they write stuff."
Kunis says journalists misconstrue facts — or "just make stuff up" — about their relationship.
"At one point, they were like, `Seen shopping in Beverly Hills for engagement rings,'" she says. "We were in Japan working. What is wrong with these people?"
Kunis, who recently appeared in the film "Moving McAllister," will next be seen in the upcoming comedy "Forgetting Sarah Marshall." She portrayed princessy Jackie Burkhart for eight years on "That 70's Show," where her brunette beauty was prominently on display.
But Kunis is no girly girl.
"Listen, I am such a nerd," she says. "I'm not one of those girls that goes, `Ha, ha, hee, hee. I'm a nerd.' No, no, no — my brain mentality is the same as a 12-year-old little boy. The video games that I play, the things that I like to watch — I'm a Trekkie."
Yahoo.com
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