Slim from 112 talks to MTV News about the group's upcoming reunion album, but tells fans not to expect a comeback album. By Rob Markman
112 Photo:
At their height, 112 represented the very best of R&B music. With their 1996 self-titled debut, Slim, Q, Mike and Daron thrilled lovelorn listeners with a healthy mix of ballads and dance numbers.
Over the course of nine years and five albums, fans swooned over 112 with hits like "Only You," "It's Over Now" and "Peaches & Cream." Like all good things, 112 eventually came to an end, but on Saturday, the quartet will reunite onstage for their For the Fans Tour.
"While I was doing my thing, I've been going all over the place, all over the world, and everybody keeps on asking about 112," Slim told MTV News on Wednesday (June 20) over the phone. "The fans wanted to see not two people, not three people, but everybody. When everything added up, everything was all good."
It is all good, but Slim, who has gone on to enjoy solo success outside the group, didn't want to label this new tour an official reunion. "I wouldn't even say it's a reunion thing. I think of it as more of a For the Fans Tour," he explained. "When I think of reunion, reunion means new material, going back into the studio and recording and stuff like that. ... I don't want to disappoint any fans, but that's not what we talked about. Right now, we're addressing getting on the stage together and actually singing."
These days, Slim is concentrating on his sophomore project, Cruise Control, and this tour; he didn't want to dwell on past drama. Instead, he said the group's breakup was due to growing pains. "When you start growing up, you start growing apart, and everybody starts having their own individual outlooks on music," he said. "I think everybody had their own individual approach of who they wanted to be in music."
Regardless, the silky-voice singer promises a quality performance. "It's going to be really fun for all the fans who want to come out and see Q, Mike, Slim and Daron on the same stage at one time, and we're definitely going to give one heck of a show," he assured. "It is fun to sing the songs with the guys. It is fun to actually get in practice and actually do the steps and see everything that we worked hard for when we first started off and set off before everything."
112's For the Fans Tour dates:
» 6/23 Atlantic City, NJ @ House of Blues » 7/14 Detroit, MI @ Chene Park Amphitheater » September 8 Kent, WA @ ShoWare Center » September 15 Cary, NC @ Koka Booth Amphitheater Will you check out 112 live? Let us know in the comments!
Tae kwon do competitor Diana Lopez told Kelly Wallace, "We're just an ordinary family that's done extraordinary things." That's because Diana Lopez and her two brothers, Stephen and Mark, have all competed in the sport of tae kwon do in the Olympic games. Diana's oldest brother, Jean, is their coach. Now, Diana and Stephen will be heading to London to fight for the gold medal. Recently, Kelly sat down with Diana and her mother to find out what it's like to be raised in a household full of athletes and how they encourage each other to be the best that they can be.
Inspired by The Daily Show, a political satirist took to the airwaves of the fledgling democracy. Now he'll talk shop with the master.
"You have to meet Bassem! He is the Egyptian Jon Stewart." That's what a friend told me last July at a party in Cairo. I was in town to organize the first AFAR Experiences event, and I was eager to meet all the interesting people I could. It seems that all of the interesting people in Cairo know each other, so within two minutes, I had an appointment to meet Bassem Youssef, the Egyptian Jon Stewart. And if you tune into The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on June 21, you'll meet him, too.
Bassem didn't set out to be a television star. Prior to the Egyptian uprising, he lived happily as a cardiothoracic surgeon who loved to dance the tango with Hala, his wife and mother of their daughter. He was mulling an offer for a position at a children's hospital in Cleveland. But everything changed after the protests began on January 25. When the regime sent armed men to attack the protestors, Bassem assisted those injured. Cleveland would have to wait. "I felt like it would be a sell-out to leave my country at this time," he says.
Bassem had been a fan of The Daily Show since he first saw it while on a visit to the United States a few years earlier. He longed for an Egyptian version of the show, but that would have been impossible prior to the revolution. "In Egypt, with our history of state-controlled television, people in power could get away with saying whatever they wanted and wouldn't be called on it," he says.
Once the protests began, Bassem decided the time was right. He talked to a couple of friends who worked in television production and decided to start The B+ Show, which began broadcasting on YouTube in March 2011. It was a low-budget effort. They worked out of Bassem's home and produced three five-minute "shows" per week.
"We were the ghetto version of Jon Stewart," he says.
Within two weeks, the show was the second most popular YouTube channel in Egypt. Viewers loved how Bassem poked fun at powerful Egyptians, and mocked the absurd claims they made. By that summer, he had gotten a contract from the Egyptian satellite broadcaster, ONtv, to create a television show he named Al Bernameg (The Program) that launched in August with three half-hour shows a week.
In October, Bassem spoke with the attendees of the inaugural AFAR Experiences event in Cairo. One of the AFAR travelers was Alisa Regas, associate director at Pomegranate Arts, a New York City artist management company. "Bassem was funny, he was smart, and I believed in what he was trying to do," Alisa says. When she got back to New York, she told her friend Steve Bodow, co-executive producer of The Daily Show, about Bassem. A few weeks later, another AFAR Experiences attendee, Nina Dietzel, returned to Egypt and happened to meet Kevin Bleyer, a writer for The Daily Show. "I told Kevin he had to meet Bassem," Nina says. "I was thinking it would be amazing for Bassem to meet Jon Stewart and possibly even be on the show."
Bassem came to New York early this month. Steve and Kevin arranged for him to spend some time at The Daily Show so Bassem could, as he says, "see how the big boys do it. We had gone from producing a YouTube show in my house to a real studio with one of the largest audiences in Egypt in less than 12 months. We have a lot to learn."
For two days, he shadowed the crew. Then Steve took him up to meet Jon Stewart himself. They discussed the role that political satire can play in a democracy and about what was going on in Egypt today. "I had a copy of one of Jon's books and asked him to sign it," Bassem says. Stewart told Bassem how much he respected his work and signed the book, "To Bassem Youssef, my hero."
Then Stewart invited Bassem to be on the show.
It's a dream come true for Bassem, and for us at AFAR. When we planned our AFAR Experiences event, we hoped that all of the participants -- travelers and Egyptians alike -- would make real, meaningful connections. And clearly, they have.
The next AFAR Experiences event will be in Johannesburg, South Africa, October 8 to 11, 2012. Our group of curious travelers will get the chance to connect with influential South Africans in politics, business, history, the arts, and media. And, as Bassem's story shows, those connections can lead to great things.
LOS CABOS, Mexico/BEIRUT (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed on Monday that the violence in Syria must stop but gave no sign of agreeing on how to do it even as Syrian security forces pounded opposition areas across the country.
Intense artillery fire was reported in Douma, a town 15 km (9 miles) outside the Syrian capital Damascus that for weeks has been under the partial control of rebels who have joined the 15-month-old revolt against President Bashar al-Assad.
At least 79 people were killed in violence that has escalated since international observers suspended their mission, activists said.
A Russian naval source said Moscow was preparing to send marines to Syria in the event it needed to protect personnel and remove equipment from its naval facility in Syria's Mediterranean port of Tartous, according to the Interfax news agency.
Russia is one of the Syrian government's staunchest backers.
International efforts to halt the violence are deadlocked because Russia and China, which wield vetoes in the U.N. Security Council, have blocked tougher action against Assad. They say the solution must come through political dialogue, an approach most of the Syrian opposition rejects.
Obama and Putin held two hours of talks - longer than originally planned - at a Group of 20 summit in Mexico after a week of Cold War-style recriminations between U.S. and Russian diplomats over Syria. Putin frowned and Obama wore a sober expression during remarks to reporters after the meeting.
"We agreed that we need to see a cessation of the violence, that a political process has to be created to prevent civil war," Obama told reporters.
"From my point of view, we have found many common points on this issue" of Syria, Putin said, adding the two sides would continue discussions.
Obama said they pledged to "work with other international actors," including U.N./Arab League envoy Kofi Annan, to find a resolution.
Obama initiated a handshake for the cameras while the two remained seated. At the end of their statements, as reporters were being ushered out, both sat glumly watching but made no move to re-engage with each other. It was the first Obama-Putin meeting since 2009.
Obama and Western allies want Russia to stop shielding Assad from further Security Council sanctions aimed at forcing him from power. Putin is suspicious of U.S. motives especially after the NATO-assisted ouster of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi last year, and has offered little signs of softening his stance.
'NO APPETITE'
Though the United States has shown no appetite for a new Libya-style intervention, Russia is reluctant to abandon Syria, a longtime arms customer, and risk losing its last firm foothold in the Middle East, including access to a warm-water navy base.
Russia supports Assad's argument that foreign-backed terrorists are behind the unrest. Russia has repeatedly urged Western and Arab countries, who mostly back the rebels, to rein in their support in order to stem the violence.
International outrage over Syria has grown in recent weeks after two reported massacres in which almost 200 civilians were killed, most of them from the Sunni Muslim majority that has led the revolt. Assad comes from Syria's Alawite minority, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam that has mostly backed the president.
Heavier fighting and apparent sectarian killings have led many, including the head of U.N. peacekeeping forces, to brand the violence a civil war.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has a network of activists across Syria, said 51 civilians and rebel fighters had been killed on Monday, seven of them in Douma. It said 28 members of the security forces were also killed in clashes with rebels in Deir al-Zor, Damascus and Deraa.
"We can't even accurately count the dead because we have so many injured people to treat, there's no time to think about anything else," said an activist in Douma who called himself Ziad.
"The army attacks all the time. They have tanks, missiles, mortars, and artillery. Even helicopters have fired on us. People can't escape because the army is surrounding the town."
Assad's forces have in recent weeks used not only artillery but also helicopter gunships against rebels in civilian areas.
The head of the U.N. observation mission in Syria, General Robert Mood, is to brief the U.N. Security Council in New York on Tuesday, three days after his mission was suspended due to security concerns.
Mood said on Sunday he was worried about civilians trapped in the central city of Homs, epicenter of the revolt against Assad, whose residents say they have been pummeled by mortar and rocket fire almost every day since early June.
French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said the "relentless repression of the regime, and in particular in the city of Homs" meant it was more necessary than ever for the United Nations to enforce Annan's failing peace plan.
France has called on the United Nations to invoke Chapter VII, which can authorize the use of force, to enforce the plan, under which the Syrian army was to withdraw heavy weapons from towns and cities and both sides were to cease fighting in April.
In Geneva, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said the government's use of heavy weapons in populated areas could amount to war crimes, saying: "I urge the international community to overcome its divisions and work to end the violence and human rights violations to which the people of Syria have been subjected."
(Additional reporting by Gleb Bryanski in Los Cabos, Mexico, Steve Gutterman in Moscow, Tom Miles in Geneva, Dominic Evans in Beirut and John Irish in Paris; Editing by Will Dunham)
Microsoft is widely expected to unveil a Windows 8-powered tablet at a press event in Los Angeles today.?
By Matthew Shaer / June 18, 2012
A Microsoft Windows 8 display at a tech fair in Taiwan. A new Windows 8-powered tablet is reportedly on the way.
Reuters
Enlarge
Later on today, Microsoft reps will gather at Milk Studios, in Los Angeles, to introduce a new device ? most likely (if the popular consensus is to be believed) a Windows 8-powered tablet computer. Initially, TechCrunch had reported that the tablet would be "built in conjunction with Barnes & Noble," but reps for the bookseller have denied the claim, saying only that the company is "not participating" in this afternoon's event.?
So what does Microsoft have on tap? Well, here's one option: A sub-$500 tablet, which would undercut the Apple iPad on price (Apple's tablets start at $499) while providing more functionality than the feature-lean Amazon Kindle Fire. In other words, analyst Salman Chaudhry?told TabTimes, the Microsoft tablet must be cheap, and also "offer native Office tools, Xbox Live functionality and a stable of high-quality apps."?
As for the size, Brian Barrett of Gizmodo is praying that Microsoft goes with a 9-plus-inch screen (in the mode of the iPad) as opposed to a 7-inch screen (in the mode of the Kindle Fire).?
"[T]he iPad is Jaws, and everyone else is getting the hell out of the water," Barrett writes. "But Microsoft shouldn't play in the kiddie pool. It's the only company with the resources to go toe-to-toe with the iPad, and the?only one with the patience. You want people watching movies, playing games, editing Word docs on this thing? Give them enough real estate to do it."?
Meanwhile, over at Wired, Ryan Tate writes that there's probably a reason that Microsoft has chosen Los Angeles as the location for the press event today.?
"The living room is the last big emerging market not yet dominated by Apple," Tate writes, adding: "Microsoft is ahead in the living room thanks to Xbox, but it?needs to broaden its appeal beyond hardcore videogamers?if it?s going to keep that lead. Given Apple?s focus on living room video with the Apple TV, that means strengthening Xbox?s entertainment offerings, which at the moment include Netflix, Hulu, and the underwhelming Zune Store."
One way Microsoft could expand its entertainment offerings, of course, is with SmartGlass, a recently-announced Xbox feature that will allow?users to control the on-TV action via a smartphone or tablet app. SmartGlass, Microsoft has said, will work with both games and TV shows ? it would open an additional "window" onto either experience. So the tablet unveiling today could go heavy on the SmartGlass compatibility.?
Bottom line, Zeus Kerravala, an analyst at ZK Research, told Computerworld today: Microsoft is going to have to really hustle to catch the iPad, which dominates the tablet market. (Over?90 percent of all tablet Web traffic comes from iPad devices, according to one recent report.)?"The new tablet will have to offer something uniquely different to take a chunk of share," Kerravala said.?
For?more tech news, follow us on?Twitter @venturenaut.
Another two hours of podcasty goodness from Brad and Myriam in the span of one week -- this time featuring Richard "The James Bond Of Tech Journalism" Lai on the PadFone. He's basically what they based Skyfall on, so if you don't have the $21.50 to spare on the IMAX version of that film you can listen to this podcast for as much, if not more, usable and entertaining information. Oh, and it's Myriam's 100th Engadget Mobile podcast, too.
Subscribe to the podcast [iTunes] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in iTunes [RSS MP3] Add the Engadget Mobile Podcast feed (in MP3) to your RSS aggregator and have the show delivered automatically [RSS AAC] Add the Engadget Mobile Podcast feed (in enhanced AAC) to your RSS aggregator [Zune] Subscribe to the Podcast directly in the Zune Marketplace
Contact: Byron Spice bspice@cs.cmu.edu 412-268-9068 Carnegie Mellon University
US Department of Transportation approves SBIR support for crowdsourced transit info
PITTSBURGHTiramisu Transit LLC, a Carnegie Mellon University spinoff, has received Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) to commercialize Tiramisu, the smartphone application that enables transit riders to create real-time information about bus schedules and seating.
The $102,000 award, through the USDOT's Federal Transit Administration and its Research and Innovative Technology Administration, will be used to identify sustainable business models for crowd-sourced transit information systems.
Tiramisu has been in use in Pittsburgh since the summer of 2011 and is available for iPhone and Android phones. Thus far, users have recorded more than 30,000 trips on Port Authority of Allegheny County buses and trains.
Tiramisu literally, Italian for "pick me up" was developed by researchers in the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Accessible Public Transportation (RERC-APT), supported in part by CMU's Traffic21 initiative. It currently works only for the Port Authority and CMU systems, but the software architecture is designed so that it can be deployed to other transit systems. The team will be adding another region soon.
Even before a user boards a vehicle, Tiramisu displays the nearest stops and a list of buses or light rail vehicles that are scheduled to arrive. The list includes arrival times, based either on real-time reports from current riders, from historic data, or from the transit service schedule. Once aboard, the user indicates whether many, few or no seats are available and then presses a button, causing the phone to share its ongoing GPS trace with the Tiramisu server. Tiramisu also can be used to report problems, positive experiences and suggestions.
The Tiramisu team is led by Aaron Steinfeld, co-director of RERC-APT and senior systems scientist in the Robotics Institute; Anthony Tomasic, senior systems scientist in the Institute for Software Research; and John Zimmerman, associate professor in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute and the School of Design.
Tiramisu is a project within the RERC-APT, a federally funded collaboration between Carnegie Mellon and the University of Buffalo, State University of New York focused on the transportation needs of people with disabilities and is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education through the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research. In addition, the project has received support from Carnegie Mellon's Traffic21 initiative, IBM, Google and the SINAIS project, a joint research project between Carnegie Mellon and the University of Madeira on increasing sustainability.
Tiramisu is among the initial projects to reach deployment and commercialization with help from the Traffic21 initiative, which was created by Carnegie Mellon with support from the Hillman Foundation. It draws on expertise and resources from across the campus to stimulate a broad community partnership to identify, refine and deploy "intelligent transportation system" technology advancements to the Pittsburgh region's transportation system. The goal is for the region to become internationally recognized as the place for "smart transportation," thus attracting further investment in both research and commercialization.
CMU's culture of entrepreneurship is supported by six campus incubator groups, collectively known as Greenlighting Startups. An engine for accelerating innovation and job creation, Greenlighting Startups builds upon the university's impressive record of turning campus innovations into new businesses by supporting award-winning professors and world-class students in transforming their research into thriving commercial enterprises.
###
About Carnegie Mellon University:
Carnegie Mellon (www.cmu.edu) is a private, internationally ranked research university with programs in areas ranging from science, technology and business, to public policy, the humanities and the arts. More than 11,000 students in the university's seven schools and colleges benefit from a small student-to-faculty ratio and an education characterized by its focus on creating and implementing solutions for real problems, interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation. A global university, Carnegie Mellon's main campus in the United States is in Pittsburgh, Pa. It has campuses in California's Silicon Valley and Qatar, and programs in Asia, Australia, Europe and Mexico. The university is in the midst of "Inspire Innovation: The Campaign for Carnegie Mellon University," which aims to build its endowment, support faculty, students and innovative research, and enhance the physical campus with equipment and facility improvements.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Contact: Byron Spice bspice@cs.cmu.edu 412-268-9068 Carnegie Mellon University
US Department of Transportation approves SBIR support for crowdsourced transit info
PITTSBURGHTiramisu Transit LLC, a Carnegie Mellon University spinoff, has received Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) to commercialize Tiramisu, the smartphone application that enables transit riders to create real-time information about bus schedules and seating.
The $102,000 award, through the USDOT's Federal Transit Administration and its Research and Innovative Technology Administration, will be used to identify sustainable business models for crowd-sourced transit information systems.
Tiramisu has been in use in Pittsburgh since the summer of 2011 and is available for iPhone and Android phones. Thus far, users have recorded more than 30,000 trips on Port Authority of Allegheny County buses and trains.
Tiramisu literally, Italian for "pick me up" was developed by researchers in the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Accessible Public Transportation (RERC-APT), supported in part by CMU's Traffic21 initiative. It currently works only for the Port Authority and CMU systems, but the software architecture is designed so that it can be deployed to other transit systems. The team will be adding another region soon.
Even before a user boards a vehicle, Tiramisu displays the nearest stops and a list of buses or light rail vehicles that are scheduled to arrive. The list includes arrival times, based either on real-time reports from current riders, from historic data, or from the transit service schedule. Once aboard, the user indicates whether many, few or no seats are available and then presses a button, causing the phone to share its ongoing GPS trace with the Tiramisu server. Tiramisu also can be used to report problems, positive experiences and suggestions.
The Tiramisu team is led by Aaron Steinfeld, co-director of RERC-APT and senior systems scientist in the Robotics Institute; Anthony Tomasic, senior systems scientist in the Institute for Software Research; and John Zimmerman, associate professor in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute and the School of Design.
Tiramisu is a project within the RERC-APT, a federally funded collaboration between Carnegie Mellon and the University of Buffalo, State University of New York focused on the transportation needs of people with disabilities and is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education through the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research. In addition, the project has received support from Carnegie Mellon's Traffic21 initiative, IBM, Google and the SINAIS project, a joint research project between Carnegie Mellon and the University of Madeira on increasing sustainability.
Tiramisu is among the initial projects to reach deployment and commercialization with help from the Traffic21 initiative, which was created by Carnegie Mellon with support from the Hillman Foundation. It draws on expertise and resources from across the campus to stimulate a broad community partnership to identify, refine and deploy "intelligent transportation system" technology advancements to the Pittsburgh region's transportation system. The goal is for the region to become internationally recognized as the place for "smart transportation," thus attracting further investment in both research and commercialization.
CMU's culture of entrepreneurship is supported by six campus incubator groups, collectively known as Greenlighting Startups. An engine for accelerating innovation and job creation, Greenlighting Startups builds upon the university's impressive record of turning campus innovations into new businesses by supporting award-winning professors and world-class students in transforming their research into thriving commercial enterprises.
###
About Carnegie Mellon University:
Carnegie Mellon (www.cmu.edu) is a private, internationally ranked research university with programs in areas ranging from science, technology and business, to public policy, the humanities and the arts. More than 11,000 students in the university's seven schools and colleges benefit from a small student-to-faculty ratio and an education characterized by its focus on creating and implementing solutions for real problems, interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation. A global university, Carnegie Mellon's main campus in the United States is in Pittsburgh, Pa. It has campuses in California's Silicon Valley and Qatar, and programs in Asia, Australia, Europe and Mexico. The university is in the midst of "Inspire Innovation: The Campaign for Carnegie Mellon University," which aims to build its endowment, support faculty, students and innovative research, and enhance the physical campus with equipment and facility improvements.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
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Public release date: 18-Jun-2012
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