Legendary Whitney Houston reportedly disappointed her fans in Australia in what was supposed to be the opening night of her big come-back tour. Fans claimed that the quality of her voice was poor and that she sounded “croaky”. They also went on to claim that Houston seemed “disorientated”.
The 46 year old singer seemed to be done in after only two songs on what was her first Australian tour since 1988. Houston went on to sing 6 songs only to then go and take a long 20 minute break while her brother Gary Houston sang in her place.
Many fans took to their Twitter pages and Facebook pages to go on and complain about Houston’s lackluster performance. One fan even went so far as to say Houston could not entertain a “dead rat”. While others felt compassionate for the recovering singer, they still claimed her voice lacked the quality of her golden days.
Several fans felt cheated and went on to say they wished she had done the tour 15 years ago.
Upon hearing all the negativity that was coming from her Australian fans, Whitney Houston was reportedly very “surprised”. Her spokesperson also went on to dispel rumors that Houston was very ill after her concert.
In Canada, there is a case of a mistaken mastectomy doctor being investigated. Dr. Barbara Heartwell is the surgeon and she has 28 years of experience. She works at Hôtel-Dieu Grace Hospital in Windsor, Ontario. She misread a biopsy report and thought that a woman’s breast was cancerous, so she surgically removed the breast. Later, she found out that she misread the report and that the woman did not have cancer after all. She did admit to this mistake, and said that it was her mistake and not the hospital’s doing.
The hospital has started an internal investigation as to what went wrong in the case of Laurie Johnston of Leamington, Ontario. Another patient of the hospital is Janice Laporte. She heard about the incident through publicity, and she came forward and said the same thing happened to her nine years ago. She had her surgery to remove her breast and was told a week after the surgery that she didn’t have cancer. The hospital did not know about the situation with Janice Laporte until she went to the media about it. There were also five more cases involving patients of Dr. Heartwell in which the pathology reports showed errors.
After this news broke, the hospital has been inundated with calls from former patients of the hospital who had Dr. Heartwell as their surgeon. They want to know if the same thing happened to them-whether their breast or breasts were really cancerous. The hospital had set up a hotline for concerned patients to call.
The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario are doing research involving the pathologist, Dr. Olive Williams and Dr. Barbara Heartwell. These investigations usually take from 3 to 10 months to complete, but if the findings prove that these doctors were incompetent, a disciplinary hearing would be held to determine their fate.
Both doctors have been suspended from their duties until further notice.
The David Suzuki Foundation says that the provincial parks of British Columbia are a graveyard for the Grizzlies.
The Foundation claims that hundreds of bears were slaughtered within 60 parks or protected areas of the province over the past 30 years.
A representative of the Foundation, Dr. Faisal Moola, said that people mistakenly believe that with the grizzlies are safe in the parks. He says he is not so and that the bears are no more protected in a park on the roadside.
Foundation and other groups asked the government to ban the hunting of grizzlies, especially in areas as wild as the Great Bear rainforest on the Central Coast.
The government responded by press release, claiming to be devoted to the protection of grizzlies. He recalled that some two million acres are closed to hunting over central and northern coast.
The government also says that hunting is prohibited where populations are threatened grizzlies.
After eight years, Bloom Energy is getting ready to unveil their new Bloom Box. The Bloom Box is an alternative energy source that is powerful enough to run large businesses and several homes.
The Bloom Box uses resources like water, wind, solar and gas. This is a huge advance in green technology and most of corporate America is excited to embrace this technology. Corporations like Wal-Mart will be giving the new technology a try. Google, Ebay, and Federal Express are already using the fuel cells and have reported they have power 98 percent of the time.
K.R Sridhar began this adventure with financial assistance from a number of venture capitalists including Kleiner Perkins. Kleiner Perkins helped get Google and Amazon off the ground. US Secretary of State Colin Powell is backing the new technology along with California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Bloom Energy will hold a more in depth press conference
that will hopefully include specifics like cost and availability. Sridhar was very elusive during the original interview and left many wondering if this technology is ready to be unleashed on the world yet. The fuel cells could eventually be used in place of the current power grids that are used to power city blocks.
While marijuana use has historically been considered a recreational drug that is used primarily by adolescents, it seems that many baby boomers that are approaching senior citizenship are picking up the habit. According to a survey that was conducted by the federal government, 2.9 percent of people older than the age of 50 use marijuana on a continual basis. The 2008 survey was a 53% increase over the 1.9 percent reported in 2002.
The extreme rise in marijuana use was most dramatic for those individuals between the ages of 55 and 59. In 2002 1.6 percent of people in that age group used marijuana. In 2008, that number went up almost 220 percent as 5.1 percent of people between the ages of 55 and 59 now use marijuana regularly. Experts believe that the number will continue to increase as more of the 78 million baby boomers reach old age.
The reason why so many baby boomers use this recreational drug compared to older individuals is because many of them used the drug when they were younger. People in that age bracket do not feel the same social stigma that comes with its use as older individuals do. For many, the largest hurdle in using the drug is the legal aspect.
Andrew Koenig is currently the center of an active missing person’s investigation. Most people will recognize him from his role as Richard “Boner” Stabone on the 80’s hit sitcom “Growing Pains.”
Recently Koenig sent a “despondent” letter to his parents. He has battled with depression for several years. His families concern intensified when he missed his flight from Vancouver, British Columbia to his home in Los Angeles, California last week. Prior to his trip, Koenig gave away several of his possessions and turned down opportunities for future employment. According to a family statement, Koenig claimed that he “wasn’t going to work anymore.” He was last seen at a bakery in Vancouver on Valentine’s Day. Police have cell phone records that indicate Koenig made a phone call from the Stanley Park area two days after he was last seen.
The police believe that Koenig is still in the Vancouver area. He lived there from 1989-92. Friends of the actor state that Koenig referred to Vancouver as his true home.
On Tuesday, Koenig’s parents will fly to Vancouver in order to assist in the search. Walter Koenig, Andrew’s father, starred as Pavel Chekov on the original “Star Trek” television series and movies.
The 1986 musical, Captain EO, starring the late Michael Jackson is making its return to the Disney Tommorrowland Theater. The 17 minute 3-D film that was directed by Francis Ford Coppola and produced by George Lucas, originally cost an estimated $30 million to create. The musical space adventure stars Jackson as a a spaceship captain that uses music to defeat an evil queen played by the Oscar winning actress Angelica Houston.
Heather Hust Rivera, a Disney executive, said via the Disney Park blog, that some slight changes have been made to the original show, which ran in the park from 1986 to 1997. The new 70mm print being shown will have enhanced sound, but the original smoke and laser effects that were part of previous presentation will be cut from the show. These effects combined with the 3-D film, had won the original production the title of the first “4-D” movie. Disney decided to bring back the space traveling King of Pop after the recent success of “This is It”, a movie featuring interviews and behind the scenes footage of Jackson. Captain EO is slated to play in the California theme park from February 23, 2010, to an undetermined date.
The man being dubbed “Granddad Bandit” is still on the loose, after having robbed numerous banks across at least ten different states over the past year. He is an older gentleman, probably between fifty and sixty years old, and the authorities just can’t seem to catch him.
The FBI is determined to catch the six-foot tall man, weighing between 210-230 pounds. Due to success of catching a serial bank robber last year through electronic billboards, they have decided to go that route again. The Granddad Bandit’s face will be plastered on electronic billboards in many different states, using pictures from surveillance cameras.
The bank robber’s typical method of robbery involves entering a bank and handing over a note demanding money. Some banks have said that he claims to have a weapon, while other reports show he was extremely polite and made it hard for the bank tellers to realize he was serious about robbing the bank.
Regardless of his either threatening or surprisingly calm, kind way of trying to rob banks, the FBI is hoping to put an end to his charade. There is also a $10,000 reward for any information that may lead to the arrest of the man.
So we thought that we were in a recession? Well think again. Maybe things are not as bad as we thought if during these financially trying days we can hear about a comic book that once sold for ten little pennies has now broken all records and sold for $ 1,000,000.00. Yes that is a seven figure price tag just 72 years later.
It seems as if a well known industry autction site , Comic Connect.com handled the unbelievable sale between a private buyer and seller in just the first few minutes of the sale opening. I am speaking of what is called the “highest valued most sought after comic in the industry “. The 1938 Action Comic No 1 which is the first appearance of SuperMan. This comic is being referred to as ” The Holy Grail ” of comics. Apparently this is the sort of oppurtunity that does not come around very often.
Of course other popular sought after comics have sold for prices in the $400,000 range , but this record breaking purchase is a first. You may be wondering what makes this comic worth this kind of money? Well, there is believed to be only hundreds of this particular comic in existence, but very few in this condition. It is totally unrestored and in high qualtiy condition. On a scale of 1 – 10 with 10 being perfect, this one was rated and 8.0 which is virtually unheard of.
So if you are like me then your mind is taking you back to the days where we would read a comic book and then just toss it out with the daily trash. We could have been throwing out a million bucks !!!
In recent years, legendary actor Jon Voight has become as well known for his estrangement from his daughter, Angelina Jolie, as for his numerous movies. The actress and her father are reconciling after seven years of public feuding and estrangement. The father and daughter were photographed together in Venice, where 34 year-old Jolie is filming her latest movie, “The Tourist”, which also stars Johnny Depp.
The longstanding feud began in 2001, after Voight made a television appearance and spoke of Jolie’s “serious mental problems”. Jolie was furious with her father since she had recently adopted her first child, Maddox, and felt that the statements put the adoption in jeopardy. That year was also the last time the two were seen together, as co-stars in the movie “Tomb Raider”. In 2002, Jolie legally changed her name from Angelina Jolie Voight by dropping Voight from her full name.
However, recently the 71 year-old Voight has been in touch with Jolie, and has said they have been trying to mend their relationship since 2007. The trip to Venice was the first time they have been seen publicly together, alongside Jolie’s partner, actor Brad Pitt, and their six children. The family enjoyed sightseeing together in Italy.