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About Stepz Fitness Penrith:
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Contact Details:
Contact Name: Ash Kings
2/99 Woodriff St, Penrith,
Sydney, NSW,
Australia – 2750
Phone Number: 1300 178 379


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Paul's Interview About Driving Rain (long)
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Nov 10, 2001, 11:52 PM
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Paul\'s Interview About Driving Rain (long)
I found this on hooliwoodandvine... I know it's long, but it's worth...
Q: You said 'this album is not what you'd expect from me."
P: I don't think it is. It's a little bit of a voyage into the unknown. It started with a guy in my New York office, Bill Porricelli, saying 'who's going to produce your next album, can I give you some suggestions?' He sent me a bunch of suggestions of possible producers. They were all very good, high-level people, and out of all them David Kahne was the one I liked best. I liked his approach, he's very musical, but modern. I met him, liked him; he's very quiet and very on the ball and in talking it became clear that what he wanted to do and what I wanted to do was very similar.
Because I didn't know him, I didn't want to get into any big heavy breathing relationship, committing to four months on an album. So I thought I'd just do two weeks with him to see how it worked out. He normally records at the old A & M studios in Los Angeles, the Henson studios. We both had some time free in February so I came out to see if we could do anything.
Linked to this is that during some of the interviews I'd done around 'Run Devil Run', I'd been talking about the old way we used to record with The Beatles around the time of the early albums. Doing those interviews reminded me that John and I would come into the studio on the Monday morning with a song and show it to the guys. I suddenly realised that George, Ringo, George Martin and our engineer Geoff Emerick all didn't know what song we were going to do until John and I brought it in .
I thought that's kind of amazing that even George and Ringo didn't know what we were going to do until the Monday morning. But it was a great way to work, it's my favourite way of how we worked in The Beatles, and I felt that I should do that again now. I did it on Run Devil Run - the band for that album had said to me can we learn up what songs we're going to do, like a week before we go into the studio? And I'd said no, no homework.
So we did it the same way with this new album, following the same technique. We came in on Monday morning, I'd show them a song and we'd start doing it.
We didn't know what was going to happen and it was a little bit into the unknown for all of us. The band on this album is a new band who I'd never worked with before, never even met before. It was into the unknown too for David Kahne and consequently it started to be a little bit different than what any of us would have done. All of us were having to think on our feet, and that process led us into something different from what we normally do. So for me, that's what I mean by this album is not necessarily what you expect from me, because it's not what I was I was expecting. But by going into the recording freely, not dictating, things just evolved.
For instance the song 'I Do' was originally written down low, me singing it like a little low soul thing. But during the session I thought I'll try sing it higher, and it makes for one of best bits in the song; it's like I'm trying to catch my breath, because I'm having to go up the octave into this big vocal change. By doing that, this exciting little thing happened to the song.
So this process of doing it the 'Rubber Soul' way was making me sing a bit differently and making me think differently. I was letting David come up with his ideas and he was almost DJ-ing some of the mixes. We'd work until early evening, six or seven, and then we'd leave him to play around with it all. Most of the time I loved what he did. So that also took it in little exciting directions that none of us expected.
Q: You said it's not what people expect from you - what do you think people do expect from you?
P: I think more of what they have heard before; just an extension and more of the same and this isn't quite more of the same. It's a bit different.
Q: Have you changed your role in the studio?
P: One of the other things that began when we were doing 'Run Devil Run', was me remembering that mainly I'm a bass player. Talking about the old way the Beatles used to record brought that back to me. So although I've played a bit of guitar, a little piano and some drums on this album, I've mainly been the bass player in the band. Which again is a good feeling; it's my place to be the bass player and there's something satisfying about that. It's simple; that's my role - I sing and I play bass.
Q: Do you think you over-complicate yourself?
P: I think everyone has the potential to, yeah. Particularly with music. For instance, when I played some of these songs in early February to Ringo he said 'You're not going to add anything on them, are you?' That's always the risk with music, you get a perfectly good song and then you think you'll put some strings on it and you totally mess it up.
Over-producing a song is a well known way of over-complicating it, so I've tried to under-do it. There's been one or two tracks on which we've added a little something, but generally we just recorded it live, quick and simple. We recorded 18 songs in the first two weeks, in February, and then I came back to LA in June and recorded another couple of tracks and mixed the album. So making the whole album from beginning to end has taken about five weeks. That's still pretty good going, but that is the kind of work rate we'd do in The Beatles.
Q: Why did you stop doing that?
P: When we began recording with The Beatles we were told that we'd have to come in at 10.30 in the morning and go home at 5.30 in the afternoon. Then we heard stories about people like Sinatra working through the night in the studio and so we wanted to try that. At one point we had Abbey Road to ourselves; there was nobody in the whole building except us and the caretaker. That was quite good fun and it led to us going somewhere else, which was what we always wanted to do, do something else. That was probably why we stopped recording in this way I've gone back to now, we wanted to try something else.
But you do get a little crazy working that all-night way. By doing it this way again meant that you'd go home at 7.30, you'd have the evening off, so you might go to the pictures or you might see a play or you might go and see a band live, and that informed your next day. You weren't just zombied in a studio for two months - at some points during the Beatles recording career, the worse points, which I think did lead to us having arguments, we were literally just recording and sleeping. In some ways we got some great stuff out of that, but in some other ways we wrecked our lives. So now it's time for me to get out of that vibe and just keep things a bit simpler, and have a life. Definitely, I've got a life now.
Q: There's a line in the Liverpool Oratorio that says 'being from Liverpool carries with it certain responsibilities.' Does being Paul McCartney carry with it musical responsibilities?
P: Yeah, I suppose so; but I try not to get into too much of that. I try to not ever feel too much of a sense of responsibility, because it can sort of spoil things. The worst I've done is to sit around thinking 'God, I get paid a lot; so I've got to sing good and write good songs'. But that can get a bit intimidating. You see, I'm in this business for my own fun; it's not really a money game although obviously it happens to be one. But the original game wasn't that and, for me, it still isn't. The main thing for me is to indulge my passion, which is like creating stuff. Someone recently asked me how do I keep my creativity and I said it's just because I love music - but also I like to deal with the unknown. Some of my friends who are very well-trained musically will sit down at the piano and write stuff that is very derivative, because they know so much. I'm always trying to not know too much - like, on purpose, I'm always trying to be a bit flaky. So that when I sit down to write there's like a black hole there that I'm looking into. There's never like a formula.
I just pick up a guitar and look for something that hooks me.
Q: But surely you are enough of a craftsman at songwriting to know how to do it, if you want to?
P: There are tricks that I know. But I really don't know exactly how to write songs and I don't want to know. Because the minute you know how to do it, it's no fun. It's like knowing how to dress; I don't want to know how to dress. I want to dress how I feel like dressing on any given day. I don't want it to be a formula.
Q: How much of this album was written during your holiday in India in January?
P: Three of the songs were written in India. 'Your Loving Flame' was written on the 36th floor of the Carlyle Hotel in New York, just because I thought I was walking into a Cole Porter movie - the room had a grand piano and a plate glass window overlooking Central Park. I wrote that really fast.
'Driving Rain' was written out here in Los Angeles - there was a lot of rain out here in February and so on our day off we went off for a drive in this little Corvette that I hired, we drove off up the Pacific Coast Highway and went on up to Malibu and had a bit of lunch. In the evening, feeling great after a nice day out, I was sitting around at the piano and I just started writing something half-based on the day out.
People say 'how do you get your creativity?' and I think the answer is that you just have to be open to stuff. It's like a photographer; Linda could see a great photograph just because the light was right or it was an unusual object, or somebody's face was relaxed, Jimi Hendrix yawning - she'd snap it, whereas somebody else might wait for him to stop yawning. For me it's the same thing; I'm always on the look out for just interesting stuff, either visually or musically or lyrically. The funny thing about the song 'Driving Rain' was that the alarm system in the house we were renting in Los Angeles was always on. There was a little electrical, LED box on the wall and it always said 'Something's Open'. I thought what the fuck good is that? And no matter if you shut every window and door in the whole bloody place, this alarm always said 'Something's Open'. Not very reassuring, but in the end I thought fuck it - and I took the words into a song; I thought, right, 'Something's open - it's my heart'. I just used is as an opening line of 'Driving Rain.' So in that case the creativity came from this junk of an alarm.
Q: The lyrics are very open on this album.
P: They are kind of quite simple; there's nothing deeply deep. I'm not trying too hard, I'm just spinning them out, not worried if I've heard a phrase before and just gone for it. There's a couple of songs on this where I've just put two songs, or fragments of songs, together.
I just thought, that will go with that. It meant at times that instead of getting a 4:4, four beats to the bar, in slamming them together you'd get a 5:4, but I thought that's OK, I'd fix it later. But when I played it to the band and to the producer, they loved those little odd-bars. That's on a song called 'From A Lover To A Friend.' I did the demo for that one late night, a bit tired and bluesy.
But I liked that late-night feeling to it so much that I tried to keep to that when we recorded it, even though we did it mid-afternoon. It's a strange hybrid, that song, bits from various songs that I liked all glued together like an odd collage.
Q: You've been saying that 'fresh' is the word that best describes this album for you. Hearing it, another word that comes to mind is 'raw.' Your voice sounds raw at times.
P: The interesting thing about my voice is that when I was in India some carpet salesman ripped me off with a purchase that I made. He told me that this carpet was like the rarest thing ever; but then I got to the next town and found about twenty of them. So I rang him up and I was telling him that he was a rip-off. And as I was doing it, that and probably the weather, I started to lose my voice. The following day my voice really went, I couldn't talk. It took a while to clear and I was thinking 'shit, it's only a week to the recording sessions'. I was in my car, practising singing and I couldn't get the high notes. I thought oh my God, never mind, don't panic. So I came to LA with my voice in quite a rough shape and decided to do the easy songs first, just to get the tracks down. But then I ended up just letting loose on one song, this monster ten-minute song called 'Rinse The Raindrops.' where I really ripped it, and it all came good.
It's a nice quality, if you can get it, a rawness. The opposite of it is a trained thing and the one thing that my voice has never been is trained. It's been trained by Beatle tours, trained on the road. But I never had any vocal training, I never got into any vocal warm-ups that people do. I just cross my fingers and just go for it - and I've been very lucky that through the years it doesn't seem to have altered much. Again, I don't know why that is; and again I'd rather not know and just be glad if it comes good on a take. I just wing it every time, like I always have done. If it's a shouty song, I just jump it out of the top of my head and just hope that it makes the right noise.
Q: This is quite a romantic album.
P: Well, the truth of the matter is that it's a good thing to have romance in your life. We all know that. Some of the songs have been written for Heather, not all of them. I feel as though it's a good time in my life, having had a bad time.
It's also an America album - made in the USA, like bits of 'Ram' were and I haven't done that for quite a while. For a lot of UK and European people America is still quite an exciting place, so the album takes on a feel of that. There's a little added kick because it's America, land of many of our heroes.
Q: It's a driving album as well.
P: Yeah, it's always good if you can get a song that sounds good in your car. There's two places for an album to sound good - in your car, or in your bath. I haven't tried this one in the bath yet, but it sounds good in the car.
'About You' was written in India, in Goa. We had such a relaxing start to an Indian holiday which was at the beginning of 2001. It was exciting, I hadn't been back to India since the Mararishi days, which was 25 years or so ago. It was great to look around a bit more; I'd only seen Rishikesh, north of Delhi, before. We started off in Goa, relaxed beach time, and one afternoon I wrote 'About You' on a little travel guitar I've got which has it's own amp in it. I picked some words out for the song after seeing a copy of The India Times which was lying around.
'Lonely Road' was also written in Goa, where I was enjoying the beach and the sea and generally chilling out in the new century. Again, I had a few moments in the afternoon, which is always a good time for me, a quiet spell when it's always cool for me to go off and fondle my guitar. The songs basically wrote itself in about an hour. It is what it is, this song, you can make of it what you want to make of it. To me it's not particularly about anything other than not wanting to be brought down. It's a sort of anti-being brought down song, which is for anyone and everyone. It's 'don't want to get brought down again, don't want to walk that lonely road', it's symbolic for anyone who's been through any sort of problems. It's a defiant song against loneliness, written in a hotel room in Goa.
Q: So that justified the holiday.
P: Well it does kind of. I realised that to be a songwriter and to do my kind of work you've got to be doing nothing. You've got to have a lot of time to yourself - which in most people's lingo is doing nothing, you're not working, you're not working out, you're just sort of sitting around. Which is great; boy, what a great job definition - mine only requires a guitar and doing nothing. And I find that when I am doing nothing my favourite way of doing nothing is to make some music out of it - but you have to have some space for stuff to come into your brain. If you're sitting in the office all day thinking about business things it is not as conducive as having some time to yourself. As I always say, it's play-time - you play music, you don't work music. Making up a song is always a great pleasure, it doesn't seem like hard work to me.
'Riding To Jaipur' - funnily enough the melody for this was written outside of India. I had a back-packing guitar, a little Martin travel guitar that is absolutely slimmed down to nothing and weighs sort of zero ounces. I had one of those that Linda had got me as a prezzie; and I took it when she and I went to The Maldives for a holiday.
My particular back-packer - and I haven't noticed this on other people's - seems to have a bit of a sound on certain frets like a sitar, and because I was in the middle of The Indian Ocean, the two came together in that song.
I didn't have a title for the song, but when I went to India this year I took a train to Jaipur. It was a very exotic over-night train journey and I did some words that were in the same vein as that original melody. So those two things came together.
'She's Given Up Talking' was about someone I know whose kid had gone to school and wouldn't talk all day that she was in school. For a year she wouldn't talk at school and his idea of her giving up talking seemed like a good title to me. I wrote the song a couple of years ago; when I was on holiday in Jamaica and remembered this story of this girl who wouldn't talk to the teachers or anything - which I ended up thinking that was a pretty good strategy for school, I wish I'd have thought of that. Of course I would have just got caned, they were wise to that kind of shit, my school.
Then I hastily put together the middle of 'She's Given Up Talking here in LA. One of the fun things about working here was because I hadn't told anyone what we were going to do and hadn't played them any demos, and instead came in and just said 'right, we're going to do this song,' doing that gave me a little freedom and I didn't have to finish the songs before ten minutes before the session. I'd run upstairs to the lounge above the studio and finish it quickly. I knew what I wanted for the middle - that when she gets home she talks a lot - so I just finished it fast.
Q: That seems oddly contradictory; that you want 'a bit of freedom' but you only have ten minutes to finish the song.
P: That's kind of good; there's a slight edge of panic, which isn't always a bad thing. I've always done this throughout my career - we made up the Beatles song 'Birthday' on the evening of the session. It's quite an exciting thing to do. If you've got to do something and there's a deadline....a lot of writers talk about enjoying a deadline. They secretly hate it, but it focuses their attention. You can't put it off; whereas if you've got an excuse to put stuff off, you will. So I'd go upstairs, listen to the demo, and if a few of them didn't have a middle or a bridge or needed a riff, I'd fix it - like 'ah, I've always been meaning to do a riff for this; OK, how long have I got - ten minutes - OK, I'll do it now'. Which also made the recording very fresh; it was like putting a fresh coat of colour onto a picture that you know it needed.
Doing that, having to finish a song in just minutes, I felt like 'Shit, this is like working for Motown - what time's Marvin coming in?' It was like stories of Goffin and King writing for Motown.....they'll be here in a minute and we need the middle eight. So you just do it. The other advantage of working like that is not allowing yourself time to mess around with the song and get into the problem of too many possibilities. If you haven't got time, your brain - like a computer - has to select sort of top-priority possibilities. I think that's a good thing. First thought, best thought. Nearly always there's something about that sort of instant karma, having to do it, means that it turns out to be the best thing.
I've done it with a few songs: we made up 'Birthday' at the session; I did it with the middle of 'Two Of Us' and later with 'Man We Was Lonely'. And I've done it with a few on this album.
'Back In The Sunshine Again' was written in Arizona about five years ago; the idea of getting out of the English winter and into the Arizona sun was very appealing, so I started writing it - with the help of my son James, who contributed to the riff and the bridge. I finished the song in California, shortly before I started the album. It's a good time, back in the sun song - about leaving behind all our troubles and moving forward into the sunshine, which also fits with my present mood in life, my present situation. James came and played rhythm guitar on the session with the band, he was the only guest artist on the album - which was fitting, as he had helped me write it.
'I Do' was the third of the India songs. It was one of those 'if you only knew' songs, like just talking to someone; 'if you only knew, that it's OK from my side'. It's like a communicative statement to someone - 'whatever you think at any given time, remember this - I do'. Like I may be goofing off but essentially I wrote this song to say it's OK. That was another afternoon in Goa song; my three little Goaers. As I said I started singing it low but then, as a vocal trick to kick the song along in the second verse, I found I could actually easily lift it an octave and a nice little moment happened that I like on this song, when I'm catching my breath in order to go up the octave. It's a little signature thing that happened which I didn't mean to happen, but it's good that there are those little accidents.
And then David Kahne put an arrangement on from his trusty bank of sounds; he's got like 24,000 sounds in his bank - he's got string sounds that can be the bow going one way or the bow going the other way.
'Your Way' was a song that I wrote at the same time as I wrote 'She's Given Up Talking', on holiday in Jamaica. It's got a little country feel to it; it's the first song with which we tried harmonies with the guys in the band and the nice thing about the guys is they can all sing. That was a real good bonus for me. It's another one of those that goes up the octave, so in a way it's a bit like two sides of a personality singing to each other, like a man and a woman - 'I like it, please don't take my heart away. It's happy, where it is, so let it stay'.
I haven't sweated the lyrics on this album, I've just sort of let it all come out very naturally. Sometimes you can think you want them to be very poetic and literate and articulate. But on this, because I was remembering the recording method we were using in The Beatles sessions, if you think about it often if you just pull off Beatles lyrics they can seem like nothing - 'love, love me do, you know I love you' - but they obviously meant a lot to people. I remember saying to someone'God, what a terrible lyric that is' and they said 'No, it's not, don't get into that, it's a very simple lyric' - but anyone wanting complicated literacy would not look to that song to get it. But that doesn't mean it's wrong.
Q: But that goes back to this idea about the complexity of simplicity - that if somebody writes something that is complicated, it is naturally assumed to be better. Whereas if you write something simply, it is generally perceived to be lesser. Yet it is far more difficult to be simple than it is to be complex.
P: Yeah, that's why I just trusted to my instincts. The thing is with a lyric like this on 'Your Way' is that people will know what it means. I know what it means. And that's enough for me. People can pull out lyrics out of context very easily and they can take the piss very easily. So it is a trap you can find yourself heading into of trying to get over-literate, just because you know that someone may quote the line.
'Rinse The Raindrops' - I've only ever written a couple of songs where the lyrics came first. 'All My Loving' with The Beatles was the first one of those. We were on a tour bus and I didn't have a guitar or, obviously, a piano with me. So I wrote the words on the bus and finished the song when I found a piano at the gig. This was a similar thing - I was sailing and some words came to me that I wasn't sure whether they were a poem or a song. I liked them and sort of wrote a rough melody for them in my head. But then we were in the studio one day and I fancied doing something different with the guys. We'd come to the end of my more prepared tunes, so I thought I'd do something crazy with this. I took the two verses, it's only got two verses, and very hastily wrote a bridge and an instrumental bridge for it. I showed them the bits on an acoustic and then got onto bass and we just jammed the song for half an hour or so. David reckoned I sang the verse about 48 times. Because I was doing just the same lyric, I just sang it every way I could think of so that hopefully he could get something out of that.
We went home and left him to stay up until four in the morning to work on it. We came in the next day and David said 'I couldn't get it down any shorter than this', he'd collaged together all the bits he liked, and it's like a ten-minute song. It reminds me of festivals in summer, hippies and bands jamming. There's a good energy to it.
'From A Lover To A Friend' was a patchwork of a couple of bits I'd had, which I liked but I didn't think I'd finished up the songs. That turned out to be a good thing because I got together with my man Eddie at my studio in England and we were going through these demos; I'd liked this bit and liked that bit and we just stitched together a couple of bits that weren't meant to go together but they just felt like they would go together. Interestingly for me, just to make one or two cuts work for the edit and not chop into the vocal, I had to add a strange extra bar in, so the collage had some odd bars - instead of it all being 4:4, it was like 5:4 in places or 2:4, which was something I like. And when I played the demo to the guys everyone was all very keen on faithfully following all those little 5:4 bars, just to give it a different musical structure.
The other thing about the demo was that part of it was a rather, shall we say tired late-night demo, a bit out-of-it demo, but it had a very intimate quality in the voice and so I tried to keep that and not clean up the record so much that I'd lose that lazy late-nightness.
Q: It's an interesting lyric - 'from a lover to a friend'; usually you'd think a relationship comes from being a friend and then a lover. But strong relationships come from a couple starting out as lovers but, if they're lucky, getting to be friends as well. Kind of like 'the meaning you need is on your shoulder.'
P: Exactly, it's a bit dafter. And the really cool thing I like about this lyric is there's some bits on the demo that I really didn't find words for. So I had to try really hard to hear what I'd been singing on this late-night demo; and a couple of bits didn't make sense - 'despite too easy ride to see' was one of them. But it's starting to make sense to me now.
The other thing that sort of encouraged me to do this was that me and Heather and George and Olivia (Harrison) had been to see the Cirque du Soleil and the music there was quite cool. Obviously the show is just stunning and the music fits well with it.
I met the girl who was singing and I was puzzling what language it was. They're based in Montreal, so I figured it was maybe French, but it didn't sound like French to me. And this girl's Romanian or something, so I was wondering what she was singing in. Afterwards she said 'It isn't any language, because we want like everyone to get it - so it's no language'. But I thought that is a cool idea; that intrigues me, doing a song in no language but it sounds like a language that everyone can get a feel and a meaning off of it. So that encouraged me to do these few lyrics like that. Listen for them on the track.
The only thing is, and I've just thought this, people say to me that they teach English to their kids in school with my songs, like with Beatles songs in Russia. They'd better beware that on this song, it had better be the advanced poetry class on this one. It is English, but it's not Standard.
'Spinning On An Axis' - I was sitting in New Hampshire, visiting American relatives. The sun was going down and me and James, my son, were talking about how the sun actually isn't going down, we're turning around away from it. We had a little keyboard thing there and James was playing a little riff on it and I was doing a parody rap thing, just goofing off with no real melody, on those thoughts of spinning on an axis. I had my little cassette with me and I happened to tape that as a little reminder.
Q: Is that and Back In The Sunshine the first Paul and James McCartney compositions?
P: No, we've actually written a few other things together.
'Tiny Bubble' was a demo that I made up at my little studio in Scotland. It was just a stream of consciousness thing about all the world's a tiny bubble. It started as a bit more ballady, but as happened with a few of the songs when you bring them to a band, as now you've got a drummer they hip up a bit. So this one went more towards Al Green or something and on the record we've left in a few of the rough edges, a few of the studio noises, which makes for a good sort of atmosphere. We hadn't tried to tidy this album up too much, it's still got a sort of raw freshness to it.
Q: Do you think that musicians can lose a feel of a song by over-producing too much?
P: Yeah; as I said, when I first played Ringo some of this stuff he said 'You're not going to put anything on it, are you?'. I know that one; you play them to him and he likes them and then there's a danger of you play them to him again and they are all screwed up with massive overdubs. So we tried to keep it very raw. A few have got overdubs, to add colour here and there, but our intention was not to do a big over-produced thing. It's really just a small, four-piece band playing - Paul McCartney's Rag. R-A-G - Rusty, Abe and Gabe.
'Heather' - there's a funny story about this track. It actually came about early one morning. I'd got up and was just jamming on the piano and Heather, who doesn't know all of The Beatles songs because she's young, said 'That's great - which Beatles song is that?'
I said 'It's not, I'm just making it up'. And she's like 'What? Now? Making it up now?' Yeah. Suddenly she's saying 'Get it down! You've got to get that down, get it on a tape, now!' I'm saying 'No, it's OK, I'm just noodling', but she's insisting 'get it down!', so we found a little dictaphone and played it into that. And then she said 'By the way, what's it called?'
'Oh', I said, 'It's called 'Heather''.
'There Must Have Been Magic' This is about meeting Linda - 'it must have been magic the night that we met'.
I met Linda in a club and I always thought years after, particularly after she died, that if I hadn't stood up that night in a club we might never have met again. It was something I never normally did; I wouldn't normally stand up as someone was about to leave and say 'Er, excuse me, hello. ' I didn't do that.
It was a bit embarrassing for a young guy to do that. I didn't normally do that but it was just one of those things that I felt I just had to do that night - 'Hi, um, I'm Paul, who are you?'
And she sort of smiled and said 'Linda'. I said 'Er, we're going onto another club. Are you going home? Shall we meet up at this other club?' We were in The Bag O'Nails and we said we'd meet up in The Speakeasy. Which we did.
So 'Magic' is a song about that; it must have been some sort of magic that made me do that. Because if I hadn't done that I might not have met her again.
Q: There's been a lot of magic in your life.
P: I think so, yeah. I'm very lucky really; coming out of Liverpool, going around the world with The Beatles, being successful, going through all that Sixties enlightenment and stuff - I've had more opportunity to believe in magic than a lot of people. You know, with things like the tune for 'Yesterday' arriving in a dream - you start to have a hard time not believing in magic. You can push it out of your mind and say you don't believe in that stuff, but then you get to think 'Well, where did 'Yesterday' arrive from, then?'. I'm sure you can rationalise it, but I think there's more to it. I don't know what - good luck, magic, goodness - I think there is more to life than meets the eye. It's like how can a piece of music make you cry or really top up your emotions, when it hasn't got any words? I don't understand how that can happen, but I understand that it does happen and I think it's really cool. I enjoy magic and it's something in life that I'm very glad of.
"Because there wasn't any reason left to keep it all inside"
- Paul McCartney 1982
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Nov 11, 2001, 12:23 AM
Old Brown Shoe
Join Date: Sep 21, 2001
Posts: 3,911
Re: Paul\'s Interview About Driving Rain (long)
Oh, and I found this page... it's pretty good...
"Because there wasn't any reason left to keep it all inside"
- Paul McCartney 1982
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Nov 11, 2001, 12:35 AM
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Re: Paul\'s Interview About Driving Rain (long)
interview, thanks Amalthea.
Bearkat77's Beatlemaniac Page
Bearkat77's Tribute to John Lennon
Bearkat77's Tribute to Ringo Starr
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Nov 11, 2001, 02:44 AM
Old Brown Shoe
Join Date: Sep 21, 2001
Posts: 3,911
Re: Paul\'s Interview About Driving Rain (long)
If you click
you can listen to a sample of the whole Album...
"Because there wasn't any reason left to keep it all inside"
- Paul McCartney 1982
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Nov 11, 2001, 04:13 AM
Pie Man
Wild Honey Pie
Join Date: Oct 22, 2000
Location: Warrington, England
Posts: 606
Re: Paul\'s Interview About Driving Rain (long)
You wern't kidding when you said it was long!
It's good though. can't wait 'till it comes out!
"...I'm The Man On
The Flaming Pie
Click here to buy Paul's new album, Driving Rain for only £9.99!!!
Pie Man
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Nov 11, 2001, 04:16 AM
Dr. Robert
Join Date: Oct 14, 2001
Location: Ca U.S.A.
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Re: Paul\'s Interview About Driving Rain (long)
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Tahoma, Arial, Sans-Serif">Quote:</font><HR>Originally Posted By Pie Man:
You wern't kidding when you said it was long!
It's good though. can't wait 'till it comes out!
I must have this Music! I can't take the weight!(wait)Too heavy! Thanks for the article!....REAL long!!!
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Nov 14, 2001, 12:49 PM
Sun King
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Re: Paul\'s Interview About Driving Rain (long)
Great interview Amalthea, thanks for posting it.
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
Staff member
Britney Spears has been on the job just two days and she's already proving to be a popular judge on The X Factor.
The pop queen is also growing into her role as critic on the Fox singing contest show.
The X Factor staged its first auditions for the upcoming season on Thursday and Friday in Austin, Texas, and judging by the boisterous cheers and the "I love you Britney!" calls from the crowd, the Grammy-winning singer is already a hit in her new role.
She's also showing she's not afraid to vote against contestants or disagree occasionally with show creator Simon Cowell and fellow judges Demi Lovato and L.A. Reid.
"I feel like your song was just in the wrong key," Spears told a contestant, adding that choosing a different song would have been "more interesting".
She told another contestant, "Your voice is really sweet, but I feel like you need a little more training."
Spears has yet to develop the chattiness that Lovato, also a new judge, had with the often nervous contestants. While Spears was direct but brief with her opinions, Lovato demonstrated a more casual rapport with the singers, even when it was clear they weren't going to be cut.
Spears, 30, was brought in to help boost ratings for The X Factor after its debut season fell short of Cowell's predictions. The former child performer became an international star with her 1999 debut album, ... Baby One More Time. Other hits have come (Oops!... I Did It Again, Toxic) but her personal life has been difficult, with rehab spells and time in a psychiatric ward.


text:
While walking the floor at the Detroit auto show, I caught up with Chrysler design chief/the automotive industry's resident badass Ralph Gilles about what was in designers' heads when approaching the redesigned 200. They found their inspiration in, among several other things, classic Eames lounge chairs.
I only had two minutes to chat with Gilles since he was on his way to a prior appointment, so I couldn't ask him about an SRT Dart hatch or what the next Challenger will look like, but he did provide some good insight on the 200. "You can't say it's an entry-level car.
"If you just walked up to the vehicle without knowing what brand it was you'd hopefully would guess the price was $20,000 more. That was a formula that was successful with the 300 back in the day," Gilles says.
The 200 is obviously rounder than the previous Sebrihundred, something everyone's doing to help boost fuel economy. "The surfacing was all about managing the aerodynamics in a very holistic way. The front, side, back of the car — it never stops," he says.
A few years ago, an auto critic described Chrysler interiors as having the same quality as "Chinese water guns," so ever since then, the company has invested more and more into cabin materials. Say what you will about the exterior ("It's a Dart! It's a Fusion! It's an Impala!"), but the inside is smooth.
The 200 has three trim levels and there's real wood with each trim level, and not fake woodgrain at the lower levels and real stuff as the price goes up. But for inspiration, Gilles and the Chrysler team turned to classic American design.
"The interior was an exercise in restraint and futurism, but at the same time Americana," Gilles says. The wood treatments is where the Eames influence is most evident. "It's a classic American piece that takes wood and simply bends it."
Eames' influence is also elsewhere in the car, in the the bezel that holds the door remote and the instrument cluster. "It feels familiar, it feels like it's been around."
The 200 might represent the new face of Chrysler, but the boxier 300 might not follow the exact same direction. It'll still stand alone, Gilles says; "It still has a very undeniable presence."


text:
The joy of 2006's Crank, starring Jason Statham as poisoned hitman Chev Chelios, came from its cheerful contempt for reality: Statham was completely impervious to harm, which left the movie free to go crazy with style, plot, and most importantly, a sense of humor. Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose, and plausibility feels like deadweight.
So there's no sense batting an eyelash at the fact that Statham died—dropped thousands of feet to the concrete—at the end of the first Crank. High Voltage just scrapes him off the ground, literally: Asian gangsters simply scoop him up with a snow shovel and take him to a black-market operating room, where he learns his new fate. In the first Crank, Statham needed to keep his adrenaline pumping in order to slow the poison coursing through his veins. In this one, he's fitted with an artificial heart that needs constant charging—via jumper cables, a stun gun, a dog collar, and the friction generated by human skin—to maintain its battery. And according to Statham's underground doctor, played expertly by Dwight Yoakam, Statham has an hour to find his actual heart and bring it in for a quick transplant.
From there, it's go-go-go: Statham chases the gangster who's carrying his heart in a six-pack cooler around the city, stopping only to provide comic relief via heart jumpstarts. In the most memorable scene, Statham and girlfriend Amy Smart end up having sex in every imaginable position (and then some) in front of thousands of cheering fans on a racetrack, with horses zipping by. Then it's off to slaughtering dozens of baddies, occasionally with the help of Efren Ramirez (Napoleon Dynamite's Pedro), a gang of gay black bikers, and Bai Ling, a crack whore whose broken English would probably be offensive in any movie but this one. (This one has anal rape with a lubricated shotgun, played for laughs.) And there's still room for a hilarious flashback to a Jerry Springer-esque show about Statham's youth, a brilliantly addled Godzilla homage (complete with giant rubber masks), and hundreds of naked boobs. It'd be silly to call Crank: High Voltage over the top: The top is so far below that it isn't even visible. But at this mostly unexplored altitude—only 2007's inferior Shoot 'Em Up comes close—writer-directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor have written their own set of action-comedy challenges, and they slam-dunk pretty much every one.


text:
Cassy Stubbs is the director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Capital Punishment Project. Cassy joined the project in 2006 and since then has served as lead and associate counsel on behalf of death row inmates and defendants in trials and appeals throughout the South, including Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee. Her clients have included Levon "Bo" Jones, a North Carolina death row inmate who was exonerated in 2008 when the state dismissed all charges against him, and Richard C. Taylor, a severely mentally ill man who was sentenced to death after a sham trial in Tennessee, but who won a new trial on appeal and was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment. Cassy has also worked with numerous organizations and ACLU affiliates to file amicus briefs in capital cases in state and federal courts around the country. She has written policy papers, editorials and blog posts on a wide range of capital issues, such as the persistence of racial disparities in capital punishment and the fundamental flaws of purported claims that the death penalty deters future murders.
Cassandra Stubbs talks about the issues that come with using the death penalty, like racial discrimination, geographic discrimination, and potential innocence.
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text:
before it's in the papers"
June 06, 2013
Science gives beauty some of its mystery back
There may be more to good looks than averageness, after all.
(Dec. 22, 2007)
Google's kinship with the mind
Thinking and using a Web search engine might seem to be very different activities. But a study suggests they draw on similar principles.
(Dec. 5, 2007)
Drastic diet may extend human life: study
Researchers knew it worked in animals, but whether we'd get the benefits has been unclear.
(Nov. 15, 2007)
Genes affecting generosity may be found
One gene underlying altruism is an evolutionarily ancient strip of DNA also found in rodents, a study indicates.
(Oct. 31, 2007)
Probing ancient shipwrecks with DNA
DNA can help tell what long-sunken transport jars contained, say scientists studying a Greek wreck.
(Oct. 15, 2007)
universes may be detectable, published study claims
If there are other universes, then one or more of them might leave a mark on
ours, a study suggests. (Oct. 11, 2007)
brain "templates" may clue tots to threats
Do babies know something about spiders before ever seeing one? (Sept. 18, 2007)
Where? When? Some animals may know
New findings may bear on debates over whether animals are conscious. (Aug. 12, 2007)
braininess due to social life, studies suggest
Dolphins and their kin are widely thought to be among the cleverest creatures.
But what might have made them so? (May 30, 2007)
is consciousness? Study aims to settle debate
Researchers also propose to subject claims of "out-of-body experiences"
to a strict test. (May 20, 2007)
of star explosions seen
Astronomers report what could be a new type of supernova, the death blast
of a massive star. (May 7, 2007)
planet judged possibly habitable
Astronomers report finding the most Earth-like planet outside our
Solar System to date. (April 23, 2007)
evolution, radically reappraised
Our evolution has been speeding
up tremendously, a study contends. (March 26, 2007)
Chimps found using spears
Chimps in Senegal were reported making sharpened sticks to hunt other, small primates.
(Feb. 22, 2007)
On African Island, women choose the spouses
Traditionally, once a woman proposes on Orango island, the man has no say in the matter.
(Feb. 3, 2007)
Additional News
pills, hawked online, win over top scientists
A company selling pills with
"youth-prolonging" molecules has snagged a leading biologist
and a Nobel laureate as customers. (Feb. 9, 2007)
may be ally in cancer war
Few people would consider anthrax helpful. But its toxin might
someday be a cancer therapy, scientists claim. (Dec. 29, 2007)
Humor tied to male aggression?
A doctor's hobby of unicycling turned into a study of human nature that
offers a new perspective on why we joke. (Dec. 21, 2007)
Small asteroids may do big damage
A new look at a 1908 event suggests disaster from space could be more common
than once thought. (Dec. 21, 2007)
Whales evolved from raccoon-sized creature, study finds
The "missing link" for whales and dolphins was a small hoofed mammal,
researchers say. (Dec. 20, 2007)
seen blasting neighbor
A jet from a galaxy's giant, central black hole is pummeling a
nearby galaxy, according to astronomers. (Dec. 17, 2007)
Famed wreck reported found, "untouched"
Remains of a ship linked to the scandalous 17th century "pirate,"
Capt. Kidd, could shed light on a pivotal era, archaeologists say. (Dec. 14, 2007)
warming to worsen malnutrition: report
Amid rising concern over climate change, three U.N. agencies issued a
stark new warning. (Dec. 12, 2007)
Why we feel "slow motion" during crisis
Why does "time fly" as you get older—or seem slower during accidents?
Scientists say they have an answer. (Dec. 11, 2007)
building blocks formed on Mars: study
Organic molecules might be able to form on any cold, rocky planet, researchers
claim. (Dec. 11, 2007)
Did "dark stars" reign in early time?
Stars powered by dark matter might still exist, some scientists propose.
(Dec. 6, 2007)
may be best for cough, research finds
Some cultures have long used honey for cough relief. (Dec. 5, 2007)
Fitness predicts longevity better than fat: study
Fat but fit may be OK, researchers say. (Dec. 5, 2007)
Flu mystery may be cracked
Influenza spreads in winter because the virus thrives on cold, dry air, researchers
have found. (Dec. 5, 2005)
Humans lose to chimps in number memory game
Young chimps have an "extraordinary" ability to remember numerals,
researchers report. (Dec. 3, 2007)
Dino "mummy" has fossilized skin
A startlingly well-preserved dinosaur may have had stripes and the ability
to outrun T. rex. (Dec. 3, 2007)
First reversal of aging in an organ claimed
A short-term success in rejuvenating the skin of mice points the way
to future progress against aging, scientists say. (Nov. 29, 2007)
image map to "revolutionize" research
A new map of the frozen continent, in unprecedented detail, is
free on the Web. (Nov. 27, 2007)
Scientists hope to give artificial limbs "feelings"
New findings point to a way amputees could gain sensation in their
prostheses, allowing more control, researchers say. (Nov. 26, 2007)
A "Big Bang" of plant evolution
Scientists are shedding light on what Charles Darwin called an "abominable mystery": how flowers evolved.
(Nov. 26, 2007)
Site tied to Rome's legendary founding
Archaeologists revealed a site said to have been venerated as the cave where, by legend, a she-wolf raised Rome's twin founders.
(Nov. 22, 2007)
Breakthrough may let scientists make stem cells on demand
Researchers say they appear to have turned human cells into powerful stem cells.
(Nov. 22, 2007)
"Noah's flood" spread farming, researchers say
A prehistoric deluge—controversially linked to ancient flood myths—kick-started European agriculture, a study claims.
(Nov. 19, 2007)
Robot infiltrators sway roach group decisions
They don't look like cockroaches—but they smell and act enough like them.
(Nov. 16, 2007)
Monkey embryos reported cloned
The work could lead to a way to produce patient-specific stem cells for curing disease, researchers say.
(Nov. 14, 2007)
What's in a name? Studies link initials to success
If you like your name too much, even unconsciously, you might be in trouble, scientists suggest.
(Nov. 14, 2007)
Alzheimer's "vaccine" seen to aid mice
Immunization might blunt or even prevent the ravages of Alzheimer's disease, researchers say.
(Nov. 13, 2007)
Cosmic mystery "solved" after decades
Ultra-energetic cosmic rays probably come from supermassive black holes, a study concludes.
(Nov. 8, 2007)
Why poor kids may make sicker adults
Scientists believe they're starting to understand why the poor suffer worse health and shorter lives than the rich.
(Nov. 7, 2007)
Solar system "packed with planets" looks like our own
Astronomers report finding a solar system that resembles ours more than any other known.
(Nov. 6, 2007)
Think food, not nutrients, researchers advise
The key to a healthy diet may be not so much focusing on specific nutrients as eating varied, healthy foods.
(Nov. 6, 2007)
Even monkeys rationalize, study finds
After we make a questionable choice, we often think up—or make
up—new reasons to believe it was right after all. (Nov. 6, 2007)
Gene tied to lower cognitive function in kids
The research raises new possibilities for therapies targeting cognition, researchers say.
(Nov. 5, 2007)
Competition drives forward
robo-car technology
A university team won $2 million for its entry in a government-sponsored competition for self-driving cars.
(Nov. 5, 2007)
Study suggests how DNA building block might have formed
Researchers say the work could help understand how DNA originated on early Earth.
(Nov. 2, 2007)
At 400, clam may be longest-lived animal known
A venerable mollusc could shed light on the mysteries of aging, researchers say.
(Oct. 30, 2007)
Majority found willing to consider cosmetic surgery
The widespread appeal of plastic surgery surprises a scientist studying the issue.
(Oct. 28, 2007)
Humans go into heat after all, strip club study finds
Mammals go into heat. Except humans—it's just for animals, right? Wrong, a study has found.
(Oct. 28, 2007)
Watson retires after race flap
comments brought down Nobel prize-winning geneticist James Watson. (Oct. 25, 2007)
* Related:
Nobel scientist suspended over race comments
Cosmic anomaly could point to ultimate realities
A new proposal for the possible cause of a strange "cold spot" suggests profound implications.
(Oct. 25, 2007)
Scientists report flipping worms' sex preferences
Research suggests human sexual orientation may be genetic, as with roundworms, scientists say.
(Oct. 25, 2007)
Researchers: warming could cause mass extinction
Predicted climate change could kill off more than half of animal and plant species, a study warns.
(Oct. 24, 2007)
A predisposition to pedophilia?
Male pedophiles are shorter than average, hinting at biological factors in pedophilia, researchers say.
(Oct. 23, 2007)
Aspirin against heart disease: just for men?
First it was an apple; now a small aspirin a day is thought to keep the doctor away, or at least heart attacks. But women might benefit less.
(Oct. 18, 2007)
Study: Neanderthals had "language gene"
The only gene known to date to underlie language was present in our stocky cousins, scientists say.
(Oct. 18, 2007)
Elephants tell human friends from foes, study finds
Elephants are remarkably perceptive in distinguishing ethnic groups, research suggests.
(Oct. 18, 2007)
Trip to beach a milestone in human evolution: study
The discovery of coastal living may have put our forbears on the road to
modernity, according to researchers. (Oct. 17, 2007)
light bend backwards
An unusual material could help usher in new electronic devices and
ultra-potent microscopes, engineers say. (Oct. 17, 2007)
"Most complete" giant dino,
a new species, reported found
A dinosaur with a huge neck is part of a bonanza of newly described fossils.
(Oct. 15, 2007)
Feminists are sexy, study finds
Stereotypes of feminists as sexually unappealing are wrong: in
fact, feminism may improve romance, researchers say. (Oct. 15, 2007)
found to predict mother-child bonding
Levels of a hormone in a pregnant woman predict how closely she'll
bond with her baby, scientists report. (Oct. 15, 2007)
Genes for overeating?
People driven to eat may need to eat more than others do to get the same rewarding
feeling, researchers say. (Oct. 14, 2007)
wall painting said found
Archaeologists report finding an 11,000-year-old mural in Syria.
(Oct. 11, 2007)
When our vices get the better of us
What happens in the brain when we just can't say no? (Oct. 11, 2007)
"Megadroughts" may have driven human evolution
Extreme droughts parched tropical Africa as early humans evolved, researchers
report. (Oct. 8, 2007)
you eat this? Hunt for better fertilizer leads to human urine
Healthy people's urine is nutrient-rich and virtually sterile, scientists
say. (Oct. 7, 2007)
What lies beneath? Possible Mars caves found
A discovery is fueling interest in searches for caves that could shelter
Martian life, or human explorers. (Oct. 7, 2007)
Technique lets scientists see brain in full color
(Nov. 6, 2007)
relief without the numbness
Scientists say they finally can knock out pain without disabling other
sensations. But there may be a catch. (Oct. 3, 2007)
Craft lifts off to asteroid belt
In a mission astronomers are hailing as an historic first, a
NASA spacecraft is on its way to study asteroids. (Sept. 27, 2007)
Arctic ice disappearing
Arctic sea ice extent just hit a low that shattered previous records, researchers
report. (Sept. 20, 2007)
of "personal genomics" coming
The ethical and clinical implications must be carefully considered,
experts say. (Sept. 20, 2007)
A language dies every two weeks, researchers say
With the demise of each obscure language somewhere on Earth goes centuries
of tradition, culture and thought. (Sept. 18, 2007)
Worrisome "quiet" in genes may predict lung cancer
When it's quiet—almost "too quiet"—in movies, it's a sign something
may be about to go wrong. (Sept. 18, 2007)
fences make good neighbors, scientists find
Could the cold reasonableness of math prevent the burning irrationality
of ethnic strife? (Sept. 13, 2007)
virus kills brain cancer cells in mice
A customized virus killed stem cells that cause a highly aggressive, tenacious
brain cancer, researchers report. (Sept. 11, 2007)
Cold probably didn't
end Neanderthals: study
What caused the demise of Neanderthal people, around 28,000 years ago
in Europe? (Sept. 12, 2007)
Sunless but livable planets may be detectable
They drift through deep space alone, studies suggest—lightless, but
perhaps not lifeless. (Sept. 10, 2007)
Most polar bears to die out by 2050
Global warming will kill off two-thirds of polar bears by 2050, U.S. government
scientists forecast. (Sept. 8, 2007)
Researchers cracking case of the vanishing bees
A virus may explain a mysterious syndrome in which bees abandon their
hives, investigators say. (Sept. 6, 2007)
"crime family" blamed in dino wipeout
Scientists say they've learned where the thing that killed the dinosaurs
probably came from. (Sept. 5, 2007)
"Spooky" atomic links could lead to "quantum
Physicists report making two atoms seemingly communicate across space.
(Sept. 5, 2007)
"Lean gene"
may help keep you trim
Future weight-control treatments may involve stimulating an ancient
gene, researchers say. (Sept. 4, 2007)
really are more likely to die young
The adage "live fast and die young" seems to be true for rock and pop stars,
a study finds. (Sept. 4, 2005)
Surge in youth bipolar diagnoses seen
A study notes a 40-fold rise over a decade in the number of visits to doctors
leading to a diagnosis of bipolar disorder in U.S. youths. (Sept. 4, 2007)
said to show "race isn't real" scrapped
Famed geneticist Craig Venter withdrew a claim that all people have 99.9
percent identical DNA, but he still says race doesn't exist. (Sept. 3, 2007)
Reports of dolphin's demise
A businessman has spotted a Yangtze River dolphin weeks after it
was reported probably extinct, scientists say. (Aug. 31, 2007)
Some gene damage from smoking is permanent: study
New research may help explain why former smokers are still more cancer-prone
than those who have never smoked. (Aug. 30, 2007)
suit" may be coming
Using technology adapted from gecko and spider feet, we could climb
walls and ceilings, a study predicts. (Aug. 28, 2007)
ancient Mars microbes might still live
Some microbes can live for more than half a million years by repairing
their DNA, a study indicates. (Aug. 27, 2007)
"Out of body" research attacks philosophical questions
Researchers say they have induced in healthy people the sensation of
leaving their own bodies. (Aug. 24, 2007)
"baby talk" young
Rhesus monkeys make special calls to infants—but surprisingly,
not their own, research has found. (Aug. 24, 2007)
Gaping "hole" in
universe detected
Astronomers say they have come across an empty zone of stupendous
size. (Aug. 23, 2007)
Google program brings heavens to Earth
It's like having a planetarium on your desktop, an astronomer
says. (Aug. 22, 2007)
not just "big-brained apes": scholar
Contrary to fashionable ideas, new studies show humans really are unique,
a psychologist argues. (Aug. 22, 2007)
Behind school shootings, rejection and anger
In a study, psychologists offer an assessment of why some students go
on killing sprees. (Aug. 20, 2007)
Drug found to erase memories in rats
Memory erasure is a recurrent theme in science fiction, but until
recently it has stayed in that realm only. (Aug. 16, 2007)
with vast tail astonishes scientists
The object is in a sense a real shooting star, unlike most "shooting
stars" which are rocks in the sky, astronomers say. (Aug. 15, 2007)
life… from dust particles?
It's not what life is supposed to be made of. It's not where life is supposed
to exist. Yet it looks alive, some scientists say (Aug. 14, 2007).
blamed for four in 10 deaths
Water, air and soil pollution are behind some 40 percent of deaths globally,
a study claims. (Aug. 14, 2007)
Mom's junk food
could put babies at risk
Eating junk food while pregnant and breastfeeding could lead to overeating,
obese kids, a study suggests. (Aug. 14, 2007)
Animated fluids getting fancy
Beer pours, and waves roar, in a video illustrating the latest efforts
to make computer-simulated liquids better and cheaper. (Aug. 14, 2007)
attraction: how sexual choices shaped the face
Men with large jaws, wide cheeks and big eyebrows are sexy—or at least were
to our evolutionary ancestors, researchers say. (Aug. 13, 2007)
Study: ancient microbes may revive as glaciers melt
Ancient organisms and their DNA have been locked in ice that scientists
say is melting due to global warming. (Aug. 12, 2007)
meteor shower enlivens sky
The shower becomes visible in all its glory tonight for northern
hemisphere sky watchers. (Aug. 12, 2007)
First human-caused
dolphin extinction reported
China's Yangtze River dolphin was a victim of fishers, and its perilous
situation was long known, according to researchers. (Aug. 11, 2007)
galaxy pileup seen
Four galaxies are merging in one of the largest cosmic smash-ups ever
observed, astronomers say. (Aug. 7, 2007)
matter doubters not silenced yet
Growing "proof" that an unseen, exotic substance pervades space
still hasn't won over a core of skeptics. (Aug. 2, 2007)
Brain stimulation "awakens" near-unconscious patient
A new brain stimulation treatment awakened a patient from a near-vegetative
state, researchers report. (Aug. 1, 2007)
Orangutan communication resembles "charades"
Captive orangutans use gestures not unlike humans do in the parlor
game, researchers say. (Aug. 1, 2007)
recreate "Hydra" of myth, in miniature
In the ancient Greek tale, the hero Hercules kills a many-headed monster
that could regrow its heads. (Aug. 1, 2007)
of the "living fossil" sheds new light
Zoologists called it the find of the century in 1938: a fish thought
to have been extinct since dinosaurs roamed. A new discovery may help
complete the story. (Aug. 1, 2007)
who kill whites likeliest to be executed, study finds
Bias in the U.S. justice
even after
a sociologist
says. (July 30, 2007)
Pot could boost psychosis risk,
research suggests
A study finds a link between marijuana
use and eventual loss of contact with reality.
(July 27, 2007)
drinking reports shake NASA
America's space agency was shaken Thursday by two startling and unrelated
(July 27, 2007)
found to spread socially
Your chances of becoming obese almost triple if a close friend is that
way, research suggests. (July 25, 2007)
"Itch gene"
Are you scratching yourself to distraction? Relief may come soon, scientists
predict. (July 25, 2007)
Renewable energy wrecks
environment, scientist claims
"Renewable" energy isn't green, says a researcher who played
an early role in publicizing the issue of global warming. (July 24, 2007)
chemicals found among stars
Discoveries are adding to the known ways in which life's ingredients
could form, astronomers say. (July 23, 2007)
Climate change behind U.K. floods?
Severe flooding hitting England may stem from global warming, according
to some scientists. (July 23, 2007)
can play "perfect" checkers game
Computers have played every possible checkers move and solved the
game once and for all, scientists report. (July 23, 2007)
Species hiding in plain sight
New species are evading detection using an almost foolproof disguise—their
identical appearance to other, known species. (July 19, 2007)
Little protection from cold seen in Vitamin C
Taking extra vitamin C daily won't help most people avoid common
colds, a report says. (July 17, 2007)
How fear memories take hold
Scientists have uncovered a molecular mechanism that they say governs the formation of fears stemming from traumatic events.
(July 16, 2007)
"Clear signs" of water on foreign solar system
Researchers say they have the best evidence to date that planets outside our solar system have water.
(July 11, 2007)
How Roman farmers left their mark on nature
Recently unearthed, ancient settlements are found to have had
surprising effects on the landscape above. (July 9, 2007)
a first, probe to focus on Martian
Frozen water is at the center of scientists' hopes for detecting the possibility of
Martian life. (July 9, 2007)
~ Focus:
genetic cancer therapies ~
Gene therapy reported to wipe out pancreatic cancer in mice
Researchers report encouraging signs in the fight against one of the deadliest
cancers. (July 9, 2007)
Researchers modify herpes virus to fight cancer
A virus designed to kill cancer cells while sparing healthy ones shows promise in a preliminary study, scientists say.
(July 7, 2007)
Do women really talk more than men?
New research challenges the popular idea that women are the big chatters.
(July 5, 2007)
New cancer
mutation found
Biologists say they have found a mutation implicated in at least four types of cancer.
(July 4, 2007)
racist in shooting? Not as much as many of us
A study has found little evidence that police shoot black people particularly
readily. But it did turn up a surprise. (July 3, 2007)
Poor smell sense could signal
early Alzheimer's
Difficulty identifying common smells may be the first sign of Alzheimer's disease, according to a study.
(July 2, 2007)
First baby born from eggs matured in lab, frozen
Experiments are leading to novel fertility treatments, scientists
report. (July 2, 2007)
Universe "forgets" its past
Another universe may have preceded ours—but its exact properties may
be unknowable, some physicists have concluded. (July 1, 2007)
Warm rock keeps North America from drowning, geologists say
Much of the continent would sink were it not for heat that makes rock buoyant, research
has found. (June 28, 2007)
Kitty's family tree analyzed
Housecats trace their ancestry back to Near Eastern wildcats, a study
indicates. (June 28, 2007)
Archaeologists think they have mummy of Queen Hatshepsut
Some researchers believe Hatshepsut, the most famous queen to
rule ancient Egypt, has been found. (June 28, 2007)
Human-like altruism
claimed in chimps
Scientists often assume that purely unselfish behavior, if it exists,
is unique to people. (June 26, 2007)
Ancient giant
penguins liked it hot
New finds shed light on the world of ancient penguins, some of which were as tall as many humans.
(June 25, 2007)
Intelligence favors first-borns, study finds
Eldest siblings score slightly higher on intelligence tests than
younger ones, a study has found. (June 21, 2007)
wolves had bone-crushing teeth, scientists say
A specialized breed of gray wolves once roamed Alaska's icy expanses, a
study indicates. (June 21, 2007)
Humiliation takes harsh health toll, report says
Past studies have looked at the health effects of social exclusion or
prejudice, but not those of outright debasement. (June 20, 2007)
perks and pitfalls of pride
What is the origin and purpose of this complex emotion? (June 20, 2007)
New World's first gunshot victim identified
An Inca rebel of the 1500s is the first documented gunshot victim in the
Americas, archaeologists say.
(June 20, 2007)
Power goes wireless
Researchers hope to banish the tangle of cables that keep alive our cell phones, laptops and other
small devices. (June 19, 2007)
Gigantic, bird-like dinosaur reported
Remains of a colossal, surprisingly bird-like dinosaur have been
found in China, scientists say. (June 13, 2007)
Rome reborn in virtual glory
Experts have recreated ancient Rome in a three-dimensional computer simulation.
(June 12, 2007)
Doctors investigate why man bled green
A report in a medical journal describes an unusual case. (June 7, 2007)
First patent claimed on man-made life form, and challenged
A research institute is seeking a patent on what could be the first largely
artificial organism. (June 7, 2007)
Stem cells from anyone?
Patients could one day get new organs and other treatments using cells
drawn from their own bodies. (June 6, 2007)
Abnormal sex acts linked to array of sleep disorders
Sexual behaviors during sleep may be more common than was once
thought, researchers say. (June 1, 2007)
T. rex, the clumsy giant?
A study challenges the idea that the "tyrant" dinosaur
Tyrannosaurus rex could turn quickly and run down nimble prey.
(June 5, 2007)
Lessons from orangutans:
upright walking may have begun in trees
A new theory suggests our two-legged walk first arose in ancient,
tree-dwelling apes. (May 31, 2007)
Dump the "ethnic cleansing" jargon, group implores
A team of scholars wants doctors and scientists to lead the world in consigning
the phrase "ethnic cleansing" to history. (May 31, 2007)
Deer moms come to the
Mothers in one deer species seem quite generous in defending other parents' kids, a study has
found. Not so another species. (May 30, 2007)
The evolution of animal personalities
Personality differences have been documented in dozens of species.
What produces the variations?
(May 30, 2007)
Radio "screams" portend
nasty space weather
Bursts of radio waves can provide advance warning of hazardous radiation storms,
astronomers say. (May 30, 2007)
Monster black holes, quietly cruising the cosmos?
Research suggests
some galaxy
can spit giant black holes into
space, for good. (May 30, 2007)
may influence our language: researchers
Differences in our genes may affect the type of language we speak, linguists report.
(May 28, 2007)
Study: stereotypes alone can hurt female performance
A stereotype that boys outperform girls in math causes anxiety that undercuts
women's work—in math and other areas, researchers report. (May 28, 2007)
"Definitive" evidence of dinosaur
swimming found
A trackway with 12 claw marks is the best evidence to date that some dinosaurs swam,
scientists say. (May 25, 2007)
Finger length linked to exam scores
Measurements of children's finger lengths appear to predict their scores on math and literacy tests, researchers have found.
(May 24, 2007)
Antibiotic resistance genes in our food?
The food we eat could be fueling the disturbing spread of antibiotic-resistant infections, scientists warn.
(May 23, 2007)
Saturn rings found clumpier,
heavier than thought
Saturn's largest, most compact ring consists of clumps of particles separated by gaps, findings
indicate. (May 23, 2005)
Sex-free shark birth startles scientists, and worries them
A female hammerhead shark was found to have given birth without having
sex. (May 22, 2007)
Heavy multivitamin use linked to cancer in men
Millions of Americans take multivitamins because of a belief
in their potential health benefits. (May 18, 2007)
where it came from, where it gets us
Morality is an evolved system, not quite equipped to deal with global-scale
clashes of values, a scientist says. (May 17, 2007)
Antarctic depths called possible "cradle of life"
Scientists have found hundreds of new sea creatures in a vast, dark deep
surrounding Antarctica. (May 16, 2007)
good for mental health, scientists find
Species-rich parks may provide more peace of mind than big green spaces
alone can, a study suggests. (May 16, 2007)
Roots of "free will" seen in flies
Insects, with their blank eyes and stiff little frames, often seem to epitomize
the idea of lower animals as robot-like. Not so, researchers say. (May 15, 2007)
galaxy next door—our destined home?
New simulations predict what could happen when our galaxy, as expected,
runs into a neighboring one.
(May 10, 2007)
First map of planet outside our system
Astronomers plan someday to map continents and oceans on distant
planets. (May 9, 2007)
Mutation may contribute to human uniqueness
Scientists have identified a gene that they say could help account for
our distinctive cognitive abilities. (May 8, 2007)
Herod's tomb reported found
King Herod is said in the Bible to have ordered a slaughter of babies
in order to be rid of the newborn Jesus. (May 8, 2007)
Global warming could shorten day, report predicts
Earth's familiar 24-hour cycle may become a hair shorter due to human
activities, scientists say. (May 7, 2007)
Ripples on Sun may be found, after 30-year search
Findings could help understand the Sun's core—hub of the original,
spinning cloud that became our Solar System. (May 3, 2007)
"longevity gene" spurs hopes of long life
Findings could lead to new anti-aging treatments, scientists say (May 2, 2007).
Female duck anatomy evolves to block "rape"
Male and female ducks are evolving in a sexual arms race, according to
a study (May 1, 2007).
to language origins seen in ape gestures
Scientists have found what they call new evidence for an old theory
that language began with gestures (April 30, 2007).
Is reality a misunderstanding?
Several physicists say they've confirmed strange predictions of
modern physics that flout our most basic ideas of reality. (April 29, 2007)
Internet-controlled robots anyone can build
New research is touted as bringing robotics to an unprecedented
level of public usability. (April 26, 2007)
fossil forest found
A "spectacular" discovery in a coal mine is said to transform our understanding
of the first rainforests. (April 23, 2007)
Origin of brain lies in a worm, scientists say
Surprising findings also suggest we've flipped over during the
course of evolution. (April 23, 2007)
holes may scatter "seeds of life" through cosmos
Black holes aren't the all-consuming monsters they're often portrayed
as, new research has found. (April 22, 2007)
Ape facial expressions foster group harmony, study finds
Facial expressions may have evolved as a sort of social glue in our
ape-like ancestors, researchers say. (April 20, 2007)
Robotic arm to conduct brain surgery
The machine will give surgeons an unprecedented degree of fine control,
the designers say. (April 18, 2007)
a garden to fire kids' veggie-ardor
Homes with fruit and vegetable gardens see healthier eating among
youth, a study finds. (April 18, 2007)
Swarms of dust-sized particles would explore planets
Engineers are working on a new breed of planetary probes: tiny devices
that ride the wind. (April 18, 2007)
Study: ethanol vehicles pose health risks
Ethanol is touted as a clean, eco-friendly fuel, but new research challenges that view.
(April 18, 2007)
uphold "Standard Model" of physics, for now
Researchers presented long-awaited initial data from tests on ghostly particles called neutrinos.
(April 13, 2007)
Dinosaur molecules decoded
Researchers have analyzed molecules from soft tissue of a T.
rex, a feat once thought impossible. (April 12, 2007)
Gene study finds "clearest link yet" to obesity
U.K. scientists say they have identified the clearest genetic link yet to obesity in the general population. (April 12, 2005)
"Space tsunamis" investigated
New findings are shedding light on celestial storms that help create dramatic light
shows. (April 12, 2007)
Catching suicide bombers
U.S. researchers say they have developed a way to defeat a key edge that suicide bombers possess.
(April 10, 2007)
Plague as a weapon
Scientists worry that a disease tied to medieval epidemics may re-emerge as a bioterrorism tool.
(April 10, 2007)
report charts "highway to extinction"
A new international report on global warming makes dire predictions.
(March 31, 2007)
Even after dino
dieoff, our mammal forebears laid low: study
The dinosaurs' extinction wasn't the direct cause of the great flourishing of mammals, research indicates.
(March 28, 2007)
Hexagon on Saturn mystifies astronomers
An odd, six-sided feature encircles Saturn's north pole. (March 27, 2007)
The next great quake
A geophysicist warns that seemingly innocuous geological structures may be "locked, loaded, and dangerous."
(March 22, 2007)
eavesdropping" seen in toddlers
Toddlers eavesdrop
on adults' emotional
say. (March 26, 2007)
Could self-moving objects explain away "dark matter"?
Each year, four points on Earth could witness a bizarre phenomenon,
a study claims. (March 20, 2007)
Brain mishaps
lead to "cold" morality
A study at the crossroads of philosophy and neuroscience probed
the ingredients of ethics. (March 21, 2007)
Traditional plant knowledge
found to give health boost
Globalization can strip indigenous peoples of valuable botanical
knowledge, researchers say. (March 19, 2007)
Rats can reflect on their knowledge, study finds
New research was touted as the first to find this ability in animals
other than primates. (March 8, 2007)
~ Focus on
Robots ~
Robot walks and swims
A new device demonstrates that nature often offers the best solutions for robot design, researchers say.
(March 8, 2007)
Probe to explore deepest known sinkhole
A robotic sub explores and maps unknown, subterranean waters—a possible prelude to a probe on a distant
moon. (March 8, 2007)
Little genomes for big dinosaurs
They might be giants, but many dinosaurs apparently had genomes no larger than that of a modern hummingbird.
(March 7, 2007)
Therapy for traumatized Iraq vets:
Iraq again, virtually
An unusual treatment has worked for a few troubled war veterans, psychologists report.
(March 6, 2007)
Unifying principle said to govern all galaxies
The discovery could say something deep about the cosmos, astronomers claim.
(March 6, 2007)
"Mafia" behavior
noted in birds
Researchers have found a new low in the ways of some parasitic birds, which impose their progeny on other birds.
(March 5, 2007)
"Wound" in seafloor to be probed
Scientists plan to set sail to study a strange geological finding in the depths of the Atlantic.
(March 2, 2007)
Seeing red affects achievement
Just a flash of red is enough to impair performance on tests, psychologists have found.
(March 2, 2007)
Inching closer to regrowing spinal tissue
Researchers have regrown a tadpole tail in what they say could be a stride for regenerative medicine.
(Feb. 28, 2007)
God, angry people
Scriptures portraying a vengeful Lord may encourage their readers
to behave in kind, a study reports. (Feb. 28, 2007)
Mystery illness killing honeybees
A mysterious illness is killing many honeybee colonies across the U.S., threatening honey production and possibly crops.
(Feb. 28, 2007)
~ Spotlight:
radiation from space ~
from across the galaxy
Gamma-ray bursts could beam lethal radiation across a galaxy, frying
life forms in the path, a study finds. (Feb. 27, 2007)
Way's black hole seen as particle smasher
The center of our galaxy acts as a juiced-up version of the particle
accelerators we build on Earth, physicists say. (Feb. 27, 2007)
Story of first Americans being rewritten
An anthropologist says new evidence could spell the demise of traditional views on America's peopling.
(Feb. 22, 2007)
Birds found to plan future meals
Western scrub jays seem to be acquainted with the concept of diet planning, scientists report.
(Feb. 21, 2007)
Video games may boost
surgical skill, tests find
A small study has linked video game savvy to skill in simulated laparoscopic surgeries.
(Feb. 19, 2007)
Sun's "twin" found, as embryo
It's one of four newfound "proto-stars" that are probably the youngest imaged by astronomers, researchers said.
(Feb. 16, 2007)
Folding a piece of paper can yield a virtually endless array of shapes. Scientists are taking advantage of that.
(Feb. 16, 2007)
Cleopatra no beauty? Judge for yourself
An Egyptian queen's vaunted looks got an unkind, Valentine's day reassessment from archaeologists.
(Feb. 14, 2007)
Study: Naps may cut heart deaths
Naps may do your heart good, researchers have found. (Feb. 12, 2007)
Pot found to
ease HIV-linked pain
Smoked marijuana reduced severe foot pain associated with HIV by a third, researchers report.
(Feb. 12, 2007)
Plans for "Noah's Ark" seed vault unveiled
A "Doomsday" seed vault would protect today's seeds for a post-apocalyptic future.
(Feb. 9, 2007)
Parents blind to their children's weight, study finds
Many parents don't notice their children's excess weight—bad news amid an obesity boom, researchers warn.
(Feb. 9, 2007)
Action video games sharpen vision, researchers say
A shoot-em-up game improved students' visual acuity 20 percent, according to scientists.
(Feb. 8, 2007)
Cosmic blasts re-evaluated
They spit out as much energy in seconds as our Sun does in 10 billion years, but no one knows quite why.
(Feb. 8, 2007)
Next-generation particle collider planned
A proposed accelerator would recreate conditions in the cosmos a trillionth of a second after its birth.
(Feb. 8, 2007)
For some species, an upside to inbreeding
While not recommending it for humans, researchers found inbreeding may make for better parents in some animals.
(Courtesy Cell Press)
Report spurs
backing for global body on warming
Fear of runaway warming pushed over 40 countries to support a bid for a body that could single out, and perhaps police, polluting nations.
(Feb. 3, 2007)
How drugs cause hallucinations
Scientists say they have partly explained what causes the mind-bending effects of substances such as LSD.
(Jan. 31, 2007)
Huge settlement unearthed near Stonehenge
The dwellings housed those who built the U.K.'s fabled stone monument, archaeologists say.
(Jan. 30, 2007)
Dig deeper for Mars life, scientists urge
Probes haven't drilled deep enough to find the living cells that might lurk within the red planet, according to new research.
(Jan. 29, 2007)
Fish logic surprises researchers
A type of fish can rank potential rivals from strongest to weakest just by watching fights, scientists report.
(Jan. 24, 2007)
Most horrible sound: vomiting, study finds
In an online experiment, a retching sound won over nails scraping a blackboard as the worst sound ever.
(Jan. 24, 2007)
loyalty driving sperm teamwork?
The promiscuity of rats and mice may lead to partnerships among their sex cells.
(Jan. 23, 2007)
Cancer killed Napoleon, study concludes
Anew investigation may put to rest nearly 200 years of lingering mysteries, a scientist reports.
(Jan. 23, 2007)
Dino flew like a "biplane"
The Wright brothers weren't the
first to come up with their trademark, double-decker design for aircraft
wings, if two scientists are correct.
(Jan. 21, 2007)
diamonds come from space, scientists claim
Rare, dusky gems were once parts of massive asteroids
that struck Earth, scientists say.
(Jan. 21, 2007)
Activation of brain
area found to predict altruism
A study might help reveal how the desire
to help others takes root in the brain.
(Jan. 21, 2005)
Nobel Prize may add two years to life
Fame alone, independently of wealth,
seems to give a life-extending boost, two economists report.
(Jan. 20, 2007)
Mother ducks cooperate on parenting
For eider ducks, parenting is a negotiated
joint venture, researchers say.
(Jan.11, 2007)
evidence of modern humans in Europe reported
Modern humans who first arose in Africa
moved into Europe as early as about 45,000 years ago, a new study indicates.
(Jan. 11, 2007)
Homer's Ithaca possibly
British researchers say they may
have solved a centuries-old mystery.
(Jan. 10, 2007)
could raise cosmic clatter
Physicists are looking for huge, flopping loops of energy in space that could
point the way to a theory of everything. (Jan. 8, 2007)
the body becomes asymmetric
Tiny molecular motors in cells might help
determine which organs go on which side, scientists claim.
(Jan. 5, 2007)
"shopping circuitry" mapped
Researchers say they can now predict whether someone will buy a product
by checking their brain activity. (Jan. 3, 2007)
First stars may have been supergiants, researchers say
New observations are being cited to support a claim that astronomers
have seen the universe's first bright objects. (Jan. 3, 2007)
suicidal tendencies linked
Astudy has found that nightmares are associated
with suicidality. (Jan. 2, 2007)
Scans pinpoint brain regions that "see the future"
Psychologists say they have found that the brain draws heavily on the past to
imagine the future. (Jan. 2, 2007)
Genome scan finds new genetic links to autism (Feb. 18, 2007)


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With rucksacks packed with a change of socks, plastic bags, towel and special shoes for ford crossings we sent out on Thursday on our latest hiking adventure. We knew it was unlikely we would need any of it given the continued lack of rain, but we thought it was better to be over-packed than sorry for the double crossing of the Riberia da Foupana. Our hike began, where it did three weeks ago, in Foz de Odeleite. A small hamlet on the banks of the Odeleite and Guadiana. Today though the weather was quite different – blue skies and glorious sunshine.
The best way to attempt this walk is the other way round to what we did, however we were uncertain about the second ford crossing and so decided to begin on the banks of the Riberia de Odeleite. And I am so glad we did as within moments of starting the hike we were stopping time and again for the birdlife.
And there were the sheep on the other side of the river and the sunbathing goats!
It wasn't long after this that MrB suffered an ankle injury, however he decided it wasn't too serious and that we should keep going. At the time I was delighted but the following day we realised it probably had not been not the right decision as he was housebound with a swollen ankle and we had to cancel lunch with Jo.
Still I guess we have the wonderful memories and we did get to see Owls and meet our first Horseshoe Whip Snake! These snakes are not venomous, and apparently if you have one around the house they are great for keeping down the rodents so I know Brian will love them! However they can be very aggressive towards humans and will bite if they feel threatened. This one, thank goodness, was obviously enjoying the glorious sunshine too much to be bothered by us but he does also demonstrate why they are often killed in traffic accidents!
It wasn't long before we were on the banks of the Riberia da Foupana, and heading toward our first ford crossing. You may recall this crossing from last year when MrB and I got wet feet, and I was nearly washed away. Very different today!
This section of the walk we have not done for years, and it was the first time we had done it this direction. There are fabulous views of the Foupana, and the path as with most of the paths are this walk very easy to stride along. Apart from if you take the shortcut, then you need to find your inner goat again! You will also need a good sense of balance if you need to use the steeping circles to cross the Foupana a short while later. We didn't need to use the stones as this crossing was also dry, but I couldn't resist!
I should probably mention all the flora at this point. It is still a little early for the full glory of Spring here in the Algarve, and so the camera never ended up in macro mode. However there was enough to keep this amateur botanist happy and the bees were certainly very busy amongst it all.
Once across the Foupana it soon became evident why it is better to hike this walk the other way round, there is a steady climb virtually all the way back to the car. Not particularly strenuous, and as the path follows the northern slopes there is lots of Almond Blossom. However you do just climb and climb and climb!
Once at the top there are multiple paths to explore. We decided to take the direct route back, but for a brief moment (ankle forgotten!) we did consider returning via the farm. Fortunately we were sensible as whilst the direct route is not as pretty it is quite quick. And there are some rather fabulous views of the Guadiana.
I know this is a rather long Six Word Saturday but I do hope you have enjoyed this walk. There probably won't be a walk next week as we are back in England for a few days, but I will try to organise a few birding posts whilst we are away.