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Stand By Me | Playing For Change | Song Around The World from Concord Music Group on Vimeo.



If this video doesn't bring a tear to your eyes and makes you smile for the rest of the day, you are a cold hearted bastard. Watch it from beginning to end—you won't regret it.

This cover of Stand By Me was recorded by completely unknown artists in a street virtual studio all around the world. It all started with a base track—vocals and guitar—recorded on the streets of Santa Monica, California, by a street musician called Roger Ridley. The base track was then taken to New Orleans, Louisiana, where Grandpa Elliott—a blind singer from the French Quarter—added vocals and harmonica while listening to Ridley's base track on headphones. In the same city, Washboard Chaz's added some metal percussion to it.

And from there, it just gets rock 'n' rolling bananas: The producers took the resulting mix all through Europe, Africa, and South America, adding new tracks with multiple instruments and vocals that were assembled in the final version you are seeing in this video. All done with a simple laptop and some microphones.

I don't know about you, but it blew me away. Best version of Ben E. King's classic I've ever heard in my life. And I've probably heard between five and two billion of them.


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You'll probably never witness an unassisted triple play in your lifetime, right? (There have been only 14.) Or see an intentional walk with the bases loaded. (Six.) Or watch one player hit two grand slams in an inning. (Once.)

But you can see something right now that hasn't been around in baseball since the late 1800s: a switch-pitcher.

His name is Pat Venditte, he's 23, and he's pro baseball's only ambidextrous pitcher. This living piece of history is more than a YouTube star; he's throwing almost daily for the Charleston RiverDogs, the Yankees' Single-A club. And he's not just throwing: He's blowing through hitters like a Cub Scout through Skittles. At one point in April, the closer's ERA was 0.00 in 6 1/3 innings, and he hadn't blown a save in five games.

Last season, he had 23 saves for the Staten Island Yankees, with a 0.83 ERA. And best of all, the kid can relieve himself!

He wears a specially made six-fingered Mizuno glove with two thumbs. (His Dominican teammates call him Pulpo, Spanish for "octopus.") When he warms up, he throws four pitches righty and four lefty. You should see the opposition when he does it. It's as if they had seen a ghost. Wait—did you just see that? If a righty is up, he throws righty, and vice versa. Whenever Venditte switches sides, everybody in the Charleston ballpark is encouraged to switch seats.

A switch-pitcher? He's living history.

"I've got to remember to tell people which way he's throwing," says RiverDogs radio play-by-play man Danny Reed. "Never had to do that before."

There are a lot of "never befores" with Venditte. The pitching coach has to file two reports: Venditte the lefty and Venditte the righty. And he should; they're two different pitchers. The righty has a 90 mph fastball, a curve and a nice change. The lefty comes sidearm and has a murderous slider and a change. He's a five-pitch pitcher! Once, in Little League, the other team's coach came up to Pat Sr. and said, "Your twins pitched a heck of a game."

His college pitching coach called him Dexter, and opposing managers call him an ulcer. What's the point of saving your righthanded pinch-hitter for the ninth if Venditte is just going to switch to righty? Strategy is futile. Remember in The Princess Bride when, halfway through the sword fight, Inigo Montoya suddenly says, "I know something you don't know: I am not lefthanded!"?

All this was Pat Sr.'s idea. When his son was 3, Dad noticed Pat threw balls with both hands. So he fed it. He had him throw footballs both ways, punt both ways, kick field goals both ways. Pat was homeschooled by his mom, Jan, who had him write both ways and eat both ways.

We might be looking at the future here, people. "I get calls and letters from people wanting to know how they can do it with their kids," says Jan. "But you have to do it when they're very young. If you try it at 9, they won't listen."

For Pat Jr., it's meant a way to chase his dream of playing in the Show someday. "I know I wouldn't be this far without it," he says. "I don't have dominating stuff from one side or the other. I need both."

Not that it doesn't cause problems. If he walks a hitter, fans will start hollering, "Try the other side!" People want him to sign autographs with both hands. And switch-hitters will switch batter's boxes, making Venditte switch the glove, starting a cat-and-mouse game that can go on for 10 minutes. Minor league umps now have the Venditte Rule: At the start of an at-bat, the pitcher must declare his throwing arm, then the hitter can pick his side, with each man able to switch once. Phew.

There's been only one other such pitcher in the past century: Greg Harris, who threw one scoreless inning for the Expos, in 1995. More than 120 years ago, three guys are believed to have done it occasionally. The best was Tony Mullane, who stood on the mound with no glove and the ball cradled in both hands so nobody would know which way he was going to pitch until his windup. I've had bosses like that.

But Venditte, a four-year letterman at Creighton, has a chance to be the best. If the Yankees bring him up—and at this pace it could happen within three years—they won't need a pitch count. Venditte can throw every day! And when manager Joe Girardi needs to call the bullpen, he can say, "Okay, get a righty and lefty throwing. In other words, get Pat." Of course, how would Girardi signal the bullpen? Touch both arms? Either way, it's a steal for the Yankees. As one scout says, "This could be an economical two-for-one." (Hey, Pat, ask for two salaries.)

For a thousand years they have lain side by side in a rough earth grave, one throwing a skeletal arm across the other.

Believed to be Saxon warriors, they are thought to have died together and been buried together as brothers in arms.

Their return to the limelight after so many centuries comes as archaeologists work on a 90-acre site near Ramsgate in Kent before it is developed into a salad-growing complex.

Remains of what is thought to be two brothers in arms, thought to date back to the Saxon Saxon period between 410AD and 1066AD

Remains of what is thought to be two brothers in arms, thought to date back to the Saxon period between 410AD and 1066AD

At first they were taken to be a man and wife, buried some time during the Saxon period between 410 and 1066, but now that opinion has changed.

Soldier: A Saxon in battledress

Soldier: A Saxon in battledress

Adrian Gollop, project officer at the Canterbury Archaeological Trust, said: 'It is quite a rare discovery.

'The body on the right is definitely male.

'They are exceptionally tall, both over six feet. The one on the left has got some female traits to it but it does seem to be male.

'Until we get the bones examined, we cannot be 100 per cent certain.

'We think they could have been buried as brothers in arms.

'There were no artefacts buried with them to give us any clues. It is a bit of a mystery.'

The trust hopes that forensic tests on the bones will help solve the puzzle.

Other graves and artefacts ranging from the early bronze age between 2700BC and 1500BC to medieval times have been found on the site.

Another poignant grave is from the Roman era and is that of a young girl - thought to be in her early teens - who died in childbirth.

The mother and baby seem to have been buried soon after death with the young girl still holding a smoothed pebble she was probably holding as a comforter during labour.

An archaeologist works on the remains of a girl in her early teens dating back to the Roman period who died during child birth. She suffered a breech birth and the remains of her baby can be seen in the birth canal

PETA Says No More Fly-Killing, Sends Obama a Humane Fly Catcher



PETA has a few words for President Obama: Brush, don’t kill.

After the President very publically swatted and then killed a fly during an interview with CNBC yesterday, the outspoken animal rights group PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) said they wished Obama had served a better example.

“We support compassion for the even the smallest animals," says Bruce Friedrich, VP for Policy at PETA. “We support giving insects the benefit of the doubt."

Friedrich says PETA supports "brushing flies away rather than killing them" and was disappointed that the President had gone ahead and squashed the pesky fly.

This afternoon PETA sent a Katcha Bug, a device which traps bugs and allows their safe release back into nature to the White House.

PETA hopes the President will use the catcher but has no far not received communication back from the White House, although they did not ask for specific correspondence.

Friedrich admits that despite his fly-swatting ways, the President has been a champion for animal rights in the past. PETA claims to be pleased by Obama’s denouncement of factory farming, Canadian seal hunting andMichelle Obama’s stance against wearing fur.

Here's the buzz

By and large, we found that Internet Explorer 8 performed well, and beat out Firefox 3.0.7 in the majority of our time trials. Browser Showdown: Internet Explorer 8 vs. Firefox, PC World, 5/19/09

Browser comparison chart

Here are even more ways Internet Explorer 8 is taking the competition head-on:


Internet Explorer 8

Firefox

Chrome

Comments

Security

Check

Internet Explorer 8 takes the cake with better phishing and malware protection, as well as protection from emerging threats.

Privacy

Check

InPrivate Browsing and InPrivate Filtering help Internet Explorer 8 claim privacy victory.

Ease of Use

Check

Features like Accelerators, Web Slices and Visual Search Suggestions make Internet Explorer 8 easiest to use.

Web Standards

CheckCheckCheck

It's a tie. Internet Explorer 8 passes more of the World Wide Web Consortium's CSS 2.1 test cases than any other browser, but Firefox 3 has more support for some evolving standards.

Developer Tools

Check

Of course Internet Explorer 8 wins this one. There's no need to install tools separately, and it offers better features like JavaScript profiling.

Reliability

Check

Only Internet Explorer 8 has both tab isolation and crash recovery features; Firefox and Chrome have one or the other.

Customizability

CheckCheckCheck

Sure, Firefox may win in sheer number of add-ons, but many of the customizations you'd want to download for Firefox are already a part of Internet Explorer 8 – right out of the box.

Compatibility

Check

Internet Explorer 8 is more compatible with more sites on the Internet than any other browser.

Manageability

Check

Neither Firefox nor Chrome provide guidance or enterprise tools. That's just not nice.

Performance

CheckCheckCheck

Knowing the top speed of a car doesn't tell you how fast you can drive in rush hour. To actually see the difference in page loads between all three browsers, you need slow-motion video. This one’s also a tie.

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"Ladies and gentlemen, we have a new competitor in the weight division," said UFC announcer Joe Rogan after seeing three rounds of domination Cain Velasquez Cheick Kongo. Kongo noted several times in the foot of the three towers, but the fight Velásquez forced to land again and again, and kept there first rain of blows.

In a battle, with serious consequences for the heavyweight title of the UFC's image, veteran Kickboxer french Cheick Kongo face of rapidly increasing combat Cain Velasquez. It is not just a clash of styles, the fight against the opposition representatives of two of the largest camps in MMA: the kongo Wolfslair and Velasquez 'American Kickboxing Academy.

In opening action, kongo Velasquez hit a punch combination of the two which forced the firing Velásquez immediately to a Takedown. Once there, Velásquez worked for a ground assault and pound game, moved up next to edit, then return kongo and working for a starter. Kongo fought their way back to his feet, only to lose again. Kongo fought gamely, abuse of a survivor of a series of dominant positions by Velásquez throughout the tour. Kongo won a moral victory to return to their feet as the bell sounded.

To open the second round, Kongo scored again on its feet, but was quickly called to end a fight that has the advantage Velasquez. It was not long in the embrace before the battle for America once again I have the Takedown. On the ground, the battery continued Velasquez score of hammer blows, while the French riding in the back. After the round was highlighted that the reduction of American law kongo temple, but not enough to deter Velasquez.

In the final round, again before kongo connected Takedown a score of its own. Unfortunately, Velásquez, the experience of fighting top position much more quickly and became the first post Assualt. In two minutes, Kongo fought and gave his fight in the grip with your knees. Once separated, with hits marked kongo only to be resumed by Velázquez, where he ate once more, a lot of stick from the top. Kongo fought gamely to the end but could not do anything to win.

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David Carradine distress of family is outraged by a Thai newspaper published explicit photos of the actor, the naked body, hanging in a private hotel.

The shock of the image "Kill Bill" star was the first page of the document and published a photograph of the autopsy of his body in a morgue.

"The family is outraged by the publication of these photos," said Mark Geragos, an attorney representing Keith Carradine, brother of the actor.

In an interview with RadarOnline.com, Geragos has threatened to sue if the pictures are published in the United States.

The image shows the shock front page Carradine, hands tied in front of him, clinging to the support bar in a closet. Tattoos on the lower half of her naked body are also visible.

Carradine, 72, who also participated in the 1970 television series "Kung Fu" was found dead Thursday.

Carradine has a history of involvement in the suffocation Autoerotic, a sexual practice that is often attached to a rope around his neck, said friends.

Bangkok has been shooting his latest film, "Stretch."

David Carradine pictures of dead in Thai Rath published
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David Carradine

David Carradine

Kill Bill, the family was killed and 70 of the television series Kung Fu star David Carradine has reacted angrily to pictures of the actor's death was published in the Thai Rath newspaper in Bangkok.

Apparently, the photos on the cover and the Saturday issue of vernacular Thai Rath tabloid show the body of the actor in the hotel room in Thailand, where he died.

An angry Keith Carradine, David Carradine's half-brother, has threatened legal action against any "invasion of privacy."

However, it is difficult to see any event like this could take place in Thailand, where images of the dead are published in the vernacular of the daily press.

Read more Thaindian.com


In "Elvis and Anabelle," every tragedy is something miraculous. Peinado too ambitious mother (Mary Steenburgen), Anabelle (Blake Lively) is on track to win the crown of Miss Texas Rose died tragically in a parade. His death on their land embalming table of Elvis, a young man embittered sense of family duty and whose love for his sick father (Joe Mantegna) to continue to keep their dreams. When Anabelle Elvis is miraculously resurrected on the embalming table, the two unexpectedly connect and sparks fly. With the help of others, and the father of Elvis, they discover love, freedom and happiness that the real world and their own demons threaten to force the other.