'Top Gun' director Tony Scott jumps to his death

Prominent Hollywood film director Tony Scott, whose signature works included "Top Gun," jumped to his death from a bridge in San Pedro, California, city officials announced late Sunday.

Police and US Coast Guard officials pulled Scott's body out of the water near the Vincent Thomas Bridge, which is built over Los Angeles Harbor, the coroner's office said, adding that he had jumped from the structure.

Investigators found a suicide note in his office, the Los Angeles Times reported. Its contents have not been revealed.

The newspaper earlier reported a suicide note had been found in his car, which was parked on one lane of the bridge linking the city suburb of San Pedro to Terminal Island.

A witness saw Scott, 68, climb over a fence on the bridge and jump into the water, according to Lieutenant Joseph Bale of the city coroner's office. Other witnesses said they later saw Scott's shoes floating in the water.

Authorities summoned divers and a helicopter in a bid to find Scott's body in the port's murky waters. It was recovered at approximately 3:00 pm (2200 GMT), four hours after he jumped, and turned over to coroner officials, Bale said.

The search has delayed a ferry linking the coast with Santa Catalina island.

Scott was the younger brother of fellow film director Ridley Scott, the maker of Oscar-winning movies like "Gladiator" and "Black Hawk Down" as well as other hits like "Blade Runner."

The family has confirmed Scott's death, but offered no details.

"I can confirm that Tony Scott has indeed passed away," the late director's spokeswoman, Katherine Rowe, told reporters. "The family asks that their privacy be respected at this time."

Scott, who was born in Britain in 1944, made his mark in the mid-1980s when he directed "Top Gun," an action-filled blockbuster about elite navy pilots featuring then-rising star Tom Cruise.

It was one of the highest-grossing films of 1986, taking in more than $176 million and giving a major boost to Scott's and Cruise's careers. It also won an Academy Award for best music, original song.

The British filmmaker sought out Cruise again in 1990 when he started working on "Days of Thunder," another thriller exposing the rough-and-tumble world of NASCAR stock car racing.

He believed the actor's youthful charm, optimism and never-ending energy would guarantee success.

"Tom can sit behind the wheel of a race car and smoke a cigarette and this movie will make a fortune," Scott was quoted as saying at the time.

He did not miss the mark.

The film was criticized for what Hollywood media deemed excessive and sometimes over-the-top use of special effects, but it did well at the box office, grossing nearly $158 million.

Besides "Top Gun" and "Days of Thunder," Scott directed "Enemy of the State," "Beverly Hills Cop II," "Spy Game," "Unstoppable" and "Crimson Tide," a submarine thriller starring Gene Hackman and Denzel Washington.

He started his career under his brother's patronage in the early 1970s and directed thousands of television commercials for his brother's company Ridley Scott Associates.

A prolific filmmaker, Scott had more that 30 new projects in the pipeline, including "Top Gun 2," a sequel to the original movie, where Tom Cruise was again expected to play the lead role.

Scott was married to his third wife, actress Donna Scott. The couple had twin sons.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/top-gun-director-tony-scott-commits-suicide-report-053845135.html

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The Hugging Home: Extreme Makeover: Parenting Edition

Am I planning a major parenting makeover?

No, I am not.

Perhaps I am planning a makeover for myself...yes...I need to eat better, move more, be kinder to myself, la la la.

What I wanted to discuss today is extreme parenting in general.

Now I will start by saying - as I always do - that to each their own. As long as parents are not hurting their children or anyone else, there are many different parenting styles out there and depending on the family - there are many styles that work well. They are not all for me...but that does not mean I don't have full respect for many of the choices other people make.

Someone recently told me that they look at parenting the same way as they look at religion. "Whatever works for you." This really resonated with me. If you are a Mormon, for example, great! Again, not for me...but if that works for you, then grand.

I am going to share my opinion of one...and you can take it or leave it. I expect there will be people on both sides...and that is fine. How I choose to raise my boys is my choice...not yours...and I don't expect you all to agree.

Personally, I don't believe in extremes.

I am turned off by them. In my opinion, extremists - be them feminists, religious leaders, athletes, whatever...I just don't think swaying too far to one side and holding on for dear life is healthy.

I find it closed-minded.

I think in any situation, there needs to be wiggle room to explore different options; ones that may not fit into the mould laid out by whatever philosophy you subscribe to.

I especially feel this way when it comes to parenting.

Let's take food and nutrition as an example here.

I, like many a parent, believe that feeding my children balanced meals full of nutrition and goodness is very important. So does my husband. We feel it is important for ourselves as well...but as parents, we understand that we need to install proper eating habits in our boys and we do our best to do that.

But we don't go to extremes.

What I mean here, is that very little is forbidden.

We do not insist that our children not eat refined sugar or packaged food or McDonald's.

We do insist that they do not eat these things the majority of the time...but nothing in our home is 100% off limits. (OK, perhaps alcohol...but that is a little different.)

I do know some parents who do not let their children eat certain things. They subscribe to a pretty rigid view on healthy eating and go to great lengths to make sure every last item that goes into their kids' systems is of the utmost quality. And hey...I am not here to judge. I just don't agree with it.

In my humble, little opinion, the more you restrict children, the more they will want to rebel at some point. Forbidden fruit is very tempting...much more so than stuff they have tried before.

My older boys understand that fast food is crap. But they eat it sometimes. We all do. We talk to them about what we are eating. They know it is a "treat" but also know that really it is not a "treat" for their bodies.

Now, they tend to order salads instead of fries. They would rather have a home-cooked meal rather than fast food. Give them a choice between a hamburger and fries from Wendy's or chicken, pasta with Nonna's sauce made from tomatoes from her garden and a salad made from other pickings from the same place and they will go for the good stuff.

Because they know the difference. They know the difference in taste. The know the difference in terms of what is better for them nutritionally. They get that if they want to be strong and healthy, they need to eat the good stuff.

And they understand that if they want to be athletes...and they are...but if they want to go further with their hockey and what have you...they need to eat like athletes. And they know that Sidney Crosby probably does not have a bacon-double-cheeseburger before a game.

Same goes for things like religion.

While my children are Catholic, I am not - and I don't believe in some of the strict rules or dogma or whatever you want to call it that comes with much of organized religions...Catholic or otherwise.

I don't want my kids to "fear God". I want them to love God. I want them to understand that just because the bible says something, it is not the end-all and be-all.

The bottom line is that I am raising my boys to learn to be able to think for themselves.

Sure, as parents we need to plant the seeds. But they our kids will grow and so will their minds. I want them to be able to look at all the options available to them and make their own, educated, thoughtful decisions. Not because "I said so" or "the bible told me so" or la la la.

What do you think? I would love to hear your thoughts on all of this. Please comment below and let's get a discussion going!

Now all of this being said...maybe I should start giving my boys beer now?

Smiles,

Lora

Source: http://www.thehugginghome.com/2012/08/extreme-makeover-parenting-edition.html

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Grocery prices may ease despite drought

AFP

The Drought-stricken corn grows in Missouri Valley, Iowa. Corn prices have soared to record highs.

By John W. Schoen, NBC News

Though severe drought conditions have raised the cost of food this summer, consumers may have seen the worst of the price impact at the grocery store.

Higher food prices helped lift the closely watched Producer Price Index by 0.3 percent in July, the fastest pace in five months. At the same time retail sales rose 0.8 percent, the first increase in four months and well ahead of expectations, signaling that the sluggish economy may be picking up momentum.

The increase in producer prices was driven in part by a jump in light truck prices, up 1.6 percent, and pharmaceuticals, up 0.9 percent.?At the grocery store, wholesale prices rose a sharp 0.5 percent in July, on top of the same price rise in June. Over half that jump resulted from higher prices for beef and veal, which climbed 3.8 percent, according to the government.

But with livestock producers facing steep increases in the cost of feed grains, the rise in meat prices may soon reverse course, according to Michelle Girard, an?economist at RBS.

See our full drought coverage here. And on Wednesday, Aug. 15, watch NBC News, CNBC, MSNBC, The Weather Channel and Telemundo for daylong, network-wide coverage of the drought.

?Because it's so much more expensive to keep them and feed them, you may actually get more cattle being brought to slaughter, so beef prices may actually in the very near term have downward pressure," she said.

To help slow that price drop, and cushion the drought's impact on livestock producers, the White House announced Monday that the federal government will buy $170 million of meat and poultry. The increased demand generated by the government will help offset the expected glut of supply as livestock producers rush their herds to slaughter to avoid spiking feed costs.?

Corn and soy harvest forecasts were slashed last week after the worst drought in 50 years destroyed millions of acres of crops. Corn prices last week hit record levels of nearly $9 a bushel. Wheat and soybeans also hit multiyear highs.

But those spikes are expected to ease as demand eases, beginning with those livestock producers who are trimming herds. Ethanol producers facing soaring corn prices have also scaled back production. ?

Rising crop prices have also spurred foreign plantings in recent years, which may blunt the impact of this year?s shortfall in the U.S.,?according to a recent report on the drought's economic impact from the Federal Reserve Bank of?Kansas City. Since 2003, for example, the former Soviet Union has added 48 million acres of crop production and South American nations have planted an additional 42 million acres, according to the report.

?High prices could entice further expansions in global production that could lead to lower prices,? the report said. ?The best cure for high prices might be high prices.?

U.S. consumers will also be shielded from the recent sharp spikes in grain prices because the cost of those raw materials make up a?relatively?small share of the overall price of finished food products. Commodities like corn and wheat make up roughly 14 percent of the retail cost of food, according to the USDA. The rest of the price posted on the supermarket shelf represents processing, packaging, shipping, marketing and other production costs. ? ?

The Kansas City Fed report estimates this year?s drought could add about 4 percent to retail food prices next year. Since the cost of food makes up about 14 percent of the Consumer Price Index, the drought would contribute just 0.6 percent to overall inflation, according to the Kansas City Fed economists.

Consumers facing higher food prices are also getting some relief from a recent fallback in gasoline prices. Energy prices fell 0.4 percent in July for the fifth month in a row, according to the government?s inflation report. Wholesale gasoline prices fell 3.1 percent last month.

The summer surge in corn prices has sparked calls for a waiver of the government?s mandates and subsidies promoting corn-based ethanol. Some 40 percent of the U.S. corn crop is diverted to produce the gasoline additive, which raises fuel octane and lowers air pollution.

But a waiver of those mandates appears unlikely ? largely because refiners would be hard-pressed to cope with a shortfall in ethanol production.?

?Our gasoline logistics and distribution system is so entrenched with ethanol that we need it and very difficult for the refining system to change," said Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates.

With no end in sight to the parched conditions, areas and businesses hardest hit by drought are already feeling the economic impact. But overall losses in the farm belt are expected to be reduced by the widespread use of federal farm insurance, which covers farmer?s losses from crop failures.

So the overall economic impact of this summer?s crop shortfall is expected to knock less than a tenth of a percent off gross domestic product, according to Paul Dales, economist at Capital Economics.

?This is clearly not a disaster for the total economy, but when growth is just 2 percent every little bit counts,? he said.

CNBC's Rick Santelli breaks down the latest numbers on retail sales and producer prices, with Beth Ann Bovino, S&P deputy chief economist.

More money and business news:

Source: http://economywatch.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/14/13277650-consumer-prices-may-ease-soon-despite-drought-driven-spike?lite

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Evelyn Lozada issues statement on Johnson arrest

NEW YORK (AP) ? Evelyn Lozada says Chad Johnson "needs help."

The reality star issued her first statement Tuesday since the football star's arrest for allegedly head-butting her. The altercation took place in the Miami area Saturday.

Lozada says she's "deeply disappointed" that her estranged husband hasn't taken responsibility for his actions. She says he made false accusations against her: Johnson told police she head-butted him.

Lozada says she hopes that by taking a stand, she will encourage other women to "break their silence" on the issue of domestic violence.

The two were married a little over a month ago and their nuptials were to be part of the VH1 reality show "Ev & Ocho" ? but it's now been shelved.

Johnson was cut from the Miami Dolphins the day after his arrest.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/evelyn-lozada-issues-statement-johnson-arrest-163016971.html

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Nano-printer can put the Mona Lisa on a strand of hair

The process gives new meaning to the term "fine print"

We hope you're ready for that new inkjet you just bought to look positively prehistoric. That's because a team of researchers in Singapore has managed to build a printer that can create detailed color images a mere 50 micrometers across, the width of a single human hair.

Built by the Agency for Science, Technology, and Research (ASTAR), the nano-printer works at a resolution of 100,000 dots per inch (most magazines, by comparison, are printed at 300 dots per inch). Each of the dots it prints is actually made from four tiny pillars of nano-particles, each capped with silver and gold nano-disks. Changing the distance between these dots alters how they reflect light, which produces different colors without having to use pigment like traditional printers.

According to ASTAR's researchers, the resolution they've achieved is at the limit of what can be discerned by human vision, and going any smaller would simply result in indecipherable smudges. You know, the kind you get from those old-timey ink printers.

[Image credit: ASTAR]
[via Gizmodo]

This article was written by Randy Nelson and originally appeared on Tecca

More from Tecca:

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/technology-blog/nano-printer-put-mona-lisa-strand-hair-044013763.html

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World's craziest waterslides

Courtesy of Atlantis, Paradise Island

"Leap of Faith" is a nearly perpendicular slide that cascades down a life-size replica of a Mayan temple, at the Aquaventure Water Park at Atlantis Paradise Island in the Bahamas.

By Briana Fasone , Travel + Leisure

As you speed along the ship?s top-deck raft ride, waves break at the ocean?s surface 150 feet below. It?s an acrophobe?s nightmare?and could be the most thrilling moment of your next cruise vacation.

We?ve come a long way in the century since the?Titanic, when that ship?s heated swimming pool was a mind-boggling luxury. Now it?s AquaDuck, the cruise industry?s first water coaster, that?s making a splash on board the?Disney Dream?and?Disney Fantasy. From within the raft ride?s clear acrylic aerial flume (which extends 12 feet over the side of the ship), you?ll experience that heady ocean view.

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Slideshow: See where the loopiest, crowd-pleasing waterslides are around the globe

It takes pluck to stare down the AquaDuck and the rest of the world?s craziest, record-breaking waterslides. Some, like Brazil?s 135-foot-high Insano, are traditional body slides, while others??resemble intricate roller coasters and showcase innovation in waterslide technology and design. Case in point: Italy?s new Divertical, which features a unique elevator lift system and speeds more than 65 miles per hour.

Like the Divertical, which is also now the world?s tallest waterslide at 197 feet, many of the craziest rides have set new records. Title of longest slide now goes to Mammoth at Indiana?s Holiday World and Splashin? Safari, where six-person rafts are propelled up and down hills across three acres?and partially in the dark.

Then there are the aquatic attractions making waves for their aesthetic appeal. Consider the slide that cascades down a replica of a Mayan temple at the Atlantis resort or Beijing?s colorful RideHouse, with its corkscrews, climb nets and other quirky design elements. It was customized for the Happy Magic Water Cube Waterpark, a new use for the Water Cube, one of the most iconic venues at the Beijing 2008 Olympics.

?This level of theming is relatively new to the water park industry, and what we did with RideHouse was groundbreaking when we put it in the Water Cube,? says Brad Goodbody of ProSlide.

The lavish theatrics of China?s water parks have earned them praise?and patrons. Guangzhou?s Chimelong Water Park entertained nearly 2 million visitors in 2011, making it the second most popular water park in the world (Disney?s Typhoon Lagoon takes the top spot).

More from Travel + Leisure:

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Source: http://todaytravel.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/07/25/12953160-worlds-craziest-waterslides?lite

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Clinton, Minnelli among stars at Hamlisch funeral

FILE - This undated file image originally provided by Columbia Artists Management Inc. LLC shows Marvin Hamlisch. Friends and admirers of Marvin Hamlisch will gather Tuesday morning to bid farewell to the celebrated songwriter who was hailed as "the people's composer." Hamlisch's funeral is to be held at Congregation Emanu-El, a prominent Upper East Side synagogue. The composer died Aug. 6 in Los Angeles at age 68. (AP Photo/Columbia Artists Management Inc. LLC, Jason Cohn)

FILE - This undated file image originally provided by Columbia Artists Management Inc. LLC shows Marvin Hamlisch. Friends and admirers of Marvin Hamlisch will gather Tuesday morning to bid farewell to the celebrated songwriter who was hailed as "the people's composer." Hamlisch's funeral is to be held at Congregation Emanu-El, a prominent Upper East Side synagogue. The composer died Aug. 6 in Los Angeles at age 68. (AP Photo/Columbia Artists Management Inc. LLC, Jason Cohn)

NEW YORK (AP) ? Friends and admirers of Marvin Hamlisch including Bill Clinton and Ann-Margret gathered Tuesday in New York City to bid farewell to the celebrated songwriter hailed as "the people's composer."

Clinton called Hamlisch, whose casket was covered in yellow flowers, a "great, giving genius." Howard Stringer, head of Sony, called him "the merriest of minstrels."

Hamlisch died Aug. 6 in Los Angeles at age 68.

Other guests included Liza Minnelli, ex-Yankee manager Joe Torre, Idina Menzel, Kelli O'Hara, Raul Esparza, Leslie Uggams, Richard Gere and Tony Danza.

Hamlisch composed or arranged hundreds of scores for musicals and movies, including "A Chorus Line" on Broadway and the films "The Sting," ''Sophie's Choice," ''Ordinary People" and "The Way We Were."

His funeral was held at Congregation Emanu-El, a prominent synagogue where George Gershwin's funeral was held in 1937.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2012-08-14-Hamlisch%20Funeral/id-68a47998cda74f229c1865a90f189d8c

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