Kara DioGuardi leaves hit show "American Idol"

On Friday, Fox announced that after only two seasons, judge Kara DioGuardi will be leaving the show. A newcomer to the show, Kara was the fourth judge, a position that viewers did not enjoy. The studio behind American Idol wanted to return to a three person judging panel as done in the earlier seasons.

"I felt like I won the lottery when I joined 'American Idol' two years ago, but I feel like now is the best time to leave Idol," stated DioGuardi. "I am very proud to have been associated with American Idol – it has truly been an amazing experience."

"Kara is one of the world's best songwriters. She has been passionate and committed to Idol over the last two seasons. I will miss having her on the show, but I look forward to working with her in music for many years to come," said Simon Fuller, executive producer of American Idol.

Judges Simon Cowell and Ellen Degeneres have also announced their departure from the hit program. The show has announced their intention to secure Randy Jackson, Jennifer Lopez, and Steven Tyler for the next season.

(story courtesy of EW.com)

Warped Tour 2010

Vans Warped Tour is an enormous yearly music-fest headlining some of the most popular bands of the time. The massive concert, largely sponsored by Vans and Kia Motors Companies, was started in 1995 by Kevin Lyman, and according to warpedtourdocumentary.com is the "longest-running most successful traveling music festival in American history, attracting multiple generations...". Warped Tour provides a massive gathering of live, fast passed performances, special meet and greet opportunities, and a variety of interesting attractions and tents to visit.

This year, Warped Tour 2010, stopped at the Comcast Theatre in Hartford, Ct on July 11. Headlining were over 70 bands such as Four Year Strong, Sum 41, NeverShoutNever, Anarbor, and The All American Rejects. Being my first year attending Warped Tour, I was not quite sure what to expect, however I was far from disappointed. Seeing a wide variety and majority of the bands though out the day, popular or not, was an awesome experience any alternative, rock, hardcore music listener would enjoy. RHAM freshman Vicky Randazzo also attended the massive concert in Hartford stating that for her first time, "it was a really awesome fun experience" and she thought "it was really cool how well the bands performing interacted with the crowds." Randazzo said she is excited to attend next years tour as well.

Vans Warped Tour was a lively unique musical experience filled with amazing performances and many memories. That day, my friend whom I attended with and I had the pleasure of meeting the members from one of our favorite bands, We The Kings. For a small price, we had the opportunity to meet and greet with the band one on one. The members were very down to earth, and easy to talk to which made the experience that much better.

Warped Tour 2010 was an awesome musical festival filled with talent and a never ending energetic vibe. I strongly recommend this experience for anyone interested in a wide variety of alternative music. With tents set up for each band and other venues for the sponsors of the event, there is always music playing and something to do.

Warped Tour Image Compliments of:

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Documentary Hit "The Cove" Launches New TV Series

Environmental activist Ric O'Barry and director Louie Psihoyos introduced "The Cove" in 2009, a documentary about the slaughtering of dolphins in Japan. The film was a huge hit, bringing in donations, inspiring celebrity support, and winning the Oscar for Best Documentary. Following the impact of this film comes a new Discovery channel show, "Blood Dolphins", to continue the message.

The show will follow activist Ric O'Barry and his son Lincoln as they fight to stop the unnecessary massacre of dolphins. The first episode premiers tonight at 9:00 PM Eastern time.

For videos, interactive quizzes, and information on "The Cove" and its message, visit:

http://www.thecovemovie.com/

For more information on "Blood Dolphins", visit:

http://animal.discovery.com/tv/blood-dolphins/

(information on the new show provided by Animal.Discovery.com )

A New Generation For Apple

September, 1 Apple Computers released some major updates in the world of iPods. The first update is with iTunes. The new iTunes 4 brags HD movies and TV shows on demand, a faster way to get your favorite tunes and a brand new feature called Ping. Ping is like any of your popular social network sites but it allows a follower to find out if your favorite singer is publishing a new album or where they are touring next.

To go with the new iTunes Apple updated the iPod line up. The new iPod Shuffle is even smaller then the previous Shuffle. Apple also brought back the classic click pad to navigate through your library and they also have VoiceOver, a voice command system that can play songs and tell you what you’re listening to.

The new iPod Nano is almost half the size and half the weight of the previous model. The new Nano also has a touch screen just like the iPod Touch. It can play your tunes, listen to the radio and it has a 24 hour battery life so you can listen to your music all day. The Nano can also connect to your Nike+ shoes to track and record the distance you ran.

Apple has made the iPod Touch closer and closer to the iPhone and they are now even closer. The new iPod Touch is now thinner and faster. The iPod can run tasks much faster then before. It also adds FaceTime, a program that allows you to have a video chat with a friend over Wi-Fi. With that Apple added two cameras. One in the front can capture your face for FaceTime while a HD camera is in the back to capture rich and stunning HD video. The iPod also allows the user to not only capture but edit and post your video to You Tube and other social networks. Apple also added a high quality Retina Display and a game center to connect with your friends. All of these updates are available next week and are just a few months before the holiday shopping season.






Sources:

Associated Press

Apple Computers

American Teen Possibly Stranded in the Indian Ocean

According to CNN.com,

Abby Sunderland, 16, of California sent out a distress signal over the Indian Ocean thursday. The teen was attempting to sail around the world without stopping. The teen has been out at sea since January and already has had to make two stops in Cape Town, South Africa in April. Recent electronic signals have been captured saying Sunderland's ship was traveling at about one mile per hour, meaning it was floating, not sailing. Her family states that she has all the nescessary equipment to survive a crisis situation like this, and Australian rescue ships are only two days away from reaching the teen. Her family also believes she is a very capable sailor, and are keeping in positive spirits.

New ideas to help the gulf pour in

As the BP Oil spill worsens, more and more people offer their support with different ideas on how to clean up the oil and prevent any more from gushing out. BP has a crew of 40 people who inspect the more than 80,000 plans. Of this, about 250 have reached the "final assessment stage," as company spokesperson, Mark Proegler, called it. 60% of this plans focus on plugging the leak rather than cleaning up the oil which has already gushed out.

One of these plans to plug the leak comes from Bill Horne. Horne is an 85-year-old engineer, he suggests essentially vacuuming up all the oil. He suggests using a large tube running from the bottom of a fireboat.

Kevin Costner, famed Hollywood actor, proposed his own idea as well. On Wednesday he testified to Capitol hill about how effective his product was. His product, which costed $20 million, involves purifying the water and separating it from the oil.

James Cameron, Hollywood director and deep sea explorer, offered his help as well. BP denied his offer though, resulting in them being called, "Morons" by Cameron.

It is unknown which methods will be pursued, or what effect the pursued plans will have. Hopefully whatever is done, it will save the gulf and its wildlife from much unneeded death.

Source: USA Today

NASA plans for more commercial flights

Gregory Olsen, a millionare and the third person to take a commercial trip into space, says he 's excited about the future of commercial space travel. Olsen bought his ticket at $20 million and ventured into space with Russian Federal Space Agency through the Virginia-based firm Space Adventures. Olsen says the experience was life changing and never goes a day without thinking about it.

President Obama has proposed a plan where commercial companies could focus on low-Earth orbit trips. Meanwhile, the space agency could focus on making trips to asteroids and Mars. NASA is currently experimenting with un-manned shuttles that are being sent into orbit. The company plans to modify the sattelites one day in order to carry people.

"When you fly over the Earth, there's no sign of life," Olsen said. "There's nothing to indicate that there's anything going on there – occasional jet trails, but other than that it just looks serene, perfect. When I was up there I just said, 'Wow, I'm the luckiest guy in the world to be able to see this.'" Hopefully one day soon more people will be able to experience what Olsen did.

Source: Yahoo News