Wes Craven Screams Again

The world in general, and the world of horror movies in particular, have changed a great deal in the past decade. Nonetheless, legendary horror filmmaker Wes Craven is back with Scream 4, which reunites him with David Arquette, Neve Campbell and Courteney Cox, the stars/survivors of the original Scream trilogy, launched in 1996, revived in 1997 and last heard from in 2000.


“One of the biggest changes is the rise of social networking,’’ Craven says. “Kids are communicating through texting, tweeting, e-mails and Facebook. It’s all about the Internet. That’s part of what’s happening in the world now that really wasn’t in full force yet when Scream 3 came out, and it’s something that Scream 4 addresses. Plus cell phones, of course. That extension of our culture is now very much a part of the film. YouTube is another example—any kid can make movies and put them on YouTube. And ... Justin Bieber.’’




“And I would say that horror films have changed a lot too,’’ the director continues. “There’s been a decade of very heavy ... what’s called ‘torture porn’. I don't like using that term, necessarily, but there have been a lot of films about torture or tormenting or people suffering great pain.’’


“So those are the things that have developed in the past decade,’’says the man behind The Last House on the Left (1972), The Hills Have Eyes (1977), A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) and more. “And that’s to say nothing of the enormous amount of remakes and sequels, but especially remakes now that are so much a part of the movie industry.’’

... contd.

Will MS Removal Tool Protect or Destroy Your Computer?

Do you still remember the rogueware System Tool? It looks like the age of System Tool isn't over. However, now it is known as MS Removal Tool which has been attacking the web pretty harshly for several days already.

MS Removal Tool pretends to be a legitimate antivirus program, but in fact, it is neither able to detect, nor to remove any threats from the system. Its only purpose is to scare the unaware computer users and leave their machines in a mess. How is this fake software able to do that?

Being based on Trojan viruses, MS Removal Tool has the ability to get to the computer without your permission and consent. Trojans detect holes in the security system and intrude the system, making changes on the registry first. The rogueware modifies registry values and adds registry keys. After these Trojans do their work, MS Removal Tool is started every single time Windows boots up.

As soon as the fake application starts, it starts performing system scans. The software is simulated in a way that it detects a bunch of infectious files which, in fact, were created by the same Trojans. At this point, an unaware computer user starts to get scared and lost. Being unaware what to do next, the PC user starts getting pop-up messages which warn about the threat detected. The scammers are really smart - they even suggest you to pay money in order to get rid of all the malware detected.

However, you should not fall into this trap of MS Removal Tool. Be sure to remove this rogue antivirus application.

Resources:
Remove MS Removal Tool

Hairy Bikers' Mother's Day recipe: Mud pie

Pie love you, mum!

Hairy Bikers Dave Myers and Si King have always been aware that Mums Know Best... And to prove it, they've rummaged in the bottom drawers, cupboards and memories of houses and families across the nation for their secrets, recipes and top cooking tips. So mums, subtly leave this webpage open so your sons and daughters can spread the muddy-lovin' goodness and make this wonderful pudding to treat you today...

 

 



Gents, you must've come across some extraordinary stories from mums as you put this book and TV series together...

Dave Myers: You'd better believe it! One of the most memorable was undoubtedly the tale behind Ruth Joseph from Wales' orchid gateaux. Her grandfather was the chief rabbi of Hamburg and her mother fled the Nazis in World War Two. So many of her family didn't make it. All Ruth got away with was a candlestick and a cake tin - the cake tin she makes her gateaux in. Absolutely incredible.

Si King: Just a remarkable story. People are shared their stories and their recipes and it's a very personal thing, you know? It's the heritage of that family. And while we cannot claim to be the be-all and end-all, it it is a lovely, privileged position to be in to hear all these stories.

This mud pie looks amazing. Is it as good as it looks?

SK: Too right! It comes from a lovely lady from Lincoln called Jayne Rawlings and she was a major in the army. We were taking the mick out her by saluting and that, but she was just so much fun. And the mud pie does what it says it looks like. It's so rich, really lush!

DM: Oh, it tastes mega. I like to have it with cream <and> ice cream - half and half!

SK: Goes well with a sorbet, too...

What comfort food reminds you most of your mum?

DM: That'll be her fishcakes. We called them the killer fishcakes! She used to get some hake, poach it in milk with a bay leaf and some salt and pepper then flake it up and mix it until it was half mashed potatoes before adding some parsley and dipping it in egg and covering with orange breadcrumbs - they were almost luminous! I loved those fishcakes. And she'd make a cheddar cheese sauce with the poaching liquor. Absolutely adored that as a kid, that's a real taste of my childhood.

Si, what culinary delight did you like to spoil your mum with?

SK: Mam was a big fan of seafood. One Mother's Day me and the family all got together, went down to see her and we did her a fruit de mers. Sat her down in front of it with some brown bread and butter and watched her go - you've never seen anyone shell a winkle like it, I tell you. She was a ninja on the winkle-shelling! That was memorable 'cause it lasted about two days!

Did your mothers every try to warn you off riding bikes?

DM: Not really, because me dad had motorbikes all his life. He was one of these Northern men that never had a car.

Advertisement - article continues below »



SK: My mam didn't either. She always fostered in us a healthy respect and a healthy disrespect. A healthy respect for looking after yourselves and treating the world that you live in with a gentle hand. And a healthy disrespect for authority whereby you always ask questions of them... because otherwise they become laws unto themselves!

Mud pie

"This is an amazing pudding recipe that Jayne’s mum used to cook for her family and Jayne still makes today. The family called it mud pie because … well, it looked like mud! It’s an original and Jayne says she has never seen anything like it in any cookbook."

Ingredients
Biscuit base:
- 200g digestive biscuits
- 75g butter
Filling:
- 200g dark chocolate, at least 70 per cent cocoa solids
- 100ml strong coffee, cooled, or Camp coffee essence 
- 4 tbsp milk
- 200g marshmallows
- 600ml double cream
Method
1)  First make the biscuit base. Put the biscuits in a freezer bag and crush them with a rolling pin. Gently melt the butter in a pan, add the crushed biscuits and mix together. Tip the mixture into a 25cm flan dish and press down well. Set aside to cool. 
2) Break the chocolate up into chunks and place in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Make sure the bowl doesn’t touch the water. Allow the chocolate to melt, then stir in the coffee or coffee essence. In a separate bowl, whip the cream to soft peaks, taking care not to whip it too much.
3) Put the milk in a pan and add the marshmallows. Stir continuously over a very low heat until the marshmallows have melted into the milk, making a gooey mixture. Remove from the heat and stir in the melted chocolate, a tbsp at a time, mixing well.
4) Whip in the cream, using a balloon whisk to remove any lumps. Pour the mixture onto the biscuit base and leave it in the fridge for about 8 hours to set. To jazz this recipe up, you can add 3 tbsps of dark rum with the coffee essence.
Dave’s tip: “Don’t whip the mixture too much. You’ll be able to feel once it starts to go. If you over-whip it, it’ll go too thick. I like to use the old-fashioned hand whisks, the ones where you turn the handle. They’re brilliant.”
Mums Still Know Best: The Hairy Bikers’ Best-Loved Recipes is available now at all good bookshops, rrp £20.

What's in your sandwich? U.S. wants you to know

(Reuters) - Restaurant chains will have to tell you how many calories are in your sandwich, your milk shake and even your bag of chips by the middle of next year as part of the U.S. government's fight against obesity.
The Food and Drug Administration said on Friday that final rules requiring restaurants and retail food companies to divulge nutritional and calorie information are expected to be issued by the end of 2011.
It proposed that the rules, pertaining to food and drinks sold from menus and display cases, would become effective six months later.
In a country where two out of every three people are overweight or obese, the government hopes to influence food choices and ultimately lower healthcare costs.
Restaurants with 20 or more locations like McDonald's Corp and Yum Brands Inc, operator of the KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut fast-food chains, would be affected, as would retail food outlets.
The rules, part of the U.S. healthcare law passed in March 2010, would go into effect for vending machine operators one year after publication, according to the FDA proposal. Calorie and nutritional information would have to be displayed close to food items in vending machines or near selection buttons.
Restaurant industry groups had fought against local efforts to require calorie disclosure, arguing it would raise operating costs. But in New York City, the first U.S. city to require calorie count displays, 15 percent of people who used the information said they ate about 106 fewer calories at lunch, according to city health statistics.
On Friday, the National Restaurant Association said it would provide detailed comments to the FDA to ensure that restaurants get enough time to make the changes.
The FDA is seeking public comment on the proposed menu labeling until June 6 and on vending machines until July 5.
Movie theaters, airplanes, bowling alleys, and other establishments whose primary purpose is not to sell food would not be subject to the proposed regulations, the FDA said.

Ivory Coast Rebels Seize State TV Control Gbagbo Palace

(Updates with comments on Gbagbo’s whereabouts in second paragraph, defection of police unit in 10th.)

April 1 (Bloomberg) -- Ivory Coast forces backing election winner Alassane Ouattara said they seized the state broadcaster and attacked incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo’s residence and presidential palace amid heavy fighting.

The Republican Forces now control Gbagbo’s residence in the Cocody neighborhood of Abidjan, the commercial capital, said Meite Sindou, a spokesman for Ouattara’s prime minister, Guillaume Soro. Explosions and gunfire continued to rock the district and plumes of smoke rose into the sky, residents said. Gbagbo’s spokesman denied speculation he fled the country.

“He is on Ivoirian territory, he has no intention of resigning,” the spokesman, Ahoua Don Mello, said in an interview broadcast today on Radio France Internationale.

The Republican Forces entered Abidjan late yesterday after an ultimatum for Gbagbo to accept his Nov. 28 election defeat and step down lapsed. The fighters had swept south from their base in the north of the country over the past two weeks, meeting little resistance from Gbagbo’s forces.

“Radio Television Ivorienne fell into our hands last night,” Sindou said in a phone interview today. Television broadcasts were halted at about midnight as heavy artillery fire and explosions shook buildings.

Abandoned

Cocoa prices have tumbled 9.4 percent in the past 10 days as traders predict an imminent end to the impasse in the world’s largest cocoa producer. The crisis led the West African nation to default on its $2.3 billion Eurobond, which has rallied 38 percent in 10 days as Ouattara’s forces advance.

The United Nations, the U.S., the African Union and the European Union all recognize Ouattara, 69, as the winner of the nation’s first vote in a decade, while Gbagbo, 65, refuses to step down, alleging voter fraud.

Gbagbo’s whereabouts are unknown, Bernard Valero, spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of former colonial power France, told reporters in Paris today.

“The security forces around Mr. Gbagbo seem to have abandoned him, after he’d been abandoned by the army leadership,” Valero said. “This creates uncertainty and risk in the town, particularly for looting.”

Desertions

An elite 1,000-member security unit founded by Gbagbo in 2005 announced today it would defect to Ouattara’s government. The unit, known as the Centre de Commandement des Operations de Securite, or Cecos, called on its members to “rally without further delay to the Republican Forces of Ivory Coast,” according to a statement on its website.

Even before the Republican Forces entered Abidjan, the head of Gbagbo’s army, General Phillipe Mangou, sought refuge at the residence of the South African ambassador, the Pretoria-based Foreign Ministry said.

In another blow to Gbagbo, General Edouard Tiape Kassarate, head of the military police, defected to Ouattara’s administration at its headquarters in the Golf Hotel in Abidjan, Alain Lobognon, an adviser to Soro, said in a telephone interview yesterday.

“I’m not sure Gbagbo is in control any longer,” said Rinaldo Depagne, a Dakar-based analyst for International Crisis Group. “The first step for a peaceful outcome is Gbagbo coming and saying ‘I quit’.”

Human Rights

There was a “mass exodus” out of Abidjan as civilians tried to avoid the clashes, the UN Refugee Agency said on its website yesterday.

The UN said it had received “unconfirmed but worrying reports” of human rights violations committed by the Republican Forces in the western towns of Guiglo and Daloa and in Abidjan. The fighters may have arbitrarily arrested, abducted and extorted money from civilians, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in an e-mailed statement.

Pro-Gbagbo troops have committed “daily” human rights violations, including the reported burning of two civilians alive, OCHA said.

Ouattara yesterday ordered a dusk-to-dawn curfew and the closure of all borders, according to an e-mailed statement.

Cocoa for May delivery rose for the first day this week, rising $6, or 0.2 percent, to $2,958 per metric ton as of 2:44 p.m. in London trading. The price for the beans slumped to an 11-week low yesterday on hopes for a quick resumption in exports, which had been crippled by European Union sanctions.

Ivory Coast’s defaulted dollar-denominated bond jumped 6.2 percent to 49.583 cents on the dollar at 1:45 p.m. in Abidjan, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Death Toll

At least 494 people have died in the conflict so far, the UN said in an e-mailed statement. Retreating Liberian mercenaries committed arbitrary executions and looted towns, especially around the western town of Guiglo, it said.

About 500 foreign nationals had taken refuge at a French military camp on the outskirts of Abidjan, Agence France-Presse reported, citing Colonel Thierry Burkhard of the French army. A 34-year-old Swedish woman working for the UN mission in Ivory Coast was killed by gunfire in her home in Abidjan last night, Carl Bildt, Sweden’s foreign minister, said in an e-mailed statement today.

Jan Pieter Ohler, a Dutch diplomat, said youths were looting stores and houses in the wealthy neighborhood of Zone 4.

“The economic damage will be considerable,” he said by phone. “The French army reinforced its deployment in the area and extracted several expats from their homes. There is a real sense of lawlessness.”

African Union Commission President Jean Ping called on Gbagbo to “immediately” step down and hand power to Ouattara, according to an e-mailed statement today.

Gbagbo still has “an opportunity to step aside and avoid bloodshed,” Johnnie Carson, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs, told reporters in Washington yesterday. If he doesn’t he will be held accountable for violence in the city, Carson said.

--With assistance from Franz Wild in Johannesburg, Jason McLure in Accra, Gregory Viscusi in Paris and Gopal Ratnam in Washington. Editors: Philip Sanders, Karl Maier

NBA investigating Jay-Z over locker-room visit

As part-owner of the New Jersey Nets, the hip-hop star was prohibited from making professional contact with college team

Under investigation ... Jay-Z at a New Jersey Nets game at Madison Square Garden in March. Photograph: James Devaney/WireImage

 

 

America's National Basketball Association is investigating Jay-Z. The rapper is in trouble neither for slamming dunks nor for rhyming about LeBron James, but because he visited a team's locker room after their game.
Being a celebrity is not against NBA rules. But when Jay-Z visited the Kentucky Wildcats' locker room on Sunday night, he was not simply a famous musician paying his respects: he is part-owner of an NBA team, the New Jersey Nets. The Wildcats are in reality the University of Kentucky Wildcats, a college team full of young prospects – and there are rules prohibiting contact with future draft picks.
Although Jay-Z didn't break any regulations at the college level, he may have provoked NBA bosses, who have reportedly launched a probe into the incident. If found to have had inappropriate conversations with players who are not yet draft eligible, Jay-Z could face a considerable fine. In 2007, an employee of the Boston Celtics was made to pay $30,000 (£18,693) for "excessive contact" with the family of then-student Kevin Durant. In that case, "excessive contact" involved sitting beside Durant's mum.
The meeting took place at Newark's Prudential Center, home of the Nets, shortly after the Wildcats' regional final win over North Carolina. Jay-Z was reportedly waiting in the hallway as Wildcat players returned to the locker room. "I said, 'Oh that's Jay-Z!'" forward Terrence Jones told the Louisville Courier-Journal. "We all gave him a handshake and he came in ... and we just kept screaming 'Jay-Z in the locker room!' He congratulated us, just said he was proud of us."
"Rap artists and basketball players, we joined at the hip," Jay-Z told MTV in 2003. "That's my family, on a real level."

The Elephant in the Living Room

Would you believe that there are more tigers in captivity in Texas than in the whole of Africa? Such declarations become completely credible as documentarian Michael Webber's "The Elephant in the Living Room" delves into the growing trend of Americans treating some of the most dangerous animals on Earth as household pets.

Webber anchors his film in the activities of Tim Harrison, a now-retired safety officer in Oakwood, Ohio, a leafy suburban community of stately homes on huge lots.

Harrison has captured and rescued hundreds of alligators, lions, tigers and the largest and most deadly snakes — all in the U.S.

News reports of a 500-plus-pound lion reported on an interstate highway bring Harrison in contact with the lion's owner, Terry Brumfield, who lives in nearby Pike County, where it is perfectly legal for him to keep the lion, Lambert, and his mate, Lacie, in a large caged area.

Still suffering from the effects of a serious truck accident, Brumfield has been soothed by his lions' presence and loves them like his own children. While fearing for the animals' ultimate fate, Harrison wins Brumfield's trust, and the unfolding of the men's friendship and the destiny of the lions form the trajectory of the film.

"The Elephant in the Living Room" reveals the folly, cruelty and danger of treating often lethal exotic animals as pets. This impeccably made film is chock-full of enlightening and sometimes bizarre moments: visits to an exotic animal expo and an auction at which a small boy is given a dangerous baby snake as a pet.

Webber is also fair-minded: he includes a Las Vegas exotic pets dealer, a trained zoologist who wisely states that unless owners of such creatures act responsibly, fear amid the public will cause increasing banning of the private ownership of such pets. "The Elephant in the Living Room" could scarcely be more engaging — or more consciousness-raising.

---

"The Elephant in the Living Room." Rated PG for thematic material, including some disturbing situations, mild language and smoking. Running time: 1 hour, 34 minutes. At Mann's Chinese 6, Hollywood.