With Greece on the brink of quitting the Eurozone, the world’s economy does not seem to be any rosier despite recent austerity measures that were taken. Unless you are Apple with a crazy stock capitalization, chances are your bottomline is also being badly affected, and even behemoths like HP is stated to be working on a workforce reduction by 25,000 to 30,000 people, at least according to folks who are familiar with HP’s inner wheelings and dealings. These cuts were tipped to be part of the recent decision by top management to merge a couple of its business units, hence making redundant the number of employees by approximately 8%. This is part of the continuing effort by HP to reduce their expenses as they contemplate bread and butter issues such as declining revenue and profits. When contacted, a HP spokesperson naturally declined to share any comments, so we will just have to wait and see whether this speculation pans out or not.

Related articles:HP Windows 8 tablets being manufactured againHP Cloud Services is now a public betaHP Pavilion dm1-4175nr by Alexandre Herchcovitch

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source : www.ubergizmo.com

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The $150 million US modernist art palace, now home to the multibillion-dollar art collection of the late pharmaceutical magnate Dr. Albert Barnes, opens Saturday. Admission is free for the first 10 days, though all tickets are sold out. The $18 admission fee US ($15 for seniors, $10 for students and children) kicks in starting May 26.

Stephen Harmelin, a Barnes trustee and its treasurer, described efforts that began a decade earlier to secure what was “an embattled institution.”

“There were financial challenges to be faced … questions about how the foundation as it existed could go on with its mission, worries about the safety and integrity of the collection in the long run,” he said.

“We were convinced that the only change that could save the Barnes was to redouble our commitment to its mission, to reach out more widely than ever before, to build, to expand and to move the collection to a more accessible location.”

It was a difficult decision “but it brought us to where we are today,” Hamelin told several hundred media and donors attending the reception.

Barnes, a pharmaceutical magnate who died in 1951, stipulated in a trust that his legendary trove of 800 impressionist and post-impressionist paintings forever “remain in exactly the places they are.”

Foundation officials asked a judge’s permission in 2002 to break Barnes’ trust, allowing the collection to relocate near Philadelphia’s museums and cultural attractions. The foundation stated its endowment was exhausted and it would go bankrupt if required to keep the 181 Renoirs, 69 Cezannes, 59 Matisses, 46 Picassos and thousands of other objects in their suburban Merion home, which was subject to township zoning regulations restricting the number of visitors.

Three charitable organizations promised to help the Barnes raise $150 million for a new gallery and an endowment when the relocation was approved in 2004. Opponents called the move a power play by Philadelphia’s elites to bring the renowned collection to the city against its late owner’s wishes.

Protestors picket outside the new home of the Barnes Foundation art collection on Philadelphia’s museum mile on Wednesday. (Matt Rourke/Associated Press)

The Barnes is officially not a museum but an educational institution keeping with its mission when Albert Barnes established it in 1922 to teach populist methods of appreciating and evaluating art. Its new home does have museum-like amenities like a cafeteria and gift shop, however, as well as discreet classroom and lecture space.

The art galleries replicate Barnes’ own eccentric arrangement in Merion, with paintings grouped closely together and accompanied by furniture and ironwork, but hidden state-of-the-art lighting reveals “the true colors and vibrancy” of many paintings for the first time, Barnes president and executive director Derek Gillman said.

Ellsworth Kelly, who created a sculpture for the Barnes grounds, mistakenly thought one painting had been cleaned because it looked remarkably more vivid, Gillman said.

A handful of members from Friends of the Barnes Foundation, a citizens organization that unsuccessfully waged a legal fight for years to halt the move, protested near the entrance as visitors made their way inside.

“We had the real thing — it was successful, it was financially sustainable,” stated Evelyn Yaari, a group member who lives near the Barnes building in Merion. “This is a fake. The public is not getting the real thing.”

source : www.cbc.ca

Brown, widely acclaimed as the “Godfather of go-go” for his pioneering sound, died Wednesday at Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore. Hospital spokesman Gary Stephenson confirmed Brown had died after a hospital stay that began April 18.

Thanks to Brown and his deep, gravelly voice, go-go music was uniquely identified with Washington. That’s where he continued to play the city’s club circuit to a loyal audience late in life.

Mayor Vincent Gray stated the nation’s capital will be a different place without him. Mournful admirers of the musician were called Wednesday evening to an impromptu candlelight vigil in Washington, where a sound truck was to blast a special Chuck Brown music mix to the crowd before a prayer session for him.

“Go-go is D.C.’s very own unique contribution to the world of pop music,” he said. “Today is a very sad day for music lovers the world over.”

In 2007 Brown told The Associated Press that go-go was influenced by sounds and fast beats he heard early in life, growing up in North Carolina and Virginia, combined with his experience later, playing with a Latin band.

“Go-go is a music that continues on and on, and it’s a call and response communication with the audience,” Brown said.

Go-go was heavy on percussion with drummers as lead players, accented by guitar riffs, keyboards and horns. Sometimes the musicians would play for two or three hours without stopping. In between tunes, Brown would keep the thunk of percussion going and speak to the crowd.

Defining a sound, inspiring younger artists

Brown’s hit Bustin’ Loose with his group, the Soul Searchers, helped define go-go’s sound. It spent several weeks atop the R&B chart in 1979. Rapper Nelly later sampled Brown’s Bustin’ Loose in 2002 for his big hit Hot in Herre, which won Nelly a Grammy.

Brown did not get credit at first, though, and “had to go through some legalities to get it right, but we knew, once we heard the song, that is Chuck Brown,” stated Gregory “Sugar Bear” Elliott, lead singer of the go-go band EU (Experience Unlimited.)

‘Chuck Brown Will Always Be Bustin’ Loose — the Godfather of Go-Go’—Spike Lee, filmmaker

In 2007, rapper Eve sampled Brown’s song, Blow Your Whistle, in her hit single Tambourine. Brown told the AP he admired such artists.

“Go-go had some influence on rap because a lot of rap musicians come to my shows,” he said. “Some of them were students at Howard University. People like Puff Daddy, he is been to see us when he was a young Howard University student.”

Filmmaker Spike Lee, a fan of Brown’s, used go-go for his motion picture School Daze.

“Chuck Brown Will Always Be Bustin’ Loose — the Godfather of Go-Go,” Lee stated through a spokeswoman.

Elliot stated Brown had been a father figure since he was a teen when he aspired to be a rocker like Jimmy Hendrix but realized he would not make it that way as a young black man. When he saw Brown perform, he stated he “instantly knew” what he wanted to do.

“Chuck Brown is going to live on forever. I’m going to make sure of that,” Elliott said. “When they see me, I want them to see a reflection of Chuck because he inspired me so much.”

He added: “The go-go sound is still going strong.”

When Brown was younger, he spent some time in jail. While behind bars, he traded five cartons of cigarettes for his first guitar. After he was freed in 1962, Brown played with several bands and then formed the Soul Searchers. To comply with terms of his parole, they could not play where alcohol was served, so they went to churches, recreation halls and youth centers.

Brown’s daughter, Cherita Whiting, stated he had died from complications with pneumonia and was gone too soon.

“I just want to tell all his fans, thank you, for lovin’ our dad,” she said. “He had the ideal fans in the world.”

During the crack epidemic of the 1980s, violence in some clubs affected go-go’s reputation. Brown stated “we cannot blame the go-go for that,” though.

More recently, he stated he had seen more grandparents at his shows, with an audience ranging in age from 18 to 60. In 2005, he was named a National Heritage Fellow by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Washington was always his most loyal fan base, Brown told the AP, and he was happy to play in the city for the rest of his life.

source : www.cbc.ca

As well, animated video informing kids about masturbation has been removed.

The moves follow concerns raised by Heritage Minister James Moore’s office and dozens of complaints about the exhibit called Sex: A Tell-All Exhibition.

“We take the feedback of our community seriously, and so we have carefully considered their suggestions, and taken appropriate action that we believe will ideal serve our audiences.”

Moore’s spokesman, James Maunder, stated the purpose of the Museum of Science and Technology is to foster scientific and technological literacy.

The age of admission has been raised to 16 from 12.

Maunder told the Huffington Post the exhibit does not fit that mandate, adding the content can’t be defended and is “insulting to taxpayers.”

The exhibit was originally produced for the Montreal Science Centre.

The Institute for Marriage and Family Canada, which visited the show last week, believes the “erotic and titillating” exhibit doesn’t belong in a museum.

Dave Quist, the institute’s director, stated the exhibit approves and promotes anal sex, multiple partners and sex without emotional and marital commitment.

With files from The Canadian Press

source : www.cbc.ca

Eight years ago, Facebook was started in a dorm room at Harvard University. Now it’s about to become a public company, valued at US$100-billion. Those must have been the craziest eight years of Mark Zuckerberg’s life.

As the social network’s initial public offering (IPO) is scheduled for tomorrow, it seems like a good time to reflect on what the company has become, and ponder if you’ll be one of the investors to snatch up a tiny part of Facebook for somewhere between US$28 and US$35.

This infographic offers a concise summary of everything that’s been going down in the world of Facebook, and just how successful the company has become. Did you know that 2-billion posts are ‘liked’ each day on Facebook? Or that 85% of the populations of Turkey, Chile and Venezuela use Facebook, but 0% of people in China do? Or that it’s worth more than Boeing… yes, the company that makes aeroplanes. Sorry, what? What does Facebook do? Enable you to stalk people, share pics of your cat and tell all your friends about what you had for breakfast (oh, and plan protests that can help topple governments).

Even with all the speak around the IPO, there are still investors who aren’t exactly counting the minutes until they can hand over their cash for a stake in the company — most recently, Warren Buffett (number three on Forbes’ list of billionaires) decided he would rather purchase some shares in General Motors than Facebook, thank you very much. And if you were around during the days of Myspace, you’ll appreciate the unhappy ‘comments’ in the infographic by founder Tom Anderson. Ok, technically, Myspace is still around — you can even log in and sign up to Myspace using your Facebook account. Which, if you think about it, states a lot about how successful Facebook has become.

Infographic courtesy of MBAOnline.com

source : feedproxy.google.com

Wallabies back-rower Scott Higginbotham is set to defect from the Queensland Reds to the Melbourne Rebels next season as the Super Rugby newcomers continue a week which could prove a club turning point.

Neither the Reds nor Rebels has officially confirmed Higginbotham’s move to Melbourne from 2013 on a multi-year  contract.

But it appears a done deal and is expected to be announced within the next week.

Coach Damien Hill admitted Higginbotham would be a fantastic addition to his club.

”I’ve a lot of admiration for Scott as a player – he is currently one of the ideal players in Australian rugby,” Hill said.

”We’re talking to a number of players. Scott is one of the ideal ball-running, lineout-jumping options in Australian rugby.

”He’s a player well admired by anyone I’ve ever spoken to, and he seems to be getting better and better.”

Following a stunning upset win over the Crusaders last weekend, the Rebels can cement themselves as a club on the rise if they beat the Western Force in Perth on Sunday.

Back-to-back wins and away victories have both been hard to come by for the Rebels.

But the looming addition of Higginbotham following the recruitment of exciting duo James O’Connor and Kurtley Beale last season shows the Rebels have become serious players in recruitment.

On-field, a victory over the Force could get the club rolling towards an excellent finish to their second season.

Vice-captain Hugh Pyle believes the Rebels’ on-field efforts may well be helping convince players like Higginbotham there is potential at the club to achieve something great in future seasons.

”I’m sure the way we have been going the last couple of weeks has been able to help with guys making those kinds of decisions,” Pyle said.

source : www.stuff.co.nz

Krisnan Inu scores the try that sends the Wests Tigers crashing out of the 2011 NRL finals series.

Wests Tigers coach Tim Sheens states the club is ready to turn around their patchy NRL form and exact revenge on the Warriors for ending their premiership dream last season.

Sheens admitted the Tigers were still burning from the heart-breaking semi-final loss, where Warriors centre Krisnan Inu scored the match-winner in the dying minutes to knock the Tigers out.

When asked if the loss still hurt, Sheens said: ”I think so, yeah, particularly the nature of the last try that beat us, given that we had led the whole game … so we have got a lot to play for.”

Sheens stated the lesson on offer that night was one the Tigers were still coming to grips with.

He stated despite recording three wins on the trot, his team had still yet to impress ahead of Friday’s clash at Leichhardt Oval.

The past two victories have been one-point wins over Parramatta and Gold Coast respectively, highlighting Sheens’ concerns which trail back to their finals defeat last season.

”We’ve got a lesson to learn there. We’re going to have to play a tiny more consistent,” Sheens said.

”Our form has been patchy but we have put together three wins in our last three games so we are looking to build on that.”

Halfback Benji Marshall, who is standing in as skipper with Robbie Farah in camp with NSW ahead of next week’s State Or Origin opener, stated the wins had not been anything special.

”I would not state we have turned the corner yet,” Marshall said.

”Our form still hasn’t been outstanding. We were probably lucky to win against the Gold Coast.

”Even though we have been winning, it hasn’t been the most polished performances.

”A tiny bit inconsistent but at the same time the last three wins have been very important after five losses.

”Just to get that sort of momentum back into the squad and then get two points for the bye did us a lot of favours going into this game.”

Injured back-rower Chris Heighington remains unlikely to return from a hand injury despite seeing a specialist on Thursday.

Sheens also shot down any suggestion the club was chasing former Warriors and Tigers fullback Wade McKinnon, who is seeking a new deal after parting ways with English Super League club Hull FC.

source : www.stuff.co.nz

President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) clashed during a White House meeting on Wednesday, with the Speaker telling the president that he was “not going to grant a debt-ceiling increase without doing something serious about the debt,” Boehner’s office said.

The president convened the meeting of the bipartisan congressional leadership to discuss his “to-do list” for Congress, but an aide to the Speaker stated the bulk of the meeting was spent on other issues, including a pile-up of expiring tax provisions and the next increase in the federal debt limit.

Boehner asked Obama if he was proposing that Congress increase the debt limit without corresponding spending cuts, according to a readout of the meeting from the Speaker’s office. The president replied, “Yes.” At that point, Boehner told Obama, “As long as I’m around here, I’m not going to grant a debt-ceiling increase without doing something serious about the debt.”

Shortly after the meeting, White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters that the president warned the leadership that he would not grant a repeat of last August’s debt-ceiling “debacle,” which led to a downgrade in the U.S. credit rating.

“You have to ask the Speaker of the House whether or not he intends or he believes that it is the right thing to do for the American people or the American economy to play chicken with the full faith and credit of the United States of America,” Carney stated at his daily press briefing.

The meeting came one day after Boehner delivered a speech to a fiscal summit in Washington in which he stated he would once again demand spending cuts and reforms that exceed any increase in the nation’s borrowing limit that Congress approves. Boehner also called out Obama in that address for showing a lack of “courage” in last summer’s debt talks. 

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) also attended the meeting.

The White House lunch, which was described by officials on all sides as “cordial,” resembled the early moves in a chess match and involved a web of major items that will likely await congressional action in a lame-duck session in December. The outcome could rest on whom voters elect in the November elections, but leaders in both parties have begun jockeying for leverage already.

♦ GOP hints it’ll part with Keystone to finish highway bill
♦ McCain huddles with Dems on campaign finance reform
♦ GOP lawmaker: Obama ‘tone-deaf’ on harm from high gas prices
♦ Dem: House will ride on healthcare
♦ Holding company exec to Grassley: Not Google’s planes
♦ Top Army general objects to GOP plan to slow troop reductions
♦ FBI director confirms JPMorgan investigation

In making his demand for more spending cuts, Boehner staked out a clear position that House Republicans can run on this fall, and delivered a warning to Democrats who believe they have more leverage in the debate over the Bush tax rates and the looming sequester cuts to the military, which Republicans in particular abhor.

But Reid had his own message for the Speaker. The Senate leader, according to a Democratic aide, “conveyed his view that any discussion of the debt ceiling is premature until after the sequester takes effect or is replaced with a balanced agreement, and after Congress deals with the expiring Bush tax cuts.”

Boehner’s office has described the Speaker’s position as simply an effort to start negotiations early, well before the “fiscal cliff” at the end of the year. But there is virtually no hope of reaching an agreement in the middle of the heated campaign, and Reid signaled that he feels tiny urgency to act in advance.

McConnell, who offered only tepid support for Boehner’s approach on Tuesday, notably did not mention the debt ceiling in the comments that were provided by his office after the meeting. Instead, he referred only to his push for an agreement on a student loan bill that can pass the Senate.

If nothing else, there was bipartisan agreement on the lunch menu, which featured hoagies from a D.C. sandwich shop that Obama purchased for the leadership.

“My sense was the tone was congenial, the discussion was productive, the sandwiches were delicious,” Carney said. 

He downplayed that the back-and-forth centered on Boehner’s agenda, saying numerous items were raised in what was a “healthy and positive discussion” between the president and congressional leaders. 

The readout from Boehner’s office suggested a more confrontational meeting. It stated the Speaker also pressed the president to approve the complete Keystone oil sands pipeline and to encourage Attorney General Eric Holder to provide information congressional investigators have sought on the “Fast and Furious” gun-running operation.

It concluded with the note that the Speaker “was very pleased with the sandwiches served.”

Pelosi told reporters that the meeting was cordial, despite the differing views. “No ‘Kumbaya,’ but hoagie-like, could we say?” she said. “I don’t know. It was a good meeting. It was productive.”

Still, she joined the other Democrats in warning against Boehner’s position on the debt limit. 

“If we’re going on the path that the Speaker is suggesting, that the debt ceiling has to have more cuts than the lifting of the debt ceiling, we will soon have no government. But that might be the plan,” Pelosi said.

“We can’t ever again let there be any doubt that we honor the full faith and credit of the United States of America,” the former Speaker added.

source : thehill.com

Three of the four races where they’re at loggerheads take place in May: A hard-fought Texas Senate primary on May 29; a House primary in Huckabee’s old Arkansas district featuring one of his former staffers on May 22; and Nebraska’s Senate primary this past Tuesday. Wisconsin’s Senate primary will take place in August.

Back in 2008, Huckabee was the lead target of the Club for Growth, which ran ads calling him a “liberal” and slamming his fiscal record as governor. Huckabee hasn’t forgotten those criticisms — he called the group “disgusting” during his endorsement of former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson (R), whom the Club opposes, late last year.

The two also hail from different parts of the Republican Party. Huckabee is known first and foremost as a social conservative, while the Club focuses exclusively on economic issues.

“Mike Huckabee’s view of the role of government is contrary to ours,” Club for Growth spokesman Barney Keller told The Hill. “He believes that government should play a role in the lives of each day people and he adopted a sort of populist, anti-capitalism stance when he ran for president.”

Keller pointed out that Huckabee was the first candidate to attack presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney on his work for Bain Capital, long before Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry and President Obama followed suit. He also stated Huckabee “raised many taxes, he spent every dollar he could get his hands on and he supports nanny-state programs like smoking bans and obesity legislation.”

Huckabee did not respond to multiple requests for comment. He blasted the Club while endorsing Thompson in December, questioning its motives.

“The way Club for Growth works is … you write them a huge check and say, ‘I want you to attack Tommy Thompson’; they’ll be happy to do it,” he said. “That’s pay-for-play, and I find it disgusting.”

The Club, meanwhile, has bundled a good amount of money for its preferred candidate, former Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz (R).

Both Cruz’s and Dewhurst’s campaigns relished the contrast.

“I don’t think anyone is surprised that Mike Huckabee, who raised taxes multiple times, is supporting David Dewhurst, who pushed an income tax disguised as a wage tax and increased spending $72 billion,” Cruz campaign manager John Drogin told The Hill.

“Huckabee and Dewhurst are both strong fiscal and social conservatives — Dewhurst cut taxes 51 times, and he’s been endorsed by the largest pro-life organizations here in Texas,” stated Dewhurst spokesman Matt Hirsch. “There’s a difference there — you’ve got an outside organization spending money versus a guy who’s come in to help with TV … You’re going to see play out over the next two weeks how much this in-state support brings us.”

The two will also face off in an Arkansas House race, where Beth Anne Rankin (R), a former Huckabee staffer, is running against Army veteran Tom Cotton (R). Huckabee has been Rankin’s most prominent backer and recorded a video heartily praising her and tweaking Cotton, saying that unlike Cotton, Rankin was not someone “who just parachuted into the district because she was looking for a way to get to Washington.”

The Club for Growth has bundled $300,000 in contributions for Cotton, who led Rankin in a recent nonpartisan poll by double digits. 

Neither side got its preferred candidate in Nebraska’s Senate race. Huckabee had backed Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning (R), his 2008 Nebraska campaign chairman, and recorded a robocall describing him as “a proven conservative who has led the constitutional challenge to ObamaCare.”

The Club supported Nebraska say Treasurer Don Stenberg (R), and spent more than $700,000 attacking Bruning, which observers say badly damaged his campaign and helped Nebraska say Sen. Deb Fischer (R) win the race. The Club took credit for Bruning’s defeat in a press release, but Fischer’s centrist voting record is at odds with the group’s fiscal purity.

The final fight will be in Wisconsin. Huckabee is backing Thompson, while the Club is backing former Rep. Mark Neumann (R-Wis.) in a crowded primary.

source : thehill.com

Try to get some shuteye. Thumb through a book. Check a tablet or smartphone. Stare blankly at the seat in front or engage in conversation with a passenger in the adjacent seat.

As a YouTube video posted Wednesday shows, none of these options appealed to members of the Lemon Bucket Orkestra, who were recently on a delayed flight to Frankfurt from Toronto’s Pearson International airport.

Were you on this flight? Drop us a line at tonews@cbc.ca to tell us what you thought.

source : www.cbc.ca

The pair were feted at a Toronto gala Tuesday night at the conservatory’s Koerner Hall.

“I cannot tell you how unexpected this honour is and with how much humility I accept it,” the Fredericton-born Brueggergosman stated upon taking the stage.

“The whole aspect of early music education and the conservatory and this whole area of Toronto where you have so much creativity and so much blood, sweat and tears being poured out… I am so thrilled to be a part of that,” added the singer, one of the school’s famed alumni.

“I am so thrilled to be an ambassador of sorts for this incredible institution.”

The evening included performances by the two honourees as well as conservatory students and faculty. Tuesday’s concert and gala was part of The Royal Conservatory’s bigger 125th anniversary celebrations.

Founded in 1886, the conservatory has trained and/or tested some of Canada’s greatest musical artists, including Glenn Gould, Oscar Peterson, Diana Krall, R. Murray Schafer, Jon Vickers and David Foster.

The renowned institution is also working with New York’s Carnegie Hall to roll out its music education system across the U.S.

source : www.cbc.ca

The festival opens Wednesday with American director Wes Anderson’s coming-of-age comedy Moonrise Kingdom. The tale of a New England community on the hunt for two runaway teens, the film’s cast includes Ed Norton, Bruce Willis, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand and regular Anderson collaborators Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman.

Cronenberg is screening his Robert Pattison-led feature Cosmopolis, based on Don DeLillo’s novel, at the annual event.

‘Everyone is looking for something that is going to change the face of cinema. We are not just looking for a great film. We are looking for something that we have not seen before.’—Brian D. Johnson, film critic

“When we we go to Cannes, everyone is looking for something that is going to change the face of cinema. We are not just looking for a great film. We are looking for something that we have not seen before, that will get people really excited — whether it is Sex, Lies, and Videotape or Apocalypse Now or Easy Rider,” Canadian film critic Brian D. Johnson told CBC News.

“Cronenberg is the kind of the director who does like to take us to the unknown, shock us, show us something we have not seen before.”

The Toronto filmmaker behind movies like A Dangerous Method, Eastern Promises, Dead Ringers and The Fly is in fine company among the other festival circuit stalwarts at Cannes.

Cronenberg and Cosmopolis face competition for the French fest’s top honour, the Palme d’Or, from acclaimed peers such as Walter Salles, Ken Loach, Michael Haneke and Alain Renais.

“Cannes is like a high altar of cinematic art. You go there with a certain faith, hoping that, you know, something is going to completely knock us silly to the point where we do not know what to think anymore. That is where film criticism and film viewing becomes interesting,” Johnson said.

“The reactions tend to be very visceral and strong.… It’s not uncommon to have films booed in Cannes.”

Italian filmmaker Nanni Moretti heads the jury that will select the Palme d’Or winner. His fellow judges include actor Ewan McGregor, fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier and filmmakers Alexander Payne and Andrea Arnold.

Spotlight on budding filmmakers

Cronenberg’s son, Brandon, is also bound for Cannes with his feature film debut, Antiviral. The sci-fi thriller — about a man who collects celebrity-incubated viruses and sells them to obsessed fans — will compete in the festival’s Un Certain Regard program. The showcase recognizes emerging talent and innovative filmmaking.

Also vying for honours in the section is rising Quebec filmmaking star Xavier Dolan. He brings his third feature, Laurence Anyways, to Un Certain Regard, where he previously won kudos for Les amours imaginaires (Heartbeats) and J’ai tué ma mère (I Killed My Mother).

A host of up-and-coming Canadian filmmakers will also bring their films to Cannes as part of Telefilm Canada’s Perspective Canada showcase.

“Cannes is like the Mount Olympus of film festivals, so to be there in any way, in any regard, is pretty awesome,” stated Rodrigo Gudino, selected for his feature film debut The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh.

“Even though I have had shorts there, and had a lot of attention paid to them, I feel like it is a bit of a different game with a feature film.”

Other notable titles to screen (out of competition) at Cannes include:

The new Sacha Baron Cohen satire The Dictator.Bernardo Bertolucci’s Me and You.Philip Kaufman’s Hemingway & Gellhorn.Animated film Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted.Dario Argento’s highly anticipated 3D take on Dracula.

Stars expected to appear on the red carpet include Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Nicole Kidman, Tom Hardy, Kristen Stewart, Jessica Chastain and Zac Efron.

In 2011, organizers reacted swiftly to expel controversial filmmaker Lars von Trier for making bizarre jokes about the Nazis during a press conference for his film Melancholia.

This year, the festival has already come under fire for its lack of female filmmakers in the main competition lineup. Meanwhile, distributor Alliance Films has drawn criticism for asking Canadian journalists to pay for interviews with major stars.

The Cannes Film Festival continues through May 27, with Claude Miller’s Thérèse Desqueyroux to screen as the closing title.

source : www.cbc.ca

Six books in the series are now published, and there are eight more to come.

“Each one is set in a different province or territory in the country,” stated author Dustin Milligan.

In additions to lessons on the Charter of Rights for children, the books contain references to popular culture. (CBC)

“There’s one in the nation’s capital and each addresses a different right or freedom in the charter.”

The Charter for Children book series has its roots in an assignment from Milligan’s first year in law school where he was asked to teach students in grades three to six about human rights. He noticed the limited age-appropriate resources available and decided to do something about it.

“Some of the characters involved are Anne of Green Tomatoes, Alanis Mooset, Justin Beaver, so it’s just kind of quirky and fun,” he said.

Milligan has taken some of his books into classrooms already, and is pleased with the results.

Dustin Milligan hopes to have all the books published in a year. (CBC)

“That was the most rewarding part of the series, is like, hearing kids say, speak about discrimination and equality and liberty, and speak about these freedoms and knowing that they absorb the ideas and concepts in the books,” he said.

The books address issues such as aboriginal rights, minority language education rights, gender, and race issues.

Ken Gaudet, principal of West Royalty Elementary in Charlottetown, is keen to get the books into his school.

“Books that have a story to them like these books do, that are well illustrated, usually it’s a good hook for the children,” stated Gaudet.

“Once we have the children’s attention with the resource like this, then we can really develop the ideas and discussions.”

Milligan will be meeting with educators in Ottawa for his national book launch next week. He hopes to have the whole series published in about a year’s time.

source : www.cbc.ca

The band has made memorable entrances at the award show before, arriving on the red carpet last year encased in clear plastic hamster balls and striding in back in 2009 after an introduction from a marching band.

Toronto rapper Drake and Hedley from Abbotsford, B.C., are next with five nominations apiece, while breakout pop singer Carly Rae Jepsen of Mission, B.C., and energetic Toronto rap-rock outfit Down With Webster took four nominations each.

Other multiple nominees include Justin Bieber, City and Colour, Simple Plan and Danny Fernandes.

Dance-pop group LMFAO, led by Redfoo (left) and SkyBlu, will co-host the MMVA ceremony in Toronto. (Matt Sayles/Associated Press)

The show will be co-hosted by outrageous L.A. party-dance duo LMFAO, who also nabbed a pair of nominations. That group and California pop star Katy Perry — also a double nominee — are the only confirmed performers for the show thus far.

The MMVAs will be held June 17 outside MuchMusic headquarters in downtown Toronto.

For video of the year, Jepsen’s ubiquitous hit Call Me Maybe will face off against Drake’s Headlines, Hedley’s Invincible, Marianas Trench’s Fallout and Down With Webster’s She’s Dope.

Jepsen’s infectious tune is also up for the fan-voted “UR Fave” video award, where it will face off against some familiar foes including the same tunes by Drake, Hedley and Marianas Trench, along with Simple Plan’s Summer Paradise.

Other Canadian acts nominated include Arcade Fire, K’naan, Nelly Furtado and Nickelback.

source : www.cbc.ca

It Takes An Egg Timer, a Guide to Creating the Time for Your Life intends to prove that excuse wrong. You do have enough time-for everything you have to do and want to, and then some. It’s just a question of what you are letting get in the way.

This is not your typical book on time management. It is part guide and part manifesto. It offers uncomplicated solutions that begin with a very easy tool, the egg timer. It is written not just for the self-employed and entrepreneurs struggling to keep themselves on task, productive and happy but also for those who simply dream about making a change in their life, huge or small, and are convinced that what is stopping them is not enough time.

Informative and entertaining, It Takes An Egg Timer will inspire and motivate you to analyze how you use and misuse your time. At the end you will no longer ask yourself whether you have the time to do what you want, but what you will do with it now that you’ve found it.


Author : Joanne Tombrakos
Binding : Kindle Edition
Format : Kindle eBook
IsAdultProduct : 0
NumberOfPages : 61
PublicationDate : 2012-05-12
ReleaseDate : 2012-05-12

Buy it cheap, at Amazon!!!

The Strikers, who play in the second tier of American women’s football, took an early lead in the sixth minute but the Kiwi under-20s struck back through Olivia Chance who levelled the scores in the 19th minute.

Chance then earned a penalty 10 minutes later, which Kate Loye converted to give New Zealand a 2-1 halftime lead.

The lead lasted just four minutes into the second half but substitute Stephanie Skilton was able to secure the winner on her second attempt with 18 minutes remaining.

The Junior Football Ferns will face another club team, Pali Blues, on Friday (NZT) then the USA under-20 team on Sunday as a build-up to the FIFA under-20 women’s World Cup in Japan in August.

source : www.stuff.co.nz

The company filed for bankruptcy on Monday due to opposition from the FCC.

Philip Falcone and his investment firm Harbinger Capital had invested billions of dollars in LightSquared’s plan to build a high-speed wireless network that would have served more than 260 million people.

The FCC had allowed LightSquared a conditional waiver to move forward in 2011, but the bureau moved to block the network earlier this year after tests showed it would interfere with critical GPS devices, including those used by airplane pilots.

In a joint statement on Tuesday, GOP Reps. Fred Upton (Mich.), Greg Walden (Ore.) and Cliff Stearns (Fla.) stated the FCC “rushed” its review and gave LightSquared a special waiver before fully evaluating the potential impact on GPS devices.

The lawmakers launched an investigation in February into the FCC’s handling of LightSquared.

“In addition to the broader broadband implications, the FCC’s rushed process resulted in special waivers and conditions and billions of wasted dollars,” they stated on Tuesday. 

“Now, more than ever, we need to get to the bottom of how we got this far down a dead-end road. There are many unanswered questions, specifically about whether the FCC’s own objectives led to sloppy process. We are continuing to analyze the information we’ve received so far to determine what happened and how it can be avoided in the future.”

The FCC has denied giving LightSquared any special treatment but expanding wireless Internet is a top priority for the bureau under Chairman Julius Genachowski.

The FCC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Testing showed that LightSquared’s signal did not bleed into the GPS band. Instead, the problem was that GPS receivers were too sensitive to filter out LightSquared’s powerful cell towers operating on nearby frequencies.

LightSquared argued that it was the GPS industry’s responsibility to build receivers that only listened to their own designated frequencies, but GPS companies argued that LightSquared was trying to build a cellphone network relying on frequencies that should only be used by satellites, which transmit much fainter signals.

source : thehill.com

“The brinksmanship we are seeing from Republicans this day reminds us of days prior,” he told reporters. “Instead of meeting us in the middle on the problems facing the country, Republicans are already digging these trenches that they are in and saying they are not going to move.”

Reid stated that Boehner risks turning the GOP into a rump party of extremists by making such statements.

“It’s pretty clear to me that the Tea Party direction of the Republican party is driving them over a cliff. And I would suggest that Speaker Boehner look at the long term, which is what will the Republican party look like in the future,” he said.

 “If he continues this, it is going to be a Republican party that Republicans don’t like,” Reid said. “They don’t like it now. The only ones who like the party are the Republicans in Congress, no one else likes it, including Republicans around the country.”

Just as Boehner’s Tuesday remarks are a revival of his position during last July’s debt ceiling standoff, Reid’s remarks echo his attacks on the House GOP as captive of Tea Party extremists.

“We all remember the very, very ugly process of this confrontational approach that we had during the last period of time when we were trying to get a budget,” he said.

He warned that a similar confrontation could damage the economy.

“There are real life consequences for middle class families as economic confidence dropped in the months leading up to the deadline,” he said.

Although Reid criticized Boehner for making ultimatums, he also reiterated the hard Democratic position that tax increases must be part of any deficit bargain and that social programs must be protected. 

“The fact is that any agreement to avoid the fiscal cliff facing us at the end of the year must not gut programs for the poor and middle class like Medicare, Social Security and education,” he said. “It must be balanced with policies that ask millionaires that help a tiny bit and do their fair share.”

Reid claimed that Democrats are flexible on spending cuts and have “a track record of supporting smart, targeted spending cuts,” whereas the GOP can’t accept any tax increases to balance them out.

“The American people have had enough of this brinksmanship. They want us to get things done,” Reid said.

In contrast, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) stated he supported Boehner’s move.

“I think the request of the president to ask us to raise the debt ceiling ought to generate significant response to deal with the problem of deficit and debt,” he said.

Despite the friction on Tuesday, Reid stated he has hope that some fiscal issues can be resolved in the lame-duck session.

“I would envision, I know this sounds somewhat heretical, I would hope that we can work together as Democrats and Republicans to do some long-term fixes, not a month at a time, like with FAA extension which we did two different times before we finally passed it,” he said.

source : thehill.com

“The truth is without the help and encouragement of the Canada Council, I would never have written The Favourite Game or The Spice Box of Earth,” Cohen said, referencing early writing scholarships received from the council that helped him launch his career.

The 77-year-old poet and Canadian music icon hushed the crowd of friends, family and fans offering him a standing ovation at the Massey Hall gala. He also offered a bit of reassurance to the slate of musicians — including his singer-songwriter son, Adam — set to offer musical tributes.

“I’m going to make these remarks mercifully short because I want to hear the music … if there is any anxiety about performing in front of me, please let it dissolve completely. I go into bouts of child-like ecstasy … when I hear anyone cover my songs,” he said.

Musicians who took the stage included Toronto’s Cowboy Junkies and Blue Rodeo’s Greg Keelor, while spoken tributes came from the likes of former governor general Adrienne Clarkson, actor Alan Rickman and author Michael Ondaatje.

Earlier Monday, the younger Cohen told CBC that though he had always admired his father, he had not “demonstrated his influence on me and celebrated him outwardly until late in my life.”

Cohen’s son states ‘thank you for the music’

On Monday night, he offered a touching homage with his dad’s songs, performing Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye and leading a closing singalong of So Long, Marianne.

“I welled up when my father was speaking. I’m so honoured to be part of this honour,” Adam Cohen said.

“Thank you for the music. Thank you dad.”

Described by some as the Nobel Prize of the Arts, the award is presented biennially to “an individual for a unique lifetime contribution that has enriched the human condition through the arts.” The prize includes a corresponding $15,000 protégé honour, with the recipient chosen by the winner. Cohen selected the music education program Sistema Toronto as his co-winner.

The Montreal troubadour joins an esteemed list of previous Gould Prize laureates, including:

Jazz great Oscar Peterson.Cellist Yo-Yo Ma.Conductor and music educator Jose Antonio Abreu.Composer R. Murray Schafer.

source : www.cbc.ca