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To: LindyBill who wrote (358397)4/8/2010 4:40:52 PM
From: mph4 Recommendations  Respond to of 793917
 
Speaking of Harley Earl, the father of the Corvette:

carofthecentury.com

I remember hearing many Harley stories; e.g., when people complained about the lack of a back seat for encounters, his reply was reputed to be that the Corvette was for "BJ's".

I used to have a Corvette. Way cool car.

It's sad to see GM saddled by Obama-ites. I hope they can kick off the government restraints.



To: LindyBill who wrote (358397)4/8/2010 4:46:27 PM
From: FJB  Respond to of 793917
 
Rupert Murdoch defiant: 'I'll stop Google taking our news for nothing'

News Corp boss hails iPad as potential saviour of newspapers, but says industry must stand up for itself and charge for content

guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 7 April 2010 07.52 BST

guardian.co.uk

Rupert Murdoch discusses 'the future of journalism' with journalist Marvin Kalb. Photograph: Hyungwon Kang/Reuters

Rupert Murdoch has launched a spirited defence of putting up paywalls around his newspaper websites, while embracing the game-changing potential of Apple's iPad. The News Corp chairman hailed the new device as a possible saviour of the newspaper industry.

Murdoch renewed his attacks on search engines, such as Google, whom he accused of stealing journalism from traditional media outlets. He told a National Press Club event at George Washington University that the newspaper industry had to stand up for itself and charge for content while using copyright law to defend its journalism from being used without permission.

"We are going to stop people like Google or Microsoft or whoever from taking stories for nothing … there is a law of copyright and they recognise it," Murdoch told a packed audience of students, journalists and other media professionals.

He said search engines had tapped into a "river of gold" by aggregating content but that the days of free news had to come to an end. "They take [news content] for nothing. They have got this very clever business model," he said.

In June, Murdoch's British titles the Times and Sunday Times will join joining his business title, the Wall Street Journal, behind a paywall.

However, some critics say consumers are now too used to getting online news for free and will not pay subscriptions in big enough numbers to form a viable business model for quality journalism. Murdoch dismissed this fear, saying consumers could be forced to change their habits. "When they have got nowhere else to go they will start paying. If it is reasonable. No one is going to ask for a lot of money," he said.

Murdoch also fired a shot at the New York Times – a bête noire of Murdoch's and the Journal's main rival – by saying its paywall plans were halfhearted and needed to be more restrictive.

"They don't seem to be able to make up their mind. They will have opposition internally from some of their journalists, especially their columnists," he said."To really make it work they have got to put a paywall up. I think most newspapers in [the US] have got to have a paywall."

Advocates of free newspaper websites often accuse Murdoch of being a technophobe, but the Australian media mogul was happy to embrace the iPad, launched last Saturday.

During the interview, with journalist Marvin Kalb, he picked up an iPad to demonstrate how to navigate the Journal's website. He said the iPad could be the saviour of newspaper journalism, albeit in electronic form, not print.

"I got a glimpse of the future last weekend with the Apple iPad. It is a wonderful thing," he said. "If you have less newspapers and more of these … it may well be the saving of the newspaper industry."

Murdoch was challenged in the interview – and by many in the audience – over the conservative bias of his Fox News cable television channel. The audience tittered when Murdoch said he thought the channel's news coverage had no political bias. "We have both sides. We have Democrats and Republicans, libertarians and whatever," he said.

Asked to name a single Democrat-leaning Fox commentator – alongside such conservative names as Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly – he struggled openly to remember one. "I wish I could tell you a couple of names. But they are certainly there," he said. He eventually settled on the Fox host Greta van Susteren, whom he said was "close" to the Democratic party.



To: LindyBill who wrote (358397)4/8/2010 4:49:26 PM
From: FJB  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 793917
 
First Look: Ralph Fiennes' New Shakespeare Film Coriolanus
April 7, 2010
Source: 30 Ninjas
by Alex Billington

Whoa! Last year it was announced that actor Ralph Fiennes would be making his debut as a director on a contemporary adaptation of William Shakespeare's play Coriolanus. At the time, we didn't actually know how contemporary it would be, but thanks to these first photos from the set in Serbia, it looks like Fiennes has actually set his film around the Iraq war. Action blog 30 Ninjas has the scoop on the photos, which come from the first week's battle scenes in the Serbian city of Pancevo. Fiennes is also starring in this as the lead along with Gerard Butler, Brian Cox, William Hurt, Eddie Marsan, Jessica Chastain & Vanessa Redgrave.





Obviously comparisons are already being made to The Hurt Locker, especially because that took home the Best Picture Oscar earlier this year, and an Iraq war movie combined with Shakespeare instantly sounds like more Oscar bait. The story in Coriolanus follows Roman military leader Caius Martius, who returns home from a war against the Volscans as a war hero with a new last name, Coriolanus, given for the city which he conquered. However, he is banished from Rome as a traitor. Coriolanus then allies with a sworn enemy to take his revenge on the city of Rome. I'm not sure how that will fit into the Iraq war, but I'm already excited.

firstshowing.net