Evening Standard/Hulton Archive, Getty Images

Ring, ring, why don’t you give me a call?  Ring, ring, the happiest sound of them all. The Beatles have entered the world of ringtone-mania! As of today, Feb 22, 2012, all you Beatle people can now add the Fab Four to your cell phone via an exclusive deal with iTunes. There will be 27 songs to pick from, all taken from their ’1′ collection.

The digital edition of that chart-topping hits compilation was made available last September as part of the much ballyhooed “Beatles go digital” storyline. The addition of ring tones to the already vast Beatles empire of sound takes the lads even deeper into the modern world, much to the delight of many fans.

So if you feel the need for the sounds of ‘Help!’ or ‘Hello Goodbye’ (ah yes, clever that one!) to come blasting out of your mobile device, it’s yours for the taking. If, however, you are waiting for ‘Revolution 9′ as your personalized ring of choice, you’ll have to hold that dream at bay a while longer.

Source: UltimateClassicRock.com

borderfilms, Flickr

According to a new Gallup poll, United States citizens truly love our neighbors to the north — in fact, in the company’s annual favorability ratings, 96 percent of Americans said they have a generally favorable view of Canada, while only three percent view it unfavorably.

So who else is in our good graces?

Australia and Great Britain, which respectively had 93 and 90 percent favorable ratings from Americans. Unsurprisingly, Afghanistan, North Korea and Iran are at the bottom of the rankings — they earned favorable ratings of 14, 13, and 10 percent.

“Iran is the least well-regarded country measure this year, with 10% of Americans viewing it favorably and 87% unfavorably,” Gallup wrote on its website. “Americans’ favorable ratings of Iran have been consistently low since Gallup’s first measurement with this question in 1989, mostly registering around 10% but with a range from 5% (in1989) to 17% (in 2004).”

Here’s the top 20 list — check out the full report for more.

2012 Favorability Toward Countries

1. Canada – 96 percent
2. Australia – 93 percent
3. Great Britain – 90 percent
4. Germany – 86 percent
5. Japan – 83 percent
6. France – 75 percent
7. India – 75 percent
8. Israel – 71 percent
9. Greece – 62 percent
10. Mexico – 51 percent
11. Russia – 50 percent
12. Egypt – 47 percent
13. Saudi Arabia – 42 percent
14. China – 41 percent
15. Cuba – 37 percent
16. Libya – 25 percent
17. Iraq – 24 percent
18. The Palestinian Authority – 19 percent
19. Syria – 17 percent
20. Pakistan – 15 percent

[Gallup]

Relativity Media / Summit Entertainment / Lionsgate / Universal Pictures

We know winter has been long and cold, so duck into a theater this weekend to shake off the doldrums — the four new flicks opening in wide release should have a little something for everyone.

The long-awaited ‘Act of Valor’ stars real active-duty Navy SEALs in a fictionalized account of SEAL operations that takes audiences on an adrenaline-fueled, edge-of-their-seat journey.

In the suspense thriller ‘Gone,’ a woman who escaped from a kidnapper a year before discovers her sister has now been abducted by the same maniac.

‘Tyler Perry’s Good Deeds’ is the story of a man jolted out of his predictable routine when the chance to do a good deed finally sparks the courage to exchange the life that’s expected of him for the life he’s always really wanted.

And in ‘Wanderlust,’ Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd star as a stressed-out couple who move in to a hippie commune, where the change of perspective could cause more problems than it solves.

Here’s a sneak peek:

Act of Valor

Directed by: Scott Waugh
Starring: Roselyn Sanchez, Alex Veadov, Nestor Serrano, Jason Cottle, Rorke, Michael, Dave, Ajay, Sonny, Ray, Van O, Weimy, Emilio Rivera, Gonzalo Menendez
Get Tickets & Showtimes

Gone

Directed by: Heitor Dhalia
Starring: Amanda Seyfried, Daniel Sunjata, Jennifer Carpenter, Sebastian Stan, Wes Bentley
Get Tickets & Showtimes

Tyler Perry’s Good Deeds

Directed by: Tyler Perry
Starring: Tyler Perry, Thandie Newton, Gabrielle Union, Eddie Cibrian, Brian J. White, Jordenn Thompson, Phylicia Rashad, Beverly Johnson, Rebecca Romijn, Jamie Kennedy, Andrew Masset
Get Tickets & Showtimes

Wanderlust

Directed by: David Wain
Starring: Paul Rudd, Jennifer Aniston, Justin Theroux, Alan Alda, Malin Akerman
Get Tickets & Showtimes

Sotheby's

If you’ve got $80 million burning a hole in your pocket and want to own an artistic masterpiece, break out your checkbook. The last version of Edvard Munch’s well-known painting ‘The Scream’ to be in private hands is going on the auction block.

Sotheby’s auction house will do the honors and expects the iconic work to fetch upwards of $80 million or more. It’s one of only four versions of the 1895 painting, and is currently owned by Norwegian businessman Petter Olsen, whose father was a friend and patron of Munch’s.

I have lived with this work all my life, and its power and energy have only increased with time,’ Olsen said. “Now, however, I feel the moment has come to offer the rest of the world a chance to own and appreciate this remarkable work.”

Museums own the other three copies, but this one is considered particularly valuable because it’s done in pastels and is still in the original frame that was hand-painted by Munch himself. In addition, it includes a poem he wrote in which he explains the inspiration behind the work, describing himself as “shivering with anxiety” and feeling “the great scream in nature.”

Proceeds from the sale will go toward building a new museum, art center and hotel in Hvitsten, Norway, where Olsen’s father and Munch were neighbors.

[via Daily Mail]

Source: TheFW.com

Dennis, Flickr

In this economy, people are lucky just to have a job.

Which is perhaps why the majority of Americans would pick job security over higher pay, if given the choice.

The Pew Research Center asked 1,231 adults if, all other things being equal, they would prefer a job with higher pay or more job security. Overall, 58 percent opted for the job security, and 39 percent wanted the bigger bucks. The rest were undecided.

The only age demographic who would go for more money was 18-24-year olds, which is also the group that is likely to paid the least. And even among these youngest workers only 51 percent wanted the higher pay, whereas 48 percent favored job security.

[Pew Research Center]

yourdon, Flickr

When you talk on the phone, do you hold it up to your right ear or your left? Scientists say your preference could reveal a lot about you.

A new study from Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit found a strong link between brain dominance and the ear used to listen to a call. More than 70 percent of us hold our phones up to the ear on the same side as our dominant hand — in other words, right-handed people use their right ear, and vice versa.

Left-brain dominant people (whose speech and language center is on the left side of the brain) are more likely to be right-handed and to use their right ear for phone calls, even though the hearing there was found to be no better. The opposite is also true — right-brain dominant people tend to use their left hand to hold the phone in their left ear.

“Our findings have several implications, especially for mapping the language center of the brain,” says Dr. Michael Seidman, director of the division of otologic and neurotologic surgery in the Department of Otolaryngology — Head and Neck Surgery at Henry Ford.

He added that his work also adds to a growing body of evidence that finds no link between cell phone use and cancer — otherwise, he said, since most people are right-handed and tend to use their right ears for cell calls, tumors would almost always occur on the right side of the head or neck.

[Science Daily]

Thinkstock

Adults who are obese report higher rates of daily pain than those who are not, according to a recent Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index survey.

The survey released Wednesday found the higher an individual body mass index, the more likely he or she is to report experiencing pain, with 44.1 percent of those with BMIs of 40 or higher saying so.

Sixty-three percent of the 1,010,762 people who responded to the survey were classified as overweight (38 percent) or obese (25 percent). Obese respondents were further classified into one of three obesity levels as defined by the World Health Organization.

BMI Classification

• Obese III (40 or >) 44.1 percent
• Obese II (35 – 40) 34.7 percent
• Obese I (30 – 35) 27.7 percent
• Overweight (25 – 30) 21.8 percent
• Low to Normal (<25) 18.9 percent

Survey results are based on telephone interviews, of more than 1 million adults age 18 and older, from January 2, 2008 to June 30, 2010.

Source: TheCheckup.com

Van-Halen.com

Welcome back to the David Lee Roth interview show! Tonight’s guests include everybody’s favorite rock star duo of brotherly love. No, not Noel and Liam, it’s Eddie and Alex! Roth sits down with the Van Halen brothers for a little Q&A. Who better to dig under the surface for some historical Van Halen anecdotes than the ringleader himself?

After a quick lesson on what Starbucks and McDonalds are really selling from Alex, the conversation quickly shifts to record contracts, the language used in them, and general frustrations of ‘the biz.’ It’s all talked about pretty humorously, and a particularly funny story about their first accountant follows. The trio then starts dishing some good info on the hectic time they had getting their second record done, seeing as how they were given just three weeks to do so. It’s cool to see just how at ease and happy they are, just sitting and talking together.

A similarly entertaining conversation about the Van Halen brothers’ musical educations popped up on the band’s official site a few weeks back. With another ‘to be continued..” tag popping up at the end of this one, we can rest assured there will be more tales of past lives and general merriment to follow!

Watch David Lee Roth Interview Eddie And Alex Van Halen

Source: UltimateClassicRock.com

andjohan, Flickr

For job interviews, it used to be enough to just show up in a nice suit, answer some perfunctory questions and be on your way.

But these days, some companies have changed the interview process so much that candidates wind up feeling as though they’re trying out for a reality TV show instead of simply vying for a 9-5 paycheck.

The Los Angeles Times calls the trend “extreme interviewing,” and cites the example of one company that made internship hopefuls write 13 different 140-character messages on Twitter to illustrate why they should be chosen for the gig.

In addition, other interviewees are now often asked questions for which there is no right answer, like, “If Germans were the tallest people in the world, how would you prove it?” or “On a scale of 1 to 10, how weird are you?”

The popular Pinkberry chain even asks potential hires to act out fake commercials and come up with marketing plans for hypothetical new products — and that’s just for a job scooping frozen yogurt. In a statement, the company said such exercises “allow us to see immediate impact on team connectedness, demonstrate service and leadership skills and unveil entrepreneurial spirit.”

Bottom line: the next time you have an interview, keep in mind that while you probably won’t have to eat anything icky in ‘Fear Factor’ style, you may very well have to prove your worth in a variety of bizarre ways.

[Time]

Thinkstock

Many people don’t get necessary cancer screening tests, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

The U.S. Preventative Services Task Force recommend regular screening of both men and women beginning at age 50 for colorectal cancer. However a Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report found the percentage of people being screened for colorectal cancer is significantly lower than estimated.

The report found 58.5 percent of men reported being screened for colorectal cancer. This is significantly lower than the Healthy People 2020 target of 70.5 percent.Whites were significantly more likely to report being up-to-date in screening than blacks or Asians. Hispanics were less likely to report being up-to-date than non-Hispanics.

Among respondents who had been in the United States for less than 10 years; did not have a primary care physician; or did not have health insurance, less than a quarter reported having been screened within the recommended interval. Respondents aged 65–75 years were more likely to be up-to-date than those aged 50–64 years.

Colorectal cancer, cancer of the colon or rectum, is the third most common cancer for men and women and the second leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States. Men are at a slightly greater risk for the cancer than women. Certain lifestyle factors such as physical inactivity, smoking, obesity and alcohol abuse also contribute to increased risk of colorectal cancer.

Source: TheCheckup.com

Ethan Miller,Getty Images

Man, those Journey guys keep getting into legal trouble! After the news last week about Neil Schon being served with a (seemingly dubious) 50 million dollar lawsuit brought by his new girlfriend’s estranged husband, now we hear that Journey drummer Deen Castronovo has agreed to complete 80 hours of community service as a result of an alleged assault case from about a month ago.

This stems from an incident last month when Castronovo was arrested after a neighbor called the police to report a man and woman fighting. The couple in question turned out to be Castrovono and an ex-girlfriend. After the incident, the Journey sticksman was charged with reckless endangerment, second-degree criminal mischief, harassment and interfering with making a police report.

On Jan. 31, he pled not guilty to the four charges, all of which are misdemeanors, in Polk County Circuit Court. In addition to the community service, he is also required to attend anger management classes as part of a diversion agreement. That wheel in the sky, sure does keep on turning doesn’t it?!

Source: UltimateClassicRock.com

Daniel Barry, Getty Images

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) says wireless resources are not infinite.

In fact, the smartphones to which we’re all so addicted are gobbling so much bandwidth that as early as next year, we could be paying more for our service — not to mention seeing slower data speeds and an increase in dropped calls.

The FCC calls the issue “spectrum crunch” and officials there are worried it could be a very real problem, with one saying, “Network traffic is increasing … [Carriers] can manage it for the next couple years, but demand is inevitably going to exceed the available spectrum.”

Rory Altman, director of technology consultancy Altman Vilandrie & Co., added, “We got into this principally because technology and demand exploded at a rate that nobody had anticipated.”

The current wireless spectrum is distributed among companies and entities unevenly, with some having more than they need and others having too little. In early March, Congress is expected to vote on an FCC plan to hold incentive auctions that would help balance things out, something FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski says would not only help to free up spectrum resources but would also greatly benefit the US Treasury.

[CNN Money]

Thinkstock

The nutritional and lifestyle habits of overweight adults, including diets and diet pills, may be causing kidney damage, according to a new study published in the International Journal of Obesity.

One in five overweight Americans suffer from chronic kidney disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is often found in patients who have diabetes or hypertension.

Researchers at the Cleveland Clinic analyzed food choices and lifestyle habits of more than 10,900 overweight adults taken from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Survey results showed 50 percent of obese or overweight patients with kidney disease reported trying to lose weight in the past year. The study also found, on average, obese Americans with kidney disease consume protein in amounts that are above the recommended levels prescribed by the National Kidney Foundation for chronic kidney disease patients.

The usual American diet has nearly 1.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. Those with chronic kidney disease are suggested to eat 0.6 to 0.75 protein per kilogram of their body weight daily; 1.9 grams per kilogram of body weight is needed for those who choose high protein diets.

“People who are overweight or obese are at higher risk for chronic kidney disease and there is a great need to define what the appropriate lifestyle changes and weight loss modalities are for protecting kidney function,” said Sankar Navaneethan, a nephrologist and lead author of the study.

“Rather than using fad diets or diet pills, overweight and obese people with kidney disease may adopt a weight loss plan that incorporates a low-protein, low-calorie diet, regular physical activity and close follow-up by their physicians”, he said.

Source: TheCheckup.com

My Fox Atlanta

At Atlanta pizzeria is receiving both cheers — and jeers — for the notice it recently printed on its menus asking parents of noisy children to take their kids outside.

After Donnie Parmer, co-owner of Grant Central Pizza, got an abundance of complaints (both in person and on the review site Yelp) about screaming or unruly children in his restaurant, he added the following notice to the bottom of his menus:

Dear all present and future patrons: GCP is proud of its reputation as a family restaurant, a title that we will work to keep. Unfortunately a number of our diners have posted unpleasant experiences because of crying and unsupervised children. To ensure that all diners have an enjoyable lunch or dinner with us we respectfully ask that parents tend to their crying tots outside.”

Parmer says that while he likes kids and Grant Central Pizza is a family establishment, it’s not fair for little ones to disrupt the entire dining room. He cites an incident in which a child hit an adult patron in the head with a toy as the last straw that made him print the public notice.

While some parents are offended, saying “noise is just part of the experience in a family restaurant,” other customers applauded the gesture and said it’ll make them more likely to visit the restaurant.

[My Fox Atlanta]

Mike Coppola, Getty Images

You can fill more than a few lunch pails with Bruce Springsteen songs about the thoughts and struggles of the workingman. Make some room next to the thermos for ‘Jack of All Trades,’ a moving new ballad from his upcoming album that’s now being streamed on the Internet.

Built around a simple piano figure and a minimal drumbeat, ‘Jack of All Trades’ finds Springsteen singing in a mournful voice throughout, capping the verses — which reference household chores, financial inequality and other subjects — with the weary refrain “I’m a jack of all trades/we’ll be all right.”

The nearly six-minute song features an electric guitar solo from Rage Against the Machine‘s Tom Morello. Springsteen fans will remember that Morello joined Springsteen and the E Street Band for a version of ‘The Ghost of Tom Joad’ during the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s anniversary celebration at New York’s Madison Square Garden in October 2009.

‘Jack of All Trades’ is the latest in the one-new-song-per-weekday online rollout of Springsteen’s ‘Wrecking Ball’ album leading up to its March 6 release. There are seven songs to go, with the last one scheduled to be streamed March 2.

Listen to ‘Jack of All Trades’ by Bruce Springsteen

Source: UltimateClassicRock.com

consumerist, Flickr

Does your job make the world a better or worse place? That’s what 30,000 workers were asked last year — and their answers have given researchers a lot to talk about.

Salary comparison site PayScale conducted the survey in which people were asked the question and told to choose from the answer options of “very much so,” “yes,” “a little,” “no” and “My job may make the world a worse place.”

While only one percent picked the last answer, the New York Times was curious about what types of jobs those people had, so PayScale investigated further. Here are the top 10 occupations that had the highest shares of workers saying they thought their jobs made the world a worse place:

• Fast-Food Worker: 42.3 percent
• Bartender: 5.8 percent
• Senior Attorney: 4.9 percent
• Fashion Designer: 4.1 percent
• Associate – Investment Banking: 3.8 percent
• Legal Assistant: 3.6 percent
• Account Executive, Advertising: 3.4 percent
• Claims Adjuster / Examiner / Investigator: 3.3 percent
• Personal Banker: 3.2 percent
• Petroleum Engineer: 3.1 percent

Although a lot of people would take issue with bartenders thinking they don’t make the world a better place, analysts noted two of the 10 spots were banking professions — possibly a reflection of the economic downturn that happened largely at the hands of Wall Street executives.

Sorted by industry, here are the top 10 fields in which employees said their jobs make the world a worse place (the number one slot isn’t a terrible surprise):

• Tobacco Manufacturing: 15.9 percent
• Gambling Industries: 5 percent
• Gasoline Stations: 4.4 percent
• Limited-Service Eating Places (e.g., Fast-Food Restaurants): 2.8 percent
• Beer, Wine and Distilled Alcoholic Beverage Merchant Wholesalers: 2.1 percent
• Petroleum and Petroleum Products Merchant Wholesalers: 1.9 percent
• Legal Services: 1.8 percent
• Petroleum and Coal Products Manufacturing: 1.7 percent
• Jewelry, Luggage and Leather Goods Stores: 1.7 percent
• Advertising and Related Services: 1.6 percent

[The New York Times]

Win McNamee, Getty Images

Is it possible President Obama is looking to sing his way back into the White House this November? Last night the Commander in Chief was joined on stage by all all-star band that included Mick Jagger, Jeff Beck, B.B. King, Buddy Guy and Booker T. Jones. It took some convincing, but the President fronted the group of legends, if only for a few bars of ‘Sweet Home Chicago.’

“We were trying to get you to sing that,” one hears Guy saying in the video below. “Because I heard you had sung Al Green, so you started something so you gotta keep it up!”

The song was the conclusion of the ‘In Performance at the White House: Red, White and Blues’ special that will air on PBS next Monday (Feb. 27) at 9PM ET. Earlier Mr. Obama spoke about the importance of the music.

“The blues reminds us that we’ve been through tougher times before,” Obama said, according to CNN. “That’s why I’m proud to have these artists here not just as a fan but also as the president because their music teaches us that when we find ourselves at a crossroads, we don’t shy away from our problems. We own them. We face up to them. We deal with them. We sing about them. We turn them into art.”

Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks of the Allman Brothers Band were also on stage for the show closer. After waving off the microphone, the President finally took a hold of it and sang began the chorus of ‘Sweet Home Chicago’ before passing it back to King and exiting with his wife.

Watch President Obama Sing ‘Sweet Home Chicago’

Source: UltimateClassicRock.com

tpauly, Flickr

Despite what many a working stiff might think, men do not wear neckties to facilitate strangulation when their bosses are less than pleased with their work.

So, why do men wear this variable, often quite fashionable, and utterly useless piece of business attire?

The answer lies in history, and Europe’s Thirty Years’ War. The logistics of that 17^th century conflict are messy, to say the least, and the various alliances hard to follow. What is worth note here was the extensive use of Croatian mercenaries. Croatian soldiers, fashion innovators that they were, wore scarves around their necks as part of their uniforms, which were called kravatas.

French soldiers must have thought the Croats looked pretty smashing in their rustic scarves. Military personnel brought the idea of wearing neckties back to France, where King Louis XIV quickly introduced ‘la cravate’ to high society. Neckties soon became all the rage. Wearing a cravate allowed you to show off your individual style, by altering the size and length of the tie, as well as the colors and patterns swimming across the cloth.

The word ‘cravat,’ which owes its origins to ‘Croatian,’ eventually became ‘tie’ in English. While the design and manner of wearing a tie have evolved over the years, the ubiquity and cross-cultural relevance of this little strip of fabric simply prove that ties are here to stay.

[Time]

AeroShot

An inhalable caffeine powder that went on the market late last month in two states is under review from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to determine whether the product is safe.

The inhalable caffeine powder, AeroShot, went on sale in New York and Massachusetts last month. Now its inventor, Harvard biomedical engineering professor David Edwards, wants the product to categorized as a dietary supplement, which doesn’t require rigorous FDA approval.

The FDA review was triggered after a request from New York’s U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, who told the Associated Press, “I am worried about how a product like this impacts kids and teens, who are particularly vulnerable to overusing a product that allows one to take hit after hit after hit, in rapid succession.”

Edwards said the product isn’t dangerous and doesn’t contain many of the common additives used to enhance the caffeine effect in standard energy drinks.

Breathable Foods, AeroShot’s manufacturer, maintains that when it’s used according to its label, it provides a safe level of B vitamins and caffeine — about as much as a large cup of coffee — and isn’t marketed to children.

Still, Schumer fears that it will be used as a club drug, citing incidents last year in which students looking for an easy buzz began consuming caffeine-packed alcoholic beverages they dubbed “blackout in a can” because of their potency. The FDA eventually stopped the marketing, distribution and sale of these drinks, including the popular Four Loko.

“We need to make sure that AeroShot does not become the next Four Loko by facilitating dangerous levels of drinking among teenagers and college students,” Schumer said in a statement.

Source: TheCheckup.com