Michael Jackson's estate earns $250 million since his death

They say that the money is rolling in and the debt he had built up during his lifetime was finally being paid off.

It would seem that all those people who said Michael Jackson might earn more in death than in life are being proved right.

Like the estates of Elvis Presley and Yves Saint Laurent, Jackson's has grown sharply since he died on June 25, 2009.

Without Jackson's lavish spending sprees, and with the help of new revenue pouring in from nostalgia over the reign of the King of Pop, estate coexecutors John Branca and John McClain have turned around Jackson's finances.

A kingdom that was on the verge of collapse from more than $500 million in debt now looks to be able to support his three children and his mother and donate to children's charities.

The estate has earned more than $250 million in the year since he died. Executors used some of that to pay off $70 million in debt, including the $5 million mortgage on the Jackson family compound in Encino, part of Los Angeles. The interest payments on the remaining debt are now covered by a steady flow of cash

"They're off to a spectacularly good start," said Lance Grode, a former Jackson lawyer and adjunct professor at the University of southern California Law School. He added, however, "there's a long way to go before they pay off all of their debts."

A rundown of deals suggests that Jackson's fortune will be even bigger than could have been realised by a planned series of comeback concerts:

* A posthumous deal to sell unreleased Jackson recordings with Sony Music guaranteed $200 million over seven years. It has already brought $125 million to the estate.

* The film This Is It, based on his final concert rehearsal footage, grossed $252 million worldwide. Sony Pictures paid the estate $60 million in advance, with an undisclosed amount more to come from DVD sales.

* Licensing deals on merchandise sold by Universal Music Group's Bravado unit and a new dance game by Ubisoft Entertainment brought in $26 million in advances. More is possible if unit sales are high.

* The Mijac Music catalogue of copyrights, on songs that Jackson wrote, generated $25 million in the past year, thanks to heavy airplay on radio stations and song and album sales.

* Music publisher Sony/ATV, the copyright holder of the Beatles' and other artists' songs, posted double-digit percentage revenue gains in the year through March. That netted Jackson's estate, which owns a 50 per cent stake, $11 million.

* Other income, including from a re-release of Jackson's autobiography, Moon Walk, and sales of commemorative tickets to his cancelled concerts, brought in another $25 million.

The tally does not include a deal with Cirque du Soleil for shows inspired by Jackson's music, in which the estate will share half the costs and profits when the performances begin in late 2011. Nor does it account for a deal in the works to nearly double the estate's income from Sony/ATV. That cash goes to pay down most of Jackson's remaining debt.

According to Mr Branca, coexecutor, and Jackson's longtime lawyer and business manager, the new deals follow a script the two set out shortly before the singer died.
"When I met with him before he died we went through an agenda. John (McClain) and I are really executing on that," Mr Branca said. "We're doing the things we think Michael would have wanted."

Several people have been paid for overdue bills after spending years trying to track the singer down. Others who haven't yet been paid say they have been treated professionally by the estate; a night and day change from his old regime.
"We couldn't (collect) until unfortunately he passed away," said Joseph Akhtarzad, a Jackson family friend who owns the Santa Monica-based Video & Audio Center. Last month, the estate settled a $128,429 tab with Akhtarzad for electronics goods owed since 2007.

Thomas Mesereau, who successfully defended Jackson in his 2005 child molestation trial, said the estate recently paid his law firm $341,452 for services provided after the trial, when Jackson moved to Bahrain. The firm revived its claim in September because it gave up dealing with Jackson's previous managers.

If Elvis is any example, a moderate level of earnings could flow into Jackson's estate for decades.
Sony Music said more than 31 million Jackson albums have sold worldwide since he died, a stratospheric number for a music industry in decline.

With 8.3 million albums sold in North America, he was the top-selling artist in 2009, easily topping Taylor Swift's 4.6 million. It marked the most albums sold in a year since Usher topped 8 million in 2004, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
Even since the start of this year, Jackson songs have been played on the radio in the US and Canada 140,000 times, about 10 times the pace before he died, according to Nielsen. Nearly a million Jackson albums have sold this year and a new album of unreleased material is set to hit stores in November, roughly in tandem with a new video game in which fans can mimic his signature moves.

"In the year that Michael has gone, we realise how incredibly talented he was," said Marty Bandier, the chief executive of Sony/ATV. "The guy was the King of Pop and more."

Top 10 Hilarious Viruses, Trojans and Worms

Virus, Trojan, Worm – the very words conjure up crossbones and skulls, the symbol of danger. These malicious programs are the scourge of the Internet, the proof that every innovative and useful technology has an equivalent downside – one that has the most adverse consequences at times. They steal your passwords, corrupt your files memory and OS, open backdoors to your systems, install quirky programs that replicate and spread, and generally cause your computer to behave abnormally.

But there was a time not so long ago when viruses were written just for the fun of it – not to create any real harm, but rather to see if they worked. The creators were usually extremely clever young programmers who spent most of their time in front of their computers. Though the files spread rapidly from one system to another, all they did was produce some funny faces or a cascade of raindrops on your screen. But then, these form just a drop in the ocean of malware that roams through the Internet.

While the consequences of these deadly programs are certainly no laughing matter, there are a few of them that bring an inadvertent smile to your face by virtue of their names, by the graphics they display on execution, or just by the sheer newsworthiness of their exploits. Here are the 10 viruses, Trojans, and worms that caused a little anxiety, some humorous moments, and a lot of confusion.

1. The "Very Funny" or "I Love You" Virus: This one hit the Internet in the year 2000 and corrupted image and music files on user systems. Identified initially by the words "I love you" or "Joke: Very Funny" in the subject line of an email, the virus was later passed around as newer, more malicious versions that overwrote important files needed to boot the computer. These masqueraded as Mother's Day messages or Lithuanian flirting techniques – some email came with the tag "Let's meet for a cup of coffee," in Lithuanian, of course. Bolder versions took advantage of the scare created by their predecessors, and pretended to be representatives from anti-virus software providers. They asked users to execute the attachment to eradicate all viruses from their computers!

2. The HPS Virus: The first of its kind written for the Windows 98 OS, this virus took its name from a dreaded disease transmitted by rats. Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS) is known to cause acute respiratory distress in the human body, but its digital namesake was nowhere near as harmful. If present on your system, the HPS virus went into action on Saturdays and flipped over uncompressed bitmaps horizontally. In plain English, it produced a mirror image of your screen. An interesting snippet about this virus: HPS hit the Web in early 1998,even before the Windows 98 operating system was available for commercial use.

3. The Stoned or Marijuana Virus: A virus belonging to the stone age of the computer era, this one infected the early DOS systems through floppy disks. First seen in New Zealand in 1988, the original version did not cause any real damage; it simply displayed the message, "Your computer is stoned. Legalize Marijuana" on your screen. However the 90 odd variants of the stoned virus (with names as random as Donald Duck, Hawaii, Rostov, Smithsonian, StonedMutation and more) did do considerable damage to the Master Boot Record and File Allocation Table in your hard disk.


4. The PolyPoster Virus: Remember how your talking parrot could embarrass you no end if you had any secrets to hide? Well, this virus took on where Polly left off. Known as a macro virus, the PolyPoster not only infected your MS Word files, it posted them to public Usenet newsgroups without your knowledge, under the tempting title "Important Monica Lewinsky Info." The virus strayed into the computers of all those who read these documents, which explains the Lewinsky connection – the virus writer obviously hoped to capitalize on the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal that dominated headlines in 1998. Popular discussion groups that played host to your most confidential and personal documents (thanks to the PolyPoster virus) were alt.sex.stories, alt.hacker, alt.binaries.pictures.erotica, alt.fan.hanson, alt.windows95 and alt.skinheads.


5. The Caric-A Worm: Former US president Bill Clinton provided a lot of fodder for the gossip mills during his tenor at the White House, and as late as 2002 as this famous worm proved. Also known as the Bill Clinton and the MyLife-B worm, this malicious program was activated after opening an email's attachment and displayed a cartoon of Clinton playing the saxophone equipped with a bra popping out of the sax's mouth. The writers of this worm tried to be clever by adding a line to the end of the email, supposedly from anti-virus vendor McAfee, which claimed the email contained no viruses.


6. The Wurmark Worm: Appearing on the Internet in 2005, the Wurmark-F worm was disguised as a picture of a funny looking old man. Once inside your computer, the worm installed a Trojan, which in turn allowed remote hackers to take control of your infected system. Your computer was then at their beck and call and used to propagate the worm further along the Web. The worm also deleted files randomly from your system, and mailed itself to all your Outlook contacts, using your mail id.


7. The Brain Virus: The brainchild of two Pakistani brothers in 1986, this virus was not meant to be a virus at all. The siblings had written it with the intent to protect their medical software from being pirated. It ended up being the first ever virus to infect the PC. Known by various names, including Lahore, Pakistani, Pakistani Brain, Brain-A, UIUC, Ashar, and Pakistani flu, this pretty-large virus affected the boot sector, changed the disk label to (c)Brain, and displayed the text:

Welcome to the Dungeon (c) 1986 Brain & Amjads (pvt) Ltd VIRUS_SHOE RECORD V9.0 Dedicated to the dynamic memories of millions of viruses who are no longer with us today - Thanks GOODNESS!! BEWARE OF THE er..VIRUS : this program is catching program follows after these messages....$#@%$@!!

in affected boot sectors. It also ate up 7 KB of storage space and slowed down the floppy drive. Perhaps the duo were telling the truth when they said they meant no harm, because they gave out their names, address, and phone numbers in another similar message, asking those affected to contact them for a vaccine. Following a spate of irate calls from the United States and other western countries, they had to resort to a change in number!


8. The Skulls Trojan horse: The rapid advances in the field of mobile technology meant that the malware guys were not far behind. The year 2004 saw this Trojan horse unleashed on Nokia smartphones that ran the Symbian operating system. Users infected with Skulls A found their screen icons replaced with ominous skulls and crossbones, and their handsets being reduced to mere telephones. They could only make and receive calls, other smart functions were disabled. Skulls or Skulls A spawned a series of alphabetical versions, like B, C and L each affecting the phones in a different manner. Version B rendered the phone almost useless just like A, but did not display skulls; C tried to disable the F-Secure anti-virus software; L was probably the most dangerous version – it pretended to be the F-Secure mobile anti-virus solution. All versions of the Trojan snuck the Cabir worm into the phones. This proof-of-concept malware for mobile phones spread through Bluetooth connections and used up the handset's battery power by constantly searching for other devices with open Bluetooth connections to infect.


9. The Mosquito Trojan horse: The Symbian OS was the target of another bug in 2004 – this time, the Mosquito Trojan. In another instance of an anti-piracy measure, the software infected phones when they downloaded illegal copies of Mosquito, a game designed for mobile smartphones. Once resident on the handsets, the Trojan sent out text messages at exorbitant costs to premium numbers in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, without the knowledge of its users. Vaccinating this one was easy – all those infected had to do was uninstall the game, which I'm sure they would have done once they saw their sky-high phone bills.


10. The Cuebot-K Worm: Microsoft and controversy seem to go hand in hand. The software giant came in for some harsh criticism for its anti-piracy software, Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA). Users not only claimed that it was a form of spyware, they also alleged that it opened up their systems to malware via the Internet. The company issued an update to appease irate users, but to add to Microsoft's troubles, virus writers took advantage of this, and came up with the Cuebot-K worm. This 2006 program spread through the Web pretending to be the said update, and landed up in mailboxes supposedly from known AOL contacts. It launched itself when the system booted, and horror of horrors, displayed a message that removal or stoppage of the service would result in system instability. Hiding behind the "Windows Genuine Advantage Validation Notification" name, the worm opens up a backdoor to allow in hackers who then take control of user systems.

In this day and age, malware is no longer harmless. Hackers are at it with a vengeance - they want money more than fame. With more at stake, it is imperative that you protect your computer from the huge volume of malicious software that is unleashed on the Internet every day. Installing the best anti-virus program and keeping up to date with your security patches are not going be enough though – you have to be savvy enough to dodge the bugs that do get past your security software. As this list would have taught you, no attachments are perfectly safe and links embedded in emails are always risky propositions. Keep your wits about you, and use them when it really matters to keep your system free from infection.

LEAKED: MERCEDES SLS AMG E-CELL ELECTRIC SUPERCAR

Mom Gets Tattoo That Has Dead Son’s Ashes In Ink

Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust. Mother has dead son’s ashes inserted ‘Back where they came from.’

Grieving mother Kim Mordue will carry a part of her tragic son with her forever, after having tattoos made from his ashes. The 50-year-old mixed the remains with ink to create these designs on her body as a lasting tribute to her son, Lloyd Evans who died three years ago. Kim said: “I’ve put Lloyd back where he started, he’s in my body again. As soon as I knew it was possible, I wanted to have the ashes tattoos as a tribute to him. Now, he’ll be with me for the rest of my life.

“Everyone has been very positive about my tattoos. My friends and family love it. I think that it will catch on.” Kim, of Llanelli, Dyfed, was heartbroken when Lloyd, 24, died on a night out after taking party drug GHB. An inquest recorded a verdict of misadventure. The tattoos, a cabala tree, an angel releasing a butterfly and a poem dedicated to her son, were drawn by Kim’s husband David who runs his own parlor.

Kim also hopes they will highlight the dangers of drugs. She said: “Losing a child to drugs is the worst nightmare a parent can have.”

Jesus will return by 2050, say 40 % of Americans

Americans are largely optimistic about the future, according to the poll from the Pew Research Center For The People and The Press/Smithsonian Magazine.
By mid century, 71 per cent believe cancer will be cured, 66 per cent say artificial limbs will work better than real ones and 81 per cent believe computers will be able to converse like humans.

But Americans are also braced for a major energy crisis and a warming planet, according to the survey. More than half, or 58 per cent, fear another world war in the next 40 years and 53 per cent expect a terrorist attack against the United States using a nuclear weapon.

The poll also shows a sharp dip in overall optimism from 1999, when 81 per cent said they were optimistic about life for themselves and their families. The current poll found just 64 per cent were.

Sixty-one percent said they were optimistic about the future of the United States, compared to 70 percent in 1999. And 56 percent predicted the US economy would be stronger in 40 years, compared to 64 percent of those polled in 1999.
The results were compiled from telephone and online interviews with 1,546 adults in April. The margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points, according to Pew.

Here are some other findings of the poll:
• 71 per cent believe cancer will be cured by 2050.
• 81 per cent believe computers will be able to converse like humans.
• 68 per cent of those under 30 predict a world war by 2050.
• 53 per cent say ordinary people will travel in space
• Nearly three-quarters, or 74 per cent, of those polled believe it likely that "most of our energy will come from sources other than coal, oil, and gas".
• Yet 72 per cent believe the world is likely to experience a major worldwide energy crisis by 2050.
• 66 per cent say the Earth will definitely or probably get warmer but it breaks down strongly along political lines, with just 48 per cent of Republicans saying so and 83 per cent of Democrats.
• 42 per cent say it is likely that scientists will be able to tell what people are thinking by scanning their brains but 55 say this will definitely or probably not happen.
• 89 per cent believe a woman will be elected US president by 2050.
• 86 per cent say it is at least probable that most Americans will have to work into their 70s before retiring.
• 41 per cent say Jesus Christ will return within the next 40 years while 46 per cent say this will definitely or probably not happen.
• 63 per cent anticipate the demise of paper money
• 61 per cent say almost no one will send letters by 2050.
• 31 per cent expect the planet will be struck by an asteroid.

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5 Ways Apple's iOS 4 Breathes New Life Into iPhone

Like clockwork, Apple has once again offered up numerous improvements to the iPhone's software in a June release. Although all eyes were on the new iPhone 4 at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference two weeks ago, the new smartphone would be just a stylish chunk of stainless steel and glass without iOS 4, the new operating system that arrives today.

For the last couple of weeks, I've been running Apple's newly minted iOS 4 to find out whether it, like previous OS updates before it, breathes new life into the iPhone line-up.



While the overall look and feel of the iPhone's operating system remains unchanged, Apple has built in steady and solid improvements that add features users have asked for since the last big update a year ago. Instead of changing things for their own sake, Apple tends to focus each major iOS release on a few, well-implemented features. This year's release -- which iPad users will get this fall -- shows that the development teams at Apple have delivered, among other things, limited multitasking for third-party applications, better application sorting and management, and improved e-mail functions. The end result is an updated operating system that makes using the iPhone a much more polished experience, all without sacrificing battery life.

The fourth iteration of the iPhone's OS is supported by the iPhone 4 (which arrives on Thursday); last year's iPhone 3GS; and, to a lesser extent, the iPhone 3G that arrived in 2008. Recent iPod touch models are also supported. If you're still using the original iPhone from 2007, or the first iPod touch, you won't be able to run iOS 4

Although Apple likes to tout "100 new features" in iOS 4 on its Web site, only a handful of them will stand out for most users. It's great that you can change you home screen wallpaper, send gift apps to your friends and create custom playlists right on your phone, but those aren't the big improvements to arrive this year. (And while FaceTime video chat got a lot of attention two weeks ago, that's more about the new hardware than the iOS 4 software. I'll have more to say about that when I review the iPhone 4.)

With the focus now on iOS 4, here are the five changes that should persuade you to get the upgrade as soon as you can.

Multitasking

Finally, third-party multitasking has arrived for the iPhone -- at least for the owners of the iPhone 3GS and the new iPhone arriving this week. (iPhone 3G users won't be able to take advantage of the new multitasking services.) And you'll be happy to learn that Apple's implementation of the feature works pretty well.

True, it's not the full-on multitasking you get in Mac OS X. But Apple has smartly implemented seven separate services that allow applications to continue to perform tasks while the user switches to another application. The reason for the limit? To help keep battery life intact.

The multitasking services include: background audio, which means users can play music from Pandora in the background while using other apps; background voice-over-IP, so Skype users can remain on their call -- even if they switch to other apps; background location, which allows apps that use GPS to track where you are; push notifications, which were first introduced in last year's iPhone 3 OS; local notifications, a service that can track and alert application events without relying on Apple's push notification servers; task finishing, so uploading photos to Flickr isn't interrupted just because you switch to another app; and fast app switching, which quickly saves the app's current state when you switch away to something else -- and brings it right back to where you left off when the app is relaunched.

To aid in switching to other apps quickly, Apple adjusted the iPhone's functionality so that a double-tap of the Home button calls up an app switcher, featuring the four most recently used apps. A swipe on the touchscreen to the right right reveals audio controls and a screen rotation lock; a swipe to the left reveals more recently-used applications. Tapping and holding allows you to manually kill running apps, if you're so inclined.

With these seven services, Apple offers the multi-tasking basics iPhone users will want from third-party multitasking. Now it's up to developers to implement these changes in their apps.

Better application management

It's amazing how the addition of folders in iOS 4 can make the difference between a frustrating user experience and a pleasant one. Until now, users have been forced to launch applications by either swiping through pages of apps, or by resorting to a Spotlight search.

For my own part, I had 11 pages full of applications -- the natural limit of apps that can be displayed on the iPhone. Sometimes, different apps that did much the same thing each had a feature or two I really liked, but I had no way to group them together. As a result, they filled up all 11 pages -- crowding out other apps I might want.



With iOS 4, I've gone from 11 home screens to two, since I can now organize applications in folders, each of which can hold 12 apps. According to Apple, you can now house 2160 apps if you utilize all of the folder space. Now that the home screen is much more manageable, I have room to grow -- and I'm interested again in exploring new iPhone apps. And given that the App store now has more than 200,000 individual applications, the change is good for users and developers alike.

Apple's implementation of this feature is slick, yet obvious. To create a folder, tap and hold on an app icon until the apps begin to wiggle. Once in this state, drag and drop an app on top of another app, and a folder is instantly created, the iPhone background sliding away to reveal a storage area. Folders are automatically named using app genres, which you can modify.

One addition that would make this even better: an option to password protect folders. As much as I enjoy sharing my iPhone with curious passers-by or over-excited goddaughters, I would appreciate it even more if I knew certain data on the device couldn't be readily accessed by anyone poking around. Just sayin'.

Better Enterprise support

Apple continues to improve enterprise support with this update. Exchange 2010 now works with iOS 4, and the iPhone now can sync calendar, contacts and e-mail with more than one Exchange account.

Security has improved as well, as the iPhone now uses the device's passcode as an encryption key, and Apple has introduced new APIs developers can use that focus specifically on making sure private data stays private.



Also of note, iOS 4 allows enterprises to securely host and distribute in-house apps over the air without forcing users to connect with iTunes on their host computers. Another notable feature for enterprise users: support for SSL VPN security.

While iOS 4 still does not support FIPS 140-2-certified encryption (a standard some government agencies require), or over-the-air software updates (for better IT management), the iOS 4 enhancements will definitely be appreciated by IT departments. It's another step by Apple that could convince holdouts using the entrenched Blackberry platform that it's time to open up their systems to the iPhone.

The little things

iOS 4 is filled to the brim with small enhancements to the interface and built-in applications that will delight users. For instance, with iOS 4, the iPhone 3GS can now refocus video -- while recording -- with a simple tap on the screen. Tap-to-focus has been around for still photos since version 3, but the ability to refocus on the fly for video is a new feature for the iPhone.

Speaking of camera improvements, digital zoom has been enabled for use when snapping photos on older models, such as the 3GS. While a digital zoom is no substitute for optical zoom -- go too far and your pictures can get pixelated -- I'm willing to bet many users will find this truly useful.

The Photos app now supports Faces and Places, two features found in Apple's iPhoto software. Faces can track photos based on an person's facial features, while Places supports geo-tagging information, grouping photos by location on a map. Both will help iPhone users better organize and sift through their photos.

The iPod music software has also gotten some minor tweaks. For instance, in iPhone OS 3.x, the Album view listed a Shuffle option first, and then featured a simple song list. iOS 4, on the other hand, displays more information when a specific album is selected, including album art, release date, song count and overall length, plus a Shuffle button -- all at the top of an album's song list. The list of songs in the Album view displays more information, too, including a subtle gray coloring behind song titles; a track number; a speaker icon indicating which song is playing; and track length in minutes.

Mail now supports e-mail threads, storing e-mails with similar subject lines in a unified list, allowing for better conversation tracking. And the Mail app now supports a Unified Inbox, allowing you to keep track of all of your e-mail inboxes in a central location.

Other miscellaneous enhancements include the aforementioned on-the-fly playlist creation; external bluetooth keyboard support (similar to what's in the iPad); Game Center for gamers; Location Services control on a per-app basis; the addition of Bing as a search option; Calendar support for iCal birthdays; support for iBooks, including newly added PDF, notes, bookmarks, and automatic remembering of your spot across multiple devices like iPhones and iPad; new luscious home screen wallpapers that should look stunning on the new iPhone 4's retina Display screen; character count in the SMS app; and finally Internet tethering support from AT&T.

A side note on tethering: Normally, this would be included as a major feature, if not for the fact that it's crippled by AT&T's pricing structure, or the fact that this feature has been out for more than a year for iPhones on better carriers. Thanks, AT&T.

Hundreds of new APIs for developers



While I've focused here mainly on user-facing features that arrive with iOS 4, there are hundreds of back-end improvements that will allow developers to produce even better apps for both the iPhone and the iPad. Just a few examples of features developers can add to their apps include: iPod remote control accessories; in-app SMS messaging; spell check; photo library access; Quick Look for document viewing; full map overlays; access to still and video camera data; access to date and address data detectors; and access to Calendar data.



In other words, if you appreciate the breadth and depth of the still-growing number of applications in the App Store, you can expect them to get better as developers adopt these new functions and add them into their apps.

Final thoughts

iOS 4 offers a number of compelling reasons for users to upgrade, featuring performance and app enhancements that are well worth the price. That price? Free for all of the hardware that can run it (even for the iPod touch). Upgrading should be simple: Plug your iPhone or iPod touch into your Mac, launch iTunes, and click Check for new software. Follow the prompts and you'll soon be ready to see for yourself.

Is iOS 4 the pinnacle of smartphone technology? Of course not; there is still much room for improvement. (For starters, an organized notification screen for alerts would be really useful.) But the new features and tweaks in this update -- in concert with the fact that Apple is giving the software away -- make this upgrade a no-brainer.