(CNN) — It’s been a long, long time since the last “last” time: When Dr. Henry “Indiana” Jones Jr. rode off into the sunset in May 1989, courtesy of “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,” the Berlin Wall was still standing, George H.W. Bush was only four months into his presidency, and Harrison Ford was just a young whippersnapper of 46.

Quite why Ford, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas — three of the wealthiest men in Hollywood — should feel the need to resurrect Indiana Jones at this late stage of the game is anybody’s guess. The three men have a combined age of 191, but like many boomers, they’re not ready for the rest home just yet, even if living in the past seems a strange way to show it.

The first Indiana Jones film, “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” was already a nostalgia trip when it was released in 1981, a guileless celebration of the old-fashioned Saturday morning adventure serials that were a staple for any kid growing up in the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s. That makes the new film, “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” a throwback to a throwback.

But time is catching up with the series.

The new film is set in 1957, enabling Ford to act his age (or something like it). But this is the outer edge of a time when America could still believe in the simple black-and-white morality Indiana represents. If the Nazis and the Reds couldn’t finish him off, the ’60s surely would.

Still, in some ways, the extra years suit Ford. Indiana has always been a surly old sourpuss, a pragmatic, world-weary hero in the classic WWII mold. Indy’s fondness for griping is part of what makes him human. And when it comes to trading punches, cracking heads or disinterring the dead, Ford can still get it done. If he can’t, his stunt double can.

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written by Andrew

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) – The U.S. military “sincerely regrets” that it killed two children in a helicopter attack on militants linked to a suspected al Qaeda in Iraq leader, a colonel with Multi-National Force-Iraq said Thursday.

The U.S. military is investigating the operation against insurgents in northern Iraq’s Salaheddin province, just south of Baiji, it said in a statement Thursday.

An American chopper struck cars near a farm late Wednesday, killing eight people, including two children, Baiji police said. The U.S. military said the children were in a vehicle with militants.

The operation targeted al Qaeda in Iraq militants operating a weapons storage facility, Multi-National Force-Iraq said in its statement.

The militants “were believed to be associated with a suicide bombing network,” the military said.

“Sensitive intelligence further indicated that these individuals were directly associated with a suspected senior [al Qaeda in Iraq] foreign terrorist facilitator,” the military said. “Unfortunately, two children were killed when the other occupants of the vehicle, in which they were riding, exhibited hostile intent.”

The military “sincerely regrets when any innocent civilians are injured that result from terrorists locating themselves in and around them. We take every precaution to protect innocent civilians and engage only hostile threats,” MNF-I spokesman Col. Jerry O’Hara said.

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written by Andrew

LONDON, England (CNN) — As the first splinters of sunlight spread their warmth on the south bank of the River Thames this morning, it became clear that after more than a century, the vision of Victorian engineer Alexander Stanhope St. George had finally been realized.

In all its optical brilliance and brass and wood, there stood the Telectroscope — an 11.2 meter (37 feet)long by 3.3 meter (11 feet) tall dream of a device allowing people on one side of the Atlantic to look into its person-size lens and, in real time, see those on the other side via a recently completed tunnel running under the ocean. (Think 19th century Webcam. Or maybe Victorian-age video phone.)

And all the credit goes to British artist Paul St. George. If he had not been rummaging through great-grandpa Alexander’s personal effects a few years ago, the Telectroscope might still exist only on paper, hidden away deep inside some old box.

But fortunately St. George could not bear that thought — and thus decided he should be the one to finish what his great grandfather had started. It was quite simply the right thing to do. Plus it would make a pretty cool public art exhibit.

During the twilight hours on Tuesday, massive dirt-covered metal drill bits miraculously emerged — one by the Thames near the Tower Bridge and the other on Fulton Ferry Landing by the Brooklyn Bridge in New York — completing the final sections of great-grandfather Alexander’s transatlantic tunnel.

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written by Andrew

BAGHDAD - A U.S. helicopter strike north of Baghdad killed eight people in a vehicle, including at least two children, Iraqi officials said Thursday, insisting all the dead were civilians. The U.S. military said six were al-Qaida militants but acknowledged children were killed.

AP Television News footage showed the bodies of three children in blood-drenched clothes — the eldest appearing to be in his early teens — along with the bodies of five men, at the hospital in Beiji, where the dead were taken after Wednesday evening’s strike.

Iraqi and U.S. officials each put the number of slain children at two. The reason for the discrepancies between the two accounts and the TV footage was not known.

It was the latest incident threatening to alienate Sunni Arabs, who have played a key role in the steep decline in violence over the past year by joining forces with the Americans against al-Qaida in Iraq. Beiji, an oil hub 155 miles north of Baghdad, lies in a largely Sunni Arab area.

The strike came as the U.S. was trying to ease Iraqi anger over the shooting of a copy of the Quran by an American sniper, who used Islam’s holy book for target practice.

In Afghanistan on Thursday, a NATO soldier and two demonstrators were killed at a violent protest over the Quran shooting.

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written by Andrew

Everyone with high blood pressure — some 72 million Americans — should own a home monitor and do regular pressure checks, the American Heart Association and other groups urged Thursday in an unprecedented endorsement of a medical device for consumers.

High blood pressure is a leading cause of heart attacks, strokes and death. Having it checked a few times a year in a doctor’s office or at the drugstore is not enough to keep tabs on it, and regular home monitoring is more accurate, the new advice says.

Closer checks would let doctors fine-tune the many medicines used to control high blood pressure, just as diabetics adjust their insulin levels by regularly monitoring blood sugar. Only a third of people with high blood pressure now have it under control.

“We need new approaches. Our current approach is simply not working,” said Dr. David Goff, a preventive medicine specialist at Wake Forest University and a member of the panel that wrote the advice.

Outside experts strongly agreed. But some said the case would be more compelling if those pushing the monitors had no industry ties. For example, a leading device maker pays more than $300,000 a year to co-sponsor the heart association’s blood pressure Web site. The company played no role in the new advice, the association said.

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written by Andrew

WASHINGTON - Quick: Cochabamba is the third-largest conurbation in what country?

Your answer might be, “Huh?” But 11-year-old Akshay Rajagopal answered “Bolivia” to clinch the 20th annual National Geographic Bee on Wednesday.

A conurbation is a large, densely populated urban area — and Cochabamba is the third-largest one in the South American country.

Akshay’s correct answer capped a two-day event in which he got every question right. A sixth-grader at Lux Middle School in Lincoln, Neb., he won a $25,000 scholarship.

Along the way, Akshay answered questions that included the westernmost Asian national capital (Ankara in Turkey), the country where Makossa is a popular type of music (Cameroon), and the location of Tillya Tepe (it’s in Afghanistan).

“Some of them were hard but others were OK,” Akshay said as he held an oversized check. “I think I was just lucky.”

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written by Andrew

Pe langa faptul ca interpreteaza live toate melodiile, Fergie poate face si acrobatii in acelasi timp.
Aflata la Rockefeller Plaza din New York, vedeta i-a umit pe cei prezenti acolo cu abilitatile sale de…gimnasta.
Cantareata a purtat o pereche de pantaloni de piele foarte stramti si nu a avut nicio dificultate in a sta intr-o singura mana, in cealalta tinand microfonul.

Sursa: Radio21

written by Andrew