A driver texting with both hands off the wheel and both eyes off the road.

Los Angeles – On Monday August 16, 2010, famed celebrity plastic surgeon, 50 year-old Dr. Frank Ryan (who has had virtually the who’s who of Hollywood under his knife at one time or the other in the past), tweeted (from his BlackBerry) a picture he had taken minutes earlier of his loyal dog, Jill, to his 2,290 followers on twitter with the caption: “Border collie jill surveying the view from atop the sand dune.”

That tweet was time marked 4.10pm (Pacific Time) by Twitter.

His tweeter followers must have been taking in the luxurious view of the pacific ocean as it caressed the sand dunes along the Malibu coastline without realizing that what they were staring at was perhaps the last voluntary act of a man. Unbeknownst to them, at the time most of them were reading that tweet and taking in that picture, the multi-millionaire plastic surgeon was battling death for the right to live. Or was already dead.

He paid the ultimate price for being stupid. What he did was the same thing a great majority of us do on a daily basis but, unfortunately for the good doctor, he was caught.

He was sending that tweet while driving his 1995 Jeep down a Malibu cliff surrounded by a rocky terrain. No one could say accurately what happened in that fatal final moment of his life but evidence collected so far by the California Highway Patrol’s investigations into the crash and the testimonies given by people that knew him (his ex-girlfriend, publicist Charmaine Blake told People Magazine that she was sure that he was texting when he had the accident and former supermodel, Janice Dickerson, one of the doctor’s longtime clients and friends, said on Larry King Live a few days after the accident that she knew unequivocally that he was texting or tweeting when he lost control of the vehicle) seem to suggest that he was tweeting (or texting) while driving down that rocky cliff, lost control of his vehicle, plunged down the side of the cliff, knocked his head multiple times against the rocks (since it was an open-top vehicle) as the vehicle was being tossed down from rock to rock and sustained mortal head injuries. He was pronounced dead at the scene where he came to rest.

I assume that this sounds like something one reads in a work of fiction or in one of those plots that screenwriters in Hollywood concoct but this one was real-to-life.

A brilliant, stupendously rich surgeon lost his head for a brief moment and lost his life as a result. How tragic! How senseless a way to throw away such a quality life! Every thing I’ve heard and read about Dr. Frank Ryan since his death seem to suggest that he was a good man. He’s been described as a man with a very big heart. He was a good man that periodically did stupid things. It was unfortunate that he had to go that way but I am glad that he didn’t take anyone else with him. (His dog, Jill, his only passenger during that fatal ride, survived the crash. So much for loyalty.)

Perhaps we all could have a truly teachable moment with this tragedy.

Ever since the advent of the modern day cell phone and especially since texting became the rave in the last 5 years or thereabout, an increasing number of people have made a fashion statement of text messaging as their primary means of communication. What has been greatly disturbing for a lot of us is the fact that two things that should never be brought together – driving and texting – is insidiously becoming the norm in our society. It is becoming more like an intractable carcinoma that has spread throughout our system – only that this cancer is of the contagious variety that has now taken on the form of a pandemia.

The idiocy was initially the exclusive preserve of impressionable youths but more and more adults are joining this unfathomable craze daily. The beauty of youth is in its delusional feeling of indestructibility and infallibility. And that, exactly, is where its madness lies. To believe that one is indestructible or infallible is arrant nonsense.

I made the argument once that texting while driving is somehow worse than driving under the influence of alcohol. Not to excuse it but driving under the influence of alcohol limits the reaction time of the driver but his hands are usually on the steering wheel and his eyes are usually on the road. For those driving and texting at the same time, 3 major components of safe driving are taken away: Visual, as the eyes are completely off the road and are embedded instead into the phone; Manual, as the two hands are almost always off the wheels; and Cognitive, as the mind is not on the act of driving. Combined, and the end result is tragedy.

I once had a girlfriend who would use her thighs to steer the wheels while she texted and drove. She thought it was so in vogue when she told me about it when we had just met. I bugged her relentlessly about it – and she would peevishly tell me, “Okay, Gandhi, I hear you! I won’t do that again.” But then she would text me voraciously while driving down to see me, perhaps forgetting her promise not to. I would reply, “Don’t text me while driving,” and she would come back with the “Okay, Gandhi” refrain. It then occurred to me that I was somehow enabling her and, as a result, I stopped responding to her text messages whenever I suspected that she was driving. So she stopped sending them and (from what she told me) she stopped texting while driving completely. I don’t know if she’s gone back to her “evil” ways since but I somehow suspect she has. (I’m saying this with the utmost respect and love, in case you’re reading this.)

I was in a car heading down the 405 freeway one sunny afternoon with another friend who also is notorious for saying (each time I tell her to not text while driving, something she took great joy in doing) that every one would die someday, somehow. (Yes, that’s true, but you shouldn’t involve the innocent bystander in your suicide mission.) Anyway, on this day, she was driving and we were on the next lane to the carpool lane (for non-California residents, a carpool lane is a special road lane(s) designed by the state government to encourage carpooling such that when there are two or more people in a car, you are allowed to drive on these lanes that are usually, but not always, free of gridlock. It’s especially great for driving during the rush hour traffic). Everything was going well until, suddenly and without indicating, the car on the carpool lane to our left swerved out of its lane and right onto ours, cutting suddenly into the front of our car. Because she was completely focused on the road, she saw this errant car coming from the corner of her eye and, in a split second, just before it hit us (or we hit it), she expertly maneuvered our car to, luckily, an open lane to our right. The errant car just kept going like nothing happened and when we caught up with it later, it was occupied by an old couple that was engrossed in such deep conversation they wouldn’t have noticed if the rapture had taken place around them. (Apparently they were engaged in some text-icular kind of conversation.)

The reason I brought up that incident was that if she had been texting at that moment, she wouldn’t have stood a chance and at 80 mph on the freeway, none of us would have stood a chance. Some accidents we cannot do anything about. The great majority of road traffic accidents though are both avoidable and preventable. That above was averted because it was avoidable and all it took was one alert driver. Dr. Frank Ryan’s accident was completely preventable. If he wasn’t texting (or tweeting) his car wouldn’t have run off the cliff. There is no doubt about that!

We tend to underestimate the grave magnitude of having someone who’s completely alert drive the car. We lose our lateral vision once we’re not completely focused on the road ahead. We retain some tunnel vision but the lateral one that makes us see things developing from our sides and to quell them before they’re fully formed are compromised. Our ability to react instinctively to life-and-death situations on a fast motorway is rendered obtuse. It takes a split second for most accidents to occur and these are mostly prevented by an acute lateral vision, especially while driving on the freeway, and constant great awareness of your driving environment. Because of the tendency by crazy drivers to switch lanes without signaling, a distracted driver would often run into accidents that most alert drivers would avert.

This may not sound nice or you may not want to hear it but I’m going to be brutally honest with you and say it anyway. If you drive while texting, you will die! And if you don’t die, you will maim or kill someone else.

It is not a question of if, but of when. Yours is an inevitability; but it’s not the sort of inevitability of that every one would die someday – it is that of an imminent inevitability. You are a ticking time bomb that’s going to detonate; you are highly combustible and you shall explode someday soon. Driving while texting is a suicide mission; it is akin to jumping from the top of the Sears Towers without a parachute or swimming amongst predatory sharks. Something’s going to give, someday, and that would be you. You are a walking dead!

Texting while driving is extremely selfish, very irresponsible and patently evil. A text message could always wait. It is not worth the extreme danger. No one on the other end is worth losing one’s life for; or losing someone else’s life over. When you kill someone because you were texting while driving, you are a murderer and no amount of atonement would wash that murderous stink off of your despicable garment. The victim’s family will never forget and society will never forgive.

And friends that allow other friends to text while driving are equally complicit. A good friend would never allow a friend to do that. When you love someone, you do everything humanly possible to keep them alive. Some friends are recalcitrant and incorrigible but if you persist, they just might hear your tiny little voice in their subconscious mind one day and stop – and that might just save their lives and the lives of others. Most people will listen to you if you make them truly understand why you believe what they are doing is bad. If they don’t listen to you, you’ve done your part and you’d have satisfied your own conscience should anything happen to them. I have a friend who never listens no matter what I say or how I say it. He’s constantly fiddling with his phone whenever he drives – either looking for numbers to call or whom to text. I pray he doesn’t get into an ugly situation as a result of this someday but I wouldn’t be surprised if he did. I only pray he doesn’t kill someone else with his stupidity.

I am not without blame either. Even though I never send text messages while driving, I have been tempted sometimes to check my phone when a text message comes in – to see what the message was about or from whom it came. I also would make calls while driving but I now realize that the process of looking through the phone book for the number to dial is as bad as sending a text message. I am visually, (uni)manually and cognitively impaired during these fleeting periods and unsavory things could happen. I have vowed to never talk, text or tweet – the three Ts of evil – while driving again. It’d be very hard for me to not talk on my phone with the earpiece while driving since I’ve always considered that safe but since the experts have somehow convinced me that the fact that I’m talking on the phone, even with the headset on, reduces my reaction time, I have resolved, grudgingly, to try to give it up. The easiest way is for me to keep my phone hidden away from me every time I get behind the wheel. And that’s what I intend to do starting now!

I hope every one that reads this (and watches the videos below) will make this same vow right now and mean it: I shall never text, tweet or talk on the phone while driving – ever again!

I know what I’m asking you to do is impractical: To not text, tweet, facebook, or even talk while driving. In this age of smart phones and social networking on-the go, this sounds more like a death sentence. I agree. So, if you’re the type that just couldn’t resist the urge to send that text, or that tweet, or that facebook update, while driving, by all means, go ahead and feed your addiction. But do us all a huge favor though by pulling your car to the side of the road or of the freeway while you indulge this extravagance of yours. It’d only cost you a few minutes of travel time but it might just save you a few lives.

About 25 minutes before that fatal tweet (at exactly 3.45pm Pacific Time), Dr. Frank Ryan had tweeted: “After 25 years of driving by, I finally hiked to the top of the giant sand dune on the pch west of malibu. Much harder than it looks! Whew!” (pch is Pacific Coast Highway.)

He, at least, got to see the mountaintop of his life, literally and metaphorically, before foolishly plunging to his untimely death. What about you? Have you been to the mountaintop of your own existence yet?

When you text while driving, you betray every one that loves you and every one that shares the road with you. They trust you to protect their love – you – and to not endanger their lives and the lives of their loved ones. Is the momentary laughter and satisfaction garnered from that text sent worth the anarchy you’re about to visit? Or of a family’s endless sorrow?

Don’t do it! It is not worth the life!

Thank you!

Francis Harry "Frank" Ryan, May 21, 1960 – August 16, 2010. R.I.P.

Femi Ajetunmobi.
©2010. All Right Reserved.

NOTE: Please, let’s start an intensive campaign (door-to-door, friends-to-friends, parents-to-children, teachers-to-students, husbands-to-wives and vice versa, seminars, churches, mosques, synagogues, playgrounds, sports arenas, concert halls, or anyplace where two or more people are gathered) to completely eradicate this evil from our midst before it destroys us all!

Consider these: The risk of collision increases 23 times when driving while distracted. More than 6,000 people are killed and more than half-a-million are seriously injured yearly in the US alone as a result of accidents caused by texting while driving.

I hope every one that reads this would appreciate the true hazards of texting, tweeting, facebooking or even talking on the phone while driving. We cannot overemphasize it. I also hope that you would bring this to the attention of your friends and loved ones and beseech them to stop doing it!

You may share this article with every one you know so they could all read the above and watch the videos below. (Even if they can’t or won’t read, make them watch the videos. They are explicit enough.) Some would claim ignorance as to the dangers of texting while driving but no way would they be able to say that after reading this. And if you’re driving and the driver on the lane next to you has his/her eyes buried into their phones, you are allowed to honk your horn and when they turn to look at you, give them the face the road sign with your fingers (index and third fingers pointing to your eyes and the road repeatedly). You’d be doing every one of us a huge favor.

Please, take the time to watch the videos below. Thank you!

Watch this driver of a public bus carrying disabled passengers.

I wish I could smack this girl hard on the face!

Teens commenting on video 1 above.

Trailer of a movie “Distraction” written by NY filmmaker Kevin Craig West to highlight the hazards of distracted driving.

And please, watch all 5 videos in this series by Oprah.

If you have any video or any experience to share with us on this issue, please do so below.

Thank you!

Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tom Hardy, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page, Dileep Rao and Ken Watanabe in a scene from Inception.

Los Angeles – A friend told me about a month back, just before I went to see Inception for the first time, that the movie made her think after watching it – to which I said, jokingly, “Something made you think? That must be a rarity!” It was meant as a joke, but after seeing the movie myself, that first time, I knew I had seen a rarity indeed. I had seen a movie that, for the first time, I knew I would be lying if I told anyone in the immediate aftermath that I understood half of what I had just seen. The dream within a dream within a dream concept is like an intellectual netherworld that had been so intricately woven that it challenges our ability to sit through a movie with all our senses, including the 6th one, totally focused on what’s unfolding on the big screen right in front of us. I failed to do that and I got lost in the quagmire midway through it all.

So, I called and exchanged text messages with some friends to discuss a movie I had just seen (a rarity in itself) and I discovered that even those that claimed to like or love the movie couldn’t fully articulate what they had seen. It was like a huge conundrum floating around that every one seemed to believe they fully understood but which no one really did. I read some critics’ reviews of the movie but none of them was really helpful either. They either didn’t want to give the plot away or they just didn’t get the plot. (The fact is, anyone that sees the movie once and writes a review about it would either conclude that it was brilliant because they were too confused by it and surmise that only a brilliant movie could leave them that puzzled or say it was a bad movie because it just didn’t make any sense to them.)

I liked the movie after seeing it, because I felt it was brilliant, but I didn’t love it, because it left me very confused – and I hate being confused by a movie. I knew I was going to review the movie but, for the life of me, I didn’t know what to review. So, I decided to go see it a second time, which I did 3 weeks ago. (I always knew I would see it a 2nd time anyway so it wasn’t such a hard decision committing the time to a second viewing.) After the second viewing, I fell completely in love with the movie. One word – brilliant!

I was at a couple’s home for a barbeque last night and a lot of us got into a spirited argument over Inception. I was of the opinion that Leonardo DiCaprio’s character (Dom Cobb) went into four layers of dreams, with the fourth being the limbo that he had to go into to get Cillian Murphy’s character (Robert Fischer, Jr.) from Cobb’s dead wife, Mal (Marion Cotillard) after she shot him (Robert) in dream Level 3. Cobb then stayed in that limbo – while Ariadne (Ellen Page) took Robert Fischer, Jr. back to dream Level 3 to get the idea implanted into his head by his dying dad (the Inception) – so he (Cobb) could go find Ken Watanabe’s character (Saito), who had been shot in dream Level 1 (and died in dream Level 3) and was also already in limbo, and bring him (Saito) back to life. Confused already? I bet you are.

Level 1 was in the rain/warehouse/the van; Level 2 was in the hotel; Level 3 was on the snowy mountain and the heavily fortified vault. What most people seemed to miss was the fact that Dom Cobb stayed on in limbo (dream Level 4) to seek Kaito and did not go into a dream Level 5. There was no dream Level 5. Or how or when was he put to sleep for him to go to dream Level 5?

(I was left a tad bit confused about the number of levels after last night’s debate so I came scouring the internet this morning for answers. To read an exhaustive synopsis of Inception, click here. I strongly recommend that you take the time to read it and to go see the movie again afterward, if you can. And if you haven’t seen it yet but still intend to, read it anyway. This is the sort of movie where “spoilers” do not apply. No matter the number of times you watch this movie or read about it, the next viewing of the movie would still feel like a whole new experience.)

Inception, the movie.

Nevertheless, the one thing we were able to reach a consensus on last night was the fact that Inception was, if not the best, one of the best movies we have all seen. You know a great movie when it generates fierce debates and for us to still have such spirited debate about one that has been in theaters for so long gave me a better appreciation of its greatness.

Most critics I’ve read criticized the gun battles in the movie believing that they didn’t serve in anyway to enhance the movie but were instead superfluous. But they all missed the point. The point being that the assailants in the fight scenes were like antibodies that a human body forms against invading organisms. Those resistant forces are the dreamer’s antibodies that are fighting to protect against the extractors invading the private sanctuary of the dreamer and stealing information and the deeper the level of the dream the more ferocious the battles became.

I do not know if it’ll win the Best Picture Oscar this year seeing as it is a summer blockbuster and, traditionally, summer blockbusters aren’t usually given serious considerations for Best Picture by the Academy voters. Inception though is one summer blockbuster with a heart, a soul and a reason. It may not be completely realistic (what do you expect when you spend almost all your time in other people’s dreams?), but it is very relatable and believable.

It is a masterpiece – and a very rare one at that. It is a summer blockbuster with richly lucid dialogues. I cannot say if it’s the best movie I’ve ever seen (truth is, it’d be near impossible for me right now to name a better movie that I’ve seen) but it definitely is the most brilliant movie that I’ve ever seen. How do I judge great movies? Would I pay twice to go see it in the theater? There are few movies that I’ve seen twice in the theater and paid for. There are quite a few that I’ve seen twice at the theater but, more often than not, the second time I watch for free. I have paid to see Inception twice and I would pay to go see it a third time. And, for me, that would be unprecedented. Someone told me that Inception was like a fusion of The Matrix and Shutter Island. I came away thinking it was even better than the combination of those two great movies.

I usually lookout for a movie’s faults while watching them but with this one, I just couldn’t find any. It either was faultless (a rarity) or I was so enthralled by the brilliance of the screenplay and of the acting and the adroitness of its execution that I was somehow completely blinded to its faults. Perhaps the gunfight scenes could have been fewer and shorter. Perhaps the encounters between Cobb and his dead wife, Mal, could also have had less frequency and better clarity. But neither of them really detracted from the way the story unfolded. If nothing they both complemented rather than bog down the production. If anything, at a running time of 2 hours and 28 minutes, it felt like the shortest longest movie I’ve ever seen. Or so it made me feel because I didn’t want it to end.

Some movies make me feel inspired. Inception is one such movie. It didn’t make me want to go out and change the world but it did give me the ineffable satisfaction that despite the avalanche of movies that are overly-dependent on CGIs and 3D technology and the art of terrible movie-making that seem to have usurped our universe of late, the art of pure and believable movie-making is still well and truly alive. What to say about the cinematography? How breathless was it to see Paris folding up on itself?!

Writer/director Christopher Nolan has created a rare gem with this one and has cemented his place as the most brilliant filmmaker perhaps in the history of the cinema. A lot of us suspected that after watching his 2000 movie, Memento, but with Inception, there is no doubt as to who the most cerebral filmmaker in Hollywood is today. He was also able to achieve something that no other director has been able to achieve thus far. For the first time I could see Leonardo DiCaprio finally shed off the overarching image of Jack (from Titanic) and come of age as an actor. I could actually see him as an Oscar winner someday – something I never thought would happen. The scene in limbo (dream Level 4), with Mal, where he had to finally free himself from her emotional shackles and blackmail (sort of) enabled him to display the sort of range I never thought him capable of.

One thing for sure is I shall be seeing this great masterpiece again. And again. And again. And I suggest you do too.

Meanwhile, just when I thought I had the movie completely figured out, he spun his totem, the brass top, on the table, rushed outside to embrace his kids and the camera panned in on the spinning totem.

Tell me, didn’t the totem just begin to wobble as the screen went pitch black?

Spinning totem at the end of the movie. Was it about to fall?

Femi Ajetunmobi.
©2010. All Right Reserved.

NOTE: I would love to directly appeal to the brilliant Christopher Nolan to not go the way of the Wachowski Brothers and do to Inception what they shamelessly did to The Matrix. The Matrix was an amazing concept before the Wachowski Brothers, for the love of money (what else?), turned something that beautiful into an ugly franchise. They made money quite right but Matrix II and Matrix III killed my affection for the original movie. Please, Chris, leave Inception as is. There is absolutely no need to explain or fix anything in a sequel.

What do you think of the movie? Was the ending in real life or in a dream? Please share your thoughts below.

Thank you!

Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-NY)

Washington, D.C. — House Republicans late Thursday were able to corral enough votes to defeat a bill that would have provided up to $7.4 billion in aid to those sickened by toxins resulting from the 9/11 attacks.

In the process, they set off a host of fiery speeches and denunciations from their Democratic colleagues and produced a veritable YouTube moment from Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y), whose district includes many of the affected.

At the heart of the debate was a procedural maneuver made by Democrats to suspend the rules before consideration of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act. The move allowed leadership to block potential GOP amendments to the measure (there was worry that Republicans would attach something overtly partisan in hopes that it could pass on the otherwise widely-popular measure). It also meant that the party needed a two-thirds majority vote.

When the final tally was announced, there were 255 representatives for the measure, 159 against. The defeat of the bill, which would have provided free health care to those affected during the 9/11 rescue and recovery, likely means that the court system will have to settle compensation issues.

Weiner spoke right before the vote when it was clear that Republican lawmakers would stake their opposition on grounds of procedural concerns. But for the grace of the C-SPAN cameras, he managed to stay physically behind his lectern.

“The gentleman will sit!” he declared at one point, addressing, it is believed, Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.). “The gentleman is correct in sitting!”

Watch video below:

By Sam Stein

Source: Huffington Post

Andres Iniesta lifts the World Cup trophy after scoring the winning goal against the Netherlands.

Johannesburg — Spain rules the soccer world, winning the World Cup at long, long last.

It came after an exhausting 1-0 victory in extra time over the Netherlands on Sunday. Two years after winning the European title, the stylish Spaniards did even better.

This was a physical test of attrition that sometimes turned dirty — a finals-record 13 yellow cards were handed out and the Dutch finished with 10 men. In the end, it was Andres Iniesta breaking free in the penalty area, taking a pass from Cesc Fabregas and putting a right-footed shot from 8 yards just past the outstretched arms of goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg.

“When I struck it, it just had to go in,” Iniesta said.

For the Dutch and their legions of orange-clad fans wearing everything from jerseys to jumpsuits to clown gear to pajamas, it was yet another disappointment.

Even with their first World Cup title tantalizingly within reach, they failed in the final for the third time. This one might have been the most bitter because, unlike 1974 and 1978, the Netherlands was unbeaten not only in this tournament, but in qualifying for the first World Cup staged in South Africa.

Soccer City was soaked in Oranje, from the seats painted in that hue throughout the stadium to pretty much everyone seated in them. Unlike when they lost to hosts West Germany and Argentina in previous finals, the Dutch were something of a home team this time.

The Spaniards, though, were the winners.

“We have all done an incredible job,” Iniesta said. “I don’t think we even realize what we have done.”

Spanish players lift the World Cup trophy after defeating the Netherlands 1-0 in the final at the Soccer City Stadium, Johannesburg on July 11, 2010.

They had pockets of supporters, too, to be sure, dressed in red and scattered around the stadium. They might have been the minority, but when the final whistle blew, they were tooting their vuvuzelas loudest in tribute to their champions.

The goal in the 116th minute came off a turnover by the Dutch defense that Fabregas controlled just outside the penalty area. Iniesta stayed on the right and sneaked in to grab the pass and put his shot to the far post. Stekelenburg barely brushed it with his fingertips as it soared into the net.

Iniesta tore off his jersey after the goal and raced to the corner where he was mobbed by his teammates. Several Dutch players wiped away tears as they received their medals as runners-up — yet again. They won every qualifying match and all six previous games in South Africa before the bitter ending.

The Netherlands now has more victories in World Cup games without a title than any nation: 19. Spain held that dubious record with 24.

Netherlands coach Bert van Marwijk took off his silver medal as soon as left the podium, with a look of disgust on his face.

The Spaniards saluted their fans with arms raised high, then lifted their coach, Vicente del Bosque, in the air in celebration.

“This is immeasurable for Spain,” Del Bosque said.

Goalkeeper Iker Casillas, the captain, accepted the trophy from FIFA president Sepp Blatter, kissed it and raised it for all to see while cameras flashed and confetti flew throughout the still-full stadium.

Soon, the entire team and staff gathered at midfield for a group photo. The players bounced up and down to the World Cup theme song, then took a victory lap as the trophy was passed to each member of the squad.

“It’s the most beautiful that there is. It’s spectacular,” Iniesta said, referring to the gold ball.

Carles Puyol celebrates with the World Cup trophy after Spain defeated the Netherlands 1-0 in the final.

Aside from a European title in 1988, the Dutch have been classic underachievers on the pitch. Results never matched the talent. These were no Dutch masters.

Yet the Spaniards haven’t been much better. Other than Euro championships in 1964 and 2008, they rarely have contended in major tournaments. At least the Netherlands made those two World Cup finals and also got to the semifinals in 1998.

Second-ranked Spain started this World Cup in the worst way, losing to Switzerland. But Spain won every game after that, including a 1-0 victory over powerful Germany that was far more one-sided than the score indicated. No other nation has won the World Cup after losing its opener.

Yet the most dangerous player Sunday was Netherlands forward Arjen Robben. He had a rare breakaway in the 62nd minute after a brilliant through pass from Wesley Sneijder. He had the ball on his preferred left foot, but a charging Casillas barely got his right leg on the shot to deflect it wide of the gaping net.

Then it was Stekelenburg’s turn, holding his ground after a misplay in front of the net gave the ever-potent Villa an open shot.

As play opened up, the crowd of 84,490 got quieter in nervous anticipation of the goal that would win the World Cup.

Robben again looked as though he might get it with a burst of speed past the defense, but Casillas sprinted from his net and smothered the ball before Robben could take a shot.

A second straight World Cup final headed into extra time, with the goalkeepers unbeatable. Stekelenburg, relatively inexperienced on the international level, made a spectacular left leg save when Fabregas broke free early in overtime.

Before the game, former South African president Nelson Mandela received a huge ovation when he was driven onto the field on a golf cart. A smiling Mandela waved to the fans as the vuvuzelas buzzed throughout Soccer City.

Andres Iniesta scoring the World Cup winning goal against the Netherlands.

Andres Iniesta celebrating his World Cup winning goal.

Associated Press.

Source: Soccernet

Eminem's "Recovery"

Los Angeles — As reported earlier today, Eminem’s “Recovery” debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart with a massive 741,000 copies sold in its first week according to Nielsen SoundScan. It’s the biggest sales week for a single album since October 2008, when AC/DC’s “Black Ice” debuted with 784,000 in its first week.

“Recovery” is the hip-hop king’s sixth straight No. 1 debut — and sixth overall chart-topper. His only set to miss the top spot was his “Slim Shady LP” debut, which bowed and peaked at No. 2 in 1999. Among hip-hop acts with the most No. 1 albums, only Jay-Z has earned more, with 11.

“Recovery’s” debut week sales surpasses the first week of Eminem’s last set, “Relapse,” which began at No. 1 in 2009 with 608,000. It also beats the opening of 2005′s “Curtain Call: The Hits” which entered at No. 1 with 441,000 in 2005.

Eminem’s new album also wows digitally, as downloads made up 255,000 of its first week. That’s the second-biggest digital week for an album in history. Only Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends” notched a larger frame, when it debuted with 288,000 downloads in the summer of 2008.

Eminem also naturally makes big news on the Digital Songs chart with his “Recovery” collaboration with Rihanna titled “Love the Way You Lie.” It debuts at No. 1 with 338,000 downloads sold. It’s the sixth time Em has topped the Digital Songs chart and the second time he’s done it this year, following “Not Afraid’s” entry atop the list back in May with 379,000.

Last week’s Billboard 200 albums chart No. 1, Drake’s “Thank Me Later,” falls to No. 2 with 157,000 (down 65%). The chart’s second-highest debut comes from Miley Cyrus’ “Can’t Be Tamed,” which enters at No. 3 with 102,000. Cyrus’ last proper full-length studio album was 2008′s “Breakout,” which started at No. 1 with 371,000. Since then, she’s charted with three different “Hannah Montana” releases and the “Time Of Our Lives” EP.

Ozzy Osbourne’s “Scream” bows at No. 4 with 81,000, giving the rock legend his lucky seventh top 10 album. His last release, “Black Rain,” entered at No. 3 in 2007 with 152,000. This week’s final top 10 debut comes from the Roots’ “How I Got Over,” starting at No. 6 with 51,000. It’s the hip-hop group’s fifth top 10 effort and it follows 2008′s “Rising Down,” which started at No. 6 with 54,000.

As for the rest of the top 10 this week, the “Now 34″ compilation drops one slot to No. 5 (55,000; down 38%) and Jack Johnson’s “To The Sea” slips two rungs to No. 7 (44,000; down 36%). Justin Bieber’s “My World 2.0″ slips one position to No. 8 (43,000; down 9%), Sarah McLachlan’s “Laws of Illusion” descends from No. 3 to No. 9 with 38,000 (down 59%) and the “Twilight: Eclipse” soundtrack falls four to No. 10 (38,000; down 30%).

This week last year on the album charts, in the wake of Michael Jackson’s death, the King of Pop ruled with the top three selling albums in the U.S. as “Number Ones,” “The Essential Michael Jackson” and “Thriller” ranked at Nos. 1-3 with 108,000; 102,000 and 101,000; respectively. This week, as the public commemorated the first anniversary of his death on June 25, a number of Jackson’s albums see gains on the Billboard 200. His “Number Ones” set rises from No. 100 to No. 42 (10,000; up 86%) while “Essential” climbs from No. 157 to No. 53 (8,000; up 116%), “Thriller” re-enters at No. 79 (6,000; up 71%) as does “This Is It” at No. 96 (5,000; up 64%).

Also, Nielsen BDS reports that last week, between June 25 and June 28, Jackson’s songs (solo, or with the Jackson 5 or the Jacksons) earned 25,703 detections all monitored U.S. terrestrial radio stations. Comparatively, last year between June 25 and June 28, his songs were played 64,237 times.

Overall album sales in this past chart week (ending June 27) totaled 6.06 million units, down 1% compared to the sum last week (6.13 million) and down 3% compared to the comparable sales week of 2009 (6.22 million). Year to date album sales stand at 148.4 million, down 11% compared to the same total at this point last year (165.9 million).

Digital track sales this past week totaled 21.6 million downloads, up 1% compared to last week (21.4 million) and down 8% compared to the comparable week of 2009 (23.4 million). Year to date track sales are at 575.9 million, up less than 1% compared to the same total at this point last year (575.7 million).

By Keith Caulfield, L.A

Source: Billboard Magazine

President Barack Obama

Washington (CNN) — President Barack Obama renewed his push for comprehensive immigration reform Thursday, calling for bipartisan cooperation on an issue that has repeatedly proven to be a major cause of deep social and political division.

The president tried to find what has often proven to be an elusive middle ground on the subject, highlighting the importance of immigrants to American history and progress while also acknowledging the fear and frustration many people now feel with a system that seems “fundamentally broken.”

He asserted that the majority of Americans are ready to embrace reform legislation that would help resolve the status of an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants.

“I believe we can put politics aside and finally have an immigration system that’s accountable,” Obama told an audience at Washington’s American University. “I believe we can appeal not to people’s fears, but to their hopes, to their highest ideals. Because that’s who we are as Americans.”

The president targeted Arizona’s controversial new immigration law, which requires immigrants to carry their alien registration documents at all times and requires police to question people if there’s reason to suspect they’re in the United States illegally. It also targets businesses that hire illegal immigrant laborers or knowingly transport them.

The measure — currently under review by the Justice Department — has “fanned the flames of an already contentious debate,” Obama said. It puts pressure on police officers to enforce rules that are “unenforceable” while making communities less safe — in part, by making people more reluctant to report crimes. It also has “the potential of violating the rights of innocent American citizens and legal residents, making them subject to possible stops or questioning because of what they look like or how they sound.”

Arizona’s Republican governor, Jan Brewer, responded Thursday that Obama was failing to secure the border with Mexico, which forced her state to act on its own.

“Do your job. Secure the border,” Brewer said of the president in a speech to a Republican group. She pledged to “defend this law against every assault, including attacks by the Obama administration.”

In his speech, Obama warned that rounding up everyone in the country who has entered illegally would be both “logistically impossible” and “tear at the fabric of the nation.” At the same time, the president indicated it would be wrong to offer blanket amnesty for people who came into the United States unlawfully.

To do so “would suggest to those thinking about coming here illegally that there will be no repercussions for such a decision. And this could lead to a surge in more illegal immigration. … It would also ignore the millions of people around the world who are waiting in line to come here legally.”

Ultimately, he said, “our nation, like all nations, has the right and obligation to control its borders and set laws for residency and citizenship. And no matter how decent they are, no matter their reasons, the 11 million who broke these laws should be held accountable.”

Obama said those who entered the country illegally must admit they broke the law, register with the appropriate authorities, pay taxes, pay a fine, and learn English. They must “get right with the law before they can get in line and earn their citizenship.”

The president urged Congress to tackle immigration reform legislation, but stressed that it would require support from both Democrats and Republicans.

“That is the political and mathematical reality,” he said.

Obama’s remarks, however, immediately received a cold reception from one top Senate Republican.

Obama and congressional Democrats “made a strategic decision to put immigration on the back burner, and they now claim they can’t even propose immigration legislation without a Republican,” said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas. “It’s time for the president and congressional Democrats to stop the charade. Op-eds, outlines and speeches won’t cut it anymore.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, in turn lashed out the GOP, arguing that “instead of matching the leadership of Democrats to solve this problem and engaging in good faith negotiations, Republicans continue to engage in political grandstanding and polarizing rhetoric that encourages intolerance of our vibrant immigration population.”

Reid, who is facing a tough reelection fight this year, is hoping for a strong turnout among Latino voters in November in his home state.

Despite Obama’s call for bipartisan immigration reform, several senior Democratic sources said Thursday that they see virtually no chance of Congress taking up such a measure before November’s midterm elections.

Though some hold out hope for potential movement during a lame-duck session of Congress after the election, most sources say the more realistic earliest target is next year. But even that, according to one source, may be “happy talk.”

Still, these sources said that, politically, it was crucial for the president to give a speech like he did Thursday in order to put pressure on Republicans and, more importantly, to reassure angry Latino voters that Democrats haven’t forgotten about the issue.

A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation national poll conducted in late May indicated that public support for beefing up security along the U.S. border with Mexico had grown significantly. According to the survey, nearly nine out of 10 Americans want to beef up U.S. law enforcement along the border with Mexico.

Eight in 10 questioned also supported a program that would allow illegal immigrants already in the United States to stay here and apply for legal residency if they had a job and paid back taxes. But only 38 percent say that program should be a higher priority than border security and other get-tough proposals. Six in 10 said border security was the higher priority.

Obama’s speech followed a highly anticipated meeting this week in which the president discussed immigration reform with grass-roots reform advocates.

“From our meeting, it is clear that the president is committed to comprehensive immigration reform and understands that congressional action is needed urgently,” said Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum and a meeting attendee.

Other topics discussed at the meeting included concerns the grass-roots leaders had about reforms to current detention and deportation procedures, Noorani said.

By the CNN Wire Staff

CNN’s Dana Bash contributed to this report

Source: CNN Politics

Locals trying to fetch water from an oil-covered stream.

Niger Delta, Nigeria — Nigeria’s Niger Delta is one of the most oil-polluted places on the planet with more than 6,800 recorded oil spills, accounting for anywhere from 9 million to 13 million barrels of oil spilled, according to activist groups.

But occurring over the 50 years since oil production began in the Delta, this environmental disaster has never received the attention that is now being paid to the oil-spill catastrophe hitting the U.S. Gulf coast.

“The whole world is trembling and even the president of America had to do a personal visit to the site. The U.S. will have put serious measures in place to stop such situations happening in the future,” said Ken Tebe — a local environmental activist who is visibly shaken by what he regards as a double standard.

“It’s funny because we’ve been dealing with this problem for 50 years. I even heard BP will pay $20 billion in damages (for the U.S. spill). When will such hope come to the Niger Delta?” Tebe asked.

The U.S. imports about eight percent of its oil from Nigeria. That is nearly half of Nigeria’s daily oil production and makes Nigeria the fifth-largest exporter of oil to the United States.

Tebe, like other activists, focuses his energy and anger against his own government and the oil companies he blames for neglecting the region — but he feels the U.S., as the largest consumer of Nigerian oil, also must also play its part.

“It’s very, very bad because Nigeria is the fifth largest exporter of oil to the U.S., and the fact that Nigeria has been going through such issues for the past 50 years with little or no concern even from the U.S. government goes a long way to show you that they look at the Niger Delta as an oil field that people don’t need to live in.”

According to Amnesty International, people living in the Niger Delta have experienced oil spills on par with the Exxon Valdez disaster every year for the last half century.

In its June 2009 report, Petroleum, Pollution and Poverty, Amnesty said independent environmental and oil experts estimated between nine million and 13 million of barrels had leaked in the five decades of oil operations. It also quoted U.N. figures of more than 6,800 recorded spills between 1976 and 2001.

Oil companies operating in the Niger Delta believe the figures are exaggerated. Mutiu Sunmonu, the managing director of Shell Nigeria, told CNN the industry is committed, after any spill, to “restore the environment to its previous status.”

In the 1990s, Shell was forced to stop operating in Ogoniland after mass protests against the lack of investment and environmental damage culminated in a military crackdown.

Then, a special tribunal found Nigerian writer-activist Ken Saro-Wiwa guilty of complicity in the murders of four Ogoni chiefs. The government executed him and other activists in a move widely condemned internationally.

Shell last year paid $15.5 million in an out-of-court settlement in a civil case brought by members of Saro-Wiwa’s family and others.

Shell, which denied any wrongdoing in the case, also refuted charges it was complicit in human rights abuses in the Delta.

It was the only company operating in Ogoniland, and no oil has been pumped there since, yet the locals continue to complain of oil spilling from the maze of pipes criss-crossing their land.

We took a boat into the creeks of Ogoniland in the Niger Delta to see for ourselves. As we traveled to the site, it began to rain heavily. The heavy raindrops splashed black in the thick oil coating the river.

We were unable to access the pipe in the rain and mud. The leak had been repaired but no one here knows how much oil was spilled.

Plumes of dark oil haunt the nearby rivers, the mangroves are stained black, and most conspicuously, there are no fishermen here.

Instead we found Peter Bornu and his wife, knee-deep in thick, oily mud pulling at the branches of the mangroves and stacking them in their wooden boat.

“There’s no fish in the river anymore,” he told us, his clothes sodden in the rain, “So there’s no way I can feed my family apart from fetching firewood like this.” The money he makes from selling the wood helps pay for food.

The 700,000-square-kilometer Niger Delta is one of the most important wetlands in the world and home to 31 million people — 60 percent of whom, according to the U.N. Development Program, depend on the natural environment for their livelihoods.

Chevron, Agip, ExxonMobil are among the other companies operating in the Delta, but Shell is the only company in the region to release regular reports on its operations.

Shell maintains that more than 90 percent of spills are caused by militants and oil thieves tapping into pipelines to steal oil. And then, Shell says, locals often refuse access to the ruptured pipelines until the oil companies have paid for access.

Shell’s Sunmonu said: “I am not naive to believe that Shell can fix the problem in the Delta. Ninety-five percent of our revenue — after tax, after costs — goes back to government.”

And so the oil companies’ argument goes: They pay the Nigerian government and it is the government’s responsibility to provide investment, security and pressure on private business.

In all those areas the government has notably failed in the poverty-stricken and conflict-racked Niger Delta.

“Even if we pour all our earnings into the Delta – into development and infrastructure – it would still be a drop in the ocean,” said Sunmonu.

However, when pressed on the one issue for which the oil companies are legally responsible — whatever the difficulties — oil spill cleanup, Sunmonu insisted: “We will clean up and remediate the environment regardless the cost of the spill.”

Yet, as we leave Peter Bornu and his wife scavenging for firewood, it’s clear many locals don’t believe the oil companies.

Environmental reports put the cost of the environmental damage in the tens of billions of dollars.

“Soil is turned upside down, money has been allocated and the cleanup is done,” explained Ken Tebe. The oil companies regularly contract out the cleanup operations to local crews, he says, who carry out their operations on the cheap.

“The truth is that the oil has not been mopped up from the soil. We have a series of spills in the Niger Delta for more than 30 years that have not been cleaned up,” Tebe said.

And if the U.S. cuts oil production off its coast because of the BP oil spill it will put more pressure on places like Nigeria.

“There’ll be new oil blocks so we can meet the quota we send to the U.S.” said Tebe. “That’ll mean there’ll be an increase in oil spills, more gas flares, and resources conflict is going to be on the increase.”

By Christian Purefoy, CNN

Source: CNNWorld

Larry King

Los Angeles, CA – Larry King, the iconic TV interviewer, will step aside from hosting of his prime time CNN show later this year, he said Tuesday.

King, 76, made the announcement with a short posting to his Twitter account, citing his desire to spend more time with his wife and young children.

“I want to share some personal news with you. 25 years ago, I sat across this table from New York Governor Mario Cuomo for the first broadcast of Larry King Live. Now, decades later, I talked to the guys here at CNN and I told them I would like to end Larry King Live, the nightly show, this fall and CNN has graciously accepted, giving me more time for my wife and I to get to the kids’ little league games,” King wrote.

“I’m incredibly proud that we recently made the Guinness Book of World Records for having the longest running show with the same host in the same time slot. With this chapter closing I’m looking forward to the future and what my next chapter will bring, but for now it’s time to hang up my nightly suspenders.”

“He will end his run with Larry King Live on his own terms, sometime this fall,” said Jon Klein, president of CNNUS. “Larry is a beloved member of the CNN family and will continue to contribute to our air with periodic specials.”

During his Tuesday night show, King told guest Bill Maher “there’s a freedom” that came with his decision.

“I want to expand,” King told the comedian. “I want to do other things that I haven’t been able to do.”

The idea to step aside came to him after he completed his week-long 25th anniversary celebration, he said.

“I’m thinking to myself, I’ve done 50,000 interviews,” he said. “I’m never going to top this.”

King said he would exit the host’s chair “maximum November.” But, he told Maher, “Then I’ll be doing specials. You’ll see me in other places.”

Asked whom he wants to replace him, King cited “American Idol” host Ryan Seacrest. “He’s curious, he’s interesting, he’s likable,” King said. “If he has a great interest in politics, I would recommend him. But I’m sure there’s a ton of people who could do it. Come on. It’s Q and A.”

“It’s not easy,” Maher responded. “That’s the trick.”

In a telephone call to the program, former first lady Nancy Reagan told King, “I couldn’t let you do this without my calling you. You didn’t call me and ask my permission.”

King said he had made no plans about his future, but added, “I’m looking forward — I feel open to so many things. Life will be better.”

ABC News Anchor Diane Sawyer chimed in: “I just want to say, Larry, what a monument of vitality you have built for all of us and I cannot wait to see your specials because everybody in the world wants to talk to you and to see you do them in a concentrated way — when you choose to do them it’s going to be a thrill.”

King’s decision followed months of media speculation about his future as his ratings declined.

King was hosting a nationally syndicated overnight radio talk show when CNN founder Ted Turner persuaded him in 1985 to try his interviewing skills on cable TV.

“All I had to do was everything I’d been doing since I was a kid,” he wrote in his best-selling 2009 autobiography, “My Remarkable Journey.”

His gentle but persistent interview style drew big-name guests, and “Larry King Live” became a place for major personalities to break news. Billionaire Ross Perot used the show to announce he was running for president in 1992. And the show was the setting for the historic NAFTA debate between then-Vice President Al Gore and Perot in 1993, a debate that for more than a decade was the highest-rated program in cable history.

King, who was initially based in Washington, became a mandatory stop for politicians. Over his career, he conducted sit-down interviews with every U.S. president since Richard Nixon.

His program was sometimes a place of real-time diplomacy. In 1995, he hosted a program on the Middle East Peace process with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, King Hussein of Jordan and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

His suspenders, large glasses and vintage desk microphone are as recognizable as the countless celebrities lined up to have an intimate chat with King while the world listened in.

And there have been a lot of guests, including Marlon Brando, Nelson Mandela, Mikhail Gorbachev, Paul McCartney, Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, L. Ron Hubbard, Madonna and Martin Luther King, Jr.

After extensive coverage over many months of O.J. Simpson’s trial for murder, Simpson himself called the program the night he was acquitted.

King says that Nelson Mandela was the most extraordinary person he has met.

In his autobiography, King confessed that he never plans a question, that he likes to be surprised by the answers. He says he asks his interview subjects to explain things.

“All I do is ask questions,” he wrote. “Short, simple questions.”

Born in Brooklyn, Larry Zeiger moved to Miami, Florida, in 1957. He began his radio career that year with a new name, Larry King. His first television job was hosting a local interview show in Miami in 1960.

While some critics have called King a throwback, he embraced the online social networking tool Twitter. He had 1,648,920 Twitter followers as of Tuesday.

On Monday, King used Twitter to respond to a fan’s question about the highlights of his career:

“Winning 2 Peabody Awards & an Emmy. Perot-Gore Debate a show highlight,” King tweeted.

In addition to earning the Emmy and two Peabody Awards, he was inducted into the National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 1992.

King also has an extensive film resume, having played himself in 20 movies.

King has suffered a decline in ratings. His show, which was once on top, sometimes has come in fourth among cable talk shows during the 9 p.m. hour.

King faced highly publicized personal problems this year. He and his eighth wife, Shawn Southwick-King, filed for divorce in April, but reconciled weeks later.

King has repeatedly talked about the importance of spending time with his children, including his two boys from his marriage with Southwick-King.

“I’d love to see Chance and Cannon talk about how their Dad took them to play when they were kids,” he wrote in his autobiography.

After suffering a heart attack in 1987, King underwent quintuple bypass heart surgery. A year later, he created the Larry King Cardiac Foundation, which he said was to help those “not so lucky” to have medical insurance. In 2009, the foundation paid for 287 life-saving surgeries.

And through it all, the interviews continued.

“Only God failed to show up for a Larry King interview,” said Tom Johnson, who was CNN’s chairman for more than a decade, ending in 2001.

“Larry has been my close friend since I joined CNN in 1990,” Johnson said. “We never had a single disagreement in my 11 years as CEO, although he never thought much of my suggestions for more shows about North Korea.”

Is there anyone he would like to interview that he hasn’t so far? For years, he joked in his autobiography, he answered that question “God.”

“And my first question would be, ‘Do you have a son? Because there’s a lot riding on the answer.’”

Watch Larry King’s announcement below.

CNN’s Alan Duke contributed to this story.

Source: CNN Entertainment

Los Angeles – The money is rolling in. The bills are being paid. And all those people who said Michael Jackson might earn more in death than in life are being proved right.

Like the estates of Elvis Presley and Yves Saint Laurent, Jackson’s has grown immensely since he died on June 25, 2009.

Without Jackson’s lavish spending sprees, and with the help of new revenue pouring in from nostalgia over the reign of the King of Pop, estate co-executors John Branca and John McClain have dramatically turned around Jackson’s finances.

A kingdom that was on the verge of collapse from more than $500 million in debt now looks to be able to support his three children and his mother and donate healthily to children’s charities.

The estate has earned more than $250 million in the year since he died. Executors used some of that to pay off $70 million in debt, including the $5 million mortgage on the Jackson family compound inEncino, part of Los Angeles. The interest payments on the remaining debt are now covered by a steady flow of cash.

“They’re off to a spectacularly good start,” said Lance Grode, a former Jackson lawyer and adjunct professor at the University of Southern California Law School. He added, however, “there’s a long way to go before they pay off all of their debts.”

A rundown of deals suggests that Jackson’s fortune will be even bigger than could have been realized by a planned series of comeback concerts:

• A posthumous deal to sell unreleased Jackson recordings with Sony Music guaranteed $200 million over seven years. It has already brought $125 million to the estate.

• The film “This Is It,” based on his final concert rehearsal footage, grossed $252 million worldwide. Sony Pictures paid the estate $60 million in advance, with an undisclosed amount more to come from DVD sales.

• Licensing deals on merchandise sold by Universal Music Group’s Bravado unit and a new dance game by Ubisoft Entertainment brought in $26 million in advances. More is possible if unit sales are high.

• The Mijac Music catalog of copyrights, on songs that Jackson wrote, generated $25 million in the past year, thanks to heavy airplay on radio stations and song and album sales.

• Music publisher Sony/ATV, the copyright holder of the Beatles’ and other artists’ songs, posted double-digit percentage revenue gains in the year through March. That netted Jackson’s estate, which owns a 50 percent stake, $11 million.

• Other income, including from a rerelease of Jackson’s autobiography, “Moon Walk,” and sales of commemorative tickets to his canceled concerts, brought in another $25 million.

The tally does not include a deal with Cirque du Soleil for shows inspired by Jackson’s music, in which the estate will share half the costs and profits when the performances begin in late 2011. Nor does it account for a deal in the works to nearly double the estate’s income from Sony/ATV. That cash goes to pay down most of Jackson’s remaining debt.

According to co-executor Branca, Jackson’s longtime lawyer and business manager, the new deals follow a script the two set out shortly before the singer died.

“When I met with him before he died we went through an agenda. John (McClain) and I are really executing on that,” Branca told The Associated Press. “We’re doing the things we think Michael would have wanted.”

Several people have been paid for overdue bills after spending years trying to track the singer down. Others who haven’t yet been paid say they have been treated professionally by the estate; a night and day change from his old regime.

“We couldn’t (collect) until unfortunately he passed away,” said Joseph Akhtarzad, a Jackson family friend who owns the Santa Monica-based Video & Audio Center. Last month, the estate settled a $128,429 tab with Akhtarzad for electronics goods owed since 2007.

Thomas Mesereau, who successfully defended Jackson in his 2005 child molestation trial, said the estate recently paid his law firm $341,452 for services provided after the trial, when Jackson moved to Bahrain. The firm revived its claim in September because it gave up dealing with Jackson’s previous managers.

If Elvis is any example, a moderate level of earnings could flow into Jackson’s estate for decades.

Sony Music said more than 31 million Jackson albums have sold worldwide since he died, a stratospheric number for a music industry in decline.

With 8.3 million albums sold in the U.S., he was the top-selling artist in 2009, easily topping Taylor Swift’s 4.6 million. It marked the most albums sold in a year since Usher topped 8 million in 2004, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Even since the start of this year, Jackson songs have been played on American radio stations 140,000 times, about 10 times the pace before he died, according to Nielsen. Nearly a million Jackson albums have sold this year and a new album of unreleased material is set to hit stores in November, roughly in tandem with a new video game in which fans can mimic his signature moves.

“In the year that Michael has gone, we realize how incredibly talented he was,” said Marty Bandier, the chief executive of Sony/ATV. “The guy was the King of Pop and more.”

___

By RYAN NAKASHIMA, AP Business Writer

AP Entertainment Writer Anthony McCartney contributed to this story.

Source: Yahoo! News

Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers holds up the Larry O'Brien trophy after the Lakers defeated the Boston Celtics in Game 7 of the 2010 NBA Finals at Staples Center on June 17, 2010. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

Los Angeles – As a writer, you often witness certain occasions in life that you have an overwhelming desire to document. Even if it never sees the light of day, you still want to document it. I’ve had several situations like that in my immediate past – Barack Obama’s historic election win on November 4, 2008; President Obama’s inauguration on January 20, 2009; Michael Jackson’s death on June 25, 2009.

I would have documented Nigeria’s semi-final victory over Brazil in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics Football event if I was any wise back then. That was the most manic I could recall myself ever being in my life!

Thursday, June 17, 2010 was another such day. Game 7 of the NBA Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics was the setting. Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles was the venue.

The stage was set and at 6pm local time I found myself at a sports bar in Santa Ana (where I had attended a networking meeting earlier). I would have loved to skip the early part of the game but since I was already at this sports bar when the game started, I said, what the heck, let’s watch!

So I watched! And, boy, was it ugly?! It was the ugliest game of basketball I have ever seen in my years of viewing NBA games! But it had the most beautiful of endings ever!

The 1st half was like a scene from a Stephen King’s novel. It was a horror show! I was standing in the middle of this bar and I was telling myself, “This just couldn’t be happening!” To say that the Lakers were atrocious in that half would be as smart as me saying that one would get wet dancing in the rain – without an umbrella. Possessions after possessions we would come up without scoring. The Lakers scored 14 points in the first quarter and 34 at the half. 34 points in 24 minutes?! Seriously?!

I was emotionally ragged at this stage. I was texting other Lakers friends furiously (you know how they say misery loves company?) saying things like, “This is a PRIMETIME choke job!!!,” “We are choking on the biggest stage BIG TIME!!!,” “Even the great Kobe can’t buy a basket!,” Oh my God, Kobe is CHOKING!!! And this is too UGLY to watch!!!” (And those were the ones fit to be printed.)

Kobe Bryant shot 3-for-14 and Pau Gasol shot 3-for-13 at halftime. The Lakers as a team shot like 28% that half and had missed more than half of their free throws by then.

What really troubled me was the fact that Kobe, who always seemed to find a way to rescue this team, was the one that seemed to be choking the most. He wasn’t only missing open shots, he was missing free throws! Who could have thought up this game? I kept asking myself, “Who will rescue us now?”

I just didn’t want to contemplate us losing this game. I didn’t want to live through the nightmare of the avalanche of text messages from everyone on my call list that hated my Lakers. Hmm, I may have to shut down my phone after this game.

I had played this game in my mind several times after Game 6 (in which we blew out the Celtics, just to remind the Celtics fans reading this) and not one of those scenarios played out the way this game was unraveling. I believed strongly that we would win this game and I felt we would win it not too dramatically but what was happening now was foreign to my faith and anathema to my sanity.

Celtics led by 9 points after the 1st quarter and every team that had won the 1st Q had won every game in the series thus far. So what does that mean? Not good, I suppose. But the Lakers were bossing the rebounds and every team that had won the rebound battle had also won every single game in the series. In fact, the only thing that kept us in the game was that we were grabbing practically all the rebounds. But we weren’t scoring, so of what use were those rebounds? I guess they kept the Celtics from scoring more.

Halftime scores: LA Lakers 34 – Boston Celtics 40.

Ron Artest and Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers celebrates as the Lakers defeated the Boston Celtics in Game 7 of the 2010 NBA Finals at Staples Center on June 17, 2010. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

To say I was distressed at halftime would be putting it mildly. I had stayed on my feet all through the 1st half because I was too restless to sit. I just couldn’t imagine the Lakers losing a Game 7 of the NBA Finals. At home! To the Boston Celtics!

In case you didn’t know this, LA basketball fans hate just one thing – losing to the Boston Celtics! There is no feeling worse. We could lose to LeBron James and the Cavs, Dwayne Wade and the Heats or any other team in the league and it’d be no big deal but when the Celtics come to town, It. Is. On! To say we hate the Celtics is just so because there is no worse word to use in place of hate. The feeling I had after Game 6 of the 2008 Finals is a feeling I never would have forgotten even if we had won 10 straight championships – if none of them involved us beating the Boston Celtics. And I’m sure I’m speaking for all Lakers fans here. (Anyway I hear that the feeling is mutual so I’m good.)

Second half begins and we were no better, despite assurances from my text mates and fellow sports bar denizens that we would get better. In fact, it got worse for us. Kobe picked up 2 quick fouls, pushed his nightmarish shooting to 3-for-17 and the Celtics went on a run. Suddenly we were down by 13 points! 13 points?! Damn! Are we really about to lose this at home?!

(More furious texting, to my friend, Al, who had assured me that Kobe would go off in the 2nd half: “If the great Kobe doesn’t go off NOW, we are TOAST!!!” I don’t know if his confidence was real or just plain bravado but he never wavered in his belief that Kobe would still go off.)

Then somehow, miraculously, the great Kobe Bryant suddenly realized that his shooting touch was on sabbatical in Siberia on this night and he had to find some other way around this if the Lakers were to win this game. He then started trusting his teammates more with the ball and he also started driving to the basket. So with a combination of some gutsy plays by Ron Artest (who really kept us in this game) and Pau Gasol and some Kobe’s free throws, we slowly cut into the lead. But then Paul Pierce (I hate that guy!) would hit another 3 for the Celtics and they would move further away. We kept fighting and at the end of the 3rd Q we were only down by 4.

In the 4th, the Celtics went into an offensive stagnation and the Lakers went on a 9-0 run to take the lead for the first time since early 2nd Q. Derek Fisher hit a big 3 to tie the game with 6.11 to go. I smiled and gave a fist pump from my standing position for the first time in the game. Kobe converted a pair of free throws to give the Lakers the lead for good. The Celtics never gave up. They kept coming and were down only by 3 with about a minute to go.

A minute to go and the Lakers had the ball. Kobe had the ball at the top of the Celtics’ 3-point line. Rasheed Wallace runs to covers his right; Ray Allen took care of his left and prevented him from shooting or passing to Lamar Odom. Kobe turns right again and the only man open – and his only option at that moment– was Ron Artest! I am positive that he hesitated and thought hard and long about passing the ball to Ron-Ron. The situation was, if Artest takes the shot and misses and the Celtics run down and hit a 3; that would be a disaster.

Grudgingly, and since he didn’t want to jack up another ill-advised shot, he passed the ball to the wide-open Artest. And prayed! The moment Artest got the ball, a hush fell over the sports bar. Then in that split second I could hear everyone scream. Or maybe it was a scream coming from my throat. But the only sound I could hear, from whatever source it came, was: PLEASE DON’T SHOOT!!!!!!!

It was like a collective plea from everyone to this most unpredictable of characters to not kill a city’s collective dream at such a time when we could all already visualize the victory celebrations. (Trying to understand why Ron Artest does what he regularly does is like trying to find a brick of logic in a hurricane of madness.)

Artest caught the ball, bounced it, pretended like he was looking for someone to pass it to, bounced it again, went down (that was when I gave in to the hopeless and deathly realization that this dude was definitely going to shoot this damn ball), came back up and launched a 3. 

And we all prayed! Everyone held their breath for the agonizingly longest second ever and we all screamed when the ball hit the basket. It was the most surreal sight! Artest hitting the most important shot in our quest for this championship was something I never thought I would witness. Everyone was delirious and screaming! I was screaming: “That was a miracle shot!!!”

The sports bar went bunkers! There is nothing like sports – especially when your team wins – to bring people, complete strangers together. Strangers were hi-fiving and hugging other strangers. I must have hugged everyone in that bar (over a hundred people but maybe not all of them now that I think about it) after Artest hit that shot. I became convinced then that we would win this.

The Celtics made a late rally after that, cutting it to a 2-point game after two 3s by Ray Allen and (inexplicably) Rajon Rondo (another guy I hate in that Celtics team) but Sasha Vujavic did the only good thing he did in these playoffs, held his nerves and made two desperately needed free throws to ice the game and bring down the confettis.

The Los Angeles Lakers are champions again and it was all the sweeter the way we won it – in a tough, gritty, difficult, unimaginably ugly Game 7 win over eternal enemies, the Boston Celtics. If we had won it in a blowout it would not have been nearly this exciting. And I would definitely not have written this. It probably wasn’t fun for the neutrals watching it but I wouldn’t have had it any other way. If someone had said we would ever win such a gritty game I would have said they were certifiably insane.

It was a game in which nothing worked right for the Lakers but, in the end, the team’s mental will to win overcame its physical inability to. Kobe lost his game on this momentous night but his teammates lifted him up and rescued him just like he’s done for them so many other times in the past. This was a game they easily would have lost some other time but on this day, at the Staples Center, in the biggest game of their season, against their eternal rival, they mentally refused to and their weary bodies duly obeyed.

Let the parade begin. See you on Figueroa Avenue on Monday!

Kobe Bryant takes in the applause and the confetti after the Lakers defeated the Boston Celtics in Game 7 of the 2010 NBA Finals at Staples Center on June 17, 2010 in Los Angeles. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

Femi Ajetunmobi.
©2010. All Right Reserved.

NOTE: By the way, in case you were wondering, the final scores were: LA Lakers 83 – Boston Celtics 79. I had to ask from others several minutes after the game since I was too lost to be paying attention.

I would like to say a big THANK YOU to every member of the Los Angeles Lakers for winning the NBA Championship for a 2nd straight season. Let’s go on and make it a three-peat (like we promised) next year.

To Kobe Bryant, for deservedly winning another Finals MVP. Even though your offensive game deserted you in the final game, you never stopped playing. Your defensive game and the unbelievable 15 rebounds (15 rebounds for a guard is unbelievable, trust me) kept us in the game and partly won us that game. The Black Mamba! I hate to get embroiled in the debate over who the greatest Laker ever is but the one thing I’m sure of is, one more championship and there would no longer be a debate.

To Andrew Bynum, for playing the whole post-season on one good knee. Thank you for sacrificing your body for the good of the team.

To Pau Gasol. You just buried once-and-for-all Pau Ga-soft! 19 points and 18 rebounds make you the man!

To Ron Artest. Without your 20 points, 5 rebounds and 5 steals, we definitely would have lost that game. You were the MVP of Game 7, no doubt. I am still convinced that you’re borderline retarded though.

Still on the issue of Ron Artest, doesn’t he give the best post-game interviews and press conferences? If you’re not sure, watch the videos below.

Watch video of Kobe’s postgame press conference talking about getting one over Shaq below.

To the Boston Celtics: You had a great season. You played well enough to win this but we wanted it more. Hopefully, we shall see you again next year. We still have 6 more championship series defeats to avenge.

It’s a great thing that we won this championship and Kobe got his fifth ring because we may not come this way again for a very long time. Based on what happens with this year’s free agency class, if we see an alignment of LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh or Amar’e Stoudemire on the same team, the rest of the league could as well forget about winning the championship for the longest time. I would hope the league wouldn’t allow such an unholy alliance since it would be illegal but, hey, sh@# happens!

On a final but serious note, I would like Los Angeles sports fans to know that winning is beautiful but it is ugly to hide behind celebrating a great victory like Thursday’s to visit anarchy on a city. The sort of incidents that happen in this great city each time the Lakers win a championship is deeply contemptible and is to be gravely discouraged. It is hooliganism, pure and simple, and anyone involved in such dastardly acts is a hooligan! These are not fans; these are criminals!

Watch the video (released by the LAPD) below to see if you recognized any of the hooligans in it and if you do, please call the police. People like these miscreants have no place in a civil society.

Thank you!