Earl Scruggs, whose distinctive picking style and association with Lester Flatt cemented bluegrass music's place in popular culture, died Wednesday of natural causes at a Nashville hospital, his son Gary Scruggs said. He was 88.

"I realize his popularity throughout the world went way beyond just bluegrass and country music," Gary Scruggs told CNN. "It was more than that."

For many of a certain age, Scruggs' banjo was part of the soundtrack of an era on "The Ballad of Jed Clampett" -- the theme song from the CBS sitcom "The Beverly Hillbillies," which aired on CBS from 1962 to 1971 and for decades afterward in syndication.

But much more than that, he popularized a three-finger picking style that brought the banjo to the fore in a supercharged genre, and he was an indispensable member of the small cadre of musical greats who created modern bluegrass music.

Scruggs was born in 1924 to a musically gifted family in rural Cleveland County, North Carolina, according to his official biography. His father, a farmer and a bookkeeper, played the fiddle and banjo, his mother was an organist and his older siblings played guitar and banjo, as well.

Young Earl's exceptional gifts were apparent early on. He started playing the banjo at age 4 and he started developing his three-finger style at the age of 10.

"The banjo was, for all practical purposes, 'reborn' as a musical instrument," the biography on his official website declares, "due to the talent and prominence Earl Scruggs gave to the instrument."

While Scruggs' status as the Prometheus of the banjo may be overstated, many musicians feel he changed the game. The late John Hartford, a noted banjo musician in his own right, was quoted in Barry R. Willis' "America's Music: Bluegrass," as saying: "Everybody's all worried about who invented the style and it's obvious that three-finger banjo pickers have been around a long time -- maybe since 1840. But my feeling about it is that if it wasn't for Earl Scruggs, you wouldn't be worried about who invented it."

In an article on the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum's website, bluegrass historian Neil V. Rosenberg described Scruggs' style as "a 'roll' executed with the thumb and two fingers of his right hand" that essentially made the banjo "a lead instrument like a fiddle or a guitar, particularly on faster pieces and instrumentals. This novel sound attracted considerable attention to their Grand Ole Opry performances, road shows, and Columbia recordings."

In 1945, Scruggs met Flatt when he joined Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys, for whom Flatt was the guitarist and lead vocalist. Along with the group's mandolin-playing namesake were fiddler Chubby Wise and bassist Howard Watts (alias: Cedric Rainwater).

Scruggs and Flatt left Monroe in 1948 to form the Foggy Mountain Boys, according to the Country Music Hall of Fame website. Along with guitarist/vocalists Jim Eanes and Mac Wiseman, fiddler Jim Shumate and Blue Grass Boys alum Rainwater, the group played on WCYB in Bristol, Tennessee, and recorded for the Mercury label.

He married Anne Louise Certain that year. In the '50s she became Flatt & Scruggs' business manager. They were married for more than 57 years until her death in 2006.

The Foggy Mountain Boys' roster changed over the years, but Flatt and Scruggs became the constants, the signature sound of the group on radio programs, notably those sponsored by Martha White Flour, and as regulars at the Grand Ole Opry. They became syndicated TV stars in in the Southeast in the late 1950s and early '60s, and they hit the country charts with the gospel tune "Cabin on the Hill."

But it was during an appearance at a Hollywood folk club that brought them into contact with the producer of "The Beverly Hillbillies" and led to "The Ballad of Jed Clampett." It was their only single to climb to No.1 on the country charts.

The 1967 film "Bonnie and Clyde" featured their 1949 instrumental "Foggy Mountain Breakdown," with its distinctive Scruggs-style banjo solo perhaps the most ubiquitous of bluegrass sounds.

The duo split in 1969, and Scruggs' fame as a solo and featured act continued to grow, even as his most iconic licks echoed through the years among his acolytes -- basically, anyone who played banjo, and many who picked other instruments.

Playing "Foggy Mountain" on banjo became a staple of Steve Martin's comedy routine, and blossomed into a reverential tribute. In November 2001, Martin and Scruggs were joined by Vince Gill, Marty Stuart, Jerry Douglas and others on "Late Show With David Letterman" to play a fiery version of the song -- soloing alternately on banjo, guitar, mandolin, fiddle, steel guitar and harmonica. Even Paul Schafer took the chorus for a spin on piano.

The player who is now the subject of local law enforcement is Lewisville (S.C.) High senior Annette McCullough, who brutally attacked an unnamed Chester (S.C.) High opponent during a Monday match. While there is no video showcasing prior incidents between the two players, McCullough reacted viciously to a small trip that sent her tumbling to the ground.

The attack, which you can see above, featured hair pulling, punches being rained down on the Chester player -- Carolinas CBS affiliate WBTV counted 11 different punches -- and a frantic attempt to halt the attack before it reached even more dangerous levels.

Fittingly, McCullough was immediately sent off with a red card, escorted away from the field with the aid of an assistant referee. Shortly thereafter Chester County deputies were called to the scene and McCullough -- who is 18 years old -- was charged with simple assault.

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Alan Parker, the referee of the match, made perfectly clear that this incident invoked a sense of violence that made it much more troubling than other girls soccer skirmishes.

"Some incidental contact ended in one girl going down and she just got up and started pummeling," Parker told WBTV. "It's unfortunate, it really is. Contact is a part of soccer, but when you retaliate like that, obviously, there is no place in the game for that.

"Occasionally you have players that go at it, on the field together, but in this case it was just one girl pummeling the other girl. And she didn't stop which is even more egregious."

It's hard to watch the incident without thinking back to New Mexico defender Elizabeth Lambert, whose hair pulling and general dirty play in a game against BYU received massive Internet attention and eventually landed her a lengthy suspension. One could argue that Lambert's fouls may have been worse because she was more level-headed when committing them, but they certainly weren't as violent as McCullough's attack.

As the plucky Laura Ingalls on TV's "Little House on the Prairie," beginning in the mid-1970s, "Dancing with the Stars" Season 14 contender Melissa Gilbert epitomized girl power.

Playing "Half Pint," the tomboyish daughter of Charles (Michael Landon) and Caroline (Karen Grassle) Ingalls, she served as a model of independence for millions of young girls growing up across the country. And like the character she grew up playing, Melissa too, is a bit of a rebel.

PLAY IT NOW: Melissa Gilbert Talks Tattoos & Nearly Falling During ‘Dancing’

She has a similar sense of devotion to her family as her iconic television character did (the actress' sons have already been spotted several times cheering mom on from the "DWTS" audience), but Melissa has a distinctive wild side all her own. Instead of rolling in the mud a la Laura with Nellie Oleson, Melissa is fantastically fit mom with a host of meaningful tattoos.

"I think I've always just been me. Even when I was playing Laura on 'Little House on the Prairie,' that wasn't me, that was just me in that dress. So inside me has always been the same person -- a little wild, a little rebellious, very analytical, very emotional and basically a happy person," Melissa told Access Hollywood on Tuesday following the "DWTS" results show, when asked about her ink.

VIEW THE PHOTOS: Melissa Gilbert: From ‘The Prairie’ To The ‘Dancing’ Ballroom

And the 47-year-old actress revealed her seven tattoos all have deeply personal meanings.

"I have my father's initials tattooed on one part of my arm," she told Access on Monday night, referring to her late dad, actor Paul Gilbert, who passed away in 1975.

And in another spot, the actress, who played Laura for nearly a decade, has another family-inspired bit of ink.

VIEW THE PHOTOS: ‘Dancing With The Stars’ Season 14, Week 2: The Jive Vs. The Quickstep

"I have the family motto inside my wrist," she said. "Love. Trust. Hope. Believe."

The sentimental star said the tattoos are reminders of her history.

VIEW THE PHOTOS: Kirstie Alley’s ‘Dancing With The Stars’ Transformation: A Look Back

"It's such a long story for each of them... Going through difficult times, mourning the loss of my father a second time, actually, as an adult. And my family went through some tough stuff this year and I felt the need to put the motto on my arm," she said. (The actress filed for divorce from her husband of 16-years, Bruce Boxleitner, in late August 2011.)

Earlier this week, on "Dancing," Melissa and Maks took to the ballroom with a quickstep to "Dancing with Myself," a song from her ex-boyfriend, '80s rocker Billy Idol. Showing off her own rock 'n' roll streak, Melissa admitted she's can't help but be a fan of getting body ink.

"There's a few everywhere. I like them," she said.

"They all have meaning. There's nothing frivolous tattooed on my body," she added.

Earlier this morning, we reported that the Australian government had accused Apple of 4G marketing claims on the new iPad.

Apparently the issue was raised by the company’s use of “4G” in its marketing terms for the WiFi + 4G/LTE models of the new iPad, while 4G LTE compatibility is only offered in the United and States and Canada due to different frequency bands used for LTE in different countries.

Now, ABCNews via a tweet has confirmed that Apple has agreed to offer a refund to people who bought its latest iPad, which it admits is not compatible with Telstra’s 4G network.

The Nokia Lumia 800C is the first CDMA Windows Phone in China. Apart from the Lumia 800C, Nokia also announced the Nokia Lumia 610C smartphone. It is also the CDMA variant of the Nokia Lumia 610 smartphone. The Nokia 610C is specially targeted at the youngsters for social networking and fast communications.

“We’re excited to introduce our first Lumia smartphone, the Nokia 800C, to this important market with our exclusive launch partner, China Telecom. Working closely together, we’ve created a compelling, locally relevant experience on the Nokia 800C especially tailored for people in China.”


Nokia Lumia 800C features a 3.7 inch AMOLED display, sporting a resolution of 480 × 800 pixels, 1.4 GHz single core processor, 8 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, HD (720p) video recording and playback, 512 MB RAM, 16 GB internal memory, Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1, up to 335 hrs of stand-by time and a 1450mAh battery.

Nokia Lumia 610C features a 3.7 inch LCD display with 800 x 480 pixels resolution, Windows Phone 7.5 Mango OS, 5 megapixel auto-focus camera with LED flash, 256 MB RAM, 8 GB internal memory, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, XBOX Live Hub, up to 720 hrs of stand-by time, up to 9.5 hrs of talk-time and a 1300 mAh battery.

Earlier this month, HTC already announced their Android 4.0 update plans for smartphones. HTC has also rolled out the Android 4.0 update for the HTC Sensation and Sensation XE owners in Germany and other Nordic countries. However most of the folks living in other countries were still waiting for this update.

Vodafone was the first carrier to sell the powerful HTC Sensation in the UK. Now, Vodafone is the first carrier to roll out the much-awaited Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) update for the HTC Sensation in the UK. The latest update comes with some amazing features such as Beats audio, face unlock, advanced voice and text input, improved email, UI improvements and much more.

Vodafone UK sent the following message to the HTC Sensation owners.

Great news. The testing of the ICS update for HTC Sensation is complete, and we plan to start rolling out the update tomorrow.

The update will be rolled out in phases by the Over The Air service, so if yours doesn’t appear right away, you can either wait for it to appear, or go to Settings > About Phone > Software Update > Check now.

Someone has stepped up, reporting to have witnessed last month's shooting of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed 17-year-old whose death has sparked nationwide controversy. The witness detailed to CNN the Florida incident from what initially sounded like an argument to its fatal conclusion.

"It would have to be starting with hearing voices, but not seeing, and then, after the voices, opening a window and then seeing -- with two men or two people on the ground, one on top of each other," the witness, who has asked not to be identified, even by gender, told CNN's Anderson Cooper about the February 26 incident in a gated community in Sanford, Florida.

The witness reported hearing through a closed window voices from an area where residents typically walk their dogs. "I thought it was rather loud, but I had just shut my window because it had just started pouring out rain," the witness said. "And then I thought, 'Oh, my gosh, who's out there walking their dog in the rain?' "

But the witness did not immediately look outside to see what the commotion was about, according to the account. "I went and did something else, and then I heard the loud voices again," said the witness, who reported opening the window. "It definitely was a very loud, predominant voice," the witness said. "I couldn't hear the words but it was like, OK, this is not a regular conversation. This is someone aggressively, you know, yelling at someone."

The witness recalled hearing more than one shot. "It definitely was more than one pop noise, so I don't know if it was an echo or anything else. But it definitely made more than one pop."

The witness said the shots were audible as one man was on top of the other. But the witness recalled not having been able to see clearly which man was on top because it was dark.

Two days after the suicide of a talented third-year Electronics and Communication Engineering student touched the city, the College of Engineering, Guindy is now putting in place measures to prevent a repeat of such incidents in the future, even as certain questions remain unanswered. Sources in Anna University said, S Manivannan, a bright boy who had worked his way up from being a labourer to aspiring for the IAS, was found hanging in his room by his friends on Tuesday evening. The police were informed immediately, and they allegedly recovered the cell phone of the boy along with liquor bottles from the room.

While it is not usual for a third-year student to get a room all to himself in the hostel, police sources said that his room-mates had shifted to another room owing to his alleged alcohol problem. According to two professors at the CEG, who requested anonymity, the boy allegedly threw up several times in an inebriated state a few months ago, after which a change of room request was made by his room-mates. Digressing from the usual convention, where a change of room was done only in an extreme case, the two were sanctioned a new room immediately.

Two important questions remain unanswered, however. First, if the police account is to be believed, despite the campus being a strict non-alcohol zone, how had the student been allowed to take liquor to his room? Was there no strict surveillance of alcohol consumption in the hostel despite rules clearly making it unlawful inside the campus?

Second, why was the mother of the student not informed of his problem despite the fact that two of his room-mates had shifted citing this as the reason?

“Surely, if the incidents were true, the warden should have informed his parents when it became this serious,” said one of the professors, adding that the boy could have been referred to a de-addiction centre if the situation was indeed that bad.

A senior university official said that the boy had been pulled up last month, but he had reportedly pleaded with authorities not to complain to his mother. “He was let off with a warning,” he said.

Officials said that several lessons have now been learnt from the incident: the failure of the prevalent student counselling set up is one such lesson. “We do have professional counsellors. But, students rarely avail their services voluntarily.” Therefore, the university was now planning to hold a training session for professors on how such counselling can be done. Fellow students would also be encouraged to report unusual behavior patterns in their classmates, he said.

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