Goldie Hawn Named As HarmanEisner Artist In Residence
The Aspen Institute Arts Program is pleased to announce that photographer and artist JR, organist Cameron Carpenter, and actor Goldie Hawn will serve as its 2015 Harman-Eisner Artists in Residence.In this role, JR, Carpenter, and Hawn will participate at the Aspen Ideas Festival (June 28 – July 4) and engage in Institute activities throughout the year in New York, Washington, DC, and elsewhere.“The artist-in-residence program creates opportunities for good work through the arts, and it is a tremendous opportunity to have JR, Cameron Carpenter, and Goldie Hawn this year to push forward the role of the arts in service to society at large,” said Damian Woetzel, director of the Aspen Institute Arts Program. “I am looking forward to working with each of these extraordinary artists in bringing their uniquely powerful voices to bear on the issues we face today.”The “Pervasive Art” of JR talks about commitment, freedom, identity, and limit and has appeared everywhere from Paris City Hall to favelas in Rio. In Face 2 Face, the biggest illegal exhibition ever, JR posted huge portraits of Israelis and Palestinians face to face in eight Palestinian and Israeli cities, and on the both sides of the Security fence / Separation wall. In 2008, he embarked for a long international trip for Women Are Heroes, a project in which he underlined the dignity of women who are often the targets of conflicts. His international participatory art project Inside Out, which allows people to get their picture and paste it to support an idea, a project, an action and share their experience, will come to Ideas Festival this summer.Cameron Carpenter’s repertoire — from the complete works of J. S. Bach to film scores to his original compositions — is probably the largest and most diverse of any organist. He is the first “concert organist” in history to prefer the digital organ to the pipe organ, and to champion it as the future of the instrument. In 2014, Cameron launched his International Touring Organ — a monumental cross-genre digital organ built by Marshall & Ogletree to his own design — in extensive tours in Europe and the USA. His Sony Music debut album, If You Could Read My Mind, entered Billboard’s Traditional Classical chart at No. 1 on its US release. He is the first solo organist ever nominated for a Grammy Award for a solo album, and has spoken and debated at think tanks and conferences including TED, IdeaCity, and The Entertainment Gathering.“I hope to bring to this year’s Festival a contribution worthy of the astounding brainpower that will attend,” Carpenter said. “The organ, a multi-dimensional medium for the expression of emotion through the machine, is a cultural and historic entity that needs representation in such environs, and I take that charge seriously.”In 2003, Academy Award–winning actress Goldie Hawn founded The Hawn Foundation, a public charity with a mission to equip children with the social and emotional skills they need to lead smarter, healthier, and happier lives. The Foundation is tasked with applying cutting-edge scientific research to create education programs that support the social and emotional development of children. It developed MindUP, an evidence-based curriculum and teaching model for grades K–8 that provides children with the tools to help them understand and improve their own emotions, moods, and behaviors, as well as reduce stress and anxiety, sharpen concentration, build confidence, increase empathy, and improve academic performance. In 2009 Goldie Hawn was presented by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) with a special award for her work to increase public understanding of mental health.“The Aspen Ideas Festival gives a voice to all aspects of our worlds challenges, delivering solutions and cutting-edge scientific discoveries,” said Hawn. “I am thrilled to be sharing time on the stage with Michael Eisner in the Arts section to share how cinema can impact awareness and lift the human spirit.”The Harman-Eisner Artist in Residence program was inaugurated in July 2006 to ensure that the valuable ideas and perspectives of leading artists are shared in the Institute’s ongoing “Great Conversation” — in discussions related to arts and culture, but also in those related to the myriad other vital issues the program addresses, from urban development, education, and race to citizenship, domestic politics, and foreign policy. Previous Harman-Eisner Artists in Residence have included Memphis jookin master Lil Buck, actress Alfre Woodard, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, director Julie Taymor, architect Elizabeth Diller, conductor Robert Spano, dancer and current Arts Program Director Damian Woetzel, author Tobias Wolff, painter Chuck Close, actor and playwright Anna Deavere Smith, stage director Stephen Wadsworth, and opera singer Jessye Norman.“Goldie Hawn, Cameron Carpenter, and JR are not only three of the most interesting, diverse, and compelling artists in America today, but they also are people who are interested in utilizing their talents to provide access and opportunity for those in our society who are in danger of being left behind,” said Michael D. Eisner, Institute trustee and chair of its Committee on the Arts. “I couldn’t be more excited to have them join us as at the Aspen Institute this year.”The Aspen Institute Arts Program was established to support and invigorate the arts in America, and to return the arts to the center of the Aspen Institute’s “Great Conversation.” Directed by Damian Woetzel, it brings together artists, advocates, educators, managers, foundations, and government officials to exchange ideas and develop policies and programs that strengthen the reciprocal relationship between the arts and society. For more information, visit www.aspeninstitute.org/artsprogram.The Aspen Institute is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, DC. Its mission is to foster leadership based on enduring values and to provide a nonpartisan venue for dealing with critical issues. The Institute is based in Washington, DC; Aspen, Colorado; and on the Wye River on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. It also has offices in New York City and an international network of partners. For more information, click here.
The French company whose light rail vehicles will replace Bombardier Transportation transit vehicles under a revised contract with Metrolinx is going ahead with a plan to build those vehicles in the Toronto region.Alstom Canada spokeswoman Marilena Varano confirmed on Thursday that her firm will establish a manufacturing plant in Brampton, Ont to build future cars on the Sheppard East LRT and Finch West LRT projects in Toronto.She initially said the project, which has not been formally announced, would create some 200 jobs but later revised that to 120 jobs. The company already employs more than 300 Canadians at facilities in Ottawa and near Montreal.Metrolinx — a provincial government agency in charge of transportation for the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area — announced Thursday it will accept only 76 light rail vehicles of the 182 originally ordered for $770 million from Bombardier. A source confirmed the new contract is worth $392 million.CEO Phil Verster said the 106 Bombardier vehicles that were to be used on the two lines will be replaced by 61 larger cars purchased through a $528-million agreement signed last spring with Alstom.Future cars on those lines will likely also be built by Alstom.“We brought a second supplier into the market, which creates a totally different competitive dynamic and Alstom will now build vehicles right here in Toronto for Toronto on those projects,” he said. “And that’s very exciting for us.”The Bombardier cars will now be used only on Toronto’s $5.3-billion Eglinton Crosstown project.Metrolinx had previously asked a court for the right to cancel the contract with Bombardier over doubts about its ability to fulfil train orders in a city where gridlock has become an increasing frustration for commuters. But a judge said it couldn’t without first going through a dispute resolution process.Metrolinx says its new deal with Bombardier includes harsher penalties if vehicles aren’t delivered on time or if the quality of the vehicles is unacceptable.Verster said details of the penalties are confidential but confirmed his agency is liable to pay $500,000 per day to the consortium building the Eglinton Crosstown project if the cars are late. It had previously been $1,500 a day for each late vehicle.“What I can say is that the financial penalties (to Bombardier) are significant and they offset our exposure we have if the delivery of the vehicles are late,” he said.Bombardier said the lost revenue from the smaller Metrolinx order will be offset by an 18-month extension of its Go Transit operation and maintenance contract in the Greater Toronto Hamilton Area.“We have always been resolved to find a clear negotiated path forward, one that delivers value to all parties, and foremost to the people of Ontario,” said Benoit Brossoit, president of the Americas region for Bombardier, in a statement.Metrolinx had previously indicated it wanted new operators to take over the suburban GO Transit and UP Express airport rail services after the current contract expires in 2023. It had said its existing contract with Bombardier was worth about $100 million per year.Ontario Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca said in a statement Thursday his government intends to ensure suppliers like Bombardier fulfil their obligations so that transit projects are completed on time.“We will continue to be vigilant with respect to Bombardier’s performance,” he said.“Simply put, they are expected to deliver as per our new agreement or face significant consequences.”Follow @HealingSlowly on Twitter.
Fez- The Spanish Civil Guards just freed a Moroccan girl from the grip of a Bolivian man who had kidnapped her seven months ago near Barcelona. According to the Spanish daily El Pais, the 9-year old girl was entrusted to a friend of the family who was going on vacation to Bolivia last August. But after the Bolivian man arrived in Bolivia, the family of the girl lost contact with him. Immediately the Moroccan couple reported the disappearance of their daughter to the Spanish police.Following the complaint dodged by the parents, Spanish authorities dispatched a team of the Civil Guards (Guardia Civil), who played an instrumental role in locating and freeing her. The 9-year old was held in the town of Chapre, in Cochabamba, one of the most famous coca-growing areas of Bolivia, according to the same source.© Morocco World News. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten or redistributed
Transplant patients are missing out on life saving organs because there are not enough beds to keep dying patients alive long enough to harvest their organs, a leading surgeon has claimed. But he said that getting more people to agree to become organ donors was not the answer. Instead, more resources were… Speaking at The Hay Festival, Mr Parsy warned that a ‘jumbo jet’ worth of people were dying every three months who could be saved if they had access to donor organs.
Kourosh Saeb Parsy, of Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Trust, said there was a ‘conflict of interest’ between the need for intensive care beds and the need to give doctors sufficient time to gain consent, and set up operations.
“An important step is being taken today towards laying to rest the souls of the Greek soldiers who fell in the Greek-Italian war of 1940-1941. The last unburied fallen of the Second World War.” This statement, issued by Greece’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, marks the end of a long-pending issue that had affected relations between Greece and Albania: the building of new cemeteries for the fallen of the Albanian front.Thousands of Greek soldiers fought heroically against Mussolini’s fascist troops between November 1940 and April 1941 and it is estimated that 6,800 out of 8,000 bodies are buried in mass graves in the mountainous area of Korytsa. Now these heroes are heading to their final resting place. Remains of a Greek soldier, found in the Albanian mountains, in a photo shared by the Greek ministry of Foreign Affairs via twitter.As provisioned by the bilateral agreement signed by Greece and Albania, forensic experts of the two countries are already working in the area, where the Albanian government is exhuming the remains of the Greek soldiers. Digging is to take place in locations around Dragodi, following directions by old italian military maps, while locals have also provided information about the whereabouts of the graves. After exhumation, the bones will be transferred to new cemetaries, purposely built in Vouliarates and Kleisoura. “We welcome the Albanian government’s response on this historically just request, which shows that dialogue and cooperation in a constructive and open-minded spirit can lead to the resolution of differences and the creation of positive prospects in the relations between the region’s countries and peoples,” reads the Greek Ministry’s statement. Facebook Twitter: @NeosKosmos Instagram
Déchets radioactifs : après le train, la routeLe train transportant les 123 tonnes de déchets nucléaires était attendu de pied ferme en Allemagne. Bien que les militants aient bloqué avec acharnement la progression du convoi, il a fini par rallier hier la gare de Dannenberg. Aujourd’hui, onze camions ont pris la relève.Le train qui a quitté la Normandie vendredi en direction de l’Allemagne avec à son bord 123 tonnes de déchets radioactifs vitrifiés (dont 86% de verre) a franchi la frontière au pont de Kehl. Les 14 wagons ont dû stopper quelques centaines de mètres plus loin pour une escale technique. Les cheminots allemands en ont profité pour atteler six nouveaux wagons remplis de policiers en prévision des événements à suivre. A la sortie de la gare, trois militants de Greenpeace, descendus en rappel depuis un pont, étaient suspendus au dessus des rails pour bloquer l’avancée du train. “Nous voulons montrer l’impasse dans laquelle nous met le nucléaire : les déchets hautement radioactifs doivent quitter la France, qui n’est pas la poubelle nucléaire du monde. Mais ils ne doivent pas aller à Gorleben, qui n’est qu’un simple hangar totalement inadapté pour stocker des matières aussi dangereuses. Il n’existe aucune solution viable pour les déchets nucléaires. Personne n’en veut et personne ne sait quoi en faire”, déclarait Sylvain Trottier, de Greenpeace. Parallèlement, Areva, le groupe qui a traité les déchets, affirme que “ce convoi est une forteresse roulante. Les conteneurs résistent à un train lancé à pleine vitesse sur eux” et résisteraient à un avion qui s’écraserait sur les emballages. Selon le groupe, d’énormes sphères ou cylindres d’acier protègent les déchets.Le train a également été retardé par des antinucléaires enchaînés aux rails. D’autres ont ôté le ballast sous la voie ferrée et 3.000 personnes avaient organisé des sit-in pacifiques. L’intervention des forces de l’ordre a finalement causé des incidents. Il y a eu des blessés dans les deux camps.Des dizaines de milliers de manifestants antinucléaires étaient également présents à Dannenberg pour protester contre l’arrivée du convoi. Celui-ci est finalement arrivé à bon port après avoir parcouru son trajet de 1.500 kilomètres en trois jours. Il lui reste à présent à être acheminé par voie routière jusqu’à Gorleben et, cette fois encore, le parcours est semé d’embûches. Ce matin, des milliers de militants écologistes ont bloqué la route, jusqu’à 9h environ. Les policiers ont délogé un à un les antinucléaires.Selon la radio RTL, une association internationale pour la protection contre les rayons ionisants a demandé à l’Autorité de sécurité nucléaire de rendre public un rapport secret sur le rayonnement radioactif émis par le convoi. Elle pourrait ensuite saisir la justice pour obtenir ces documents confidentiels. Le 9 novembre 2010 à 09:56 • Emmanuel Perrin
Les pirates de LulzSec agissent par “divertissement”Un communiqué du groupe de hackers explique leurs agissements par une bien étrange motivation.Véritables terreurs du Web, les pirates de LulzSec ont publié un communiqué dans lequel il expliquent ce qui les pousse à agir de la sorte. Et de façon plutôt étonnante, ils rejettent tout motif crapuleux et justifient leurs actes par l’envie de se “divertir”. “Chers internautes, nous sommes Lulz Security, plus connus comme les salauds diaboliques qui sévissent sur Twitter”, peut-on lire sur un communiqué publié sur leur site Internet. “Au cours des derniers mois, nous avons semé la pagaille et le chaos sur la toile, lançant de multiples attaques contre PBS, Sony, la (chaîne) Fox, des sites porno, le FBI, la CIA, le gouvernement américain”, continuent-ils sur un ton ironique avant d’en venir à la raison de ces attaques: “Nous agissons de la sorte parce que nous trouvons ça divertissant”. “Recevoir des courriels enragés d’un homme à qui vous avez fait envoyer 10 godemichés juste parce qu’il n’a pas été capable de sécuriser son mot de passe Amazon n’a pas de prix”, se réjouissent les hackers, néanmoins conscients que la justice pourraient les rattraper. “Mais peu importe, on en a vraiment rien à foutre”, balancent-t-ils. Pour eux, leurs attaques ont même une certaine utilité pour les internautes. “Que se serait-il passé si nous n’avions rien révélé ? Cela aurait signifié que nous serions restés secrètement infiltrés dans les sites du FBI, de Sony, à espionner, dérober. C’est de ça dont vous devriez avoir peur, pas que nous publions des informations”, argumentent-ils. Le 20 juin 2011 à 12:07 • Maxime Lambert
A Vancouver man who punched and kicked law enforcement officers and a police dog was sentenced to 6½ years in prison Friday morning in Clark County Superior Court.The catalyzing incident happened on April 5, 2016, a handful of days after Michael J. Boyd was released from prison on a different conviction. Early that morning, the Washington State Patrol received reports of a man walking in the northbound lanes of Interstate 5 near East Fourth Plain Boulevard.A trooper responded, but the man, later identified as Boyd, ran across the freeway to the southbound shoulder. The trooper approached Boyd again and ordered him to the ground. Boyd ignored his commands and resisted being detained, according to a probable cause affidavit filed in Superior Court.During the struggle, the trooper shocked Boyd with a Taser weapon to no effect. At one point, Boyd tried to get into the trooper’s patrol car, but the trooper slammed the door on Boyd before he got completely inside, the affidavit said.When the trooper wrestled him to the ground, Boyd punched him in the face, court records said. The trooper then drew his firearm. Boyd threw his hands in the air and began to walk into the southbound lanes of I-5. He repeatedly yelled, “(explicit) your gun!” He jumped the center median and ran across the northbound lanes to the shoulder, according to court documents.
Followers of the zealous anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., plan to picket outside Heritage High School on Tuesday.Saddled with the unwanted visit, Evergreen district leaders would prefer that no one pays notice — that no counterprotest turns the Orchards campus and its neighborhood into a circus.“We feel strongly that the best way to deal with this event is to ignore it,” Superintendent John Deeder wrote in a letter sent to homes of all Heritage and other Evergreen high schoolers.Fat chance.Through Facebook and other social networking, students at Heritage and other local schools have arranged a mass response to the picketing, set for 2:15 to 2:45 p.m.Gays and their supporters, from former Heritage students to parent advocates, are expected. Likewise, Clark College and church-based and pro-peace groups — even students from Portland’s Grant High School, where Westboro plans to picket on June 3.Among suggested antics: the silent treatment; cranking up music and dancing to drown out pickets; fundraising to support the very groups Westboro finds objectionable.
MIAMI GARDENS, FLA. (WSVN) – Concerned residents of a South Florida city plagued by gun violence came together to discuss possible solutions to the pressing issue.Miami Gardens held a violence intervention forum at the Universal Truth Center, Saturday. The city teamed up with Miami-Dade County to implement new approaches to crime fighting and violence prevention.Miami Gardens Police Chief Delma Noel-Pratt said it is imperative to let those willing to consider gun violence know that it is never the right course of action.“We have to look at where did they come from, what their family history is, other things that they need,” she said. “There may be resources that are needed, whether it be they’re unemployed, maybe they need a job, steer them in a different direction in order to let them know that gun violence is not the answer.”Since 2011, Miami-Dade County has seen more than 1,000 murders that involved guns. Nearly 50 percent of the victims are between the ages of 18 and 30.Copyright 2019 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
WEST HARTFORD, CT — The University of Hartford is pleased to announce Joshua Buske, of Wilmington, has been named to its Dean’s List for Spring 2019.About The University of HartfordSpread across seven dynamic schools and colleges, the University of Hartford has been guiding the purpose and passion of students for over six decades. On our 350-acre campus alongside Connecticut’s capital city, approximately 5,000 undergraduate and 1,500 graduate students from 48 states and countries come together for a common purpose: to collaborate across different disciplines, diversify perspectives, and broaden worldviews. We’re a four-year private university focused on advancing the public good through meaningful connections within our communities. Our unique approach to comprehensive education gives us the critical perspectives that lead to impactful change, regionally and beyond. With degree programs spanning the arts, humanities, business, engineering and technology, education, and health professions, we focus on doing the work that matters. Visit http://www.hartford.edu for more information.(NOTE: The above announcement is from The University of Hartford via Merit.)Like Wilmington Apple on Facebook. Follow Wilmington Apple on Twitter. Follow Wilmington Apple on Instagram. Subscribe to Wilmington Apple’s daily email newsletter HERE. Got a comment, question, photo, press release, or news tip? Email wilmingtonapple@gmail.com.Share this:TwitterFacebookLike this:Like Loading… RelatedSTUDENT SPOTLIGHT: Wilmington’s Joshua Buske Named To Dean’s List At University Of HartfordIn “Education”STUDENT SPOTLIGHT: Wilmington’s Joshua Buske Named To Dean’s List At University Of HartfordIn “Education”STUDENT SPOTLIGHT: Wilmington’s Joshua Buske Named To Dean’s List At University of HartfordIn “Education”
Comments 4:09 12 Almost all of the Chernobyl miniseries is this bleak. But given the subject matter — the worst nuclear disaster in history until 2011’s Fukushima — the tone is absolutely necessary. When potential additional catastrophes like the thermal explosion are averted, the show’s characters greet the successes with weary resignation rather than joyous celebration. Because Chernobyl is like a disaster Pez dispenser delivering a continuous stream of terrible news. Even after the tanks are drained, coal miners are drafted to stop the meltdown from contaminating the groundwater and eventually poisoning the Black Sea.
Now playing: Watch this: Inside Fukushima: Standing 60 feet from a nuclear disaster There were a ton of gut-wrenching moments in Chernobyl, the five-part miniseries on HBO and Sky Atlantic that recently concluded on Monday. But the one that left me squirming in my seat, barely able to watch, comes at the end of the second episode. A few days after the April 26, 1986 explosion at the nuclear power plant in then-Soviet Ukraine, three workers volunteer for an insanely dangerous mission to drain water held in tanks beneath the damaged reactor core. The enormous stakes if they fail are made fervently clear: Burning nuclear fuel will melt through the reactor floor, hit the water and produce a radioactive thermal explosion that will kill the population of Kiev and render Ukraine and Belarus uninhabitable for a century. Jared Harris and Stellan Skarsgård deliver excellent performances as a scientist and a Communist Party official coming to grips with the scale of the disaster. HBO I’m not spoiling anything here because what happened is history. Ukraine is not a radioactive wasteland today so we know the workers succeeded. But how they did it is told in horrifying, utterly compelling detail. (Reportedly, the workers did not die right away, but the real Chernobyl death toll remains a topic of heavy debate).We watch them enter a pitch black basement, stumbling through knee-deep water so radioactive the clicks on their Geiger counters merge into one continuous buzz. You feel their fear and claustrophobia and hear their labored breaths through their scuba equipment. Their flashlights dim, but they labor on. With millions of lives all over Europe at stake, it’s the only thing they can do. Tags VR brought me inside a scary-real radioactive Fukushima reactor Fukushima’s underground ice wall keeps nuclear radiation at bay For Fukushima’s nuclear disaster, robots offer a sliver of hope HBO
Zahreerabad: MLC Fareeduddin inspected the Moosa Colony here on Tuesday, where new roads were going to be laid soon. A budget of Rs 25 crore has been sanctioned for laying the new roads. The MLC interacted with the residents and enquired about the conditions of the roads.
Malkajgiri: Lions Club International Dist. 320A honoured 62 doctors from different clubs at Apollo Hospitals on Sunday. From Malkajgiri, two eminent physicians Dr Sarvepalli Nagarjuna, general physician, and Dr Vineeta Samantula, ENT specialist, were felicitated and honoured with a citation. Dr Sai Baba Goud, Lion Ramesh Chandra Pandit, District Governor Lion Manoj Kumar Purohit ,Lion Patan Ummar Khan, Lion Anjaiah and other Lion Club members were present on the occasion.
Party delegates listen to Zimbabwe main opposition party Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) president Nelson Chamisa giving his remarks during the launch of his party`s manifesto ahead of the July 30th general election on 7 June 2018 in Harare. Photo: AFPUS pro-democracy groups have urged Zimbabwean authorities to take steps to ensure a free and fair election in July and break from a history of flawed elections under long-time ruler Robert Mugabe.”Changing Zimbabwe’s electoral trajectory will require pro-active and concerted efforts to instil public confidence,” the International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute said in a statement late Friday after a week of pre-election observation.Zimbabwe holds a general election on July 30, the first without Mugabe who was forced out of office after a brief military takeover last year.David Dreier, a former United States Congressman and member of the IRI-NDI monitors, told reporters in Harare that while the observers have “found several notable improvements in the political environment and electoral preparations as compared to prior elections, a number of significant opportunities to break with the past have been missed.””As a result, we still have concerns about the fairness of the process.”The group said while Zimbabweans welcome President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s public commitments to hold credible elections there were concerns whether the military will accept the outcome of the presidential polls.They called on senior military officers to make “public and unambiguous statements” that the army will loyally serve whoever wins the elections.The statement came days after the main opposition staged street protests to pressure the authorities to adopt a slew of reforms to ensure a fair poll.The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party wants to observe the printing of ballot papers, that Zimbabweans based abroad be allowed to vote and the removal of military personnel seconded to the electoral commission.Mnangagwa will square off with former student activist Nelson Chamisa leading a coalition of opposition parties under the MDC-Alliance.A new pre-poll survey by Afrobarometer published this week showed the ruling Zanu-PF would attract 42 per cent of the vote compared to 31 per cent for the MDC, meaning the election could go to a run-off.
It’s certainly taken a fair bit of time — five months, to be exact — but Blizzard‘s space warfare RTS Starcraft II has finally gotten a proper demo.That’s not to say you haven’t been able to try Starcraft II for free before, but to do so was a bit convoluted. You basically needed to get someone to send you a “guest pass” out of their own limited allowance, received when they purchased either Starcraft II or World of Warcraft: Cataclysm at retail. The problem with the guest pass system wasn’t just the finite amount available, but the fact that it required you to already have a Battle.net account, which necessitated playing online. It was also only good for a limited amount of time… you couldn’t play the guest pass version indefinitely.The new demo removes both restrictions: not only do you not need a Battle.net account anymore, meaning you can try Starcraft II without an internet connection, but you can also play the demo for as long as you want. Not that theres an unlimited amount of content, of course: you’ll only be able to play the first three missions of the game, as well as solo skirmish mode, of which only the “Terran vs. Terran” mode is available. Read more at Battle.net
Director Farah Khan has refuted reports of actors Alia Bhatt and Parineeti Chopra being roped in for her next film.Gossip mills were abuzz that the two actors would be seen in Farah’s next directorial venture, to be produced by superstar Shah Rukh Khan.“It’s not true. I am still working on my script. I think the media just jumps the gun before things happen. We have not approached anyone for the film. Hopefully by the end of this month we should finish the script, then we will search for suitable actors,” said Farah.Farah’s women-centric drama film is likely to come next year though she did not divulged into details. “I can’t talk much about the film except that it is about girl power. We are highlighting several issues regarding women, sexual harassment being one of it,” Farah said.“It is not a preachy, boring film. I myself have been watching such films,” she said.