Focus

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Chinese Man Pierced 2008 Times for Upcoming Olympics

China has been buzzing with anticipation for the 2008 Olympics this summer. From putting up sexy Olympic street lights to naming 3,500 babies after the event, you can definitely feel the pride and excitement for the coming games.

Wei, a 60 year-old Chinese acupuncturist from Guangxi province, showed his patriotism for the upcoming Olympics by piercing his head, face, chest, and arms with 2008 decorative needles in five different colors.

The event broke his previous Guinness Record of 1790 needles set in 2004. Wei also hopes to share more about the history of acupuncture to the world.

Initially inspired after reading about a Canadian who had set a record for inserting 420 needles in his arm, Wei felt that it was “not much compared to our centuries-old acupuncture,” and began experimenting with piercing his own body with needles.

On January 13, 2007, Wei had also paraded through town with 800 needles in his forehead and even put on skates and skated around the streets to show he was not in pain and alright.

(taken from: here)
[...]

Dubai tower reaches 630 m to become world's tallest structure

Burj Dubai, a skyscraper under construction in the oil-rich United Arab Emirates, has reached 630 meters (2,066 feet) to become the world's tallest man-made structure, Al-Ittihad newspaper said on Tuesday.

Mohammed Ali Alabbar, chairman of state-owned development company Emaar - one of the builders of the tower - was quoted by the paper as saying the building is now higher than the 628.8-meter (2,063-foot) television transmission mast in North Dakota, U.S. The mast had held the title of highest structure for 45 years.

Alabbar said the $1 billion tower, designed by the U.S.-based Scidmore, Owings and Merill, already has 160 floors. The planned final height of the building has been kept secret.

When completed, the skyscraper in the heart of Dubai will feature 56 elevators, luxury apartments, boutiques, swimming pools, spas, exclusive corporate suites, a hotel, and an observation platform.

The deadline for the project carried out by a consortium led by South Korea's Samsung, has been postponed by four months from the end of 2008.

Alabbar said Christmas parties would not take place in the tower as was earlier planned. However, next year Burj will meet all criteria to become the world's tallest building, in terms of room space, the highest occupied floor, the roof's top, the spire's tip, antenna length, etc.

Burj will surpass Taiwan's Taipei 101, which has held the record at 508 meters (1,667 feet) since 2004.

Earlier reports said more than 5,000 engineers and laborers are employed in the project. Some 330,000 cubic meters of cement and 39,000 metric tons of reinforced steel will be used in the construction and over 140,000 sq m of glass will be used for the facade.

(taken from: here)
[...]

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Indonesia Diving, Raja Ampat Island "The incredible reef and fish"

No doubt about it, the Raja Ampat is definitely the richest place for fish, that I have ever been. Dr G.R.Allen

"I was like a five-year-old, seeing a reef for the very first time. I was awestruck, held by the incredible power of this richest reef. We must, with all available resources, preserve the beauty of Raja Ampat. This may be the last frontier." Michael Aw

"I love the people, I love the diving, It's super!! I've never been for a second time to the same dive destination but now I'm thinking about going back for the third time!! Should I say more?" Peter van Dalen
(Taken from www.iriandive.com)

Raja Ampat Island is the most western district of the Indonesian province of Papua. Raja Ampat consists of an area surrounding four major island off the western coast of Birds Head Panisula of New Guinea Island. The western half of which is Indonesia and the eastern half, Papua New Guinea. The province was called Irian Jaya, and its a cluster of over 1500 small Islands.

Raja Ampat is the most bio-diverse location in the world more than 3000 species of fishes and over 300 species of corals have been identified here, in a single one and half hour dive you can identified more than 282 fish species and more than 400 species. Till this very day the area is virtually unexplored and unknown due to its size. This area as there are still many remnants of WW II.

The Roughest seas and decreased visibility in the Raja Ampat area are from mid-June until the end of August. During the rest of the year, the sea is mostly very smooth whit good visibility.

Dive sites in Raja Ampat Island:

  • Kri Island: Kri has several sites and Cape Kri is one of the fishiest. The fish numbers and variety are truly amazing. The site is current dependent. Generally it's a steep slope with beautiful coral growth, lots of reef and schooling fishes, including the giant Queensland Grouper.
  • Sardine Reef: Sardine Reef has really giant clams at 10m (33ft) but it's all about non-stop fishes here. There's a resident school of bumphead parrotfish in the shallows, colorful soft corals and plenty of critters.
  • Kaboei Bay Rock Islands: The bay is a labyrinth of rock islands. Visibility isn't great but this is a great place for macro and finding odd nudibranches, mollusks and the pictured dragonet. Bat caves and skeletons are found on some of the islands.
  • The Passage: This is a drift dive through a narrow channel near Waigeo. Look for archerfish among the mangroves, orange cup corals, seahorses, and percula clownfish.
  • Fam Island: Several sites near Fam have stunning coral growth. Sponges and soft corals add color and fishes keep it going. Sites include walls, sloping reefs, and muddy bays.
  • Misool: Misool is awash in fish life and huge sea fans. Caverns and boulders mark several sites. The schooling fishes seem endless and pygmy seahorses live in less than 10m (33ft). Some sites are current dependent.

At a Glance Irian Diving
  • Reef type: Vertical walls, Lagoon channels, caves, platform reefs, etc.
  • Access: By boat from base camps.
  • Visibility: Very good, 20-45 meters.
  • Current: Moderate, excellent for drift diving.
  • Coral: Excellent " abundant & divers.
  • Fish: Variety & abundance guaranteed.
  • Highlights: Snorkeling with dolphins near the Wai base camp (5m); White-tip sharks under P47B wing; finding new wrecks untouched/complete.
It is easiest to fly through to Sorong via Jakarta or via Singapore. Merpati, Pelita and Lion/Wings Airlines operate daily flights from Jakarta to Sorong (with stopovers in Ujung Pandang/Makassar and/or Manado), whereas Silk Air operates regularly from Singapore to Manado. Daily flights to and from Sorong by Airlines Merpati, Lion/Wings or Pelita.

Raja Ampat Island have several accommodations whit traditional design, and there many boat you can rent for a stay. If you using dive operator they will arrange for your base came.

Raja Ampat islands have a very diverse topography with steep mountain shores and deserted white sand beaches. Explore the land on foot. Use a boat to move from one dive site to another dive site.

There are several restaurants and cafes throughout Sorong. Try their specialties: traditional irian foods!

There are many traditional souvenirs made from wood.

You can visit gorgeous waterfalls, ancient burial sites, bat caves and stunning waterways breathtaking limestone landscapes and Manta ray spotting and bird watching.

  • To enter Papua itself, you need a surat jalan (Travel Permit) which is issued by the local police. Please bring: 3 Passport Photos, 3 Copies of the photo page of your passport and 3 Copies of the passport page with the Indonesian Visa.
  • Guide Book : Diving Indonesia (a guide to the world's greatest diving), Periplus Action Guide, Kal Muller.More Information about Irian Jaya Dive, contact: Sorong, Indonesia Office: Papua Diving. Phone: +62 (411) 401 660, Fax: +62 (951) 325 274. www.Iriandiving.com





















(taken from: here) [...]

The Flight of Dragonfly Robots

One day, the U.S. military hopes to use tiny flying robots, equipped with cameras and sensors, for surveillance. But such robots would need to be able to navigate around obstacles, carry weight, and be efficient enough to fly for long periods of time. A group of researchers believe that the key to making such a robot might lie in the dragonfly.

Dragonflies are one of few creatures that utilize four independently controlled wings to fly, allowing them to hover, dart, glide, move backward, and change directions rapidly. Looking to understand such abilities, scientists at the Royal Veterinary College, in England, and the University of Ulm, in Germany, have developed a robotic dragonfly to measure the current flows over and under the wings at different flap cycles. While most of the dragonfly hovering scenarios were not efficient, the team found that if the lower wings are beating slightly ahead of the top wings, the double set of wings proves more efficient at generating lift, employing 22 percent less power to lift the same weight as a single pair.

"The one specific advantage you get in four wings is the maneuverability and ability to pick things out of the air and hover and dart around," says Jonathan How, a professor at MIT who works on flying robots but was not involved in the dragonfly project. "It would be really amazing if we could build something that got anywhere near that level of performance. If you can achieve the same lift at a lower power, that's helpful."

Despite their potential advantages, small flying robots that mimic dragonflies' agility have not been successfully made, in part because of the complexity of the aerodynamics around four wings, and also because of fabrication issues involved with small flying machines. However, studies of wing motion and air forces that reveal how dragonflies achieve their agility may enable roboticists to eventually build capable, swift flyers that use four wings.

To measure the air currents, the Ulm researchers immersed the robotic dragonfly in a tank filled with mineral oil and peppered with air bubbles. Two green lasers combined and reflected off the air bubbles as a high-speed camera took images 10 to 20 milliseconds apart. By comparing images, the scientists calculated the direction of flow for regions within the tank.

In terms of four-wing versus two-wing systems for a biomimetic micro air vehicle, "it's a trade-off," says Fritz-Olaf Lehmann, a researcher at the University of Ulm who worked on the study. With a four-wing system, the disadvantages are the need for an extra control system and extra power. However, a system with two wings must incorporate ways to change the angle, amplitude, and frequency of the wings flapping to change lift, says Lehmann. Conversely, with four wings, "you can just advance one flight system against the other, and then you change lift production," he says. "I think that makes building a micro air vehicle much easier."

In creating an autonomous micro air vehicle, "every little bit of efficiency counts," says Robert Wood, a professor at Harvard University who has developed some of the smallest flying robots. "You could make the argument that if you have a four-winged vehicle, you'll have more [control] to assist you in stabilization," he says.

Michael Dickinson, a professor at Caltech who works on understanding and mimicking fly flight, says that interest in dragonflies is growing and that the Lehmann paper is not the first containing this kind of analysis but "one in a floodgate of papers." While the study might add to the understanding of the subtle aerodynamics of four-winged flight, Dickinson points out that researchers must still develop a better, lighter battery that powers the vehicle and makes an effective control system.

(taken from: here)
[...]

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Apple Updates iPhone, Slashes Price

Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO, confirms rumors that a cheaper iPhone with GPS will be available in July.

As at any Apple event, attendees of the World Wide Developers Conference in San Francisco showed up on Monday expecting to be awed by a Steve Jobs Show. And judging from the elevated mood in the room immediately after the Apple CEO's presentation, they were. The biggest technical news, which was widely predicted, is that the new iPhone, available July 11, will operate over so-called 3G networks, which are many times faster than the EDGE networks that the iPhone currently uses. Also confirmed was the rumor of GPS for real-time location tracking on the iPhone. But perhaps the most crowd-pleasing announcement is the dramatic price cut: from $399 for an eight-gigabyte model to $199. A 16-gigabyte model will be $299 and available in black and white.

When the iPhone was introduced last June, some analysts predicted that consumers would reject it because of its hefty price tag and its reliance on AT&T's relatively slow network. Since the phone's release, roughly six million iPhones have been sold to people who have looked past sluggish downloads and fallen in love with the gadget's intuitive touch interface and impressive graphics. But the difference between the EDGE and 3G networks can be startling. During Jobs's presentation, he contrasted the two versions of the phone. It takes 59 seconds for the current phone to load a Web page with heavy graphics. On the new 3G phone, the same page loads in 21 seconds. By comparison, it takes 17 seconds on a Wi-Fi network. E-mail applications download 3.6 percent faster.

By adding GPS, Apple has taken an important step toward expanding location-based services--tools that people use to find friends and activities around them in real time. Today's iPhone has the ability to locate itself, within a relatively large radius, using signals from cell-phone towers and Wi-Fi stations. GPS takes it a step farther, pinpointing location down to a couple of meters. This enables real-time tracking, making the iPhone a useful in-car navigation tool.

Jobs also provided an update of the third-party software, available in the forthcoming iPhone application store, and updates on the phone's compatibility with enterprise software. As announced in March, the iPhone will support Microsoft Exchange, providing compatibility with Outlook's mail, contacts, and calendar. The iPhone will also support Apple's iWork collection of productivity software, as well as Microsoft Office. And importantly, it will include the security features that have convinced enterprise customers--including the U.S. military and a number of Fortune 500 companies, law firms, and pharmaceutical companies--that the iPhone is as secure as any mobile device.

Since March, when the iPhone software developer kit was launched, a number of third-party companies and individual programmers have been racing to develop applications that run on the phone. At the conference, Apple highlighted a handful. Game developers are excited about the potential for using the built-in accelerometers as game controllers, and Sega showed off its Super Monkey Ball game. Loopt, a location-based startup that has previously only run on Sprint and Boost Mobile phones, demonstrated how a person using its service could find nearby friends. Typepad, a popular blogging tool, will offer software that enables easy mobile blogging on the iPhone.

In addition to the iPhone upgrades and previews of third-party software, Apple announced that it has revamped its .Mac service, a $99 a year service that provides e-mail, a Web page, and syncing options. It has been rebranded into MobileMe and will enable mail, calendar updates, and address-book changes to stay constantly synchronized over all Macs, PCs, and iPhones. This move illustrates that Apple is finally ready to recognize the importance of cloud computing, famously the province of Google and other Internet companies. However, since it's a pay service, it's unclear how much traction Apple will see as it competes with popular free services such as Gmail and Yahoo's Flickr.

As with all Steve Jobs keynotes, bullet points were big, and technical details were scarce. However, in the coming weeks, and after the iPhone's release on July 11, more information is expected to emerge. Some experts were predicting an upgrade to the phone's camera, but on Monday, there was no mention of a camera update or added video capabilities.

(taken from: here) [...]

10 Must-Try Exotic Fruits

Traveling to an exotic destination is not just about swimming in the turquoise waters or sunbathing. You also have to taste some of the cuisine and sample some of the exotic fruits of the place. For those hot summers when you need something refreshing, we have collected 10 tropical fruits you absolutely must try.

1. Rambutan
Native to Malay Archipelago, Southeast Asia
Coming from an evergreen tree, the Rambutan fruit resembles the Lychees, have a leathery red skin and are covered with spines. Rambutan is a popular garden fruit tree and one of the most famous in Southeast Asia. The fruit is sweet and juicy, being commonly found in jams or available canned.

2. Jackfruit
Native to southwestern India, Bangladesh, Philippines and Sri Lanka
Jackfruit is a common fruit for Asia and Australia and considered as one of the largest tree borne fruit in the world. The juicy pulp around the seeds have a taste similar to pineapple, but milder. Apart from canned jackfruit, it is also available as sweet chips. The wood of the tree is used for making various musical instruments, while the fruit is a common ingredient for many Asian dishes.

3. Passion Fruit
Native to South America, grown in India, New Zealand, Brazil, etc
The passion fruit has a soft, juicy interior full of seeds, being commonly found in juices to boost their flavors. There are two types of passion fruit: the golden one (maracuyá), similar to a grapefruit and the dark purple passion fruit (gulupa), comparable in terms of size with a lemon. However, the ladder ones have been reported as being mildly poisonous.

4. Lychee
Native to southern China, found in India, Taiwan
Coming from an evergreen tree, the lychee or litchi are small white flesh fruits, covered in a red rind, rich in vitamin C and with a grape-like texture. The fruit has started making its appearance in markets worldwide, refrigerated or canned with its taste intact.

5. Star fruit
Native to Indonesia, India and Sri Lanka
The star fruit comes from the carambola, a species of tree with pink flowers grown even in the US. The golden-yellow fruit is crunchy, sweet, with a taste of pineapples, apples and kiwis combined. There are two kinds of star fruits - acidulate and sweet, both rich in vitamin C. The fruit is particularly juice, some even making wine out of it.

6. Mangosteen
Native to the Sunda Islands and the Moluccas.
The mangosteen is another evergreen tree that produces oddly shaped fruits. The fruits are purple, creamy, described as citrus with a hint of peach. It is rich in antioxidants, some scientists even suggesting it can lower risk against certain human diseases, such as cancer. There are even legends about Queen Victoria offering a reward to the one that brings her the fruit.

7. Kumquat
Native to China
The kumquats or cumquats are small edible fruits resembling oranges that grow in a tree related to the Citrus. As with most of the fruits in the Citrus family, the kumquats are eaten raw. They are often used in marmalade and jelly but also in alcoholic drinks such as liquor. The Taiwanese add it to their teas, while others boil it and use it as a remedy for sore throats.

8. Durian
Native to Brunei, Malaysia and Indonesia
Also known as the “King of Fruits,” Durian has a very particular odor, a unique taste and is covered by a hard husk. Having a disagreeable smell, compared to skunk spray or sewage, the fruit is forbidden in hotels and public transportations in Southeast Asia. Still, the whole experience is worth it, considering the absolutely divine taste of the Durian.

9. Dragon Fruit
Native to Mexico and Central and South America
Dragon fruit, strawberry pear or pitaya is a fruit of several cactus species with a sweet delicate taste and creamy pulp. The most common dragon fruit is the red pitaya, but other varieties include the Costa Rica pataya and the yellow pataya. Juice or wine can be obtained from the fruit, while the flowers can be eaten or used for tea.

10. African cucumber
Native to Kalahari Desert, Africa
The African cucumber, horned melon or melano is a fruit that can be best described as melon with horns. It originated in the Kalahari Desert and is now present in California and New Zealand. The dark green pulp reminds one of bananas, limes, passion fruit and cucumber. It is often used for decorating food but also in smoothies and sundaes.

(taken from: here)
[...]

Top 5 places to go in Sydney

The ‘Harbour City’ of Australia is an overwhelming pot pourri of culture, entertainment and history. When visiting this scenic city ensure that your camera is fully loaded with film or memory to make the most of your experience. Stay at top tier Sydney accommodation with a view of the famous Opera House or enjoy the backpacker experience and take advantage of cheap Sydney accommodation . However you decide to visit the city, having a basic plan is essential. These top 5 sights should be a must on every Sydney tour plan.

1. Sydney Opera House

Built in 1973 and made a UNESCO world heritage site in 2007, the Sydney Opera House houses the world’s largest organ with over 10,000 pipes, and is the homeground for the Sydney Symphony, Opera Australia and the Australian Ballet. Concerts, opera, plays and other events are staged throughout its many sections. The Opera house is just a few minutes walk from the circular quay that is accessible by train, ferry, bus or taxi. Visit the Sydney Opera House official website for more information

2. Port Jackson
Sydney Harbour is a natural port and home to several attractions, particularly the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the harbour cruises that are facilitated by ferries and gondolas. Dubbed “Coathanger” for its Steel-arch design, the Bridge connects the Business District of Sydney with its North Shore, channeling rail, road and pedestrian traffic. Those with an interest in engineering and with strength of body can enjoy a climbing tour over the less traveled vestiges of the bridge. Also visit the bridge climb and Sydney Harbour Cruises for more information.

3. Sydney Tower
The tower offers an all-round panoramic bird’s eye view of Sydney city and if you are visiting around the time of the ‘Tour Run Up’, you may be interested in watching or even competing in the event that sends runners hurtling up the 1304 steps to the top of the tower. Visit the Tower Restaurant with its magnificent panorama or brave the unnerving experience of the Skywalk by stepping out onto a glass-floored platform for a more comprehensive view of Sydney.

4. Royal Botanic Gardens
Step into the largest botanical garden in Sydney for a showcase of exotic flowers & plants, wildlife and waterways, open all week. The Royal Botanic Gardens are the home of the New South Wales’ Centre for Plant Conservation & Research and regularly plays host to art classes and cultural events. The gardens are an excellent place to spend a day of relaxation.

5. Beaches
Sydney beaches are plentiful and every visitor to this shore-side city should include an excursion to one of its beaches. Bondi, Balmoral and Cronulla are some of the most popular sandy destinations and the surf of Manly Beach makes it a favourite for surfers.

(taken from: here)
[...]

5 Scary Hotel Experiences

A boring holiday can begin with choosing a boring hotel, dull and with no personality. If you want to make sure the hotel you’ll be staying at will bring you the excitement needed, we have collected some of the creepiest, scariest and most terrifying hotels across the world. While some scare simply through their lack of cleanliness, other have verified sightings of ghosts.

1. Located in Hollywood, the Roosevelt Hotel is mainly famous for being home for 2 years to Marilyn Monroe before she started her modeling career. The 12-story Spanish style hotel opened in 1927, has 302 rooms and suites and cost $2.5 million to make. Miss Monroe stayed in room 1200, which overlooked the pool side. The huge mirror that hanged in her room is now in the lobby, many guests believing it is haunted by her spirit. Some guests even say they have seen her dancing in the hotel’s ballroom.

2. On a more realistic side of scary, the Carter Hotel in Manhattan is, according to the official hotel reviews, a hotel for the budget traveler. After a more thorough search, one notices that the Carter Hotel is famous for being the dirtiest hotel in America for the past 3 years. For around 200$, you can choose to stay in any of the 700 rooms, packed with moldy patches, terrible plumbing and bugs dead or alive, a complementary gift from the staff. Probably one of the scariest things you can find in a hotel room, as reported by the New York Post, is a woman’s body found in one of the rooms of Carter hotel in August.

3. The Ocean Edge Resort & Club in Cape Cod, Massachusetts is one of the few hotels not afraid to admit about its inhabitant ghosts. Even more, when you choose the “Spooky Mansion” package, they’ll even throw in the midnight cup of coffee and a flashlight to help you look for the ghost. And, if Addie doesn’t show, you’ll have plenty of entertainment opportunities to keep you occupied.

4. The Hotel del Coronado in San Diego, California is considered by many one of America’s most beautiful resorts. However, the hotel’s legend about a 24-year old gold digger that was found dead in 1892 is one of the odd attractions. Apart from the usual activities of ghost-haunting (door slamming or hearing voices), the ghost also invades your bed. She leaves shapes on one’s pillow, as if her head was resting there.

5. For a combination of remote, refreshing and scary, choose the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado. The 138-room hotel located near the Rocky Mountain National Park is the one that inspired Stephen King to write The Shining. Built in 1909 by Freelan O. Stanley, the hotel is still home to the original owner. Stanley’s ghost can often be seen in the lobby or pool room, while others guests complain about hearing children playing in the hallway at night.

photo sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

(taken from: here)
[...]

Low Vitamin D Levels May Boost Men's Heart Attack Risk

Vitamin D deficiency may increase the risk of heart attack in men, says a U.S. study.

Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health and Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, analyzed medical records and blood samples from 454 men, aged 40 to 75, who had a nonfatal heart attack or fatal heart disease, and compared them to 900 men who had no history of cardiovascular disease.

Men with a vitamin D deficiency (15 nanograms or less per milliliter of blood) had a higher risk of heart attack than those with a sufficient amount of vitamin D (30 nanograms per milliliter of blood or more).

"After additional adjustment for family history of myocardial infarction, body-mass index, alcohol consumption, physical activity, history of diabetes mellitus and hypertension, ethnicity, region, marine omega-3 intake, low- and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels and triglyceride levels, this relationship remained significant," the study authors wrote.

The findings appear in the June 9 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

"Vitamin D deficiency has been related to an increasing number of conditions and to total mortality. These results further support an important role for vitamin D in myocardial infarction risk," the researchers concluded.

(taken from: here)
[...]

WiMax Hits the Patent Pool

A new alliance of WiMax players aims to create a competitive royalty structure.

WiMax took another tentative step forward June 9 with the formation of the Open Patent Alliance, creating a patent pool to help companies obtain access to patents at a predictable cost. The group said its aim is to advance a competitive and open intellectual property rights model.

The OPA's founding members include Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco Systems, Clearwire, Intel, Samsung and Sprint Nextel. The OPA said it expects to secure participation of an additional six to nine investor companies.

The patent pool will aggregate essential patent rights needed to implement the WiMax standard as defined by the WiMax Forum and the IEEE 802.16e standard. WiMax is a 4G, IP-based broadband wireless technology that backers, particularly Sprint Nextel, Clearwire and a host of tech companies, are betting will become a viable broadband competitor.

In May, Sprint revived its flagging $5 billion WiMax plans with financial backing from Intel, Google and major cable companies. Sprint will merge its struggling WiMax division with Clearwire to create a new company operating under the Clearwire name.

"We expect to unleash wireless innovation with this patent alliance," Barry West, president of Sprint's XOHM business unit, said in a statement. "The open licensing program will help prompt pervasive WiMax technology. This speeds the day when consumers can enjoy the convenience of WiMax mobile broadband services on new devices in new places and experience all the open Internet has to offer."

The OPA founders said they hope the patent pool approach will ensure product differentiation and interoperability by focusing on providing a more competitive royalty structure by charging only for the features required to develop WiMax products. The patent pool will incorporate a number of royalty licensing arrangements, including cross-licensing among members of the pool.

According to the OPA, an independent third-party reviewer will evaluate submitted patents to determine how essential they are to the WiMax standard and WiMax Forum profiles.

"We are confident that the formation of the Open Patent Alliance, which is fully in line with Alcatel-Lucent's Open CPE program, will ensure a broad and diverse set of devices will be available to the consumer," said Brett Galloway, senior vice president of Cisco wireless and security.

Galloway added that widespread adoption of WiMax would allow people "to move freely throughout the world while maintaining continuous connectivity to cool new applications and services."

(taken from: here)
[...]

The Cost of the $199 iPhone: $10 More Per Month for Data

The biggest news from Apple is what Steve Jobs didn’t say: It has completely changed the basis of its deals with AT&T and other wireless carriers.

According to a press release from AT&T, the carrier will no longer give a portion of monthly usage fees to Apple. Instead carriers will pay Apple a subsidy for each phone sold, in order to bring the price from $399 down to $199 for the 8 Gigabyte model. The company did not specify the amount of the subsidy. Subsidies of $200 to $300 are common in the industry.

What is more, consumers will now pay $30 a month for unlimited data service from AT&T, compared to $20 under the plan introduced last year. So even though the phone will now cost $200, consumers will be out more cash at the end of a two-year contract compared to the previous deal.

Of course, that includes faster 3G data service, so the price increase may be worth it. But we should call it an iPhone price increase, not a cut.

Unlimited data service for business users will cost $45 a month.

AT&T says the shift to upfront subsidies will cut into profits to the tune of 10 cents to 12 cents per share, both this year and next. As the number of customers paying the higher monthly bills increases, the phone company says profit per share will start to increase in 2010.

AT&T also said in its release that it now has 3G data service in 280 metropolitan areas, and that will increase to 350 areas by the end of the year.

For Apple, this move to getting all its money up front has several advantages. By using the same economic model as every other cell phone maker, it makes it easier to bring the phone to carriers in every corner of the world.

It also should help insulate Apple from the cost of people who buy iPhones and unlock them to use on carriers that don’t pay Apple the monthly fee. Now Apple will get its money, say $500, up front and it no longer has to police what people do with them. Whether Apple will still keep penalizing users who unlock their phones is one of the many questions that remain to be answered.

Indeed, Apple has just filed a short disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission saying that outside of the United States and a few other countries, its deals with carriers are not exclusive.

Apple has signed multi-year agreements with carriers authorizing them to distribute and provide network services for iPhones in over 70 countries. These agreements are generally not exclusive with a specific carrier, except in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Ireland, and certain other countries. Under the vast majority of these agreements, Apple will not receive follow-on revenue generating payments from carriers for the new iPhone 3G beyond the purchase of the device by carriers or a commission on sales of the device by Apple. Apple will continue to receive payments from cellular network providers related to first-generation iPhones as long as they remain active on authorized networks.

(taken from: here) [...]

Monday, June 9, 2008

Here Are The Nominees For The 2008 Golden Foot Award

The 2008 GOLDEN FOOT edition was presented in Turin earlier this afternoon. During the presentation press conference Alessandro Del Piero, who won the award in 2007, revealed the 10 names of the nominees for the 2008 Golden Foot award, the prestigious international career prize under the High Patronage of H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco. Here are the ten names of the players chosen by the jury consisting of the event international Media Partners:

1. David Beckham (England),
Date of birth: 02/05/1975
Current club: Los Angeles Galaxy (Usa)
Position: right or central midfielder

HONOURS
English League (1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003)
English Cup (1996, 1999)
UEFA Champions League (1999)
Intercontinental Cup (1999)
Spanish League (2007)
Spanish Super Cup (2003)
English League Young Footballer of the Year (1997)
UEFA Champions League Footballer of the Year (1999)

David BECKHAM PROFILE
Simply the most famous footballer in the world, David Beckham's main attributes are his long-range shooting ability - especially from free-kicks - pin-point accurate crossing from the right. He established himself in the Manchester United FC first team in the 1995/96 English double-winning season and a goal from the halfway line in the first game of the next campaign, at Wimbledon, marked his arrival as a star. Beckham's efforts in the treble-winning team of 1998/99 that lifted the UEFA Champions League trophy won him the second place behind Rivaldo in the voting for FIFA World Player of the Year and European Player of the Year. His coruscating form in 2001 brought another second place in the FIFA poll, behind Luís Figo. In 2003 summer, he joined Real Madrid CF (where he won a Liga title in 2007), then in summer 2007 he transferred to the United States Major League Soccer to play with Los Angeles Galaxy. On March, 26th 2008, Beckham becomes the fifth to win 100 caps with English national team.

2. Gianluigi Buffon (Italy),
Date of birth: 28/01/1978
Current club: Juventus FC (Italy)
Position: goalkeeper

HONOURS
FIFA World Cup (2006)
U21 European Championship (1996)
UEFA Cup (1999)
Italian League (2002, 2003)
Italian Cup (1999)
Italian Supercup (1999, 2002, 2003)
Official Italian Republic's Order of Merit (2006)
IFFHS Best Goalkeeper of the Year (2003, 2004, 2006, 2007)
UEFA Champions League MVP (2003)
UEFA Champions League Goalkeeper of the Year (2003)
Lev Yashin award (2006, best goalkeeper of the World Cup)

Gianluigi BUFFON PROFILE
Gianluigi Buffon is unanimously considered the best goalkeeper in the world, but only after his retirement it will be possible to say if he was, as it seems, one of the strongest ones ever. He seemed immediately predestined to become what he is now: "Gigi" worked his way through the youth ranks at Parma that signed him as a professional player at the age of 17 in 1995, going on to make his Serie A debut for the club against AC Milan that year and winning the UEFA Cup with Parma in 1999. Buffon went on to make 168 appearances for Parma while building a reputation as one of Europe's best young goalkeeping talents and it wasn't long until the major clubs started looking his way. Juventus won the auction for Buffon's services in 2001 and paid Parma a world record fee of over £32m for the 23- year- old goalie. Personal prizes such as UEFA's Most Valuable Player Award and Best Goalkeeper Awards have continued to add to Buffon's trophy cabinet alongside notable club and international successes as the Scudetto (Italian national title) with Juventus and a World Cup victory with Italy in 2006. The Calciopoli (match-fixing) scandal which saw Juventus relegated to Serie B did not scare Buffon away from the club and he duly helped his club to the Serie B title in 2006/2007 as they battled their way back to Serie A in only one season. Buffon's international career began at the age of 19 when he replaced injured Gianluca Pagliuca between the goalposts but it was to be a few years before he made the position his own. Buffon's greatest career triumph has to be the 2006 World Cup during which he kept a 453-minute scoreless streak as he helped Italy to propel towards the World Cup glory.

3. Fabio Cannavaro (Italy),
Date of birth: 13/9/1973
Current club: Real Madrid CF (Spain)
Position: central defender

HONOURS
FIFA World Cup (2006)
U-21 European Championship (1994, 1996)
UEFA Cup (1999)
Italian Cup (1999)
Italian Supercup (1999)
Spanish League (2007, 2008)
European Footballer of the Year (2006)
FIFA World Player of the Year (2006)
FIFPRO Footballer of the Year (2006)
Italian Serie A Footballer of the Year (2006)

Fabio CANNAVARO PROFILE
The captain of the Italian national team, 2006 world champions, is one of the best defenders in the world. A SSC Napoli youth product, he made his Serie A debut when he was 20 and became a regular in the blue of his boyhood club in 1993/94. Departing for Parma FC in 1995/96, Cannavaro won the UEFA Cup and two Italian Cups during a seven-year spell. Internazionale FC paid €23m for him in 2002 but after two seasons he made a surprise move to Juventus FC in August 2004. In a typically imperious form in Turin, he was ever-present as Juventus won the title two years in a row but those triumphs were wiped out by a match-fixing scandal. With Juventus relegated Cannavaro joined Real Madrid CF in the summer of 2006, signing a three-year contract. Cannavaro made his full Italy debut against Northern Ireland in January 1997, subsequently emerging as a mainstay at international level alongside another great Italian defender, Alessandro Nesta. He starred at the 1998 FIFA World Cup and UEFA European Championship 2000 where he played in the final loss to France. Captain and ever-present in qualifying for UEFA Euro 2004, Cannavaro played twice in Portugal, but enjoyed his crowning glory two years later, lifting the World Cup trophy as Italy defeated France on his 100th appearance. Thanks to this great victory, in 2006 he was elected European Footballer of the Year (voted by journalists), FIFA World Player of the Year (voted by coaches and captains of national teams) and FIFPRO Footballer of the Year (voted by his colleagues).

4. Luís Figo (Portugal),
Date of birth: 04/11/1972
Current club: Internazionale FC (Italy)
Position: right or left midfielder

HONOURS
UEFA Champions League (2002)
Intercontinental Cup (2002)
UEFA Cup Winners Cup (1997)
European Supercup (1998, 2002)
U-16 FIFA World Cup (1989)
U-20 FIFA World Cup (1991)
Spanish Supercup (1996, 2003)
Spanish Cup (1997, 1998)
Spanish League (1998, 1999, 2001, 2003)
Italian League (2007, 2008)
Italian Cup (2006)
European Footballer of the Year (2000)
FIFA World Player of the Year (2001)
Portuguese Footballer of the Year (1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002)

Luis FIGO PROFILE
A teenager of outrageous talent and now one of the game's premier wide midfield players, Luís Figo relishes teasing defenders with his trickery and dribbling ability. The leader of the Portuguese "golden generation", Figo won a FIFA World Youth Championship in 1991, the same year he made his debut for Portugal in a game against Luxembourg. After joining aged eleven, Figo made his Sporting Clube de Portugal debut when he was 16 in 1989 and went on to make 124 appearances, winning the Portuguese Cup and earning the captaincy before joining FC Barcelona in 1995. It was at Camp Nou that his career took off: Figo won a UEFA European Cup Winners' Cup in 1996/97, back-to-back Primera División titles and went on to appear 172 times for the Azulgrana, scoring 30 goals. In 2000, there was his controversial, world-record transfer to Real Madrid CF. The move caused outrage among Barcelona fans and many others baulked at the €65m transfer fee. Yet Figo justified the investment by helping Madrid to the Primera División title and UEFA Champions League semi-finals as well as winning the FIFA World Footballer of the Year award. In 2001/02, he went one better, playing through injury for an hour of the final against Bayer 04 Leverkusen as Madrid prevailed 2-1. In 2002/03 season, Figo played a major role as Madrid won the Spanish title, scoring ten times in 33 matches. In 2005 he went to Internazionale FC where he won two Italian titles in a row.

5. Ryan Giggs (Wales),
Date of birth: 29/11/1973
Current club: Manchester United FC
Position: left wing/midfielder

HONOURS
UEFA Champions League (1999)
Intercontinental Cup (1999)
European Supercup (1991)
English League Cup (1992, 2006)
English Premier League (1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2007, 2008)
English FA Cup (1994, 1996, 1999, 2004)
English League Young Footballer of the Year (1992, 1993)
U-21 European Footballer of the Year (1993)
Intercontinental Cup MVP (1999)

Ryan GIGGS PROFILE

Ryan Giggs is one of very few players to have spent their entire career at the same club, he is the most decorated player in the history of Manchester United FC with more than 500 appearances for the club, Welsh winger Ryan Giggs's main strengths are his speed and his ability to manipulate the ball while running at full pace. Giggs is Manchester United's longest-serving current player, having made his first appearance for the club during the 1990-91 season and been a regular player since the 1991-92 season. He has played the highest number of competitive games for the club (more than Sir Bobby Charlton, the previous recordman), and holds the club record of team trophies won by a player (24). As well as being a fine dribbler, Giggs is also a regular goalscorer: it is very famous a magnificent solo score to win the 1999 FA Cup semi-final replay against Arsenal FC, from which point the club went on to secure an unprecedented treble of league, cup and UEFA Champions League, later adding the Intercontinental Cup. He has claimed nine other English titles (his overall tally of ten is a joint English record), two more FA Cups and a League Cup, one more Champions League (2008) and is the only player to win the Professional Footballers Association Young Player of the Year award on two occasions in a row (1992 and 1993). As Welsh international Giggs has been a regular in his side since becoming the youngest player to represent his country aged 17 years and 321 days against Germany in 1991, although he has never played in a final tournament. With his country's shirt, the Welsh Wizard has played 62 games scoring 12 goals.

6. Thierry Henry (France),
Date of birth: 17/8/1977
Current club: FC Barcelona (Spain)
Position: forward

HONOURS
FIFA World Cup (1998)
UEFA European Championship (2000)
FIFA Confederations Cup (2003)
French League (1997)
English FA Cup (2002, 2003, 2005)
English Premier League (2002, 2004)
French Young Footballer of the Year (1997)
French Footballer of the Year (2000, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006)
English Premier League Top Scorer (2002, 2004, 2005, 2006)
English Premier League Footballer of the Year (2003, 2004, 2006)
FIFA Confederations Cup Top Scorer (2003)
FIFA Confederations Cup MVP (2003)

Thierry HENRY PROFILE
Henry first made his mark with AS Monaco (1993-99), helping them to the French title in 1997 and a UEFA Champions League semi-final in 1998. He joined Juventus FC in January for a significant fee but failed to settle and seven months later Wenger took Henry to Arsenal. Reaching the 2000 UEFA Cup final, Premiership titles followed in 2001/02 and 2003/04, when Henry was the league's leading scorer, a feat he repeated in 2004/05 and 2005/06, he won the ESM Golden Boot award in 2003/04 and 2004/05 and FA Cup winners' medals in 2002, 2003 and 2005. In 2005/06 Henry became Arsenal's all-time leading goalscorer and played in the UEFA Champions League final, a superb campaign ending in a disappointing 2-1 loss to FC Barcelona. In 1998, when he was only 20, with France he finished as his country's leading scorer as they won the FIFA World Cup. Further success followed at UEFA European championship in 2000, when he was again his country's top scorer with three strikes. Scored six goals in seven qualifiers for the European championship in 2004 and then found the net twice against Switzerland to help France to reach the last eight. In the 2006 World Cup he scored three times, including the winner in the quarter-final against Brazil, as Les Bleus finished runners-up.

7. Raúl González Blanco (Spain),
Date of birth: 27/6/1977
Current club: Real Madrid CF (Spain)
Position: forward

HONOURS
UEFA Champions League (1998, 2000, 2002)
Intercontinental Cup (1998, 2002)
European Supercup (2002)
Spanish League (1995, 1997, 2001, 2003, 2007, 2008)
Spanish Supercup (1997, 2001, 2003)
Uefa Champions League Top Scorer (2000, 2001)
Spanish League Top Scorer (1999, 2001)
European Bronze Boot (1999, 2001)
Best Spanish Footballer (1997)
Intercontinental Cup Best Player (1998)
Champions League Best Forward (2000)
Balón de Plata (2001)
Third Fifa World Player (2001)
IFFHS Best World Scorer (1999)
Best Scorer ever of the Spanish selection

RAUL Gonzalez PROFILE

Raúl is born in Madrid and lives at San Cristobal de los Angeles, a modest area to the south of the city. His father Pedro is an electrician and a great fan of the Club Atlético de Madrid and signs his son to his favourite club. Jesus Gil y Gil, the club's chairman, promises to pay for the 13-year-old kid's studies up to the university, but it never comes true. Even if the Atlético "infantil" (the youth team) wins the Spanish championship with 65 goals by Raúl, the year after the boss decides to dismantle the youth team, and then Real Madrid CF come forward to sign the young champion. Gil reacts offering him a contract as a professional player (he is 15) but the kid does not trust him and leaves. On 29 October 1994 Raúl made his debut with Real Madrid CF, he was only 17 and entered the pitch as a replacement of Emilio Butragueño, one of his youth idols. He is the youngest player making his debut in the history of the club, but it was not one of Real's best periods: the last Champions League won dates back to 1966, and the last national title to 1990. The league title arrives immediately, but they have to wait more to win the Champions League: on 20 May 1998 their "seventh" trophy gets to the museum of the club. The "Blancos" beat by 1 to 0 Juventus FC in Amsterdam, the goal is scored by Mijatovic and Raúl is one of the protagonists of the match. The same happens in 2000, in the final in Paris they win 3-0 over Valencia CF, his is the last goal after a solo that is much applauded, and they lift their eighth Champions League Cup. Figo, Zidane, Ronaldo, Beckham will come later to play alongside Raúl. No one of them, however, overshadows the young player from Madrid. On the pitch his reputation stays the same: he scores in the 2002 Champions League final, his is the first goal of a show ended by Zidane's goal. Beating Bayer 04 Leverkusen by 2 to 1 Real Madrid CF is the new European champion, while in the Liga the titles keep piling up and get to 29 (2003). With a contract expiring in 2010, Raul will be a madridist player for life, but by now he is already a legend of the "casa blanca".

8. Roberto Carlos (Brazil),
Date of birth: 10/4/1973
Current club: Fenerbahçe SK
Position: left defender

HONOURS
FIFA Confederations Cup (1997)
FIFA World Cup (2002)
Copa América (1997, 1999)
UEFA Champions League (1998, 2000, 2002)
Intercontinental Cup (1998, 2002)
European Supercup (2002)
Brazilian Championship (1993, 1994)
Spanish League (1997, 2001, 2003, 2007)
Spanish Supercup (1997, 2003)

ROBERTO CARLOS PROFILE

Roberto Carlos is known for his trademark powerful free kicks. He is also known for his speed and his aggressiveness at joining the offense, often leading counter attacks from the back of the field. He is regarded as one of the best full backs ever. After three seasons with SE Palmeiras, in 1995 he was transferred to Internazionale FC: it was a good season for him and scored 5 goals (as a defender!) in 30 matches. At the end of that season he was transferred to Real Madrid CF, and with this club he has started his titles collection: three Spanish Leagues and three Champions League (competition in which he is one of only five players to have played more than 100 matches in the Champions League as of March 2007) in all. As a Brazilian international, he has been a member of the Brazil national team in three World Cups, helping the team to reach the final in the 1998 edition and to win the 2002 tournament. He finished his career with the Seleção with 125 matches played and 29 goals scored. He finished second to countryman Ronaldo in the 1997 FIFA World Player of the Year award poll and was named by Pelé as one of the top 125 greatest living footballers in March 2004. In 2007 he was transferred to Fenerbahçe SK.

9. Francesco Totti (Italy),
Date of birth: 27/9/1976
Current club: AS Roma (Italy)
Position: forward

HONOURS
FIFA World Cup (2006)
U21 European Championship (1996)
Italian League (2001)
Italian Cup (2007, 2008)
Italian Supercup (2001, 2007)
Italian League Top Scorer (2007)
ESM Golden Boot (2007)

Francesco TOTTI PROFILE

Francesco Totti is one of the most exciting and impressive attacking footballers to emerge in this generation and is widely recognised as AS Roma's talisman having never left the club to play elsewhere. Totti made his first appearance for AS Roma at the age of only 16 and his talent coupled with an eagerness to impress was soon rewarded as he forced himself into a regular place in the first team. His development at the club continued in earnest and he was named Serie A Player of the Year both in 2000 and in 2003. Totti's influence in the squad was one of the major factors that contributed to AS Roma securing the Italian league title at the end of the 2001 season with the young man scoring thirteen goals for his team. Totti's outstanding performances for Roma continued as Totti was moulded into the player and creative genius that we know and love today. Recently, in the 2006-07 season Totti scored an impressive tally of 26 goals securing the trophy for the top goal scorer in the League as well as the European Golden Boot. In international football Totti has played as a regular for the Italian national squad since he first made his senior debut in 2000. Totti was a member of the successful Italian squad that lifted the 2006 FIFA World Cup. He announced his retirement from the national team in July 2007 emphasising that he wishes to concentrate on his domestic football with Roma.

10. David Trezeguet (France).
Date of birth: 15/10/1977
Current club: Juventus FC (Italy)
Position: forward

HONOURS
FIFA World Cup (1998)
UEFA European Championship (2000)
Italian League (2002, 2003)
Italian Supercup (2002, 2003)
Italian League Top Scorer (2002)
French League (1997, 2000)

David TREZEGUET PROFILE

David Trezeguet is one of the best forwards and goal scorers in the world. He is one of the many French players whose origins lay outside France. He was born in France, the son of an Argentine footballer (Jorge Trezeguet), grew up in Argentina and played his first professional games there for CA Platense before joining AS Monaco in 1995. He has been pretty much a first choice ever since the 1998 World Cup win where he played a part in every game except the final. One of his greatest moments so far has been scoring, with French nartional team shirt, the winning extra-time golden goal against Italy in the final of Euro2000, a great striker's finish, swivelling and firing a rocket up into the net. He's much more of a goal poacher than a creator in the Henry mould and his goal scoring record throughout his career has always been excellent, his ratio of goals to games must be around two in every three. He's the type of player who can win a game when the team is not playing well by having the knack of getting on the end of a half chance. Besides winning the World Cup and European Championship you can add two French and two Italian titles won with AS Monaco and with Juventus FC.

Among them, the player who will get most votes on the web site www.goldenfoot.com from May 9th through August 29th, will have the honour of receiving the precious Golden Foot award in the presence of H.S.H. Prince Albert II in the Principality of Monaco on 1 September next. The winner will also leave his footprints on the CHAMPIONS PROMENADE, the Walk of Fame of international football on the seafront of Monaco. (PRESS KIT).

(taken from: here)
[...]

Hologic-Third Wave: Molecular diagnostic reagent merger (HOLX, TWTI)

Hologic, Inc. (NASDAQ: HOLX) has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Third Wave Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: TWTI) for a purchase price of $11.25 per share, or approximately $580 million in value. This represents about a 24% premium to Third Wave’s average trading price over the last three months. The Boards of Directors of both companies unanimously approved the transaction.

This merger is one of the more interesting in medical and diagnostic companies, despite neither company being a household name. Third Wave develops and markets molecular diagnostic reagents for a wide variety of DNA and RNA analysis applications for conditions such as Cystic Fibrosis, Hepatitis C, cardiovascular risk and other diseases. Its HPV market opportunity is a $200 million market and growth in excess of 40% in each of the past five years. Hologic believes the global market for HPV testing will increase to $800 million in the next few years.

Third Wave shareholders will receive an aggregate amount of an estimated $580 million in cash, assuming the conversion of Third Wave’s outstanding convertible notes, warrants and restricted stock. Hologic plans to finance this transaction with a $600 million loan in the form of a senior secured credit facility, and it has secured fully committed debt financing for the full consideration from Goldman, Sachs & Co.

Hologic expects the acquisition of Third Wave to help accelerate the growth of its diagnostics division, and once the pending FDA approval is granted it sees a higher diagnostic growth business for womens’ health. The company noted “If and when Third Wave’s HPV tests receive FDA approval, which we hope will be in the first half of calendar 2009, we will be well-positioned to take these products quickly and effectively to market.”

The transaction should close in the third calendar quarter of 2008, and is expected to be modestly dilutive to Hologic’s adjusted earnings per share in the first full year after closing, and increasingly accretive thereafter.

It is expected to be slightly dilutive to Hologic’s non-GAAP EPS in Fiscal 2008 and it anticipates $0.02 to $0.03 per share dilution to previous guidance, excluding acquisition-related charges. The acquisition is expected to be approximately $0.10 dilutive to non-GAAP EPS in Fiscal 2009 and to be accretive to non-GAAP EPS beginning in Fiscal 2010. The transaction is expected to be cash flow neutral in Fiscal 2009 as a result of the use of $160 million in acquired tax NOLs, including interest and financing expense of approximately $40 million from the term loan of approximately $600 million to finance the acquisition.

(taken from: here)
[...]

Injuries hit Italy and Holland squads hard

It may be the pick of the early fixtures at Euro 2008, but both Holland and Italy will be limping into tomorrow's Group C showdown in Bern.

Injuries to big names have struck in both camps, with Holland the latest to receive a major blow when it was confirmed that Arjen Robben is out of the match with a groin problem.

'First of all it's very disappointing for Arjen,' said Holland coach Marco van Basten.

'However, it's also a pity for the team, especially as we lost Ryan Babel, also a left winger, already last week.'

Robin van Persie is also expected to miss out despite returning to training while defender Mario Melchiot is rated as doubtful with a groin injury of his own.

Good news has been short in supply from the Dutch treatment room, but Real Madrid's Wesley Sneijder is expected to be fit for the match after problems earlier in the week.

Still, the list of absentees leaves Van Basten short-handed for his team's first test in the so-called 'Group of Death', which also features France and Romania.

Holland can at least take heart from the fact that the Italians have been hit with injury problems of their own, most notably in defence.

The world champions are already without influential captain Fabio Cannavaro, ruled out for the tournament after undergoing surgery on damaged ankle ligaments, and they are now sweating on the fitness of Roma veteran Christian Panucci.

The 35-year-old limped out of training on Friday with a knee injury, but did his best to sound upbeat on Saturday.

'I feel better,' he said. 'Yesterday I felt a pain in my tendon in my knee and having suffered the same problem earlier this year I decided to stop training as a precaution.

'I really don't want to miss the game against Holland, not to be a hero but rather because I believe I'm fine and I think I can recover.'

Italy will feature Alessandro Del Piero after the Juventus star was restored to the national team recently, having been dropped following the World Cup.

However, Serie A's leading scorer could be deployed on the left wing rather than a forward position.

(taken from: here)
[...]

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Dwayne Johnson Gets 'Smart'

Dwayne Johnson is speaking to a drunken woman who has somehow managed to slip past security and into the middle of a scene he's shooting. He's in Las Vegas, outside a casino, filming his next kid-friendly movie, Race to Witch Mountain, in which he'll play a cabdriver being taken for a ride by two paranormal teens. When the inebriated woman wanders onto the set, you half expect Johnson to grab a metal folding chair and smash it over her head, but no. ''Excuse me, sweetheart,'' he tells her, in the reassuring tones usually reserved for putting small children to bed. ''Darling? Honey? You're in the shot.''

Clearly, the wrestler-turned-actor formerly known as The Rock isn't taking a single fan for granted these days. On June 20, Johnson will be seen opposite Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway as Agent 23 in Get Smart, a big-screen update of the 1965-70 sitcom about a bumbling secret agent. And once he's finished production on Witch Mountain (an update of the 1975 family classic Escape to Witch Mountain), he'll sprout wings and practice nocturnal dentistry as the star of Tooth Fairy. ''The idea that I could become the tooth fairy to children worldwide is hilarious to me,'' he admits.

That's right, folks, the guy who once cracked vertebrae in the wrestling ring and taunted his opponents with references to ''poon tang pie'' is now hell-bent on becoming your kid's favorite film star. After proving he could carry a movie to No. 1 with last fall's surprise hit The Game Plan, he's positioning himself as Hollywood's go-to family comedy hitman. It's all part of the latest reinvention of The Rock — which starts with not referring to himself as The Rock. ''I'm aware of everything that comes with that nickname, and I just think there's a lot more you can do without it,'' he says. ''But I wanted it to happen naturally, from 'The Rock' to Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson to 'Dwayne Johnson.''' He doesn't do the thing with the eyebrow anymore, either, and he's trimmed pounds of meathead muscle off his still handsomely chiseled 6'4'' self. The purpose of this massive rebranding effort: to cast himself in the image of his four-quadrant matinee idols Will Smith and Tom Hanks. ''They embrace being a movie star from beginning to end,'' says the 36-year-old actor. ''From preproduction through the all-important marketing, they work hard and enjoy it.''

Get Smart may not lift Johnson to megastar level, but it is his first big-studio, above-the-title credit without any geological references in his name. And it gives him a chance to show off his comedic chops to a wider audience than ever before. As Agent 23, a Bond-like alpha spy and ladies' man, he mentors Smart (Carell) while competing with him for the affections of Agent 99 (Hathaway). It's not a huge part — he's actually only in a few choice scenes (including one in which he and Carell suck face; more on that later) — but somebody at Warner Bros. clearly believes in Johnson's drawing power: The guy is all over the trailers. ''He's saddling up to do an enormous amount of publicity,'' says producer Andrew Lazar. ''Promoting the movie is tiring. But I think he's embraced it and made it a part of the routine and made it fun for himself.''

Johnson is so caught up in rebranding himself, he sometimes sounds like he's just stepped out of a Tony Robbins seminar. It's not uncommon to hear sentences like ''I love marketing!'' or ''I'm swinging for the fences'' or even ''I think it's important that you become fiscal partners with the studio to help the movie do well...'' tumble out of his mouth without a hint of that famously crooked grin. He's lately been known to wake up at 4 a.m. and fire off inspirational e-mails to members of the cast and crew (''We're going to slay some dragons today!''). In the name of his new kid-friendly image, he's also been trying to clean up his language, which can make for some awkward conjunctions (''Abso-damn-lutely!''). No matter what he's doing, Johnson works hard to make you like him, offering to fetch you a drink and using a politician's knack for peppering his sentences with your name. ''I think it's become part of my relentless drive," he says of his dream of packing movie theaters around the world. ''I would rather fail being aggressive than being passive and not trying to control what I can do. Because you know, I failed plenty of times, but if I do now, at least I'll feel like I'm doing something."

Johnson first tried to crack the Hollywood code seven years ago, when he attempted to parlay his hugely successful wrestling career (multimillion-dollar WWE contracts, a rabid fan base, a best-selling memoir called The Rock Says...) into a gig as a big-screen actor. But playing a Conan-like desert warrior in The Mummy Returns didn't exactly put him on the fast track to stardom. And even when he was given a shot at headlining his own sword-and-sandals franchise with the title role in the Mummy spin-off, The Scorpion King, the character never got enough traction to merit a sequel. ''As a wrestler, my brand was arrogant at times, funny and endearing,'' says Johnson. ''I was just learning how to understand it, apply it, protect it.''

To that end, over the years Johnson has repositioned himself almost as many times as Madonna. He took a shot at appealing to mass audiences as a heroic bounty hunter in director Peter Berg's 2003 jungle action-comedy, The Rundown, which opened to a respectable $18.5 million but was nowhere near the blockbuster he was hoping for. ''It just didn't work marketing-wise,'' he says. ''I should have focused more on action fans. I didn't have that kind of broad appeal yet. I wanted it but I hadn't earned it.'' For a while, he threw himself into a series of hardcore tough-guy roles — in Walking Tall (2004), Doom (2005), and Gridiron Gang (2006) — that didn't exactly hit pay dirt either. ''I was a little concerned after the failure of Doom,'' recalls Johnson, who despaired that he hadn't turned at least a few industry heads. ''A lot of times movies that fail at the box office [can still be] great opportunities for someone, but that wasn't the case at all.'' Even more frustrating, when he tried to stretch his range by taking on character roles in eclectic flicks (the gay bodyguard in Be Cool; an amnesiac action star opposite Sarah Michelle Gellar in Southland Tales), nobody could smell what he was cooking.

Johnson decided it was time to deploy a new strategy. He got in touch with his inner mensch and took the lead in the kid-targeted comedy The Game Plan, portraying a playboy quarterback who suddenly finds himself Mr. Mom to an adorable little moppet. ''I put so much into The Game Plan thinking, This has to work,'' he says. ''I thought, not only does this formula speak to me, I also loved the idea of becoming partners with the brand and culture of Disney.'' Disney reciprocated the feelings. ''He's one of the hardest-working people on behalf of a movie I've worked with,'' says Oren Aviv, president of production for Walt Disney Studios. ''He's the guy who's constantly saying, 'What else can I do?' That puts him in a unique category of less than a handful of actors working today.'' By the time The Game Plan had grossed $91 million, The Rock was already well into his own brand overhaul, slimming down with a targeted workout routine and a low-sugar diet. ''For years I carried all that weight for football and wrestling, and I finally realized there's no need for it anymore,'' he says. ''Now I just want to look the part.''

The new, sleeker look certainly works in Get Smart, a movie he actively pursued before the filmmakers had begun casting. He even took a pay cut to share the screen with Carell in a goofy comedy aimed precisely at Johnson's new target audience: families. ''I got a call from his agent, asking would I consider Dwayne,'' says director Peter Segal. ''I said, 'Are you kidding me? I'd have to rewrite the part. It's not worthy of him.' The agent said, 'No, he's just interested in being in the movie. He just wants to be a part of it. He wants to be in the sandbox with everyone.' I thought that was the coolest thing.'' According to producer Lazar, it was also pretty crafty career management. ''People are just starting [to see] the process of how he's reinventing himself,'' he says. ''But taking the third lead in the movie — recognizing the potential of his character in this franchise — I think really shows that he's savvy beyond being a good actor.''

The transformation into family-friendly star did have its touchy moments. In one scene in Get Smart, he had to kiss costar Carell right on the mouth. ''Many actors get the type of material where you're asked to kiss another man, from Jake Gyllenhaal to Will Smith,'' he says of the big smooching scene. ''I'm happy to tell you, and Steve's wife will attest to this, the guy's got some pretty soft lips.'' (Adds Segal, ''Steve would constantly remark that Dwayne sweats testosterone while he sweats estrogen.'') But puckering up aside, Johnson may have finally found a brand image that works for him as well as the audience — one that gives him a decent shot at a genuine A-list career. If only that were enough for him. Turns out what Johnson really wants to do is run a studio. ''I'd love to not only have the ability to greenlight movies but to figure out the strategy on how the movie's going to work,'' he says. An unlikely ambition for a guy once known for dispatching his wrestling opponents with ''The People's Elbow.'' Then again, other famous former musclemen have managed to make such power dreams come true. Just ask the governor of California.

(taken from: here)
[...]