Arctic Monkeys grow more confident

04 June 2011

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Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner thinks the group are more confident than ever.

Alex Turner thinks the Arctic Monkeys are "more confident as a band" with their fourth album.

The 'Brick by Brick' group release their latest record, 'Suck it and See' next week, and the frontman believes their latest material is so good, they can now work on improving their stage show, rather than their songs.

He said: "We're more confident as a band at the moment. We can relax a bit more and put more effort into our high kicks now. Maybe it'll be time to get some pyrotechnics out soon."

more confident as a band

The band recently played shows in the US and Alex said the reception to their tracks has been extra positive.

He said: "We always had a feeling these songs would go across well live from the start. I think it's fair to say the new songs are a lot more direct. There's definitely not been a mass exodus to the bar when we play them or anything."

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Buy The Arctic Monkeys DVDs
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Source: http://www.femalefirst.co.uk/celebrity/Arctic+Monkeys-39530.html

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Will and Kate hit the Epsom Derby

Will & Kate (aka the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge) stepped out to support the Queen and her horse, Carlton House, at the Epsom Derby Saturday.

Carlton House was a favorite, but sadly lost out to Pour Moi and Treasure Beach. The loss didn't seem to dampen the spirits of Prince William and Prince Harry (cuties in top hats) or Kate (looking sleek in a fitted white jacket, full white skirt and sassy hat).

Will & Kate will make their first visit to the U.S. and Canada starting June 30. Like the stars they are, they'll hit Los Angeles July 8.

See photos of: Prince William, Kate Middleton

To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.

Source: http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/usatoday-LifeTopStories/~3/pw8er2njbKc/1

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Bradley Cooper speaks French, goes viral

Oo, la, la!

It doesn't matter if you don't parlez Francais. Just sit back and listen.

Bradley Cooper's interview for Very Bad Trip 2, done in French, is going viral. It has more than 1 million views on YouTube, since going up on Monday.

Sample reaction: New York magazine calls it "totally charming." E! says he has "given ladies another reason to swoorn."

Cooper has said he loves the language and spent time in Aix-en-Provence during an exchange year when he was at Georgetown University and lived with a family that spoke only French.

Trés bien!

See photos of: Bradley Cooper

To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com.

Source: http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/usatoday-LifeTopStories/~3/zc_FCZ3E9g4/1

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Al-Qaeda Magazine Hacked By MI6; Bomb-Making Instructions Replaced With Cupcake Recipes


Hacking. It's not just for Blake Lively nude photos anymore!

British intelligence agency MI6 recently hacked an Al-Qaeda online magazine, replacing bomb-making instructions with a recipe for cupcakes.

Seriously, this happened.

Cupcake

The joint venture by MI6 and the UK’s Government Communications Headquarters had agents insert into the magazine an encrypted version of “The Best Cupcakes in America,” published by the Ellen DeGeneres Show.

Originally, the magazine had instructions on how to make pipe bombs, as well as articles by Osama bin Laden and deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri.

According to reports, America was onto this too, but a similar Pentagon operation was blocked by the CIA, who believed that the magazine was more valuable in its previous state as a source of intelligence.

Thus, the attack was launched from Britain instead. Delish!

In related news, it's National Donut Day!!!!!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2011/06/al-qaeda-magazine-hacked-bomb-instructions-replaced-with-cupcake/

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"X-Men:First Class": In Theaters Now!

Bringing its star-packed revival of the mutant superhero franchise back to the big screen, "X-Men: First Class" arrived in theaters today (June 3).

The Matthew Vaughn-directed prequel, which has created much box office buzz, stars a well put together cast including James McAvoy, January Jones and Jennifer Lawrence.

A synopsis of the film via IMDB reads: "Before Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr took the names Professor X and Magneto, they were two young men discovering their powers for the first time. Before they were archenemies, they were closest of friends, working together, with other Mutants (some familiar, some new), to stop the greatest threat the world has ever known. In the process, a rift between them opened, which began the eternal war between Magneto's Brotherhood and Professor X's X-MEN."

You can catch all the action of the comic book based caper at a theater near you today!

Source: http://celebrity-gossip.net/x-men-first-class/x-menfirst-class-theaters-now-510938

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Faith And Freedom Conference: How Will Religion Affect Evangelical Votes?

WASHINGTON, D.C. ?- Fifteen years ago, Phil DaCosta spent Sundays passing out voter guides at his church about where congressional candidates stood on abortion and school prayer as part of a Christian Coalition chapter he lead at his Southern Baptist congregation in Florida.

Now a married father of a three-year-old living in Atlanta, the self-described ?values voter? hopped on a bus this week with dozens of Tea Party supporters who came from as far as Florida and Iowa to attend the Faith and Freedom Coalition conference in the nation's capital. The two-day event ending Saturday night is intended to reinvigorate the religious right ahead of 2012 elections.

?I vote on Jesus first,? said DaCosta, 42, who recently joined a Tea Party chapter and said he wants lower taxes and a smaller government. ?Israel, abortion, marriage, those are my first issues.?

He's the exact kind of voter that Ralph Reed, the veteran political strategist and former Christian Coalition director, wants to unite under his relatively new organization that aims to fuse the Bible-based value voting of traditional social conservatives with the grassroots momentum of the Tea Party to form a bloc of voters big enough to influence state and national elections.

But DaCosta may be a unique example.

Attendees donned American flag-print outfits, there were speeches on fiscal restraint and top-tier Republican presidential candidates and potential candidates touted their patriotism at Friday's high-profile event. The two dozen of attendees interviewed by The Huffington Post included a mix of political strategists, campaign volunteers and curious Americans from across the country who came to see speakers such as Utah Gov. John Huntsman, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Minneota Rep. Michelle Bachmann.

Yet the role of faith in the attendees' politics was less clear.

?I'm Christian, but I don't go to a church. I believe in the Bible, but I vote on policies,? said Harold White, a 62-year-old from South Carolina who had joined on the Tea Party bus to the conference. ?I would never vote for a Mormon,? he added, such as Huntsman or a former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who also spoke, ?because their beliefs are plain weird.?

The conservative Christian political landscape has changed since the 1990s, when the Christian Coalition rose to prominence with its extensive voter lists, big pockets and outsized influence among politicians. Scholars who study the religious right say a more fragmented relationship between faith and voting trends could make it more difficult to unite conservative Christians behind candidates now. A the absence of evangelical presidential favorite and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has surely dampened evangelicals' moods.

?Our American cause was and is rooted in ... Judeo-Christian faith heritage,? Reed told the crowd Friday. Voters could send Republicans to the Senate and White House only ?by [God]'s power,? he said. Pawlenty and Miss. Gov. Haley Barbour echoed the message.

?We need to be a nation that turns towards God, not away from God,? Pawlenty said Friday evening to a packed ballroom, adding that ?rights are endowed to us by our creator.? Earlier, Bachmann emphasized her position against same-sex marriage and Huntsman talked about his pro-life stance.

But few politicians made a direct references to how religion influences their beliefs. Romney, a Mormon, avoided direct references to God but said he was ?united? with the crowd on social issues and called the economy a ?moral crisis."

?I'm a Baptist. I'm a Christian and I believe in Christ. But I believe all people of faiths should practice their faith. Why say you are Jewish if you don't practice Judaism, or the same if you are Christian but don't talk about it?? said Joanna Freeborn, a Kansan who attended Friday with her granddaughter.

Freeborn, who usually votes Republican, said she was undecided about which candidate she favored for the Republican presidential nomination. Promises of lowered taxes, she said, mattered more to her than religion. Social issues, she said, also mattered to a lesser degree. ?I don't agree with Mormonism, but I might vote for one,? Freeborn added.

A Pew Research Center survey released this week found that one of four people were less likely to support a presidential candidate who is a Mormon. Over a third of white evangelicals such as Freeborn wouldn't support a mormon, the poll found, the highest percentage of any religious group polled.

Another challenge for political candidates at this weekend's event was trying to win over Tea Party supporters and religious conservatives at the same time. Polls have shown that despite some shared positions, evangelicals and Tea Party supporters differ on many issues, including the importance of faith to their voting decisions. And across the board, polls have shown that the economy tops Americans' concerns.

In addition to politicians touting their conservative and religious credentials, the Faith and Freedom Coalition conference included panels on ?Anti-Christian bigotry,? ?Catholic Citizen Action,? and ?Defeating Terrorism and Jihad.?

While the bigotry panel was largely a discussion of Christian influence on the nation's founding and the Catholic panel was notable as the coalition's attempt bring conservative Catholics into the fold, the terrorism discussion aroused controversy over religious liberties. While some panelists spoke out against a trend in state legislatures of measures to ban Sharia law, Frank Gaffney, a controversial former defense official and president of The Center for Security Policy, roused an audience when he warned of ?stealth jihad? invading American institutions.

Shuffling from panels and the ballroom to listen to Republican leaders, Kathy Lore, a 72-year-old from Pennsylvania, said she was undecided on many issues, including who she would vote for in a Republican presidential primary. Lore added that she was leaning toward Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who also spoke Friday, because he is "very much a Christian."

?I'm pro-life, I go to a Methodist church, but I believe in the gospel, in the Bible. I don't believe in what one person or another tells me to think,? said Lore, 72. ?I just came to learn.?

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/04/faith-and-freedom-evengalicals_n_870874.html

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Angelina Jolie not planning for more kids

04 June 2011

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Angelina Jolie isn't currently considering having more children, but admits she may change her mind in the future.

Angelina Jolie isn't "discussing" having more children with Brad Pitt.

The brunette beauty - who raises adopted kids Maddox, nine, Pax, seven, and Zahara, six, and biological children Shiloh, five, and two-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne with the actor - insists she has no plans to expand her family further, but knows this could change if she gets a sudden urge in the future.

She said: "We're always open if it feels right, but we have a full house and at the moment, nothing has come clear to us.

It's the same, I suppose, as when somebody decides to get pregnant, there's just a moment where something becomes clear to you and, at the moment, that's not what we're discussing.

"It's the same, I suppose, as when somebody decides to get pregnant, there's just a moment where something becomes clear to you and, at the moment, that's not what we're discussing."

The 'Kung Fu Panda 2' star also admitted she has learned not to worry about her life so long as her children are happy and healthy.

She added: "I don't know if I have found peace. But, especially when you have children, you wake up every morning and, if they are happy and they are healthy, then you have peace.

"You know that's all you should be worried about.

"Then from there you work on all these other things that bother you and you try to fix injustices and the bigger issues in the world. But you kind of start from one simple thing to be grateful for."

Buy Angelina Jolie DVDs
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  • Taking Lives (Director's Cut) [DVD] [2004]

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Source: http://www.femalefirst.co.uk/celebrity/Angelina+Jolie-39531.html

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Trump Takes Aim At Cantor, Krauthammer, U.S. Foreign Policy

WASHINGTON -- Despite earning a reputation for the red-meat jabs he takes at President Obama, there are occasions when Donald Trump will turn his guns on both members of the Republican tent and the conventional wisdom of the governing class.

On Friday night, the real estate mogul ventured down to D.C. for an appearance at the Faith and Freedom forum, a gathering of religious conservatives and political press. And while he poked, in his customary ways, at the president -- calling him "Barack Hussein Obama," questioning whether the long-form birth certificate he revealed was authentic, mocking his speech to the Queen of England -- the defining point may have been the incredulity he expressed toward the philosophical wisdom of U.S. foreign policy and the fiscal priorities of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.)

Speaking to a friendly crowd, Trump meandered into a sharp criticism of Cantor for holding up disaster relief aid to tornado victims in Joplin, Missouri.

"A certain Republican representative, two nights ago -? I watched on television -? Representative Cantor, who I like, said we don't want to give money to the tornado victims," he said. "And yet, in Afghanistan we are spending ten billion dollars a month but we don't want to help the people that are devastated by tornadoes -- wiped out, killed, maimed, injured. We don't have money for them but we are spending ten billion dollars a month in Afghanistan. We are spending billions of dollars in Iraq where they have the second largest oil fields in the world ? and we can't help people that got flooded in Mississippi that got hit horribly by tornadoes."

Trump wasn't the only Republican at the event to distance himself from the Majority Leader, who has insisted that disaster aid be offset by spending reductions elsewhere. Earlier at the forum, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour said he disagreed with the idea that such money needed to be offset by corresponding spending cuts.

Barbour, however, offered his remarks from the vantage point of a politician who finds himself frequently dealing with natural disasters. Trump's critique came from the vantage point of an uber-nationalist. After addressing Cantor, he turned to U.S. foreign policy as a whole, once again swiping an established member of the conservative hierarchy.

"We should take the $1.5 trillion that is going to Iraq. We should take it? we should reimburse ourselves and we should reimburse our allies," he proclaimed. "We should take this oil and we should give a couple of millions of dollars each, this is peanuts, to the families of the soldiers who were killed. And we should give a million or two to every soldier that was severely wounded."

"I mentioned this and I didn't even think it would be controversial. To me it is common sense? and [conservative columnist] Charles Krauthammer, whoever he is, gets on Bill O'Reilly, and says" -- Trump switched into an intellectual-sounding voice -- "'Well Donald Trump doesn't know what he is talking about. That's a sovereign nation.'"

"Sovereign nation?" Trump added, with deliberate astonishment. "The people that we supposedly bring in are much closer to Iran than they are to the United States. So there is no sovereign nation. I was lambasted by guys like Krauthammer and others saying what a horrible idea it is, what a foolish idea it is, 'He cannot be serious.' I am totally serious."

For going after one of the most respected members of the conservative commentariat, Trump received only a decent amount of applause -? suggesting that a religious-conservative audience may not be entirely comfortable with the notion of non-interventionism in the Middle East.

Outside the halls, however, attendees said they were impressed by Trump's pitch.

"Personally, we ought to get out of Afghanistan," said Gloria Hawkins, a South Maryland attendee who described herself as a Christian first, a conservative second and a Republican third. "We went in there to get Osama and we got him ? We should stop spending all this money on countries that hate us and spend it here where it needs to be. I don't pay my taxes to support people of other countries."

Kathy Lore, who traveled to the conference from Pennsylvania, said of Trump: "I wish he would have run [for president]. He is articulate. Would I vote for him? I don't know. I'd need to see the other candidates. But I would have loved to see him in a debate."

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/03/trump-eric-cantor-krauthammer_n_871244.html

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Brad Feld, MD Foundry Group, on The Startup Visa

Video interview with Brad Feld, Managing Director, Foundry Group. Brad has been an early stage investor and entrepreneur for over twenty years. Prior to co-founding Foundry Group, he co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and, prior to that, founded Intensity Ventures, a company that helped launch and operate software companies. Brad is also a co-founder of TechStars & CEO NCWIT.  You can find him at his blog Feld Thoughts & on Twitter. For further information check out http://www.ezebis.com

Pemo: Brad you have been at the forefront of promoting the ?Startup Visa?; as someone who battled with the venture industry in Europe, I say good work you!  In Europe it is much more difficult to gain venture funding, for both men & women who often feel shut out of the possibilities in the venture game.  This is such a great cause & I support you wholeheartedly!  Could you give a quick update as to the progress of this visa? 

Brad: Sure, the Startup Visa is the same phenomena that we're talking about with women.  The reason I got excited about the notion of a startup visa was I thought it was absolutely stupid, not just mediumly dumb, not just short sighted, just stupid that in the United States we would make it difficult for somebody who wanted to be an entrepreneur who was a foreigner to come start their company in the US. It just never made sense to me.  There's a whole long litany of reasons around immigration & around stuff that makes no sense apart from the job perspective.  Because of course entrepreneurs are creating companies that didn't previously exist which generates jobs that didn't previously exist.  But its the same thread & for me personally.

I think that anybody that wants to start a company should be able to.  It's already hard enough to create a company & be successful, you should eliminate as much of the barriers as you possibly can.

Where the Startup Visa is at, we started talking about it a little bit more than a year ago.  There are 2 active Bills, one in the House & one in the Senate. They're both still in Committee. That means in the US Government (for foreign viewers) is that the Bills are actually real Bills that have gotten past the initial vetting process but they still haven't gotten to the point where anybody takes a vote on them.  So they're still far away from becoming law. Because of the Election cycle & the dynamics of how politics is working in the US right now, because the Startup Visa touches on a visa, it gets wrapped  into the entire immigration debate which is a very contentious, very wide ranging debate, very polarized. I think our general sense at this stage, especially since we have elections coming up, nothing's going to happen between now & the elections. It will be a 2011 issue. Our hope is that sometime in 2011, immigration reform starts to become  something that's focused on a more important & obviously from a jobs perspective, an entrepreneurial perspective, we hope that the Startup Visa will start to pick up some speed from that.

Pemo: Brilliant, thanks again for putting this forward & for all your support for it and for european entrepreneurs! I would like to thank you again for your time today, Brad, I really appreciate your feedback.  You're really a star out there in the community, in the entrepreneurial community.  I've learnt so much for years actually from your blog  & do appreciate you giving me this time. 

Brad: I really appreciate it.  One thing I'd end on & something that has come from the work we've done at NCWIT is that it's not really a right or wrong issue around women in technology argument which is what a lot of people make it out to be.  Essentially men & women own all the cultural dynamics & we've created it & the biases have emerged societally. I think in 2010 there's no question that women who enter into technology cultures will have a harder time of it. There's a bias against it right now.  You know 'hard' is just what it is, it's just more difficult. We can all learn from that & part of what we need to learn from that is how to lower the bias so that there isn't artificial bias in the process. 

Pemo: I read a post on TheFunded.com earlier today where someone was saying, you need to be an explorer to be an entrepreneur & generally it's men that are the explorers. I hasten to actually refute that, because I think there's a lot of us women who have incredible explorer focus.  And I think that we can all do it together, like you said.

Brad: I totally agree & statements like that just make my head hurt right. What a ridiculous bias, men are traditionally explorers!  It's just a dumb statement!

Pemo: It's back in the cave man time!

Brad: The only thing you can do is call it out & say there's nothing.

Yes of course women behave differently & do things differently than men but so do I from my partner Jason who sits in the next office to me.  We're all different & we should embrace those differences. 

Thank you for bringing this topic to life with the interviews you've been doing, I appreciate that as well.

Pemo: Thank you Brad

Thanks to Alexander Blu for music 'Concert'

Source: http://www.thenextwomen.com/2011/05/30/brad-feld-md-foundry-group-startup-visa

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