Insipid Applications Of The Scattered Ww2 Colonel

$1.5M bail for alleged NATO terrorists

3 charged in NATO domestic terror plot

Defense says 3 suspects are Occupy protesters, but police say they’re “Black Bloc” anarchists
Three suspects allegedly stockpiled Molotov cocktails and planned attacks on police
Defense team calls the allegations “propaganda” and says police infiltrated a peaceful group
Judge sets bails for each of the three suspects at $1.5 million

Chicago (CNN) — Three men charged with conspiring to commit domestic terrorism during the NATO summit were plotting to attack President Obama’s Chicago campaign headquarters, the Chicago mayor’s home and police stations, authorities said Saturday.

A police investigation that began early this month revealed that the three suspects are “self-proclaimed anarchists” and members of the “Black Bloc” group who traveled together from Florida to Chicago to commit violence as a protest against the NATO summit, authorities said in a statement.

Diplomatic marathon: G8 focusing on Greece; NATO, on Afghanistan

“Black Bloc” was the group blamed for violence that occurred in recent “Occupy” protests, such as in Rome last year when anarchists in ski masks torched cars and clashed with police and even other Occupy protesters.

The three men were planning to destroy police cars and attack four Chicago police district stations with destructive devices as a way to undermine police response to other planned actions at the NATO summit, according to a statement by Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez and Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy. Downtown Chicago financial institutions were also among the proposed targets, authorities said.

An Illinois judge set bail at $1.5 million for each of the three suspects: Brian Church, 22, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Jared Chase, 27, of Keene, New Hampshire; and Brent Betterly, 24, who told police he resides in Massachusetts, authorities said.

A police officer and a protester face off with cameras in Chicago during a demostration organized by National Nurses United on Friday, May 18. Friday was the fifth day of protests in what is expected to be a full week of demonstrations leading up to the NATO Summit scheduled for May 20-21.

Officers form a line to prevent protesters from crossing the Michigan Avenue Bridge during protests on Friday.

Protesters make their way through downtown Chicago in an impromptu demonstration.

Police clash with protesters attempting to cross the Michigan Avenue Bridge in Chicago.

Chicago police watch over protesters during demonstrations organized by National Nurses United in Daley Plaza in Chicago.

An Occupy Wall Street protester in Chicago covers himself with an American flag after a march through downtown Chicago on Friday.

A souvenir shop window reflects protesters in Chicago on Thursday as they demand an end to NATO violence ahead of the summit.

Police guard President Barack Obama’s national campaign headquarters in the Prudential Building in Chicago during protests on Monday, May 14.

Photos: Protests preceeding 2012 NATO Summit

The three men were charged with material support for terrorism, conspiracy to commit terrorism, and possession of explosives or incendiary devices, authorities said. The three men were arrested Wednesday, and charges were announced Saturday, according to authorities.

“The individuals that we have charged in this investigation are not peaceful protesters. They are domestic terrorists who came to Chicago with an anarchist agenda to harm our police officers, intimidate our citizens and to attack their politically motivated targets,” said Alvarez.

According to authorities, Church said he wanted to recruit four groups of four co-conspirators — or 16 people — and that reconnaissance had already been done on the Chicago Police Department headquarters.

The three men also possessed or built improvised exposive or incendiary devices, a mortar gun, swords, a hunting bow, throwing stars, and knives with brass-knuckle handles, authorities said.

In court, prosecutors accused the three men of preparing for “violence and destruction,” such as stockpiling Molotov cocktails.

But a defense attorney called those accusations “propaganda” and contended authorities “infiltrated” a peaceful group and set up the three men.

The three defendants stood expressionless in court, each handcuffed behind the back.

A couple dozen of their supporters in the courtroom could be heard faintly scoffing at prosecutor Matthew Thrun as he called the defendants “self-proclaimed anarchists … making preparations for violence and destruction.”

Thrun said one of the defendants could be heard planning an attack and quoted him as saying, “this city does not know what it is in for, and it will never be the same.”

According to Thrun, the defendants bought gasoline at a BP station, cut bandanas for fuses, and had four empty beer bottles to be used as Molotov cocktails.

Thrun told the court that Church made a remark while assembling the Molotov cocktails: “Ever seen a cop on fire?”

Defense attorney Michael Deutsch accused authorities of “police misconduct,” saying undercover agents infiltrated a “peaceful” group.

“They even bought the makings of Molotov cocktails and gave it to them,” Deutsch said in court.

Outside of court, he called the case a set-up and an example of “entrapment to the highest degree.”

“It is sensationalism by the police and the state to discredit the protesters that have come here to nonviolently protest,” the attorney said.

The National Lawyers Guild, which says it’s representing the three defendants, said Chicago police arrested a total of nine activists Wednesday at a house in Chicago’s Bridgeport neighborhood and then released six of them.

The guild described the three defendants as “Occupy activists” and said police provided no evidence of criminal intent or wrongdoing.

“It’s outrageous for the city to apply terrorism charges when it’s the police who have been terrorizing activists and threatening their right to protest,” attorney Sarah Gelsomino with the lawyers guild and the People’s Law Office, said in a statement.

Judge Edward Harmening set the three defendants’ next court date for Tuesday.

On Sunday, NATO kicks off its two-day summit in Chicago, and the war in Afghanistan is expected to dominate discussions. Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani President Asif Zardari are both expected to attend the meeting.

A user’s guide to the NATO summit

NATO leaders are currently on a timetable to withdraw all of the alliance’s combat troops from Afghanistan in 2014.

CNN’s Paul Vercammen reported from Chicago and Michael Martinez from Los Angeles.

tech news hot edition general edition xpress edition world

May 20, 2012 – 11:01 pm Categories: Uncategorized | Post a comment

French firms envy German conditions

Two towns either side of the French-German border have contrasting economic fortunes
French Selestat has 7.4% unemployment, compared with 2.8% in German Emmendingen
French businesses say they envy the lower tax and labor costs across the border
They fear the burden on French business will increase after the forthcoming election

(CNN) — Emmindingen is a small town in southwest Germany, with about 26,000 people and an enviable unemployment rate of just 2.8% .

But barely 20 miles away, across the French border, the picture is very different. The Alsatian town of Selestat has a similar industrial base, but an unemployment rate of 7.4%. Among young people, the contrast is even starker, with 23% of under-25s unemployed in the French town, compared to 1.8% in Emmendingen.

The differing fortunes of these neighboring border towns illustrate the complaints of many French businesses, as their country heads towards a presidential election.

Anne Leitzgen is the president of SALM Kitchens, a family-run business which has operated since the 1930s, and has one of the largest worktop production lines in Europe.

We are afraid money will be taken from our companies, and afraid that taxes will increase a lot
Anne Leitzgen, president of French kitchen manufacturers SALM

Despite a commitment to invest in Selestat, she worries about the increased costs of running a firm in France, saying taxes are higher, labor is twice as expensive, and workers’ benefits are double those paid in Germany.

Leitzgen says she is concerned the next French government will tax companies like hers out of business. “We are afraid money will be taken from our companies, and afraid that taxes will increase a lot and the situation will become bad for companies our size ,” she says.

Further, she says, the “relationship between the unions is more constructive and easier in Germany.”

Across the border is the workplace of Emmanuel Foyer, a Frenchman who lives in his homeland but commutes to work in Emmendingen. Foyer, the sales manager for plastics industry solutions provider Braunform, believes a German focus on the long-term is behind the current success.

“In Germany, for sure, we are thinking of the long-term. In a company like this, [there's a] huge focus on training and the future of our employees,” he says. “The approach in Germany to keep workers in times of low-load level means we were ready when the economy restarted.”

I sincerely hope that jobs reforms will be put in place immediately
Marcel Bauer, mayor of Selestat, France

The trade-off for German workers is less job security, no national, fixed minimum wage, and less extensive social protections for the unemployed.

But the mayor of Selestat, Marcel Bauer, says it is time for France to make these changes to regain its economic competitiveness.

“As soon as the next president is in office — be it the one we’ve got or a new one — I sincerely hope that jobs reforms will be put in place immediately,” he says. “The system needs to be more flexible. There is a lot that must change, starting with the mindset of employers and employees.”

football football latest latest football golf golf latest

May 20, 2012 – 9:01 pm Categories: Uncategorized | Post a comment

Insight: S. Africa’s first black dean

South Africa’s outspoken educator

Professor Jonathan Jansen is one of South Africa’s top academics
He is the rector of the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein
Jansen is passionate about teaching his moral code: reconciliation over retribution
He is also an author, columnist and the president of the South African Institute of Race Relations

Editor’s note: African Voices is a weekly show that highlights Africa’s most engaging personalities, exploring the lives and passions of people who rarely open themselves up to the camera.

Bloemfontein, South Africa (CNN) — It’s graduation day and professor Jonathan Jansen strolls around the campus of the University of the Free State. Every now and then he stops to greet his gown-clad students, standing out amid a crowd of beaming parents and proudly grinning teachers.

As rector of the formerly all-white educational institution in Bloemfontein, South Africa, Jansen is about to use his graduation ceremony speech to teach his students one last lesson.

“I urge you, in a country where there’s still a lot of rage, never respond by rage, respond through reason and you will have gotten not just a degree, but an education,” says Jansen, looking into the eyes of his students.

Jansen, the first black dean of education at the University of the Free State, is one of South Africa’s leading academics and intellectuals.

Throughout his long and esteemed educational career, which has taken him from teaching biology in high school classrooms to leading one of South Africa’s premier learning institutions, Jansen has been doing everything he can to keep education uppermost in the minds of his students.

“The way out of poverty is through learning and those basic values I have carried with me throughout my leadership,” says Jansen, who is not only an academic but has a wider audience as author, newspaper columnist and the president of the South African Institute of Race Relations.

Teaching ‘reconciliation over retribution’

The son of a preacher, Jansen was born in Cape Flats, a violent, gang-infested area on the fringes of Cape Town. Life was tough for the future educator, coming of age in a country plagued by apartheid — he says that growing up as a black boy in Cape Flats, there was a “greater chance” of going to prison than going to university.

Recognizing South Africa’s students

But despite the disadvantages of his surroundings, Jansen believes he thrived, thanks largely to the example set by his parents — he described them as “Old Testament figures — my father being Abraham, my mother being Sarah.”

“Here you had parents that raised you in a bubble of decency, of this is what you do and don’t do, this is the direction out of poverty,” he says.

Even though his parents’ families were both materially dispossessed under Apartheid, Jansen says his father and mother raised their children with a strong sense of not being bitter, of being generous to those who are poor and of living a life “without respect for color.”

“That helped us enormously,” he says, “so as I looked outside I could see people killing each other, I witnessed the rape of women, I saw horrible things happening around me, but it was as if it did not happen because in this bubble that Abraham and Sarah raised us, there was an understanding of yourself that was unshakeable — central to that was education.”

Passionate about the transformative power of knowledge, Jansen holds strong opinions about the state of education in South Africa.

He argues that years of maladministration left the country with a failing state education system. He is also regularly heard lambasting the country’s low teaching standards, which allow students in some cases to pass exams with as little as 30%.

The way out of poverty is through learning and those basic values have carried with me throughout my leadership.
Professor Jonathan Jansen

“It’s odd for me because it’s like we don’t get it that in a modern interconnected economy you better be up there playing with the best,” he says. “I take this to be another symptom of how we’ve succumbed to the apartheid message that we can’t, that we’re inferior, that we need to beg for participation and that does much more damage than any politician can imagine.”

A firm believer of the society’s responsibility to insist on a qualitative education system, Jansen, a Fulbright scholar, assumed his current role at the University of the Free State in 2009 after the institution faced controversy over racism and racial integration.

In 2008, a video surfaced of four white students at the university urging at least five black housekeepers to eat what appeared to be urine-tainted beef stew. The incident sparked national outcry and shed light over South Africa’s racial integration problems.

Citing reconciliation “on a deeply divided campus,” Jansen decided to invite the students to return to the university and resume their studies, regardless of their legal consequences.

“We decided … to offer to the boys an institutional message of forgiveness and acceptance, that they could come back in and participate in a process of reconciliation with the people that they had hurt.”

The students were fined after pleading guilty to deliberately injuring another person’s dignity, but they rebuffed Jansen’s invitation to return to the university.

Jansen was roundly criticized for that gesture, which only served to contribute to his reputation for being outspoken.

“If in the process of forgiving and reconciling, we enable other transformations to take place, which is exactly what happened, then that is a better way to go than the thirst — the understandable thirst let me say — for vengeance,” he says.

Back at the graduation ceremony, Jansen’s moral code of reconciliation over retribution returns once again.

“I don’t care what else you’ve learned at the University of the Free State,” he tells the graduates, “but you know this is a university that in the world is regarded as a place that chooses reconciliation over revenge, that chooses compassion over striking back, that chooses mercy over retaliation.”

golf latest latest golf golf topic motorsport motorsport news

May 20, 2012 – 5:01 pm Categories: Uncategorized | Post a comment

Why I won’t be quitting Facebook

Omar Gallaga says Facebook, despite its flaws, remains the easiest way for him to connect with friends and family.

Omar Gallaga: Facebook is where I get important glimpses into 1,365 “friends”
Everything I post to Twitter or Google+ also ends up on Facebook, Gallaga says
If something ever surpasses Facebook, it may be a mobile app, Gallaga says

Editor’s note: Omar L. Gallaga is a tech-culture reporter for the Austin American-Statesman and a technology contributor to CNN.com, NPR and Kirkus Reviews.

(CNN) — Flush with cash and drunk with power after its $100 billion IPO, Facebook could be caught secretly brainwashing millions of new users into signing up (mind-control hoodies, anyone?) — and still I might not quit the world’s largest social network.

Ridiculous scenario aside, I’m pretty serious. Despite ongoing privacy concerns and rumblings of a backlash, it would take something drastic to make me leave Facebook at this point.

More than just a daily habit, Facebook has become the place where I get important, often surprising glimpses into the lives of the 1,365 people with whom I’ve chosen to connect. (That’s not counting friends-of-friends, for Facebook’s tentacles are ever-extended).

I’m not always in love with Facebook, of course. I get frustrated with the social network like everyone else. Every six months, Facebook introduces some huge new design of its site or engages in privacy-eroding practices that send many of its users howling into the status-update box.

They threaten to shut down their accounts, write furious blog posts and organize ridiculous movements such as Quit Facebook Day, which got less than 40,000 people to commit to deleting themselves — a tiny fraction of the network even back in 2010.

But, in large part, the people who say they’re leaving Facebook don’t. Or they quit and come back.

Me, I’m staying put. At this point, complaining about Facebook is like grousing about the electric company while watching TV, or saying how lousy politicians are but forgetting to vote. Facebook just is. It’s become an institution — one that’s going to be around for a long while — and all the missteps it’s made in its young, eight-year life have never prompted significant user defection.

Facebook is on track to hit a billion users sometime this year. A billion people. With just a few exceptions, that includes nearly every person I have ever worked with, a big chunk of my extended family, most of my friends going all the way back to elementary school and probably all the kids who were in my nursery at the hospital where I was born.

There’s critical mass, and then there’s Facebook, the Death Star that deflects every effort to blow it up. Facebook has won the social-media wars because it’s where all the people are. Those who have been waiting for something else to take its place, the way Facebook siphoned off the population of MySpace about five years ago, are still waiting. MySpace, even at its peak, never had the mainstream acceptance and durability of Facebook.

Facebook’s rise to the top

I post lots of random thoughts and news links on Twitter, share photos of my wanderings on Instagram and still check in on the increasingly hollow Google+ on a daily basis. But everything I post to those services also ends up on Facebook because it’s the platform that feels the most robust and future-proof.

Since Facebook introduced its controversial Timeline design last year, my important personal milestones (college graduation, marriage, the births of my daughters, the “Friday Night Lights” finale) all have neatly filed themselves into the digital record of my life.

That’s what Facebook wants, of course. But I’ve come to stop resisting its voracious appetite for personal information.

If I didn’t share, and my friends and relatives and co-workers didn’t share, I’d be less apt to know who just got engaged, who just celebrated a graduation or who in my online community just died suddenly. When my grandmother died earlier this year, it was the place my relatives posted photos of her I’d never seen before. It was where far-flung friends and family members offered their condolences for weeks after the funeral service.

Sure, we’ve seen the inevitable backlash as Facebook has grown to include everyone from your grandmother to that third-grade classmate you never really wanted to hear from again. But lately, it feels like the arguments in favor of leaving Mark Zuckerberg’s social network have gotten weaker as people become more resigned to the notion of a permanent Facebook.

When Facebook recently bought photo-sharing app Instagram for $1 billion, Instagram users vowed to quit, complaining that their precious little network had sold out to a monolithic company. (Funny, that didn’t stop Instagram from jumping from 30 million users to 50 million in about a month.)

Would-be competitors who have tried to take on Facebook have largely failed to gain traction. Path, which has a lovely interface and is more focused on smaller circles of friends, just hit 2 million users a few months ago. And Diaspora, the open-source, nonprofit that was supposed to threaten Facebook’s laissez-faire attitude toward privacy, has yet to crack half a million users.

Once Facebook has shareholders to answer to, things may change. But perhaps not as much as you’d expect. At a South by Southwest Interactive event in 2008, I saw Zuckerberg speak about his company to application developers. Even then, he stressed that the future of Facebook was not as a website or tool, but as a global communication platform upon which other things would be built. It’s been amazing to observe how little he’s veered from that vision during four years of astronomical growth.

If something is ever going to take the place of Facebook once the company gets so big and complacent that it loses focus, it will probably be something built on top of Facebook. Perhaps a mobile app that accesses the social network’s huge population, something Facebook-adjacent that takes what people like about Facebook and turns it into something more nimble and attractive than Facebook itself.

Maybe then I’ll think about pulling up stakes. Until then, I’m not leaving.

technology news technology updates space space travel space happenings

May 20, 2012 – 3:01 pm Categories: Uncategorized | Post a comment

Latest Formula One standings

Sebastian Vettel stays ahead of Fernando Alonso on count back

Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso are tied on points
Vettel stays ahead on count back
Lewis Hamilton is just eight points behind Vettel and Alonso
Pastor Maldonado moves into top 10 after first Formula One win

(CNN) — Two-time world champion Sebastian Vettel remains top of the 2012 standings after finishing sixth in the Spanish Grand Prix.

Red Bull’s Vettel is tied on points with Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, who finished second in Spain, but the German driver stays ahead on count back.

The Spanish GP was won by Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado, who was the fifth different winner in five races of a topsy-turvy season.

Maldonado’s win brought him 25 points pushing him up to ninth in the standings.

Britain’s Lewis Hamilton, who finished in eighth after a gutsy drive, is third in the standings, just eight points behind Vettel and Alonso.

2012 Drivers’ standings after fifth round in Spain:

1. Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull 61 points

2. Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari 61

3. Lewis Hamilton (GB) McLaren 53

4. Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Lotus 49

5. Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull 48

6. Jenson Button (GB) McLaren 45

7. Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes 41

8. Romain Grosjean (Swi) Lotus 35

9. Pastor Maldonado (Ven) Williams 29

10. Sergio Perez (Mex) Sauber 22

Latest constructors’ standings:

1. Red Bull 109 points

2. McLaren 98

3. Lotus 84

4. Ferrari 63

5. Mercedes 43

6. Williams 43

planet africa news africa buzz africa americas news

May 20, 2012 – 1:01 pm Categories: Uncategorized | Post a comment

Book festival gets in to Gaza

.cnn_html_media_utility::before{color:red;content:’>>’;font-size:9px;line-height:12px;padding-right:1px} .cnnstrylccimg640{margin:0 27px 14px 0} .captionText{filter:alpha(opacity=100);opacity:1} .cnn_html_slideshow_media_caption a,.cnn_html_slideshow_media_caption a:visited,.cnn_html_slideshow_media_caption a:link,.captionText a,.captionText a:visited,.captiontext a:link{color:#004276;outline:medium none} .cnnVerticalGalleryPhoto{margin:0 auto;padding-right:68px;width:270px} ]]>

A group of 37 writers and artists spent five days in Gaza holding free public events, a concert and workshops for university students. Here some of the group visit the Beit Hanoun Crossing with Israel.

PalFest collected more than 1,500 books — including copies of an anthology of extracts from works by festival participants — which were distributed to cultural centers and university libraries.

None of the 37 writers and artists had previously been to Gaza. They traveled all around the territory, including to Old Gaza.

PalFest is a traveling festival that visits Palestinian communities
The group entered Gaza for the first time after four years visiting Jerusalem and the West Bank
The 37 writers and artists received permission from Egypt to enter Gaza through the Rafah crossing

Editor’s note: Each month, Inside the Middle East takes you behind the headlines to see a different side of this diverse region.

(CNN) — After five years of trying, an international group of authors have achieved their aim of taking their Palestine Festival of Literature to Gaza for the first time.

The annual traveling festival, known as PalFest, was set up in 2008 to bring book readings and cultural events to Palestinians who otherwise had little access to the outside world.

Each year the literary festival has visited several cities in the West Bank, but has been unable to gain permission from Israel to visit Gaza.

Israel imposed an economic blockade of Gaza when Hamas took over in 2007, which it says is needed to stop the transit of weaponry to be used by militants in attacks on Israel

This year, the group of 37 writers, artists and community organizers applied instead to enter Gaza from Egypt through the Rafah crossing, which re-opened last year. After a two-week wait, they were granted permission from the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to enter Gaza.

Also on Inside the Middle East: Gaza music students find smart ways around travel ban

We didn’t know if we would get in until the very last minute
Jamal Mahjoub

“We didn’t know if we would get in until the very last minute,” said Jamal Mahjoub, a British Sudanese author who traveled with PalFest. “We didn’t know if we would manage until we actually crossed the border.”

The group included Palestinians living in Jerusalem, West Bank and around the world, and prominent Arab authors including Egyptians Ahdaf Soueif and Khaled al Khamissi. None of them had been to Gaza before.

They spent five days in Gaza from May 5-9, running workshops for university students, free public events and visiting refugee camps.

Also on Inside the Middle East: Iraqi artist inspired by George W Bush shoe thrower

The 10-piece Egyptian band Eskenderella, which became well-known for playing in Tahrir Square during the Egyptian revolution, played its first concert in Gaza to a packed hall.

Omar Robert Hamilton, an independent filmmaker and founder of PalFest, said: “Coming to Gaza was a necessity. We have tried every year but always failed before. Everything was incomplete until we came.

“It was vital to come here because of the fact that it’s so divided and considered a separate entity, but at the same time totally connected to the West Bank.”

In total around 2,000 Gazans attended the PalFest events. In one event, each author had 10 minutes to give the message they had always wanted to say to Gazans.

Hamilton added: “It’s been pretty overwhelming. Everyone is so welcoming and pleased that we have managed to get there.

“They are very frustrated by the lack of access to the outside world. It’s been a very emotional trip, but overwhelmingly positive.

We began PalFest as an attempt to help connect Palestine with the rest of the world.
Omar Robert Hamilton

“We began PalFest as an attempt to help connect Palestine with the rest of the world. Lack of access to art, culture and education is a form of restriction.

“We wanted to do what we could to support cultural life in Palestine, and to put on a festival that would be taken for granted anywhere else.”

PalFest collected more than 1,500 books — including copies of an anthology of extracts from works by festival participants — which were distributed to cultural centers and university libraries.

Also on Inside the Middle East: Unspoiled island sanctuary caught on camera

Mahjoub said: “There was a real thirst for any books they could get their hands on: poetry, contemporary novels, books about history and politics. It’s hard for people and institutions to get enough books and resources.

“They are hungry for any kind of cultural life, as there are no cinemas and few concerts.”

He added: “The most important thing has been meeting people and talking on a cultural level, to hear about their experiences and their isolation.

“We have driven up and down the country and have tried to get as broad a picture as possible of what it’s like to live here. I didn’t come to lecture people about my literature, but to find out what their experiences are.”

PalFest organizers said that on Wednesday evening the closing event was shut down by the police, but added that police later apologized for the incident, saying it was an “individual error.”

PalFest is supported by organizations including the UK Arts Council and the British Council. Its patrons including Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe, British author Philip Pullman and British actor Emma Thompson.

This year’s festival also included one event in Ramallah in the West Bank and one in Cairo, Egypt, on May 11.

scitech news scitech updates health health breakthrough health headlines

May 20, 2012 – 11:01 am Categories: Uncategorized | Post a comment

Kristen Wiig bids farewell to ‘SNL’ in emotional sendoff

NEW YORK ? Kristen Wiig got a musical sendoff on the season finale of “Saturday Night Live” as the popular and versatile cast member made her exit after seven years.

In the show’s final sketch, guest host Mick Jagger played the principal at a high school graduation and brought up Wiig, in cap and gown, as “one particular student who is leaving this summer.”

She danced in turn with Jagger, cast members and executive producer Lorne Michaels to the tune of the Rolling Stones classic “She’s a Rainbow.” Then the ensemble sang another Stones hit, “Ruby Tuesday,” with its line, “still I’m gonna miss you.”

Wiig appeared to be holding back tears.

Though NBC had made no prior announcement of her departure, it comes as no surprise. She starred in and co-wrote the hit comedy “Bridesmaids,” and even before that had notable roles in “Friends With Kids,” “Paul,” “Adventureland” and “Knocked Up,” among other films. She has six more in various stages of development.

Wiig’s almost limitless range of characters on “SNL” has included neurotic attention-seeker Penelope; Kat, half of the musical duo Garth and Kat (alongside Fred Armisen); and such real-life notables as Bjork, Kathie Lee Gifford and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

Andy Samberg and Jason Sudeikis have also been reported to be leaving “SNL,” though Michaels recently said any decision on cast changes will wait until the summer.

meast latest us news us hottest us happenings technology

May 20, 2012 – 9:01 am Categories: Uncategorized | Post a comment

Jackie Chan punches his way out of action movies, says he’s giving up fighting on screen

Cannes, France ? Jackie Chan is landing his last punch as an action star, but says he is stepping into retirement having made one of the most important films of his career.

The Hong Kong actor told the AP on Friday that his latest film “Chinese Zodiac” will be his last action movie.

Chan, launching the movie at the Cannes Film Festival with co-stars Kwone Sang Woo, Yao Xingtong and Liao Fan, said that people don’t believe him when he says he is going to retire.

“They say ‘no, you’re still young, you can still do it,’ but I have to stop one day.”

The 58-year-old says he is bowing out with “Chinese Zodiac” ? in which he plays a fortune hunter, travelling the world trying to track down missing astrological antiques ? because it is one of the “most important” films in his career.

Chan says he spent seven years working on the movie ? writing, producing, directing and coordinating fight scenes.

“For the last ten years I’ve been choosing the director to direct me. This one I direct myself.” he said. “I hope this movie, 20 years later, people still remember it. For me, for the audience, for my future, for my history ? it’s very important.”

Chan says “Chinese Zodiac,” and the many films before it, have taken their toll on his body.

“It hurts, it really hurts,” he says, flinching. “The shoulder, the ankle, it really hurts. You don’t know because I still look healthy.”

Not that he plans on putting his feet up ? Chan shrugs off suggestions of taking up gardening, cooking or bowling in his spare time. He wants to work on his acting muscles instead.

“When I look at Hollywood, at Robert De Niro, he can do anything ? comedy, drama,” he says.

“Clint Eastwood ? 60-70 years old, he can still move. I said yes, that’s my goal. Because action stars’ life is so short. Actor’s life is very long. I want to show audiences I can act.”

most view most talkabout national interest national national news

May 20, 2012 – 5:01 am Categories: Uncategorized | Post a comment

Finding justice for Haiti’s rape victims

CNN Hero: Malya Villard-Appolon

Rapes in Haiti increased after the January 2010 earthquake, experts say

CNN Hero Malya Villard-Appolon and her group are reaching out to help victims

Villard-Appolon says rape is underreported in Haiti and rarely prosecuted

Do you know a hero? Nominations are open for 2012 CNN Heroes

Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) — Three days after a massive earthquake threw Haiti into chaos, Alvana was homeless, along with her two children.

But her nightmare was just beginning.

“I was gang-raped while I was sleeping in the middle of the street,” she said. “And I got pregnant.”

Alvana did not know her attackers. Depressed and unsure of what to do next, she was directed by a friend to a clinic run by KOFAVIV, a Creole acronym that translates into the Commission of Women Victims for Victims.

“By the time I got to them, my belly was already big,” she said. “But they took care of me.”

Alvana was given food, water, housing and prenatal care. She decided to keep her daughter, even though the psychological pain could be difficult — and still is, two years later.

“It’s terrible,” said Alvana, 33. “I love my daughter … (but) I look at myself and see that I have a child that is a product of a gang rape.”

$Malya Villard-Appolon, right, knows what it\'s like to be a victim of sexual violence. She has been raped twice.$

Malya Villard-Appolon, right, knows what it’s like to be a victim of sexual violence. She has been raped twice.

Her story is, unfortunately, all too common in Haiti, said Malya Villard-Appolon, one of KOFAVIV’s co-founders.

“After (the earthquake), the situation was inhumane and degrading,” Villard-Appolon said. “There was no security in the (displacement) camps. There was no food; there was no work. And now there is a rampant problem.”

Accurate numbers are difficult, if not impossible, to find in the aftermath of such devastation, but KOFAVIV and other groups say they have seen a definite increase in rape cases after the January 2010 earthquake.

“Victims became more vulnerable due to a range of things,” said Brian Concannon Jr., director of the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti. “They lost their houses; there were no locked doors anymore. People lost family members who were a source of protection.”

Terrible living conditions, including a shortage of food and water, contribute to the problem as well, said Charity Tooze, a senior communications officer with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ Washington office.

Culture of rape in Haiti

“The conditions are so dehumanizing,” Tooze said. “Over months and months, it increases all forms of violence, including sexual violence.”

There has also been a lack of prosecution in the country. In the first two years after the quake, not one person in Haiti has been convicted of rape, according to the UNHCR.

“The big problem is, you can’t find justice,” said Villard-Appolon, 52.

Even before the quake, she says, rape was an issue in Haiti, historically underreported because of social stigma, retaliation from perpetrators and a lack of legal support. That is what led her and Marie Eramithe Delva to start KOFAVIV in 2004. Since the group’s inception, it has helped more than 4,000 rape survivors find safety, psychological support and/or legal aid.

“We tell people to come out of silence,” she said. “Do not be afraid to say that you have been victimized.”

Villard-Appolon knows what it’s like to be a victim of sexual violence. She has been raped twice, and her husband died as a result of beatings he endured trying to save her from being raped. In 2010, her 14-year-old daughter was raped in a displacement camp.

“I can’t describe to you how I felt when I heard about that, because I was a victim,” she said. “I started asking myself what kind of generation I came from. Am I cursed?”

Do you know a hero? Nominations are open for 2012 CNN Heroes

She escorted her daughter to two police stations and received no assistance, she said, just a lot of talk. One police officer told her that “girls are so promiscuous” and indicated that many young girls are asking for sex.

But she carries on, “fighting with hope that I know there will be a change,” she said. Internationally, she has testified before the United Nations Human Rights Council, calling for increased security within the displacement camps and asking that women’s groups be included in decision-making processes.

“I was a victim, and I did not find justice. But know I will get it for other women,” she told CNN.

When the earthquake hit Haiti, KOFAVIV’s founders watched their clinic and their offices collapse along with their homes.

Villard-Appolon lived in the dangerous Champ de Mars displacement camp for half a year. There, she said, she watched as conditions deteriorated.

“It was all kinds of people who ended up in one area,” she said. “The jails were not destroyed, but their doors were opened, and all prisoners went free. Many of them … were armed, and they were notorious murderers.”

One criminal held Villard-Appolon at gunpoint, demanding money. The police never showed up, she said, but she managed to escape after a group of supporters arrived to fight.

Villard-Appolon said many single women had to leave their children with strangers in order to search for food, water or work. In some cases, the children were raped. The youngest victim, she says, was a 17-month-old.

“I spent six months witnessing it,” she said. “Babies are not spared; adults are not spared; mothers are not spared; sisters are not spared.”

Despite the escalating violence and the loss of its clinic, KOFAVIV regrouped to help victims in Haiti’s “tent city” camps, where about 500,000 people still live today. The group has 66 female outreach agents and 25 male security guards who work within the camps, organizing nighttime community watch groups and providing whistles and flashlights to women. All of them have been affected by gender-based violence, whether personally or through a family member or loved one, Villard-Appolon said.

KOFAVIV also relies on more than 1,000 members to help share their stories, support the victims and urge them to come forward and fight for justice.

It usually starts by accompanying the victims to the hospital within 72 hours of being raped. Once they undergo a test, they receive the medical certificate they must have to begin legal proceedings.

“After that, we assign a lawyer to her,” Villard-Appolon said. There is no cost to the victims, and they receive support from KOFAVIV through the trial.

Villard-Appolon says she is determined to keep fighting for a brighter future, even though justice has been elusive.

“My dream is that we will get to a place where we stop talking about the number of rape cases,” she said. “We will stop talking about Haiti as a country where people are committing violence against others. One day, we have to be able to say that we have a country with people who respect each other.”

Want to get involved? Check out www.madre.org/kofaviv and see how to help.

africa news africa buzz africa americas news amercias buzz

May 20, 2012 – 3:01 am Categories: Uncategorized | Post a comment

What the NATO Summit could mean for Afghanistan’s women

The May 20 ? 21 NATO Summit in Chicago is a turning point for future relations between Afghanistan and its major partner and ally, the United States, along with 27 other member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, who have been waging daily battles alongside Afghan National Army troops against a dangerous and crafty Taliban insurgency for the past several years. The ongoing conflict has taken a huge toll, not only on Afghan civilians, but on NATO forces and the support of the international community to continue its efforts in a country wracked by seemingly insurmountable problems.

The NATO Summit aims to create a roadmap for the next decade of international support for Afghanistan, beyond current plans to drawdown U.S. and NATO troops by the end of 2014, turning over the lead to Afghan security forces. Presidents Obama and Karzai recently signed a Strategic Partnership Agreement, outlining the basic course of U.S.-Afghan relations going forward that include continued humanitarian development and reconstruction aid, military and police training and capacity-building, and support for the Afghanistan government. A price tag of $4.1 Billion annually for the next 10 years had been mentioned as the ballpark figure to achieve such a level of support.

What has not been expressed as an agenda item at the NATO Summit by the U.S. or its allied partners is the concern for the deteriorating state of human rights in Afghanistan, and more specifically, the status of Afghan women?s rights which have been tossed about as a bargaining chip on the peace negotiation table with the Taliban and their proxies.

The main goal of the NATO Summit is to lay the groundwork for further financial and security commitments from the 27 other member countries to help secure Afghanistan?s future, and reduce the total financial responsibility from America?s shoulders. But, with the current economic crisis rattling Europe and overall donor and military fatigue weighing heavily, it may prove tougher than expected to obtain further commitments from NATO member countries beyond what has already been given.

The once ?moral and just? war in Afghanistan has turned very unpopular at home and abroad, with American support falling to 27% according to an Associated Press-GFK poll this month. At the onset of the war against terror in late 2001, Americans and most of the world were unified in their support for U.S.-Coalition efforts in Afghanistan to crush al-Qaeda and defeat the Taliban after the devastating attacks of 9/11. The images of impoverished Afghans and oppressed women and children under the Taliban regime only sharpened the moral imperative that these terrorist groups had to be defeated at all costs, that justice had to be done.

The main goal of the NATO Summit is to lay the groundwork for further U.S. “The recovery of Afghanistan must entail a restoration of the rights of Afghan women; indeed, it will not be possible without them.”

- Colin Powell, Former Secretary of State

In fact, the two main justifications to wage war in Afghanistan given by former President George Bush were to defeat al-Qaeda and liberate Afghan women. When the United States and NATO entered Afghanistan in 2001, then-U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell stated: “The recovery of Afghanistan must entail a restoration of the rights of Afghan women; indeed, it will not be possible without them.”

At the time, the Taliban had an appalling record on women’s rights. Today, some strides have been made, with significant investments by the U.S. and its allies to improve the lives of women and girls. However, 11 years later, the results of these efforts are mixed, and challenges facing Afghan women continue to be daunting, if not life threatening.

Today, nearly three million girls go to school, compared to virtually none under the Taliban. Women make up 20 percent of university graduates and they have entered the professional arena. Maternal and infant mortality rates have declined significantly. Afghan women have legal rights enshrined in the 2004 Afghanistan Constitution and make up nearly 27% of the Lower House of Parliament; however, none of these achievements signal true liberation or a change of traditional mindset across the country.

In the face of ongoing challenges for Afghan women, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told female officials in 2010: “We will not abandon you, we will stand with you always?[it is] essential that women’s rights and women’s opportunities are not sacrificed or trampled in the reconciliation process.”

Despite the gains, the United States and Afghan governments have much more work to do to secure rights for women and girls. Violence against women is rampant, and in areas under Taliban control, torture, beatings and stoning are common. The Taliban and other insurgents target threaten and attack women candidates, politicians, journalists and human rights defenders. In 2010, more than 74 schools, including 26 girls’ schools, were destroyed or closed due to targeted violence against them.

11 years later, al-Qaeda may have been diminished and dealt a crushing blow with the assassination of Osama bin Laden a year ago; however, the efforts to uphold and protect human rights and all hard won gains made on behalf of Afghan women and people must be among the priorities for Afghanistan?s future.

The U.S. and its allied partners have a moral obligation to insist that Afghan women?s rights and equal participation are upheld by the Afghan government under its constitution, to ensure that women?s rights are not traded away in the transition in 2014. The future of Afghan women is at stake.

Khorshied Samad is a former Fox News television correspondent and Kabul bureau chief, and worked previously for ABC News. She is the wife of the Ambassador of Afghanistan formerly posted to France (2009-2011) and Canada (2004-2009). Khorshied continues to work on behalf of Afghan women and children through the Artists for Afghanistan Foundation, www.artists-for-afghanistan.org

global planet africa news africa buzz africa

May 20, 2012 – 1:01 am Categories: Uncategorized | Post a comment

Could you be secretly seeking an arranged marriage?

For years now, I?ve been asking myself this question: “why would anyone go on ‘The Bachelor’ or ‘The Bachelorette’”?

Now, I know I?m not the first person to ask that question. And I also know that when I ask that question, it?s hard not to ask it in a pejorative way. I mean, like, seriously: competing with 24 other people to get to one person who?s been chosen because they test well with a focus group?

Who does that?

The obvious answer is: a lot of people.

Given the number of seasons of the show, there must have been thousands, or maybe even hundreds of thousands, of people who?ve auditioned and been contestants. Some even come back for a second round. And clearly, the whole concept is appealing to another large segment of the population, the audience. Though some of us watch it ? admittedly ? for the pure humor/Twitter fodder that it provides, there are surely some true believers out there, right?

So what?s it all about? Is love so hard to find that we?re willing to put our fates into the hands of someone else and compete for the privilege?

My new novel, “Arranged,” is about a woman who uses an arranged marriage service, so clearly, I?ve been asking myself this question for a long time. In fact, it was on my mind enough to (a) partially generate the book idea and (b) keep me interested enough (and hopefully you) to write 350 pages about it.

But when you write a book, you have to do more than ask questions. You have to have some answers. You have to get to a place where you might understand why someone would do the very thing that you?re positing as a premise, and convince others that it seems like a plausible thing to do.

So, there I was, scoffing at the absurdity of it all, and yet so intrigued that I began to wonder: what would lead a woman ? attractive, successful in some aspects of her life, having no cultural connection to the practice ? to give up on the idea that she should be able to find love on her own and let someone else do the choosing?

The answer I came up with ? that, in some measure, it?s really about giving up on the idea that you can do it on your own ? is partially evident in reality TV. If you?re willing to put yourself in close competition with a group of people who?ve been chosen for their camera-appeal (putting aside the few crazies they tend to throw in for entertainment value) then, in my estimation, you?ve clearly given up on doing it on your own.

But for the novel, I thought it had to go further than that. Arranged marriages aren?t based on love; at least, not in the sense we generally mean: heart-thumping, I can?t eat, sleep or stop thinking about you. They?re based on compatibility, shared goals, values.

The idea is that, in the long run, these are the things that keep people cemented together. And rather than risk the chance that heart-thumping = compatibility, arranged marriage is about taking the heart-thumping out of the equation.

Love might come, but it?s not the beginning. It?s not the glue.

So, not only did my main character have to give up control, she had to give up on love. And she?s ready to do this because, for her, love has been nothing but trouble with a capital T. She?s willing to ? for lack of a better word ? settle on compatibility to get the things she wants: a partner, a family, stability.

And really, when you think about it, isn?t that what?s going on on “The Bachelor,” too? Does anyone who goes on the show really think that it?s about finding lasting love?

When I last checked, there were only two couples who have survived the experience past a few months. And the whole set up is so false, so anti-reality (fabulous vacations, makeup artists, no fights about replacing the toilet paper) that no one really thinks they?re going to come out of there in love.

Do they?

Catherine McKenzie is an author who continues to give readers thought-provoking twists on contemporary culture?first with Spin, a fresh look into the world of celebrity rehab?and now with “Arranged,” (William Morrow May 2012) a novel that questions the role of love in marriage.

article bio profile related topic

May 19, 2012 – 11:01 pm Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off

War zone to playboy’s paradise

.cnn_html_media_utility::before{color:red;content:’>>’;font-size:9px;line-height:12px;padding-right:1px} .cnnstrylccimg640{margin:0 27px 14px 0} .captionText{filter:alpha(opacity=100);opacity:1} .cnn_html_slideshow_media_caption a,.cnn_html_slideshow_media_caption a:visited,.cnn_html_slideshow_media_caption a:link,.captionText a,.captionText a:visited,.captiontext a:link{color:#004276;outline:medium none} .cnnVerticalGalleryPhoto{margin:0 auto;padding-right:68px;width:270px} ]]>

Ivan Ljubicic bows out of the Monte Carlo Masters and leaves the stage of men’s professional tennis for the last time at the age of 33.

ATP chief Brad Drewett (L) and director Zeljiko Franulovic present the Croatian with a special trophy and gift to mark his retirement from tennis. Drewett described Ljubicic as “a true gentleman and ever popular amongst his peers.”

Ljubicic and wife Aida (holding their son Leonardo) with Slavica Radic, a fellow Croatian who is the former spouse of Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone.

Ljubicic — seen here giving tips to Rocco, the son of his coach Riccardo Piatti, at the 2008 French Open — also has a daughter Zara, who was born in November 2011.

Two seasons ago, a 31-year-old Ljubicic defied critics and age to triumph at the prestigious Indian Wells Masters tournment in California. The win made him the oldest first-time winner of an ATP Masters 1000 event.

Ljubicic reached a career-high ranking of No. 3 in the world in 2006 — a year in which he won three ATP titles, including this one in Vienna. “I felt like I was No. 1 because at the time it was impossible to get to (Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal). It is something I am really proud of. I felt like the No. 1 of normal people,” he said.

Croatia’s team of (L-R) Mario Ancic, Goran Ivanisevic, Ljubicic, Ivo Karlovic hold the Davis Cup trophy aloft for the first and only time so far after defeating Slovakia 3-2 in Bratislava in 2005.

The victorious team parade a replica Davis Cup trophy in the main square in Zagreb.

One of Ljubicic’s finest moments on a tennis court came when he and Ancic secured a bronze medal for Croatia at the 2004 Athens Olympics in the men’s doubles.

Ivan Ljubicic retires from professional tennis after a stellar career which included 10 titles

The 33-year-old was also part of Croatian Davis Cup team which beat Slovakia in 2005

Says Djokovic displayed mental strengths as a youngster but was not the best technically

Ljubicic claimed ATP Indian Wells Masters title at the age of 31 in 2010

(CNN) — He predicted it would be an emotional occasion, and so it proved.

Ivan Ljubicic could have chosen to bow out from tennis on a grander stage, but the Monte Carlo Masters was the perfect place for him.

“I picked this one as my last because in 1999 I beat (Russia’s Yevgeny) Kafelnikov, which was my first big victory, my breakthrough. So I felt like it was the right moment, the right place to finish it off,” the 33-year-old told CNN.

His first round defeat to fellow Croatian Ivan Dodig this month brought the curtain down on a stellar career which took him from his war-torn homeland to the international stage, becoming one of the game’s most polished performers, on and off the court.

“As impressive as his achievements were on the court, Ivan will also be remembered for the way he carried himself away from the court,” the head of the ATP Tour Brad Drewett said after the former world No. 3′s tearful exit in his adopted home — a haven for the rich and famous, and a far cry from his birthplace in the former Yugoslavia.

Fmr. #3 tennis player calls it a career

Victoria Azarenka targets 2012 success

Novak Djokovic under the spotlight

Tipsarevic mentors young tennis stars

“A true gentleman and ever popular amongst his peers, we thank Ivan for his first-rate contributions to the sport throughout his career, and wish him the very best for the future,” Drewett added of Ljubicic, who will now spend more time with his wife and two young kids.

Federer hails ‘wonderful friend’ Ljubicic

Ljubicic bagged 10 ATP Tour titles during a 14-year career, his last coming in 2010 at the Indian Wells Masters in California when he beat American former world No. 1 Andy Roddick in the final.

It was a deeply satisfying result for Ljubicic who, at the age of 31, became the oldest first-time winner of an ATP Tour Masters 1000 title in history.

But his success wasn’t limited to individual events.

Together with Mario Ancic, Goran Ivanisevic and Ivo Karlovic, Ljubicic was part of Croatia’s victorious 2005 Davis Cup team, becoming the only unseeded country to win the event.

The dramatic 3-2 victory over Slovakia sparked wild celebrations in Zagreb’s main square and followed on from a bronze medal he and Ancic won in the doubles at the Athens Olympics the previous summer.

Both occasions were proud moments for Ljubicic who was forced to flee his home as a 13-year-old in May 1992 as Croatia battled to maintain the independence it declared the previous year.

“I was living in the Serbian part of Bosnia, so it wasn’t a pleasant place to be at that moment,” he recalls.

“I left with my mother and my brother. My father stayed, but he managed to get out in November the same year.”

It was during this time that Ljubicic was invited to attend a tennis club in Moncalieri, a town near Turin in northern Italy.

“It was the beginning of my tennis career,” he says. “My parents thought it was a good idea, so I left Bosnia in 1993 and stayed for three years and in 1996 I started to have some good results.”

An appearance in the Wimbledon juniors’ final the same year was followed by his first sponsorship deal, marking his arrival in the professional ranks.

I felt like I was No.1 because at the time it was impossible to get to these guys. It is something I am really proud of. I felt like the No.1 of normal people
Ivan Ljubicic

A decade later, Ljubicic would reach the pinnacle of his career, rising to third in the world rankings behind Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal — an achievement which remains a tremendous source of pride.

“I felt like I was No. 1 because at the time it was impossible to get to these guys. It is something I am really proud of. I felt like the No. 1 of normal people,” he said.

With their opposing personalities and playing styles, he says Federer and Nadal have created a unique era in tennis which will be difficult for a new generation to repeat.

“In the past we had a little bit of that with Agassi and Sampras but they were both American. Now we have a Swiss guy and a Spanish guy,” Ljubicic said.

And with current No. 1 Djokovic “coming from another world at the moment” — these are great times for tennis, he thinks.

Ljubicic recalls practicing with an 18-year-old Djokovic back in 2005 and wasn’t immediately struck by the Serbian’s game technically.

But what he did observe, even at that young age, was a steely determination.

“Mentally he was ready. You could see it when you met him. He was so ready to be the best player that you could see it was going to happen, one way or the other,” Ljubicic said.

He predicts the top three will continue to dominate for another couple of seasons but with youngsters like Canada’s Milos Raonic, Australia’s Bernard Tomic and American Ryan Harrison coming through, a more varied set of grand slam champions looks set to emerge.

For Ljubicic, the labors of the tennis court may now be over, but family responsibilities at his home in Monte Carlo will more than fill that void.

“I have two kids now — a three-and-a-half-year-old boy and a girl who is four months,” he said.

“We’re going to spend a lot of time together. This period before they go to school is special and I want to spend as much time as possible with them.”

news asia europe news europe update in europe meast

May 19, 2012 – 9:01 pm Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off

Google revamps search again

With Knowledge Graph, a Google search will ask if you want the galaxy, TV show or rock band

Google introduces Knowledge Graph, a revamped effort to make search more intuitive

New tool divides search terms into most likely categories

Knowledge Graph begins rolling out Wednesday to users in the U.S.

(CNN) — So, let’s say you’re doing a Google search for “Kings.” Did you mean the L.A. hockey team or the Sacramento basketball team? Maybe the TV show? Or maybe you actually wanted to know something about monarchs.

Google on Wednesday announced Knowledge Graph, a significant change to how search results are delivered that the company believes will make their search engine think more like a human.

“The web pages we [currently] return for the search ‘kings,’ they’re all good,” Jack Menzel, director of product management at Google, told CNN in an interview. “You, as a human, associate those words with their real-world meaning but, for a computer, they’re just a random string of characters.”

With Knowledge Graph, which will begin rolling out to some users immediately, results will be arranged according to categories with which the search term has been associated. So, in the above example, boxes will appear with separate results for the hockey team, basketball team and TV show.

Google develops ‘smart glasses’

The user can then click on one of those boxes to only get results for the specific topic they were searching.

“It hones your search results right in on the task that you’re after,” Menzel said.

More specific searches, say for the name of a celebrity, will render boxes with basic information, as well as links to what Google believes are possibly related searches.

Menzel says the initial version of Knowledge Graph has information on 500 million people, places and things and uses 3.5 billion defining attributes and connections to create categories for them.

The feature will begin rolling out as early as Wednesday afternoon for some users in the United States and eventually be available on desktop, mobile and tablet searches. It will first become available in English, then in other languages, Menzel said.

most popular most view most talkabout national interest national

May 19, 2012 – 7:01 pm Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off

Bollywood beckons for double agent

.cnn_html_media_utility::before{color:red;content:’>>’;font-size:9px;line-height:12px;padding-right:1px} .cnnstrylccimg640{margin:0 27px 14px 0} .captionText{filter:alpha(opacity=100);opacity:1} .cnn_html_slideshow_media_caption a,.cnn_html_slideshow_media_caption a:visited,.cnn_html_slideshow_media_caption a:link,.captionText a,.captionText a:visited,.captiontext a:link{color:#004276;outline:medium none} .cnnVerticalGalleryPhoto{margin:0 auto;padding-right:68px;width:270px} ]]>

Tennis star Mahesh Bhupathi is a prominent figure on the Bollywood scene. His company represents several film stars and also produces its own features. His wife is Bollywood actress Lara Dutta, right.

Bhupathi also acts as agent to two fellow players — India’s top-ranked male, Somdev Devvarman, and Sania Mirza, the first Indian woman to ever break into the top 30. Mirza and Bhupathi won the Australian Open mixed doubles in 2009.

The veteran Bhupathi (R) has won a total of 11 grand slam titles during his career — all in doubles. Three of his four men’s crowns have come with compatriot Leander Paes, including Wimbledon in 1999.

Bhupathi, now 37, turned professional in 1995 and briefly played singles before focusing his attention on doubles.

In 1997, Bhupathi became the first Indian to capture a grand slam title as he and Japanese partner Rika Hiraki defeated Americans Patrick Galbraith and Lisa Raymond to seal the mixed doubles crown at the French Open.

Bhupathi enjoyed grand slam mixed doubles success with another Japanese partner, winning the 1999 U.S. Open crown with Ai Sugiyama, defeating Americans Kimberly Po and Donald Johnson.

Alongside their three grand slam titles, Bhupathi and Paes also struck gold in the men’s doubles at the 2006 Asian Games, held in Qatar.

Bhupathi and Paes are household names in India but they can’t quite match the fame that cricketer Sachin Tendulkar enjoys. Here the duo meet the highest runscorer in Test cricket — known as the “Little Master” — in 2002.

Bhupathi’s 11 grand slam titles have come with a total of eight different partners. Here he celebrates his mixed doubles success at the 2006 Australian Open with former women’s world No. 1 Martina Hingis of Switzerland.

Bhupathi teamed up with compatriot Rohan Bopanna (R) at the recent Australian Open, where they were defeated in the third round by Americans Scott Lipsky and Rajeev Ram.

Mahesh Bhupathi has won 11 grand slam doubles titles in his tennis career

The 37-year-old also has his own sports management company Globosport

Bhupathi still plays doubles on the tour but is also agent to other tennis pros

Globosport manages a host of Indian sport stars as well as Bollywood actors

(CNN) — Mahesh Bhupathi is best known in tennis for his many successes as a doubles specialist, but now he’s playing a new role — that of a double agent.

The 37-year-old Indian veteran is still a professional on the ATP Tour, winning his latest doubles title in Dubai earlier this month, but also acts as manager to two of India’s brightest tennis hopes through his company Globosport.

And with a host of Bollywood film stars also featuring in the firm’s portfolio, Bhupathi has a ready-made route to success once his career on court comes to an end.

Bhupathi, who cites entrepreneurs such as Virgin boss Richard Branson and telecoms mogul Sunil Mittal as businessmen he looks up to, has recently made his screen debut in one of his company’s latest projects.

Meet India’s tennis ‘prince’

His wife, Lara Dutta, is an award-winning actress and was named Miss Universe in 2000.

Sania Mirza tackles tennis obstacles

When he does hang up his racket, the first player from India to win a grand slam title — Bhupathi now has 11 all in doubles formats — aims to mix the glitz and glamor of Bollywood with a plan to boost the prospects of burgeoning tennis talent in the country.

India’s tennis pioneers

“All of us growing up are aware what support it takes to build a tennis player,” he told CNN’s Open Court show. “I don’t think there’s any dearth of talent in India — we’ve always had the best juniors in the world.

“The big transition is how do you get from the juniors to the seniors, and that comes through financial support.

“In the West the kids have coaches, trainers and a pretty robust support staff, so it takes a lot of money.

“We have one kid we are supporting fulltime now. He’s 14 years old and very talented, so hopefully we can make it to where we help more and more kids and eventually there will be a pipeline of players coming out of the country.”

Outside of cricket, whose stars are worshiped in India, Bhupathi is one of the country’s best known sporting figures.

He has a clean sweep of grand slam titles in the mixed doubles, claiming his first crown at the French Open in 1997 with Japanese partner Rika Hiraki, and can also boast four men’s doubles titles to boot.

I don’t think there’s any dearth of talent in India — we’ve always had the best juniors in the world
Mahesh Bhupathi

At January’s Australian Open he partnered compatriot Rohan Bopanna — with whom he recently won the Dubai Open title — but they were knocked out in round three.

Yet it is his partnership with another Indian player, Leander Paes, that has reaped dividends. They have won three men’s doubles titles together — at the French Open in 1999 and 2001 as well as Wimbledon in 1999.

Even with a career that is still in full swing, Bhupathi also acts as agent to Sania Mirza — the first Indian woman to break into the world’s top 30 players — and Somdev Devvarman, who reached a high of 62 in the men’s rankings last year.

“For me it’s two fulltime jobs so I’ve got to put in more work, but I really enjoy doing what I do,” he explained. “Sania was one of our first clients, I think we signed her when she was 15.

“The tennis part of it is easy for me because I’m on the road, I’m networked into the tennis world, so doing her racket and apparel, this is very easy as I’m there on site.

“I’m aware tennis isn’t going to last forever, and this going to be a smooth and natural transition now because Golobosport is eight years old.”

But though Bollywood is beckoning, Bhupathi insists his eyes are still firmly fixed on court for now.

most view most talkabout national interest national national news

May 19, 2012 – 5:01 pm Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off

Could you be secretly seeking an arranged marriage?

For years now, I?ve been asking myself this question: “why would anyone go on ‘The Bachelor’ or ‘The Bachelorette’”?

Now, I know I?m not the first person to ask that question. And I also know that when I ask that question, it?s hard not to ask it in a pejorative way. I mean, like, seriously: competing with 24 other people to get to one person who?s been chosen because they test well with a focus group?

Who does that?

The obvious answer is: a lot of people.

Given the number of seasons of the show, there must have been thousands, or maybe even hundreds of thousands, of people who?ve auditioned and been contestants. Some even come back for a second round. And clearly, the whole concept is appealing to another large segment of the population, the audience. Though some of us watch it ? admittedly ? for the pure humor/Twitter fodder that it provides, there are surely some true believers out there, right?

So what?s it all about? Is love so hard to find that we?re willing to put our fates into the hands of someone else and compete for the privilege?

My new novel, “Arranged,” is about a woman who uses an arranged marriage service, so clearly, I?ve been asking myself this question for a long time. In fact, it was on my mind enough to (a) partially generate the book idea and (b) keep me interested enough (and hopefully you) to write 350 pages about it.

But when you write a book, you have to do more than ask questions. You have to have some answers. You have to get to a place where you might understand why someone would do the very thing that you?re positing as a premise, and convince others that it seems like a plausible thing to do.

So, there I was, scoffing at the absurdity of it all, and yet so intrigued that I began to wonder: what would lead a woman ? attractive, successful in some aspects of her life, having no cultural connection to the practice ? to give up on the idea that she should be able to find love on her own and let someone else do the choosing?

The answer I came up with ? that, in some measure, it?s really about giving up on the idea that you can do it on your own ? is partially evident in reality TV. If you?re willing to put yourself in close competition with a group of people who?ve been chosen for their camera-appeal (putting aside the few crazies they tend to throw in for entertainment value) then, in my estimation, you?ve clearly given up on doing it on your own.

But for the novel, I thought it had to go further than that. Arranged marriages aren?t based on love; at least, not in the sense we generally mean: heart-thumping, I can?t eat, sleep or stop thinking about you. They?re based on compatibility, shared goals, values.

The idea is that, in the long run, these are the things that keep people cemented together. And rather than risk the chance that heart-thumping = compatibility, arranged marriage is about taking the heart-thumping out of the equation.

Love might come, but it?s not the beginning. It?s not the glue.

So, not only did my main character have to give up control, she had to give up on love. And she?s ready to do this because, for her, love has been nothing but trouble with a capital T. She?s willing to ? for lack of a better word ? settle on compatibility to get the things she wants: a partner, a family, stability.

And really, when you think about it, isn?t that what?s going on on “The Bachelor,” too? Does anyone who goes on the show really think that it?s about finding lasting love?

When I last checked, there were only two couples who have survived the experience past a few months. And the whole set up is so false, so anti-reality (fabulous vacations, makeup artists, no fights about replacing the toilet paper) that no one really thinks they?re going to come out of there in love.

Do they?

Catherine McKenzie is an author who continues to give readers thought-provoking twists on contemporary culture?first with Spin, a fresh look into the world of celebrity rehab?and now with “Arranged,” (William Morrow May 2012) a novel that questions the role of love in marriage.

post article bio profile related

May 19, 2012 – 3:00 pm Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off

Windows Q&As: Print Screen For Current Monitor, Create Boot Menu For Dual Boot System, Can?t Detect DVD And Many More (Week 15)

We’ve come to the 15th week running of Ask a Windows Expert, where you ask a question and we get an expert on the case to give you a fully-researched and concise answer to your issues or curiosities. No matter how complex the question, our answers will always cover everything…

Windows Q&As: Print Screen For Current Monitor, Create Boot Menu For Dual Boot System, Can’t Detect DVD And Many More (Week 15) originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)
Follow us at Facebook | Twitter

entertainment top entertainment entertainment buzz sport sport news

May 19, 2012 – 1:01 pm Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off

Many rare gene mutations may be associated with common diseases

Two large surveys of the human genome indicate that it may be much harder than scientists once thought to map out all the genetic mutations that underpin common human diseases, complicating the potential development of personalized, gene-based treatments.

The studies were from GlaxoSmithKline and the University of Washington in Seattle and were both published in the journal Science. The two reports showed that there are many different ?rare? mutations in the human genome associated with diseases like cancer, coronary artery disease, Alzheimer?s disease and schizophrenia.

The study from UW looked at 202 genes in 14,002 patients. There are approximately 3 billion base pairs in the entire human genome, and the scientists studied 864,000 of them.

“Our results suggest there are many, many places in the genome where one individual, or a few individuals, have something different,” study senior author John Novembre, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and of bioinformatics at UCLA, wrote in a press release. “Overall, it is surprisingly common that there is a rare variant in the population.?

The scientists found there was one genetic variant for every 17 bases ? a dramatically higher rate than they expected, Novembre said.

The majority of the time, only one person had a specific genetic variant, while the 14,001 others did not, meaning further research into each variant would likely be costly and require a very large population of people.

“We saw lots of that,” Novembre wrote. “We discovered there are many places in these 202 genes where there is variation and only a few individuals differ from the whole group, or only one differs. We also see evidence that a substantial fraction of these rare genetic variants appear to be deleterious in a long-term evolutionary sense and might impact disease.”

The GlaxoSmithKline researchers who conducted the other study agreed with the UW researchers in attributing the large number of variants to human population growth.

“Because the human population has grown so much, the opportunity for mutations to occur has also grown,? Novembre wrote. ?Some of the variants we are seeing are very young, dating to population growth since the invention of agriculture?the growth has created many opportunities for mutation in the genome because there are so many transmissions of chromosomes from parent to child in large populations.”

golf latest latest golf golf topic motorsport motorsport news

May 19, 2012 – 11:01 am Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off

Bogart’s ‘African Queen’ revitalised

.cnn_html_media_utility::before{color:red;content:’>>’;font-size:9px;line-height:12px;padding-right:1px} .cnnstrylccimg640{margin:0 27px 14px 0} .captionText{filter:alpha(opacity=100);opacity:1} .cnn_html_slideshow_media_caption a,.cnn_html_slideshow_media_caption a:visited,.cnn_html_slideshow_media_caption a:link,.captionText a,.captionText a:visited,.captiontext a:link{color:#004276;outline:medium none} .cnnVerticalGalleryPhoto{margin:0 auto;padding-right:68px;width:270px} ]]>

The “African Queen” is a 100-year-old steam boat famed for its role in the 1951 movie of the same name.

The movie starred legends of the silver screen, Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn, and brought Bogart his only Oscar.

The boat fell into a state of disrepair after the death of its previous owner in 2001.

The ship has been repaired and refitted by husband and wife team Lance and Suzanne Holmquist (pictured).

The restoration process has seen a new steel hull and boiler installed on the African Queen.

Humphrey Bogart’s son, Stephen, has given the restored vessel his blessing.

The African Queen is a steam boat that featured in a 1951 movie of the same name

The film starred Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn

After the death of its previous owner, the 100-year-old vessel fell into a state of disrepair

A movie loving Florida couple have restored the ship to its film star glory

(CNN) — The historic vessel which provided the setting for Humphrey Bogart‘s only Oscar winning performance has been resurrected from the scrapheap by a movie-loving Florida couple.

The African Queen is a 100 year old steam boat famed for its starring role in the 1951 hit movie of the same name.

The classic picture — which also starred Katharine Hepburn and told the story of a Canadian steam boat captain and a British missionary working in German East Africa during the First World War — saw Bogart receive the 1951 Academy Award for best actor.

After falling into a state of disrepair following the death of its previous owner in 2001, the vessel was spotted gathering rust in a Florida marina late last year by Suzanne Holmquist and her engineer husband, Lance.

The couple have since repaired the ailing ship and opened it up to tourists and film enthusiasts, providing cruises around the Florida Keys aboard the famous vessel.

See also: Historic vessel Cutty Sark rises from ashes

“It’s (the boat) held in a trust so we approached them and talked about restoring it,” says Holmquist on how she stumbled upon the famous vessel.

“We have a tall ship business that operates right next to where the African Queen was stationed in Key Largo. It was just wasting away so we offered to restore it and put it into our charter operation,” she adds.

I knew it was famous from the movie but as time has gone on I’ve found out a lot more about the history of it and where she has been
Suzanne Holmquist

Although most famed for its role alongside Bogart and Hepburn, the African Queen had a long and colorful life before hitting the big screen, explains Holmquist.

Built in 1912 at Lytham Shipbuilding Yard in England, the vessel was originally named the Livingstone and served as a cargo vessel for the British East Africa Rail Company.

It spent most of its first 50 years operating in the waters of the Ruki River in the northern Democratic Republic of Congo where she was used to transport a mixture of hunters, mercenaries and cargo.

In the early 1950′s the ship was spotted by the director of the African Queen, John Huston, and pulled temporarily from service so it could be used in the movie.

See also: HMS Victory gets $25 million revamp

By the late 1960′s however, the African Queen had swapped the big screen and the rural hinterland of the Congo for the concrete jungle of San Francisco. An American businessman transported the ship to the Golden Gate city where he hoped to harness its Hollywood fame to operate it as a tour boat.

This idea proved unsuccessful however and the vessel then changed hands a number of times before coming to the attention of Florida attorney and Humphrey Bogart enthusiast, Jim Hendricks Sr. in 1982.

Hendricks Sr. eagerly snapped up his very own chunk Bogart movie memorabilia which he owned until his death in 2001.

During this period Hendricks Sr. took the African Queen around the world, gracing flotillas that marked the 50th anniversary of the battle of Dunkirk in the English Channel and the Queen Mother’s 90th birthday on the River Thames.

Once Hendricks Sr. passed away however, the vessel once more fell upon hard times, wasting away on a lonely jetty in southern Florida.

It was here that Suzanne Holmquist, herself a self-confessed Bogart and Hepburn buff recognized the boat. Late last year she made an offer to the owners to put it back in working order.

It had big holes in it and was kind of like a sieve when it rained, all the water was just pouring out
Suzanne Holmquist

“It had big holes in it and was kind of like a sieve when it rained, all the water was just pouring out,” says Holmquist.

“My husband has restored big boats before, some bigger than this one, so I knew that we could do it,” she adds.

The ensuing restoration project has been a detailed and thorough process taking fully six months to complete.

See also: Tourism at the bottom of the deep blue sea

The hull has been equipped with a new steel frame, a replacement boiler has been installed and the original black African mahogany wood decks have been repainted.

In order to maintain the boats worn and rustic charm however, Holmquist says it has been splattered with mud so as to make it look exactly like it does in the movie.

“Most of the interest so far in boat has come from movie fans … so we wanted it to make it look as much like it does in the film as possible,” says Holmquist.

The ship has even had a special guest visitor in the shape of Humphrey Bogart’s son, Stephen, who gave the freshly completed restoration efforts his blessing.

But by using the African Queen’s Hollywood past to draw people aboard, Holmquist also hopes to provide visitors with an understanding of the ship’s rich history beyond the silver screen.

This a story Holmquist herself says she has been fascinated to discover over the course of the past few months.

“I knew it was famous from the movie but as time has gone on I’ve found out a lot more about the history of it and where she has been,” says Holmquist.

“Hopefully we’ll be able to relay that story and all those who come to visit can learn a little more about the boat and her incredible life,” she adds.

in europe meast hot meast meast latest us news

May 19, 2012 – 9:01 am Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off

Father of 30 kids by 11 women can’t pay child support

A Tennessee man’s problems paying child support aren’t so surprising: He has 30 children with 11 different women.

Desmond Hatchett, 33, of Knoxville, is pleading with the state to help him pay for child support, citing the fact that he earns minimum wage. Hatchett made national news in 2009, when his tally stood at 21 children.

?I had four kids in the same year,” he said. “Twice.?

The mothers of his children are supposed to get anywhere from $25 a month to $309 a month for help raising the children. The state takes half of Hatchett’s paycheck to divide among the mothers of his children, but now Hatchett has petitioned the state to help him meet his obligations.

The children range in age from toddlers to 14 years old.

Click for more at WREG

news asia europe news europe update in europe meast

May 19, 2012 – 7:01 am Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off

English Premier League greatest?

.cnn_html_media_utility::before{color:red;content:’>>’;font-size:9px;line-height:12px;padding-right:1px} .cnnstrylccimg640{margin:0 27px 14px 0} .captionText{filter:alpha(opacity=100);opacity:1} .cnn_html_slideshow_media_caption a,.cnn_html_slideshow_media_caption a:visited,.cnn_html_slideshow_media_caption a:link,.captionText a,.captionText a:visited,.captiontext a:link{color:#004276;outline:medium none} .cnnVerticalGalleryPhoto{margin:0 auto;padding-right:68px;width:270px} ]]>

Manchester United’s veteran midfielder Ryan Giggs has been named the best player in English Premier League history at an award ceremony to celebrate 20 years of the elite soccer division. The Welshman, 38, has played in every season, winning the title on 12 occasions and scoring 107 goals.

Alex Ferguson has led the Old Trafford side to all 12 titles. The 70-year-old Scot’s contribution was rewarded with the best manager honor.

Former England striker Alan Shearer is the highest scorer in Premier League history, with 260 goals in spells with Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United.

Goalkeeper David James has kept the most clean sheets, stopping the opposition from finding the net on 173 occasions for Liverpool, Aston Villa, West Ham, Manchester City and Portsmouth.

Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney’s stunning overhead kick against neighbors Manchester City in February 2011 was named the finest goal in Premier League history.

Arsenal’s title-winnersof the 2003-04 season made history by becoming the first and only team to be unbeaten in a Premier League season. Arsene Wenger’s side, which included stars like Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp and Patrick Vieira, won the best team award.

The recently concluded 2011-12 season was chosen as the best of the Premier League era, having ended with Manchester City scoring two goals in stoppage time to beat Queens Park Rangers and steal the title from archrivals Manchester United on goal difference.

In September 2009, United defeated City in the Manchester derby with a stoppage-time winner from Michael Owen. The dramatic match was chosen as the Premier League’s best in 20 seasons.

The public also voted for an all-time Premier League fantasy team. Denmark’s Peter Schmeichel was chosen as the goalkeeper, for his performances during seven seasons with Manchester United before stints at Aston Villa and Manchester City.

The defense includes two former United captains, with newly-appointed England coach Gary Neville selected at right back alongside Serbia’s Nemanja Vidic. Arsenal’s title-winning skipper Tony Adams is also included, along with Chelsea and England left back Ashley Cole.

The midfield also features veteran Manchester United stars Giggs and Paul Scholes, who recently announced he will continue to play next season. Former United winger and current Real Madrid icon Cristiano Ronaldo is selected, with Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard completing the quartet.

The Premier League’s all-time leading scorer Shearer is paired with Arsenal legend Henry, who netted 176 league goals in eight years with the Gunners.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

Manchester United’s Ryan Giggs is named the best player in the EPL’s 20-year history

United’s legendary boss Alex Ferguson receives the best manager award

Wayne Rooney’s overhead kick for United against City in February 2011 is named best goal

Arsenal’s “Invincibles” of the 2003-04 season named the league’s best ever team

(CNN) — Since its inception in 1992, the English Premier League has grown into one of football’s most compelling and commercially successful domestic competitions.

To celebrate two decades of top-level soccer, the finest players and managers to have graced the competition have been honored at this week’s “20 Seasons Awards.”

The big winners were Manchester United, the team which dominated the era by collecting 12 championships.

United’s veteran Welsh midfielder Ryan Giggs was named top player, having featured in every Premier League season and scoring 107 goals.

Manchester City wins EPL

Fans celebrate Manchester City’s big win

Did Manchester City win the league – or did United lose it?

United’s legendary Scottish manager Alex Ferguson was also honored, having like Giggs been part of all 12 title triumphs.

“Being named as the best player in the 20 seasons of the Premier League is a tremendous honor for me,” Giggs, 38, told the league’s official website, “and very humbling when you consider some of the brilliant players who were nominated alongside me.”

There was also an award for the Old Trafford team’s star striker Wayne Rooney, who received the “Goal of 20 Seasons” gong for his stunning overhead kick against archrivals Manchester City in February 2011.

United’s 4-3 defeat of neighbors City in September 2009, which included a winning goal from striker Michael Owen in stoppage time, was voted the finest Premier League match.

But despite United’s dominance, Arsenal’s championship-winning side of the 2003-04 season took home the Best Team prize.

Known as “The Invincibles,” the London club is the only team to remain unbeaten throughout an entire Premier League campaign.

The full list of award winners feature in the gallery above. Do you agree with the judges’ choices? Have your say in the comments section at the bottom of this page.

Player of 20 Seasons: Ryan Giggs

Manager of 20 Seasons: Alex Ferguson

Team of 20 Seasons: Arsenal 2003-04

Goal of 20 Seasons: Wayne Rooney (Manchester United) v Manchester City, February 2011

Match of 20 Seasons: Manchester United 4-3 Manchester City, September 2009

Public vote Fantasy Team of 20 Seasons: Peter Schmeichel (Man Utd), Gary Neville (Man Utd), Nemanja Vidic (Man Utd), Tony Adams (Arsenal), Ashley Cole (Arsenal/Chelsea), Ryan Giggs (Man Utd), Paul Scholes (Man Utd), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Cristiano Ronaldo (Man Utd), Thierry Henry (Arsenal) , Alan Shearer (Newcastle).

leisure reviews leisure updates news view info

May 19, 2012 – 5:00 am Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off

A Comprehensive Guide to iTunes U [iOS]

Learning at a prestigious college is an opportunity possible for very few. From Harvard to Stanford, the admission criteria for most of those colleges prevented many from attending. However, would you ever believe that you could learn from the professors of many of these colleges straight from your Mac and…

A Comprehensive Guide to iTunes U [iOS] originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)
Follow us at Facebook | Twitter

latest golf golf topic motorsport motorsport news motorsport headlines

May 19, 2012 – 3:00 am Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off

What Facebook says about U.S.

America must preserve and nurture its strengths to stay ahead, says Frida Ghitis.

Facebook’s $104 billion comes at a time when America is doubting itself

Frida Ghitis: There’s a reason why the Facebook phenomenon occurred in the U.S.

She says U.S. has innovative culture, smart immigrants, right government policies

Ghitis: America must preserve and nurture its strengths to stay ahead

Editor’s note: Frida Ghitis is a world affairs columnist for The Miami Herald and World Politics Review. A former CNN producer/correspondent, she is the author of “The End of Revolution: A Changing World in the Age of Live Television.”

(CNN) — Facebook’s $104 billion initial public offering comes at a time when the United States is suffering a bout of self-doubt. Many wonder if America is falling behind as other countries are catching up fast. And yet the Facebook phenomenon did not occur in a vacuum.

You might say it could have happened anywhere. But it happened in America. And there was a reason for that.

A company created almost on a whim by a handful of college students rocketed to worldwide popularity in under a decade, bringing together some 900 million users and in the process transformed the way people communicate and interact with each other.

It’s no coincidence that Facebook, like Google, Apple, Twitter and Intel, started in the United States. It’s also no coincidence the car, the airplane, the light bulb and the telephone were invented here. The fact that America is the birthplace of revolutionary ideas is not an accident.

Here are some of things Facebook tells us about America — not just what is right but what requires careful, urgent nurturing to preserve.

Still brewing that magic potion

The modern world knows there is a special, mysterious magic about America. Despite many serious problems, the main ingredients of that unique recipe remain. The United States has created an environment that fosters innovation and promotes creativity. There is no better place on earth to break with convention, think differently and blaze one’s own path. America’s government may look dysfunctional, its schools leave much to be desired and its financial institutions have the potential to cause disasters, but on the individual level the drive to dream big is as strong as ever. And the structure of support for those who have great ideas is still in place.

Middle East businesses ‘like’ Facebook

What’s your Facebook worth?

How the Facebook IPO stacks up

Facebook attracts rising entrepreneurs

How America shapes the world

The days when Washington’s wish was the world’s command are over. But America’s “soft power” lives on. The great events of our time have unfolded partly as a result of American technologies. The Arab Spring of 2011 was aided by Facebook and Twitter. Interpersonal relationships have been recast by social media. The industrialized world could hardly function without its Google searches and iPhones. American movies, TV shows and music are emulated.

The drive of immigrant minds

America’s not-so-secret formula has always included attracting immigrants and helping them and their children flourish. According to a report by the Partnership for a New American Economy, more than 40% of the 2010 Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or their children. One of Facebook’s founders, Eduardo Saverin, was born in Brazil. Google’s co-founder, Sergey Brin, came from Russia. Zuckerberg’s ancestors, as well as those of Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, were Jewish immigrants. As long as America continues to attract and welcome people with intelligence and entrepreneurial spirit, the country will pulsate with creative force.

Designed in America, made in China

Americans may be rolling out one great idea after another, but other countries are getting many of the jobs that come from its inventions. The iPad alone has created 700,000 manufacturing jobs in China. While American students are falling behind in international tests, the U.S. still has one of the best higher education systems in the world. We need to make sure our students not only attend college, but study the areas that will be critical to the future: science, technology, engineering and math. Maybe then they will find the ways that will allow American ideas to fuel employment in the country.

Government policies matter

Facebook is successful because bright minds created it, venture capitalists supported it and consumers embraced it. But that’s not the whole story. Facebook and other similar high-profile companies would not have made it without the right government decisions, ones that made the Internet possible or lowered the price of the microchips. While government funding of key industries is crucial, so is the decision to get out of the way at the right moment. America is one of the world’s best places to do business since government does not interfere much with the private sector. China is trying desperately to become a science and technology competitor to America, but it drove Google out of the country and its heavy-handed tactics have led to technology that mostly copies other countries’ ideas.

It’s not always about money

In the United States, people can make monumental fortunes when they have good ideas. But many of the most influential entrepreneurs are driven more by a sense of mission than materialistic pursuits. Zuckerberg could have sold out years ago and lived a life of luxury. Steve Jobs seemed unconcerned with worldly comforts. The real driver for these innovators is a wish to create and build. Those people whose only goal is to make millions sometimes live less fulfilling lives and occasionally cause serious trouble for the economy. Getting rich is fine, but it’s good for society and the world when individuals work to build more than just a fortune. Young technology entrepreneurs can follow the examples of the giants of their field. As a society, America should highlight the need to create and build, not just accumulate.

So, hurrah for Facebook. Hurrah to those who have transformed the world and our lives. And congratulations to America for creating a place where people’s ideas can become reality. Now learn from what you did right, America. And remember, others countries are also learning from America’s success. The secret is out.

Follow us on Twitter @CNNOpinion.

Join us on Facebook/CNNOpinion.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Frida Ghitis.

website blog cool reference topical

May 19, 2012 – 1:00 am Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off

From propaganda to pop artist

.cnn_html_media_utility::before{color:red;content:’>>’;font-size:9px;line-height:12px;padding-right:1px} .cnnstrylccimg640{margin:0 27px 14px 0} .captionText{filter:alpha(opacity=100);opacity:1} .cnn_html_slideshow_media_caption a,.cnn_html_slideshow_media_caption a:visited,.cnn_html_slideshow_media_caption a:link,.captionText a,.captionText a:visited,.captiontext a:link{color:#004276;outline:medium none} .cnnVerticalGalleryPhoto{margin:0 auto;padding-right:68px;width:270px} ]]>

Song Byeok’s paintings are often about coming to terms with life outside North Korea. Behind him is the painting “Child Warrior,” depicting the curious North Korean custom of dressing children in military clothes on special birthdays. Song painted the boy with his eyes closed.

“I risked my life on this painting,” Song says of “Take Off Your Clothes,” which created a stir by putting the late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in a Marilyn Monroe pose. “In some ways, this picture represents me,” Song said. “I hope after North Korean society opens up, people will debate it.” It is used on this poster to promote Song’s recent exhibit in Atlanta.

North Korea built hundreds of statues of Kim Il Sung, founder of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. In “Beloved Father of Our Country,” women in drab military clothing pay tribute to their “Great Leader.”

It was only after he lived outside North Korea that Song began to understand freedom and why it was so important. This, Song says, is his main message as an artist.

Like much of Song’s work, this painting, “Hope,” is about the desire for a better future for his homeland. “Defectors naturally want to help things inside North Korea change,” he said. “My way of doing that is to paint.”

A work done in classic Tang Dynasty style, “Around the Tumen River” looks as if it could have been painted centuries ago. But an up-close view reveals the hard realities of life in North Korea. Farmers work without tractors, soldiers survive on fish they catch in a river, and people in hills scour for edible plants.

In some ways, it’s not a far jump from propaganda to pop art. In “Let Me Taste It,” Song pays tribute to Andy Warhol, freedom of expression and the difficulties of life in North Korea.

Before his death in December, North Korean society revolved around the Dear Leader. But in “General and Tribes People,” Song shows Kim Jong Il’s shadow shrinking to a taper when around people who don’t buy into the myth.

Like most North Korean families, Song’s parents didn’t want him to wear his shoes unless it was necessary. “Shoes cost parents three or four days’ wages,” Song said, “and children were expected to stitch their own repairs.” In “Barefoot Boys,” a T-shirt says “Nothing to Envy in the World.”

“Mass Game” depicts a trademark image of North Korea, where thousands participate in exercises of unity and patriotism.

It’s not uncommon for North Koreans to describe the Dear Leader as a surrogate parent. In “A Loving Father and His Children,” Song replaces the chubby, square-jawed children he painted as a propagandist with realistic images of child beggars found around many North Korean rail stations. Passers-by will sometimes pay them to sing; a popular song is “Our General is a Great Leader.”

In “Hillside Slums,” the painting on the left, an image of Song’s mother dominates the skyline over the house he grew up in. She told Song she was worried about Kim Jong Il’s health before she herself died in the famine of the 1990s. By putting Kim in drag in “Fall Into My Arms,” Song glamorizes all things foreign and wonders whether life would not be more exciting for North Korea if it was opened to the outside.

The girls in “Flower Children” are waving and posing for foreigners in the way they’ve been trained: brimming with confidence that they live in the world’s greatest country. Song painted them with their eyes closed, blind to the reality of their poverty.

Song says he feels a bond with people from other countries where basic rights are restricted. “Freedom” expresses his hope that people everywhere will break their chains the way he broke his.

Song takes a cigarette break with Greg Pence, an American who saw Song’s work in Seoul, was moved by its power and organized the funds for an exhibit in the United States.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

Once a propagandist, defector Song Byeok now paints satirical works about North Korea

His paintings dwell on miseries of life in his homeland, joy of the freedoms he found in the South

From a country of 25 million, only about 20,000 North Korean defectors live in the South

Song is optimistic new leader Kim Jong Un will be an agent for change

Editor’s note: This is part of look at North Korea from the vantage point of some of those who have escaped and defected. See an accompanying story about a family now living in the U.S.

Atlanta (CNN) — Song Byeok had every reason to be pleased with his success. A gift for drawing led to a prestigious career as a propaganda artist and full membership in North Korea’s communist party.

Then the food shortages started.

Like tens of thousands of other North Koreans in the mid-1990s, Song made forays across the Tumen River to find food in China. Despite witnessing a better material life across the border, he says, he never doubted that North Korea was culturally superior. He never considered leaving his homeland for anything more than food.

“I was a believer. I saw North Koreans as pure,” Song said. “And we needed the Great Leader to protect us from outsiders.”

Today, Song paints in Seoul, South Korea, his art haunted by his former whole-hearted belief in the North Korean regime. Song’s paintings chronicle a personal, often agonizing journey from child-like allegiance to the country’s founder and “Great Leader,” Kim Il Sung, and his son, “Dear Leader” Kim Jong Il, to Song’s life today as a contemporary artist.

Defector paints Kim Jong il in drag

Ever desperate for hard currency, the official website of North Korea offers propaganda art for sale, including some of Song Byeok’s designs. Artwork promoting the North Korean regime is available on beer steins, clocks and even iPad and iPhone covers. The items are made in places as diverse and as far from North Korea as El Salvador and Pakistan. They are for sale in U.S. dollars and ship from California. This calendar sells for $5.99 and says “We must be determined to fight and win against imperialism.” You can also order this motif on an insulated bottle or can holder.

It may look like a nation at war, but in fact it’s a North Korean greeting card. The caption says “Happy New Year.”

Now available to foreigners on a coffee mug, Song Byeok painted this same design on three factory billboards inside North Korea. It says “Self-Reliance: This Is Our Only Belief.” The mug is made in China.

The bottom line on this lime-green T-shirt reads, “Let’s Build a Strong and Prosperous Country With the Power of Our Military.”

Song painted this design across the large exterior wall of a factory in North Korea. The gun and the dove dominate the scene, as the phrase beneath reads “Peace Through Fighting.”

This battery-powered wall clock sells for $16.49, and in addition to telling the time, it tells you, “Let’s Kick-Start the ‘Military First’ Policy.” This was Kim Jong Il’s policy of prioritizing the military’s needs over food during the famine of the mid-1990s.

The button on the right is emblazoned “All-or-Nothing War.”

If anyone were to think North Korean propaganda was relentlessly martial, this golf shirt (made in Pakistan) proclaims, “Let’s Ignite the Fire for Peace.”

This beer stein declares, “In Life, In Death, Red Is In Our Hearts.”

North Korean communism for sale

North Korean communism for sale

North Korean communism for sale

North Korean communism for sale

North Korean communism for sale

North Korean communism for sale

North Korean communism for sale

North Korean communism for sale

North Korean communism for sale

North Korean communism for sale

In his former life, he would paint boyish-looking soldiers with heroic features across an entire side of a factory to inspire workers with the same patriotism he believed in.

His current paintings explore themes of freedom while skewering his former devotion to North Korea’s leaders. He paints children in military uniforms, their heads bowed and eyes closed. His trademark work shows Kim Jong Il’s face atop Marilyn Monroe’s famous film pose on a sidewalk grate, holding down her skirt as it billows around her hips.

The painting created a stir in South Korea, where American Greg Pence saw it and raised funds on Kickstarter to exhibit Song’s work this winter in Washington and Atlanta.

Song is passionate and sometimes brooding when discussing North Korea but gracious and open about his deeply personal passage from propaganda artist to painter who anguishes over oppression in North Korea.

Obama: North Korea will achieve nothing with provocation

Song’s journey to disbelief began the moment he watched, helpless, as his father was caught in a current during a river crossing to China and drowned. Song was halfway across when his father was swept away; he swam back but was unable to rescue him. Despondent, Song searched for his father’s body along the riverbank but was captured by North Korean border guards.

Despite his rank as a party member, getting caught meant questioning and torture by North Korean guards to confirm that he was not working for the South Koreans or the foreign missionaries based in China who proselytize among defectors.

“There were no exceptions,” he said. “All who are caught are investigated.”

In North Korea, a brutal choice

The torment of not recovering his father’s remains was much greater than the broken teeth and beatings, Song said. The beatings were so harsh, he said, he was close to death, and he believes that he was released so he would not die in custody.

More than bones, the guards’ treatment broke Song’s belief in the regime. He describes the moment he left jail as if a veil had been lifted: He saw the world with a new clarity. As he hobbled through the streets, wondering how he’d get home, he decided he wanted a different life. He decided to defect.

In a country of 25 million, only about 20,000 have defected and settled in South Korea, according to the South Korean government. There are no precise figures for how many defectors live in hiding in China; estimates from governments, researchers and non-governmental organizations vary from 25,000 to more than 400,000.

“When people are picked up in China and repatriated, they face prosecution back in North Korea if they are believed to have met with South Koreans or missionaries,” said Marcus Noland, a North Korea specialist at the Peterson Institute.

China labels North Korean escapees “economic migrants” and forcibly returns them despite accounts of torture and execution. So those hoping to defect must make their way across China to a third country.

Of those North Koreans interviewed in China, only about one in 10 say they left because of a longing for freedom, according to W. Courtland Robinson, a public health expert at Johns Hopkins University who has studied the issue for more than a decade.

The vast majority who leave give the same explanation Song did for his pre-defector forays into China during the famine: the search for work or food.

“The (North Korean) system is so integral to who you are,” Robinson said. “People generally don’t say ‘I am frustrated, and I want out.’ “

Song’s paintings explore that theme: a devotion to serving North Korea’s leaders so strong that citizens view it as part of their identity.

“Flower Children” shows a gaggle of smiling, uniformed schoolgirls waving and holding North Korea’s standard reading primers, “The Story of Kim Jong Il’s Childhood” and “History of Kim Il Sung.”

The girls exude childish charm, but some faces show a weariness that only comes with age, and their eyes are all closed. Their shoes have holes.

“They believe they are happy,” Song said. “They believe they are so much better off than the rest of the world because of their two leaders, who are like two suns.”

Song can still recite some of the pages from those reading primers, and he remembers walking to school in similar shoes.

Such memories inspire him to paint, he says, and he hopes people find his interpretations of those memories compelling.

“Tumen River” is done in classical Chinese style. At first glance, with its brushed mountain landscape, the painting looks like it could be from the Tang Dynasty. On closer inspection, its subtleties portray North Korea’s crippling poverty. Peasants work fields with oxen while nearby, a broken-down tractor rusts. Soldiers fish for their dinner downstream from women doing laundry by hand.

In the hills above the river are billboards common throughout North Korea, with phrases such as “All Glory To Our Nation’s Agricultural Independence” and “All Glory to Our Nation’s Great Strength.” Near the billboards, peasants dig for edible roots, which are commonly steamed in a kettle before being eaten.

“The past and the present of North Korea are the same,” Song said. “There is no progress.”

Despite the large and absolute devotion of most North Koreans to their government, Song is optimistic about their future under Kim Jong Un, who recently inherited the country’s reins after his father, the Dear Leader, died.

In a nation where every decision flows from the top, a change of leadership can transform everything.

“Kim Jong Un will want to try something new,” Song said. “You can not change the nature of youth.”

If Kim Jong Un allowed the population access to television, websites and radio from Seoul, with its opulent lifestyle, change would be inevitable, and the emotional connection to the government would gradually wither, Song believes.

Meanwhile, being caught with foreign media can mean public execution or three generations of your family being sent to prison camp. So few people outside the party elite dare to smuggle radios or DVDs from China.

But if those punishments were ever removed, Song says, North Koreans would probably lose their devotion to the regime as quickly as their Japanese neighbors stopped worshiping their emperor after World War II.

It would take only a clear view of the poverty and oppression in their life to spark cataclysmic demands for change, Song says. The spectacular failure of its command economy has made North Korea one of the poorest nations on Earth. By one plausible account, teenage defectors of the past decade are 5 inches shorter and 25 pounds lighter than their South Korean counterparts.

“I feel a great deal of anger now that I understand the problems” in North Korean society, he says. “I never felt it when I was there.”

entertainment buzz sport sport news sport updates football

May 18, 2012 – 11:01 pm Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off

Canadian Oil Sands Add Urgency to US Pipe Plan

Outside of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, America has no energy security plan. The next best thing may lie 500 miles north of the U.S.-Canada border in a remote area of Alberta.

Here, in an area roughly the size of Florida, lies the largest single deposit of petroleum anywhere in the world. Current estimates of recoverable oil are at 170 billion barrels. Future advances in technology could push that figure as high as 300 billion barrels ? bigger than oil titans Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.

And this oil doesn?t come from nations with a history of sketchy relations with the United States. Canada is among the most stable democracies in the world. Not a shot has been fired in anger toward the United States in 200 years.

?This really does represent energy security when you talk about North America,? Shell Canada?s Stephanie Sterling said. ?We are a friendly neighbor to the U.S., so what a terrific energy source to be able to provide to our neighbors.?

And unlike other foreign sources of oil to the U.S. that arrive in supertankers from volatile regions of the world, all that?s required to get the oil to American refineries is a simple pipe.

?We are looking at all pipeline infrastructure as a positive move,” Sterling said. “And I am hoping that when the Americans go through their regulatory process they will also feel that way about pipeline infrastructure.?

Yet earlier this year, the White House rejected a proposal to build a pipeline from the oil sands to the Gulf coast. Keystone XL would carry 800,000 barrels of Canadian oil every day to Louisiana and Texas refineries that are struggling to retain market share and jobs. The Canadian petroleum industry insists the construction of Keystone and expansion of oil sands production will be good for the economies of both nations.

?For every two jobs created in the oil sands, one job?s created in the U.S.,? says Travis Davies of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. ?You?re talking about close to a half a million jobs in America over the next 25 years because of oil sands development. Right now we?ve got thousands of suppliers in the U.S. in every state of the union.?

You need only visit one of the enormous oil sands mines to see what Davies is talking about. Huge electric shovels built in Wisconsin claw away at the tarry sands. Gigantic trucks made in Illinois with wheels 14 feet high, made in South Carolina, haul loads weighing 400 tons. In each is enough oil to fuel the average car for 175,000 miles.

The open pit mines are efficient. Eighty percent of the oil in the sand is recovered. That compares to about 65 percent in a traditional well. But they are a huge scar on what was pristine wilderness. There is as much environmental opposition to oil sands development in Canada as there is to Keystone pipeline construction in the United States.

Oil companies in Alberta have attempted to address that opposition with massive reclamation projects. At what was once an open pit mine, Syncrude employee Cheryl Robb took Fox News on a nature walk. ?This used to be a big hole in the ground,? Robb said as we walked along a dock on a quiet duck pond.

The area around us is lush with trees and other vegetation native to the boreal forest. She points to a dirt road a few hundred yards away. It was the border between virgin forest and the oil sands mine. Now you can?t tell the difference.

?We?ve proven that we know how to put it back together,? Robb says. ?And we?re very proud of the land that we?ve put back. When we leave this area, it?s our goal that you would never know we were here.?

The oil companies are meticulous about preserving the components for reclamation when they open a mine. The top layer of fertile topsoil ? ?muskeg? is carefully scraped off and saved. All the seeds are collected ? even berries – and sent to a nursery to be cultivated and stored.

When the mine is played out, all the sand washed of the oil-like bitumen it contained, is put back in the hole. The layer of muskeg is replaced ? wetlands created and native species replanted. Syncrude plans to plant a million trees and bushes in the next year. It?s 2012 budget for environmental projects? One billion dollars.

The cycle from wilderness to mine, then back again is a long one ? 30 to 40 years. But the province of Alberta feels it is a fair trade-off for the economic benefit of resource development.

But mining is only part of the equation here. The bulk of the oil is far too deep – as much as 1,500 feet in some areas ? to be reached with shovels.

Devon, a U.S.-based energy company, is using next-generation technology to get at the oil.

Cal Watson of Devon’s thermal operations group showed a double row of wells that have been drilled on a three-acre pad cut out of the forest.

?They go down 1,500 feet, then go out a half a mile,? he said. One well is the collection pipe. The other injects superheated steam into the oil sand. The steam liquefies the bitumen, which flows into the collection well. A nearby production plant ? built to the highest standards of energy efficiency ? processes the oil for sale ? and reconditions the condensed water so it can be reused to make steam.

Watson is proud of the reduced impact to the environment of what?s called ?in-situ? extraction. ?In a small footprint, really about three to four football fields in size, we can produce 35,000 barrels a day,” he said.

Fully 80 percent of the oil sands can only be exploited with such methods. And the leaps in technology will see a dramatic increase in production. About 1.6 million barrels of oil are currently produced each day. Within eight years, Canada hopes to more than double that.

That?s a lot of oil that would be available to the United States from a secure, reliable source. Much of it already is going to the U.S. through other pipelines, though Keystone would establish a direct connection to the Gulf Coast refineries.

Will the Keystone pipeline be built? Davies, of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, thinks it?s a no-brainer.

?We?ve got this relationship?, he says. ?A dollar spent in North America stays in North America. If we want to have energy security here on this continent, Canada?s the place to source the oil.?

info tags website blog cool

May 18, 2012 – 9:01 pm Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off

Who is the real jobs killer — Obama or Romney?

When it comes to the audacity of trope, it is hard to top President Obama — a big time jobs killer.

One of the president?s re-election campaign websites features a new attack ad in which a steelworker brands Mitt Romney as a person ?like a vampire? for ?destroy[ing] thousands of peoples? careers,? when Romney was the head of private equity firm Bain Capital.

Steven Rattner, Obama?s former economic adviser, says, ?I think the ad is unfair?and I don’t think there’s anything Bain Capital did that they need to be embarrassed about.”

What is even more unfair and embarrassing is that Obama ignores his own record of putting people out of work.

A recent analysis by economists Timothy Conley and Bill Dupor finds that Obama?s $862-billion stimulus, ?created/saved approximately 450 thousand state and local government jobs and destroyed/forestalled roughly one million private sector jobs.? That?s a net loss of more than half a million jobs?all from the private sector.

Then there are Obama?s unfair and embarrassing boasts about how his bailout of General Motors and Chrysler saved the auto industry. But, as Washington Post columnist and Fox News contributor Charles Krauthammer has pointed out, ?Within the first six months of the bailout, the auto industry lost 140,000 jobs. And three years later it has not recovered the employment level. It?s still minus 20,000. At the same time, one in ten auto dealerships evaporated?were wiped out. We started with 20,000?it?s about 17-and-a-half thousand right now.?

Speaking of 20,000, that?s the number of ?direct jobs? said not to be created because Obama blocked construction of the Keystone Oil Pipeline from Canada. That estimate comes from TransCanada, the company that wants to build the pipeline, which also projects that the pipeline would create nearly 120,000 ?indirect jobs? in industries like restaurants and hotels supporting the construction.

An analysis by finance professor Joseph Mason of Louisiana State University finds that Obama?s six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico cost an estimated 19,000 jobs and $1.1 billion in lost wages. There?s additional unfairness and embarrassment in this loss. The House Natural Resources Committee has uncovered new evidence that Obama?s White House justified the moratorium only by rewriting and distorting a study of the Gulf by outside experts.

Then there?s the estimate by the Congressional Budget Office that the implementation of Obamacare would destroy 800,000 jobs by 2021. And Reuters recently did an in-depth investigation of Obama?s ?green jobs? initiatives, finding that they have wilted in results. Reuters reports that, ?The wind industry, for example, has shed 10,000 jobs since 2009 even as the energy capacity of wind farms has nearly doubled, according to the American Wind Energy Association.?

And therein lies an appropriate trope for Obama?s real jobs record: it is just so much wind with little energy produced.

So here’s my advice for President Obama going forward: before you attack Mitt Romney again about jobs, Mr. President, remember that people who live in glass Oval Offices shouldn?t throw stones.

Communications consultant Jon Kraushar is at www.jonkraushar.net.

reference topical blog post article

May 18, 2012 – 7:01 pm Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off

How to Install Java Runtime In Ubuntu 12.04

If you have installed Ubuntu from scratch, most probably the java package is not installed by default. The java package is necessary to run any java-based app, including running java applets in the browser. While you may not use it it all the time, it is still handy to install…

How to Install Java Runtime In Ubuntu 12.04 originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)
Follow us at Facebook | Twitter

planet africa news africa buzz africa americas news

May 18, 2012 – 5:01 pm Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off

How To Securely Delete Files, Folders and Hard Drives [Windows]

Deleting files is as easy as pressing the delete button or selecting delete from the context menu of the selected item, but do you know that a simple delete in Windows doesn’t actually delete the file. It just free up the hard drive space, ready for other files to overwrite…

How To Securely Delete Files, Folders and Hard Drives [Windows] originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)
Follow us at Facebook | Twitter

latest updates most popular most view most talkabout national interest

May 18, 2012 – 1:00 pm Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off

Why Obama’s ‘enemies list’ is attractive — and wrong

New revelations about what amounts to an ?enemies list? compiled and shared by the Obama campaign ? a list reminiscent of the one compiled by the Nixon White House during the ?72 re-election campaign — are both totally understandable and deeply disturbing. And by understandable, I do not mean excusable, but something to which people should be paying attention and from which we can learn.

The fact that those behind this list expect it to work to their advantage is a given. They are doing this because they think it will help them win.

The real question is why would a list which plays on the details of Romney supporters? personal lives get any traction in voters? minds? Why are the details of donors? families and finances which are totally unrelated to the campaign be relevant to people?

The answer comes down to a single word: transparency. And let?s be clear, transparency in politics is a good thing. One might even say that political transparency is one of freedom?s greatest guarantors. And if this latest list was about meaningful transparency, I would actually favor it.

But it?s not.

The new enemies list is not about helping people get a better and clearer picture of the candidate and his views. It is NOT about the kind of transparency which all of us should demand from both our elected officials and our government.

This list is nothing more than ugly voyeurism pretending to be about transparency. It is the political version of bad reality TV, inviting strangers to see details of other people?s lives and based on that limited view, make decisions about who they are.

With details about people?s marriages, and claims about who is ?against America? ? the list substitutes ad hominem attack for substantive criticism. This list simply provokes the kind of anger and suspicion which invites reprisals from those who it attacks, and sends us even further down into the gutter where we seem to want our politics to play out.

And let?s not miss the all-out weirdness of the Obama campaign, turning a biblical mandate on its head and doing unto others as has been done to them. Having been subjected to a variety of attacks about his identity and that of key political allies and supporters, often by self-proclaimed ?truthers,? Team Obama Tweeted each and every name on the list from “@TruthTeam2012.”

Are they kidding? Do they have no memory of what they and their candidate endured so unfairly and for so long?

In fact, the emergence of this list is painfully ironic in light of many of the attacks now President Obama endured as candidate Obama. And like the worst of those attacks, the Obama enemies list plays on one of the oldest and ugliest traditions in politics, one which President Obama decried regularly in his first campaign: guilt by association.

Rather than focusing on the real differences which divide President Obama and Governor Romney ? differences about which good people disagree, and about which we need to talk as a nation ? this list suggests that the measure of a candidate can be taken by measuring a few of the people around him. Even if the portrayals of those on the list were accurate, the premise is wrong.

Again, it works, to the extent that it does, because people want to know more. I get that desire and I support the pursuit of its fulfillment.

In this case however, people who pay attention to this list are satisfying a legitimate hunger for information with irrelevant details. It?s like handing junk food to a starving person. Of course they will eat it ? they are starving! But the person feeding them is hardly making them healthier and may actually make them quite sick.

Rabbi Brad Hirschfield is the author of “You Don?t Have to Be Wrong for Me to Be Right: Finding Faith Without Fanaticism,” and president of Clal-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership.

news view info tags website

May 18, 2012 – 11:00 am Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off

Rock the Bells lineup

Wiz Khalifa is one of the many performers who will be part of the hip-hop festival Rock the Bells.

RZA, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony and more will perform at hip-hop festival Rock the Bells

Bone Thugs will perform their 1995 album “E. 1999 Eternal” in full

Presale will start this Friday, May 18, at 10 a.m. PT

(Rolling Stone) — Traveling hip-hop festival Rock the Bells has announced its lineup.

Performers include RZA (who will also curate the festival’s 36 Chambers Stage), Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, Wiz Khalifa, Ice Cube, Mac Miller, J. Cole, Kid Cudi, 2 Chainz, A$AP Rocky, Atmosphere, Missy Elliott and Timbaland, Redman and Method Man, Nas, Yelawolf, Kendrick Lamar, Dipset, Salt-N-Pepa, Tyga and more.

Bone Thugs will perform their 1995 album “E. 1999 Eternal” in full, while Redman and Method Man will perform their 1999 album “Blackout!” in its entirety.

Presale will start this Friday, May 18, at 10 a.m. PT. General sale will follow the next day, May 19, at 10 a.m. PT.

Rock the Bells will hit San Bernardino, California on August 19 and 20 and Mountain View, California on August 25 and 26, before wrapping up September 1 and 2 in Holmdel, New Jersey. For exact lineups for each city and more details, visit Rock the Bells’ official website.

See the full story at RollingStone.com.

Copyright © 2011 Rolling Stone.

asia buzz asia updates news asia europe news europe update

May 18, 2012 – 9:01 am Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off

Ballesteros’ son plays pro event

Javier Ballesteros competed in his first professional tournament Thursday, at the Sant Cugat course in Catalunya

Seve Ballesteros’ son Javier competes in first professional golf tournament

The 21-year-old’s first pro start comes at same course his late father made his debut

Seve is one of the most famous names in golf winning five majors during a glittering career

Javier to decide whether to become a full time pro after completing law studies at college

(CNN) — He has a long way to go to emulate the success of his father, who won five majors and thrilled the world of golf, but Javier Ballesteros is off to a promising start.

The 21-year-old made his debut on the professional golf circuit Thursday, 38 years after Severiano began his pro career on exactly the same course.

After starting at the Sant Cugat course in Catalunya, Spain, Seve went on to win three British Opens and two Masters titles and etch his name into the record books as one of the most entertaining and flamboyant players ever to pick up a club.

Seve died in May last year, at the age of 54, provoking an outpouring of grief from the world of golf. Many stars of the game attended his funeral in his home village of Pedrena.

Remembering Seve Ballesteros

Javier insists he doesn’t feel any weight of pressure being the son of one of golf’s most revered characters, but he offered a glimpse of his talent as he shot a five-under-par round to sit three shots off the lead after day one of the Peugeot Alps de Barcelona.

“My goal for this competition is enjoy it,” he said on the European Tour’s official website. “I don’t set goals when I play a tournament, especially being an amateur.

“What I have to do is enjoy and learn. I have no extra pressure being Seve’s son, I don’t really have anything to prove. I’m just going to be myself.

I have no extra pressure being Seve’s son, I don’t really have anything to prove. I’m just going to be myself
Javier Ballesteros

“When I registered for the Peugeot Tour event at Sant Cugat I didn’t know that my father played his first professional tournament here and now that I know, it’s double the excitement for me.”

Seve won 91 tournaments in a 33-year career and was a crucial part of Europe’s Ryder Cup team during much of the 1980s and 1990s, forming a formidable partnership with fellow Spaniard Jose Maria Olazabal.

Javier clearly has inherited a wealth of talent from Seve but says he is yet to decide if he will follow his father’s footsteps and become a golf professional once he has finished studying law in Madrid.

“I have always played golf,” he added. “I was on the national team when I was 14 to 16 years old, and being surrounded by golf at home always made me think about being a pro in the future.

“But I have to finish university first. It is something my parents have always told me to do, especially my father, and that is my priority. Then we will see.

“I have not made a schedule or set a time. It’s not just a case of turning professional as soon as I finish college. We will just see what happens.”

xpress edition world global planet africa news

May 18, 2012 – 7:00 am Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off

Suspected police impersonator questioned in Mississippi

Investigators suggest that the shooter posed as a police officer

An elderly man and a 48-year-old woman were shot dead

The victims did not know each other, authorities say

(CNN) — Ballistics tests have linked the shooting deaths of two people along roadways in Mississippi, a source who has been briefed on the investigation said Thursday.

Investigators have raised the possibility that someone posing as a police officer is to blame for the shootings, which happened 55 miles apart. Profilers from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have been asked to assist in the investigation.

In the first incident, Tom Schlender, 74, was found dead in his car about 1:30 a.m. in the median of an interstate highway last week. A few days later, Lori Anne Carswell, 48, was found dead outside her car on the shoulder of a state highway.

Authorities say the victims did not know each other.

Miss. police: Killer may be fake cop

Advice to drivers after motorists killed

Is it OK to wait before pulling over for a cop?

Schlender had been traveling from Nebraska, and according to bank records the family has looked up, he withdrew around $600 for the trip before he left, Schlender’s son-in-law, Matthew Anderson, said.

Schlender’s wallet was missing at the crime scene, Anderson said. The family would not indicate whether there has been any activity on Schlender’s accounts since the killing.

Carswell’s family declined to comment.

Because of the places where the drivers were found, and because nothing was found wrong with their cars, authorities say it’s possible someone posing as a police officer may have signaled to the drivers to pull over.

Overheard on CNN.com: Killings make police traffic stops scarier

The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is asking for the public’s help to find the person.

The agency has been receiving leads and processing forensic evidence, bureau spokesman Warren Strain said this week.

John Champion, attorney for the state’s 17th District, said both shootings occurred in “very remote areas.”

health health breakthrough health headlines leisure leisure reviews

May 18, 2012 – 5:01 am Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off

Things You Probably Didn?t Know But Really Needed in Windows 7

There comes a time in one person’s life, when he or she makes a paramount discovery of certain settings, features, or tweaks of Windows 7 that open doors to a brand new lifestyle. That moment could be now for you, depending on whether you know absolutely everything about your operating system…

Things You Probably Didn’t Know But Really Needed in Windows 7 originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)
Follow us at Facebook | Twitter

cool reference topical blog post

May 18, 2012 – 3:00 am Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off

Ballesteros’ son plays pro event

Javier Ballesteros competed in his first professional tournament Thursday, at the Sant Cugat course in Catalunya

Seve Ballesteros’ son Javier competes in first professional golf tournament

The 21-year-old’s first pro start comes at same course his late father made his debut

Seve is one of the most famous names in golf winning five majors during a glittering career

Javier to decide whether to become a full time pro after completing law studies at college

(CNN) — He has a long way to go to emulate the success of his father, who won five majors and thrilled the world of golf, but Javier Ballesteros is off to a promising start.

The 21-year-old made his debut on the professional golf circuit Thursday, 38 years after Severiano began his pro career on exactly the same course.

After starting at the Sant Cugat course in Catalunya, Spain, Seve went on to win three British Opens and two Masters titles and etch his name into the record books as one of the most entertaining and flamboyant players ever to pick up a club.

Seve died in May last year, at the age of 54, provoking an outpouring of grief from the world of golf. Many stars of the game attended his funeral in his home village of Pedrena.

Remembering Seve Ballesteros

Javier insists he doesn’t feel any weight of pressure being the son of one of golf’s most revered characters, but he offered a glimpse of his talent as he shot a five-under-par round to sit three shots off the lead after day one of the Peugeot Alps de Barcelona.

“My goal for this competition is enjoy it,” he said on the European Tour’s official website. “I don’t set goals when I play a tournament, especially being an amateur.

“What I have to do is enjoy and learn. I have no extra pressure being Seve’s son, I don’t really have anything to prove. I’m just going to be myself.

I have no extra pressure being Seve’s son, I don’t really have anything to prove. I’m just going to be myself
Javier Ballesteros

“When I registered for the Peugeot Tour event at Sant Cugat I didn’t know that my father played his first professional tournament here and now that I know, it’s double the excitement for me.”

Seve won 91 tournaments in a 33-year career and was a crucial part of Europe’s Ryder Cup team during much of the 1980s and 1990s, forming a formidable partnership with fellow Spaniard Jose Maria Olazabal.

Javier clearly has inherited a wealth of talent from Seve but says he is yet to decide if he will follow his father’s footsteps and become a golf professional once he has finished studying law in Madrid.

“I have always played golf,” he added. “I was on the national team when I was 14 to 16 years old, and being surrounded by golf at home always made me think about being a pro in the future.

“But I have to finish university first. It is something my parents have always told me to do, especially my father, and that is my priority. Then we will see.

“I have not made a schedule or set a time. It’s not just a case of turning professional as soon as I finish college. We will just see what happens.”

profile related topic latest site

May 18, 2012 – 1:00 am Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off

Coco: Voice Messaging For iOS And Android

,A few months back I reviewed the Voxer app. It was an app that worked both on Android as well as iOS mobile devices to message with text, voice, and pictures. It didn’t appear to be an app that was created for iOS, but adapted for it. Yet, it seemed…

Coco: Voice Messaging For iOS And Android originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)
Follow us at Facebook | Twitter

cool reference topical blog post

May 17, 2012 – 11:01 pm Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off

Does sugar make you stupid?

A study on rats suggests that eating a high fructose diet for as little as six weeks may make you stupid. Luckily, a diet high in omega-3 fatty acids can counteract this IQ loss, researchers suggest.

“Our findings illustrate that what you eat affects how you think,” study researcher Fernando Gomez-Pinilla, of the University of California, Los Angeles, said in a statement. “Eating a high-fructose diet over the long term alters your brain’s ability to learn and remember information. But adding omega-3 fatty acids to your meals can help minimize the damage.”

The study was published in the May 15 issue of the Journal of Physiology. The research was done on rats, but the researchers believe their brain chemistry is similar enough to humans to extend the findings.

Sugar v. syrup

The researchers zeroed in on high-fructose corn syrup, an inexpensive liquid six times sweeter than cane sugar, that is commonly added to processed foods, including soft drinks, condiments, applesauce and baby food.

The average American consumes more than 40 pounds of high-fructose corn syrup per year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Some scientists even think sugar should be taxed the way alcohol and tobacco products are.

“We’re not talking about naturally occurring fructose in fruits, which also contain important antioxidants,” Gomez-Pinilla said. “We’re concerned about high-fructose corn syrup that is added to manufactured food products as a sweetener and preservative.”

Maze & Memory

Before starting the experimental diet the rats were taught to navigate their way through a maze using visual landmarks to remember the way.

The researchers then separated the rats into two groups, both consumed a fructose solution as their water, but one half of the rats also received omega-3 fatty acids, which are thought to protect against damage to the synapses ? the chemical connections between brain cells that enable memory and learning. After six weeks of their new diet, the researchers tested the rats’ recall of the maze route.

“The second group of rats navigated the maze much faster than the rats that did not receive omega-3 fatty acids,” Gomez-Pinilla said. “Their brains showed a decline in synaptic activity. Their brain cells had trouble signaling each other, disrupting the rats’ ability to think clearly and recall the route they’d learned six weeks earlier.”

Sugar problems

The rats fed only high fructose corn syrup developed insulin resistance, which the researchers think may be what’s hurting the brain cells.

Insulin resistance due to the constant flow of fructose may have changed how cells use and store sugar and use it as the energy required for processing thoughts and emotions. (sugar is the only fuel that brain cells know how to use.) If the brain cells can’t use insulin correctly, it could impact how they work.

“Insulin is important in the body for controlling blood sugar, but it may play a different role in the brain, where insulin appears to disturb memory and learning,” Gomez-Pinilla said. “Our study shows that a high-fructose diet harms the brain as well as the body. This is something new.”

Their study also suggests that omega-3 fatty acids may help protect or heal the brain from this damage, Gomez-Pinilla said, though researchers aren’t sure how either of these effects happen at the molecular level in the brain. He recommends taking one gram of omega-3 fatty acids per day.

technology updates space space travel space happenings entertainment

May 17, 2012 – 9:01 pm Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off

How to Monitor Your Linux Performance With Sysstat

Sysstat is a powerful logging and monitoring tool for Linux/Unix systems. It can be used to monitor system performance and troubleshoot problems. Though many distros have GUI based monitoring applications and API?s, sysstat is a go-to for power users and can log and track pretty much everything going on within…

How to Monitor Your Linux Performance With Sysstat originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)
Follow us at Facebook | Twitter

asia updates news asia europe news europe update in europe

May 17, 2012 – 7:00 pm Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off

Book festival gets in to Gaza

.cnn_html_media_utility::before{color:red;content:’>>’;font-size:9px;line-height:12px;padding-right:1px} .cnnstrylccimg640{margin:0 27px 14px 0} .captionText{filter:alpha(opacity=100);opacity:1} .cnn_html_slideshow_media_caption a,.cnn_html_slideshow_media_caption a:visited,.cnn_html_slideshow_media_caption a:link,.captionText a,.captionText a:visited,.captiontext a:link{color:#004276;outline:medium none} .cnnVerticalGalleryPhoto{margin:0 auto;padding-right:68px;width:270px} ]]>

A group of 37 writers and artists spent five days in Gaza holding free public events, a concert and workshops for university students. Here some of the group visit the Beit Hanoun Crossing with Israel.

PalFest collected more than 1,500 books — including copies of an anthology of extracts from works by festival participants — which were distributed to cultural centers and university libraries.

None of the 37 writers and artists had previously been to Gaza. They traveled all around the territory, including to Old Gaza.

PalFest is a traveling festival that visits Palestinian communities

The group entered Gaza for the first time after four years visiting Jerusalem and the West Bank

The 37 writers and artists received permission from Egypt to enter Gaza through the Rafah crossing

Editor’s note: Each month, Inside the Middle East takes you behind the headlines to see a different side of this diverse region.

(CNN) — After five years of trying, an international group of authors have achieved their aim of taking their Palestine Festival of Literature to Gaza for the first time.

The annual traveling festival, known as PalFest, was set up in 2008 to bring book readings and cultural events to Palestinians who otherwise had little access to the outside world.

Each year the literary festival has visited several cities in the West Bank, but has been unable to gain permission from Israel to visit Gaza.

Israel imposed an economic blockade of Gaza when Hamas took over in 2007, which it says is needed to stop the transit of weaponry to be used by militants in attacks on Israel

This year, the group of 37 writers, artists and community organizers applied instead to enter Gaza from Egypt through the Rafah crossing, which re-opened last year. After a two-week wait, they were granted permission from the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to enter Gaza.

Also on Inside the Middle East: Gaza music students find smart ways around travel ban

We didn’t know if we would get in until the very last minute
Jamal Mahjoub

“We didn’t know if we would get in until the very last minute,” said Jamal Mahjoub, a British Sudanese author who traveled with PalFest. “We didn’t know if we would manage until we actually crossed the border.”

The group included Palestinians living in Jerusalem, West Bank and around the world, and prominent Arab authors including Egyptians Ahdaf Soueif and Khaled al Khamissi. None of them had been to Gaza before.

They spent five days in Gaza from May 5-9, running workshops for university students, free public events and visiting refugee camps.

Also on Inside the Middle East: Iraqi artist inspired by George W Bush shoe thrower

The 10-piece Egyptian band Eskenderella, which became well-known for playing in Tahrir Square during the Egyptian revolution, played its first concert in Gaza to a packed hall.

Omar Robert Hamilton, an independent filmmaker and founder of PalFest, said: “Coming to Gaza was a necessity. We have tried every year but always failed before. Everything was incomplete until we came.

“It was vital to come here because of the fact that it’s so divided and considered a separate entity, but at the same time totally connected to the West Bank.”

In total around 2,000 Gazans attended the PalFest events. In one event, each author had 10 minutes to give the message they had always wanted to say to Gazans.

Hamilton added: “It’s been pretty overwhelming. Everyone is so welcoming and pleased that we have managed to get there.

“They are very frustrated by the lack of access to the outside world. It’s been a very emotional trip, but overwhelmingly positive.

We began PalFest as an attempt to help connect Palestine with the rest of the world.
Omar Robert Hamilton

“We began PalFest as an attempt to help connect Palestine with the rest of the world. Lack of access to art, culture and education is a form of restriction.

“We wanted to do what we could to support cultural life in Palestine, and to put on a festival that would be taken for granted anywhere else.”

PalFest collected more than 1,500 books — including copies of an anthology of extracts from works by festival participants — which were distributed to cultural centers and university libraries.

Also on Inside the Middle East: Unspoiled island sanctuary caught on camera

Mahjoub said: “There was a real thirst for any books they could get their hands on: poetry, contemporary novels, books about history and politics. It’s hard for people and institutions to get enough books and resources.

“They are hungry for any kind of cultural life, as there are no cinemas and few concerts.”

He added: “The most important thing has been meeting people and talking on a cultural level, to hear about their experiences and their isolation.

“We have driven up and down the country and have tried to get as broad a picture as possible of what it’s like to live here. I didn’t come to lecture people about my literature, but to find out what their experiences are.”

PalFest organizers said that on Wednesday evening the closing event was shut down by the police, but added that police later apologized for the incident, saying it was an “individual error.”

PalFest is supported by organizations including the UK Arts Council and the British Council. Its patrons including Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe, British author Philip Pullman and British actor Emma Thompson.

This year’s festival also included one event in Ramallah in the West Bank and one in Cairo, Egypt, on May 11.

latest updates most popular most view most talkabout national interest

May 17, 2012 – 5:01 pm Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off

Down Under’s daunting tennis test

.cnn_html_media_utility::before{color:red;content:’>>’;font-size:9px;line-height:12px;padding-right:1px} .cnnstrylccimg640{margin:0 27px 14px 0} .captionText{filter:alpha(opacity=100);opacity:1} .cnn_html_slideshow_media_caption a,.cnn_html_slideshow_media_caption a:visited,.cnn_html_slideshow_media_caption a:link,.captionText a,.captionText a:visited,.captiontext a:link{color:#004276;outline:medium none} .cnnVerticalGalleryPhoto{margin:0 auto;padding-right:68px;width:270px} ]]>

When it comes to prize money, the Australian Open leads the way, with the 2012 tournament the richest in grand slam history. The prize fund is a whopping $23.9 million, with the winners of each singles event collecting a cool $2.2 million while the losing finalists can console themselves with a $1 million check.

The Melbourne sun can often soar to uncomfortable levels, with the 2007 tournament proving to be particularly hot. Maria Sharapova was among those to suffer in the conditions despite the Extreme Heat Policy that was introduced in 1998. This comes into play when temperatures hit 35 degrees Celcius, and can result in matches being suspended until the weather cools down.

In recent years, the sport’s genteel reputation has taken a bit of a battering, with Melbourne’s Serb and Croat communities often coming to blows while supporting their favorite players. This rivalry appears to have intensified as top players like men’s world number one Novak Djokovic have become more successful.

Although the singles winners’ trophies are instantly recognizable, their titles are not as widely known. The men battle it out for the the Norman Brookes Challenge Cup, while the top woman will collect the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Trophy — both famous names from the tournament’s illustrious history.

The Australian Open has had many different homes since the first tournament in 1905. Five cities have played host, with two events also played in New Zealand. Melbourne’s Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club became the permanent site in 1972, before the current venue at Melbourne Park was built specifically for the tournament in 1988.

The green hard-court playing surface was abandoned in 2008 and replaced with a blue alternative that has higher bounce and more cushioning, and is supposed to retain less heat.

Soaring crowds meant the tournament needed a bigger home, which resulted in the construction of Melbourne Park. The Australian Open consistently has the highest attendances of all four majors, with the 2010 event achieving a record single-day crowd of 77,043 and an overall figure of 653,860.

History was made in Melbourne in 1997 when Switzerland’s Martina Hingis lifted the women’s singles title with a 6-2 6-2 final success over Mary Pierce of France. Aged just 16 years and three months, Hingis became the youngest grand slam singles winner — a record she continues to hold — and she followed that success with victories in 1998 and 1999.

Australia has not enjoyed a home success in the men’s singles since Mark Edmondson triumphed in 1976. Opponent John Newcombe was expected to retain his title from the previous year, but Edmondson produced a stunning display to win in four sets. It was the 21-year-old’s first career title and, at 212th, he is the lowest-ranked grand slam winner in history.

The first grand slam of the tennis season, the Australian Open, takes place in Melbourne

Novak Djokovic and Kim Clijsters will be defending their men’s and women’s singles titles

In 1976, Mark Edmondson, world ranked 212th, claimed a shock victory in the tournament

Martina Hingis became the youngest grand slam winner when she triumphed in 1997

(CNN) — The Australian Open provides a testing challenge for the world’s top tennis players as they turn out for the first grand slam tournament of the season.

The searing heat of the Melbourne summer sun, the high bounce of the blue Plexicushion hard-court playing surface and the boisterous atmosphere generated by the packed stands all blend together to make the January 14-29 event an unforgettable experience.

It may not yet have prestige of the other three majors, but it is a place where stars are born and where legendary reputations are no guarantee of success — and the rewards have grown greater and greater.

The 2012 edition is the 100th in the tournament’s illustrious history, but what do you know about it? CNN Sport digs up nine items of interest about the southern hemisphere’s biggest tennis event.

Richest grand slam

Although Wimbledon and the U.S. and French Opens have arguably more prestige than the Australian event, there is no doubt, that in monetary terms at least, the Melbourne grand slam leads the way. And it isn’t just the singles champions who will be laughing all the way to the bank after their $2.2 million payouts. The men’s and women’s doubles winners will each receive $468,000 per pair, while the mixed doubles champions collect $140,000 per pair.

Fighting factions

Melbourne is a melting pot of different cultures and nationalities, and has more ethnic diversity than any other city in Australia. When Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis reached the men’s singles final against Roger Federer in 2006 he was cheered on by Melbourne’s large Greek-Australian community. Sadly, in recent years, nationalistic rivalry has spilled over into sporadic fighting, notably between Serb and Croat fans.

The heat is on

As part of the Extreme Heat Policy, which was introduced in 1998, Melbourne organizers have a regulation which is referred to as a “heat stress level.” The measurement of heat stress is a combination of ambient air temperature, wind speed, humidity and the intensity of solar radiation. When daytime temperatures hit 35 degrees and the heat stress level reaches 28, then play can be suspended and the roofs on two of the main arenas closed for any new matches starting.

Nomadic existence

The tournament was initially known as the Australasian Championships, then became the Australian Championships and enjoyed a nomadic existence in its early years. As well as the 56 tournaments in Melbourne, the other 44 have been spread across several cities, including Sydney (17), Adelaide (14), Brisbane (7), Perth (3). Across the Tasman Sea, New Zealand’s Christchurch and Hastings also hosted it in 1906 and 1912 respectively.

Follow the crowd

Toasting retirement with Thomas Muster

Once Melbourne was confirmed as the definitive home for the tournament, it soon became apparent that a new site needed to be constructed to accommodate the vast numbers of fans wanting to watch the action. In 1988 the tournament moved to the newly-built Melbourne Park complex and, since then, attendance figures have continued to soar. The main Rod Laver Arena has a seating capacity of 14,820, while the Hisense Arena can hold 11,000.

Surface switches

The tournament was played on grass until it left Kooyong. For the first two decades the new playing surface was the green Rebound Ace hard-court material, made by an Australian company, but in 2008 it changed to the U.S.-produced Plexicushion Prestige — which supposedly retains less heat and has better stability for players than its predecessor. Roger Federer and Serena Williams are the only players to have won the Australian title on both types of courts, while Sweden’s Mats Wilander is unique in his wins on grass and Rebound Ace.

Famous names honored

The Australian Open singles trophies are named after Norman Brookes and Daphne Akhurst. Brookes was a legendary player in the formative years of the game. He was the first non-Briton to win Wimbledon in 1907, and in 1926 he became the first president of the Lawn Tennis Association of Australia — a post he held for the next 28 years. Akhurst dominated Australian tennis in the 1920s, winning five Australian Opens before tragically dying of an ectopic pregnancy at the age of 29.

Hingis makes history

Martina Hingis was just 16 years, three months old when she beat Mary Pierce in the 1997 women’s final to become the youngest winner of a grand slam singles title. Remarkably the youngest men’s winner is also the oldest. In 1953, the 18-year-old Ken Rosewall won the first of his four Australian Open titles. The last of his wins came in 1972 at the age of 37 years and two months, making Rosewall the oldest grand slam singles champion in history — while the 19-year span between his first and last title is also a record.

Edmondson’s shock victory

Andy Murray tries road tennis

Australian legend John Newcombe was expected to stroll to his third Australian Open title, and eighth grand slam success, in 1976. His unseeded 22-year-old opponent Mark Edmondson had been taken to five sets by Austrian Peter Feigl in his opening match but caused a major upset by dumping top seed Rosewall out in the semifinals. Newcombe was the hot favorite to retain his title but, after winning the opening set, Edmondson hit back to take the next three for a stunning triumph. Edmondson went on to become an accomplished doubles player, claiming four Australian Open titles in the 1980s, but he never won another grand slam singles title.

blog cool reference topical blog

May 17, 2012 – 3:00 pm Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off

Major champ Curtis ends long wait

Ben Curtis ended a win drought that had lasted 2,045 days after securing the Valero Texas Open title

Ben Curtis lands his first trophy for six years by winning the Valero Texas Open

The 2003 British Open champ has only qualified for four PGA tournaments this year

His last victory came in 2006 but he didn’t record a single top ten finish in 2011

Curtis wins by two shots from Matt Every and John Huh at the TPC San Antonio

(CNN) — He’s a former British Open champion but Ben Curtis’ fall from grace has been such that the Valero Texas Open was only the fourth tournament he’d scraped a place in this season.

But after securing his first PGA Tour victory in six-years on Sunday, and scooping the $1.1 million prize pot, the 34-year-old can stop praying for the phone to ring to offer him a shot at redemption.

His status had sunk to such an extent he had lost his Tour privileges but after holding his nerve over a tense few final holes, he secured a two-stroke victory over Matt Every and John Huh.

“It’s been a tough couple of years,” an emotional Curtis told the PGA Tour’s official website. “Just played through it, that’s all you can do.

“You think you’re just staying positive and not worried about it, but I think deep down, you realize all the hard work you put in that, you know, finally paid off.”

Curtis was catapulted into the limelight when he won the first major tournament he competed in — the 2003 Open at Royal St George’s. It was the first time a player had won on a major debut in 90 years.

He was named PGA Tour rookie of the year that same season, and four further victories followed up to 2006. But his form dipped and so began a drought that lasted 2,045 days.

It’s been a tough couple of years. Just played through it, that’s all you can do
Ben Curtis

Last year, he failed to record a single top ten finish for the first time since he joined the Tour.

“That’s a long time,” he added. “The last couple of years I felt like I was so close to playing so many good tournaments.

“I’d end up missing the cut by one or I’d have a bad round here or there or I haven’t putted well. Finally, every part of the game came together.”

Curtis showed he still has the mettle required to get over the line in a dramatic final few holes. He saved par on the 17th hole with a nerveless 23-foot putt.

Then on the final hole he rolled in a birdie putt to finish on nine-under and claim the tournament by two clear strokes.

“When you come out here and win one, well, if I win one every year I have a great career. That would be true,” Curtis said.

“But, you know, to get to three, four, five wins — you’re a solid player. I just feel like you get yourself into contention and just have that belief, and anything can happen.”

His victory secured Curtis a two-year Tour card and almost certainly means he will qualify for the lucrative FedExCup Playoffs at the end of the season.

After restoring his pride, Curtis is determined to make the most of his reinstated privileges too, which means he can play in all but a few tournaments on the 2012 Tour.

So where will he begin? “New Orleans next week,” he replied.

asia buzz asia updates news asia europe news europe update

May 17, 2012 – 1:00 pm Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off

Google revamps search again

With Knowledge Graph, a Google search will ask if you want the galaxy, TV show or rock band

Google introduces Knowledge Graph, a revamped effort to make search more intuitive

New tool divides search terms into most likely categories

Knowledge Graph begins rolling out Wednesday to users in the U.S.

(CNN) — So, let’s say you’re doing a Google search for “Kings.” Did you mean the L.A. hockey team or the Sacramento basketball team? Maybe the TV show? Or maybe you actually wanted to know something about monarchs.

Google on Wednesday announced Knowledge Graph, a significant change to how search results are delivered that the company believes will make their search engine think more like a human.

“The web pages we [currently] return for the search ‘kings,’ they’re all good,” Jack Menzel, director of product management at Google, told CNN in an interview. “You, as a human, associate those words with their real-world meaning but, for a computer, they’re just a random string of characters.”

With Knowledge Graph, which will begin rolling out to some users immediately, results will be arranged according to categories with which the search term has been associated. So, in the above example, boxes will appear with separate results for the hockey team, basketball team and TV show.

The user can then click on one of those boxes to only get results for the specific topic they were searching.

“It hones your search results right in on the task that you’re after,” Menzel said.

More specific searches, say for the name of a celebrity, will render boxes with basic information, as well as links to what Google believes are possibly related searches.

Menzel says the initial version of Knowledge Graph has information on 500 million people, places and things and uses 3.5 billion defining attributes and connections to create categories for them.

The feature will begin rolling out as early as Wednesday afternoon for some users in the United States and eventually be available on desktop, mobile and tablet searches. It will first become available in English, then in other languages, Menzel said.

opinion opinion line opinions scitech scitech news

May 17, 2012 – 11:00 am Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off

Fear fuelng GOP extremism

GOP Sen. Rand Paul speaks during last summer’s budget crisis, which David Frum cites as an example of GOP irresponsibility.

Op-ed from respected political observers says the core problem with government is GOP

It says GOP is extreme, won’t compromise, is irresponsible, ignores evidence

David Frum: GOP’s radicalization is the result of changes in politics and economy

Frum: Rich GOP voters could lose the most, others fear change in their lives

Editor’s note: David Frum is a contributing editor at Newsweek and The Daily Beast and a CNN contributor. He is the author of seven books, including a new novel, “Patriots.”

(CNN) — Last month, two political scientists published one of those rare op-eds that gets the political community talking.

The thesis of the piece was contained in the title: “Let’s just say it: The Republicans are the problem.”

In case that was not clear enough, the authors elaborated: “We have been studying Washington politics and Congress for more than 40 years, and never have we seen them this dysfunctional.

“In our past writings, we have criticized both parties when we believed it was warranted. Today, however, we have no choice but to acknowledge that the core of the problem lies with the Republican Party.

“The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.

“When one party moves this far from the mainstream, it makes it nearly impossible for the political system to deal constructively with the country’s challenges.”

Follow @CNNOpinion on Twitter and Facebook/CNNOpinion.

The piece drew its authority from the authors’ identity: Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein, two of Washington’s most veteran watchers of Congress. Both men have hard-earned reputations for nonideological independence of mind despite their institutional affiliations: Mann works at the liberal Brookings Institution, Ornstein at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. (Ornstein is a friend of mine, and was a colleague until I was given the heave-ho from AEI in March 2010.)

Now they have backed their provocative op-ed with a new book, “It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism.”

The book backs the arresting op-ed with a battery of depressing research, substantiating their charge that congressional Republicans now act in a uniquely irresponsible way.

The debt showdown last summer was the ultimate case: congressional Republicans nearly forcing a default on the obligations of the United States to get their way on a budget agreement.

But the pattern manifests itself in almost all the business of government, down to the most mundane.

For example: Because Senate rules often require unanimous consent to move to the next order of business, a determined minority can force delay on almost any action it opposes.

Since 2009, Republicans have used this power of delay hyper-aggressively. Compare and contrast the treatment of executive-branch nominees.

Sixteen months into the George W. Bush administration, Memorial Day 2002, only 13 executive-branch nominations awaited confirmation by the Senate. At the corresponding moment in the Obama administration, Memorial Day 2010, 108 nominees were awaiting action by the Senate.

This comparison is supported by another academic study. The confirmation process got gradually slower between the 1960s and the 1990s. Then, suddenly, in the second Clinton administration, the confirmation process seized up.

Under the elder Bush, a Republican president facing a Democratic Senate, 92% of nominees were confirmed within an average of 57 days. In the second Clinton administration, facing a Republican Senate, only 74% of nominees were confirmed, taking an average of 110 days.

Ornstein and Mann offer a convincing array of explanations for the trend toward radicalism within the GOP, including changes in campaign finance and in the electorate itself. They offer too a range of proposals to work around GOP radicalism and restore the effective functioning of Congress. If those proposals have a faint wistful air to them, blame the inherent difficulty of the problem, not Mann and Ornstein.

But one thing is missing from their powerful and important book, and it’s a thought I’d like to enter here into the record: The radicalization of the GOP is a function of changes, not only in U.S. politics, but also in the U.S. economy.

Americans are living through an era of disappointment. It’s becoming obvious that the U.S. government cannot meet all the expectations that built up in better times.

The tax status quo, the Medicare status quo, the social safety net status quo, the defense status quo — they can’t all be sustained. Something must give, and almost everybody senses it.

In good times, we debate whether government should expand programs or cut taxes — new benefits in either case.

In these times, we are debating whether government should impose large reductions in programs or impose big increases in taxes — taking from people benefits that they now enjoy.

Human beings will typically fight much more ferociously to keep what they possess than to gain something new. And the constituencies that vote Republican happen to possess the most and thus to be exposed to the worst risks of loss.

The Republican voting base includes not only the wealthy with the most to fear from tax increases, but also the elderly and the rural, the two constituencies that benefit the most from federal spending and thus have the most to lose from spending cuts.

All those constituencies together fear that almost any conceivable change will be change for the worse from their point of view: higher taxes, less Medicare, or possibly both. Any attempt to do more for other constituencies — the unemployed, the young — represents an extra, urgent threat to them.

That sense of threat radicalizes voters and donors — and has built a huge reservoir of votes and money for politicians and activists who speak as radically as the donors and voters feel.

Which means the solution to the problems so astutely diagnosed by Mann and Ornstein must ultimately be found outside the American political system — and will not be solved until America’s rich and America’s elderly become either less fearful or more generous.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of David Frum.

most popular most view most talkabout national interest national

May 17, 2012 – 9:00 am Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off

15-love: Top tennis romances

.cnn_html_media_utility::before{color:red;content:’>>’;font-size:9px;line-height:12px;padding-right:1px} .cnnstrylccimg640{margin:0 27px 14px 0} .captionText{filter:alpha(opacity=100);opacity:1} .cnn_html_slideshow_media_caption a,.cnn_html_slideshow_media_caption a:visited,.cnn_html_slideshow_media_caption a:link,.captionText a,.captionText a:visited,.captiontext a:link{color:#004276;outline:medium none} .cnnVerticalGalleryPhoto{margin:0 auto;padding-right:68px;width:270px} ]]>

Tennis’ ultimate poster couple are still going strong after 10 years of marriage since reportedly getting together at the champions’ ball after both won the French Open in 1999. They have two children and still play the odd charity match, but rarely battle each other. As their website reveals: “Andre says his problem playing Steffi is not watching the ball.”

Roger Federer met Mirka Vavrinec at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 when they both represented Switzerland. Mirka says her husband’s glittering career has eased her pain after injury forced her retirement in 2002. Of his wife, Roger told the Telegraph newspaper: “I developed faster, grew faster with her. I owe her a lot.”

She is the former world No. 1 waiting to land her first major title — he’s the baby-faced golfer whose capitulation at the 2011 Masters, and subsequent victory at the U.S. Open, entranced the sport. Together since September last year, Denmark’s Wozniacki and McIlroy, from Northern Ireland, go by the moniker of “Wozilroy” and say they lean on each other’s experiences to help their sporting performance.

World No. 8 Adam Scott’s appearance at last month’s Australian Open confirmed that another powerful golf and tennis combo are back on the scene. They split in 2010, but 2008 French Open champion Ivanovic told Australian newspaper the Herald Sun: “Sometimes you need time apart to figure things out.”

Hewitt and Clijsters, both former world No. 1s, met at the Australian Open in 2000, reportedly after Kim’s sister Elkie asked her to get Lleyton’s autograph. They announced their engagement in 2003 but split in October 2004. Both decried the “malicious gossip” that followed their separation.

Chris Evert’s romance with Jimmy Connors was one that captivated the sporting world after they both won Wimbledon singles titles in 1974, but a planned wedding in November that year was called off. Tennis writer Peter Bodo famously said of the couple: “It was a match made in heaven, not on Earth, which is probably why it didn’t last.”

The courtship of former world No. 8 Kournikova and pop star Iglesias was the very definition of a high-profile romance when they started dating in 2001. The Russian appeared in the video for Iglesias’ song “Escape,” causing a media frenzy. They are still together, 10 years on.

British pop star Cliff Richard revealed in his 2008 autobiography “My Life, My Way” that he nearly asked 1976 French Open winner Sue Barker — now a TV presenter — to marry him in 1982. The couple’s relationship attracted much press attention. “I seriously contemplated asking Sue to marry me,” he wrote. “But in the end I realized that I didn’t love her quite enough to commit the rest of my life to her.”

They grew up in the same town and were instantly dubbed the “Czech mates” when they started dating in 2003. But they split in 2011, with Czech model Ester Satorova seen watching world No. 7 Berdych at November’s season-ending ATP World Tour Finals in London.

After her split with Connors in 1974, 18-time grand slam winner Evert married British tennis pro John Lloyd in 1979, the same year he reached the Australian Open final. Evert’s alleged affair with late British pop star Adam Faith threatened to derail their marriage. They reconciled, but then divorced in 1987.

Former women’s No. 1 Hingis became engaged to Stepanek in 2006 but a year later the couple announced through the ATP Tour they had split. Hingis, who won five grand slam titles, retired in 2007 after testing positive for cocaine during Wimbledon. Stepanek married fellow Czech Nicole Vaidisova in July 2010.

A third entry to the list for Evert, whose romance and susbsequent marriage to Australian golfer Greg Norman — known as the “The Great White Shark” — captured headlines in 1998. Evert even caddied for the two-time British Open winner at the Masters during a par-three tournament. The couple split 15 months after their wedding.

Former world No. 1 Andy Roddick famously began dating Brooklyn Decker in 2007 after asking his agent to track down a phone number for the Sports Illustrated model. They were married in 2009 at a ceremony that included Agassi and Graf as guests.

The romance between Russian tennis ace Sharapova and Slovenian basketballer Vujacic blossomed in 2009 before their engagement was announced in October the following year. The former L.A. Lakers star can often be seen courtside, cheering the three-time grand slam winner on at major tournaments. He now plys his trade in Turkey.

Before Agassi teamed up with Graf, he married actress Brooke Shields in 1997 after a four-year courtship. Agassi, winner of three grand slam titles by then, and Shields, star of TV sitcom “Suddenly Susan,” were a box office hit but split after less than two years of marriage in 1999.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

CNN World Sport selects the top 15 romances involving the stars of tennis

Rich history of tennis love-matches over the sport’s long history

Major champions Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf still together after 10 years of marriage

Caroline Wozniacki and Rory McIlroy — known as “Wozilroy” — recently started dating

(CNN) — The life of a tennis professional is tough, but the rewards are plentiful — and not just in a financial sense.

The long trawl around the globe on both the men’s and women’s tours has often been a breeding ground for blossoming courtships, as lovestruck couples decide it is game, set and match while gazing at the figure on the opposite baseline.

With Valentine’s Day upon us, CNN World Sport charts the 15 top romances involving the stars of tennis in the gallery above. If you disagree, or think we’ve missed any out, let us know in the comments section below the story.

Who could forget the enduring romance of Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf, both multiple grand slam winners, whose love was reputedly cemented at the 1999 French Open champions’ ball and is still going strong after 10 years of marriage?

How to play mixed doubles

What is the Hopman Cup?

One of the game’s greatest ever players, Roger Federer, met his wife Mirka when the pair represented Switzerland at the Sydney Olympics in 2000.

But it is not all happily ever after. Chris Evert, an 18-time grand slam champion, has served love games to two fellow professionals — Jimmy Connors and John Lloyd — only for cupid to return a double fault.

Several high-profile recent relationships have proved the kinship between tennis and other sports too, especially golf.

Golf star Rory McIlroy, who won the 2011 U.S. Open, is currently dating former tennis world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki. The partnered pair refer to themselves as “Wozilroy.”

Another golfer, Australia’s Adam Scott, has recently rekindled his romance with glamorous Serbian tennis star Ana Ivanovic, the 2008 French Open champion.

Tennis has long been linked with showbiz, and high-profile names in the game have often mingled with stars of stage and screen.

British pop crooner Cliff Richard’s relationship with 1976 French Open winner Sue Barker made waves in the early 1980s, while Agassi’s brief marriage to American actress Brooke Shields also attracted a deluge of headlines.

americas news

May 6, 2012 – 11:00 pm Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off

Qatar’s first female Olympians

Air rifle shooter Bahiya Al-Hammad, 19, training at her club near Doha, Qatar.

Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Brunei are the only countries that have never sent female athletes to Olympics

Air rifle shooter Bahiya Al-Hamad, swimmer Nada Arkaji and sprinter Noor al-Malki will compete at London 2012

“It’s an accomplishment for every Qatari woman,” said Al-Hamad

Editor’s note: Each month, Inside the Middle East takes you behind the headlines to see a different side of this diverse region. Follow us on on Twitter: Presenter Rima Maktabi: @rimamaktabi, producer Jon Jensen: @jonjensen and writer Cat Davies @catrionadavies

Doha, Qatar (CNN) — Bahiya Al-Hamad is a 19-year-old college student and air-rifle shooter who is about to make history for her country.

When she travels to London to take part in the Olympic Games this summer, she will be part of the first group of Qatari women ever to compete at the Olympics.

Qatar is one of only three countries — the others are Saudi Arabia and Brunei — which have never sent female athletes to an Olympics Games. This year, three women will represent Qatar at London 2012. The others are swimmer Nada Arkaji and sprinter Noor al-Malki.

It’s an accomplishment for every Qatari woman.
Bahiya Al-Hammad

All three women have been given wild cards, but there is still a weight of expectation that is not lost of Al-Hamad.

“It’s an accomplishment for every Qatari woman,” she said. “I hope I can live up to their expectation.”

Training at her shooting club outside Qatar’s capital Doha, Al-Hamad added: “Every athlete’s dream is to reach the Olympics.”

Competing in London in July and August will be a high point in her life as well as a historic moment for Qatar. “I will be very excited to go see the atmosphere there and it will sure be one the most special days of my life,” she said.

Al-Hamad has won several regional competitions in the 10-meter rifle shooting category, but missed out on automatically qualifying for London 2012 by half a point. She said she was asleep when she received a call to say she had been awarded a wild card.

“I wanted to scream,” she said. “I really loved it. I was optimistic, but never expected to reach the Olympics.

“My dream when it comes to shooting is to be the Olympic or world champion.”

See also: Will Saudi women make Olympics debut?

It will sure be one the most special days of my life.
Bahiya Al-Hammad

One of her shooting club colleagues, Ali Rashid al-Mohannadi, 21, Gulf and Arab champion, and a senior engineering student, said he has nothing but respect for Al-Hamad.

“I think women now are better than us,” he said. “I’m very happy, because she’s a talented shooter. I’m very happy for her, and I hope she does well in the Olympic Games.”

However, not everyone in his socially conservative country feel the same.

“I feel men don’t realize the idea yet, but it depends,” said Al-Hamad. “Some of them are OK with it, some are not. They say ‘you’re a girl and you shoot?’”

She added: “Before, shooting was only for guys but now it became normal for females to an extent. When they saw women emerging in shooting they became a little bit more accepting.”

Also on Inside the Middle East: Iraqi artist inspired by George W Bush shoe thrower

Al-Hamad, who is in her foundation year at Qatar University, is now training two hours a day, five days a week with her Uzbeki coach to be ready to compete alongside the world’s greatest 10-meter rifle shooters.

“We participated in the junior Olympic Games in Singapore two years back but the result was not good,” said her coach, Ivan Shahov. “But I hope with this Olympic Games we have a chance.”

asia updates news asia europe news europe update in europe

May 6, 2012 – 9:00 pm Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off

Windows Q&As: No Wireless Connectivity, BSOD Error, Windows Stuck On Waking Up And Many More? (Week 13)

It’s been a rather busy week for us at MakeTechEasier, but we still managed to research your questions and get solid answers for them. We apologize to those whose questions we chose not to answer as they were not Windows-related. If you can rephrase your questions, we’ll get to them…

Windows Q&As: No Wireless Connectivity, BSOD Error, Windows Stuck On Waking Up And Many More… (Week 13) originally published on Make Tech Easier (RSS)
Follow us at Facebook | Twitter

space happenings entertainment top entertainment entertainment buzz sport

May 6, 2012 – 7:00 pm Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off

Who is your favorite superhero?

.cnn_html_media_utility::before{color:red;content:’>>’;font-size:9px;line-height:12px;padding-right:1px} .cnnstrylccimg640{margin:0 27px 14px 0} .captionText{filter:alpha(opacity=100);opacity:1} .cnn_html_slideshow_media_caption a,.cnn_html_slideshow_media_caption a:visited,.cnn_html_slideshow_media_caption a:link,.captionText a,.captionText a:visited,.captiontext a:link{color:#004276;outline:medium none} .cnnVerticalGalleryPhoto{margin:0 auto;padding-right:68px;width:270px} ]]>

Robert Downey Jr. brought Iron Man to life in 2008, and then again in 2010. In “The Avengers,” which hits theaters today, the superhero shares the big screen with a few of his crime-fighting counterparts, but this iReporter says Iron Man is definitely his favorite. Who’s your favorite superhero?

Chris Evans first donned red, white and blue for 2011′s “Captain America: The First Avenger.” He continues his fight against evil in “The Avengers.”

Mark Ruffalo gets his turn in the stretchy purple pants in “The Avengers.” Eric Bana and Edward Norton played Bruce Banner in “Hulk” (2003) and “The Incredible Hulk” (2008), respectively. Bill Bixby played David (yes, not Bruce) Banner and Lou Ferrigno his monstrous alter ego in the TV series that aired from 1977 to 1982.

Following in Tobey Maguire’s footsteps — err, spider webs — Andrew Garfield stars in “The Amazing Spider-Man,” to hit theaters on July 3.

Following Michael Keaton in 1989 (and 1992), Val Kilmer in 1995 and George Clooney in 1997, Christian Bale has been driving the Batmobile since 2005′s “Batman Begins.” “The Dark Knight” captivated moviegoers in 2008, and “The Dark Knight Rises” — out July 20 — will likely do the same.

Halle Berry’s Storm and Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine became fan favorites when “X-Men” hit theaters 12 years ago. The pair also appeared together in “X2″ (2003) and “X-Men: The Last Stand” (2006). Wolverine also starred in 2009′s “X-Men Origins,” and even made a hilarious appearance in 2011′s “X-Men: First Class.”

The late Christopher Reeve worked the Krypton native’s red cape in 1978′s “Superman” (and its three sequels). Brandon Routh took over in 2006′s “Superman Returns,” and Henry Cavill will do the honors in 2013′s “Man of Steel.”

Ryan Reynolds became the Green Lantern in 2011 and has, presumably, been fighting evil ever since.

Lynda Carter’s Wonder Woman fought crime on the small screen in “The New Adventure’s of Wonder Woman,” which premiered in 1975. Several “Wonder Woman” reboots have since tried and failed.

Ron Perlman went red for Guillermo del Toro’s “Hellboy” in 2004 and “Hellboy II: The Golden Army” in 2008.

Last year’s “Captain America” wasn’t Chris Evans’ first time battling evil in a form-fitting blue suit. Evans, Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba and Michael Chiklis took on Victor von Doom (Julian McMahon) in 2005′s “Fantastic Four.” They teamed up again in the 2007 sequel to defeat the Silver Surfer.

Mikey Kelley, James Arnold Taylor, Nolan North and Mitchell Whitfield voiced the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in 2007′s “TMNT.” Everyone’s favorite pizza-eatng reptles will be back in Michael Bay’s upcoming live-action reboot.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

motorsport headlines tennis tennis headlines tennis news travel

May 6, 2012 – 5:01 pm Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off

Attacker in Afghan army uniform kills NATO soldier

An attacker wearing an Afghan army uniform opened fire on international troops Sunday in southern Afghanistan, killing one, NATO said. Coalition forces returned fire and killed the attacker.

The shooting was the latest in a string of attacks against U.S. and other foreign forces by their Afghan partners or assailants posing as them.

The alliance did not provide more details, saying an investigation was under way. It also did not disclose the nationality of the service member killed. NATO usually waits for member nations to provide those details.

Such attacks have raised the level of mistrust and ill will between the U.S.-led coalition and its Afghan counterparts and drawn concern about the readiness of government forces to take over their own security ahead of the 2014 deadline for the withdrawal of foreign combat troops.

The insider threat to foreigners trying to mentor and strengthen Afghan security forces has existed for years but has grown more deadly.

The U.S.-led coalition routinely reports each time an American or other foreign soldier is killed by an Afghan in uniform, but the military is under-reporting the number of overall attacks. The Associated Press reported earlier this month that the International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, does not report attacks in which the Afghan wounds — or misses — his U.S. or allied target. It also doesn’t report the wounding of troops who were attacked alongside those who were killed.

The number of such attacks have been on the rise. So far this year there have been 19 attacks killing 12 soldiers, compared to 21 last year killing 35 coalition service members, according to NATO figures.

That compares with 11 fatal attacks and 20 deaths the previous year. In 2007 and 2008 there were a combined total of four attacks and four deaths.

U.S. officials say that in most cases the Afghans who turn their guns on their allies are motivated not by sympathy for the Taliban or on orders from insurgents, but rather act as a result of personal grievances against the coalition.

Also Sunday, a NATO service member was killed by a bomb in eastern Afghanistan.

The coalition initially said three service members were killed in the attack, but later corrected its statement.

Militants commonly plant bombs along roads used by security forces, inflicting heavy casualties on NATO and Afghan government forces but also on civilians.

So far this month, seven coalition members have died in Afghanistan, bringing the year’s toll to 139.

africa news africa buzz africa americas news amercias buzz

May 6, 2012 – 3:00 pm Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off

Review: ‘ Avengers’ a smackdown

‘Avengers’ to test superhero star power

“The Avengers” — interspersing flip one-liners with a host of larger-than-life characters

Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark gets a good measure of the movie’s best lines

Mark Ruffalo is more dangerous and more fun than either Edward Norton or Eric Bana

Editor’s note: Please be aware that this review may contain spoilers.

(CNN) — A celebration of specialness, Joss Whedon’s slick blockbuster “The Avengers” presents what may be the ultimate team: half a dozen Marvel Comics superheroes for the price of one.

You don’t need me to tell you it’s the culmination of a five-year plan that began with Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury taking Tony Stark aside at the end of the first “Iron Man” to tip him off as to the “Avengers Initative.” There is a bigger picture, he told him — and here it is: The be-all but not (they’re hoping) the end-all of the current craze for CGI-enhanced superheroics.

Interspersing flip one-liners with a host of larger-than-life characters and the usual flurry of fight-and-flight scenes, the film is never less than amusing. Still, it’s never more than amusing either. Marvel Studios has made it a point of pride to diverge from the grim severity popularized in the DC / Warner Bros Batman films. The lightness is fun but it doesn’t offer much of a foundation on which to build an epic.

And let’s face it, there’s more than a whiff of opportunism about a project that pits a defrosted World War II hero, Captain America (Chris Evans), an inventor-industrialist, Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), the pagan lightning god, Thor (Chris Hemsworth), a scientist with anger-management issues, Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), and SHIELD agents Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) against the Norse god of mischief, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and a legion of marauding aliens. In 3-D.

Meet the boss of ‘The Avengers’

Chris Hemsworth is ‘Thor’

Chatting with the ‘Iron Man 2′ cast

Still, Whedon (who shares a screenplay credit with Zak Penn) is a very sharp operator.

He knows which buttons to press and where there’s room for a little diversion. The improbability of this misfit coalition becomes the movie’s most rewarding asset. Imagine the bristling egos of so many power players cooped up in the same room!

The movie delivers the kind of pleasures usually reserved for fan fiction or playground stand-offs. Not surprisingly, Robert Downey Jr.’s flip, cynical Stark (Iron Man) gets a good measure of the movie’s best lines, bouncing off Steve Rogers’ (Captain America) boy scout idealism and Thor’s guileless sledgehammer style (sometimes literally). Whedon also crafts a couple of choice scenes beautifully tailored for Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow, a far more interesting character here than she appeared to be in “Iron Man 2.”

But no question, the movie’s not-so-secret weapon is Hulk.

Mark Ruffalo is the third actor to play Bruce Banner/Hulk in the past decade, and even though the soft-spoken star would seem to have the longest fuse (when we first see him he’s tending to the sick in an Indian slum) he’s immediately both more dangerous and more fun than either Edward Norton or Eric Bana in the same role. Whedon gives him a long build up. For the first hour of the movie we’re invited to speculate along with his new allies just how much havoc Banner’s rampaging id might cause. Then the leash comes off!

Never underestimate the entertainment value of the Hulk Smash. That’s probably the most important lesson to be drawn here, and one that clearly hasn’t been lost on the filmmakers, who have reportedly signed Ruffalo to a six-picture deal.

Beyond that, the movie wants us to believe that these action figures have learned to play nice and work as a team — which is good news for humanity, but maybe not so promising for the inevitable sequels. A climax on the war-torn streets of Manhattan could almost be an extended outtake from the last “Transformers” flick — Whedon can only push the blockbuster form so far — but if it’s a Friday Night SmackDown you’re after, “Avengers” gets the job done.

blog cool reference topical blog

May 6, 2012 – 1:00 pm Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off

Comment: Latino labels don’t matter

Protesters wave American flags and flags of their nations of origin at an immigration rally in Dallas in 2009.

Ruben Navarrette: New survey reveals attitudes on Latino, Hispanic designations

He says most with Latin American roots prefer to identify with their countries of origin

But he says when they’re harassed as a bloc, they unify; for example, on immigration

Navarrette: Latinos should put aside petty labels, concentrate on big issues that affect them

Editor’s note: Ruben Navarrette Jr. is a CNN.com contributor and a nationally syndicated columnist with the Washington Post Writers Group.

(CNN) — What’s in a nombre?

Apparently, for some Latinos, er, I mean Hispanics, it matters a lot. When researchers asked a group of people with roots in Latin America what they wanted to be called, they got a variety of responses.

According to a new survey by the Pew Hispanic Center, the preferred term for many is “Hispanic.” People prefer that word over “Latino” by a two-to-one margin, 33% to 14%.

But the study also revealed that most Latinos/Hispanics (51%) don’t use either term and couldn’t care less what they’re called.

Also, in a fascinating trend, the survey found that for those who want to affix their own label, the first preference is tied to an individual’s country of origin or that of their parents. Fifty-one percent of those surveyed said they describe their identity by using country of origin.

Surprise. Come to find out that we’re not “Hispanics” or “Latinos” after all. We’re Dominicans, Cubans, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Nicaraguans, Salvadorans, Brazilian and a couple dozen other possibilities drawn from this hemisphere. The more specific, the better.

According to the survey, only 24% of respondents said they use catchall phrases like “Hispanic” or “Latino.” And in a finding that will almost certainly rattle the nativists, even fewer — only 21% — say they typically describe themselves simply as “American.”

What does all this mean for the fastest-growing ethnic group in the United States?

Aside from Madison Avenue advertising firms, government bureaucrats and the political parties, it shows not many people seem to be all that fond of all-encompassing umbrella terms like “Hispanic” and “Latino.”

There is no Latino/Hispanic voting bloc or even one central experience that these people are all going through in this country. The concept of Latino/Hispanic unity is probably overrated, as we are reminded whenever there is an outbreak of ethnic infighting.

Of course, there are exceptions to every rule. The U.S. Latino/Hispanic population tends to close ranks whenever it feels attacked, harassed or marginalized, as with the immigration debate. That issue more directly impacts Mexicans and Mexican-Americans than, say, Puerto Ricans and Cuban-Americans.

And yet, in Congress, you see Puerto Rican and Cuban-American lawmakers pushing for comprehensive immigration reform. Perhaps this is because they understand that much of the ugly rhetoric on the other side is aimed at all Latinos/Hispanics — not just Mexicans and Mexican-Americans — and that we’re all in this together.

In fact, the same is true for Americans in general. We may look different, but many of us are living essentially the same lives. We need to spend less time trying to label each other, and more time looking for opportunities to empathize with one another and work together for the common good.

No one asked me, but, when it comes to ethnic labels, here’s my preference: “I don’t care.”

The 50.5 million Latinos/Hispanics in this country have many more important issues to deal with. This is the Dickensian era for America’s largest minority, representing both the best of times and the worst of times. When Latinos/Hispanics aren’t being pursued by marketing agencies and Fortune 500 companies hungry for a slice of more than $1 trillion in annual buying power, they’re being hounded by nativist mobs, racist politicians and the perpetrators of hate crimes. It is all mixed together.

Amid all these challenges, politics and government aren’t usually the solutions; more often, they’re part of the problem. Those on the left should be concerned that President Obama, a Democrat, has deported more than 1.2 million people, most of whom were Latino/Hispanic. Those on the right should worry about mending fences between Latinos/Hispanics and making the Republican Party more inclusive before it goes the way of bell bottom pants.

And with all this happening around them, it’s foolish for Latinos/Hispanics to get passionate about the labels that others slap on them.

What they are called is a petty concern. Calling for respect, calling attention to their issues, and calling out injustice wherever they see it: These are more important battles to fight.

Let’s get to it.

Follow us on Twitter: @CNNOpinion.

Join us at Facebook/CNNOpinion.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Ruben Navarrette.

motorsport motorsport news motorsport headlines tennis tennis headlines

May 6, 2012 – 11:01 am Categories: Uncategorized | Comments Off

« Older posts

Pages

Categories

Archives

Search

RSS Feeds

Meta