'The Nine': More mystery, music, and montages

I watched The Nine for the second time this week on ABC.com. Definitely go there if you want to see seven of Jon Lovitz's Subway commercials!

The show's still moving slowly, but I've never been one of those people who needs answers right away, at least on TV. (Whereas I need to know what I'm eating for dinner right now!) I like that we don't know what happened between Felicia and Lucas (something sexual? maybe?) and I like that I can't put my finger on why exactly I can't stand Egan Foote.

It's not that his voice and demeanor are phenomenally annoying, although they don't help. I think it has something to do with my not buying his total innocence. Before the robbery, he had that gun -- I know he said it was for suicide, but he was acting really shifty in a way that didn't have to mean suicide, not to mention the complete turnaround his character made from depressed another-brick-in-the-wall employee to wild 'n' out free spirit was just too forced. Something's up with him.

Oh, and thanks for semi-ruining ''You Get What You Give'' for me with Egan's awful fountain-romping routine. Carrie Ann Inaba gives that a 2!

Two characters I'm digging: Nick and Kathryn (Tim Daly and Kim Raver, pictured). They're not perfect, but I enjoyed the synchronicity of their storylines this week. Both defected from their defunct career philosophies long enough to assure each other of their trust, but then snapped back to their own worlds at the very end. That won't be for long! (Or maybe it will, given how slowly things are moving.)

After Scott Wolf's Jeremy, who plays classical music while he does surgery (eerie and awesome), lost a patient, he ended up injecting something deadly into Randall, who was conveniently right down the hall. (Huh??) Randall flatlined just in time for the calming point in the week's montage-friendly pop song of choice (Coldplay's ''Amsterdam.'') Scott Brown hated last week's montage, but I can't lie for the sake of solidarity. I kind of loved this one. I'm a sucker for clever timing. Also goosebumps.

Did enough happen on The Nine to draw you in for another ep? And who else noticed that in the final labeling of the nine peeps, Eva had been replaced by Lucas?

Source: http://popwatch.ew.com' target="_blank">http://popwatch.ew.com/a>

Badly Drawn Boy @ Hiro Ballroom: 13 Reasons Why You Must Love Damon Gough

1) Springsteen Influence #1: The T-Shirt ('Born To Run')

2) Springsteen Influence #2: The Album Title ('Born In The UK')

3) Springsteen Influence #3: The Cover (of 'Thunder Road')

4) The rip on James Blunt.

5) The rip on Coldplay.

6) The Madonna cover ('Like A Virgin')

7) The Journey cover ('Don't Stop Believin')

8) The affirmation that he is the best songwriter of the last 20 years.

9) Stopping the set at 100 minutes, a first! (Only 2 or 3 stories!)

10) Dancing with the ladies in the front row during 'All Possibilities'.

11) Not paying any attention to the printed setlist, whatsoever.

12) Bringing out his girlfriend Claire for the final tune of the night.

13) The fact that he's still got it and you should see him tonight if you

know what's good for you!

More on this here

1) Goldman Sachs = The Rolling Stones

Because it is number 1 and deservingly arrogant.

2) Citigroup = Ozzy Osbourne

because it is growing old disgracefully, just like the prince of darkness, Ozzy.

3) Deutsche Bank = Fleetwood Mac

Immensely profitable? Check. Years of infighting and not communicating with one another? Check. Badly in need of a style makeover? Check. It's Fleetwood Mac.

4) JPMorgan = Radiohead

Too clever and needing another big hit to remain relevant.

5) Barclays Capital = Oasis

Insolent and failing to break into the US Market, just like Oasis.

6) Morgan Stanley = Coldplay

Deadly earnest. Blue-blooded. Well-heeled. Regularly at the top of the charts.

7) Merrill Lynch = Madonna

Peaked in the 1980s and have been irrelevant since the 1990s, notwithstanding umpteen attempts at reinvention.

8) HSBC = any boyband

The true performers earn peanuts, while the management reaps the financial rewards.

9) UBS = Phil Collins

Both rich, both based in Switzerland, and no one with any sense gives a hoot about either.

10) Commerzbank = David Hasselhoff

Big in Germany, and no one understands why.

Heat: how to stop the planet burning, supported by its accompanying website turnuptheheat.org demands to know why the very people that are committed to saving the environment are doing most to destroying it.

Guardian columnist George Monbiot identifies some of the celebrity environmentalists whose own energy consumption - specifically their jet-setting, four-wheel driving lifestyles - are among the greatest generators of greenhouse gases.

Monbiot outs Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin, concerned about how people ‘treat the planet’, as owner of his own private jet, while one unnamed climate-change campaigner ‘spends her holidays snorkelling in the Pacific’.

Read the full article here

With European markets going ga-ga over fair trade products, will those with the buying power in South Africa start doing the same? In the rush up to the silly season, here's how you can ensure that what you're buying is ethically produced.

Coldplay frontman Chris Martin writes the words 'fair trade' on his hand each time he performs. And with his DATA campaign (debt, Aids, trade, Africa), U2's Bono and his wife Ali have launched a fair trade fashion line, Edun, and are intent on hammering away at what he terms the 'unfair trade rules which keep Africans poor'.

Read the full article here

Jay-Z's comeback album, "Kingdom Come," has been confirmed for a Nov. 21 release date via Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam.

The video for the single "Show Me What You Got" debuts Oct. 16; the track's official radio add date isn't until next week but based on early airplay of a leaked version, it is poised for a major debut on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.

In the F. Gary Gray-directed clip, Jay-Z races NASCAR driver Danica Patrick through the winding roads of Monaco in a sports car piloted by fellow racing star Dale Earnhardt Jr. Later, Jay frolics on a speedboat, at a luxurious party and at a casino.On the album's sparse title track, Jay references Iceberg Slim, Pimp C and Bun B while reassuring the listening public that he's back as hip-hop's savior: "The Bruce Wayne of the game / have no fear / when you need me just throw your Roc signs in the air."

"Kingdom Come" also features collaborations with Coldplay's Chris Martin, Pharrell Williams and Kanye West. As Island Def Jam chairman Antonio "L.A." Reid told Billboard.com today (Oct. 10) during a listening session, "This is the biggest album of the year."

Jay-Z is in the midst of an international tour to raise awareness about the world's water crisis, which will be chronicled in an MTV special debuting Nov. 24.

Itiva Digital Media, a breakthrough rich media delivery network, has begun delivering streamed music videos over the Internet for EMI Music Canada. Using Itiva's Qmesh network, EMI Music Canada offers new music videos over the Internet through the music company's free email blast newsletter and website, EMIssion-online.com. New videos are available weekly.

"Itiva is providing EMI Music Canada with a much higher quality Internet video streaming service at a very low cost," said Michel Billard, CEO of Itiva. "We're proud that our first implementation in the music industry is with one of the top four record companies in the world. We're proving that high quality video can be streamed to a very large audience, and its commercialization will prove its cost effectiveness."

The EMIssion implementation required Itiva's development of a universal Adobe Flash player to view the 500Kb/s per second video, which is then delivered via Quantum Transport™. Itiva's Quantum Transport uses standard Internet protocols to deliver Web-based video with unrivaled performance and economic efficiency, and offers a more immersive experience when it can be delivered at this rate. By taking large media files and slicing them into web objects, video becomes easily trans-portable throughout existing Internet infrastructure.

"Itiva is streaming 500Kb/s per second -- a rate we've previously been unable to offer -- which makes for a compelling way to introduce new music videos to our audience," said Rob Brooks, VP Marketing, EMI Music Canada. "In working with Itiva, we've found a faster and more engaging way to deliver music videos to web-savvy consumers. This allows us to stay on the leading edge, enhancing value for our artists and meeting demands set by our audience. EMI Music Canada looks forward to extending this exciting relationship in the future."

About EMI Music Canada

EMI Music Canada is a unit of EMI Music and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Music Canada was founded in 1949. The current roster features many important local and international artists, including some of the biggest names in the recorded music industry: The Beatles, Beastie Boys, Sarah Brightman, Chingy, Coldplay, Stompin' Tom Connors, Corinne Bailey Rae, Gorillaz, Iron Maiden, Janet Jackson, KT Tunstall, Norah Jones, k-os, Paul McCartney, Anne Murray, Nickelback, Radiohead, Shaye, Joss Stone, Tina Turner, Keith Urban, and Robbie Williams. EMI Music Canada's world-famous labels include Virgin, Capitol, Angel, Blue Note, Manhattan and Parlophone. EMI has artists in every leading music genre, including pop, rock, jazz, classical, Latin, Christian, country, rap/urban and dance. EMI Music Canada also boasts a strong Associated Labels division with labels such as: Aquarius Records, Arts & Crafts, Curb Records, Eagle Rock Entertainment, Marquis, Mute Records, Rykodisc, Sanctuary Records Group, Ultra Records and Warcon.

About Itiva

Itiva Digital Media, a privately held company headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif., provides a content delivery service that significantly and positively influences adoption of high quality video over the Internet by enhancing the viewer experience and making a strong business case for media companies and content developers. Itiva technologies are being showcased by film and music companies now, with commercial availability in late 2006. For more information, visit www.itiva.com.

Source: MarketWire

Boy Kill Boy are to release a new single next month and it's in aid of charity.

The popular indie band will lift Shoot Me Down from their acclaimed debut album Civilian on November 13th, with some of the royalties being donated to War Child. They join previous acts to support the cause as Coldplay, Radiohead, Blur and Oasis.

Boy Kill Boy's manager Chris Peck has had personal experience of the War Child programme in the Democratic Republic of Congo.Speaking about the situation, Peck has said: "Back in '95 I was lucky to spend a couple of months in Uganda with a home-grown organisation called 'The Ruwenzori Project'. There, me and fifteen others worked on an environmental programme in the Ruwenzori jungle which borders Uganda and the D.R.C. With this and through visiting neighbouring schools and orphanages I had a pretty up-close experience of war's devastation on the community, especially the kids. Those stories have since stayed with me so now I'm delighted to have anything to do with War Child and their long-term vision. We can't wait to play in support of the charity and to have our next single 'Shoot Me Down' linked to the project. Most of all we look forward to growing with War Child and being a part of this down the line in any way we can."

The group have also revealed they will be playing a London benefit gig, which will be announced shortly.

Source: http://angryape.com

Google Inc. snapped up YouTube Inc. for $1.65 billion today in deal that catapults the Internet search leader to a leading role in the online video revolution.

The all-stock acquisition unites one of the Internet's marquee companies with one of its rapidly rising stars. The price makes YouTube, a still-unprofitable startup, by far the most expensive purchase made by Google during its eight-year history. Although some cynics have questioned YouTube's staying power, Google is betting that the popular Web site will provide it an increasingly lucrative marketing hub as more viewers and advertisers migrate from television to the Internet. "We are natural partners to offer a compelling media entertainment service to users, content owners and advertisers," said Eric Schmidt, Google's chief executive officer.

YouTube will continue to retain its brand, as well as all 67 employees, including co-founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen.

Full details here

Let's pretend we're at Hollywood High, circa 2023 — and pity the poor teacher who's taking attendance. Apple? Banjo? Coco? Shiloh Nouvel? Suri? Pilot Inspektor? Kal-el? Moxie CrimeFighter?

Wait a minute. Is this a classroom or a superhero convention?

As you've no doubt noticed, for the rich and famous these days, naming babies has become an exercise in creativity. Or is it a competitive sport — a great, big "Can you top this" contest?

Once upon a time, most stars gave their kids nice, down-to-earth names. Bing Crosby christened his Gary, Phillip, Lindsay, Dennis, Harry, Nathaniel and Mary Frances. Even eight-time bride Elizabeth Taylor, who had no problem flaunting convention, named her kids Michael, Christopher, Liza and Maria.

Nowadays, there's not a John or Mary in the (Malibu beach) house.

What's the harm, some ask? Even Shakespeare famously asked, "What's in a name?"

Others focus on the larger challenges a celebrity kid will face.

If, for example, millions of people saw your dad declare his love for your mom while jumping up and down on Oprah Winfrey's couch, it's a safe bet that the name on your birth certificate will not be your biggest problem in life.

In fact, little Suri Cruise — infant daughter of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes — actually has one of the more normal-sounding of the celebrity-baby names.

Consider the other members of that aforementioned class: Moxie CrimeFighter (daughter of Penn Jillette); Apple Blythe Alison (daughter of Gwyneth Paltrow and Coldplay's Chris Martin), and most bizarre of all, Nicolas Cage's not-quite-1-year-old son, Kal-el.

Now, where have we heard that name before? Oh, that's right. Kal-el was the Kryptonian birth name of Superman.

Why do celebrities do it? Why make it even harder than it already is for their kids to feel normal?

"I don't think they're topping each other per se, but I think it's an exercise in creativity," says Danielle Friedland, publisher of popular Celebrity-babies.com (www.celebrity-babies. com). "Someone who grew up as a non-celebrity may not have loved their name. If your name is Rachel, you may want to give your kid a jazzier name. You think they're special, and you want the world to know that — and that you're really special."

To be fair, it's not just celebs who do this to their kids. Actors Rainn Wilson ("The Office") and Poppy Montgomery ("Without a Trace") were born to non-celebrity parents.

"My mom, who's British, had this flower fairy book from the 1800s, and she loved it," explains Montgomery, who has four sisters that also have flower names. "I think she just sort of picked them out of that."

http://www.azstarnet.com

As Van Andel Arena celebrates its 10th anniversary this weekend, managers are well aware they must stare down plenty of competition in years ahead.

But do they also have to worry about a 15,000-seat outdoor amphitheater right in the arena's backyard? After years of kicking around the idea, the Grand Rapids-Kent County Convention Arena Authority is on the verge of a campaign to build West Michigan's largest outdoor concert venue, probably in Millennium Park.

You have to admit, it would be sweet to sit under the stars on a warm summer night, listening to James Taylor, Kenny Chesney or some up-and-coming act that has been touring the "sheds," as such amphitheaters are called. Big outdoor venues usually sell general admission tickets cheaper than assigned seats at arenas. Cheaper always is popular in thrifty West Michigan.Meijer Gardens has a successful outdoor concert season already, but it's a small venue, with about 1,800 seats. It shouldn't be hard to get popular acts here. Billboard, the entertainment-industry publication, said "sheds" are part of an emerging, two-pronged tour strategy: Play to a larger crowd at amphitheaters to create buzz and get better known before booking the local arena later.

The manager of one touring group, Coldplay, told Billboard in a September article his group took that approach. "This strategy worked as most of the shed dates sold out quickly, and the reviews were glowing," manager Dave Holmes said. "Fans who missed the amphitheater dates made sure to catch the arena show, and we gained a lot of new fans."

In fact, an amphitheater would be a complement, not competition for the arena, said Steve Heacock, chairman of the convention arena authority. Before the end of the year, the CAA expects to receive a study from Progressive AE on whether it should pursue the project. The CAA is talking about the eastern end of Millennium Park, largely undeveloped land, including sand and gravel mines, far from residential neighborhoods but close to downtown.

"It wouldn't drain business from the arena," Heacock said. "We've struggled with summer shows because people want to be outside in the summer." An amphitheater would help this area attract shows that might otherwise bypass the arena. "Many shows are designed for outside, so we end up with a pretty quiet house in the summer," he said. It also could add to this area's growing reputation as a profitable stop for hot shows. "The promoter gets to see us," Heacock said.

Outdoor shows, with their cheaper tickets, do not generate as much money as an arena, grossing about $200,000 less per show on average in North America this summer. But building and operating an outdoor site are less expensive than an arena simply because much of the space is Mother Nature's.

This outdoor venue is expected to be "relatively inexpensive," about $20 million, Heacock said. That compares with $75 million for the arena a decade ago. Revenues from outdoor shows could be pooled with arena earnings. "We can make money and channel it back to sustain the arena and convention center," he said.

Talk got more serious when Heacock and others heard developers were separately considering outdoor venues -- one near Wayland and one near Sand Lake. Neither materialized, but it got the CAA motivated. "If cherry-picking is done and certain concerts are done outdoors (at other venues), we aren't capturing the revenue," Heacock said when the study was announced.

So the answer is "No" -- a Grand Rapids amphitheater should not be a threat to The Van. In fact, it could fend off encroaching rivals and help secure this city as a great place for a concert, winter or summer.

Source: http://www.mlive.com

Everyone OK out there?" asked Robert del Naja from the Roseland stage.

"Well, that's good, because this next one's about my homicidal ex-girlfriend's mum who's a crackhead."

Massive Attack's music isn't built for mass adulation. They're studio creatures, and their psychedelic dread symphonies work on grooves and eerie sonic details, not hooks or personality. Emaciated robo-skank guitars, mumble-coo vocals, muffled breakbeats: It's interior-space music, and it doesn't leave a lot of room for showmanship.

Read the full article here

Land Rover, British Gas and Coldplay are all doing it, but experts warn that the benefits of carbon offsetting may be overstated

On the outskirts of Klobikau, some 30 miles from Leipzig and deep inside the former East Germany, wooden stairs are mounted against the side of a hill, the only feature on the flat agricultural landscape. At the top, a dirt track curls across the ragged summit to a cluster of decaying buildings and a wooden watchtower.

The hill is artificial, built of waste dug from a huge open-cast coal mine long since abandoned. During what the locals refer to as the former times, the buildings housed Soviet SS-20 nuclear missiles. The watchtower is new, erected to allow visitors a better view of an unlikely regeneration project, which aims to turn the site into a thriving eco-park.Water diverted from a local river is steadily turning the land into one of Germany's largest lakes. Beaches and wildlife refuges are planned and on the lake shores thousands of trees are being planted. For that, you can thank, among others, Barclays Bank, the Brit Awards, ITV, British Gas, Coldplay, Avis, Volvo, the Conservative party, Honda and Dido.

The tree planting is managed by the Carbon Neutral Company, a British firm that offers individuals and organisations the chance to erase the environmental damage caused by their greenhouse gas emissions. Trees soak up carbon dioxide, the thinking goes, so planting a new tree can neutralise some of the carbon produced by driving a car, flying a plane or turning on the television.

Across the world, thousands of projects aim to cut carbon emissions through reduced energy use or conversion to renewable sources. The notional "carbon credits" such projects generate can be sold, and there is big money to be made: HSBC recently paid £420,000 to buy enough credits to offset just three months of its carbon emissions.

Whether driven by a desire to save the planet or a sense that "going green" is a powerful marketing tool, carbon offsets are everywhere. Need to book a British Airways flight to New York? Want to buy a new Range Rover or petrol from a BP garage? Simply click on the web link, do the sums and pay £20 or so to neutralise your contribution to global warming.

Mass purchase of carbon credits allowed the organisers of this year's World Cup to declare it "carbon neutral". Ditto the makers of the Al Gore film An Inconvenient Truth, and the civil servants who arranged last summer's G8 summit at Gleneagles. Last week, Hampton School in Middlesex announced it had become the first carbon neutral school in the world, after paying £5,000 to Climate Care, the other major British offset firm.

Offset schemes may be popular but they are controversial. To some, they are simply no substitute for emission cuts.

Kevin Anderson, a scientist with the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, said: "Offsetting is a dangerous delaying technique because it helps us avoid tackling the task. It helps us sleep well at night when we shouldn't sleep well at night. If we had gone to the limit of what we can do in our own lives then I could see it would be a route to go down, but we've not even started to make changes to our behaviour. I'm sure the people attending the G8 summit didn't need a separate limo and Merc each to pick them up. But to then claim that the problem is dealt with by planting a couple of trees or whatever is worrying."

Not surprisingly, perhaps, Mike Mason, the founder of Climate Care, disagrees. "I would advocate very strongly that people should reduce their emissions but I'm not going to let that get in the way of me selling carbon offsets to people who won't," he said. "We've all got to climb Mount Climate Change and the greenies would like us to put on our crampons and ice axes and go straight up the north face. I'm saying there are an awful lot of people who can't or won't or who need to be led, so maybe we can find a path round the back instead."

Business in offsets is soaring. About £60m worth have been bought globally this year, up from £20m in 2005. Within three years the market is expected to top £300m. But doubts are growing. Trees are a risky store for carbon and the anticipated 30,000 tonnes of savings from the Klobikau plantations will be delivered only if the trees last 100 years. Oliver Rackham, a botanist and landscape historian at Cambridge University, helped the environmental group Fern make the case for the prosecution when he said: "Telling people to plant trees is like telling them to drink more water to keep down rising sea levels."

Dr Anderson said: "Even if the trees do survive, if we have climate change and a 2C or 3C temperature rise, then how do we know those trees are not going to die early and break down into methane and actually make the situation worse."

Scientific doubts over the value of carbon credits from forest projects led to their exclusion from the mandatory European emissions trading scheme, the industry-focused, bigger brother of the voluntary offset market.

Uncertainties

Mr Mason accepts there is a "swamp of uncertainties" around forest projects but argues they can make a contribution if they are monitored and managed carefully. He is less sure of projects that pay carbon credits for not cutting down existing trees - the Carbon Neutral Company buys credits from a California scheme in which US landowners receiving tax breaks for signing over the rights to chop down mature redwood forests.

Both companies say they are moving on from tree planting projects and aim to limit them to 20% of their portfolios. Of 380,000 carbon credits sold by the Carbon Neutral Company last year, 262,000 were from clean technology and renewable energy projects.

Typical is a scheme that supports the introduction of efficient cooking stoves to people in Eritrea, who had previously used open fires. HSBC has bought credits from a windfarm in New Zealand and both Climate Care and Carbon Neutral Company have projects that distribute energy efficient lightbulbs, in the Marshall Islands and Jamaica respectively.

(Most offset projects are based in the developing world because these countries have no obligations under the Kyoto protocol, which requires industrialised countries to cut emissions.)

There are concerns about whether the projects deliver the promised savings. The credits from some projects, such as HSBC's windfarm, already up and running, are based on carbon already saved. Other schemes, such as Carbon Neutral's Jamaican lightbulbs, are in place but sell credits based on carbon to be saved over the following six years, the anticipated lifespan of the bulbs. Some projects try to sell credits to raise finance for ideas still on the drawing board.

The problem with these schemes, according to Jutta Kill of Fern, is that they are based on predictions. "All those projects are funded on calculations of how much carbon they supposedly reduce compared to what would have happened otherwise. But that is a hypothetical situation and can't be verified. As a basis of a trading mechanism, that's kind of shaky. If the carbon market had been active in 1988 then East Germany would have been a prime target for energy saving projects. But how many predictions of baseline emissions would have included the fall of the Berlin wall?"

Jonathan Shopley of the Carbon Neutral Company said it employed experts to monitor and verify performance. Carbon credits from failed schemes and those that underperform were accounted for, he said, and made up using other projects. "Some projects overperform and some underperform, that's why we have a broad portfolio," he said.

This is not enough for hardline anti-offset campaigners, who complain that such shifting of carbon liabilities between future projects amounts to an environmental Escher staircase, with the promised savings never reached.

Such concerns are compounded by the fact that the market in carbon offsets is voluntary, with no regulation and no independent standards. Others talk of hedge funds trying to offload thousands of suspect carbon credits on unsuspecting consumers and sharp practice where project managers have sold the same carbon credits four or five times.

Francis Sullivan, a carbon offset expert who led HSBC's efforts to neutralise its emissions, said: "There will be individuals and companies out there who think they're doing the right thing but they're not. I am sure that people are buying offsets in this unregulated market that are not credible."

Industry standard

Mark Kenber of the Climate Group said: "It's quite a cowboy market at the moment. If you look at whether it's got the potential to reach 100m tonnes and make a significant dent in emissions then I think some kind of standard is going to be needed." His group plans to launch such a standard this year, which he says would ensure projects delivered the required savings and that resulting credits were not sold more than once.

It would also tackle the twin problems of whether a project would not have taken place without the carbon investment, and its carbon "leakage", whether it could indirectly increase emissions elsewhere (such as legions of German day-trippers driving to see the restored Klobikau eco-park).

Both Climate Care and Carbon Neutral Company say their operate their own standards and work hard to ensure the credits they sell are reliable. But Mr Mason admitted: "Until there is an international register [of carbon credits] I could not put my hand on my heart and say someone is not defrauding us."

Rapid expansion of the market with thousands of new "carbon saving" projects in the pipeline, all eager to cash in on the growing trade, could undermine its credibility, he added. "The quality of the player at the other end has always been our safeguard, but I'm not sure that is always going to be true."

How credit scheme works - or does it?

Carbon offset schemes are designed to neutralise the effects of the carbon dioxide our activities produce by investing in projects that cut emissions elsewhere. They work through the rapidly growing trade in carbon credits, each worth the equivalent of a tonne of carbon. Offset companies typically buy carbon credits from projects that plant trees or encourage a switch from fossil fuels to renewable energy. They sell credits to individuals and companies who want to go "carbon neutral". Some climate experts say offsets are dangerous because they dissuade people from changing their behaviour.

The offset business works on similar lines to the mandatory (and carefully scrutinised) carbon trading scheme imposed on large European companies under the Kyoto protocol, the international agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Companies operating under Kyoto restrictions buy carbon credits called certified emission reductions (CERs). Offset companies usually buy credits on a different market, called voluntary emission reductions (VERs), though most claim this actually stands for verified emission reductions.

CER credits are typically 2-3 times more expensive than VER credits, despite both representing one tonne of carbon "saved" from the environment. Analysts say this price difference reflects a perceived difference in environmental credibility.

Because the offset trade is voluntary, it is unregulated. Most companies operate their own standards but there is little independent scrutiny and no global registry to record the transfer of voluntary carbon credits. Experts warn this means customers could be ripped off, with little or no benefit to the environment. They are worried that individual credits could be sold several times to different buyers and that the projects may not deliver the promised savings.

The carbon credits at the heart of the schemes rarely pass directly from the project that generates them to the polluter who buys them. Like any financial market there are brokers and middlemen, of which Climate Care and the Carbon Neutral Company are the best known in the UK.

Between them, the two companies traded some 475,000 carbon credits last year, each sold for about £6.50. Both are run as money-making businesses: Climate Care's mark-up on the credits it buys is about 35% and Carbon Neutral makes between 40% and 60%. Both point out that this amount is not profit and must cover their costs, such as project management.

Source: http://environment.guardian.co.uk

Hollywood star Nicole Kidman sneaked into rapper JAY-Z's history-making gig at London's Royal Albert Hall last week.

The Girls Girls Girl hitmaker was the first hip-hop star ever to perform at the Victorian building. He was joined onstage by girlfriend Beyonce Knowles, rapper pal Nas, Chris Martin & Gwyneth Paltrow.

Oscar winning Paltrow sang backing vocals for Jay-Z's track Song Cry. Kidman admitted this week she was also among the audience, but was unrecognisable in a baggy top and baseball cap. She says, "Seeing Gwyneth on stage with Jay-Z was amazing - she has a great voice."

No doubt about it: Babies are cute. But some.are cuter than others. Get ready to count down the babies that make the whole world go gaga: The 20 cutest lil’ A-listers ever.

These days, the babies of celebs are almost as famous as their parents. Stars are popping out some of the most precious and fascinating children in the world and we just can’t get enough.

We want to know every last drooly detail about these pint-sized superstars. What are their names? What do they weigh? Who are they wearing? And most important, who is the cutest of the cute?

All Access: 20 Cutest Celebrity Babies will finally declare who is the most adorable of the celebrity tots. Is it Britney Spears’ chunky little cherub Sean Preston? What about Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes’ mysterious bundle of joy Suri, who had the whole world begging to see one, please just one, photo? And of course, there’s Shiloh Jolie-Pitt, whose first public baby pictures sold for no less than $4 million. Not to mention other beautiful bambinos like Kingston Rossdale, Moses Martin, Matilda Ledger and Coco Arquette.

The show will bring together comedians, celebrity journalists and Hollywood insiders to sound off on the most darling, beloved, and talked-about tots among the Hollywood set. We’ll break down just what makes these little ones so darn cute, why they’re so famous, and most of all, which high-powered parent they look like.

Join VH1 in celebrating the sweetest little sensations in Tinseltown. Cuz we all know whether they’re sleeping, smiling or playing peek-a-boo with the paparazzi, celebrity babies rule.

VH1.com

AIRING TIMES

All Access (Documentary)

Starting: 18:00 on Sunday 8th October. Duration: 1 hour

Showing on VH1 UK.

All Access (Documentary)

Starting: 16:00 on Sunday 15th October. Duration: 1 hour

Showing on MTV UK.

All Access (Documentary)

Starting: 16:00 on Sunday 15th October. Duration: 1 hour

Showing on MTV Ireland.

All Access (Documentary)

Starting: 18:00 on Sunday 15th October. Duration: 1 hour

Showing on TMF (The Music Factory).

All Access (Documentary)

Starting: 20:00 on Sunday 15th October. Duration: 1 hour

Showing on TMF (The Music Factory).

All Access (Documentary)

Starting: 23:00 on Sunday 15th October. Duration: 1 hour

Showing on VH1 UK.

All Access (Documentary)

Starting: 20:00 on Thursday 19th October. Duration: 1 hour

Showing on TMF (The Music Factory).

Last year he topped the charts. Now the Crazy Frog's days look numbered. Sales of mobile phone ringtones are in terminal decline, says research out today.

The rogue practices of some companies as well as the increasing availability of tracks and videos on mobile phones signal the death knell for tinny jingles. It will come as a huge relief to those fed up with the incessant, poor quality reproductions of chart hits and TV theme tunes - not to mention the Frog's teethgrindingly omnipresent squawl.

And doubtless Coldplay will welcome the news. The band was kept off the top of the charts last year by Crazy Frog's Axel F tune. Figures from music consultancy MusicAlly show ringtone sales grew from £34.8 million in 2000 to £177.3 million in 2005. But they are expected to fall this year to £143.5 million and £78.8 million by 2011.Rob Wells, director of the new media division at Universal Music UK, said: "The ringtone business in the UK is now in decline. You can put it down to price, piracy and the Crazy Frog effect."

It is also partly down to the way some ringtone firms tricked customers into thinking they were buying a single ringtone when they had signed up to costly subscription plans.

Meanwhile, software is now available on the Internet allowing full MP3 tracks to be turned into ringtones.

Source: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk

Lily Allen has been warned by her managers to stop insulting other stars or she will lose fans.

The 21-year-old 'Smile' singer has publicly insulted Victoria Beckham, Robbie Williams, Coldplay star Chris Martin and Paris Hilton among others, but refuses to tone down her attitude.

She said: "When people around me get scared, saying I'm gonna lose all this if I slag off one more person, I'm like, 'Oh f**k off, it doesn't really matter!' Don't get me wrong, I'm really happy to be where I am right now and have the success that I have, but I really don't think this is my place in life. There's so much more I want to do."

Muse and Thom Yorke were the big winners at the BT Digital Music Awards last night.

Each collected two trophies at the fifth annual ceremony dedicated to digital music entertainment. Festival favourites Muse beat Hard- Fi, Editors, Kasabian and Mystery Jets to win the coveted best rock artist title, and their fansite, www.muselive.com, was named best unofficial music site.

Lily Allen beat Sandi Thom, The Kooks, Girls Aloud and Will Young to take the best pop artist gong. And R'n'B star Lemar beat Nate James, Plan B, Sway and The Streets to be named best urban artist. Mike and Ted Mayhem's blog took the prize for the best music blog – a category sponsored by Metro.

Lorraine, White Stripes and The Streets also walked away with awards, while Peter Gabriel picked up a 'pioneer award' for his contribution to digital music over the years.

Radiohead's Thom Yorke won best use of mobile and best artist campaign awards.

The Wonderfuls, from Brighton, won best unsigned artist.

BT managing director Gavin Patterson said: '2006 has been a really great year for digital music, which has helped make this year's awards even more exciting and harder to call than ever before.'

Sandi Thom, Rock School's Lil' Sound times: Muse won best rock artist at the awards, while Lily Allen took best pop act Chris, Nate James, hip hop star Plan B and The Wonderfuls played live on the night at Camden Roundhouse in North London.

Thirteen of the 19 awards were voted for by the public, with some 500,000 people voting online. The other six were chosen by a panel of experts. The awards will be broadcast on Channel 4 on October 21.

Last year's big winners were Gorillaz and Coldplay.

Music download site Wippit has substantially increased its music catalogue by adding another 2.4million songs from a number of digital music distributers.

Wippit offers music downloads in MP3 format, which has no digital rights management added to it. As a result, Wippit tends to represent indie music rather than the mainstream, although there are exceptions. The new tracks are as a result of deals struck with The Orchard, IODA, VUT, Digital Rights Agency, and CD Baby. CD Baby adds songs from over 150,000 artists directly, while VUT represents Germany’s independent music scene. The Orchard will supply Wippit from artists including Green Day, Coldplay, Ray Charles, and Barenaked Ladies, while DRA adds Snoop Dogg, Chamillionaire, and Ludacris to the mix.

Wippit claims to be the second largest digital music service in the UK, with an international customer base where 26% of sales come from other European countries and 17% from North America.

This morning is Colin Montgomerie's idea of heaven. He will load his golf clubs into his Bentley and drive from his home in Oxshott, Surrey, to St Andrews to defend his title in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. There will be music blaring all the way.

"I can't wait," the Scot said. "I'll be listening to Coldplay, and I'll have it on so loud that the car will be vibrating."

And the estimated duration of the 480-mile journey? "Shorter than it should be," he replied. All of which would suggest that his fellow motorists might welcome a bit of advance warning.

Read the full article here

With more than 200,000 votes cast, only 201 separated The Beatles' 1967 hit from Michael Jackson's Thriller in second place.

The nationwide survey of music fans was commissioned by BBC Radio to mark the 50th anniversary of the official UK album chart.

U2's Joshua Tree was third, with Rumours by Fleetwood Mac taking fourth place. The Fab Four managed five of the top 11 spots, with Revolver in sixth place, Abbey Road in eighth, the White Album at 10 and Rubber Soul in 11th.

Mike Oldfield's hit Tubular Bells, which stayed in the charts for five years after its release in 1973, also featured, taking the number 18 slot.

Definitely Maybe, the debut album by Oasis, managed to make number 22.

Earlier this summer it was voted best album of all time – with Sgt Pepper's in second – in a poll of 40,000 people by the book of British Hit Singles and Albums and music website nme.com.

The most recent albums to make the top 100 were records released last year by Coldplay (33), Madonna (37), James Blunt (80) and Gorillaz (95).

The oldest number one albums in the list were Please Please Me by The Beatles (79) and The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (85) – both from 1963.

Of the classic albums that failed to reach the number one position, fans voted for Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon as their favourite with The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars, by David Bowie, at number two.

The official album chart started in 1956 and there have been 787 number one albums.

The first number one was Songs For Swingin' Lovers by Frank Sinatra.

Source: http://www.news.com.au

A row has broken out over plans to fence off parts of Crystal Palace Park for weeks at a time to stage rock gigs and show movies.

The London Development Agency (LDA) wants to attract more people to the area and has applied to Bromley council for a licence to stage an unlimited number of events including concerts,dance performances,circuses and film screenings.

Coldplay played two packed nights at the neighbouring National Sports Centre in June 2005, two years after Bruce Springsteen did the same. To save organisers having to dismantle and set up sound gear after each event, the LDA plans to seal off the area around the stage - known as The Bowl - between events.

But while the Crystal Palace Community Association agrees that fencing off the stage itself would be sensible, it is against denying public access to any larger area.

Lobby group member Mike Warwick said: "To fence off the enormous area which could accommodate 40,000 spectators would be depriving park users of the enjoyment of the park."

The LDA also wants permission to sell alcohol in the park until 3am for summer events. Mr Warwick said: "This licence would give them carte blanche do do whatever they liked. If an event were on the scale of the Coldplay concert, which was attended by 40,000 people, it would mean the park and its environs would shut down."

An LDA spokesman said the plan was to only stage events requiring fencing be left up for up to five weeks during the summer. He said: "Whenever fencing is not needed around the concert bowl site, it will be opened for public use."

He added: "Our vision for Crystal Palace park as a sports and events park received over-whelming public support in our consultation last year. An entertainment and alcohol licence will give us the flexibility to continue to stage a variety of events throughout the year, such as concerts and firework displays. We do not intend to stage events that will disturb people who live around the park."

Source: http://icsouthlondon.icnetwork.co.uk

Attention all rockers out there!

To coincide with the release of Big Rock – a compilation of 18 rock hit songs including Linkin Park’s Somewhere I Belong, Green Day (American Idiot), Simple Plan (Shut Up!), Coldplay (In My Place), Keane (Somewhere Only We Know), The Darkness (Love Is Only a Feeling), Fort Minor (Believe Me featuring Mike Shinoda), Hard-F1 (Cash Machine) and Snow Patrol (Run) – Warner Music is having a call-in contest.

There are 20 CDs up for grab. How to win it?

Easy. Just call Warner Music's office at 03-78760611 today from 7pm onwards and win yourself a CD of Big Rock compilation album. For those who may miss out the chance to get the free CD, don't fret as it is available in record stores at RM29.90 a copy.

With every purchase of the CD, you will get an enhanced-CD featuring PC downloads, wall papers, photo gallery, music video streams and links to download original Ringtones. And, for any Ringtones download, fans will stand a chance to win a trip to any concert from any Big Rock artiste of their choice.

Source: http://www.star-ecentral.com

The new series of Extras stars this week - and Chris Martin and David Bowie are among those who’ll be humiliating themselves in it.

For those of you who still wake up screaming at the nightmarish vision of Les Dennis, naked as the day he was cuckolded, cupping his nadgers and baring his arse, brace yourselves. Extras - the superstar-sniping sarco-series that leapt sneering from the hot brain of Ricky Gervais after The Office - is back.

And this time the weekly guest stars lining up to prove they can laught at their own shallow stereotype include David Bowie and our own macrobiotic megastar Chris Martin. We cornered Ricky and co-writer Stephen Merchange to find out how they’ve turned Chris into an on-screen Axl Rose and what Bowie gets up to in his slippers.

Read the full article here

There isn't a whole lot of Coldplay news to report tonight, but I read some things related to the upcoming Glastonbury Festival that made me want to post.

First off, one of the festival's main acts, The White Stripes, are talking about breaking up due to becoming too popular? It's amazing to think about how much of an effect popularity has on up-and-coming bands. It certainly affected Kurt Cobain and Eddie Vedder in the early 90s, and it looks like it is now taking its toll on one of the bands ironically labeled as "post-grunge."

On a totally different subject, DotMusic.com is reporting that both Radiohead and Oasis turned down Glastonbury this year. Being from the U.S. I'm not as honed in on how bands compare to each other in England, but I'm guessing that if Radiohead had decided to play, Coldplay wouldn't be headlining. Even though I'm a huge Radiohead fan, I think it's great that Coldplay gets to headline Glastonbury this year. Especially since they've got the new album coming out later this summer.

#Lastly, to make this worthy of a spot on my news page, I have one little tidbit of information to share: because of the events at Roskilde two years ago, security has been beefed up quite a bit for this year's Glastonbury Festival. Apparently a 1 million 'superfence' has been built to protect fans up front. Hopefully everything goes smoothly.

Source: http://www.pleasureunit.com/coldplay