Enter your email address:

Local Surfers' Close Call With A Jumping Shark

>> Friday, January 30, 2009

Your Ad Here




HUTCHINSON ISLAND, FL--Spinner sharks migrate close to the Palm Beach County and Treasure Coast shores this time of year.They look ominous when photographed from above but imagine seeing one of these up close!Three local men did and they have the amazing video to prove it!They are longtime surfers and always have a videocamera with them to document the best waves.

Recently off Hutchinson Island they saw a 6 to 7 foot spinner shark shooting out of the water and pirouetting 5 or 6 times ---all within a few feet of where they were surfing.Surfer Kevin Barry says, "After seeing the video it was more of a wow! rather than seeing the splash out of the corner of your eye..when you slowed the video down and see the size of the shark..every bit of it."

John Binchani, another local surfer says, "I haven't seen anything like it and with how frequently they jump out of the water and how many cell phones and cameras there are on the beach...it's unique we got it."Their video has made the rounds on the internet. The three surfing friends say they're working to put together a video of a "day in the life" of a Florida surfer...and this is certainly one of the highlights.



source

Your Ad Here





Read more...

Fallout 3 Operation Anchorage

Your Ad Here




Bethesda Softworks releases the DLC for Fallout 3. Here's all you need to know:

Content: Fallout 3 Operation: Anchorage
Price: 800 Points
Availability: Not available in Japan
Dash Text: [ESRB: M (Mature) BLOOD AND GORE,INTENSE VIOLENCE,SEXUAL THEMES,STRONG LANGUAGE,USE OF DRUGS] Enter the simulation pod and embark on one of the greatest military campaigns of the Fallout universe – the liberation of Anchorage, Alaska from its Chinese Communist invaders. Experience harrowing winter combat using Fallout 3’s patented V.A.T.S. targeting system, and employ powerful new equipment like the Gauss Rifle, Chinese Stealth Armor, Winterized T-51b Power Armor, and more. Enlist today, soldier!

The Fallout 3 DLC is currently available for MS 800 points on Games For Windows Live and Xbox Live.

Source : http://www.actiontrip.com

Your Ad Here





Read more...

Reality Kings Username And Password

Your Ad Here




Reality Kings Username and Password

Reality Kings is a video site that offers videos intended for adults. I just knew about Reality Kings a few moments ago because I discovered that the keyword "Reality Kings Username and password" is at the 11th place in Google Trends. So, driven by curiosity, I googled "Reality Kings Username and Password" and found no real, informative results. And I thought, why not look for 'Reality Kings'. There it is, the Reality Kings site. Wow, a site full of rubbish! You have to have an account to access Reality Kings, and if I were not mistaken, you have to pay for your account. So, that's why people, especially pervs are looking for Free Reality Kings Username and Password. Why, pervs, don't think a RealityKings Username and Password is worth a cent? Yeah, you are right. It doesn't worth a cent. The site is such a time-waster! Then why bother to look for Free Reality Kings Usernames and Passwords, huh?

Your Ad Here





Read more...

Clearing up EFCA facts

Your Ad Here




It’s amazing how quickly a catchphrase can start echoing through the media. Sometimes the source is popular culture: remember “Where’s the beef?” from the 1980s? Sometimes it’s a bit more insidious.

Right now, for example, what’s filtering through the Colorado media is the distorted talking point that proposed federal legislation dealing with organized labor, the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), would eliminate the right of workers to hold a secret-ballot vote on organizing their workplaces.

Although the highest-profile opposition has come from conservative voices, the pros and cons of the EFCA have generated considerable debate on both ends of the political spectrum.


Factually misrepresented

However, what Colorado newspaper readers and radio listeners are being told about the EFCA by news and opinion sources factually misrepresents the legislation.

For an issue as serious as the EFCA, readers and listeners should demand serious media coverage and editorial discussion. They haven’t been getting it.

What they have been getting from some of the state’s largest newspapers and radio stations are assertions that the EFCA “would eliminate the secret ballot in union-organizing elections,” that it “takes away workers’ right for a private vote on unions,” or that it “effectively eliminates the secret ballot vote among workers when forming a union.”

The House Committee on Education and Labor has described the claim that “[t]he Employee Free Choice Act abolishes the National Labor Relations Board’s ‘secret ballot’ election process” as a “myth.” The committee states on its Web site: “The Employee Free Choice Act would make that choice — whether to use the NLRB election process or majority sign-up — a majority choice of the employees, not the employer.”

As The New York Times reported, “Business groups have attacked the legislation because it would take away employers’ right to insist on holding a secret-ballot election to determine whether workers favored unionization.”

That’s pretty clear, right? Apparently the word hasn’t reached some of the media in Colorado, where a variety of news reports and editorial comments have parroted the inaccurate claim that EFCA would strip workers of the right to a secret-ballot union organizing election.

Read More ...

Your Ad Here





Read more...

Cecil Suwal, Spitzer-Linked New York Madam, Gets Six Months

Your Ad Here




NEW YORK — A college student who managed the prostitution ring that brought down former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer was sentenced Thursday to six months in prison.

Cecil Suwal, 24, of New York, cried as she apologized and asked for mercy from U.S. District Judge Barbara S. Jones.

"It is my aim to prevent others, especially young girls, from making the kind of mistakes that I have made," Suwal said.

She pleaded guilty last year to money laundering, conspiracy and conspiring to promote prostitution.

The federal probation department had recommended that Suwal receive no prison time. Prosecutors had sought roughly two years.

Suwal was 18 when she got involved with a man nearly three times her age. She was Mark Brener's "paramour, his companion and ultimately his assistant" at the Emperors Club VIP, a $5,500-an-hour escort service, said defense attorney Alberto A. Ebanks.

Ebanks said Brener's psychological domination left Suwal incapable of making independent decisions. Her attorney said she even had a tattoo on her body reading "property of Mark Brener."

But Ebanks said Suwal has "permanently severed the umbilical cord from Brener," adding that she attended college last semester, did charity work, had steady appropriate employment and had volunteered for a forensic psychological evaluation.

The federal judge credited Suwal for going to "extraordinary lengths to put her life back on track" but said it could not erase the fact that she had played a central role in the escort service.

Brener, 63, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit a prostitution offense and conspiracy to commit money laundering. He faces between 2 and 2 1/2 years in prison.

The judge said Suwal opened bank accounts for shell businesses created to hide the true nature of the operation, paid prostitutes and arranged meetings with clients.

It was one such meeting in a Washington hotel last February that snared Spitzer and led to his March resignation as governor.

Prosecutors announced in November they would not charge Spitzer after investigators found no evidence that he misused public or campaign funds for prostitution. The federal government typically does not prosecute clients of prostitution rings.

Booking agent Tanya Robin Hollander of Rhinebeck, N.Y., pleaded guilty to a prostitution conspiracy and was sentenced to a year of probation. Another booking agent, Temeka Lewis, who is enrolled at the University of Virginia, is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to promoting prostitution and money laundering.
source

Your Ad Here





Read more...

Wing Bowl 17 Primed Hits Philadelphia; Contestants Battle for 2009 Mini Cooper Clubman

Your Ad Here




Wing Bowl 2009 Will Have 27 Contestants Compete to See Who Can Eat the Most Wings with Prizes Going to the Winner and Their Entourage.

Wing Bowl 17 is coming to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Wing Bowl 17 will pit some of the best wing eaters in the world against each other to decide the 2009 Wing Bowl Champion. The competition will all come down to the final 27 contestants, all of which would love to own the title of Wing Bowl Champion, and who all bring their own unique eating styles to the competition. When Wing Bowl 17 gets underway on Friday morning, thousands of fans will get to watch as the new Wing Champion is crowned.

Wing Bowl 17 is set to take place at 5:30am on Friday, January 30th in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The competition will take place at the Wachovia Center, where a sold out crowd will have the chance to watch a new competitor take over the title. This year's competition had a couple of rule changes, including limiting the field of competitors to only amateur contestants, allowing for there to be a changing of the guard in the title holder. According to the Wing Bowl web-site, only 3 different people had won over the past 8 years, and this was felt to be a good way to get some new blood into the battle.

The Wing Bowl is definitely a competition of over-eaters, and you have to be a fan of wings in order to get anything out of a competition like this. In the world of eating competitions though, it is quite serious business, with people competing who have trained on how to eat their wings the fastest, and seeing how many they can do in a specific period of time. It will be a challenge for new-comers to live up to the feats that have been accomplished in the past, and it will be interesting to see whether a brand new name can live up to the billing of Wing Bowl Champion.

Read More ...

Your Ad Here





Read more...

Angela Suleman: Mother of California Octuplets Has 6 Other Children

Your Ad Here




Whittier, California is home to Angela Suleman. Prior to giving birth to eight babies earlier this week, she was living with her parents in a neat cul-de-sac neighborhood with her other six children, ages 7,6,5,3 and twin 2 year olds.

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that the woman’s partner will be returning to his job as a contract worker in Iraq in order to help support Suleman and her expanded family. The couple’s marital status is unclear.

Suleman sought fertility treatment and was implanted with numerous embryos last year and according to the mother, they all happened to take. Throughout the pregnancy, doctors thought there were seven babies. The surprise eighth baby shocked the massive delivery team that was assembled at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Bellflower, California.

Medical ethicists and fertility specialists were quick to share their arguments against the dangerous practice of implanting more than two embryo at one time. The mother was given counseling on selective reduction early on in her pregnancy but decided against terminating any of the babies.

Dr. Harold Henry, the woman’s physician said, “Our goal is to provide the best care possible no matter what the situation or circumstances are. What I do is just explain the facts. I always talk about the risks. The mother weights those options, and she chooses the option based on spiritual or personal makeup.”

The births are only the second set of octuplets successfully delivered in the U.S. The Chukwu family of Houston is raising seven children. One of their babies died shortly after birth.

Angela Suleman, new mother of the octuplets issued this statement:

“We understand that you are all curious about the arrival of the octuplets, and we appreciate your respect for our family’s privacy. Please know in our own time, we will share additional details about this miraculous experience. The babies continue to grow strong every day and make good progress. My family and I are ecstatic about their arrival. Needless to say, the eighth was a surprise to us all, but a blessing as well. We thank all of you for the positive thoughts, prayers and generosity.”

The hospital has been flooded with gift baskets, sealed envelopes and flowers for the new mother.

Your Ad Here





Read more...

Bacon belly bomb is a big hit

Your Ad Here




Never underestimate the power of bacon — or the Internet.

Two local barbecue-lovin’ guys have found themselves the toast of the bacon world thanks to a recipe calling for just two main ingredients: bacon (two pounds of it) and Italian sausage (two pounds of that). The sausage is wrapped in a basket-weaved blanket of bacon, and for good measure there’s even more bacon inside. Sweet KC-style sauce, too.

Then you smoke it. In a backyard smoker.

Aaron Chronister and Jason Day, who compete in barbecue circles as Burnt Finger BBQ, call this meat missile “Bacon Explosion.” And explode it has: first online (it helps that Chronister is an Internet marketer), then Wednesday on the cover of The New York Times’ food section (headline: “Take Bacon. Add Sausage. Blog”), then online some more.

Anyone doubt that Kansas City is the barbecue capital of the world?

All told, Chronister and Day say the Bacon Explosion recipe on their site, www.bbqaddicts.com., has attracted 510,000 page views since it was posted just before Christmas; 90,000 alone on Wednesday.

Now, thanks to the Times story, the bacon buds are bound for New York, where they’ll smoke their sausage Friday morning in Times Square. That’ll be on Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends” show. Then they’ll head south to Tampa, Fla., to do some Super Bowl tailgating Sunday on another Fox channel. Two book publishers e-mailed Wednesday and want to talk.

This whole thing started when a Web site called Bacon Today asked Chronister and Day if they had any bacon barbecue recipes. “The longer I thought about it,” Day wrote on bbqaddicts.com, “the more I wanted to step it up a notch and clog a few arteries for those guys.”

Chronister, 32, of Kansas City, and Day, 27, of Roeland Park, admit they’re not the first foodies to combine the two pork products in a barbecue recipe. But you have to give ’em credit for a catchy name.

More than that, you have to give them credit for knowing how to exploit the Internet. Chronister’s brilliant move was posting on Twitter, a site that sends out short Web-based text messages. His 1,200 Twitter “followers” — mostly other Internet marketers and “social network influencers” — took it from there.

Some of them thumbs-upped the Bacon Explosion post on a site called StumbleUpon, which suggests Web pages based on a user’s interests. The recipe became so hot there it went to the site’s front page.

Other sites, such as Digg and Del.icio.us, also helped the recipe go viral. There’s a Bacon Explosion fan page on Facebook. On YouTube, you can watch gas grills catching on fire when the Bacon Explosion log almost literally explodes. (Hint: Cooking in a smoker, with indirect heat, is the recommended method. Dripping bacon grease and an open flame are a dangerous combination.)

Chronister and Day do not claim, by the way, that Bacon Explosion is health food. Just one little sandwich — a couple of 1/4 -inch to 1/2 -inch rounds of meat on a buttermilk biscuit — “sits heavy,” Day says. The entire meat log contains something like 5,000 calories and 500 grams of fat.

One of the first comments posted in response to the recipe: “They should make drive-through angioplasty. It would make this much easier.”

Amy Winn of the Kansas City Barbeque Society hadn’t heard of the Bacon Explosion until The Star called her, but she’d like to try it.

Your Ad Here





Read more...

Rajasthan Board Exams from March 12

Your Ad Here




Ajmer: The Board of Secondary Education of Rajasthan (BOSER) has put the roll numbers of students, appearing for the senior secondary examination scheduled to be held from March 12, 2009, on its website.

"This year a total of 4,37,310 examinees are appearing for the senior secondary examination. Out of these, 3,81,695 students are appearing as regular candidates while others are private candidates," said Board Secretary Mirju Ram Sharma.

Students need to log on to www.rajeduboard.nic.in to know their roll number and other details.

Rajasthan Board
Examinations 2009 Datesheet

Your Ad Here





Read more...

DRDO eyes EADS role in Tejas

Your Ad Here




The DRDO and HAL are reportedly eyeing a prominent role for EADS in the development of the indigenous Tejas light combat aircraft (LCA).

The organisation's Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) has considered offering the company $20 million to help increase the aircraft's flight envelope and attack vector.

"We have proposed to award the contract to the EADS to help us in carrying out the flight trials of the aircraft and see how its flight envelope can be increased," a DRDO official told Indopia.

The official explained that EADS had significant experience in the development of aircraft for its member partners and could help evaluate the Tejas "without endangering it".

The Tejas is constructed of aluminium-lithium alloys, carbon-fibre composites and titanium. Global Security notes that the LCA integrates modern design concepts with advanced technology, including relaxed static stability, flyby-wire flight controls, multi-mode radar, digital avionics and a flat rated engine.

The LCA is equipped with eight external hardpoints to carry stores, with three under each wing. A 23mm twin barrelled GSh-23 gun capable of a 50 round-per-second burst rate is located under the starboard air intake. In addition, the Tejas can be armed with air-to-air, air-to-ground and anti-ship missiles, as well as precision-guided munitions, rockets and bombs.

source

Your Ad Here





Read more...

Australianopen Tennis Live Scroes

Your Ad Here




Click thease links to get Live Score :

http://www.tennis.com/livescores/index.html

http://www.australianopen.com/en_AU/index.html

Your Ad Here





Read more...

Williams sisters wins Australian Open doubles

Your Ad Here




Serena and Venus Williams teamed to win their eighth Grand Slam doubles title Friday in the Australian Open, a day before Serena's bid for a 10th major singles crown.

The Williams sisters beat Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia and Japan's Ai Sugiyama 6-3, 6-3 for their third doubles championship in Australia.

The roof was closed at Rod Laver Arena, with outside temperatures topping 113 degrees by late afternoon on the third day of a heat wave.

"I'd like to thank Serena for being the best partner," Venus said. "I wouldn't want to play with anyone else. She's amazing."

The sisters also combined to win the Olympic gold medal in Beijing last year.

Playing under cover was the ideal warmup for Serena ahead of her singles final against third-seeded Dinara Safina on Saturday night.

"I think it definitely helps my singles," Serena said. "It definitely does serve as practice. Although when I'm practicing, like today I was practicing singles instead of doubles, for my match. So I'm having a lot of practices and a lot of workouts. I just look at it like I'm burning lots of calories."

Safina, the younger sister of 2005 Australian Open men's champion and former No. 1-ranked Marat Safin, has never won a major.

The 22-year-old Russian's best previous run at a Grand Slam event ended in a loss to Ana Ivanovic in the French Open final.

Serena Williams has won the Australian title every odd-numbered year since 2003 and has nine singles majors overall.

Roger Federer is only one way from equaling Pete Sampras' record of 14 Grand Slam singles titles.

Andy Roddick was right there when Sampras won his 14th. And Roddick was right there again when Federer moved within one victory of matching the record.

After a scorching day, Federer beat Roddick 6-2, 7-5, 7-5 in more manageable 91-degree heat Thursday night in the semifinals.

The Swiss star will be playing in his 18th Grand Slam final but won't know his opponent until Friday night, when Spanish left-handers Rafael Nadal and Fernando Verdasco meet in the other semifinal.

It was Federer's seventh straight win over Roddick in a major and put his overall record in this matchup at 16-2. Federer's loss to Roddick in Miami last year now seems like an aberration.

Roddick lost to Sampras in straight sets in the quarterfinals at the 2002 U.S. Open when he was a 20-year-old emerging talent. Sampras, then 31 and in his 52nd major, retired after beating Andre Agassi two matches later to win the U.S. Open.

Roddick won the next year at Flushing Meadows and held the No. 1 ranking in 2003, just as Federer was about to embark on an astonishing run.

"When Pete did it — I was a part of that one, too — everyone was saying how kind of lofty of an achievement it was," Roddick said. "I don't know if we thought we would see it any time soon. Little did we know (Federer) was going to start it the next year and go after it."

Roddick is 26, a year younger than Federer.

"It's like my childhood was Pete, and now it's kind of my grown life is Roger," Roddick said. "I guess Roger is a contemporary of mine, which didn't lessen the affect. I see Pete and Andre and I still get a little jittery. It's crazy to think it's come full circle and the magnitude of the numbers (Federer's) accomplished, it's pretty scary if you sit down and go through what it takes to accomplish that."

Federer's focus has been increasingly sharp since he was forced to come back from two sets down to beat Tomas Berdych in the fourth round. In his quarterfinal, he convincingly took down No. 8-ranked Juan Martin del Potro, then did the same against Roddick.

Read More ...

Your Ad Here





Read more...

Spice doubles…no Idea why!

Your Ad Here




The stock finally closed at Rs57.3 a mind-boggling 100% jump from its previous close.

Spice Communication was the talk of the town as the stock was on fire on Friday, a mind-boggling 100% spurt from its previous close. The stock finally closed at Rs57.3 hitting an intra-day high of Rs57.4 and a low of Rs27 and recorded volumes of over 9mn shares on BSE.

The only available news is that BK Modi, Chairman, Spice Group was reported as saying that “Spice Innovation is interested in acquiring 51% stake in Satyam Computers.”

Your Ad Here





Read more...

IBM Gets Additional Business From IDEA Cellular to Integrate IT Operations in Two More Service Areas in India

Your Ad Here




Eight-Year Transformation Services Contract Includes Integration of Software Applications, Hardware, Data Center Operations, IT Help-Desk and Transition Services

IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that it will integrate the end-to-end information technology (IT) operations of IDEA Cellular, a leading telecom operator, in two service areas of Punjab and Karnataka in India. Through the acquisition of Spice Communications, IDEA Cellular has recently launched its services in the two areas with a subscriber base of approximately four million.

The scope of the eight-year agreement, signed in December 2008, includes integration, transition and migration of existing Spice applications, hardware, packages and products to the IDEA Transformed Applications platform. As part of the deal, IBM will manage all IT operations and services for IDEA's business in Punjab and Karnataka. In addition, IBM will migrate the IT help desk services to its state-of-the-art centralized helpdesk in Pune.

The complete integration, transition and migration of the IT operations and business processes of Spice Communications with IDEA is expected to be completed within 27 months and is valued at US$19.2 million (Rs. 86 crores). After completing the transition, IBM will manage IT operations in the two service areas, under the existing outsourcing services contract with IDEA.

"IBM has showcased in-depth knowledge and expertise in managing and augmenting IDEA's IT infrastructure and business processes," said Mr. Prakash Paranjape, Chief Information Officer, IDEA Cellular. "Our experience with IBM over the last two years gives us confidence that the two new service areas will be integrated seamlessly into the IDEA network."

The deal builds on the existing 10-year business transformation pact that IBM had signed with IDEA Cellular in March 2007 to integrate, innovate and transform IDEA's business processes and IT infrastructure. The pact is designed on an innovative risk-reward sharing model that is based on a shared revenue arrangement. It covered all of IDEA's existing operations, expansion into new circles and potential new additions. In June 2007, IBM signed another 10-year contract to deploy, integrate, innovate and transform IDEA's Interactive Voice Response Self-Service project.

Commenting on the extended partnership, Ashish Kumar, IBM Vice President, Client Services in India and Southeast Asia, said, "This agreement further strengthens our relationship with IDEA Cellular. The integration of Spice Communication into IDEA Cellular's IT infrastructure will help showcase some of the best practices and deep domain knowledge within IBM. This will allow IDEA to provide its stakeholders with greater value, scalability and service delivery innovation. We are delighted to extend this partnership with IDEA Cellular."

About IBM

For more information on IBM visit www.ibm.com/services.

About IDEA Cellular Ltd.

IDEA Cellular Ltd. is a leading GSM mobile services operator with over 38 million subscribers, under brand IDEA. It has licenses and spectrum to operate in all 22 service areas of India with commercial operations in 15 service areas, currently. IDEA is listed on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) in India.

IDEA Cellular is part of the Aditya Birla Group, India's first truly multinational corporation. The group operates in 20 countries, and is anchored by over 100,000 employees belonging to 25 nationalities. More information on the company is available at: www.ideacellular.com and on the group at: www.adityabirla.com

Your Ad Here





Read more...

Spice’s Modi Makes $408 Million Offer for Control of Satyam

Your Ad Here




Jan. 30 (Bloomberg) -- B. K. Modi, who sold his stake in Spice Communications Ltd. to Idea Cellular Ltd., has offered to buy a 51 percent stake in Satyam Computer Services Ltd. for 20 billion rupees ($408 million), the Spice Corp. chairman said.

“We have sent a proposal to the board as well as the government,” Modi said today in a telephone interview from New Delhi. “Spice is in information, communication and entertainment and this aligns with our present business.”

Spice Innovation, Modi’s closely held New Delhi-based holding company, has offered the cash in exchange for preference shares from the Hyderabad-based Satyam, he said.

Satyam’s state-appointed board has hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Avendus Capital Ltd. to find strategic investors or a buyer for the provider at the center of India’s largest corporate fraud inquiry as it seeks funds to pay salaries and run the business. It has yet to name a chief executive officer for the company three weeks after founder Ramalinga Raju was arrested.

“The key thing is that the money must go into the company,” Modi said. The 20 billion rupees is the amount Satyam needs to run its operations and “we have the money,” he said.

Satyam’s government-appointed directors said on Jan. 27 they had organized money to pay salaries for January and were set to complete funding arrangements for meeting the company’s immediate needs. The provider faces a severe cash crunch since Raju said Jan. 7 he’d inflated assets by $1 billion and quit as chairman.

The software company, which is being investigated by India’s fraud office, auditing body, markets regulator and police, also faces U.S. class-action lawsuits after Raju admitted to inflating earnings for “several years.”

Potential Buyers

Satyam has attracted interest from several potential buyers and the provider said Jan. 27 it has no plans to cede control to Larsen & Toubro Ltd. after the nation’s biggest engineering company tripled its stake to 12 percent. Chairman A.M. Naik said Larsen may lift its holding in Satyam to 15 percent, the threshold for an offer to investors under Indian takeover rules.

Modi said he plans to change Satyam’s brand name if he succeeds in acquiring the company and said Spice was familiar with regulations in the markets where Satyam operated and was prepared to deal with any legal action the provider may face.

“If we invest our main focus will be on how to revive the company and how to grow it,” he said. “We have our lawyers and we know how to deal with the lawsuits.”

source

Your Ad Here





Read more...

CSVTU Withelds Students in BE-3rd REG/BACKLOG

Your Ad Here




Withelds Students in BE-3rd REG/BACKLOG

CSVTU Research Journal

The University

Chhattisgarh Swami Vivekanand Technical University (CSVTU) has been established by an Act(No.25 0f 2004) of Legislature passed by the Chhattisgarh State Govt. Assembly, wide notification No.639/21-A/Prarupan/2004 date 21st Jan 2005 and published in the State Govt. gazette 24th January, 2005. The University incorporates the purpose of ensuring systematic, efficient and qualitative education in engineering and technological subjects including Architecture and Pharmacy at Research, Postgraduate, Degree and Diploma level. The foundation stone of the University was laid down by Hon'ble Dr. Manmohan Sigh, the Prime Minister, Govt. of India on April 30th 2005.

Your Ad Here





Read more...

Victory Review

Your Ad Here




Movie Review: Victory; Star cast: Hurman Baweja,
Amrita Rao, Anupam Kher and Gulshan Grover;
Director: Ajitpal Mangat;
Rating: **; Is a huge let down.


Vijay Shekhawat (Hurman) a Jaisalmer boy after a lot of struggle manages to fulfill his father’s (Anupam Kher) dream of making it to the Indian cricket team. With a great debut he wins not just fans but a lot of endorsement deals and lucrative contracts. Success begins to spoil and distancing him from his lady love (Amrita Rao) back home. Blinded by success and the taste of the high society life he losses both focus and form. He is then understandably dumped by the selectors. Following which, his father gets a heart attack. Vijay then decides to mend his mistakes and fight his way back to the team. In final match, despite a severe head injury he manages to get India a near impossible win.

A sports film is always crippled with a same storyline that of a underdog, his rise then fall and subsequent rise back to gain the impossible victory. This film is no different. But one expects atleast some sense of creativity wherein the interest is kept alive throughout. Twenty minutes into the film and one somehow senses whats in store. So full of cliches and melodrama is the film that sometimes you begin to wonder did the makers intend to take the viewers for a ride. If the melodrama was intended to bring in that emotional connect with the audience then the writer-director have clearly failed as throughout the film the emotional impact is clearly missing. Also nowhere does the lead character’s passion for the game comes across. Also one fails to understand the need of Hurman’s character using swear words for his opponents. Wear is your sporting spirit dude is what we wish to ask him! His character therefore fails to evoke any sympathy from the audience. The biggest high point of sports films are games shown in the film. But here they are biggest drawbacks. Not only there are just a very few games but also what are shown are simply thanda! There is total lack of edge of the seat excitement which was very much needed. Also homework by the makers is clearly lacking if they intended to show the ‘real’ behind the scenes happenings of the cricket match for example the dressing room interactions etc. Just putting in famous national-international cricketing names don’t necessarily give the film authenticity.

One feels really sad for Hurman Baweja whose tremendous hard work is noticeable in every single scene but is mightily let down by a pathetic script and listless direction by debutante Ajitpal Mangat. Amrita Rao reprises her typical simple small town girl act for the nth time. She looks very pretty though. Anupam Kher after a point of time starts grating on your nerves with his screeching over melodramatic act. Gulshan Grover is just about okay.

The music doesn’t really register any impact as there are no full songs as well. The Balla Utha number mostly keeps playing in the background during the match sequences. But thankfully the songs are less.

The film is a complete let down in many departments and instead of wasting time on this film it is a better option to watch a re-run of any Indian cricket team match on TV or best spend your time watching the current India v/s Sri Lanka one day series.

Your Ad Here





Read more...

American Idol: "Salt Lake City Auditions" Review

Your Ad Here




Once again, American Idol has bounced back from a mediocre episode and given us a good one. While some of this is due to the talent level of the singers, most of it comes down to the editing. Great reality TV, like Survivor and The Amazing Race, is all about editing miles of footage into a compelling story. When you're watching these audition shows, which are all essentially the same, a little effort goes a long way. Stuff like that silly medley-of-badness where they mixed a bunch of terrible singers together and it sounded kinda like a herd of goats, or the "story" of all the Utah kids taking rejection so very well, made for a rather enjoyable hour.

Surprisingly, we didn't see a lot of crappy singers tonight, and it was a nice break. The most memorable of the rejects we did see was Tara Mathews, the girl with ESP. She claims she can predict the deaths of real people -- as well as people on TV.

She's also one of these people that goes out of their way to stand out and then acts like people shouldn't be staring at her. Oh yeah, and she couldn't sing. Rich Kagel was notable for his creepy lip-licking and Andrew Gibson could hit a really high note and a really low note but nothing in between. He should do a duet with Naomi Sykes from Jacksonville.

We met Chris Kirkham, the guy who came in with his "good luck rabbit," his buddy in a pink bunny suit. I actually thought he sounded pretty good but his gimmick backfired and the judges couldn't take him seriously. I'm not saying he blew his chance at being famous, but he may have blown his shot at a free trip to Hollywood. Eh, you're right, he wasn't that great. The giant bunny was the only thing that got him on TV in the first place. It also really drives me nuts when some idiot doesn't make the Hollywood round and yet they tearfully insist that they're going to be the next American Idol. I agree that there are many avenues to fame, but there's only one way to become the next American idol, and it does require getting on the show.

Among the many euphemisms for "Mormon" we heard in Salt Lake City (nice, polite, clean-cut, happy) was Osmond. David Osmond is the son of one of the famous Osmonds, and he did okay, which concerns me because I don't want spotlight junkies Donny and Marie anywhere near my Idol. If their nephew makes the Top 50, they'll be on Access Hollywood every freaking night to show Osmond home movies, you just watch. I was also uncomfortable when they kept playing the lyric "…just one of those days…" (I didn't recognize the song) as they told us how he used to be in a wheelchair and is still battling Multiple Sclerosis. Yeah, I hate those days when like, your car won't start and you spill coffee on yourself at work…and you have MS. This season is off to an awkward start.

I'm rooting mightily for Rose Flack, the charming free spirit with the tragic background and a refreshing lack of self-pity. The judges fawned all over Taylor Vaifanua, who I thought was good but not great. Maybe I'll change my mind when I hear her sing something more current in Hollywood. Austin Sisneros seems like a sincere guy who's maybe never been criticized in his whole life and could benefit from a setback or two. My favorite singer of the night was Megan Corkrey, who is pretty, has a great voice, an incredible full-arm tattoo and a dazzling personality. Definitely one to watch.

I enjoyed Frankie Jordan but I also heard through the grapevine that she has had a song on the Billboard chart. Shouldn't that be an automatic disqualification? I mean, when you've had a hit record, even a minor one, doesn't that make you more of a has-been than an undiscovered talent, which we're supposedly searching for? Just a thought.

Top Three:
1. Megan Corkrey
2. Frankie Jordan
3. Rose Flack

Worst Three:
1. Tara Mathews
2. Andrew Gibson
3. Rich Kagel

IGN's Ratings for Week #3B: Auditions
Rating Description
out of 10 click here for ratings guideGet Ratings Information
7.4 OVERALL
(out of 10 / not an average)

Your Ad Here





Read more...

Luck by Chance Review

Your Ad Here




Star Cast: Farhan Akhtar,Konkona Sen Sharma,Rishi Kapoor,
Isha Sharvani, Dimple Kapadia, Hrithik Roshan and others;
Director: Zoya Akhtar;
Rating: ****; Is quality cinema.

Vikram Jaisingh (Farhan) comes down to Bollywood town Mumbai from Delhi to become a star. At his fellow struggle friend’s house he meets Sona (Konkona) for the first time. Sona too has dreams in her eyes of becoming a lead actress in an A grade film. For the past three years till then she has been living with this hope in her eyes. Taking advantage of her is Chaudhary (Aly Khan) a small time producer who has been assuring her of that one big break and in return of which he is sexually exploiting her and assigning her B grade projects. Both Sona and Vikram start getting closer as they are doing their struggling. At the same time, a big producer Romy Rolly (Rishi) is making a film starring one of industry’s hottest stars cum his protégé Zafar Khan (Hrithik) and launching Nikki (Isha) opposite him.


Nisha is the daughter of famous yesteryears actress Nina Walia (Dimple). When Zafar gets the opportunity to work in Karan Johar film along with Shah Rukh Khan he dumps Rolly’s film despite the shooting for it having begun. Destiny plays a crucial role then and the smooth talking struggle Vikram manages to bag the lead hero’s part whereas on the same day Sona’s dream of becoming a lead actress get shattered when Chaudhary ditches her. What happens next as Vikram manages to grab that one lucky chance and how it takes the toll on his love life forms the rest of the film.

Luck By Chance just like Rangeela or to some extent Om Shanti Om takes you right into the true to life functioning of the Hindi film world. Zoya for her directorial debut deserves a huge applause for making a brilliant film which manages to strike the fine balance between art house cinema and a commercial entertainer. Her characterizations and selection of right actors deserve special mention. While it may appear as Vikram’s story you realize as the film comes to an end that the main protagonist is not him but Sona. The ending may not be everyone’s cup of tea but the way it has being treated you do get the feeling that this is the perfect and most logical way how the story could have ended. Zoya has handled the emotional moments very sensitively. Giving Zoya perfect aid is her father Javed Akhtar in the dialogues department. Right from philosophy laden ones to extremely witty liners, the dialogues manage to touch your heart.

The production values of the film are of high standards with Carlos Catalan’s camerawork giving the film a very international look. Shankar Ehsaan Loy’s music is already climbing the charts and is well mixed in the film’s proceedings. Don’t miss the opening song sequence.

Konkona delivers an award winning performance which lingers in your mind for a long time even after the film is over. Farhan is extremely natural in his act and has brilliantly underplayed his part. Rishi Kapoor and Juhi give able support. Dimple is extremely charming and is brilliant in the pre-climax scene where she brings out her frustration on her daughter very well played by Isha. Sanjay Kapoor is very funny as the film director. Hrithik Roshan in an extended special appearance is simply superb. His dance sequence is awe inspiring. The film has quite a few guest appearances right from Aamir Khan, Rani Mukherjee, Akshaye Khanna, Kareena Kapoor to Shah Rukh Khan and are very well treated. But it is writer-director Anurag Kashyap making his acting debut who is simply outstanding in his 2 scene appearance as a frustrated writer.

Luck By Chance is quality cinema that takes you straight into the heart of the Hindi film industry’s functioning, showing you both the good, the bad and the ugly side of it and yet keeps your love intact for the film industry.

Your Ad Here





Read more...

MNS activists attack Mumbai University registrar's office

Your Ad Here




Mumbai/Nashik, Jan 27 After lying low for some time, activists of Raj Thackeray's MNS resorted to violence for the second time in two days when they attacked the Mumbai University Registrar's office today,a day after they disrupted a north Indian cultural programme at a Nashik school.
Six Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) activists, who also broke the windows of the Registrar's office in South Mumbai, were arrested today, police said. The Registrar K Venkataramani was not present when the attack took place.

"The accused who are MNS workers claimed that earlier Marathi and Hindi subjects were compulsory in the syllabus but due to a recent circular issued by the University, Marathi subject becomes optional for the students," said P R Shishupal, senior police inspector of Azad Maidan police station, told PTI.

"They claimed that by issuing this circular, the university has done injustice to Marathi language," Shishupal said.

source
MNS student wing president Aditya Shirodkar was among the six arrested for resorting to violence inside the campus, he said,adding they would be produced before the court tomorrow.

The group obtained an appointment to meet Vice Chancellor Vijay Khole at around 11 AM but they later resorted to violence and attacked the registrar's office, police said.

Vice-Chancellor Vijay Khole and Venkataramani were not available for comments.

MNS activists yesterday disrupted a north Indian cultural programme at Satpur-based Jijamata School in Nashik. At least 50 MNS activists shouting anti-north Indian slogans had entered the school premises and interrupted the programme of Bhojpuri songs.

Your Ad Here





Read more...

Attack on Mumbai University premises: Guv summons Raj Thackeray

Your Ad Here




Mumbai, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray today met Governor S C Jamir at Raj Bhavan in the backdrop of attack on Mumbai University premises by MNS student wing activists.
Jamir, in his capacity as chancellor of universities in the state, had summoned MNS chief to discuss ransacking of Mumbai university's registrar chamber over the issue of "neglect" of Marathi students, party sources said.

Raj was accompanied by key associates including spokesperson Shirish Parkar and was at Raj Bhavan for around an hour.

Your Ad Here





Read more...

www.wbcomtax.gov.in | The Official Website of The Directorate of Commercial Taxes - Goverment of West Bengal

Your Ad Here




The www.wbcomtax.gov.in is the official Website of the Directorate of Commercial Taxes Government of West Bengal. If you are a dealer who is filing your taxes, then you need to download the new Return forms. The services provided include the following:

e-Payment of Tax
Login for e-Filing of VAT Return
Login for e-Filing of CST Return
User Manual for e-Filing of VAT Return
User Manual for e-Filing of CST Return
Frequently Asked Questions for eFiling of Return

Some of these forms are in PDF so make sure you download the PDF reader in order to open and view these files.
http://www.wbcomtax.gov.in

Your Ad Here





Read more...

Northrop Grumman Receives Nationwide Automatic Identification System Contract From Coast Guard

Your Ad Here




RESTON, Va., - Northrop Grumman Corporation has been awarded a contract potentially valued at $68 million to design, integrate, install and test the U.S. Coast Guard’s Nationwide Automatic Identification System (Nationwide AIS) core data exchange capability.

This new capability will serve as the foundation for Nationwide AIS, which will enhance maritime security, marine and navigational safety, search and rescue efforts and environmental protection.

Nationwide AIS will be a two-way maritime digital communication system, which will continually transmit and receive voiceless vessel data, including vessel identity, position, speed, course, destination and other data of critical interest for navigation safety, marine mobility and maritime security. In addition, data collected by Nationwide AIS will be combined with other government intelligence and surveillance data and shared with authorized government operators, contributing to maritime situational awareness, in part by identifying and locating vessels offshore.

“Nationwide AIS is a critical Coast Guard program providing operational decision makers with the data they need to forecast maritime risks and more rapidly and efficiently respond to safety and security threats. It will also improve national security through the detection and identification of possibly threatening vessels while they are still far from shore,” said Mike Twyman, vice president of the Northrop Grumman Mission Systems sector’s Integrated Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence Systems operating unit. “The Coast Guard’s approach is to design and field a low-risk solution while meeting their operational capability milestones. To meet the challenge, we integrated proven non-developmental items from the commercial and defense sectors to provide the best-value solution.”

The single award contract includes an $11.5 million, two-year base period and six 12-month options. If all options are exercised, the contract could be valued at $68 million and will facilitate Nationwide AIS coverage for all ships approaching the coastline and ports of the United States and its territories, significantly enhancing the security of the nation’s ports and coastal areas.

The win strengthens Northrop Grumman’s leadership position in the Coast Guard command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR) market.

“Northrop Grumman has a long history of providing the Coast Guard with C4ISR systems. This win positions Northrop Grumman for continued growth in the Coast Guard C4ISR and maritime domain awareness markets,” Twyman said. “Three years of preparation and a significant investment of our own resources resulted in a best value proposal for the Coast Guard.”

Source...

Your Ad Here





Read more...

The State Of Illinois During Impechement Trial

Your Ad Here




Watch The Video
State Senators in Springfield are focusing on the realities of running a government who's top official has been arrested and remains in office.
This is day three of the impeach trial of Governor Rod Blagojevich.
Senators are submitting questions to the Chief Judge who is them reading them out loud for witnesses to answer.

Wednesday morning, Representative Chapin Rose was answering questions about the state's poor financial condition. Illinois' credit rating was lowered after the Governor's arrest, which means higher interest rates on loans the state is paying back.

It was also revealed, no one is sure who would help the state work through a natural disaster because Blagojevich has had his security clearance revoked by the Department of Homeland Security.

"If a natural or man–made disaster were to occur while Gov. Blagojevich's security clearances were revoked, who would acgt as a liaison to the federal government?
Is this individual duly elected by the people of Illinois?
I simply don't know the answer to that question."

The president of the Illinois Senate is challenging Blagojevich to show up for his impeachment trial instead of spending his time on national news shows.

Source...

Your Ad Here





Read more...

Tracking Vessels In Microsoft Virtual Earth

Your Ad Here




Port Metro Vancouver is Canada’s largest and busiest port, a dynamic gateway for domestic and international trade and tourism, and a major economic force that strengthens the Canadian economy. Its mission is to lead the efficient and reliable movement of cargo and passengers in a manner that supports Canadian growth and prosperity, now and in the future. No surprise to me that they selected Microsoft Virtual Earth as their mapping platform for the interactive map on their Port Metro Vancouver web site to allow users to locate and track vessels and more.

This application is really slick. It takes advantage of Microsoft Silverlight to provide an interface that is fast, smooth, easy to operate, and just really cool. The site uses a map control that is customized and different from what you may be used to seeing in other Virtual Earth applications. All functional options are included here and displayed when you mouse over the menu items. The menu option to the far right (noted in red in the screenshot below) provides a full screen view of the application and really blew me away! ALL Virtual Earth applications should offer this!

Source

Your Ad Here





Read more...

English Channel AIS Ship Tracking

Your Ad Here




Track English Channel commercial ship movements in Google Earth with EarthNC’s new English Channel Ship Tracking Automatic Identification System (AIS) feed. Our map updates every 5 minutes with the latest ship positions.

The EarthNC English Channel AIS Feed is provided by the English Channel Ship Movements Website run by Mike Fallon. The AIS antenna is located near Brighton on England’s south coast, overlooking one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. In normal radio conditions, ships are visible within 60nm of the antenna. During enhanced propagation reception is possible out to ~500nm.

Click HERE to open the English Channel AIS Ship Map in the Google Earth Client. Scroll down for our new embedded 3D View.

source ..

Your Ad Here





Read more...

P.W. Singer's "Wired For War"

Your Ad Here




P.W. Singer is a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution; at 34 years old, he's the youngest person ever to hold that position. He's written for or appeared on a wide variety of media, from "60 Minutes" to the New York Times. He has worked for the Pentagon and Harvard University, and in his personal capacity, served as the coordinator of the defense policy advisory task force for the Obama campaign. In his previous two books, Singer foretold the rise of private military contractors and the advent of child soldiers - predictions which proved to be all too accurate.

He applied the “Page 99 Test” to his latest book, Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century, and reported the following:

Something big is going on in the history of war, and maybe even humanity itself. The US military went into Iraq with just a handful of drones in the air and zero unmanned systems on the ground, none of them armed. Today, there are over 5,300 drones in the US inventory and another roughly 12,000 on the ground, with the latest models armed with a lethal armory of missiles, rockets, and machine guns. And these are just the first generation, the Model T Fords compared to what is already in the prototype stage. For my book Wired for War, I spent the last several years trying to capture this historic moment, as robots begin to move into the fighting of our human wars. The book features stories and anecdotes of everyone from robotic scientists and the science fiction writers who inspire them to 19 year old drone pilots and the Iraqi insurgents they are fighting. The hope wasn’t just to take the reader on a journey to meet this new generation of warriors—both human and machine, but also to explore the fascinating, and sometimes frightening, political, economic, legal and ethical questions that our society had better start facing in how our wars will be fought and who will fight them. In other words, “What happens when science fiction becomes battlefield reality?”

The book is also written in a style that reflects my generation, and is thus a bit of insurgency against the staid, often inaccessible, way that people in my field write on the most important issues of our day. So, with that, I thought it fun to do the “99 Test” in a way that reflects this goal as well. That is, my generation has such short attention spans that when we pick up a book (if we are not downloading it onto our Kindle instead), we wouldn’t just lock in on just one page, but would be more likely flip the pages. So the following 99 Test includes a clip from p. 99, p. 199, and p. 299 of Wired for War. The p. 99 clip is from a section entitled “To Infinity and Beyond: The Power of Exponential Trends.” It’s a bit of a scene-setter for explaining Moore’s Law and the looming technology changes before us (I also loved having a Depeche Mode shout out in a book about war). The second clip from p. 199 is from a section called “Deep Fried Robots” that explores how even our most advanced technologies are not always triumphant in war. Finally, the clip from p. 299 is from a section called “Un-Manslaughter,” which opens with a discussion of a man (Daraz Khan) mistakenly killed in a US military drone strike because he had the unfortunate luck to resemble Bin Laden and goes on to look at some of the legal complications that are starting to arise when you digitize war.

Excerpt, p. 99:

When Moore first wrote on the phenomenon in 1965, a single transistor cost roughly five dollars. By 2005, five dollars bought five million transistors. With lower exponential costs comes greater exponential demand. In 2003, Intel made its one billionth microchip after thirty-five years of continuous production. Only four years later, it had made its next one billion chips. The same changes have happened with the ability to store data. The cost of saving anything from the military’s Predator drone footage of Iraqi insurgents to your old Depeche Mode songs is going down by 50 percent roughly every fifteen months.

Moore’s law explains how and why we have entered a world in which refrigerator magnets that play Christmas jingles have more computing power than the entire NORAD nuclear defense system had in 1965. Exponential change builds upon exponential change and advancements in one field feed advancements in others. And lower prices in one field help feed new development in others. A good example is how advancements in microchips made portable electronics accessible to consumers. As more and more people bought such items as video and then digital cameras, it dropped the cost of equipping robots with the same kind of cameras (their electronic vision systems) by as much as 75 percent. This eliminated the barriers to entry for robots to be used across the marketplace, further dropping costs for robots as a whole, as more people could buy them. Rodney Brooks at iRobot calls this kind of cross- transfer “riding someone else’s exponentials.”

Excerpt, p. 199:

Whether it is Superman and Kryptonite or Wimpy and hamburgers, everything has a weakness. Indeed, even the Death Star, the most powerful weapon ever imagined in science fiction, was taken out by a young insurgent (yes, that’s what Luke Skywalker was) dropping a bomb through a ventilation shaft. The same is true with real technologies of war. As writer and retired army colonel Ralph Peters explains, “The more complex any system becomes, the more inherent vulnerabilities it has. You just need to find one chink in the armor, change one integer in the code.”

Excerpt, p. 299:

The causes of these mistakes are often in great dispute. Sometimes the blame is placed on the humans behind the machines. In a U.S. airstrike in 2001, for example, twelve out of fourteen smart bombs inexplicably missed their target by a wide margin. It turned out the humans who had programmed the weapons’ targeting back at the base had punched in the wrong coordinates. Other times, the data itself is bad. As we know from the case of Daraz Khan, as well as all that Iraqi WMD we found, our intelligence is sometimes flawed and unmanned attacks don’t always get the right person. In 2005, U.S. officials said that on at least two occasions, “The Predator has been used to attack individuals mistakenly thought to be bin Laden.” Garbage in, garbage out.

Your Ad Here





Read more...

Modern Romance Contest!

Your Ad Here




Ok everyone, Valentine's Day is fast-approaching, and what better way to wile away the days than a contest! I am happy to announce that the fabulous folks over at Wedding Paper Divas, which offer beautiful, modern wedding invitations, and Beau-Coup.com, which offer lovely, romantic wedding favours, are both offering a $100.00 gift certificate for my blog readers!

The theme of this contest is MODERN ROMANCE. And here is what you need to do to win the prize of one x $100 gift certificate at both Wedding Paper Divas and Beau-Coup.com

1. Visit www.weddingpaperdivas.com and select one "modern" wedding invitation & then mosy on over to www.beau-coup.com and select a "romantic" wedding favor from the many showcased on their site in a colour/theme that coordinates with your invitation selection. Both the invitation and favor should fulfill YOUR unique sense of a modern, romantic wedding.

2a. Save the unique wedding invitation as a "favorite" on the Wedding Paper Divas website. This is done by clicking on the "Save in Favorites" button on the desired wedding invitation page.

2b., subscribe to the newsletter:http://www.beau-coup.com/newsletter.htm.

3. Then, come on back to this blog post, and comment with links to your two selections that best fit your idea of a MODERN ROMANTIC wedding. You must include a link to your selected invite and favor to be eligible to win.

I will randomly select a winner on February 14th, so watch this space for your name! Contest is valid worldwide. Good luck!

Your Ad Here





Read more...

Illinois Senate Votes 59 To 0 To Convict And Remove Rod Blagojevich From Office Of Governor | Pat Quinn Becomes Governor

Your Ad Here




The Illinois Senate has voted unanimously 59 to 0 to convict Rod Blagojevich of impeachment and remove him from Office of the Governor of Illinois, effective 4:52pm by the declaration of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Illinois.

Mr. Blagojevich is further disqualified from holding public office in future, also by unanimous vote.

Pat Quinn has been sworn-in as the 41st Governor of Illinois.

Blago held a press briefing outside his home and thanked the people of Illinois for the opportunity to serve them and says he will continue to fight for them and to clear his name.





Your Ad Here





Read more...

The Buzzsaw Will Win Super Bowl XLIII

Your Ad Here




The Arizona Cardinals already made history by making it to the Super Bowl, but they won't stop there. The Arizona Cardinals, not the Pittsburgh Steelers, are winning the Super Bowl. The Steelers are 7 point favorites, but the Patriots were favored last year too and we know how that finished. The Cardinals will win due to a few reasons and they all relate, ironically, to classic, old school, rough, physical football that the Steelers are known for.

Everyone expects the Cardinals to try to win this game by airing the ball out, which seems reasonable considering they had three different 1,000 yard receivers. They expect to see Kurt Warner chucking balls up to Larry Fitzgerald all night long. That would be ignoring the three great games of football that the Cardinals have played in these playoffs. They've played well balanced football - asserting the running game and stopping it.

Of course, the passing game will still be important to the Cardinal's chances. Larry Fitzgerald will probably need a 100 yard game in order to win the Super Bowl. However, is it much of a stretch to assume he'll get that? He's the most talented receiver in the game and is playing out of this world right now. He could very well be the Super Bowl MVP.

However, the more important player may be Edgerrin James. His play in the playoffs has been very important to Arizona. The Cardinals have averaged 111 yards per game rushing in these playoffs. This has been huge, and that very well may be an understatement. It has created an offensive balance for Arizona, making their offensive attack even more lethal. They are more than just an air-it-out offense now. They can beat you on the ground and through the air. Its not easy to stop that, let alone contain it.

Equally, if not more, important is the Cardinals sudden ability to stop the run. In their three playoff games the Cardinals haven't allowed a single team to rush for over a 100 yards. Arizona has only given up 77 yards rushing per game, forcing teams to beat them through the air. As the Cardinals know themselves, its not easy beating teams with a one dimensional offense. This is what the Steelers are known for, and its how the Steelers will be beaten on Sunday.

What adds on to that problem for the Steelers is their very weak offensive line. No quarterback was sacked more times than Big Ben this past year. Roethlisberger spent a whole lot of time laying on his back this year and unfortunately for him there was usually a 300 pound man on top of him. When Arizona stops Willie Parker on the ground, this will become quite an issue for the Steelers. Not only has Big Ben been sacked a ton this year, but as Steve Young has pointed out repeatedly this week, he's been scramble happy. While every once in a while this ends in a highlight reel type play (like the Santonio Holmes TD in the AFC title game), Steve Young and Donavon McNabb both said that this cripples an offense. When the running game is shut down, the last thing the Steelers will need is to have their passing game fall apart.

Put all that together and you have yourself the most improbable Super Bowl champion of all time, the Arizona Cardinals. Buzzsaw football would be forever changed, and 2009 would be well on its way to be the strangest year in a long while (or EVAR). The crazy thing is that this is the type of football the Cardinals have been playing in January and that's why they will win the Super Bowl.

Your Ad Here





Read more...

What Obama Should Say About The House Republicans Not Supporting The Stimulus Package...

Your Ad Here




While I have my own gripes with the House stimulus packages (wasting 1/3 of it on tax cuts that are patently unfair), we need to pass something because things are bad. Hopefully Obama will use the addition of the tax cuts to argue that he tried to give the Republicans what they wanted - he even devoted a full 33% to 40% (House bill vs. Obama's proposal) to tax cuts, and the House Republicans still refused to come together in a moment of national crisis. As I've said, I think the bill stinks in parts. But at this point, better to settle for second best (or third) than not have a bill at all.

Source...

Your Ad Here





Read more...

Turkish PM Erdogan Admonishes Israel President Shimon Peres Over Gaza, And Walks Off

Your Ad Here




Turkey’s prime minister walked off the stage at the World Economic Forum red-faced Thursday after reproaching Israel’s president over the Gaza offensive by saying “You kill people.” May Allah reward you Erdogan. Way to go! At least someone has the you-know-what. And Shimon quoted Mubarak and Abbas, accusing Hamas for everything. May Allah also reward these two sell-outs with what they deserve.

After he walked off, our Br. Abu Eesa was in the audience:

Well, across perhaps 30-40 bodyguards when I shouted across to him in Arabic, “Jazākallāhu khayran for speaking the truth!” he turned around, and came through the crowd to give me a hug and say, “Hayyākallāh wa bārakallāhu feek!” My Turkish colleague then said to him, “May Allah be pleased with you for what you said!” to which he replied pointing to his heart, “My imān forced me to say it.”

Read more on AlJazeera news.


The confrontation saw Peres and Ergodan raise their voice - highly unusual at the elite gathering of corporate and world leaders, which is usually marked by learned consensus seeking and polite dialogue. It showed how emotions remain frayed over Israel’s offensive against Hamas that ended less than two weeks ago. [Forbes]

I find it interesting that Shimon, who is thought to be a “man of peace” was so strong in his defense of the massacre. Also find it interesting how people can lie with a straight-face so easily. And shame on him for bringing up the statements from the Hamas charter about Muslims and Jews related to end-times, but obviously forgetting to mention the OFFICIAL ARMY Rabbi urging maximizing murders of gentiles in Gaza’s massacre in the last month(and not in end-times):

The booklet contains quotes from a nationalist rabbi which declares that showing mercy during the battle would be “terribly immoral” and quotes a medieval sage who cautioned Jews not to “be enticed by the folly of the Gentiles who have mercy for the cruel.” [Anti-War / Independent]

The following is a short-clip of Erdogan’s response and walk-out, followed by a video spanning the entire debate (over an hour long):

Your Ad Here





Read more...

FDA Provides Updates On Peanut Recall

Your Ad Here




This morning I slathered peanut butter onto my toast. Soon thereafter, a Democracy Now! broadcast reminded me that the Food & Drug Administration had recalled numerous peanut butter products after discovering that a Georgia peanut plan had knowingly shipped salmonella-tainted foods over the past two years. You can read a transcript or listen to the broadcast on the Democracy Now! website.

Consumers should visit the FDA's website for the latest guidelines and updates on an FDA/CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) investigation, which indicates that the source of an outbreak of Salmonella Typhimurium is peanut butter and peanut paste produced by the Peanut Corporation of America at its plant in Blakely, Georgia. CDC information on the salmonella outbreak can be found here.

Wondering what products you should eliminate from your pantry or refrigerator? On this FDA web page you can browse a list of recalled products or search for items by brand name, UPC code, or product description. The FDA is also posting recall updates on its Twitter page and an RSS feed.

Food contamination has been in the international spotlight in the last several months--see our September blog post on melamine contamination in China.

For additional resources about food safety issues, check out our guide to Food Supply.

Source...

Your Ad Here





Read more...

AAUW Applauds President Obama For Signing Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act Into Law

Your Ad Here




WASHINGTON – AAUW applauds President Barack Obama for signing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which restores the long-standing interpretation of civil rights laws and EEOC policies that allow employees to challenge any discriminatory paycheck they receive.

"President Obama has put pay discrimination at the top of the agenda, right where it belongs. The wage gap doesn't just hurt working women, it hurts families as well," said AAUW Executive Director Linda D. Hallman, CAE, who attended the signing ceremony. "We are especially pleased that this measure is the first bill moved by Congress and signed by our new president, sending a strong message that economic issues and pay equity are a top priority."

Statistics on women in the workplace speak to the need for action. The average woman earns just 78 cents of every dollar earned by her male counterparts, and disparities appear just one year out of college — even for those with the same job and the same major. Women of color make even less.

"AAUW is hopeful that the swift action on this important law is a harbinger of what we can expect from both the new Congress and the new administration," said Lisa Maatz, AAUW director of public policy and government relations. "Thanks to the remarkable Lilly Ledbetter, who stood up to injustice despite great personal sacrifice, women and others in her shoes will be able to seek a fair day in court."

Lilly Ledbetter is perhaps the best-known face of pay equity. She worked for nearly two decades at the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company in Gadsden, AL. Despite receiving top performance awards, Ledbetter discovered that she had been paid significantly less than male co-workers with the same job. After her November 1998 retirement, she filed suit under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and was awarded back pay and other remedies in a jury trial. The U.S. Supreme Court's 5-4 decision not only erased Ledbetter's award, but also left women, minorities, and others in Ledbetter's situation with virtually no recourse to pay discrimination.

"The wage gap not only affects a woman's paycheck, it can eventually reduce retirement and social security income. That could mean the loss of $1 million or more over one woman's lifespan," Hallman said.

"This victory has energized us," said Maatz. "President Obama and Congress have made a good down payment on their promise to close the wage gap, but we're not resting on our laurels. The House also passed the Paycheck Fairness Act, a bill which would close loopholes in the Equal Pay Act, and AAUW and our allies are determined to see the Senate do the same."

Read more about AAUW's "Keep the Change" pay equity campaign at www.aauw.org/advocacy/issue_advocacy/actionpages/payequity.cfm.

To read Lilly Ledbetter's letter in support of both bills, go to www.aauw.org/advocacy/issue_advocacy/actionpages/upload/LillyLedbetterletter.pdf.

Go to www.aauw.org/advocacy/issue_advocacy/transition.cfm to see AAUW's recommendations to the new administration and the new Congress on workplace opportunity, pay equity, education, work/life balance, and other key issues.

Source...


Your Ad Here





Read more...

whos.amung.us - visitor maps

  © Blogger templates Romantico by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008

Back to TOP