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Legendary actor, producer and director dies age 90

Few people can be said to leave a legacy in the film industry that echoes through the generations, but that is certainly true of Richard Attenborough, who has died today at the age of 90.

Lord Attenborough could make us quiver in fear with a glance or a word, or laugh with delight via the twinkle in his eye. Born Richard Samuel Attenborough in Cambridge in August 1923, he grew up with his brothers John and David (who would go on to become the respected naturalist and broadcaster) and two adopted sisters. An early enthusiast in the theatrical arts, he was encouraged by his father to pursue acting provided he dedicated himself to the craft.

Following stage roles in his younger days, he served in the Royal Air Force during World War II, and after completing basic pilot training, he was recruited for the new RAF Film Unit at Pinewood Studios. He appeared in propaganda films and then flew with the unit, sustained permanent ear damage, qualified as a sergeant and still flew several bombing sorties.

His service did nothing to deter his artistic aims, and he attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. His time there had almost as much impact on his personal life as his professional; he met his future wife Sheila Sim. He began acting full time on the stage, appearing in shows such as The Mousetrap and Ah Wilderness! before starting to win small roles in films such as David Lean’s In Which We Serve, Journey Together, Secret Flight and Stairway To Heaven. He quickly began to establish himself as an actor of note: in 1949 exhibitors voted him the sixth most popular British actor at the box office, proving that such popularity contests are nothing new.

Attenborough’s breakthrough, though, truly came with John Boulting’s adaptation of Graham Greene’s novel Brighton Rock, which saw him bring the role of psychopathic hoodlum Pinkie Brown – one he’d played successfully on stage – to brain-searing life on screen. From there, his career truly took off, eventually spanning six decades and encompassing memorable performances such as in I’m All Right Jack, The Flight Of The Phoenix, The Great Escape, SOS Pacific, The Sand Pebbles, Doctor Dolittle, 10 Rillington Place, Miracle On 34th Street, Jurassic Park, Hamlet and Elizabeth.

Looking to stretch himself beyond acting even in the 1950s, Attenborough formed the production company Beaver Films with Bryan Forbes and began to become active as a producer for films such as The League Of Gentlemen, The Angry Silence and Whistle Down The Wind, before making his directorial debut with Oh! What A Lovely War in 1969. Though he continued to perform in front of it, he began to focus his attention behind the camera more often, crafting films including A Bridge Too Far, Magic, Chaplin, Cry Freedom, Shadowlands, In Love And War, Puckoon and Closing The Ring. His accomplished work in directing won him two Oscars for 1982’s Gandhi and a host of other awards, notably several BAFTAs and a Director’s Guild Award.

Outside film, Sir Richard was dedicated to giving back, serving as president of the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign for 33 years, being patron of the United World Colleges movement, and, at different times, as president of RADA, vice president of BAFTA and many more. His wife and two of their children survive him.

“I believe we need heroes, I believe we need certain people who we can measure our own shortcomings by,” he once said. He certainly leaves us as a hero, and we won’t soon forget him.

Zimbabwe's dictator Robert Mugabe unleashed a storm of brutal, genocidal violence after losing the 2008 elections -- and now we know that it was funded by western hedge-funds and banks, led by Och-Ziff Capital Management, the largest publicly traded fund, with assistance from Blackrock, GLG Partners, and Credit Suisse, who raised $100M for Mugabe's weapons and torture-chambers in exchange for a sweetheart deal on the country's platinum mines. Read the rest

We've covered ways of getting a refund after the 15 minute window at the Google Play Store, but Google recently expanded the default window to two hours—somewhat secretively.

Over at Android Police, they're reporting that the "instant" 15 minute refund we're all familiar with has expanded to two hours for most paid apps and games. Instead of heading over to the Google Play orders page, open up Google Play on your Android device and tap refund.

Google doesn't officially support this option and still lists 15 minutes as the default refund time. If this tip doesn't work, follow our instructions for going to the Google Play Orders Page. I tested it and had no problem getting the refund after an hour.

The Play Store's Refund Window Now Seems To Be Around 2 Hours For Many Paid Apps And Games, Not 15 Minutes | Android Police via Talk Android

Thanks to the UK’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) the public is able to check what the government is up to, and hold it accountable. At least, that’s what it’s intended for.

FOIA requests are a helpful tool for journalists and at TorrentFreak we previously used this right to uncover the scope of City of London Police’s anti-piracy efforts.

There is more to reveal though. It is widely known that the police work in tandem with entertainment industry groups such as FACT and the BPI, so we also attempted to find out what’s being discussed behind closed doors.

Since asking for all information shared between City of London Police and entertainment industry groups might be a bit much, we focused our FOIA request on The Pirate Bay.

More specifically, we requested police correspondence with representatives of the creative industry “regarding the pirate bay also known as TPB, thepiratebay.se, thepiratebay.sx, thepiratebay.org, or Pirate Bay.”

On Friday we heard back from the responsible Information Access Officer, but no documents were provided. Instead, we were told that the request can’t be processed as the cost would exceed the statutory limit of £450.

“In order to establish the existence of any correspondence of this kind it would be necessary to examine all mail systems, all call logs and all files/documents held by the force,” the reply read.

“The cost of completing this work would exceed the limit prescribed by the Secretary of State in accordance with powers contained in Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act. The limit is currently set at £450 and the hourly rate is set at £25.”

Apparently the police estimate that it would take more than 18 hours to locate the information we asked for. That would make sense if none of the documents are organized, but we assume that the force has some type of archiving system.

The above response leaves us with no other option than to limit the request to electronic information only, specifying a narrow time frame. Whether this will fall within the desired cost projection has yet to be seen though. Let’s hope there’s no hard drive crash in the meantime.

To be continued…

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

During a 2001 appearance on Inside the Actor's Studio, Robin Williams was asked to explain how he pulls off his incredible, high-speed improvisations; by way of answer, he ad-libbed a five-minute bit that is pants-wettingly hilarious.

(via Reddit)

If you don't want to have to replace your bras more often than necessary, try rotating your bras every day, giving the band time to rest between uses.

The Venusian Glow blog explains that the elastic in the bra band gets stretched out when the bra is worn all day long, and it takes time to recover from that stretching. If you keep wearing the same bra day after day, before long it won't fit as well.

Another reason, the post points out, is that bras have different pressure and rubbing points, and rotating bras could reduced prolonged discomfort.

(For everything else you might or might not know about bras, see Jezebel's Great Bra Washing Extravaganza.)

Why You Should Not Wear the Same Bra for Two Days in a Row | Venusian Glow

Photo by r.nial.bradshaw.

Already banned from leasing a room accessible only via a staircase with 27 inches of headroom, Yaakov Marom rented it out anyway for $700 a month, because the British economy is evidently now just a weird housing scam/deathtrap.

Dan Nosowitz profiles the art department of The Onion for Co.Design, which manages to pump out hundreds of absolutely perfect images per year to match its side-splitting satirical news articles. Even more amazing, they do it with just three people.

(While you're at it, please read the best Onion article of all time.)

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By Katie Drummond and Carl Franzen

Katie Drummond: cat lover since 1986, human cat companion since 1992.

Carl Franzen: cat lover since 1987, human cat companion since 2012 (it would have been sooner, but his dad was "allergic").

Trust us. We know cats.

We know the soft touch of whiskers on a cheek in the wee morning hours. The faint patter of four feet hastening to the kitchen for a scattering of...

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Yahoo has updated its primary Android app with a short and simple changelog: Access digital magazines and news categories from the navigational drawer. Now before anyone gets excited, no, you won't be able to read digital versions of print magazines using Yahoo. For that, you will still need the Google Play Newsstand, Zinio, Kindle, or Nook app installed. What Yahoo is referring to here is something else entirely.

Yahoo Updates Android App With So-Called Digital Magazines was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

 Windows 9 has been leaked, and seems to show a backing away from the aggressively touch-focused Windows 8, with a mini start menu and dropping of the Charms bar, but we’ll get a better look September 30, according to the Verge. The blog reports Microsoft is planning an official unveiling of what’s next for its desktop OS for that date, with a technology preview available for… Read More

 Opera Software has signed a partnership with Microsoft that will pre-install Opera Mini as the default browser on Microsoft’s featurephones and Asha phones. Included in the licensing agreement are devices based on the Series 30+, Series 40, and Asha software platforms. The news isn’t as big a boon for Opera Software when you consider that Microsoft plans to stop manufacturing… Read More

Did you know that the first headphone was invented back in the 1890s? Since then, headphones have evolved and developed into the personal audio devices we all use today. Headphone maker Ligo has put together an interactive guide to the 120-year history of the headphone, complete with period-correct background music for each decade. Plug in your own headphones and take trip through the history of tuning out everyone around you.

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A good resume can land you that job interview, so you want to stand out. If formatting a resume isn't your thing, Hloom has 275 free Microsoft Word templates to download.

The templates are spread across different categories, thus catering to different job types. For example, there's an "ATS-optimize" category for templates designed to bypass automatic tracking systems employed by some companies to scan CVs.

All the templates are a standard A4 page or US letter size, and made in Microsoft Office 2010 with the office suite's default fonts. They should also work in OpenOffice and Mac Pages, but not all might retain the formatting.

You can also get free templates on Google Docs, but Word has better formatting options. Of course, this is just the template, so you will still have to write the content to make your CV attractive, using tricks like this formula from Google's HR chief.

275 Free Resume Templates and Samples for Microsoft Word | Hloom via @duak

The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation wants the power to break into any computer on the Internet and to spy on any person in the world: Liberal MP Philip Ruddock says "We are now looking at how you find out what people are thinking about even before they do it." Read the rest

27 Signs You're A Bit Of A Hoarder

LG has today announced Music Flow, a new wireless audio home solution for those who simply cannot live without the sound of music. Music Flow will see the company compete against Sonos by creating an environment where sound can be transferred between connected hardware to produce an integrated experience at home. The new family of product include three models of speaker, a sound bar, network bridge and also a companion Music Flow mobile app.

Connecting to a home setup, the app is able to tap into libraries of stored content while providing recommendations and convenient access to internet radio stations. It can also act as a music player while on the move, perfect for having that seamless experience. Simply use the app to connect to the home setup (NFC is supported) when entering through the front door and music will now be beamed through LG speakers, following the consumer around the house.

LG has made it a breeze to communicate with the home setup through the app itself. For example: it's possible to remotely query Music Flow, while on the way home, for music recommendations suitable for dinner guests later that evening. It is also real easy to add more LG speakers to the mix, thanks to the utilized dual band Wi-Fi.

LG Music Flow speaker models H7 (70W), H5 (40W) and the Network Bridge model R1 will be available in the UK starting this month and in other markets in Europe following IFA 2014 Berlin early next month. LG Music Flow with model H3 (30W) and Sound Bar model HS6 (320W) will be rolled out globally soon after.

See the press release below for more details. Does Music Flow by LG interest you?

Seeing tweets from people you don't follow, and that aren't retweets? That's no longer an experiment, but a feature, Twitter says. A new change to the service is surfacing tweets from users people aren't following, something Twitter suggests will make things "more relevant and interesting." The company explains it like this on its support page (emphasis mine):

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Dietary restrictions may mean that you can't eat whatever you want, but that doesn't mean there aren't ways around your restriction. These are the best alternatives for flours and baking grains, sweeteners, oils, thickening agents, and proteins.

Whether your diet is gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, vegan, low carb, low sugar, or low fat, this list from NOW Foods gives you a ton of options for replacing the things you can't have. Each alternative ingredient lists its source and there are even some suggested uses for each one. Be sure to check the suggested usage section for possible allergies, though. To learn more, check the link below.

Dietary Restrictions & Substitutions | NOW Foods via Visual.ly

It looks like Facebook is again testing a new bit of functionality in its Android app with a subset of users. After the most recent update, people are suddenly seeing a built-in browser that loads timeline links rather than booting you out to a full browser. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing depends heavily on how you feel about the Facebook app in general.

  

The browser appears to just be a WebView like many other apps use.

The Facebook App Has Started Opening Web Links With A Built-In Browser For Some Users was written by the awesome team at Android Police.

 About.me has always been about helping users to create a personalized profile page that shows them off in the best light. Today the company is launching a new feature, called Backstory, that will allow them to share their professional and educational background. Read More

 The HTC One (M8), one of the best-looking flagship Android smartphones that launched earlier this year, just landed on Windows Phone 8.1.1 Packed with front-facing speakers, dual UltraPixel cameras on the back, a 5MP front camera and BoomSound internal speakers, the One (M8) is exactly the same as its Android variant. Read More

 Earlier this year at Google I/O, we reported that Asus was working on its own Android Wear smartwatch, to be launched in September with a lower price point than existing options. Today, Asus posted a teaser on Twitter revealing that it will indeed be introducing something new at IFA in Berlin on Sept. 3, and the graphic suggests it will indeed be a smartwatch. Something #Incredible is going… Read More