LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Michael Jacksonlost the will to live in recent years, a former close confidante said on Friday, as scores of fans camped out to be the first to see the singer’s final appearance in the “This is It” movie.Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, appearing on NBC’s “Today” show, unveiled lengthy conversations he taped with Jackson during their 1999-2001 friendship, and said the “Thriller” singer suffered deep emotional pain.”He lost the will to live,” Boteach said. “I think he was just going through the motions of life toward the end.”Boteach also said that Jackson, who had plastic surgery several times,…
Business
Jackson lost will to live, confidante says
Business
Twin car bomb attacks kill 16 in NW Pakistan
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) – Two car-bomb blasts killed at least 16 people in northwestern Pakistan on Saturday, evidence militants still have power to strike despite the death of a top Talibancommander last month.A suicide bomber sitting in an explosives-laden car threw a hand-grenade toward a crowd of people in the main northwestern city of Peshawar before detonating about 100 kg of explosives in the vehicle.”Ten people have been killed and 71 wounded, five of them critically,” Sahibzada Anis, the top government administrator of the city told Reuters.The attack took place in the carpark of a commercial building close to a…
Business
Merkel, Steinmeier in final push for German votes
BERLIN (Reuters) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her challenger Frank-Walter Steinmeier battled on Saturday to win over a large pool of undecided voters on the last day of campaigning before a federal election.Merkel told a rally in Berlin, hours after arriving on an overnight flight from a G20 summit in Pittsburgh, that her conservatives must use the final campaign hours to convince the one-third of voters who pollsters say have yet to make up their minds.”Every vote counts,” said Merkel, 55, Germany’s first woman chancellor and the only one to have grown up in communist East Germany.Security has been…
Business
The Unforgettable Movie
Producer: Arsala Qureishi and Sabrina LouisWriter: Arsala QureishiCast: Raji James, Sofia Hayat, Chook Sibtain, Salman QureishiDirector of Photography: W.B RaoEditor: Asif SheikhMusic: Ismail Darbar The movie is about romance, mystery, mockery and changes. There is a man called Yash. He is a writer and a teacher. Yash teaches the people how to live. He has a firm belief in his teachings until the day he bumps into a woman named Padma, who cannot be changed by any kind of teachings.She has no morals. Very secretly she reveals her true self to Yash. The saga revolves around the endless romance and…
Hack
MP3 Hand Grenade
One man’s useless machine is another man’s treasure… or something. [Matt] shared a link to his MP3 gr3nade in the comments of our useless machines post. The project took a decomissioned hand grenade and shoehorned an MP3 player into it. His decision to locate the headphone jack where the safety pin goes is a nice touch.
This reminds us of the boss from a previous job who had a chrome plated hand grenade on his desk. Now that was a useless object (and a useless boss). This project actually does something, but are you really going to ride around…
Facebook
This Week In Facebook: September 20, 2009
This week was yet another big week for Facebook with the company reaching new milestones, employees leaving, and the official launch of status tagging. I’m also proud to introduce a new feature of our weekly roundup: a stop motion video produced by my sister, Megan O’Neill. This new addition is a complete experiment so let us know your thoughts on the new weekly video!
Facebook Reaches 300 Million Users
This week Facebook announced that they officially crossed the 300 million user threshold, increasing the rate of growth to record levels. In addition to crossing this significant milestone, the company announced…
Life
When You Fall
WHEN YOU FALL … … … …WHEN YOU FAIL … … … ….WHEN YOU DO NOT HAVE ANYTHING … … … ..THAT SOMEONE WITH YOU … … … YOU ARE A TRUE FRIENDAlways DIFFERENT POINT … … .. BE WISE.WHEN YOU SUCCEED … … … ..WHEN YOU RICH … … … … … … ….WHEN YOU CAN CHOOSE AND YOUR PROPERTY AS IF THE WORLD … … … … … … ….THAT SOMEONE WITH YOU … … …. IS NOT A TRUE FRIEND YOU,HE WANT SOMETHING FROM YOU.BIGGEST ENEMY IS MAN HIMSELF ALONE
Hack
Build your own joystick
What can you build with a ballpoint pen and some extra parts? [gzip] found himself with a bonus box of right angle switches and other miscellaneous parts and set out to build a joystick. Simple arcade joysticks use switches that are actuated by the movement of the stick and this design embraces the concept. The four tactile switches are mounted on protoboard facing each other with part of a ballpoint pen in the middle. When the pen is moved it presses against one or more switches to close, completing a circuit. For good measure he even incorporated a fire…
Facebook
World’s Sexiest Man Is Also One Of The Dumbest Marketers
“I would rather have a prostate exam on live telvision by a guy with very cold hands than have a Facebook page,” George Clooney told a group of reporters at the Toronto International Film Festival. Clooney, who was previously named the world’s sexiest man alive, probably didn’t realize that his Facebook fan page is not far from becoming one of the 1,000 most popular Pages. While I can’t blame the guy for preferring to jet set around the world without the hassle of managing his online presence, he’s missing a big opportunity.
There are millions of women would love the…
Facebook
Zynga Testing New Stealth Offers Platform From “DoubleDing”
Zynga, the largest social gaming network on Facebook, appears to be testing a new offers platform on their largest applications. Farmville is by far the largest Facebook application ever and it continues to grow with over 43 million users. So how does the most popular application ever generate revenue? Right now the company is using Offerpal as the primary offers monetization platform but as one inquisitive user noticed, the company appears to be testing out a service by a company never heard of before: “DoubleDing”.
My initial thoughts were that Zynga just cut out the middle man and built their…
Facebook
Man Offers To Name Son “Batman” For 500,000 Facebook Fans
One of the fastest growing Facebook Pages over the past couple weeks was a page developed by KZ Entertainment to entice users to fan the page in order to get the admin to name his son “Batman”. It’s not a completely original tactic as it has been used with varying degrees of success in the past, especially within Facebook groups. The real question though is whether or not this individual should be able to create a Facebook Page which is aimed at promoting a media company rather than accomplishing a legitimate goal.
Currently, Facebook arbitrarily disables publishing features of generic…
Business
Pakistan food stampede kills many
Reports say dozens more have been injured. The free flour was being handed out in a poor, congested neighbourhood of the city by a private group as part of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Pakistani TV showed distraught relatives arriving at a hospital where the injured had been taken. “The deaths were caused by suffocation and the stampede in one of the most congested localities of Khori Garden,” said Karachi police chief Waseem Ahmad, reports AFP news agency. President’s shock He said the man distributing the free flour had been detained because he had not given police prior notice.…
