Rare Sex Pistols disc is 'most valuable vinyl'

A rare recording of God Save the Queen by the Sex Pistols has been named the most valuable vinyl disc of all time, with experts saying it is worth £8,000.

The single was originally produced by A&M Records. But the group were dropped before it was released and most of the copies were destroyed.

Record Collector magazine have compiled a list of the 51 most collectible vinyl records.

The Rolling Stones and the Beatles both feature in the top five.

"There is something of an investment market in mint-condition copies of iconic albums," said Record Collector editor Ian McCann.

"The problem is people love them and play them to death, making it increasingly rare to find them in mint condition."

The Beatles' Please Please Me on the Black and Gold label is ranked in second place with an estimated value of £3,500, while the Rolling Stones self-titled debut record from 1964 - valued at £1,000 - is fifth.

Between them on the countdown are jazz saxophonist Hank Mobley's self-titled album from 1957 and rocker Wil Malone's own self-titled release from 1970.

Andy Warhol self-portrait could fetch $40m

An Andy Warhol self-portrait completed shortly before his death is expected to sell for up to $40m (£24.3m) at a New York auction next month.

Painted in 1986, Self-Portrait was among the last to be exhibited before he died after routine surgery aged 58.

The red-on-black piece, measuring nearly 3m per side, is considered a landmark work by the American pop artist.

The painting wil go under the hammer on 11 May.

Of the large self-portraits Warhol painted in 1986, the other six are all in museums or in collections.

"It is a rare event that a work of this grandeur and stature comes to market," said Amy Cappellazzo of Christie's.

"With all the other examples in museums, it will be the last chance that buyers will have to bid on a work that shifted art history."

The current record price for a Warhol self-portrait is $32.6m (£19.8m) set last May in Sotheby's in New York.

In February another self-portrait of the artist sold for £10.79m ($17.44m) at Christie's in London.

Jackson estate settles with Heal the World charity

Michael Jackson's estate has reached a settlement with the Heal the World Foundation (HTWF) over use of the late singer's image and likeness.

The estate sued the charity in 2009, alleging it had misused trademarks to create an association with Jackson's now defunct charity of the same name.

HTWF said Jackson's lawyers had given it permission to run the foundation in 2005.

The charity can no longer use the Heal the World name or Jackson's likeness.

The deal came as a trial was due to begin in a bid to decide ownership of trademarks.

Jackson's estate had sought to block the use of words and phrases associated with the star, including "King of Pop" and "Thriller".

The foundation had registered a number of Jackson-related trademarks, applied for a further 41 and sold merchandise using them.

The settlement calls for Jackson's estate to retain the rights to the Heal the World charity and rights to any trademarks the current foundation held.

Jackson founded Heal the World in 1992 but later abandoned it as he fought child abuse allegations.

HTWF's current director, Melissa Johnson, claimed one of Jackson's former lawyers told her the pop star wanted her to run the foundation in 2005.

Jackson's three children also collaborated with the charity, sitting on its youth board of advisors.

Johnson's lawyer has so far yet to comment on the settlement.

Sick Penrith woman 'dropped' in freezing sea

A seriously ill Cumbrian woman was dropped into freezing sea waters from a cruise ship as paramedics tried to transfer her to a waiting vessel.

Grandmother Janet Richardson, 73, was on a cruise along the coast of Norway when she became ill.

After being treated onboard, local paramedics were called. As they tried to transfer her to the lifeboat she fell into the sea.

She is currently being treated at Carlisle's Cumberland Infirmary.

It is believed Mrs Richardson was submerged in sub zero temperatures for several minutes before she was rescued.

Mrs Richardson became ill on board the Ocean Countess after sailing from Hull on 20 March.

After being assessed it was decided she should be taken to hospital on shore.

Boats moved apart

Despite the ship being equipped with a helipad, a sea rescue was launched.

According to eyewitness reports, as the paramedics were moving her from the ship to the lifeboat, the boats moved apart and Mrs Richardson fell into the sea.

Colin Prescott, from Burscough, Lancashire, was with his wife Sheila on board the ship with the Richardsons.

He said: "The vessels, which hadn't been latched together, suddenly moved apart by several feet just as they were transferring her, which caused the rescue crews to drop the stretcher into the sea.

"We had been told the sea was about minus three degrees that day.

"The rescue boat came back round to pick her up and she was taken to hospital, but she was in the water for about eight minutes or so."

A spokesman for Cruise and Maritime Voyages, which operates the service, said Mrs Richardson was suffering from internal bleeding and an emergency call was made by the ship to the Norwegian Rescue Authorities.

He said: "A rescue craft was provided by the authorities and whilst the rescue crews were seeking to transfer the stretcher into the rescue craft Mrs Richardson fell into the water.

"Mrs Richardson was rescued and immediately transferred to the Norwegian port of Bodo, approximately two nautical miles away and was transferred to the local hospital."

Cruise and Maritime Voyages said they did not own the ship, but confirmed a full investigation was taking place.

The Ocean Countess is part of the Majestic International Cruises fleet and is on charter to Cruise and Maritime Voyages in the UK.

iPhone Tracking Is All A Big Mistake, Says Researcher

The iPhone tracking issue that’s causing a big privacy stink isn’t new and isn’t really tracking users, says an iOS forensics researcher.

It’s actually a data file that is used internally by the iPhone to do things like geo-tag photos, and it’s been in iOS for a long time (in a different form).

However, the file has become more accessible than it used to be because it’s now used by third-party apps that require location data.

What’s new is a nifty extraction tool called iPhoneTracker that pulls the data off your hard drive and makes a striking map out of it. iPhoneTracker was released this week at O’Reilly’s Where 2.0 conference, causing a huge outcry about privacy and prompting U.S. Senator Al Franken to write to Steve Jobs.

“It is not secret, malicious, or hidden,” writes Alex Levinson, an iOS forensics researcher.

iOS forensics expert Alex Levinson

Levinson is a senior engineer for Katana Forensics, which publishes Lantern, an iOS forensic application.

According to Levinson, the offending file, consolidated.db, is a database of radio logs that includes geolocational data.

The file used to be known as h-cells.plist, and was hidden away from users and applications inside the inaccessible Library folder (Levinson said he used to access this file forensically for police looking for location evidence).

But when Apple added multitasking to iOS 4 last year, this file was made accessible to third-party apps to operate in the background. It moved out of the hard-to-access Library folder and became part of iOS’sMultitasking and Background Location Services.

“Because of these new APIs and the sandbox design of 3rd party applications, Apple had to move access to this data,” Levinson writes.

He notes that on the iPhone or 3G iPad, users still have full control of their location data. They are able to turn location on and off for individual apps using the Settings menu on their device. “That does not stop the generation of these logs, however, it simply prevents applications from utilizing the APIs to access the data.”

Levinson, notes that Apple isn’t collecting the data. It sits on the user’s machine in a file that is still pretty inaccessible. He’s checked with networking sniffing tools — the data goes nowhere.

It is still unclear, however, why the iPhone stores so much data and never expires it. In many cases, users are able to access almost a year’s worth of data stretching all the way back to the date when iOS 4 was installed on their device.

Miss HIGH TIMES 2011 Winner Announcement!

Well, another 4/20 is upon us ... which means it's time once again for us to crown a new Miss HIGH TIMES for 2011. After reviewing the photos, profiles, and detailed questionaires of all of our finalists, and taking into account the various pot events and activities they've participated in this year, the HT staff has voted and come up with a first, second and third place in the contest. So without further ado, the new Miss HIGH TIMES for 2011 is ....

CLAZINA!

Our Miss January 2011 Clazina Rose from Newport Beach, CA is more than just another pretty face on the pot scene. Sure, she submitted some of the highest quailty photos we've seen all year, but that's only a small part of why we chose her as our new smokesmodel. Clazina works in not one but two medical marijuana dispensaries and has attended and tirelessly promoted at nearly every major marijuana event we can think of, including the Champs convention in Las Vegas, our Stony Awards in Hollywood, and our Medical Marijuana Cups in Denver and San Francisco. She's modeled for Grassroots Hats, the official hat maker of the Cannabis Cup. She's also a member of NORML, half Dutch (her dad was raised in Holland), and was ganja girl of the month in our once-in-a-lifetime 420th collector's issue. All of these things, we feel, make her "highly" qualified to represent the magazine and stoner chicks all across this great nation of ours.

As our new Miss HIGH TIMES, Clazina will be receiving a free trip Amsterdam this November to be a celebrity judge at the 24th Annual Cannabis Cup, as well as a HIGH TIMES prize pack and many other exciting opportunities.

Coming in at second place is our Miss June, Erica ...

and in third place, Miss August 2010, Caitlyn.

We hope you'll join us in congratulating our winners — these ladies are beautiful, fun, and committed to the cause. We look forward to seeing what they have to contribute to the movement!

Dr. Dre Wins Case Against Death Row

First Eminem wins a case against his label, and now his capo does: Dr. Dre just won a case against the relaunched Death Row Records alleging that Death Row has no right to sell his Chronic album, being that iTunes didn't exist under his old contract, and the label hasn't been paying him properly for the album. Under the ruling, Dr. Dre gets 100 percent of digital royalties from The Chronic, which I imagine is huge. Dre also won the right to prohibit the new Death Row from putting his old songs on new compiltations, too. So he'll be separated from the new attempts at the label to get off the ground.

'Dead alien' found in Siberian snow

It may just be an elaborate hoax, but a video has surfaced showing the body of an alien found dead in snow in Siberia.

The slender, badly damaged corpse was found lying on a bed of snow with its head to one side and mouth slightly open, the Daily Mail reported.

The video, posted on April 17 on YouTube, has already had over 100,000 views and showed the body of the unidentified "creature".

Irkutsk, Russia is apparently a known UFO hotspot, and UFO believers think the body was left behind by alien visitors after an accident, or was missed in a clean-up by the Russian government as part of some sort of alien cover-up.

Dozens of UFO sightings are reported every year in the area, and only last month there were reports of an unidentified object hurtling into the nearby Irkutsk region of Siberia.

"We couldn't believe it when we saw it. And what was spooky is that there was no sign of the spaceship. Perhaps that was taken away and the body overlooked," said Igor Molovic, one of the pair that uploaded the video.

However, not everyone is a true believer.

Some believe it is actually a carefully crafted model of an alien's body, and not the real deal.

However, many UFO lovers still believe.

"It's so lame how people always get thrilled by having another excuse to shout 'Fake! fake!' every time something weird shows up. Unless proven otherwise, this is in fact plausible," posted one user.

Another said; "If this is fake - then they are masters at models/puppets. I think it's real - one of the very few, great vid."

Gasoline Prices: $6 Gas? Could Happen if Dollar Keeps Getting Weaker

A dollar plumbing three-year lows is hitting Americans squarely in the gas tank, and one economist thinks it could drive prices as high as $6 a gallon or more by summertime under the right conditions

Senator Al Franken Grills Steve Jobs About iPhone Tracking

Senator Al Franken (D-MN) wants answers about the iPhone’s undisclosed tracking features.

As reported, the iPhone and 3G iPad secretly record your location as you travel around and sync it with your computer. It appears to be a serious violation of privacy. It was first disclosed by security researchers Alasdair Allan and Pete Warren at O’Reilly’s Where 2.0 conference.

Apple hasn’t yet explained the matter, prompting Sen. Franken to publish an open letter to Steve Jobs demanding answers.

Sen Franken wants to know why Apple is collecting the data; how it is collected; what it is used for; why it isn’t encrypted; if the data is shared; and why consumers aren’t asked before the data is collected.

Here’s the full text of Sen. Franken’s letter to Jobs:

April 20, 2011

Mr. Steve Jobs
1 Infinite Loop
Cupertino, CA, 95014

Dear Mr. Jobs,

I read with concern a recent report by security researchers that Apple’s iOS 4 operating system is secretly compiling its customers’ location data in a file stored on iPhones, 3G iPads, and every computer that users used to “sync” their devices. According to the researchers, this file contains consumers’ latitude and longitude for every day they used an iPhone or 3G iPad running the iOS 4 operating system-sometimes logging their precise geo-location up to 100 times a day. The researchers who discovered this file found that it contained up to a year’s worth of data, starting from the day they installed the iOS 4 operating system. What is even more worrisome is that this file is stored in an unencrypted format on customers’ iPads, iPhones, and every computer a customer has used to back up his or her information. See Alasdair Allen & Pete Warden, Got an iPhone or 3G iPad? Apple is Recording Your Moves (Apr. 20, 2011), available at http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/04/apple-location-tracking.html.

The existence of this information — stored in an unencrypted format — raises serious privacy concerns. The researchers who uncovered this file speculated that it generated location based on cell phone triangulation technology. If that is indeed the case, the location available in this file is likely accurate to 50 meters or less. See Testimony of Michael Amarosa, Before the House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, June 24, 2010 at page 7 available at http://judiciary.house.gov/hearings/pdf/Amarosa100624.pdf.

Anyone who gains access to this single file could likely determine the location of a user’s home, the businesses he frequents, the doctors he visits, the schools his children attend, and the trips he has taken — over the past months or even a year. Cf. People v. Weaver, 909 N.E.2d 1195, 1199-1200 (N.Y. 2009) (“What this technology yields and records with breathtaking quality and quantity is a highly detailed profile, not simply of where we go, but by easy inference, of our associations … and of the pattern of our professional and avocational pursuits.”).

Moreover, because this data is stored in multiple locations in an unencrypted format, there are various ways that third parties could gain access to this file. Anyone who finds a lost or stolen iPhone or iPad or who has access to any computer used to sync one of these devices could easily download and map out a customer’s precise movements for months at a time. It is also entirely conceivable that malicious persons may create viruses to access this data from customers’ iPhones, iPads, and desktop and laptop computers. There are numerous ways in which this information could be abused by criminals and bad actors. Furthermore, there is no indication that this file is any different for underage iPhone or iPad users, meaning that the millions of children and teenagers who use iPhone or iPad devices also risk having their location collected and compromised. An estimated 13% ofthe 108 million iPhones and 19 million iPad devices sold are used by individuals under the age of 18, although some of these devices may not have been upgraded to iOS 4. See AdMob, AdMob Mobile Metrics Report at 5 (Jan. 2010), available at http://metrics.admob.com/wp-content/uploads/201 0/02/AdMob-Mobile-MetricsJan-10.pdf; Complaint of Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics, CV-11-1846 at 4-5 (N.D. Cal. Apr. 15, 2011).

These developments raise several questions:

1. Why does Apple collect and compile this location data? Why did Apple choose to initiate tracking this data in its iOS 4 operating system?

2. Does Apple collect and compile this location data for laptops?

3. How is this data generated? (GPS, cell tower triangulation, WiFi triangulation, etc.)

4. How frequently is a user’s location recorded? What triggers the creation of a record of someone’s location?

5. How precise is this location data? Can it track a user’s location to 50 meters, 100 meters, etc.?

6. Why is this data not encrypted? What steps will Apple take to encrypt this data?

7. Why were Apple consumers never affirmatively informed of the collection and retention of their location data in this manner? Why did Apple not seek affirmative consent before doing so?

8. Does Apple believe that this conduct is permissible under the terms of its privacy policy? See Apple Privacy Policy at “Location-Based Services” (accessed on April20, 2011), available at www.apple.com/privacy.

9. To whom, if anyone, including Apple, has this data been disclosed? When and why were these disclosures made?

I would appreciate your prompt response to these questions and thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely
Al Franken
United States Senator

The entire letter is  here (PDF).

Prism Sound - Orpheus FireWire Recording Interface

"Orpheus is a FireWire multi-track audio interface for personal recording and sound production, for professional musicians, songwriters, engineers and producers as well as recording studios, post production facilities and scoring stages. Orpheus is ideal for music and sound recording, multitracking, overdubbing, stem-based mastering, analogue summing and critical listening applications. 

Orpheus provides Prism Sound's renowned performance, sound quality and state-of-the-art clock technology in a dedicated FireWire unit compatible with both Windows (XP, Vista (32 and 64bit) & Windows 7 (32 and 64 bit), ASIO & WDM) as well as MAC OS X 10.4.11 and later (Intel & PPC). Once configured with a computer, Orpheus can also operate stand-alone using its S/PDIF or AES3 I/O. 

Orpheus has line, microphone and instrument inputs, selectable RIAA Equalization for turntables, a built-in premium-quality monitoring mixer for each output providing for performer foldback and surround monitoring, concurrent ADAT and switchable S/PDIF or AES3 digital I/O plus support for outboard MIDI devices. Microphone inputs include MS matrix processing. High-performance digital sampling-rate conversion (SRC) is available for digital inputs or outputs. Dual headphone outputs are provided each with its own volume control, both monitoring the same headphone feed. "
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