No One Is Above The Law

A week before Congress returns from its August recess, there are already signs that a recently announced Justice Department investigation into the CIA’s harsh interrogation techniques of terrorism suspects will be a source of tension between Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill.

"They’re making it so the people at the CIA are afraid to do anything,” said Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch, who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee. “Frankly, it’s gone way too far."

No one is above the law? Great comment, great battle cry, but last time I checked we were kinda at war. Does this mean our military will now face criminal charges for murder? Alot of great people are giving everything they have for this country. If some terrorist is on a waterboard, I won't loss a minute's sleep. -Jeff

If a person violates the constitution that they vow to uphold, someone needs to be held accountable. Even if he was a president . There needs to be a clear message that no one is above the law. There are people in prison for stepping across boundries and they believed they were justified at the time, but wrong is wrong, big or small. -Isaac Arnett

Hurricane Bill

Microsoft founder Bill Gates has turned his attention to controlling the weather.

Five U.S. Patent and Trade Office patent applications, made public on July 9, propose slowing hurricanes by pumping cold, deep-ocean water in their paths from barges. If issued, the patents offer 18 years of legal rights to the idea for Gates and co-inventors, including climate scientist Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution of Washington.

The basis for the modification plan is to use multiple specially-equipped ocean vessels to essentially lower the temperature of the Gulf Stream water surface, by pulling deeper, colder water up into the mix.

All these ideas have major draw backs and ecological consequences that would be almost impossible to anticipate. Controlling Mother Nature is a dangerous game, when one system is modified without consideration of other systems, environmental impacts, and so on. The potential ecological domino affect could be disasterous.

The King at 51

Just two days ago, Europe’s Broadcast company, RTL made a hoax video claiming that Michael Jackson was still alive. People started making up their own conspiracy theories, and some even believed it. RTL later admitted that it was a hoax in a press release.

The Los Angeles County coroner says the death of pop star Michael Jackson was homicide primarily caused by two drugs: propofol, a powerful anesthetic, and Lorazepam, a sedative. Jackson's doctor, Conrad Murray, told investigators that he gave the pop star a series of drugs starting with Valium and then Lorazepam, followed by a sedative - all so Jackson would be able to sleep. The drugs didn't work. Early the next morning, Dr. Murray gave Jackson propofol intravenously. The drug is designed for hospital use only

.

DJ AM dies

Disc jockey Adam "DJ AM" Goldstein was found dead in his New York apartment Friday afternoon.

Goldstein was found unconscious and unresponsive in his lower Manhattan apartment Friday afternoon, New York police said. The cause of death would be determined by medical examiners, but "There is no criminality suspected at this time," a police statement reported.

Goldstein and Travis Barker, the former drummer for rock band Blink-182, were the only survivors of a September 2008 plane crash in South Carolina that left both critically injured. Four others aboard the plane were killed when the Learjet skidded off a runway during takeoff from Columbia.

"Daily I live with the guilt and grief of what happened that night, what I saw, who was lost and why I was spared," he wrote in a December 2008 post on his Web site. "I have no words to express the pain that comes with knowing four people died, while I lived."

LION

The death of US Senator Edward Kennedy, the last of the Kennedy brothers, leaves no obvious successor to take on the leading role in one of America's most famous political families.

He became not only one of the greatest senators of our time, but one of the most accomplished Americans ever to serve our democracy.- B OBAMA

We've lost the irreplaceable centre of our family and joyous light in our lives, but the inspiration of his faith, optimism, and perseverance will live on in our hearts forever. -KENNEDY FAMILY

He was known to the world as the "Lion of the Senate", a champion of social justice and a political icon. Teddy inspired our country through his dedication to health care reform, his commitment to social justice and his devotion to a life of public service.-ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER

We mourn, with his family, and the United States of America, the loss of a champion of democracy and civil rights.
His made his voice heard in the struggle against apartheid at a time when the freedom struggle was not widely supported in the West. We remain grateful for his role.

NELSON MANDELA FOUNDATION

A disrespectful and intolerant attitude

Outrage over Madonna gig

Madonna fans are being urged to stay away from her forthcoming Sticky and Sweet tour date in Bulgaria by the country's Orthodox Church.
Church of Bulgaria officials have accused the star of showing a "lack of respect" for church rituals.

The concert, at Sofia's Vasil Levski Stadium, is expected to be attended by about 50,000 people.
Saturday is also a day of lent for Orthodox Christians marking the beheading of John the Baptist. In Poland's case, it was the celebration of Virgin Mary's assumption.

The Siren Blows Up

"The alarm bells on our nation's fiscal condition have now become a siren"-Senate Republican minority leader Mitch McConnell

The US budget deficit will soar to almost $1.6 trillion (£978bn) this year, the highest on record, both the White House and Congress have warned.
Fuelled by President Obama's $787bn stimulus package and reduced tax revenues due to the recession, it compares with a $455bn deficit in 2008.
The White House says the deficit will grow further, predicting it will hit a cumulative $9tn from 2010-2019.

Perfect Storm

Possible Crisis in 2030

As the world's population grows, competition for food, water and energy will increase. Food prices will rise, more people will go hungry, and migrants will flee the worst-affected regions.

The world's population will rise from 6bn to 8bn (33%)
Demand for food will increase by 50%
Demand for water will increase by 30%
Demand for energy will increase by 50%

Can we cope with the demands in the future on water? Can we provide enough energy? Can we do it, all that, while mitigating and adapting to climate change? And can we do all that in 21 years' time?"- John Beddington

Graphic violence with humor

Inglourious Basterds

Inglourious Basterds is a 2009 revenge war film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino and released in August 2009 by The Weinstein Company and Universal Pictures. It was filmed in several locations, among them Germany and France,[3] beginning in October 2008.[4] The title of the film was inspired by Italian director Enzo Castellari's 1978 film The Inglorious Bastards, but it is not a remake of that film, being set in Nazi-occupied France during World War II, and depicting a plan to assassinate the Nazi leadership.

During World War II a group of Jewish-American soldiers known as "The Basterds" are chosen specifically to spread fear throughout the Third Reich by scalping and brutally killing Nazis. The Basterds soon cross paths with a French-Jewish teenage girl who runs a movie theater in Paris which is targeted by the soldiers. Written by PopeyePete

'Nothing political'

Colombian rock star Juanes is going ahead with a peace concert in Cuba despite receiving threatening messages, his manager has said.
The event, due to take place on 20 September, has been criticised by some US-based Cubans for supporting the country's communist government.
Latin Grammy winner Juanes, who lives in Miami, told police he had received threats via his Twitter account.

Miami authorities have said they will continue to watch Juanes' home in the city, which is the base for many Cuban Americans who are opposed to President Raul Castro's regime.

There is "absolutely nothing political" about the peace concert, which is set to take place in Havana's Revolution Plaza. -Manager said.

Jealousy Monster

Primatologist Jane Goodall describes Passion, a female chimp who was tipping her buttocks toward a young male in the classic (for chimps) "come hither" pose when he ignored her and began to court another. Passion slapped him -- hard.
Bluebirds are also jealous. In one experiment involving a breeding pair, evolutionary biologist David Barash waited until the cock was away, and then placed a stuffed male on a branch about three feet from the nest, where the female rested. When the cock returned, he began to squawk, hover, and snap his bill in fury at the dummy. Then he attacked his mate, pulling feathers from her wing. She fled.

Women are more willing to work to win back a lover, while men tend to flaunt their money and status and are more likely to walk out to protect their self-esteem or save face.

A monster comes and you cannot hide,it gnaws at your soul then crawls inside.A aura of pity shrouds this thingwhile fear lays in wait on fetid wing.Paranoia shadows your injured pridedarkening the soul so hate can hide.When jaded fingers tend to pull the stringsa vibrant spirit no longer sings- EMILE

New Era For Journalism

The first-ever video advertisement will be published in a traditional paper magazine in September.
The video-in-print ads will appear in select copies of the US show business title Entertainment Weekly.

The slim-line screens - around the size of a mobile phone display - also have rechargeable batteries.
The chip technology used to store the video - described as similar to that used in singing greeting cards - is activated when the page is turned.
Each chip can hold up to 40 minutes of video.

VIDEO TECHNOLOGY

Screen uses liquid crystal display (LCD) technology
Each is 2.7mm thick with 320x240 resolution
Can store 40mins of video
Battery can be recharged via mini-USB
Rechargeable battery lasts up to 70 mins
Developed by LA-firm Americhip

Arms Struggle

BIGGEST ARMS EXPORTERS
1. USA - $12.8bn
2. Russia - $7.4bn
3. France - $6.2bn
4. Israel - $4.4bn
5. UK - $4.1bn
Source: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.Figures are for 2007 and exclude
China, which does not release data on the value of its arms exports.

UK-based arms dealers may have been selling former Soviet weapons from Ukraine to blacklisted countries, a cross-party group of MPs has warned.
MPs said there were ongoing concerns about ex-Soviet weapons "ending up in undesirable locations".
In their report, the MPs said the government must do more to ensure equipment is not being used against civilians in war zones and highlighted concerns arms exported from the UK have been used against civilians in Sri Lanka's civil war.
Britain and other EU countries are reported to have sold arms to the country's government in the final three years of its conflict with the Tamil Tigers.
The MPs say applications for licences for arms exports to Israel and Sri Lanka should continue to be assessed case-by-case.
A Foreign Office spokesman said: "The government shares the committees' concerns regarding military exports fuelling conflict in countries such as Sri Lanka.
"As a result of the intensified fighting in Sri Lanka earlier this year, the government launched a full review of export licensing decisions to Sri Lanka. In particular, whether there was a need to revoke any licences that were now in breach of the criteria governing export controls.

SRI LANKA- 'Behind barbed wire'

Sri Lanka's Roman Catholics revere the statue of Our Lady of Madhu at the shrine in north-west Sri Lanka and 15 August is a major festival.
This is the first time since 2005 that the government has given permission for Catholics to visit the shrine in large numbers. Until last year the area was controlled by the Tamil Tigers. The warring sides used to make arrangements to allow pilgrims to visit on 15 August.

The BBC's Charles Haviland is in Madhu and says well over 100,000 pilgrims have visited the shrine in recent days.

In his sermon, the Archbishop of Colombo, Malcolm Ranjith from the majority Sinhalese community, said this was a beautiful occasion.
However he said it would have been more so had the people of this area being held in camps been able to come, he said, referring to the lack of Tamils.
Bishop Saundaranayagam said most local people were "confined to camps, behind barbed wire fences, like prisoners."

Requiem

Strep throat complications

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart supposedly sang parts of his final masterpiece, "Requiem," from his deathbed. Two centuries later, the exact cause of the Austrian composer's premature death, in December 1791 at age 35, is still a mystery.

Theories abound. It's known that his entire body was so swollen he couldn't turn over in bed; some say jealous rivals poisoned him, while others suggest scarlet fever, tuberculosis, or lethal trichinosis from undercooked pork.
Now, new evidence points to an altogether different conclusion: Mozart may have died from kidney damage caused by a strep infection, possibly strep throat. Health.com: Can't stop coughing? 8 causes of chronic cough

Mozart conducts a rehearsal of his Requiem in this romanticized image of his last day.

Spend eternity directly above Marilyn Monroe

A US widow-Elsie Poncher of Beverly Hills is auctioning off the burial plot occupied by her late husband above that of film legend Marilyn Monroe.Bidding opened at $500,000 (£303,000), and had reached $700,000 today.

Mrs Poncher said she will be "vacating" the remains of her husband "to make room for a new resident" at LA's exclusive Westwood Village cemetery.

Richard Poncher - who died 23 years ago at the age of 81 - was said to be a successful businessman who worked hard, spent lavishly, and knew "all the gangsters" of LA.

The cemetery is the final resting place of many celebrities, including Dean Martin, Roy Orbison, Truman Capote, and most recently Farrah Fawcett.

U2 GIG

U2 guitarist The Edge has defended the size and cost of their 360 world tour, as the band rocked Wembley Stadium on the first night of their UK leg.

The three steel structures cost between £15m and £20m each, offering a largely unobstructed view of the rock quartet.

The Edge said: "We're spending the money on our fans, I don't think there's a better thing you could spend it on."

Last month, protests delayed the removal of the custom-built set from Ireland, and it also came under fire from Talking Heads singer David Byrne. He slammed the band on his blog and said their world tour costs were "excessive", considering their stance on world hunger.

$40 million to build the stage and, having done the math, we estimate 200 semi trucks crisscrossing Europe for the duration.
"It could be professional envy speaking here, but it sure looks like, well, overkill, and just a wee bit out of balance given all the starving people in Africa and all."- David Byrne

The Singularity

"Technology is affordable only by the wealthy when it doesn't work very well. By the time it is perfected it ends up being extremely inexpensive."
"Consider mobile phones; only the wealthy could afford them when they didn't work. Now they work extremely well and are much more than phones, three billion people have them and six billion will have them in a couple of years," Ray said.

Ray Kurzweil is also the author of "The Singularity is Near", in which he speculates about a time when machines surpass human intelligence and use that advanced learning to continually improve themselves.

THE LAST TOMMY 111

17 JUNE 1898

25 JULY 2009

Harry Patch was a machine-gunner in the Duke of Cornwalls’s Light Infantry, conscripted into military service when he was 18 years old.

He was known as “the last Tommy” because he was last British veteran of the trenches of World War I.
“Tommy” was the nickname for the common British infantryman, immortalized in Rudyard Kipling’s poem “Tommy”.
Harry Patch fought at Passchendaele, the third battle at Ypres, Belgium, in 1917. 70,000 British troops died in that battle. He never spoke of his wartime experiences until he was 100 years old, believe it or not, when he was interviewed for a documentary.

At the time of his death, He was the oldest man in the Europe.

Not Bill

The secretary of state bristled Monday when — as she heard it — a Congolese university student asked what her husband thought about an international financial matter.
She hadn't traveled to Africa to talk about her husband the ex-president. But even there, she couldn't escape his outsized shadow.
She abruptly reclaimed the stage for herself.
"My husband is not secretary of state, I am," she snapped. "I am not going to be channeling my husband."

The Eleventh Victim

Readers of Nancy Grace's debut novel, "The Eleventh Victim," would be forgiven if they assumed the main character is based on Grace.
After all, the heroine of the novel becomes an Atlanta, Georgia, district attorney after her fiancé is murdered and later relocates to New York for a fresh start.
But Grace said there are some differences between her and her protagonist. "Hailey is a much better person than I am," Grace said.
The tough-as-nails anchor of the HLN show that bears her name was driven to complete her first book of fiction, which she said has been in the works for almost a decade.
The novel centers on the character of Hailey Dean, a psychology student who becomes a prosecutor after the tragic murder of her fiancé just weeks before their wedding.

Homeless, not Cashless

THANK YOU..

Hebrew University has received a surprise donation of more than $100,000 from an unexpected benefactor — a woman who survived the Nazi Holocaust and appeared to be destitute, a university official said Sunday.
Upon her death two years ago, a homeless Holocaust survivor living on the streets of New York City willed the gift to the university. The Jewish woman lived out of a shopping cart in Manhattan and had no known relatives, said Yefet Ozery, Hebrew University's director of development and public relations.
"She lived as a very poor woman. And when she died at the age of 92, it was discovered she had accumulated close to $300,000," Ozery said.
The university first learned about the gift three months ago but did not receive the money until this week. It will be used to fund scholarships for medical research students, according to the woman's wishes, Ozery said, refusing to disclose her name. The story was first reported by The Jerusalem Post daily.

Another Miracle of Doctors

A couple got the shock of a lifetime when they found out their premature baby was actually alive!
The father of the baby Jose Alvaregna was told by the hospital that his son died shortly after birth. Upon going to bid his farewells to his son he opened the coffin only to find that his son was still breathing.
A premature baby in Paraguay was found to be alive hours later right before he was taken to a funeral wake. The father’s baby Jose Alvarenga discovered that his son was still alive after he heard a cry coming from the box where he was placed.
“I opened it to look at his remains and found that the baby was breathing,” said the father. “I began to cry.”

Gentleman Crook

Great Train Robber

Ronnie Biggs and 14 other professional criminals made off with more than £2.5 million ($4.2 million) in used bank notes -- the equivalent of around £40 million ($67 million) today -- after holding up a mail train from Glasgow to London in the early hours of the morning. In the course of the robbery the train driver was badly beaten with an iron bar.

Biggs was sentenced to 30 years in prison but escaped over the wall of a London prison after serving just 15 months -- and spent most of the rest of his life as a celebrity fugitive.

After undergoing extensive plastic surgery in Paris, Biggs made his way to Australia, living there with his wife and two children. Tracked down by police, Biggs fled again in 1969, this time to Brazil.

In 1981 he was kidnapped by a gang of British ex-soldiers and smuggled to Barbados. But legal efforts to have Biggs brought back to the UK once again stalled and he was allowed to return to Brazil.By the late 1990s Biggs was in poor health following a series of strokes and running out of cash. In 2001 he flew back to the UK on a private jet laid on by the Sun newspaper. He was promptly locked up in a high security prison but then moved to a facility for elderly prisoners.

Naked Twitter

Hackers slowed Twitter to a standstill early on Aug. 6, frustrating millions of users. For the culprits, all it took to snarl the popular social-networking site was one of the oldest tools in the Internet hacker handbook: the distributed denial-of-service attack (commonly shortened to DDoS), a method that has been used to crash some of the Web's largest sites, including Yahoo! and CNN.
DDoS attacks are surprisingly low tech. Using a network of computers (dubbed zombies) controlled by a single master machine, the hacker tries to overwhelm a website's servers. It's a brute-force approach — the network of hacker-controlled computers floods the server with requests for data until the server overloads and comes crashing down. Graham Cluley, a computer security expert, likened the attack to "15 fat men trying to get through a revolving door at the same time." The attacks do no lasting damage — user data aren't compromised, and the site isn't down for long. Once the fat men stop rushing the doors, everything returns to normal.

Wise Latina

What T-shirt you would most like to wear: one that says 'I am a Wise Latina,' 'My Mother is a Wise Latina' or 'Sonia is a Wise Latina'?"

For many local Hispanics, the confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor as the first Hispanic U.S. Supreme Court justice was cause for celebration.

A Killer

"Old Robbie, New Robbie and a Robbie that neither of us have met. ... I really hope it's as good as I think it is." He rewrote one of the songs after Michael Jackson died, with the pop star in mind.

The singer, who now lives in Los Angeles, has been out of the public eye in the last few years since he left a U.S. rehabilitation center in March 2007, when he was treated for prescription drug addiction.One of Europe's most successful entertainers, Williams rose to fame as a member of the hit boy band "Take That" before forging a successful solo career .

RW has long been rumored to be gay, but there are plenty of (fake?) stories out about all the ladies he’s loving and leaving while he’s on tour. Robbie has even said that he doesn’t consider himself the marrying kind, and has admitted to his carousing. He made a little joke in a recent interview about finding a boyfriend, though. Was he just kidding or was it more than just a funny remark?

United States Entrepreneur of the Year 09

Matthew Szulik runs a successful business that gives its products away for free.
What is more, Mr Szulik was recently named the United States Entrepreneur of the Year. The company he works for - Red Hat - turns a profit by distributing free, open source software; computer programs and applications that anyone can download.



It is one of a several firms that are based on the idea of enthusiastic individuals
freely sharing their programming talents.
This community of collaborators has thousands of individuals willing to share their time and ideas in return for not much more than a sense of creative satisfaction.
Open-source now accounts for around 20% of the entire software market.

Gays are Humans

When Gene Robinson, a divorced gay priest living in a partnered relationship with another man, was consecrated an Episcopal bishop of New Hampshire in January, schism was widely predicted, both within the national Episcopal Church and in the broader Anglican Communion.

Mary Glasspool

Los Angeles announced six candidates for positions as assistant bishops, including Mary Glasspool and John Kirkley, both of whom spoke openly about being gay in statements on the diocese Web site.
Glasspool recalls wrestling in college with the question, "Did God hate me (since I was a homosexual)?"

milk

The story of Harvey Milk, and his struggles as an American gay activist who fought for gay rights and became California's first openly gay elected official.

Qestion is: Could "Milk" get bad reviews? That is, it is possible that Hollywood critics could give "Milk" low scores?

Deep suspicions are "no." Given the fact the homosexual community saw its biggest political defeat last month with the passing of Proposition 8 -- in California, the very same state where Harvey Milk was elected -- film critics would be certainly hesitant to criticize a movie based on probably one of the Gay Rights Movement's leading heroes. Any criticism of "Milk" would too easily be seen as criticism of Harvey Milk himself, which, in turn, would be seen as criticism of the whole Gay Rights Movement.

Real Muslims

Muslims in Punjab town of Kasur went on a rampage burning more than 100 Christian homes.Christians are forced to eke out a slave like existence in Pakistan. Their women are routinely kidnapped, raped and forced to convert into Islam and married to Muslim men against their wishes.Fearing persecution, Christians have stopped using their religious names and in stead have adopted Muslim names.

RIP Corazon Aquino

Corazon Aquino, the former president of the Philippines who swept away a dictator with a "people power" revolt and then sustained democracy by fighting off seven coup attempts in six years, died on 1st Aug 09. She was 76.

She became the 11th President of the Philippines, the first female executive head of the country and Asia's first woman president.

Woman of the Year 1986