Billy Mays Has Died

You may not have known his name, but you certainly have seen him. Billy Mays was the strong-voiced TV pitchman for everything from the Hercules Hook to Orange Glow to MightyMendit to, most recently Flies Away.
He was also featured on the reality show "Pitchmen" on the Discovery Channel, which followed Mays along on his marketing jobs.
An online collection of his most popular TV spots has already turned into an impromptu memorial of sorts. Many people are expressing their condolence to his son, Billy Mays III, on his Twitter page. Billy Mays was 50.

Billy Mays, the burly, bearded television pitchman whose boisterous hawking of products such as Orange Glo and OxiClean made him a pop-culture icon, has died. He was 50. Tampa police said Mays' wife found him unresponsive Sunday morning. A fire rescue crew pronounced him dead at 7:45 a.m. It was not immediately clear how he died. He said he was hit on the head when an airplane he was on made a rough landing Saturday, and his wife, Deborah Mays, told investigators he didn't feel well before he went to bed about 10 p.m. that night.
There were no signs of a break-in at the home, and investigators do not suspect foul play, said Lt. Brian Dugan of the Tampa Police Department, who wouldn't answer questions about how Mays' body was found because of the ongoing investigation. The coroner's office expects to have an autopsy done by Monday afternoon.

"Although Billy lived a public life, we don't anticipate making any public statements over the next couple of days," Deborah Mays said in a statement Sunday. "Our family asks that you respect our privacy during these difficult times."

U.S. Airways confirmed that Mays was among the passengers on a flight that made a rough landing on Saturday afternoon at Tampa International Airport, leaving debris on the runway after apparently blowing its front tires.

Tampa Bay's Fox television affiliate interviewed Mays afterward.

"All of a sudden as we hit you know it was just the hardest hit, all the things from the ceiling started dropping," MyFox Tampa Bay quoted him as saying. "It hit me on the head, but I got a hard head."

Tampa police spokeswoman Laura McElroy said linking Mays' death to the landing would "purely be speculation." She said Mays' family members didn't report any health issues with the pitchman, but said he was due to have hip replacement surgery in the coming weeks.

Laura Brown, spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said she did not know if Mays was wearing his seat belt on the flight because the FAA is not investigating his death.

Michael Jackson Dies at 50

Michael Jackson, the "King of Pop" who rose from poverty to stardom alongside his brothers in The Jackson Five and solo success to become one of the most successful entertainers ever, has died. He was 50.
Jackson, responsible for 13 No. 1 hits, was pronounced dead after being rushed to a Los Angeles hospital after suffering cardiac arrest on Thursday.

No matter what you think of him, he is arguably the most influential artist of his era.

Quincy Jones, producer of Jackson's most successful albums, said he was "absolutely devastated" by the news that Jackson was "taken away from us so suddenly at such a young age."

"To this day, the music we created together on Off The Wall, Thriller and Bad is played in every corner of the world and the reason for that is because he had it all ... talent, grace, professionalism and dedication," said Jones. "He was the consummate entertainer and his contributions and legacy will be felt upon the world forever. I've lost my little brother today, and part of my soul has gone with him."

Jackson was preparing for a series of London comeback concerts he hoped would alleviate his massive debts and return him to the glory days of such hits as "Thriller," "Beat It," "Bad," and "Billie Jean." His singing and dancing abilities and iconic look — from his lone silver glove to his multi-zippered jackets — made him one of the most recognizable and celebrated human beings of all time.

Health Games Become Serious Business

(Reuters) - Videogames were once blamed for rising obesity rates but are now being championed by the medical industry and for use by government departments for their health benefits.

Games like Electronic Arts' "EA Sports Active" and Nintendo's "Wii Fit" have got players of all ages moving -- and game developers and investors looking for hot new titles to cash in on this booming segment of the market.

Big John Games' upcoming "Butt Kicker" Nintendo DSi game will provide an action-based environment in which players fight against cigarettes and "Karate Bears" for Wii teaches players real karate routines using the Wii's motion-sensor controllers.

With interest in health games rising, the fifth annual Games for Health Conference in Boston expanded to 390 people this year from 100, including developers, investors and medical experts, while numbers at many other conferences are down up to 40 percent.

"Healthcare is 18 percent of the GDP of the United States and so games for health is probably the largest sector of activity in the serious games field long-term," said Ben Sawyer, co-founder of The Games for Health Project.

"If you add up the 18 month sales of "Wii Fit" and the sales of "EA Sports Active," Konami's "Dance Dance Revolution" and other healthy games, the worldwide retail numbers are over $2 billion."

Dr. Michael Levine, executive director of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop which fosters innovation in children's learning, has just released a report looking at how digital games can play a beneficial and educational role in health care.

"The White House should launch a national initiative to promote research and development of proven games," said Levine.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, whose mission is to improve the health and healthcare of all Americans, has also called for a public engagement campaign supported by the president, Congress and the federal agencies to teach parents, teachers and health providers about the healthy side of gaming.

"States' governors should direct their school technology officers to look at innovations like "Dance Dance Revolution" and "Wii Fit" as a way to extend the reach of physical education and comprehensive health education," said Dr. Debra Lieberman, director of Health Games Research for the foundation.

The Games for Health Conference also showcased how videogames are being used to help doctors and patients alike.

Serious games developer Virtual Heroes is working on a new first-person shooter sequel for Hope Lab's popular "Re-Mission" game, which has been distributed to cancer patients in 81 countries since 2006.

"We're taking their existing concept and trying to raise the fun bar and creating more lifelike and enjoyable environments within the human body," explained Jerry Heneghan, CEO of Virtual Heroes.

"Players will take control of Roxy, the protagonist, and have new weapons to battle cancer with thanks to input from cancer patients."

Virtual Heroes is also updating its HumanSim technology with a new human physiology engine, technology has been used by Duke Medical Center's nursing school to train nurses virtually.

Heneghan said he hopes this software will inspire gamers to turn to careers in healthcare and make people in the medical profession more proficient with more grants and funding flowing into universities for health games.

Does Saturn's Moon Hide Watery Caverns - And Life?

(Reuters) - Saturn's icy moon Enceladus could contain watery underground caverns, forming a potential home for alien life, scientists said on Wednesday.

German researchers have found salt -- a signature chemical for seawater -- in ice grains from vapor jets streaming out of surface cracks, providing the strongest evidence yet of a liquid water reservoir beneath the moon's frozen crust.

A U.S. team said the amount of salt they had detected using a different method suggested an earlier theory that water was boiling explosively into the vacuum of space via geysers was wrong, and evaporation was occurring quite slowly.

Both studies were published in the journal Nature.

One explanation for the slower evaporation may be that water is emerging from pressurized chambers below the so-called tiger stripe fractures in the moon's surface, said John Spencer of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

"Our picture of its sub-surface must now be expanded to include the possibility of misty ice caverns floored with pools and channels of salty water, lurking beneath the tiger stripes," he wrote in a commentary on the two scientific papers.

"What else may lurk in those salty pools, if they exist, remains to be seen."

The Cassini spacecraft first discovered huge plumes erupting from fissures near the south pole of Enceladus in 2005, sparking speculation of a vast underground ocean spewing vapor through giant Yellowstone-like geysers.

Since then, scientists have debated whether this meant that Enceladus (pronounced en-SELL-ah-dus), with a diameter of only 310 miles, was hiding a reservoir of liquid water. It is one of about 60 moons of the ringed planet Saturn.

Frank Postberg of the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg said the presence of sodium salts was compelling evidence, indicating salty minerals were washed out from rock on Enceladus in the same way oceans absorb salt on Earth.

He and colleagues reported they had found salty grains of ice after analyzing data from Cassini's cosmic dust detector as it flew through Saturn's outermost ring, where Enceladus orbits.

Whether or not Enceladus harbors life remains a mystery. But the evidence of liquid water, coupled with heat near the moon's South Pole, suggests it is possible.

"If you have this large amount of water in contact with a rocky core and you have heat, then you have very good conditions," Postberg said in a telephone interview.

"On top of that we measured a slightly alkaline pH value, which is very good for the formation of complex organic molecules."

Scientists hope to find out more when Cassini makes two more close fly-bys of Enceladus in November.

Digital TV Apocalypse Upon Us

It's official. Finally. After over 12 years of waiting since the FCC announced the US transition to all digital TV broadcasting in late 1996, the switchover has finally arrived. Analog TV broadcasts have been turned off and all full power broadcasts in the US are now digital.
The 15% of the population that still watches over the air TV now needs a set made in the last three years or a set-top digital tuner box (or alternately, sign up for cable or satellite.)
It's hard to imagine anyone still unaware of the transition at this point. Numerous stations have already switched to digital and had their analog signal turned off for months. Anyone watching TV broadcasts have seen crawls during programming and endless news segments and PSAs for about a year now regarding the switch. However, Nielsen statistics released just last week supposedly indicate 5% of central Texas households (about 30,000) are still unprepared. It seems awareness and understanding are two different things.
There are local resources available in cities all across the country. Free walk-in and in-home assistance is available, as well as free phone support; all being provided by TV stations, electronics stores, and non-profit organizations nationwide.
To find local resources for assistance, as well as broadcast coverage maps detailing what channels you should be able to receive, go to dtv.gov.
If you are tech-savvy, volunteer to help at one of these places after making sure your family and friends are all set to enjoy DTV.

A word about DTV tuner boxes: they are not all the same in features or quality. Having used three myself, I can say that they all have unexpected idiosyncrasies. For example; some have buttons on the actual unit and others don't; requiring you to have the remote even to turn it on. If remotes get misplaced in your household, this can lead to several minutes of scrambling to find it while your show already started.
Some units have significantly longer startup times than others. Some are heavy enough to remain stationary on top of your set under their own weight; others are small and light enough that the cables attached to them make it hard to have them sit in any one place without doublestick foam tape.
A pretty complete list of models and features can be found at Consumer Reports.org.

Apple Expands Product Line, Debuts $99 iPhone

From Twice News Daily:

The latest version of the iPhone, the iPhone 3G S, will debut in U.S. stores June 19 with double the wireless-download speeds and more memory capacity than current models, Apple announced today at its worldwide developers conference.

The 16GB version of the iPhone 3G S will retail for $199, and a 32GB version will retail for $299, when purchased with two-year AT&T wireless contract and eligible service plans. The current 8GB iPhone 3G remains in the line but at a price that was cut immediately to $99 from $199. The existing $299 16GB iPhone 3G will be dropped from the lineup when current supplies run out, but its price has been reduced in the interim to $149.

The price moves put pressure on competing touchscreen-equipped smartphones, including the Palm Pre, which debuted June 6 on the Sprint network at $199 with 8GB of embedded memory and no memory card slot.

The 3G S will be available through AT&T, Apple, Best Buy and Walmart stores.

The new 3G S features the iPhone 3.0 OS, which will also be available for free downloading to current iPhones on June 17.

The 3G S looks like the current 3G, but besides the previously announced upgrades enabled by the 3.0 OS, the iPhone 3G S adds 7.2Mbps high speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) cellular-data technology. The AT&T network technology doubles theoretical peak download speeds from the 3.6Mbps available to the iPhone 3G, whose actual throughput averages 700kbps to 1.7Mbps.

The new models also add:

* upgraded camera with 3-megapixel resolution, autofocus, auto white balance, macro focus, low-light capability and a “tap to focus” feature in which users tap on an object in the display to adjust focus and exposure;

* digital compass integrated with map displays;

* voice control of phone functions, applications, and dialing;

* reduced application launch times;

* longer battery life;

* OpenGL ES 2.0 standard for improved 3-D graphics; and

* built-in communication with the optional $19 Nike+iPod sensor to track miles run or sync with the latest generation gym equipment.

On the iPhone 3G and 3G S, the 3.0 OS delivers cellular downloading of purchased or rented movies, plus TV shows and music videos, from the iTune store. The OS also enables a remote-wipe feature, which lets subscribers remotely delete all stored data from a lost iPhone. A Find My iPhone feature lets users push messages to lost phones to notify the finder to call the owner at a certain number. If the iPhone is returned, wiped-out data can be restored by connecting to the iTunes site.

Other previously announced features of the iPhone 3.0 operating system include ability to support GPS applications that deliver turn-by-turn driving instructions. Here at the conference, TomTom unveiled its driving-direction application for the OS.

More than 100 other features enabled by the 3.0 OS, also available for downloading to the iPod Touch, include:

* 30 fps video capture with ability to post videos to the web or send them by email or MMS (multimedia messaging service); AT&T will enable iPhone 3G and 3G S MMS in the summer;

* the ability to cut and paste text across multiple applications;

* searching for keywords across multiple applications;

* background notification of text and instant messages via sound, text or badge alerts;

* cellular MMS (multimedia messaging service);

* camcorder capability;

* stereo Bluetooth;

* peer-to-peer Bluetooth connections;

* shake to shuffle;

* automatic login at Wi-Fi hot spots;

* access to Google and Yahoo shared calendars;

* the ability to forward and delete multiple messages;

* parental controls for TV shows, movies and apps from the iTunes Store; and

* the ability to view email in landscape mode and type emails on a landscape-mode virtual keyboard, not just on a portrait-mode keyboard...

The 3.0 software is available June 17 as a free software update to existing iPhones but costs $9.95 for Touch users.

Austin Director Richard Linklater Appears At Blockbuster

Austin filmmaker Richard Linklater made several personal appearances recently to promote his new documentary about University of Texas baseball coach Augie Garrido, Inning By Inning: A Portrait of a Coach, now available on DVD.
His most recent appearance was yesterday at the Blockbuster store in Pflugerville, Tx. Linklater met with fans and signed autographs for a couple of hours, giving plenty of time to each person. He followed up the event by playing catch with a fan behind the store.
Linklater has gained somewhat of a cult following for his independent films since the early 90s with the releases Slacker (available as a Criterion Collection DVD) and Dazed & Confused.
He has since enjoyed mainstream success with films like School of Rock and Bad News Bears.
Linklater co-founded the Austin Film Society in 1985, which has since proved invaluable to independent and mainstream filmmakers in Austin.