FlyDLUX: E. Khashoggi/Simon Hodson update... Earthshell cracking financially.

This via Kelly Carson of The Examiner:

BALTIMORE - A Baltimore manufacturer is facing financial meltdown after it was unable to find additional funding on Friday.

EarthShell Corp., a publicly traded company on the Over the Counter Bulletin Board under the symbol ERTH, said in a release that it would be unable to meet its payroll and other financial obligations after Friday because of the funding shortfall.

"The company has not been able to secure the resources to complete our mission at this time," company chairman and chief executive Vincent J. Truant said in a statement.

Data compiled by the financial research firm Morningstar shows that major shareholder Essam Khashoggi and E. Khashoggi Industries LLC began dumping blocks of shares in the company last month. Shareholder Lavla Khashoggi also sold blocks of EarthShell stock throughout November.

Essam Khashoggi, who is chairman of E. Khashoggi Industries LLC, resigned as chairman of EarthShell's board of directors in July 2005. He held the position since the company was founded in November 1992.

The shareholders sold a combined portfolio of more than 65,000 shares at prices ranging from $1.55 per share to $1.33 per share. Late Friday, shares of EarthShell were trading on the OTCBB at 29 cents per share. Its 52-week high was $2.30 per share and its 52-week low was 23 cents per share.

Calls to Truant, chief financial officer D. Scott Houston and company spokeswoman Cindy Eikenberg were not returned.

EarthShell manufactures and markets paper products for the food-packaging industry. At the beginning of the year, the company had six employees.

In its reports to the Securities Exchange Commission, EarthShell said it is involved in litigation involving two equipment vendors seeking to collect about $600,000 for manufacturing equipment for the company's facility in Goettingen, Germany.

The company also reported to the SEC this year that it has suffered "significant losses since inception, has minimal revenues and has a working capital deficit of $11,458,467" at the end of last year.

Another one of Simon Hodson's shell games coming to a close. What will that kooky millionaire do next?
--
/mark "rizzn" hopkins
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What Happened to the WWII Type of Movie Stars

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE WW II TYPE OF MOVIE STARS

Hope you find this as informative as I did. In contrast to the ideals, opinions and feelings of today's "Hollywonk" the real actors of yester-year loved the United States. They had both class and integrity. With the advent of World War II many of our actors went to fight rather than stand and rant against this country we all love.

They gave up their wealth, position and fame to become service men & women, many as simple "enlisted men".

This page lists but a few, but from this group of only 18 men came over 70 medals in honor of their valor, spanning from Bronze Stars, Silver Stars, Distinguish Service Cross', Purple Hearts and one Congressional Medal of Honor.

So remember; while the "Entertainers of 2006" have been in all of the news media lately I would like to remind the people of what the entertainers of 1943 were doing, (63 years ago).

Most of these brave men have since passed on.

"Real Hollywood Heroes"


Alec Guinness (Star Wars) operated
a British Royal Navy landing craft on D-Day.



James Doohan ("Scotty" on Star Trek)
landed in Normandy with the U. S. Army on D-Day.


Donald Pleasance (The Great Escape) really was an R. A. F.
pilot who was shot down, held prisoner and tortured by the Germans.


David Niven was a Sandhurst graduate and
Lt. Colonel of the British Commandos in Normandy.


James Stewart Entered the Army Air Force
as a private and worked his way to the rank of Colonel.
During World War II, Stewart served as a bomber
pilot, his service record crediting him with leading
more than 20 missions over Germany, and
taking part in hundreds of air strikes during his tour of duty.
Stewart earned the Air Medal, the Distinguished Flying
Cross, France's Croix de Guerre,and 7 Battle Stars during World War II.
In peace time, Stewart continued to be an active
member of the Air Force as a reservist, reaching
the rank of Brigadier General before retiring in the late 1950s.


Clark Gable (Mega-Movie Star when war broke out)
Although he was beyond the draft age at the time the
U.S entered WW II, Clark Gable enlisted as
a private in the AAF on Aug. 12, 1942 at Los Angeles.
He attended the Officers' Candidate School at
Miami Beach, Fla. and graduated as a second lieutenant on Oct 28, 1942.
He then attended aerial gunnery school and in Feb. 1943
he was assigned to the 351st Bomb Group at Polebrook
where flew operational missions over Europe in B-17s.
Capt. Gable returned to the U.S. in Oct. 1943 and was relieved
from active duty as a major on Jun. 12, 1944 at his
own request, since he was over-age for combat.


Charlton Heston was an Army
Air Corps Sergeant in Kodiak.



Ernest Borgnine was a U. S.
Navy Gunners Mate 1935-1945.


Charles Durning was a U. S.
Army Ranger at Normandy
earning a Silver Star and
awarded the Purple Heart.

Charles Bronson was a tail gunner
in the Army Air Corps, more
specifically on B-29's in the 20th
Air Force out of Guam, Tinian, and Saipan



George C. Scott was
a decorated U. S. Marine.


Eddie Albert (Green Acres TV)
was awarded a Bronze
Star for his heroic action
as a U. S. Naval officer aiding
Marines at the horrific battle on the
island of Tarawa in the Pacific Nov. 1943.



Brian Keith served as a
U.S. Marine rear gunner in
several actions against the
Japanese on Rabal in the Pacific.


Lee Marvin was a U.S Marine
on Saipan during the
Marianas campaign when he was
wounded earning the Purple Heart.


John Russell: In 1942, he
enlisted in the Marine Corps
where he received a battlefield
commission and was wounded and
highly decorated for valor at Guadalcanal.

Robert Ryan was a U. S. Marine
who served with the O. S. S. in Yugoslavia.


Tyrone Power (an established
movie star when Pearl Harbor
was bombed) joined the
U.S. Marines, was a pilot
flying supplies into, and wounded
Marines out of, Iwo Jima and Okinawa.



Audie Murphy, little 5'5" tall 110 pound
guy from Texas who played cowboy parts:

Most Decorated serviceman of WWII and earned: Medal of Honor, Distinguished Service Cross, 2 Silver Star Medals, Legion of Merit, 2 Bronze Star Medals with "V", 2 Purple Hearts, U.S. Army Outstanding Civilian Service Medal, Good Conduct Medal, 2 Distinguished Unit Emblems, American Campaign Medal, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with One Silver Star, Four Bronze Service Stars (representing nine campaigns) and one Bronze Arrowhead (representing assault landing at Sicily and Southern France) World War II Victory Medal Army of Occupation Medal with Germany Clasp, Armed Forces Reserve Medal, Combat Infantry Badge, Marksman Badge with Rifle Bar, Expert Badge with Bayonet Bar, French Fourragere in Colors of the Croix de Guerre, French Legion of Honor, Grade of Chevalier, French Croix de Guerre With Silver Star, French Croix de Guerre with Palm, Medal of Liberated France, Belgian Croix de Guerre 1940 Palm.

So how do you feel the real heroes of the silver screen acted when compared to the hollywonks today who spray out anti-American drivel as they bite the hand that feeds them?� Can you imagine these stars of yester-year saying they hate our flag, making anti-war speeches, marching in anti-American parades and saying they hate our president?

I thought not, ...... neither did I!

2005 VMA Wrap-up

Well, howdy do everyone.  I feel like I’ve been in another world the last few days, not so much because covering the VMA stuff is so exciting, but because I’ve basically not slept this entire weekend.  OK, that’s not true, I slept about 10 hours since Thursday.  I can tell the folks at the office were a little upset I walked in at about 1:30pm, but hey, I gotta do what I gotta do.

Ricky got a good deal of great photos, and we’ll likely be posting them here on the site within the next few days.  I made a few really good contacts on the press line (a big howdy to Monica and Dennis if you happen to read this).

I found out something quite interesting this weekend.. being a blogger is the new uber-hip thing!  I know no one actually reads this thing, so I feel pretty safe in saying this … if you want access to celebrities at these types of events, all you have to do is tell the PR person you’re a blogger!  On Friday evening, I got an all access pass to an event hosted by Carmen Electra for free (Louis XIV played a set). It was about as boring as any other party I’ve ever been to, but the point is I got a $700 pass for free.

Journalistically, of course the highlight of the weekend was Suge getting shot (although had he not been shot, a lot of other good celebs would have shown up – OJ Simpson, Jamie Foxx and Jeremy Piven were rumored to be on their way).  I’ve got a pretty good run down of what happenned there in this blog entry, but in my sleep-deprived haze I forgot to mention that the police were launching tear-gas gimmicks into the crowd to get us to back away from Yusef when they were arresting him. 

Something about that whole evening seems really fishy, because it took about five minutes of pandemonium before anyone called the police or even the security forces over to the scene.  What’s more, the MSM (with the exception of the Herald) aren’t reporting on the arrest of Yusef at all, not to mention that AP, CNN, and a couple other wire services are getting the guest list completely wrong.  It’s pretty sad, because there were exactly four ABC Radio correspondents there as well as an actual MTV news crew, and none of them bothered to interview anyone, opting to simply flee the scene.  It was me, the house photographer, and Access Hollywood running into the fray, and that’s it!

I guess it shows I have either very weak survival instincts, or very strong journalistic ones.

I’ve got to get some work done today, so I’m done with this entry.  Hopefully we’ll get Blip’s core processes moved over to the new server today.

/rizzn

Suge Knight Shot - photos and ID

Update (8/30/2005): This should be the last little bit of Suge Knight update (because I think it’s safe to assume at this point that no more real news is going to come out of this thing)… I wouldn’t post it but it’s so damn funny (hat tip to libertyblog):

[H]ere’s the rapper David Banner on the shooting of Suge Knight at a party for the MTV awards:

“I don’t think that what happened was any different than at any other event where you have a lot of people,” said David Banner. “It’s tragic that it happened and that the media magnified this so much.”

Remind me not to be at any event where there are a lot of people when David Banner’s around, be it a Shriner’s convention, airport terminal etc.

Update (8/29/2005): If you’re coming in from an external link (thank’s National Ledger and the scads of Hip Hop mags that linked me), you should check out my generalized VMA wrap up, with more Suge shooting details. 

Update (8/29/2005): The man arrested is alleged to be named spoken word artist Malik Yusef. He was part of the Game’s entourage, undoubtably, as there were about 40 people who entered with him.

Given that he’s a spoken word artist, and P. D.. ‘scuse me, Diddy has strong ties to Def Poetry and Bad Boys of Comedy, it gives credence to the whole conspiracy angle of his involvement in perhaps motivating someone to retaliate for Biggie’s Death (Biggie Smalls, of course, a friend of Diddy (then Puff Daddy, I think), who was suspected of being killed by someone hired by Suge – but that’s all rumor, and I would never suggest that Suge had anything to do with it (without taking my personal information off the website first)).

Slightly less conspiracy theory-esque, about two months ago, a rapper named Game got into a fight with members of Suge’s entourage.  Peep this quote from hiphopdx.com from back in June:

Later on at the Sunset room, Game reportedly crossed paths with Suge and that’s where details become sketchy. Many rumors state that Game and his crew ran into Suge and his entourage and after a few words were exchanged, a member out of Suge’s camp to a swing at Game. They say that after Game dodged a few punches, his crew yanked him away from the situation before it got out of hand. Nobody got hurt but the question remains “Why?” More on this as it unfolds.

The Game was in attendence that night (this photo is from his appearance on the red carpet.  As a side note, CNN reported that The Black Eyed Peas, Paris Hilton, and Eddie Murphy were there or had attended the party.  That is pure fiction.  Paris was a no show to every party this year, the Black Eyed Peas were only staying in that hotel, but were in fact performing down the road at the Mansion, and Eddie Murphy only went to one party, which was at the Prive the night before.

---

Breaking news from the VMA pre-parties, circa midnight Saturday/Sunday... Owner of Death Row Records, Suge Knight, has just been shot in the thigh by an unknown assailant while coming out of the Shore Club in South Beach. Suge was attending Kanye West's MTV VMA Pre-Party.

I was working the red carpet line just videoing other people's interviews with people and I happenned to MTV Netherland's interview with Suge (video uploaded). Some time after Suge arrived, there was quite a commotion inside the party tent, and hundreds of people came streaming out. From watching my Def Comedy Jam, I'm well aware that when a herd of African-Americans go running in one direction, danger is surely in the opposite direction. Being an intrepid reporter (and someone who has no fear of losing life nor limb), I ran right into the action.

Suge's sidekick quickly booted me out of the area. Forcefully. In the video, you can see me being shoved out of the way by the way the camera gyrates.

I then snuck around the side of the building to see what I could find, and sure enough, a group of fans had already congregated out there where the ambulance was being pulled up. I arrived just after Suge was put into the ambulance, but in time to buy a couple of pictures off some guys from Brooklyn to sell to our agency (we think we have the exclusive on that). I was lucky not to get roughed up by Suge's cohorts, as they stomped on a couple people's cameras that were taking pictures out the side.

There wasn't much action around the side, so I went back around to the front just in time to see someone from someone's entourage being hauled out in handcuffs (I'm not sure who this person is, but if you can identify him for me please, I'd love to get a name before the MSM). The rest of the night was spent captioning and editing photos and videos, so not much else to report but the specifics that I know:

Suge was shot in the upper thigh, on the outside part. He's in good condition. This all took place at the Shore Club in South Beach. There was a mad dash for the door. The publicists were crying. In fact, a lot of people were crying. Suge's cohorts are jerks.

These are captures from my video. I've already got people who are buying it, so no worries there. It should show up on Access Hollywood or something, I'm told.

(Just so you know, I’ve been up for 36 hours, so if this makes no sense, I’ll go back and correct it later – stay tuned for updates).

/rizzn