South Asia Current Affairs

Monday, 25 July 2011

Katy Perry's husband 'not a fan'

"Early days" ... Katy Perry hints at her interest in a Hollywood career.

Katy Perry believes keeping "good people around" helps her deal with the pressures of being one of the world's biggest pop stars, which currently has her on a global concert tour and taking part in her first movie.
As the music world mourns the death of British singer Amy Winehouse, Perry told Reuters she is not tempted by the hedonistic lifestyle that has helped fuel the demise of talented performers before her.
Perry, whose hits include Teenage Dream and Firework, said she is able to stay away from the wild, party life with the help of honest, supportive people around her, such as her British actor/comedian husband Russell Brand, himself a recovering drug addict who is now clean and sober.

No bullshit ... Katy Perry and husband Russell Brand.

"I like to keep good people around me, people that aren't always 'yes' people, people that sometimes it's difficult to be around because they're not 'yes' people," she told Reuters.
"My husband is definitely one of those, he keeps me accountable and, you know, he's not a fan, even though he is a fan...he supports me and loves me but he doesn't bullshit me, which is really important."
The 26-year-old California native, who is one year younger than Winehouse, tweeted on Saturday when Winehouse was found dead in her London apartment, "RIP Amy Winehouse. May she finally find peace".
Brand said on his website that his old friend Winehouse was a "genius" and recalled sharing with her the "disease of addiction," referring to both their public battles with drinking and drug use.
Perry told Reuters she currently is focused on keeping her life centred as her career has ballooned from singer to chart-topping star and now a role voicing a Smurfette in the upcoming animated movie, The Smurfs.
"In the very beginning there was a lot of, 'Oh let's go celebrate,' always champagne and parties and, that was something that was taking energy from me that I needed to give to my career in that moment," she said when asked about the difficulties of balancing the pressures of a showbiz career.
SMURFETTE ROLE, WORLD TOUR
The singer transformed herself from what music critics thought might be a one hit wonder with the single I Kissed a Girl in 2008 to currently one of the world's biggest pop stars. Her album last year Teenage Dream garnered both chart hits, popular music videos and critical acclaim.
Now she is the sassy voice of Smurfette in the animated 3-D film, The Smurfs, which she said she was drawn to because her evangelical Christian parents forbade her from watching The Smurfs cartoon show on TV and other animated programs growing up.
"Maybe my rebellious side was, 'Oh you weren't allowed to watch Smurfs growing up, so you've got the opportunity to be a Smurf in the feature film, go for it.' So I did that," Perry said.
Calling her acting career "early days yet" she hinted that, like her husband, she may branch further into Hollywood movies, including another role in upcoming The Muppets movie, but time commitments, she allowed, were a factor in balancing the music and film worlds.
"I have to keep that in mind when I actually decide to jump over to that world (films) but I think, when I do, I hope to do stuff that is very smart. With everything I do, there is a lot of thought that goes into it and a lot of hard work," she said.
In Her current California Dreams Tour 2011, which began in February and runs until December, Perry plays up her carefully cultivated bubblegum pop image with sex appeal. But her sunshine image can have its drawbacks. She joked that she wished she didn't have to act so happy all the time.
"I've created this 'candy girl' who is so happy-go-lucky all the time. I wish she had just like a day where she was a little bit more flat-lined," said Perry.
Her image has recently undergone another transformation with new blond hair.
Perry recently earned a leading nine nominations for the 2011 MTV Video Music Awards. Firework was nominated for both video of the year and best female video, while Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F) got a best pop video mention.
"For me, I think that the sexiness and sassiness is a part of my cards, but I think over time people have started to see, 'Oh there's more to that, it's quite interesting and very layered and dimensional and, yeah, 'she's not hard on the eyes'," said Perry.
Reuters

Microsoft apologises for Amy Winehouse tweet

The tweet that caused the outrage.

This post was originally published on Mashable.com.
Microsoft received much Twitter flak after a small PR account for Xbox encouraged followers to remember recently deceased musician Amy Winehouse by buying her last album on the company's entertainment marketplace, Zune.
After about an hour of retweets - with comments such as "classy", "crass much?" and "Microsoft – failing at social media" - the account tweeted a follow-up.

Amy Winehouse

"Apologies to everyone if our earlier Amy Winehouse 'download' tweet seemed purely commercially motivated," it said. "Far from the case, we assure you."

Amy Winehouse's parents join fans as autopsy proves inconclusive

Microsoft is not the only company that has seemingly attempted to capitalise on the star's death.
Apple posted an image of Winehouse on the front of the iTunes store with the caption "remembering Amy Winehouse".
Her breakout album, the Grammy winning Back to Black, has subsequently become the No.1 album in the store.
Amazon also posted a brief obituary that linked to a page where shoppers can buy the singer's music.
Sales of Back to Black increased 37 times immediately after Winehouse's death.
Mashable.com is the world's largest blog focused exclusively on social media news.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/microsoft-apologises-for-amy-winehouse-tweet-20110726-1hxle.html#ixzz1TBDYgPLW

Sex-trade link in cold-case murders

A Hungarian migrant who was assassinated with his Thai partner at a property near Sunbury in 2003 was a heavy gambler with unexplained wealth.
The state coroner, Judge Jennifer Coate, has found that Steve Gulyas and Tina "Bing" Nhonthachith died from "gunshot injuries to their heads by person or persons unknown".
Homicide detectives believe that Nihal York, a Sri Lankan businessman, holds the key to solving the execution-style killing of the couple.
Gulyas and his partner ran a sham love-for-sale agency on the internet.
The Partner Search Australia agency may have been a front for bringing Asian prostitutes into Australia.
Mr Gulyas also had "associations with a number of high-profile criminals in Australia" and had "unexplained overt signs of wealth" according to police.
Homicide detectives also discovered that he attended "casinos in Australia where it is alleged he had turned over hundreds of thousands of dollars".
Federal and Victorian police were investigating him, as was the tax office.
One of his associates was Nik Radev, the head of the Russian mafia in Australia, who was shot seven times when he stepped from his car in Coburg in April 2003.
The coroner found that "there were suspicions that Steve was involved in illegal immigration schemes involving bringing females into Australia from south-east Asian countries to work as prostitutes and the illegal importation of motor cars".
The coroner also said that detectives had conducted a significant investigation into "two persons of interest, each apparently with motives relating to financial disputes over business dealings . . ."
One of those persons was York and the other is a Thai woman known as "Superporn" who is believed to be involved in the sex trade and the introduction industry.
Veteran homicide Detective Ron Iddles, who is heading up the cold case squad, said police had tracked the Thai woman to New Zealand, while York is believed to be on the run overseas.
"We have spoken to the woman in New Zealand in relation to a conversation she had with the deceased woman (on the day of the deaths)," the detective senior-sergeant said.
"We still need to speak to Nihal York as we believe that he holds the key to solving the crime," he said.
Mr Gulyas, 49, and his partner Ms Nhonthachith, 47, were both shot three times in the head on October 19, 2003.
Police believe that they knew the killer or killers. They died on an isolated property that they owned at Wildwood, as there was no sign of forced entry and theft had not been the motive.
A $200,000 reward is on offer to help solve the double murder.
Anybody with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers or police.

Can riding thrill rides cure what ails you? Well, sort of

By Dr. James Aw
Next Monday in Toronto, people will begin paying $175 to go for a walk. The total distance travelled amounts to only 150 metres, but will leave participants short of breath. It’ll increase their heart rates and elevate their blood pressure. And from a medical perspective, it may be just what their bodies need.
The “walk” is the CN Tower’s EdgeWalk, a tour around the observation pod’s outer edge. Located 356 metres (110 storeys) above the ground, the track that supports participants does not feature protective rails. Instead, the EdgeWalkers are protected by a tether connected to an elevated superstructure, and participants will be able to lean over the track’s edge — with nothing below them but air.
Summer’s the season for thrills, whether it’s EdgeWalk, the Pacific National Exhibition’s new Atmosfear, a revolving swing ride that spins riders at 70 km/h, 66 metres above the ground, or rides at New Jersey’s Six Flags Great Adventure, home to the world’s highest roller coaster, which has a peak of 139 metres and a top speed of 206 km/h. For some, this raises questions: Who in their right minds goes in for these sorts of attractions, and what are the medical effects of thrill-seeking behaviour?
Academia has a name for people drawn to these experiences: They’re called sensation seekers, a group much more likely to get into trouble with risky activities or aggressive and addictive behaviours, such as those involving drugs and alcohol. Sensation seeking has been defined as the need for “varied, novel, complex and intense sensations and experiences, and the willingness to take physical, social, legal and financial risks for the sake of such experiences.”
At the centre of it all is the brain’s dopamine system, which is integral to the high experienced after the consumption of a drug such as cocaine, as well as the euphoria that follows something like EdgeWalk .
Last year, the academic journal Psychological Science caused a stir when it published a study linking sensation-seeking behaviour to mutations in genes that regulate dopamine activity. This excited researchers, since the ability to identify sensation seekers early would presumably make it easier to guide them away from drugs and alcohol. “Not everyone who’s high on sensation seeking becomes a drug addict,” said the study’s lead author, Jaime Derringer, a PhD candidate in the psychology department at the University of Minnesota. “They may become an Army Ranger or an artist. It’s all in how you channel it.”
The problem? Derringer’s conclusions were later discredited by Australian researchers due to a step that was missed in the study’s methodology. Meanwhile, other researchers are establishing that sensation seeking behaviour can change over time — suggesting the trait isn’t exclusively genetic, or even a biological personality trait. A longitudinal study published last year in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence followed 868 youths through grades six to eight. It ranked the kids according to the extent they sought sensation. The low and the high groups stayed stable, but the middle group of about 60% of study participants experienced significant changes in its sensation-seeking behaviour. My own experience bears out the changing nature of sensation seeking. Years ago, I’d have been classified an adrenalin junkie. I skied off-piste on Mont Blanc, fell down a cliff at Whistler and deep-sea dove among shipwrecks. That old self might have considered doing EdgeWalk, but then I matured and became a father.
Perhaps I’m missing out. Medical professionals knew such rides elevated heart rates. But some of us may not have suspected the extent of the elevation until researchers wrote in 2007 about a fascinating study in the

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Jonathan Kay: Don’t let Breivik poison our politics

In his dark, deluded imagination, Norwegian killer Anders Breivik believed that his hideous shooting rampage on Friday would set in motion a military struggle that would cleanse his continent of Muslims. He accomplished the opposite: From now on, every pundit or activist who delivers even the mildest and most well-informed critique of multiculturalism and militant Islam will be handicapped by the taint of Mr. Breivik’s odious actions.
The effect will be felt in the security apparatus of Western nations, as well: Islamist radicalism and murderous right-wing bigotry are both life-threatening challenges to open societies such as Norway. Mr. Breivik has guaranteed that resources once available to fight the former now will be diverted to the latter. To take just one example: On page 516 of his manifesto, he speaks with implicit approval about the practice of using racial profiling to target people of Middle Eastern appearance at security checkpoints. Yet this massacre by a blond Aryan reminds us that mass murderers come in all colours — thereby weakening the case for profiling.
Put another way: Even by the killer’s own hate-addled calculus, his crimes were senseless and counterproductive.
In the case of some terrorists, it is unclear why they killed. But Mr. Breivik is the opposite: His 1,500-page manifesto, which became available on the Internet over the weekend, spells out his anti-Muslim beliefs many times over. In fact, the document serves as a sort of PDF-formatted document dump for just about every single event, statistic and controversy touching upon the existence of Muslim communities in Norway and other Western nations. Mr. Breivik exhibits his logorrhea because no amount of words is enough to defend actions that any sane human understands to be indefensible.
In his manifesto, Mr. Breivik ticks off a long list of conservative pundits whose views he admires. Some of these pundits are indeed fringe radicals, including Pamela Geller, a New York-based Birther conspiracy theorist who describes European Muslims as inveterate criminals and rapists. But many others, such as Mark Steyn, are thoughtful, mainstream thinkers who now will be pressured to explain away the radioactive seal of approval imparted by Norway’s murderous madman.
We should remember that even clinically sane individuals such as the Columbine shooters, Nidal Malik Hasan, Timothy McVeigh, Marc Lépine, Mr. Breivik and other killers tend to be highly unstable in their views. The same goes for the jihadis who are the leading source of terrorist violence in Afghanistan, Iraq and other Muslim nations. Spree killers of the Breivik variety typically are narcissists intoxicated with the evil idea that they should hold the power of life and death over fellow citizens — and they will latch onto whatever grab-bag of faux-grandiose ideological nonsense suits their needs. Mr. Breivik is a classic example in this regard: His manifesto is a hodge-podge of not just anti-Islamic ranting, but also contains material about sexually transmitted diseases, “cultural Marxism” and his own vaguely felt Christian identity. The people he name-drops in his manifesto bear no more responsibility for what he did than does the average Canadian reading this column.
Mr. Breivik’s evil cannot be undone. But by dismissing his twisted logic for the poisonous nonsense it is, we can act to ensure it does not metastasize into the marketplace of ideas.
jkay@naitonalpost.com
Source: National Post