Posts tagged France
Cannes Film Festival enters shocking tabloid hell: distasteful Princess Dy film shame!
May 10th
By MICHAEL SEAMARK
A shocking paparazzi photograph of a dying Princess Diana is to be screened for the first time in a documentary about her fatal crash.
Unlawful Killing, which will be shown at Cannes this week, is backed by the actor Keith Allen and Mohammed Fayed, whose son Dodi died with Diana.
The 90-minute film will include a graphic black and white close-up of Diana taken moments after the Mercedes carrying the couple crashed in a Paris underpass.
Crash: A photographer is first to reach Diana’s smashed up Mercedes in 1997. The public have never seen close-up images of her dying
The distressing image, Diana’s blonde hair and features clearly visible, has never been publicly seen in this country.
It will be shown around the world but not in the UK, prompting Allen to say: ‘Pity, because at a time when the sugar rush of the Royal Wedding has been sending republicans into a diabetic coma, it could act as a welcome antidote.’
Similar pictures shown to the Diana inquest jury had her face heavily pixellated.
News that Allen, father of pop star Lily, is using the full photograph outraged close friends of the late Princess of Wales.
Icon: Diana’s fame has meant that her death has been the subject of intense scrutiny. An inquest – held a decade later – found she was unlawfully killed
Rosa Monckton, who went on holiday with Diana a few weeks before she died, said: ‘If this is true this is absolutely disgusting.
‘The fact people are trying to make money – which is all that they are doing now – out of her death is quite frankly … words fail me.’
A spokesman for St James’s Palace declined to comment but royal sources said Diana’s sons would be sickened by the news.
One said: ‘They rather hope people would treat this with the contempt it deserves.’
He suggested that William and Harry would not be drawn into commenting for fear of giving Allen the oxygen of publicity.
Sources told the Daily Mail that the princes will never publicly comment about their mother because they view the issue as ‘the most intensely personal and private aspect of their very public lives’.
Allen’s film is due to be screened amid a blaze of publicity at the Cannes Film Festival on Friday and Mr Fayed is reported to be travelling to the south of France to help with the launch.
In 2008, after a six-month inquest which heard evidence from 250 witnesses and cost taxpayers an estimated £12million, a jury concluded that Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed were unlawfully killed as a direct result of grossly negligent driving by drunk chauffeur Henri Paul, who also died in the crash.
The actions of photographers following the car were also cited.
Mr Fayed has accused Prince Philip of masterminding the 1997 crash in which Diana and Dodi died and even suggested that Prince Charles was involved.
He alleged the death plot took place to stop Diana marrying his Muslim son.
During the 2008 Diana inquest, the former Harrods owner described the royals as ‘that Dracula family’.
The photograph of Diana forms part of the trailer to Allen’s documentary on the film’s official website available in the UK.
Backers: The film, Unlawful Killing, is being supported by Mohammed Fayed, whose son Dodi died with Diana, and left-wing activist and actor Keith Allen, right
Getting ready: A screen is prepared on the beach for the 64th Cannes Film Festival in France, which is where the Diana documentary will be shown
The website proclaims: ‘Unlawful Killing is the story of the deaths of Princess Diana, Dodi Fayed and their driver Henri Paul.
‘It reveals a cover-up by the British Establishment culminating in a six-month inquest. Keith Allen’s ground-breaking documentary recreates key moments from the inquest and demonstrates how vital evidence of foul play was hidden from public scrutiny, how the royal family were exempted from giving evidence and how journalists, particularly those working for the BBC, systematically misreported the events and in particular, the verdict itself.
‘This is the story of how the world was deceived.’
Allen, in a piece for the Guardian newspaper last weekend, said: ‘My “inquest of the inquest” film contains footage of Diana recalling how the royals wanted her consigned to a mental institution, and the coroner repeatedly questioning the sanity of anyone who wondered if the crash was more than an accident.’
He said he asked every major UK broadcaster to commission a TV documentary about the inquest but they all refused.
Mourned: The gates of Kensington Palace adorned with tributes in 1997
He said Unlawful Killing was ‘not about a conspiracy before the crash, but a conspiracy after the crash. A conspiracy organised not by a single arch-fiend, but collectively by the British establishment’.
He said the film was being premiered in Cannes ‘because British lawyers insisted on 87 cuts before any UK release.
‘So rather than butcher the film, we’re showing in France, then the U.S., and everywhere except the UK.’
A spokesman for the filmmakers said: ‘The picture has been published in full before, in many parts of the world. We acquired the image from an Italian magazine, which had already published it in full. It is also widely available on the web.
‘We are therefore not publishing anything that the rest of the world has not already seen elsewhere.’
A spokesman for Mr Fayed said: ‘He was not aware that any photograph taken of any occupant of the car was going to be in this film.
‘He is appalled by that and will be taking all necessary steps to make sure it is not in the film.’
Explore more:
People: Diana, Keith Allen, Henri Paul Places: Cannes, France, United Kingdom, Wales
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Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1385357/Princess-Diana-dying-photo-shown-Unlawful-Killing-Cannes.html#ixzz1LzSCanTG
April 18, 2011 MIT PHYSICS NOBEL LAUREATE FRANK WILCZEK TO GIVE CU-BOULDER’S GAMOW LECTURE
Apr 18th
April 18, 2011
MIT PHYSICS NOBEL LAUREATE FRANK WILCZEK
TO GIVE CU-BOULDER’S GAMOW LECTUREMassachusetts Institute of Technology Professor Frank Wilczek, who shared the 2004 Nobel Prize in physics, will give the 46th George Gamow Memorial Lecture at the University of Colorado Boulder on Tuesday, April 26.
Free and open to the public, the talk is titled “Anticipating a New Golden Age: A Vision and Its Fiery Trial at the Large Hadron Collider.” Wilczek will describe the Large Hadron Collider, or LHC, and how it will test new phenomena and ambitious ideas. The talk will be held at 7:30 p.m. in Macky Auditorium and is intended for a general audience.
The LHC sends protons and charged atoms whizzing around a 17-mile underground loop located on the border of France and Switzerland at 11,000 times per second — nearly the speed of light. Located at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, the collider can smash particles together at energy levels seven times higher than the previous record by such accelerators.
Scientists are using the LHC to attempt to recreate conditions immediately following the Big Bang, searching for answers about mysterious dark matter, dark energy, gravity and the fundamental laws of physics. The experiments may even shed light on the possibility that other dimensions exist, according to physicists.
Wilczek says future generations may view the LHC as the defining symbol of our culture, analogous to the pyramids of Egypt. The LHC project involves roughly 10,000 people from 60 countries, including more than 1,700 scientists, engineers, students and technicians from 94 American universities. Roughly 10 faculty, postdoctoral researchers and graduate students from CU-Boulder’s physics department have been involved in LHC research and development.
Wilczek shared the Nobel Prize in physics with David Gross and David Politzer for the discovery of asymptotic freedom in the theory of the strong interaction, research he conducted as a 21-year-old graduate student at Princeton University.
Wilczek has received numerous awards, including a 1982 McArthur Fellowship “genius grant,” the 2005 King Faisal International Prize for Science and the 2003 Lilienfeld Prize of the American Physical Society. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
The George Gamow lecture series started in 1971 and honors the late CU-Boulder physics professor who was pivotal in developing the big bang theory of the creation of the universe. He also was known for his many books popularizing science.
For more information on Wilczek and his work visit the Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine at http://artsandsciences.colorado.edu/magazine/2011/04/nobel-laureate-to-deliver-gamow-lecture/.
-CU-
Dick Winters 1918-2011 American Hero
Jan 12th
Major Dick Winters, who died on January 2 aged 92, was one of the US Army’s most revered service
men of the Second World War; his exploits were later chronicled in the book and television series Band of Brothers.
FROM INDEPENDENT As commander of E Company of the 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, Winters and his company proved instrumental on D-Day in ensuring the successful American landings at Utah and Omaha beaches. He would later lead his paratroopers through the forests of France, Belgium and Holland before ending his war in Hitler’s alpine retreat.
The 2nd Battalion’s specific remit for the invasion of Normandy in June 1944 was to secure “Causeway 2”, which linked Utah Beach to the hinterland. The Germans had flooded the fields in between and the planned night-time capture of the causeways was vital in ensuring the eventual success of the amphibious landings.
The operation did not get under way smoothly, as Allied aircraft were faced by withering flak which forced troops to be dropped far away from the target area. Furthermore, the aircraft containing E Company’s Commanding Officer and First Sergeant was shot down, making Winters effective commander.
To make matters worse, Winters had lost his weapon during the drop, and 90 per cent of his men were unaccounted for. But he and 13 other members of “Easy” Company did manage to set up headquarters in a farmhouse, where at daybreak they received intelligence that four German 105mm Howitzers, manned by a full platoon, were firing on Utah Beach; they were ordered to destroy the guns.
In the ensuing attack, Winters ordered half of his squad to unleash an enveloping hail of machine gun fire, while another section of his men took the left flank and hurled hand grenades at the first gun. With this Howitzer duly disabled, the remainder of Easy Company (with the aid of “Dog” Company) made a full assault on the German trenches, spiking the other guns with TNT.
FROM WKIPEDIA
Major Richard “Dick” D. Winters (January 21, 1918 – January 2, 2011)[1] was a United States Army officer and decorated warveteran. He commanded Company “E”, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, during World War II.
Winters parachuted into Normandy in the early hours of D-Day, and fought across France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and eventually into Germany. Later in the war, Winters rose to command the 2nd Battalion. Following the end of hostilities Winters was discharged from the army and returned to civilian life, working in New Jersey.
In 1951, during the Korean War, Winters was recalled to the Army from the inactive list and briefly served as a regimental planning and training officer on staff at Fort Dix, New Jersey. Although issued orders for deployment, he was not sent to Korea. After his discharge he worked at a few different jobs before founding his own company and selling farming products.
Winters was featured in a number of books and was portrayed in the 2001 HBO mini-series Band of Brothers by Damian Lewis. He was a regular guest lecturer at the United States Military Academy at West Point. He retired in 1997.