AL GORE CALLS FOR REVOLUTION

Al Gore went on Countdown with Keith Olbermann and called for a non-violent revolution – an American Spring!

Al Gore isn’t happy with the Debt Celing deal.   He thinks it’s time that America had a non-violent uprising similar to what happened in Tahrir Square in Egypt.

“We need to have an American spring, you know, the Arab spring. The non-violent part of it isn’t finished yet, but we need to have an American spring. A kind of an American Tahrir Square. Non-violent change where people from the grassroots get involved again. Not the, you know, not in the Tea Party style,’” Al Gore said on Current TV’s “Countdown with Keith Olbermann.”

“There are people who are genuinely upset in the Tea Party. I understand that. But that movement was funded with seed money from right-wing billionaires, the Koch Brothers, and promoted on Fox News,” Gore said.

Gore said that he would happily lead the revolution but that he is “afraid of large crowds.”

“Keith, I’d love to lead the revolution, which I think should happen in Times Square in New York, but I don’t do well in crowds.  If there’s more than five people in my living room, I break out in hives”

When asked if the revolution would be a protest against Barack Obama, Gore said. “No, the protest would be against the Tea Partiers who are trying to ruin President Obama’s glorious presidency.”

When told that a revolution is usually against a current governmental administration and not against other protesters (the Tea Party), Gore responded, “Can you see my baldspot?”

Al Gore said that his revolution in Times Square should also include polar bears because “they have a lot to complain about.  It’s too damn hot!”

Al Gore also told Keith Olbermann that he is considering running for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States.  “I love Barack, I really do, but we need someone in the White House who knows how to turn off the lights and turn on the green.”

You can sign up for Al Gore’s Revolution at http://www.current.com

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ALFRED HITCHCOCK FOUND ALIVE IN NEW ZEALAND

NEW ZEALAND – Film preservationists found an old film by Alfred Hitchcock AND they found… Alfred Hitchcock!

Film preservationists  found the first half of the earliest known surviving feature film on which Hitchcock has a credit: a silent melodrama called “The White Shadow.”

AND, most surprisingly, when the looked in the attic that they found the film, they also found Alfred Hitchcock.  “He was just sitting there, smoking a cigar,” said film historian Patrick Jacob.

Alfred Hitchcock just said “I saw the whole thing,” when asked questions by the New Zealand film preservationists.

Hitchcock was taken to a nearby theatre where he was dusted off.   They watched his old film.  Hitchcock watched the film with the film preservationists and simply said, “I saw the whole thing.”

The first three reels of the six-reel film, made in 1923, were discovered by the National Film Preservation Foundation at the New Zealand Film Archive.

“The White Shadow” was directed by Graham Cutts, and the 24-year-old Hitchcock was credited as writer, assistant director, editor and art director.

Hitchcock stood up when he saw the credits and yelled, “I was the director. I was the director!”

The film preservationists wanted to know more about Hitchcock and his contribution to White Shadow, but Hitchcock just sat down and said, “I saw the whole thing.”

Hitchcock made his official directing debut two years later with the chorus-girl melodrama “The Pleasure Garden.” He went on to direct such suspense classics as “Psycho,” “The Birds,” “Rear Window” and “Vertigo.”

“The White Shadow” is a “missing link, one of those few productions where we are able to bridge that gap of Hitchcock, the young guy with all these ideas, and Hitchcock the filmmaker,” said David Sterritt, author of “The Films of Alfred Hitchcock.”

Here’s a still from the White Shadow:

“Even though he didn’t direct it, he was all over it,” said Patrick Jacob.

“I directed it,” Hitchcock yelled to the stunned New Zealand police.

Hitchcock’s first Hollywood film was 1940?s “Rebecca,” the best-picture Academy Award winner that he made for producer David O. Selznick. Lewis J. Selznick Enterprises, run by Selznick’s father, had released “The White Shadow” in the United States 16 years earlier.

Hitchcock was born August 13, 1899.  He is almost 112 years old.  He attributes his long life to eating the same thing for lunch every day – pasta with peas.  He also says that staying “far away” from Hollywood has allowed him to live a long life.

“Everybody dies in Hollywood,” Hitchcock said.  “Everybody dies.”

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ZUCKERBERG’S SISTER JOINS MYSPACE

PALO ALTO, CA – Mark Zuckerberg’s sister quit Facebook and is now working at MySpace.

Randi Zuckerberg, Facebook’s marketing director and sister of Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg, has decided to resign.  This happened after Mark Zuckerberg spent three hours screaming at her – for no apparent reason.

WWN received a copy of the resignation letter from Randi announcing her decision to leave the social media company after returning from a three month maternity leave.

“I have spent my years at Facebook pouring my heart and soul into innovating and pushing the media industry forward by introducing new concepts around live, social, participatory viewing that the media industry has since adopted,” said Randi. “We have made incredible progress, but there is still much to be done and other ways I can affect change.”

The startling news is that Randi has signed a contract to be CEO of MySpace.  Justin Timberlake, one of the new owners of MySpace said he was “thrilled” to have Randi on board.  “Randi and I are excited about kicking her brother’s butt.  MySpace is going to bring Facebook down… and Randi is looking forward to eclipsing her brother’s success.”

Here’s Randi with her brother, Mark Zuckerberg:

And here’s Mark and Randi with Katy Perry, who Mark Zuckerberg has asked to take over Randi’s position in the company:

Insiders say that Randi knows Mark will be shutting Facebook down on March 15, 2012 and wanted to join a company that is growing, “not shrinking.”

Facebook confirmed their employees departure saying, “We are grateful for her important service.”

“Now is the perfect time for me to move outside of Facebook to work with a company, MySpace, focused on the exciting trends underway in the industry,” said Randi.

Randi recently suggested during panel discussion on social media hosted by Marie Claire magazine that the Internet should steer away from anonymity in an effort to combat cyber bullying.

“People behave a lot better when they have their real names down. I think people hide behind anonymity and they feel they can say whatever they want behind closed doors,” said Randi.

Randi said Facebook is currently working towards making their website safer. “There is so much more we can do. We’re actively trying to work with partners like Common Sense Media and our safety advisory committee.”

But Randi gave many hints that all is NOT well at Facebook.  When asked if she thinks Facebook will make it to the March 15, 2012 shut down date, she just shook her head and said, “For my brother’s sake, I hope so.”

The Facebook is currently under federal investigation for privacy violations.

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University fee increases go ahead

11 July 2011 Last updated at 15:54 GMT Universities say they are striving to ensure students from all backgrounds can still attend

Eight out of 10 universities in Wales will charge maximum tuition fees of £9,000 per year for some or all their courses, it has been announced.

The Higher Education Funding Council for Wales said every institution has had their plans to increase fees from September 2012 accepted.

Universities' initial proposals were all rejected last month.

The National Union of Students in Wales said the decision was a "sad day for higher education in Wales".

Students from Wales will have the increase in fees paid for them by the Welsh Government, which now faces a bill of around £280m a year to finance the grants.

It is thought most Welsh students will pay roughly £3,400 a year.

Continue reading the main story £9,000: Cardiff, Bangor, Aberystwyth, Swansea, Glamorgan, Newport (some £8,250), Uwic, Trinity Saint David (for undergraduate teacher training in Welsh and English)£8,500: Swansea Metropolitan (exc art & design courses, which are £8,750)£5,850-£7,750: Glyndwr University (£6,643 average) Source: HEFCWFirst Minister Carwyn Jones said the government was confident it could pay for the tuition fees policy.

Applicants from European Union countries will also be eligible for the subsidy, though students from England, Scotland and Northern Ireland will pay the full rate.

The University and College Union (UCU) urged institutions to be cautious on how much they charge for courses.

It is concerned that charging £9,000 a year would be off-putting for some students.

"These courses provide a lifeline to many people trying to move up the social ladder, and for them to be put off by higher fees would be disastrous," as spokesman said.

Continue reading the main story

Chad Collins is a lower sixth-former at Ysgol Gyfun Bryn Tawe, and is hoping to study physiotherapy at Cardiff University.

"I don't really mind about the fees. It's a case of whether I do well in my exams, whether I am willing to go for the degree in Cardiff. With fees. fair enough, that the Welsh Government will pay most of it, but again, it's quite daunting for most students who have a poorer background.

"At the end of the day, I'm really motivated to go to university no matter what the fees are. It's just a case of what my results are like on results day. I find that no matter what degree I do, I'll still have to pay anyway after graduation in university." He added: "The cheaper the fees, the better it is for students to be able to go from their A-Levels straight into their degree in whichever university and it will be better off for the students."

Ben Knight-Gregson is studying for a masters degree in physics at Swansea University.

"There's always going to be scholarships and bursaries and such and if you actually go out and look away from university there are many scholarships and bursaries from research institutes and different charities etc. I'm of the opinion that it's great trying to get everybody as equal an opportunity to come to university as they can, and obviously with the fees being risen that could cause an issue for some people, but I don't see what the problem is with regards trying to encourage more people from poorer backgrounds when everybody's given the opportunity to have the same financial assistance if needs be."

However, Higher Education Wales (HEW), the representative body for universities in Wales, welcomed the approval.

Director Amanda Wilkinson said: "This has been a very testing but worthwhile process.

"Universities have emerged with stronger plans to deliver for students and prospective learners from backgrounds with little tradition of going to university."

In rejecting all initial applications, HEFCW said it encouraged institutions to set more ambitious targets.

Universities were told they need to meet certain requirements, including on equal access and improving the student experience.

Professor Philip Gummett, chief executive of HEFCW said: "It is clear from the fee plans that institutions will use a high percentage of their additional income to benefit students, from bursaries for students from disadvantaged communities to investing in new technology."

The Office for Fair Access is due to announce on Tuesday whether universities in England have had their fee plans accepted.

Full amount

Based on the Welsh Government's calculations, this would see about £50m a year of its budget going to universities in England, as students from Wales take their grants over the border.

The policy is costed on the basis of fees being £7,000 on average.

The total cost of the policy over nine years would be £1.5bn although this would be offset by a 35% cut to university budgets.

However, questions have been asked about its affordability if average fees are nearer £9,000.

Education Minister Leighton Andrews said it had been a robust process but he expected the performance of universities to be monitored.

"The Welsh Government expects institutions to provide value for money, support access to higher education from under-represented groups and to deliver an excellent student experience," he said.

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Was George Orwell a fan of the News of the World?

11 July 2011 Last updated at 17:18 GMT By Tom de Castella BBC News Magazine George Orwell: News of the World fan? In its final issue, the News of the World made much of a 1946 George Orwell essay in which the great writer had namechecked it. But was the Animal Farm author really an admirer of the paper?

History was always going to play a major part in the News of the World's final issue. With few big stories, past glories were to the fore, including the paper's first ever front page from 1 October 1843.

On page three, the paper opted for a farewell editorial. It began with a quote from George Orwell - used as a character witness for the paper - repeating the opening of his famous essay Decline of the English Murder.

"It is Sunday afternoon, preferably before the war. The wife is already asleep in the armchair, and the children have been sent out for a nice long walk. You put your feet up on the sofa, settle your spectacles on your nose and open the News of the World."

The News of the World editorial said of Orwell's words: "They were written in 1946 but they have been the sentiments of most of the nation for well over a century and a half as this astonishing paper became part of the fabric of Britain, as central to Sunday as a roast dinner."

But was that what Orwell was really saying? The blogger and communications expert Max Atkinson says they have linked the great writer to some dubious claims. "Are they part of the fabric of Britain? No! As central to Sunday as roast dinner? No! This is self aggrandising, megalomaniac, boastful and untrue stuff."

Orwell was interested in the lives of the working class. But while the essay depicts the quintessential lazy Sunday, it also satirises the prurience that newspapers - the News of the World is the only one mentioned by name - encourage.

"In these blissful circumstances, what is it that you want to read about?" the essay reads. "Naturally, about a murder." Orwell goes on to relate how these murders are "re-hashed over and over again by the Sunday papers".

Continue reading the main story

He wouldn't have approved of a newspaper baron who lived abroad and changed his nationality”

End Quote Peter Davison George Orwell bibliographer Atkinson remembers the paper even in the late 1950s as being too racy for him to be allowed to read at boarding school. "In those days they'd send stringers around to the local Crown Courts to report on the local sex cases. They were constantly talking about people having carnal knowledge with under-age girls."

For him, Orwell's essay is far from complimentary to the News of the World. "It doesn't sound to me as though the quote they used was Orwell doing a top reader recommends. They're misrepresenting Orwell to suggest he's a fan of the paper."

Orwell bibliographer Peter Davison says that in Decline of the English Murder he neither approves nor disapproves of the paper. "He's describing a scene in ordinary households about what's happening on a Sunday afternoon. He had a very good idea of how ordinary people lived."

He has no problem with the News of the World's use of the essay - "they picked up a good quote and used it". But Orwell was often critical of the press. He worried about the power of right-wing press barons then and it is unlikely he would have approved of a Rupert Murdoch now, he says.

The essay causing all the fuss

"I don't think he would have approved of a newspaper baron who lived abroad and changed his nationality to advance his business interests."

Nick Cohen, author of What's Left, says Orwell loved the "vulgar working class culture" that went hand-in-hand with the News of the World.

In today's terms the 1946 News of the World fitted into the notion of English decency that the Decline of the English Murder was about, Cohen argues. "It was very genteel, it wouldn't run a story like today's paper would have done. It was raucous but also very well written."

Orwell saw the paper as part of decent working class life. For that reason the News of the World are entitled to trumpet his essay about the paper's past, Cohen says. But that was 1946.

"How can you tell what a writer who died in 1950 would say about 2011?" he asks.

Cohen guesses that if Orwell were alive today, he would have been "depressed" by what he read.

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Man blinded after seabird attack

12 July 2011 Last updated at 12:13 GMT Michael Buckland has been told he will not be able to work as a welder again after the gannet he was carrying attacked him A man has been blinded in one eye after an injured gannet he was carrying across a beach on Gower, south Wales pecked his eyeball out of its socket.

Michael Buckland, 38, from Cardiff, spent three days being treated by eye specialists at Swansea's Singleton Hospital.

The seabird pierced his eyeball and cut his eyelid in two with its beak

Mr Buckland, a welder, has been told the chances of him regaining sight in his right eye are very slim.

He recalled how he was walking on the beach with his girlfriend when the attack happened last month.

Mr Buckland told BBC Wales: "We were just walking along the beach and seen a seagull or gannet in the seaweed so I went over and picked it up - I was going to take it to the sand dunes.

"A family walked up with their dog. The dog was jumping up trying to get its tail and as I looked down at the dog all I saw was a beak coming straight towards my eyes.

"The surgeon said it pecked me about three times. Its beak went through the centre of my eyeball."

Mr Buckland was carrying the injured bird to safety when it attacked him

He was rushed to hospital where he had 11 stitches across his eyeball which doctors managed to replace and his right eyelid was sewn up.

Mr Buckland said he has been told he will never be able to work as a welder again.

"They said I've got to have an operation in four months time - they are going to take the stitches out and see about another operation to try and get my sight back but they said [the chances are] very slim."

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Shares volatile on debt concerns

12 July 2011 Last updated at 14:36 GMT Eurozone finance ministers said they are ready to do more to reduce the risk of the crisis spreading European shares have been volatile on fears that the debt crisis in the eurozone may spread to Italy and Spain.

Italy's main index fell 4% at one point, before recovering to rise 0.4%. Spanish shares and the UK's FTSE 100 have both shed 1%.

The yields on Italian and Spanish bonds also continued to rise as worries over the two countries grew.

On Monday, eurozone finance ministers said they were ready to pass new measures to stop the crisis spreading.

The euro was also lower, falling to a four-month low against the dollar at $1.3835.

'Contagion risk'

The concern is that Italy and Spain may have to follow Greece, Portugal and the Republic of Ireland and seek a European Union and International Monetary Fund (IMF) bail-out.

On Monday, eurozone finance ministers said increased efforts to "improve the euro area's systemic capacity to resist contagion risk" would include "enhancing the flexibility and the scope" of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF).

This is the bail-out fund to which eurozone member states contribute.

Finance ministers also agreed to look at lowering the interest rates that Greece, Portugal and the Irish Republic have to pay, plus lengthening the maturities of their loans.

Continue reading the main story

We find ourselves at one of the worst moments of the European monetary crisis”

End Quote Jean-Francois Robin French investment bank Natixis "Ministers reaffirmed their absolute commitment to safeguard financial stability in the euro area," the finance ministers said in a statement after eight hours of talks in Brussels.

Italian cuts

Eurozone finance ministers have been meeting in Brussels on Tuesday with their colleagues from European Union nations that do not use the euro.

Concern that Italy could be the next country to require a financial bail-out comes as Italy's Finance Minister, Giulio Tremonti, announced that he would leave Tuesday's talks early so he could continue to work on an austerity budget to reduce Italy's public deficit.

He has proposed 48bn euros ($67bn; £42bn) in budget cuts over three years and aims to cut the deficit to zero by 2014 from this year's 3.9% of gross domestic product.

Continue reading the main story Chris Morris BBC Europe correspondent

Italian and Spanish borrowing costs are continuing to rise, and stock markets are continuing to fall.

Politicians are talking about panic in the markets and deliberate financial speculation.

But until they give a clear lead on how they intend to deal with the next phase of eurozone debt problems, particularly in Greece, then the sense of crisis will not dissipate.

The eurozone does now seem to be moving towards the idea that some form of default in Greece may be needed to help Athens cut its debts, as part of a second big financial bailout.

But the only promise is that decisions will be made shortly - and the lack of certainty continues to provoke anxiety.

However, financial markets were unsettled by remarks from Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who indicated in a newspaper interview that the austerity plan might not have full cabinet support.

Shares in Italian banks were down sharply in early trading, with Intesa SanPaolo losing 4% and UniCredit heading 7% lower.

However, both then rebounded after the Italian government announced a successful sale of 12-month bonds, albeit at a high price.

Intesa and UniCredit were both up 2.3% on the day, while Italy's main share index, the FTSE MIB, reversed earlier losses.

Yet in a sign that investors remain more risk-averse to Italy, the yield on Italian 10-year bonds on Tuesday increased to 5.8% from 5.6% on Monday.

Meanwhile, yields on 10-year bonds issued by the Spanish government rose to 6.3%, from 6.1%.

Analysts say both these yields are now close to levels at which the two countries will have problems servicing their debts.

Asian shares had earlier closed lower, with the situation in the eurozone being closely monitored around the world.

Japan's Nikkei index lost 1.4%, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng declined 1.4%.

The main US share index was flat in early Tuesday trading, after ending Monday down 1.2%.

Jean-Francois Robin of French investment bank Natixis said: "We find ourselves at one of the worst moments of the European monetary crisis.

"The idea of a contagion from the Greek crisis to other eurozone countries like Italy and Spain is gaining ground."

'Effective solutions'

Eurozone finance ministers also discussed on Monday how, and by how much, banks and other financial institutions could contribute to a new rescue package for Greece.

What went wrong in the eurozone?

However, no final decision was reached on this, as it also has to be agreed with the IMF.

Speaking from Washington, IMF managing director Christine Lagarde said it was not yet ready to discuss terms for a second Greek bail-out.

"Nothing should be taken for granted," she said.

Meanwhile, Greece's Prime Minister, George Papandreou, called for a comprehensive solution to his country's debt problems.

"I thus believe it is time now to address our fundamental problems head on and produce a comprehensive package of solutions that clearly signals our determination not to see the European project further damaged or destroyed," Mr Papandreou said in a letter to Jean-Claude Juncker, chairman of the eurogroup of finance ministers.

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