Hulk star Eric Bana is to star with Rachel McAdams in a film adaptation of The Time Traveller's Wife.
The movie, based on the best-selling novel by Audrey Niffenegger, is due to begin shooting in August and pencilled in for release next year.
Canadian McAdams, whose screen credits include Wedding Crashers and The Notebook, has been linked to the lead role since the project's inception.
Edward Norton will take over Bana's Hulk role in a new screen version.
Mixed reviews
Australian-born Bana, whose last major role was in Steven Spielberg's Munich in 2005, will play a librarian who discovers he has a gene which makes him travel in time when he is under pressure.
The relationship with his wife is fraught with problems as he disappears for long periods and their ages differ during various encounters.
Bana recently finished work on The Other Boelyn Girl, in which he plays King Henry VIII alongside Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman.
His next release is Lucky You, starring opposite Drew Barrymore.
Bana played comic hero The Incredible Hulk in Ang Lee's version of the story in 2003, which met mixed reviews.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Dein Leaves Arsenal As Takeover Rumours Persist
The BBC Reports that Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein has left the club with immediate effect because of "irreconcilable differences" with the rest of the board.
This follows the aquisition of 10% of the clubs shares by an american billionaire.
This follows the aquisition of 10% of the clubs shares by an american billionaire.
Sudan man forced to 'marry' goat
BBC Website
April 18th 2007
A Sudanese man has been forced to take a goat as his "wife", after he was caught having sex with the animal.
The goat's owner, Mr Alifi, said he surprised the man with his goat and took him to a council of elders.
They ordered the man, Mr Tombe, to pay a dowry of 15,000 Sudanese dinars ($50) to Mr Alifi.
"We have given him the goat, and as far as we know they are still together," Mr Alifi said.
Mr Alifi, of Hai Malakal in Upper Nile State, told the Juba Post newspaper that he heard a loud noise around midnight on 13 February and immediately rushed outside to find Mr Tombe with his goat.
"When I asked him: 'What are you doing there?', he fell off the back of the goat, so I captured and tied him up."
Mr Alifi then called elders to decide how to deal with the case.
"They said I should not take him to the police, but rather let him pay a dowry for my goat because he used it as his wife," Mr Alifi told the newspaper.
April 18th 2007
A Sudanese man has been forced to take a goat as his "wife", after he was caught having sex with the animal.
The goat's owner, Mr Alifi, said he surprised the man with his goat and took him to a council of elders.
They ordered the man, Mr Tombe, to pay a dowry of 15,000 Sudanese dinars ($50) to Mr Alifi.
"We have given him the goat, and as far as we know they are still together," Mr Alifi said.
Mr Alifi, of Hai Malakal in Upper Nile State, told the Juba Post newspaper that he heard a loud noise around midnight on 13 February and immediately rushed outside to find Mr Tombe with his goat.
"When I asked him: 'What are you doing there?', he fell off the back of the goat, so I captured and tied him up."
Mr Alifi then called elders to decide how to deal with the case.
"They said I should not take him to the police, but rather let him pay a dowry for my goat because he used it as his wife," Mr Alifi told the newspaper.
Gardener downs his tools at 104
BBC Website
April 18th 2007
A gardener has decided to down tools on his working life at the age of 104.
Jim Webber has been working the land in Dorset for 93 years, without taking holidays, but arthritis has forced him to retire.
Mr Webber told BBC news: "I'd do about 10 minutes and have to sit down - I couldn't carry on. That wasn't fair for the people I was working for."
The keen gardener, from Stoke Abbott, said he now planned to focus on his own garden and sell some of his produce.
Mr Webber said: "I haven't got a big wage now coming in, do you see - I've only got old age pension, so I'll try and sell a bit."
Born on Christmas Eve 1902, Mr Webber began his career as a farm labourer in Dorset, and won prizes for ploughing.
In gardening, he worked with his brother Jack, until he died at the age of 95 in July last year.
His daughter, Kathleen, 68, now helps him with his home garden.
He puts his longevity down to having "plenty to do and being interested in it" - as well as a bit of his "medicine" - whisky.
April 18th 2007
A gardener has decided to down tools on his working life at the age of 104.
Jim Webber has been working the land in Dorset for 93 years, without taking holidays, but arthritis has forced him to retire.
Mr Webber told BBC news: "I'd do about 10 minutes and have to sit down - I couldn't carry on. That wasn't fair for the people I was working for."
The keen gardener, from Stoke Abbott, said he now planned to focus on his own garden and sell some of his produce.
Mr Webber said: "I haven't got a big wage now coming in, do you see - I've only got old age pension, so I'll try and sell a bit."
Born on Christmas Eve 1902, Mr Webber began his career as a farm labourer in Dorset, and won prizes for ploughing.
In gardening, he worked with his brother Jack, until he died at the age of 95 in July last year.
His daughter, Kathleen, 68, now helps him with his home garden.
He puts his longevity down to having "plenty to do and being interested in it" - as well as a bit of his "medicine" - whisky.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Two cautioned over wi-fi 'theft'
BBC Website
April 17th 2007
Two people have been cautioned for using people's wi-fi broadband internet connections without permission.
Neighbours in Redditch, Worcestershire, contacted police on Saturday after seeing a man inside a car using a laptop while parked outside a house.
He was arrested and cautioned. A woman was arrested in similar circumstances in the town earlier this month.
West Mercia Police said people with wi-fi should follow security advice given by their internet provider.
BBC Midlands Today's science correspondent, Dr David Gregory, said it was one of the first cases of its kind.
He added that if people were using someone else's network to enter illegal porn sites, for example, it would be very difficult to trace them.
The man arrested at the weekend was cautioned for dishonestly obtaining electronic communications services with intent to avoid payment.
He attracted attention from neighbours in the early morning, as he had put up cardboard around his car windows but the light from his computer could be seen through the back window.
April 17th 2007
Two people have been cautioned for using people's wi-fi broadband internet connections without permission.
Neighbours in Redditch, Worcestershire, contacted police on Saturday after seeing a man inside a car using a laptop while parked outside a house.
He was arrested and cautioned. A woman was arrested in similar circumstances in the town earlier this month.
West Mercia Police said people with wi-fi should follow security advice given by their internet provider.
BBC Midlands Today's science correspondent, Dr David Gregory, said it was one of the first cases of its kind.
He added that if people were using someone else's network to enter illegal porn sites, for example, it would be very difficult to trace them.
The man arrested at the weekend was cautioned for dishonestly obtaining electronic communications services with intent to avoid payment.
He attracted attention from neighbours in the early morning, as he had put up cardboard around his car windows but the light from his computer could be seen through the back window.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Return of the Mic
Strike duo return
www.nufc.com
Tuesday 10th April 2007
Tuesday morning saw both Michael Owen and Shola Ameobi make a playing return for Newcastle in a behind closed doors friendly match against Scottish side Gretna.
www.nufc.com
Tuesday 10th April 2007
Tuesday morning saw both Michael Owen and Shola Ameobi make a playing return for Newcastle in a behind closed doors friendly match against Scottish side Gretna.
101st Post : Not an april fools
Cockatoo guarding chocolate eggs
BBC Website
Tuesday April 10th 2007
A cockatoo at a wildlife sanctuary has spent a fortnight trying to hatch a bowl of chocolate eggs.
Pippa has been protecting the chocolates at Nuneaton and Warwickshire Wildlife Sanctuary since she was taken outside, put on a table and saw them.
Pippa has been protecting the chocolates at Nuneaton and Warwickshire Wildlife Sanctuary since she was taken outside, put on a table and saw them.
Her owner, Geoff Grewcock, said: "She went straight over, climbed on the creme eggs and that was it. She thinks they're her eggs. "Until she clicks they're not real eggs, we'll just leave her there."
'So comical'
Pippa is one of 300 birds at the Nuneaton sanctuary, which also has 50 animals
Mr Grewcock described her as "very, very protective" and she had been through a "maternal stage".
He said: "She picked an egg up and threw it at a photographer with her beak as if to say 'leave my eggs alone. They're mine'. "She's got so much character it's unbelievable. She hates men - we've had a builder in who had his neck bitten. We had to prise Pippa's beak off his neck.
"When she attacks you, she attacks your ear lobe - she goes straight through them. We do free ear piercing here.
"She's ever so comical - always has been."
Sunday, April 08, 2007
Apple taking the first steps?
Bill Thompson is an independent journalist and regular commentator on the BBC World Service programme Digital Planet. These are his views on Apple's decision to make non DRM protected songs available in the iTunes library.
'I was wrong about Steve Jobs'
Bill Thompson
www.bbc.co.uk
April 3rd 2007
Bill Thompson doubted Apple's desire to sell songs without DRM. They start doing it in May, so what does he think now?
At Monday's press event to announce that the iTunes Music Store will be selling "premium" songs from EMI's catalogue without the copy-protection offered by the Fairplay digital rights management system, Steve Jobs noted that "some doubted Apple's sincerity when we made our proposal earlier this year... they said we had too much to lose".
That would be me, then.
In February Jobs wrote that Apple would stop using DRM "in an instant" if it could, and I was dismissive. "I don't believe him", I wrote at the time, going on to argue that "if Apple switched off Fairplay then they would probably sell a lot more songs, on which they make very little money, and a lot fewer iPods, on which they make a lot".
I also wrote that "Jobs can see which way the wind is blowing, and he can see that the record companies are finally tiring of their painful, expensive and ultimately unsatisfactory relationship with DRM", arguing that his comments were an attempt to "position Apple for this brave new world".
'Seriously underestimated'
Well, he has proved me wrong by opening up the iTunes store to non-DRM music, and showed that I had seriously underestimated his business acumen.
He may even have done it in a way which avoids the fate of being "crushed under foot by those who really understand the music business and didn't sell their souls to the record companies back in the days when they believed in DRM" that I predicted for him in my February column.
It would be easy to be cynical and attempt to dismiss this as just another PR effort from Jobs, lining up with a weakened and desperate record company to pull a stunt that will promote EMI as it tries to sell itself.
After all EMI is only one record company among many, and the London venue for the launch might indicate that the change of heart is at least in part an attempt to defuse EU concerns about interoperability and market distortion in the online music business.
But I'd rather be positive about what was announced Monday.
EMI and Apple's action could mark the start of the endgame for music DRM, a recognition that it can't work and won't work, and I approve of this. In an interoperable world of open music we can leave it to the market to decide which player, which store and which bands make it big, and that is a good thing.
Hard-edged
I don't like DRM. I don't know anyone who has ever downloaded a music track and muttered "how nice to know that this track is copy-protected and so ensures that I don't inadvertently play it on another computer or copy it to a friend's music player".
I'm pretty sure that Steve Jobs the man - as opposed to Steve Jobs the hard-edged CEO of a major technology company - doesn't like it either.
Everything I've read and seen of Jobs leads me to respect his deal-making ability and to believe that he wants the digital revolution to triumph not falter. Of course he wants Apple to be leading the charge - it's his company - but that does not mean he will make decisions that would damage the long term growth of the networked world.
I won't go so far as to believe that DRM-free music market was the endgame when iTunes was first launched - at least, not until I see the internal e-mails - but it may well have been one of the scenarios that the people behind it considered.
I was also reminded of why Jobs matters by a sweet piece of synchronicity, because as he was appearing on stage in London I was helping my girlfriend clear out some of the technology she has been keeping in her attic.
There was a lot of old Acorn kit, a Z88, even a Mac II. But the only shiver came when she handed me a plastic bag containing an Apple II, the computer that changed the world, the computer that Steve Wozniak built and Steve Jobs sold.
Massive debt
If Jobs is the man to turn the music industry away from DRM then we will all owe him a massive debt of gratitude. And today, while there is still a lot of manipulation, politicking and arm-twisting to be done, we've taken a small step in the right direction.
Music sites that already offer open music may now be worried that iTunes will eat into their market share, but of course the other labels aren't going to change their policy overnight, and in a DRM-free world users will be able to buy tracks from different stores and know that they will work on their computer or portable player, just as we can buy CDs from any shop and take them home to play.
I might now celebrate by buying a tune or two of unencumbered music from Apple's store when they are available next month, even though it will be more expensive than popping down to my local discount record store and picking up a CD to rip.
'I was wrong about Steve Jobs'
Bill Thompson
www.bbc.co.uk
April 3rd 2007
Bill Thompson doubted Apple's desire to sell songs without DRM. They start doing it in May, so what does he think now?
At Monday's press event to announce that the iTunes Music Store will be selling "premium" songs from EMI's catalogue without the copy-protection offered by the Fairplay digital rights management system, Steve Jobs noted that "some doubted Apple's sincerity when we made our proposal earlier this year... they said we had too much to lose".
That would be me, then.
In February Jobs wrote that Apple would stop using DRM "in an instant" if it could, and I was dismissive. "I don't believe him", I wrote at the time, going on to argue that "if Apple switched off Fairplay then they would probably sell a lot more songs, on which they make very little money, and a lot fewer iPods, on which they make a lot".
I also wrote that "Jobs can see which way the wind is blowing, and he can see that the record companies are finally tiring of their painful, expensive and ultimately unsatisfactory relationship with DRM", arguing that his comments were an attempt to "position Apple for this brave new world".
'Seriously underestimated'
Well, he has proved me wrong by opening up the iTunes store to non-DRM music, and showed that I had seriously underestimated his business acumen.
He may even have done it in a way which avoids the fate of being "crushed under foot by those who really understand the music business and didn't sell their souls to the record companies back in the days when they believed in DRM" that I predicted for him in my February column.
It would be easy to be cynical and attempt to dismiss this as just another PR effort from Jobs, lining up with a weakened and desperate record company to pull a stunt that will promote EMI as it tries to sell itself.
After all EMI is only one record company among many, and the London venue for the launch might indicate that the change of heart is at least in part an attempt to defuse EU concerns about interoperability and market distortion in the online music business.
But I'd rather be positive about what was announced Monday.
EMI and Apple's action could mark the start of the endgame for music DRM, a recognition that it can't work and won't work, and I approve of this. In an interoperable world of open music we can leave it to the market to decide which player, which store and which bands make it big, and that is a good thing.
Hard-edged
I don't like DRM. I don't know anyone who has ever downloaded a music track and muttered "how nice to know that this track is copy-protected and so ensures that I don't inadvertently play it on another computer or copy it to a friend's music player".
I'm pretty sure that Steve Jobs the man - as opposed to Steve Jobs the hard-edged CEO of a major technology company - doesn't like it either.
Everything I've read and seen of Jobs leads me to respect his deal-making ability and to believe that he wants the digital revolution to triumph not falter. Of course he wants Apple to be leading the charge - it's his company - but that does not mean he will make decisions that would damage the long term growth of the networked world.
I won't go so far as to believe that DRM-free music market was the endgame when iTunes was first launched - at least, not until I see the internal e-mails - but it may well have been one of the scenarios that the people behind it considered.
I was also reminded of why Jobs matters by a sweet piece of synchronicity, because as he was appearing on stage in London I was helping my girlfriend clear out some of the technology she has been keeping in her attic.
There was a lot of old Acorn kit, a Z88, even a Mac II. But the only shiver came when she handed me a plastic bag containing an Apple II, the computer that changed the world, the computer that Steve Wozniak built and Steve Jobs sold.
Massive debt
If Jobs is the man to turn the music industry away from DRM then we will all owe him a massive debt of gratitude. And today, while there is still a lot of manipulation, politicking and arm-twisting to be done, we've taken a small step in the right direction.
Music sites that already offer open music may now be worried that iTunes will eat into their market share, but of course the other labels aren't going to change their policy overnight, and in a DRM-free world users will be able to buy tracks from different stores and know that they will work on their computer or portable player, just as we can buy CDs from any shop and take them home to play.
I might now celebrate by buying a tune or two of unencumbered music from Apple's store when they are available next month, even though it will be more expensive than popping down to my local discount record store and picking up a CD to rip.
Spamalot bids for coconut record
The cast and creators of Monty Python musical Spamalot are hoping to set a new record for the world's largest coconut orchestra.
The Guinness World Record attempt will take place in London's Trafalgar Square on St George's Day, 23 April. The public will be given a pair of coconuts to "clip-clop" in time to the Python classic Always Look On The Bright Side of Life.
The current record of 1,789 was set in March last year, in New York. The gathering was held outside the Shubert Theatre to celebrate the first anniversary of the Broadway show.
The cast of the West End production will be on hand to lead the Trafalgar Square attempt.
The event will be followed by a special screening of Monty Python and the Holy Grail in Trafalgar Square, at 1930 BST.
Spamalot recently extended its booking at London's Palace Theatre until 3 November 2007.
The Guinness World Record attempt will take place in London's Trafalgar Square on St George's Day, 23 April. The public will be given a pair of coconuts to "clip-clop" in time to the Python classic Always Look On The Bright Side of Life.
The current record of 1,789 was set in March last year, in New York. The gathering was held outside the Shubert Theatre to celebrate the first anniversary of the Broadway show.
The cast of the West End production will be on hand to lead the Trafalgar Square attempt.
The event will be followed by a special screening of Monty Python and the Holy Grail in Trafalgar Square, at 1930 BST.
Spamalot recently extended its booking at London's Palace Theatre until 3 November 2007.
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