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Clark’s Kurt Sutter

2009-10-21T18:23:00.000-07:00

explains how he really feels about Jersey

BY LINDA MOSS

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Kurt Sutter, the creator and executive producer of FX's motorcycle-club saga "Sons of Anarchy," was "raised in the soul-numbing, homogenous suburbs of Central New Jersey.''
At least, that's how Sutter's biography, part of the press kit for the gritty cable show "Sons," starts off. When asked if the "soul-numbing" phrase is his wording, Sutter answered, "Absolutely."
But then the 45-year-old Clark native, who also served as a writer and executive producer of FX's ground-breaking police drama "The Shield," eased up on the Garden State.
"Look, my whole family, everyone is back in New Jersey," he said. "I just needed to get out pretty quick. For me, it wasn't so much New Jersey as much as it was I needed to get out of the restraints of suburban living." He sure succeeded. "Sons of Anarchy" is the latest achievement in Sutter's TV career, with the series winning critical acclaim and strong ratings in its second season.
The show's Sept. 8 debut drew 4.29 million viewers, and since then it's been averaging 3.82 million viewers, up 73 percent from its freshman season, according to Nielsen Media Research. And "Sons of Anarchy" has also been beating its basic-cable competition in its time slot.
The gripping drama, filled with sex and violence, is not for the squeamish. It stars Ron Perlman and Sutter's wife, 55-year-old actress Katey Sagal, who has come a long way since her days in "Married With Children." Sutter and Sagal live in Los Angeles with their three children.
Sutter, who has a small acting role in "Sons of Anarchy," may not be like Bruce Springsteen, who wears his love of New Jersey on his sleeve.
But during a phone interview, Sutter was relatively kind about Jersey. And his wry and oft-times self-deprecating sense of humor came into play as he talked about his childhood in the Garden State and his work.
Sutter was raised in Clark, living just two blocks away from the Rahway border and a stone's throw away from Rahway State Prison.
"Yeah, my dad is still out there," Sutter said.
His two sisters are also still in New Jersey, with one living in Hoboken and the other one in Port Murray.
Sutter's father, Albert Sutter Jr., worked for the General Motors plant in Linden, a distribution manager who would locate the cars that dealerships needed shipped to them. GM has since closed that factory.
Sutter's Jersey childhood not surprisingly has influenced his TV work. "Sons of Anarchy" depicts motorcycle clubs as families, murderous families doing illegal gunrunning, but families nonetheless.
In his neighborhood in Clark, Sutter said, "Everyone was pretty much blue collar, and that's what I know in terms of work ethic. It definitely informs my sense of family."
He's also a man of his word. Some Hollywood executives cancel and reschedule interviews again and again. But when Sutter's assistant says he will call at 3 p.m., he does exactly that.
As a child Sutter, who attended St. John the Apostle elementary school in Linden, spent a lot of time in front of the TV set. The cartoons he watched turned out to be training for his profession.
"I joke about it, but the truth is I did learn the essentials of storytelling from Hanna Barbera," he said.

Asked why he wasn't out playing with other kids, Sutter said, "It was not that I was antisocial. To this day I am not a big people person. I do much better either by myself or with one person." Sutter attended Roselle Catholic High School. He said he jokes that he spent most of high school hung over, and that he probably had the lowest SAT scores in his school's history.
He went to Rutgers University, and graduated with a bachelor's degree in film. Sutter then spent several years trying to make a living as an actor in New York City. But he found it tough going. He soon transitioned to the writing side of the business, and moved to the West Coast.
Sutter playing a bit role as a motorcycle club member on "Sons of Anarchy" is not much of a stretch. He looks the part. He resembles a young James Brolin, and wears his hair long, shoulder length, although he just got it trimmed.
"Every four years I take about five inches off my hair, and I just grow it out again," he said.
Sutter also has tribal Maori tattoos covering his right arm, and his production company is called Sutter Ink.
He holds the titles of creator, writer and executive producer for "Sons of Anarchy," and just finished directing its final episode for this season.
Sutter was always fascinated with the outlaw-bike-club subculture, and said he spent time with a club in Oakland, Calif., as research. That experience provided the basis for "Sons of Anarchy."
The drama is "Hamlet" played out with members of a California biker club, which is named Sons of Anarchy. The lead character is Jackson "Jax" Teller, played by Charlie Hunnam. Jax's father John Teller, who is deceased, founded the outlaw club with the help of Perlman's character, current club president Clarence "Clay" Morrow.
Morrow is now married to Jax's mother, biker gang matriarch Gemma, who is played by Sagal. This season the conflict between Jax and his stepfather Morrow over the club's future has escalated.
And the show has a new twist: A white supremacy group has come to town, lead by a chillingly evil Adam Arkin. Arkin doesn't want the Sons of Anarchy to continue selling illegal guns to black and Hispanic gangs and biker clubs. Morrow tells him to take a hike. That sets off a brutal chain of events.
Jax is an anti-hero similar to Vic Mackey in "The Shield" and Tony Soprano in "The Sopranos." Jax, who has a sensitive nature, kills when he must to protect his friends and loved ones.
And Jax's mother Gemma is in a league with Tony Soprano's Machiavellian mother Livia. Gemma is tough as they come, once even attempting to murder Jax's wife in the show's first season.
Viewers are tuning in. "Sons of Anarchy" this season has ranked No. 1 in its time period for basic cable, and as basic cable's top-rated scripted series this year for men 18 to 49.
The cable network FX, home of "Sons of Anarchy," is known for airing edgy, risk-taking shows that not only push the envelope, they break through it in terms of sex and violence.
"Sons of Anarchy" fits right into that mold. The New York Post's "Drama Mama" TV critic recently called the show "brutal," adding that she "can't deny the biker saga is compelling television, even if some of it has to be watched between fingers."
Last season street justice prevailed when a child rapist was castrated and left to bleed to death. The club punished one errant member by using a blowtorch to remove the "Sons of Anarchy" tattoo that covered his back. Jax puts explosives in the cheeks of a dead gang member's buttocks, and then blows the guy — and a warehouse — up.
This season's first episode — spoiler alert — Gemma was gang-raped by Arkin's men, with the attack led by a character played by singer-songwriter Henry Rollins. That assault shakes her to the core. Later on, a Sons of Anarchy member shoots and then carves a huge initial in Latino gang banger's chest. And that's just the first few episodes this season.
The violence is often accompanied by gallows humor from the Sons of Anarchy bikers, who don't mind cracking wise after they've cut off someone's genitals or blown someone up.
Sutter claimed that the violence, which he calls "sometimes horrific and sometimes absurd," is integral to his storytelling. But it's not based on any horrors he experienced in the "soul-numbing" Central Jersey suburbs.
"I always had a really, really vivid imagination as a kid." Sutter said. "I don't think anything horrible happened to me that I could bring to my consciousness. But I just had a very, very vivid sort of twisted imagination...For me to go to those dark places, I might as well be dealing with dragons and fairies. It's just my imagination."
The goal of the violence is to engage and compel the audience, according to Sutter.
"The trick is that the surprise comes from some sort of psychologically organic place, so it doesn't become gratuitous and it doesn't just become for the thrill of it," he said.
Even the character that Sutter plays, jailed Sons of Anarchy member Big Otto, isn't spared from brutal violence in the show. Sutter joked about his bit role.
"I'm the only one that will actually employ me as an actor,"
he said. "It was my first love, and it's fun to do. It's good in small doses, and my rule is that usually my scenes are no longer than a page long."
Sutter worked with his wife Sagal when she had a recurring role on "The Shield." But they have never worked together as much as they are on "Sons of Anarchy" during its two seasons.
"It's fine," he said. "Some days it has its challenges, and ultimately the show begins to take over your life a little bit. But we're in the groove this year and it's a bit easier this year."
The interview was over, and Sutter ended with a special goodbye: "Give my best to Jersey."
Related:
‘Sons of Anarchy' creator Kurt Sutter weighs in on TV business: Emmys, ratings and Leno in primetime

Child's body found in landfill, police looking for girl say

2009-10-21T17:55:00.001-07:00

(CNN) -- Police looking for a missing 7-year-old Florida girl said Wednesday they have found the body of a child in a landfill in south Georgia, about an hour from the girl's home.

Police have been looking for Somer Thompson, 7, who disappeared Monday on her way home from school.

Investigators haven't identified the body. The landfill is about 55 miles north of where Somer Thompson became separated from her schoolmates Monday on her way home from school in Orange Park, Florida, authorities said.
"We hope and pray that it's not the body of Somer, but the garbage that was brought into that area ... was collected in the Orange Park area," Clay County Sheriff Rick Beseler told reporters.
The body, found at a landfill near Folkston, Georgia, was partially covered, Beseler said.
"All that we can see at this time are the lower extremities, but it is a white female or a white child. We cannot say the sex," he said.
But Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokesman John Bankhead said officials believe the body is that of a female.
A criminal investigation has begun, and members of the FBI's forensic crimes unit were heading to the landfill to process the scene, Beseler said.
Somer's parents have been alerted to the find, he said.

GOP senator says Obama showing Nixonian tendencies

2009-10-21T17:53:00.001-07:00

By BEN EVANS, Associated Press Writer Ben Evans, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 38 mins ago

WASHINGTON – The third-ranking Senate Republican said Wednesday the Obama administration appears to be launching a Richard Nixon-like political strategy of making an "enemies list" of people who disagree with the president.
Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, who once worked in President Nixon's administration, warned the White House that such a "street brawl" approach of attacking political opponents "can get you in a lot of trouble."
Alexander offered no evidence that Obama is developing an actual list, as Nixon famously created for his opponents. But, he said, "I have an uneasy feeling only 10 months into this new administration that we're beginning to see the symptoms of this same kind of animus developing."
"It's a mistake for the president of the United States," he said. "Let's not start calling people out and compiling an enemies list."
White House spokeswoman Gannet Tseggai responded that it's Republicans who "seem to be formulating lists of people and policies to oppose" while the president "is focused on tackling the list of critical priorities that Washington has ignored for too long."
The president "remains committed to working with Republicans to include their best ideas, even if he doesn't get their support," Tseggai said.
Alexander's criticism, which echoed weekend remarks from Karl Rove, the former adviser to President George W. Bush and a Fox News contributor, comes amid an unusual public feud between Fox News and the White House. Alexander also cited widening disputes between the administration and business groups such as the insurance industry, Wall Street banks and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Several top administration officials have sharply criticized Fox News in recent days, saying the cable television channel acts like a wing of the Republican Party and shouldn't be viewed as a legitimate news organization.
The president bypassed "Fox News Sunday" during a string of appearances on news shows recently, and Fox News officials have said the White House threatened a boycott. The White House has denied that and says it will book administration officials on Fox News shows.
The administration also has taken on the Chamber of Commerce, for example, suggesting the group is out of touch with the business community on health care, climate change and other issues.

When the Twilight Stars Are Over-Worked

2009-10-21T17:51:00.000-07:00

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When the Twilight Stars Are Over-Worked
In Celebs by Susie Anderson , on Wednesday, October 21, 2009, 5:15 AM (PDT)
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Courtesy of INFDaily.com
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It's all worth it

The stars of Twilight seem like they work their butts off. When they're not filming the movies, they're jetting back and forth to various places, are conducting magazine interviews and cover shoots, and are attending events. It must get tiring right? Well, one studio executive has some advice for them.

Sometimes it does sound like it could be a bit of a tough life. They're super busy and they can't even hang out and relax in public without having tons of fans after them. Would you be able to handle it? E! Online gossip columnist Ted Casablanca sounds like he's a bit worried about the stars like Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart. He thinks their press tour is pretty rigorous, maybe even too much so.

But one studio executive laughs this off and thinks the Twilight stars should probably get over it. He says, "We tell them to just count their millions... Besides, they're young."

That studio executive has a good point! We might find all that work rigorous too, but for the millions of dollars they're making, they probably shouldn't complain too much. And it's true that they are young and probably can handle it now more than most other celebrities.

So, we don't feel too bad for Robert Pattinson. He's doing just fine and all the Twilight stars should keep up the hard work. And they'll definitely keep raking in the money.

Texas Cheerleader video

2009-10-17T18:12:00.000-07:00

Fab Five: The Texas Cheerleader Scandal which is the Lifetime Television drama film starring Tatum O’Neal and directed by Tom McLoughlin. Those are the pictures of Fab Five: Texas Cheerleader.
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Kentucky Wildcats vs. Auburn Tigers

2009-10-17T18:10:00.000-07:00

* Kentucky: 5-0 SU in their last 5 home games
* Kentucky: 4-2 in their last 6 games against Michigan
* Kentucky: 2-6 SU in their last 8 games against Michigan
* Auburn: 4-2 ATS in their last 6 games
* Auburn: Total has gone OVER in 5 of their last 6 games
* Auburn: 4-1 ATS in their last 5 home games

Auburn looks to bounce back from an embarrassing loss, while Kentucky just holds on for dear life, when these two get together Saturday in Auburn, Alabama.

Coming into last weekend’s game Auburn was unbeaten and virtually untested. That changed quickly though when they hit the road against Arkansas, and got thoroughly dominated from start to finish, losing 44-23. In the game Auburn’s high-powered offense was relatively limited, and their defense could do no right.

If they hope to get back on track this week, it starts with quarterback Chris Todd, who last weekend looked nothing like he did in the previous five weeks. On the game he completed just 15 passes, and his 133 yards were by far the fewest he’s thrown for all year.

Luckily he should have plenty of help this weekend from one of college football’s most dynamic running games. On the season, Auburn is ranked No. 7 in total rushing yards, at 261 a game. Leading the way are two phenomenal backs in Ben Tate and Onterio McCalebb.

On the season the dynamic duo has accounted for over 1000 yards and eight touchdowns, with each averaging over six yards per carry. They should have a field day against a Kentucky run defense that’s currently ranked 101st in college football.

As for the Wildcats, things don’t get any easier, as they are playing a ranked opponent for the fourth week in a row. In addition, they will be without starting quarterback Mike Hartline.

But as tough as Kentucky’s schedule has been however, give the Wildcats for playing tough. After facing Florida and Alabama in back-to-back weeks, Kentucky went to South Carolina last weekend as 10 point underdogs in the college football betting lines, but fought valiantly before losing 28-26 late in the game.

Offensively, it is unsure who will be the quarterback, but a strong running game will need to keep getting better. Last week Derrick Locke had his best performance of the year, carrying for 89 yards against South Carolina. Randall Cobb- who may actually play quarterback this weekend- added 89 of his own yards.

Regardless of who starts at quarterback however, it’s hard to imagine the Wildcats having much success against Auburn. The Tigers are hungry and upset after losing last weekend, and are playing at home for the first time in three weeks. And you just have to assume that they’ll play much better than they did a week ago, against an underrated Arkansas defense.

Auburn has the better players on offense, defense and special teams. They will cover the 13 points they’re giving in this week’s college football betting odds.

Aaron’s Pick: Auburn -13 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jg7-epab84Q

2009-10-17T17:57:00.000-07:00

* collections of pumpkin templates to choose from: First, there are 38 FREE printable pumpkin stencils (use the arrows to click through the slideshow). Second, there are 38 more stencils for pumpkin carving.

* Hershey's pumpkin stencils are FREE and nicely grouped into beginner, intermediate, and advanced categories. This makes it easy to match the skill level of the person who's doing the carving!

* This Jeep-o-Lantern pumpkin carving template is great for the Jeep enthusiast in your family! Let the world know you're a fan of the outdoors, Jeep vehicles, and offroading!

* College pumpkin carving templates are all the rage. For example, here's a FREE University of Tennessee template. It's so easy, you could definitely do this one yourself. Perhaps it will inspire you to pick your favorite team logo and declare your support boldly on your own pumpkin this year.

* Un-Halloween templates are unique things that you might want to carve onto a pumpkin. Think movie stars & musicians, patriotic themes, animals, Christian symbols, and true American heroes. They're all FREE.

* The Pumpkin Lady provides a handful of unique pumpkin templates for FREE. They're located toward the bottom of the page. There are also lots of fun categories for choosing more specialized pumpkin templates. It's a nice library of intricate pumpkin carving designs which can be download for a fee.

* In the spirit of Halloween, this selection of FREE pumpkin templates follows the ghost and goblin theme very nicely. Plus, there are some nice words and text patterns as well.

* Paper Pumpkins has a selection of simpler pumpkin carving stencils that the younger pumpkin carver can handle. These contain easy geometrical designs that follow the spirit of Halloween without being too difficult to accomplish. And they're all FREE.

* If you've got patience and an artistic flair, these FREE fantasy pumpkin templates are a spectacular collection of very intricate patterns for the advanced pumpkin carver. You won't come closer to a one-of-a-kind pumpkin masterpiece than these!

Well, we've covered it all... from some basic designs that younger children can easily handle to very advanced works of art that are best left to the truly skilled artists.

Now you know where to find standard pumpkin templates for witches and black cats to advanced carving templates for patriotic American flags and figures -- and everything in between!. I guess it's time to head for the pumpkin patch, pick out a few nice big pumpkins, and create your own unique Jack-o-Lanterns.

Make sure to take some pictures, as they won't last forever! And you'll need something to inspire the next generation as they carry out your new family tradition. Pumpkin carving is an excellent family activity that everyone can enjoy.

Pumpkin Craft "how to"

2009-10-17T17:54:00.000-07:00

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October is a wonderful month. You have the leaves changing, it is starting to get cold and you see pumpkin being carved. While this can be a dangerous thing, if you don’t take the right precautions. But with great tips, you will be on your way to having a great time with your kids. I have carved pumpkins for a long time, even when I didn’t have kids in the house I was out every year trying to find the perfect pumpkin to carve.So, over the years, I started writing down tips that I found useful. These are some of the ones that I would like to share.

Pumpkin-Carving Tool Options:

* A serrated knife works well for creating a hole in the pumpkin. It’s preferable to carve the hole in the bottom of the pumpkin to cut off any bumps so the pumpkin will sit level. It’s also much easier to place the pumpkin over a light source rather than lowering the light, like a candle, into the pumpkin.
* A large metal spoon or ice cream scoop is great for removing the pumpkin seeds. Another option is a battery-operated spinner that’s made specifically for scraping the insides of the pumpkin walls.
* Small, paring knives are great for carving designs into the pumpkin. Pumpkin-carving kits, made specifically for kids or adults, are another good source. Battery-operated, pumpkin-carving knives also make quick work of even intricate designs.

Tips for Preserving a Carved Pumpkin:

* Mold and dehydration are the two main contributors to pumpkin rot. Prevent both by covering the carved areas and interior of pumpkin with petroleum jelly. This will keep the pumpkin from drying out and will slow the growth of mold.
* Another option is to add a small amount of bleach to a spray bottle filled with water. Spray the pumpkin daily with the bleach mixture; the bleach fights mold while the water keeps the pumpkin from drying out too quickly.
* Spray the pumpkin with a store-bought pumpkin preservation spray. Make sure that it is environmentally-friendly and nontoxic. Note: Even with these precautions, a cut pumpkin will only last for a few days to a week, so it’s best to cut your pumpkin no earlier than a few days before your Halloween festivities.

Illuminating the Pumpkin:

* The candle-free options are nearly endless for showcasing your pumpkin designs. Check stores for color-changing strobe lights, battery-operated tea lights and rainbow LEDs that are made specifically for pumpkins and are safe for use in fresh or foam pumpkins. Battery-operated tap lights are a great option for a small pumpkin or gourd or use several in a larger pumpkin.
* If the pumpkin will be displayed near an outlet, a string of Christmas lights or a small lamp can be used.
* The final choice is candles, the old standby. Votive or pillar candles, placed on a plate which is large enough to catch any drips, are the best option. A good tip when illuminating a pumpkin with a candle is to cut a small hole in the top of the pumpkin, like a chimney, allowing the heat to escape. Note: Candles can only be used in fresh pumpkins, never place a lit candle inside a foam pumpkin.

2009-10-17T17:52:00.000-07:00

Free pumpkin carving stencils for Twilight's Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart are some of the most popular templates this Halloween. Download Edward, Bella, and Jacob pumpkin designs, and print them off free or inexpensively on your computer.

With all the hype this year over the Twilight books, movie and now New Moon, it's no wonder online companies that sell Halloween pumpkin carving supplies are busy. To sweeten the deal, companies like Pink Ray Gun.com, are giving away free pumpkin stencils just to get Halloween fans to their website. Twilight carving designs are one of their most popular stencils. In fact, Pink Ray Gun says, "Our first Twilight themed template was a huge success, garnering almost 5,000 downloads in a few days. The good people over at Team Twilight tell us that a solo shot of Edward would go over really, really well."

There's no catch with some online Halloween companies other than you'll want to window-shop and see what else they have. These websites are smart. They know you'll need carving knives, more intricate carving patterns, and maybe a Halloween Carving Ideas book while you're at it. Jack-o'-lantern carving transfer tools and carving saws can all be purchased from them.

Not all stencils are free however. If you want the whole Twilight Pumpkin Carving package, you can buy it from Ultimate pumpkin stencils.com for $13.95. It includes 4 quality stencils of the most popular Twilight characters like Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart.

The Pumpkin Lady.com has a scary online deal - the more you buy, the more you save. 10%, 20% to 40% off with 20 stencils. Lest you think the pumpkin carving patterns are going to set you back a lot, keep in mind these patterns are cheap. Pumpkin stencils from online companies start at $1.49 and go up from there.

Not into Twilight and New Moon? No problem. There's plenty of free Halloween items to download. Check out Free Pumpkin Carving Stencils and Free Halloween Coloring Pages and Printable Cutouts for more information.

When you're all done carving your Halloween pumpkin, you can take it to a Halloween Carving Contest and have it judged. Prizes are given for the best pumpkin, the scariest pumpkin, and the biggest Halloween pumpkin. Check local listings for Halloween carving contests in your area.

FHM Cover by Cristine Reyes video

2009-10-17T17:48:00.001-07:00

Philippines Celebrity

CEO of Galleon Arrested

2009-10-16T16:52:00.000-07:00

Raj Rajaratnam, founder and CEO of the $3 billion hedge fund Galleon Group was arrested in his apartment last night on charges of insider trading on stocks including Hilton Hotels(NYSE: HLT), AMD (NYSE: AMD), Clearwire (NASDAQ: CLWR) and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), Akamai (NASDAQ: AKAM).
The government is filing criminal charges against Raj Rajaratnam, not just a civil suit. He is being charged with four counts of conspiracy and eight counts of securities fraud.
Rajaratnam, a Wharton MBA and a Sri Lankan Tamil by birth, was the 236th richest American in the Forbes 2008 list, and the richest Sri Lankan born person.
There is an interesting background to all this. For the last 25 years, his people - the Sri Lankan Tamils who originally migrated to Sri Lanka centuries ago - had fought a civil war against the Sri Lankan government. They had also killed Rajiv Gandhi, the former Prime Minister of India. Very recently, they (known as the LTTE) had lost the war and their leader was killed. Raj Rajaratnam had pledged in September 2009 to donate a large amount of money to help in the rehabilitation of former LTTE combatants.
Insider Trading Charges Against Galleon Group Founder

Galleon Group arrested

2009-10-16T16:50:00.000-07:00

Federal authorities have uncovered what they say is the largest case of insider trading ever at a hedge fund – netting an alleged $20 million in illegal profits.
The case centers around billionaire Raj Rajaratnam, a partner at hedge fund Galleon Group. The Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested him on Friday in New York along with five others tied to the case.
It’s the latest hit to the reputation of Wall Street, which has also been shaken over the past year by the Bernard Madoff scandal, other Ponzi schemes, and the whirlwinds of controversy surrounding the broader crisis in America’s banking system.
Hedge funds have been touted in recent years to wealthy investors and pension funds as a new “asset class,” to be tapped alongside traditional stocks and bonds. Often they rack up solid returns while carefully hedging their bets (hence their name). But they are also secretive, insular, and little-regulated.
Authorities said the arrests Friday show they are pursuing fraud at high levels of Wall Street with the same determination, and the same tools, that they use on drug lords or mobsters.
“This case should be a wake-up call for Wall Street,” said Preet Bharara, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, who announced the arrests along with the FBI. “It should be a wake-up call for every hedge fund manager and every Wall Street trader and every corporate executive who is even thinking about engaging in insider trading.”
The six arrested Friday are:
• Mr. Rajaratnam, managing member of Galleon Management and a portfolio manager for Galleon Technology Offshore. His net worth has been listed at $1.3 billion by Forbes magazine, putting him No. 559 in a ranking of the world’s wealthiest people.
• Danielle Chiesi, an employee of New Castle Funds, formerly the equity hedge fund group of Bear Stearns Asset Management.
• Mark Kurland, a top executive at New Castle.
• Rajiv Goel of Intel Capital, the investment arm of the high-tech firm Intel Corp.
• Anil Kumar, a director at McKinsey & Co., the management consulting firm.
• Robert Moffat, an executive at IBM.
All are charged with participating in insider trading schemes. The FBI said Ms. Chiesi, Mr. Kurland, and Rajaratnam “repeatedly traded on material, nonpublic information” given as tips by insiders at hedge funds and public companies.
“They may have been privy to a lot of confidential corporate information,” Mr. Bharara said. “But there was one secret they did not know: We were listening.”
The FBI said this was the first time court-authorized wiretaps have been used to target significant insider trading on Wall Street.
The case encompasses alleged use of inside information to trade a range of stocks, including Google, Clearwire, and Hilton Hotels. The charges include illicit profits for Galleon and other hedge funds, and also in a personal account owned by Mr. Goel.
Someone identified only as a “cooperating witness” played a key role. For example, the cooperating witness learned from a Moody’s analyst in July 2007 that Hilton was going to be taken private. Using information from the witness, the FBI says, Rajaratnam bought hundreds of thousands of shares of Hilton stock for Galleon, reaping profits of about $4 million for the fund.
Cases of alleged fraud have surfaced in the wake of last year’s market dive, as often happens in bear markets. The illicit activities, though, often begin during boom times. In the hedge fund case, the FBI says illegal trading began early in 2006, well before the recession or market downturn.
News of the arrest came in a week when the Dow Jones Industrial Average crossed above 10000 for the first time in a year. The Dow ended Friday below 10000, at 9995.91.

Raj Rajaratnam of Galleon Group arrested

2009-10-16T16:49:00.000-07:00

Raj Rajaratnam, billionaire founder of the Galleon Group, a major hedge fund, is led in handcuffs from FBI headquarters in New York Friday, Oct.16, 2009. Rajaratnam was charged with insider trading in the stock of several companies including Hilton, Clearwire, and Google.

Bin Laden: 'an austere dad who loved nature'

2009-10-16T16:47:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON — Osama bin Laden was an austere father who banned toys and modern appliances at home, but also a flower-growing nature lover who spoke fluent English and adored fast cars, according to his wife and son.
In a book to be published at the end of this month, the Al-Qaeda boss's first wife Najwa and fourth son Omar give a rare glimpse into bin Laden's personal life up to the September 11, 2001 attacks against the United States he is believed to have masterminded.
They chart bin Laden's transformation from a pious teenage newly-wed to the global face of Islamic extremism, a role that took the family from Saudi Arabia to Pakistan, Sudan, Afghanistan and at one point, Najwa revealed, to the United States.
Shortly after Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, bin Laden and his wife, whom he married aged 17, visited Indianapolis and Los Angeles for a meeting with his mentor, Palestinian cleric Abdullah Azzam.
"We were only there for only two weeks, and for one of those weeks, Osama was away in Los Angeles to meet with some men in that city," Najwa told the book's co-author Jean Sasson, later recalling the gathering was with Azzam.
Soon after, bin Laden began to travel to Pakistan and Afghanistan to fight against the Soviet occupation, returning to tell his sons tales of battles in Afghan caves and mountains under Soviet fire.
He eventually returned to Saudi Arabia a hero, but at home was increasingly disciplinarian, punishing his children -- who eventually numbered more than a dozen -- for transgressions such as "showing too many teeth" while laughing.
Meanwhile, Najwa was kept in seclusion with Osama's new wives, one of whom she picked, in a spartan home without the mod-cons that make life in the stifling desert lands of Saudi Arabia and Sudan more comfortable.
"My father would not allow my mother to turn on the air conditioning that the contractor had built into the apartment building," Omar relayed.
"Neither would he allow her to use the refrigerator that was standing in the kitchen."
Despite this aversion to modern appliances, bin Laden indulged in his penchant for fast cars, including at least one gold-colored Mercedes. He once even bought a speed boat.
"Nothing gave him more satisfaction than having a full day to take a speedy drive to the desert, where he would leave his automobile while he took long walks," said Najwa.
After being forced into exile in Sudan because of his vocal opposition to US troop deployments in Saudi Arabia, bin Laden would later take pride in growing sunflowers as he dodged assassination plots and built the Al-Qaeda network.
"Osama's favorite undertaking was working the land, growing the best corn and the biggest sunflowers," Najwa said.
But his love of nature was also colored by growing political fervor.
He forced the family to spend nights in the desert, with only dirt as cover from the cold. He also forced his sons to climb desert mountains without water to toughen them ahead of more difficult times.
But there were more lighthearted moments with bin Laden, whom his sons admired as a good horseman, a fluent English speaker -- thanks to his school days -- and a mathematics whiz.
"My father was so well known for the skill that there were times when men would come to our home and ask him to match his wits against a calculator," Omar said, adding his father usually won.
They also spoke about a man who loved eating fruit, particularly mangoes, took two sugars in his tea, whose favorite meal was marrow-stuffed zucchini and who liked to listen to BBC radio.
Spooks will no doubt pour over the book for new clues to bin Laden's habits or whereabouts.
They will learn he may be able to pilot a helicopter, but also suffers from bouts of malaria and is partially blind in his right eye thanks to a boyhood metalwork injury for which he received treatment in London.

Vodafone unveils RIM BlackBerry Storm2 9520

2009-10-15T07:10:00.000-07:00

BlackBerry Storm2 9520

Vodafone and Research In Motion have unveiled the BlackBerry Storm2 9520, a touchscreen smartphone device that builds on the success of the first iteration Storm 9500. The new Storm2 is a thinner and sleeker device with quad-band GSM support and high-speed 3G and WiFi data connectivity. The phone includes a 1400mAh battery for extended use.
RIM's Storm2 features improved SurePress technology, which gives a tactile response when pressing on the phone's 3.25-inch 360 x 480 resolution capacitive touchscreen^(INFO) display. The technology responds equally to pressure placed on the screen. Typing-speed response has also been enhanced. An updated version of BlackBerry OS 5 includes BlackBerry App World, too, so users can download new applications for the smartphone device.
Users can snap photos and shoot video with a 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera. After syncing their music to the device from iTunes using BlackBerry Media Sync, users can enjoy their music with standard headphones that utilize a 3.5mm stereo headset jack or Bluetooth for use with stereo headphones. Though the Storm2 carries 2GB of internal memory, users can save media to the phone's microSD card slot, as well. GPS is also built-in for navigation duties.
The BlackBerry Storm2 9520 will be available from Vodafone on October 26 for free with a two-year contract and a 35 GBP per month plan commitment. It will follow in Ireland, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, France, Italy, South Africa in November or December. An announcement in the U.S. from Verizon is expected soon.

Tess Taylor PHOTO

2009-10-15T07:02:00.001-07:00

PHOTOS! Here are pictures of Playboy’s Tess Taylor whose pic was reportedly taken near an unusual person last night - Nick Prugo. Tess Taylor on Model Mayhem and her Myspace page writes “my religion is simple. My religion is kindness”.
The stunning model is from Agoura Hills, California. Tess Taylor writes on Model Mayhema about her love of dancing and pilates.
“Hey RaWk sTarZz!!! My name is Tess Taylor! Nice to meet you! Welcome to my page! I feel like whatever I write in these things just won’t serve me justice. I thankfully reside in the beautiful Los Angeles area. I live to create art. Modeling is a strong passion of mine & I stand strong. I have been dancing for 17 years. I am a semi professional ballerina.

“I am now teaching dance, pilates and poledancing. I am very outgoing & it is rare to catch me without a smile on my face! I have been blessed to been trained by some of the most talented people in the industry. I am always looking to meet new people. So dont be shy! please message me!”

A report claims Wednesday night Taylor was “kicking it with Prugo [and Disney's Drake] at the Roosevelt Hotel [party]“.
On Myspace Taylor writes she was a semi professional ballerina.
“Nice to meet you! Welcome to my page! I feel like whatever I write in these things just won’t serve me justice. I thankfully reside in the beautiful Los Angeles area. I live to create art. Modeling and Acting are a strong passion of mine & I stand strong. I have been dancing for 17 years. I am a semi professional ballerina. I am now teaching dance, pilates and poledancing. I am very outgoing & it is rare to catch me without a smile on my face! I have been blessed to been trained by some of the most talented people in the industry. I am always looking to meet new people. So dont be shy! please message me!! Xoxo, Tess.”

Tess Taylor and Drake Bell Seen Together

2009-10-15T07:00:00.001-07:00

Remember when Lindsay Lohan’s house was entered by a burglar who stole her things? Well, it’s such a small world, after all that now we’ve found the man who broke off to her house. Yes, that was the inner circle of Nickelodeon star Drake Bell.
Drake Bell stars in Drake and Josh show, and we admit that he’s hot especially when he was spotted together with a model who dances named Tess Taylor. The duo made an appearance at the Roosevelt last night, and by the way Tess, have you had your bracelets covered in insurance?

Goldman Sachs’s Earnings Surge Falls Short of All-Time High

2009-10-15T06:58:00.001-07:00

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc. reported a surge in third-quarter profit driven by trading and investments with the firm’s own money. The shares declined as earnings fell short of the bank’s record.
Third-quarter net income more than tripled to $3.19 billion, or $5.25 a share, in the three months ended Sept. 25, from $845 million, or $1.81 a share, in last year’s third quarter, the New York-based company said today in a statement. Some investors were expecting per-share earnings of as much as $6, the so-called whisper number.
Revenue compared with the second quarter dropped in every division except principal investing and asset management, and earnings declined 7.2 percent from the second quarter’s record $3.44 billion. Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman Sachs’s chairman and chief executive officer, stuck with the firm’s focus on advising, trading and investing after converting to a bank last year to win the Federal Reserve’s backing.
“I think the expectations were somewhat unrealistic,” said Peter Sorrentino, who helps oversee $13.8 billion at Huntington Asset Management in Cincinnati, including Goldman Sachs, its largest financial holding. “It’s gotten more competitive.”
Goldman Sachs, the best-performing stock this year among the 15 biggest U.S. banks, fell $4.09, or 2.1 percent, to $188.19 in composite trading on the New York Stock Exchange at 9:33 a.m.
“Obviously the net figure beat consensus estimates, primarily driven off the trading books, but the whisper was $6,” said Ioan Smith, a vice president at Knight Capital Europe in London.
Analysts Estimates
The average estimate of 22 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg was for $4.18 a share, with forecasts ranging from $3.48 to $4.75.
“Our second quarter was a record in virtually every single business,” Chief Financial Officer David Viniar said on a conference call with reporters. The third quarter was the firm’s third-best in equities as well as fixed income, commodities and currencies, Viniar said. “So it was a fantastic quarter, just not as fantastic as the second quarter.”
Compensation, the company’s biggest single expense, accounted for 43 percent of revenue to total $5.35 billion in the third quarter. So far this year, Goldman Sachs has set aside $16.7 billion to pay employees, compared with $11.4 billion after the first three quarters of last year.
The firm allocated $16.9 billion in the first three quarters of 2007, a year that proved to be an all-time high for pay.
Government Backing
The prospect of record year-end bonus payments at Goldman Sachs has sparked criticism from lawmakers even after the firm repaid $10 billion it received from the U.S. Treasury last year plus dividends. Goldman Sachs has also benefited from Federal Reserve support, government backing on about $30 billion of debt, and was one of the largest recipients of funds from the bailout of American International Group Inc.
Viniar said Goldman Sachs is giving compensation “a lot of thought.”
“Our competitors are paying people quite well,” he said on the conference call. “We’re very focused on what’s going on in the world. We’re also focused on our franchise and the performance of our people.”
Goldman Sachs’s “biggest challenge and the thing that seems to get the most press is how much they put aside for comp expense,” said Michael Hecht, an analyst at JMP Securities LLC in New York, who rates the stock “market outperform.” “A year ago we were talking about whether they would survive and now they just have too much damn money.”
JPMorgan, Citigroup
Citigroup Inc. reported a $101 million third-quarter profit today as it slowed the pace of building reserves for future loan defaults. On a per-share basis, the New York-based bank had a loss of 27 cents because of a charge related to the exchange of preferred shares into common stock.
JPMorgan Chase & Co., the second-biggest U.S. bank by assets, said yesterday that its profit surged sevenfold, to $3.59 billion, on higher investment-banking revenue.
Bank of America Corp., the largest U.S. bank, reports third-quarter earnings tomorrow. The Charlotte, North Carolina- based company is expected to post a per-share loss of 12 cents, based on the average estimate of 24 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
Third-quarter revenue at Goldman Sachs doubled to $12.4 billion from $6.04 billion last year. Value-at-risk, a measure of how much the firm estimates it could lose in a single day of trading, fell to $208 million from a record $245 million in the second quarter.
Fixed Income
Revenue from fixed-income, currency and commodity trading, or FICC, surged to $5.99 billion from $1.60 billion in last year’s third quarter. Equities revenue rose to $2.78 billion from $1.56 billion.
“Although the world continues to face serious economic challenges, we are seeing improving conditions and evidence of stabilization, even growth, across a number of sectors,” Blankfein, 55, said in the statement.
Principal investments, which includes the firm’s stakes in companies such as Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., recorded a gain of $1.26 billion, compared with a $453 million net loss a year earlier.
Goldman Sachs advised on $33.8 billion of takeovers completed during the quarter, compared with $232.9 billion in last year’s third quarter, Bloomberg data show. The firm managed $11.7 billion of equity and equity-linked offerings in the period, compared with $10.2 billion last year, the data show.
Investment Banking
Investment-banking revenue, which includes fees from advising on takeovers and underwriting stocks and bonds, fell to $899 million from $1.29 billion in the third quarter of last year. The company, which has held the top spot among advisers on announced mergers and acquisitions for each of the last eight years, ranks second this year after Morgan Stanley, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Revenue from initial public offerings and from mergers and acquisitions will probably climb in coming months after stock market gains this year, said Jon Fisher, a fund manager at Fifth Third Asset Management in Minneapolis, which has more than $19 billion under management including Goldman Sachs stock.
“The market’s going to finish the year pretty high so the IPO pace of things should pick up gradually into next year and M&A activity I think is going to pick up into next year,” Fisher said.
Return on Equity
Goldman Sachs’s annualized return on common equity, a measure of how well the firm reinvests earnings, was 21.4 percent in the quarter compared with 7.7 percent in the third quarter of 2008. Book value per share grew to $110.75 from $106.41 at the end of June.
“What seems to drive the stock is growth of book value,” said JMP Securities’ Hecht. “The stock’s going to continue to drift higher especially because I think their results are going to look pretty good, relative to others.”
Goldman Sachs’s third quarter ended on Aug. 29 last year because the company’s fiscal year finished in November. The company changed its fiscal year-end to December after becoming a bank holding company.
To contact the reporter on this story: Christine Harper in New York at charper@bloomberg.net.

Golden quarter for Goldman Sachs

2009-10-15T06:57:00.000-07:00

he big investment firm posts another giant quarterly profit. CEO Blankfein: 'We are seeing improving conditions and evidence of stabilization.'

Last Updated: October 15, 2009: 9:05 AM ET

Goldman chief Lloyd Blankfein: 'We are seeing improving conditions and evidence of stabilization.'

Goldman shares have soared during this year's market rally.

The Most Powerful Women In Sports

2009-10-15T06:55:00.000-07:00

Car-racing maven Lesa France Kennedy leads a pack of high-powered female sports executives.

In Pictures: The Most Powerful Women In Sports

Lesa France Kennedy stuck with the family business. Now she's the most powerful woman in sports.
As chief executive of publicly traded International Speedway ( ISCA - news - people ), Kennedy sits atop a business that rakes in some $750 million in annual revenue. The granddaughter of Bill France Sr., a 1930s-era stockcar racer credited as the founding father of Nascar, and the daughter of Bill France Jr., who ran Nascar from 1972 to 2000, Kennedy, 48, represents the generation that has succeeded in taking Nascar mainstream. Her 26-year career at ISC spans a period that expanded the sport past its Southern base, with new racetracks built in Chicago and upstate New York, plus the acquisition of five tracks from Roger Penske.

She rose to president in 2003 and to CEO this June. Analysts say she's played a big role in most all of the company's acquisitions and improvement projects dating back to the 1990s. After suffering the personal losses of both her father and husband in 2007, Kennedy kept her profile low for a while until accepting the top post this year.

In Pictures: The Most Powerful Women In Sports

"I want to be more out front, I think that comes with leadership," she told Sporting News last summer. ISC now promotes over 100 races annually, including the Daytona 500. No female sports executive oversees a bigger operation.
That's the Forbes criteria for powerful sports business women: Money, plain and simple. Those whose decisions affect the largest sports-related revenue streams--be they from teams, leagues or corporate sponsors--hold the most sway.
Right after Kennedy's International Speedway Corporation, there's World Wrestling Entertainment ( WWE - news - people ) Chief Operating Officer Donna Goldsmith, who calls many of the shots for the $500 million-plus corporation, which has been publicly traded since 1999. The WWE, whose smack downs have gone increasingly mainstream in recent years, has had a large female presence for years. Linda McMahon, wife of founder Vince McMahon, recently stepped down as CEO to run for a seat in the U.S. Senate from Connecticut, though she remains on the board. WWE also recently snagged former United States Tennis Association executive Michelle Wilson as its new marketing chief.

Dodgers’ CEO ‘Unequivocally’ Wants Yankees in Series

2009-10-15T06:53:00.001-07:00

By Michael Buteau and Kathleen Hays

Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Jamie McCourt has just one opponent in mind for her Los Angeles Dodgers to face if they reach the World Series: the New York Yankees.
“Unequivocally,” McCourt, the Dodgers’ chief executive officer, said in an interview on Bloomberg Radio. “That’s who I want to face. They’re the childhood team that I revered.”
First, the Dodgers will have to get past the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League Championship Series, which begins tonight in Los Angeles. The Phillies beat the Dodgers in last year’s NLCS to advance to the World Series, where they defeated the Tampa Bay Rays for their first Major League Baseball title in 28 years.
The winner of the Dodgers-Phillies series faces the winner of the American League Championship Series between the Yankees and the Los Angeles Angels, which begins tomorrow at Yankee Stadium.
A Dodgers-Yankees final would draw the most interest, McCourt, 55, said.
“It would be fantastic for the entire country from coast to coast,” she said. “It will be great for TV and keep everybody riveted. It would be two centerpiece teams, two icons, two legendary franchises that could have at it. Of course, we will win.”
Interest in the playoffs this year helped Time Warner Inc.’s TBS network draw the best one-week ratings in its 33-year history. Almost 4.8 million viewers tuned in for each of 13 division series game, up 11 percent from last year. TBS carries the NLCS, while News Corp.’s Fox has the ALCS as well as the World Series.
Last Series
The Dodgers last appeared in the World Series in 1988, defeating the Oakland Athletics. The Yankees and Dodgers haven’t faced each other for the championship since 1981, when Los Angeles won in six games. New York beat the Dodgers in six-game series in 1977 and 1978.
McCourt, who bought the Dodgers with her husband, Frank McCourt, for $430 million in 2004, grew up in Baltimore and said she mostly followed the Yankees as a kid. The McCourts, who married in 1979, recently separated, the couple said in a statement released by the team yesterday.
Besides her own Yankees’ background, Jamie McCourt has other motives for her dream World Series matchup.
“It would be so much fun to have Joe Torre get even with the Yankees,” she said of the Dodgers’ manager who joined Los Angeles before the 2008 season after 12 years guiding the Yankees.
Torre, 69, led New York to the playoffs in each of his 12 seasons, winning the World Series four times. He rejected the team’s one-year contract offer with incentives linked to postseason success, calling it an “insult,” and later signed with the Dodgers.
‘Greatest Manager’
Torre said this week that he doesn’t plan to manage the Dodgers after his contract expires following the 2010 season. McCourt said she plans to make it hard for him to walk away.
“Who wouldn’t want him forever?” she said. “From my vantage point, I’d keep Joe for as long as Joe would stay. I think he’s the greatest manager of all time.”
Asked if she would give Torre a front-office job if that’s what it took to keep him, McCourt didn’t hesitate.
“I would offer Joe anything that he wanted because I think he’s so important to the game,” she said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Buteau in Atlanta at mbuteau@bloomberg.net; Kathleen Hays in New York at khays4@bloomberg.net.

Dodgers owner Frank McCourt

2009-10-15T06:52:00.000-07:00

Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt and his wife, Dodgers Chief Executive Officer Jamie McCourt have separated.
The couple issued a statement Wednesday night:
“Frank McCourt and Jamie McCourt confirm that they are separated. This is a personal matter and they request that their privacy be respected. They will be making no public statements.”
Frank McCourt purchased the team from News Corp. in 2004 for $271 million, which included Dodger Stadium. According to the latest valuations from Forbes magazine, the team is worth $722 million.
As the team's CEO, Jamie McCourt is the highest ranking woman executive in Major League Baseball.
The couple married in 1979 and have four sons, including Dodgers Director of Marketing Drew McCourt.
Currently, it is unknown as to whether the couple will divorce. Should the McCourts divorce, each would be entitled to half of the Dodgers franchise under California law.

ftc.gov

2009-10-14T08:08:00.001-07:00

ftc.gov

Hotness: Volcanic

Related searches:
ftc.gov credit, www.ftc.gov, time barred debt site ftc.gov, time barred debt, fcc.gov

Peak:
22 hours ago

Location:
5% - New York, NY

2009-10-14T08:07:00.001-07:00

A Few Words About the FTC and Blogging

I have about 50 book blogs in my Google Reader and I've found one topic that keeps popping up in recent weeks: the new FTC guidelines and bloggers. The main issue is whether bloggers receive any monetary compensation for endorsing a product/service on their blog. And mainly the FTC just declares that "bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service." I usually do this anyway. If I receive an ARC or review copy of a book from a publisher, I tend to thank whomever sent it to me. I will continue to do that and in addition, will simply put a "Source disclosure" at the end of each book review either stating whether the book was purchased, borrowed (library), or received as a review copy.

In general, our book review policy is as follows:

1) We always give our honest opinion about a book. Even if we don't thoroughly love the book, we always try to find some redeeming quality to it and will never simply trash a book. We also tend to only accept review copies of books that we believe will be of interest to us or fall within the general topic categories of our blog (cozy mystery, children's fiction, YA fiction, adult fiction and mystery).

2) We attempt to review books in a timely manner, but can make no guarantee a book review will be published before a release date.

3) We receive nothing in return for any of our reviews whether our opinion of a book is positive or negative.

4) We do not sell any of our books whether they are ARCs or already published. We tend to keep most books because we LOVE to be surrounded by them. If we decide to part with a book either because we didn't love it, it's a duplicate, or for some other reason, we tend to pass it along to fellow book lovers through a giveaway on this blog, simply lend/give it to a friend, or we mooch it on bookmooch.com.

ftc.gov

2009-10-14T08:04:00.000-07:00

The link of FTc.gov below

How Are Paid Links and Affiliate Links Affected by the FTC’s

2009-10-14T08:01:00.000-07:00

There’s been a lot of concern among bloggers lately about the FTC’s new Endorsement Guidelines. The updated guidelines attempt to address endorsements made online and strive to protect consumers.
On the surface, this is a great idea. This is especially true when a consumer’s health or livelihood is at stake, and when an endorsement includes fake information and hidden kick-backs. Unfortunately, the new guidelines are full of open-ended, irresolutely stated rules. Jack Shafer of Slate says the new guidelines are preposterous!

The guidelines have to be read to be believed. They are written so broadly that if you blog about a good and service in such a way that the FTC construes as an endorsement, the commission has a predicate to investigate. The only way stay on the FTC’s good side is with a “clearly and conspicuously” posted disclosure of the “sponsors” who provided you with the good or service (or money) to blog about the good or service. As I read the guidelines, the FTC could investigate you if you did disclose but it was not satisfied with the disclosure.

Endorsement and Reviews

The key elements in these guidelines are endorsements and reviews. Almost every example in the newly updated guidelines have a scenario where content is being used as an endorsement or review, and compensation is being received without disclosure to the consumer. One exception I found in the 80+ page document that didn’t include possible compensation for an endorsement or review was about discussion forums.

Example 8: An online message board designated for discussions of new music download technology is frequented by MP3 player enthusiasts. They exchange information about new products, utilities, and the functionality of numerous playback devices. Unbeknownst to the message board community, an employee of a leading playback device manufacturer has been posting messages on the discussion board promoting the manufacturer’s product. Knowledge of this poster’s employment likely would affect the weight or credibility of her endorsement. Therefore, the poster should clearly and conspicuously disclose her relationship to the manufacturer to members and readers of the message board.

But the FTC didn’t stop there. They also included a scenario where disclosure must be used in a form of user generated marketing (they used the term “street team), where an individual telling their friends (or anyone for that matter) must disclose that they have incentives for telling them about the product or service, even if it means they’re simply getting virtual points for a website or a free MP3 download from the musician they’re promoting (and sincerely like.)
So what happens if you don’t disclose a possible incentive when endorsing or reviewing a product or service? You could be fined $11,000 for each incident! The new FTC guidelines have effectively turned themselves into their own Internet Thought Police, but even more ridiculous is the fact that they won’t be able to actually enforce it. Like many not-well-thought-out rules, it puts more grievances on legitimate, trustworthy bloggers, and does nothing to curtail the worst offenders, most of which operate outside the jurisdiction of the FTC (outside of the U.S.)

Endorsement versus Citation

That leads me to paid links and affiliate links. The guidelines make it clear enough that endorsements and reviews are not permissible, but what happens when a link isn’t part of an endorsement or review? Affiliate marketers drop links just about anywhere they can. The same can be said about paid links. In cases where links that have been paid for (with the purpose of helping the destination website perform better in organic search engine results) or they’re affiliate links (where a blogger could potentially make money from a sale), but no endorsement or review is associated with them, a big question remains; are those links subject to the updated FTC guidelines? Before I give you my answer, I want to state very clearly, I AM NOT AN ATTORNEY and I could be wrong, very wrong.
With that being said, and much to Google’s chagrin, I don’t think paid or affiliate links are affected by the FTC’s updated guidelines. If there’s a blog entry that doesn’t contain an endorsement or review, but has a link that’s either been paid for or is an affiliate link, it’s technically a citation or reference. I think it should be up to the blogger to decide how much they want to reveal or not reveal about their paid or affiliate links.
The reality is that the online community already does an excellent job of policing themselves. Similar to Outspoken Media’s stance on affiliate links on blogs, it really comes down to community and trust. If a person doesn’t like or trust what you publish and link to, they will go away and will not come back. It’s in a blogger’s best interest to not mislead their readers. Furthermore, if a blogger does include an occasional affiliate link, and it’s done in a way that is acceptable to their readers (even without full disclosure), in no way is the consumer being harmed or misled.
While I think it’s good to have some regulation in place, especially if it protects consumers, the Internet is unique and inherently plays by different rules. In most cases, the online community already does an excellent job of influencing and even shaming bloggers that act in a way that harms consumers.
For now – at least through my interpretation – bloggers who publish paid links and affiliate links are safe (well, except from Google!). Bloggers who also publish endorsements or reviews with hidden incentives may also be out of harm’s way, especially if they’re not promoting something that may potentially harm or trick the consumer. However, with that being said, and in light of the newly updated guidelines, I wouldn’t recommend publishing an endorsement or review without a disclosure, especially if an incentive to promote exists.

REPORT: Ford widens cruise control recall by 4.5M vehicles - now biggest in company history

2009-10-14T06:43:00.001-07:00

For the past ten years, Ford has been doing a dance with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and consumers over the issue of leaking cruise control switches in certain company vehicles. As of 2008, it had recalled some 9.6 million vehicles to repair a faulty Texas Instruments cruise-control deactivation switch, and now after a NHTSA investigation, the Blue Oval has added 4.5 million more Ford and Mercury vehicles to the recall.

The latest action covers these vehicles:

1992-2003 Ford Econoline
2000-2003 Ford Excursion
1995-2002 Ford Explorer
1993-1997, 1999-2003 Ford F-Series Super Duty
1994 Ford F-53 chassis
1995-1997, 2001-2003 Ford Ranger
1995-2003 Ford Windstar
1995-2002 Mercury Mountaineer

According to NHTSA, the switch can leak and overheat, which can lead to smoking and, in some cases, fire. In fact, The Detroit News notes that the switches have been faulted in more than 550 fires – some of which led to fatalities – many of which have led to lawsuits. A Ford statement declared, "Aside from the Windstar, the additional vehicles addressed in this action have different system parameters and do not pose an unreasonable risk to safety. However, Ford is taking this action on all of these vehicles to address possible ongoing customer lack of confidence in vehicles with the affected switch."

The recall begins on October 26. Anyone with an affected vehicle can take it to a Ford dealer and have the switch repaired with a fused harness. Owners can get more information directly from NHTSA by calling the government agency's hotline at 1-888-327-4236. Thanks to everyone for the tips!

[Source: The Detroit News]

Filed under: Minivan/Van, SUV, Truck, Recalls, Safety, Ford

Tags: cruise control, cruise control switch fires, Cruise Control Windstar Ford, CruiseControl, CruiseControlSwitchFires, CruiseControlWindstarFord, defect, minivan, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, NationalHighwayTrafficSafetyAdministration, nhtsa, recall, Recalls, safety, suv, truck, tsb, wagon

2009-10-14T06:38:00.001-07:00

Virgin Maria Auxiliatrix PHOTO!

Posted on October 14th, 2009 in Religion by lalate

PHOTO! Here is a picture of the Virgin Maria Auxiliatrix, the word Auxilium meaning “help”. The Virgin Maria Auxiliatrix’s Sanctuary was last visited by the Papacy in 1996, a visit by then Pope John Paul II in May of that year. The Feast for this Sanctuary is on May 24 each year.
The Virgin Maria Auxiliatrix covered on tv today originates from the Napoleonic wars of Europe. The official site of the Sanctuaries of Notre Dame de Lourdes lists the Virgin Maria Auxiliatrix’s information as follows:

The Sanctuary originates from a vow made by a soldier at the time of the Napoleonic wars in Europe. He promised that he returned safe and sound he would produce a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This is why the Sanctuary is why the Sanctuary is dedicated to Maria Auxiliatrix (Auxilium = help). 2007 will be the centenary of the crowning of the statue. The Sanctuary is linked with Croatia and especially with the Sanctuary of Marija Bistrica. Pope John-Paul II visited the Sanctuary as a pilgrim on 17th May 1996. The Feast of the Sanctuary
is on 24th May.”

The Sanctuary can be found in Brezje at the Bazilika Marije Pomagaj. Their website is www.marija.si
Our Lady of Lourdes indicates that pilgrims can be bathed in their Baths.

The Baths of the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes are marble bathing pools where pilgrims are immersed as they respond to the request of Our Lady to Bernadette: “Go drink of the spring and wash yourself there”. Going through the Baths at Lourdes is a human and spiritual experience carried out by pilgrims who wish to renew their Baptismal Commitment. The water for the Baths is provided by the spring of the Grotto.
There is free access to the Baths; there is no need to make a reservation. Pilgrims do not need to bring anything with them. All that is required is provided on the spot to preserve a person’s modesty and dignity. Pilgrims are advised to arrive about an hour before the opening times.

The site also maintains a webcam:

The first is found on the right hand side of the Gave opposite the Grotto of the Apparitions. It records the surrounds of the Grotto every 15 minutes throughout the day. It also provides other events such as Masses (everyday at 6.07am, 8.07am and 11.07pm), the Rosary on the radio each day at 3.38pm, the Blessed Sacrament Procession at 5.08pm, the Torchlight Marian Procession at 9.30pm and the Grotto at night about 12.15am. The second webcam is found beside the Crowned Statue on the Rosary Square. It offers 4 programmes: the Rosary Basilica from a distance and from close up, the Crowned Statue and the Rosary Square.

For the webcam, CLICK HERE

Fully Cooperating with Police

2009-10-14T06:34:00.001-07:00

Jaycee Dugard (before her abduction) and Phillip Garrido Photo by: Nick Ut / AP; El Dorado County Sheriffs Office / Reuters / AP

Jaycee Dugard is prepared to testify against Phillip and Nancy Garrido if the 29-count kidnapping and rape case against them goes to trial, her new lawyer tells PEOPLE.

"Jaycee understands and appreciates that some absolutely terrible things were done to her and fully appreciates that those people need to be held accountable, and as a result of that she is fully cooperating with the law enforcement agencies involved in the prosecution," says McGregor Scott, a former federal prosecutor.

The statements come one month after Garrido, 58, visited his parole officer with Jaycee, 29, and the two daughters he had with her, and Dugard revealed that Garrido had abducted her 18 years earlier as she walked to her school bus stop in South Lake Tahoe.

Scott declined to discuss whether Dugard wants to testify or has mixed feelings. "It's premature to speculate how that might play itself out," he says.

Scott, now a partner at Orrick, an international law firm, says he agreed to take the case pro bono to help administer a trust fund for the family – which has already raised over $100,000 – and because he feels he owes it to Dugard as someone who worked for law enforcement in the state for about the same length of time that Dugard's family was waiting for her to come home.

Jaycee Dugard

2009-10-14T06:30:00.001-07:00

From PEOPLE Magazine Click to enlarge

The two girls, white as ghosts, walked shyly into the birthday party at 7 p.m. Starlit, 15, and Angel, 11, wore blue sundresses and sandals, mingled with other girls and listened to rap music. "They fit right in," says Cheyvonne Molino, 35, who invited the sisters to her daughter's 16th-birthday party in early August. "When their dad picked them up around 9:30, I walked them to the car and I asked them if they had fun. And they both squealed, 'Oh, yes!'"

On that night, perhaps, everything seemed innocent—but Molino soon learned the two girls were trapped in a horrific living nightmare. On Aug. 26, police in Concord, Calif., discovered that 29-year-old Jaycee Dugard—kidnapped in 1991 when she was just 11—was still alive and living with her alleged abductor, Phillip Garrido, 58. Angel and Starlit are Jaycee's daughters, apparently fathered by Garrido, a registered sex offender who police say raped her repeatedly over the years. Jaycee and her daughters—who had never been to school or seen a doctor—seemed to have spent much of their lives in a cluster of filthy tents and windowless shacks hidden by trees and tarps in the backyard of Garrido's home outside Antioch, Calif., where he lived with his wife, Nancy, 54, and his ailing mother. "I'm not aware of any other stranger-abduction case where a child has been recovered after 18 years," says Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. "It's amazing and it's horrendous, but the most important thing is that Jaycee is alive."

There have been other cases of kids rescued after long abductions, most notably Elizabeth Smart and Shawn Hornbeck, who was also 11 when he was taken in 2002 and spent more than four years in captivity (see box). But Jaycee's case is exceptional, and not only because she was missing for nearly two decades. How did Garrido keep the children so well hidden from neighbors, many of whom had no idea they lived on his property? How is it that police summoned to his house failed to notice them? And what about Jaycee—why didn't she ever try to escape? "I know she bonded with this guy, and now she has hard feelings about it," says her stepfather, Carl Probyn, 61, a wallpapering contractor, who in 1991 watched helplessly from a few hundred yards away as two people in a car snatched Jaycee while she walked to her school bus stop in South Lake Tahoe, Calif. "The truth is, I had given up hope. To get her back after 18 years? I bawled for 10 minutes when I found out."

Since being recovered, Jaycee and her daughters have been living with Jaycee's mother, Terry Probyn, 50, a middle school secretary; they have stayed in undisclosed locations while the girls undergo medical and psychological evaluations. All three are extremely pale, and Jaycee is said to look uncommonly young for a 29-year-old. Angel and Starlit apparently had no idea their mother had been kidnapped, nor do they fully understand why Garrido—who was finally caught only after he took the girls with him to nearby UC Berkeley—is now under arrest and charged, along with his wife, on 29 counts, including kidnapping, rape and false imprisonment (they have both pleaded not guilty). The girls "always just called him Dad," says Cheyvonne, who often saw them at her auto-dismantling yard in Pittsburg, Calif. "Their clothes were always so clean, and one time I heard them talking about Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus. I never saw any red flags."

That in itself is shocking. Garrido has a long history of violence and troubling behavior. Raised in Brentwood, Calif., he became obsessed with LSD in high school; his father, Manuel Garrido, told reporters the drug "killed my son," changing him forever. In 1976 Garrido kidnapped Reno casino worker Katherine Callaway Hall, locked her in a warehouse unit and raped her. "He said, 'Don't fight and you won't get hurt,'" recalls Hall. "He had a far-off empty look in his eyes, like I was a thing." A police officer saw Garrido's car outside the warehouse at 2:30 a.m. and banged on the door; Hall heard him and shouted. Garrido was convicted on federal kidnapping charges and sentenced to 50 years in jail.

But he served only 11 before being released. Three years later young Jaycee Dugard, wearing a pink windbreaker and white sneakers, was dragged into a gray sedan as her stepfather watched. "I heard Jaycee scream, and she was gone," he told PEOPLE in 1991 (see box). In fact, she apparently had been taken to a scruffy, semirural neighborhood 35 miles northeast of Oakland that is rarely patrolled by local police. Garrido and his wife, Nancy, whom he met while he was in prison, lived in a three-bedroom, 1,457-sq.-ft. home owned by his mother. Remarkably, many of his neighbors claim they did not know children were on the property. "I was always mowing and working back there, and I never heard anything except cats," says a man who rents a cottage next door. In November 2006 another neighbor called police to report that people were living in tents behind Garrido's home. But the officer who came never entered the house or the yard. "We are beating ourselves up over this," Contra Costa County sheriff Warren Rupf said. "There are absolutely no excuses."

Others in the area knew Garrido lived with children but thought nothing of it. One friend often spoke with Jaycee, who Garrido called Allissa, about Printing 4 Less, the business she helped him run from the house. The friend also heard Garrido talking to the younger children and "drilling it into their heads every day that, 'You love it here. You love me. You don't want to go away.'" But with even limited freedom, why didn't Jaycee ever tell anyone until now that she'd been kidnapped? "Many kidnap victims of any age bond with the people who abduct them," says Ernie Allen of the NCMEC. "It's very difficult for any human being to be angry and desperate year after year. Jaycee figured out how to survive."

Others who encountered Jaycee and her daughters say something seemed off about them. Garrido would bring the younger girls with him to the local Kmart. When shopping alone, "he'd buy sex things like vibrator cream," says cashier Survitrius Honeycutt. "The older girl was very clingy with him, and neither one would say anything. They didn't have any expression."

It was this strange demeanor that, in part, led to their rescue. Garrido apparently believed himself to be a powerful messenger of God and even set up a church in his basement. "How many people are in your church?" Cheyvonne Molino remembers asking the girls. "There are five of us," one of them replied. "Our dad is the minister." Garrido also invented a machine he told others allowed people to hear his thoughts. On Aug. 25 he turned up on the campus of UC Berkeley with Starlit and Angel to get a permit for an event in which he planned to spread his message. Lisa Campbell, 40, UCPD's manager of special events, saw the group and noticed the girls "were nonresponsive; they didn't have the energy that children of their age generate," she later explained. Campbell called in Ally Jacobs, a security officer, who said the girls spoke in "a monotone. It was almost like Little House on the Prairie meets robots."

Jacobs ran a background check on Garrido, turning up his record. She called his parole officer, and on Aug. 26 Garrido was summoned to a parole office in Concord; inexplicably he arrived with his wife, Jaycee and the girls. "They took Jaycee in another room and she told them the whole story," says her stepgrandmother Wilma Probyn. Not much later, police called Jaycee's mother, Terry, with the news and put her daughter on the phone to speak with her. "Jaycee told her she remembers everything," says Carl Probyn, who split with Terry 10 years ago and hadn't spoken with his stepdaughter. "Then Jaycee told her, 'I have babies.' 'You have babies? How many?' And Jaycee said, 'Two.'"

Probyn says Jaycee's reunion with her mother has not gone entirely smoothly. "They are just trying to bond," he says. "It will take years to straighten this out." While reconnecting with her mother and her sister Shana, who's now in college, Jaycee will also have to deal with feelings towards Garrido "that are probably mixed," says Juliet Francis, a psychologist who consults with the NCMEC. "She's still going to miss being in a situation that's familiar. She will need therapy and lots and lots of support. She will need time to adjust to being back in her own skin." For now, Jaycee's children remain in her care; no one can say for sure what will happen to them down the road.

The full horror of what she went through is not yet clear. Police are investigating Garrido in the disappearance of other area children—and in the murders of several prostitutes killed within miles of Garrido's home, including one woman found outside Cheyvonne Molino's auto yard in 1998. But for now those who lost Jaycee 18 years ago are focused solely on her and her children and on the miracle of having her back. "As long as Jaycee is alive, there's hope," Terry Probyn said back in 1991. That much is still true today.

Army Wives' Terry Serpico

2009-10-11T22:05:00.001-07:00

411's Al Norton sits down for an exclusive interview with Army Wives' Terry Serpico

Terry Serpico has one of those faces – you may have seen him in Michael Clayton, Donnie Brasco, all of the Law & Order series, and Rescue Me – but it's his performance as Frank Sherwood on Army Wives that has taken his career to the next level.

Al Norton: It must have been great to get the scripts at the start of the season and see how much more of a storyline Frank was getting.

Terry Serpico: I was just thrilled to death…First of all, we were getting our scripts on time this year (laughing). That was a problem last year. And that there was such juicy stuff for Frank and Denise to deal with…Over the last two years as a recurring guest on the show I was actually quite busy but to be a regular on the show this season was a real affirmation for me that they respected my work and the part that I played on the show.

The opportunity to deal with a marriage that is an example of how difficult relationships are in the military was a real thrill for me. To be able to bring that to life…It's an extraordinarily difficult lifestyle on the families and it's very hard to maintain viable relationships in that kind of environment so to get the opportunity to play that was a real thrill.

Al Norton: Frank is obviously a very emotional character but one who plays his emotions very close to his chest; are there challenges to playing a character like that?

Terry Serpico: I would have to agree with you – I think that's a good assessment – Frank does indeed play his card very close to his chest, and I'm glad you recognize that he's an emotional person. He's very black and white. There's a distinct personality type that joins the military and that wants to make the military a career, as Frank desperately does. That personality type is generally not an emotionally demonstrative person but let's not forget that Frank is just totally in love with his wife. His sense of duty and honor to the military is surpassed only by his sense of duty and honor to his family.

I think Frank is a bit of an interesting character for television because you do get this sense of his code of honor, of his sense of decorum and protocol, but by the same token he can be very emotional and very loving. I think that's something that is lost as people interpret Frank. They don't read between the lines, they don't see past his gruff exterior and lose sight of the fact that he is a deeply sensitive person who so very much loves his family.

Al Norton: One of my favorite things about the writing on the show, and to be honest, the way you play Frank, is that the little things are done right. There was a scene early this season where Frank and Jeremy are talking and Jeremy says something disrespectful about his Mother and Frank just snaps at him, saying, basically, "I don't care what's going on with us, you don't talk about your Mother that way."

Terry Serpico: What a thrill for me that that's a scene that stood out to you; that's one of my favorites from the season as well, I think because to a great degree I could hear my Father's own voice in that scene. My Father was a 26 year Army veteran, retired a full Colonel in the US Army. He was a hardass Army officer, and ironically enough is name is Frank. I am very much playing my Father and in that scene specifically I felt like I could here his voice saying, "regardless of what has happened you will respect your Mother, do you understand me?"

Al Norton: How do you think Frank has changed over the show's three seasons?

Terry Serpico: There is a season this season where Frank picks Denise up on a motorcycle and she says, "where is this coming from?" and he says, "it's all about situational awareness." Knowing when something isn't working, you have to be willing to change your direction. I think that's very much out of the Officer's Handbook but it's also part of his learning process. He may understand that in the field but I don't think he had applied that to his personal life yet. For him to go ahead and take that directive and be able to apply that to his marriage was a real leap for him and that's a big part of his changing. He is beginning to see himself as more than just an Officer and a provider, he's seeing himself as a husband and a father in ways that perhaps he hadn't before.

Al Norton: What sort of feedback have you received on the show, both from fans and from your Dad?

Terry Serpico: My Dad is very proud of the show. He watched and he is a fan. He believes the show fills a void in how the American public views the military and military families. He's also proud of the fact that we are trying to address some of the issues that effect soldiers directly, in particular PTSD. My Father's almost 80 years and his PTSD from his tours in Viet Nam has reoccurred; the guy wakes up in the middle of the night with nightmares and the smell of blood in his nostrils.

Frank's son Jeremy on the show has been dealing with it and we will be delving into it deeper. It's like my Dad says, "it's such a nebulous thing, it's like a ghost." It's hard to explain to someone who hasn't experienced it but it just doesn't go away. Years past it would have been called shell shock and people would have dealt with it and tried to get over it but there's a stat out now that something like 90% of soldiers returning from our various theaters of operation are experiencing some form of PTSD.

Al Norton: Are you getting feedback about what's going on with Denise and Frank?

Terry Serpico: Oh certainly. People are very pleased - in particular a great number of our female fans are very pleased - that Frank has found it in his heart to forgive Denise and work on their marriage.

Al Norton: They're both very good shows but you probably couldn't get more of a change of pace going from Army Wives to Rescue Me.

Terry Serpico: No, I don't believe there could be more of a change of pace. They're both wonderful situations to be working in. As an actor to be employed on two shows is great but to be working with two extraordinary groups of people is just wonderful. Rescue Me is a different show, a different audience, and a difference character. The style of work is very different, too. Rescue Me is very loose; we joke that the script is just kind of a guideline (laughing).

Al Norton: Is it hard to keep a straight face during some of the scenes? I am thinking of the Denis Leary's speech that ends with the entire family drinking again.

Terry Serpico: What a messed up family (laughing). The Gavins are just beautifully dysfunctional. Yes, it is a tough show to keep a straight face and because of that kind of thing it takes us longer to shoot than an average show. We've got these wonderfully comedic actors on the show, several of whom are actual stand up comedians, so I spend the time between takes laughing and going along for the ride.

Al Norton: You've not only appeared on all three Law and Order series but multiple times on each, every time playing a different character.

Terry Serpico: I think I've done Special Victims three times and the other two twice.

Al Norton: When you show up is it ever confusing as to who you are playing this time?

Terry Serpico: No, but I wish that it was (laughing). You go in, you do your work, and you try to make the character you are playing at the time as real as possible without really thinking about where you have been in the past.

Al Norton: Tell me a little bit about The Men Who Stare At Goats? It's got one of the best casts I've ever seen (George Clooney, Kevin Spacey, Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges).

Terry Serpico: It's really a phenomenal cast. I tell people it's like the Catch 22 for our era of persistent conflict. It's absurd in many ways but that it's to a great degree a true story is what is truly shocking. It's basically about a division within the military that they call psy-ops (psychological operations) where they're investigating the possible uses of everything from ESP to remote viewing to being able to affect the outcome of events with one's mind. They call themselves "Jedi." The film itself is very funny and it's great to work with these guys.

Al Norton: Can you give me a preview of Sunday's Army Wives season finale?

Terry Serpico: In the season finale there are very real questions as to how well my character's son, Jeremy, is handling the loss of his friend in Iraq and to what extent he's suffering from PTSD. There are also questions regarding the future of Pamela and Chase's relationship but I can't give anymore away! We are so proud of this season and very excited to get back to work on season 4 in January.

Taliban suicide attack kills 17 in Afghan capital

2009-10-08T09:26:00.000-07:00

KABUL – A suicide car bomber detonated his vehicle outside the Indian Embassy in the bustling center of the Afghan capital Thursday, killing 17 people in the second major attack in the city in less than a month. The Afghan Foreign Ministry hinted at Pakistani involvement — a charge Pakistan denied.
The blast occurred a day after the war entered its ninth year and as President Barack Obama was deliberating a request by the top commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal for up to 40,000 more troops. Opponents of a troop increase want to shift focus to missile strikes and special operations against al-Qaida-linked groups in Pakistan.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack — the second against the Indian Embassy in the past two years — and specified that the Indians were the target.
In New Delhi, India's Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said the driver of the sport utility vehicle "came up to the outer perimeter wall of the embassy in a car loaded with explosives." Three Indian paramilitary guards were wounded by shrapnel, Rao said.
Rao did not say who the Indians believed was responsible for the attack, which occurred about 8:30 a.m. along a commercial street that is also home to the Interior Ministry.
However, the Afghan Foreign Ministry said the Thursday attack "was planned and implemented from outside of Afghan borders" by the same groups responsible for the July 2008 suicide bombing at the Indian Embassy that killed more than 60 people.
The ministry statement made no mention of Pakistan. However, the Afghan government blamed Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence for the 2008 bombing at the Indian Embassy as well as involvement in a string of attacks in the country.
U.S. officials suspected the 2008 embassy bombing and other high profile attacks were carried out by followers of Jalaluddin Haqqani, a longtime Afghan militant leader whose forces are battling U.S. forces in eastern Afghanistan from sanctuaries in the border area of Pakistan. At U.S. urging, the Pakistani military says it's planning an offensive against extremists in the border area.
In Islamabad, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Abdul Basit, condemned Thursday's bombing.
"Whenever terrorist activity occurs it should strengthen our resolve to eradicate and eliminate this menace," he said. Basit called allegations of a Pakistani role in the Kabul bombing "preposterous."
The Taliban did not say why it targeted the Indian Embassy. India and Pakistan, archrivals since the 1947 partition of the Indian subcontinent, are competing for influence in Afghanistan among rival ethnic groups. India maintains close ties with the Tajik community, and Pakistan with the Pashtuns, who form the majority of the Taliban.
Thursday's blast was the deadliest attack in Kabul since Sept. 17, when a suicide bomber killed 16 people, including six Italian soldiers and 10 Afghan civilians, on a road in the center of the capital.
The Interior Ministry said 15 civilians and two Afghan police officers were killed in Thursday's blast. At least 76 people were wounded, the ministry said. President Hamid Karzai, the U.S. Embassy and the United Nations mission all condemned the attack.
After months of relative calm, the Afghan capital has been shaken recently by an increasing number of suicide attacks and roadside bombings that began in the run-up to the country's disputed Aug. 20 election. The attacks usually target international military forces or government installations, but Afghan businesses and civilians are also often killed or injured.
Police sealed off the area after the blast.
The Indian news channel CNN-IBN cited Jayant Prasad, India's ambassador in Kabul, as saying the blast caused "extensive damage to the chancery." He said the bomb was so powerful that it blew off some of the embassy's doors and windows.
The explosion also damaged a line of shops between the embassy and the Interior Ministry, shattering glass and rattling buildings more than a mile (kilometer) away. A huge brown plume of smoke was visible in the air as ambulances raced to the scene and carried away the wounded.
A European police officer assigned as an adviser to the Interior Ministry and an Afghan interpreter were slightly wounded by flying glass, training spokesman Andrea Angeli said.
A 21-year-old Afghan man, who gave his name only as Najibullah, said he had just opened his shop when the explosion went off, knocking him unconscious. When he awoke, he said, he couldn't see anything because of dust and debris.
"Dust was everywhere. People were shouting," Najibullah said. "You couldn't see their faces because there was so much dust."
His white clothes were covered in blood after helping load four injured onto ambulances.
AP Television News footage showed local residents and soldiers pulling a charred, severed leg out of a destroyed vehicle. Others carried an apparently lifeless body on a stretcher to an ambulance.
On another stretcher, a man lay face down, one arm hanging downward, his left leg covered in blood.
Two United Nations vehicles were near the blast and one was badly damaged, spokesman Dan McNorton confirmed. Both vehicles had only a driver inside, and neither was wounded. The U.N. typically uses armored vehicles in Kabul that are designed to withstand such attacks.
One injured man said the force of the explosion threw him into the air. Mohammad Arif said he was leaving the embassy when the blast tossed him against a concrete barrier. The left side of his head was bleeding as he spoke.
Separately Thursday, French Defense Minister Herve Morin announced the death of a French marine killed in an IED attack on Sept. 4.
______
Associated Press Writers Todd Pitman and Heidi Vogt in Kabul, Nirmala George in New Delhi and Nahal Toosi in Islamabad contributed to this report.

THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON - Meet Jacob Black Preview HD

2009-10-08T09:25:00.000-07:00

About This Video

In the second installment of Stephenie Meyers phenomenally successful TWILIGHT series, the romance between mortal and vampire soars to a new level as BELLA SWAN (Kristen Stewart) delves deeper into the mysteries of the supernatural world she yearns to become part of—only to find herself in greater peril than ever before.

Following Bellas ill-fated 18th birthday party, EDWARD CULLEN (Robert Pattinson) and his family abandon the town of Forks, Washington, in an effort to protect her from the dangers inherent in their world. As the heartbroken Bella sleepwalks through her senior year of high school, numb and alone, she discovers Edwards image comes to her whenever she puts herself in jeopardy. Her desire to be with him at any cost leads her to take greater and greater risks.

With the help of her childhood friend JACOB BLACK (Taylor Lautner), Bella refurbishes an old motorbike to carry her on her adventures. Bellas frozen heart is gradually thawed by her budding relationship with Jacob, a member of the mysterious Quileute tribe, who has a supernatural secret of his own.

When a chance encounter brings Bella face to face with a former nemesis, only the intervention of a pack of supernaturally large wolves saves her from a grisly fate, and the encounter makes it frighteningly clear that Bella is still in grave danger. In a race against the clock, Bella learns the secret of the Quileutes and Edwards true motivation for leaving her. She also faces the prospect of a potentially deadly reunion with her beloved that is a far cry from the one shed hoped for. With more of the passion, action and suspense that made TWILIGHT a worldwide phenomenon, THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON is a spellbinding follow-up to the box office hit.

Web Video

2009-10-08T08:21:00.000-07:00

Watch the Web Video now! Click the link below to watch

Preview of the NASA Moon Bombing Experiment

2009-10-08T06:51:00.001-07:00

Preview of the NASA Moon Bombing Experiment

Posted on: October 6, 2009 9:26 PM, by Greg Laden

You read about it here ... now you can see the music video version:

I think those guys might be related or something.

How To Watch The Moon Bombing In Real Time

2009-10-08T06:49:00.000-07:00

If you have nothing to do on Friday, October 9, at 7.31am Eastern/4.31am Pacific (10.31pm AEDST), reserve that spot for some serious space fireworks. At that time you can see how NASA bombs the Moon from orbit using this huge thing.
Click to enlarge
That’s a Centaur, the upper stage of the Atlas 5 rocket that took the Lunar Crater Observing and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) to our beloved Selene. It will impact against the Cabeus crater at 9000km/h, causing another crater about one-third the size of a football field.
The Cabeus crater was selected because it’s likely to show definitive proof of water in the moon, based on the information from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, Lunar Prospector, Chandrayaan-1, and JAXA’s Kaguya spacecraft. The bombing is designed to measure the proportion of water—ice to dust ratio—in lunar regolith.
Here’s the impact crater, selected based on information from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), Lunar Prospector (LP), Chandrayaan-1 and JAXA’s Kaguya spacecraft.
Here’s an image showing a similar crater to the one that the Centaur stage is projected to make.
The effects of the impact will be observable from Earth using telescopes larger than 10 inches.
The effects of the impact—a plume projected to be 50km high—will be observable from Earth using telescopes larger than 10 inches. The good news is that you don’t have to own such a huge telescope to see it. In fact, you have three options to enjoy the show.
• If you’re in the US, attend one of the many public events organised by observatories throughout the country. You can see a list of events here.
• Watch NASA TV, which will broadcast the event.
• Use Slooh, the site that lets you control telescopes around the world in your PJs. Go to this page here to get more information about it.
I’m so excited that I’m wearing my Apollo underpants already.

2009-10-08T06:47:00.005-07:00

Mandisa Hundley, former “American Idol” contestant has given an interview to ET where she talks about her 80 pound weight loss and childhood abuse. Mandisa weight loss commitment came after years of problems with her obese figure. At one point even judge Simon Cowell joked that she would need a bigger stage to accommodate her!

Marisa decided to take her own weight loss challenge while she was recording her album. She tells a story of how she was unable to climb Mt Rushmore and this had an impact because she couldn’t really sing her song “My Deliverer has set me free”.

“I had not been set free. I couldn’t stand on the stage and tell people they could be set free, too. When I got home from Mt. Rushmore, I hired my personal trainer and that is when we developed an eating plan that I could live with the rest of my life, not a quick fix. I also started working with my counselor.”

Mandisa weight loss came because she is also working out, focusing mainly on weight training to tone her body and gain strength for her everyday life. Mandisa also mentioned how she was molested and then raped at age 16 and why this led her to think that being beautiful was dangerous.

“Because there was no guilt and no condemnation, I felt it was an obligation to talk about where the root of my issues came from. There are so many women who struggle with that as well. I wanted them to know they aren’t alone in that. There is healing that can be found after something like that happens.”

2009-10-08T06:47:00.001-07:00

Mandisa Hundley has struggled with weight issues most of her life. That didn't stop her from singing or from auditioning for the fifth season of "American Idol," which is currently being revisited on "American Idol Rewind," but it did give her pause when Simon Cowell joked that the show would need a "bigger stage" to accommodate her.
Now 80 pounds thinner, Mandisa tells ET she couldn't believe it when "American Idol Rewind" used that moment in the premiere episode of its new season, because, in the past, that was her worst nightmare come true. But she is past it now and she tells ET why, and about her weight loss and childhood abuse.
ET: For "American Idol Rewind," what was it like to relive that time of your life?
Mandisa: Amazing. I was watching the premiere episode and it was really neat to look back and see everything that has changed since then, because everything has changed since then! To be honest, the reaction that I have when I watch it back is I am so thankful, because I know that so much of where I am today has to do with my time on "American Idol." I look back with gratitude.
ET: You did new interviews for the new season of "American Idol Rewind." Did you have a favorite memory?
Mandisa: My favorite memory started out as my least favorite memory and that was when Simon Cowell made fun of my weight on the very first show. Of all the shows to be the premiere episode, so everybody was watching. That was my worst nightmare come true. It turned into my favorite memory of the entire show because when I saw Simon the next time, I told him I forgave him because an important part of my faith is forgiving others because I have been forgiven. I will never forget that reaction: the look on his face -- humbled and giving me a big hug. I have never seen him like that before. That is why I say I am grateful even for the difficult things that happened because they turned out working out for my good.
ET: Did you get together with any of your season's contestants, or did you do the interviews on your own?
Mandisa: We each did it on our own, but I did my interview in Nashville, which is where I live, so when I was coming out of my interview, Kellie Pickler was coming in for hers. It was really great to catch up with her on everything that has been going on in our lives.
ET: Talk a little about your latest album Freedom. I read somewhere that it is about overcoming your addiction to food? Is that correct?
Mandisa: Absolutely. That was kind of a theme. We didn't set out to make it that way, but it is another benefit from having my weight struggle be so public from the beginning of "American Idol." My first album was called True Beauty, and that was just me saying that my beauty is not defined by the way I look, and I still believe that. On Freedom, the songs were proclaiming things like I was set free. I thought, "How can I tell people that God has set them free when I am still bound?" It has been a life-long food addiction. When I was recording that album, I started to do the work necessary to be set free: changing my eating habits. No particular diet, just eating healthy. I started working with a personal trainer and a counselor who specializes in eating disorders. I have lost 80 pounds since I started recording it and since I have been singing those songs, so I have been set free finally.
ET: Losing 80 pounds is fabulous. Was there an inciting incident that started you on the path?
Mandisa: It was the combination of me being in the recording studio and singing, "My Deliverer Has Set Me Free," my first single, and I had a show in South Dakota and I went to Mt. Rushmore. In my mind, I am recording this song that says I have been set free, and while I am thinking about that, I am walking up this incline to see Mt. Rushmore and it was so hard. I was breathing heavy. I was sweating and my legs hurt. I realized, I had not been set free. I couldn't stand on the stage and tell people they could be set free, too. When I got home from Mt. Rushmore, I hired my personal trainer and that is when we developed an eating plan that I could live with the rest of my life, not a quick fix. I also started working with my counselor.
ET: Tell us a few specifics about the diet?
Mandisa: I don't believe in diets, because I have lost weight on them all, but the thing about diets is that you have the mindset that you stop a diet when you are done losing weight. This really is a lifestyle change for me. I did things like lean meats, mainly chicken and fish. Occasionally, beef, but I don't do a whole lot of pork. I try to focus the most on getting in my daily amount of fiber -- 20 to 25 grams, so I do a lot of whole grains, fruits and vegetables. I try to stay away from the processed foods, the white flours and sugar. High blood pressure runs in my family, so I try to limit my salt intake.
I couple that with resisting temptation and for me that is when my faith really comes into play. When I am tempted by the Krispy Kremes and the fast food, I have scriptures with me. I turn to those scriptures and they help me to resist temptation. One temptation at a time adds up. That is how I have been able to conquer it: one day at a time.
ET: Exercise?
Mandisa: I have a personal trainer, and we work out three to four times a week. We do some cardio, but we mainly focus on weight training so that I can be toned. I also do Zumba, which is my favorite form of exercise because it is dancing -- a Latin/hip hop dance party. I also add some cardio on my own. I usually exercise five to six times a week. I have videos on my Web site, mandisaofficial.com, following me on my journey to a 100-pound weight loss. The fourth video is all about Zumba.
ET: Did I hear that you were engaged? I always remembered that you were joking that you were interested in Ruben, but then I thought I heard you had gotten engaged?
Mandisa: No, you didn't hear that. Maybe they got me confused with LaKisha Jones from season six. She recently got married.
ET: Was it hard to publicly state that you had been abused and that part of the reason for your weight was that you felt that being beautiful was dangerous?
Mandisa: It wasn't hard for me. I recognized that it happens to so many women. One in three women is abused. Because I knew that I wasn't alone in that, and because I had come to terms with the fact that it wasn't my fault, I was a child. I was molested as a child and then raped when I was 16. Because there was no guilt and no condemnation, I felt it was an obligation to talk about where the root of my issues came from. There are so many women who struggle with that as well. I wanted them to know they aren't alone in that. There is healing that can be found after something like that happens.
"American Idol Rewind" airs in syndication and on the TV Guide Network. Check your local listings for the day and time in your city.

2009-10-08T06:43:00.001-07:00

Bo Jackson wouldn't change a thing

Former NFL football star Bo Jackson waves to fans as he walks off the first tee

Former NFL and MLB player Bo Jackson, left, and golf great Arnold Palmer talk on the first tee at the Burmuda Dunes

The 1985 Heisman Trophy winner told about 300 people attending a College Football Hall of Fame luncheon today that people often tell him how sorry they are that his football and baseball careers were cut short by a hip injury he sustained in 1991.

"Don't be sorry for me. It was a blessing in disguise," he said. "We as humans have to realize that God puts speed bumps in our road of life. My speed bump was me injuring myself. I've gotten over that. I've moved on from being an employee to being an employer."

The 46-year-old businessman, who played two more seasons with the White Sox after hip replacement surgery in 1992, still lives in the Chicago area. He is a part owner of the Burr Ridge Bank & Trust and own the Bo Jackson Elite Sports Complex in Lockport, Ill.

Jackson said he finds being a businessman just as rewarding and challenging as being an athlete.

"I'm learning something new every day. I'm eager to learn," he said. "I'm also learning that if you don't watch yourself you can be taken advantage of quickly in the business world. The thing I try to do is surround myself with smart, astute business people and that seems to help out a great deal."

Jackson, 46, entertained the crowd, telling them his name is short for "Boar Hog," a nickname neighborhood kids gave him because he was so tough. His mother named him Vincent Edward because she had a crush on actor Vince Edwards who starred in the 1960s TV show "Ben Casey."

He also said he always had extra motivation to play well against the New York Yankees because he believed team owner George Streinbrenner had told people that he had accepted a payoff to attend Auburn after he passed up a $250,000 signing bonus with the Yankees.

"He said in print the reason Vincent Jackson didn't sign with the Yankees was because since he signed with Auburn University he and his brothers and sisters are all driving nice cars and his mother just became owner of a chain of 7-Eleven stores," Jackson said. "I'm thinking, 'How can he say that?' And if it's true, where's the Porsche I'm supposed to be driving."

Jackson said he chose college because he wanted to be the first in his family to go to a four-year school. It took a little longer than originally planned, but in 1995 he earned his degree in family and child development from Auburn.

Jackson surprised the sports world back in 1986 when he was taken No. 1 in the NFL draft and spurned a $7 million offer from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Instead he signed to play baseball with the Kansas City Royals. He said he made the decision after visiting Tampa Bay and getting some advice from a well-known veteran defensive player on the Buccaneers, who went 2-14 the previous season.

"He said, 'Man you don't want to come here," Jackson said. "I said, 'OK."

A year later his agent asked him if he had a problem with an NFL team drafting him and signing him to play football part time.

"I don't as long as it's not the Tampa Bay Buccaneers," Jackson said.

He was eventually taken by the Los Angeles Raiders, for whom he played until he was hurt.

With the Royals, Jackson recalled meeting Ronald Reagan at the 1989 All-Star game when he and Wade Boggs hit back-to-back home runs at the All-Star Game. He said shaking the former president's hand was more memorable than the home run.

"That's a big deal in everybody's life," he said.

Another big event for Jackson happened that year. He made the "Bo Knows" commercial in which Michael Jordan, Kirk Gibson, Jim Everett and other sports stars attest that Bo knows their sport, then Wayne Gretzky skates up and says, "No." The commercial ends with Jackson trying to play a guitar on stage along with Bo Diddley.

Jackson said his mother, uncles and aunts, all big fans of Diddley, wouldn't believe he was with the famous musician until they saw the commercial.

"That's part of what makes my life so unique," Jackson said. "I've gotten to do things, go places, see people, that I never dreamed of. It's fun."

Nick Nolte's son, Brawley Nolte, arrested

2009-10-08T06:41:00.001-07:00

SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Santa Monica police say actor Nick Nolte's son has been arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of a controlled substance.

Sgt. Jay Trisler says 23-year-old Brawley Nolte was driving north on Pacific Coast Highway Tuesday afternoon when he made a lane change and struck a vehicle in front of him.

Officers called to the scene believed Nolte had been driving while impaired. Trisler says Nolte was arrested following a series of sobriety tests. He was freed after posting $5,000 bail.

Trisler didn't know if Brawley Nolte had an attorney.

Brawley Nolte portrayed Mel Gibson's kidnapped son in the 1996 film "Ransom."

Nick Nolte pleaded no contest in 2002 to a misdemeanor charge of driving under the influence of drugs.

Tech pioneers win 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics

2009-10-08T06:32:00.001-07:00

The 2009 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded for "two revolutionary optical technologies."

Charles K. Kao, who discovered how to transmit light through fiber optics, and the team of Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith, who designed the first digital-imaging sensor, split the Nobel Prize, announced by the Nobel Foundation on Tuesday.

Born in Shanghai, Charles K. Kao made a discovery in 1966 that would lead to today's fiber optics. A man ahead of this time, Kao calculated how it would be possible to transmit light over 100 kilometers (62 miles), compared to only 20 meters (65 feet) for the fiber cables available in the '60s. He discovered that by removing impurities and creating a more pure type of glass, the fiber could be made more efficient and absorb less of the light over great distances.

Kao's research stimulated other scientists to join the effort, leading to the first ultrapure fiber cable created in 1970.

Another breakthrough in technology was the invention of the first successful digital-imaging sensor, used today in everything from consumer cameras to surgical devices.

Working at Bell Labs in New Jersey in 1969, Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith built the first CCD (Charge-Coupled Device). Using the photoelectric effect theorized by Albert Einstein, the sensor transforms light into electric signals. The team's major hurdle was determining how to gather and read out those signals into a large number of pixels in a short burst of time.

The first consumer camera with a CCD was designed in 1981, leading to a revolution in digital photography.

Willard S. Boyle, left, and George E. Smith of Bell Labs invented charged-coupled devices (CCDs). In this 1974 photo, they are demonstrating an experimental TV camera that contains a CCD substitute for the vacuum tube of a conventional TV camera.

Willard S. Boyle, left, and George E. Smith of Bell Labs invented charged-coupled devices (CCDs). In this 1974 photo, they are demonstrating an experimental TV camera that contains a CCD substitute for the vacuum tube of a conventional TV camera.
(Credit: Alcatel-Lucent/Bell Labs

"When combined with the laser and the transistor, the invention of an efficient, low-loss optical fiber has made nearly instantaneous communication possible across the entire globe," said H. Frederick Dylla, director of the American Institute of Physics. "This mode of communication is essential for high-speed internet and forms the optical backbone of 21st century commerce. The CCD sensor has revolutionized technical, professional, and consumer photography in the last few decades. Taken together these inventions may have had a greater impact on humanity than any others in the last half century."

Kao will take home one half of the award prize of 10 million Swedish kronor ($1.4 million) with the team of Boyle and Smith splitting the other half. Awarded by the The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Nobel prizes are given each year for achievements in science, literature, and economics.

2009-10-08T06:30:00.001-07:00

There’s a fictional neighborhood where some of the residents are named Kermit, Big Bird, Bert & Ernie, Miss Piggy, and Oscar the Grouch. It’s called Sesame Street.

The creator of the lifelike characters, Jim Henson, was born on this day in 1936. The puppeteer first named his puppets, Muppets, in 1954 when he was working as a producer of the Washington, D.C. TV show, Sam and Friends.

Henson moved his Muppets to network TV in 1969. Children of all ages were able to enjoy the Muppets’ antics on the educational, yet entertaining Sesame Street. The Muppets then got their own show, The Muppet Show; which generated The Muppet Movie and other films, like The Muppets Take Manhattan and The Great Muppet Caper.

And Jim Henson got the awards: 18 Emmys, 17 Grammys, 4 Peabody Awards and 5 Ace Awards (National Cable Television Association).

The premier muppeteer, and voice of Kermit the Frog, died suddenly in May of 1990. Jim Henson lives on through his Muppets.

Today In History~

September 24
1915 - Douglas Fairbanks starred in The Lamb. It was his first film and was shown at the Knickerbocker Theatre in New York City.

1934 - Babe Ruth bid farewell to the New York Yankees. It was the Babe’s last game in Yankee Stadium and for the team. The Yankees lost to the Boston Red Sox, 5-0.

1938 - Tennis champion Don Budge won the U.S. Tennis Open at Forest Hills, NY. The win made Budge the first player to win all four major titles (he also had won the Australian Open, the French Open and the British Open).

1940 - Flinging a Wing Ding was recorded by Bob Chester. We wonder whether that was a chicken wing-ding he was flinging...

1942 - Glenn Miller ended his Moonlight Serenade series on CBS radio. It was time for Miller to go to war. The show had aired three times a week for Chesterfield Cigarettes.

1955 - Millions of Americans tuned in to watch Judy Garland make her TV debut on the Ford Star Jubilee. The CBS show received the highest television ratings to that time.

1961 - Bullwinkle J. Moose and his friend, Rocket J. (Rocky) Squirrel, were seen in prime time for the first time on NBC-TV. The Sunday night cartoon (7-7:30 p.m.) was called The Bullwinkle Show. Originally Bullwinkle and Rocky appeared on ABC in a weekday afternoon series, Rocky and His Friends.

1968 - The Vogues received a gold record for Turn Around Look at Me on the Reprise label.

1968 - The longest-running newsmagazine on television began on CBS-TV. 60 Minutes started on this, a Tuesday, night in 1968. During its first three years on the tube, 60 Minutes ran on an alternate-week schedule with CBS News Hour, moving to Sundays (all by itself) in early 1972. 60 Minutes debuted with two correspondents: Mike Wallace and Harry Reasoner.

1977 - Get out the polyester cruisewear! The Love Boat set sail -- on ABC-TV. Captain Stubing (Gavin MacLeod); Cruise Director, Julie McCoy (Lauren Tewes); Dr. Adam Bricker (Bernie Kopell); Bartender, Isaac Washington (Ted Lange); and Yeoman-Purser, Burl ‘Gopher’ Smith (Fred Grandy) took to the calm seas each week. The show’s theme, The Love Boat, written by Paul Williams and Charles Fox, was sung by Jack Jones. The voice of Ernie Anderson, will always be remembered for his intros announcing, “The Luuuuuve Boat.”

1988 - The Rev. Barbara C. Harris of Philadelphia was elected Suffragan Bishop of Massachusetts. She was the first woman to be elected a bishop of the Episcopal Church.

1988 - Guns N’Roses Appetite for Destruction reached #1 on the Billboard album chart. The tracks: Welcome to the Jungle, It’s So Easy, NighTrain, Out Ta Get Me, Mr. Brownstone, Paradise City, My Michelle, Think About You, Sweet Child O’ Mine, You’re Crazy, Anything Goes, Rocket Queen.

1988 - Seoul Summer Olympics flashes: 1) Carl Lewis ran the fastest 100 meters of his life, 9.92 seconds, but was beaten by Canadian Ben Johnson’s 9.79. “I ran the best I could, and I'm pleased with the race.” Lewis said. (Lewis did become the recipient of the that gold medal when Johnson tested positive for steroids, a banned substance for Olympic athletes.) 2) Jackie Joyner-Kersee amassed a world-record score (7,291) in the heptathlon (seven different track-and-field events for women).

1999 - Movies debuting in U.S. theatres this day: Double Jeopardy (starring Tommy Lee Jones, Ashley Judd, Bruce Greenwood); Guinevere (with Sarah Polley, Stephen Rea, Gina Gershon); Jakob the Liar (Robin Williams, Alan Arkin, Bob Balaban); and Mumford (Jane Adams, Ted Danson, Hope Davis).

Music For The Day~

Quote For The Day~

Quote:
Hollywood is a place where they'll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul.

Marilyn Monroe

Chuckle For The Day~

"When Joe Wilson heckled the president during a speech last week, I thought so now Gov. Mark Sanford is the second most embarrassing politician from South Carolina."
Dave Laetterman

"Sarah Palin is an inspiration to working mothers everywhere because she bailed on her job right before Fourth of July weekend. You are living my dream. Thank you, Sarah Palin."
Tina Fey

Pictures For The Day~

The Chengyang Wind And Rain Bridge-Guangxi Province, China

Ponte Vecchio-Florence, Italy

2009-10-08T06:25:00.003-07:00

Gun nut Meleanie Hain, who sued her local Sheriff for $1 million after a permit revocation, is shot to death in murder-suicide

Filed under: guns, signs, tragedy — Tags: 2nd amendment, concealed, domestic violence, glock, gun nut, gun-toting, handgun, hein, lawsuit, meleanie, murder, pennsylvania, permit, reinstated, revoked, scott, shot, soccer mom, suicide — toma @ 3:56 am

Apparently, husband shot her.

Gun-toting soccer mom is shot dead
Meleanie Hain, the pistol-carrying Lebanon mom who received national attention for taking a loaded gun to her daughter’s soccer game, was shot to death Wednesday night with her husband in an apparent murder-suicide, police said.
Hain, 31, and her husband, Scott, 33, were pronounced dead by Lebanon County Coroner Dr. Jeffrey Yocum shortly after 8:30 p.m. at their home at Second Avenue and East Grant Street, police said.
The couple’s three children were home at the time and were not injured, and are staying with relatives and friends, police said…

[apologies for the ad]
Meleanie Hain was thrust into the national spotlight when she took a gun, in plain view and holstered on her hip, to a soccer game Sept. 11, 2008, at Optimist Park in Lebanon.
Her permit to carry a gun was revoked by Lebanon County Sheriff Michael DeLeo on Sept. 20, 2008. DeLeo said Hain showed poor judgment in wearing her gun to the game.
Hain’s permit was reinstated by Lebanon County Judge Robert Eby on Oct. 14, 2008, but the judge asked her to conceal it when she goes to soccer games. Hain said she would continue to carry it openly under the Second Amendment.
Hain then filed a lawsuit against DeLeo for $1 million in U.S. Middle District Court seeking reimbursement of attorneys’ fees and costs, emotional distress and lost wages.
“She has been stigmatized unfairly,” her attorney, Matthew Weisberg said at the time.

Of the lawsuit:

LEBANON — The Lebanon woman who stirred controversy by openly carrying a handgun to her child’s soccer game filed a lawsuit in federal court today claiming that her rights were violated and seeking more than $1 million in damages.
Meleanie Hain’s concealed weapons permit was revoked Sept. 20 by Lebanon County Sheriff Michael DeLeo, who maintained she showed poor judgment wearing her gun to her daughter’s soccer game Sept. 11. The permit was reinstated Oct. 14 by Lebanon County Judge Robert Eby.
Judge Eby asked her to conceal the gun when she goes to soccer games. but Hain said she planned to continue to display the gun, asserting her right under the Second Amendment.
The lawsuit filed in U.S. Middle District Court on behalf of Hain and her husband, Scott Hain, names DeLeo, his office and Lebanon County. It claims the sheriff’s action violated her First, Second, Fourth, Fifth and 14th Amendment rights.
“My client has been harmed more than that court is empowered to adjudicate,” said Hain’s attorney, Matthew Weisberg, referring to the reinstatement of her permit in county court.
The suit seeks reimbursement of attorneys’ fees and costs and lost wages, since Hain’s baby-sitting business has suffered, Weisberg said. She also seeks compensation for emotional distress, punitive and statutory damages, and mandatory education for the sheriff’s department on Second Amendment issues.

From Pennsylvania Firearms Owners Association website:

More info as found on another forum: (I can not vouch for it’s validity)
Quote:
“Just got a call from a family member who lives down the street from this lady and her family– informed me that there is currently a domestic violence issue, involving the husband
The details are not clear, but it appears she may have allegedly been shot and killed by her hubby who is in a standoff with the police , and her children are still in the home with him..again speculation as this info is just coming in.
Several shots were heard by neighbors who called the incident in and several blocks are shut down as the police try to determine who has been injured, some reports are suggesting she was shot as many as five times and again the primary concern are her children in the house.”

On the site, her blog handle was ’shefearsnothing’:
this sucks.
she was telling me at the OC dinner in Collegeville she was planning to discuss divorce with her husband, but was afraid he’d react violently….

2009-10-08T06:20:00.001-07:00

J.D. Power Ranks TV Services

J.D. Power, the market-research firm whose surveys some car companies seem inordinately fond of quoting, released its latest findings about television services yesterday. And although the Westlake Village, Calif., company touted its survey results as good news for that industry, that's not necessarily the case for all the companies its data cover.

Across the U.S., J.D. Power ranked customer satisfaction -- based on survey responses from 28,118 households queried in January, March and July of this year -- at an average of 632 points out of 1,000, up 23 from last year's results. (As one point of comparison, home-insurance companies earned an average score of 773 in the other J.D. Power customer-satisfaction study released this week.)
But as you can see from the above chart, taken from the PDF copy of the company's release announcing the news, some TV companies did better than others. Verizon's Fios, for instance, scored 714 in the eastern U.S., while satellite services DirecTV and Dish Network weren't far behind in that area, at 684 and 669. The major cable operators doing business in the Washington area -- Comcast, Cox and RCN -- trailed their competitors at, respectively, at 597, 644 and 602.
J.D. Power's site also provides a graphical breakdown of those scores, including ratings for such qualities as reliability, cost and customer service. Have a look at it and let me know in the comments whether those numbers square with your own experience.

Candace Cameron Bure and Family Pose at Premiere

2009-10-08T06:18:00.000-07:00

Axelle/Bauer Griffin

Candace Cameron Bure and Family Pose at Premiere

Tags: Dads, Kids

A bunch of blondes! Candace Cameron Bure, her husband, retired hockey star Valeri Bure, and their kids — Natasha, 11, Lev, 9 ½, and Maksim, 7 ½ — attend the premiere of Shorts: Adventures of the Wishing Rock, held Saturday evening at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, Calif.
Former Full House star Candace, 33, is currently starring on ABC Family’s Make It or Break It, which was recently picked up for 10 more episodes.
Follow Candace on Twitter at @candacecbure!
Shorts opens in theaters August 21st.

2009-10-08T06:15:00.001-07:00

Jens Meyer/Associated Press Herta Mueller in 2004.

Herta Müller Wins the 2009 Nobel Prize for Literature

By Motoko Rich

Herta Müller, the Romanian-born German writer, has won the 2009 Nobel Prize for Literature.

Announcing the award in Stockholm on Thursday, the Swedish Academy described Ms. Müller, “who, with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed.”
Ms. Müller, 56, emigrated to Germany from Romania in 1987 because many of her works were censored in her native country. She has written often of corruption and intolerance under a dictatorship.
Her novels include “The Land of Green Plums” and “The Appointment.”
The awards ceremony is planned for December in Stockholm. As the winner, Ms. Müller will receive 10 million Swedish kronor, about $1.4 million.

Herta Mueller wins 2009 Nobel literature prize

2009-10-08T06:14:00.000-07:00

STOCKHOLM — Herta Mueller, a member of Romania's ethnic German minority who was persecuted for her critical depictions of life behind the Iron Curtain, won the 2009 Nobel Prize in literature Thursday in an award seen as a nod to the 20th anniversary of communism's collapse.
Mueller, born in Romania's Transylvania Banat region, was honored for work that "with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed," the Swedish Academy said.
"I am very surprised and still can not believe it," Mueller said in a statement released by her publisher in Germany. "I can't say anything more at the moment."
The decision was expected to keep alive the controversy surrounding the academy's pattern of awarding the prize to European writers.
"If you are European (it is) easier to relate to European literature," Peter Englund, the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, told The Associated Press. "It's the result of psychological bias that we really try to be aware of. It's not the result of any program."
Mueller, 56, made her debut in 1982 with a collection of short stories titled "Niederungen," or "Nadirs," depicting the harshness of life in a small, German-speaking village in Romania. It was promptly censored by the communist government.
In 1984 an uncensored version was smuggled to Germany, where it was published and devoured by readers. That work was followed by "Oppressive Tango" in Romania but she was eventually prohibited from publishing inside her country for her criticism of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu's rule and its feared secret police, the Securitate.
"The Romanian national press was very critical of these works while, outside of Romania, the German press received them very positively," the Academy said.
Mueller, whose father served in the Waffen SS during World War II, is the third European to win the prize in a row and the 10th German, joining Guenter Grass in 1999 and Heinrich Boell in 1972.
"I think that there is an incredible force in what she writes, she has a very, very unique style," Englund said. "You read half the page and you know at once that it's Herta Mueller.
"At the same time she has something to tell, partly from her own background as a persecuted dissident in Romania, but also her own background as a stranger in her own country, a stranger to the political regime, a stranger to the majority language, and a stranger to her own family," he added.
Though Englund said the award was not timed to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the fall of communism, that's how it was perceived by many observers.
"By giving the award to Herta Mueller, who grew up in a German-speaking minority in Romania, (the committee) has recognized an author who refuses to let the inhumane side of life under communism be forgotten, 20 years after the end of the East-West conflict," said Michael Krueger, head of Mueller's publisher Hanser Verlag.
Mueller emigrated to Germany with her husband in 1987, two years before Ceausescu was toppled from power amid the widening communist collapse across eastern Europe.
"She is a very sincere writer and wrote about what happened to her and this is something that must have impressed the judges," said Romanian actor Ion Caramitru, an anti-communist who rode atop a tank to the television station in Bucharest during the 1989 revolt and now heads the country's national theater.
"This prize is the international recognition of the oppression of what happened in Romania and Eastern Europe," he told the AP.
Emil Hurezeanu, a Romanian journalist who knew Mueller well, said the author was forced to leave Romania because of harassment by the Securitate, which is alleged to have had more than 700,000 informants.
"She worked as a translator in a modest factory near Timisoara. She was persecuted, she was fired from her job as they used to do. Manuscripts of one of her books was carried to Germany by a German diplomat."
"Her books and language are inspired by Romania. She has a very strong prose. She writes in a lively, poetic, corrosive style," he said.
Most of her work is in German, but some works have been translated into English, French and Spanish, including "The Passport," "The Land of Green Plums," "Traveling on One Leg" and "The Appointment."
Mueller's latest novel, "Atemschaukel," or "Swinging Breath" is up for this year's German Book Prize, which will be announced Monday.
Mueller is the 12th woman to win the Nobel Prize in literature. Recent female winners include Austria's Elfriede Jelinek in 2004 and British writer Doris Lessing in 2007.
It's the first time four women have won Nobel Prizes in the same year. U.S.-based researchers Elizabeth Blackburn and Carol Greider were among the medicine winners and the chemistry prize included Israel's Ada Yonath.
The prize includes a 10 million kronor ($1.4 million) prize and will be handed out Dec. 10 in the Swedish capital.
With literature, four of the 2009 Nobel Prizes have now been announced. American scientists won the medicine and physics prizes, while two Americans and an Israeli researcher shared the award for chemistry.
The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize will be announced Friday and the economics award on Monday.
Alfred Nobel, a Swedish industrialist who invented dynamite, established the Nobel Prizes in his will in 1895. The first awards were handed out six years later.
Besides the monetary prize, each award includes a diploma, a gold medal and an invitation to the prize ceremony in Stockholm on Dec. 10. The peace prize is handed out in Oslo.
Last year's literature prize went to French novelist Jean-Marie Le Clezio.
Associated Press Writers Alison Mutler in Bucharest, Romania and Melissa Eddy in Berlin contributed to this report.

On the Net:

http://www.nobelprize.org

Facebook Prototypes – get future Facebook now!

2009-10-07T17:51:00.001-07:00

Facebook has launched a new area of its site to trial new features. Like Google Labs, Facebook Prototypes let's you try experimental features ahead of time.

Currently, five prototype features are available through Facebook Prototypes:

Desktop Notifications is a widget for Mac OS X which adds notifications about Facebook goings on to your desktop.

Similar Posts adds a link to posts on your friend feed allowing you to see similar content with one click.

Enhanced Event Emails includes an iCal file as an attachment with event alert emails sent by Facebook. Click it and it'll add the event to your iCal.

Photo Tag Search implements a new search area where you can scour tagged photos. It'll let you search for photos specific friends have tagged and particular tags.

Recent Comment Filter is another pretty self-explanatory one. Select it on your news feed and you'll see the latest stream of comments from your friends.

Take a look and try the new features for yourself. We'd really like to hear what you think of Facebook's experiments.

The name pepeng typhoon are now on the philippines area

2009-10-07T17:49:00.000-07:00

Synopsis : At 4:00 a.m. today, Tropical Depression "PEPENG" {PARMA} was estimated based on satellite and surface data at 80 kms East Northeast of Tuguegarao City (17.9°N, 122.4°E) with maximum sustained winds of 55 kph near the center. It is forecast to move west slowly.

Metro Manila

25°C to 31°C

Moderate to Strong
Southwest
Manila Bay: Moderate to Rough

More Weather

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DOST-PAGASA MTSAT-EIR Satellite Image for
8 a.m. 08 Oct. 2009

For the latest in weather news,
call our new 24-hour hotline at
433- ULAN (433-8526)

SMART subscribers can now receive announcements and advisories thru SMS
More details

Tropical Cyclone Update
Issued at: 5:00 a.m, 08 October 2009
"PEPENG" has maintained almost stationary. More Update

Gale Warning
Issued at: 5:00 a.m., Today, 08 October 2009
Strong to gale force winds is expected to affect the seaboards of Central and Southern Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

2009-10-07T17:43:00.001-07:00

Generate Your Own Barcode

October 07, 2009

Today marks the 57th anniversary of the first patent of the barcode. It was patented by Norman Woodland and Bernard Silver, who sold the patent before the industry standard UPC ever took off. The Telegraph has a nice history piece here as does HowStuffworks.

Personally, I couldn't believe that the bar code was invented soooo long ago and that it's still in such wide use today. And what's more, the concept for the bar code has been adopted by modern technologies, such as RFID tags, pet microchipping and location-tracking technology for streamlining supply chains.
To mark the anniversary, Google's search page has it's name in bar code type. You can do the same and generate your own barcode by clicking on the link.

Make your own barcode and celebrate its birthday

2009-10-07T17:42:00.000-07:00

Following on from our earlier report which informed you all about Google’s celebration of the 57th Anniversary of the Barcode, we have found a great site which will let you create your own barcode and join in the celebrations too!

Simply head over to BarCodesInc to create your own barcode. It’s pretty easy to do so, following the guidelines given.
Don’t be surprised if you suddenly venture out and find people celebrating the 57th birthday of the Barcode by holding various events.
Just for fun, we tried out the DIY barcode method ourselves, you can see our result below. Do it yourself now and let us know how you got on.
Do you have anything to share on Barcode day?

Just what is the wonderpus octopus, anyway? (Besides a great band name, that is)

2009-10-07T17:37:00.000-07:00

Although it's often confused with a similar species called the mimic octopus, the fabulously named wonderpus octopus is a unique creature in its own right. (Just how fabulous is this creature? So fabulous that even its scientific name, Wunderpus photogenicus, is fun to say.)
Wonderpus is native to shallow waters off Indonesia and Malaysia and, although folks began to report sightings of the species in the 1980s, it hadn't been formally described by scientists until a few years ago, when a formal scientific description appeared in the journal Molluscan Research. Both its coloring and its preferred time of day distinguish it from the mimic octopus (which, unlike the wonderpus, is primarily active during the day -- wonderpus prefers the twilight hours of dusk and dawn).
It's characterized by a small mantle (the part of the body that contains the mouth and vital organs), which is about an inch to an inch-and-a-half long, and long arms that measure about five to seven times the length of the mantle.
Like snowflakes, the patterns of spots (on the body) and stripes (on the arms) are unique to each individual wonderpus, which allows scientists to keep tabs on individuals. And, according to the scientific description of the species, the colors become especially pronounced when the creatures are disturbed or threatened, suggesting a sort of warning system to deter would-be predators.

Vanuatu earthquake: Tsunami watch after three tremors

2009-10-07T17:34:00.000-07:00

Staff writers and agencies

October 08, 2009 08:40am

10:20am UPDATE: A TSUNAMI watch for the Queensland coast has been cancelled but there are evacuations on Vanuatu and other Pacific islands.
The Bureau of Meteorology issued a tsunami watch for the Great Barrier Reef offshore water areas between Yeppoon and Bowen at 8.44am (AEST) after the US Geological Survey recorded a 7.8 magnitude earthquake 295km north-west of the Santo islands in neighbouring Vanuatu which struck at 8.03am (AEST).

However, at 9.27am (AEST), the bureau cancelled the national bulletin tsunami watch, after its buoys in the Pacific Ocean off the Queensland coast detected no sea level rise.
Residents of parts of Tuvalu and New Caledonia were being evacuated after two more powerful earthquakes hit the region.

The US Geological Survey recorded a 7.3 magnitude quake 330km north-west of the Santo islands 15 minutes after the original quake.

Third and fourth quakes - 6.7 and 7.1 respectively - struck again in the area in the following hour.

There are conflicting reports about the situation in Vanuatu.

CARE Australia staff on Ambae Island, said on Twitter after the second quake that staff in the capital Port Vila "were on high ground and can see a big wave coming".

But a spokesman for Port Vila resort, Chantilly’s on the Bay, said there had been a number of earthquakes but there had been “no movement in the water whatsoever’’.

“”Everything is fine,’’ he said.

Phone lines to Vanuatu have been heavily congested all morning, as people try to check on relatives and friends holidaying in the area, and officials try to guage what is happening on the ground after the earthquakes.

P&O cruise ship The Pacific Dawn, out of Sydney, was moored in Port Vila when it experienced what a company spokeswoman described as a ``small wave ripple of about 10 to 15 centimetres''.

``That clearly was not enough to affect the ship,'' she said.

On New Caledonia, residents were being moved from the eastern shore and from the nearby Loyalty Islands to higher ground.

Tsunami warning sirens sounded in coastal areas and schools were being evacuated, AFP reported.

Tuvalu residents are also being evacuated from coastal areas.

"We are trying to get those people staying closer to the coast to move inland," acting Tuvalu police commissioner Titelu Kauani said.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre has issued a regional tsunami warning for 11 nations and territories, including Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Nauru, Fiji and Kiribati.

A tsunami watch is still current for New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and the Solomons.

There have been no reports of injuries.

The USGS also reported a 6.7 magnitude quake 280km south-east of Jolo, Sulu Archipelago, Philippines, about 9.40am (AEST).

2009-10-07T17:32:00.001-07:00

Powerful Quakes In S. Pacific Trigger Tsunami Alert

by The Associated Press
text sizeAAA
October 7, 2009

Two powerful earthquakes rocked the South Pacific near the Vanuatu archipelago Thursday morning, the U.S. Geological Survey reported, triggering a regional tsunami alert.

The first quake, with a magnitude of 7.8, struck 183 miles northwest of the Vanuatu island of Santo, and 354 miles northwest of the capital of Port Vila, at a depth of 21 miles.

Just 15 minutes later, a second quake with a magnitude 7.3 hit at the same depth but 21 miles farther north of Santo and Port Vila.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center immediately issued a regional tsunami warning for 11 nations and territories, including Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Nauru, Fiji and Kiribati. A tsunami watch was in effect as far as Australia and New Zealand.

There were no immediate reports of injury or damage from officials in Vanuatu, a chain of 83 islands that lies just over 1,400 miles northeast of Sydney, Australia.

"We have no damage reports yet, but we have had no contact with Santo so far," Vanuatu police spokesman Take Rakau told The Associated Press.

While the quakes were not felt in Port Vila, he said Santo, with its capital of Luganville, "most likely could have felt them."

The small atoll nation of Tuvalu in the South Pacific was "on full standby," after the nation's radio alerted people across its eight islands of the tsunami warning, said the head of the Meteorological Office, Hilia Vavae.

"Some are in a panic," she told The AP about 40 minutes before any possible tsunami waves were due to reach the low-lying coral atolls, already losing some of their coastal lands to rising sea levels.

The latest warning comes just 10 days after a quake of magnitude 8.3 rocked the South Pacific near Samoa, sparking tsunami waves that killed at least 178 people and devastated coastal villages in Samoa, American Samoa and in northern Tonga.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Geological Survey reported a strong earthquake struck south of the Philippines on Thursday morning local time.

The quake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.7 and was located in the Celebes Sea, 175 miles southeast of Jolo, Sulu Archipelago, and 730 miles south of Manila. The quake hit at 5:41 a.m. Thursday local time.

USGS did not report any damages or injuries.

2009-10-07T17:30:00.001-07:00

New Caledonia evacuating some areas for tsunami

Wed Oct 7, 2009 7:12pm EDT

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SYDNEY (Reuters) - Authorities in the pacific island of New Caledonia are evacuating people from the island's eastern shore and from the nearby Loyalty Islands to higher ground after a tsunami warning triggered by an earthquake near Vanuatu.
A police spokesman in the French territory's capital of Noumea said they expect waves to hit the coastline at 11:15 a.m. (0015 GMT). (Reporting by Cecile Lefort)

Powerful 7.8 quake off Vanuatu, tsunami alert

2009-10-07T17:29:00.001-07:00

Powerful 7.8 quake off Vanuatu, tsunami alert

(AP) – 27 minutes ago

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Two powerful earthquakes rocked the South Pacific near the Vanuatu archipelago Thursday morning, the U.S. Geological Survey reported, triggering a regional tsunami alert.
The first quake, with a magnitude of 7.8, struck 183 miles (294 kilometers) northwest of the Vanuatu island of Santo, and 354 miles (596 kilometers) northwest of the capital of Port Vila, at a depth of 21 miles (35 kilometers).
Just 15 minutes later a second quake with a magnitude 7.3 hit at the same depth but 21 miles (35 kilometers) farther north of Santo and Port Vila.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center immediately issued a regional tsunami warning for 11 nations and territories, including Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Nauru, Fiji and Kiribati. A tsunami watch was in effect as far away as Australia and New Zealand.
There were no immediate reports of injury or damage from officials in Vanuatu, a chain of 83 islands. It lies just over 1,400 miles (2,200 kilometers) northeast of Sydney, Australia.
"We have no damage reports yet, but we have had no contact with Santo so far," Vanuatu police spokesman Take Rakau told The Associated Press.
While the quakes were not felt in Port Vila, he said Santo, with its capital of Luganville, "most likely could have felt them."
"The (nation's) National Disaster Management Office has sent out a tsunami warning," he added.
The small atoll nation of Tuvalu in the South Pacific was "on full standby," after the nation's radio alerted people across its eight islands of the tsunami warning, said the head of the Meteorological Office, Hilia Vavae.
"Some are in a panic," she told The AP about 40 minutes before any possible tsunami waves were due to reach the low-lying coral atolls, already losing some of their coastal lands to rising sea levels.
The latest warning comes just 10 days after a quake of magnitude 8.3 rocked the South Pacific near Samoa, sparking tsunami waves that killed at least 178 people and devastated coastal villages in Samoa, American Samoa and in northern Tonga.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Geological Survey reported a strong earthquake struck south of the Philippines on Thursday morning local time.
The quake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.7 and was located in the Celebes Sea, 175 miles (282 kilometers) southeast of Jolo, Sulu Archipelago, and 730 miles (1,175 kilometers) south of Manila. The quake hit at 5:41 a.m. Thursday local time.
USGS did not report any damages or injuries.

Halloween costume

2009-10-07T17:28:00.001-07:00

Dueling costume shops: Halloween Express vs. Spirit of Halloween

October 7, 2009 1:00 pm · By Dustin · 5 Comments

Driving down N. College Avenue in the months leading up to Halloween, you can usually see at least two costumed people, one on either side of the road, waving signs for one of the two costume shops located in Fayetteville: Halloween Express and Spirit of Halloween.
About 10 years ago there were zero dedicated Halloween costume shops in Fayetteville. When I was a kid, we got our costumes from Wal-Mart, or K-Mart, or we’d piece them together from thrift stores like Cheap Thrills. Occasionally, someone would rent out an empty store in the mall and fill it with cheap costumes, and we could buy them from there. Later, there was Spencer’s Gifts.
More often than not, though, most of us Prairie Grove kids made our Halloween costumes out of whatever we could find in the trash. And we liked it.
These days, kids (and adults who like to pretend to be kids) have plenty of choices for where to purchase a Halloween costume in Fayetteville. Two of them are right across from each other on 71B. Hopefully this post will help you to compare Fayetteville’s dueling costume shops in order to find the costume that makes all of your Halloween dreams come true this year.
Here are the contenders:
Halloween Express
Sq. Feet: 7,675 (approx)
Address: 3722 North Front Street
Phone #: 479-582-1208
Website: halloweenexpress.com
Hours: M-Sat 10:00 am – 9:00 pm, Sunday 12:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Chain?: Yes
Spirit of Halloween
Sq. Feet: 10,000 (approx)
Address: 3825 N. Shiloh Dr.
Phone #: 479-582-9515
Website: spiritofhalloween.com
Hours: M-Sat 10:00 am – 9:00 pm, Sun 11:00 am – 6:00 pm
Chain?: Yes

Kids costumes

First and foremost, Halloween is for kids. Whether it be for trick-or-treating, the school carnival, Halloween parties or just so grandma can take a picture, every kid needs a Halloween costume. Both Halloween Express and Spirit of Halloween delivered, each with a separate kid costume area separated from the giant wieners and slutty-nurse outfits. And both had a nice mix of classic-kid costumes like vampires, werewolfs, Disney characters, princesses, ghosts, ninjas, as well as plenty of Optimus Prime / Hannah Montana options for the cool kids. Probably whatever your kid is looking for can be found at either place.
Advantage: Even

Adult costumes (prepackaged)

I’ve always been a fan of homemade costumes that are clever or abstract, but some people don’t have time for that kind of thing, and would rather just pay the $60 to get their entire costume in one package. For those people, head to the room at the far left from the entrance at Halloween Express. The entire room is full of plenty of out-of-the-box solutions that require zero effort and some of them are hilarious.
While Spirit of Halloween had lots of the pre-packaged costumes as well, Halloween Express definitely has a larger selection so you don’t end up at the Halloween party in the same costume as Steve. Hate that guy.
Advantage: Halloween Express

Costume supplies (raw)

Fake blood, weird makeup, vampire teeth, wigs, funny glasses and other items are essential for anyone who is making their own costume. Like the white makeup for your Vampire Bill from True Blood getup, or the blonde wig that completes your Lady Gaga ensemble.
Halloween Express has a great wig selection with an entire room devoted to fake hair. They also have plenty of makeup and fake blood in the front area near the cashier for whatever scary crap you’re putting together.
Spirit of Halloween also has a hearty selection of costume-compiling supplies, with its own wall of wigs near the back of the store and plenty of makeup and fake teeth near the front. I’m calling this one even as well.
Advantage: Even

Party supplies

Halloween party supplies and decorations have come a long way since I was a kid. Paper ghosts on strings (that’s what we had), fake spider webs (bags of cotton) and decorative jack-o-lantern leaf bags (screen printed trash bags) have been replaced by realistic severed limbs and animatronic dead people. Spirit of Halloween has the edge on cutting-edge (I guess) party supplies, with multiple displays throughout the store and a room full of stuff that will live in your attic for 11/12ths of the year, but will pimp your Halloween party to the maximum. Halloween Express has some cool stuff too, but Spirit of Halloween has more.
Advantage: Spirit of Halloween

Slutty costumes

I don’t know when it started, but slutty costumes have definitely become a Halloween tradition. What started with “slutty-nurse” and “slutty french maid” is now a genre all to itself. Now, you can be a slutty-anything-you-want, if you want. I’m partial to slutty-inanimate-object costumes, like the “slutty-chicken-sandwich”, “slutty-window”, or “slutty-helicopter” (I haven’t seen any of these, but I know they’re out there somewhere). Spirit of Halloween has a whole section of slutty costumes. They win.
Advantage: Spirit of Halloween

Mildly offensive adult costumes, usually showcasing/exaggerating the male/female genitalia

If your friends like wiener jokes or if you don’t care who you offend, both of our local Halloween shops have got you covered. My favorite of these types of costumes were both at Halloween Express. “Giant Boob” and “Camille Toe, Aerobics Instructor (yup) were both available.
Advantage: Halloween Express
So there you have it. Overall, I’d say that Spirit of Halloween is a little bit larger and better organized, but Halloween Express is more established. The prices at both stores are about the same and you can expect to pay between $40-$100 for a costume at either place depending on what you’re looking for. Of course, you could always do some comparison shopping, and the fact that these places are across the street from each other make that a little more convenient.
You’ve got a little over three weeks to get your costume together. What are you guys gonna be this year?

7.8 Magnitude Earthquake Vanuatu

2009-10-07T17:26:00.000-07:00

UPDATE- 2ND 7.1 QUAKE HITS 7.8 Magnitude Earthquake Vanuatu

October 7, 2009 – 2:44 pm
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged earthquake, hawaii, south pacific, tsunami, tsunami warning, vanuatu

UPDATE- 2ND 7.1 QUAKE HITS VANUATU
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2009mlcs.php
Earthquake Details











 Magnitude  7.1  
 Date-Time   Wednesday, October 07, 2009 at 23:13:49 UTC

Thursday, October 08, 2009 at 10:13:49 AM at epicenter

 
 Location  13.145°S, 166.297°E  
 Depth  33.3 km (20.7 miles)  
 Region  VANUATU  
 Distances   280 km (174 miles) NNW (341°) from Santo (Luganville), Vanuatu

555 km (345 miles) NNW (337°) from PORT-VILA, Vanuatu

2111 km (1312 miles) NE (44°) from Brisbane, Australia

 
 Location Uncertainty  horizontal +/- 15.1 km (9.4 miles); depth +/- 2.5 km (1.6 miles)  
 Parameters  NST=215, Nph=218, Dmin=>999 km, Rmss=1.59 sec, Gp= 22°, M-type=(unknown type), Version=6  
 Source   U.S. Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center: World Data Center for Seismology, Denver

 
 Event ID  us2009mlcs  
 
7.8 Magnitude Earthquake Vanuatu

http://urlet.com/blues.desire

http://www.prh.noaa.gov/ptwc/messages/hawaii/2009/hawaii.2009.10.07.221752.txt

TSUNAMI MESSAGE NUMBER   1 NWS PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER EWA BEACH HI 1218 PM HST WED OCT 07 2009  TO - CIVIL DEFENSE IN THE STATE OF HAWAII  SUBJECT - TSUNAMI ADVISORY  A TSUNAMI ADVISORY IS ISSUED FOR THE STATE OF HAWAII EFFECTIVE AT 1217 PM HST.  AN EARTHQUAKE HAS OCCURRED WITH THESE PRELIMINARY PARAMETERS     ORIGIN TIME - 1203 PM HST 07 OCT 2009    COORDINATES - 13.0 SOUTH  166.3 EAST    LOCATION    - VANUATU ISLANDS    MAGNITUDE   - 8.0  MOMENT  EVALUATION   THE PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER HAS ISSUED AN EXPANDING  REGIONAL TSUNAMI WARNING AND WATCH FOR PARTS OF THE PACIFIC  LOCATED CLOSER TO THE EARTHQUAKE. AN EVALUATION OF THE PACIFIC  WIDE TSUNAMI THREAT IS UNDERWAY AND THERE IS A POSSIBILITY THAT  HAWAII COULD BE ELEVATED TO A WATCH OR WARNING STATUS.   IF TSUNAMI WAVES IMPACT HAWAII THEIR ESTIMATED EARLIEST ARRIVAL  TIME IS                       0650 PM HST WED 07 OCT 2009  MESSAGES WILL BE ISSUED HOURLY OR SOONER AS CONDITIONS WARRANT.

http://www.urlet.com/adequately.phenomenon

http://www.prh.noaa.gov/ptwc/messages/pacific/2009/pacific.2009.10.07.221655.txt

TSUNAMI BULLETIN NUMBER 001 PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER/NOAA/NWS ISSUED AT 2217Z 07 OCT 2009 THIS BULLETIN APPLIES TO AREAS WITHIN AND BORDERING THE PACIFIC OCEAN AND ADJACENT SEAS...EXCEPT ALASKA...BRITISH COLUMBIA... WASHINGTON...OREGON AND CALIFORNIA. ... A TSUNAMI WARNING AND WATCH ARE IN EFFECT ... A TSUNAMI WARNING IS IN EFFECT FOR VANUATU / SOLOMON IS. / NAURU / PAPUA NEW GUINEA / TUVALU / NEW CALEDONIA / FIJI / KIRIBATI / KOSRAE / WALLIS-FUTUNA / HOWLAND-BAKER A TSUNAMI WATCH IS IN EFFECT FOR MARSHALL IS. / TOKELAU / KERMADEC IS / POHNPEI / NEW ZEALAND / SAMOA / AMERICAN SAMOA / TONGA / AUSTRALIA / NIUE / COOK ISLANDS / CHUUK / INDONESIA / WAKE IS. / JARVIS IS. / PALMYRA IS. / GUAM / N. MARIANAS / JOHNSTON IS. / YAP / MARCUS IS. / BELAU FOR ALL OTHER AREAS COVERED BY THIS BULLETIN... IT IS FOR INFORMATION ONLY AT THIS TIME. THIS BULLETIN IS ISSUED AS ADVICE TO GOVERNMENT AGENCIES. ONLY NATIONAL AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT AGENCIES HAVE THE AUTHORITY TO MAKE DECISIONS REGARDING THE OFFICIAL STATE OF ALERT IN THEIR AREA AND ANY ACTIONS TO BE TAKEN IN RESPONSE. AN EARTHQUAKE HAS OCCURRED WITH THESE PRELIMINARY PARAMETERS ORIGIN TIME - 2203Z 07 OCT 2009 COORDINATES - 13.0 SOUTH 166.3 EAST DEPTH - 33 KM LOCATION - VANUATU ISLANDS MAGNITUDE - 8.0 EVALUATION IT IS NOT KNOWN THAT A TSUNAMI WAS GENERATED. THIS WARNING IS BASED ONLY ON THE EARTHQUAKE EVALUATION. AN EARTHQUAKE OF THIS SIZE HAS THE POTENTIAL TO GENERATE A DESTRUCTIVE TSUNAMI THAT CAN STRIKE COASTLINES NEAR THE EPICENTER WITHIN MINUTES AND MORE DISTANT COASTLINES WITHIN HOURS. AUTHORITIES SHOULD TAKE APPROPRIATE ACTION IN RESPONSE TO THIS POSSIBILITY. THIS CENTER WILL MONITOR SEA LEVEL DATA FROM GAUGES NEAR THE EARTHQUAKE TO DETERMINE IF A TSUNAMI WAS GENERATED AND ESTIMATE THE SEVERITY OF THE THREAT. ESTIMATED INITIAL TSUNAMI WAVE ARRIVAL TIMES AT FORECAST POINTS WITHIN THE WARNING AND WATCH AREAS ARE GIVEN BELOW. ACTUAL ARRIVAL TIMES MAY DIFFER AND THE INITIAL WAVE MAY NOT BE THE LARGEST. A TSUNAMI IS A SERIES OF WAVES AND THE TIME BETWEEN SUCCESSIVE WAVES CAN BE FIVE MINUTES TO ONE HOUR. LOCATION FORECAST POINT COORDINATES ARRIVAL TIME -------------------------------- ------------ ------------ VANUATU ESPERITU SANTO 15.1S 167.3E 2231Z 07 OCT ANATOM IS. 20.2S 169.9E 2324Z 07 OCT SOLOMON IS. KIRAKIRA 10.4S 161.9E 2248Z 07 OCT GHATERE 7.8S 159.2E 2328Z 07 OCT MUNDA 8.4S 157.2E 2332Z 07 OCT HONIARA 9.3S 160.0E 2336Z 07 OCT AUKI 8.8S 160.6E 2336Z 07 OCT PANGGOE 6.9S 157.2E 2346Z 07 OCT FALAMAE 7.4S 155.6E 2348Z 07 OCT NAURU NAURU 0.5S 166.9E 0003Z 08 OCT PAPUA NEW GUINE KIETA 6.1S 155.6E 0005Z 08 OCT AMUN 6.0S 154.7E 0007Z 08 OCT RABAUL 4.2S 152.3E 0033Z 08 OCT LAE 6.8S 147.0E 0059Z 08 OCT KAVIENG 2.5S 150.7E 0107Z 08 OCT PORT MORESBY 9.3S 146.9E 0123Z 08 OCT MADANG 5.2S 145.8E 0125Z 08 OCT MANUS IS. 2.0S 147.5E 0145Z 08 OCT WEWAK 3.5S 143.6E 0208Z 08 OCT VANIMO 2.6S 141.3E 0229Z 08 OCT TUVALU FUNAFUTI IS. 7.9S 178.5E 0013Z 08 OCT NEW CALEDONIA NOUMEA 22.3S 166.5E 0015Z 08 OCT FIJI SUVA 18.1S 178.4E 0037Z 08 OCT KIRIBATI TARAWA IS. 1.5N 173.0E 0037Z 08 OCT KANTON IS. 2.8S 171.7W 0132Z 08 OCT CHRISTMAS IS. 2.0N 157.5W 0336Z 08 OCT MALDEN IS. 3.9S 154.9W 0344Z 08 OCT FLINT IS. 11.4S 151.8W 0414Z 08 OCT KOSRAE KOSRAE IS. 5.5N 163.0E 0056Z 08 OCT WALLIS-FUTUNA WALLIS IS. 13.2S 176.2W 0103Z 08 OCT HOWLAND-BAKER HOWLAND IS. 0.6N 176.6W 0112Z 08 OCT MARSHALL IS. MAJURO 7.1N 171.4E 0120Z 08 OCT KWAJALEIN 8.7N 167.7E 0123Z 08 OCT ENIWETOK 11.4N 162.3E 0149Z 08 OCT TOKELAU NUKUNONU IS. 9.2S 171.8W 0125Z 08 OCT KERMADEC IS RAOUL IS. 29.2S 177.9W 0129Z 08 OCT POHNPEI POHNPEI IS. 7.0N 158.2E 0129Z 08 OCT NEW ZEALAND NORTH CAPE 34.4S 173.3E 0134Z 08 OCT EAST CAPE 37.7S 178.5E 0216Z 08 OCT AUCKLAND(W) 37.1S 174.2E 0233Z 08 OCT GISBORNE 38.7S 178.0E 0249Z 08 OCT NEW PLYMOUTH 39.1S 174.1E 0310Z 08 OCT AUCKLAND(E) 36.7S 175.0E 0314Z 08 OCT NAPIER 39.5S 176.9E 0329Z 08 OCT MILFORD SOUND 44.6S 167.9E 0335Z 08 OCT WELLINGTON 41.3S 174.8E 0339Z 08 OCT WESTPORT 41.8S 171.6E 0350Z 08 OCT SAMOA APIA 13.8S 171.8W 0141Z 08 OCT AMERICAN SAMOA PAGO PAGO 14.3S 170.7W 0152Z 08 OCT TONGA NUKUALOFA 21.0S 175.2W 0152Z 08 OCT AUSTRALIA BRISBANE 27.2S 153.3E 0155Z 08 OCT CAIRNS 16.7S 145.8E 0204Z 08 OCT SYDNEY 33.9S 151.4E 0228Z 08 OCT GLADSTONE 23.8S 151.4E 0301Z 08 OCT MACKAY 21.1S 149.3E 0322Z 08 OCT HOBART 43.3S 147.6E 0355Z 08 OCT NIUE NIUE IS. 19.0S 170.0W 0211Z 08 OCT COOK ISLANDS PUKAPUKA IS. 10.8S 165.9W 0216Z 08 OCT PENRYN IS. 8.9S 157.8W 0323Z 08 OCT RAROTONGA 21.2S 159.8W 0325Z 08 OCT CHUUK CHUUK IS. 7.4N 151.8E 0217Z 08 OCT INDONESIA JAYAPURA 2.4S 140.8E 0233Z 08 OCT WARSA 0.6S 135.8E 0316Z 08 OCT MANOKWARI 0.8S 134.2E 0336Z 08 OCT SORONG 0.8S 131.1E 0404Z 08 OCT WAKE IS. WAKE IS. 19.3N 166.6E 0250Z 08 OCT JARVIS IS. JARVIS IS. 0.4S 160.1W 0307Z 08 OCT PALMYRA IS. PALMYRA IS. 6.3N 162.4W 0313Z 08 OCT GUAM GUAM 13.4N 144.7E 0320Z 08 OCT N. MARIANAS SAIPAN 15.3N 145.8E 0323Z 08 OCT JOHNSTON IS. JOHNSTON IS. 16.7N 169.5W 0325Z 08 OCT YAP YAP IS. 9.5N 138.1E 0330Z 08 OCT MARCUS IS. MARCUS IS. 24.3N 154.0E 0342Z 08 OCT BELAU MALAKAL 7.3N 134.5E 0344Z 08 OCT BULLETINS WILL BE ISSUED HOURLY OR SOONER IF CONDITIONS WARRANT. THE TSUNAMI WARNING AND WATCH WILL REMAIN IN EFFECT UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. THE WEST COAST/ALASKA TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER WILL ISSUE PRODUCTS FOR ALASKA...BRITISH COLUMBIA...WASHINGTON...OREGON...CALIFORNIA.

Magnitude	7.1
Date-Time	Wednesday, October 07, 2009 at 23:13:49 UTC Thursday, October 08, 2009 at 10:13:49 AM at epicenter
Location	13.145°S, 166.297°E
Depth	33.3 km (20.7 miles)
Region	VANUATU
Distances	280 km (174 miles) NNW (341°) from Santo (Luganville), Vanuatu 555 km (345 miles) NNW (337°) from PORT-VILA, Vanuatu 2111 km (1312 miles) NE (44°) from Brisbane, Australia
Location Uncertainty	horizontal +/- 15.1 km (9.4 miles); depth +/- 2.5 km (1.6 miles)
Parameters	NST=215, Nph=218, Dmin=>999 km, Rmss=1.59 sec, Gp= 22°, M-type=(unknown type), Version=6
Source	U.S. Geological Survey, National Earthquake Information Center: World Data Center for Seismology, Denver
Event ID	us2009mlcs

Earthquake Details

Magnitude	7.8
Date-Time	Wednesday, October 07, 2009 at 22:03:15 UTC Thursday, October 08, 2009 at 09:03:15 AM at epicenter Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location	13.052°S, 166.187°E
Depth	35 km (21.7 miles) set by location program
Region	VANUATU
Distances	260 km (160 miles) S of Lata, Santa Cruz Islands, Solomon Isl. 295 km (180 miles) NNW of Luganville, Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu 785 km (490 miles) ESE of HONIARA, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands 2100 km (1310 miles) NE of BRISBANE, Queensland, Australia
Location Uncertainty	horizontal +/- 7.6 km (4.7 miles); depth fixed by location program
Parameters	NST=169, Nph=169, Dmin=>999 km, Rmss=1.32 sec, Gp= 50°, M-type=teleseismic moment magnitude (Mw), Version=6
Source	USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Event ID	us2009mlcf http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2009mlcf.php

Tsunami watch cancelled for Queensland

2009-10-07T17:24:00.000-07:00

October 8, 2009 - 9:48AM

A map of the earthquakes from the United States Geological Survey's Earthquake Centre.

A tsunami watch for the north Queensland coast has been cancelled.
The BOM issued a tsunami watch for the Great Barrier Reef offshore water areas between Yeppoon and Bowen at 8.44am after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit the Santa Cruz islands in the South Pacific.
However, BOM senior forecaster Geoff Doueal said the tsunami wasn't expected to make it past the Great Barrier Reef.
''The reef pretty much kills this tsunami,'' he said.
''So there is no real direct threat to the mainland of Queensland.''
Not long after, the Bureau cancelled the tsunami threat.
Mr Doueal said the only threats were to offshore scuba divers and to the BOM's observation post on Willis Island, where the tsunami was expected to hit at 9.45am.
He said four BOM employees were the only people on Willis Island but have received ''plenty of warning''.
The quake struck 294 kilometres from Vanuatu's Espiritu Santo island at a shallow depth of 35 kilometres, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS).
It prompted a tsunami alert for New Zealand, Fiji, the Solomon Islands, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Tuvalu and New Caledonia, among others.
New Zealand Civil Defence is urging all people to clear beaches in Northland and East Cape and if in boats, to get off the water, and has advised all fire, police and local councils to be on standby.
Authorities in New Caledonia, a French territory, were evacuating people from the island's eastern shore and from the nearby Loyalty Islands to higher ground, local police said.
A police spokesman in the capital, Noumea, said the nation was bracing for a tsunami to hit around 11:15 am local time on Thursday (0015 GMT).
A resident of Luganville on the southern coast of Vanuatu's Espiritu Santo island said the quake had shaken the town, but there were no reports of damage or change in sea level.
"People were frightened and some ran out of the building onto the street because it was so strong," a Florence Cari, receptionist at the Hotel Santo told Reuters by telephone. "The sea has not changed but we don't know if something will happen."
A reporter at the Daily Post newspaper in Port Vila said people on Vanuatu's Espiritu Santo island were running for higher ground. "We have had reports that the kids are running into the hills," she said.

Tsunami Alert Issued in Pacific After 7.8 Quake Hits

2009-10-07T17:23:00.000-07:00

By Ed Johnson and Aaron Sheldrick
Oct. 8 (Bloomberg) -- A magnitude-7.8 earthquake struck off the Santa Cruz Islands in the Pacific Ocean today, triggering a tsunami warning for several nations in the region.
The quake hit at 9:03 a.m. local time at a depth of 35 kilometers (22 miles), about 260 kilometers south of Lata on the Santa Cruz Islands and 295 kilometers north-northwest of Vanuatu, the U.S. Geological Survey said. It earlier measured the quake at magnitude 8.1. A 7.3-magnitude quake struck about 15 minutes later in the area, the USGS said.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said a warning is in effect for Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Tuvalu, New Caledonia, Fiji, Kiribati, Wallis-Futuna and Howland-Baker. There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.
A tsunami watch was also in effect for the Marshall Islands, New Zealand, Samoa, American Samoa, Tonga, Australia, the Cook Islands, Indonesia and Guam, according to an e-mailed alert from the center.
A tsunami in the Pacific on Sept. 29, sparked by a magnitude-8.0 earthquake, killed 137 people, injured 310 and left six missing in Samoa, a nation of 177,000, according to the United Nations.
Vanuatu is a group of 83 islands in the southwestern Pacific to the west of Samoa and northwest of Fiji. It has an international offshore financial center and is a popular tourist destination, about 2 1/2 flying hours from the Australian city of Brisbane, according to the Vanuatu tourist Web site.
Vanuatu is in a zone where the Pacific and Indo-Australian plates meet. These tectonic plates constantly shift, sometimes causing earthquakes, some of them causing tsunamis. Earthquakes of magnitude 5 or more can cause considerable damage depending on their depth.

Jets acquire WR Edwards from Browns for WR Stuckey, LB Trusnik, draft picks

2009-10-07T08:43:00.000-07:00

FILE -- This is an Oct. 4, 2009, file photo showing Cleveland Browns wide receiver Braylon Edwards making a catch during warm ups before an NFL football game against the Cincinnati Bengals, in Cleveland. The New York Jets have reached an agreement with the Cleveland Browns to acquire troubled but talented wide receiver Braylon Edwards. The Jets sent wide receiver Chansi Stuckey, linebacker Jason Trusnik and undisclosed draft choices to the Browns on Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2009, to acquire the deep threat they had been lacking. (AP Photo/Mark Duncan, File) (AP)

NEW YORK — Cleveland Browns coach Eric Mangini has dumped dissatisfied wide receiver Braylon Edwards off on his former team.
Mangini sent Edwards, a former first-round pick whose troubles have matched his immense talent to the New York Jets on Wednesday for wide receiver Chansi Stuckey, linebacker Jason Trusnik and undisclosed draft choices.
Edwards, in his fifth season, has 10 receptions for 139 yards but was held to no catches for the first time in his career in the winless Browns' 23-20 overtime loss to Cincinnati on Sunday. His best season came in 2007, when he had 80 catches for 1,289 yards and 16 touchdowns.
The former Michigan star comes with his share of off-field issues. The NFL is investigating whether he violated the league's conduct policy following accusations he assaulted a man outside a nightclub. Cleveland police are also looking into the incident.
The Jets, off to a 3-1 start, had been looking to replace Laveranues Coles in the starting lineup since allowing him to become a free agent in the offseason. They looked into former Giants star Plaxico Burress' legal status before the draft, and were mentioned in possible trade talks with Denver's Brandon Marshall.
San Francisco also filed tampering charges against the Jets in September, claiming New York was looking into wide receiver Michael Crabtree, the 49ers' top draft pick. The league is still looking into those charges.
Edwards allegedly punched promoter Edward Givens, a friend of NBA star LeBron James, early Monday morning following an argument in downtown Cleveland.
Although Edwards hasn't been charged with a crime, the league's conduct policy states that discipline may be imposed for "the use or threat of violence."
Edwards has been involved in other off-field incidents. In March, he was partying with suspended Browns wide receiver Donte Stallworth in Miami the night Stallworth later drove drunk and killed a pedestrian. Edwards was not with Stallworth at the time.
Last November, Edwards was fined $150 and given 30 hours of community service after he was found guilty of driving 120 mph.
It's the second major trade the Jets have made with the Browns and Eric Mangini, their former coach. On the first day of the draft in April, New York acquired the fifth overall pick from Cleveland to select Sanchez for its first-round pick, its second-rounder (No. 52), and defensive end Kenyon Coleman, safety Abram Elam and quarterback Brett Ratliff.
Stuckey, who won the No. 2 receiver spot opposite Cotchery out of training camp, has 11 catches for 120 yards and a touchdown. He was a seventh-round draft pick out of Clemson in 2007, but missed his first season with a foot injury. Stuckey had 32 receptions last season, catching three touchdown passes from Brett Favre.
Trusnik, signed as an undrafted free agent out of Ohio Northern in 2007, is a special teams ace and backup linebacker. He was selected as the AFC's special teams player of the week last week after forcing and recovering a fumble on a kickoff in the Jets' 24-17 win over Tennessee.

ason Trusnik, acquired from the New York Jets, is coming home

2009-10-07T08:41:00.000-07:00

The Cleveland Browns traded Braylon Edwards to the New York Jets today for two draft picks, wide receiver Chansi Stuckey and Nordonia High School graduate Jason Trusnik.
APJason TrusnikTrusnik, who also attended Ohio Northern, was named AFC special teams player of the week for his play last week. Trusnik was a free agent in 2007. He spent most of his time on the practice squad. Last season he spent the first half of last season on the Physically Unable to Perform list with a broken foot.
Trusnik started the season with a bang. He earned the special teams game ball. Last week, Trusnik’s forced fumble and recovery on a kickoff set up a Jets’ touchdown.

The 6-4, 250-pound Trusnik, a defensive end in college, has adapted to special teams coach Mike Westhoff’s special teams schemes.

“Is he the fastest guy down the field? No,” Westhoff said. “But when you get to him, he really gets it. I love him. He’s made plays. He’s made blocks. I have a point scale system that I use and right now he’s off the charts with it.”

At Ohio Northern, Trusnick was twice named a Division III All-American and twice named All-Ohio Athletic Conference.

WR Chansi Stuckey, LB Jason Trusnik, and Draft Picks Coming to Browns

2009-10-07T08:36:00.000-07:00

The AP is reporting that the Browns will receive wide receiver Chansi Stuckey, linebacker Jason Trusnik and undisclosed draft choices in exchange for troubled star Braylon Edwards. The Browns had been hoping to get a first and third round pick for the former Michigan star in the offseason but his value plummeted due to off the field issues including a fight on early Monday morning that saw a Cleveland man press charges on him for assault.
Stuckey has hauled in 11 passes for 120 this season for a TD in 3 starts and last year caught 32 passes in his first action in the NFL. Stuckey is 26 years old.
Jason Trusnik is a local product being a native of Macedonia. The 25 year old was undrafted after playing college ball at Ohio Northern where he was a two time All American in Division III The 6' 4'' 250 pounder has compiled 6 tackles and will likely have a role on the Browns special teams this season.

Connected GPS: TomTom XL 340S Live

2009-10-07T06:32:00.001-07:00

The holiday season is fast approaching, as evidenced by back-to-school displays quickly replaced by Halloween and even Christmas merchandise. For us, the clearer evidence is the accelerated pace for GPS introductions. We’ve been chronicling the latest iPhone apps, and covered the geo-networking Garmin Nuvi 1690 and supersized TomTom XXL. Now, TomTom has unveiled its latest connected device, the XL 340S Live.

This new portable navigation device (PND) builds upon the XL 340, a well-rated unit with historic traffic data, lane guidance, reality view, and a wide screen. The “S” in the name denotes text-to-speech for spoken street names. The “Live” speaks to the connected services available with this device, previously available only in the Go 740 Live.

Using the AT&T network, the XL 340S Live can provide real-time information services, such as traffic, fuel prices, weather, and local search (powered by Google). The XL 340S Live includes seven million points of interest, as well.

TomTom touts speed for delivering traffic information as a key appeal, citing updates every two to five minutes. (Like traditional radio reports, traffic service feeds can be spotty and experience time delays before some information enters the corporate system and is fed to your device. We will evaluate this once we purchase a device for testing.)

Three months of Live services are included in the purchase price, with retail being $299.95 when it goes on sale in November. Live services cost $9.95 a month after that, however, you can cancel and renew the service with a month’s notice. It is, therefore, feasible to use the services on a seasonal, rather than annual basis.

The XL 340S Live includes complete maps for the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

For those drawn to the features, though not interested in the connectivity, consider the less-expensive XL 340S ($225).

For more information on portable automotive GPS navigation systems, see our Ratings, first looks, and buying advice and watch our video guide. Discuss GPS devices in the forums.

Amazon cuts Kindle price, launches global wireless device

2009-10-07T06:30:00.000-07:00

By MarketWatch

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Anticipating the arrival of fresh competition, Amazon.com Inc. on Wednesday slashed the price of its Kindle electronic-book reader by $40 to $259 and announced a version that can work internationally.

Over the next few months new devices from Sony Corp., Netherlands-based iRex and U.S. upstart Plastic Logic are set to hit the market. All three companies plan to sell e-readers that include wireless access, just like the Kindle, as well as other features not available on the Amazon device.
Yet Sony and iRex have announced suggested retail prices that exceed the Kindle's new price by as much as $150. Plastic Logic has not set a price yet.
The reduction by Amazon could help stave off rivals or force them to lower their own prices -- a strategy that would benefit consumers but limit the profits of competitors. Amazon is the far-and-away leader in the small but rapidly growing market for electronic-book readers.
The international version of the Kindle, priced at $279, will go on sale Oct. 19. Amazon said it would enable customers to buy and download e-books wirelessly in more than 100 countries and territories.
Shares of Amazon /quotes/comstock/15*!amzn/quotes/nls/amzn (AMZN 91.66, +0.75, +0.82%) ended Tuesday at $90.91 and were not active in premarket trade.
In early July, the company cut the price of its Kindle 2 e-book reader by $60, putting the popular device under the $300 mark for the first time since its debut nearly two years ago.
At that time, Amazon did not disclose sales figures, but analysts believe the company has sold more than 1 million units since its original debut in the fall of 2007.
The Kindle allows readers to buy and download books through a wireless connection and read them on the screen. More than 350,000 books -- plus magazine and newspaper subscriptions -- are available at Amazon's Kindle store.

Dancing with the Stars concludes with two celebrities sent home — but not Michael Irvin

2009-10-07T06:28:00.001-07:00

We'll continue to see our twinkle-toed Cowboy on Dancing with the Stars for at least one more week, as Michael Irvin was voted into the bottom four and then into the bottom two -- but was not the celebrity chosen to leave the show.

ABC

Unfortunately, pictures of the hilarious politico-inspired costume that Tom DeLay wore this week weren't yet available.

However, former House majority leader Tom DeLay will not be returning. DeLay was not the celebrity in the bottom two beside Irvin, but he was advised by doctors not to continue dancing because of stress fractures in each foot. DeLay put up a good fight on Monday night as he winced through another dance, despite suggestions that he sit this week out. After that dance, DeLay announced on Tuesday that he would be leaving the competition. Hanging up his dancing shoes. No more dancing with the devil.
Sad, though -- if he were to stay through next week, he would have danced the Texas two-step. How fitting. Tom Bergeron invited DeLay to perform that two-step with his partner, Cheryl Burke, in the season finale if his injuries are healed in time.
The show's producers could have accepted DeLay's bow-out as the elimination of the week, but they instead continued tallying judges scores and call-in votes.
Irvin's performance on Monday night was an unremarkable samba, preceded by an unsure Irvin telling his partner, Anna Demidova, that he was having trouble remembering the steps. Again Irvin showed the need to master the choreography -- yet really hasn't been able to rise above the pack so far.

ABC

We believe Michael Irvin's face looked something like this when he was told he wouldn't be voted off this week.

Judges were let down by his samba, which didn't show improvement like last week's dance and tallied him the lowest score of the night with 14. It also didn't help that Bruno Tonioli called him “darling” when critiquing his dancing skills and then told him he danced like a tank. Carrie Ann told him he danced “too small” – a strange but accurate evaluation for one of the show's biggest guys.
“You don't think big football players get hurt, but it did hurt!” Irvin told host Samantha Harris after hearing what the judges had said. Then he followed it up with the comment that every celebrity ever says on Dancing with the Stars: “But we had fun.”
Irvin and Demidova were immediately placed in the bottom four on Tuesday, next to actress Debi Mazar, model Joanna Krupa, and singer Aaron Carter. Next came a dull performance by Queen Latifah, an amazing “Singing in the Rain” tribute by male dance crew JabbawockeeZ, and a bouncy Michael Jackson remix by Queen Latifah. She's a diva in everything she does, but this time, the second time was the charm.

ABC

Bye, Debi Mazar. Guess your partner will have to find some other celebrity to incessantly tell to shut up. Meanie.

Irvin and Mazar were then denounced into the dreaded bottom two. Irvin has the fan base to keep him going if he can just master the simple steps and stop lip-synching. He'll be given the chance to show it, since Mazar was asked to take her last dance.
The most likely celebrities to win, at this point, are singer Mya or Olympic swimmer Natalie Coughlin. Most likely to make out with their partner (if they haven't already) are snowboarder Louie Vito and his cute blonde partner Chelsey Hightower; or model Krupa and her partner Derek Hough (who ain't so bad looking himself).

Google Logo Pays Tribute to the Barcode

2009-10-07T06:25:00.000-07:00

oogle continues experimenting with its logo by changing it to commemorate what it deems as significant events in history. Last week, Google logo paid homage to Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday along with Google’s 11th birthday, today, the logo is showing a barcode which if read by a barcode scanner would transcribe to the name Google.
In case you’re interested to know, today is the 57th anniversary of the first patent of the barcode. The first patent for the barcode was filed by inventors Norman Woodland and Bernard Silver. The original patent applied to a system that encodes data in circles and can be scanned in any direction. Through the years, this system has evolved into the rectangular barcode with strips of black and white line which is what we normally see on various items.
Like the previous iterations of the Google logo, the Google Barcode logo is linked to the search results for the query “bar code”. So if you’ve got time in your hands and your curious to learn more about bar code, you might want to click on the logo before Google reverts it to the original Google logo.
I don’t know about you but sometimes I can’t help but ask what’s the point of changing this logo. Is Google trying to give its otherwise “boring” site a little spike with its subtle unannounced changes? In retaliation with the “livelier” interface of Bing and Yahoo? But, isn’t the simplicity of Google.com’s interface one of the reason why Google gained its massive userbase?

Sara Jean Underwood gets her Scream on in Zellwood

2009-10-07T06:22:00.001-07:00

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"I didn't practice my scream. I'm too shy, too embarrassed to do that even just for myself. The first day of shooting, I had to take a drink or two to REALLY get into it. Now, I don't need booze."

Sara Jean Underwood plays Katy in Zellwood, the horror film wrapping its shoot this weekend in Zellwood.
The story has Katy and her boyfriend Matt about to move to New York, so they head to the woods for "one last camping trip, one last hoo-rah. I'm playing just a version of myself."
"The producer and Jason pitched this to Playboy, asking about me. I thought, 'What a great opportunity.' All I've ever done is cameos. I'd never thought about acting as a direction to go in, never pursued it. I still don't think of myself as an actress. But who gets offered a lead in a movie? I jumped at the chance."
The Portland native and 2007 Playboy Playmate of the Year says "the other things I've done, I'd never thought of carrying a scene or the other things you need to really need to think about. People who have been taking classes, pursuing this for years, they're the real actors. We'll see if I can pull this off."
"I love horror movies, watch a lot of them, and I kind of think I know what works in them, what's convincing, and what isn't."
" I came into this knowing it wasn't going to be as glamorous as House Bunny, where we shot at The Playboy Mansion and I lived right across the street. I've done only lighthearted movies, so I've really gotten an education when it comes to speical effects and how they do all that crazy blood-and-guts movie stuff"

American, Briton, Israeli win 2009 chemistry Nobel Prize

2009-10-07T06:21:00.000-07:00

STOCKHOLM, October 7 (Itar-Tass) - The Royal Swedish Academy on Wednesday named Venkatraman Ramakrishnan of Great Britain, Thomas Steitz of the USA and Ada Yonath of Israel the winners of the 2009 Nobel Prize in chemistry.

"All three have used a method called X-ray crystallography," the Academy said in a statement, citing the scientists for "studies of the structure and function of the ribosome, one of the core processes in life."

Dalai Lama expenses furor brews

2009-10-07T06:19:00.000-07:00

The Ministry of the Interior (MOI) yesterday denied allegations by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the media that its request for details of any government money spent on the Dalai Lama’s visit to Taiwan by local governments was politically motivated. “As the government authority in charge of religious affairs, we received a request from the Control Yuan to see if government money was spent by the seven local governments that invited the Dalai Lama to cover his expenses,” Civil Affairs Department Director Huang Li-hsin (黃麗馨) told the Taipei Times by telephone yesterday. “The Control Yuan made the request because they received a public petition asking if government money was spent to cover the expenses of the Dalai Lama’s visit and whether this was in violation of the separation of religion and state clause in the Constitution.”

Last month, Yunlin, Chiayi, Tainan County, Kaohsiung and Pingtung counties and Tainan and Kaohsiung cities jointly issued an invitation to the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, asking him to visit Taiwan to hold religious services for those who lost their lives and to comfort the victims of Typhoon Morakot.
Upon receiving the request from the Control Yuan, the MOI sent inquiries to the local governments on Tuesday, a move that riled DPP lawmakers — such as Tainan City’s William Lai (賴清德) and Kaohsiung City’s Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) — who questioned whether it was a retaliatory measure because China had voiced opposition to the visit.

Huang denied the allegation and said both the Control Yuan’s request and the ministry’s inquiries to local governments were part of standard procedure when handling a public petition. Huang said there was no political motive behind it.

So far, Kaohsiung and Tainan counties have replied and said the expenses were covered by the Tibet Religious Foundation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the de facto representative office of the Tibetan government in exile in Taiwan.

“The Dalai Lama wouldn’t even let me pay for his lunch when we stopped for a lunch break in Jiasian Township (甲仙)” after visiting the disaster-torn Siaolin Village (小林), Kaohsiung County Commissioner Yang Chiu-hsing (楊秋興) said.

“Not a cent of the expenses for the Dalai Lama’s visit came out of the Kaohsiung City treasury,” Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) said.

Sonam Dorjee, secretary-general of the Tibetan representative office, confirmed that the office had covered the monk’s expenses.

Huang said she did not think it would have been a problem if the local governments had covered the expenses.

“Separation of religion and state as stipulated in the Constitution means that the government is responsible of protecting everyone’s freedom of religion and should refrain from interfering in religion,” Huang said. “Government agencies sponsor religious events on a regular basis, so I don’t see a problem with it.”

That explanation, however, did not convince Taiwan Friends of Tibet chairwoman Chow Mei-li (周美里), who believes the probe should not have started in the first place.

“As the government authority in charge of religious affairs, the MOI should have told the Control Yuan there was no problem, instead of sending inquiries to the local governments,” Chow said.

Chow said she would file similar petitions to question the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission’s sponsoring of a Tibetan Buddhist service to commemorate the typhoon victims at the end of last month and whether President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) had violated the separation of religion and state by taking part in several religious services for typhoon victims.
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n Defense of Capitalism: a True Love Story

2009-10-07T06:17:00.001-07:00

My writing is a byproduct of my investment process, I think through writing. I don’t do movie reviews and don’t watch Michael Moore’s movies. A Denver Post reporter invited me to a private showing of Moore’s latest flick last Monday Capitalism: a Love Story, it stirred up a lot of memories and I recently finished reading Atlas Shrugged which had a great impact on me. A combination of all those things motivated me to write this.

In the 1980s, in Soviet Russia, a few times a year, my class walked to a movie theater, where we were shown a documentary. Attendance was mandatory. The documentaries were different but the themes were the same: to the accompaniment of patriotic music, we learned about the righteousness of socialism, the greatness of Mother Russia, and the intelligence and foresight of our great leaders. To demonstrate how good we had it, we were shown images of “decaying” American capitalism. Of course, capitalism did not get the benefit of patriotic music as we were shown the poverty-stricken homeless, the KKK burning crosses and lynching blacks, and Russia-hating capitalists being poisoned by hamburgers (of course, later I learned this part about hamburgers was not a complete lie).

Past weekend Americans voluntarily spent a few million dollars to see a documentary by Michael Moore – Capitalism: the Love Story. But don’t kid yourself, this piece of work is not a documentary, it lacks objectivity and has no intention of seeking the truth, and it is anti-American and anti-capitalist propaganda. Mr. Moore is a talented propagandist; in Soviet Russia this documentary would have gotten him a medal and elevated him into a state hero.

A successful propaganda initiative has to have three elements: (1) to influence attitudes, instead of providing information, (2) to selectively present facts (i.e., lying by omission) to achieve a certain synthesis, and (3) to get an emotional rather than a rational response.

There is little information in this movie. Moore spends the bulk of the film going through our country’s trash and presenting it as the main course. For instance, a corrupt judge sentences innocent teenagers to spend months at a privately owned (i.e., for-profit, nongovernmental) youth-correction facility, while the judge is getting kickbacks from the facility owners. Moore interviews these poor teenagers, and we feel bad for them, as we should. We feel angry. Moore directs this anger towards capitalism (i.e., private enterprise): it is rotten and corrupt. Of course, the fact that corruption and bribery are the rare exception in the US, not the rule (as in Russia), is never mentioned.

Really, if you want to make a successful propaganda movie, you must evoke emotion and rightly or wrongly direct it at your subject of hate – in Moore’s case, capitalism. Moore shows families being evicted from their houses, in which some of them have lived for twenty years, and some of them have kids. Again, we feel bad for these people, we feel their pain, and we want to help. We are angry. That’s what Moore wants. But should we be angry at the bank that has given these people a loan? Or perhaps we should accept the fact that some people will make bad financial decisions, and they’ll pay a price. It is the easiest thing to blame a bank, or capitalism – they are not very popular today.

But let’s do the impossible, let’s humanize a bank. Let’s say you and I and a few friends put our life savings together and start a bank. We take deposits and make loans. Should we “forgive” a loan on a house to a person who overextended, made bad financial choices, or found himself facing hardship and unable to earn his way out of it? If we do enough of this “forgiving” we’ll go bankrupt, our kids won’t go to college, and we’ll need to ask someone else to “forgive” us for the loans on our houses, credit cards, etc. I am not even mentioning our depositors losing their money (and the FDIC – the taxpayer – bailing them out) and our employees losing their jobs.

So the heartless bank – you and I and a few friends – have to make a choice between sacrificing the well-being of our families for the sake of strangers. What would you do? See, this point is too rational and lacks the sensationalism of good propaganda; and thus Mr. Moore, who I am sure thought of it, omitted it.

Moore attacks BofA for not resorting to charity and not extending a loan to a factory in Michigan, even after BofA received TARP money. The same logic I just went through applies to the huge, unpopular BofA. Should BofA have thrown away money in a loan to the factory, knowing that the factory would not be able to repay it? Is this not what got us into the present problem in the first place?

Banks and Wall Street in general played a role in today’s crisis, but they were just one of many responsible players. Consumers in pursuit of keeping up with the Joneses overextended themselves (with the exception of cases of outright fraud, no one was forced to buy a bigger house). Rating agencies were getting paid by the customers they were rating. The Federal Reserve kept rates at very low levels for too long, politicians pressured lending at any cost, regulators were not regulating – and the list goes on. Vilifying banks as the only culprit is intellectually dishonest and a very myopic way to look at this complex problem, and Mr. Moore does just that!

Moore brought a brigade of priests to proclaim: “Capitalism is evil, immoral”; “Jesus doesn’t like the rich”; “the rich will have a hard time getting into heaven.” Two employees from a factory, talking on camera, made a really important point about capitalism. They said something along the lines of, “Maybe we should start a cooperative or something, but no, we cannot; we don’t have the money, we are not capitalists.”

Ayn Rand said it well in Atlas Shrugged: “But you say that money is made by the strong at the expense of the weak? What strength do you mean? It is not the strength of guns or muscles. Wealth is the product of man’s capacity to think. Then is money made by the man who invents a motor at the expense of those who did not invent it? Is money made by the intelligent at the expense of the fools? By the able at the expense of the incompetent? By the ambitious at the expense of the lazy?”

Moore neglects to admit that capitalism has brought people out of poverty and socialism sunk them there. He blames rising health-care costs on HMOs, though HMOs are just a pass-through vehicle between payers and service providers. He accuses capitalism as a system that “allows getting away with paying so little.”

He offers no alternative to our “broken” capitalism system other than let’s have “democracy.” This is laughable, as democracy is not a market system, it is a political system. What he wants is a command-based economy – the Soviet Russia that failed so miserably. He wants Mr. Mouch from Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, a mediocre bureaucrat who failed at everything in his life, to be put in charge of Mr. Moore’s version of a “democratic” economy (still not sure what that means). Mr. Mouch decided how much everyone produced, at what prices goods were sold, and what “fair” wages everyone got paid. In the end, despite sacrifice after sacrifice, Mr. Mouch’s economy collapses. Mr. Mouch’s visible “fair” hand fails to accomplish what the invisible “impartial” hand of the free market accomplishes so effortlessly.

Mr. Moore’s propaganda flick ends with pictures of the aftermath of hurricane Katrina. The images are powerful, full of emotion, and again in his final misdirection Moore manages to blame it on capitalism.

Edison Chen in 1st movie since sex photo scandal

2009-10-07T06:16:00.001-07:00

HONG KONG — Edison Chen will appear in his first movie since his career was derailed by a sex photo scandal more than a year ago.
The 28-year-old Chinese-Canadian actor-singer will feature in the English-language comedy, "Almost Perfect," which stars Kelly Hu, according to the Web site of New York-based production company Slew Pictures.
Slew Pictures founder Bertha Bay-Sa Pan is directing the movie, the story of an Asian woman who juggles the competing needs of her new boyfriend and her immediate family. Pan made the 2002 drama, "Face," starring Bai Ling.
It was not clear when the movie would be released. Slew Pictures' publicists did not immediately respond to an e-mail Monday seeking further details about the movie, and Chen's managers didn't return a call.
Photos that were leaked onto the Internet early last year showed Chen performing sex acts separately with eight female Hong Kong stars. The photos caused an uproar and forced the stars to suspend their careers.
A Hong Kong computer technician was sentenced to 8 1/2 months in jail in May for copying the photos from Chen's laptop.
Chen appeared in the 2002 hit Hong Kong police thriller, "Infernal Affairs," and in the 2006 horror movie, "The Grudge 2." He also had a cameo in the Hollywood blockbuster, "The Dark Knight," released last year.

Teacup pigs

2009-10-07T06:15:00.000-07:00

Teacup pigs really are tea cup sized and you can see in the seven pictures below just how small these adorable little teacup pigs are right next to pumpkins, scales, people, and yes, tea cups!
Here’s three of the mini pigs inside a pumpkin:

The Pennywell miniature pigs are incredibly tiny:

The tea cup pigs are really just that size:

At birth, a teacup pig is about the size of a chipmunk:

Pennywell Farms recommends getting two of the little guys:

Unless of course, three is more your style:

The little miniature pigs love to sleep together, but humans are OK too!

The pocket-sized pigs are a variant of the rare kune kune breed, which are found in New Zealand.
Chris Murray, co-owner of the Pennywell farm near Buckfastleigh, England began cross-breeding them nine years ago and believes he has created the perfect pet pig.
And that’s all the pictures I could find of these miniature teacup pigs.

Bill Bellamy returns this week on Who’s Got Jokes?

2009-10-06T23:08:00.000-07:00

Comedian Bill Bellamy is back on television this week, with the new season of the TV One series Bill Bellamy’s Who’s Got Jokes? The original comedy-competition, starting Oct. 10, series will feature celebrity guest judges each episode including Ray J, Evander Holyfield and comedian George Wallace.
“Season 4 is by far our best effort,” said Bellamy, who serves as the show’s host and executive producer. “Amazing impromptu moments, celebrity judges, and Vegas.”
Each episode’s contest features two rounds. In Round One, comics perform their best three minutes of stand-up to earn the top score from the judges. Round Two features unpredictable challenges to the comics’ improv skills – for example, one segment forces comics to create a three-minute routine on the spot, based on randomly-chosen subjects. The comic who perseveres to win the Who’s Got Jokes? championship is awarded with their own TV One stand-up special.

Sons of Anarchy

2009-10-06T23:06:00.000-07:00

"Smite"
by Zack Handlen October 6, 2009

It's so great to be angry, isn't it? Somebody gets up in your face, starts slagging off, and it's like the fist in your hand forms itself, like the fingers are joined as a conscious entity separate from rational thought, and if you aren't careful, if you aren't really careful, that fist goes to work. Being happy is good, but being angry, feeling that rage all through you, that's being protected; that's not having to worry about feeling guilty or scared or ashamed. When you're mad, you don't have to think anymore. All you have to do is swing, and whatever happens next, well, that's just in some other universe.

Charming has its share of pissed off people, and by the end of "Smite," it doesn't look like anybody will be calming down soon. Gemma's still suffering the effects of her gang rape, and it's not helping that she keeps seeing the creeps who did the deed walking around town. This time it's the woman who tricked her into leaving her car--a young lady named Polly who happens to be Zobelle's daughter. Gemma catches Polly leaving a van in the hospital parking lot, and while she gives chase, she doesn't accomplish anything besides hitting Tara in the face hard enough to bloody Tara's nose. The problem is, Gemma hasn't been thinking clearly since the event, and while it's not her fault that the van Polly leaves behind goes largely unheeded till it blows up at the end of the episode, the fact that she's too distracted by her own vulnerability and fury to pay attention to what's going on means that Zobelle's plan is actually kind of working.

That van explosion was amazing, wasn't it? Beautifully set-up, too; you see Polly futzing with it, it gets a casual mention between Zobelle and Weston, and then it's largely forgotten till a tow truck dumps it off at the Sons' garage. And then it's an agonizing three or four minutes before it blows up. A well-paced, wonderfully subtle piece of suspense, and another part of why this show is just so damn good.

We'll have to wait till next week to see the fall-out from this (and what happens to poor Chibs), but Clay and Jax were already pissed enough as it was, doubtful this will ease tensions. Clay is all for retribution after Otto gets an eye poked out by some of Zobelle's prison buddies, but Jax, as always, wants to take things slow. The lines are getting drawn up through the club, with Opie and Tig still firmly on Clay's side, and Bobby surprisingly siding with Jax. The problem here is a fundamental difference in philosophy, and while it's easiest to see Clay as the wrong-headed one, I'm thinking it's Jax who needs to get his head on straight. Not to come around to Clay's way of thinking, exactly, but to pin down exactly what changes he actually wants for the club, and how expects those changes to come about.

John Teller's thesis gets dragged out again here, first as Jax figures out that Gemma swiped the original, and then as Jax gives it to Tara as proof that she does have a place with the club, and that he does want change. But saying isn't the same as doing. When Tara's boss at the hospital wrongly assumes that Tara's busted nose came from Jax hitting her, it's obviously the boss just making snap assumptions based on the jacket Jax wears. And yet, Clay is halfway cross town shaking Zobelle down for protection money, and while Zobelle deserves some shaking, we're reminded that the Sons get protection money from most of the businesses in Charming. They're thugs, and while they seem like basically decent guys, that doesn't change the fact that a lot of the stuff they pull down isn't just good-natured, thumbing your nose at the law foolishness. If Jax wants to bring the club back into line with his dad's dreams, he's going to have to make some drastic choices, and there's no certainty anyone will stick around to see what happens next.

There were some pleasant surprises tonight, thankfully. Jax and Tara having an honest conversation (half-honest, really, as Tara still hasn't told him what happened to Gemma) was one, and the other was Hale and Unser having a frank discussion that led to Hale finally stepping back from the White Power team-up he'd been contemplating. This was a relief, really. Like Unser says, Halle is supposed to be the good guy; while I can imagine him compromising himself a little, I don't buy that he'd be willing to get into bad with hate-mongers just to get rid of the Sons. This meant Jacob's land scheme petered out abruptly, but it also felt truer to the character.

"Smite" was generally all around excellent. The throw-down on Main Street between SAMCRO and Weston and his boys was appropriately chaotic, with Jax trying to keep the peace right up till the moment when Weston knocks his bike over. I'm curious as to what Zobelle's intentions were with the van-bomb; I doubt it was to seriously damage the club property (or personnel) wise, which means that this might've been just another goad to make the Sons act irrationally, and Jax's need for caution may be well-advised. Zobelle's end-game has yet to come clear. In the final moments before the van exploded, Clay looked heart-broken. He just wants everything to be fine, he tells Gemma, he just wants Jax back in his corner and SAMCRO to be whole again. I don't think he'll be thinking that clearly again for a while. I see a lot of swinging fists in the weeks ahead.

Casilla’s single in the 12th lifts Twins to 6-5 win over Tigers in AL Central tiebreaker

2009-10-06T23:04:00.001-07:00

Casilla’s hit in 12th lifts Twins over Tigers

MINNEAPOLIS — Baseball’s only real pennant race needed an extra game and extra innings to finish off an AL Central thriller that got better with every pitch.

Alexi Casilla singled home the winning run with one out in the 12th and the Minnesota Twins rallied past Detroit 6-5 in their tiebreaker Tuesday night, completing a colossal collapse for the Tigers.

“This is the most unbelievable game I’ve ever played or seen,” Twins shortstop Orlando Cabrera said.

As Carlos Gomez streaked home from second with the winning run — well ahead of a late throw from right field — Homer Hankies spiraled around the Metrodome. The Twins celebrated and scrambled — they had 21 hours to get ready for Game 1 of the AL playoffs at Yankee Stadium against New York ace CC Sabathia.

The Tigers became the first team in major league history to blow a three-game lead with four games left.

“I guess it’s fitting to say there was a loser in this game because we lost the game, but it’s hard for me to believe there as a loser in this game,” Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. “Both teams played their hearts out. You can’t ask for anything more than that.”

The Twins overcame a seven-game gap in the final month, went 17-4 to pull even on the final weekend and won their fifth division title in eight years.

“We just feel like we have nothing to lose, man,” outfielder Denard Span said.

Both team had their chances to end it earlier, and each club scored in the 10th. Casilla was thrown out at the plate to end that inning by left fielder Ryan Raburn after tagging up.

Detroit thought it had taken the lead in the 12th. But with the bases loaded, plate umpire Randy Marsh ruled that Brandon Inge was not hit by a pitch by Bobby Keppel. The replay appeared to show the pitch grazing Inge’s billowing uniform.

It was the first AL tiebreaker to go to extra innings, and made up for Minnesota’s disappointment last October when it lost 1-0 in Chicago to the White Sox in an AL Central tiebreaker.

Had the Twins lost, it would’ve been the final baseball game at the Metrodome. Instead, the Twins get the Yankees — New York was 7-0 against Minnesota this season.

“We’re not afraid. I can guarantee you that,” Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said.

Said Yankees manager Joe Girardi: “We’re not going to have to face questions like ‘Can you beat them?’ like we’ve had to answer during the course of the year. Once the playoffs start though, it’s a new series and we know the importance of each game. You can pretty much throw everything else out the window.”

A day after Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings beat the Green Bay Packers at the Dome — “Monday Night Football” is what delayed this tiebreaker for a day — the Twins pulled off a Tuesday Night Stunner.

Tigers reliever Fernando Rodney (2-5) worked his longest appearance of the season, getting the last two outs of the ninth. He gave up a single to Gomez to start the 12th, and the speedy center fielder — who came in for defense late in the game — moved up on a groundout. He came racing around for the winning run when Casilla’s single made it through the right side of the infield.

The Twins rushed out of the dugout in celebration even before Gomez reached the plate. Their comeback from a huge gap with 20 to play was complete.

Joe Mauer, who heard thunderous “M-V-P!” chants from the largest regular-season baseball crowd in Metrodome history throughout the game, led his team on a sprint around the warning track as they slapped hands with fans in the first rows.

“One of the best games I’ll ever play in,” Mauer said.

The Twins got nipped by the White Sox in Game 163 last year, but this struggle for the division on the last possible day was even more dramatic with all kinds of chances for either team to take it.

There will be no rest for the winners, though: The Yankees predictably picked Wednesday to start their series, with Game 2 scheduled for Friday. Both managers played down the potential disadvantage before the game, but whichever team emerged from this was going to be drained. Gardenhire and Leyland made so many moves for defense and relief that the lineups and pitching staffs were depleted by the end.

Keppel, Minnesota’s eighth pitcher, loaded the bases with one out in the 12th. His first pitch to Inge appeared to brush his jersey, but it was simply called a ball by Marsh. Inge seemed ready to take his base and Leyland came out to discuss the call with Marsh.

Second baseman Nick Punto then scooped Inge’s grounder and fired home in time to get the runner on the force, and Keppel struck out Gerald Laird to squelch that rally.

Twins closer Joe Nathan found trouble in the ninth when consecutive singles put runners at the corners, but he got a strikeout and a line-drive double play to end that threat. The four-time All-Star gave two huge pumps of his right arm as he spun to thank his defense and run to the dugout, preserving the tie.

Inge’s two-out double in the 10th gave the Tigers a 5-4 lead, but Michael Cuddyer sliced a triple past Raburn in left and scored on Matt Tolbert’s bouncing single through the middle in the bottom of the inning.

On the potential winning sacrifice fly, though, Casilla strayed a bit too far from third and was thrown out by Raburn trying to score to end the inning. The split-second Casilla needed to retouch the base might have cost him the run.

He more than made up for that mistake later.

According to sports researcher STATS LLC, only three teams since 1901 have blown a three-game lead in the standings with four games left. The Houston Astros lost three straight games to Los Angeles in 1980, but they recovered to defeat the Dodgers in a tiebreaker game for the NL West. The Milwaukee Brewers lost three in a row to Baltimore in 1982 to force a tie, but they beat the Orioles in the final regular season game to win the AL East.

After splitting four in Detroit last week — a loss in the series finale Thursday would’ve wrapped up the division for the Tigers — the Twins came home for the final scheduled series in the bubble needing a sweep of the Kansas City Royals and did just that.

So with 54,088 fans in attendance, the place was erupting with noise and excitement. The chants for Mauer, who wrapped up his third batting title, were deafening. Leyland even told his players before the game to think of the loudest experience of their life and multiply it by four to anticipate the decibel level for this game. Dome ball came in handy again, on a day when the city was drenched by cold rain.

Rookie starter Rick Porcello pitched well beyond his 20 years for the Tigers, and Miguel Cabrera made up for a miserable weekend — on and off the field — with a two-run homer against Scott Baker in the third inning that made it 3-0. The crowd chanted “al-co-ho-lic” right before Cabrera went deep, a rude reference to the first baseman’s fight with his wife after he came home late and drunk.

The Twins crept back, though, and Orlando Cabrera’s two-run homer in the seventh gave them a brief lead that Magglio Ordonez ended with his leadoff homer in the eighth.

“We were dead and buried a couple times, and our team just kept coming back,” Twins general manager Bill Smith said.

Afghan Chances Lost, U.S. Faces Long Odds

2009-10-06T23:00:00.000-07:00

(CBS) The fall of Kabul in 2001 was greeted with jubilation, the momentum then with the U.S.

But reluctant to commit its own troops, the U.S. allowed Osama bin Laden to escape from the Tora Bora mountains, reports CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Lara Logan.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Then came what many here see as the gravest error of all: Afghans were wary as the U.S. turned its attention to invading Iraq - and they were right. Everything from reconstruction and aid to the fight itself suffered as the U.S. shifted its resources and its focus away from Afghanistan and the commitment it had made to the Afghan people.

Not surprisingly, Afghan support for the war began to fade.

CBS News Special Report: The Road Ahead

Logan asked Afghan President Karzai's main rival Abdullah Abdullah what was lost in Afghanistan with the U.S. focusing on Iraq.

"The greatest opportunity, the best opportunity for the stabilization of Afghanistan," Abdullah said.

That lost opportunity has led the U.S. into a fight that would have been unimaginable eight years ago when the Taliban collapsed in disarray.

Back then valleys in northeastern Afghanistan were peaceful; the U.S., believing their enemy was defeated, put few military assets on the ground.

Another grave mistake.

Now, even the most remote mountains are killing grounds for determined Taliban and al Qaeda fighters - no longer afraid to stand and fight whenever they choose.

Year after year, the U.S. blindly claimed success and failed to adjust its strategy or admit its enemy was getting stronger.

The fighters it faced became proficient in small unit tactics which they learned from studying the U.S.

That can be seen in a Taliban propaganda video, which shows how the Taliban execute an attack on a small U.S. combat outpost.

Loaded with ammunition, Taliban fighters climbed to the highest reaches of the mountains. They began their assault before first light, using the type of overwhelming fire usually used against them by the U.S.

Their commander is so certain of victory that he orders his fighters to open fire on the jets when U.S. air support is called in.

"Taliban stay in your places!" he commands. "If the jet comes down again, shoot the wings!"

With a huge fire raging, the Taliban wait for survivors to stumble out. Twelve Afghan soldiers are captured, three U.S. Marines killed.

The U.S. counter-attacked and three days later the abandoned post was recaptured.

But forcing an American withdrawal was a victory for the Taliban - a sign of how far they have come since the U.S. thought they were defeated.

"Defeat is a very strong word," Col. James Kraft said. "Will you ever defeat an insurgency in total? It's a challenge. I think you've got to get it to a moderate level of chaos, a level that's accepted."

An acceptable level of chaos may not be what the U.S. went to war in Afghanistan hoping to achieve. But it may be how success is measured, if it's enough to stop al Qaeda from threatening the U.S. again.

Notehall Wants To Be The eBay For Lecture Notes

2009-10-06T22:52:00.000-07:00

Notehall

If you’ve been a student before, you know how easy it can be to fall behind if you’ve missed a lecture or two. Notehall has a solution for you, with a smart marketplace that allows you to buy and sell lecture notes and study guides.

Founded by four University of Arizona students DJ Stephan, Sadi Chalfoun, Sean Conway, and Justin Miller, Notehall launched earlier this year with an undisclosed seed round from DreamIt Ventures. Starting with their native University of Arizona and Arizona State, the site has continued to add more coverage as it expands to offering services across the vast network of colleges in the United States.

The system is simple enough. Anyone can sell lecture notes or study guides using Notehall, and they earn 75 cents and $1 per download respectively. Buyers can either earn or purchase credits which can be used to obtain the downloads. Credits can be earned through member referrals, rating notes, or if you’re selling you can opt for credits instead of a cash payout.

Credits are offered in packages, with the most popular package of 300 credits for $6.99 delivering the equivalent of three study guides and 12 lecture notes.

Afghan insurgents pushed into U.S. base, official says

2009-10-06T18:14:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The battle Saturday in which eight U.S. troops were killed was so fierce that, at one point, U.S. forces had to fall back as attackers breached the perimeter of their base, a U.S. military official with knowledge of the latest intelligence reports on the incident said.

Forward Operating Base Keating, seen in 2007, is surrounded by tall ridge lines.

more photos »

The new revelations about the battle that engulfed Forward Operating Base Keating in Kamdesh District are a further indication of how pinned down and outmanned the troops were at the remote outpost. The base, in an eastern Afghanistan valley, was surrounded by ridge lines where the insurgents were able to fire down at U.S. and Afghan troops.
The facility had been scheduled to be closed within days, CNN has learned. The closing is part of a wider effort by the top commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, to cede remote outposts and consolidate troops in more populated areas to better protect Afghan civilians.
The United States now believes that about 200 insurgents -- mostly local fighters, with some Taliban organizers and leaders -- had been planning the attack for days, hiding mortars, rockets and heavy machine guns in the mountains. Sources said the Taliban may have been watching the troops make preparations to depart and launched their attack at a time of vulnerability.
The Taliban were able to use their higher positions to fire into the base, pinning down the troops. As the attack progressed, the troops were forced back when enemy fighters managed to breach the outer perimeter of the outpost, the source said.

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That led to especially intense fighting that continued until the U.S. troops could again secure the area, several sources said.
The battle erupted about 5 a.m. Saturday and lasted 12 hours, with the most intense fighting going on for about seven hours.
The United States was able to get air support overhead within half an hour of the attacked troops' call for help, but a series of problems hindered mounting any sustained counterattack. The source said smoke from a fire lit by the insurgents obscured vision on the ground and in the air, and the narrowness of the valley hobbled any intense close air support.
Instead, Apache helicopters went in waves of two to four, firing at the Taliban fighters. But return fire frequently forced the helicopters back. One Apache was hit.
It took hours to evacuate the dead and wounded. During much of the fight, medical-evacuation helicopters had a hard time getting in because the landing zone was under attack. Even when the helicopters were able to land, some of the wounded resisting leaving while the battle raged.

Eventually, the tide turned for the U.S. and Afghan troops. More than 100 militants were killed, according to NATO's International Security Assistance Force.

Evolutionists Flock To Darwin-Shaped Wall Stain

2009-10-06T18:10:00.000-07:00

Darwinic pilgrims claim the image fills them with an overwhelming feeling of logicDAYTON, TN—A steady stream of devoted evolutionists continued to gather in this small Tennessee town today to witness what many believe is an image of Charles Darwin—author of The Origin Of Species and founder of the modern evolutionary movement—made manifest on a concrete wall in downtown Dayton.

"I brought my baby to touch the wall, so that the power of Darwin can purify her genetic makeup of undesirable inherited traits," said Darlene Freiberg, one among a growing crowd assembled here to see the mysterious stain, which appeared last Monday on one side of the Rhea County Courthouse. The building was also the location of the famed "Scopes Monkey Trial" and is widely considered one of Darwinism's holiest sites. "Forgive me, O Charles, for ever doubting your Divine Evolution. After seeing this miracle of limestone pigmentation with my own eyes, my faith in empirical reasoning will never again be tested."
Added Freiberg, "Behold the power and glory of the scientific method!"
Since witnesses first reported the unexplained marking—which appears to resemble a 19th-century male figure with a high forehead and large beard—this normally quiet town has become a hotbed of biological zealotry. Thousands of pilgrims from as far away as Berkeley's paleoanthropology department have flocked to the site to lay wreaths of flowers, light devotional candles, read aloud from Darwin's works, and otherwise pay homage to the mysterious blue-green stain.
Capitalizing on the influx of empirical believers, street vendors have sprung up across Dayton, selling evolutionary relics and artwork to the thousands of pilgrims waiting to catch a glimpse of the image. Available for sale are everything from small wooden shards alleged to be fragments of the "One True Beagle"—the research vessel on which Darwin made his legendary voyage to the Galapagos Islands—to lecture notes purportedly touched by English evolutionist Alfred Russel Wallace.
"I have never felt closer to Darwin's ideas," said zoologist Fred Granger, who waited in line for 16 hours to view the stain. "May his name be praised and his theories on natural selection echo in all the halls of naturalistic observation forever."
Despite the enthusiasm the so-called "Darwin Smudge" has generated among the evolutionary faithful, disagreement remains as to its origin. Some believe the image is actually closer to the visage of Stephen Jay Gould, longtime columnist for Natural History magazine and originator of the theory of punctuated equilibrium, and is therefore proof of rapid cladogenesis. A smaller minority contend it is the face of Carl Sagan, and should be viewed as a warning to those nonbelievers who have not yet seen his hit PBS series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage.
Still others have attempted to discredit the miracle entirely, claiming that there are several alternate explanations for the appearance of the unexplained discoloration.
"It's a stain on a wall, and nothing more," said the Rev. Clement McCoy, a professor at Oral Roberts University and prominent opponent of evolutionary theory. "Anything else is the delusional fantasy of a fanatical evolutionist mindset that sees only what it wishes to see in the hopes of validating a baseless, illogical belief system. I only hope these heretics see the error of their ways before our Most Powerful God smites them all in His vengeance."
But those who have made the long journey to Dayton remain steadfast in their belief that natural selection—a process by which certain genes are favored over others less conducive to survival—is the one and only creator of life as we know it. This stain, they claim, is the proof they have been waiting for.
"To those who would deny that genetic drift is responsible for a branching evolutionary tree of increasing biodiversity amid changing ecosystems, we say, 'Look upon the face of Darwin!'" said Jeanette Cosgrove, who, along with members of her microbiology class, has maintained a candlelight vigil at the site for the past 72 hours.
"Over millions of successive generations, a specific subvariant of one species of slime mold adapted to this particular concrete wall, in order to one day form this stain, and thus make manifest this vision of Darwin's glorious countenance," Cosgrove said, overcome with emotion.

Politi: Seton Hall Prep product Rick Porcello a kid in the spotlight for Detroit Tigers

2009-10-06T17:16:00.001-07:00

Leon Halip/US PresswireSeton Hall Prep product Rick Porcello will pitch for the Tigers in the 14th one-game playoff in baseball history Tuesday night.
His team is in the midst of a September collapse that would even make the Mets blush.

His next start is in the ear-piercing Metrodome, where 55,000 towel-waving fans will cheer every bad pitch he throws, in a one-game playoff against the Twins’ best pitcher.

Winner faces the Yankees in the division series later this week. Loser has all winter to think about it.

Oh, and did we mention that Rick Porcello, the would-be savior, is 20 years old?

Other than that ...

No pressure.

“Nothing short of surreal,” his older brother Zach was saying Monday. Less than two years ago, Rick was wrapping up a state championship with Seton Hall Prep. Less than seven months ago, he was hoping just to find a spot on the big-league roster in spring training.

Tuesday, he’ll be starting for the Tigers in just the 14th one-game playoff in baseball history, against Twins ace Scott Baker. Zach and his father, Fred, will board a flight this morning to Minneapolis, knowing the kid’s unreal rookie season is about to get a lot more eventful.

“If you said two years ago he’d be starting the 163rd game of the year, a one-game playoff for a division title, I would have laughed,” Zach Porcello said. “But things have happened so quickly.”

His kid brother is even sporting a beard these days, and while the stubble is supposed to make him look older, it somehow has the opposite effect. There is no hiding the truth.

Porcello is just a kid.

“He’s progressed so well as the season has gone on,” his brother said, “everything seems possible.”

In some ways, Rick Porcello should be able to take the mound Tuesday without any expectations. Few believe the Tigers will rebound after the way they’ve gagged away what appeared to be a certain division title, their offense all but disappearing in the final week.

This has been a train wreck, to say the least. The Tigers had a seven-game lead in the AL Central with 26 to play and a three-game lead with just four left, which would be an unprecedented collapse.

Now come reports that Miguel Cabrera, the Tigers’ All-Star first baseman who showed up at the ballpark Saturday with bruises on his face, had a blood-alcohol level three times over the legal limit when he had physical altercation with his wife. Cabrera, according to police in the Detroit suburb where he lives, had been out partying with players from the Chicago White Sox.

Just hearing the details must make Mets fans gets the shakes. Manager Jim Leyland used his ace, Justin Verlander, to stop the bleeding on Sunday. Now he turns to his rookie to get them a title.

“I’m sure he’s pitched in a tough environment,” Leyland said of Porcello after Sunday’s game, “but I doubt that 50 scouts down the right-field line freezing their tails off in New Jersey somewhere is going to be like this.”

So the stakes are a bit higher than they were, say, when Seton Hall was facing Newark East Side for the GNT title. But the Tigers haven’t exactly been babying Porcello all this time, either.

He is 14-9 with a respectable 4.04 ERA this season, the front-runner — if not a shoo-in — for the AL Rookie of the Year. He gave up one run on Sept. 29 against the Twins in 6 1/3 innings, but was left with a no-decision when the Detroit bats again failed to deliver.

Porcello is an example of the right way to handle a pitching prospect. While the Yankees babied and eventually screwed up Joba Chamberlain, the Tigers chose to give Porcello a big break at midseason to protect his innings count and make sure he didn’t overtax his arm.

Not that the team will worry about a pitch count now.

“Throw them out at this point,” Porcello told reporters after throwing 111 of them against the Twins. “We’re out there to win.”

He already has done plenty of that. No pitcher has won more than 14 games before his 21st birthday since Dwight Gooden won 24 as a 20-year-old for the Mets in 1985.

If he keeps this up, big starts like Tuesday’s in the Metrodome will seem routine. But for now, this is new territory. The Tigers will ask Rick Porcello, who still can’t legally buy a drink, to save their season.

Porcello ready for his big moment

2009-10-06T17:08:00.000-07:00

Michael Rosenberg column index

MINNEAPOLIS -- Rick Porcello is 20 years old. Like a lot of 20-year-olds, people often want to ask him for ID. Except in Porcello's case it's because they assume he is older.

When Porcello takes the Metrodome mound in a one-game playoff for the American League Central title today, he will do so with a 20-year-old's dreams and a 40-year-old's disposition. He might be great. He might be lousy. But he will not be nervous.

"To tell you the truth, I don't think 'nervous' is in his vocabulary," Porcello's brother Zach said Monday. "I've seen him jacked up and raring to go, but I don't think I've ever seen him nervous."

OK, sure. That's his brother talking. But Porcello's stats say the same thing. Since Aug. 1, his ERAis 3.19. That is better than Justin Verlander's ERA for the season -- and Verlander has been one of the best pitchers in the AL.

Rookies are not supposed to get better late in their first season -- especially 20-year-old rookies, and especially 20-year-old rookie pitchers. Porcello is supposed to have a dead arm and a spinning head. The league should have figured him out by now. Instead, he has figured out everybody else.

In each of his past two starts -- one against Minnesota a week ago -- Porcello allowed just one run.

"This kid's huge," said Gerald Laird, who was Porcello's catcher last week and probably will be again today. "The kid's real poised out there. He knows what he wants to do. He's learned the league, and he's seen a lot of these guys. This kid's a competitor. The kid's been big all year. It would be a great way to start a career, to win a big game like this."

As you might gather from Laird's words, this kid's a kid. And I know Porcello's age has been talked about a lot, but sometimes I think it has been discussed so much that we are no longer amazed by it. But think about this: Porcello is four months younger than Michigan State redshirt sophomore quarterback Kirk Cousins.

I asked Zach Porcello if his kid brother has any superstitions, and Zach couldn't think of any. But he does have a routine. After every game, Rick talks to Zach, a former college pitcher and now an assistant coach at Seton Hall University.

(2 of 2)

They always talk about how Rick pitched but rarely talk about how he felt. That never really changes. After a game, Rick Porcello can detach himself from the emotions of the moment and analyze his performance.

I asked Zach if he can remember his brother ever losing his temper. He joked that Porcello lost it that night in Boston when Kevin Youkilis charged the mound and Rick threw him to the ground.

It was a funny line. But it isn't really true. Sure, Porcello executed a wrestling-style takedown. But he did it calmly.

Zach and Rick's father, Fred, plan to fly to Minneapolis today with two of Rick's uncles and a family friend.

And what can we expect today? I asked Zach Porcello, Rick's brother, but in keeping with the Porcello family's analytical nature, I got an answer from Zach Porcello, pitching coach.

"I look for the same things that he's shown in all the outings that he's pitched well in," Zach said. "Obviously establishing his fastball -- the sinking two-seam fastball and the four-seam fastball -- are going to be critical. Those are two big factors. But it's going to be a grind game."

A grind game. For Rick Porcello, 20 going on 40, they are all grind games.

Contact MICHAEL ROSENBERG: 313-222-6052 or mrosenberg@freepress.com.
Free Press sports writer Shawn Windsor will live-blog the Tigers-Twins playoff Tuesday afternoon at freep.com/sports. Be sure to stop by to discuss the action or get an update.

They always talk about how Rick pitched but rarely talk about how he felt. That never really changes. After a game, Rick Porcello can detach himself from the emotions of the moment and analyze his performance.

I asked Zach if he can remember his brother ever losing his temper. He joked that Porcello lost it that night in Boston when Kevin Youkilis charged the mound and Rick threw him to the ground.

It was a funny line. But it isn't really true. Sure, Porcello executed a wrestling-style takedown. But he did it calmly.

Zach and Rick's father, Fred, plan to fly to Minneapolis today with two of Rick's uncles and a family friend.

And what can we expect today? I asked Zach Porcello, Rick's brother, but in keeping with the Porcello family's analytical nature, I got an answer from Zach Porcello, pitching coach.

"I look for the same things that he's shown in all the outings that he's pitched well in," Zach said. "Obviously establishing his fastball -- the sinking two-seam fastball and the four-seam fastball -- are going to be critical. Those are two big factors. But it's going to be a grind game."

A grind game. For Rick Porcello, 20 going on 40, they are all grind games.

Contact MICHAEL ROSENBERG: 313-222-6052 or mrosenberg@freepress.com.
Free Press sports writer Shawn Windsor will live-blog the Tigers-Twins playoff Tuesday afternoon at freep.com/sports. Be sure to stop by to discuss the action or get an update.

Behind the Scenes - Living with Childhood Schizophrenia

2009-10-06T16:46:00.000-07:00

Inside the home of the Schofield family
For one week, an Oprah Show associate producer spent every waking moment with Jani Schofield, a 7-year-old battling childhood schizophrenia, and her parents. Now, she shares her personal experiences with this resilient family.
From the moment I met Jani and her family, I was warmly embraced. It didn't take long at all for Jani to take to me. I would be lying if I didn't admit that I was nervous going into this, as I had no idea what to expect. But from the very beginning, I fell in love with this child. Talking to Jani isn't like talking to a 7-year-old. It's like talking to a 37-year-old. She is smart, insightful, observant and has such a great sense of humor.

I met them for the first time on a playground, and the first thing she did was offer me "fried dog food." This is a game Jani plays, pretending to cook with the sand and wood chips she finds outside. She seemed like any other little girl playing on the playground, but within a few minutes, I could see signs of the schizophrenia. Jani started telling me about her rat, Wednesday; her cat, 400; and the world of Calalini, where all her hallucinations lived. I was surprised to see the amount Jani knew and could explain about her illness. She knows she has schizophrenia. She told me she could see things other people couldn't see. Anything I asked Jani about her illness she was able to explain to me in her own words. She explained that she lived somewhere between "our world" and "her world." Through experience, I also learned some of Jani's triggers…things that set her off. The first day I was there, I called her by her full name, January. This is something that apparently she doesn't like. As sweet as she was to me, that was the first time she screamed: "No! Don't call me that. I am Jani!" In an instant, she was a different child. I didn't call her January again for the rest of the week.

I spent a week with Jani and her family and experienced their routine. I would arrive early in the morning as Jani was waking up for school and leave in the evening when Jani went to sleep. We really wanted to get a sense of what it was like for this family around the clock. The family enjoyed having me there, because as I was interviewing them and documenting every move they made, I was also an extra pair of hands to have around and a person to talk to. This summer, Michael and Susan made the decision to split their family of four into two separate apartments so they didn't have to worry about Jani hurting her little brother, Bodhi, in a psychotic moment. It was fascinating to see one family living in two apartments for the safety of their children. It is far from how a typical family lives, but it seemed to work for them. One apartment was structured like the psychiatric hospital for Jani, and the other was just a normal one-bedroom apartment for Bodhi. Michael and Susan split up every night so each child would have one parent, and they rotated nightly.

Every night when I went back to my hotel room, I was extremely exhausted but could not stop thinking about the family because I knew that eventually I would get on a plane and go back to Chicago. It made me sad that I could not be there to help them indefinitely. Because when you are there, even for a short amount of time, you can grasp how chaotic and constant their lives are. Jani constantly has to be engaged to distract her from her hallucinations. So I saw how laborious it is for her parents to constantly keep her engaged. They don't have much time to daydream or focus on anything else in fear that in one unattended moment, Jani could potentially hurt herself or Bodhi. I learned a lot from Michael and Susan. I saw parents who worked hard every day just to keep their kids alive and safe…no matter what it took. After spending a week with them, I couldn't get over how difficult a situation like this is on a marriage. I witnessed some of their good times and some of their bad times, but at the end of the day, I could see love. You could tell that they really respect one another, but more importantly, how much they need each other to make it through the day. In the end, they really lean on one another because only they as parents know what Jani and Bodhi need.

My aha! moment came a few days after I was there, and I saw Jani playing with her 9-year-old friend Becca. Becca has paranoid schizophrenia, and the girls met as roommates in the psychiatric ward. I had goose bumps watching them play. It was amazing to see Jani and Becca running around, giggling and sharing their hallucinations and delusions with the other. I was thankful they had found each other and left wishing there were more children who understood them the way they understood each other.

By the end of the week, I also learned a lot about a mental illness that I had never known anything about prior to this except for the name. I certainly didn't come back to Chicago as an expert on schizophrenia, but I came back with a better understanding of what children with mental illness are living with. From my perspective, I left wanting to bring Jani's story to the surface to raise awareness for her and for all the other children living with mental illness. Now that I know about it, I can say I have more compassion and understanding. Jani's story is out there for a reason, and I believe she is going to make a difference.

Scare Tactics: Third Midseason Premiere Preview

2009-10-06T16:40:00.000-07:00

0 Rock star and 2009 supporting comedy actor Emmy nominee Tracy Morgan is back hosting the fall run of Syfy’s (previously known as the Sci Fi Channel) entertaining reality horror series Scare Tactics.

Tracy Morgan/Scare Tactics

The candid-camera-style show resumes its third season on October 6 at 9pm ET with the premiere episode “Basket Case"

Continue below for a nice sneak peek that proves the series is still up to the same old fun bag of tricks. Even so, it’s hard to believe the unfortunate dupes don’t realize they’re being pranked sooner. Come on now!

Tigers-Twins Live!

2009-10-06T16:37:00.000-07:00

For the second straight year, the AL Central title will come down to game No. 163. The Detroit Tigers and the Minnesota Twins meet at the Metrodome, and ESPN.com will be talking about it live and online as the game is in progress.

Join writers, analysts and others from ESPN.com, "Baseball Tonight" and ESPN Radio as they discuss the game, contribute their observations and even answer a few questions during the live event beginning at 5 p.m. ET. You also can listen to it on ESPN Radio beginning at 4:30 p.m. ET.

Origin of Komodo dragon revealed

2009-10-06T16:29:00.000-07:00

Dragons may come from the land Down Under.

Scientists now find that the world’s largest living lizard species, the Komodo dragon, most likely evolved in Australia and dispersed westward to its current home in Indonesia.

In the past, researchers had suggested the Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis) developed from a smaller ancestor isolated on the Indonesian islands, evolving its large size as a response to lack of competition from other predators or as a specialist hunter of pygmy elephants known as Stegodon.

Daniel Sprawson / ZSL

This young Komodo dragon was born to a virgin mother at the London Zoo in 2005. Scientists now find that the world’s largest living lizard species, the Komodo dragon, most likely evolved in Australia and dispersed westward to its current home in Indonesia.

However, over the past three years, an international team of scientists unearthed numerous fossils from eastern Australia dated from 300,000 years ago to roughly 4 million years ago that they now know belong to the Komodo dragon.

"When we compared these fossils to the bones of present-day Komodo dragons, they were identical," said researcher Scott Hocknull, a vertebrate paleontologist at the Queensland Museum in Australia.

For the last 4 million years, Australia has been home to the world's largest lizards, including the 16-foot-long giant (5 meters) called Megalania, once the world's largest terrestrial lizard but which died out some 40,000 years ago.

"Now we can say Australia was also the birthplace of the three-meter (10 foot) Komodo dragon," Hocknull said.

The researchers said the ancestor of the Komodo dragon most likely evolved in Australia and spread westward, reaching the Indonesian island of Flores by 900,000 years ago. Comparisons between fossils and living Komodo dragons on Flores show that the lizard's body size has remained relatively stable since then.

Further support for this notion of dispersal from Australia comes from the island of Timor, located between Australia and Flores. Three fossil specimens from Timor represent a new, as yet unnamed species of giant monitor lizard, which was larger than the Komodo dragon, although smaller than Megalania. More specimens of this new giant lizard are needed before the species can be formally described.

"There are a lot of things we just simply don't know about this part of the world — Indonesia to Australia," Hocknull told LiveScience. "In recent years this region has thrown up remarkable discoveries — a new species of hominid, the 'Lost World' in New Guinea boasting dozens of new species having never met humans, and now an island chain of giant lizards, including the largest of them all, Megalania from Australia. However, they all went extinct, except the Komodo dragon. The big question now is why? The south-east Asian to Australian region is a hot-spot of new and exciting discoveries."

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Jan. 25: A komodo dragon becomes both mom and dad to five newborns, without help from a male partner. MSNBC.com's Dara Brown has the story.

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All these huge lizards were once common in Australasia for more than 3.8 million years, having evolved alongside large mammalian carnivores, such as Thylacoleo, the so-called 'marsupial lion.' The Komodo dragon is the last of these giants, but within the last 2,000 years, their populations have diminished severely, most likely due to humans, and they are now vulnerable to extinction, living now on just a few isolated islands in eastern Indonesia, between Java and Australia.

"Understanding the past history of a species is absolutely fundamental to determining its potential trajectory in the future, its responses to climate change, habitat change and extinction events," Hocknull said. "The Komodo dragon's fossil record shows that it is a resilient species — resilient to major climatic changes throughout its past, surviving extinction events which wiped out contemporary megafauna species."

One question that now pops up is why the Komodo dragon went extinct on Australia while surviving on a few isolated Indonesian isles. Hocknull noted that climate was an unlikely suspect, as "climate impacts species on islands just as much as a big continent like Australia. In Australia there is plenty of habitat which could be conducive to Komodo dragons. If you released them in Australia today they would probably do quite well."

Were humans involved? "We have no evidence for this because the youngest Komodo fossils in Australia are around 300,000 years old, well before humans arrived. So we don't know whether the Komodo dragons in Australia died out before humans arrived or after. So the jury will remain out on this question until a better fossil record is found."

Hocknull noted these islands of lizards are each, in a sense, individual experiments in evolution that shed light not only on the past of these lizards, but potentially also on the future of the world.

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"It's a perfect place to see how life adapts and evolves in response to major environmental impacts, like sea level change, climatic changes, catastrophes — tsunamis and volcanic eruptions — plus each island has received modern humans at one time or another," he explained. "What were their impacts and how did species cope? This will be our Rosetta Stone when understanding how species will respond to future climate change."

The scientists will detail their findings on Sept. 30 in the journal PLoS ONE.

'Horrorcore' singer suspected in Virginia killings

2009-10-06T16:27:00.000-07:00

(CNN) -- Elizabeth McCutchen and a friend were walking to book club two weeks ago in quaint Farmville, Virginia, when they strolled by a home on First Avenue. "Something smells dead," her friend said.

Richard Samuel McCroskey has been arrested in connection with the killings of four people in Virginia.

1 of 2

They were thinking animal. A dog, a cat, something like that. They never imagined they were smelling the remains of massacred humans. It was Thursday, September 17. But another 24 hours would pass before police made the gruesome discovery.
Richard Samuel McCroskey III -- a 20-year-old rapper in the underground genre of "Horrorcore" who sang of chopping people into pieces -- has been arrested in connection with the slayings. The crime scene was so horrifying police would not even describe it, saying only that the victims died of blunt force trauma.
The victims were Mark Niederbrock, 50, the beloved pastor at Walker's Presbyterian Church; his 16-year-old daughter, Emma Niederbrock; Melanie Wells, Emma's 18-year-old friend from West Virginia; and Niederbrock's estranged wife, Debra Kelley, 53, a professor at Longwood University.
McCroskey has been charged only in the killing of Mark Niederbrock. Police and the prosecutor's office did not return repeated phone calls from CNN. But in late September, authorities said more charges are pending.
Emma was described as a fan of Horrorcore and had met McCroskey through their mutual affection for the little-known music genre. Police said she invited McCroskey to fly from his northern California home, stay with her in Virginia and then attend the Strictly for the Wicked Festival, a Horrorcore fest in Michigan featuring bands with names like Dismembered Fetus and Phrozen Body Boy.
Nobody saw what would come next.

Anderson Cooper 360

The latest on the investigation into the Virginia murders on AC360.
Wednesday, 10pm ET

see full schedule »

The slayings have been the talk of Farmville, a town of 7,000 that is home to Longwood University and nearby Hampden-Sydney College. Senseless is the word you hear most.
It's not just the macabre nature of the killings that has people talking. It's the grotesque lyrics of the Horrorcore singer; it's that it happened under their noses.
McCroskey is a young man with no criminal record who took delight in the blend of horror hip-hop that celebrated macabre killings. He went by the name Syko Sam. In one YouTube video, he holds a hatchet and sings about killing people and putting their remains in black bags: "Last night I was the murderous rage. Now, I gotta get rid of the bodies before the corpses start to get to rotting."

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'Stinkiest rascal I've ever smelled'
Authorities have not specified when the Virginia killings occurred, but at 4 a.m. on Friday, September 18, tow-truck driver Elton Napier was called out to Poor House Road to help McCroskey, whose car was stuck.
Napier said McCroskey was wearing a black-hooded sweatshirt and "was really smelling bad, like real bad. I can't describe it."
McCroskey was driving Mark Niederbrock's Honda. Napier said two sheriff's deputies were at the scene and McCroskey was ticketed for driving without a license. At the time, authorities didn't know the pastor had been slain.
When McCroskey hopped into Napier's flatbed, the tow-truck driver said he started gagging from the odor and immediately rolled down the windows.
"I just held my head out the window so the wind would hit me in the face," he said. "That was the stinkiest rascal I've ever smelled."
Napier drove McCroskey about four miles to a convenience store. McCroskey told Napier he was visiting his girlfriend and her father lent him the car. McCroskey fetched a black bag from the Honda before they parted. Napier went inside to get a cup of coffee.
According to police, McCroskey eventually caught a cab to Richmond International Airport. By mid-afternoon that same day, police found the bodies at the home on First Avenue. McCroskey was arrested the next day at the airport, where he had spent the night.
When he was being led to jail, McCroskey told reporters, "Jesus told me to do it."
Suspect's family, community grieve
Sarah McCroskey of California told CNN-affiliate WWBT that her brother had been looking forward to his visit to Virginia for weeks. She mourned his arrest and struggled with the accusations against him. "I want to hear his voice. I am so concerned, so worried -- not just for him [but] other people, other families involved dealing with this loss," she said. Read WWBT's special coverage
Defense attorney Cary Bowen told CNN, "I don't want to say he's in shock. That's a medical term, but it's a big experience for him. ... I'm not sure he gets the severity of everything right now."
The community is still devastated by the events as it struggles to move forward. Memorial services were held over the weekend for Emma Niederbrock and her mother, Debra Kelley.
The Rev. Sylvia Meadows of Farmville United Methodist Church baptized Emma at age 5 and her father when he was an adult. The pastor said the church has invited an occult specialist to speak with members of the community to help them come to grips with the dark side of humanity.
"We have looked evil in the face and cannot deny that it exists," Meadows said. "God is stronger than evil. God is bigger."
Luther Glenn, a member of Walker's Presbyterian Church where Niederbrock was pastor, took issue with McCroskey's comment about Jesus telling him to act. "I think it's deeply rooted in Satan, if you want to know the truth."
Elizabeth McCutchen, who passed the First Avenue home some time after the slayings, said the killings have affected every fabric of the community: the churches, the colleges, and their youth.
"This is the kind of town that goes to the rescue of survivors, but there's nobody [left] -- we can't do anything about it," she said.

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