JESS3 Blog: 10/01/2002

U.S. entrants OneWorld (C) and Team Dennis Conner (R) try to get to the finish line in light wind past the Noises Islands during their Flight 5 match trailed by Swiss entrant Alinghi, who was racing Britain's GBR Challenge, on race day four of Round Robin Two on Auckland's Hauraki Gulf in New Zealand, October 30, 2002. The OneWorld race was abandoned due to not being able to finish the last leg within the allocated 45 minutes, however Alinghi recorded a win over GBR. OneWorld, are one of nine syndicates competing in the Louis Vuitton Cup which started October 1, the winner of which will race Team New Zealand for the America's Cup in February 2003. REUTERS/Nigel Marple

story from http://www.ananova.com/entertainment/story/sm_698076.html

Justin Timberlake admits to smoking a BLUNT with Nelly

NSync's Justin Timberlake has admitted to smoking cannabis.

He says he smoked a cannabis cigar after the band recorded their single Girlfriend with Nelly.

Timberlake says Nelly lit up the cigar, which he calls a blunt, once they'd finished recording.

"Nelly loves cigars, but he don't smoke cigars, he smokes blunts. You know what I mean? He smokes blunts," he tells FHM Magazine.

Asked if he smoked one after recording, Justin replied: "Well, yeah. Why not? I can't do that when I'm singing, but after I'm done..."

everyone be smokin herbs!

http://www.mtv.com/news/yhif/

MTV Article on Sean Paul ("gimme di light")

No wonder dancehall hitman Sean Paul can flow — he has an aptitude for aquatics in his blood.

"I remember being a bathtub singer. You know, the type that sings and everybody's like, 'Shut up,' " says Sean Paul Henriques, whose parents were swimmers on the Jamaican national team in the 1960s.

These days Paul, who also swam in his fair share of water polo and swim competitions as a teen, still has everybody talking with a mix of reggae DJing and singing that Jamaicans have dubbed "sing-jay" (think of the reggae equivalent to Ja Rule on "Rainy Dayz"). But it's not water that's finally making him a recognizable name after six years of coming up with smashes. It's fire.

"The words I use in this song, we don't usually use those terms in Jamaica — 'Gimme the light, pass the dro,' " he said of his surprise hit "Gimme the Light" and its stimulant-friendly lyrics. "I did it so [American] heads can pick up on it. It's a party song. I'm glad people take that in that context. I'm not telling kids to go do this."

As a youth in Kingston, it was music that filtered in from the U.S. that would be one of Paul's greatest life influences.

"[I'm a] big hip-hop fan since being a kid," he said. "It was the first music that spoke to me and made me feel like, 'Yeah.' They were expressing something like how I would express myself, in hip-hop music and dancehall music. Hip-hop and dancehall bought me more into [other kinds] of music. My flow follows sometimes what's going on in the hip-hop industry even though I'm speaking Jamaican patois."

Paul's aspiration to follow in the paw prints of rap/reggae hybrid expert Supercat wouldn't come to fruition for a few years — he had to get the blessings of his mother first.

"I begged my mama," Paul remembered. "I had them buy me a keyboard, and that's where my whole music genesis came from."

But even with the equipment supplied by his parents, Paul still had to convince his mom that the money he was bringing in as a chef and a bank teller would be nothing compared to his dream profession as DJ extraordinaire (not to be confused with a DJ in the U.S. — dancehall DJs rock the mic like hip-hop MCs.)

"I said to her, This is what I want to do,' " said Paul, a graduate of Kingston's UTECH University. "Let me try to do this. Give me a year after school."

He didn't even need that long. His first try at putting out a song, "Baby Girl," became a radio hit in Jamaica. Two years later he started to flood the Caribbean with smashes like "Infiltrate" and "Deport Them," both of which made it onto his U.S. debut, Stage One (2000).

"By the time my first album was out, I had been out in Jamaican three or four years, but I had hits out at that time that were bona fide hits," Paul explained. "Coming out with my first album, I didn't want these songs to be left out, so I included them."

With the U.S. market being difficult for many reggae artist to break through, Stage One suffered from meager sales, even though "Deport Them" became a club staple. Paul, who can be caught on upcoming albums by Mya and Beenie Man as well as the Clipse's remix to "Grindin'," said he's studied and found the perfect formula for his follow-up, Dutty Rock.

"This album, I'm trying to show growth where my music is spread out to more than just the dancehall riddims," he said. "Sometimes in the biz, there's a lot of kids that do stuff the same ways. Sometimes you have to do things different from that mainstream and just make your music the way it feels. A lot of people in Jamaica won't use the words I did in ['Gimme the Light']. But it's not only my lyrics, it's the way I say it.

"I been doing some different things," he continued. "Doing some of my songs in Spanish. I don't really speak Spanish, but I was taught by this dude that's from Cuba. I'm trying to stick out in different ways."

Dutty Rock's "Punkie" finds the rude boy flexing his bilingual linguistics while waiting on a girl's love. The Neptunes-produced "Bubble" shows Paul lusting for loins.

" 'Bubble,' it's basically another party song," he explained. "I'm talking to a girl. In Jamaica, [when] you say 'bubble' you're talking about a girl, how her shape is — nice and round. 'Girl, give me your bubble.' "

Besides the Neptunes, Tony Touch and Roots affiliate Rahzel also collaborated with Paul on the LP. The co-stars Paul holds closet to his heart, however, are members of his Dutty Cup Crew, who are all basically "doing their own thing" now.

"Dutty Cup Crew is a crew I been firing with from 1995," he said, explaining the album's title. " 'Dutty yeah' means 'Yaaayyy, we in the house. Sean Paul and the crew is in here.' At first we were telling people it meant we work hard. How you may say, 'That's dirty,' we work hard at what we do. Dutty is also a chalice pipe. We graduated from that kind of vibe, but we shout out to each other."

With the Guantanamo Bay prisoner tag still on his wrist, Aghan Haji Faiz Mohammad talks to journalists on his military hospital bed in Kabul October 29, 2002. Mohammad is one of the first three Afghan prisoners freed from the United States prison in Cuba. Just over a week ago, U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfield announced that Washington planned to release some of the prisoners held in Cuba against whom there were no grounds for prosecution. REUTERS/Bazuki Muhammad

Former Afghan detainee Jan Mohammed shows a plastic wristband as he talks to reporter at the Medical Scientific Academy Hospital in Kabul Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2002. Three Afghans, including Mohammed, released after months of captivity at a U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba said Tuesday they were each chained up during frequent interrogations but generally treated well by their American captors. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

my trip to the national gallery of art sculpture wing yesterday...

Two Deer Burst Into D.C. McDonald's

Customers at a McDonald's in the nation's capital got a shock Friday when two deer jumped through the restaurant window.

The animals shattered the glass around 11 a.m. and ran through the fast-food restaurant, about a mile and a half north of the Capitol.

When animal control officers arrived, one deer was trapped in the restaurant. The other had jumped back through the window and was found in an adjacent field.

Peggy Keller, chief of animal disease prevention with the District of Columbia Department of Health, said authorities didn't know where the deer came from.

"There are no really heavily wooded areas" nearby, Keller said. "But the area where one deer was hiding was fully able to support them — there was lots of vegetation, there was water."

Four customers suffered minor injuries. Both deer were severely injured and had to be euthanized. Crews searched the field for other deer, but none were found.

Keller said District animal control officers usually handle about 10 calls a year concerning deer.

http://www.sbccom.army.mil/products/food/Shelf-Stable_Pouch_Bread.htm

Army Working on a Three-Year Sandwich

By RON KAMPEAS, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - It tops a U.S. Army most-wanted list, unleashing potent chemicals that suck the immediate vicinity dry.

The struggle to make the classic peanut butter and jelly combination battle-ready for soldiers in the field highlights an effort by top Army scientists to develop pocket sandwiches that will keep without refrigeration for three years.

Researchers working on the latest innovation in "meals ready to eat," army lingo for anytime, anywhere munchies, were drawn to the stuffed bread rolls now in supermarket frozen food sections. Convenience is the attraction: no utensils, not much to open yet makes for a satisfying meal, at least in theory.

"The trick was to get rid of the 6,000 mile extension cord to the freezer," said Jerry Darsch, who directs the Defense Department's feeding program in Natick, Mass.

Four years later, the Army has come up with formulas for two sandwiches — pepperoni and barbecue chicken — that use chemical and natural preservatives to lock moisture in place and inhibit the growth of bacteria and mold.

Darsch said his sandwiches are designed to be as resilient as the troops they feed. "This bad boy will last a minimum of three years at 80 degrees, six months at 100 degrees. They will travel to the swampiest swamp, the highest mountain, the most arid desert."

Some of the stabilizing agents are manufactured, others are intrinsic to the sandwiches — the bread in the pepperoni sandwich is more or less left alone by the sausage, which lacks moisture; in the barbecue chicken sandwich, acids in the sauce's tomato, vinegar and lemon naturally bind moisture in place.

Still, soldiers aren't likely to take a bite until 2006 because more research is needed — principally, the researchers confessed, on PB&J, the sandwich most demanded by troops in focus groups. Other sandwiches in the works include pizza-flavored and ham and cheese.

Food science takes time, Darsch said — "I don't even want to tell you how long it took to develop the McNugget."

The fare currently bouncing around kit bags in Afghanistan includes pasta primavera, beef stew and seafood jambalaya. Water is added to heat pads inside plastic pouches — a heating process more convenient than old flame-based methods, but one that sucks out much of the flavor.

Sandwiches are as easy as ripping open a plastic bag — no need for the clumsy little spoons that now go with the MREs.

Peanut butter has so far proven too unstable to last three years in battlefield conditions, said Michelle Richardson, a food technologist who has worked on the sandwich.

"Peanut butter tries to suck the water out of the bread, the same way it sticks the roof of your mouth," she said. That leads to the growth of bacteria and mold and makes the sandwich inedible.

Richardson says her team is closer than ever, and has found ways of stabilizing the peanut butter — but not without killing its stick-to-the-roof-of-your-mouth qualities, a sensation she says no soldier under fire should miss.

"We don't want to change the texture, we want it to act and feel like peanut butter."

The sandwiches won't replace what's out there — at 325 calories, they provide just a quarter of the 1,300 calories provided by existing meals — but their convenience makes them useful on the run.

Not everyone cherished that prospect.

"I don't think I've ever wanted a sandwich that's that old," said Master Sgt. Kelly Tyler, based at Fort Campbell, Ky. "That won't be one I'd take out of the box."

She might be surprised by the pepperoni offering: The bread roll, in this reporter's opinion, is a little chewy, but the pepperoni stick is a sharp, spicy riot — less greasy and much tastier than the plastic-wrapped stuff that lurks in the darker recesses of convenience stores. Also, it has just the right texture, each bite a satisfying tug.

The barbecue chicken sandwich is another matter: Its sickly sweet sauce overwhelms the chicken, but considering its dark, mystery-meat color and texture, that may be a good thing. It leaves a lasting chemical heaviness, although Darsch emphasizes its natural ingredients.

"There are no chemicals you can't pronounce," he said.

Sure enough, the back of the packet — dated five months ago! — is easy enough to decipher. Some ingredients — honey molasses, yellow mustard — even flirt with appetizing, depending on how hungry you are.

Other ingredients — like "chicken water" — make a case for long chemical names.

Creating Aqua Images in Adobe Photoshop

Dear Saddam, How Can I Help?

By Brian McWilliams
Story location: http://www.wired.com/news/conflict/0,2100,55967,00.html

02:00 AM Oct. 28, 2002 PST

On the afternoon of July 17, a self-proclaimed expert in biochemistry composed an e-mail message to Saddam Hussein.

The message, sent from an MSN Hotmail account on a computer in China, recommended the use of methyl bromide, an agricultural pesticide, as an effective chemical weapon against the U.S. Army.

"For weapon use, have function: no color, no smell, will let person dead in a few second," wrote the e-mail's author, who provided the phone number and address of a distributor in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from which the toxic chemical could be purchased "in cylinder or in can."

The chilling electronic missive was among hundreds evidently sent to Iraq's president last summer from people around the world.

As America veers toward confrontation with Iraq, these e-mail messages provide a raw, uncensored view of global opinion -- and of the potential challenges awaiting U.S. efforts to disarm or overthrow Saddam, Iraq's leader since 1979.

It's not clear whether Saddam uses e-mail or even knows how to operate a personal computer. But scores of people write to him each week at press@uruklink.net, the e-mail address listed on the official homepage of the Iraqi presidency since at least October 2000.

Messages sent to the account, Iraq's version of president@whitehouse.gov, run the gamut from fawning solicitations for autographed photos and media interviews to obscene death threats.

The e-mails sent to press@uruklink.net were obtained earlier this month by first clicking on a link, labeled "Check your e-mail in Uruk," on the homepage of Iraq's state-controlled ISP, Uruklink.net, then guessing the login name and password -- both of which were the same, five-letter word.

Uruklink's Web-based e-mail service has been unavailable for the past three days. The version of webmail software used by the Iraqi ISP is known to have several security holes -- but the patches available for them do not appear to have been applied.

Among the hundreds of messages marked as unread in Saddam's inbox were several junk e-mails and messages infected with computer viruses. Numerous e-mails -- including some from Americans -- offered advice and assistance to Saddam.

Consider, for example, a flurry of messages apparently sent to Saddam by an employee of a Saudi Arabian oil company in July and August. The e-mails contained cryptic reports in broken English about the location of U.S. oil pipelines, as well as warnings about the movement of submarines, aircraft and other military equipment and personnel in the Middle East.

"I will try to give you (An Sha Allah) a good way to protect your Muslims," said the message. (The phrase In sha' Allah, from the Quran, means "God willing.")

Meanwhile, an Internet user from Washington state, who conceded that he would "probably end up on some FBI watch list for writing this," told Saddam in an e-mail dated Aug. 1 that he opposed military action against Iraq.

The author of the message advised Saddam to be diligent "with regards to your own personal security. The CIA is notoriously crafty and extremely adept at overthrowing governments and their respective leaders."

In another message, a resident of Vienna, Austria, told Saddam in a July 27 message that Americans are "arrogant," and that should the United States attack Iraq, "you need only send a ticket and I will come to Iraq to fight the Americans. I am a good shot, and I am serious about my offer."

Saddam's inbox also contained several solicitations from American companies hoping to do business with Iraq -- despite U.S. prohibitions and United Nations trade sanctions.

On Aug. 16, the CEO of a California wireless technology-maker e-mailed Saddam to request a meeting. According to the CEO's message, the two could discuss "technology improvements and exporting of rich technology abroad."

In a press release dated Sept. 13, the company said it has developed "4G" wireless technology capable of being used "as a weapon to ignite large sections of the atmosphere and incinerate all living creatures within its pre-selected coordinates." The press release also called for the resignation of President Bush.

In a telephone interview, the CEO said he attempted to contact Saddam to obtain permission to place a wireless communications antenna in Iraq. "No way would we ever give the weapon-of-mass-destruction technology to Mr. Hussein," the executive said.

On Aug. 14, the proprietor of a Las Vegas company e-mailed Saddam "looking for someone to talk to about selling my fire retardant for the army over there. We have a great product for the army."

The business owner replied to an e-mailed interview request, and was informed how his message had been read. The man confirmed it had been sent from his address, but that it had been a joke by a friend. He also stressed that he would never sell products to Iraq.

Joke or not, such deals with Iraq are legally risky -- if not outright illegal.

A 1990 U.S. executive order prohibits transactions between American companies and Iraq, according to Joseph Wilson, former deputy chief of the U.S. Embassy in Iraq and an adjunct scholar with the Middle East Institute. The U.N. sanctions imposed in the wake of Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait further restrict trade of "militarily useful items" with Iraq, Wilson said.

An excerpt from a U.N. document known as the Goods Review List (PDF) containing a list of chemicals, biological agents and other prohibited items was repeatedly e-mailed to the Iraqi president's account from several Uruklink users over a one-week period in mid-August. A file attached to the messages was infected with what appeared to be a variant of the Yaha computer worm.

The presence of strict U.N. controls didn't stop the chairman of one London company from e-mailing Saddam on Aug. 9 with an offer to mediate Iraq's purchase of unspecified products from western Europe.

"Please consider this letter as secret ... I ensure you absolute secrecy," the e-mail stated.

A Buenos Aires businessman repeatedly e-mailed Saddam in early August offering technology "stolen from the National Transportation Safety Board of United States" and designed to "enlarge the security of flight in helicopters."

According to the author of the message, the technology was worth $40 million.

International interest in e-mailing Saddam was apparently piqued in October 2001, when Iraq's leader sent a long-winded personal response to a message from Chris Love, a Pennsylvania resident who had pleaded with Saddam to seek peace with the United States.

Saddam's 3,300-word message, which included the first detailed condolences by Iraq's leader following the Sept. 11 attacks, garnered considerable media coverage. Love said in an interview that he was even forced to stop answering his phone and to disable his e-mail account after receiving a barrage of interview requests.

According to Wilson, Iraq has a "well-oiled propaganda machine" and messages like Love's "kind of play into Saddam's hands. He likes nothing more than to be able to parade some misguided people as proof that Americans don't support their government."

Nine months after Sept. 11, however, as President Bush began turning up the heat on Iraq, Americans also wrote to criticize Iraq's ruler.

A man who identified himself as a former U.S. paratrooper and Persian Gulf War veteran e-mailed on June 25 that he regretted that "a political solution decision was made before my friends and I had a chance to completely wipe your cartoon character of a leader off the face of this earth."

One AOL user sent Saddam a one-word message: "Imminent." Attached to the Aug. 6 e-mail was a photograph of an atomic mushroom cloud.

An Internet user from London chided Saddam for hoarding Iraq's oil wealth for himself while the country's citizens die of starvation. "You really are a most cynical regime," wrote the author of the e-mail, which was dated Aug. 10.

Comments about Iraq's oil resources figured into several of the messages. An Australian resident suggested in July that Saddam cut off oil to neighboring Turkey, which the message's author said was America's No. 2 ally after Israel. The e-mail said Iraq could also tighten the screws on Turkey "if they cooperate with America" by threatening to use biological and chemicals weapons on Turkey.

Though some analysts say Iraq's U.N.-mandated Persian Gulf War reparation payments -- which currently stand at more than $43 billion -- have mortgaged the future of Iraq's economy, a financial services firm in Canada was apparently still hopeful.

In a July 1 e-mail addressed to "Iraqi Presidency," the chairman of the company proposed a "future relationship" with Iraq.

The company, located in Montreal, specializes in "the movement and leveraging of financial instruments" as well as "conversion of currencies" and "offshore activities," according to the e-mail.

One pragmatic AOL user urged Saddam on July 28 to cooperate fully with U.N. inspectors as the best way to avoid war.

"Please allow the weapons inspectors into your country so that the illegitimate leader of my country, the U.S.A., who perpetrated a coup and stole the election, will not have an excuse to attack your country. If you would do that it would take away his power and weaken him and make you look like the bigger man," she wrote.

Another Internet user, who identified himself as a 20-year-old Mormon from Utah, wrote that he prayed for the day when Iraqis have plentiful food, medicine, clothing and other necessities.

But the author of a July 19 message said he was frustrated about his inability to help bring about such changes.

"To me it is all politics. Wars and disputes are not about right and wrong, nor are they about good versus evil, but they are about power," he wrote.

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A Ukrainian miner smokes after going on strike at a mine in the town of Gorlivka, in Ukraine's eastern Donestk region, October 16, 2002. Workers at dozens of coal mines in eastern Ukraine launched a three-day strike on Wednesday, to demand better working conditions and increased state financing to help the ailing industry. REUTERS/Alexander Khudotioply

Filipino workers push a giant shoe, said to be the world's largest, to a podium in preparation for its unveiling in Marikina city, Oct. 21, 2002. Shoe manufacturers constructed the 18-foot shoe to promote the local shoe industry. (Reuters/Romeo Ranoco)

An airliner is silhouetted against a full moon, October 20, 2002, in Tempe, Arizona. (AP Photo /Matt York)

U.S. President George W. Bush is framed by an American flag at a South Carolina welcome at the Jimmy Doolittle Flight Facility in Columbia, October 24, 2002. REUTERS/Larry Downing

John Lee Malvo, 17, left, and John Allen Muhammad, are seen in this recent family photo in Louisiana, provided by Muhammad's former sister-in-law Sheron Norman, Thursday Oct. 24, 2002, in Baton Rouge, La. Muhammad, a 41-year-old Army veteran and the teenager described as his stepson were arrested at a roadside rest stop Thursday for questioning in the three-week wave of deadly sniper attacks that have terrorized the Washington, D.C., area. (AP Photo/Courtesy of Sheron Norman)

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"Imagination is More Important Than Knowledge"

One of hip-hop's greatest enigmas, DMX, will unravel a good deal of the mystery that surrounds him when he launches his autobiography.

"E.A.R.L., The Autobiography of DMX" hits bookstores in early November and features the rapper's story in his own words.

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
If you think living, breathing puppies are cute, wait until you see this fabulous book of photographs of fruit-and-vegetable dogs. Yes, Saxton Freymann and Joost Elffers (Play with Your Food, How Are You Peeling?, One Lonely Seahorse) are back, with one of their best efforts to date. Not only are the doggies themselves endearing and clever (the broccoli-tufted French poodle is pure genius), but the wordplay and visual punch lines are terrific as well. "Chilly dog," crafted from a potato, shivers next to a mushroom snowman. "Dog bowl," contrary to what you might envision, is a dog made out of a radish, with a black olive on its paw, poised to topple banana-tip bowling pins. "Dog catcher," reveals a jalapeño dachshund catching a squash Frisbee in midair. "Let sleeping dogs lie" you say? There they are, sleepy, sleepy banana peel dogs at the end. The eye-popping endpapers showcase the entire kennel of creations on a bright turquoise background. This immensely appealing book will be irresistible to almost any human, but dog (and produce) lovers will sprout wings and zoom skyward. (Ages 4 to 104) --Karin Snelson

http://www.abspc.com/app/Series.asp?familyno=10&Series=45

"Buying into the leading edge of technology is always frivolous, but that's never stopped anyone. The ABS Awesome 3600 has the goods to deliver on anything you ask it to do." CNET

http://www.viciouspc.com/indexA.html

"A budget PC that looks and acts like a high-priced gaming system, the ViciousPC Phantom is a solid value." CNET

Review of BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE by eonline.com:
Michael Moore has big Bowling balls. Who else would pull an ambush interview on NRA president Charlton Heston at home? Or hang out with the brother of Oklahoma City bomber Terry Nichols? Or have the nuts to show the security tapes of the Columbine High School shooting tragedy? Roger & Me's Moore does this and more when he examines America's fascination with firearms in his latest highly-opinionated documentary. The liberal political humorist doesn't find many solid answers, but asks a lot of good questions along his somewhat meandering way--if you must know, he loosely and sarcastically equates bowling with the reason for the Columbine shootings. He even gets a shock of his own when he gets a major corporation to reexamine their firearm-sellin' ways. A strike? Not quite, but a good score nonetheless.

Oddly Enough - Reuters

Police Hunt for $1.5 Million Necklace Thieves

Bahraini police are searching for two European men suspected of stealing a $1.5 million diamond necklace from a jewelry show, newspapers said Sunday.

The English-language Gulf Daily News said the necklace, an exquisite creation of renowned jewelers Cartier, was on display Friday at the Jewelry Arabia exhibition when the two men struck.

"An employee at the stand handed it to them (the suspects) to inspect, then turned to deal with another customer," the paper said, quoting an official at the shop which ran the stand.

"When he turned back, one man had vanished with the necklace and the other man melted into the crowds in the ensuing confusion," the paper added.

The paper said the necklace was insured. Renowned jewelers such as Chopard also had their glittering ware

Bank Robbed by Own Security Guard

An Israeli bank was robbed at gunpoint Sunday by its own security guard, who made off with 100,000 shekels ($21,000), police said.

A police spokesman said he expected police to catch the guard, who fled on foot, soon because "we know everything about him."

The guard was employed by a security company that has a contract with Bank Leumi, Israel's second largest bank, bank spokeswoman Ricki Carmi said.

She said the guard went into the Leumi branch in the Tel Aviv suburb of Petah Tikva after the bank closed to customers but bank employees were still working and told a teller to give him the money.

Carmi said the bank was investigating the incident with the security company, whose guards are licensed to carry weapons.

Cousin's Tell-All Book Doesn't Faze Eminem

Calculating and timed to the letter, a woman who wrote a scandalous, tell-all book about the Detroit rapper was hawking the book on a local radio station.

Eminem is not one to grant interviews, nor say anything outside of giving his opinion through his music, but he did give a call-in to a radio show to dispute the author's claims and clear up some misconceptions.

"I thank God every day that he gave me the talent and strength to get through everything I've been through," Eminem said.

Eminem has had his share of people trying to jump on his celebrity band wagon.

In August 2000, his mother, Debbie Mathers, sued him for defamation because of how she was depicted in some of Eminem's songs.

But J.R. "Jen" Watkins -- who is the cousin of Kim Mathers, Eminem's ex-wife -- said that her book, "Cleaning Out My Closet," was more of a way to "get things off my chest."

"It started as a project and a kind of message to Marshall, too," Watkins said during the radio interview.

"I have no way to get in touch with him. He's just broke off all ties without any explanation," Watkins said.

The woman has said that she practically "brought up" Eminem's daughter, Haley.

Kim Mathers, who is also featured prominently in the book, called in to the station, too.

"That's my cousin, Jennifer, sitting in the studio with you right now. What I have to say is first and foremost that she wants to talk about how I'm a family-wrecker. Let's talk about how she wrecks her family, how she dates her aunt's ex-husband... The real reason she stopped speaking to me is because I wouldn't have sex with her and her husband," Mathers said.

Eminem told the radio audience that the book doesn't faze him.

"The people who end up writing books about me, end up back in their little trailer-trash homes anyway. They think they're going to get a little money and it ends up flopping and back firing in their face," he said.

Kim Mathers believes that the reason her cousin wrote the book is because she was trying to get revenge on Eminem.

"The fact of the matter of her writing the book is that she's mad because she tried to get with Marshall. He didn't want to see her in that way and because he cut off ties with her she's pissed," Mathers said.

Eminem backed up his ex-wife's statement "100 percent."

When asked to confirm the rumors that he and Kim were back together, Eminem said that the two have a friendly relationship because of their daughter.

Meanwhile, a source says that J.R. Watkins and her husband, Mike, had every intention of releasing the book to coincide with the media splash that would happen when Eminem's movie "8 Mile" is released on Nov. 8.

Detroit radio station 95.5 FM will replay the radio interview on Friday at 7 a.m.

http://www.8-mile.com/# check out the new look of the 8mile site...
November 8 is the release date... i cant wait...

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Think of it as a form of doodling, only better. Sodaconstructor is a Java application that lets you create wireframe creatures and turn them into animated figures. You can have them move forward or back and even watch them struggle against the forces of gravity.

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Jay-Z Says He Would Have Liked To Be On Braxton Track

"Zero," Jay-Z said on Friday about the amount of influence Toni Braxton's "Me and My Boyfriend" had on the making of his " '03 Bonnie & Clyde," which features Beyoncé Knowles.

Both songs use music and lyrics from Tupac's "Me and My Girlfriend," and last week Braxton publicly accused Jigga of stealing her idea to take from Pac's musical love story of a man and his gun. Members of the Roc-A-Fella family quickly came to Jay's defense and now Mr. H-to-the-Izzo tells his side of the story.

"If I heard Toni Braxton's record, my thing is, I would want to be on it with her," he explained. "I wouldn't want to take it from her. I don't even think like that. My first thought would be, 'Maybe I could call her up, maybe I could get on that record.' The most obvious [explanation] is it's neither one of our records. It's not like you made an original idea. She's not in hip-hop, but it happens in hip-hop often. We go to sample the same thing and my record came out first. I'm sorry. What can I do?"

Jay was off to Miami over the weekend to shoot a commercial for his November 12 release, Blueprint 2: The Gift and the Curse. From October 26 to 30, he and Beyoncé will be in Mexico to shoot the video for " '03 Bonnie & Clyde" with director Chris Robinson. The clip will be loosely based on one of Jay's favorite movies, 1993's "True Romance," which starred Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette as two lovers on the run from cocaine dealers.

Jay has released another song from Blueprint 2 to the mixshow and mixtape DJs called "Hovi Baby." At a listening session last week in New York, Jay said it was his "barbershop argument" song. On the cut, Jay tells why he is not to be messed with on the mic.

Metallica's Ulrich Asked To Work With RZA On Tarantino Score

Rap/metal collaborations are getting pretty stale, but here's one that might actually rock like a pup tent in a hailstorm.

Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich has been asked to work with RZA from Wu-Tang Clan on the musical score for the next Quentin Tarantino film, "Kill Bill," according to RZA's publicist.

Scheduled for release sometime next year, "Kill Bill" is a martial-arts flick about a female assassin who is betrayed and almost killed by her peers. Five years later, she awakens from a coma and seeks bloody revenge. The movie stars Uma Thurman, David Carradine, Daryl Hannah, Michael Madsen, Vivica A. Fox, Lucy Liu and LaTanya Richardson.

RZA's inclusion in the movie score was a natural choice. In addition to producing the score for the Jim Jarmusch flick "Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai," he's obsessed with martial-arts movies, and has used plenty of kung-fu imagery with the Wu.

"Kill Bill" is the first soundtrack for which Ulrich been asked to help write original music.

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Nicolas Cage Sells Comic Books for $1.6 Million

Oscar-winning actor Nicolas Cage has sold his personal comic book collection, including a copy of Superman's 1938 pulp debut, at auction for more than $1.6 million, organizers of the sale said on Friday.

The 400 items in the catalog, collected individually over the years by Cage, were sold Thursday night to various bidders in a sale conducted by the Heritage Auctions house of Dallas in conjunction with the Mint of Kansas City, Mo.

"He had a very good eye for quality," Heritage Auctions chairman James Halperin said of Cage's collection.

Cage's copy of Action Comics #1, the 1938 comic featuring the first appearance of Superman, sold for $86,250, more than $15,000 above its estimated value, auction organizers said.

A 1940 comic book, Detective #38, featuring the debut of Batman's sidekick, Robin, fetched nearly $121,000. Another 1940 publication, All-Star Comics #3, which introduced the Justice Society of America, the first superhero team including the Green Lantern, Hawkman and the Flash, sold for $45,000.

"This is a real treasure trove of high-quality material from the Golden Age of comics," said John Petty, director of Heritage Auctions' comics branch.

No explanation was given for why Cage, 38, who won an Academy Award for his role in "Leaving Las Vegas," was selling off his comics collection.

Zookeepers Suspended for Eating Animals

Two zookeepers in a small northwest German town have been suspended and put under police investigation for eating the zoo's animals, police said on Friday.

A police spokesman in Recklinghausen north of Cologne said the keepers in a section of the zoo popular with small children had slaughtered and barbecued five Tibetan mountain chickens and two Cameroonian sheep.

"The animals were in the 'pet' zoo where all the children would go to stroke them," the spokesman said. Suspicious zoo managers called police after the animals went missing.

Peru Finds Inca Burial Site at Machu Picchu

Peruvian archeologists have discovered the first full Inca burial site at Machu Picchu since the famous mountaintop citadel was discovered 90 years ago, officials said on Saturday.

"It's important because nothing like this -- a burial site and all that goes with it -- has been found since the Bingham era," Machu Picchu's administrator, Fernando Astete, told Reuters, referring to the U.S. explorer Hiram Bingham who rediscovered the Inca citadel in 1911.

"The find is significant because of the funeral objects, such as stone and clay pots and five metal objects accompanying the remains of bones of a person, probably a woman," he added.

He said other excavations in recent years at the atmospheric gray stone site, perched at an altitude of 8,200 feet on top of a mountain near the edge of Peru's southern jungle, had yielded some bone fragments but not Inca graves.

"Studies will confirm the sex and determine the age of the person who was buried, but the objects that were found around the body point to it having been a young woman," he added.

Machu Picchu, which was built more than 500 years ago, is Peru's top tourist attraction and a U.N. World Heritage site, drawing some 500,000 foreign visitors a year.

"When the citadel of Machu Picchu was discovered in 1911, 172 tombs with human remains were found, but over the years only bones have been found. It's only now that a complete burial site has been uncovered," Astete said.

The Spanish conquerors of Peru never stumbled upon Machu Picchu, near the southern Andean city of Cusco, some 684 miles southeast of Lima, and the site was only discovered when Bingham and local guides came across the vegetation-covered ruins.

Cusco was capital of the Inca empire from the 13th to the 16th century. The Inca empire stretched from Colombia to Chile.

Astete said well-preserved ceramics, including a stone pan and clay pot, as well as bronze pins, a mirror and clasps, were found in the burial site.

The site was discovered a week ago in a sector of Machu Picchu that was used by the Incas as a viewing place. Archeologists have been excavating there for several months, and found the grave some 31.5 inches (80 cm) below the surface.

Astete said Machu Picchu had not yielded all its secrets yet. "Not everything has been discovered, there are parts which have not been investigated yet by archeologists," he said. Another group of investigators found new stone terraces, water channels, a garbage dump and a wall at Machu Picchu in June.

The burial find will be put on display where it was found to encourage tourism, he added. This cash-strapped Andean nation is betting on tourism as a big money spinner and most visitors to Peru make the trip to Machu Picchu.

Spanish matador Manuel Jesus 'El Cid' is gored in the thigh by a bull during a bullfight in The Maestranza bull ring, in Seville, October 12, 2002. El Cid was taken to hospital with a 25-centimeter gash in his thigh. REUTERS/Marcelo del Pozo

A man puts packing hooks through his cheek in Phuket province, 690 kilometers (428 miles) southwest of Bangkok, Thailand, to celebrate the annual Vegetarian Festival Saturday, Oct. 12, 2002. Every year around early October devout Buddhists in the overseas Chinese community celebrate the nine-day festival, during which some perform acts of self-mortification including body-piercing, although such acts are not part of mainstream Buddhist faith. (AP Photo/Kiti Tungkul)

Jay-Z Album Preview: Hova Ups The Ante With Blueprint 2

After fending off naysayers for years, Jay-Z finally decided to back down when making his latest, The Blueprint 2: The Gift and the Curse.

No, Jigga isn't giving up his claim-staking to hip-hop's crown — he's upping the ante, all at the urging of his crew, with a double album.

"I didn't want to do it," Jay, seated next to Memphis Bleek, said Wednesday night at Bassline Studios. "These guys talked me into it. I knew it was gonna be difficult to follow The Blueprint. [Then] I started recording a lot of songs, and the songs were coming out so good."

Of the 40 songs Jay recorded with producers such as the Neptunes, Kanye West, Dr. Dre, Timbaland and Just Blaze, 20 cuts, along with four bonus tracks, will appear on The Blueprint 2, which has a more eclectic sound than the soul-based soundscape of its predecessor.

"[Tracks on The] Blueprint were all familiar," Jay said. "This one, I wanted to take it everywhere. ... Some next sh--."

Jigga steps into the reggae realm for "If You With Me," which Sean Paul is scheduled to lay vocals on. From there, Jay touches rock with the Heavy D-produced "Guns and Roses," which features Lenny Kravitz.

Over guitar thrashes, Jay, who rhymes "I'm the young Ralph Lauren/ Michael Corleone on the microphone," also raps about earning his bachelors by dating models and actresses and how his invisible rhyme book leaves other MCs shook. Meanwhile, Kravitz sings, "Life is like guns and roses/ Bittersweet like friends and foes-es/ Some get chosen."

On "Excuse Me," Pharrell Williams of the Neptunes does some high-pitched crooning ("Excuse me/ What's your name?/ Lady, what's your name?/ ... So contagious, I can't take it"), Jay playfully goes into a sing-song flow, taking from Luther Vandross' "Take You Out."

"Excuse me, miss/ What's your name?" he starts off before later playing off Notorious B.I.G.'s "Big Poppa." "I see some ladies tonight that be rollin' with Jay-Z, Jay-Z."

He adds, "I have one chef, one maid, I just need a partner to play spades with," trying to tell the ladies he wants them to fall for Shawn Carter and not Jay-Z.

Jezebels steer clear, though — "Sisters and Bitches" breaks down the differences between the two. "This is gonna be a shocker, but listen to the whole song," Jay said with a smile before playing the track.

"Sisters work hard/ Bitches work your nerves," he rapped on record a few moments later. "Sisters hold you down/ Bitches hold you up/ ... I love all my sisters but don't love no bitch."

A guy who's been known to fling the b-word around every now and then, Dr. Dre, produced and spits on the remix to "The Watcher." (The original version was featured on Dr. Dre 2001.) The beat starts off with creepy lifeline beeps, and then thunderous string plucks come in. Truth Hurts sings, "I know y'all got your eyes on me/ Feel you watching me/ It ain't hard to see that you can't see me," in between the duo's verses. Rakim closes the song, flowing with the lyrical acumen he displayed in the late '80s.

Scarface, most of the Roc family, Faith Evans, Beyoncé Knowles of Destiny's Child, LaToiya Williams and Sadat X also pop up throughout the LP. One old-time crooner also helped Young Hova get his point across, though he didn't lay down live vocals.

"You might have heard this sample before," Jay said with a light chuckle as the engineer cued up "I Did It My Way," which samples the classic "My Way."

"We used the Paul Anka version — that way it was cheaper," Jay said. On the song, he likens himself to Frank Sinatra, Damon Dash to Sammy Davis Jr. and Kareem "Biggs" Burke to Dean Martin.

goofin off in class

Jay-Z Camp Refutes Toni Braxton's Tupac-Biting Claims

You can call Jay-Z a lot of things, but his Roc-A-Fella family says a thief is not one of them.

On Tuesday (October 8), Toni Braxton and her camp sent out a statement claiming that he bit her idea to redo the 1996 Tupac Shakur song "Me and My Girlfriend" (see "Deja Feud: Jay-Z, Toni Braxton Tracks Sample Same Tupac Song").

"I had no idea about Toni Braxton's [song]," said Kanye West — producer of the contentious Jay-Z track, "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" — on Wednesday (October 9). "She can't act like ain't nobody ever heard 'Me and My Girlfriend' before. People hear the song all the time. I can [understand her complaint] if it [was] an original song."

"'03 Bonnie & Clyde," the first single from Jay-Z's The Blueprint 2 LP, features Beyoncé Knowles and uses a similar chorus and beat to Pac's original (see "Jay-Z, Beyonce Are 'Bonnie & Clyde' On First Blueprint 2 Single"). Meanwhile, Braxton samples Pac's music and vocals from "Me and My Girlfriend" for "Me and My Boyfriend," which is slated to be the second single off her More Than a Woman LP, due in November.

Braxton said her song was recorded over the summer and alleged that Jay only decided to do "'03 Bonnie & Clyde" after she played her cut for a friend at Def Jam Records. In response, Kanye West said that he brought the remake idea to Jigga after listening to a friend's Makaveli album one night.

"I popped the CD in and started playing songs," recalled Kanye, who was attending a Roc-A-Fella press conference to promote the "Paid in Full" movie and an accompanying tour and soundtrack. "I went to 'Me and My Girlfriend' and was like, 'Oh, sh--, this joint would be crazy for [Jay-Z] and Beyoncé.' He had told me a week before that he needed a joint for him and Beyoncé. I remember he called [and] said, 'We got this joint, it has to be the best beat you ever made. Just picture if you got my first single — Hov and Beyoncé — how big you would be then.'

"So I went home and called my dog E Base, who plays a lot of instruments up at Baseline [studio] for me and [producer] Just Blaze," West continued. "[E] came through. I programmed the drums in 10 minutes, and then he played all the different parts. This version is all live bass, live guitars, [live] chords on it. I brought it to Hov that night, he heard it, he thought of the video treatment before he thought of the rap. He just knew it was gonna be the one."

Roc-A-Fella co-CEO Damon Dash, who also announced the signing of longtime underground champs M.O.P. at Wednesday's press conference, defended the Jiggaman as well.

"Jay is a talented dude. I don't think he would steal anything intentionally," Dash said. "It's an ill coincidence, and things happen for a reason. We'll see what happens behind it.

"I read it in the paper, and Jay and I were talking about it this morning and it was a little funny," Dash recalled. "I know he didn't intentionally make the same record she made. I don't think he even heard it. [My] reaction is, 'Sorry, it wasn't intentional.' Jay makes records and puts them out. This sh-- is music. It's just music. We don't sit around and have a blueprint to f--- anybody's life up. The music business has been good to us. I'm not getting into any beef or nothing over music."

Deja Feud: Jay-Z, Toni Braxton Tracks Sample Same Tupac Song

Get ready to do a double take when you turn on your radio. Four heavyweight music stars will be duking it out with similar variations of the same Tupac Shakur song.

Jay-Z and Destiny's Child's Beyoncé Knowles recorded a new version of the 1996 Tupac track "Me and My Girlfriend" for Jay's upcoming Blueprint 2 - The Gift and the Curse, but they weren't the only ones in a Makaveli mood. Expectant pop singer Toni Braxton also interpreted the West Coast rap track with the help of Murder Inc. producers Irv Gotti and Chink Santana.

Braxton's "Me and My Girlfriend," which will appear on her More Than a Woman, due in November, contains the same chorus as Jay-Z's "Bonnie & Clyde," along with a sample of Tupac's original vocals.

An Arista spokesperson said Braxton invited a friend from Def Jam, Jigga's label, to listen to the song a few months back. "Imagine our surprise after turning on the radio and hearing the new Jay Z single 'Bonnie &Clyde,' featuring Beyoncé," the spokesperson said. "It's the same song. They even use the same Tupac sample. Frankly, she is insulted and disappointed."

Calling in to a New York radio station, Braxton said, "Jay-Z and Beyoncé are messing with my money. They're trying to steal my mojo."

Murder Inc. had no comment, and Jay-Z could not be reached.

99-year-old sprinter is star of games

A 99-year-old sprinter is one of the stars of the World Masters Games in Australia.

Charles Booth carried the torch down an avenue of honour at the opening ceremony in Melbourne.

The event has attracted more than 25,000 competitors aged between 24 and 99 from 97 countries.

The athletics track and field competition is to feature many competitors in their 80s.

They include former 400 metre world record holder Mike Johnston, who is 81.

Weightlifting competitors include 90-year-old Vladimir Younger, who aims to beat relative youngsters to clinch gold.

The squash event is expected to be dominated by 87-year-old Vic Hunt, the father of seven-times squash world champion Geoff Hunt.

The state of Victoria hopes to gain a £44.74 million boost from the games, which close on October 13.

Snoop Says, 'It Is Cool To Say No To Drugs'

Snoop Dogg isn't himself in his new video, and it has nothing to do with not smoking pot anymore.

Something else has taken over his actions.

"A little Snoop Dogg fan of mine, he's got my little action figure doll and somehow, some way, he makes the action figure move me, so whatever the doll does, I does," Snoop explained on the set of the video, directed by Diane Martel (Eve, N.E.R.D.).

"He's controlling me and making me knock things over, touch people in different ways. And I finally meet up with him and get control of him and grab my doll back and just save the day.

"It's a nice, fun video," the laid-back rapper continued. "I'm just trying to have fun and leave the violence to the left. I got violent [songs] on my record, but this video's a fun [song], and it's all about me having fun."

The Neptunes-produced "From Tha Chuuch to Tha Palace" is Snoop being himself, dropping brag rhymes like "I still got the gin and juice in hand."

"It's just sayin' I'm back, even though I ain't never went nowhere," Snoop explained. "It's been two years since I had a song on record, so [I'm] just lettin' everybody know that I been listenin', I been hearin' about this and that and whatnot, and I'm back to take my throne back from all these suckers in the game."

In general, Snoop's sixth album and first on his own Doggy Style label, Paid Tha Cost to Be Da Boss, is about celebrating his successes and reclaiming the respect he feels is due.

"I was the under-boss in the beginning, and I moved up to the captain and I became a general," the rapper said, recalling his days on Suge Knight's Death Row and Master P's No Limit labels. "And now I'm the muthaf---in' boss, so I paid the cost to be the boss. It speaks for itself."

Along with the Neptunes, Snoop's November 26 release features production work from DJ Premier, Hi-Tek and Jelly Roll as well as guest vocals by Ludacris, Redman, Lady of Rage and others. Jay-Z also appears, along with Nate Dogg, Soopafly and producer Just Blaze on the track "Lollipop."

And speaking of lollipops, Paid Tha Cost to Be Da Boss includes what is bound to be a memorable dis track in "Pimp't Slapped".

"Anybody that calls me out is a lollipop, a sucker," Snoop said as he licked his own pop. "I never paid no attention to him, but it just got to a point to where it was like every time I put a record out, [Knight] put a record out with me on it. And [he's always] talkin' about me and tryin' to get at me and just doin' negative things towards me and mine, so I just wanted to stand up to him and let him know that I ain't no punk and I ain't no little boy. I'm a grown-ass man and the way you bring it is the way you gotta take it."

While "Pimp't Slapped" also calls out Kurupt and Xzibit and appears to address frustrations about other West Coast rappers not standing up to Knight, Snoop said his only beef is with the Death Row founder.

"I got love for everybody that I started with, Dr. Dre, Daz ...," Snoop said. "I still love Kurupt even though he made a stupid-ass move by signing with Death Row, doing whatever he doing.

"I respect Dr. Dre to the utmost," he continued. "When I make a record, I always present him with a CD before I put the record out to get his say so on it, to hear what he thinks about it, what's strong, what's weak, what's good, what's bad. I know and understand what Dr. Dre means to me. Without Dr. Dre, without Warren G, without these key people in my life, Snoop Dogg wouldn't be where he is, because they believed in me before the whole world got a chance to see and hear who I was."

Who exactly Snoop is these days has the hip-hop world wondering, now that the man known for rapping "rollin' down the street smokin' indo" has gone clean. The news came as such a shock that rumors of health issues immediately ensued.

"I been smoking weed and drinking every day of my life for the past 10 years, and I just wanted to get high off of life and take a new direction and see what it sounds like and what it looks like from that point of view," Snoop said. "I'm also coaching my son's football team, and being around kids five days a week, I wanted to be inspirational to the kids because they all look up to me. And I wanted to give 'em something to look up to, because it is cool to say no to drugs, and that's what I'm doing right now.

"I'm 30 years old, and as you get older you get wiser, and that's what it's all about," he continued. "No, I don't have lung cancer, and I don't have throat cancer. I wanted to become a better Snoop Dogg, feelin' good, full of water, proteins, cholesterols and all kinds of stuff to keep me alive — lollipops and Big Macs."

Irv Gotti Shooting Ja Rule, Bobby Brown, Charli; Reveals Remixes List

While he probably won't be wearing the Gumby haircut or dancing in biker shorts, Bobby Brown will soon be back up to his old tricks.

Brown is set to make a full-blast return in front of the cameras alongside Ja Rule in the video for the rapper's "Thug Love," which is shooting next week in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. The clip, which is the first from Rule's The Last Temptation LP, due November 19, will be directed by Murder Inc. head Irv Gotti.

I.G. is looking to make the most of his time on the West Coast and keep his director's chair extra warm and cozy. Right after shooting wraps on "Thug Love," he'll helm the video for "Hey Charli," the lead cut off of Charli Baltimore's December 3 release, The Diary ... You Think You Know.

All this comes in the wake of the completion of production on the remix video to "The Pledge." According to a spokesperson for the Inc., that video features Nas and Ja Rule trading verses while standing at a podium in a mock conference. Clips of Ja's next movie, "Half Past Dead," are also shown in between shots of the two rappers.

"The Pledge" remix appears in the film as well as on Irv Gotti Presents ... The Remixes, which drops October 29.

For a feature interview with Irv Gotti and Murder Inc., check out "Murder Inc.: In Gotti We Trust."

Irv Gotti Presents ... The Remixes track list, according to Def Jam:
Big Remo - "The Remixes" (Intro)
Ashanti - "UnFoolish"
Ashanti, Charli Baltimore, Young Merc and D.O. Cannon - "I'm So Happy (Remix)"
Ashanti, Ja Rule and Nas - "The Pledge (Remix)"
Caddillac Tah and Ja Rule - "O.G. (Remix)"
"Boss" (Skit)
Toni Braxton and I.G. - "No More Love"
Caddillac Tah, Ja Rule and Ashanti - "Come-N-Go"
Caddillac Tah - "Poverlous"
"Spanish Dancing" (Skit)
Mary J. Blige and Ja Rule - "Rainy Days (Remix)"
"Moreno" (Skit)
Scarface - "Baby (Remix)"
Young Merc, D.O. Cannon and Black Child - "Hard Livin' "
Caddillac Tah, Black Child and Ja Rule - "No One Does It Better (Remix)"
"Remo Back" (Skit)
Young Merc and D.O. Cannon - "We Dem Boyz"
Crooked I - "Baby (Remix)"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53540-2002Oct7.html

Boy, 13, Shot in Bowie, Md.

Monday, October 7, 2002; 9:10 AM

A 13-year-old boy was critically injured Monday in a shooting outside Benjamin Tasker Middle School, according Prince George’s County fire and rescue officials.

The boy was wounded in the chest and abdomen, said Mark Brady of the fire department.

The boy’s mother brought him in her car to Bowie Health Center where a Maryland State Police helicopter was to fly the child to a hospital specializing in traumatic injuries in children, Brady said.

"The child is suffering from extensive blood loss and is in critical condition," Brady said.

Police received a call at 8:09 a.m. reporting the shooting, said Cpl. Robert Clark of the county police department. Police cars surrounded the building and officers put up crime scene tape and searched the campus.

© 2002 The Associated Press

Britain's First Cannabis Cafe Owner Jailed

The man behind Britain's first Dutch-style cannabis cafe was jailed for three years on Thursday for possessing and supplying the drug, court officials said.

Pot pioneer Colin Davies, 44, a leading British campaigner for the legalization of cannabis who once presented Queen Elizabeth with a bouquet of marijuana plants, opened the cafe in the northern English town of Stockport last September.

Within minutes of the launch of the "The Dutch Experience," it was raided by police and Davies was arrested.

On Thursday he was jailed at Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court on eight charges including perjury and possessing a class B drug with intent to supply while on bail for other drug-related offences.

Davies, a founder of the Medical Marijuana Co-operative, a non-profit organization that provides cannabis to people who suffer from multiple sclerosis and arthritis, said he had wanted to give sufferers of debilitating diseases a safe place to buy the drug.

"The Dutch Experience," which makes no secret of its business, has been raided by police a number of times since last September but has remained open for business.

In July, Britain's Home Secretary (Interior Minister) David Blunkett announced plans to ease laws governing cannabis users from next summer, downgrading the drug to low risk Class C. Although still illegal, the change would make discreet possession of small amounts of the drug or smoking it in private a non-arrestable offense.

An ICM survey said five million Britons used cannabis regularly and even royalty has tried it. Prince Harry, second son of heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles, made headlines this year when it was revealed he had smoked cannabis.

MTV to Make Movie About Napster

By Sue Zeidler

The story of Napster, the failed online song-swapping service, always promised the kind of larger-than-life elements Hollywood thrives on -- corporate intrigue, a nail-biting court battle and a young hero.

Now comes Napster, the movie.

Cable network MTV on Wednesday said it has reached a deal for the exclusive rights to the life story of Shawn Fanning, who created the controversial and wildly popular file-sharing program in 1999 while he was a 19-year-old student at Northeastern University in Boston.

The movie, tentatively scheduled to air in 2003-2004, may even star Fanning, now 21, as himself.

"Anything is possible and the fact that he may star as himself hasn't been ruled out," said a spokeswoman for MTV, which is owned by Viacom Inc.

Fanning dropped out of college to launch the business around the program he dubbed Napster -- based on his own nickname -- and which sparked a revolution by enabling millions of fans to swap songs on the Internet.

Napster was a hit with users, attracting some 60 million at its peak, but the service was loathed by the powerful recording industry, which launched a massive legal battle against the company, calling it a haven for copyright infringement.

Napster ultimately collapsed this year under the weight of its legal battles and is currently being sold in bankruptcy court.

Fanning himself enjoyed a bit of pop icon status, gracing the cover of various magazines and epitomizing to many the pioneering and untamed spirit of the Internet during the boom years of the late 1990s.

An MTV spokeswoman said it hired filmmaker Alex Winter to write and direct the film. Fanning is set to collaborate on the screenplay, which will features Fanning's childhood and his life before and after Napster.

Fanning is also planning to executive produce the soundtrack, according to MTV.

Winters, a writer and a director, is also known for acting in "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" and "The Lost Boys."

Fanning's attorney declined comment.

Earlier this week, restructuring expert Hobey Truesdell, who oversaw the liquidation of junk bond investment bank Drexel Burnham Lambert, was named the trustee in the Napster bankruptcy.

The song-swapping service recently fetched an estimated $11 million bid from an undisclosed bidder.

The track pays homage to Tupac, referencing his Makaveli track "Me and My Girlfriend."

http://www.trickology.com/soundcheck/stream.php?id=219&audio=jayz03bonnieandclyde.rm

REALAUDIO Jay-Z ft. Beyonce - 03 Bonnie and Clyde

Jay-Z, Beyonce Are 'Bonnie & Clyde' On First Blueprint 2 Single

Jay-Z told us years ago that he needed gangsta girls for his gangsta family. With Jigga and Foxy Brown appearing to be on the outs these days, why not ride with Foxxy Cleopatra instead?

On the heels of her Foxxy role in the latest "Austin Powers" flick, Destiny's Child's Beyoncé Knowles sings the hook on "Bonnie & Clyde," the first single from Jay-Z's The Blueprint 2 - The Gift and the Curse, due out on November 12 .

The Kanye West-produced song serves as an homage to Tupac both with its beat — which borrows from the Pac song "Me and My Girlfriend" off of the Makaveli album — as well as with Beyoncé's chorus. Mimicing Pac's hook, she croons, "Down to ride to the very end, me and my boyfriend."

Elsewhere, Jigga rhymes, "She riiides wit' me/ The new Bobby and Whitney/ Only time we don't speak is during 'Sex and the City'/ Put us together, how they gon' stop both of us?/ When I'm off track, Mommy is keeping us focused."

The verse continues: "Let's lock this down like it's supposed to be/ The '03 Bonnie and Clyde, Hov and B."

Meanwhile, Jay's nemesis Nas has also unleashed the first single from his upcoming God's Son LP, titled "Made You Look". The track pairs a retro-styled beat with equally classic and simplified rhymes.

"King of the Town, yeah I been that/ You know I click-clack, where you and ya mens at?" Nas rhymes. "Do the Smurf, do the Wop, Baseball Bat/ Rooftop like we bringing '88 back/ They shooting! Aw, made you look/ You a slave to a page in my rhyme book."

With two first singles that could not be more different from each other, these two hip-hop powerhouses are looking toward the final showdown — when they release their albums within weeks of each other this November.

Trey Anastasio, left, of "Phish" joins Bob Weir, former guitarist for "The Grateful Dead," backstage at the Roseland Ballroom, Thursday, Oct. 3, 2002, in New York. The musicians were attending the third annual "Jammy Awards," honoring musicians who perform in a spontaneous, free-form style. (AP Photo/DMI, Sylvain Gaboury)

Five baby bears born to the same mother have been accepted by the Guinness Book of Records as the largest ever recorded litter.

Radio station apologises for stunt involving star's widow

The manager of a baseball team has denounced a DJ who phoned the widow of one of his players to ask if she needed a date for a play-off game.

St Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa says the Phoenix-area disc jockey who called Darryl Kile's widow should suffer "dire consequences".

Mr Kile, a Cardinals pitcher, was found dead in his bed at the team's hotel in Chicago on June 22.

An autopsy showed the 33-year-old died from blocked coronary arteries.

According to the Arizona Republic, Flynn Kile hung up the phone after KUPD-FM radio's Beau Duran called her Phoenix hotel room.

Chuck Artigue, the market manager for the Sandusky Group, which owns KUPD, says the prank "was in terribly bad taste" but no action would be taken against Duran.

Mr Artigue says he talked to Major League Baseball officials and Arizona Diamondbacks president Rich Dozer to apologise.

Mr La Russa says: "I'm vehement in saying that whoever is responsible should suffer serious and dire consequences. If we could get our hands on them, we would deal with them physically. It was so brutal that something should happen to them. I hope whoever was responsible gets nailed."

Banker suspended over sex email

A City worker at a top London bank has been suspended after sending an email to friends boasting of a recent sexual conquest.

The email was later spread across the internet.

Trevor Luxton of Credit Lyonnais has been suspended on full pay.

He had described how a friend's ex-girlfriend performed a sex act on him while he spoke to his "bored" partner on the telephone.

Administrator Mr Luxton, who is now the subject of an internal investigation, described how he sat at home with "a beer in one hand, remote in the other, West Ham on the box" while the girl performed the sex act.

The email signed off: "Am I the worst boyfriend in the world or what?"

In a statement Credit Lyonnais said: "Trevor Luxton has been suspended on full pay and will be the subject of an internal investigation about abuse of our email policy which is taken very seriously."

One of the many messages attached to the original email claims Mr Luxton denied writing the story.

Those who received the email forwarded it to their friends in a bid to "nail the dirty love rat".

One said: "Let's get this two-timing a in trouble... Send this to everyone you know who works in the City and hopefully it will get back to his bird!!! I love being evil!!!"

Gwyneth Paltrow's father dies in Italy

Gwyneth Paltrow's father has died.

Bruce Paltrow died in Italy, the United States Consulate has announced. He was 58.

Paltrow was a well known producer and director, who worked on the American TV series St Elsewhere. He also directed Duets in which his daughter starred.

It's believed Paltrow suffered a heart attack and died at a Rome hospital. He had been suffering from throat cancer and had travelled to Italy to celebrate his daughter's 30th birthday on September 27.

He was married to actress Blythe Danner who is Gwyneth's mother.

http://www.ananova.com/

Limping pensioner had $1,000,000+ of cocaine in his shoes

A pensioner who limped off a flight into Austria's main Vienna airport was found to have £600,000 worth of cocaine stuffed in his shoes.

The 66-year-old was initially ignored by the authorities because he looked so harmless.

But he was selected for a spot check because his flight from Montevideo to Vienna took him by a suspiciously long route via Sao Paulo and Frankfurt.

An x-ray of his shoes revealed the soles were stacked with 1.3 kilos of cocaine. He was arrested and faces charges of drug trafficking.

Nintendo sponsors Des Lynam's moustache

Nintendo has struck a deal with Des Lynam to sponsor his moustache.

Super Mario Sunshine is the latest Gamecube title to feature Nintendo's icon.

Mr Lynam was persuaded to dye his moustache purple for the launch, though that won't be a permanent feature of the deal.

Nintendo spokesman Andy Williams said the partnership marked a meeting of "two true moustachioed icons" of the age.

Mr Lynam commented that he has long considered Mario a "brother-in-arms" and is pleased that the true worth of his moustache has finally been realised.

The unusual sponsorship will run for a year. Nintendo say they are planning to extend it further by insuring the moustache against damage and loss.

Story filed: 14:45 Friday 4th October 2002

Hefner 'wants fewer nude women in Playboy'

PLAYBOY.com
Hugh Hefner reportedly wants to see fewer nude women in Playboy.

According to the Chicago-Sun Times, the magazine's founder hopes people will buy Playboy for the articles.

"Explicit sex and hard-core images are commonplace on the internet and TV," he told the Sun-Times.

Hefner suggests the magazine can stand out by running fewer explicit pictorials and more articles, commentary and humour.

He wants "a number of shorter-written pieces, but pieces with real merit, the kind of thoughtful articles people talk about" including features on "the Playboy lifestyle".

With a new editorial director starting next week, Hefner says it's a good time to emphasize the magazine's journalistic and literary strengths.

"We have an opportunity to define who we are and who we ought to be," he added.

Nelly Brings Land Of Dreams (Dream Boats?) To Virginia For Tour Kickoff

VIRGINIA BEACH, Virginia — At least two girls in the throng of females that swarmed Verizon Amphitheatre Thursday night for the commencement of the Nellyville tour appeared to be delusional. Openers Amerie, Fabolous and the Cash Money Millionaires had already performed, the Band-Aid-wearing hip-hop crooner had just gotten onstage to do his thing, and these young women were debating each other like presidential candidates out in the crowd.

The ladies, who took off their high-heeled sandals so they could stand comfortably on the blue folding chairs to get a better look-see, weren't arguing about who had the best show, however. They were verbally head-butting because each felt they had the right to call Nelly their "baby's daddy," even though sitting 10 rows back from the stage was the closest they've come to meeting the platinum king.

But hey, if you can't have hope while visiting the land of dreams (or dream boats, judging by the way the females were screaming for Nelly and his crew of St. Lunatics, including emerging star Murphy Lee) that is Nellyville, then when can you wish upon a star?

Oddly enough, Nellyville's namesake ambassador didn't perform his town's anthem, but he did reach deep in his stash for some popular album cuts as well as his near universally embraced hits.

The fanfare started simply enough, with just a black curtain and a huge structure of words and numbers that read STLMO314 (symbolizing St. Louis, Missouri, and the area code 314, no doubt). Some of the letters and numbers had doors, which allowed the 'Tic members Kyjuan, Ali, Murph, Slow Down and Nelly to separately walk out with "Dem Boyz" playing as set-up music.

"We ain't come to play with y'all muthaf---as," Nelly, dressed in a black pilot jumpsuit like the rest of his rap troop, declared before shaking the venue with "E.I."

The guys then left and female dancers came on to wind and grind with Sean Paul's "Gimme the Light" blasting. The metallic big-up to his hometown was lifted back in the air and the black curtain was lowered, revealing the main stage set, which was a huge screen in the background and a set that looked like a cross between the front of a municipal building and a theater. A marquee that displayed the group's name also hung high above the stage.

Now with the gang all dressed in more comfortable uniforms of jeans, jerseys and T-shirts, Murph started things off again with his verse from the "Welcome to Atlanta" remix, and Nelly followed with his star-making ditty "Country Grammar." The two then performed the remix to "Roc the Mic," with Nelly's song-ending line of "Who the hell wanna ride?" segueing into "Ride Wit Me."

Things were rolling along rather smoothly during the set, with lulls coming few and far between, until a speed bump occurred during "Pimp Juice." The St. Lunatics had lined up side by side and somebody must've given a cue late because as the song began to play, Nelly's dancers came scurrying out holding mink jackets, trying to quickly help the rappers put them on. Nell got his coat so late he had to rap with the mink hanging halfway off, which probably worked out for the best, because the Midwest swinging fivesome look as natural wearing furs as Don King would look in cornrows.

After another quick wardrobe change — this time to personalized basketball warm-up suits — more familiar gear was highlighted. The man who speaks volumes with body language, Slow Down, hovered above the stage in a giant Air Force One Nike sneaker as his homies rapped the ode to their favorite footwear, "Air Force Ones."

"Give me two pair, I need two pair," the audience joined in as Slow held up his own red and blue remixed kick while the song went on.

Nelly continued with the doing-it-big motif when an oversized thermometer was brought onto the stage for another one of his omnipresent ditties, "Hot in Herre." With every few bars of his playful, barefaced words, the temperature on the thermometer rose.

"I got a friend with a pole in the basement," Nelly said, with his lyrics being drowned out by the crowd's rapping. "I'm just kidding like Jason, unless ya gonna do it."

Toward the end of the show, the two girls from the 10th row didn't seem as crazy as Nelly started looking into the crowd while rhyming the first verse from 'NSYNC's "Girlfriend" remix.

"I'm looking for somebody," he said, inciting girls to start jumping up and waving their hands at him. Ali quickly ended the search, however, when he called Nelly's attention to the huge screen that hung behind them. "I think I found you one," he said.

Kelly Rowland's smiling face appeared and she sang the opening lines from "Dilemma." "I love you/ And I ... need you/ Nelly I love you, I do neeed yooouuu."

As Nelly walked across the stage, rapping about how he wasn't going to fight over no dame but how he thought his leading lady was "gangstaaa," Rowland's face remained on the screen and she smiled and made googly eyes as if she could actually hear what he was saying before she sang the chorus. As the hip-hop love ballad came to end, Rowland crooned how she loved Nelly more than he'll ever know, while many of the enchanted females in the audience did the same, mimicking the night's headliner as he clapped his hands over his head.

Cash Money's Big Tymers, who performed a set before Nelly, also had a handful of tunes aimed at the ladies. There were shout-outs to "Hot Girls," honeys who "drop it like it's hot" on "Back That Ass Up," and girls from the 'hood who like to pull scams on "Project Chick."

The Tymers, composed of Baby and Mannie Fresh, kept the crowd rocking with their catalog of bangers, and like always, got a little help from their Cash Money cohorts. Boo and Gotti came out for "Oh Yeah," and Lil' Wayne, who stayed onstage for most of the set, helped Baby and Fresh get one of the most rousing minutes of crowd participation with one of the night's highlights, his cut "Way of Life."

"Don't you know it's a way of life… can't stop the stuntin' " sang the song's guest star TQ, to the crowd's delight.

The Tymers didn't have to look too far when they wanted to reach outside the family for guest appearances. VA Beach's own the Clipse joined the festivities for the remix of their hit "Grindin'," and got love from their hometown. However, Baby and Fresh took it upon themselves to close things out, with — what else — music suitable for rap's #1 Stunner/ Birdman, "Still Fly."

Dave Matthews Band Plots Tour, Readies Live Album

Perennial road warriors the Dave Matthews Band will take to the tour bus once again in December, but not before Matthews goes it alone for a one-off date.

The jam band leader will take the stage of Seattle's Benaroya Hall on October 24, according to his publicist. A rare few weeks of downtime follows, before Matthews meets up with his bandmates for a nine-date stretch that begins December 10 in Tampa, Florida. Illinois is the farthest the trek stretches westward, before the primarily East Coast jaunt winds down December 22 in Washington, D.C. The trek supports DMB's latest album, Busted Stuff, the group's sixth studio LP, which has sold nearly 1.4 million copies since its release in July.

Proceeds from the solo show will benefit the environmental organization the Bullitt Foundation, a group committed to the protection and restoration of the Pacific Northwest environment, and which also addresses problems that disproportionately impact people with lower incomes in both urban and rural communities.

The DMB's next installment of its live-album series, Live at Folsom Field, recorded July 11, 2001 at the University of Colorado in Boulder, is set for release November 5. A home video, issued on VHS and DVD formats, will accompany the set. The DVD offers 5.1 digital sound and offers viewers perspectives from 22 cameras, including one from a helicopter.

The double live LP follows Live in Chicago 12-19-98, another two-disc set, which came out last October.

Dave Matthews Band tour dates, according to the band's publicist:
12/10 - Tampa, FL @ St. Pete Times Forum
12/11 - Atlanta, GA @ Philips Arena
12/13 - Chicago, IL @ United Center
12/14 - Champaign, IL @ Assembly Hall
12/16 - Rochester, NY @ Blue Cross Arena
12/17 - Albany, NY @ Pepsi Arena
12/20 - New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
12/21 - New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
12/22 - Washington, DC @ MCI Center

The first killing happened at about 6 p.m. ET Wednesday when James Martin, 55, was gunned down coming out of a supermarket in Wheaton.

Police learned of the first Thursday attack at 7:41 a.m., when they got a call about James L. Buchanan, 39, who was shot while mowing his lawn at an address on Rockville Pike.

Less than an hour later, police received another call, this time reporting Prenkumar Walekar, 54, was shot while gassing up a minivan at a Mobil station on Aspen Hill Road.

Sarah Ramos, 34, was killed Thursday at the post office in a retirement community called Leisure World.

Laurie Ann Lewis-Rivera, 25, was shot dead Thursday while vacuuming her car at a nearby Shell gas station at Connecticut and Knolls avenues.

OBEYGIANT.com

MANDATORY VIEWING >> !!!!!!!!!!

http://www.banksy.co.uk

final drafts for my photoshop propaganda project......

The duck of the draw

Simon Waldman reveals who has won Guardian Unlimited's Best British blog competition

Thursday September 26, 2002
The Guardian

And the winner is... a duck. A Scary Duck to be precise: Alistair Coleman's witty, irreverent blog has beaten 300 rivals to take the title of Best British Blog 2002 and claim the prize of £1,000.

His blog features intelligent, confessional and entertaining rambles on everything from September 11, nuclear war and football hooliganism to the latest antics of a local dolphin nicknamed Randy.

It impressed the judges with its originality and personality: one described it as: "magnificent - well-written, focused and insightful". Another said: "The best writer of the bunch, the content is excellent."

He was closely followed by two highly commended efforts: IMakeContent.com, and GreenFairy, both of which contained excellent writing, design and links along with strong personalities.

Behind them came the very stylish Blogjam and LinkMachineGo - which is a great starting point if you want links to intelligent online content. Overall, we were delighted with the quantity and quality of the entries. The imagination, effort and energy that people are putting into blogs is deeply impressive.

There were no easy decisions, and just about every entry had something going for it. In particular, the 30 blogs listed here provide an excellent sample of what is one of the most exciting media phenomena of recent years. So, how did we judge such a wide range of blogs - and decide which was best? First, we had an initial trawl of the full 300 entries, selecting a short list of 30 that we felt best matched our criteria. All of them are listed here.

Then each of the judges worked alone, marking each blog out of 10 for the quality and personality of its writing, and out of five for design, originality and variety of links and for its "sense of purpose".

This last criterion was important. It didn't really matter whether a blog was a deeply personal journal, or collaborative blog around a single subject. What mattered was whether you could see what the blog was setting out to do, and whether it fulfilled that ambition. All the scores were then aggregated, and the top five are the ones you see listed before you.

Scary Duck, incidentally, had the highest vote for writing, Blogjam had the highest marks for design and LinkMachine Got the highest marks for its links. If we do this next year - and we hope we will - we may introduce categories, in particular, a youth category: there were some great entries from under 18s, such as www.amateurish.org, but they weren't quite right for this award.

Congratulations to the winner, the five runners-up who claim £100 each, and all those shortlisted. And many thanks to all who entered. We will continue to promote the best of British blogging both on these pages, and on Guardian Unlimited at www.guardian.co.uk/weblog.

The best of the bunch

Winner: Scary Duck

http://scaryduck.blogspot.com

Highly commended

I MakeContent
www.imakecontent.com

Greenfairydotcom
www.greenfairy.com

Runners up
blogjam
www.blogjam.com

LinkMachineGo
www.timemachinego.com/

Plenty of taste
www.plentyoftaste.com

The 24 shortlisted blogs

A donkey on the edge
www.donkeyontheedge.com

anglepoised.com
http://anglepoised.com

bagpusscoffeeshop
www.bagpusscoffeeshop.co.uk

Bar Room Philosophy
www.barsophy.co.uk

Bloggerheads
www.bloggerheads.com

Dayorama
www.gprem.com/dayorama

Exploding Fist
www.explodingfist.com

Gina Snowdoll's Eeks! It's a Blog
http://gina-snowdoll.blogspot.com

I Love Everything
www.iloveeverything.co.uk

if you lived here, you would be home by now
www.quinparker.com

imperial doughnut
http://imperialdoughnut.blogspot.com

Interconnected
http://interconnected.org/home

malevole
www.malevole.com

Massive
www.mssv.net

minor 9th
www.minor9th.com

Naked Blog
www.nakedblog.com

Not You, The Other One
http://interconnected.org/home

Peter D Cox Personal web log
http://pws.prserv.net/pdcox

Probably Pleonastic
www-users.york.ac.uk/~mjb135

Tagline
http://ijusttype.com/tagline

The Breast Chronicles - Reshaping Breasts on the web
www.breastchronicles.net

The World of Badger
www.outofthetrees.co.uk/badger

UK Environment
www.ukenvironment.org

Voxpolitics
www.voxpolitics.com

The judges: Anita Roddick, the founder of The Body Shop; Evan Williams, chief executive of Pyra Labs, the creators of Blogger.com; Jon Bains, chairman of Lateral, the leading creative agency; Jen Bolton, the founder of GBlogs; Steve Bowbrick, chief executive of Another.com; Emily Bell, editor in chief of Guardian Unlimited; Simon Waldman, director of digital publishing at Guardian Newspapers Ltd and Alan Rusbridger, editor of the Guardian.

Iraqi Official Suggests a Duel

By SAMEER N. YACOUB, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - An Iraqi vice president offered a unique solution to the U.S.-Iraq standoff: a duel between George W. Bush and Saddam Hussein.

Taha Yassin Ramadan said the duel could be held at a neutral site and with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan as the referee.

Ramadan, wearing a green uniform and a black beret, made his remarks without giving any outward sign that he was joking although reporters who were present detected a note of irony in his voice.

"A president against a president and vice president against a vice president and a duel takes place, if they are serious, and in this way we are saving the American and the Iraqi people," Ramadan told the Associated Press Television Network.

Iraq has two vice presidents, and Ramadan did not say whether he or Taha Muhie-eldin Marouf would take on Dick Cheney.

Ramadan also said that his government was not concerned by U.S. lawmakers' support of a congressional resolution that would authorize President Bush to use military force against Iraq.

"We pay no attention to this issue," he said, adding that approving such a resolution "makes no difference" to Iraq.

Ramadan criticized U.S. efforts to delay the return of U.N. weapons inspectors to Iraq until the Security Council adopts tougher measures that would give the inspectors broad new powers to hunt for weapons of mass destruction and provide them with military backing.

He said such efforts were aimed at "hampering the inspection process."

"They (the Americans) were surprised by the agreement reached by Iraq and the United Nations. So their reaction was unbalanced," he said, referring to the deal in Vienna on Tuesday between Iraq and chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix.

Under the agreement, Iraq agreed to an unconditional return of the inspectors under the existing U.N. Security Council resolutions and a 1998 agreement that put the so-called presidential sites — including Saddam's palaces — off-limits to surprise visits.

At the United Nations, the United States was pursuing a tough resolution that would end the exemption for those sites, give Iraq 30 days to compile an "accurate, full and complete" inventory of all aspects of its weapons programs — and provide U.N. inspectors military backing to carry out their search.

But the three other veto-wielding members of the Security Council — Russia, China and France — have said they are not ready to authorize force before inspectors have time to test Iraq's willingness to comply.

Five Killed in Maryland County

Five people were slain within a few miles, gunned down one by one over 16 hours in public places in Washington's suburbs, authorities said Thursday.
One of the victims was shot to death while riding a lawnmower.

Authorities were attempting to determine whether the shootings late Wednesday and early Thursday were related. Investigators had not found any indication that the five victims were related in any way or had any conflict with anyone, Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose said.

Still, given the timing and location, "there's a strong possibity that they are all connected," police spokeswoman Joyce Utter said.

Police were looking for two people in a white cargo van, possibly with damage at the back. Several witnesses told police they saw such a vehicle leaving some of the shooting scenes.

The first slaying happened shortly after 6 p.m. Wednesday when a 55-year-old man shot in the parking lot of a Wheaton grocery store, police spokeswoman Nancy Demme said.

The man on the lawnmower was killed about 7:45 a.m. Thursday in the White Flint area, and another man was shot at 8:15 a.m. while pumping gas at a Mobil station in the Aspen Hill area. He died at the scene.

About a half-hour later, a woman died at a post office next to the Leisure World retirement community in Silver Spring. She was shot in the head, according to a spokesman for the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Department.

Another woman was then shot about 10 a.m. at a Shell gas station in Kensington. Mechanics at the gas station said they heard the shots but didn't see the person or persons who killed the woman, who was vacuuming her van.

"We didn't see any confrontation or anybody around her," mechanic John Mistery said.

As a precaution, Montgomery County schools canceled all outdoor activities and locked down school buildings. No one was being allowed to leave or enter school buildings unless a parent called ahead to retrieve their children. The lockdown would remain in effect until police said it was safe to lift the restrictions, schools spokeswoman Kate Harrison said.

Moose asked residents not to panic, especially parents, whom he urged not to rush to schools to get their children.

Schools in the District of Columbia also canceled outdoor activities.

In Fairfax County, Va., officers were posted at the American Legion Bridge on the Capital Beltway, in case the van tries to cross into Virginia, police spokeswoman Sophia Grinnan said.

this movie looks like the best movie of the year... seriously....

http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/sweptaway

Rapper Tupac Shakur, right, speaks as fellow rap artist Snoop Doggy Dogg listens during a voter registration rally in South Central Los Angeles on August 15, 1996. Late Saturday night, September 7, 1996, Shakur and Death Row Records chairman Marion "Suge" Knight were shot in their car as they drove through the Las Vegas Strip area. (AP Photo/Frank Wiese)

MUPPETS BREAK XMAS DATE WITH SNOOP DOGG

By ADAM BUCKMAN

Snoop Dogg was edited out of an upcoming Muppets TV movie, but his recent forays into hard-core porn had nothing to do with it, the movie's producer insists.

Hollywood-based Jim Henson Co. says the X-rated recording artist was excised due to time constraints.

But the decision made last Friday to snip Snoop may have been aimed at preventing a public relations disaster as word spread that the caretakers of the beloved Muppets were pairing Kermit the Frog with a rapper/pornographer who is also an avowed Crips gang member, ex-con and outspoken advocate for legalizing marijuana.

Henson Co. got a hint of the potential firestorm last Thursday, when letters published on the Op-Ed page of the Wall Street Journal made it clear that CEO Charles Rivkin might have blundered when he issued an endorsement of Snoop Dogg in a front-page Journal feature 10 days earlier.

In the story, which detailed Snoop Dogg's newfound entrepreneurship in the apparel and porn industries, Rivkin explained why Snoop Dogg was making a cameo appearance in "A Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie," due to air later this year on NBC.

"The Muppets are a pop-culture icon, and Snoop is a pop-culture icon as well," Rivkin said. "The bottom line is we respect him as an artist."

In the scene that was cut, Snoop Dogg was seen rapping with Kermit, a prospect that alarmed some Journal readers.

"When did our children who watch and believe in the Muppets become fair game for pornographers?" asked one of the letters.

"Actually, Mr. Rivkin," said another, "I believe that in the December pairing of [Snoop Dogg] and Kermit the Frog, the ‘bottom line' is what matters most."

It's possible that Rivkin was unaware of the depth of Snoop Dogg's involvement in porn, including highly profitable partnerships with Hustler publisher Larry Flynt and Joe Francis, the entrepreneur behind the "Girls Gone Wild" video series.

"As commonly occurs during this stage of production, we have had to cut several scenes originally planned for the movie which did not advance the storyline," a company statement said.

Judge Engineered for Sabotage and Scientific Exploration

the computers at school are dank... www.corcoran.edu

my sketch...and my first draft

my assignment was to make a editoral cartoon for this article about Mcdonalds losing its market share to subway....

BUSINESS
Can McDonald's Shape Up?
Will a broader menu and spiffy new digs get the burger giant on track? BY DANIEL EISENBERG
Sunday, Sep. 22, 2002

McDonald's opens a new store somewhere around the globe every eight hours, but these days the fast-food giant is trying to attract attention to the demolition of one of its 30,000 outposts. In a Chicago suburb just a few miles down the road from corporate headquarters, the head of McDonald's USA hired a band and had balloons strewn about before a Caterpillar backhoe clawed down the walls of one of the company's older locations. After 24 years, the Hinsdale branch, like the rest of McDonald's, looks a bit tired and frayed at the edges. In a few months, it will be replaced by something that looks more like a historic New England bed-and-breakfast than your typical cookie-cutter Mickey D's. In the next couple of years, more than 1,000 other aging McDonald's outlets may get the bulldozer treatment, and 6,000 others could be given a face-lift. But rebuilding the company's formerly sizzling burger business in the U.S., which accounts for half its $40 billion in global sales, will be much more difficult. In July and August, revenues at its U.S. stores open for at least 12 months shrank 2.7% from the year before. The company has suffered declining profits for six of the past seven quarters and just lowered its earnings expectations for 2002. Wall Street's indigestion over the news pushed McDonald's once dependable blue-chip stock down to a seven-year low, helping sink the Dow Jones average close to a four-year nadir of its own. The challenges facing McDonald's come supersized. Its home market is all but saturated, its sterling reputation for fast, friendly service and cleanliness is tarnished, and customers are putting a growing premium on freshness and taste, neither of which McDonald's is renowned for. It hasn't come up with a new blockbuster product since Chicken McNuggets in 1983, and its aging slogan, We Love to See You Smile, hasn't made many people happy on either side of the counter in quite a while. Remodeling more than half its 13,099 U.S. restaurants, which could cost the company as much as $800 million over the next two years, is only part of CEO Jack Greenberg's latest plan to get bloated old Ronald McDonald back in shape. Greenberg is trying to lead a renewed commitment to fast and friendly service, to roll out a national "dollar value menu" and a fresh $20 million national ad campaign. To lay the foundation for future growth, Greenberg is experimenting with all kinds of new restaurant formats: an expanded McDonald's with a sit-down diner serving meat loaf or chicken-fried steak, a three-in-one outlet offering burgers and fries along with Boston Market chicken and Donatos pizza (both of which McDonald's owns), and small snack bars with limited menus inside a Home Depot or a Wal-Mart. He is even considering using McDonald's vast real estate to sell additional merchandise, which could mean everything from toys to videos. While acknowledging the company's poor performance, Greenberg, an affable former accountant who has been CEO since 1998, told Wall Street analysts in a conference call last week, "We have a brand everybody would trade for." That brand, however, is not as powerful as it was, and Greenberg, who some critics say needs to go, may not have much time left to return it to its former glory. After expanding for much of the past decade, McDonald's market-leading share of the $46 billion fast-food burger industry in the U.S. has lately flattened out at around 43%. Wendy's, boasting a popular line of premium salads and a strong reputation for freshness, grew its share to 13.2% in 2001, up a point and a half since 1998, according to industry research group Technomic. (Perennial runner-up Burger King's share dropped to 18.5% from 20.4% during the same period.) Heightened competition from the likes of Subway, which has dethroned McDonald's as nationwide champ in total stores with 13,101, has added to the McWoes. Subs and other custom-made sandwiches are growing 12% a year as a fast-food category vs. a paltry 2% to 3% for burgers. Meanwhile, a range of upstart "fast casual" restaurants such as Panera Bread and Baja Fresh, which serve up a slightly more upscale dining experience, "have raised the bar for the fast-food industry," says Robert Sandelman, president of Sandelman & Associates, a market-research firm. McDonald's is doing its best to cash in on changing tastes. Its Grilled Chicken Flatbread sandwich, introduced this summer on a limited basis, was more popular than the company anticipated, so it briefly had to stop promoting the sandwich because outlets were running out of, what else, flatbread. In response to an outcry, McDonald's has changed its cooking oil to cut down on cholesterol-raising trans-fatty acids. Always known more for convenience and kid-friendliness than for taste — except, many would argue, when it comes to its superior fries — McDonald's still has a food problem. Despite shelling out hundreds of millions of dollars to install a new made-to-order cooking system that banished heat lamps from the kitchen, McDonald's consistently gets low ratings for the quality of its food. In a 2001 consumer survey conducted by Sandelman & Associates, the company came in dead last out of 60 chains for taste and quality of ingredients. pagebreak Worse yet, the made-to-order system, which is supposed to give the kitchen flexibility to add new menu items, has made some McDonald's slower — adding precious seconds, if not minutes, to a customer's wait at the counter or the all-important drive through, which accounts for about half the chain's sales. A small but vocal number of franchisees — who invested thousands of their own dollars in the kitchen changes — are seething. And customers are also losing patience. "Since they took away the heat lamps, it takes forever — and the food still isn't hot," an Atlanta lawyer groused at a McDonald's on Peachtree Street. For now, McDonald's seems to be devoting most of its time and energy to improving its service, not its food. A company memo sent to franchisees in North Carolina in July bluntly summed up the situation: "We are meeting our speed of service standard only 46% of the time, and 3 out of 10 customers are waiting more than four minutes to complete their order. Our 800 number has confirmed that ... the number of complaints ... for rude service, unprofessional employees and inaccurate service has risen steadily." Spearheaded by U.S. division president Mike Roberts, the company is embarking on a crash program to clean up its act. It's keeping much closer tabs on its employees by sending what it calls "mystery shoppers," who have made 121,000 visits so far this year, to spy on restaurants' operations. In addition to the usual tutorials on how to pile on the ingredients for a Big Mac, McDonald's is for the first time giving its employees thorough hospitality training. The company is also offering cash incentives to more visible, effective store managers. "We're making progress but not fast enough," says Roberts. The breakneck pace of new-store construction — which only a few years ago had franchisees fuming about nearby newcomers cannibalizing their sales — has eased. Only about 300 new stores are expected to open in the U.S. this year, compared with 1,100 in 1995. But there are critics who say that even that is too many and that McDonald's needs to weed out the worst franchisees and shut down some of the underperforming restaurants. "They've stretched the store managers. There are 1,000 of them that are marginal at best," says Howard Penney, an analyst at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, who thinks McDonald's should close 500 to 1,000 branches. "They have to stop growing." Some franchisees agree that slackers should get the boot. "They're dragging the brand through the mud," says Edward Bailey, who owns 44 stores in Dallas and has helped keep his business booming by decorating some of them with Ralph Lauren wallpaper and marble bathrooms. Others disagree, claiming that McDonald's is simply making scapegoats out of franchisees and that discounting helps the corporation at the franchisees' expense, since McDonald's takes in royalties on total sales, even as individual owners are stuck with shrinking profit margins. Though stressing that McDonald's will no longer shy away from forcing out bad owner-operators, Roberts dismisses the notion of scaling back McDonald's presence in the U.S. Says he: "We've got to be accessible to customers." But for McDonald's to get cooking again, its marketing also has to be accessible. For the past several years, a virtual revolving door of corporate executives and an overreliance on regional campaigns have resulted in a diffuse, largely ineffective message. "Our marketing has become too democratic," says Irwin Kruger, a New York City franchisee, who this week will open his massive McDonald's in Times Square, complete with a video-laced menu board, flat-panel displays with subway maps and movie schedules, and his own creation, Mini McDonuts. McDonald's new national ad campaign will revolve around a national "dollar value menu" that will eventually include the Big 'N' Tasty burger, the McChicken sandwich and special sizes of fries, soda, salad and various desserts. It may not strike anyone as anything particularly new, but it will transmit a unified, consistent message about a bargain. By moving away from sporadic deep discounting in favor of a permanent two-tier menu that keeps signature products like the Big Mac at the top, Mickey D's is following the model that Wendy's has successfully used to lure in penny-pinching customers and then sell them on costlier items. The problem with occasional promotions is that "you train customers to come only when there's a blue-light special," says Chris Clouser, global marketing officer at Burger King, which has launched a 99¢ value menu, backed up by an offbeat, Candid Camera-esque ad campaign that shows bemused consumers reacting to a talking menu board. As for the restaurants, McDonald's may have to do more than just open up a dual drive-through lane or replace the brown-shingled roof with a red metal one. Some of its most successful locations seem to be the ones that stand out from the pack — whether it's the Orlando, Fla., outlet with a pool table and an air-hockey table, or the one near Chicago with a fireplace and leather armchairs. "McDonald's is a restaurant, not a hamburger stand, and we need to treat it as such," says Chicago-area franchisee David Bear. Who knows, some operators may even take a hint from France, of all places, where the company has helped entice more customers with a wide range of unorthodox decors, including a mountain-chalet-style store with wooden beams lining the ceiling and natural-grain wooden tables on the floor. France is one of the few bright spots in McDonald's flagging European business, and maybe that's a sign of hope. If a burger chain demonized by activists as the symbol of American imperialism and poor taste can win over the French, maybe it can rebuild its business at home. With reporting by Matt Baron/Chicago, Leslie Berestein/Los Angeles, Desa Philadelphia/New York, Mark Schultz/Atlanta and Adam Smith/Paris

the Graphic Artists Guild.....

among other things, i want this jersey....

Authentic Jersey of Nuggets great Alex English

Nylon Mesh began to appear in the early 1970's and has been the fabric of choice by most teams to the present day.

The basketball jerseys are "year specific" with I.D. tags on the lower front tail of the garment

Made by Mitchell & Ness Nostalgia Co.

"8 Mile" soundtrack track list, according to Interscope:

Eminem - "Lose Yourself"

Eminem - "8 Mile"

Eminem - "Run Rabbit Run"

Obie Trice/Eminem/50 Cent - "Love Me"

50 Cent - "Places to Go"

50 Cent - "Wanksta"

D12 - "Rap Game"

Nas - "You Wanna Be Me"

Jay-Z - "8 Miles and Running"

Young Zee - "Young Zee - "That's My N---a Fo Real"

Gang Starr - "Battle"

Xzibit - "Spitshine"

Macy Gray - "Time of Your Life"

Boomkat - "Wasting My Time"

Rakim - "R.A.K.I.M."

Obie Trice - "Adrenaline Rush"

Eminem Writes From Rabbit's Perspective For '8 Mile' Album

Add Rabbit to the list of characters in Marshall Mathers' rapping repertoire.

With four new tracks on the "8 Mile" soundtrack — one featuring Obie Trice and 50 Cent — the voice behind Eminem and Slim Shady has found another set of life stories to tell.

"The '8 Mile' soundtrack was different because it forced me to step into Rabbit, the character I play in the film, and write from his point of view," Eminem said in a statement. "It was a challenge."

Eminem spent last week in Detroit shooting the video for "Lose Yourself," the first single from the soundtrack, due October 29. Phillip Atwell, who has co-directed several of Slim's videos, and the rapper's manager, Paul Rosenberg, co-directed the clip, which will blend performance shots with scenes from the movie.

The "8 Mile" soundtrack also features revered rappers Jay-Z, Nas, Xzibit, Rakim, and Gang Starr, along with the rhyme slingers on Eminem's Shady Records — D12, 50 Cent and Obie Trice.

"Wanksta," by Queens rapper 50 Cent, is getting airplay and will likely be the album's second single, according to a spokesperson for Interscope Records, who released the final track list on Tuesday.

Other artists on the soundtrack include singer Macy Gray, the Outsidaz's Young Zee, and Boomkat, the group featuring "8 Mile" co-star Taryn Manning.

"8 Mile," directed by Curtis Hanson ("L.A. Confidential") and co-starring Kim Basinger, will hit theaters November 8.

Craig David Plays Willy Wonka In 'Flava' Video

Oompa loompa doompa dee do, Craig David has a sweet new video for you.

Britain's "it" R&B singer is playing Willy Wonka in the clip for "What's Your Flava?," the first single from his upcoming second album, Slicker Than Your Average.

Directed by Little X (Usher, Alicia Keys) and shot in Prague, Czech Republic, the video follows four contest winners into a magical factory. Unlike "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory," however, David's is a music factory, and the rooms have cages full of cash and girls in white cat suits, rather than chocolate rivers and Oompa Loompa people.

David co-wrote "What's Your Flava?," which was produced by newcomers Marshall and Trell, otherwise known as the remix team the Ignorants. The song is scheduled to hit radio airwaves on October 7, according to the singer's Atlantic Records spokesperson.

Slicker Than Your Average, the follow-up to the platinum Born to Do It, is due November 19.

The album finds David blending the U.K.'s two-step sound with various elements of hip-hop, pop and rock. It features longtime collaborator and Artful Dodger mastermind Mark Hill, along with Soulshock (Destiny's Child, Mary J. Blige) and Karlin (Whitney Houston, Monica), as producers.

Sting provides vocals on one track, "Rise and Fall," a cautionary tale about the pitfalls of stardom.

Game Company Gives UK Drivers Free Ticket to Speed

A computer game company's offer to pay the speeding fines of all British drivers as part of an advertising promotion for a new motor racing game has been branded irresponsible and dangerous by the government.

Acclaim Entertainment said on Wednesday it would refund the fines of any driver caught by speed camera on October 11 to mark the launch of a new PlayStation 2 driving game "Burnout 2: Point of Impact."

Acclaim spokesman Shaun White said the company did not condone speeding but wanted to "ease the financial pain a bit."

"Taking the side of people who enjoy driving fast, it therefore seemed quite logical to offer people caught by camera something that would make them feel OK about it," he said.

But the Department of Transport said the campaign would be likely to promote speeding and encourage dangerous driving.

"If they want to foot what is likely to be a hefty bill, that is their choice. But we cannot condone something that so obviously encourages people to break the law and do something dangerous," a spokesman said.

"Basically they are encouraging people to speed and to break the law. I just hope for their sakes that none of these people ends up knocking down a child.

It is not the first time the computer game company has attracted headlines over its marketing campaigns.

A call for people to change their name by deed poll to Turok, the hero of a dinosaur-hunter computer game, in return for $770 attracted more than 3,000 applicants in August.

Jay-Z, Nas, Rakim, And Macy Gray To Appear On Eminem's '8 Mile' Soundtrack

The soundtrack for Eminem's film 8 Miles will feature contributions from Jay-Z, Nas, Gang Starr, Rakim, Xzibit, Macy Gray, and new Aftermath act 50 Cent, among others. The record is due out October 8 on Eminem's Interscope-distributed Shady Records. The film, helmed by L.A. Confidential director Curtis Hanson, is set to hit theaters on November 8.

For the soundtrack, Eminem wrote lyrics from the perspective of his character Rabbit. "It was a challenge," Eminem said in a statement. "Also, the project afforded me the opportunity to not only make an album with a wish list of some of my favorite artists, but to showcase what we have coming on Shady Records."

The following is the album track listing:

Eminem, "Lose Yourself";
Eminem, "8 Mile";
Eminem, "Run Rabbit Run";
Obie Trice, Eminem, 50 Cent, "Love Me";
50 Cent, "Places To Go";
50 Cent, "Wanksta";
D-12, "Rap Game";
Nas, "You Wanna Be Me";
Jay-Z, "8 Miles And Running";
Young Zee, "That's My N--ga Fo Real";
Gang Starr, "Battle";
Xzibit, "Spitshine";
Macy Gray, "Time Of Your Life";
Boomkat, "Wasting My Time";
Rakim, "R.A.K.I.M.";
Obie Trice, "Adrenaline Rush."

50 Cent Works With Dre, Em, Trina, Possibly DMX On Debut

50 Cent brought his hype machine to Puerto Rico over the weekend for the Mix Show Power Summit, where MCs like Lil' Kim, Busta Rhymes and Cam'ron mingled with DJs.

50, whose underground smash "Wanksta" is spinning out of control in his hometown of New York, will soon get his chance to graduate from being king of the street tapes to Billboard chart topper when his Shady/Aftermath Records debut drops on December 3, according to an Interscope spokesperson.

Although it's still up in the air whether the Queens native will keep "Wanksta" as the first official single (50 has a track called "1st Single" he's thinking about unveiling) or if the album title will remain Get Rich or Die Trying, he will definitely use tracks provided by Dr. Dre, Eminem, Rockwilder and Sha Money XL, the producer behind most of his underground cuts.

Em has produced four songs for 50 Cent, including a posse cut featuring 50, Em and Obie Trice called "Love Me" for the "8 Mile" soundtrack. Two others, "Patiently Waiting" and "Don't Push Me," have been allotted for the 50 Cent solo project.

While in Puerto Rico, the chiseled, unabashed word flipper, who just wrapped production on a video for the remix of Missy Elliott's "Work It," revealed that Trina gets down and dirty on the sex-themed ditty "The Magic Stick" on his album. DMX may also pop up on the opus, as there's heavy talk of a posse cut featuring DMX, 50 and Marshall Mathers.

JESS3

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