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baldwin hills

2009-10-17T09:58:00.000-07:00

Santa Monica Canyon is on the western edge of the city. Quiet, isolated. That's one of the strange things about L.A. - patches of barren wilderness hidden in a vast metropolis."

-- Lt. Joe Friday (Ed O'Neill), "Dragnet" (2003)

My first "industry" gig was an internship at the music video and commercial production department of A Band Apart. As an unpaid intern, your job is essentially to do whatever lackey work you're told to do. Most often, this means doing runs.

2003. MapQuest and cell phones were prevalent. GPS was not.

I have what I consider to be a really good sense of direction as far as north-south-west-east goes. I am not, however, good with roads. And as I was very new to L.A., and as L.A. is known for its sprawling breadth, going on a run pretty much meant getting lost. I would MapQuest directions from Band Apart to the destination, and could follow those directions right up to the front door. But for some reason, it rarely occurred to me to print out reverse directions. I always thought to myself, "Just follow these directions backwards." That never seemed to work, though.

So one day, I was making a delivery to some music company. It was one of the bigger companies, a name you'd recognize, but I can't remember which one. And since I never had to make a repeat visit to that office, to this day I would never be able to find that building for you again. But by my estimation, the offices had to be located somewhere south of LAX. This is rare for a music company; most of them are located in Santa Monica, or up in the valley.

As usual, the MapQuest directions got me exactly where I needed to go. I went to the office, made the handoff to whoever was expecting it, and then headed back toward Band Apart. And promptly got lost.

Whenever I would get lost, I'd rely on my sense of north-south-west-east. Band Apart was north of where I was, so I started heading that direction. But that's where my lack of comprehension of roads comes into play. Roads do weird things, like curve and veer. Or end. So I'm heading along north, waiting to see anything I recognize, when suddenly the road I'm on comes to an end. Now I'm forced to make a turn in a direction I don't want to go. So I'm looking for the nearest opportunity to course-correct and set myself north again. By the time I'm headed the right direction, I have no idea where I am and where this road might be taking me. All of a sudden, I find myself driving past some oil fields.

Oil fields! Where the hell was I? Did I manage to slip over to Texas?

Whenever I get completely, thoroughly lost, I always go west. If I can find my way to the ocean, which is extremely hard to miss, then I can figure out where home is. Once I know where home is, I can find things such as where I work and where I shop and stuff like that. So I started going west. Eventually, I found the ocean, and was able to take the long trip back to Band Apart again.

When I got home that night, I reported to my roommates that there were oil fields in L.A. Yes, right in the middle of the city! It's like you're driving through the middle of civilization, then suddenly everything goes dry and bare, and then there are oil drills! And then you keep driving, and you're back in the middle of the city again.

What I was unable to tell my roommates that night was exactly where those oil fields were. Because I had no idea where I was when I found them. But they'd have to take my word for it. There are oil fields in L.A.!

Well, it's been a good six years since that incident, and my knowledge of L.A. has grown a tremendous amount since then. I still manage to get myself lost occasionally, but I can correct that situation much quicker now.

As for the oil fields, I can tell you exactly where they are because I now live about two miles away from them. They're in Baldwin Hills. The road I had been on that day was La Cienega. It's all very normal for me now, and constitutes my typical route to the airport.

Click around on the map/street view below for a look at L.A.'s oil fields.

mega millions lottery results

2009-10-17T09:55:00.000-07:00

Mega Millions winning numbers for $200M lottery jackpot:-

The winning Mega Millions lottery numbers drawn tonight for the jackpot worth an estimated $200 million were: 10, 13, 18, 33 and 51 with the Mega Ball, 43.

The amount grew because no player matched all the winning numbers to win the $170 million grand prize Tuesday night. Although there was no grand prize winner, 10 tickets were worth second prizes of $250,000 each.

The largest payout so far has been a $390 million jackpot shared by a New Jersey couple from Cape May County and a truck driver in Georgia in 2007. In March, 10 co-workers from the information technology department of Chubb Insurance in White House station split a $140 million jackpot.

head of the charles 2009

2009-10-17T09:21:00.000-07:00

The Husky crew returns to Boston to defend its title in the legendary Head of the Charles race. Washington is trying to become the second collegiate crew since 1982 to win back to back titles. Washington is the only collegiate crew other than Princeton to win this race in a quarter of a century.

It is the largest 2-day regatta in the world, with more than 8,000 athletes rowing in around 1750 boats in 56 events. It attracts about 300,000 spectators throughout Regatta weekend. The Head of the Charles Regatta is run by an office of 3 and approximately 1,500 volunteers. The regatta is hosted by Cambridge Boat Club, a rowing and social club founded in 1909 that lies just before the Eliot bridge, on the Cambridge side of the river.

The course is 3.2 miles long and stretches from the start at Boston University’s DeWolfe Boathouse near the Charles River Basin to the finish just after the Eliot Bridge and before Northeastern University’s Henderson Boathouse. The course is renowned for being challenging for crews to navigate without incident or penalty. The course contains 6 bridges to pass in order. The Weeks and Eliot Bridges fall at sharp turns in the course, and collisions occur here more than any other part of the course.

Washington picked its men’s eight for the Head of the Charles the way it always does – by letting the oarsmen do it themselves. Everyone took the water in pairs at daybreak Tuesday at Montlake Cut for a 6,000-meter race, with the top four getting tickets to Boston.

“We’re leaving some very talented guys at home,’’ says coach Michael Callahan, whose varsity-of-the-moment will be bidding to become the first college crew to win consecutive championships here since Navy earned its fourth straight in 1983.

texas lottery

2009-10-17T09:15:00.000-07:00

Symbian Guru has post a new Video preview, the video goes quickly through several aspects of the device, showing:

An overall preview of the hardware.
Music player UI: kinetic scrolling, as well as scroll by first letter and search by letter.
Keyboard functions: pressing and holding a key inserts the corresponding symbol, unlike the N97 on its current firmware.
The amount of free internal memory : here’s a shocker for you, 285 Mb of free internal memory!
A side by side comparison of the 2 colors, in black and bronze (for lack of better color description).
A side by side comparison with the N97 and the Sony Ericsson Satio.

If you like this post then please consider subscribing to my full feed RSS. You can also subscribe by Email and have new posts sent directly to your inbox.

sweetest day

2009-10-17T09:14:00.000-07:00

There is no shortage of sweet days in life but there is one special day to celebrate as a sweetest day, yes! This is October 17, the day maybe good for you or maybe not but it is the sweetest day of the year. This is a celebration for those who are deprived of the basic necessities and happiness of life.

Cleveland celebrated Sweetest Day back in 1992 for the first time, on the third Saturday of October. Its purpose was to provide relief to those who are depressed, even if it is just for a day.

This is the story of a 60 years ago Cleveland resident, Herbert Birch Kingston, a candy store employee, who felt that there should be something special for those who often get unnoticed and neglected. So to help the poor and neglected, he started to distribute small gifts and candies to those who had fallen on hard times, with the help of his friends and neighbors, on a Saturday in October.

The celebration of the day then becomes the tradition of the Cleveland and now it is celebrated not only in the Midwestern U.S. states of, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio and all other region worldwide. Now this tradition is not only limited to candies and gifts but it has expand to cards , flowers , gifts , sweet messages and above all sweet poems have become a vital part of the celebration of the day . You may send a sweet poem of love and sympathy to those you want to share your happiness.

Happy sweetest day; from me to all those, deserve their share in happiness and love. I also want to dedicate a sweetest poem to all poor and deserving people as a gift.

For in our hearts we all recall someone from days gone by who by some act however small did brighten up our sky.

baby stroller train

2009-10-16T09:46:00.000-07:00

stroller Hit By Train; Baby Survives

A 6-month-old baby in Australia survived being run over by a train because he was strapped securely into his baby stroller.

The baby’s mother was temporarily distracted by an oncoming train as she waited on an elevated train platform. Her baby son’s stroller rolled off the platform and onto the tracks just as the train ran over it. Grainy video shows the mother desperately reaching for her baby and nearly being hit by the train herself. She then screams hysterically as onlookers walk away in shock.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 16th, 2009 at 10:27 am and filed under TV/radio, World News/Events, video . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed or Trackback from your own site. This site is Gravatar enabled. Sign up to upload your own avatar.

meghan mccain breasts

2009-10-16T09:45:00.001-07:00

Megan McCain playfully posted this picture on her Twitter account.

Meghan McCain's breasts exposed in "racy" photo on Twitter causing a stir

Meghan McCain's breasts were partially exposed in a photo posted on Twitter. McCain playfully posted a photo of herself wearing a tank top that showed quite a bit of cleavage as she held up the Andy Warhol biography on Twitter. McCain received quite a few nasty comments on her Twitpic from some of her Twitter followers. She was even called a slut by some who commented.

Meghan McCain posted a tweet that said "so I took a fun picture not thinking anything about what I was wearing but apparently anything other than a pantsuit I am a slut, this is.". McCain then apologized a bit later and said "I do want to apologize to anyone that was offended by my twitpic, I have clearly made a huge mistake and am sorry 2 those that are offended."

Did Meghan McCain need to apologize for the "breast picture"?

What's the big deal anyway? Meghan McCain is a beautiful 24 year old woman who is proud of her assets. Her photo does not show her nude or even scantily clad so why all the uproar?

CNN felt the Meghan McCain breast picture was important enough to do a 2 minute 30 second segment on if her photo was too racy. You can watch the CNN video below.

You can follow Meghan McCain on Twitter @McCainBLogette.

Tell us what you think about Meghan McCain's breast picture. Do you think it was inappropriate? Please comment below and take our poll.

balloon boy throws up

2009-10-16T09:42:00.000-07:00

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

by Mark Silva

It was "absolutely not'' a hoax, the father of "balloon boy'' maintains.

Just something they "do as a family," building a backyard helium-filled, mylar balloon in the shape of a flying saucer, chasing tornadoes with videocameras, appearing in the reality TV-show, Wife Swap, and then appearing together this morning on the Today show:

Where six-year-old Falcon Heene threw up.

While his father attempted to explain what the young boy who was found hiding in a cardboard box in the attic but was thought to have gone aloft with the runaway family balloon meant when he said last night on Larry King Live that "we did this for the show." (See that comment below.)

The boy is six, his father explained this morning, and there was a lot of media around the house yesterday.

The boy also went off-camera to throw up when he was asked during another interview on ABC this morning why he was hiding "for a show'' -- "Mom, I feel like I'm going to vomit,'' the boy said, leaving the room with his mother.

For the record, dad is "ticked off'' about the hoax questions.

And he says he wasn't aware of the greatest chase on live cable TV since O.J. Simpson's white Bronco playing out yesterday as the world watched a runaway balloon.

"I don't even have cable,'' father Richard Heene told Today. "I had no idea what was going on... Our focus was Falcon.''

See a full recitation of the story and Today's interview:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

raj rajaratnam

2009-10-16T09:40:00.000-07:00

Raj Rajaratnam, Sri Lankan born US-based investor with significant stakes in several companies here both on his own account and through the Galleon Funds he controls would support Sri Lanka’s efforts to rehabilitate ex-LTTE cadres and had pledged USD 1 million for this cause.

Rajaratnam was a supporter and funder of the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization (TRO), widely critiqued as a pro-LTTE organization, helping in post-tsunami and other relief and development work in the country.

A spokesperson for Justice and Law Reforms Ministry fielding questions yesterday emphasized that the businessman’s support for the TRO should not be construed as financial assistance given to the LTTE.

He pointed out that both Tamil speaking people living in the North and East as well as Sinhalese in other parts of the country affected by the tsunami received help from Rajaratnam.

He said Rajaratnam had provided assistance through Hemas, Hayleys and John Keells Holdings apart from the funding made available via TRO.

The official said that it would important to involve the Tamil diaspora in Sri Lanka’s efforts to resettle the war displaced as well as reintegrate ex-LTTE cadres back to civilian life.

Justice and Law Reforms Minister Milinda Moragoda is working closely with the International Organization for Migration to launch USD 23 million program to rehabilitate ex-LTTE cadres ``re-integrating them to civilian life.’’ The governments of Japan, UK and US have pledged support for this program.

The ministry said that this partnership between the public and private sectors would also involve several major companies, including Aitken Spence, Brandix, Ceylon Tobacco, Dilmah, Hayleys, John Keells Holdings, MAS Holdings, Unilever and Ajita de Zoysa, previously Chairman of AMW now controlled by Al-Futtaim Group of the Middle East.

The spokesperson said that it would be a mistake on the part of the country to deny assistance offered by the diaspora. It would send a wrong signal to the international community, he pointed out applauding Rajaratnam’s contribution towards normalizing the lives of ex-combatants in a post-LTTE era.

Apart from Rajaratnam, other members of the diaspora has expressed interest in supporting this project which encompasses education, training and livelihood creation components, the ministry said.

Minister Moragoda stated that this initiative endorses President Rajapaksa’s vision of co-operation between the Government of Sri Lanka, the private sector, the diaspora and the international community to build a prosperous future for all Sri Lankans.

google flu

2009-10-08T05:24:00.000-07:00

Google Flu Trends expands to 16 additional countries

10/08/2009 12:30:00 AM

If you're like us, you're probably thinking a lot about how this year's flu season might affect you and your community. To help you out, we at Google.org are excited to announce the expansion of Google Flu Trends to 16 additional countries, including much of Europe. We've also made the site available in 37 languages. Flu is a global threat, affecting millions worldwide each year, so we're pleased to make this tool available in more regions and languages.

Last November, we launched Google Flu Trends in the United States after finding a close relationship between how many people search for flu-related topics and how many people actually have flu symptoms. By tracking the popularity of certain Google search queries, we are able to estimate the level of flu, in near real-time. While some traditional flu surveillance systems may take days or weeks to collect and release data, Google search queries can be counted immediately. Google Flu Trends provides an additional surveillance tool that may help public health officials and the public make more informed decisions about preparing for the flu season.

In the past year, we've expanded our coverage to include Mexico, New Zealand and Australia and have continued to see a good correspondence between our estimates and official flu activity data. In fact, our analysis of last season shows that Google Flu Trends had a close 0.92 correlation with official U.S. flu data.

An important aspect of Google Flu Trends is that we filter out terms that may be popular because people hear about them in the news. What we do not use in the models is a term like [swine flu] since people are more likely to type that into Google because they want to know more information about it, given the news headlines, and not because they actually have H1N1 or swine flu. For more information about how we built this model, take a peek at this video:

If you visit Google Flu Trends for the U.S., you'll notice that the flu season is starting early this year. For tips on how to stay healthy this season, please visit our friends at the U.S. CDC and the ECDC.

Love Never Dies

2009-10-08T05:22:00.000-07:00

Love Never Dies for Lloyd Webber's Phantom

The composer's masked hero will haunt Theatreland in a hotly anticipated sequel next year – and I've heard the first song

Andrew Lloyd Webber with Love Never Dies stars Sierra Boggess and Ramin Karimloo. Photograph: Zak Hussein/PA

One expects a certain amount of secrecy surrounding the most eagerly anticipated new musical of the century. And so, journalists, industry insiders and obsessive fans (or "phans") weren't disappointed to receive an exclusive scroll, sealed with a wax stamp, inviting them to Her Majesty's theatre, Haymarket, for today's launch of Love Never Dies – the sequel to Phantom of the Opera.

Organised like a military parade, the guests were ushered in, seated in the beautiful auditorium and, right on time, the curtain lifted on a video explaining just how successful the original Phantom has been (short answer: extremely). Lloyd Webber himself took to the stage, telling us that he'd overheard two men wondering about the sequel's title: "What's that Webber gonna call it? Ugly Bastard 2?"

The composer then introduced Ramin Karimloo, currently playing the man in the mask in London (and who's been recording the Phantom's vocals for the Love Never Dies concept album for the past year or so). Karimloo was confirmed as the new production's leading man (as predicted months ago), with Sierra Boggess signed to play opposite him as Christine, the role made famous by Sarah Brightman.

Karimloo gave the audience a sneak preview of the Phantom's first song in the show, a plaintive and relatively appealing ballad about needing to hear Christine sing. Meanwhile, Boggess sat in a golden throne, in a golden gown, looking beautiful and serene but saying and singing nothing.

And that was it. Brilliantly, the Really Useful Group's web marketing team stole a march on their boss earlier this week and attached to the show's website a couple of lines announcing that it will open on 20 February 2010 at the Adelphi theatre. The venue has been widely rumoured for a while, seeing as it's one of Lloyd Webber's favourite haunts and has no tenant at the moment. Still, complaining about lack of hype aside, all bodes well for this sequel with a top-notch principal pairing.

• In other news, if you like Roald Dahl and musicals, your luck's in. First up, Hairspray creators Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman are adapting Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for the stage. Yes, there were musical numbers in both film versions, with Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka in the 1971 movie, and Johnny Depp as the master confectioner in the 2006 remake. But this will be a whole new score. It may even be directed by Sam Mendes, whose Neal Street Productions company is behind it. Then, Tim Minchin is at the helm for a version of Matilda to be produced by the RSC. He's writing the tunes for a show that will debut in Stratford this time next year; the cast will be directed by Tony- and Olivier-winning Matthew Warchus. No firm casting news as yet for either of them, but there'll be plenty of speculation in the months to come.

• If Dahl isn't dark enough for you, head to Barons Court theatre, where you can see Silence!, the unauthorised musical version of Silence of the Lambs. It sounds like it has the potential to cause immense offence to even the most liberal-minded audience member, with song titles including I'd Fuck Me. Seriously. Director David Phipps-Davis calls it an "exciting cult hit" and gives his recommendations for your interval drinks – "I'm told the bar serves a nice chianti." Groan.

• On that cheery note, West End girl bids you farewell. This will be my last weekly column, so thank you for reading over the past year. I'll still be writing for the Guardian's theatre blog, so keep an eye out for more from the wonderful world of musicals.

herta muller

2009-10-08T04:43:00.000-07:00

Herta Mueller, a member of Romania's ethnic German minority who was persecuted for her critical depictions of life behind the Iron Curtain, won the 2009 Nobel Prize in literature Thursday in an award seen as a nod to the 20th anniversary of communism's collapse.

Mueller was honored for work that "with the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose, depicts the landscape of the dispossessed," the Swedish Academy said.

The 56-year-old author made her debut in 1982 with a collection of short stories titled "Niederungen," or "Nadirs," depicting the harshness of life in a small, German-speaking village in Romania. It was promptly censored by the communist government.

In 1984 an uncensored version was smuggled to Germany, where it was published and devoured by readers. That work was followed by "Oppressive Tango" in Romania but she was eventually prohibited from publishing inside her country for her criticism of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu's rule and its feared secret police, the Securitate.

"The Romanian national press was very critical of these works while, outside of Romania, the German press received them very positively," the Academy said.

Mueller, whose father served in the Waffen SS during World War II, is the third European to win the prize in a row and the 10th German, joining Guenter Grass in 1999 and Heinrich Boell in 1972.

"I think that there is an incredible force in what she writes, she has a very, very unique style," said Peter Englund, the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy. "You read half the page and you know at once that it's Herta Mueller."

"At the same time she has something to tell, partly from her own background as a persecuted dissident in Romania, but also her own background as a stranger in her own country, a stranger to the political regime, a stranger to the majority language, and a stranger to her own family," he added.

chipotle

2009-10-08T04:37:00.000-07:00

Easy Does It: Mango-Chipotle Vinaigrette

This simple dressing adds a zesty tang to any meal. It's best used with poultry, fish and salads.

Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1 whole Dried Chipotle Chiles
1 whole Organic Mango peeled and cored removed
1 tablespoon Shallots chopped
1 tablespoon Chopped Garlic
1 tablespoon Cilantro chopped
1/4 cup Corn Oil
1 cup Rice Vinegar seasoned
1 whole Organic Lemon juice freshly squeezed; Kosher Salt to taste; Cracked Black Peppercorn to taste

Directions:

1) Reconstitute chipotle chiles in 1/2 cup boiling water, until soft.

2) In blender puree mango, shallots, garlic, cilantro, chipotles, lemon juice, and vinegar. Slowly add in corn oil while blending. Season with Kosher salt and pepper

candace cameron bure

2009-10-08T04:34:00.000-07:00

Candace Cameron Bure and Family Pose at Premiere

Axelle/Bauer Griffin

A bunch of blondes! Candace Cameron Bure, her husband, retired hockey star Valeri Bure, and their kids — Natasha, 11, Lev, 9 ½, and Maksim, 7 ½ — attend the premiere of Shorts: Adventures of the Wishing Rock, held Saturday evening at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, Calif.

Former Full House star Candace, 33, is currently starring on ABC Family’s Make It or Break It, which was recently picked up for 10 more episodes.

Follow Candace on Twitter at @candacecbure!

Shorts opens in theaters August 21st.

jon gosselin fired

2009-08-20T08:25:00.000-07:00

According to many sources, TLC is very unhappy with Jon Gosselin. But reportedly Jon Gosselin may want to be fired from “Jon and Kate Plus 8″ to be able to star in a reality show of his own. Read more on this story below.

TMZ has reported that Jon Gosselin is in talks with production company “Endomol” to appear in his own show called the “Divorced Dad’s Club”. The show would chronicle the lives of famous divorced fathers. Producers talked to Jon, but he’s worried about his contract with TLC.

But Jon may still have a shot at the new show, because we’re told TLC is not happy with his conduct lately on “Jon & Kate Plus 8.” We’re told they fired off a letter to him, claiming he was in violation of the morals clause of his contract, partly because he’s been seen going in and out of bars and drinking.

Would you watch a new reality show with Jon Gosselin and other divorced dads?

Click Thumbnails for Larger Pictures

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k104 dallas fort worth

2009-08-20T08:16:00.000-07:00

Jason Terry Celebrity Golf and Birthday Weekend Celebration

NBA Dallas Mavs Guard # 31 Celebrates 31st Birthday with Weekend of Golf And More

Join JET Terry of the NBA Dallas Mavericks as Number 31 turns 31. Get on JET Airways as the flight is about to take off!

The 41st annual Autobahn Celebrity Golf Classic is in full swing for 2008 - sign up your team today to insure your spot in the best charity golf event in the Metroplex!

Annually rated as one of the Top 10 Charity Golf Events by the Dallas Business Journal, this event features outstanding golf venues, unsurpassed celebrity interaction as well as the best party in town. The Celebrity Host is Dallas Mavericks Jason "the Jet" Terry and this year's event benefits Big Brothers Big Sisters and the Jason Terry Foundation.

The fun begins Saturday, September 13 with the Celebrity Golf Tournament Catina Laredo "Party Under The Stars" at Love Field Frontiers of Flight Museum at 6:30 p.m. The party is an unforgettable night of fun. Mix and mingle with celebrities and enjoy food, live auction, silent auction, dancing, arcade and oxygen bar. Tickets are $100.

And the party continues Monday, September 15 at the Purgatory. Happy Birthday JET. Join the celebration as the JET turns 31. Hosted by Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Terrell "TO" Owens, performances by Jada Kiss and Ike James and celebrity guests Lil Kim, Larry Johnson, Pleasure P of Pretty Ricky, Kesiha Knight Pulliam, Allen Iverson and more. Visit www.31turns31.com for details. Hosted by K104's Skip Cheatham and Kayotik.

Media wishing to cover events listed above should contact:

Diane Larche', Larche' Communications LLC, Publicist for Jason Terry and the Jason Terry Foundation, 404 273-3227, diane@jasonterryfoundation.org. Visit our website at www.jasonterryfoundation.org.

Enjoy a round of golf Tuesday, September 16 at the Cowboy Golf Club in Grapevine. Shotgun starts at 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. For tournament information, call 817 905 GOLF or bbbstx.org

sheri moon

2009-08-20T08:00:00.000-07:00

Bloody Disgusting uncovered an unused trailer for Rob Zombie’s “Halloween II” and for the life of me, I can’t understand why it’s not being officially used.

For the first time, I’m actually not insulted or offended by this movie. This trailer actually makes me kind of want to see it. At least up until the part that shows Sheri Moon Zombie as the ghost of Michael Myers’ dead mother.

I even like the subtle nod to some of John Carpenter’s original “Halloween” music. Now I’m not saying I’ve had a total change of heart about this movie, I’m just saying this trailer could actually sell skeptics like myself. They’re crazy for not using it.

build a fort kit

2009-08-18T07:08:00.000-07:00

Photo: Product - Be Amazing Build A Fort

One of today’s hottest items is the Be Amazing Build a Fort kit and the timing is perfect for those looking to buy.

At woot.com it’s today’s special. While Cabela’s sells the Be Amazing Build a Fort kit for $27.99, get yours today only for $9.99.

This would make a great Christmas, birthday, or any time present.

This deal is available today only, while supplies last at woot.com.

When you are on a budget and trying to become debt free, be on the lookout for deals that will help you in your endeavors to save money.

mindy mccready

2009-08-18T07:06:00.000-07:00

Humphrey/AP

Mindy McCready will discuss her relationship with Roger Clemens on upcoming reality show.

Mindy McCready says she will tell the world about her relationship with Roger Clemens on a reality series slated for January, including that her long-term affair with the former Yankee pitcher kick-started a downward spiral when it came to her future relationships with men.

"He was the first person I fell madly in love with," McCready told the Daily News, referring to Clemens. "But having a person promise you the world and then not give it to you, that's the worst kind of abuse a person can suffer."

McCready, 33, is part of a rogue's gallery of celebrities who will appear on VH1's "Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew," scheduled to air in early 2010. McCready will appear with actress Mackenzie Phillips, former madam Heidi Fleiss, actor Tom Sizemore and former NBA star Dennis Rodman, among others. McCready is treated on the show for co-dependency and said Clemens comes up during her on-show treatment.

"Dr. Drew and his team point out that a man like Roger Clemens is responsible for paving the way for what my relationships with men would be like," McCready said.

The News first reported in April 2008 that McCready had a lengthy, on-again, off-again relationship with the Rocket that began when she was 15 and lasted into 2006. McCready confirmed again Monday that she met Clemens in 1991, during spring training, a few months before she would turn 16. "I was 15 when we met," she said.

As The News has reported, McCready met Clemens at a Fort Myers, Fla., karaoke bar and spent the night with him in his hotel room, although she said they did not have sex then.

Following the reports about his relationship with McCready last year, Clemens made a public apology for what he termed "mistakes in my personal life for which I am sorry," although he did not say what the mistakes were. "I have apologized to my family and apologize to my fans," Clemens went on to say. "Like everyone, I have flaws. I have sometimes made choices which have not been right."

Clemens' attorney Rusty Hardin described McCready as a family friend of the Clemenses.

Clemens testified before Congress in February last year that he never used performance-enhancing drugs, and is still under investigation for perjury. A Washington grand jury is weighing whether to indict Clemens. Clemens filed a defamation case against his chief accuser, former trainer Brian McNamee, in January 2008, raising issues of character and credibility. McCready could be deposed regarding her relationship with Clemens, if McNamee's attorneys determine it is relevant to their subsequent countersuit.

lisa mayfield mugshot

2009-08-18T07:04:00.000-07:00

Lisa Mayfield, the stepmother of Jeremy Mayfield and a witness for NASCAR in defending its suspension of the Sprint Cup driver, was arrested Saturday night after an incident at her stepson's Catawba County house.

Lisa Mayfield was charged with public intoxication and second degree trespassing.

She spent her night at the jail a was taken some mugshot photos.

mark mcgrath

2009-08-18T07:01:00.000-07:00

I must admit -- at first, I was a little leery of interviewing Mark McGrath, the lead singer and front man of Sugar Ray.

You remember Sugar Ray, right? With hits like "Fly," "Every Morning" and "Someday," they were huge in the '90s. Even though they just released a new album, these days, people look at them as has-beens and lightweights.

But McGrath is actually a hard core music nerd. He's really unpretentious and modest about the band's success. Here's a link to the centerpiece I did on them, which ran in today's paper.

McGrath talked really, really fast and gave me so many good quotes, I couldn't use them all in the piece. Here are some of the passages I didn't use in the article ...

One time in the '90s, McGrath made an appearance on one of those MTV Spring Break-esque programs. The host of the show brought up a hypnotist, who had hypnotized a girl to say "yes" to anything McGrath asked. But instead of going for the obvious questions about something sexual, McGrath asked the girl the name of the '70s prog rock band fronted by John Anderson.

The answer, of course, was "Yes."

"I ruined the whole thing," McGrath said. "They thought I'd just come in with some ham-fisted sex question. I just remember that [host] went circling the drain when I said that."

McGrath on his music philosophies:

"Music is seven notes. If you waste your time in genres of music or make it lifestyle for yourself, you're going to miss out on a lot of music. When I was in high school all I listened to was the Sex Pistols, Clash and the Damned. You could not speak to me about anything else. I didn't care, I didn't want to hear it. And then life events happened to me. When a girl broke my heart, all the sudden Air Supply songs start sounding good. You're crying along to "Making Love Out Of Nothing At All," and you're like, 'This is good.' The biggest crime for me in music is to limit yourself to certain genres."

nj unemployment

2009-08-18T06:58:00.000-07:00

If you are one of New Jersey's unemployment victims, you may be already aware that you will be able to apply for your unemployment insurance benefits. You will not automatically be able to enjoy your NJ unemployment insurance benefits; you have to claim your benefits through proper channels. You can apply for your unemployment benefits either through the Internet or the telephone.

Applying online for New Jersey unemployment benefits

Take note of the following when applying online for Unemployment Insurance

You need to be a resident of New Jersey.
Employed in NJ for the past 18 months and must not have worked for the Federal Government or in military service in that time.
You need to give an Alien Registration number if not a citizen of USA.
To be eligible for a New Jersey unemployment benefits

You must have worked a minimum of 20 base weeks in covered employment or must have earned $7,200.

'For weeks worked in 2005, the amount needed to establish a base week was $103; for weeks worked in 2006, the amount is $123; and for weeks worked in 2007, the amount is $143. These wages must have been earned during a 52 week period that is called a base year.' Any unemployed worker who had worked in New Jersey at any time during the past 18 months can file an unemployment claim and learn whether they are eligible for a claim.

How to apply online for NJ unemployment benefits

If you meet all the above requirements, you will be able to apply online for your NJ unemployment insurance benefits by visiting wnjpin.state.nj.us/uiclaim/. Through this site you will be able to make a new claim or reopen an existing claim. You will also be able to claim your weekly benefits through this site.

To make your online unemployment benefits claim you will need the following information:

Your social security number.
Alien registration number if you are not a citizen of the USA.
Your job recall rate if any.
Complete reference details of your last four employers including their full name, address and contact number.
Employment period and the reason for separation from your past four employers.

NJ unemployment benefits claim through telephone

The other option to claim your unemployment insurance benefit is to contact your Reemployment center through telephone. You will be able to reach your Reemployment centers through the following numbers:

Northeast New Jersey - (201) 601-4100
Northwest and Central New Jersey - (732) 761-2020
South Jersey - (856) 507-2340

If you should have any queries you will find all the contact information including telephone number, FAX, Mailing address and Email address in the following page: www.state.nj.us/labor/ui/contact.html. Furthermore, something worthwhile to note regarding the New Jersey unemployment benefits policy is that you have the choice of getting your benefits transferred to your checking bank account electronically deposited as opposed to paper check.

You might like to know what profession is in demand in which area. You can find the labor demand occupations report in the following page: www.wnjpin.net/coei/labor_demand/labor_demand.htm. If you should feel apprehensive about your unemployment and interested in getting some quality suggestions and career advice do feel free to visit our career advice forum.

woodforest national bank

2009-08-10T07:57:00.000-07:00

AUSTIN, TEXAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

CyrusOne, Texas' largest colocation provider, announced today Woodforest National Bank has selected CyrusOne as its data center partner. CyrusOne will provide high availability, high density data center services to support Woodforest's rapid national branch expansion including back-up, disaster recovery server systems. The services will be provided at CyrusOne's recently completed data center in Austin, Texas where CyrusOne maintains a 50,000-square-foot data center for high-end colocation.

"Austin is an ideal location for back-up and disaster recovery systems," said Jim Duke, CIO for Woodforest National Bank. "It is close enough to our Houston headquarters for easy access, yet far enough away to provide the redundancy that is absolutely key for the financial services industry. The Austin area's stable weather, reliable connectivity and robust data network create the high level of reliability critical to our business."

Currently, Woodforest supports its production systems in-house within their data center located in The Woodlands, Texas and houses a replicated, back-up environment in a Woodforest facility in North Texas.

"Woodforest needed a carrier-neutral facility for connectivity, plus the infrastructure for today's high-density IT assets," said David Ferdman, president and chief executive officer for CyrusOne. "Our new high density, high availability data center is ideally located to provide our clients with access to multiple carriers and high-speed data connections."

CyrusOne maintains seven facilities totaling 480,000 square feet in Texas, including two facilities in Houston, three in Dallas and one in Austin. It is the only colocation provider in Austin to provide up to 1,000 watts of power per square foot, enabling the company to support clients with larger volumes of sophisticated and mission-critical applications. The data center is engineered in a fully redundant 2N configuration for superior power and cooling. Plus, multiple levels of uninterruptible power supplies and diesel generators ensure zero downtime.

About CyrusOne

CyrusOne is a leader in high-availability, high-density data center services, offering colocation and implementation services for companies in a wide range of industries, such as: oil and gas, healthcare, energy and financial services. The company helps its clients optimize the return on their technology investments while ensuring application availability, data security and superior IT performance. CyrusOne was recently acquired by ABRY Partners, a Boston-based private equity investment firm with $21 billion in investments across more than 450 media and communications properties. For more information, visit www.cyrusone.com or call 1-866-297-8766.

About Woodforest National Bank

Celebrating 29 years of banking success with over 650 locations in 14 states, Woodforest National Bank was the first bank in Texas to launch a 24-hour/7-days-a-week live banking concept and offer customer the convenience of banking at any hour, day or night, throughout its branch network. Ranked among the top-earning banks in the United States, Woodforest is one of the largest employee-owned community banks in Texas.

falmouth road race results

2009-08-10T07:51:00.000-07:00

Falmouth Road Race 2009 Results and Video - Today

falmouth road race 2009| gloucester triathlon| falmouth road race| falmouth road race results| gloucester triathlon 2009

Falmouth Road Race 2009 Results:

Men:
1. Krige Schabort, Cedartown, Ga., 24:11
2. Tony Nogueira,Glen Ridge, N.J., 25:57
3. Patrick Doak, Concord, Mass., 26:38
4. Chad Johnson, Charlestown, Ind., 27:08
5. Gary Brendel, Sterling, Mass., 27:58
6. Matt Davis, Bowling Green, Ky., 28:48
7. Matthew Porterfield, Knoxville, Tenn., 29:06
8. Jason Fowler, Kingston, Mass., 29:45
9. Grant Berthiaume, Tuscon, AZ., 30:31
10. Timothy Kelly, Weymouth, Mass., 32:31
11. Shannon Franks, College Park, Md., 35:55
12. Michael Mills, Marrieta, Ga., 40:22
13. William Lehr, Shelter Island, Ny., 41:18
14. Bradford Carlson, Holden, Mass., 52:50
15. Jonathan Schakel, Cotuit, Mass., 55:26
16. Michael Page, Beverly, Mass., 62:19
17. Robert Ryter, Sharon, Mass., 80:15

Women:
1. Jessica Galli, Champaign, IL., 31:36
2. Ellie O’Neil, Syracuse, NY., 43:25
3. Jacqui Kapinowski, Point Pleasant, NJ., 49:52
4.Tammy Delano, Rome, NY., 1:52:42
2008 Results

MEN:
1. Krige Schabort, Cedartown, Ga., 23:35 (new course record)
2. Tony Nogueira,Glen Ridge, N.J., 25:45
3. Patrick Doak, Concord, Mass., 26:07
4. Gary Brendel, Sterling, Mass., 27:44
5. Chad Johnson, Charlestown, Ind., 28:50
6. Grant Berthiaume, Tucson, Ariz., 29:58
7. Matt Davis, Bowling Green, Ky., 30:20
8. Timothy Kelly, Weymouth, Mass.,31:56
9. Michael Mills, Marrieta, Ga., 34:10
10. David Lowell, Somerville, N.J., 34:48

WOMEN:
1. Jacqui Kapinowski, Point Pleasant, N.J., 43:04
2. Ellie O’Neil, Syracuse, N.Y., 44:30

Falmouth Road Race 2009 Video:

kate gosselin today show

2009-08-10T07:30:00.000-07:00

Kate Gosselin sat down with Meredith Vieira on The Today Show for an interview this morning. The mother of eight and a central character on the TLC reality show Jon & Kate Plus 8, is in the process of divorcing her husband Jon Gosselin.

She talked about her children, Jon’s indiscretions, as well as the rumors of her own affair with her security man Steve Neild.

At one point she was reduced to tears when Vieira asked her why she still wears her wedding ring–see photo above.

Check out the interview videos below.

Kate discusses the divorce

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Kate discusses rumors of her affair with Steve Neild

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

cwa district 9

2009-08-10T07:20:00.000-07:00

CWA District 9 Reaches Tentative Agreement with AT&T West

SACRAMENTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The CWA District 9 bargaining team has reached a tentative agreement with AT&T West covering about 23,000 CWA-represented workers in California, Nevada and Hawaii.

CWA District 9 will hold contract explanation meetings with CWA locals on Aug. 17. More information will be made public following membership notification. The mail ratification vote will be completed September 1.

Bargaining is continuing for about 70,000 CWA-represented members at AT&T. These negotiations include AT&T East (CWA District 1), Southeast (District 3), Southwest (District 6), and AT&T Legacy, a nationwide unit. CWA members at AT&T Midwest, CWA District 4, overwhelmingly ratified a new three-year agreement on Aug. 7.

anderson silva vs forrest griffin highlights

2009-08-10T07:05:00.000-07:00

Anderson Silva VS Forrest Griffin Highlights/Video–Anderson Silva and Forrest Griffin fight has got more than its fair share of publicity. Many people are not prepared to accept that Griffin can be downed in just a few bouts and punches.
A reader says, “Anderson (The spider)Silva is indeed the real deal!!!! But,I couldn’t believe my eyes last night as I watched him simply toy with Forest Griffin. Is the spider that good or maybe the fight just a big mismatch of styles? I hope it’s something like that, and not corruption in the UFC as has been suggested by some”.

He continues further, “Theirs is big money in the fight game, and has it corrupted the UFC? I for one hope not, because the UFC has brought excitement back into the fight game”.
Anderson Silva and Forrest Griffin are great martial art experts and great fighters. Both attack their opponents with greatest might and are not known to spare any punches that may knockout their opponents.
But what happened yesterday was not a great fight at all. Griffin was easily outclassed by a rampaging Anderson Silva.

It looked as if in the third round itself, Griffin was not in a position to stand against Silva. He reportedly broke his jaw and has lost some hearing.

I am sort of sure this will be all right within a few days or a few weeks and Griffin would again stand in the gym with all his might.

But there are many contrasts in the personalities of the two fighters. Anderson has been more magnanimous, in throwing punches as well as respecting a more ferocious opponent who beat him. It is notwithstanding the fact that not many people are able to beat him so far.

Silva’s UFC career has been great to say the least. In April 2006 UFC announced that they had signed him to a multi-fight contract.

Silva made his debut at Ultimate Fight Night 5 on June 28, 2006. His opponent was The Ultimate Fighter 1 contestant Chris Leben who had gone undefeated in the UFC with five consecutive victories. Silva made an emphatic debut when he knocked out Leben with a flurry of strikes, followed by a final knee strike at 49 seconds into the first round.

alison byrne fields

2009-08-07T09:14:00.001-07:00

Google launched their Public Policy blog this past week, which means that the team at Ogilvy managed to beat them to the punch. Okay, that’s not entirely accurate because they have apparently been blogging internally on the topic for a while now.

According to the launch post from June 18, the entire Public Policy team (which, according to a recent Washington Post feature, is turning into an “empire”) will be blogging about issues ranging from net neutrality to national security.

I scrolled to look through some of the older posts and ended up a post dated May 10 about YouTube’s Chad Hurley taking a trip to Washington to testify in front of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. (Reminder, Google owns YouTube.) And, of course, there is an embedded video of Chad in his suit, which you can watch on YouTube.

More interesting? Committee Chairman Ed Markey (D-MA) decided to shoot the “first-ever” online video of a committee meeting from the Chairman’s perspective. It’s a little like watching the empty Senate chamber on C-SPAN (notice the absent committee members), but a nice touch nevertheless.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 24th, 2007 at 10:16 am and is filed under Congress, Corporate Affairs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

lady gaga hermaphrodite picture

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

Rumors about Lady Gaga that she is not much of a lady seems like true, according to recent reports about the newly crowned queen of the charts Lady Gaga is that she is hermaphrodite and that she was born with both male and female parts. Quite an accusation on some famous personality like lady Gaga, but there is an evidence to proof this accusation. Recently, Lady Gaga has performed at the Glastonbury festival in Britain and during the show there is a point where she stepped off her scoter only to reveal, well, I am not actually sure what she revealed but if you ask me it was something like penis or at least it looked like one. But I am not suggesting anything at this point it could be anything, so it would be better if you see it for yourself and decide.

Nevertheless, additional confirmation came from start herself when she allegedly admitted that; she is a hermaphrodite, so what. Although, this quote has not been confirmed by Lady Gaga or any of her representatives yet, but after watching the video and picture feels like it is true.

The supposed quote from Lady Gaga goes something like this “this is not something that I am ashamed of, but it is not something that I go around telling everyone”.

I have attached the video, see it for yourself and decide, it would be nice to receive comments from you guys.

Lady Gaga Hermaphrodite Picture

Lady Gaga

big brother 11 episode 13

2009-08-07T09:01:00.000-07:00

I only watch the shows on CBS. I don't read the gossip, I don't have live feeds or showtime. Please do not post spoilers in response to this post since some of us would rather be surprised! Your cooperation is much appreciated!!***

Last episode, Ronnie and Lydia were left on the block after Michele won the POV. Tonight, everything could change though, as someone would be given the new special mystery power. The Coup D'Etat would allow one player to change the nominations either this week or next. Who received this power? And will they use it tonight? Let's find out!

Paranoid Russell: Near the start of tonight's episode, Michele and Jordan were talking about books when Russell came into the backyard. When Russell came over they just happened to stop talking and when they told him they were just talking about books he didn't believe it. Paranoid are we? They were really talking about books. Russell asked Jordan later what they were talking about and he said they really were talking about books. Russell thinks everyone is talking about him behind his back. Michele told them that Chima, Jessie and Natalie had always been out to get him, so he shouldn't be surprised.

Russell asked Jessie about Chima wanting to backdoor him and Jessie said it wasn't true. He said she has never said that and Michele is the liar. Unfortunately for Jessie, Big Brother Flashback showed Chima saying Russell should go home. Chima denied it and called Michele in to say it to her face... and Michele said that she never said anything about Chima backdooring Russell. What??? Are they all playing mind games with Russell or what? Michele denied saying it because she was mad he told Chima anything. Now both girls were acting mad and both were lying. No wonder Russell is going nuts. The fight continued outside the HOH room as both girls wanted Russell to look like the rat of the house. Chima just wouldn't let it go and the other houseguests had to pull her away to keep them apart.

Ronnie "gives up": Ronnie decides to lay it on thick and pretend he knows he's going home and just wants a sympathy vote from Jordan. He hopes Jordan doesn't know he's already got 3 votes on his side and her 4th vote would make him a winner. Jordan and Jeff furthered their showmance tonight by making out. Too bad Ronnie came in and interrupted... farted... and begged for a sympathy vote.

Coup D'Etat: Sometime before tonight's live show, the mystery power was given to..... JEFF! Jeff received the ultimate power and the ability to change the nominations either this week or next. The catch it is a secret power and he's not allowed to tell anyone in the house. He wanted Ronnie to go home tonight, but would he use it tonight to maybe throw a wrench in the plans? Julie asked if the Coup D'Etat would like to use this power tonight and Jeff stayed quiet. Good one! Save it for next week when you might need it! In reality, you could say Jeff is already the HOH for the next week since he will ultimately decide who to put up.

The votes: After Lydia gave her short speech, Ronnie gave his fake cry speech and told Michele she's the "worst human being I've ever had the misfortune of meeting and I absolutely feel sorry for you." Wait a minute... didn't Ronnie back-stab Michele many times? Remember when he told the whole house Michele voted to save Chima when it was actually him? I'm sure the house isn't that dumb.

~ Kevin - Ronnie
~ Natalie - Lydia
~ Chima - Lydia
~ Jessie - Lydia
~ Michele - Ronnie
~ Jeff - Ronnie
~ Jordan - Ronnie

Woo hoo the rat is gone! However, with Jessie and crew voting for Lydia, they drew a line in the sand and said they were on the other side. It's obvious now that there is a divide, and this week's HOH is very important.... or actually it's not important at all because Jeff has all the power!

HOH Competition: Throughout the week, viewers called in messages for the houseguests. These pieces of advice played randomly throughout the night. The HOH Competition had the contestants trying to remember this advice and answer questions based on what they heard. The last one standing would win HOH.

Michele and Lydia were the first ones eliminated. Jessie was eliminated next, followed by Jordan and Jeff. At this point I was thinking it would be AWESOME if Chima won HOH and then had her nominations overturned at the end of the week! Chima got the next question right, eliminating the other two players. She was beyond excited, but also beyond clueless that Jeff can change everything on Thursday!! This is the best case scenario for Jeff fans because it's obvious Chima will put up two members of Jeff's team and he can just turn around and take them off the block on Thursday.

Next Episode: Sunday 8/7c

Chima will nominate two people for eviction... but it doesn't really matter because Jeff can change everything on Thursday! Can't we just skip to Thursday?

livejournal

2009-08-06T08:39:00.000-07:00

Twitter has been down for about 40 minutes now (since about 6 am California time), and counting. No word on their status blog about the outage at all (Update: they now say "Site is down - We are determining the cause and will provide an update shortly."). Update 2: It's a denial of service attack. Twitter's status update says: "We are defending against a denial-of-service attack, and will update status again shortly."

Since most of you spend your entire work day screwing around on Twitter (luckily I actually get paid to do this), you may be left wondering what to do now. No worries, we have a list. Meanwhile, I can't Tweet (TM) that it's raining here in Palo Alto, or go on a 140 character rage over PG&E shutting off my electricity for no reason at all yesterday, forcing me to come into the office at 4 am this morning.

Twitter declared their scaling problems over in early 2007, well before the serious problems even started. And as much as the Great Twitter Outages of 2007 and 2008 frustrated early adopters (there were so many outages that we just started reporting uptime instead), these outages are much more serious. 45 million people worldwide now rely on Twitter as a communication platform. If they want to be the "Pulse of the Planet," it's time to scale.

Of course, even the largest sites still have occasional outages. Yahoo suffered 15 minutes of systemwide downtime yesterday, we're still trying to get their comment on why that happened.

twitter status

2009-08-06T08:26:00.000-07:00

Even if Twitter itself is down, you can still check status at Status.Twitter.com.

I just checked and this is what I found:

Site is down
1 hour ago

We are determining the cause and will provide an update shortly.

One hour ago? Shortly? Hmmm... this is a major outage. And they still do not know the real cause. Good grief.

Hey, at least Google Blogger is super reliable these days. Interesting... the Twitter guys are the guys who originally developed Blogger. Maybe that is the solution to these outages: Sell out to Google.

Stop the presses... I just hit Refresh one last time and now Twitter Status is saying:

Ongoing denial-of-service attack
3 minutes ago

We are defending against a denial-of-service attack, and will update status again shortly.

Wow, a heavy duty DOS. Could it be the Eye-ranians or the North Koreans?

They also updated the previous notice to include an update:

Update: we are defending against a denial-of-service attack

vanessa hudgens pictures

2009-08-06T08:13:00.000-07:00

Have you seen the new scandal picture of Vanessa Hudgens? It was being search now in the internet. If you can remember, Vanessa Hudgens had a previous scandal in 2007 in which she stated that it was been taken privately. Vanessa Hudgens made a lot of public apology in that time but now in 2009 she did it again. Vanessa Hudgens in its early age has to be more careful on her decisions and future plans. Download via torrent the Vanessa Hudgens New Pictures!

Watch Exclusive News Of Vanessa Hudgens New Pictures – Video

Vanessa Hudgens New Pictures

Get more biography and information for Vanessa Hudgens in Wikipedia.

bishop eddie long

2009-08-06T07:54:00.000-07:00

Vernon Forrest was celebrated as the champion he was. (Bob Andres/bandres@ajc.com)

Sometimes, we pay attention to the wrong people. A true hero walks down a street in his hometown but nobody recognizes him because he’s not loud or crass, because he hasn’t danced with the stars, because he doesn’t move through life like a human spotlight.

So he’s ignored. Until the day all any of us can do is say goodbye.

Vernon Forrest was buried Monday. A quote from Abraham Lincoln shown during the memorial service perfectly capsulated Forrest and grounded us all: “In the end, it’s not the years in your life that’s important. It’s the life in your years.”

He was 38 and is gone too soon. He was shot during a robbery by delinquents who have no idea what it means to really fight for something.

Forrest grew up in the projects but found his way out. He learned to control his anger, using it as fuel in a boxing ring. He surrounded himself with positive people. He earned a scholarship in the U.S. Olympic Boxing and Education program at Northern Michigan University, where he completed his diploma, turned into one of the top amateurs in the country and eventually represented the U.S. in 1992.

That’s what real fighters do. They don’t steal a wallet, hide in the shadows and then shoot somebody in the back. Cowards do that.

Evander Holyfield and his manager, Ken Sanders, were among those in attendance. (Bob Andres/bandres@ajc.com)

Over 1,000 people showed up Monday at the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church. Some were famous. Lincoln would have approved.

Forrest won championships. He won friends. He won hearts. A two-hour service alternated between celebrating his life and conveying the anger over something so senseless.

“Whatever it takes to get justice for you, Vernon,” Alfonso Forrest, one his brothers, said as he pounded the podium with his fist. “Legally, Vernon. I won’t do anything wrong, I promise you.”

You sensed emotion was pulling him one way. His brother was pulling him the other.

Bishop Eddie Long gave an impassioned sermon on Forrest’s life and also denounced the violence. He punctuated his remarks with: “Success in life is the ability to play a bad hand well.”

Forrest did that. He was the relative exception in a sport too often scarred by champions who end up destitute or on some crime blotter. He gave to charitable causes. He helped create, “Destiny’s Child,” which assists those with psychological and emotional disabilities. He helped those who needed it. He paid back those who helped him.

Buddy Davis, the long-time president of the Georgia Amateur Boxing Association, remembers when Forrest was preparing to turn pro in 1992. He would train at the old Holyfield Arena in West End. When his workout was complete, Davis said: “He’d stick around and work with the kids. Nobody asked him to do that.”

Forrest was a native of Augusta. He lived in Atlanta. How many of you didn’t know that?

If last week, you were asked to list some of the top sports stars in our city, how long would it take before you would get to Forrest? Ever?

There is something wrong with that.

He did it the hard way in boxing. He refused to sell his soul to Don King or Bob Arum. As a result, he won four world titles at the junior welterweight and welterweight levels in relative anonymity. Finally, 10 years into his career, he was given a shot at “Sugar” Shane Mosley, one of the sport’s stars. He won the fight, and then the rematch. Finally, he was given his due in the sport, even if he remained low profile outside of it.

He loved life. He was real. “People wanted him to be more flamboyant,” his friend, Les King, said. “They wanted him to trash talk more. He didn’t need that. He didn’t want that.”

Some family members wore white hats saying, “The Viper,” as they walked into church. Eight young boys wore his title belts.

LaVert Forrest mentioned his brother discussed plans two weeks ago to build a school in Augusta. “That will be his school,” LaVert Forrest said. “We will never let him die.”

donna douglas

2009-08-06T07:33:00.000-07:00

Former Louisiana Congressman William Jefferson was convicted late today of charges including bribery and money laundering. His is the case where the FBI found $90,000 of cash in his freezer. Jefferson, a Democrat who once represented parts of New Orleans, was found guilty on 11 of 16 charges. He could face 150 years in prison when sentenced.

From the Wednesday, August 5 NBC Nightly News, transcript provided by the MRC's Brad Wilmouth:

BRIAN WILLIAMS: We are back now with the case of the cold, hard cash, money that was famously found in the freezer at the home of William Jefferson, now a former Congressman from Louisiana. Tonight, there is a verdict in his criminal trial. Our Justice correspondent Pete Williams at federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, tonight. Pete, good evening.

PETE WILLIAMS: Brian, this verdict comes four years after the FBI watched Congressman Jefferson outside a Washington hotel accept a briefcase stuffed with $100,000 in cash. The jury found him guilty of planning to use that money to bribe officials in Africa who are willing to help U.S. companies in which Jefferson’s family had an interest. $90,000 of that money was found in his kitchen in his freezer wrapped in foil packets and hidden in frozen food containers. The jury also found him guilty today of taking bribes from other companies to help them do business in Africa He could face a long prison term. He’ll be sentenced in October, Brian

jesus twins

2009-08-05T08:26:00.001-07:00

Minnesota Cuke and a motley crew of other animated vegetable characters search out the mysterious umbrella that Noah had while on the ark in Minnesota Cuke and the Search for Noah’s Umbrella. If the animated vegetable part didn’t give it away, this is the latest in a string of Veggietales movies which are aimed at teaching small children about the Bible and life lessons at the same time. If the stories appeal to adults (college students are the leading demographic from back in the day) then that’s okay with the creators, too!

In this tale, an unconvinced Minnesota finds himself in an Indiana Jones-themed adventure. From the music, dress of the characters, title and credit sequences, and various quest-oriented tips, to the way that various scenes play out, adults will be reminded of scenes from Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade. Regardless of the under-the-surface pokes at various elements of pop culture, this tale’s beauty is in the Biblical story behind it.

Minnesota is more like Jonah than Noah from a theological characteristic perspective. Minnesota doesn’t really want to be involved and finds various excuses to get himself out of trouble, and doesn’t really want to be a hero in the first place. I can’t speak to his characterizations from the previous adventures he’s been in (The Search for Samson’s Hairbrush or the interactive Coconut Apes) but here, he’s not much in the bravery department.

The good guys and the bad guys (this one involves twins on either side) are searching for Noah’s ark and the umbrella that is heard to carry magical powers. Of course, the lesson revolves around following the word of God, and believing in what God says is best, while understanding that no magical powers caused the miracle of Noah and the ark, just God’s omnipotence and love.

I don’t think there’s much negative you can say here, unless you hate vegetables, but really, what’s more wholesome than watching a clean-spirited, Biblically-themed cartoon with your kids? Veggietales’ founder Phil Vischer has always been a class act, and his creation continues to spin an alternate universe where vegetables are prophets, priests and kings, and in this case, treasure hunters who find more than they could ever hope for when they see God’s glory revealed in a parable.

This is a plant that can only bear ripe, not rotten, fruit. (And somewhere, a talking cucumber groans.)

maxwell bad habits video

2009-08-05T08:11:00.000-07:00

These are this morning’s top day trader and active trader alerts. We have links through to VSInvestor.com for more detailed price and volume analysis on each stock:

American Capital Ltd. (NASDAQ: ACAS) is down a sharp 20% on a wide loss and issue on its covenants.

Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ: GRMN) is up huge in pre-market trading after earnings were less-bad.

Novavax, Inc. (Nasdaq: NVAX) is soaring as one of NASDAQ’s most active issues. The company has manufactured a virus-like particle vaccine candidate against the H1N1 pandemic influenza virus.

On2 Technologies (NYSE AMEX: ONT) is up almost 55% at $0.59 after a Google buyout deal.

Procter & Gamble Co. (NYSE: PG) is down almost 4% on weak earnings metrics and choppy guidance.

USEC Inc. (NYSE: USU) is up over 12% after a DOE delay on the loan guarantee application.

Whole Foods Market, Inc. (NASDAQ: WFMI) is hitting 52-week highs on strong earnings and a slight return to growth.

The 24/7 Wall St. Team

v touch 8gb touch screen media player

2009-08-05T08:03:00.000-07:00

Think Same

Boy, just wait till I show this to those Apple fanboys at my office. If Apple’s so great, how come they can’t make anything this awesome?

Randy and Franco and Mark and those guys are always going on about how everything Apple makes is so awesome they want to make slow, sweet, passionate love to the entire company. Yet somehow, a no-name outfit like Visual Land has managed to create an insanely great portable media player like the V-Touch all by themselves, without a hint of inspiration from the Cupertino mafia.

Check it out: the color touchscreen controls the MP3 player, picture viewer, e-book reader, and video player. The built-in 2.0 megapixel camera also works as a webcam and it shoots video. It also packs an FM receiver, voice recorder, and built-in speaker into its totally original and unique chassis. Combined with the SSB-10 In-Ear Headphones, the V-Touch delivers a multimedia experience that Jobs & co. just can’t hang with.

I guess it happens to the best of them. These companies have one or two good ideas, then they sit back and coast. Eventually, they settle into a sclerotic self-parody, unable to keep up with the imitators they once disdained. It’s kind of like the late Roman Empire, or the novels of Kurt Vonnegut. Stand down, Apple – it’s Visual Land’s turn in the throne.

What? What are you talking about? “iPod Touch”? Never heard of it. Did you just make that up?

tribune review

2009-08-05T07:40:00.000-07:00

Mike Prisuta, the lead sports columnist at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, resigned his position at the newspaper last week.
Prisuta declined to comment on his resignation.
He will continue as sports director of WDVE and handle the sports news and opinions on that station’s highly rated “Morning Show.’’
Mike Prisuta“I look forward to a long associate with the DVE Morning Show,’’ Prisuta said.
He’s departure leaves Joe Starkey and John Harris as the two Tribune-Review sports columnists.
Among the Pittsburgh media, Prisuta ranked among the top in his insider knowledge of what’s happening on the Steelers beat. He covered the Steelers for a number of years for the Beaver County Times before moving to the Tribune-Review and has been a long-time fixture at training camp.
In addition to his radio work at WDVE, he also was a part of the pre-game show on the Steelers Radio Network and made frequent appearances on Fox Sports Radio 97

george sodini

2009-08-05T05:35:00.000-07:00

A gunman walked into a Bridgeville, Pa., health club tonight, turned out the lights and opened fire, witnesses of the shocking attack said. Authorities have identified a possible suspect in a Collier Township fitness club shooting that killed four people and wounded as many 15.

ABC News has confirmed that George Sodini (48) of Scott Township, Pa., was the man who police say walked quietly Wednesday into an aerobics class at the L.A. Fitness Center in Bridgeville, Pa., where he was a member, turned off the lights and started shooting.

“I’ve never seen nothing quite like this,” Allegheny County police Superintendent Charles Moffatt said. “It was very chaotic.”

According to ABC News, Jen Malley told “Good Morning America” today that she was in the Latin dance class at L.A. Fitness Tuesday when the shooting started. It’s a class she takes every week with friends.

“It was the most terrifying experience of my life,” she said. “I’ve never been so scared.”

Malley said she didn’t see Sodini enter the room but said she felt a presence of “someone who didn’t belong there.” Then the room went dark.

“Everyone was just screaming so loud. At first I didn’t even think shots were being fired,” she said. “It was so surreal.”

Then, as she realized what was happening, Malley and her friends found their way out of the room by following the direction of the lights in other parts of the gym.

nc state fair

2009-08-03T09:33:00.000-07:00

Concert tickets go on sale Monday morning at 10 a.m. So I’m recycling some tips that we provided last year on how to have a successful concert ticket purchase:

Go to the State Fair’s web site a few minutes before 10 a.m. You can either go to the Tickets page and scroll to the bottom OR go to the Dorton Arena Nightly Entertainment page to buy tickets for a specific artist. When it gets close to 10 a.m., start refreshing your browser. You’ll see “Buy Now” buttons when it’s time to go on sale. Note: It doesn’t matter what time it is on your computer. The tickets go on sale when the eTix server says it is 10 a.m., so it may be a few minutes earlier or a few minutes later than 10, based on your computer clock. But keep in mind that if you refresh too often, your computer may cache the page and not actually refresh. Check your browser settings to clear the cache if you still don’t see the “Buy Now” buttons.

You’ll want to buy your concert tickets FIRST. Then go back and buy your admission and ride books. For the first few hours, the “shopping cart” feature will be turned off, so if you want to buy multiple types of tickets, you will have to make multiple purchases. This is because of the number of people who are on the site at one time. We’ll turn the shopping cart on later in the day when traffic dies down. Also, for the first few hours, there is not a 15-minute time limit because of the traffic on the site. So be patient and it will be worth the wait! UPDATE: Because of the Early Bird Ticket Special, the shopping cart is on.

Have your credit card ready- we can only accept MasterCard & Visa. Don’t type spaces or dashes as part of your credit card number. Also, you’ll need to know your credit card’s security code, so go ahead and identify that ahead of time.

If you aren’t happy with the seat selection, you can try to check back a little later as better seats MAY be released. This is because a seat selection is held for at least 15 minutes. If the seats aren’t purchased within that time frame, or if a credit card transaction is not approved, those seats will be re-released into the general pool of tickets available for purchase. WARNING: you are not guaranteed better seats if you wait because it depends on whether or not people go through with their transactions or not, so try this tactic at your own risk!

lloyd doggett

2009-08-03T09:20:00.000-07:00

Today, House members are back home to begin their month-long recess. The far right has indicated that they plan to welcome many of their representatives with large, angry throngs (“town halls gone wild”). The corporate lobbyists engineering these “grassroots” efforts have indicated their harassment strategy is to “yell,” “stand up and shout,” and “rattle” the members. Politico reported that Democratic members of Congress are increasingly being confronted by “angry, sign-carrying mobs and disruptive behavior” at local town halls. This past weekend, Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) was the latest victim of the right’s strategy, where protesters followed him and chanted “just say no” to health care. Watch it:

Texas has the highest uninsured rate in the nation and stands to be among the most to gain from Obama’s health care plan. “[N]early 6 million Texans, including the one in six U.S. uninsured children who live there, could get health insurance for the first time if the plan is enacted.”
Update An angry crowd also exploded at Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) and Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius. The Philadelphia Daily News reports, "They wore bumper stickers on their foreheads. They carried signs. They shouted insults at notable American figures — and each other. Loudly." Watch it:

hurn

2009-08-03T09:13:00.000-07:00

The following are among the top day trader and active trader alert stocks with major price and volume action. We have links to more detailed analysis and price action at VSInvestor.com:

Savient Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: SVNT) is among the worst performers on disappointing FDA action on its gout treatment.

Huron Consulting Group Inc. (NASDAQ: HURN) is the worst performer on earnings restatements and management being replaced.

Repros Therapeutics (NASDAQ: RPRX) is down sharply by over 50% after stopping trials on patient safety.

eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) is up over 4% after getting the barron’s cover story.

Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM) is up over 4% on higher earnings growth.

Oncothyreon Inc. (NASDAQ: ONTY) is up big on lung cancer study data.

The 24/7 Wall St. Team

obama joker poster

2009-08-03T09:04:00.000-07:00

It is starting. Open mockery of Barack Obama, as disillusionment sets in with the man, his policies, and the phony image of a race-healing, brilliant, scholarly, middle-of-the-roader.

Several posters of President Barack Obama as Joker, Heath Ledger-style, with the caption “Socialism” have been showing up in Los Angeles and most recently in Atlanta. No one knows who is responsible for this mysterious “political statement”.

Obama Joker Poster Pictures

tiger woods fart

2009-08-03T08:57:00.001-07:00

Tiger Woods and caddy Steve Williams chuckle as they walk up the 18th fairway in Sunday's Buick Open

The camera follows Tiger Woods walking up the 18th fairway of Sunday's Buick Open from behind, a normal enough looking golf scene. Caddy Stevie Williams carries Woods' bag, while Woods performs some odd-looking calisthenics, stretching out his right leg. And then one of them lets loose a fart loud enough to be heard on camera

View Tiger Woods highlights during the 2009 Buck Open

Woods and Stevie immediately begin laughing, none of the announcers say a word, and soon we cut away to a different shot. It shows a side of Tiger Woods we seldom get to see on or off the golf course: his human side. Some would argue that it was a little too human, but the fact of the matter is it is hilarious, and must happen all of the time.

Click here to see high quality video of the now-infamous Tiger Woods fart

Woods appears to be trying to find a way to get through the incident as quietly as possible, working it out with his right leg while Stevie gets the bag down. What comes next is so loud, so gaseous that some people are incorrectly assuming it is an off-camera fan with a whoopee cushion. Not so.

Given the fact that crews with cameras and microphones follow golfers around for the entirety of their rounds, with agreed-upon breaks only during commercials, it is simply amazing that this doesn't happen more often. As of yet, neither Woods nor Williams have made public comment on the incident, but proper golf etiquette dictates that he who smelt it dealt it.

rob newbiggin

2009-08-03T08:40:00.000-07:00

Rob Newbiggin is an English boxer with a 20 year career behind him. Rob Newbiggin has also been creating something of a stir and a story as he's just announced that after his next fight he's going to have a sex change operation. This led The Sun, a British tabloid newspaper, to dub Rob Newbiggin as "Frocky".

Yes, yes, we know, tabloids are indeed at the heart and soul of wit, aren't they? Combine Sly Stallone's "Rocky" with Newbiggin who wants a sex change and get "Frocky". Ho bleedin' ho as they would say in Newbiggin's native Southport (actually, he was born in Pennsylvania but adopted while young and grew up in England)

The story of the sex change intentions first popped up in his local newspaper: then a week or so later it ran in the national tabloid. The reactions to the national story have not been good:

SOUTHPORT boxer Rob Newbiggin says he has been driven out of the town he loves after admitting he will undergo a sex change operation.

The father-of-three has forged a 20-year career as a boxer in America and has even sparred with Ricky Hatton, but will soon begin a new life as a woman, known as Mercedes, after the operation.

Rob, 44, said that as soon as the news broke in a daily tabloid newspaper, he lost all his friends.

Newbiggin has known that he wanted to be a woman since he was three he says, and he's always known that he had high oestrogen levels. He has been and is married and has fathered three children so he's clearly, as he's fertile, of the XY haplotype (or possibly the very rare indeed XYY) but still defines himself as intersexual. In these modern times of course, gender is something assumed by the individual, not determined by simple genes or chromosomes.

Perhaps the most bizarre part of Rob Newbiggin's story though is what he intends to do after his sex change. Have a look at this video first to get a taste of the man:

gi jane

2009-08-01T08:39:00.000-07:00

RESIDENTS have been getting themselves fit for the summer holidays with a new mini-boot camp in Chester.

The GI Jane’s Beach Body Bootcamp military fitness classes have been taking place in Hoole Park, with an emphasis on social outdoors exercise.

Jane Ledsham, a former army physical training instructor with more than 15 years experience in fitness, is running the course.

baxter credit union

2009-08-01T07:38:00.000-07:00

The first noteworthy rate comes with a product called the “Rainy Day Savings Account.” This product acts as a typical savings account with an interest rate change after the first 12 months.

For the first 12 consecutive months you will earn an APY of 1.50%. After you have completed year 1, your interest rate gets bumped up to a much more lucrative 3.00% APY.

casablanca movie

2009-08-01T07:28:00.000-07:00

Chopping Mall: clearly one of the unknown greats of American cinema

A couple weeks ago we ran an article titled Horror movies 101: Where can I see movies in Pittsburgh? and at the end of that article was a tiny little snippet about the Hollywood Theater in Dormont, just south of Pittsburgh.

The Hollywood is a classic neighborhood theater that kept its doors open from the 1950s up until 1998. The screens in this vintage theater were dark for eight years until 2006 when the Bradley Center, a local organization for troubled youth, signed a ten-year lease on the property. The idea was to let the kids from the center run the theater screening second-run films to give them employment experience. Apparently the program fell through though, because the theater shut down again in mid-2008.

Lucky for all of us though, an organization called Motion Picture Heritage has sub-leased the theater from the Bradley Center and will be re-opening the doors to this historic theater

deuce bigalow european gigolo

2009-08-01T02:38:00.000-07:00

Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo (2005) is the sequel to the 1999 film Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, from Happy Madison Productions. Rob Schneider returns in the role of the reluctant male prostitute Deuce Bigalow who visits his former pimp T.J. (Eddie Griffin) in Amsterdam, and then finds himself looking for a murderer who is killing the greatest “man-whores” of Europe.

Film critic Roger Ebert includes the movie in his “most hated films” list.

Deuce Bigalow European Gigolo Cast

* Deuce Bigalow – Rob Schneider
* T.J. Hicks – Eddie Griffin
* Eva – Hanna Verboom
* Gaspar Voorsboch – Jeroen Krabbé
* Chadsworth Buckingham, III – Douglas Sills
* Assapopoulos Mariolis – Kostas Sommer
* Svetlana – Miranda Raison
* Louisa, the Dirty Girl – Rachel Stevens
* Heinz Hummer – Til Schweiger
* Antoine Laconte – Oded Fehr
* Kate Bigalow – Arija Bareikis
* Lily – Zoe Telford
* Greta, the Hunchback Girl – Dana Goodman
* Marlene Alsmere – Skytriss
* The Big-Eared Girl – Julia Lea Wolov

providence journal

2009-07-31T08:27:00.000-07:00

The Providence Journal’s coverage of the assault on traditional marriage advocates in Warwick, Rhode Island on July 28 has consistently downplayed how pepper spray was used on the conservative protesters, in favor of how food was thrown at them.

ProJo.com’s Wednesday report on the attack ran with the headline, “Same-sex marriage protesters assaulted with food,” and didn’t mention the pepper spray until the second-to-last paragraph. The following morning, reporter Kate Branson used a more nuanced headline (“Update: 4 accused of hurling food at activists in Warwick”), but at least mentioned the pepper spray in the second paragraph.

The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property, also known as the American TFP, is a conservative Catholic group based in the central Pennsylvania town of Spring Grove, and supported by hundreds of thousands of donors all over the U.S. They are conducting a “traditional marriage crusade” in the northeastern states of New York, Rhode Island, and Maine. “Caravans” of their young volunteers are traveling across those three states, and stop at busy intersections, holding signs expressing their support of traditional marriage, which they believe to be a sacrament.

roger wilson

2009-07-31T08:19:00.000-07:00

Roger Wilson, a long time, active member in CommunityAIR, passed away this morning.

Roger was connected everywhere in the city. A senior partner, until his retirement, with Fasken Martineau, a corporate lawyer who sat on many boards and handled multi-million dollar clients, a member of the RCYC and a resident of Toronto Island.

A fierce supporter of CommunityAIR, Roger had his greatest impact in the fight against the bridge. It was through his efforts that the yacht clubs were mobilized and that was key in stopping the bridge. He continued his involvement in CommunityAIR right up until the end.

When evaluating what the Pirates acquired today, I think we've first got to establish what they gave up. Freddy Sanchez, Jack Wilson, and Ian Snell are all players that have their own value. Sanchez is a .300 hitter with a decent gove, Wilson has a great glove, and Snell still has stuff that could make him a solid major league starter.

The thing to remember is that Wilson is a pending free agent with an expensive option that the Pirates weren't going to pick up, that Sanchez has had injury trouble the last two years that's interfered with his production and an expensive vesting option the Pirates didn't seem thrilled to pay, and the team's relationship with Snell had completely soured to the point that he couldn't return to the Pirates.

I've got a pretty long post, plus a long list of links below, so check it all out after the jump.

To summarize, the Pirates had three players that absolutely no one in the world thought would end the week in a Pirate uniform. Given that they were starting with a tipped hand and that Sanchez's option seemed to be driving interest in him way down, the Pirates could've traded all three guys for the proverbial bag of balls today and the general response would've been that we all should've known better than to expect more for these three guys.

Instead, the day ends with the Pirates bringing one top prospect (Tim Alderson), a former top prospect (Jeff Clement), and three interesting young pitchers (Brett Lorin, Nathan Adcock, and Aaron Pribanic). And Ronny Cedeno, who at least plugs the immediate hole created at shortstop for the short-term.

In fact just last night he was at a CommunityAIR meeting, discussing with his usual determination and good spirits, ways to close the Island Airport and bring an end to the Toronto Port Authority. He was in fine fiddle, filled with confidence and life, a big man in every way, strong and vital.

Roger cared about his city and his community. Above all he worked to try and achieve the clean, green Waterfront that we have been promised.

so you think you can dance results

2009-07-31T08:07:00.000-07:00

HOLLYWOOD, California - Brandon Bryant, Evan Kasprzak, Jeanine Mason and Kayla Radomski were named SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE’s Top 4 finalists after host Cat Deeley revealed that Melissa Sandvig, 29, a Ballet dancer from Los Alamitos, CA and Ade Obayomi, 20, a Contemporary dancer from Orange County, CA were eliminated from the competition.

The two-night, four-hour season finale of SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE promises to be the series’ most spectacular showdown ever!

The Top 4 will compete one last time in the hopes of winning America’s vote and the title of America’s Favorite Dancer, a $250,000 cash prize and a featured spot on the cover of the November issue of Dance Spirit magazine.

Judges Nigel Lythgoe and Mary Murphy, as well as guest judges Mia Michaels, Tyce Diorio, Adam Shankman and Debbie Allen, will offer critiques on the final performances of the season.

Broadcast for the first time from the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, the finale will air Wednesday, Aug. 5 (8:00-10:00 PM ET) and Thursday, Aug. 6 (8:00-10:00 PM ET live) on FOX.

In addition to naming America’s Favorite Dancer, the two-hour live finale will feature performances by this season’s Top 20 dancers, Hip Hop dance team The Rage Boyz Crew and Talia Fowler, winner of Season Two of “So You Think You Can Dance Australia.”

The celebration will also showcase encore performances of the Judges’ favorite routines from Season Five.

gdp report

2009-07-31T07:29:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Prices of U.S. Treasurys rose across the board Friday morning after a report that painted a picture of a still weak U.S. economy, with consumers and businesses both continuing to struggle.

The Commerce Department, in its advance report on second quarter gross domestic product said that consumer spending slid by 1.2% during the April through June period after increasing 0.6% in the first quarter and dropping 3.1% in the fourth quarter. Meantime, business spending dropped 8.9% after decreasing 39.2% in the first quarter.

What's more, while GDP fell at a seasonally adjusted 1.0% annual rate in the second quarter versus the 1.5% drop expected in a Dow Jones survey, some market participants had expected an even stronger headline number, said Carl Lantz, a fixed income strategist at Credit Suisse, and when that didn't materialize, they jumped into the bond market.

"Even though the headline was better than consensus, the whisper number was for a bit stronger and some of the details were worrisome," he said. "The story is still that the consumer is pretty weak and until the employment picture improves, it's hard to see that changing much."

GDP acts as a scoreboard for the economy by measuring all goods and services produced. It fell by 6.4% in the first quarter and by 5.4% in the fourth quarter, at the pit of the recession.

In recent trade, the two-year note was up 2/32 to yield 1.17%, the 10-year was 19/32 higher to yield 3.57% and the 30-year was up 1 7/32 to yield 4.37%. Bond prices move inversely to yields. Treasurys benchmark yield curve, the gap between the two and 10-year yields flattened even more, with the curve moving to plus 240 basis points from plus 245 Thursday. At the start of the week it was at plus 271 basis points.

U.S. stocks climbed on Friday after a report showed a smaller-than-expected contraction in the economy this spring, keeping blue chips on track for their strongest monthly gain in nearly seven years.

Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was higher by about 47 points. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite Index were higher by a handful of points each.

Going into the last day of July, the Dow industrials are up 8.4% for the month, the best monthly performance since October 2002. The Dow is also on track for its best July since 1989, when it rose 9.04%. Stocks have rallied by around 40% since hitting lows in March, fueled by hope that the recession has bottomed.

The Commerce Department said on Friday that GDP contracted at a seasonally adjusted 1% annual rate, better than the 1.5% rate of decline that was expected by Wall Street economists, as businesses were less aggressive than expected in liquidating inventories. Consumer spending, which accounts for the bulk of U.S. economic activity, slid 1.2% in the second quarter after rising 0.6% in the first quarter.

Earnings, also a key driver of the market's July rally, were lackluster on Friday. Chevron shares were flat after the oil giant said that its second-quarter earnings dropped 71% amid lower oil and gas prices.

Overseas, Asian markets pushed higher on the strength of the U.S. market overnight, while European markets were mostly lower.

cash for clunkers suspended

2009-07-31T07:18:00.000-07:00

cash for clunkers suspended

Hate to be the one to break the news, but the Cash for Clunkers program has been suspended, due to the fact that it is Out of Money. It seems that it was funded with 1 Billion dollars and while this is a lot of money, when you realize that up to $4,500 was given away for each car, that is only 20,000 People who got money. 20,000 out of 250 Million, and I bet 50 million who could have qualified.

Well it’s over for now, but not too late for Martial Arts Schools (click to see a list of the best ones in DFW) to get some Free Publicity. See below from my previous article. You can still get local press coverage for your Clunker Smashing project and now a lot of sympathy because your school can’t get a new car.

The new Government Cash for Clunkers Program 2009 is going to be a big boom for Martial Arts Schools across America with this particular rule that must be applied to all cars in the program.
Especially intriguing is the new Cash for Clunkers program's last-minute revision requiring car dealers to
"transfer the trade-in vehicle to a disposal facility that will crush or shred it so that it will never be returned to the road, although parts of the vehicle, other than the engine block and drive train (unless the drive train is sold in separate parts), may be sold."

That means that all the cars that have to be “driven” not pushed into the car dealers must be shredded or disposed of in such a way that they can never be used on the road again.

This is a great opportunity for the (click to see the best MMA schools in DFW) to destroy some cars and get some Free Local Press and TV coverage. Imagine having your students attack the car, destroying it piece by piece using Karate kicks and chops, great TV footage and a lot of fun for the students.

If you own a Martial Arts School get someone who has a drivable clunker and plans on being in the government program. Then get the car dealer to agree to let you destroy the car for TV after they have agreed that it meets the requirements for being “driven” to the dealer.

It will be a huge boom to your school and a lot of fun

dunny

2009-07-31T04:37:00.000-07:00

I love that is Dunny Kidrobot LA Presents: ilovedust 20” Dunny Live Painting (08.06)

Join Dunny on August 6th for a live painting event. ilovedust will be painting a 20” City Juice Dunny and will also be giving away limited edition screen prints. This event takes place from 6-8PM so be sure to get their early and don’t forget to bring a camera!

iphone hacker

2009-07-30T08:45:00.000-07:00

In the past 24 hours we have seen major updates to not one but two software unlocks for the iPhone 3GS. Who says competition isn’t a good thing and who doesn’t love a good old fashion hacker fight? Let’s get it on:

In the red corner we have George Hotz along with his fresh version of .

3G(the network speed) issues fixed
Now only patches one file, CommCenter
Leaves no traces on your baseband after it runs.
Much more clean and reliable.

In the blue corner we have the iPhone Dev Team. And since Hotz released his source code, his competition used it to create their latest version of iphone.

Works on both 3G and 3GS
Doesn’t patch any mach-o binary whatsoever. (Doesn’t require a separate patch as each new firmware comes out).
Has no race conditions, no popups about “Missing SIM”, no network issues
Is almost 7000 times smaller than its nearest competition

So there you have it - two software unlocks for your iPhone 3GS and one update for your iPhone 3G unlock. You have to credit George Hotz for stepping his game up when the Dev Team has been dragging their feet. It really seems to have sparked up a good rivalry that we can all benefit from.

anderson cooper bachelorette

2009-07-30T08:17:00.000-07:00

Jillian Harris and Ed Swiderski, the couple from the reality dating show, “The Bachelorette”, appeared on the Live with Regis and Kelly show on July 29, 2009.

Earlier this week, the couple was appeared on ‘Good morning America’, where Jillian and Ed were interviewed and they answered some interesting questions asked by their fans on the show. On the same show, Jillian Harris also showed off her $60,000 engagement ring. That particular ring was designed by Neil Lane, who is the leading celebrity jeweler in the Hollywood.

But if you compare both the shows, the Live with Regis and Kelly show, was a bit more spicy.
The Bachelorette couple was interviewed by Kelly and Anderson Cooper over at Live with Regis and Kelly. Anderson Cooper was hosting the show in the absence of Regis. On the show, Cooper asked Jillian some embarrassing questions including this one,

rorschach blots wikipedia

2009-07-30T07:41:00.000-07:00

It’s all perfectly legal, however, as the rorschach blots wikipedia test was created almost 90 years ago, so they have lost their copyright protection here in the U.S.

Psychologists have created accounts at rorschach blots wikipedia for the sole purpose of arguing that the website is basically voiding one of the oldest psychological assessments known to man.

The rorschach blots wikipedia have, in fact, shown up on other sites, but it wasn’t until they showed up on Wikipedia that psychologists took notice.

“The more test materials are promulgated widely, the more possibility there is to game it,” said Bruce L. Smith, a psychologist and president of the International Society of the Rorschach and Projective Methods, who has posted under the user name SPAdoc. He quickly adds that he didn’t mean that a coached subject could fool the person giving the test into making the wrong diagnosis, but rather simply “render the results meaningless.”

So what do you think? Does it matter that the Rorschach Blots have been posted to Wikipedia?

Latest News

2009-07-29T10:09:00.000-07:00

Workers are rolling out the red carpet for the president at a Kroger grocery store in rural Virginia, but President Obama could get a chilly reception when he appears Wednesday for a town hall meeting on health care.

Assistant produce manager Cathy Montgomery says she likes that the president is getting tough with Congress.

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Phil Younce, a frozen food clerk at the Bristol store, fears health reform is being rushed, just like the stimulus.

"Like the last package that we pushed through, I think it was too hurried, and a lot of mistakes, a lot of things that shouldn't be," said Younce, who voted for Republican candidate John McCain in the presidential election.

But assistant produce manager Cathy Montgomery voted for Obama, and she's pumped he's getting tough with Congress.

"I like the fact that he's stepped up, and he's being aggressive, I really do. I mean, I'm all for that," she said.

Obama's health care stop in Bristol is the second of two town hall meetings Wednesday. He also has an event scheduled at a high school in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Bristol, which is near the Tennessee border, is also where Obama kicked off his general election campaign after defeating Hillary Clinton in the primaries.

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Thousands in the area showed up at a health expo offering free medical care over the weekend, exposing a problem all too familiar to doctors in the region.

"Clearly, we all recognize -- any physician in the hospital would recognize -- that it's a system in crisis," said Dr. Bennett Cowan.

But like most employees at the Kroger supermarket, produce manager Steve Shipplett gets generous health benefits.

Even though he voted for Obama, he's nervous those benefits may be taxed to cover the uninsured, and he's demanding more specifics from the president.

"He's going to have to spit out some numbers and let the public know exactly what it's going to cost them and what they're going to have to give up," he said.

Shipplett says if the president steps up and sells his plan, then he's willing to step up, too.

"We've got to do something, and if it means me paying these taxes to get this reform through I would begrudgingly do it, yes," he said.

And back in the frozen food aisle, Younce is ready to do his share, too.

"No matter what kind of plan you are going to come up with, somebody has to pay for it. So eventually, it comes down to us -- the people that's working and paying taxes. We're going to have to pay for it one way or another. I just hope we can come up with a plan that is worth paying for," he said.

After more than six hours of negotiations, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, House Democratic leaders, the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Democrats and other lawmakers emerged Tuesday night without a deal on health care reform.

Those in the talks said they were making progress, but the Blue Dogs argue that the health care bill will cost too much without fixing the ailing health care system. Interactive: Sticking points of the health care debate »

CNN on Wednesday obtained an e-mail from a top aide of Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus -- a message that aims to debunk a Washington Post headline that negotiators are close to a deal.

"While progress has been made in recent days, neither an accord nor an announcement is imminent," wrote Russ Sullivan, Democratic staff director for the committee. "In fact, significant policy issues remain to be discussed among the Members, and any one of these issues could preclude bipartisan agreement."