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Sywp AmEx Presale Tickets for AMERICAN IDIOT Now A

AMERICAN IDIOT will be produced on Broadway in association with Berkeley Repertory Theatre.For more information, visit www.AmericanIdiotOnBroadway.com.

“American Idiot is that rare and tricky creature, a true rock opera,” says Charles Isherwood of The New York Times. “Directed with polish and precision by Michael Mayer, American Idiot has its own voice: bitter and melancholy, attuned to an era more doubting than hopeful. Perhaps most strongly – and promisingly? – the show’s story of young men on a confused search for themselves during a time of changing social mores and foreign wars recalls Hair, the musical about the make-love-not-war generation. (Both musicals also do most of their storytelling in song.) Mournful as it is about the prospects of 21st-century Americans, the show possesses a stimulating energy and a vision of wasted youth that holds us in its grip.”

Michael Mayer comments, “Green Day’s iconic album is one of the most brutally honest, eloquent, and poetically theatrical responses to the post 9/11 world that I have encountered. I hear in these amazing songs the frustration and anger and dreams of a lost generation of Americans. Collaborating with Billie Joe and the band has been a mind-blowing thrill from day one.”

Based on the Reprise Records Grammy® Award-winning album of the same name, AMERICAN IDIOT features the music of Green Day and the lyrics of its lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong. The show is directed by Tony Award-winning director Michael Mayer (Spring Awakening), who also collaborated with Armstrong on the book, and choreographed by Olivier Award-winning Steven Hoggett (Blackwatch). The Tony-winning composer Tom Kitt (Next to Normal) is the music supervisor, orchestrator and music arranger. In addition, Kitt also provided string arrangements for Green Day’s latest album 21st Century Breakdown.

The show features scenic design by Tony-nominee Christine Jones (Spring Awakening), costume design by Baryshnikov fellow Andrea Lauer (The Butcher of Baraboo), lighting design by two-time Tony-winner Kevin Adams (Hair), Sound design by Obie Award-winner Brian Ronan (Cabaret), as well as video design by Darrel Maloney.

The cast of AMERICAN IDIOT collaborated with Green Day to record a new version of the hit single “21 Guns.” Produced by the band’s singer and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, the track was released by Reprise Records on December 22, 2009 for purchase through all digital retailers. “21 Guns” is the second single from Green Day’s gold album 21st Century Breakdown. The digital version of the track has gone platinum, selling more than one million downloads, earned 2010 Grammy® Nominations for “Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals” and “Best Rock Song”, while the video won three 2009 MTV Video Music Awards in September, including “Best Rock Video.”

“Experiencing American Idiot on stage in Berkeley was incredible,” says Billie Joe Armstrong. “We have really enjoyed working with Michael, Steven, Tom and the cast. The energy and chemistry of the group is contagious. Michael Mayer was able to bring life to the characters of American Idiot and Tom Kitt’s musical arrangements are breathtaking. We’re so proud that the show is coming to Broadway!”

Tickets for the Broadway run of AMERICAN IDIOT are now available exclusively to American Express card holders. Tickets will go on sale to the general public on February 14th. AMERICAN IDIOT will begin previews on Wednesday, March 24, 2010 and open on Broadway Tuesday, April 20, 2010 at the ST. James Theatre.

AmEx Presale Tickets for AMERICAN IDIOT Now Available

Related Links Full Cast Announced for AMERICAN IDIOT; Cast to Appear on Grammy Awards STAGE TUBE: A Look Back at the Berkeley Rep Production of AMERICAN IDIOT AMERICAN IDIOT Moves To Broadway; Opens at St. James Theatre April 20, 2010 Cast of AMERICAN IDIOT Featured On Green Day’s New Version of Their Single ‘21 Guns’

Purchase TicketsAmerican Idiot On BWW.TV

The limited engagement of AMERICAN IDIOT at Berkeley Rep’s Roda Theatre began previews on September 4, 2009, opened on September 16, 2009, extended twice and played its final performance on Sunday, November 15, 2009. AMERICAN IDIOT’s record breaking run brought in the biggest advance sale in the Theatre’s 41-year history, the biggest day at the box office, 17 of the top 20 days ever and due to ticket demand had to announce the first extension before it had played its first performance.

ibjn Al-Qaeda could provoke new India-Pakistan war

Al-Qaeda could provoke new India-Pakistan war: Gates

Gates cited three main groups operating under Al-Qaeda’s “umbrella,” the Taliban forces fighting in Afghanistan, Taliban elements targeting Pakistan’s government and the Islamist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in Pakistan focused on India.

The Mumbai assault left 166 dead and India has demanded Pakistan come under more international pressure to rein in militant groups on its soil.

icfo Alt Theatre Stages Holiday Spoof A CHRISTMAS

The shows evening performance dates are: December 11, 12, 16, 17, 18, 19, 23, 26, 29 & 30 at 8pm, Matinees: December 19, 26, & 27 at 3pm New Years Eve at 7pm. The Alt Theatre located at 255 Great Arrow Ave., 3rd Floor (Entrance has a blue awning next to McClellan Music).

Alt Theatre Stages Holiday Spoof A CHRISTMAS TWIST Through 12/27

Not your grandma’s Christmas tale – a holiday spoof for all!

Peter Michael Marino returns to Buffalo to direct the WNY premiere of the witty, wild and irreverent A Christmas Twist presented by The New Alt Performance Group, playing through December 27, and with a special performance on New Year’s Eve.

Guzp Alt Theatre Stages Holiday Spoof A CHRISTMAS

Twist is a vaudevillian, head-on collision of Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” and “Oliver Twist.” This rapid-paced holiday parody follows poor, orphaned Tiny Twist who learns the ropes of pick pocketing by the conniving, filthy Fagin and Little Artful Annie. Soon, the perennially abused Bob Cratchit and his long-suffering wife Emily, adopt Twist. But, Ebenezer Scrooge’s nefarious nephew Mr. Bumble has dastardly plans for Twist, which miserly Scrooge will pay handsomely for. Scrooge is soon visited by gate crashing ghosts to teach him a thing or three about his wicked ways as he discovers that Christmas is about more than gluttony and a stuffed goose.

Alt Theatre Stages Holiday Spoof A CHRISTMAS TWIST Through 12/27

Tickets are $20 on-line www.alttheatre.com or $25 at the door.

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Amazon introduces Virtual Private Cloud service

On the third anniversary of its Elastic Compute Cloud launch, Amazon Web Services late Tuesday announced a new service, the Virtual Private Cloud.

Jeff Barr, Amazon Web Services strategist, said in a blog that the service requires three elements: a VPC instance, an IPSec VPN gateway, and a block of IP addresses provided by the customer. The VPC’s address space can range from 16 addresses (known to network administrators as a /28 address range) to 16,384 addresses (a /18 address range), and the addresses can be divided up into subnets to further partition traffic.

Amazon Web Services illustrates how the Virtual Private Cloud functions.

All Internet-bound traffic is routed through the customer’s network and outbound security systems before reaching the public network, Barr said.

Targeted at customers with existing IT investments, the Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) service provides a way for companies to create a logically separated set of Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) instances and a secure VPN connection to their own networks.

Awuu Amazon Earnings Miss a Beat_224

Amazon says that overheated video game sales in the spring of last year, when game makers released several blockbusters, led to a sharp decline in the category this quarter. Amazon does not break out video game sales, but Hudson Square Research analyst Scott Tilghman buys Amazon’s explanation. "They were up against an extremely strong comparison. You had new releases of Grand Theft Auto, Wii Fit, and Guitar Hero. Across that category you have had a 20%-30% drop throughout the domestic industry over the past several months," says Tilghman. This year’s big game releases are planned for the second half of the year.

Internationally, sales of media were up 3% from the previous quarter, to $1.3 billion. Lindsay notes that Amazon has still only made its Kindle e-book reader available in the U.S.—evidence that the device may be causing some cannibalization in book sales.

The Seattle retailer posted net income of $142 million in the second quarter, a 10% drop from the same period in 2008 and the first such decline since December 2006. Sales improved 14%, to $4.65 billion, but narrowly missed Wall Street’s expectation of $4.7 billion.

Amazon Earnings Miss a Beat

Those who had hoped Amazon.com (AMZN) could completely avoid the problems plaguing other retailers got a reality check on July 23, when the company missed Wall Street forecasts for sales and posted its first year-over-year profit decline in two years.

Flat Media Sales

Amazon cast a wide net in giving guidance for the third quarter. It expects to grow revenues 11% to 23% over the same period in 2008, to $4.75 billion to $5.25 billion.

In a call with analysts, Chief Financial Officer Thomas Szkutak said the profit decline was due to a $52 million settlement the company paid in June to resolve a dispute with Toys "R" Us. The retailer had claimed Amazon violated a partnership by neglecting to keep its products in stock and allowing other toymakers to sell on the site. Without the payment, Amazon’s profits would have increased. "It was a good quarter but not a great one, and the huge legal settlement to Toys ‘R’ Us really made a big difference," says Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray (PJC).

Amazon, the largest e-commerce company, continues to draw in other merchants that sell through its Web site. That line of business has put it into more direct competition with eBay (EBAY), which has long had other merchants sell through its Web site. In the second quarter, Amazon’s third-party sales on the site made up 30% of revenues, a figure that has remained relatively constant. When eBay reported its earnings on July 22, it showed no change to its amount of registered users. Bernstein’s Lindsay says that instead of outright poaching merchants from eBay, Amazon is sharing them. "A lot of eBay sellers now have become dual sellers—they’re selling on both Amazon and eBay," he says.

Thrown Off by Toys "R" Us Settlement

In general, online electronics retailers have fared better than their brick-and-mortar competitors, says NPD Group analyst Stephen Baker. "These [online] shoppers tend to be more recession-proof. A lot of these customers are more affluent and less affected by the recession. You also have the geeks who will just spend a higher percentage of their disposable income on electronic gadgets regardless of the economic climate," says Baker.

Still, Amazon is gaining ground on its rival in traffic. In June, Amazon’s traffic grew by 10.5%, to 63 million unique visitors, while eBay’s dropped 2.7%, to 71 million, according to market researcher ComScore (SCOR).

Analysts were concerned that sales in the U.S. in what Amazon calls its media category, which includes books, movies, video games, and digital downloads, were flat for the quarter, at $1.1 billion. This could be the result of more customers downloading MP3s and e-books rather than ordering higher-cost CDs and books, according to Jeffrey Lindsay, analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein. "People are a little bit worried that the business is seeing a greater top-line impact from [a shift to] digital downloads," he says.

Gaining on eBay

Amazon’s stock, which has surged more than 80% since the beginning of the year, fell 6.6% in after-hours trading, to 93.87. "Any time you’ve had a stock at this high a valuation, you expect to see everything right," says Broadpoint AmTech analyst Ben Schachter.

Amazon has weathered the financial crisis better than most retailers. With the drop in housing prices and stocks, consumers have cut back on their spending on a wide variety of products. Several prominent traditional retailers have filed for bankruptcy protection, including Circuit City, Sharper Image, KB Toys, and Linens ‘N Things. The National Retail Federation expects total retail sales this year to shrink by 0.5%, to $2.27 trillion, the first such drop in more than a decade.

Wtxc Aicon Gallery Presents Home and the World Pho

They examine what is at stake in trying to document a country which has quickly moved from independence to being a nascent superpower; where different groups clamor for their own self-determination and the forces of globalization bring both welcome and unwelcome change.

Aicon Gallery Presents Home and the World Photography Exhibition

The exhibition takes Rabrindranath Tagore’s novel ‘Home and the World’ (Ghare Baire) and Satyajit Ray’s film as its starting point and examines the ways in which artists in India have used photography to capture the state of affairs unfurling in concentric circles from within their most immediate space, and moving outward to the shared environments of the nation and the region.

Exhibition runs from January 28th 2010 to February 27th 2010

slne Airborne Laser sticks to test regimen_269

Jonathan Skillings is managing editor of CNET News, based in the Boston bureau. He’s been with CNET since 2000, after a decade in tech journalism at the IDG News Service, PC Week, and an AS/400 magazine. He’s also been a soldier and a schoolteacher. E-mail Jon.

Last week, in a continuing series of piecemeal tests, the ABL engaged in an in-flight trial run against an instrumented target missile. The aircraft used its infrared sensors to locate the missile, then fired a pair of solid-state illuminator lasers that tracked the missile and gauged atmospheric conditions. “This test demonstrates that the Airborne Laser can fully engage an in-flight missile with its battle management and beam control/fire control systems,” Michael Rinn, Boeing vice president and ABL program director, said in a statement. “Pointing and focusing a laser beam on a target that is rocketing skyward at thousands of miles per hour is no easy task.”

(Credit:Russ Underwood, Lockheed Martin)

The Airborne Laser in flight.

ABL has to keep all of the powerful laser’s optical components perfectly positioned as the aircraft vibrates and flexes during flight…Since we were unable to fly the kind of large concrete pads used to hold a ground-based laser’s optics in place, we had to isolate the COIL’s optics from the structure but also maintain alignment. So the team developed an optical bench isolation system that isolates disturbances caused by normal aircraft operations while maintaining alignment to the gain medium, or the source of a laser’s optical power. It’s like an automobile’s ’smart suspension’ that keeps the car riding smoothly at the same level over a bumpy road.

(Credit:Boeing)

Airborne Laser sticks to test regimen

Beam control optics in the Airborne Laser system stabilize and shape the beam emitted by the chemical oxygen iodine laser en route to the nose turret of the aircraft.

Given that an aircraft in flight can be a fidgety beast, the ABL’s ability to maintain precise alignments was a notable accomplishment, according to a Thursday press release from Northrop Grumman, which designed and built the high-energy laser:

Ambitious plans for the Airborne Laser, however, have been considerably scaled back. Earlier this year, in revamping the Pentagon’s budget and operations priorities, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that a second prototype would not be built.

The Airborne Laser may have lost favor in Washington, but it’s still going strong at Edwards Air Force Base.

The core of the existing ABL is a chemical oxygen iodine laser, or COIL, and it’s hardly man-packable machinery. The COIL system itself takes up the back half of a modified 747-400F, while the front half of the jumbo jet is given over to the beam control/fire control system.

A number of increasingly complex tests still lie ahead for the ABL, including firing the high-energy laser through the Lockheed Martin-developed beam control/fire control system and out of the nose-mounted turret. Before the end of the year, Boeing expects to do a full-fledged intercept test against a ballistic missile.

Aicon Gallery Presents Home and the World Photography Exhibition

Air France Frets Over How to Seat the Obese