A closer look at The International Space Station

CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN FREDDY FLATS

Probe: track didn’t cause luger’s death

WHISTLER, British Columbia (AP)—Fast and frightening, yes. Responsible for the death of a luger, no.

Olympic officials decided late Friday night against any major changes in the track or any delays in competition and even doubled up on the schedule in the wake of the horrifying accident that claimed the life of a 21-year-old luger from the republic of Georgia.

Within sight of the finish line, Nodar Kumaritashvili crashed coming out of the 16th turn and slammed into an unpadded steel pole while traveling nearly 90 mph. Despite frantic attempts by paramedics to save his life, he died at a trauma center.

The International Luge Federation and Vancouver Olympic officials said their investigation showed that the crash was the result of human error and that “there was no indication that the accident was caused by deficiencies in the track.”

In a joint statement they said Kumaritashvili was late coming out of the next-to-last turn and failed to compensate. “This resulted in a late entrance into curve 16 and although the athlete worked to correct the problem, he eventually lost control of the sled, resulting in the tragic accident.”

Men lugers, who were scheduled to finish training Friday morning, will get two extra practice runs Saturday. Women will train four hours later than scheduled. Men’s competition will be held later in the day as planned.

Kumaritashvili’s death cast a pall over the Winter Games before they even started.

“I have no words to say what we feel,” said International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge, visibly shaken by the day’s events.

Concerns about the course had been raised for months. There were worries that the $100 million-plus venue was too technically difficult, and a lack of significant practice time by everyone but the host nation’s sliders would result in a rash of accidents.

“It is a nervous situation,” Latvian luge federation president Atis Strenga said. “It’s a big tragedy for all (of) luge. I hope, we all hope, it’s the first accident and the last accident in this race.”

Problems at the track date back to World Cup events and international training weeks held last year, when several of the world’s top bobsled drivers were upended trying to make their way down the track with its tricky labyrinth of curves and unprecedented speed.

American pilot Steven Holcomb christened one of the course’s toughest sections—the 13th curve—as “50-50” to reflect the odds of steering a sled through it cleanly.

Kumaritashvili, who had crashed during training on Wednesday, was nearing the bottom of his sixth practice run in a turn nicknamed “Thunderbird.” His last recorded speed was 89.4 mph, measured near the last curve. He was on a higher path—line, they call it in luge—down the final bends than most sliders prefer, and the combination of speed and gravitational pull was too much for his 176-pound body to control.

Sliding diagonally, Kumaritashvili smashed into a corner entering the final straightaway feet-first. He was knocked off his sled and sailed in the other direction, apparently hitting his head before coming to rest on a metal walkway. His sled stayed on the track and skidded to a stop near the finish line.

The first rescue worker just happened to be nearby and was at his side within three seconds.

At the finish line, there was a loud gasp as onlookers watched in horror as he was catapulted helplessly through the air. Officials quickly switched off a giant TV screen showing the action on the track and did not show a replay of the incident. Soon after, the track was closed as local and Royal Canadian Mounted Police kept media members at a distance as the investigation began.

Kumaritashvili’s inexperience may have played a factor in the crash, but he had qualified to compete. This would have been his first Olympics. He competed in five World Cup races this season, finishing 44th in the world standings.

“When you are going that fast it just takes one slip and you can have that big mistake,” U.S. doubles luger Christian Niccum said Thursday, when asked about track safety. “All of us are very calm going down, but if you start jerking at 90 mph or making quick reactions, that sled will steer. That’s the difference between luge and bobsled and skeleton, we’re riding on a very sharp edge and that sled will go exactly where we tell it to so you better be telling it the right things on the way down.”

Earlier in the day, two-time Olympic champion Armin Zoeggeler of Italy crashed, losing control of his sled on Curve 11. Zoeggeler came off his sled and held it with his left arm to keep it from smashing atop his body. He slid on his back down several curves before coming to a stop and walking away.

Training days in Whistler have been crash-filled. A Romanian woman was knocked unconscious and at least four Americans—Chris Mazdzer on Wednesday, Megan Sweeney on Thursday and both Benshoof and Bengt Walden on Friday in the same training session where Zoeggeler wrecked—have had serious trouble just getting down the track.

Rogge said he was in contact with Kumaritashvili’s family—the slider’s father is president of the Georgian luge federation and his cousin is the team’s coach, VANOC officials said—and the Georgian government. The remaining seven members of the Georgian Olympic delegation decided to stay in the games and dedicated their performances to their fallen teammate.

They marched into BC Place Stadium wearing black armbands and their nation’s red-and-white flag was trimmed with a black ribbon. Later, a full minute of silence was observed in honor of Kumaritashvili, the fourth competitor to die at the Winter Games, all in training, and the first since 1992.

“It’s really unfortunate to have something like that happen,” U.S. snowboarding star Shaun White said. “We’re all in different sports and from different countries but when we get here, we’re all part of the same family. It’s definitely affected everyone here.”

Under giant Olympic rings near the medals plaza in downtown Whistler, mourners placed candles and flowers around a photograph of Kumaritashvili, on his sled and barreling down the track. Around the photo, an inscription read: “In Memory of Nodar Kumaritashvili, May he rest in peace.”

Crashes happen often in luge—at least 12 sliders have wrecked just this week on the daunting Whistler surface. Still, some who have been around tracks their entire lives couldn’t remember someone actually being thrown over the wall.

“It’s a very rare situation,” three-time Olympic champion and German coach Georg Hackl said.

Shortly before the accident, Hackl said he didn’t believe the Whistler track was unsafe.

“People have the opinion it is dangerous but the track crew does the best it can and they are working hard to make sure the track is in good shape and everyone is safe,” he said. “My opinion is that it’s not any more dangerous than anywhere else.”

Video: Various Artists - We Are The World 25 For Haiti

Video: Ski Beatz & Dame Dash's 24hr Karate School Mixtape ( trailer)

The trailer to Ski Beatz’ mixtape featuring Jay Electronica, Curren$y, Mos Def, Jim Jones, The Cool Kids, Dame Dash, Nikki Wray, Jean Grae, dropping on Monday, February 15th.

Shot at DD172 aka “The Dojo.” Directed by Creative Control.

HOUR KARATE SCHOOL TEASER from Creative Control on Vimeo.

WTF!! Chill Out!!

D'Jackson (Feat. Joe Budden) - In The Music

The Memory Makers

NewOrleansSaints.com,
Tuesday, February 09, 2010 - 10:45 AM

SUPER BOWL XLIV MOST-WATCHED TV SHOW OF ALL TIME

153.4 MILLION TOTAL VIEWERS AVERAGE VIEWERSHIP TOPS M*A*S*H FINALE

The 2009 NFL season concluded with another record as Super Bowl XLIV reached a total audience of 153.4 million viewers, making it the most-watched show in U.S. television history according to Nielsen Media Research. The Colts-Saints championship game topped the previous mark of 151.6 million total viewers set last year (Cardinals-Steelers in Super Bowl XLIII). Super Bowls account for the 19 most-watched programs in history in terms of total audience.

Most-Watched TV Programs, Total Viewers

1. Super Bowl XLIV (Colts-Saints), 2/7/10 153.4 million
2. Super Bowl XLIII (Cardinals-Steelers), 2/1/09 151.6 million
3. Super Bowl XLII (Giants-Patriots), 2/3/08 148.3 million
4. Super Bowl XXXVIII (Patriots-Panthers), 2/1/04 144.4 million
5. Super Bowl XL (Steelers-Seahawks), 2/5/06 141.4 million ******Source: NFL, Nielsen Media Research

In addition, a record average of 106.5 million viewers watched Super Bowl XLIV – topping the previous mark of 106 million for the series finale of M*A*S*H in 1983 and an eight percent increase over last year’s Super Bowl (98.7 million viewers).

Super Bowl XLIV earned a 45.0 household rating marking the highest-rated Super Bowl in 14 years (46.0 rating for Cowboys-Steelers in Super Bowl XXX, January 1996) and a seven percent increase over last year’s 42.0.

Weezy gets his cased post poned till March! Dental issues.. REALLY!?

They Reminisce Over Ye: Wearing all black everything.

They Reminisce Over Ye from jeff on Vimeo.

Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG

These two 2011 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG were spotted on a loading dock in The Netherlands today…. What color would you take – the white or silver???

Mason hanging out with friends at TheShop

Jay-Z, Eminem To Take Part In 'We Are the World' Remake For Haiti

Jay-Z and Eminem will join the likes of Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake, Bono and Barbra Streisand as two of the 100-plus stars tapped to record the remake of "We Are the World" to benefit Haiti.

According to Rolling Stone, producer RedOne has revealed that the remake of the 1986 USA for Africa charity single, originally penned by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, will also feature Celine Dion, Fergie, WyclefJean and Enrique Iglesias. According to the Associated Press, Jason Mraz and Akon will also be involved.

“I’m so delighted and so happy to get a dream call from Quincy Jones and Randy Phillips and Lionel Richie,” said RedOne to Rolling Stone. “I know that Lionel Richie has been asked like 150-something times to redo ‘We Are the World’ and he said no to everything until this Haiti thing happened. The moment he saw that it happened he was like, OK, ‘We Are the World.’ And to be one of the people they called to have fresh input to the song, to help produce the song — I have no words.”

According to the producer, recording for the remake took place yesterday (Feb. 1) in a Los Angeles studio.

“With music you want to help people feel something in a certain way, and this is something devastating that just happened and I am and we are the world,” added RedOne. “We’re going to be helping people that we don’t know. I have Haitian friends and stuff like that, but we’re going to be helping people that need help right now.”

Thowback clip of the week! JoseCEO w Fabolous, Joe Budden & Paul Cain

Our newest addition to The Shop familiy, Mason, blogging away!

Jersey's Finest Joe Budden & JoseCEO

Johnny Cake & CDR From The NJ Nets!

Ciroc Star feat: Diddy , Chester French and Jadakiss ( Hangover2)

Johnny Cake and A Butta

The Shop is now on Twitter..Make sure you follow us @TheShopNJ

Jose CEO - Fabolous and D. Reid

D. Reid from the Broncos.

Jose CEO cutting Fabolous

Goldman Stax

Jonathan Mason(Harvard) and Jose CEO(bcc)

at Goldman Sachs Undergraduate Camp back in May.

Barbershops in India

Johnny just when you thought.... you was on the GO!

Wyclef Jean Dedicates “Hold On” Feat. Movado To HAITI!

Send a text to 501501 and text YELE to donate!!

Pharell Williams On Stage At French Music Convention: MIDEM - Announces New Upcoming Songs with Jay-Z and Ludacris, Talks About Digital Ventures And T

Fresshh... NIKE snowboarding boots!

Pharrell Keynote at MIDEM 2010 from thecashmerethinker on Vimeo.

The Transformation Begins

So, Jose CEO is well due for a makeover has decided to make 2010 his comeback year.

He has joined The Gym and is well on his way to losing over 25lbs and more to come.

Johnny Cake will be taking care of the hair and

Shin "the stylist" will be hooking it up with a new wardrobe.

Stay tuned for the progress.

You can follow them daily - @JoseCEO , @Staycaked

Happy Birthday Johnny - @staycaked

We would all like to wish Johnny Cake a very Happy Birthday.

Thank you for being an inspiration to the rest of us and keep doing YOU. (pause)

Now go on and enjoy your *%th Birthday.

from your Shop family

Mr. Burns, Kyle "killa" The barber, A BUTTA "the barber" and Jose CEO

Trailer: Alice in Wonderland

Lady Luck (Feat. Star Studded) - I Get It In Freestyle [In Studio Performance]

Pharrell Williams covers the latest issue of Modern Painters magazine where he talks about his inspiration to design and create art.

Pharrell Williams and celebrity interdisciplinarity.What Williams does reveal is the heft of a well-stocked Rolodex. His career as a producer of hip-hop, pop, and R&B hits has involved him in numerous high-profile collaborations, so his taking a similar approach to art and design endeavors is entirely natural. And his mainstream fame has unquestionably smoothed the road to some creative partnerships that lesser-known figures might never have finagled. Williams has fingers in a few more-altruistic pies, running, for example, a networking site for young emerging talent called artst.com — "spelled without an i, because it’s not about me; it’s about you." But at this level, it’s all about the Benjamins. Whether prevailing economic conditions will encourage celebrities to stick to what they do best or barely scrape the surface of PR- and dealer-friendly projects remains unclear. A trailed project for Craig Robins’s Design Miami fair is apparently still hush-hush, Williams demurring, "I can’t get into that."

"Frontin'" originally appeared in the December 2009 / January 2010 issue of Modern Painters. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Modern Painters' December 2009 / January 2010 Table of Contents."I wanted to work with someone who could teach me something. I’m not interested in coming into any world, even outside of art, and it being about me. I’m interested in a learning process. I’m happy with always being the fortunate apprentice — not quite yet a novice, but for sure an apprentice." When I talked to him in September, Pharrell Williams, one half of the Grammy Award-winning production duo the Neptunes and cofounder of the rock band N.E.R.D., seemed anxious to present himself as the humble student. Yet Williams’s first artwork, a sculpture produced in collaboration with Takashi Murakami and launched at Art Basel in June, is hardly low-key.

The Simple Things (2008-2009) features a six-foot-tall fiberglass, steel, and acrylic head based on Murakami’s Mr. Dob character. In the creature’s mouth are renderings of seven objects — including a cupcake, a Coke can, and a Heinz ketchup bottle — that Williams regards as underappreciated essentials. To underscore his reverence ("Imagine those seven things not being around! Imagine the public outcry if there were no ketchup for a day!"), the 36-year-old Virginian rendered the set in gold and encrusted it with some 26,000 gemstones. The New York Times’s Carol Vogel characterized the resulting piece — surely without fear of contradiction — as "one of the only examples of flash" at this year’s fair. It sold, with help from Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, for a cool $2 million.

Like what you see? Sign up for ARTINFO's weekly newsletter to get the latest on the market, emerging artists, auctions, galleries, museums, and more.

Previously, Williams has limited his extramusical creative efforts to design, working with the Japanese producer and designer Nigo to launch the fashion brands Billionaire Boys Club and Ice Cream Footwear, and with Camille Miceli on the Blason jewelry collection forLouis Vuitton (which characterizes the line as "a variation on four themes, in which the rhythm and energy of the new continent harmonize with the spirit of historic Europe"). He has also, more unexpectedly, designed furniture, again under the banner of Perrotin. Williams enlisted the services of the French firm Domeau & Pérès to manufacture the Perspective chair. Boasting two pairs of legs modeled after a man’s and a woman’s, the piece recalls Allen Jones’s notorious forniphiliac collection from 1969, but it combines that anthropomorphic twist with a familiar Eames-style seat.

"I wanted to tap into classic midcentury industrial design," Williams recalls. "But the project was mainly about making a cradle, something that allows the user to sit in someone else’s position and experience what it’s like to be in love." It is perhaps unsurprising that this description recalls a certain other American artist’s famously touchy-feely mode of explication. Williams greatly admires Jeff Koons, whose work he collects alongside that of Murakami, Keith Haring, Andy Warhol, and the street artist kaws, a.k.a. Brian Donnelly. "Those guys just immediately became my favorites," he says. He is unabashed in his preference for the lighter side of Pop and post-Pop, citing visits to one of his collaborators’ homes as inspirational. "Nigo is a huge collector, and all the stuff he has seems so fun," Williams enthuses.

"It isn’t serious or snobby or stuffy."

Pressed on whether all this fluff lacks a critical edge, he dodges the question, retreating into platitudes: "I’ve come to believe that nothing’s impossible, if you can imagine it. . . . There’s nothing new under the sun. When you’re moved, you’re moved, and you should seize the moment to express the feeling. It’s that moment of expression that I define as art. . . . The experience has been amazing, and my teachers, well, I have no words." He is similarly reticent about the complexities of moving between art and design: "To have a critical take on that would skew the creativity and add boundaries. . . . I move from a feeling, and when the work’s done, it’s done. Then we can talk over tea and scones about how it should be categorized." It’s a time-honored stance, but no less unilluminating for all that.