Posts Tagged ‘scan to digital’

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Natalie Wood Death Investigation Reopened

Monday, November 28th, 2011

30 Years Later, Mysterious Death Of Natalie Wood Reexamined

LA County Sheriffs Aim To Verify Or Overturn Original Ruling Of Accidental Death

The photo seen here (which was taken by photographer Tom Wargacki, and scanned to digital by WireImage) shows actress Natalie Wood with her once-and-future husband, actor Robert Wagner, at the premiere of “The Godfather” in London on August 9, 1972. Nine years later, Wood would die in what was then deemed an accident off Santa Catalina Island. She was 43.

Now, 30 years after her dead, Natalie Wood is back in the spotlight as the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has announced that the investigation into Wood’s drowning has been reopened. One of Hollywood’s most enduring mysteries may be receiving a new – and perhaps final – chapter. It was Thanksgiving weekend of 1981 when Wood went boating off the island with husband Robert Wagner and fellow actor Christopher Walken, on the couple’s 60-foot yacht, named “Splendour.” Somehow, Wood went overboard and drowned. Details remain somewhat unclear. At the time, investigating officials ruled that Wood’s was an accidental death, but there has always been speculation that there was more to the story. Sheriff Lee Baca told the Los Angeles Times that detectives from his department would be questioning the boat’s captain, Dennis Davern, who recently “made comments worthy of exploring” about what happened aboard his boat. According to another law enforcement source, the Sheriff’s Department recently received a communication from a “third party” (who wished to remain anonymous) suggesting that the Captain Davern had “new recollections” that could prove valuable. Davern co-wrote the book “Goodbye Natalie, Goodbye Splendour” in 2010. The book described acrimonious arguments which allegedly took place aboard the boat. Last year Davern also told CNN that the original investigation was “woefully incomplete” in his estimation.

Robert Wagner released a statement in support of the new investigation, via spokesman Alan Nierob. Nierob said that Wagner “trusts they will evaluate whether any new information relating to the death of Natalie Wood Wagner is valid, and that it comes from a credible source or sources other than those simply trying to profit from the 30 year anniversary of her tragic death.”

To see more Natalie Wood photos that have been scanned to digital by the Los Angeles Times, go to LaTimes.

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Richard Nixon’s Grand Jury Testimony Released

Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011

Former President Nixon’s 1975 Watergate Testimony Released

America Hears Nixon’s Side Of The Story

In the photo shown here, which was scanned to digital by the Associated Press, President Richard Nixon points to the transcripts of the White House tapes. The date was April 29, 1974. Three and a half months later, Nixon would resign. And about 7 months after that, Nixon was called to give testimony to a grand jury about Watergate. Last Thursday, transcripts of this testimony were released to the public, allowing Americans to hear for the first time the former president’s under-oath words on the subject. The topics of discussion included the infamous 18½-minute gap on the tapes, the fate of an illegal $100,000 donation Nixon received from Howard Hughes, wiretaps used to spy on Nixon’s staff at the NSC, Nixon’s alleged ordering of an IRS audit of Democratic National Committee Chairman Larry O’Brien, and the assignment of ambassadorships to campaign contributors.

By the time Nixon gave his testimony before the grand jury, 10 months had passed since his resignation. It was June of 1975, and President Gerald Ford had already issued a full pardon for any crimes his now-disgraced predecessor might have committed while in office. Ostensibly, the purpose of the talk with federal attorneys was for former President Nixon to speak candidly about what he knew. Though Nixon was in no danger of incriminating himself, he knew very well that his words might implicate others in his administration who had not received a blanket pardon.

“Because of the presidential pardon, which was terribly difficult for me to take, rather than stand there and fight it out,” said Nixon, “…I can admit anything with impunity, but you are not going to use me to try to nail somebody else simply because I am not guilty of something,” Nixon said. The transcripts depict Nixon as aggressive and antagonistic, often arguing with the federal lawyers and challenging their questions. When asked about the illegal activities oh which he was accused, Nixon stuck with the responses he had given in public statements. Everything he did, said Nixon, had precedents in previous administrations.

To read the complete testimony transcripts, go to Los Angeles Times.

To see more Watergate photos that have been scanned to digital by the Los Angeles Times, visit Los Angeles Times.

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Baseball All-Star Matty Alou Dies At 72

Monday, November 14th, 2011

Matty Alou Dies At 72

Alou Made History As Part Of A Three-Brother Giants Outfield

Matty Alou, the two-time All-Star who was once part of an all-Alou outfield for the San Francisco Giants with brothers Felipe and Jesus, has died at the age of 72 in his home in the Dominican Republic. According to his former Dominican team, the Leones del Escogido, Alou died of diabetes complications. A spokesperson for the Giants confirmed Alou’s death and said that the former outfielder had been dealing with a variety of health issues for several years.

Alou was born in Haina, Dominican Republic, on December 22, 1938. Following his older brother Felipe and other pioneering Dominican baseball players of the late 1950s, Matty was part of the first wave of big leaguers to come from his country. The first photo seen here, which was recently scanned to digital by the Associated Press, shows Matty Alou in Casa Grande, Arizona on March 8, 1962, during Alou’s six-year stint as a San Francisco Giant. The next year, on September 15th, Matty and his two brothers made history when they took the field as the first trio of brothers in baseball history to play in the same outfield. All three Alous were fine hitters, and together they had 5,094 career hits – enough to beat out Joe, Dom and Vince DiMaggio for the best three-brother hitting record of all time.

After playing for the Giants, Matty Alou later played for Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Oakland, the Yankees, and San Diego. In 1966 when playing for the Pirates, Alou was National League batting champion with a batting average of .342. His career average was an impressive .307.

“Although he played for six different teams, Matty remained a part of the Giants family as a longtime employee and will be forever linked with his brothers, Felipe and Jesus, as the first all-brother major league outfield,” a spokesman for the Giants said. Matty Alou is survived by his wife, Maria Teresa, their sons Mateo Jr. and Matias, their daughter Teresa, four grandchildren, and five siblings: brothers Felipe, Jesus, and Jose, and sisters Zula and Virginia.

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Mathematician And Computer Science Pioneer John McCarthy Dies At 84

Wednesday, November 9th, 2011

McCarthy Was Father Of Artificial Intelligence

Also Created Lisp Programming Language, Computer ‘Time-Sharing’

Mathematician and computer science pioneer John McCarthy has died. He was 84. The first photo here, which was scanned to digital by the Stanford News Service, shows McCarthy in 1966, when he and his students programmed a computer to play chess with a computer in the USSR.

In 1956, McCarthy issued a call for research in the field of “Automata Studies,” which he later renamed “artificial intelligence,” coining a phrase that would capture the imaginations of a generation. As host of the first AI conference at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, McCarthy began his seminal role in defining the field. He eventually became known as the father of artificial intelligence for his unmatched strides and career-long devotion to the development of intelligent computers.

John McCarthy taught at a variety of top universities including Princeton and MIT, but did most of his work at Stanford University. One of his major achievements was the creation of Lisp, a programming language used in everything from robotics to credit-card fraud detection, airline scheduling, and other Internet-based services. Practically every current AI program, including the iPhone’s new voice-controlled personal assistant Siri, can be traced back to Lisp, which McCarthy used to create one of the first computer chess programs.

McCarthy also invented the first system of computer “time-sharing,” a networking concept with which we are all familiar today, though we call it by a different name. Time-sharing was basically an early term for server-networking – a means by which many people can access and share data by linking to a central server via a network of computers. Lester Earnest, a retired Stanford senior research scientist who designed the first computer spell-checker, stressed the significance of this innovation. “The Internet would not have happened nearly as soon as it did except for the fact that John initiated the development of time-sharing systems,” he said. “We keep inventing new names for time-sharing. It came to be called servers. Now we call it cloud computing. That is still just time-sharing. John started it.” Ed Feigenbaum, a Stanford emeritus professor of computer science recruited by McCarthy in the 1960s, had equally high praise for his mentor. “He was always focused on the future,” said Feigenbaum, “always inventing, inventing, inventing.”

McCarthy was born in Boston in 1927, to an Irish immigrant father and a Jewish Lithuanian immigrant mother. As a teenager, McCarthy taught himself mathematics and eventually earned an undergraduate degree from Cal Tech in 1948. Just three years later, he had earned a doctorate from Princeton. During his career, he received a variety of major honors including the Association for Computing Machinery’s A.M. Turing Award in 1971 (the highest honor in the field of computer science), the Kyoto Prize in 1988, and the National Medal of Science in 1990.

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Remembering Steve Jobs

Monday, October 31st, 2011

Apple Co-Founder Steve Jobs Dies At 56

Innovative Leader Built World’s Most Valuable Tech Company, Touched Countless Lives

This photo, which was scanned to digital by Apple Inc., shows founder Steve Jobs at the 1977 introduction of the Apple II computer – the first popular home computer, and the first to come with a keyboard and color monitor. The Apple II was also the first of many revolutionary technology products that Steve would bring to the market, forever changing the way we work, create, communicate, learn, and interact with the world. On October 5th, Jobs died after a long battle with a rare form of pancreatic cancer.

Last Tuesday’s somewhat lackluster iPhone 4S announcement was soon put into perspective when it was announced that Apple’s ingenious, charismatic, and much-loved leader had passed away. The company released a statement saying:

We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today. Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve. His greatest love was for his wife, Laurene, and his family. Our hearts go out to them and to all who were touched by his extraordinary gifts.

Jobs, who was only 56 years old, transformed not only the computer industry but also the music industry, the cell phone industry, the portable gaming industry, and more. He left a legacy of blockbuster products such as the original Macintosh computer, the iMac, the iPod, the MacBook – the world’s number-one notebook computer – and of course the ubiquitous iPhone and iPad. Jobs also revolutionized computer animation with Pixar, a company he formed in 1986 after purchasing a small animation firm from Lucasfilm’s effects division, Industrial Light & Magic.

After struggling with health problems for nearly a decade, Jobs resigned his post as Apple’s CEO in August, 35 years after co-founding the company in the garage of his parents’ home in Cupertino, California. Jobs’ story is one of incredible persistence and constant innovation. Forced out of his own company in the mid 1980s, Steve immediately poured himself – and his personal fortune – into two new projects, one of which became Pixar. As his second computer company, NeXT, struggled to get off the ground, Jobs refused to let financial woes and a hesitant Hollywood prevent Pixar from taking off. After the studio’s first feature film “Toy Story” became a monumental success, Pixar went public and Jobs’s money troubles were over; he became a billionaire overnight. Pixar was later bought by Disney for $7.5 billion, making Jobs the biggest shareholder in the entertainment giant.

After years apart from Apple, Steve was brought back in to a struggling Apple in 1996, when he made major changes to the company and eventually was reinstated as CEO. The next year, a near-bankrupt Apple introduced the iMac desktop computer, and the company’s amazing comeback had begun. Apple Inc. is now the most valuable technology company in the world. Jobs truly believed that technology was a tool that should be used not only to crunch numbers, but to unleash creativity and to enrich the lives of people everywhere.

Jobs is survived by his wife, their son Reed Paul, their daughters Erin Sienna and Eve, and his daughter Lisa. To see more Steve Jobs photos that have been scanned to digital by the Los Angeles Times, visit Los Angeles Times.

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Rare Marilyn Monroe Photos Featured In New Book

Wednesday, October 26th, 2011

Lost Marilyn Monroe Photos Document Life On And Off Set

‘Marilyn, August 1953: The Lost Look Photos’ Captures Rare Moments

On November 4th, a new movie called “My Week With Marilyn” hits theaters, starring Michelle Williams as Hollywood’s most iconic beauty, Marilyn Monroe. Her legacy never fading, Marilyn has remained one of the biggest pop and cultural icons for nearly 60 years. Her fans are as enthusiastic as ever, and the American Film Institute recently named her the sixth greatest female star of all time.

The first photo seen here, which was scanned to digital by book publisher Calla Editions, shows a 27-year-old Marilyn posing for a rare portrait with her then-fiancé, baseball legend Joe DiMaggio. The photo is from a recent book called “Marilyn, August 1953: The Lost Look Photos,” which has been receiving enormous press in anticipation of the new movie for its collection of rare, never-before-seen photos.

Taken both on and off the set of the film “River of No Return” in Banff, Alberta, Canada, the photos were captured by Look magazine photographer John Vachon, who was on assignment to photograph Marilyn and other film stars who were filming on location at that time. Three films were being made in Alberta that summer, and the magazine wanted to capture private moments of the stars in that wonderful setting. Already America’s new sweetheart and one of the hottest stars in Hollywood, Marilyn was to be the main feature of the article. She had already appeared twice on the cover of Life magazine.

This was an important time for Monroe, and her role in “River of No Return” was an important career move. She had become a star largely because of the success of “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes,” the musical comedy in which she played a lovable, ditzy, and somewhat dimwitted character that would define much of her career. Her only “serious” dramatic role to date was in the less successful thriller “Niagara,” and Monroe was anxious to prove her abilities as a serious actress. Her performance in “River of No Return” earned her those bragging rights, though she would continue to be typecast as the lovable bimbo in many future films, such as “The Seven Year Itch” and “Some Like It Hot.” Though not the serious acting she wanted to be doing, these films proved Monroe to be one of the all-time great comic actresses.

Vachon worked with Monroe for two weeks, capturing hundreds of photos while the star was on leave from the set for an ankle injury. Only three photos were used in the article, and the rest were hidden away – until now.

To see more book photos that have been scanned to digital, check out the slideshow at the Huffington Post by visiting Huff Post Entertainment.

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Dennis Ritchie, Computer Programming Pioneer, Dies At 70

Thursday, October 20th, 2011

Dennis Ritchie Dies, Father Of C Programming Language

Ritchie Co-Created UNIX, Influenced Entire Computing World

The photo seen here, which was scanned to digital by Bell Labs, shows pioneering computer-scientists Dennis Ritchie (left) and Ken Thompson working on a PDP-11 computer in 1972. A legend in the world of computer programming, Ritchie died last week at the age of 70. The photo below, which was scanned to digital by Wired Magazine, shows Ritchie and Thompson as they receive a National Medal of Technology from President Bill Clinton in 1999.

Dennis Ritchie was the father of the C programming language, and co-developer (with Thompson) of the UNIX operating system, a foundation upon which much of the modern computer world us built. His father Alistair had worked at Bell Labs, and Ritchie joined the company after earning degrees in physics and math at Harvard University. He worked for Bell for his entire career.

Without getting overly technical, it is difficult to fully describe the significance of Ritchie’s work with Thompson at Bell Labs. Together they worked to simplify operating systems, making the software easy to move from one computer to the next. These breakthroughs made possible the open-source sharing of ideas as we know it. Various versions of the C programming language are still used in for web development and other computer tasks that were simply unthinkable when the language was developed un the late 1960s and early 1970s. It is the basis of nearly every programming and scripting tool. The UNIX operating software is the backbone of countless modern operating systems, from the popular open-source Linux, to Apple’s Mac OS X and iOS. Basically, every bit of software that allows you to read this blog has at least a trade of Dennis Ritchie’s legacy in it.

Ritchie’s former coworker and fellow programming legend Rob Pike, who now works at Google, explained the significance of C and UNIX to Wired Magazine. “Pretty much everything on the web uses those two things,” he said. “The browsers are written in C. The UNIX kernel, that pretty much the entire Internet runs on, is written in C. Web servers are written in C, and if they’re not, they’re written in Java or C++, which are C derivatives. Or Python or Ruby, which are implemented in C. Even Windows was once written in C. It’s really hard to overstate how much of the modern information economy is built on the work Dennis did.”

Because Ritchie passed away so soon after Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, many are comparing and contrasting their respective achievements. Although Ritchie was not a household name or a public figure, many experts assert that Ritchie’s contributions were at least as significant as those of better-known figures such as Jobs and Bill Gates. Martin Rinard, who is a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT and a member of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, summed up Jobs’s and Ritchie’s achievements succinctly. “Jobs was the king of the visible,” he said, “and Ritchie was the king of what is largely invisible. Jobs’s genius is that he builds these products that people really like to use because he has taste, and can build things that people really find compelling. Ritchie built things that technologists were able to use to build core infrastructure that people don’t necessarily see much anymore, but they use everyday.”

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NASA Accepting Applications

Monday, October 10th, 2011

NASA Searches For New Class Of Astronauts

Many Will Apply, Few Will Be Selected

The photo seen here, which was scanned to digital by NASA, shows pilot Neil Armstrong standing in front of the X-15 ship #1 on New Year’s Day, 1960, at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center. Little did Armstrong know that nine years later, he would be the first man to walk on the moon, simultaneously becoming a household name all over the world. For many of the 500 million people who watched Armstrong’s first lunar stroll, the event inspired a new dream – that we all might someday have the chance to fly through space, or even explore new worlds. For a very few of us, that dream might come true.

On October 4th 2011, NASA announced that the organization will be accepting applications for a new class of astronaut candidates sometime next month. It’s been over two years since the previous class of astronauts graduated (just 9 people were in that class), and this next class isn’t expected to graduate until 2013, so this announcement is big news for the wannabe astronauts out there – the opportunity doesn’t come along very often. Janet Kavandi, director of flight crew operations at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, delivered a statement saying that “for scientists, engineers, and other professionals who have always dreamed of experiencing spaceflight, this is an exciting time to join the astronaut corps.”

Of course, being an astronaut requires some specialized skills, so the job isn’t open to just anybody. But if you have a bachelor’s degree in engineering, science, or math, and a few years of work experience in a relevant field, NASA will consider your application. Graduate degrees and experience piloting high-performance jet aircraft are also considered plusses. Surprisingly, there is no age limit for applicants, and NASA’s manager for astronaut candidate and training selection Duane Ross told the Los Angeles Times that applicants previously selected for the program have been as young as 24 and as old as 47. But if you’re shorter than 5’2” or taller than 6’3” you’re out of luck. You also need vision that is correctable to 20/20, and healthy blood pressure. Ross said that NASA expects to review both military applicants and civilians.

NASA astronaut training takes at least two years, and is conducted at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Ross said that NASA is not looking to fill a predetermined number of spaces, but that the agency’s goal is to graduate all of the students who are accepted into the program.

To see more classic astronaut photos that have been scanned to digital, visit GRIN.

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R.E.M. Calls It Quits

Thursday, September 29th, 2011

After 31 Years And 15 Records, R.E.M. Calls It A Day

Breakup Is Amicable And Unanimous, Band Members Say

The photo you see here, which was scanned to digital by the Los Angeles Times, shows Southern rock band R.E.M. in its hometown of Athens, Georgia in 1985. From the left are Bill Berry (the band’s original drummer, who retired from the group in 1997), Mike Mills, Peter Buck, and Michael Stipe. Last week, after making music together for some 31 years, R.E.M. issued a brief statement on its website telling fans that the band was calling it quits.

The statement read:

“As R.E.M., and as lifelong friends and co-conspirators, we have decided to call it a day as a band. We walk away with a great sense of gratitude, of finality, and of astonishment at all we have accomplished. To anyone who ever felt touched by our music, our deepest thanks for listening.”

In addition to this group statement, the three original band members (Mills, Buck, and Stipe) wrote individual blurbs outlining their feelings on the band’s dissolution. Mills stressed that the decision to break up came with “no disharmony… no falling-outs, no lawyers squaring-off.” While most bands seem to break up because their members grow apart, R.E.M. may have fallen victim to label politics. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Ethan Kaplan, owner of the R.E.M. fan community “Murmurs” and former VP of emerging technology at Warner Bros Records, suggested that recent changes at the record label probably contributed to the band’s decision. “I think the demands on a band now to get a record out were more than they might have wanted to commit,” he said. “I suspected this was coming….”

In March of this year, R.E.M. released the band’s final record, called “Collapse Into Now,” which received nearly unanimously positive reviews. Los Angeles Times music critic Ann Powers wrote that the album eschewed “current trends,” instead “moving through the R.E.M. cookbook with the focus and precision of an Iron Chef.” Powers called the album a return to form for the band.

The band members have not announced what they plan to do in the next chapter of their lives. To see more classic R.E.M. photos that have been scanned to digital, visit LA Times.

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Tim Burton Has Big Plans For 2012

Wednesday, September 7th, 2011

Tim Burton Turns 53, Makes Lots Of Movies To Celebrate

‘Frankenweenie’ and ‘Dark Shadows’ Slated For 2012 Release

The first photo here, which was scanned to digital by DC Comics, shows director Tim Burton on the set of “Batman” in 1989. If you’re a regular reader of this blog you’ll remember that the Los Angeles County Museum of Art is currently featuring a collection of Burton’s art, including props, costumes, and concept art from his most famous movies (running until October 31st, 2011). Last week marked another big milestone for Burton – his 53rd birthday – and it seems that museum-goers aren’t the only people looking at the director’s past works. Burton is currently overseeing post-production on a feature-length, black-and-white stop-motion film called “Frankenweenie,” based on his breakthrough short film of the same title, which he made 27 years ago.

Both films follow a mad-scientist boy as he tries to revive his beloved dead dog. The new film, which will hit theaters in October of next year, features the voice talents of Burton veterans Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara, Martin Short, and Martin Landau. Clips shown at Disney’s D23 Expo were delightfully imaginative if somewhat creepy, in classic Burton style.

Known for juggling multiple projects at once, Burton in the middle of helming a Warner Bros. film called “Dark Shadows,” which is currently being filmed at Pinewood Studios, outside London. The film is based on a gothic soap opera that aired on ABC from 1966 to 1971, and which Burton lists as a major influence on his trademark mixture of the whimsical and the macabre. The new film will star Burton favorite Johnny Depp, who has starred in half a dozen of the director’s films since the early 1990s. The second photo here, also scanned to digital, shows Burton and Depp in 1990 on the set of their first collaboration, “Edward Scissorhands.” Also starring in “Dark Shadows” are Helena Bonham Carter, Eva Green, and Michelle Pfeiffer. Finally, Burton is also producing the film adaptation of Seth Grahame-Smith’s novel entitled “Abe Lincoln, Vampire Hunter.” For Burton fans, it seems there’s a lot in store for the coming year.

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