Wednesday, June 15, 2016
Monday, February 08, 2010
Friday, August 21, 2009
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Monday, August 17, 2009
KISS
LOS ANGELES, CA & BENTONVILLE, AR (August 17, 2009) KISS and Walmart announced today that SONIC BOOM—the bands highly anticipated CD, and its first new material in 11 years—will be sold in the U.S. and Canada exclusively at Walmart and Sams Club retail locations beginning October 6. SONIC BOOM, produced by the bands Paul Stanley in Los Angeles, is the centerpiece of a three-disc set that also features a completely re-recorded greatest hits CD as well as a live DVD shot in Argentina during the bands recent, record-breaking KISS ALIVE 35 South American tour. The CD set will retail for $12, with pre-orders starting in September on Walmart.com.
KISS' Gene Simmons says, "SONIC BOOM" may be the best new record we've done since Destroyer! It is Rock And Roll Over meets Love Gun. The worlds biggest retailer had better get ready for the hottest band in the world and hire more cashiers before October 6th!
Stanley continues, "Through all of the albums that are considered our classics, we tried to always find ways to give our fans extras that went beyond just the music. Besides our making the best KISS album in decades, Walmart has made it possible for us to include a bonus CD with 15 of our most famous songs and an additional live DVD, shot during our recent concert in Buenos Aires. So in every sense, SONIC BOOM is the ultimate return to classic KISS form. You wanted the best, you got the best!"
In celebration of the albums release, KISS announced today a special KISS ALIVE 35 show at Detroit Rock City's legendary concert venue, Cobo Arena, on September 25. This historic structure, which is slated for closure, has hosted KISS concerts on numerous occasions, not the least of which was the series of shows that were recorded to become the KISS ALIVE! album. Tracks made famous on KISS ALIVE!—including "Rock and Roll All Nite", "Deuce", "Black Diamond", and "Hotter Than Hell"—are well represented on the greatest hits disc included with SONIC BOOM. The Detroit show, which will live another 35 years in KISStory, features opening act Buckcherry and goes on sale to the public at 5 pm EDT on August 21 at Ticketmaster.com.
Walmart, one of Americas largest music retailers, is finalizing its exciting plans now for its in-store and online destinations for KISS fans surrounding the launch of the new album and tour, and will host various KISS products in addition to their music in its stores this fall. More details on Walmart KISS activity, announcements regarding album pre-sales, sweepstakes and KISS appearances will be shared shortly.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Friday, June 19, 2009
Battery-powered TVs useless this storm season
PRICE OF GOING DIGITAL
An option to convert portable analog sets to digital:
• Winegard DTV battery pack: $15, winegarddirect.com
• Venturer-brand converter box: Target, $50
• Six D-batteries: $10
• Passive antenna: $10-$20Small or older portable TV sets that do not have an external antenna input will not be able to receive digital signals. A few options to replace your old set:
• Dynex 7-inch LCD portable analog/digital TV: $150, bestbuy.com
• Accurian 7-inch LCD portable analog/digital TV: $150, radioshack.com
• Haier 7-inch portable handheld LCD HDTV: $150, radioshack.com
• Coby portable 7’-inch widescreen LCD TV: $140, amazon.com
• iView portable 7-inch widescreen TFT LCD TV: $120, amazon.com
Other resources:
• DTV Help line : 888-CALL-FCC (888-225-5322).
• For more information and to find a local support center visit: www.dtv.gov
Monday, June 15, 2009
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Singer Yusuf Islam plays first U.S. show in 33 years
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – With a wry nod to his problems with American immigration authorities, British folk singer Yusuf Islam performed his first U.S. concert in 33 years on Monday, treating 400 fans to classics from his youthful days when he was known as Cat Stevens.
The 60-year-old musician treated the invitation-only crowd to an hour-long set that included such hits as "Peace Train," "Wild World" and "Where Do the Children Play?" as well as a selection of tunes from his new album, "Roadsinger."
Looking professorial with his full gray beard, checkered shirt and sleeveless jacket, the bespectacled singer sprinkled his performance with lighthearted banter.
"I bet you thought we'd never make it," he said at the outset, later explaining that he was referring to his 2004 deportation from the United States after his name appeared on a "no-fly" watch list designed to weed out suspected terrorists.
Islam, who became a Muslim in 1977 and abandoned his pop star life, ran afoul of authorities who alleged he supports charities that ultimately funnel money to terrorist groups.
Islam denied the allegations and has frequently spoken out against terrorism. He has since returned to the United States on several occasions.
But he encountered bureaucratic difficulties on his current visit. An unspecified work-visa issue forced him to cancel a planned May 3 show in New York, leaving Los Angeles as his sole American date.
He has said he plans to perform a handful of shows around the world to promote "Roadsinger," only his second mainstream pop release in three decades. But no dates have been announced beyond the American pair. It was not known if the New York show would be rescheduled.
Islam last performed in the United States in early 1976, by which time he was becoming disenchanted with his pop career amid declining sales. After a London show in 1979, he focused solely on his family and faith.
He made a tentative return to the pop world in 2006 with the album "An Other Cup," and promoted it with an intimate London show that was filmed for a DVD.
Monday's show at the El Rey Theater, which was organized by the record label, was also filmed. Accompanied by a four-man band, Islam sang and played his acoustic guitar. A number of celebrities attended the show, including Irish actor Colin Farrell and singers Josh Groban, Chris Isaak, and Michelle Branch.
Many songs were greeted with standing ovations. During the two-song encore, they cheered the line "Look at me, I am old but I'm happy" from "Father and Son," and clapped along to "Peace Train."
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Friday, May 01, 2009
Thursday, April 30, 2009
FACT CHECK: Obama's job, deficit claims are iffy
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama turned the page on 100 days in office with an iffy boast about job creation and claims of fiscal prudence that are hard to square with his spending.
Obama spoke with abundant confidence about his chances for achieving the big-ticket items on his agenda despite economic calamity:
_His assertion that his proposed budget "will cut the deficit in half by the end of my first term" is an eyeball-roller for many economists, given the uncharted terrain of trillion-dollar deficits the government is negotiating.
_He promised vast savings from increased spending on preventive health care in the face of doubts that such an effort, however laudable it might be for public welfare, can pay for itself, let alone yield huge savings.
_He pitched a remedy for Social Security's long-term crisis that analysts say won't fix half the problem.
Obama held a prime-time news conference Wednesday and addressed citizens at an Arnold, Mo., high school, using both events to review progress at the 100-day mark and look ahead.
A look at some of his claims:
OBAMA: "We began by passing a Recovery Act that has already saved or created over 150,000 jobs." — from news conference.
THE FACTS: This assertion is dubious on several levels. For starters, the U.S. has lost more than 1.2 million jobs since Obama took office, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Even if Obama's stimulus bill saved or created as many jobs as he says, that number is dwarfed by the number of recent job losses.
But Obama's number is murky, at best. The White House has not yet announced how it intends to count jobs created by the stimulus bill. Obama's number is based on a job-counting formula that his economists have developed but have not made public. Until that formula is announced — probably in the coming week or so — there's no way to assess its accuracy.
Whatever the formula, economists who study job creation say it will require some creative math. That's because Obama has lumped "jobs saved" in with "jobs created." Even economists for organizations that stand to benefit from the stimulus concede it probably is impossible to estimate saved jobs because that would require calculating a hypothetical: how many people would have lost their jobs without the stimulus.
___
OBAMA: "We must lay a new foundation for growth, a foundation that will strengthen our economy and help us compete in the 21st century. And that's exactly what this budget begins to do. It contains new investments in education that will equip our workers with the right skills and training; new investments in renewable energy that will create millions of jobs and new industries; new investments in health care that will cut costs for families and businesses, and new savings that will bring down our deficit." — news conference.
"I've personally asked the leadership in Congress to pass into law rules that follow the simple principle: You pay for what you spend, so that government acts the same way any responsible family does." — in Missouri.
THE FACTS: While the budget does set a roadmap for achieving the president's goals, it says nothing about how to pay for his health plan, expected to cost more than $1 trillion over the next 10 years. And while the deficit, under the plan, would drop to $523 billion in 2014, it achieves it with unrealistic assumptions, such as projections that spending in Iraq and Afghanistan will amount to only $50 billion a year.
___
OBAMA: "Number one, we inherited a $1.3 trillion deficit. ... That wasn't me." — in Missouri.
THE FACTS:
Congress, under Democratic control in 2007 and 2008, held the purse strings that led to the deficit Obama inherited. A Republican president, George W. Bush, had a role too: He signed the legislation.
Obama supported the emergency financial bailout package in Bush's final months — a package Democratic leaders wanted to make bigger.
To be sure, Obama opposed the Iraq war, a drain on federal coffers for six years before he became president. But with one major exception, he voted in support of Iraq war spending.
The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget has estimated Obama's policy proposals would add a net $428 billion to the deficit over four years, even accounting for his spending reduction goals. Now, the deficit is nearly quadrupling to $1.75 trillion.
___
OBAMA: "I think one basic principle that we know is that the more we do on the (disease) prevention side, the more we can obtain serious savings down the road. ... If we're making those investments, we will save huge amounts of money in the long term." — in Missouri.
THE FACTS: It sounds believable that preventing illness should be cheaper than treating it, and indeed that's the case with steps like preventing smoking and improving diet and exercise. But during the 2008 campaign, when Obama and other presidential candidates were touting a focus on preventive care, the New England Journal of Medicine cautioned that "sweeping statements about the cost-saving potential of prevention, however, are overreaching." It said that "although some preventive measures do save money, the vast majority reviewed in the health economics literature do not."
And a study released in December by the Congressional Budget Office found that increasing preventive care "could improve people's health but would probably generate either modest reductions in the overall costs of health care or increases in such spending within a 10-year budgetary time frame."
___
OBAMA: "You could cut (Social Security) benefits. You could raise the tax on everybody so everybody's payroll tax goes up a little bit. Or you can do what I think is probably the best solution, which is you can raise the cap on the payroll tax." — in Missouri.
THE FACTS: Obama's proposal would reduce the Social Security trust fund's deficit by less than half, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.
That means he would still have to cut benefits, raise the payroll tax rate, raise the retirement age or some combination of these measures to deal with the program's long-term imbalance.
Workers currently pay 6.2 percent and their employers pay an equal rate — for a total of 12.4 percent — on annual wages of up to $106,800, after which no more payroll tax is collected.
Obama wants workers making more than $250,000 to pay payroll tax on their income over that amount. That would still protect workers making under $250,000 from an additional burden. But it would raise much less money than removing the cap completely.
___
OBAMA: "My hope is that working in a bipartisan fashion we are going to be able to get a health care reform bill on my desk before the end of the year that we'll start seeing in the kinds of investments that will make everybody healthier." — in Missouri.
THE FACTS: Obama has indeed expressed hope for a health care plan that has support from Democrats and Republicans. But his Democratic allies in Congress have just made that harder. The Democratic budget plan that Congress passed Wednesday gives Democrats the option of denying Republicans the normal right to block health care with a Senate filibuster. The filibuster tactic requires 60 votes to overcome, making it the GOP's main weapon to ensure a bipartisan outcome. The rules set by the budget mean that majority Democrats could potentially pass health care legislation without any Republican votes, sacrificing bipartisanship to achieve their goals.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
13 BlackBerry apps for the social networker
Though the iPhone gets much of the attention when it comes to mobile apps, RIM recently launched its BlackBerry App World to compete with Apple. I've been using apps from that store (and a few other Twitter clients that can be downloaded online) that bring social networking to the social networker. Some are better than others, but they're all worth trying at least once. And they're all free!
Link
Link
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Kinda hard to imagine
That I haven't been blogging about American Idol or the new Star Trek movie or anything else. I have definitely put all of my blogging time into my new geocaching blog. Sorry. I'll try to post more often here. Don't hold your breath. And go to my geocaching blog.
Colbert gets a treadmill, not a room, on ISS
They chose the eighth most popular response? What the ? I know Serenity had the most votes after Colbert's write-in votes. - Marc
NEW YORK — One small step for NASA, one giant running leap for Stephen Colbert.
NASA announced Tuesday that it won't name a room in the international space station after the comedian. Instead, it has named a treadmill after him.
NASA earlier held an online contest to name a room (or "node") at the international space station. With write-in votes, the name "Colbert" beat out NASA's four suggested options: Serenity, Legacy, Earthrise and Venture.
On Tuesday's "The Colbert Report" on Comedy Central, astronaut Sunita Williams announced that NASA — which always maintained it had the right to choose an appropriate name — would not name the node after Colbert.
Instead, Node 3 will henceforth be called Tranquility, the eighth most popular response submitted by respondents in the poll. The node's name alludes to where Apollo 11 landed on the moon — the Sea of Tranquility.
NASA and Colbert compromised by naming a treadmill used for exercising in space after Colbert. NASA, itself an acronym (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), often names things so they spell out something fun. And that's what they did with the Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill (COLBERT).
Sophisticated treadmills are crucial for living in space for long periods of time, as astronauts do on the space station; they help keep astronauts fit and their bones from losing strength. Williams ran a marathon on one while living at the space station in 2007, jogging in place to coincide with the Boston Marathon.
The COLBERT treadmill is a new version that will be operational in August, NASA spokesman Mike Curie said.
"We don't typically name U.S. space station hardware after living people and this is no exception," Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for space operations, said, adding: "We have invited Stephen to Florida for the launch of COLBERT and to Houston to try out a version of the treadmill that astronauts train on."
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