Browsing Archive: October, 2010

Original Hawaii 5-0's Danno Passes Away

Posted by ChiefJack Hawk on Friday, October 29, 2010, In : Celebrities 
James MacArthur, famous for his role as Danno on the original Hawaii 5-0, has died at the age of 72 on Thursday.  His agent reported that he died of natural causes but no official report on the cause of death has been released.  Hawaii 5-0 originally aired from 1968 to 1980, and MacArthur was on every show until the last season.  He left 5-0's cast before the start of the last season, stating that the show had become boring and repetitive, and no longer challenged him as an actor.  Born on De...
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Nepal Opens World's Highest 3G Hot Spot

Posted by ChiefJack Hawk on Friday, October 29, 2010, In : Technology 
Nepal, south Asia's poorest nation, just took a gigantic step in the world of communications.  NCell, a company owned jointly by local investors and telecom provider TeliaSonera, just installed a new 3G facility 17,388 feet up the slope of Mount Everest and today made the highest-based video call in the world from that location.  What this means is that climbers will now be able to keep up with their families as they ascend the world's tallest peak or even call for help using a regular cell p...
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Nuns Auctioning Off Rare Baseball Card

Posted by ChiefJack Hawk on Wednesday, October 27, 2010, In : People 
An unusual donation will be very helpful to a group of nuns and their ministries.  The brother of a member of the School Sisters of Notre Dame in Baltimore left all his possessions to the religious order when he died earlier this year, and his lawyer informed the nuns that part of this donation was a very rare and much-desired baseball card picturing Pittsburgh Pirate shortstop Honus Wagner.  Wagner played 18 seasons and was one of the original Baseball Hall of Fame inductees.  The card was p...
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Indonesia Battered By Geological Disasters

Posted by ChiefJack Hawk on Wednesday, October 27, 2010, In : Disasters 
Parts of Indonesia were badly battered late Monday and Tuesday by the combination of a 7.7 earthquake and its 14 aftershocks and the explosion of a major volcano which together took over 300 lives.  The massive quake triggered a 10-foot tsunami that washed away almost 80 percent of poorly built homes in the Mentawai island chain before the aftershocks, including a 6.2 and a 5.8, struck.  Not enough people were left to handle burying the dead, and bodies littered the beaches.  On Tuesday, the ...
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Amazon Region a Biological Treasure Trove

Posted by ChiefJack Hawk on Wednesday, October 27, 2010,
The Amazon region is being hailed as a treasure trove of biological diversity by the World Wildlife Fund.  Studies made by the Fund between 1999 and 2009 have revealed 1.220 new species of animals and plants, including a large brown hairy spider with neon blue fangs and a huge catfish that feeds on monkeys.  Scientists are worried, however, that these species may be wiped out.  In the last 50 years, an area twice the size of Spain has been destroyed in the Amazon by logging interests and farm...
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Twin Avatar Sequels Planned

Posted by ChiefJack Hawk on Wednesday, October 27, 2010, In : Movies 
It was announced around 8 AM on Wednesday (Pacific Time) that James Cameron will begin work on the scripts for two Avatar sequels early next year and actual production will begin in late 2011.  Executives at 20th Century Fox expect to have the first one in theaters in December 2014 and the second in December 2015.  This relatively soon date for the second film is being expected because Cameron has expressed the possibility that he may pull what Disney Studios did with Pirates of the Caribbean...
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TV Stations' Greed Resurfaces

Posted by ChiefJack Hawk on Monday, October 25, 2010, In : Television 
Broadcast television greed has once again reared its ugly head.  You may have noticed that there are now fewer TV shows to watch online.  That's because a few weeks ago broadcasters blocked access to a lot of their shows online in order to boost their profits.  The greedy bastards who run the networks believe that if they delay when their shows go on the Web, they will secure more viewer retention and stem the flow of the audience who are ditching cable and satellite TV for the Internet.  Whi...
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New Zealand Protests Unions, Backs Jackson

Posted by ChiefJack Hawk on Monday, October 25, 2010, In : Movies 
New Zealanders love their movies, love Peter Jackson, and have sided with Jackson against film-related trade unions who were protesting working conditions for the shooting of a proposed two-film series about Hobbits.  Jackson filmed the original Lord of the Rings trilogy in New Zealand, but when the unions gave Jackson a hard time this time around, he declared that he would take his production off the island nation.  When New Zealanders made their displeasure known, the unions backed down, an...
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Horrific Disease Epidemic Hits Uganda

Posted by ChiefJack Hawk on Friday, October 22, 2010, In : Health and Beauty 
In a disgustingly ugly turn of events that sounds like a horror movie, the nation of Uganda is suffering from the symptoms of an epidemic that causes human body parts to rot away.  In only two months, at least twenty people have died from it and over 20,000 have the disease in lesser degrees.  The disease, tungiasis, is caused by jiggers, tiny insects that look like fleas and usually enter the body through bare feet.  Once they attach themselves to a human host, they suck their victim's blood...
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The Cars Reunite, May Tour Again

Posted by ChiefJack Hawk on Friday, October 22, 2010, In : Music 
The Cars are out of the shop and are running again.  The 1980s new wave group has reunited and is working on a new album, their first in 23 years, and may even tour to promote it, according to Billboard.com.  Last week they put a 73 second teaser of a new song titled "Blue Tip" on their Facebook page, but no further information has been released.  Singer Ric Ocasek, guitarist Eliot Easton, keyboard player Greg Hawkes, and drummer David Robinson are original members who have reunited.  Bass pl...
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California Pumpkin Takes Contest

Posted by ChiefJack Hawk on Friday, October 22, 2010, In : Food 
Every year, the Safeway World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-off crowns a champion for the largest pumpkin. In this Halloween season, we keep track of these things.  The Half Moon Bay competition this year declared a California pumpkin the winner for the first time in eleven years.  Citrus Heights resident Ron Root's winning squash was 410 inches over the top and weighed 1,535 pounds.  He was awarded $9.210 for his huge gourd, which works out to $6 a pound plus a $1,000 bonus for the largest pump...
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Apocalypse? Maybe Not

Posted by ChiefJack Hawk on Wednesday, October 20, 2010, In : Archeology 
Doom mongers and scientists who have been telling us about the Mayan calendar and the upcoming apocalypse in 2012 may have to cool their heels a while longer.  According to a new book titled "Calendars and Years II: Astronomy and Time In the Ancient and Medieval World", scientists used a Latin formula to convert the Mayan calendar, and that formula lost something in the translation.  The book's author reveals that the Latin and Mayan calendars are a bit out of sync, which means that our calcu...
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Taylor Swift "Easy"? Judge By Her New Album

Posted by ChiefJack Hawk on Wednesday, October 20, 2010, In : Music 
Taylor Swift's new album, "Speak Now" is little more than a digital confessional session as she sings tracks dedicated to the men who either broke or messed with her heart.  For a young lady who's only 20 years old, this is an impressive array of lovers, and will no doubt cast her in a new light to men who will see her as what used to be called an "easy" girl, maybe even a willing target for their advances.  Speaking of targets, as the tracks are being released, we've seen Kanye Wesy and "Twi...
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Homer Is Catholic, Says Vatican

Posted by ChiefJack Hawk on Wednesday, October 20, 2010, In : Religion 
Ready for this? According to the Vatican, Homer Simpson is Catholic.  The official Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano ran a story over this past weekend with the heading "Homer and Bart are Catholic".  Show producer Al Jean was amused by this since he says the program has "pretty clearly shown that Homer is not Catholic".  Indeed, even the church he attends on the show isn't Catholic.  It makes you wonder: is the Catholic church so shaken by the large number of its members who are leavin...
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TV Providers Just Say No To Fox

Posted by ChiefJack Hawk on Monday, October 18, 2010, In : Television 
Northeastern U.S. television provider Cablevision has put its foot down as far as Fox's greed is concerned.  The company was forking over a sum of $70 million a year to carry Fox programming, and when the News Corporation said they now wanted to raise the fee to over $150 million, Cablevision said no, and has allowed Fox TV, National Geographic, and Fox Business and Sports to go dark.  As you know, Dish Network is also refusing to play Fox's mind games and has already dropped Fox Sports, FX, ...
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Some Chilean Miners Willing to Break Silence

Posted by ChiefJack Hawk on Monday, October 18, 2010, In : People 
While the Chilean miners who were rescued last week after 69 days of being trapped under ground have a pact of silence about their ordeal so they can get the best deal for their story as a group, at least two of them differ.  Jorge Gallegiullas says the pact is non-binding and he'd be willing to talk for the right price.  Another of the group, Mario Sepulveda, gave an interview to England's Mail yesterday without revealing too much.  He merely rebuled rumors that the men had sex while they we...
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New Bridge Over Colorado River

Posted by ChiefJack Hawk on Monday, October 18, 2010, In : Engineering 
America has a new engineering wonder close to the Hoover Dam.  Opened earlier this month, the Mike O'Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge stretches over the Colorado River at a height of 890 feet and is part of a project to allow commercial traffic to reach the Las Vegas area without taking the narrow, hairpin curved two lane highway that runs along the top of the dam.  This will speed traffic and allow tourists faster access to the region, which draws millions every year.  After 9/11, the F...
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Wal-Mart Strategy Backfires

Posted by ChiefJack Hawk on Wednesday, October 13, 2010, In : Business 
Anything bad that happens to Wal-Mart is good news, and this one had me rolling on the floor.  Earlier this year, the retailing giant passed a series of large price cuts, known in Wal-Martese as "rollbacks".  Wally M hoped that this would generate a higher customer count in stores, and it did, but not with the expected results.  Savvy shoppers walked in, bought the "rollback" items, then went on to their regular stores for the rest of their grocery shopping, leaving Wal-Mart bleeding heavily....
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Lady Gaga On Way Out?

Posted by ChiefJack Hawk on Wednesday, October 13, 2010, In : Music 
 Is Lady Gaga's train losing steam?  The nominations are all in for the 2010 American Music Awards, and leading the pack with five nominations each are Lady Antebellum and Eminem, followed by Justin Bieber with four.  Gaga has only been nominated for two awards this year---favorite female artist and artist of the year.  Last year, you'll recall, she went home empty-handed like the other falling female star, Taylor Swift, who herself was only nominated for one award this year.  The AMA's are v...
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Tokyo Hotel Seeking World Record Price

Posted by ChiefJack Hawk on Wednesday, October 13, 2010, In : Business 
Tokyo's Mandarin Oriental hotel is trying to set a new world record price by offering the highest price ever for a hotel in a deal to commemorate its fifth anniversary.  The offer will allow use of the entire hotel, including its nine restaurants and all 178 rooms for $671,000 a night, each period going from three in the afternoon to noon the next day, and the hotel will apply for the record as soon as a night is booked at this price.  The catch?  You can only rent it on a day when there are ...
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The Never-Changing Burger

Posted by ChiefJack Hawk on Wednesday, October 13, 2010, In : Food 
Artist and photographer Sally Davies took on a challenge from a friend who claimed that any hamburger would rot and mold within two or three days of being left out in the open.  Davies tok that bet and started what is now called The Happy Meal Project.  She bought a McDonald's Happy Meal and left it on a kitchen counter back in April.  Now, almost six months later, the burger has yet to even grow mold.  She says the Happy Meal stopped emitting any odors after 24 hours and is now as hard as a ...
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TV, Computer Use Linked To Problems With Kids

Posted by ChiefJack Hawk on Monday, October 11, 2010, In : Science 
A British study has confirmed something that parents have known all along: too much TV or computer use is harmful to kids.  Researchers used 1.013 kids aged 10 and 11 for this study, measuring how much time they spent on the computer and watching the boob tube.  The subjects also wore an accelerometer around their waists for a week to measure their physical activity and down time.  In addition, the children filled out questionnaires about their behavior patterns, emotional difficulties, and h...
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Microsoft Back In Phone Business

Posted by ChiefJack Hawk on Monday, October 11, 2010, In : Technology 
Microsoft is dead serious about returning to the mobile phone business after their first failed attempt.  Earlier today the company, in partnership with AT&T, showed off three of its new WP7 phones---the Samsung Focus, LG Quantum, and HTC 7 Surround, all of which will sell for about $200, the same as the latest iPhone.  T-mobile will offer the HTC HD7 and HTC Mozart in November.  The WP7 platform will allow access to the Zune music system and, in collaboration with EA Games, the ability to us...
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Beverly Hills Perfume? Makes Scents

Posted by ChiefJack Hawk on Monday, October 11, 2010, In : Health and Beauty 
Beverly Hills mayor Jimmy Delshad believes there's nothing like the sweet smell of success, and he's having it put in a bottle to prove it.  As part of the campaign for the Beverly Hills beauty products brand, a Swiss perfume company is releasing a three fragrance set as the city's initial offering.  Products will be price-tagged at a Beverly Hills typically over the top level, with the perfumes at $120, men's cologne at $75, and various hydration products at between 50 and 100 dollars.  The ...
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Johnny Depp Visits British School As Jack Sparrow

Posted by ChiefJack Hawk on Friday, October 8, 2010, In : Celebrities 
Johnny Depp paid a surprise visit to a school in London this morning in response to a fan letter from one of the students.  Beatrice Delap, eight years old, sent Depp a letter stating that she and her fellow students were having a hard time at Meridian Primary School of Greenwich in their attempt to have a mutiny against their teachers.  The actor is currently filming "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" in nearby Old Naval College, a picturesque 17th century seafaring center, so he ...
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Over-employed Seacrest Looking To Steal More Jobs

Posted by ChiefJack Hawk on Friday, October 8, 2010, In : Celebrities 
He's at it again! Obnoxious Ryan Seacrest, America's most over-employed troll, is looking to take on ever more jobs for himself by starting his own TV network.  The annoying munchkin is in preliminary talks with talent company CAA, whose requirements for talent are obviously low, and entertainment company AEG. which apparently has no idea what talent is, to finalize plans for the new cable TV network.  Mohawk Radio sources say that the channel would be based on music, pop culture, and lifesty...
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New York City Seeks Food Stamp Change

Posted by ChiefJack Hawk on Friday, October 8, 2010, In : Food 
After several similar attempts in other states, New York City is trying to control what you can't buy with food stamps.  Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Governor David Paterson made a joint announcement yesterday that they have petitioned the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the right to add sodas, packaged tea drinks, sports drinks, and any other drinks sweetened with sugar (except milk, soy products, and fruit drinks with no added sugar) to the list of things you can't buy with food stamps, s...
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Supreme Court Tackling Funeral Protest Case, Gingerly

Posted by ChiefJack Hawk on Thursday, October 7, 2010, In : People 
Question of the day: does a parent's pain (physical or mental) override someone else's right to "free speech"?  The Supreme Court started looking at that today in the case of Albert Snyder.  You may recall that Snyder's son was killed in Iraq, and that at his funeral, protesters from Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas parked themselves across the street from the cemetary and protested the event with chants and signs that read "God Hates America" and "Thank God For Dead Soldiers".  They loudly ...
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Can't Sing the National Anthem Right? It's Jail For You

Posted by ChiefJack Hawk on Thursday, October 7, 2010, In : Politics 
That's the word out of the Philippines, where the lower house of government just voted unanimously (196 to 0) to enact a bill that would prevent people from doing their own version of the national anthem, "Lupang Hinirang" (Beloved Land), and doing other "unpatriotic acts".  The senate is getting ready to vote on that same law before the end of the week.  The bill's majority author, Salvador Escudero, says he's tired of artists and singers changing the beat, melody, and even words in the nati...
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Preventing Public Suicides

Posted by ChiefJack Hawk on Monday, October 4, 2010, In : People 
There is apparently a growing number of people who are choosing to end their lives by committing suicide in public places, and authorities are having to deal with ways to prevent it.  An eighteen-year old boy and a restaurant chef who had appeared on the TV reality show "Kitchen Nightmares" both recently opted to cut their lives short by jumping off the George Washington Bridge linking Manhattan Island to Fort Lee, New Jersey.  Earlier this year, a Yale student took a leap off the 86th floor ...
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Laptop Computers Can Be Dangerous

Posted by ChiefJack Hawk on Monday, October 4, 2010, In : Technology 
The term "laptop computer" is not to be taken literally because it can be dangerous.  Keeping your laptop in your lap for extended periods can lead to a problem known as "toasted skin syndrome". While this may sound like a new menu choice at a fast food restaurant, it's actually a mottled skin condition resulting from long periods of heat exposure, and anyone who uses a laptop can tell you that the battery compartment gets hot.  In one recent case, a 12-year old boy's sessions of computer gam...
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U.K. Scraps "No Touch" School Rule

Posted by ChiefJack Hawk on Monday, October 4, 2010, In : World News 
In what will prove to be extremely beneficial for education, British Education Secretary Michael Gove said he is going to abolish the "no touch" rules that prevent teachers from restraining and comforting children.  Gove told reporters that while "I don't believe you should be able to hit children, I do believe that teachers need to know they can physically restrain children, they can interpose themselves between two children that may be causing trouble and they can remove them from the class...
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Train Crash Tragedy in Indonesia

Posted by ChiefJack Hawk on Saturday, October 2, 2010, In : World News 
Just minutes before we went off the air live on Friday night, we received word that a terrible train crash took place in Indonesia as a train from the capital, Jakarta, slammed into another train that was idling as it took on passengers in the city of Petarukan.  Bodies were still being extricated from the mangled cars at press time, and no official victim count or cause of the crash had been released.  Horrified onlookers and local residents quickly jumped in to begin rescuing the people tra...
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My Generation Gets The Heave

Posted by ChiefJack Hawk on Saturday, October 2, 2010, In : Television 
As we predicted and told you last week, Fox TV's "Lone Star" was indeed the first show to be cancelled this season, but don't feel bad for the show, because it has company, and may soon get more in the television graveyard.  ABC announced earlier today that it gave the ax to "My Generation", a show with a cast almost as numerous as its small audience.  This program had a terrible initial outing, and when its audience shrank by 31 percent in its second week, including a dismal 1.1 rating in th...
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Titanic Jumps On 3D Bandwagon

Posted by ChiefJack Hawk on Saturday, October 2, 2010, In : Movies 
Shortly on the heels of George Lucas announcing that he will reissue all of the "Star Wars" films in 3D, Paramount, 20th Century Fox, and Lightstorm Entertainment said they wanted in on this action by saying that the former leading money-making film, "Titanic" will be re-released in 3D in April 2012, shortly after "Star Wars Episode 1--The Phantom Menace" hits theaters in 3D.  The Titanic conversion will cost between 5 and 10 million dollars.  This id being viewed as an unwise and risky move ...
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TV Producer Cannell Dies

Posted by ChiefJack Hawk on Saturday, October 2, 2010, In : Celebrities 
Stephen J. Cannell, the man responsible for such TV shows as "The A-Team" and The Rockford Files", died last night in his Pasadena. California home from complications with melenoma at age 69.  During the decades that hia shows aired, he was consistently associated with gunfire, squealing-tire chases, and tough guys beating each other up.  In an era when people behind the scenes were rarely seen, Cannell became a popular face, thanks to his ID at the end of each show, where he would be at his ...
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Megastar Tony Curtis Dead

Posted by ChiefJack Hawk on Friday, October 1, 2010, In : Celebrities 
Tony Curtis, who played everything from a dramatic lead to a cross-dressing comic, died at his Henderson, Nevada home just northwest of Las Vegas last night from cardiac failure.  He was 85.  He began his career with bit parts in such forgettable fare as the film "Francis", about a talking mule, but quickly moved into the spotlight with roles in "Flesh and Fury" and "Houdini".  He was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar in 1958 for his turn in "The Defiant Ones" opposite Sidney Poitier.  He wa...
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TV Commercials to Get Quieter--By Law

Posted by ChiefJack Hawk on Friday, October 1, 2010, In : Television 
Late last night as we go to press, the senate passed a bill to make sure those TV commercials don't jolt you out of your sleep.  Called the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act, it says that commercials will have to be broadcast at the same level as the show they're in.  The bill makes the FCC adapt these regulations within a year of the bill's passing, and enforce them within a year after that.  Charles Shumer (D-NY), one of the bill's co-sponsors, stated "TV viewers shoul...
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Goldilocks Planet Likely To Have Life

Posted by ChiefJack Hawk on Friday, October 1, 2010, In : Science 
Astronomers have revealed that they've found for the forst time a so-called "Goldilocks Planet", one which orbits its sun at a distance not too far, not too close, but just right for life as we know it to possibly develop.  Tagged as Gliese 581g, it orbits its sun at a distance of about 14 million miles and makes that trip in 37 days.  It has an atmosphere, but further checks needs to be done with spectrographs to determine the composition of that atmosphere.  It's roughly 20 light years away...
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About Chief Jack


Chief Jack Hawk Chief Jack has hosted The Mohawk Radio Show since August 1969. He is a champion for the cause of Indie artists, and many Indies have had great success since having their music played on the station. He is a Mohawk chief who played with a Canadian band for about 10 years. He publishes articles under the name Jacques Boulerice for Yahoo! Voices and is working on a new movie script.

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