Donald Trump's motorcade faked out protesters in front of a San Francisco airport hotel by detouring to the back. The motorcade had to pull over on the side of the road next to the hotel. Trump could be seen getting out of his SUV and walking along a jersey wall to enter the hotel through a back door.
'I felt like I was crossing the border!' Trump speaks at GOP lunch after his Secret Service detail outsmarts protesters in front of California hotel and walks him over a highway and in the back
The move required the billionaire to jump around a fence to a grass median and then climb uphill to a loading dock
'That was not the easiest entrance I've ever made,' Trump joked when he eventually took the stage
'We went under a fence, and through the fence – ah, I felt like I was crossing the border, actually'.
I guess Mr Trump is afraid of a little opposition....he knows they would like to beat the crap out of him.
A deep sea fisherman recently caught a basket star . The creature is so rare he had never seen one before and did not know what he had caught. It may look like an alien, or even a monstrous moving plant, but this incredibly complex-looking creature is a relative of the starfish.
It actually has five arms, radiating from a central disk, which are each split into more dexterous 'branchlets', which it uses to catch prey underwater. It belongs to the echinoderm family, which includes starfish, sea urchins and brittle stars.
But they differ from starfish, for example, because each arm branches out into countless flexible others, which can be used by the creature to create a tangled mesh, designed to ensnare plankton and even small crustaceans. These flexible tendrils act like a basket to catch prey, giving the animal its name.
They position themselves in a place where there is a current strong enough to cause small creatures to drift past it – without carrying the basket star away too.
The basket star spreads its arms out to create as large a ‘basket’ as possible. It then grabs prey by coiling its tendrils around plankton and small animals.
Very little is known about the animal’s eating habits, but it is known that the spines and hooks on its arms, as well as mucus, make it hard for prey to escape its clutches.
Experts at the university explained: ‘The basket star wraps several branchlets around its prey, forming a knot. This knotted arm is then drawn toward the central disk.
‘The manner in which food is transferred through the disk to be digested is not yet known.’
Basket stars can have a central disk that is five-and-a-half inches (14cm) in diameter and each of their arms can be up to five times longer than their body.
They come in orange, red and white.
The creature can live around 6,564 ft (2 km) below the waves, but typically favours life between 50 ft (15 metres) and 500 feet (152 metres) below sea level, according to experts at Oregon State University.
Despite being rarely seen, basket stars live along the Pacific Coast, from the Bering Sea to southern California.
Pyrosomes
Pyrosomes and salps are pelagic (free-swimming) tunicates or sea squirts. All species are open ocean animals that rarely come close to shore, and all are colonial, although many salps can also be solitary.
Pyrosomes are colonies of tiny animals that form hollow tubes sealed at one end - the long tube species in the first part of the video is giant pyrosome, Pyrostremma spinosum - this one is only about 15m long but it can reach 30m in length! Pyrosomes get their name (Pyro = fire + soma = body) from their ability to emit light (bioluminescence) - colonies can glow or flash light at night, particularly if touched.
Salps have much larger individuals than pyrosomes, individuals pump water through themselves. Colonies are formed of chains of individuals. Salps can form very high densities under good conditions, and are an important oceanic food source for fish.
These animals were filmed off the Tasman Peninsula in Tasmania, Australia - one of the few areas in the world where a wide range of oceanic gelatinous plankton, including ctenophores and jellyfish, comes close to shore, and is easily seen while diving.
Think carefully before you lie; as you are now, so once was I.
The truth and I were not acquainted, every word was malice tainted.
Mendacity was my intention, I forged my fate with each invention.
Gleefully I spread deception; for loved ones, I made no exception.
I felt the rot spread through my soul but wealth and power were my goals.
And so the piles of gold grew high, each one acquired with a lie.
Many spurned me with disgust, as I obliterated trust
And turned their happiness to dust.
Lavish style to spare, had I, and a penthouse in the sky.
And I didn't have a care, nor a soul with whom to share.
A solitary, hollow life, no one to hear my dying cries.
No one to care that with my final breath I begged forgiveness for my lies.
Standing before Heaven's gates, I was asked, had I been kind?
And in keeping with my character, naturally, I lied.
Back to earth my soul was hurled, much to my chagrin,
To dwell eternally within these walls, with all the thingsIbought with sin.
Live with honor and be truthful; a gem of wisdom from your host.
That is, if you have no objection to lessons from a ghost.
It seems Prince may have died with a three hundred million dollar estate and no documented will. He has no direct heirs and this may create a big brouhaha, with ex wives, fake wills and supposed illegitimate children coming out of the woodwork, as in the case of Howard Hughes. Remember him?
What happened to billionaire Howard Hughes’ money when he died.?? Over his lifetime, Howard Hughes’ wallet became one of the fattest of his time. It isn’t known exactly how much he was worth at the time of his death, but ten years before he died, he was forced to sell his shares in the airline company TWA. The payout? $546 million (about $3.8 billion today), estimated by some to have been about 1/3 of his net worth.
When he died, there was one major problem: Hughes had no direct descendants or immediate family, and he didn’t leave behind a will. At least, that’s what authorities were forced to conclude after an extensive search for one. After contacting his various banks, lawyers, and employees, every hotel he’d ever stayed in, posting classifieds in various newspapers, and even consulting a psychic, they were forced to accept that settling the massive estate was not going to be an easy matter.
So just where did all of that money go after his death?
Most assumed he wanted the money to go to the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. It was well-known that he didn’t want the money falling into the hands of any distant relatives, but without hard evidence, distant cousins and others began snatching for the cash.
A battle ensued between the temporary administrator of the Hughes estate, cousin and lawyer William Lummis, and those who ran the Medical Institute. It was a multi-state war, with Nevada, California, and Texas all claiming to be responsible for the distribution of the state, and all of which had their own laws about inheritance.
While the various parties were fighting it out, a couple of different wills surfaced, though eventually thrown out as fakes. A notable one was the three-page document that declared Melvin Dummar, a gas station attendant, was to inherit 1/16 of Hughes’ fortune. Supposedly, Dummar once picked Hughes up off the side of the road and gave him a ride to his hotel, and Hughes was so grateful that he left Dummar a huge chunk of money. In 1978, the will was thrown out as a forgery.
Next, “wives” started emerging from Hughes’ past, taking advantage of his reclusive reputation to explain why no one had heard of them before. Terry Moore, an actress, claimed to have married Hughes twice, but provided no documentation to support her assertions. She did, in fact, once live with Hughes in the 1940s, but her claim that they were not only married, but never divorced, was called into question given the fact that she married three times after her supposed marriage to Hughes. Nevertheless, she must have put forward a good argument, or at least pestered the estate managers so much that they decided to pay her just to get rid of her, because she was paid $400,000 by the estate. Later, Moore wrote a book titled Beauty and a Billionaire which made the bestseller list, likely lining her pockets a bit more.
In addition to supposed wives, an extraordinary number of Hughes’ supposed children decided to acknowledge their deceased father. One was said to be the lovechild of Hughes and Amelia Earhart—product of the Mile High Club?—even though Earhart never had any children. At least two were black, but their claims were thrown out as Hughes was known to be quite the racist.
After years of struggle trying to sort the people with legitimate claims from the fakers who were in it to try to grab some of the cash, a lot of the money did end up going to the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. However, a huge chunk of it also went to various Hughes heirs. According to the Wall Street Journal, around 1000 people have benefited from the estate, including 200 of Hughes’ distant relatives. After liquefying many of his assets, they collectively were awarded about $1.5 billion.
Interestingly, the liquidation of the estate wasn’t completely finalized until 2010—34 years after his death. The last piece of the puzzle was the Summerlin residential development. In 1996, Rouse Co. (now General Growth) agreed to buy the Summerlin land from the Hughes’ estate on a 14-year repayment plan. With that, finally, the estate of Howard Hughes was laid to rest.
Hughes’ reported relationship with Melvin Dummar was also the subject of a movie—Melvin and Howard—in 1980. The film was nominated for several Golden Globes and Academy Awards, and Mary Steenburgen even won a few for her role as a supporting actress.
Howard Hughes was born on Christmas Eve in 1905 into a family who ran a very successful oil tool business. He inherited that business when he turned eighteen—his parents had died the year before—and just like that, he was a millionaire. With his new wealth he decided to fund a few films rather than manage the family business.
His most popular movie was Hell’s Angels, the World War I flying epic, which fueled Hughes’ interest in aviation. It cost around $4 million to make (about $54 million today) and also grossing about $8 million. It helped catapult Howard Hughes into Hollywood fame. His name was even coupled with the likes of Ginger Rogers, Ava Gardner, and Katherine Hepburn.
Hughes’ true love was flying. He suffered from partial deafness and complained of a constant ringing in his ears, but when he was in the air, the ringing stopped, or at least was drowned out by other noises. Credited with many successful aviation inventions, he was also well-known for the Spruce Goose, a wooden sea plane that Hughes worked on tirelessly until its completion in 1947. The plane was only flown once, partially because Hughes began withdrawing from aviation and from society after being involved in a horrific plane crash in 1946.
Hughes lived a fascinating life, but the end of his life was nearly as interesting, if a bit peculiar. He gained a reputation as a recluse, conducting nearly all of his business from a suite in the Desert Hotel, which he owned. According to the few handlers who managed things for him, the fabulous Hollywood playboy started letting himself go in the last twenty-five years of his life. His hair was constantly dirty and his teeth were rotten, he became addicted to drugs, and he had an obsession with germs. When he died on April 5, 1976, he weighed just 92 pounds.
Solar energy could power the world if 'humankind was little bit wiser,' says pilot Bertrand Piccard
The pilot of a solar-powered airplane who has just finished the Hawaii-to-California leg of an around-the-world journey believes his voyage can set an example for the rest of the world to harness the power of solar energy.
"We are like a flying laboratory, showing how the future looks like if we have pioneering spirit and if we have spirit of exploration," Solar Impulse 2 aircraft pilot Bertrand Piccard told CBC News from the cockpit somewhere over the Pacific Ocean.
The plane was grounded in Hawaii last July to repair a battery that kept overheating. After raising $20 million US for repairs and a nine-month delay, the flight resumed two days ago.
The project's website, which is live tracking the flight, says the aircraft has reached the U.S. after a three-day flight over the Pacific. The pilot performed a fly-by over San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge on Saturday afternoon and is set to land in Mountain View, Calif., at the southern end of San Francisco Bay, at midnight.
The aircraft's wings are covered with solar cells that harness energy from the sun to power the motors turning its propellers. During darkness it relies on energy stored in batteries. The aircraft started its journey in March 2015 from Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates and has been travelling east on the around-the-world journey.
"[The flight] is beautiful for the scenery, but it is very symbolic because half an hour ago, in the middle of the Pacific, I [saw] the sunrise, and the sunrise is the energy for the next day for the Solar Impulse to continue its flight," said Piccard. "But if humankind was a little bit wiser, it would also be the energy for the world to go into the future."
"We have the technology to harvest [solar energy], to do incredible things like flying day and night a solar-powered airplane with no fuel," he added. "So this is really the message."
After the death of his old friend, Albert Einstein said "Now Besso has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like us ... know that the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion."
New evidence continues to suggest that Einstein was right, death is an illusion. Our classical way of thinking is based on the belief that the world has an objective observer-independent existence. But a long list of experiments shows just the opposite. We think life is just the activity of carbon and an admixture of molecules: we live awhile and then rot into the ground.
We believe in death because we've been taught we die. Also, of course, because we associate ourselves with our body and we know bodies die. End of story. But biocentrism, a new theory of everything, tells us death may not be the terminal event we think. Amazingly, if you add life and consciousness to the equation, you can explain some of the biggest puzzles of science. For instance, it becomes clear why space and time—and even the properties of matter itself—depend on the observer. It also becomes clear why the laws, forces, and constants of the universe appear to be exquisitely fine-tuned for the existence of life.
Until we recognize the universe in our heads, attempts to understand reality will remain a road to nowhere. Consider the weather ‘outside': You see a blue sky, but the cells in your brain could be changed so the sky looks green or red. In fact, with a little genetic engineering we could probably make everything that is red vibrate or make a noise, or even make you want to have sex, as it does with some birds. You think its bright out, but your brain circuits could be changed so it looks dark out. You think it feels hot and humid, but to a tropical frog it would feel cold and dry. This logic applies to virtually everything. Bottom line: What you see could not be present without your consciousness.
In truth, you can't see anything through the bone that surrounds your brain. Your eyes are not portals to the world. Everything you see and experience right now‚ even your body, is a whirl of information occurring in your mind. According to biocentrism, space and time aren't the hard, cold objects we think. Wave your hand through the air—if you take everything away, what's left? Nothing. The same thing applies for time. Space and time are simply the tools for putting everything together.
Consider the famous two-slit experiment. When scientists watch a particle pass through two slits in a barrier, the particle behaves like a bullet and goes through one slit or the other. But if you don't watch, it acts like a wave and can go through both slits at the same time. So how can a particle change its behavior depending on whether you watch it or not? The answer is simple, reality is a process that involves your consciousness.
Or consider Heisenberg's famous uncertainty principle. If there is really a world out there with particles just bouncing around, then we should be able to measure all their properties. But you can't. For instance, a particle's exact location and momentum can't be known at the same time. So why should it matter to a particle what you decide to measure? And how can pairs of entangled particles be instantaneously connected on opposite sides of the galaxy as if space and time don't exist? Again, the answer is simple: because they're not just ‘out there'—space and time are simply tools of our mind.
( Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle is a fundamental concept of quantum physics. However, it only makes sense from a biocentric perspective. According to biocentrism, time is the inner sense that animates the still frames of the spatial world. Remember, we said you can’t see through the bone surrounding your brain, so everything you experience is woven together in your mind. So what’s real? If the next image is different from the last, then it’s different, period. We can award change with the word “time,” but that doesn’t mean that there’s an invisible matrix in which changes occur.)
Death doesn't exist in a timeless, spaceless world. Immortality doesn't mean a perpetual existence in time, but resides outside of time altogether. Open your mind to the possibility.
Our linear way of thinking about time is also inconsistent with another series of recent experiments. In 2002, scientists showed that particles of light "photons" knew, in advance,what their distant twins would do in the future. They tested the communication between pairs of photons. They let one photon finish its journey—it had to decide whether to be either a wave or a particle. Researchers stretched the distance the other photon took to reach its own detector. However, they could add a scrambler to prevent it from collapsing into a particle. Somehow, the first particle knew what the researcher was going to do before it happened, and across distances instantaneously as if there were no space or time between them. They decide not to become particles before their twin even encounters the scrambler. It doesn't matter how we set up the experiment. Our mind and its knowledge is the only thing that determines how they behave. Experiments consistently confirm these observer-dependent effects.
As I see it, immortality doesn’t mean perpetual (linear) existence in time but resides outside of time altogether. Life is a journey that transcends our classical way of thinking. Experiment after experiment continues to suggest that we create time, not the other way around. Without consciousness, space and time are nothing. At death, there’s a break in the continuity of space and time; you can take any time — past or future — as your new frame of reference and estimate all potentialities relative to it. In the end, even Einstein acknowledged that “the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.” Life is just one fragment of time, one brushstroke in a picture larger than ourselves, eternal even when we die. This is the indispensable prelude to immortality.
“Time and space are but the physiological colors which the eye maketh,” said Ralph Waldo Emerson in his essay “Self-Reliance.”
Does all this sound bizzare to you ? Well, that is quantum reality. What happens at a molecular level probably is true on a larger scale, our scale. It's all a matter of how you look at things. Death may simply be a portal to another reality outside of time and space. I know....it's mind blowing.
Research includes: Robert Lanza MD, astronomer Bob Berman, New Cosmic Paradigm, Denyse O'Leary, Norio Hayakawa and Message to Eagle.com.
Secretary of State John Kerry signs the Paris Agreement with granddaughter Isabelle Dobbs-Higginson
Report from CNN:
John D Sutter is a columnist for CNN Opinion who focuses on climate change and social justice. Follow him on Snapchat, Facebook and email. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his.
New York - Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, a fiery 32-year-old from Chad, took the podium here at the United Nations on Friday morning in front of nearly 200 world leaders.
They'd gathered in record numbers on Earth Day to sign the Paris Agreement, humanity's best shot to date at fixing climate change and preserving a habitable planet for future generations. But when she looked out at the crowd, her mind went blank.
Ibrahim didn't see the diplomats, she told me later. She only saw her mother -- and her nomadic community in the Sahara. So she felt compelled to tell their story.
In three languages, she spoke about how her mother used to walk 10 kilometers (6 miles) to get water from Lake Chad in North Africa. "Today young mothers are becoming climate refugees" because of drought, she told the assembly. "They cannot walk to Lake Chad because it is vanishing. Our pasture, our livestock, our food, our land -- is vanishing."
Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim addresses the United Nations on Friday.
Lake Chad has shrunk by approximately 98% between 1972 and present day
due to human activity and climate change
All that remains of Lake Chad is a series of ponds and puddles
The people around Lake Chad have always been fishermen and now they are desperately trying to cultivate the land which was exposed by the receding lake, to stave off starvation
This was truly an historic Earth Day. Leaders from at least 175 countries came to New York to sign an international treaty that aims to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius. That's regarded as the danger zone for climate change -- when droughts get even worse and low-lying islands disappear.
They walked one by one up to a desk, sat down and signed their names, indicating their intent to help the world get off of fossil fuels by the end of the century and, hopefully, prevent catastrophic warming.
Signing the accord puts it one step closer to becoming international law. Nations still must ratify it on the national level. Several island states, which could disappear if the world keeps warming and seas keep rising at an alarming rate, already had ratified the agreement at home and submitted those ratifications to the United Nations at the ceremony Friday. In all, 15 countries ratified the treaty Friday, according to the United Nations. Major powers, including the United States and China, promised to ratify the treaty this year.
Once 55 countries representing 55% of global greenhouse gas emissions have ratified the Paris Agreement, then it becomes law, and it's harder for countries to back out of it.
That appears to be a likely reality. So there was plenty of hope in the room as world leaders gave speeches and patted themselves on the back for turning a major corner in the war against pollution and climate change. They're right to do so.
But the speeches of two women -- Ibrahim and a 16-year-old from Tanzania -- underscored the importance of making sure this agreement becomes more than just a document with signatures. It has to be translated rapidly into action. We have to stop using fossil fuels that warm the planet, causing ice to melt, seas to rise, droughts to intensify and floods and storms to worsen. We have to stop chopping down rain forests, which has a similar effect. And we must, above all, do this quickly.
"We are in a race against time," said U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. "The window (to hold temperatures at safe levels) is rapidly closing."
Ibrahim, the woman from Chad, described how hot it's already become.
"When I left last week it was 48 degrees Celsius (118 Fahrenheit)," she told me later. "It's crazy. Imagine. When they say it's 35 or 40 degrees (95 to 104 Fahrenheit) people are saying, 'Oh my god, it's so hot.' But for us 'too hot' is not just feeling it in your body and needing sunglasses to go out, or an umbrella to go out. For us, it's, 'Oh my God, it's too hot this year, what will be our survival? How will the rainy season be? Are we going to get calves? Are we going to get water?'
"That's the worry of the sun." Drought and heat are "killing hundreds," she told world leaders, "in silence."
Gertrude Clement
Tanzania's Getrude Clement, 16, is a radio reporter and climate advocate.
Getrude Clement, the bright-eyed 16-year-old from Tanzania who opened the ceremonies Friday, told me there already have been devastating floods in her community.
She wore a baby blue U.N. T-shirt and sneakers as she stood in front of a room of suits and declared that climate change is a moral crisis for everyone -- but especially for future generations.
"Climate change poses big problems for the entire planet," she told the room. "But children, especially the poorest and most vulnerable, will feel most of its effects, now and in the future.
"Climate change threatens our life, our Earth as well as our education. You might think we are too young to know about the risks and realities of climate change but we see it our daily lives. As young people the future is ours, but this is not the future we want for ourselves."
Clement, who helps produce a UNICEF radio program for young people in Tanzania, told me she's inspired by the Paris Agreement but it must become more than just a promise for change.
Together, these two women underscored the moral urgency with which we have to act on this crisis. The Paris Agreement sets a framework for real change to take place. But businesses, governments and everyday people have to agree to take action and make a real change.
Signing the document is an important, laudable start. It's a turning point in the history of the world. A decisive victory for future generations. But let us remember Ibrahim and Clement. At the end of our conversation, Ibrahim told me that she gets overwhelmed with emotion when she thinks of all the people back home in Chad who are counting on her to bring help. People tell her they're putting all their hopes on her.
She teared up as she explained this to me. Ibrahim feels the weight of this responsibility.
AOL.COM EDITORS Apr 22nd 2016 4:38PM Carver County Sheriff Jim Olson held a press conference on Friday to discuss the death of legendary singer Prince, hours after the autopsy on his body had been completed. Though Olson remained tight-lipped on Prince's cause of death and many of the circumstances surrounding the ongoing "open investigation" into his passing (full details won't be released for another few weeks as the full examination remains underway), he did reveal some new information that shed light onto Prince's discovery and final hours.
Here's what you need to know : Prince's death was likely not a suicide: "We have no reason to believe at this point that this was a suicide," Olson said. "There were [also] no signs of trauma; no sign that something violent happened." Prince was last seen around 8 p.m. on Wednesday night: "Somebody dropped him off at home at 8 p.m. on Wednesday evening. It was an acquaintance that dropped him off," Olson said. The 911 call that alerted authorities wasn't placed until just before 10 a.m. on Thursday morning. Prince was alone when he died: "He was alone at home," the Sheriff confirmed. "Staff members were trying to reach him yesterday morning. They responded to Paisley Park to look for him." Olson also noted that there were three people present when authorities arrived at the scene. There were no phones or cell phones near his body: "I don't believe there was an elevator phone," Olson said. "I don't recall seeing a cell phone in close proximity." The Sheriff also noted that Prince was found in an elevator on the first floor. The mood at the scene was sad: "It was certainly somber," the Sheriff said. "He was a friend to the people that were there, as well as being an employer, and they were certainly shook by what had happened." There is no specific information on who, exactly, was present at that time, though. Prince's family has been cooperating with authorities: "I've had contact with Prince's family and representatives," Olson said. "They have been very cooperative." Prince's body has been returned to his family: "His body has been released to his family," Martha Weaver, the representative for the Midwest Medical Examiners' Office, divulged.
AOL.COM EDITORS Apr 22nd 2016 2:35PM Following a four-hour autopsy on Prince's body, the Chief Medical Examiner for the Midwest Medical Examiners Office released a statement on Friday regarding the status of the exam. Noting the necessity of gathering "relevant information" regarding Prince's family and medical history, the statement explained that full results for the autopsy could take up to a few weeks. Martha Weaver, the spokesperson for the Examiners Office, wrote, "As part of the complete exam, relevant information regarding [Prince's] medical and family history will be gathered. Anything which could be relevant to the investigation will be taken into consideration." "Midwest Medical Examiners Office will not release information until the exam is complete and all results are obtained," the statement continued. "Gathering results will take several days and the results of a full toxicology scan could likely take weeks." Prince's body was found unresponsive on Thursday morning in an elevator at his Minnesota estate, Paisley Park. Despite attempts by deputies and medical personnel to perform CPR, the singer was pronounced dead on the scene just after 10 a.m central. His death came just one week after his plane made a mysterious emergency landing in Moline, Illinois, on its way back to Minneapolis following a show in Atlanta. According to reports, the landing came after the plane had called in a medical emergency for an "unresponsive male." Though there were conflicting reports as to what Prince's symptoms were at that time -- his publicist noted flu-like symptoms -- some sources are saying that the star had overdosed on Percocet prior to the landing. More to come on this developing story.
Witchy's sidenote : Prince has been known to live a clean life, which did not include alcohol or drugs. He was also vegan, health conscious and spiritual. He had hip problems the past couple years that caused him considerable pain. If meds were involved, I'm giving the benefit of the doubt, that it was accidental. As for having it all, he only had it all until his young son died and his marriage fell apart. It's been reported that he's never been the same. It's best to wait for the autopsy and toxicology reports.
Prince was reportedly treated for a drug overdose six days before his death on Thursday, according to TMZ.
Prince’s jet plane made an emergency landing in Moline, Ill., last Friday due to a medical emergency. His rep told Variety at the time that the singer was struggling with the flu.
According to the TMZ report, doctors gave Prince a “safe shot” after he was rushed to the hospital, something reportedly given to counteract the effects of opiates. Doctors apparently advised that Prince stay in the hospital for 24 hours — he left, however, after three hours.
Authorities found Prince unresponsive in an elevator when they arrived Thursday morning, responding to a 911 call. First responders tried CPR, but were unable to revive the pop star and he was pronounced dead at 10:07 a.m.
Police are continuing to investigate the circumstances surrounding Prince’s death. His autopsy will be performed on Friday.
The Carver County Sheriff’s Office also released the transcript of the 911 call that an unidentified male made to report Prince’s death. The caller said the people at the house were “distraught,” and said he didn’t know how Prince died.
(CNN) ( Copied directly from CNN) Prince, who defined the sound of the '80s with songs such as "Kiss" and "Purple Rain" and defied the music industry in a fight for creative freedom, died Thursday.
The 57-year-old singer was found unresponsive in an elevator at Paisley Park Studios in Chanhassen, Minnesota, Carver County Sheriff Jim Olson said.
Paramedics tried to perform CPR but were unable to revive him, the sheriff said. He was pronounced dead at 10:07 a.m., less than 30 minutes after sheriff's deputies responded to a medical call at the scene.
Authorities are investigating the circumstances surrounding his death, Olson said. An autopsy is scheduled to take place Friday.
Prince's publicist confirmed his death but didn't provide details about the possible cause or who was with the musician.
"It is with profound sadness that I am confirming that the legendary, iconic performer, Prince Rogers Nelson, has died at his Paisley Park residence this morning," publicist Yvette Noel-Schure said.
"The person is dead here. ... And the people are just distraught," the man said as he struggled to find an address to give the dispatcher.
The person who died, deputies soon discovered, was Prince. Authorities haven't identified who made the call to 911 or details about the circumstances surrounding the call.
"As one of the most gifted and prolific musicians of our time, Prince did it all. Funk. R&B. Rock and roll. He was a virtuoso instrumentalist, a brilliant bandleader and an electrifying performer," U.S. President Barack Obama said in a statement. " 'A strong spirit transcends rules,' Prince once said -- and nobody's spirit was stronger, bolder, or more creative."
Kaleena Zanders cried in the car as she drove to Amoeba Music in Los Angeles on Thursday. She spent $173 on Prince-related items at the store, including a vinyl edition of Prince's iconic album "Purple Rain."
"Prince means the future, because he's changed music, everyone in music, he's influenced every person," she said, "and I believe that he represents our future, and it kind of died with him in a way."
Fans camped out by Paisley Park, the artist's home and recording studio, leaving bouquets of flowers and signs at a makeshift memorial.
They also flocked to First Avenue, the downtown Minneapolis dance club that became a landmark after Prince used it in the movie "Purple Rain," CNN affiliate WCCO reported. Mourners left flowers, cards and candles on the sidewalk outside, and snapped photos of the wall where Prince's name is painted inside a large star. Many lined up for an all-night dance party in Prince's honor.
Asher Wade, 27, spent the day listening to Prince music with friends and came to First Avenue with a purple teardrop painted on his face.
"I grew up listening to his music," he said. "My parents loved him. I grew to love him. ... (it's) heartbreaking."
Last days: Postponed concerts, emergency landing
Just this month, Prince made news, but it wasn't for his music. Hours before he was set to go onstage, the singer postponed two shows he'd been scheduled to perform at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta.
A week later, he took the stage in Atlanta to perform two concerts with 80-minute sets, unusually short for him. The stage was engulfed in lavender smoke. It was just Prince at his piano. He played his classic songs but kept the mood light and fun -- at one point showing off his skills with a version of the Peanuts theme song.
That concert, a week ago, earned rave reviews. Prince himself seemed to feel the power of his performance, posting afterward on social media, "I am transformed."
But as he headed back home to Minnesota, Prince made an unexpected stop.
The singer's plane made an emergency landing Friday and he reportedly was rushed to a hospital in Moline, Illinois.
Afterward, his publicist said, "He is fine and at home."
On Saturday, he appeared before a small gathering of fans at a Paisley Park dance party, proudly showing them a new purple Yamaha piano and a guitar that was made for him in Europe. The appearance, Minneapolis Star Tribune music critic Jon Beam wrote the next day, seemed aimed at proving he was alive and well.
"He never intended to perform on Saturday. There was no microphone stand next to his piano," Beam wrote. "He just wanted to demonstrate that reports of his dire health were greatly exaggerated."
The music critic noted that Prince showed off his new guitar, but didn't perform with it.
"I have to leave it in the case, or I'll be tempted to play it," Prince told the crowd, according to Beam. "I can't play the guitar at all these days, so I can keep my mind on this (the solo piano) and get better."
'He was more connected to us'
During that appearance, Prince made a passing reference to the emergency landing his plane had made in Illinois, according to fans.
"He basically said, when you hear news, give it a few days before you waste any prayers," DJ Michael Holz told WCCO.
Mike Rendahl, who was also at Paisley Park Saturday, said he was devastated by the news of the singer's death.
"He was more connected to us Saturday night than I had ever seen," he told WCCO.
Reflections like that about Prince performing are no surprise, Michaela Angela Davis told CNN.
The writer and cultural critic, who was once Prince's stylist, said he played as brilliantly for 75 people as he did for 75,000.
"He was playing for the music. He was the music," she said. "He literally told me that he thought in music. .... Sometimes, you could be at lunch with him, and he would get up and leave, because there was a melody so urgent, a music so real, that he would just go to the studio and put it down."
Fame reached fever pitch
Prince's sound was as unique and transfixing as he was. He created what became known as the Minneapolis sound, which was a funky blend of pop, synth and new wave.
Controversy followed the singer and that, in part, made his fans adore him more.
The singer's fame never waned through the decades, but he was considered synonymous with the 1980s. His fame reached a fever pitch with the 1984 film "Purple Rain," about an aspiring musician, his troubled home life and a budding romance.
He was a prolific musician. Between 1985 and 1992, he released eight albums, one per year, including the soundtrack for Tim Burton's "Batman." He starred in two more movies during that era: "Under the Cherry Moon" and "Graffiti Bridge." He also put out a concert film. "Sign 'o' the Times" hit theaters in 1987.
He infamously changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol in the 1990s during a dispute with his record label, Warner Bros. He started to become known then as the "Artist Formerly Known as Prince."
In 2000, when the singer's publishing contract with the company expired, he reclaimed the name Prince.
Prince won seven Grammy Awards and earned 30 nominations. Five of his singles topped the charts and 14 other songs hit the Top 10. He won an Oscar for best original song score for "Purple Rain."
The singer's predilection for lavishly kinky story-songs earned him the nickname "His Royal Badness." He was also known as the "Purple One" because of his colorful fashions.
Speaking with Larry King on CNN almost two decades ago, Prince said he knew what was always important to him.
"I kind of did what I wanted to do. I wanted my music, even now, to speak loudest for me."
He will never be gone from us. He will be present in his poetry, music and pictures. Goodnight my Prince. Play on, wherever you may be.
Witchy and Genie
David Leveille: Members of the "Omushkegowuk Walkers" and their supporters march toward Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Feb. 24, 2014. The group walked approximately 1,056 miles from the Attawapiskat First Nation in Northern Ontario to Ottawa to raise awareness about First Nations treaty rights. Chris WattieReuters: Since last September, there have been 100 suicide attempts in the Northern Ontario town of Attawapiskat, and the First Nations community has declared a state of emergency. “We live in such an impoverished environment, it seems like so much despair, and at times it just seems hopeless,” says Jackie Hookimaw, who lives there. “We’re getting sick from poor water, and poor living conditions. We're depressed and stressed out.” But Hookimaw says this past weekend was overwhelming and scary. “I heard that there were young kids that went outside the community, to the outskirts, and they wanted to hang themselves," she says. "Somebody spotted them in time and the police were informed, and they were picked up right away." "They tried to hang themselves.” Life in the remote community of 2,000 residents is tough. Hookimaw says some of her neighbors rely on hunting and fishing to make it through the harsh winters. They hunt geese, moose and caribou, and fish in the Attawapiskat River.
Some researchers have suggested that self-inflicted injuries are among the leading causes of death among First Nations people, and that states of emergency like this latest one in Attawapiskat are not new. Hookimaw’s great-niece, Sheridan, took her own life last year. She was only 13. Since then, there's been an alarming number of suicide attempts. “Canada needs to act upon this and do something," Hookimaw says. "This cannot be tolerated any more.” Canada's health minister called the current crisis "one of the most serious and pressing tragedies" facing Canada. She sent an emergency team of social workers and grief counsellors to the town. There’s been speculation in the media that drug abuse, bullying, and physical and sexual abuse have contributed to Attawapiskat's wave of suicide attempts.
Amy Hookimaw, another relative of Jackie's, posted this on Facebook: The news from Attawapiskat is provoking much consternation, and may spur a national conversation about higher rates of poverty, addiction and incarceration associated with many of Canada’s First Nations communities, and their higher rates of suicide. Ontario's Regional Chief Isadore Day, who oversees health policies for the Assembly of First Nations, told the CBC that Attawapiskat requires immediate intervention: "What needs to be done is investment and a sustained approach to not just deal with the immediate impact or situation, but we need to get to the root cause and figure out what's really going on." Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has called the situation "heartbreaking": Canada’s 1.4 million indigenous people make up about 4 percent of the country's population. Local First Nations representative Charlie Angus says indigenous communities need aid. "If these were non-aboriginal children, all the resources would be in their schools," he says. "When they’re aboriginal children, well, hey, you can take a number and stand in line. And meanwhile, kids are dying every day." This story was first published on PRI.org.
This most tragic situation is Canada's shame. We are quick to respond to catastrophes in other countries, to look good in the eyes of the world, but let our own people's suffering continue unabated. Don't just send councilors, send money and clean water technologists and equipment. Also materials and construction crews to build schools and clinics and above all, health care providers and doctors. The young people also deserve a chance for higher education so they can improve the lot of their people or just get out of there and make their own way in the world. And we should provide the financial assistance to make that possible. Why don't more people speak up for them? Is it our guilty secret? I am starting to believe so.
