Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is a 2008 adventure film. It is the fourth Indiana Jones film and the twenty-sixth chronologically in the character’s film and television appearances. It is directed by Steven Spielberg, produced by George Lucas and stars Harrison Ford in the title role. It also stars Shia LaBeouf, Cate Blanchett, Ray Winstone, John Hurt and Karen Allen. Set in 1957, the film centers around the mysterious crystal skulls, and pits Indiana Jones against agents of the Soviet Union.
The film was in development hell since the 1989 release of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, because Spielberg, Lucas and Ford wanted the best script possible. Screenwriters Jeb Stuart, Jeffrey Boam, M. Night Shyamalan, Frank Darabont and Jeff Nathanson wrote drafts, before a script by David Koepp satisfied all three men in 2006. Shooting finally commenced on June 18, 2007, and took place at locations in New Mexico, New Haven, Connecticut, Hawaii and soundstages in Los Angeles. In order to keep aesthetic continuity with the previous films, there will be minimal use of computer generated imagery and more of a reliance on traditional stuntwork, with Ford performing many of his own stunts. The film is due for release on May 22, 2008.
During the late 1970s, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg made a deal with Paramount Pictures for five films about archaeologist Indiana Jones. Following the theatrical release of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade in 1989, Lucas let the series end as he felt he could not think of a good plot device to drive the next installment. Lucas stated that he became fascinated with crystal skulls while producing The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles in 1992. He feels that as a plot device, the skulls are as strong as the Ark of the Covenant. Spielberg and Harrison Ford balked as they found the concept of the crystal skulls was too similar to the previous films, and two years were spent reworking it into something more acceptable. Spielberg wanted to make the film because it was a chance to reunite with Lucas and Ford, as well as to please his children and the Indiana Jones fan base.
Writing
In 1992, Jeb Stuart was hired to write a screenplay. In 1995, Lucas called Last Crusade writer Jeffrey Boam back to pen another draft. M. Night Shyamalan was hired as Boam’s replacement for an intended 2002 shoot, but he left because of what Ford described as “the failure of George and Steven to attend to him.” Shyamalan was overwhelmed writing a sequel to a film he loved like Raiders of the Lost Ark, and admitted it was difficult to get Ford, Spielberg, and Lucas to focus. Lucas admitted he would not be able to give the project his full attention until he completed the final Star Wars film in 2005. Afterwards, Stephen Gaghan and Tom Stoppard were approached to write a new screenplay.
With a title already planned, Frank Darabont, who wrote several episodes of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, was hired in May 2002 to write. Darabont’s screenplay was set in the 1950s, after the demise of the Nazi regime, and featured cameos from Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen) and Willie Scott (Kate Capshaw). It did not have Jones’ son. In December 2002, Spielberg said he planned to shoot two films before filming Indiana Jones 4 in 2004 for a 2005 release. He also dismissed the possibility of shooting it digitally. In February 2004, Lucas rejected the draft for reasons unknown, although Spielberg called this version the best screenplay since Raiders of the Lost Ark.
script was handed over to David Koepp. As 2006 began, Harrison Ford declared that if the film was not made by 2008, then the filmmakers should drop the idea altogether. Spielberg confirmed Indiana Jones 4 as his next film, calling it “the sweet dessert I give those who had to chow down on the bitter herbs that I’ve used in Munich”. Koepp tried not to make his work a “fan script”, in that he hoped to avoid any trivial references to the previous films, saying “That’s tempting, because you’ve seen the movie a hundred times and you know all the dialogue, but no human being remembers exactly what they said 25 years ago word for word, much less make reference to it. So you try to put aside the other movies and yet be in the spirit of them.” He also noted the story would have to acknowledge Ford/Indiana’s age.
Filming
On December 29, 2006, Lucas confirmed that he, Spielberg and Koepp finished the script, and that Indiana Jones 4 would commence filming in 2007. Filming began on June 18, 2007 at Deming, New Mexico, for scenes set in Morocco. An extensive chase scene was filmed between June 28-July 7 at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, which doubled as Indiana Jones’ Marshall College. They moved to Hawaii, shooting twenty percent of the film for three weeks on private property, keeping production secretive. Hawaii stands in for a South American rainforest. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is the biggest film shot in Hawaii since Waterworld, and will generate $22 million to $45 million in the local economy. Half the film was scheduled to shoot on soundstages at Los Angeles. These included Downey, California. Filming moved to Chandler Field in Fresno, California, substituting for Mexico City International Airport, on October 11, 2007. After shooting aerial shots of Chandler Airport and a DC-3 on the morning of October 12, 2007, filming wrapped.
Effects
Producer Frank Marshall stated in 2003 that the film would not rely on CGI; it would instead use traditional special effects and stuntwork so as to be consistent with the previous films. He reiterated this in 2006. During filming, Spielberg anticipated “30%” of visual effects would be CGI, for elements such as backdrops. With Ford performing many of his stunts, Spielberg stated he could not tell the difference between Ford during the shoots for Last Crusade and Crystal Skull. While shooting War of the Worlds in late 2004, Spielberg met with stunt coordinator Vic Armstrong, who doubled for Ford in the previous films, to discuss three action sequences he had envisioned. However, Armstrong was filming The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor during shooting of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, so Dan Bradley was hired in his stead. Ben Burtt, who served as sound designer for the previous films and was an editor and director on The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, will not work on this film, as he left Lucasfilm in 2005.
Music
John Williams stated on the 2003 DVD documentary The Music of Indiana Jones that he hoped to return to write the score for the film, as he did for the previous three. In June 2007, Williams’ company, the Gorfaine-Schwartz Agency, confirmed that Williams would be involved with the film. Williams began scoring the film in October 2007.
Release
Lucas intended to unveil the title with the first teaser trailer, originally scheduled for Thanksgiving 2007, but Shia LaBeouf announced it earlier at the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards on September 9, 2007. The trailer was later said to be released “just before Christmas” of 2007. According to Paramount Pictures executive Rob Moore, the film will be released on both the HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc formats as part of its eventual home video release.
Marketing
Hasbro and Lego will produce toy lines for the film, and LucasArts will release two new Indiana Jones video games. The working title of one is Indiana Jones, and the other is a Lego edition. Burger King and Hallmark Cards will produce tie-ins. Random House, Scholastic, and DK will publish books, and Del Rey Books will publish the novelization, written by James Rollins. Scholastic will release a children’s novelization, alongside adaptations of the previous films. Dark Horse Comics will publish a comic book adaptation of the film, written by John Jackson Miller and drawn by Luke Ross (Samurai: Heaven and Earth). Howard Roffman, President of Lucas Licensing, attributed the massive marketing push to the fact that “It’s been nineteen years since the last film, and we are sensing a huge pent-up demand for everything Indy.”
Leaked plot details and theft
An extra in the film, Tyler Nelson, violated his nondisclosure agreement and gave an interview to the The Edmond Sun on September 17, 2007, which was then picked up by the mainstream media. In the interview, Nelson revealed several plot details from the film. Spielberg has yet to decide if he will cut Nelson’s scene. At Nelson’s request, The Edmond Sun subsequently pulled the story from its website. On October 2, 2007, a Superior Court order was filed finding that Nelson knowingly violated the agreement. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
On October 2, 2007, it was reported that a number of production photos and sensitive documents pertaining to the film’s production budget were stolen from Steven Spielbergs production office. An official with the Indiana Jones production reported the items missing on September 24 to the Sheriff’s Department. Marvin Levy, Steven Spielberg’s spokesman, said the director was concerned that the thieves would try to sell the materials, and on October 2, the people believed to be involved in the burglary sent out e-mails to several entertainment gossip websites offering to sell the images. According to IESB, TMZ.com obtained some of the stolen property and was on the verge of running the story on its TV division until Paramount lawyers stepped in. After Paramount was notified about the emails, they contacted sheriff’s investigators. A member of the online press helped the detectives by posing as a potential buyer and setting up a meeting in West Hollywood. When the seller arrived, he was arrested on suspicion of receiving stolen property. On October 4, Roderick Eric Davis, age 37, was charged with one felony count of receiving stolen property. He later pleaded guilty to two felony accounts and will serve two years and four months in jail.
Watercooling Motherboard MSI HydroGen. New Generation Style.
The block is made in Germany as an all copper design where the water travels all the way from one end the other. This is completely unlike any previous design that we’ve seen before which has just featured simply a single in-out from a single block on a single chipset or power regulation components by the CPU. This means that you can run a system completely passively as there’s no need for some airflow over the heatpipes like with other boards and the amount of flow reducing 90 degree turns is kept to an absolute minimum.
What’s more, there are no barbs included, just simple threaded sockets. This means watercooling enthusiasts can for once use exactly the same barb size as the rest of their system, keeping a more optimal water flow.
It looks like finally a motherboard company has listened to enthusiasts’ actual needs, however there’s no word on the warranty situation, or how it performs without being plugged into a water supply - the pipes are empty after all.
MSI claims up to 20 percent more power efficiency and up to six times longer life because of the continually reduced component temperature. We expect this also means there should be some better potential overclocking too - providing the BIOS (and new X48 chipset) is up to it.
A tentative and early price of €379 may put a lot of people off, but if you’re serious about it consider how much it costs for an entire watercooling kit in addition to finding a non-heatpiped board to fit it. From the pictures below, the awesome professional CNC milled piece might say enough to watercoolers to spend the money. Even if you’re not a watercooler, we’ve discovered that MSI is working on its own kit to work in conjunction with it, but is remaining extremely tight lipped as to how this is progressing.
It’s essentially no different than the BFG Tech 8800 GTX waterblock we looked at last year, or the Asus Maximus boards, so are you sold or do you think companies should leave watercooling to the niche high end? Let us know your thoughts in the forums.
(bit-tech.net)
Defenition:
In computers, water cooling is a method used to lower the temperatures of computer processors, and sometimes other components such as graphics cards, using water rather than air as the cooling medium. Processor speeds have increased dramatically in recent years. As a result, the heat given off by processors has also increased, as has the noise associated with equipment, such as fans, used to keep them running at a safe temperature. Because water can conduct heat about 30 times faster than air can, a water cooling system allows the processor to run at higher speeds while drastically reducing system noise. Some industry experts predict that water cooling systems will become standard for personal computers in the near future.
Here’s a simple example of a water cooling system: A pump circulates the water through a water block (a device similar to a heat sink) attached to the processor; there, heat from the processor transfers to the water. The heated water continues on to a radiator at the back of the computer case and is replaced with cool water. The heat from the water in the radiator dissipates into the air surrounding the computer. When the water has cooled to the ambient temperature, it is cycled through the system again.
Water cooling is increasingly used to deal with the special requirements of the data center. Because data centers are often assigned the most convenient available space, rather than a space that is specially designed, servers may be contained in too small an area or one that cannot be adequately ventilated. Furthermore, some data center technologies, such as blade servers (which are densely structured), put increased stress on the data center’s cooling system.
Water cooling brings its own issues to the data center, however, as well as benefits. Additional plumbing is often required. Water cooling can limit the flexibility of data center design because systems connected to plumbing cannot be easily rearranged. The combination of electronic systems and water also complicates disaster recovery planning (DRP). For example, administrators need to know in advance how they will deal with potential problems, such as rust or leakage. A common fear of combining electrical systems and water is another road block to acceptance of water cooling.
Despite the inherent challenges, many industry experts predict that water cooling is the inescapable future of the data center. According to Robert E. McFarlane, president of the Interport Division of New York-based Shen, Milsom and Wilke Inc., “Paranoia is the reason there’s so little water-cooled equipment on the market. We tend to get married to the technologies that we know and are comfortable with, but it’s getting to that point where you just can’t cool these densities without carrying it in liquid form.”
Water cooling is nothing new — automobiles and mainframe computers have used water cooling systems for many years. However, water cooling is being used in some new and innovative applications, such as environmentally friendly air conditioning systems for buildings.
Water cooling is sometimes referred to as liquid cooling, because various other substances are sometimes used instead of, or in addition to, water.
Evidence for a parallel universe?
Today’s article is not about DNA, although its far-reaching implications prompted us to share this story with our readers.
Last August, astronomers working on the analysis of data being acquired by NASA’s WMAP (Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe) satellite announced that they found a huge void in the universe. A void is a region of space that has much less material (stars, nebulae, dust and other material) than the average. Since our universe is relatively heterogeneous, empty spaces are not rare, but in this case the enormous magnitude of the hole is way outside the expected range. The hole found in the constellation of Eridanus is about a billion light years across, which is roughly 10,000 times as large as our galaxy or 400 times the distance to Andromeda, the closest “large” galaxy.
The dimension of the hole is so big that at first glance, it results impossible to explain under the current cosmological theories, although scientists put forward some explanations based on certain theoretical models that might predict the existence of “giant knots” in space known as topological defects.
However, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill physics Professor Laura Mersini-Houghton made a staggering claim. She says, “Standard cosmology cannot explain such a giant cosmic hole” and goes further with the ground-breaking hypothesis that the huge void is “… the unmistakable imprint of another universe beyond the edge of our own“.
The idea of alternative, or parallel universes has been around for quite a while and has provided considerable inspiration for Sci-Fi literature and sparked endless philosophical debate, but although begin seriously considered within the scientific realm it never crossed the limits of speculative of purely theoretical grounds. Perhaps until now. If Mersini-Houghton is right, Eridanus’ giant hole would be the first experimental evidence for the existence of another universe. The implications of this possibility are obviously of huge importance for everybody, but it also has further relevance for the astrophysics community as it would bring support for the hotly debated string theory and other central debates.
But Mersini-Houghton and colleagues’ theory of entangled universes make testable predictions, providing the opportunity to confirm or refute the claim as more data arrive to the astronomers’ computers. Her model predicts the existence of two voids rather than one, one in each hemisphere of our universe. The one that has been found by WMAP’s data lies in the Northern hemisphere. They expect new data will show a second similar void in the Southern side. This and other cutting-edge experimental projects testing Mersini-Houghton’s ideas will tell us whether a new era in cosmological thinking has indeed arrived.
Great ‘cosmic nothingness’ found
Astronomers have found an enormous void in space that measures nearly a billion light-years across.
It is empty of both normal matter - such as galaxies and stars - and the mysterious “dark matter” that cannot be seen directly with telescopes.
The “hole” is located in the direction of the Eridanus constellation and has been identified in data from a survey of the sky made at radio wavelengths.
The discovery will be reported in a paper in the Astrophysical Journal.
Previous sky surveys that have traced the large-scale structure of the nearby Universe have long shown, for example, how the clustering of galaxies is strung into vast filaments and sheets that are separated by great gaps.
But the void discovered by a University of Minnesota team is about 1,000 times the volume of what would be expected in typical cosmic gaps.
“It’s hard even for astronomers to picture how big these things are,” conceded Minnesota’s Professor Lawrence Rudnick.
“If you were to travel at the speed of light, it would take you several years to get to the nearest stars in our own Milky Way galaxy; but if you were to go to this hole and enter one side, you’d have to travel for a billion years before you would get to the other side,” he told BBC News.
The void is roughly 6-10 billion light-years away and takes a sizeable chunk out of the visible Universe in its direction.
Dark evidence
The team used data from the US National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s VLA Sky Survey (NVSS) to make its discovery. The VLA - which stands for Very Large Array - is a collection of 27 radio telescopes in New Mexico.
The finding is said to fit neatly with observations of the Universe’s “oldest light” - the famous Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation, the study of which has earned several scientists the Nobel Prize.
This is the radiation that comes from just 380,000 years after the Big Bang when the Universe had cooled to such a degree that hydrogen atoms could exist. Before that time, scientists say, the Universe would have been so hot that matter and light would have been “coupled” - the cosmos would have been opaque.
Today, this light shines at microwave wavelengths at a frigid -270C; and observations of the CMB made by Nasa’s Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe show a particular “cold spot” in the direction of the newly identified void.
The explanation for this may lie in the enigmatic “dark energy” that scientists know so little about but which is said to be accelerating the expansion of the Universe.
Light particles passing through the void would be expected to lose a little more energy than those passing through space cluttered with matter - if dark energy is stretching the Universe apart at a faster and faster rate.
Scientists refer to this as the Integrated Sachs-Wolfe Effect and a corresponding “warm spot” in the CMB associated with an area of space dominated by a supercluster of galaxies was identified some years ago.
“In essence, this latest study gives us a very elegant demonstration of the existence of dark energy in a way which is very convincing,” commented Professor Carlos Frenk, the director of the Institute for Computational Cosmology at Durham University, UK.
“We keep getting evidence for dark energy, this component of the Universe which is so dominant, and yet we still have only a tiny glimmer of what it could be.”
The reason the void exists is not known. “That’s going to be a challenge for people that work on the development of structure in the Universe. It’s a very hot topic in the cosmology right now,” said Professor Rudnick.
Reference:
Universe
The Universe is defined as the summation of all particles and energy that exist and the space-time in which all events occur. Based on observations of the portion of the Universe that is observable, physicists attempt to describe the whole of space-time, including all matter and energy and events which occur, as a single system corresponding to a mathematical model. Our universe is also defined as one component part of a larger Multiverse.
The generally accepted scientific theory which describes the origin and evolution of the Universe is Big Bang cosmology, which describes the expansion of space from an extremely hot and dense state of unknown characteristics. The Universe underwent a rapid period of cosmic inflation that flattened out nearly all initial irregularities in the energy density; thereafter the universe expanded and became steadily cooler and less dense. Minor variations in the distribution of mass resulted in hierarchical segregation of the features that are found in the current universe; such as clusters and superclusters of galaxies. There are more than one hundred billion (1011) galaxies in the Universe, each containing hundreds of billions of stars, with each star containing about 1057 atoms of hydrogen.
There are also non-scientific investigations that explore and describe the universe as a whole with their own separate cosmologies.
Multiverse
A multiverse (or meta-universe) is the hypothetical set of multiple possible universes (including our universe) that together comprise all of physical reality. The different universes within a multiverse are sometimes called parallel universes. The structure of the multiverse, the nature of each universe within it and the relationship between the various constituent universes, depend on the specific multiverse hypothesis considered.
Multiverses have been hypothesized in cosmology, physics, philosophy, theology, and fiction, particularly in science fiction and fantasy. The specific term “multiverse,” which was coined by William James, was popularized by science fiction author Michael Moorcock. In these contexts, parallel universes are also called “alternative universes,” “quantum universes,” “parallel worlds,” “alternate realities,” “alternative timelines,” etc.
The possibility of many universes raises various scientific, philosophical, and theological questions.
Sony Music must pay $5m (?2.4m) to a small record company for missing its logo off Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell album, a US court has ruled.
The decision comes after a court settlement in 1998 decided Sony should include the Cleveland International logo on future copies of the record.
But Sony failed to add the logo for more than a year afterwards.
Cleveland founder Steve Popovich said: “I worked too hard for them and made them too much money to get robbed now.”
Sony claimed the logo omission was a mistake that was eventually corrected.
According to court documents, Sony claimed that Mr Popovich had fabricated the logo agreement.
In an original dispute over royalties from the album, Mr Popovich and his former partners were awarded $6.7m (?3.2) by Sony.
Bat Out of Hell, which was originally released in 1979, has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide, according to court records.
Reference:
Meat Loaf
Michael Lee Aday (born Marvin Lee Aday; September 27, 1947), better known as Meat Loaf, is an American rock singer and actor of stage and screen. He is noted for his albums Bat out of Hell, II, and III and several famous songs from movies. The Neverland Express is the name of the band he fronts, as its lead singer. In 2001, he changed his first name to Michael.
Despite setbacks (including bankruptcy, on more than one occasion), Meat Loaf is notable for the success of his music career, spawning some of the largest-selling albums of all time, and breaking several records for chart duration. Bat out of Hell, the debut album which had been four years in the making, has sold over 37 million copies. After almost 30 years, it still sells an estimated 200,000 copies annually, and stayed on the charts for over 9 years. Each of the seven tracks on the album eventually charted as a single hit.
Although he enjoyed success with Bat out of Hell and Bat out of Hell II: Back into Hell, Meat Loaf experienced some initial difficulty establishing a steady career within his native United States; however, he has retained iconic status and popularity in Europe, especially the UK, where he ranks 23rd for number of weeks overall spent on the charts, and is one of only two artists with an album never to have left the music charts. With the help of his New York collection of musicians John Golden, Richard Raskin and Paul Jacobs his European tours enjoyed immense popularity in the 80’s. In Germany, Meat Loaf became notably popular following the release of Bat out of Hell II but has enjoyed most of his success among pop/rock fans. He ranked 96th on VH1’s ‘100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock’.
Meat Loaf has also appeared in over 50 movies or television shows sometimes even as himself, or as characters resembling his onstage personality, such as his memorable role as Eddie in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. He appeared in the acclaimed feature film Fight Club, as Robert “Bob” Paulson; he is credited for this role as “Meat Loaf Aday”.
In 2007 Meat Loaf granted filmmaker Bruce David Klein exclusive access for the making of Meat Loaf: In Search of Paradise, an independent theatrical documentary film that captures the legendary rocker and his life in rehearsals and on the road during his 2007 World Tour. The film was an official selection of the Montreal World Film Festival in 2007.
Sony
Sony Corporation (Son? Kabushiki-gaisha?) is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation and one of the world’s largest media conglomerates with revenue of $70.303 billion (as of 2007) based in Minato, Tokyo. Sony is one of the leading manufacturers of electronics, video, communications, video games and information technology products for the consumer and professional markets.
Sony Corporation is the electronics business unit and the parent company of the Sony Group, which is engaged in business through its five operating segments electronics, games, entertainment (motion pictures and music), financial services and other. These make Sony one of the most comprehensive entertainment companies in the world. Sony’s principal business operations include Sony Corporation (Sony Electronics in the U.S.), Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Sony Ericsson and Sony Financial Holdings. As a semiconductor maker, Sony is among the Worldwide Top 20 Semiconductor Sales Leaders. Its slogan is Sony. Like no other.
Frenchman Sebastien Loeb steered his Citroen C4 WRC through the final stages today (Sunday 18th) without incident to take victory in the inaugural Rally Ireland WRC.
Loeb completed his victory with a 53 second lead over his Citroen team-mate Dani Sordo and Finn Jari-Matti Latvala, taking his first WRC podium, finished third. Loeb now takes a six-point advantage over Finn Marcus Gronholm into the final round of the Championship, Wales Rally GB, in two weeks” time. Ford Motorsport’’s consolation came in the form of winning their 2nd consecutive WRC Manufacturer’’s title courtesy of Mikko Hirvonen’’s 4th place finish.
Loeb was presented with the Hands Across the Divide trophy by Ministers Mary Coughlan and Margaret Ritchie, representing the Irish and Northern Ireland governments. The trophy represents the cross-border co-operation of Rally Ireland.
Gareth McHale led the Irish challenge over the weekend and gained his second points finish in the WRC when he came home in 8th place. Previously, McHale finished 6 th in Rally Mexico 2006.
Fermanagh driver Niall McShea completed an excellent weekend for Irish rallying when he took victory in the PWRC category. McShea previously won the PWRC Championship in the WRC in the 2004.
A former gymnast, Loeb was recognised in 1995 as a finalist in the ‘Volant Rallye Jeune’. Sebastien didn’t win that title in 1995 and 1996 but he succeeded in 1997 and was elected ‘New Talent of the Year’ by the monthly publication Echappement.
Sebastian Loeb BIO
A former gymnast, Loeb was recognised in 1995 as a finalist in the ‘Volant Rallye Jeune’. Sebastien didn’t win that title in 1995 and 1996 but he succeeded in 1997 and was elected ‘New Talent of the Year’ by the monthly publication Echappement.
Loeb competed in the Citroen Saxo kit car Trophy in 1998. His talent was obvious and he finished sixth in his first season. He continued in the same category in 1999 and won the championship. Loeb also took part in three WRC events that same year at the wheel of a Saxo kit car.
After experiencing asphalt, Sebastien decided to learn more about gravel-type events by competing in the French Gravel Rally Championship. ‘Seb’ won the 2000 title in the 2-litre, 2-wheel drive class. He also won his first race in the French Championship at the Rallye du Var that same year. Loeb also drove in two more WRC events, clinching a ninth place at the Tour de Corse and a tenth position at the Sanremo, both at the wheel of a Toyota Corolla.
Sebastien Loeb became an official Citroen driver in 2001. The Frenchman had a double programme that season: he drove a Xsara kit car in the French Rally Championship and a Saxo Super 1600 in the World Rally Championship. The results couldn’t have been any better: he won the French Rally Championship and the Super 1600 World Rally Championship.
The 2002 season started with a remarkable victory at the Monte Carlo… but that very first WRC win was later taken away from him. Later in the season, Loeb took his revenge and won his first official WRC victory in Germany.
Sebastien almost became World Champion in 2003. A long battle with Petter Solberg only ended in the last event of the season. Solberg won by a single point but Loeb impressed with three victories: Monte Carlo, Deutschland and Sanremo.
Sebastien dominated the 2004 championship with victories in Monte Carlo, Sweden, Cyprus, Turkey, Germany and Australia. His remarkable season was also supplemented by second place finishes in Greece, Argentina, Japan, Great Britain, Sardinia and the Tour de Corse.
Loeb did even better in 2005. The Frenchman dominated the entire season, winning ten races out of 16 events. Almost unbeatable on every type of surfaces, he won a second consecutive drivers’ championship title.
Comcast Corporation , the nation’s leading provider of cable, entertainment and communications products and services, and Microsoft Corp. , the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions, have launched a new Internet-based communications product for small and medium- sized businesses (SMBs), giving SMBs access to services that have traditionally only been available to larger companies with IT staffs. Comcast’s SMB customers will be the first in the country to receive Microsoft Communication Services from Comcast, which will provide them with corporate- class e-mail, calendaring and document sharing. This product is Internet- based, so SMBs do not need additional server capacity and is backed by 24×7 Business Class customer support from Comcast, which will serve as an SMB’s “help desk.”
Comcast is the only major U.S. Internet service provider to make this product available at no additional cost with its broadband services. Microsoft Communication Services lets small-business owners focus on running their businesses rather than worrying about IT issues by:
- Enabling SMB teams to share documents and access calendars, track
tasks, and use e-mail efficiently and effectively through corporate-
class productivity and collaboration solutions based on Microsoft
Exchange Server 2007, Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 and Microsoft
Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
- Removing barriers of up-front costs, help desk support and ongoing
system maintenance, which often prevent SMBs from experiencing the
benefits of corporate-grade IT services
- Extending the boundaries of the “office” to anywhere there’s Internet
access
- Improving communication by letting SMBs extend access to these
collaboration tools, such as document sharing, to important business
partners or suppliers
- Providing full integration with Comcast’s network and around-the-clock
support
Microsoft Communication Services is the first major product to be launched in conjunction with Comcast’s introduction of high-speed Internet, phone and video services for small businesses across the country. Comcast is providing SMBs with the first real alternative to the local phone company for these services.
“Working with Microsoft to enhance our Comcast Business Class Internet demonstrates our commitment to bringing simple, time-saving tools to small businesses,” said Bill Stemper, president of Comcast Business Services. “Many of our small-business customers use stand-alone Microsoft products on their own PCs, which benefits individual employees. Now, as part of their Comcast high-speed Internet service, they can quickly schedule meetings, share a common address book, or easily share or review important documents, which benefits the entire business.”
Added Michael O’Hara, general manager for the Communications Sector at Microsoft, “The alliance announced today is particularly exciting because it serves to deliver new levels of productivity and flexibility to small and medium-sized businesses across the U.S. We can now offer SMBs the business- building communication and collaboration tools they need, and Comcast is helping remove the traditional barriers that have kept SMBs from adopting these tools in a meaningful way.”
“Small businesses present a significant opportunity for service providers offering integrated service packages. Despite advances in network infrastructure over the past decade that have improved reliability and decreased costs, businesses that don’t have an extensive IT capability lack many of the tools utilized by corporate-class establishments,” said Matt Davis, director of Consumer & Business Multiplay Services at IDC. “Service provider offerings that provide compelling applications along with affordable pricing as part of a bundled broadband and voice solution are well positioned to garner share in the marketplace.”
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
About Comcast
Comcast Corporation (http://www.comcast.com) is the nation’s leading provider of cable, entertainment and communications products and services. With 24.2 million cable customers, 12.9 million high-speed Internet customers, and 4.1 million voice customers, Comcast is principally involved in the development, management and operation of broadband cable systems and in the delivery of programming content.
Comcast’s content networks and investments include E! Entertainment Television, Style Network, The Golf Channel, VERSUS, G4, AZN Television, PBS KIDS Sprout, TV One, Comcast SportsNet and Comcast Interactive Media, which develops and operates Comcast’s Internet business. Comcast also has a majority ownership in Comcast-Spectacor, whose major holdings include the Philadelphia Flyers NHL hockey team, the Philadelphia 76ers NBA basketball team and two large multipurpose arenas in Philadelphia.
Comcast
Comcast was founded in 1963 by Ralph J. Roberts, Daniel Aaron, and Julian A. Brodsky based on a recommendation from Warren “Pete” Musser, of Harrisburg, who brought the deal to Ralph Roberts to buy his first cable system in Tupelo, Mississippi. The company was incorporated in Pennsylvania in 1969, under the name Comcast Corporation from American Cable Systems, though a former insider says that “Comcast” is a derivation of the name “Communications and Broadcasting”. Moving into the area of programming content, Comcast became majority owner of Comcast-Spectacor, Comcast SportsNet (in Chicago, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Washington DC/Baltimore, MD, metro Sacramento, Detroit, and Houston ), E! Entertainment Television, Style Network, G4, The Golf Channel and Versus (formerly known as Outdoor Life Network) over a period of years. In 2006, Comcast started a new sports channel in cooperation with Major League Baseball’s New York Mets, SportsNet New York in the greater New York City region.
Comcast also has a variety network known as CN8, or the Comcast Network, available exclusively to Comcast and Cablevision subscribers. The channel shows news, sports, and entertainment and places emphasis in Philadelphia, New England, and the Baltimore/Washington, D.C. areas, though the channel is also available in New York, Pittsburgh, and Richmond. In August 2004, Comcast started a channel called CET (Comcast Entertainment Television). It is only available to Colorado Comcast subscribers. It focuses on Life in Colorado. It also carries some NHL & NBA Games when Altitude Sports & Entertainment is carrying the NBA or NHL. In January 2006, CET became the primary channel for Colorado’s Emergency Alert System in the Denver Metro Area.
The UK division was sold to NTL in 1998. After the sale of their cellular division to SBC Communications of San Antonio and the acquisition of Greater Philadelphia Cablevision in 1999, Comcast and MediaOne announced a $60 billion merger which did not occur until three years later (as AT&T Broadband).
In 2002, Comcast paid the University of Maryland $25 million for naming rights to the new basketball arena built on the College Park campus, named Comcast Center.
On January 3, 2005, Comcast announced that it would become the anchor tenant in a new skyscraper in downtown Philadelphia, to be named the Comcast Center, not to be confused with the Maryland arena mentioned above. The 975 ft skyscraper, while still under construction, has topped off and is officially the tallest building in Pennsylvania.
In December 2005, Comcast announced the creation of Comcast Interactive Media (CIM), a new division focused on online media.
Presently, Comcast serves a total of 24.1 million cable customers, 14.1 million digital cable customers, 12.4 million high-speed internet customers, and 3.5 million voice customers. The company employs over 90,000 people. Comcast is headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and also has corporate offices in Houston, Detroit, and Denver.
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Born February 21, 1979 in Waco Texas, Jennifer Love Hewitt was raised by her mother in the small town of Killeen. ‘Love’ comes from her mother’s best friend in college, but her brother Todd gave her the “Jennifer” part. It was the name of a girl he had a crush on when he was younger. He said the name Love may not be cool when she grows up, boy was he wrong. She stands 5′ 2 1/2″ tall, and has the best smile ever. Family includes Mom (Pat Hewitt), a speech pathologist, Dad (Danny Hewitt), a medical technician, and her brother Todd. Her parents separated when she was six. Her first entertainment job as at age 3, where at a livestock show she sang “The Greatest Love of All”.
When she was 4 she disappeared in a restaurant-dance hall, she was later found on the stage singing “Help Me make It Through The Night”. By 5, she was taking tap, jazz, and ballet lessons, which led her to joining the Texas Show Team, which toured the Soviet Union and Europe. The talent scouts advised her that even at age 10 moving to LA would help her career and it did. Love quickly found commercial work and a role on Disney’s “Kids Incorporated” where she met future co-star Scott Wolf. While doing Party of Five she took correspondence classes from Laurel Springs High School for Young Actors and graduated in 1998.
You may know her for her acting (which she was quite successful), but she has three solo albums as well. One of her goals after acting is to be a child psychiatrist. She founded and runs Love Spell Entertainment (her own production company!). Love sent 3 dozen pink roses along with a 2-page letter to Gwyneth Paltrow the night before Paltrow won the Oscar in 1999. Paltrow sent a reply a week later, and Love framed it “it’s my favorite thing”. When the 2 actresses met for the first time at the 2000 Golden Globes, “she came up to me and gave me a hug for the flowers. I thought I was going to pass out. I was absolutely going to have a heart attack,” Love said.
We hear she likes strawberries with whipped cream and chocolate. Her best friend’s her Mom! Many TV appearances, Movies, loads of interviews, magazine articles, and her music is absolutely beautiful. Young, talented, Jennifer Love Hewitt.
After moving to Los Angeles, Hewitt appeared in more than twenty television commercials. Her first break came as a child actor on the Disney Channel variety show Kids Incorporated (1989–1991). During this time she danced in and sang all the songs for a live action video called “Dance! Workout With Barbie” released by Buena Vista.
In 1992, she played Pierce Brosnan’s daughter in a pilot for NBC called Running Wilde, which featured Brosnan as a reporter for Auto World magazine whose stories cover his own wild auto adventures, but the series wasn’t picked up and the pilot never aired. She later played on television in several short-lived series, such as Fox’s Shaky Ground (1992–1993), ABC’s Byrds of Paradise (1994), and McKenna (1994–1995). Finally, Hewitt became a young star after landing the role of Sarah Reeves on the popular Fox Television show Party of Five (1995–1999), joining the cast during its second season. She continued the same role in the short-lived Party of Five spin-off, Time of Your Life (1999). Hewitt was also one of the producers, but the show was cancelled after only half a season.
She made her film debut in the independent film Munchie (1992). Hewitt became a film star after a lead role in the horror film I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997). The film had great box-office success (125,000,000 U.S. dollars worldwide), and Hewitt became one of the most popular young stars in the USA (together with her co-stars: Freddie Prinze Jr., Ryan Phillippe, and Sarah Michelle Gellar). She also appeared in the sequel I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998), which was not as successful as the first film but brought in more money than the first on its opening weekend. Other notable film roles included the high-school comedy Can’t Hardly Wait (1998) and a starring role with Sigourney Weaver in the romantic comedy Heartbreakers (2001).
In 2000, Hewitt appeared in The Audrey Hepburn Story. That same year, she was the “most popular actress on television” due to her Q-rating (a measurement of a celebrity’s popularity) of thirty-seven. For that reason, Nokia chose her to become its spokesperson, because of her “fresh image”, and her being “a symbol of youthfulness and wholesomeness”.
In 2001, she appeared in the music video for the Enrique Iglesias song, “Hero”, as the singer’s love interest.
Hewitt wrote I’m Gonna Love You for the movie The Hunchback of Notre Dame II because, although she was a well-known singer at the time, her character Madellaine was the only character who didn’t sing in the movie. The song won an award for Best Song on DVD Awards.
Since September 2005, Hewitt has starred in the television series Ghost Whisperer. In Australia, Ghost Whisperer has been popular since its introduction; in the United States, the show averages 9-11 million viewers for each new episode. Hewitt has also auditioned for many roles. She lost the role of “Juliet” in Romeo + Juliet to Claire Danes at the last moment. She also had to give up the role of “Darlene” in Brokedown Palace because of scheduling conflicts. Hewitt also auditioned for the role of “Elektra” in Daredevil.
To date, she has released four albums with some success, most notably in Japan. Her first album was released in Japan, where she is widely considered a pop star. Her explanation for her success in Japan is that the Japanese “love perky music. The poppier the music, the better.”
Hewitt confirmed that she would not pose nude or do nude scenes in movies.
Halloween, or Hallowe’en, is a holiday celebrated on the night of October 31. Traditional activities include trick-or-treating, bonfires, costume parties, visiting “haunted houses” and carving jack-o-lanterns. The term Halloween (and its alternative rendering Hallowe’en) is shortened from All-hallow-even, as it is the eve of “All Hallows’ Day”,[1] which is now also known as All Saints’ Day. Some modern Halloween traditions developed out of older pagan traditions, especially surrounding the Irish holiday Samhain, a day associated both with the harvest and otherworldly spirits. Irish and Scottish immigrants carried versions of the tradition to North America in the nineteenth century. Other western countries embraced the holiday in the late twentieth century. Halloween is now celebrated in several parts of the Western world, most commonly in Ireland, the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and the United Kingdom and occasionally in parts of Australia and New Zealand.
Many European cultural traditions, in particular Celtic cultures, hold that Halloween is one of the liminal times of the year when spirits can make contact with the physical world, and when magic is most potent (according to, for example, Catalan mythology about witches and Scottish and Irish tales of the Sidhe).
History of Halloween, like any other festival’s history is inspired through traditions that have transpired through ages from one generation to another. We follow them mostly as did our dads and grandpas. And as this process goes on, much of their originality get distorted with newer additions and alterations. It happens so gradually, spanning over so many ages, that we hardly come to know about these distortions. At one point of time it leaves us puzzled, with its multicolored faces. Digging into its history helps sieve out the facts from the fantasies which caught us unaware. Yet, doubts still lurk deep in our soul, especially when the reality differs from what has taken a deep seated root into our beliefs. The history of Halloween Day, as culled from the net, is being depicted here in this light. This is to help out those who are interested in washing off the superficial hues to reach the core and know things as they truly are. ‘Trick or treat’ may be an innocent fun to relish on the Halloween Day. But just think about a bunch of frightening fantasies and the scary stories featuring ghosts, witches, monsters, evils, elves and animal sacrifices associated with it. They are no more innocent. Are these stories a myth or there is a blend of some reality? Come and plunge into the halloween history to unfurl yourself the age-old veil of mysticism draped around it.
Behind the name… Halloween, or the Hallow E’en as they call it in Ireland , means All Hallows Eve, or the night before the ‘All Hallows’, also called ‘All Hallowmas’, or ‘All Saints’, or ‘All Souls’ Day, observed on November 1. In old English the word ‘Hallow’ meant ’sanctify’. Roman Catholics, Episcopalians and Lutherians used to observe All Hallows Day to honor all Saints in heaven, known or unknown. They used to consider it with all solemnity as one of the most significant observances of the Church year. And Catholics, all and sundry, was obliged to attend Mass. The Romans observed the holiday of Feralia, intended to give rest and peace to the departed. Participants made sacrifices in honor of the dead, offered up prayers for them, and made oblations to them. The festival was celebrated on February 21, the end of the Roman year. In the 7th century, Pope Boniface IV introduced All Saints’ Day to replace the pagan festival of the dead. It was observed on May 13. Later, Gregory III changed the date to November 1. The Greek Orthodox Church observes it on the first Sunday after Pentecost. Despite this connection with the Roman Church, the American version of Halloween Day celebration owes its origin to the ancient (pre-Christian) Druidic fire festival called “Samhain”, celebrated by the Celts in Scotland, Wales and Ireland. Samhain is pronounced “sow-in”, with “sow” rhyming with cow. In Ireland the festival was known as Samhein, or La Samon, the Feast of the Sun. In Scotland, the celebration was known as Hallowe’en. In Welsh it’s Nos Galen-gaeof (that is, the Night of the Winter Calends. According to the Irish English dictionary published by the Irish Texts Society: “Samhain, All Hallowtide, the feast of the dead in Pagan and Christian times, signalizing the close of harvest and the initiation of the winter season, lasting till May, during which troops (esp. the Fiann) were quartered. Faeries were imagined as particularly active at this season. From it the half year is reckoned. also called Feile Moingfinne (Snow Goddess).(1) The Scottish Gaelis Dictionary defines it as “Hallowtide. The Feast of All Soula. Sam + Fuin = end of summer.”(2) Contrary to the information published by many organizations, there is no archaeological or literary evidence to indicate that Samhain was a deity. The Celtic Gods of the dead were Gwynn ap Nudd for the British, and Arawn for the Welsh. The Irish did not have a “lord of death” as such. Thus most of the customs connected with the Day are remnants of the ancient religious beliefs and rituals, first of the Druids and then transcended amongst the Roman Christians who conquered them.
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