The news that Shah Rukh Khan is going to be the lead actor for Don2 has already been doing the rounds for quite some time. And now there is news that the movie which is expected to release in December this year will be having an all international look and feel.
While one of the idea is to get it recognized globally, the other main one is that it can stand to challenge Tom Cruise`s 'Mission Impossible 4'. MI 4 is also set to release around that time only.
And the picture clearly shows the financial might of the star as well as the producer. Take for example a scene from the movie where a shot required use of an expensive camera. But the car scene which was shot in Berlin at a very steep height saw the camera damaging and the car also breaking into pieces.
The good part is nobody got hurt in the accident. That is why a huge budget was required that left many of Indian films far behind. And to give to the movie the natural feel, both Farhan and SRK studied the lifestyle of international crime lords.
She found love with hockey pro Mike Comrie, and got married in August, so is a baby carriage in Hilary Duff's near future?
"Yeah, I think we're really excited to have kids," the singer/actress told UsMagazine.com at the Kentucky Derby Prelude Party Thursday. "And he comes from a big family."
PHOTOS: See what celebrities are expecting now
Still, added the star, "I'm only 23, so give me a little bit of time. Come on people!"
In the meantime, Duff and her man, 30, are enjoying their newlywed bliss.
"We just still have this really giddy excitement about each other that's like, 'Oh we got married! Oh my god! You're my husband and I'm your wife!'" she told Us.
PHOTOS: Check out Hilary and Mike's romantic wedding
And though the twosome don't live together -- she lives in L.A., and he's based in Pittsburgh where he plays for the Penguins -- they make sure not to spend more than three weeks apart.
"I go back and visit," she said. "It's all just been really good. I say 'I can't wait to see you' and 'I miss you so much.' He's such a good guy."
PHOTOS: See what other stars are dating athletes
So great, in fact, that the former Gossip Girl star didn't mind taking care of him while he recovered from hip surgery over the holidays.
"I played nurse all throughout Christmas, but we were in Vail so it was beautiful and nice," she told Us. "He's a good patient. Boys are a little whiny, but he was really good."
Square Enix May Have Registered Final Fantasy XIII-2 Domain
Seems as if Square Enix has locked down the web domain for a direct sequel to Final Fantasy XIII.
As reported on the superannuation Twitter account (via NeoGAF), the domain registrar that Square Enix has used in the past has now registered www.finalfantasy13-2game.com.
While most Final Fantasy games have featured an entirely new cast and world, Square Enix has dabbled in storyline sequels in the past. In 2003, it created Final Fantasy X-2, which reused much of the character and environment assets of the original game. I’m pretty sure I predicted in no uncertain terms that it would do the same thing for the very expensive XIII on an episode of Active Time Babble, although I am not going to sit here for two hours and listen to it to fact-check that.
Virgin America To Buy 60 Airbus Planes; 30 Have Pratt Engine As Option
Virgin America announced Monday that it is buying 60 Airbus A320 airplanes, including 30 fuel-efficient A320neo models that use Pratt & Whitney's PurePower geared turbofan as one of two engine options.
Virgin America, which uses San Francisco International Airport as its hub, has just 34 planes in the air but is expanding rapidly.
Airbus estimates that the A320neo's fuel efficiency will yield an average annual savings of $1.1 million per aircraft and emit 3,600 fewer tons of carbon dioxide per aircraft on an annual basis.
Virgin America did not say if will choose the Pratt engine or the Leap-X from CFM International, a joint venture of General Electric and Safran, a French aerospace firm.
Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban have had a daughter by a surrogate mother, the couple announced Monday.
Faith Margaret Kidman Urban arrived Dec. 28 at the Women's Hospital at Centennial in Nashville. She is the biological daughter of Kidman and Urban but was carried to term by a surrogate, the couple said in a release.
Kidman gave birth to a daughter, Sunday Rose, in July 2008.
New Zealand-born, Australian-raised Urban's country career is on the rise as he tours in support of Get Closer. Australian-born Kidman starred last year in Rabbit Hole.
"Our family is truly blessed, and just so thankful, to have been given the gift of baby Faith Margaret," Kidman and Urban, both 43, said in their statement.
"No words can adequately convey the incredible gratitude that we feel for everyone who was so supportive throughout this process, in particular our gestational carrier."
Kidman and her ex-husband Tom Cruise adopted two children during their marriage, Isabella and Connor.
Hilt of Pirate Blackbeard’s Sword May Have Been Found
Blackbeard, the infamous pirate of the 17th and 18th centuries, had a nasty reputation of intimidating his foes with just his looks alone.
However, researchers recently said they may have found the sword hilt of Blackbeard, possibly adding some context to why he was feared.
Experts say that they found a partially-gilded hilt off North Carolina’s coast in the wreckage of the Queen Anne's Revenge, according to researchers with the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources. The ship was the main one Blackbeard captained.
Over the past 14 years, the researchers have been picking through the wreckage and found pieces of the hilt, which they reassembled and are now unveiling it to the public this week, a press release with the department said.
"In any event, the pirates would have had ample opportunity to take anything that they thought valuable,” David Moore of the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources told National Geographic.A few media reports have emerged over the week that the hilt, which is made of brass, was in fact Blackbeard’s but the Department of Cultural Resources report never makes that direct claim.
The hilt may have been discarded after the shipwreck because it wasn’t useful or not easily reached, the Department of Cultural Resources said.
So, the sword may have indeed belonged to the infamous pirate but it may not have been his only sword. It may have also been the sword of one of his subordinates.
Blackbeard, born Edward Teach, was the archetypal pirate that many swoon over today, flying the first black flag with a skull and crossbones.
delivered 28 August 1963, at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C.
I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."
But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.
We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.
The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.
We cannot walk alone.
And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.
We cannot turn back.
There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating: "For Whites Only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."¹
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.
Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.
And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."2
This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.
With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:
My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,
From every mountainside, let freedom ring!
And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.
And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.
Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.
Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.
Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.
But not only that:
Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.
From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:
11 percent of McKinney ISD students have state i.d. number
Our paper had a page one story yesterday that tried to answer the difficult question of how many illegal immigrant children are in Texas public schools. The story came with charts showing local districts' percentage of kids who have a state i.d. number, as opposed to a Social Security number. As the story points out, there can be various reasons - apart from immigration status - for why a state i.d. number is assigned. But McKinney has 2,636 state i.d. students, representing 11 percent of the total, and costing $21.5 million to educate a year. Click here for the story and charts.
MISD Bands See 109 Receive All-Region Honors
McKINNEY, Texas – McKinney Independent School District middle school band students competed in the Region 25 All-Region Band auditions on Tuesday, Nov. 9 at Scott Johnson Middle School in the McKinney ISD and received selections to the All-Region Bands. McKINNEY, Texas – McKinney Independent School District middle school band students competed in the Region 25 All-Region Band auditions on Tuesday, Nov. 9 at Scott Johnson Middle School in the McKinney ISD and received selections to the All-Region Bands.
A total of 1,600 middle school band students from across the region participated in the auditions with 350 students selected to the All-Region bands. Approximately 200 band students from McKinney ISD middle schools auditioned and a total of 38 band students from the district were selected. McKinney ISD middle school band students totaled a staggering 11 percent of the total number of students selected to the All-Region bands.
The auditions included middle school band students from Sherman, Denison, Plano, Allen, Wylie, Lovejoy and other smaller North Texas school districts in Region 25.
“Students who participate in the All-Region band tryout process must prepare three pieces of music that are very difficult and perform them in front of three judges,” said Roy Renzenbrink, Director of Fine Arts for McKinney ISD. “By preparing and going through the process they can’t help but become better musicians. We are very proud of every student who tried out and extremely proud to have so many young musicians selected to be part of the Region 25 All-Region Band. It is a tribute to their hard work and the excellent teaching of their fine band directors.”
Students participating in the regional auditions are rated by a panel of judges and then placed in one of four regional bands, Wind Ensemble, Wind Symphony, Symphonic or Concert, based on their overall performance. Wind Ensemble is the highest placement a student musician can receive.
Cockrill Middle School had a total of 12 students selected to one of the four All-Region Bands. Evans Middle School had a total of 15 students selected, Dowell Middle School had a total of four students, Faubion Middle School had three students and Scott Johnson Middle School had four students selected.
The band directors at Dowell Middle School are Tiffany Lisko and Clark Eacker. The band directors at Evans Middle School are Lisa Smith, James Rees and Jason Myers. The band directors at Faubion Middle School are Brian Beck and Brittney Williams. The band directors at Scott Johnson Middle School are Paul Stephens and Stephanie Pavlasek. The band directors at Cockrill Middle School are Gary Williams and Matt Harp.
Below are the 2010 Middle School All Region Band selections from McKinney ISD:
Cockrill Middle School Kendall Farrar - Flute Mackenzie Higginbotham - Flute Lauren Anderson - Oboe Austen Baechle - Bassoon Bailee Jones - Clarinet Gbeke Fawehinmi - Clarinet Abigail Meza - Clarinet Kyle Kung - Clarinet Maddie Warhol - Clarinet Brittany Muoneke – Bari Sax Mikael Abera - Tuba Brian Jenkins - Percussion
Dowell Middle School Aric Eggers - Percussion Mia Norton - French Horn Esteban Ley - Trombone Adriane Gerona - Clarinet
Evans Middle School Nathan Salazar - Alto Saxophone Jacob Boring - Trumpet Chase Chastain - Tuba Brianna Alvear - Tuba Austin Powers - Trumpet Frances Humphrey - French Horn Harrison Card - Euphonium Hunter Lusk - Tuba Marques Jones - Percussion Alejandre Velez - Trumpet Jenna Lenhard - French Horn Kevin Hoehne - French Horn Juan Ramirez - Tenor Saxophone Kyle Robinson - Tuba Sumeet Gautam - Percussion
Faubion Middle School Cameron Bonner – Bassoon Kevin Sells - Trumpet Evan Davies - Trombone
Scott Johnson Middle School Brian Stephens - Trombone Robert Webb - French Horn Shawn Sparkman - Percussion
For more information about the McKinney ISD bands and Fine Arts programs, contact Roy Renzenbrink, Director of Fine Arts at 469-742-4087 or at rrenzenbrink@mckinneyisd.net.
