Shamed rocker vies for comeback

Former British glam rocker Gary Glitter, who is serving a jail sentence in Vietnam for molesting two girls, plans to return to singing after being released in August, state-run media reported.

Glitter said in an interview with the Cong An Nhan Dan (People's Public Security) newspaper that he would like to make another record.

"I have an incomplete album that I want to finish," the 64-year-old disgraced rocker was quoted as saying. "I have been thinking about the plan during my days in jail."

Glitter, whose real name is Paul Francis Gadd, was convicted in March 2006 of committing "obscene acts with children." The incidents involved two Vietnamese girls aged 10 and 11 from the southern coastal city of Vung Tau.

Glitter is also considering moving to Singapore or Hong Kong once he is released, the newspaper said on its website.

"I am trying to contact my lawyer and friends to see where the best place to live is," it quoted him as saying.

Glitter is in good health although he has a small problem with his hearing, according to the newspaper, run by Vietnam's Public Security Ministry.

Le Thanh Kinh, Glitter's attorney, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Earlier this year, Hong Kong's South China Morning Post newspaper reported that Glitter did not want to return to Britain because he would be listed on the country's sex offenders' registry.

A Hong Kong Immigration Department spokesman said Tuesday that there are no regulations barring convicted sex offenders from entering the territory, but that every entrant is subject to examination on a case-by-case basis.

Glitter's three-year jail sentence in Vietnam was cut by three months for good behaviour during festivities for the Lunar New Year, known as Tet, last year. He is due to complete his sentence in August.

He was convicted in Britain in 1999 of possessing child pornography and served half of a four-month jail term.

He later went to Cambodia but was expelled from that country in 2002. Cambodian officials did not specify a crime or file charges against him.

Glitter hit his musical peak in the 1970s. His crowd-pleasing anthem "Rock and Roll (Part 2)" is still played at many sporting events.

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American Museum of Natural History reinstalls Neanderthal mural after decades

NEW YORK - A mural depicting Neanderthal life that hasn't been displayed in decades is being reinstalled at the American Museum of Natural History.

"The Neanderthal Flint Workers" is scheduled to be put in place Wednesday morning.

Artist Charles Knight completed the 3 1/2-metre wide and 2 1/2-metre high mural in 1926 for the Hall of the Age of Man, and it was displayed until the 1960s.

It was in storage until a couple of years ago and has since been cleaned and restored.

The last Knight mural to be reinstalled was "Cro-Magnon Artists," which was put in place in 2002.

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Denver man's real, live alien video being saved for a documentary

(image courtesy Dirk HR Spennemann)

The Rocky Mountain News (thanks io9) reported yesterday that there's a guy in Denver who claims to have video of a living extraterrestrial, but he's not showing it because he wants to save it for his movie.

Jeff Peckman is the same guy who is attempting to set up an Extraterrestrial Affairs Commission in Denver -- ostensibly to allow us to prepare for the inevitable encounter. If you read the ABC News article linked in the previous sentence, you'll see that Peckman even got a professor from Colorado Film School to "authenticate" the footage. That's right, a certified movie expert thinks this is the real thing. 

(Amusingly, the quote ABC news gets from Prof. Jerry Hoffman is somewhat more equivocal:  "If this was faked, it's the most elaborate fake I've ever seen," he said. "This is no 29-cent puppet." But, er, isn't every hot new UFO video the most elaborate one we've seen? If you were just showing spinning pie plates, it'd be hard to get much attention.)

As someone who's written about UFO hoaxes before, I find it very difficult to take anything like this seriously. If there were actual indisputable alien footage, it would be simultaneously the most incredible scientific discovery in history and the most explosive news story of all time. Scientists, reporters and governments the world over would be clamoring to analyze it. At that point, it seems unlikely that it would be within one UFO believer's power to keep it secret.   

UPDATE: This is apparently a still from the video in question. It just so happens to portray the alien peering into someone's window.  What could be more recognizably, uninspiredly E.T. than that?

It's guffaw-worthy that the reason he gives for sitting on this bombshell is that he's embroiled in movie talks: "No one will be allowed to film the segment with the extraterrestrial because there is an agreement in place limiting that kind of exposure during negotiations for the documentary," Peckman told the RMN. 

Forget just putting it up online and letting everyone judge for themselves. Eveyone knows you can't make money on YouTube! Even with a real live alien that looks better than a 29-cent puppet.

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Blunt is critical of Spears' media treatment

Singer James Blunt has hit out at the media for reporting on Britney Spears' personal life and habits rather than her music.
In an interview with the New York Daily News, Blunt described Spears as a "phenomenal artist", before criticising the media for reporting on the fact that she was photographed wearing no underwear.
"I think when you put the emphasis on her knickers and not on her talent, you lose perspective," he said.
"It really detracts, as a whole, from things that are really important, like global warming and war."
"Sending paparazzi to investigate things like this is useless. We're better than that; we have the power to teach and educate. Let's spend our time on that."