Richie Havens, Woodstock legend, dies at 72

By Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, TODAY

Folk singer and guitarist Richie Havens, who opened the 1969 Woodstock music festival with a legendary and lengthy set that helped make him famous, died Monday at age 72.?

Fin Costello / Redferns file via Getty Images

Richie Havens in concert in 1973.

His family says Havens died of a heart attack, and that a public memorial will be announced later.?A statement on his official website posted before Havens' death says that the singer never fully recovered from kidney surgery he underwent several years ago.

His career spans decades, but he may be most famous for his role as the first performer at Woodstock. He launched the three-day festival with more than two hours of music, even running out of songs and thus improvising the song "Freedom" based on the old spiritual "Motherless Child."

Steve Davidowitz, who co-wrote Havens' 1999 autobiography, "They Can't Hide Us Anymore," tells TODAY that the book title was what Havens said while looking out at the enormous Woodstock crowd.

"The promoters of the event actually appealed to Richie to perform for 20 minutes or so, because no one wanted to be first," Davidowitz told TODAY. "Instead of 20 minutes, the crowd kept him on stage for more than two hours with their cheers and demands for more."

Many Woodstock fans noticed that Havens didn't have his top row of teeth while performing at the festival. After the event, and with the encouragement of Johnny Carson, who had the singer on "The Tonight Show" more than a dozen times, the singer bought dental implants.

Brad Barket / Getty Images file

After Woodstock, Havens started his own record label, Stormy Forest. He also worked as an actor, appearing in the London stage version of The Who's "Tommy" and in the 1977 Richard Pryor movie "Greased Lightning," about the first black stock-car driver to win an upper-tier NASCAR race.?

"Richie Havens was gifted with one of the most recognizable voices in popular music," Havens' agent said in a statement. "His fiery, poignant, soulful singing style has remained unique and ageless since his historic appearance at Woodstock in 1969. For four decades, Havens used his music to convey passionate messages of brotherhood and personal freedom."

Havens was always grateful for his fans. "From Woodstock to The Isle of Wight to Glastonbury to the Fillmore Auditorium to Royal Albert Hall to Carnegie Hall, Richie played the most legendary music festivals that ever were, and most of the world?s greatest concert venues," the statement went on to say. "But even when performing in a?Greenwich Village coffeehouse or a small club or regional theater, he was eternally grateful that people in any number turned up each time to hear him sing. More than anything, he feels incredibly blessed to have met so many of you along the way."

Actor Lou Gossett Jr. was Havens? co-writer on one of his most popular songs, ?Handsome Johnny,? which was released in 1967 and was also part of Havens' Woodstock set. In 2001, the song was covered by reggae musician Peter Tosh, and in 2002, by The Flaming Lips.

Havens also had a 1971 hit with his cover of The Beatles' "Here Comes the Sun."

"Working with Richie to write his book -- a very good book, one with no curse words, no sexual exploits, but a book that shared how he self-taught himself virtually everything ... was the single most enjoyable professional experience of my life," Davidowitz told TODAY. "Besides that, he was a great friend, ?an amazing, ?fantastic performer, a truly warmhearted, giving human being. "

After hearing of his death, fans began to share memories of Havens on The Roots Agency's Facebook page.

"His legacy will live on forever," wrote Reese Karlan.

Wrote Robert Rothstein: "Richie Havens was a great ambassador of peace and humanity. His voice was unique."

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Source: http://todayentertainment.today.com/_news/2013/04/22/17865761-richie-havens-woodstock-legend-dies-at-72?lite

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Group kicks off planting of ancient tree clones

COPEMISH, Mich. (AP) ? A team led by a nurseryman from northern Michigan and his sons has raced against time for two decades, snipping branches from some of the world's biggest and most durable trees with plans to produce clones that could restore ancient forests and help fight climate change.

Now comes the most ambitious phase of the quest: getting the new trees into the ground.

Ceremonial plantings of two dozen clones from California's mighty coastal redwoods were taking place Monday in seven nations: Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, Ireland, Canada, Germany and the U.S.

Although measuring just 18-inches tall, the laboratory-produced trees are genetic duplicates of three giants that were cut down in northern California more than a century ago. Remarkably, shoots still emerge from the stumps, including one known as the Fieldbrook Stump near McKinleyville, which measures 35 feet in diameter. It's believed to be about 4,000 years old. The tree was about 40 stories high before it was felled.

"This is a first step toward mass production," said David Milarch, co-founder of Archangel Ancient Tree Archive, a nonprofit group spearheading the project. "We need to reforest the planet; it's imperative. To do that, it just makes sense to use the largest, oldest, most iconic trees that ever lived."

Milarch and his sons Jared and Jake, who have a family-owned nursery in the village of Copemish, Mich., became concerned about the condition of the world's forests in the 1990s. They began crisscrossing the U.S. in search of "champion" trees that have lived hundreds or even thousands of years, convinced that superior genes enabled them to outlast others of their species. Scientific opinion varies on whether that's true, with skeptics saying the survivors may simply have been lucky.

The Archangel leaders say they're out to prove the doubters wrong. They've developed several methods of producing genetic copies from cuttings, including placing branch tips less than an inch long in baby food jars containing nutrients and hormones. The specimens are cultivated in labs until large enough to be planted.

In recent years, they have focused on towering sequoias and redwoods, considering them best suited to absorb massive volumes of carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas primarily responsible for climate change.

"If we get enough of these trees out there, we'll make a difference," said Jared Milarch, the group's executive director.

Archangel has an inventory of several thousand clones in various stages of growth that were taken from more than 70 redwoods and giant sequoias. NASA engineer Steve Craft, who helped arrange for David Milarch to address an agency gathering, said research shows that those species hold much more carbon than other varieties.

The challenge is to find places to put the trees, people to nurture them and money to continue the project, Jared Milarch said. The group is funded through donations and doesn't charge for its clones.

"A lot of trees will be planted by a lot of groups on Arbor Day, but 90 percent of them will die," David Milarch said. "It's a feel-good thing. You can't plant trees and walk away and expect them to take care of themselves."

The recipients of Archangel redwoods have pledged to care for them properly, he said. The first planting of about 250 took place in December on a ranch near Port Orford, Ore. Others were being planted during Earth Day observances Monday at the College of Marin in Kentwood, Calif., and in parks and private estates in the other six countries.

"I know the trees will thrive here," said Tom Burke, landscape manager at the College of Marin. "We've had redwoods in this area since God planted them."

___

Online: http://www.ancienttreearchive.org

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/group-kicks-off-planting-ancient-tree-clones-091249191.html

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Fear not, for we are working on a new Android Central app

We've mentioned this in the forums and teased a little bit on Google+, but it deserves mention here: Yes, we're hard at work on a new Android Central app.

The short version is that our old app was never really up to snuff (and frankly probably never should have happened in the first place). We unpublished it some time ago. But we can't do anything about folks who still have it installed, except to say uninstall it and hang tight. Something much better is on the way.

We don't have any ETAs to give yet, but I can say things are progressing nicely, and this new app has far more features (and far less ad spam) than the old one.

See my post in our forums for a more detailed explanation of the old app, our new app, and better things to come.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/biUkWo36_JI/story01.htm

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Touchfit: GSP leads iOS Apps of the Week

Did you hear something? Oh that?s just the sound of another round of the top iOS apps of the week hitting your screen! This week?s list is led by a fitness app brought to you by a professional mixed martial arts fighter. If freaky fitness isn?t your thing we?ve also got apps for clothing, currency conversion, expense tracking and an update for a social network app worth checking out.

Touchfit: GSP (the GSP stands for UFC fighter Georges St-Pierre) might not get you as ready to rumble as its namesake, but it certainly will do its best to try. GSP features 500 video exercises designed to help you improve your strength, power, endurance and flexibility. The app uses a mix of gymnastics, bodyweight exercises and high intensity interval training to create its workout sessions and evolves after each session to suit your pace and fitness ability.

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LinkedIn?s 6.0 update isn?t exactly a major overhaul, but the app does come with a new, simpler design schematic that allows for greater interaction from its main screen. Users can now invite, follow, like, share and comment on content that is right on their update stream. New customizable navigation also allows for quicker access to preferred features on the service. Additionally, users can now follow ?influencers? to get access to original insight and content that is posted to LinkedIn.

Although ModCloth has been a fixture on the iPad for a while, the app finally got its iPhone app released this week for users who want a more mobile shopping experience. The app functions similarly to its iPad counterpart ? users can browse through styles, favorite items, share items via social networks and also buy items via the app?s secure checkout. Whether you?re looking for vintage dresses, shoes or handbags, ModCloth wants to be your destination app, and now with its iPhone version released, it just might be.

Frequent international travelers will want to pay attention to Currency ? Made Simple. The app converts U.S. currency into over 160 other currencies with the tap of a button. Currencies can be searched via currency name, country name or country code. Currencies can also be added as favorites for quick reference. Currency ? Made Simple also has six months of historical data on currency conversion rates to help users make decisions on the best time to convert money.

Having trouble keeping track of your daily latte expenses? Cents ~ Micro-Expense Tracking looks to alleviate the issue with a handy set of quick-tap buttons that allow you to easily log your minor daily expenses. Users can create custom buttons or edit the app?s pre-set expense buttons to track things like lunch, coffee, train ticket and drink expenses. You can then view your expenses in handy charts by week or by month to see just where your money is going.

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Best Educational Apps, Handpicked By Experts

Appolicious is pleased to introduce appoLearning.com, where parents, teachers and students find great education apps.

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Source: http://www.appolicious.com/tech/articles/13419-touchfit-gsp-leads-ios-apps-of-the-week

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Debt levels, big monetary stimulus on tap at G20

By David Gaffen and Jan Strupczewski

Fri Apr 19, 2013 9:01am EDT

(Reuters) - Finance leaders of the G20 economies on Friday were set to debate specific targets for reining in debt levels and the potential dangers from the latest round of aggressive easing of monetary policy from the world's biggest central banks.

They were also poised to demand swifter resolution to setting guidelines for financial benchmarks like the Libor interest rate in the wake of a global rate-rigging scandal.

But a rethinking of the austerity push among the world's biggest economies loomed as the biggest talking point. Advanced economies, particularly in Europe, have undertaken sharp austerity drives in recent years to curb growing debt, but those efforts have at times damaged economies already suffering from capital flight and under-investment from the private sector.

EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn told Reuters in an interview on Thursday that a period of reduced spending and borrowing was necessary to calm markets concerned about out-of-control debt levels, particularly in peripheral European countries. That time has passed, he said.

"Decisive action was taken. Now as we have restored the credibility in the short-term, that gives us the possibility of having a smoother path of fiscal adjustment in the medium-term," he said.

The United States has opposed committing to any targeted level of public debt as a percentage of GDP, a common way to measure a nation's debt burden.

"I think an issue that will come up ... is the issue of hard targets, or not, for debt-to-GDP," Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty told reporters on Thursday.

In a 2010 study frequently cited by policymakers, Harvard professors Kenneth Rogoff and Carmen Reinhart found that on average, economies contract when the debt-to-GDP ratio surpasses 90 percent - a level G20 officials were set to debate.

However, the study's results were disputed by researchers at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, who said growth for countries with those ratios was actually 2.2 percent.

Weakness in economies that undertook the most severe measures to cut deficits undercut the austerity argument. The United Kingdom, in particular, is suffering its third recession in the last five years.

Still, Flaherty urged the G20 to set hard targets on debt and deficit, though he added that troubled economies should move more slowly towards balanced budgets than others.

"It's important for confidence by investors, which leads to more investment, economic growth and jobs," Flaherty said.

SPILLOVER CONCERNS

The unprecedented level of monetary stimulus designed to reinvigorate struggling large economies, including the United States, the euro zone and Japan, has raised concerns about excessive capital flight to developing nations.

In a communique on Thursday, the Group of 24 developing nations, whose ranks include Brazil, India, South Africa and Mexico, called on the advanced economies to "take into account the negative spillover effects ... of prolonged unconventional monetary policies including on inflation and the volatility of capital flows and commodity prices."

The Bank of Japan is attempting to end decades of stagnation by pumping $1.4 trillion into its economy, some of which is expected to find its way into emerging markets. Local currency funds have pulled in $16.7 billion in the first quarter of 2013 worldwide, the most in more than two years, according to Lipper, a unit of Thomson Reuters.

"There is a call from the G24 members to have clear coordination and better communication between advanced economies and emerging markets ... towards using coordination as a way to mitigate these potential asset appreciation bubbles. The consensus is that this is something that has to be closely monitored," said Mexican Finance Minister Luis Videgaray.

Videgaray has cause for concern.

In the days following the Bank of Japan's announcement, for example, the Mexican peso jumped 2.5 percent against the dollar to its strongest in 20 months. Against the yen, the peso surged over 9 percent.

Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda, in response to questioning about the country's aggressive efforts, said he didn't see signs of asset price bubbles "brewing in emerging nations" as a result of monetary stimulus.

"It's true that the massive monetary stimulus of advanced economies may affect emerging economies including through capital inflows," he said. "Such spill-over effects had been discussed even before the G20 meeting, and will likely be on the agenda at (this week's) meeting too."

The G20 finance ministers are due to release their formal communique around midday on Friday. They plan to task the Financial Stability Board, a coordinating body of global financial regulators, with overseeing the reform of financial benchmarks such as Libor, two sources familiar with the situation told Reuters on Thursday.

An early draft of a communique G20 financial officials will be debating asks the FSB to take on the role after a global interest rate-rigging scandal that involved some of the world's largest banks.

The International Organization of Securities Commissions came out with a report this week saying that financial benchmarks should be based on actual transactions rather than estimates, such as is the case with Libor.

(Additional reporting by Louise Egan, Krista Hughes and Douwe Midema; Editing by Dan Burns and Tim Ahmann)

Source: http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/reuters/topNews/~3/2rIU0r8AVQ0/story01.htm

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Twitter #Music Hands On: A Celeb-Stalking, Music Discovery Dream

The celebrity-hawked Twitter Music app is finally here. And what's good enough for Ryan Seacrest is good enough for us kind of. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/CEQRS1ESYI4/twitter-music-hands-on-a-celeb+stalking-music-discovery-dream

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