Posted by Sarah Hughes
Leisure
Tuesday, May 24th, 2011
Michael Jackson Thriller
Julian’s Auctions in Beverly Hills, California will auction off a plethora of pop music memorabilia including the jacket Michael Jackson wore in his video for the song “Thriller” on June 25 and June 26 both at the auction house and online.
The signature red and black jacket with the winged shoulders that the pop icon wore during the filming of his “Thriller” music video will be featured among over 600 items and pop music collectibles. The jacket is expected to fetch between $200,000 and $400,000 according to Julian’s Auctions. A portion of the proceeds will go to the animal sanctuary in Los Angeles, California that houses Michael Jackson’s Bengal tigers.
Other items featured during Julian’s auction will be collectibles from Madonna, The Beatles, Elvis Presley, Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber. Also featured will be an automobile owned by Frank Sinatra, a stage Jimi Hendrix played on, handwritten lyrics for songs by Johnny Cash and other unique music history memorabilia.
According to a press release from Julian’s Auctions announcing the sale of Michael Jackson’s items, the “Thriller” jacket was part of Jackson’s look for more than a decade and inspired a “1980′s fashion craze like none other.” In addition to Jackson’s “Thriller” jacket, a black fedora, black wig and sequin gloves that the former “King of Pop” wore to the American Music Awards are on the bidding block.
Michael Jackson died in 2009 and gave the jacket to his two wardrobe designers, Dennis Tompkins and Michael Bush. The sleeve is signed and the lining has the inscription: “To Bush and Dennis, All My Love, Michael Jackson.”
Posted by Sarah Hughes
Leisure
Sunday, May 22nd, 2011
NASA To Track Spirit
NASA, after losing track of the Mars rover Spirit over a year ago, has made a final attempt to make contact with the lost robotic observer.
It is said that because of the freezing temperatures on Mars, NASA engineers’ attempts to receive any information from their series of transmissions to the rover have been futile. Still, the life of the rover, which was only expected to be in effect at the most for three months, far exceeded their expectations. Spirit has been photos and data back to NASA from the surface of Mars for more than five years.
Last year Spirit’s wheels broke through the brittle surface of Mars and became stuck in the soft subsurface underneath. NASA engineers have been working diligently to find ways to extract the robot from the sand, but with the two wheels on one side of the robot not working, NASA announced in 2010 that Spirit was permanently fixed in its last known position.
Spirit relies on solar energy to operate and run its instruments. NASA engineers theorize that Mars’ sandy debris has covered the robot’s solar displays making it impossible for the energy to warm Spirit. While sitting in its fixed position for more than a year with no solar energy reaching its components, many of Spirit’s mechanisms would have been damaged by the frigid temperatures.
However, NASA still has another robotic rover on the ground on Mars. The rover NASA named Opportunity is still operational and sending data and pictures to NASA. And NASA has announced that its new rover, named Curiosity will be launched on the Red Planet later this year. Curiosity is a SUV-sized robot that will carry cameras, radiation monitors and sensors designed to ascertain if life ever existed on Mars.
Posted by Andrew Timms
Leisure
Tuesday, May 10th, 2011
Lingerie Manufacturer Triumph
An innovative lingerie manufacturer in Japan, has designed its newest undergarments and embellished messages of hope and encouragement into the clothing.
Unveiled by the company Triumph, the white, bustier-styled bra and matching skirt have messages of encouragement adorned throughout the clothing. Received from 36 different countries after the earthquake and tsunami struck Japan two months ago, a small flag that belongs to the nation who sent the message accompanies the note.
The notes on the bra and skirt range from France’s message of solidarity “Japan, with you 100%” to the more politically-motivated messages regarding nuclear strife from Greece: “Our thoughts are with you! Future without nuclear power, for our children!” China’s sensitive message expressing support reads: “Those who have already left us let us know life is so fragile, and those who are alive let us know life is so strong.”
The company who designed the bra, which is not for sale, decided on the concept after receiving messages of support and relief supplies from branch companies from around the world. The company is known for their concept designing and has come out with other designs with messages such as their “Welcome to Japan” bra which featured the greeting in three different languages and even a solar-powered bra.
In the months following the disasters, it was discovered that nearly 26,000 people were killed, with many still unaccounted for. The nuclear crisis that followed the quake is said to be the biggest since Chernobyl in 1986.
Posted by Sarah Hughes
Leisure
Friday, April 29th, 2011
London Marathon Runner
After completing a marathon most people would go home and lay themselves to sleep, well, Sam Robson did that too. But rather than driving to his house, which is 99 miles away from the finish line of the London Marathon, Robson ran back all the way.
Before commencing on the 99-mile second leg, the 28-year-old from Central England ended Sunday’s official race in 3 hours and 45 minutes. As he was hailed by a cheering crowd, he arrived in his home at St. Ives Cambs, 25 hours later. He finished the entire race by running a total of 125 miles in 29 hours with a pace of around 13 minutes per mile.
With that number that sounds impossible. It’s even more astonishing, if you really think about it. Consider the things you were doing five hours ago yesterday. Then envision yourself scampering since then. I could not even fathom just the thought of being wide awake for that long.
Robson endured epilepsy since he was in his teens. He is a medical researcher who completed the super-marathon to raise money for the UK Epilepsy Society. Entirely, he hoisted a little more than $5,000 for the charity.
For him the hard part was, staying up, maintaining hydrated and consuming calories to make up for the 15,000 he burned, while running itself was quite easy.
“I had to have regular breaks to refill my water and whenever I stopped my legs seized up so I couldn’t rest for long. In terms of tiredness, my legs felt pretty good and the worst bit was I had to keep eating to replace all the calories I was burning.”
Apart from some soreness which is expected, Robson said he was completely fine. It was his first time running a marathon and his first 99-mile run.
Posted by Sarah Hughes
Leisure
Monday, April 25th, 2011
Jesus Christ's Last Supper
On Monday, a firsthand research released claims to elucidate that Jesus Christ’s Last Supper happened on Wednesday afore the crucifixion despite the fact that Christians have celebrated it on Maundy Thursday ever since.
University of Cambridge’s scientist Professor Colin Humphreys believes it is all because of a calendar mix-up. He also declares his conclusions can reinforce the issue for at last presenting a permanent Easter date.
A blend of astronomical, biblical and historical research is all that Humphreys need in order to attempt determine the exact nature and timing of Jesus’s final banquet with his disciples earlier his demise.
An ostensible discrepancy in the Bible has long mystified the researchers.
John states the Last Supper occurred before Passover at the same time Luke, Matthew and Mark all say it concurred with the beginning of the Jewish festival of Passover.
Humphreys’ new book called “The Mystery Of The Last Supper” has concluded that Jesus together with Luke, Matthew and Mark may have been using a diverse calendar to John.
“Whatever you think about the Bible, the fact is that Jewish people would never mistake the Passover meal for another meal, so for the Gospels to contradict themselves in this regard is really hard to understand,” Humphreys said. “Many biblical scholars say that, for this reason, you can’t trust the Gospels at all. But if we use science and the Gospels hand in hand, we can actually prove that there was no contradiction.”
In Humphreys’ concept, Jesus went by an antiquated Jewish calendar instead of the approved lunar calendar which was used prevalently at the period of his death and is still being applied nowadays.
This would set the Passover meal and the Last Supper on a Wednesday clearing up how such a great number of events came about amidst the meal and crucifixion.
It would then follow that Jesus’ capture, interrogation and distinct prosecutions did not all transpired within one night rather it indeed occurred over an extensive period.
Therefore, Humphreys has faith that a date could be attributed to Easter in our contemporary solar calendar. Simultaneously, he’s working on the source that the crucifixion took place on April 3, making the celebration of Easter Day on April 5.
Posted by Andrew Timms
Leisure
Friday, April 22nd, 2011
Sony PlayStation 3
During the five years since its debut, the company announced that sales for the Sony PlayStation 3 have now reached 50 million units across the world.
It was noted in the Telegraph UK that approximately 3.5 million PlayStation 3 units were shipped back in 2006, another 9.1 million in 2007, 10.1 million in 2008, and 13 million in the year 2009.
These figures are not completely comparable to that of retail figures as reported by Sony’s competition because Sony calls these “sell-in numbers” as the number of units Sony sold to retailers worldwide. Nevertheless, Sony’s sales figures are quite impressive.
Launched last year in the month of September, Sony said that is had already sold over a million units during its first 30 days in the market. Sales for the system are going strong and Sony says that as of April 3, it has already sold over eight million Move controllers. Even so, compared to Microsoft’s Xbox 360 Kinect sales, Sony’s sales numbers look moderate. Kinect was launched at the start of November and Microsoft immediately sold about eight million units of the system during the first two months alone. In Sony’s case however, it took them about seven months to reach that number of sales.
During a press release, Sony stated that it has seen the PlayStation Network increase together with the console itself. As of now, PSN has over 75 million registered accounts in 59 countries across the globe.
Sony may be happy to announce some optimistic PlayStation news. Just last week, Sony came to an agreement with George “Geohot” Hotz, a PS3 hacker, which included his agreement to a permanent prohibition from posting any information that the company wanted to be removed. Notwithstanding, he clearly stated that he would never buy any product of Sony ever again.
Posted by Sarah Hughes
Leisure
Saturday, April 16th, 2011
Indonesian Surf Spot
In the course of a latest “Search” voyage of Rip Curl team members in the Indonesian jungles, an unbelievable discovery may be considered as extraordinary just when sighting of secret surf spots begins.
This firsthand wave finding’s unique attribute is its location. It was neither created on a shoreline nor on the oceanfront. It was found on a far-flung jungle river that’s being struck by a dominant tidal bore. Yet, this outstanding wonder thrusts wave upstream in fantasy-like style at 8 to 10 feet contrasting other tidal bores that only yield quite lesser, soppy waves.
Tom Curren, a previous 3-time world surfing champion, says, “This was our biggest score in twenty years of exploring.” He has been wandering all throughout the world’s shorelines searching for the legendary flawless wave from the time when he won his most recent world title in 1990. The tranquil champ’s stories of this newfangled spot called Seven Ghosts, which was named after the nearby jungle settlement, has his admirers winding for the reason that he has never boast under any circumstances. Just as buzzes of their notch disclosed, attention involving the expedition is striking a hot pitch.
Another amazing factor regarding this discovery is its wave’s coffee-colored barriers split from top to bottom. It is somehow the same to the deep powerful waves that wraps above the coral reefs. Forming the subordinate wave into a streak of circling points with cookie-reaper aptness, the waterfront bending of the major wave propels recoil slices upright across the river. By means of totally the proportion of a Rockettes’ leg kick, these sparkly gyrators give the impression that maneuvered the likes of which the least hasn’t likely been found in the ocean.
Definitely, Rip Curl will be releasing more pictures in the succeeding days as the team rise up for the Rip Curl Pro’s 50th Anniversary which is the world’s extensive running professional surfing competition scheduled later this month.
Posted by Andrew Timms
Leisure
Monday, April 11th, 2011
Disorderly Surroundings
May people are used to having their homes in an organized manner. Sometimes, any amount of disorder and wrong arrangement of things can enrage an individual. On the other hand, other people feels appeased with the disorder and has minimal concern with untidy things.
Researchers from Tillburg University in the Netherlands had conducted a study of the relationship between disorder and discrimination. According to them, people in messy environments tend to compensate for the disorder by categorizing people in their minds according to well-known stereotypes.
Social Psychologuts Diederik Stapel said that, testing the relationship between disorder and discrimination in real-life situations was no easy feat. “It looked like a terrible mess,” said study coauthor Siegwart Lindenberg, a cognitive sociologist. “Lots of paper cups, chewed-up pieces of pizza, napkins, apple cores — you name it — just lying around.”
The two researchers, conducted their test in the Utrecht station where they asked 40 travelers to answer surveys about Muslims, Homosexuals and Dutch people. They were required to answer the forms while in a messy train station. People were also asked to rate of what are their negative and positive thoughts about stereotypes in each group.
The test found out that when the station is in a disordered manner, travelers agreed with stereotypes. Positive and Negative got 10% strongly and they had observed that 25% of the respondent sat farther from a black man that a white man. They repeated the test with different arrangement of the area, and the results were again the same.
“This need for order matters a lot more than we might have thought,” said Aaron Kay, a social psychologist at Duke University who was not involved in the study. Disorder pushes people to find more structure in their lives, he said, noting: “Fishermen who fish on more treacherous seas are more likely to believe in a spiritual God.”
Posted by Andrew Timms
Leisure
Saturday, April 9th, 2011
Los Angeles’ Theaters
Last weekend at the Los Angeles’ theaters, Universal’s animated movie “Hop” had an outstanding debut amounting to $37.5 million making it deserving to be the first film this year to top the charts again, munching on a gross in a low-mid range of $20 million.
Russell Brand voices “Hop’s” E.B., a rock star-wannabe son of the Easter Bunny. This weekend, if he succeeds a one-two finish as the star of the debuting “Arthur”, he could also be named king of the box office.
The Warner Bros.’ re-creation of the tremendously successful Dudley Moore classic is expected to earn around $15 million. Helen Mirren hoists the proceedings with a fresh turn on John Gielgud’s Hobson and Brand fits perfectly to take over the leading role as the drunken and spoiled rich kid.
Therefore, both the family viewers and comedy enthusiasts are jam-packed this weekend, so Focus Features’ “Hanna” will fill the action bill with a thriller that features Saoirse Ronan in a 16-year-old-assassin role. This movie should attract both genders to the movie theater with a low-mid teens gross as it is patterned in female-based action films such as “La Femme Nikita” and “The Professional”.
Universal’s R-rated comedy “Your Highness” which features Danny McBride and James Franco, and Sony’s inspirational “Soul Surfer” which stars Dennis Quaid and Helen Hunt are 2 more novices that are anticipated to be at the top 5. “Your Highness” presents a rivalry between brothers during the medieval times which should also gross in the low teens. On the other hand, the PG-rated film which is likely to earn more than $10 million from mostly family and faith-based spectators, tells the true story of a teenage champion surfer Bethany Hamilton (AnnaSophia Robb).
With year-ago comparisons battling 2010′s “Clash of the Titans” in its second week and the debut of “Date Night,” which both earned more than $25 million, and “How To Train Your Dragon,” which persisted until its third weekend with $24.9 million, a seventh successive down weekend is anticipated at the domestic box office in spite of the diversity of new appearances.,
Posted by Andrew Timms
Leisure
Saturday, April 9th, 2011
Ipad Television Killer
With the popular television features of Ipads, cable companies and TV networks are getting bothered by the decrease and the issue of “cutting the cord”, where subscribers set the cable and TV aside for the internet video. As simple as it may seem, cable companies see this to be a grave threat to their industry.
A senior partner at a research firm, Collin Dixon said, “It’s not really happening yet.” He added that there were also weaknesses apparent in the cable market. Only 0.2 percent was gained by the Pay TV which were mostly in satellite TV and services like Verizon but, not cable. On the other hand, Apple’s iPad tablet sales increased tremendously and according to some analysts the product has sold 30 million.
Some users said that there is no longer the need for corded television sets and if it’s possible downloading videos from the tablet, why bother having cable service at all?
As of now, cutting cord option is not a practical option. But, with the increasing demand for watching videos, everywhere and anywhere, network companies scrambles to find a way to answer to this in the near future.
With the future threat, Cablevision, Time Warner and Comcast went on producing applications where they can deliver programs the magic tablet way. The only difference is that, users still needed to pay to gain access to their application. “This is a defensive position,” explained Dixon. “There’s no question consumers want access.”
Still, cable companies are struggling to stay in the wireless video streaming trend. People love to watch videos all at the same time and this might overwhelm the cable internet connection. “It’s not a problem today, but it could be a problem tomorrow,” said Dixon. To prevent this from happening, some cable companies limit their subscribers downloading and streaming.
