Camelot Theatre in Palm Springs hosted the 50th Anniversary of Alfred Hitchcock’s movie The BIRDS. Special Guest was the movie’s star Tippi Hedren. Hedren held a Q&A after the movie. The Moderator for the Q&A was Dan McGrath from 103.1 radio.
Hedren was given a standing ovation when she entered the theatre on the arm of McGrath. She took the stage with McGrath and spoke about her role in the movie. She said it was her first movie and she made no screen test. Hitchcock saw her on a TV commercial and liked her. She wore a dress designed for her with her favorite lion stenciled on the Skirt. She held a purse in a design of a lions head.
She was asked how she managed to get in and out of the boat in high heels and a fur stole. She said she had never run a motor boat before and they did it in one scene. Hitchcock rarely took more than 3 takes in any of her movies. She wore a green outfit throughout the movie and said she had to have 6 made because they would get torn on ruined on the set. She also said the dress would still be in style today thanks to designer Edith Head.
She spoke about how Hitchcock had threated to ruin her career at one point after the movie Marnie. She said he managed to ruin her career but not her life which is the love of animals. She turned the movie Roar into her Shambala Preserve that protects Exotic and dangerous animals. Shambala is home to over 50 huge cats like Lions, tigers, Leopards, cougars, and also Elephpants, Cheetahs and others. They come from private homes, small circuses, fish and game and Humane societies. Donations are welcome and you can adopt an animal. Tours are provided but guests must be 18 or older. Call 661.268.0380 for tours or go to WWW.Shambala.org.
Dan McGrath and Tippi Hedren ˜photo Pat Krause
Tippi Hedren Doll from The Birds movie ˜photo Pat Krause
Jason Bruecks with the Shambala Brochure ˜photo Pat Krause
Tippi Hendren with Dan McGrath get a standing ovation ˜photo Pat Krause
Tippi Hedren’s Lion Purse ˜photo Pat Krause
Phil Royce with and autographed Record ˜photo Pat Krause
Two American entrepreneurs have made plans to build a floating colony in the Pacific Ocean, where they will bring the world’s most intelligent scientists that are unable to attain a visa to enter the US.
The floating colony, which will consist of a large cruise ship parked 12 miles off the Californian coast, will host numerous start-up companies employing the brightest scientists and engineers. Colony residents must be qualified to work there, but are not required to attain a US work visa.
The Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who founded the project are Max Marty and Dario Mutabdzija, two businessmen who worked together at The Seasteading Institute, an organization that facilitates the establishment of mobile communities on international waters. The entrepreneurs have named their proposed colony “Blueseed” and have already started accepting applications from individuals and companies that want to move there. They plan to launch the colony in the second quarter of 2014.
More than 380 companies from 68 countries have already applied for a spot on the floating cruise ship. Marty, the son of Cuban immigrants, told the Los Angeles Times that he came to the US as a refugee from Yugoslavia and is fed up with some US lawmakers’ stark opposition to immigration. He is troubled by the fact that the US, unlike other countries, offers no visas to foreigners who are highly skilled or willing to start a business.
“A lot of people say, ‘I’d like to go to Silicon Valley’ but there is no way for them to do it,” he told the Associated Press, shortly after launching the initiative in 2011.
He said that he came up with the idea of colonizing a ship after hearing university students complain about having to leave the US upon graduation. But even Americans are willing to say goodbye to solid ground and head for the high seas.
They too want to “live and work in an awesome startup- and technology-oriented space”, Mutabdzija told Forbes. And it’s not just scientists and engineers who have applied to move to the cruise ship: anthropologists and sociologists interested in monitoring human interactions on the colony have requested to go onboard.
Individuals and companies from countries including Azerbaijan, Poland, Jordan and Sri Lanka have all put in their applications, and Mutabdzija is excited about the prospect of “connecting people, ideas and a human touch”.
While there will be a variety of living arrangements, the cost of basic accommodations is expected to be as low as $1,200 per person, per month, and as high as $1,600. Blueseed will not collect taxes from colony residents, but will expect them to abide by the tax laws of their home countries.
“I think Blueseed is an incredible opportunity for non-US entrepreneurs to work in what is no doubt the most powerful start-up environment in the world,”Andrew Considine, co-founder of the Ireland-based mobile start-up Willstream Labs, told the LA Times.
The Blueseed founders are currently trying to raise $27 million to lease a cruise ship that can house 1,000 entrepreneurs.
“I don’t know whether Blueseed will work or not,” said Silicon Valley investor Mike Maples, who gave money to the project. “But here’s another opportunity to help people who want to come to this country to build great companies.”
One of the biggest names on the Internet has rescinded their support of a controversial computer bill. Social media giant Facebook says they are no longer favoring the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, or CISPA.
From Silicon Valley to Washington, DC, all eyes were on CISPA last year when Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and Sen. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Calif.) touted the bill across the United States as a much-needed solution to the sky-rocketing number of cyberattacks waged at American computer networks. CISPA, said its supporters, would prevent those hazardous hacks from ravaging the country’s cybergrid by asking private sector Internet businesses to share threat information with the US government.
When CISPA went before Congress last year, the bill passed in the US Senate after garnering the support from Silicon Valley heavyweights like Microsoft and Facebook. Before the bill could make it to the House, though, a number of proponents withdrew their enthusiasm in the wake of a massive grassroots Internet campaign. CISPA ultimately never made it to the House, but last month the co-authors of the original bill re-introduced the act before Congress. The odds of CISPA seeing serious support like it did last year is now up in the air, however, after Facebook acknowledged this week that it will no longer back the bill.
CNet reporter Declan McCullagh writes on Thursday that Facebook’s name has suddenly disappeared from a list of CISPA supporters. While Facebook VP Joel Kaplan wrote Rep. Rogers last February to “to commend you on your legislation,”the website’s stance has changed drastically during just the last 13 months. When McCullagh reached out to the social networking site for comment, a spokesperson for the site confirmed that one of the biggest entities on the Internet is not on-board with the bill this time around.
Facebook, says McCullagh, has rescinded their support of the bill because the website prefers a legislative “balance” that ensures “the privacy of our users.”
“We are encouraged by the continued attention of Congress to this important issue and we look forward to working with both the House and the Senate to find a legislative balance that promotes government sharing of cyber threat information with the private sector while also ensuring the privacy of our users,”a spokesperson for the site tells CNet.
The Grubstake Days Community Fair committee and Yucca Valley Chamber of Commerce have announced a new location for the 2013 Grubstake Days celebration, set for Saturday, May 25, 2013. Because of construction planned near the Yucca Valley Community Center, this years event will be centered around the Hi-Desert Boys and Girls Club, the Tri-Valley Little League fields and Brehm Sports Park on Little League Drive in Yucca Valley between Palm and Grand Avenues, North of State Route 62.
This years event will be bigger and better, bringing in new partners, more events, and marking the opening of the Miracle League Park, designed for the disabled to play team and individual sports.
The Yucca Valley Chamber of Commerce is once again putting on their highly successful Home and Crafts show inside the Boys and Girls Club Building. Booth space is available now by calling the Chamber at 760-365-6323. The deadline to sign up for booths for the Home and Craft show is 5:00 pm May 9, 2013.
The outside Community Fair portion of the event will run from 11:00 am until 5:00 pm, beginning right after the Grubstake Days parade. A free family concert with featured and community entertainment will run continuously on the stage in front of the Boys and Girls Club. A wide variety of food and beverages will be available for the entire event from Tri-Valley Little League, Morongo Basin Youth Soccer Association, and the Boys and Girls Club.
The deadline to sign up for outside booths is also 5:00 pm May 9, 2013. This years 63rd annual Grubstake Days Celebration will be a one-day event set for Saturday, May 25, 2013. To apply for an outside booth call the Yucca Valley Chamber of Commerce at 760-365-6323 or visit their offices in the California Welcome Center in the Highway.
The outside fair will feature a dunk tank, Gold Panning, Duck Pond, Snack Walk, Watermelon eating contest, Sack and 3-legged races, a Horseshoe Tournament and the traditional Beard contest, among many attractions.
In addition the fair will include a display and demonstration of mining history, a softball tournament, light-hearted competition between local Police and Firefighters, delicious BBQ Sandwiches and other food specialties, historic tractors, law enforcement displays, a live radio broadcast, a free Community Concert and much more!
The Grubstake Days Community fair is being organized this year by local media partners, Hi-Desert Publishing and Radio Station Z107-7, with assistance from the Town of Yucca Valley and the Basin-Wide Foundation. For the new location this year, valued partners are The Boys and Girls Club, Tri-Valley Little League, Morongo Basin Youth Soccer Association, and Brehm Sports Park.
Vendors, Non-Profit organizations, artisans, and crafters who wish to participate in either the Home, Garden and Crafts show inside the Boys and Girls Club, or the Community fair outside, are being asked to register for their booth space as soon as possible. Outside booths which offer activities for children, (ring toss, bean bag throw, 3-legged race, coloring, etc.) are especially being sought.
Children’s games, non-profit displays, food booths, and drawing booths can help non-profits raise funding while giving them valuable exposure. The charge for booth space includes insurance coverage.
To apply for space for Non-Profit or commercial booths at The Community Fair outside or be included in the Chamber’s Home and Craft show outside call the Yucca Valley Chamber of Commerce office at 760-365-6323. To be part of the Community Entertainment stage line-up call Gary Daigneault at 760-366-8471.
The United States is roughly $17 trillion in debt, but President Barack Obama says there’s no reason to worry.
Speaking with ABC News correspondent George Stephanopoulos this week, Pres. Obama downplayed concerns of an impending financial catastrophe, claiming quite to the contrary that the country is on track to turning the economy around.
“We don’t have an immediate crisis in terms of debt,” Pres. Obama told Mr. Stephanopoulos during an interview that aired Wednesday on the television program Good Morning America.
“In fact,” added the president, “for the next 10 years, it’s gonna be in a sustainable place.”
Others aren’t so sure.
Pres. Obama’s claim is indeed an optimistic one, but is it all that accurate? For starters, the Congressional Budget Office admits that, yes, the deficit may be slightly less in the coming months than what we’ve seen throughout the Obama administration so far, but in ten years’ time things aren’t likely to shape up all that wonderfully. The CBO projects a deficit of $845 billion — a fantastic figure when compared with the deficits exceeding $1 trillion that have occurred since Pres. Obama took office — but the size of that sum won’t be shrinking for long. The CBO expects the deficit to take an upward turn again as soon as 2015, with a total of $7 trillion expected to be added to the national debt during the next decade.
Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, the two economists behind the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, or Bowles-Simpson Act, say that recent disagreements between parties in Washington suggest Democrats and Republicans will be unlikely to iron out a deal this year that will help diminish the debt. Although Pres. Obama seems optimistic about the economic future — even when accounting for rampant bipartisan bickering — others aren’t so sure.
“They haven’t done any of the tough stuff, any of the important stuff,” Bowles told ABC News’ Jonathan Karl last month. “They haven’t reformed the tax code…they haven’t done anything to slow the rate of health care, to the rate of growth of the economy, they haven’t made Social Security sustainably solvent. There’s about $2.4 trillion more of hard work we’ve gotta do.”
Pres. Obama told Mr. Stephanopoulos that that’s a good start, though, and said this week’s that it’s “important to recognize is that we’ve already cut $2.5- $2.7 trillion out of the deficit.”
“If the sequester stays in, you’ve got over $3.5 trillion of deficit reduction already,” added the president.
U.S. Sen. Rand Paul addresses the 40th annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) March 14, 2013 in National Harbor, Maryland. (AFP Photo / Alex Wong)
Fresh off the heels of last week’s sure-to-be-historic filibuster, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) gave a rousing speech at Thursday’s Conservative Political Action Conference that once again ripped into US President Barack Obama.
Speaking on day one of the annual CPAC conference near Washington, DC, the libertarian-leaning senator briefly rehashed his arguments from last week’s 13-hour filibuster on the Senate floor by once again voicing his concern with Pres. Obama’s interpretation with the US Constitution.
“No one person gets to decide the law,” and, “no one person gets to decide your guilt or innocence,” said Sen. Paul. “My question to the president was about more than just killing Americans on American soil. My question was about whether presidential power has limits.”
In the wake of leaked Obama administration memos that justify the extrajudicial killing of Americans suspected of terrorism, Sen. Paul has demanded that the White House answer questions about the president’s authority when it comes to condemning his own citizens to death-by-drone without ever asking for a trial. Following last week’s marathon filibuster, the Department of Justice and White House alike both admitted that the president does not in fact have the authority to execute US citizens without guaranteeing them due process. Even after saying he was satisfied with that answer, though, Sen. Paul told the CPAC crowd this week that he has questions about the president’s own interpretation of his role as commander-in-chief.
