Kung Fu and Kill Bill star David Carradine ‘accidentally suffocated’ after ’sex games’ in Bangkok hotel wardrobe

David Carradine, pictured in LA last month, was found dead in a hotel room

Daily Mail |  Jun 5, 2009

By David Gardner, Andrew Drummond, Debra Killalea and Mail Foreign Service

David Carradine’s death could have been caused by accidental suffocation, police said today.

The 72-year- old Kung Fu actor was found dead in his hotel room in Bangkok on Thursday.

Suicide was initially suspected, but Carradine’s friends have questioned this theory, pointing out that no note was found.

Thai police chief Worapong Chewprecha said that Carradine was found with a rope tied around his genitals and another rope around his neck.

‘The two ropes were tied together,’ he said. ‘It is unclear whether he committed suicide or not, or if he died of suffocation or heart failure.’

The news has led to speculation that Carradine may have died from auto-erotic asphyxiation.

An autopsy was completed yesterday, but the results will not be ready for at least three weeks because the cause of death is unclear.

‘All we can say is, we know David would never have committed suicide,’ said Tiffany Smith of Binder & Associates, Carradine’s management company.

‘He really appreciated everything life has to give … and that’s not something David would ever do to himself. We’re just waiting for them to finish the investigation and find out what really happened.’

Carradine, a martial arts practitioner himself, was best known for the TV series Kung Fu, which aired between 1972 and 1975.

He played Kwai Chang Caine, an orphan who was raised by Shaolin monks.More recently, he had a starring role in Quentin Tarantino’s two-part saga Kill Bill.

His death sparked a raft of tributes across Hollywood as stars and friends insisted the actor was full of life and didn’t appear suicidal.

Quentin Tarantino, Michael Madsen and Rob Schneider all told U.S. talk show host Larry King there was no way the actor would have killed himself.

‘I am still in a state shock. He was a dream to direct he was a fantastic actor, a great character actor and really one of Hollywood’s great mad geniuses,’ said Tarantino, who directed Carradine in Kill Bill.

‘The thing I cannot get my head around is that there could have been a period of David’s long life when he might have been suicidal, but this was not the time.’

Schneider said the star had everything going for him and was really on an ‘upswing’.

‘This was a guy that was alive. He was a living legend and really people were coming around and appreciating him.

‘He could not do all the work that was being offered to him. I am convinced, there was no way that he would have killed himself.’

Madsen hosted Carradine’s wedding in 2004 and said that his widow was ‘very confused’ by her late husband’s death.

‘I  talked to Annie about that and she said the most important thing she wanted people to know was that David was not suicidal and he was not depressed.

‘He was not about to do something like that, he had a job and he was working.’

Director Martin Scorcese also paid tribute to the actor and said he was deeply saddened by the tragic news.

‘We met when we made “Boxcar Bertha” together, almost 40 years ago,’ he said.

‘I have very fond memories of our time together on that picture and on Mean Streets, where he agreed to do a brief cameo.’

Others agreed the star seemed happy.

‘I can tell you 100 per cent that he would have never committed suicide,’ Tiffany Smith, who along with Chuck Binder managed the Kill Bill star. ‘He was too full of life.’

‘We’re just waiting for them to finish the investigation and find out what really happened.

‘He really appreciated everything life has to give … and that’s not something David would ever do to himself.’

Binder, said: ‘He was full of life, always wanting to work – a great person.’

Michael Madsen, who played an assassin in Kill Bill said: ‘It is shocking to me that he is no longer with us.’

‘I had been thinking about calling him for the last several days … I have so many great memories of David that I wouldn’t even know where to begin . He has a very special place in my heart.’

Carradine, whose career had recently undergone a renaissance after he appeared in Quentin Tarantino’s bloody two-part martial arts film saga Kill Bill, was in Thailand shooting his latest film, Stretch.

He had been staying at the luxury Swissitel Nai Lert Park since Tuesday.

The crew could not find him after he failed to turn up for a meal on Wednesday night and his body was discovered at 10am yesterday.

Aurelio Giraudo, the hotel’s general manager, said Carradine checked into the hotel May 31 and he last saw him June 3.

He said Carradine chatted with staff and even played piano a few nights in the lobby as well as flute which the ‘guests really enjoyed’.

The hotel, next to the British Embassy in Bangkok is famous for its shrine to fertility.

Visitors make offerings, in the form of phalluses, to the female Spirit of Tubtim who is believed to hover around a nearby canal.

Carradine’s death echoes that of former INXS star Michael Hutchence who was found dead in a Sydney hotel in 1997.

The coroner returned a verdict of suicide but because of the lack of suicide note or history of depression he was  believed to have died attempting an act of autoerotic asphyxiation.

Although Carradine was said to he happy at the time of his death, he had spoken of suicide in the past.

He also admitted he had considered shooting himself and did not fear death.

He wrote in his 1995 autobiography Endless Highway that he had tried to kill himself when he was five years old.

The book also documented his alcoholism and extensive use of drugs, from LSD to cocaine.

In a 2004 interview he said: ‘I remember one time sitting in the window of the third or fourth floor floor of the Plaza Hotel for about half an hour, thinking about tipping off.

‘I thought “who cares man? Why not just split”‘.

He also said: ‘There was a period in my life when I had a single action colt.45 loaded, in my desk drawer.

‘And every night I’d take it out and think about blowing my head off – and the decide not to and go on with my life.’

Carradine got his big break in Kung Fu as Kwai Chang Caine, nicknamed Grasshopper, the soft-spoken monk and martial arts expert who travelled through America’s Old West spreading wisdom and battling bad guys.

The show captured the imagination of millions of youngsters. Phrases from Kung Fu such as ‘Snatch the pebble from my hand’ were endlessly repeated in the playground.

Children put ping-pong balls, which had been cut in half, in their eyes in imitation of the show’s blind character, Master Po.

Kung Fu was first screened in 1972 and spawned a film and numerous other offshoots.

Carradine’s portrayal of Caine earned him a nomination for an Emmy, U.S. TV’s highest honour. He left after three seasons.
He was married five times and had two daughters from previous marriages. His fifth wife was Annie Bierman, whom he married in 2004.

His brothers include the actor Keith Carradine.

A U.S. Embassy spokesman said Thai officials had confirmed that Carradine died either late on Wednesday or early yesterday morning.

Company buys film rights to Estulin’s book on the Bilderberg Group

Halcyon buys rights to Estulin’s The True Story Of The Bilderberg Group

Screen Daily | May 25, 2009

By Chris Evans

Los Angeles-based The Halcyon Company has bought the film rights to writer Daniel Estulin’s best selling book, The True Story Of The Bilderberg Group, from publishing house TrineDay.

The book revealed the workings of the secretive Bilderberg Group, which has about 130 members all of whom are influential figures across politics and business. The book revealed that the group has spent time discussing major world issues and even predicted the current financial crisis, but chooses not to reveal its talks to the public.

Estulin, who is Russian but based in Madrid, spent 14 years researching the book, which attracted global media attention when it was published in 2007.

The Halcyon Company is a leading privately financed, media production and financing organisation run by co-CEOs Derek Anderson and Victor Kubicek.

The company also owns the rights to the Terminator franchise, including the latest film Terminator Salvation, starring Christian Bale, plus it has first look rights to the works of science fiction writer Philip K Dick.

Spanish documentary plumbs the depths of the secret world of Freemasonry

Kevin Williams Associates uncovers freemasons

Screen Daily | May 15, 2009

By Geoffrey Macnab

With Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code continuing to stir up controversy, Madrid-based sales outfit Kevin Williams Associates has just picked up a new feature documentary that explores in depth the secret world of freemasonry.

Masons – The Sons Of The Widow, screening in the Marche, is written and directed by Santiago Lapeira. The film – made through Black Flag Productions and Verne Films – tells the story of Marta, a young university professor who discovers that her father belonged to the Freemasons.

She resolves to find out more about the organisation, embarking on a journey that takes her to Rome, Istanbul, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona and Colliure. She learns about the relationship between Gaudi’s architecture and masonry and also delves into the rites, symbols and internal lives of the lodges of orders.

KWA’s slate also includes projects such as Colombian director Victor Gaviria’s long-gestating Black Blood – The Hour Of The Traitors; Aitzol Aramio’s drama A Bit Of Chocolate; and Guillermo Sempere’s black comedy Dead Birds.

________

Related

Verne Films

Maçons: Els Fills de la VÍdua

Jackie Chan: Freedom may be unnecessary, Chinese people need to be firmly ‘controlled’

Jackie Chan told an audience Chinese people needed to be ‘controlled’  Photo: AP

Jackie Chan has triggered controversy by claiming Chinese people are so chaotic they need to be firmly controlled by the government. Mr Chan is a favourite of the authorities in Beijing.

Telegraph | Apr 19, 2009

By Malcolm Moore in Shanghai

The actor told a forum on the southern Chinese island of Hainan, whose attendees included Wen Jiabao, the Chinese prime minister, he was not sure “freedom” was necessary.

Chan, 55, whose latest movie, Shinjuku incident, was banned in China, was asked about censorship and restriction on the mainland. He expanded his comments to discuss Chinese society in general.

“I’m not sure if it is good to have freedom or not,” he said. “I’m really confused now. If you are too free, you are like the way Hong Kong is now. It’s very chaotic. Taiwan is also chaotic.”

He added: “I’m gradually beginning to feel that we Chinese need to be controlled. If we are not being controlled, we’ll just do what we want.”

His comments were applauded by the Chinese audience, but triggered fury in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Leung Kwok-hung, a pro-democracy MP in Hong Kong, said: “He has insulted the Chinese people. Chinese people are not pets. Chinese society needs a democratic system to protect human rights and rule of law.”

Albert Ho, another MP, said Mr Chan was “racist” and added: “People around the world are running their own countries. Why can’t the Chinese do the same?”

Mr Chan is a favourite of the authorities in Beijing, and performed in both the opening and closing ceremonies of the Summer Olympics.

He is also the vice chairman of the China Film Association, a key industry group.

However, he lost some of his goodwill among the audience when he criticised the quality of Chinese-made goods.

“If I need to buy a television, I would definitely buy a Japanese television,” he said. “A Chinese television might explode.”

TV, films boldly go down scientific path

Scientist Jackson Curtis (John Cusack) battles a flood apocalypse tied to Internet theories of the Maya calendar. Scientists at first said no way, said director Roland Emmerich but then cooked up ways it could happen for the film 2012. Photo: Joe Lederer, Sony Pictures

“Every major film and TV show today has a science consultant,” says Kirby, author of the forthcoming Labcoats in Hollywood (MIT Press), who has studied the steady increase in the number of science advisers from the dawn of film to today.

USA TODAY | Mar 25, 2009

By Dan Vergano

So much for gangsters or communists infiltrating Hollywood. The real invisible menace turns out to be scientists.

“Just a sign of the modern times — the science has to be there,” says director Roland Emmerich, whose end-of-the-world film, 2012, opens in November. “We are all looking for great themes out there, and science has those.”

Audiences agree.

Knowing, Nicolas Cage’s apocalyptic science thriller, surprised critics by topping the box office with $24.8 million in ticket sales over the weekend. Angels & Demons star Tom Hanks last month toured Europe’s CERN atom-smashing facility, which also stars in the antimatter mystery movie premiering May 15.

And a spate of other science-themed flicks arrives this year as well. James Cameron’s alien world of Avatar opens in December, and Sony’s animated inventor comedy, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, opens in September.

“It turns out a lot of people in Hollywood think science is cool,” says Jennifer Ouellette, director of the Science and Entertainment Exchange, the Los Angeles-based outreach office of the venerable National Academy of Sciences.

The exchange, which formally opened in November, pairs up films and shows in development with scientists. Its goal is to get the science on the screen straight, the latest example of science’s mind-meld (to use some Star Trek lingo) with the popular imagination.

“Writers and directors have discovered there is a higher tolerance, maybe even an interest or a demand, for better science,” says Angels & Demons director Ron Howard, who worked with CERN scientists on the film’s depiction of the lab. “Audiences are getting smarter by the minute.”

On the small screen, shows such as CBS’ TheBig Bang Theory and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation are undoing the legacy of Star Trek’s pointy-eared Mr. Spock by making scientists look almost cool, says media scholar David Kirby of the United Kingdom’s University of Manchester. “We are in a golden age of science on television,” he says.

Shows like CSI and Fox’s Bones, in particular, try to get science right, says Kirby, a former academic biologist. “Science gives these shows certainty in uncertain times. Even if science, in reality, is all about uncertainty.”

It came from outer space

Says sociologist Wesley Shrum of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, “Science in entertainment isn’t anything new.” A Trip to the Moon, the 14-minute silent movie regarded as the first science-fiction film, was a hit after its 1902 release. The Lost World in 1925 featured dinosaurs trying to eat scientists and stomping city dwellers, almost seven decades before Jurassic Park.

“Movies change to reflect the society around them, and the way science appears certainly reflects that,” says astronomer and blogger Phil Plait. In the past century, scientists went from somewhat remote heroes in films, such as 1943’s Madame Curie, to more sinister figures in the Cold War, such as the title character in 1964’s Dr. Strangelove, to more human characters, such as Jodie Foster’s Eileen Arroway in 1997’s Contact. Of course, mad scientists have always been popular, from 1931’s Frankenstein to today’s Fox show Fringe, blessed with its own nutty professor who works in a basement lab.

Fringe aside, “the scientists you see today are not Mr. Spock. They’re human, and that’s a real change,” Plait says, pointing to TV shows such as The Big Bang Theory. “Even if they are depicted as über-geeks, they are still interesting people you’d probably like.”

Jurassic Park in 1993 “made the biggest turn” in Hollywood’s interest in science, Emmerich says. The dinosaur-cloning science was part of the film’s appeal, a discovery that raised the credibility requirements for entertainment, he says. Close Encounters of the Third Kind and 2001: A Space Odyssey had bumped up science’s profile, he says, but reasonable science has been a bottom-line requirement only in the past two decades.

“We really noticed it doing Apollo 13,” released in 1995, Howard says. NBC’s ER was in its first years, and Howard and others were struck by its readiness to use medical jargon, much of it meaningless to the audience, to add authenticity to the story. That helped persuade Apollo 13’s writers to keep the NASA lingo in the film, which “helped make it more authentic,” Howard says.

A focus on ‘credible science’

“Every major film and TV show today has a science consultant,” says Kirby, author of the forthcoming Labcoats in Hollywood (MIT Press), who has studied the steady increase in the number of science advisers from the dawn of film to today.

The big change today is the involvement of science advisers from the beginning of a show’s production, Kirby says. “In the past, producers would cold-call universities for advice on how to fix an already-written script,” he says. “Now you have scientists help maintain a logical consistency to the science, even if it’s unreal, throughout.”

Says Caltech physicist Sean Carroll, “Scientists certainly like it when films get the equations right, and I think audiences pick up on credible science.”

His favorite science movie is last year’s comic-book adaptation Iron Man, “because it has a long sequence of experiments and ideas not working out or blowing up in the hero’s face,” Carroll says. “That’s the kind of science I’m familiar with, trial and error, things never quite working out as easy as you hope.”

Shows rarely have time to get to the real meat of the scientific process: testing ideas with experiments, Plait says. And scientists too often, in his view, com- plain about little mistakes, missing the broader benefits that a positive depiction of science brings to the profession.

“OK, we see telescopes stuffed into crowded rooms, but that’s a trivial thing,” he says. “Entertainment is supposed to entertain, but good science can make stories better, throw up roadblocks, make plots more interesting and involving.”

One recent example was the link between Watchmen and University of Minnesota physicist James Kakalios, who not only helped cook up a quasi-science explanation for the Dr. Manhattan superhero (a quantum-physics-altering blue man in shorts played by Billy Crudup), but also discussed the psychology of researchers with filmmakers.

The success of March of the Penguins in 2006 has revitalized the nature documentary field as well, a mainstay of science entertainment, says Jean Franc¸ois Camilleri of Disneynature in Paris, which premieres nationwide the nature documentary Earth on April 22, Earth Day. “A lot of the advances in film allow us to shoot films we never could imagine before,” Camilleri says, pointing to lightweight cameras and faster computer editing.

Some of those same advances enable special effects that almost demand help from scientists to explain, Emmerich says. “Audiences are jaded and cynical these days. If they see something that is not credible, they will shut it off.”

So how good is the science in today’s films and shows?

“Occasionally, you will get a glimpse of real science, ideas being tested by experiments,” Kirby says. One problem is that sitting at a lab bench piping cells into glassware isn’t all that entertaining, he adds. “For the most part, audiences want the answers quickly.”

‘It can’t all be science’

“There still has to be that fantastic element. It can’t be all science,” says Emmerich, whose 2004 film, The Day After Tomorrow, featured an instant Ice Age that climate scientists say stretched past the tipping point of reality. “We had a real scientific worry, and we just packed it into a few days instead of decades or centuries,” he says.

More broadly, how science appears in entertainment can change how people see scientific problems, says Plait. The 1998 film Deep Impact featured some shaky science in its plot to divert a massive asteroid from Earth with nuclear bombs, he notes, but is widely credited by astronomers with raising public awareness of the threat from “Near Earth” asteroids and helping secure funding for asteroid surveys.

“I would say some representations of science can significantly impact public understanding,” for better and for worse, Kirby says. He views 2000’s Mission to Mars as “harmful,” perpetuating a bogus idea in the public mind because the film depicted as real the geological feature known as the Face on Mars, which actually is an optical illusion.

“Who knows? The trend toward science in entertainment may fizzle,” Kirby says. “But I would argue that it is here to stay. The heavy focus on science in films and TV has been cyclical, but always there. People only think it is new.”

Science Fiction Becomes a Reality – With the New Star Wars Levitation Toy

What if you could literally train your mind to levitate a sphere? Sounds far fetched? Well it’s not anymore, because this is exactly what you can do with the latest star wars toy “the Force Trainer”.

Big News Biz | Mar 24, 2009

What if you could literally train your mind to levitate a sphere? Sounds a bit far fetched?

Well it’s not anymore, because this is exactly what you can do with the latest star wars toy called “the Forcer Trainer” which turns Science fiction into reality as it utilises your brainwaves to levitate a sphere within a tube.

Force Trainer Headset

The Star Wars Force Trainer was created by Uncle Milton, a US based company which produces Science-based toys. The toy uses EEG technology to transmit your alpha and beta brainwaves from a head set to wirelessly drive a motor which powers a fan that sends a sphere up a tower. You can progress from Padawan to Jedi Master, as you use “The Force Trainer” through 15 levels of Jedi training. Along the way you will be encouraged by Obi Wan, Darth Vader and, of course, Yoda helping you with training tips and sound effects. The better your concentration, the more you are able to control the fan and the sphere rises.

Peter and Anne-Maree Harback, Directors of Coolthings Australia, visited the 2009 Toy Fair in Melbourne on Saturday 21st March and gave the Force Trainer a run for its money, Mr Harback said “When I first heard about this new gadget I really didn’t know what to expect, but when I actually got to try the thing out I was amazed that it really works. At first I couldn’t get the ball to levitate but after some wise tips from the Uncle Milton crew I finally was able to tap into the force and make the ball rise.”

Before word got out that the Force Trainer was being launched Uncle Milton were receiving a couple of email enquiries per day, after the news broke they got a massive 40,000 emails asking when this product is going to be available for purchase. The Star Wars Force Trainer is set to be the most eagerly anticipated toy release of the year.

The Star Wars Force Trainer hasn’t arrived in Australia yet so Star Wars fans will have to wait until September 2009 to see these in stores; in the mean time you can visit http://www.coolthings.com.au/star-wars-force-trainer-p-1026.html for further information, videos and images, and to pre-order your very own Force Trainer.

Uncle Milton Star Wars Force Trainer

Canadian military prepares for apocalyptic Hollywood scenarios

Reserve soldiers training for terror attacks, disasters on home soil

Changes highlight a renewed focus on domestic security

The remodeling will likely see the reserves play a larger role in domestic security situations, including the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver and the G8 summit of world leaders that has been announced for 2010 at a resort in Huntsville, 220 kilometres north of Toronto, he said.

The national plan places the reserves at the forefront of grim scenarios that are the stuff of apocalyptic Hollywood movies.

National Post | Mar 5, 2009

Military revamps domestic defence

By Adrian Humphreys

The Canadian military has embarked on a wide-ranging plan to turn its reserve soldiers into focused units trained and equipped to respond to a nightmarish array of domestic threats, including terrorist “dirty bomb” attacks, biological agent containment, Arctic catastrophes and natural disasters.

The creation of seven units within each region of the country — including unusual all-terrain vehicle (ATV) squadrons and perimeter security teams to cordon areas of potential devastation — prepares reserve soldiers for operations on the “domestic front” while freeing regular force soldiers to concentrate on foreign battlefields.

“There is a recognition, certainly within the military and we have heard the government say, that domestic security is the number one priority. A number of these conclusions come from the post-9/11 world we live in,” said Brigadier-General Jean Collin, commander of the army in Ontario, during an exclusive interview with the National Post.

“The reality is an army needs to train, an army needs to equip itself and an army needs to be ready.”

The remodelling of the reserves will see the development of specialist units in four of the military’s regional divisions — Atlantic, Quebec, Ontario and the West. The units will include perimeter security teams prepared to cordon off an area if there was an atomic detonation, nuclear accident or similar source of wide contamination and “Arctic response” groups that are trained and equipped to live and operate in the far north.

The changes highlight both a renewed focus on domestic security and the increased role of reservists.

They are part-time volunteer soldiers augmenting the ranks of full-time soldiers, who are referred to as the “regular” forces. The place of reserves in the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan was shown yesterday when one of three soldiers killed by a roadside bomb was a reservist from Ontario.

“Some of the stuff we are now asking the reservists to do is because we need them; because the regular force simply does not have sufficient people, sufficient resources, to do it on their own,” said Brig.-Gen. Collin.

“And the reservists have certainly demonstrated that they have the capability to do all this and more.”

Brig.-Gen. Collin, who has served in Bosnia and Afghanistan, has also been a special advisor to the Chief of the Defence Staff on homeland security issues. The military divides operations into two broad divisions: away missions, such as the action in Afghanistan, called “expeditionary operations,” and home missions, such as helping with floods in Winnipeg, called “domestic operations.”

“The lead — the main contributor — for expeditionary operation is the regular force. They form the core for expeditionary operations and are augmented by reservists,” Brig.-Gen. Collin said. “What we have now said is that for domestic operations, the core will actually be provided by the reserve force, augmented by the regular force. The reserves take a dominant role in domestic operations in the future, once they are properly equipped and trained to do so.”

The remodeling of the reserves, ordered at the start of 2009, is expected to take two to three years to complete.

The remodelling will also likely see the reserves play a larger role in domestic security situations, including the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver and the G8 summit of world leaders that has been announced for 2010 at a resort in Huntsville, 220 kilometres north of Toronto, he said.

The national plan places the reserves at the forefront of grim scenarios that are the stuff of apocalyptic Hollywood movies.

“We all know the threat from dirty bombs, chemical contaminants. This is certainly one of the more dangerous situations that can arise,” said Brig.-Gen. Collin. “You can certainly get it from a terrorist act. You can also get it from a man-made disaster. You can get nuclear contamination from a nuclear power plant — Three Mile Island, Chernobyl.

“We are training to establish a perimeter. Do I see a scenario when we might be obliged to keep people in? Probably. You need to be trained to be able to make sure that you don’t become a casualty in the process of doing that security.”

The Arctic units — companies of about 120 people in each region, that can come together as a single force — pose a challenge of a different sort, primarily training for the harsh conditions of the far north.

“We are going to have up to an entire battalion of soldiers who are prepared to go live and operate in the north and that entire battalion will come from the reserves. We are having them trained now, as we speak, to operate in the north,” said Brig.-Gen. Collin, who just returned from a visit to several remote aboriginal communities where he stayed in a military-issue tent.

“It was bloody cold… But you can dress, equip and operate up there if you know what you’re doing,” he said.

Currently, about 120 reservists from Southern Ontario are involved in Exercise Polar Warrior, a week of training in Arctic warfare and survival in Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug, a First Nations community on Big Trout Lake.

To equip the ATV Squadron, the first commercial vehicles are arriving in the coming months. They will not be armed or painted in camouflage and are not intended for combat use. They could be deployed in rural and remote areas to traverse wooded ravines or in an urban setting that has suffered devastation, such as an earthquake or massive explosion.

The plans also call for turning over responsibility for the force’s Reverse Osmosis Water Purification Units — mobile, high-capacity machines for cleaning water to drinkable standards — to the reserves. The machines have been used abroad, in Sri Lanka helping victims of the 2004 tsunami, and also domestically in Kashechewan, Ont., when the water supply was tainted by E. coli bacteria in 2005.

David Bercuson, director of the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies at the University of Calgary, said the changes make sense given the current global security situation. He was surprised to hear, however, of envisioned scenarios that might require a form of constabulary or policing function for reserves in civilian containment and security.

“People in Ottawa sometimes forget that the reserves are volunteers. If you try to change the reserves in ways they don’t want to change, they just might not show up.”

———

NEW RESERVE UNITS

A sweeping plan to remodel the military reserves will create seven new units in four regions across Canada to deal with domestic threats, from terrorists to natural disasters. The change sees part-time, volunteer soldiers training for dark scenarios already envisioned in apocalyptic Hollywood movies:

ATV SQUAD

Estimated size: Four squads of 20 vehicles

Nightmare scenario: Desperately need to get across rubble of destroyed buildings or heavily wooded ravine

Movie it suggests: Daylight starring Sylvester Stallone

CHEMICAL, BIOLOGICAL, RADIOLOGICAL AND NUCLEAR DEFENCE

Various Nightmare scenarios

Cordon off wide area after calamitous contamination strikes

Movie it suggests: Outbreak starring Dustin Hoffman

ARCTIC RESPONSE

New unit Arctic Response Company

Estimated size: 600 to 800 personnel

Nightmare scenario: Airliner crashes in the High Arctic

Movie it suggests: Alive starring Ethan Hawke

PSYCHOLOGICAL OPERATIONS

Estimated size: Unknown

Nightmare scenario: Why don’t these people realize we’re here to help??

Movie it suggests: Operation Dumbo Drop starring Danny Glover

CIVIL MILITARY CO-OPERATION TEAMS

Estimated size: Four teams of two to five

Nightmare scenario: Soldiers and civilians need to work closely together to defeat enemy

Movie it suggests: Independence Day starring Will Smith

ENGINEERS TEAM

New unit Engineers Team

Estimated size: Unknown

Nightmare scenario: Must rebuild crucial bridge lickety-split

Movie it suggests: Bridge On The River Kwai starring Sir Alec Guinness

POTABLE WATER SUPPLY TEAM

Estimated size: Enough personnel to run 22 clean water machines

Nightmare scenario: Our water is poison!

Movie it suggests: Batman Begins starring Christian Bale

Don’t call us ‘dogs’: Indian ’slum dwellers’ riot over Slumdog Millionaire film

Residents of a nearby slum demonstrate outside the office of Bollywood actor Anil Kapoor, one of the main casts of the movie Slumdog Millionaire, demanding that the name of the film be changed

Daily Mail | Jan 27, 2009

Slum dwellers objecting to the word ‘dog’ in the film ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ have attacked a cinema hall.

Protesters tore down posters and ransacked a movie theatre showing the rags-to- riches tale of a Mumbai slum dweller.

Hundreds of slum dwellers shouted slogans saying the film’s title was humiliating and must be changed for protests to end.

Tateshwar Vishwakarma, a social activist said: ‘Referring to people living in slums as dogs is a violation of human rights.’

‘We will burn Danny Boyle (the film’s director) effigies in 56 slums here’

Police said they have deployed armed police outside cinemas in the state to thwart any further attacks in eastern Indian state Bihar.

Last week, Vishwakarma filed a case against an actor, the music director and two other people associated with ‘Slumdog’ in a local court.

The case will be heard in a Patna court on February 5th, police said.

Simon Beaufoy, the screenwriter, said last week: ‘I just made up the word. I liked the idea. I didn’t mean to offend anyone.’

The hit film has been nominated for 10 Oscars and won top prize at the Screen Actors Guild over the weekend.

Meanwhile, the parents of actors Rubina Ali and Azharuddin Ismail have accused producers of exploiting and underpaying the child stars.

Boyle recently revealed that he has set up trust funds as well as paying for the education of the eight-year-olds.

But it has since emerged that the children, who play young couple Latika and Salim, were only paid a total of £2,100.

Ali was only given £500 while Ismail received £1,700 for their roles, which took a year to film, the Daily Telegraph has reported.

The pair currently live a few hundred yards from each other in makeshift shacks along Mumbai’s railway tracks.

But their parents hoped the film deal would be a way out of living in squalor.

Ismail’s father has claimed that they never received any details of the trust fund.

Mohamed Ismail told the Telegraph: ‘We feel that the kids have been left behind by the fill. They have told us there is a trust fund but we know nothing about it and have no guarantees.’

Ali’s father, Rafiq Ali Kureshi added: ‘I am very happy the movie is doing well but it is making so much money and so much fame and the money they paid us is nothing.

‘They should pay us more.’

Boyle  released a statement confirming he had carried out the agreed financial arrangements for the children.

He said: ‘The children had never attended school and in consultation with their parents we agreed that this would be our priority.’

‘Since June 2008 and at our expense, both kids have been attending school and they are flourishing under the tutelage if their dedicated and committed teachers.

‘Financial resources have been made available for their education until they are 18.’

Belgian creche ‘killer’ may have murdered weeks before

Belgium’s state-run media has issued a photograph of Kim De Gelder

Belgian man Kim De Gelder who has been charged with the “Joker” murders of two babies and a child carer may have killed before, officials have said.

The police officer who arrested Mr De Gelder, described the suspect as being in a passive and trance-like state.

Telegraph | Jan 27, 2009

By Bruno Waterfield in Brussels

The 20-year-old was arrested last Friday shortly after two babies and one of their carers were stabbed to death in a gruesome attack that has stunned Belgium.

He is now also suspected of murdering a 73 year old woman in a knife attack on Friday January 16.

Christian Du Four, a state prosecutor, linked De Gelder to the “abominable crime”.

“There were very concrete elements linking the two incidents,” he said.

The elderly woman was found stabbed to death in her apartment in Beveren, near the northern city of Antwerp and also close to Dendermonde scene of the nursery killings.

The woman’s husband was out visiting neighbours when she was attacked.

Police sources have revealed that Mr De Gelder quoted Heath Ledger from the Batman film when he was arrested.

He was dressed and apparently wearing make-up that gave him the appearance of the Batman character the Joker when carrying out the crime.

Investigators are examining whether the attack was timed to mark the first anniversary of the death of Heath Ledger, the actor who played the Joker in the film Batman, The Dark Knight.

It has emerged that when he was arrested, Mr De Gelder’s only words were: “I have a question”.

The words echo a scene in Batman: the Dark Knight when the Joker violently gatecrashes a party looking for a the fictional Attorney General of Gotham City, Harvey Dent.

“I only have one question: where is Harvey Dent? I’ll settle for his loved ones,” says the character played by Ledger, before threatening a woman with a knife.

Patrick De Mey, the police officer who arrested Mr De Gelder, described the suspect as being in a passive and trance-like state.

“When I asked him to step off his bicycle and put his backpack on the ground he obeyed perfectly,” he told the Gazet Van Antwerpen.

“But in answer to my questions, he clearly had no understanding. He continued to stare at me all the time with wide open eyes and a large grin on his face.”

Mr De Gelder has been described by former schoolmates and work colleagues as a “film freak” and “movie addict”.

Since his capture, he has not spoken and has gone on hunger strike.

He was reported to be on an intravenous drip in a medical facility in a prison in Bruges.

Ledger died of a drug overdose on Jan 22, 2008, a year and a day before Mr De Gelder is accused of carrying out the attack.

According to witness statements and police drawings, the suspect had painted his face white, blackened his eyes and had coloured his hair red.

His gruesome and bizarre garb prompted investigators to make the Joker comparison and make a link to another cult Goth film, The Crow, which inspired Ledger in his Batman role.

Belgium’s Le Soir newspaper has even speculated on the significance of the fact that the name Gelder is an anagram for Ledger.

The Fabeltjesland, or Storyland, creche in the town of Dendermonde where the attack took place has been permanently closed to prevent children and parents being “constantly confronted with the buildings where the attack occurred”.

Corneel Vermeir, aged six months, Leon Garcia, nine months, and their carer Marita Blindeman, 54, were killed on Friday when the assailant entered the creche and began to slash at the children and their adult supervisors.

Judicial sources have said that when Mr De Gelder was arrested he had the addresses of three other nurseries on his person.

The theory that more attacks were planned is supported by evidence that the suspect was armed with three knives, an axe and a replica pistol.

Mr De Gelder will be examined by three psychiatrists before a closed court hearing on Tuesday decides if he is mentally responsible for his actions.

The young man, who lived his whole life within three miles of the family home, in the Eksaarde district of Sinaai, has emerged as a troubled loner.

Former classmates at the Roman Catholic Sint Carolus school, in the town of Sint Niklaas, described him as a fan of Goth music who could sometimes behave oddly.

He was nicknamed Satan because of his long black hair.

Mr De Gelder studied to become a chemist’s assistant and successfully completed his exams in 2006.

Belgium crèche stabbings: First picture of man accused of killing three

Kim de Gelder: This is the first picture of the man arrested for the stabbings in a Belgian crèche.

Telegraph | Jan 25, 2009

By Bruno Waterfield and John Bingham in Dendermonde

De Gelder, 20, has been charged over the attack, in which nine-month-old Leon Garcia and six-month-old Corneel Vermeir also died and 10 other toddlers and two other staff suffered knife wounds.

He is originally from Sint Niklaas, a small town about eight miles from the scene of the killings. He has been taken to a secure location away from Dendermonde amid fears of vigilante attacks.

The development came as it emerged that a Belgian crèche worker, who died trying to save the children in her care from the “joker” knife attacker, gave herself to others “right up to her death”, her son said.

Marita Blindeman lost her life defending the nursery where she had worked for 35 years in the town of Dendermonde, north of Brussels, in an attack which also claimed the lives of two young children.

Friends and family paid tribute to the 54-year-old, whose last act was to raise the alarm when the killer – who has been dubbed “the joker” because he had a white face and eye shadow – tricked his way inside and began slitting children’s throats.

Jan Kerkhofs, the deputy public prosecutor, said the suspect was an unemployed loner from a nearby town. His first-floor flat is on a quiet street and has a balcony.

It is understood that he had no criminal record and no history of mental health problems.

He said that police believe that the killer had an “attack plan” but said the suspect had told them “not a word” during extensive interviews.

Police are investigating whether he intended to attack two nearby schools.

Officers recovered a weapons cache, which comprised three knives, one axe and a replica pistol.

He also disclosed that the killer got inside the creche through an unlocked, but little known, side door, which was used only by parents of children dropping them off late – suggesting that he had been watching the building.

He said: “At the moment we cannot confirm the attack plan that he set up but our suspicion is that he had a plan.”

De Gelder’s home was raided early on Saturday and a personal computer was seized.

Police have disclosed he “laughed through his nose” or sniggered during interrogation and has refused to co-operate.

Details of the frenzied 15-minute massacre have emerged. Sources said the attacker passed older children to deliberately target the youngest babies “aiming at their heads and necks”.

“There was blood everywhere,” said a police officer.

Mrs Blindeman’s son Quinten – who is the webmaster for champion Belgian football team Club Bruges – was among the first to leave tributes outside the Fabeltjesland – land of stories – crèche.

“In life you take and you give but she always gave, right up to her death,” he wrote.

Like his mother, Mr Blindeman is well known in the local community. He is the volunteer fundraiser for the Red Cross centre that sent paramedics to the aid of the victims of the attack, including his own mother.

He told how his mother dedicated many years of her life to caring for a mentally disabled relative but had found happiness with a new partner, Willem Van Impe, during the last two years of her life.

“I thank Willem for that short but happy time, I have never seen my mother so happy as when she knew Willem,” he said.

One of Mrs Blindeman’s close friends, Andrea De Plecker, 58, visited the scene with her six-year-old grandson Zaon to lay a floral tribute.

My old, dear friend, I knew her so well,” she said, breaking down in tears.

“She always cared for others, she was so selfless and so much loved.

“I can not understand what happened here. How do I explain this to the little one when he asks me what has happened?

“I fear for our little children. I can not sleep.”

Scores of local residents, many accompanied by their own young children, lined up to lay tributes outside the crèche.

The man got inside the nursery claiming that he had a meeting with one of the staff.

He moved through the building for 15 minutes attacking children with a 12in knife, wearing a bullet proof vest to protect himself in case of resistance.

Nine of the 21 children inside were unharmed.

Club Bruges issued a statement offering its condolences to Mr Blindeman and “the other families who fell victim to this heinous crime”.

The best-selling French language La Dernière Heure newspaper added: “Marita Blindeman was the genuine heroine of this massacre of the innocents. She paid with her life when she tried to save children.”