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Dell Studio Hybrid

Dell Studio HybridWith its ovoid-cylindrical design, the Dell Studio Hybrid ($874 direct, $1,064 with 19-inch widescreen monitor) is a new twist on the small-form-factor PC. Its size, though, is reminiscent of others in that space, including the Apple Mac mini, and HP's Slimline PCs like the s3330f.

It's an energy-efficient and environment-friendly design (hence the "hybrid" moniker), but thanks to its Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 Penryn-based processor, it can keep up not only with the other systems in the compact space but with larger tower-based PCs as well.

It does suffer from weak 3D performance due to the system's integrated graphics, but if you don't need to play 3D games, the Studio Hybrid is a good alternative to the boxy mainstream PCs that have dominated the market since the dawn of personal computing.


Original Source : http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2326613,00.asp



Cindy Nicole Babe Of The Day

Babe of the Day: Cindy Nicole

Only a girl with two first names could look this good.

US, July 28, 2008 - Whether you speak the language or not, there is one undeniable truth about Spanish television—it is packed with beautiful, under-dressed babes.

Today's Babe, Cindy Nicole currently stars in a Spanish television series in Houston, Texas. A native daughter of Ecuador, Nicole moved to Boston, Massachusetts when she was 18 to obtain a college degree.

- CBTalent
We have girlfriends in Canada who look just like this. Honest.
After graduating, Nicole moved to the Lone Star State in order to tap into the area's large Latino market. There she has worked on several local television shows, magazines, and advertising campaigns.

- CBTalent
Our new babe-skin rug.
In addition to her roles on Spanish television and various projects in the Houston metropolitan area, Nicole has been featured in several national and international publishings, namely Maxim.com and IGN.com's own sister site AskMen.com.

- CBTalent
Currently, Nicole is working on several series locally in Houston and continuing to gain exposure through various national and international outlets.

- CBTalent
Pig tails and boobs are our only babe kryptonite.

Original Source : http://uk.stars.ign.com/articles/894/894305p1.html

Sesame Place Mother Gives Birth

Woman Gives Birth To Third Child While Visiting Sesame Place

A mother who took her two children to Sesame Place Saturday gave birth to her third child in a bathroom stall.Takia Mann, 21, of Manhattan, gave birth to Jayda about 20 minutes into the family visit to Sesame Place, according to the theme park.Mann went into a restroom, her water broke and the baby entered the world. The baby's umbilical cord even broke off naturally, according to the theme park.

"It happened so fast. I didn't have pain, just shock," Mann said.According to the theme park, a woman in a nearby stall asked Mann if she was all right. Mann opened the stall door with her newborn in her arms.Sesame Place EMT Emily Raab, 20, checked out the baby who was healthy and weighed 5 pounds and 11 ounces.Mann and Jayda were taken by ambulance to St. Mary Hospital. Both are doing well and are scheduled to return home on Monday afternoon, after they have a special visit with Elmo and Abby Cadabby from Sesame Place.The family will receive season passes for the remainder of the year and 2009 since Jayda's older brothers only spent 20 minutes in Sesame Place after traveling from New York, according to the theme park.

Original Source : http://www.nbc10.com/news/17013878/detail.html

George W. Bush Makes History With His Affirmation Of Ronald A. Gray’s Death Sentence

George W. Bush Makes History With His Affirmation Of Ronald A. Gray’s Death Sentence

The US president gave his agreement to execute a military man for the first time in 50 years. George W. Bush approved the death sentence of Private Ronald A. Gray, convicted of four counts of murder and eight counts of rape.

Court martial sentenced Private Ronald Gray to death penalty in 1988 for two murders, an attempted murder and three rapes, which the serviceman committed in North Carolina where he served. His victims were two military women and one civil woman. Civil courts of the state had previously sentenced Gray to several life terms for two other murders and five rapes.

The law of the United States stipulates the president’s affirmation of the sentence if it is court martial that brings down a death sentence against a serviceman. Thus, George W. Bush became the first US president in 50 years to have affirmed the execution of a military man.

"While approving a sentence of death for a member of our armed services is a serious and difficult decision for a commander in chief, the president believes the facts of this case leave no doubt that the sentence is just and warranted," White House press secretary Dana Perino said.

The history of the US Army knows many incidents when courts martial brought down death sentences against military men. This was especially noticeable during the US-led campaign in Iraq. There was quite a number of incidents, when US military men were put on trial for their actions against Iraqi civilians. US peacemakers raped women and children, humiliated and tortured unarmed men.

Corporal Joshua Belile of the United States Marine Corps made headlines of many newspapers in the world with his song which he wrote about a fictitious encounter with a family of Iraqi insurgents.

A video of Belile performing the song was posted anonymously on YouTube.com in March 2006. It sparked controversy at a time when Marines were already facing public scrutiny over allegations of a civilian massacre at Haditha. YouTube subsequently removed the video from the site, rejecting any further uploaded versions as violating the site's terms of use.

In the song, the Marine protagonist meets an Iraqi girl who convinces him to follow her to her house. After arriving, the Marine is confronted by the Iraqi girl's father and brother who are armed with AK-47 rifles. The Marine then uses the girl's younger sister as a human shield. The father and brother attack, killing the sister as the Marine laughs maniacally. The Marine then hides behind a TV, returns fire, and kills the father and brother. Cheers and clapping from the unseen audience can be heard in the background of the video.

Belile later said the song was meant only as a joke based on lines from the film Team America: World Police, and apologized to those who were offended by its content. The performance, according to Belile, was at Al Asad airbase in Iraq, where Belile's helicopter gunship unit was posted until March 2006. In the video, Belile is wearing parts of a uniform, although not enough to characterize him as "in uniform" as no nameplate or national markings are visible. The US military, like many others, allows service members and military employees to pursue their own interests when not in uniform.

He was later exonerated of all wrongdoing.

Dwight Eisenhower was the last president before George W. Bush who approved the death penalty of a military man in 1957.

Original Source : http://english.pravda.ru/world/americas/29-07-2008/105914-bush_ronald_gray-0

Gainax On Gurren Lagann

Gainax On Gurren Lagann

Gainax's latest giant robot series Gurren Lagann is finally making its way to American shores this month; the first subtitled DVD is in stores now, and the dub premieres tonight at 11:00 p.m. ET/PT on the Sci Fi Channel's Ani-Monday programming block. To mark the occasion, we spoke with producer Yasuhiro Takeda, project planner (and Gainax co-founder) Hiroyuki Yamaga, mechanical designer and animation director Yoh Yoshinari, and assistant director Masahiko Otsuka.

Anime News Network: Like a see-saw, Gurren Lagann tilts back-and-forth in tone from serious to comedic — often several times within the same episode. How did you manage to balance the serious and tongue-in-cheek themes that you wanted to depict?

Takeda: Overall, we decided what we were going to do in each episode, and then the rest is up to the screenwriter (Kazuki Nakashima) to come up with a balance of what works and what doesn't work.

Yamaga: We've worked together so long that we don't have to have a discussion on where to have comedy and where we're going to be serious. We just understand each other so much that it progresses naturally and works smoothly.

ANN: Were there any story ideas or designs that were suggested, but didn't make it into the final animation because they were too serious or too silly?

Takeda: I mean, not in terms of being too serious or comedic or anything like that, but there was more we wanted to depict within the series, such as wanting to spend more episodes on what it was like to live underground — two episodes at least. Another example was when the story moved into the jail. We wanted to spend more time with that, but we weren't able to.

ANN: Much of the art style, especially in the early episodes, was reminiscent of [director Hiroyuki] Imaishi's other directorial work, Dead Leaves, and I see that Mr. Yoshinari also worked on both of those projects. What was it like to maintain that unique, fast-paced yet tongue-in-cheek style on a more rigorous television schedule, as opposed to a film?

Yoshinari: Artistically speaking, [the animation] looks very complex, but the truth is that during the design phase, it's actually very easy to animate. When the whole design was being created, we had motion in mind. So, despite the fact that it looked difficult, it wasn't that difficult to animate.

ANN: Were there any episodes or themes that stood out in each of your minds as the most challenging as an animator or creator?

Yamaga: Episode 15 (laughter).

Yoshinari: Episode 15 was the most difficult because there were so many shots (cuts) when compared to a typical episode. It was at least one and a half episodes worth of shots because there was so much we needed to cover.

Yamaga: When we get the scripts, we need to figure out how many shots it will take to do the story. When it comes down to it, you only have the same amount of time to do that episode [as in any other episode].

Takeda: When [acclaimed animator] Sushio introduced himself at the FanimeCon meet-and-greet, he called himself the “super animator” [because of the extensive work he did on episode 15].

ANN: On the same note, which episode was the most satisfying at the end of the day?

Takeda: It would have to be the last episode. That means it's done, finally. If you don't finish it then none of it would have mattered, so the last episode was definitely the most satisfying.

ANN: Mr. Yoshinari, which of the mecha did you enjoy designing the most among the many unique designs you brought to the series?

Yoshinari: None of it was fun, it was hard (laughter).

ANN: Then which one was the most challenging?

Yoshinari: Deciding on the finalized design for Gurren Lagann [robot], since it was the basis for everything else in that world.

ANN: What about the original design of the Gurren Lagann was hard?

Yoshinari: Basically, in deciding what Gurren Lagann's finalized design was going to be, it chooses the level of reality that you're going to be allowing for the series. Once you decide that, you'll be subject to that design, and so finalizing Gurren Lagann's design was the hardest thing to do.

ANN: Gainax has had to deal with concerns from television stations regarding mature images and themes in previous series. For Gurren Lagann, airing at a child-friendly time slot last year, did any television stations raise similar concerns about the series?

Takeda: Well, it's not Gainax's problem — it's the television stations' problem (laughter). We had a number of problems though — in particular, episode 6, the bathhouse episode. If only the television stations would just look through the original scripts when we submitted them instead of waiting until the animation footage was made. When we actually first suggested [the episode], they said, “Oh, it shouldn't be a problem.” Yet, when we completed the animation footage and showed it to them, they said, “There's no way we can show this.” The biggest issue was that peeking into the women's bath — that act alone — is illegal. Therefore, we can't show that during a child-friendly timeslot. Why couldn't they have told us that when we gave them the script before? So we had to do what we could to get it on the air. I mean, we took the script to them, we took the storyboards to them, and eventually, when we finally took the animation footage to them — only then, did they finally say that they had a problem with it.

ANN: The two-part storyline, with the multi-year gap in between, is a very special feature of the story. How early in the process did you decide to develop the story in two parts?

Takeda: It was decided from the beginning.

ANN: Gurren Lagann indirectly reminded me of another Gainax series, Otaku no Video, in that both had a two-part structure with the multi-year gap, and they both deal with themes of revolution and what to do after that revolution ends. Changing the world is easy; running the world and dealing with the consequences is hard. Was that similarity intentional, unintentional, or just a result of the similar experiences that Gainax has dealt with over the years?

Yamaga: Doing such a thing wasn't intentional in the beginning, but one of our jobs is to create a character in a world setting, and it's very difficult to depict such a thing realistically. Now to take that person, have him grow up, it creates a little reality…[pause] It's depicting human nature in that when you're a child, you want to be a grownup. Then when you're grown up, the question is: are you living in an idealized grownup world? No, there's a reality to everything, and that's part of the story that we wanted to show in the two-part series.

ANN: I understand that you're doing two movies. Is that going to reflect the same story structure?

Yamaga: The first movie will depict the first part of the story.

ANN: In a previous convention panel, it was mentioned that the first episode's introductory scene tells a slightly different story than the ending because the story changed during production. What were some of the reasons as to why the story changed from the introductory scene to the way we know it now?

Otsuka: That's where we thought we were going to go when we first depicted it. However, by the time we got there it had grown so much beyond the scale of what we had originally imagined it was going to be, therefore slight differences would be noticed.

ANN: I'd like to clarify a few things that were mentioned at previous convention panels: there's talk of three different projects [at Gainax] at the moment: one television project, one movie project, and one where the release hasn't been decided upon. Can you expand on these at all?

Takeda: We'd really like to, but we've given away more than we should. We've got all those things in mind and planned and then some. [Note: ANN confirmed in May that Gainax was adapting Yoshiichi Akahito's Shikabane Hime manga as a television anime series.]

Yamaga: We hope to be working on Gurren Lagann for the next decade. This work we know as Gurren Lagann will continue.

Special thanks to Toshifumi Yoshida for interpreting the interview and to Jeremy Snow for transcribing.

Original Source : http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interview/2008-07-28/gainax-on-gurren-lagann

2 Killed In Tennessee Church Shooting

2 Killed In Tennessee Church Shooting

KNOXVILLE, Tennessee (CNN) -- A shotgun-wielding man opened fire at a Unitarian church during a children's play Sunday morning, killing two adults and wounding seven others before being overpowered by congregants, officials said.

One of the victims, Linda Kraeger, 61, died at a hospital several hours after the shooting at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, Knoxville municipal spokesman Randall Kenner said.

Also killed was Greg McKendry, a 60-year-old usher and board member at the church, police said earlier in the day.

A suspect, Jim Adkisson, 58, of Powell, Tennessee, was charged with one count of first-degree murder, Kenner said Sunday evening. Video Watch scene at church after shooting »

Adkisson is not believed to have been a member of the Knoxville church, and investigators have not determined a motive for the shooting, Knoxville Police Chief Sterling Owen told reporters.

"[The motive] is one thing we're obviously aggressively pursuing," Owen said.

Five others were hospitalized in either critical or serious condition, police said. iReport.com: Are you there? Share photos, video, accounts

Two other people hurt in the attack were treated and released, Owen said.

Church member Barbara Kemper told The Associated Press that McKendry "stood in the front of the gunman and took the blast to protect the rest of us."

Owen told reporters he couldn't comment on whether McKendry confronted the gunman, but he said McKendry apparently "was the first person [the gunman] encountered" in the sanctuary.

Members of the church said a man entered the building at about 10:15 a.m. and began shooting during a children's production of the musical "Annie." About 200 people in the church were watching the production, which was being put on by 25 children, the AP reported.

No child was shot, and a few church members subdued the man and held him until officers arrived, police said. Church members said one of the tacklers was John Bohstedt, a man who had a part in the musical, the AP reported.

"This was a day the church was looking forward to for a long time, and it turned into a nightmare," Bohstedt told Knoxville television station WBIR.

Ken Kitts said he arrived late and saw a couple and a child running out of the church at "super-fast speed."

"Then everybody else started pouring out of the church, lots of them in costume from this show they were putting on," he said.

Inside, he said, was a scene of "absolute chaos," including wounded people and the gunman, who was pinned to the floor by church members.

"He was face-down in the middle of a bunch of shotgun shells rolling around on the floor," Kitts said.

Owen said investigators are looking into whether Adkisson has a criminal history. Bail was set at $1 million late Sunday.

"We don't know this particular individual. We may never know why," said Steve Drevik, a church member who arrived after the shooting. "All of this will come out in the next couple of days."

Rick Lambert, the FBI agent in charge of the bureau's Knoxville office, said federal agents are assisting Knoxville police with witness interviews and could help analyze evidence from the crime scene. He said the bureau is examining whether the attack was a hate crime.

"Anytime there is a shooting in a church, there is the possibility it could be a hate crime," he said.

The church, on its Web site, describes itself as a community that has worked for social change -- including desegregation, women's rights and gay rights -- since the 1950s.

Police said people were recording videos of the children's performance when the shooting happened, and investigators were reviewing the videos. Information on what, if anything, the videos show of the shooting wasn't immediately available.

The church's minister, Chris Buice, said he was on vacation when the shooting happened but rushed back when he heard what occurred. Sunday afternoon -- after McKendry's death but before Kraeger's -- he spoke briefly to reporters.

"Please pray for this congregation, because we are grieving the loss of a wonderful man," Buice said as he choked back tears.

Sunday's attack was the fourth time in 15 months that an American church became a scene of a fatal shooting.

In December 2007, a 24-year-old former missionary candidate killed two people at a suburban Denver, Colorado, missionary training center and two more at a Colorado Springs megachurch the following day. The gunman, Matthew Murray, killed himself after being shot by a security guard.

The previous August, police said, 52-year-old Eiken Saimon shot and killed three people and wounded five others at a Congregational church in Neosho, Missouri. The attack left three people dead and five wounded.

And that May, in Moscow, Idaho, 36-year-old Jason Hamilton fatally shot a police officer and a sexton at First Presbyterian Church, then killed himself before police stormed the building. Hamilton's wife was found shot to death in the bedroom of their Moscow home after the church shootings.

Original Source : http://edition.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/07/28/church.shooting/?iref=mpstoryview

Istanbul: Turkey Blames Kurds For Bomb Attacks

Istanbul: Turkey blames Kurds for bomb attacks

Istanbul's governor has blamed two bomb blasts which killed 17 people and injured 150 others in Istanbul on a Kurdish rebel group - but the rebels have denied involvement.






Gov Muammer Guler said police were still investigating the explosions in a packed square on Sunday night, which were the deadliest attack against civilians in Turkey in five years.

"There appears to be a link with the separatist organisation. We are working on that. We hope to get a result at the first opportunity," Mr Guler said.

But Firat, a pro-Kurdish news agency, reported Zubeyir Aydar, a Kurdish rebel leader, as saying that the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, did not carry out the bombing.

"The Kurdish freedom movement has nothing to do with this event, this cannot be linked to the PKK," he was quoted as saying. "We extend our condolences to the families of the victims and to the Turkish people."

While government officials blamed the Kurds, the timing and location of the attacks pointed to a link with a key court case which threatens the future of the Islamic-oriented government.

The attack came on the eve of deliberations by the Turkey's top court on whether to ban the ruling party for allegedly trying to steer the country toward Islamic rule. The government won a strong mandate in elections last year, but is locked in a power struggle with secular circles that have backing in the military and judiciary.

The case before the top court is pivotal in that conflict, which has distracted attention from key policies such as Turkey's troubled bid to join the European Union.

There were reports yesterday that Turkish police had detained three teenagers in connection with the blasts, but Mr Guler would not confirm that report.

Turkey is home to a variety of militants, including Kurdish rebels, Islamic extremists and alleged coup plotters with ties to the secular establishment.

Deniz Baykal, the opposition leader, said security officials told him the type of bombs used were similar to those detonated in attacks in Ankara and Diyarbakir, a mostly Kurdish city, which were blamed on the PKK.

The PKK, which is designated by the EU as a banned terror organisation, is fighting for an independent homeland in Turkey's south and Iraq's north.

The high level of professionalism in the Istanbul bombings, apparently designed to inflict maximum casualties among civilians, was unsettling. Authorities said the vast majority of the deaths and injuries occurred when a curious crowd gathered after an initial, small blast.

"First, they exploded a percussion bomb to grab attention. Then, 10 minutes later, in another trash can, they exploded a fragmentation bomb," said Hayati Yazici, deputy prime minister.

Cihan news agency said the second bomb consisted of a plastic explosive of the same kind used in a suicide attack in a shopping thoroughfare in Ankara in May 2007 that killed seven people.

Cihan said two of the dead were children. Anatolia news agency said one victim was a 12-year-old girl who rushed with her parents onto the balcony of their fourth floor apartment to see what was going on.


Original Source : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/turkey/2464785/Istanbul-Turkey-blames-Kurds-for-bomb-atta cks.html

Cuil Search Engine

Cuil Search Engine

Can Cuil's new search engine capture the salmon of knowledge?

Google has yet another a new challenger for the search engine crown
I'm annoyed with Google at the moment -- it is spamming me with intrusive Google Toolbar adverts on its main page -- so I might just give a rival a try. One launched today is called Cuil (or "cool"), which is "an old Irish word for knowledge," says the site.


This is different from Google in that it displays results in two or three columns (thus reducing what on Google amounts to "the tyranny of the top hit"), quotes enough content to be useful, has an illustration with each entry, and does some clustering, It also claims to focus on content. The site says:

Rather than rely on superficial popularity metrics, Cuil searches for and ranks pages based on their content and relevance. When we find a page with your keywords, we stay on that page and analyze the rest of its content, its concepts, their inter-relationships and the page's coherency.


Cuil's other claim to fame is that it indexes more of the web than anybody else. At the moment, it says: "Search 121,617,892,992 web pages". This is presumably why Google posted a not very useful boast on its blog last week, We knew the web was big...

But Cuil has some obvious drawbacks, even on two minutes' use. For example, it is no doubt a good idea to focus on content, but it gets a bit repetitive if you're faced with hits from basically the same content at different addresses. Another drawback: I searched for [google official blog] without any quotes, and got nothing from Cuil: It simply says:

We didn't find any results for "google official blog"


Yeah, I do wish people would use [square brackets] to show what's typed into a search box, but there you go. The same search in Google correctly finds Official Google Blog and 130m hits, not zero hits. If I'm not using quotation marks, I don't see why Cuil should be so picky about me misremembering Google's official word order.

One thing in Cuil's favour is that its founders and staff have enough background (ie ex-Google employees) and backing to get coverage in The New York Times, TechCrunch, Search Engine Land and even The Guardian.

Whether it will actually do any better than Vivisimo, Teoma, Hakia, Kartoo, Wikia etc is another matter. Google is no longer winning by delivering much better results than the competition (provable here), it's winning by tying in other products (Gmail etc) and because we all love familiar things and don't like unfamiliar ones.

So what can be done about the increasingly bad results that Google produces? The obvious answer is to use multiple vertical-market search engines that focus only on the topic you want. Google did this rather badly and the feature has been quietly buried away where you won't find it. (To be fair, Google Scholar seems to be more successful.)

Scirus is one example, and Kosmix is having a go. But I still wouldn't bet on specialist search engines taking off.....

So, what do you think of Cuil? Or does nobody care any more?

Original Source : http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/07/28/can_cuils_new_search_engine_capture_the_salmon_of_knowledge.html

Compass Bank Robbery

Compass Bank Robbery

FBI Says Woman Who Robbed Compass Bank Still At Large
The F.B.I is hunting searching for a woman who is thought to be behind Tuesday’s robbery at Compass Bank on Center Point Parkway around lunch Tuesday. Investigators handling the case also revealed that Banks in Birmingham, Albertville and Madison were also targeted with robbery.

Investigators say a woman armed with a handgun entered Compass Bank at 2337 Center Point Road at 11:58 a.m.She then handed the teller a note saying she was there to rob the Bank. She later drew an automatic teller gun at the teller.

The woman whom the F.B.I say was accompanied by a male gateway is said to have looted and run away with an unspecified amount of cash. According to sources close to the investigation, the woman fled in either a dark-colored Ford or Chevrolet sedan.

Police in Albertville have said two males and a female were arrested following an armed robbery of Southern Bank at around 1:30 p.m.It appears the suspects were apprehended after a reportedly crashing their getaway near the bank.

Compass Bank is a Sunbelt-based financial institution which operates 420 full-service banking centers including 166 in Texas, 90 in Alabama, 76 in Arizona, 44 in Florida, 33 in Colorado and 11 in New Mexico. Compass Bank is also a subsidiary of Compass Bancshares, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of BBVA (NYSE: BBV) (MAD: BBVA).

When combined with BBVA's three other U.S. banking companies, Compass will rank as the largest regional bank in the Sunbelt region and among the top 25 banks in the U.S. by total deposits.

If you have any information regarding the Compass Bank robbery, call the Birmingham F.B.I. office at (205) 326-6166.

Original Source : http://www.huliq.com/64780/fbi-says-woman-who-robbed-compass-bank-still-large

Google Cache Back On Track

Google's Cache Database Back On Track?

A WebmasterWorld thread had reports that Google had all old cache dates for most sites on the web. By old, I mean, the last time Google said they "retrieved" the site was on the 15th or 16th and it was already the 22nd before Google showed new cache dates.

Here is a screen capture of what the cache date looked like on many sites:

Google Cache Dates

Google is known for having fairly frequent cache dates and crawling patterns on most sites, even sites that do not update all that frequently.

Last night, senior member Atomic noticed Google started to update the cache dates with fresher dates. But until then, Webmasters were really worried. One even joked, "maybe they've ran out of room."

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Original Source : http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/017764.html

Edwin Hall Pleads Guilty To Kelsey Smith Murder

Edwin Hall Pleads Guilty To Kelsey Smith Murder

In a surprising twist to a Johnson County murder that gained nationwide attention, Edwin Hall pleaded guilty this afternoon to killing Kelsey Smith.

Hall stood before Judge Peter Ruddick as he entered guilty pleas to charges of capital murder, aggravated kidnapping, rape and aggravated criminal sodomy.

For the murder charge, he faces life in prison with no chance of parole. For each of the other three counts, the range of punishment is 147 to 653 months.

Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline told the court about DNA gathered in the case. The best match was found inside the zipper flap of the shorts that Hall wore the night that Kelsey disappared. There’s less than one chance in 280 billion that the material came from anyone other than Kelsey, Kline said.

Investigators also found Hall’s DNA on the steering wheel of Kelsey’s car. Kline said there was only a chance of 1 in 5.3 million that the DNA was from someone other than Hall.

More than 100 people crammed into the small courtroom including 17 youths in blue T-shirts that said, “Kelsey’s Army” on the front and “We’re still here.”

That’s a reference to the many friends of the victim who organized searches after her disappearance last year, and they continue to follow her case.

Members of Kelsey’s family wept as Hall admitted to the crimes.

Today’s 1:30 p.m. hearing had been expected to be routine. Attorneys planned to argue on whether the mid-September trial should be delayed.

But this morning, the Johnson County Sheriff’s Department said it was planning extra security for the hearing.

Hall was arrested June 6, four days after Smith was kidnapped from an Overland Park Target store where she went on an errand. She had graduated from Shawnee Mission West High School 10 days earlier.

Authorities located Smith’s body near Longview Lake in southern Jackson County on June 6 after tracking cell phone pings from Smith’s phone.

For more than three days, her family and friends had no clue what had happened to the girl who was never afraid to give her opinion, who loved to sing and perform and play clarinet. In the hot sun, they walked neighborhoods within a five-mile radius of the Target store, determined to find Kelsey.

Hall, 27, will be sentenced on Sept. 16, the day he had been scheduled for trial.

Original Source : http://www.kansascity.com/637/story/717067.html

Google Knol

Google Knol

Google opens doors to Knol

Wikipedia-like site will identify expert content providers who will own their pages

Seven months after Google Inc. announced plans to launch its own Wikipedia-type project, authors on Wednesday were invited to submit content to the new site, called Knol (which means a unit of knowledge).

Though the concept is quite similar to that used by Wikipedia, Google said it is not looking to compete harshly with the established site. The company said it is focusing on highlighting the authors who submit articles to the site. Each knol will have a single author or group of authors whose name or names will appear with their contributions, Google noted in a blog post.

"The Web contains vast amounts of information, but not everything worth knowing is on the Web," Google said. "An enormous amount of information resides in people's heads: Millions of people know useful things, and billions more could benefit from that knowledge. Knol will encourage these people to contribute their knowledge online and make it accessible to everyone."

Knol will include a new concept that Google is calling "moderated collaboration," where any reader can make suggested edits to a knol, which the author can choose to accept, reject or modify for inclusion on the site, Google said.

Knol also includes various community tools to allow users to submit comments, ratings or write reviews. Mashable blogger Adam Ostrow wrote that because Knol allows authors to insert AdSense ads on their knols and earn money based on clicks, "this sounds a lot less like the community collaborating on authoritative articles (Wikipedia) and a lot more like a potential land grab to create content for keywords."

However, he acknowledged that offering the ability for anyone to comment or review an article raises or lowers the authority of that article and should keep "would-be opportunists" at bay.

"In giving a single author control over each knol and its edits, it's hard to imagine the service will be as authoritative as Wikipedia, which many would argue has its own biases," Ostrow added. "Meanwhile, Knol could still be a huge traffic generator for Google and steal visitors from Wikipedia if it's integrated in search results -- something Google has not been shy about doing with other properties like YouTube."

Danny Sullivan, a blogger at Search Engine Land, noted that the best way to describe Knol is Wikipedia with moderation. "The collaborative advantage to Wikipedia is also its disadvantage," Sullivan noted. "Since anyone can contribute, some introduce factual errors or overtly vandalize articles. It's one reason that Wikipedia is considering moderation."

However, Sullivan added that he is concerned that hosting Knol content will set up inherent conflicts that will start to erode the trust users have in Google.

"By hosting this content, it plays too much in the content-owner space when its core business is supposed to be driving traffic outbound to others," Sullivan noted. "I can see the value in Knol's tool set and the potential it might offer to help collect further knowledge. So I'll give Knol the benefit of the doubt -- that it will perhaps occupy a space not being filled, rather than push others aside."

Original Source : http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9110552&intsrc=hm_list

AMZN Amazon Stocks Soar

AMZN Amazon Stocks SoarOnline-retail giant Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) reported brisk second-quarter earnings today, posting profits of 37 cents per share, a $158 million windfall that more than doubled from the same time last year.

With sales of $4.06 billion, up 41 percent from the year-earlier period, Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) came in at the high end of its own guidance and beat the Wall Street consensus of $3.96 billion, according to analyst polling by Thomson Reuters.

Amazon's robust numbers buck the trend of a weakening economic climate that has hurt retailers across the board. Amazon, the world's largest online retailer, continues to expand, announcing plans to open two new fulfillment centers during the quarter.

In announcing the numbers, CEO Jeff Bezos suggested that his company was better positioned to weather the economic storm than its brick-and-mortar counterparts.

"Customers continue to take advantage of our low prices, free shipping and Amazon Prime," Bezos said in a statement. "Amazon Prime membership costs less than a tank of gas -- more and more customers are joining the program and enjoying its benefits."

Amazon continued to aggressively promote its Kindle e-book reader in the second quarter. The company does not provide sales figures for the device, but it boasted that it has now made more than 140,000 titles available for the Kindle.

During the second quarter, Amazon mounted a legal challenge to a controversial law that took effect in New York Overstock.com has joined Amazon's suit against New York State.

But Amazon's tax troubles might not end there. Through nominal subsidiaries, Amazon runs fulfillment centers and call centers in about a dozen states, but only collects sales taxes in four. One of those states -- Texas -- is undertaking a review of Amazon's tax responsibilities, and Arizona is considering a change to its tax laws that could impose a collection requirement on the online retailer.

Also during the quarter, Amazon continued to build its cloud computing business. The company said that more than 30,000 developers signed up for Amazon Web Services, bringing the total number to more than 400,000.

Amazon offered Q3 guidance of between $4.2 billion and $4.425 billion, an increase of between 29 percent and 36 percent over the third quarter of 2007.

Amazon raised slightly its full-year guidance to between $19.35 billion and $20.1 billion.

Original Source : http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3760851/Amazon+Profits+Jump+102+Percent.htm

Cybertecture Egg

Holistic Reality: Mumbai’s Cybertecture Egg

India has been on world architecture news for a while now. Antilla has hardly left the headlines, while Cybertecture Egg has already taken a place on top.

Talk of intelligent design- this building will surpass all that fall in this category. You will see it built by 2010.

The concept. The concept was inspired by considering the world as an ecosystem allowing life to evolve. Elements of the design and intelligence systems will work together to give the building’s inhabitants the ‘best space to work in’.

The design. The 32,000 sq m egg-shaped building will accommodate 13 floors of offices bringing together “iconic architecture, environmental design, intelligent systems, and new engineering to create an awe-inspiring landmark in the city.”

Within the building, there will be a series of innovative systems such as ‘cybertecture health’ which is designed to keep track of the inhabitant’s health including blood pressure and weight. The data collected may be retrieved and sent to a doctor if deemed necessary.

You do not like the view from your window? Well, in this building you can customize your favorite view and have real time scenery from all around the world instead of the view the user currently has. Technology and the working environment are united in the use of ‘cybertecture reality’ which allows you to do this.

It is green. The egg itself is orientated and skewed at an angle to create both a strong visual language and to alleviate the solar gain of the building, also there is a sky garden on the top of building which performs thermolysis (the dissipation of heat from the surface). PV panels will be installed on top of the building and a wind turbine on the sky gardens will generate electricity. A water filtration system will also be incorporated into the building to recycle grey water for flushing and irrigation purpose.

James Law Cybertecture International, commissioned by Vijay Associate (Wadhwa Developers) to create an office unlike any other in India, comments, “In the 21st Century, buildings will be different from 20th Century. They are no longer about concrete, steel and glass, but also the new intangible materials of technology, multimedia, intelligence and interactivity. Only recognizing this will bring a new form of architecture to light, namely a Cybertecture.”

Why an egg? By using this “Egg” shape, compared to a conventional building, the structure has approximately 10-20% less surface area. Within the building, an innovative structure derived from the skin of the egg creates up to 30m spans of column less floors. The architecture is sleek and computer designed, with engineering that creates a building of high quality and geometric sophistication.

Cybertecture egg is indeed a futuristic building where technology and life embrace each other to help live a quality life. It IS the next big thing.


Original Source : http://vanibahl.wordpress.com/2008/07/23/holistic-reality-mumbais-cybertecture-egg/

Petrol Price War As Sainsbury's Cuts Costs

Petrol Price War As Sainsbury's Cuts Costs

A burgeoning petrol price war has escalated after Sainsbury's became the third supermarket to cut fuel costs.

Asda triggered a petrol price war after cutting the price by 3p a litre
Sainsbury's petrol price cut of 5p a litre follows similar cuts by Asda and Morrisons

The store said it was cutting 5p a litre from fuel from Thursday for customers who spent more than £50 or more in its shops, in a promotion which will run for two weeks.

Asda began the price cutting by taking 3p off a litre, bringing the price of petrol down to 113.9p a litre and diesel down to 128.9p .

Morrisons swiftly responded by cutting prices by 4p a litre. Both companies said they were responding to a recent drop in the price of oil, which has seen the cost of a barrel drop from a peak of $147 to around $130.

Asda said all 170 of its petrol forecourts across the country would sell fuel at the cheaper price. David Miles, the store's trading director, said: "We are seeing a more stable reduction in oil prices, allowing us to pass on the savings to customers.

Morrisons group store operations director Mark Gunter added: "The cost of crude oil and refined product has fallen in the last few days and we are ensuring our customers reap the benefit by passing on the saving quickly, for cheaper prices at the pumps."

Tesco has already offered a five pence a litre discount to customers who spend £50 in its supermarkets and is now expected to match local branches of other supermarkets rather than lose business.

Edmund King, AA president, said: "Asda's petrol price drop is excellent news for UK motorists and we urge other fuel retailers to reduce their prices – and not only where they find themselves neighbouring an Asda petrol station.

"We have seen two drops in European wholesale fuel prices so far this summer with the UK motorist seeing next to no benefit. Since mid July the wholesale gasoline price has fallen 6 per cent and the AA expects fuel suppliers to pass on, not pocket, the saving for the good of UK families, hauliers and the economy.

"We will watch price movements like a hawk, and should fuel suppliers and retailers appear to be dragging their feet we will seek to expose this."

Original Source : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/main.jhtml?xml=/motoring/2008/07/22/mfuel122.xml

Social Security Calculator

Social Security Calculator It's difficult to plan for retirement when you can't predict the precise amount of your Social Security checks. A new tool is available to more accurately estimate what your Social Security benefits will be.

Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue unveiled a new online calculator yesterday. The Retirement Estimator allows you to test out retirement options such as various retirement dates or expected future earnings. You can also calculate what your benefit will be if you begin collecting at age 62, wait until your full retirement age, or further delay claiming until age 70. The future benefit amount is adjusted for inflation.

The online Social Security benefit estimates are tied to your actual earning record, so you have to enter a little bit of personal information. But the calculator replaces an older online calculator that required the user to type in a large portion of their earnings history, which was time consuming and difficult to do if accurate records of income were not kept. The new tool also one-ups the annual paper Social Security benefit estimate you receive in the mail, which is also based on your prior earnings but assumes that your salary stays the same until retirement. Benefit estimates will be more accurate for people closer to retirement age who can better predict their future earnings.

The new calculator follows a redesign of the Social Security Web page. In the fall, a new online Social Security application that will reduce the average filing time from 45 minutes to about 15 minutes will become available, Astrue says. "These initiatives will help us better handle the baby boomer wave and make it easier for the public to do business with us online."

Original Source : http://www.usnews.com/blogs/planning-to-retire/2008/7/22/social-security-unveils-a-new-online-calculator.html

Empire Of The Sun

Empire Of The SunEmpire of the Sun is a 1984 novel by J. G. Ballard which was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. Although like Ballard's earlier short story, "The Dead Time," published in the anthology Myths of the Near Future, it is essentially fiction, like the earlier story it draws extensively on Ballard's experiences in World War II.

Ballard later wrote a sequel, entitled The Kindness of Women.

Plot

The novel recounts the story of a young English boy, Jim Graham (Ballard's first and middle names are James Graham), who lives with his parents in Shanghai. After the Pearl Harbor attack, the Japanese occupy the Shanghai International Settlement, and in the following chaos Jim becomes separated from his parents.

He spends some time in abandoned mansions, living on remnants of packaged food, but is soon picked up by the Japanese and interned in the Lunghua Civilian Assembly Center.

Although the Japanese are "officially" the enemies, Jim identifies partly with them, both because he adores the pilots with their splendid machines and because he feels that Lunghua is still a comparatively safe place for him in these times.

Towards the end of the war, with the Japanese army collapsing, the food supply runs short. Jim barely survives, with people around him starving to death.


Original Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_of_the_Sun

JalapeƱo Pepper Tests Positive For Salmonella

JalapeƱo Pepper Tests Positive For Salmonella

FDA Investigation Turns Up Contaminated Pepper Grown in Mexico, Processed in Texas

A fresh jalapeƱo pepper grown in Mexico and processed in Texas has tested positive for the strain of salmonella that has sickened more than 1,200 people in recent months, food safety and health officials said today.

jalapeno
An FDA investigation into what caused salmonella illnesses has turned up a contaminated pepper grown in Mexico and processed in Texas.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's associate commissioner for foods, David Acheson, said there has been a "significant break in the salmonella investigation," stressing, however, that the probe is ongoing.

As a result of the finding, the FDA is asking people nationwide to avoid eating fresh jalapeƱo peppers, serrano peppers and foods made with fresh jalapeƱo peppers. Pickled and preserved jalapeƱos are still safe to eat.

The pepper that tested positive was obtained at a produce distribution center called Agricola Zaragosa, in McAllen,Texas, officials said. That distribution center has since recalled all peppers that passed through its plant. All the other samples that have since been taken at that facility have tested negative for the outbreak, the FDA said.

Original Source : http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=5419513&page=1

Charles Schwab

Online Brokers Gain Assets At Wirehouses' Expense

NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- As wirehouse brokerage firms narrow their focus to the truly wealthy, assets from some "mass affluent" clients are migrating to online brokers.

Charles Schwab Corp. (SCHW) and TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. (AMTD) added a combined $30 billion in net new assets this quarter, boosting their quarterly earnings.

They may be benefiting from a shift in how the brokerage industry works. Traditional brokers are shifting from making money on transactions to a fee- based business model, making wealthier clients particularly desirable.

That leaves opportunities for the online brokers, who may be able to snare some of the smaller clients' assets - or, on occasion, the clients themselves.

"As the full-service firms go higher and higher upstream, there is a bigger segment of the market (with) significant assets that aren't as attractive" to the big brokerage firms, said James McGovern, a vice president at Corporate Insight, a financial services research and consulting firm. "That's where companies like Fidelity, Schwab, or Ameritrade can attract clients."

On Wednesday, Charles Schwab posted second-quarter earnings slightly ahead of analysts' estimates. The San Francisco online broker added $26 billion in new assets in the quarter. Schwab said its total client assets rose 1% over the previous year, to $1.4 trillion, as it added $10 billion in net new assets in June alone.

Rival TD Ameritrade, which is transforming its business focus from retail trading to asset gathering, added $4 billion in net new assets in the second quarter, for a year-to-date increase of $20 billion. The company's total client assets were $309.2 billion as of June 30 - a 4% increase year-over-year.

"We are seeing our clients bring more of their money to us," said TD Ameritrade Chief Executive Joe Moglia during a Thursday conference call with analysts. "That is probably coming from full-commission firms."

For TD Ameritrade, its asset-gathering strategy means targeting mass affluent investors, which it defines to include those with between $100,000 and $1 million in investable assets.

"I just think the industry itself - Schwab, Fidelity, Ameritrade, and even E* Trade (ETFC) - is improving" its products, said FBR Capital Markets analyst Matt Snowling.

He added that a recent push toward more banking and portfolio allocation services has made the online brokers more competitive with big brokerage firms.

"They are making it easier and easier to aggregate more of your assets in one place," he said.

Big securities firms insist they aren't ignoring these smaller clients. Citigroup Inc.'s (C) Smith Barney unit has a platform for what it calls emerging affluent clients - those with less than $500,000 in investable assets.

The service, myFi, which is short for "My Financial Life," offers checking accounts, debt consolidation, and financial advice.

UBS Wealth Management US, a unit of UBS AG (UBS), also has in recent months set up an Investment Center where financial advisors provide services over the phone for clients who have $1,000 to $250,000 in assets.

Analysts say brokerage firms are still at the top of the competitive landscape.

"What you aren't seeing is somebody at Merrill Lynch or Morgan Stanley saying I'm going to move my business and take it to Ameritrade," said Mike Carrier, a stock analyst at UBS.

However, while the clients themselves may not be heading to the likes of TD Ameritrade, some of their money at the margin is going there.

At Schwab, its leading position in servicing registered investment advisors gives it the ability to add not only assets, but also new clients who use financial advisors.

"Right now, because of the difficulties in the capital markets with the wirehouses, I think Schwab is getting more of their assets on the retail side and on the RIA side, Carrier said.

TD Ameritrade hopes to pick up some of those clients as well. Its purchase of TD Waterhouse Group Inc. in 2006 gave the company access to a national network of registered investment advisors.

Original Source : http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200807210920DOWJONESDJONLINE000275_FORTUNE5.htm

AAPL Down

AAPL

Shares in AAPL plummeted more than 10% in after hours trading, following the release of Apple's third quarter financial results. As of this writing, shares traded at US$147.56 per share, down $18.73 (-11.26%), with investors seemingly worried about Apple's September quarter guidance. The stock had posted a small gain in the last hour of the regular trading session.

Apple announced a record June quarter, with revenue of $7.45 billion and profits on $1.07 billion. The company grew iPod sales, and saw a record quarter for Macintosh unit sales. While those results beat analyst consensus of $1.07 per share in earnings, with revenue of $7.36 billion, Apple disappointed with its 4th quarter guidance.

Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer announced guidance of $7.8 billion in revenue, with earnings of $1 per share. Wall Street had been looking for $8.3 billion in revenue with earnings of $1.23 per share. The after hours market took that guidance as a disappointment, sending the shares lower.

The after hours market only affects those shares actually traded during the after hours session, but it can be an indication of which direction the market will head once the next regular trading session opens. News from events that take place after the markets close are what tend to have the biggest effect on any stock's after hours activity.

Historically both after hours gains and losses have tended to be more extreme than regular trading activity during that next session. The Mac Observer will be watching the markets Tuesday morning to report on Apple's activity.

*In the interest of full disclosure, the author holds a small share in AAPL stock that was not an influence in the creation of this article.

Original Source : http://www.macobserver.com/stockwatch/2008/07/21.4.shtml

Radovan Karadzic

Radovan Karadzic
Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic has long been one of the most wanted men in the world.

His arrest has come after nearly 13 years on the run - during which time Serbia has come under increasing international pressure to catch him.

Accused of leading the slaughter of thousands of Bosnian Muslims and Croats, he has twice been indicted by the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

The UN says his forces killed at least 7,500 Muslim men and boys from Srebrenica in July 1995 as part of a campaign to "terrorise and demoralise the Bosnian Muslim and Bosnian Croat population".

He was also charged over the shelling of Sarajevo, and the use of 284 UN peacekeepers as human shields in May and June 1995.

After the Dayton accord that ended the Bosnian war, the former nationalist president went into hiding - possibly in the mountainous south-eastern area of the Serb-controlled part of Bosnia - protected by paramilitaries.

If The Hague was a real juridical body I would be ready to go there... but it is a political body that has been created to blame the Serbs
Radovan Karadzic

International pressure to capture Mr Karadzic mounted in spring 2005 when several of his former generals surrendered and a video of Bosnian Serb soldiers shooting captives from Srebrenica shocked television viewers in former Yugoslavia.

Belgrade announced several arrests in connection with the video, which was first shown during the war crimes trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.

In early 2007, Nato troops in Bosnia-Herzegovina raided the homes of Mr Karadic's children, saying they believed Sasa and Sonja Karadzic to be part of a network supporting their father.

Mr Karadzic has denied the charges against him and refused to recognise the legitimacy of the UN tribunal.

"If The Hague was a real juridical body I would be ready to go there to testify or do so on television, but it is a political body that has been created to blame the Serbs," he told the UK-based Times newspaper in February 1996.

'Head of state'

Mr Karadzic was born in 1945 in a stable in Savnik, Montenegro.

KARADZIC'S CV
1945: Born in Montenegro
1960: Moves to Sarajevo
1968: Publishes collection of poetry
1971: Graduates in medicine
1983: Becomes team psychologist for Red Star Belgrade football club
1990: Becomes president of SDS party
1992-1995: Bosnian war
2008: Arrested in Serbia

His father, Vuk, had been a member of the Chetniks - Serb nationalist guerrillas who fought against both Nazi occupiers and Tito's communist partisans in World War II - and was in jail for much of his son's childhood.

His mother, Jovanka Karadzic, described her son as loyal, and a hard worker who used to help her in the home and in the field. She said he was a serious boy who was respectful towards the elderly and helped his school friends with their homework.

In 1960 he moved to Sarajevo, where he later met his wife, Ljiljana, graduated as a doctor, and became a psychologist in a city hospital.

He also became a poet and fell under the influence of the Serb nationalist writer Dobrica Cosic, who encouraged him to go into politics.

Years later, after working briefly for the Green Party, he helped set up the Serbian Democratic Party (SDS) - formed in 1990 in response to the rise of national and Croat parties in Bosnia and dedicated to the goal of a Greater Serbia.

Less than two years later, as Bosnia-Hercegovina gained recognition as an independent state, he declared the creation of the independent Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Hercegovina (later renamed Republika Srpska) with its capital in Sarajevo, and himself as head of state.

He was jointly indicted in 1995 along with the Bosnian Serb military leader, Ratko Mladic, for alleged war crimes they committed during the 1992-95 war.

He was obliged to step down as president of the SDS in 1996 as the West threatened sanctions against Republika Srpska, and later went into hiding.

On the run in October 2004 he managed to get a book published by a former associate, Miroslav Toholj. Miraculous Chronicles of the Night, set in 1980s Yugoslavia, tells the story of a man jailed by mistake after the death of former Yugoslav strongman Josip Broz Tito.

In May 2005, investigators reported two separate sightings of Radovan Karadzic - allegedly with his wife Ljiljana in south-eastern Bosnia and then with his brother Luka in Belgrade - as his mother was dying of cancer in Niksic, Montenegro.

Original Source : http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/876084.stm

Kodak EasyShare Z1275

Kodak EasyShare Z1275

Kodak Z1275 Easyshare 12 MegaPixel 5x Optical Zoom Image Stabilized Digital Camera


Kodak Z1275 Easyshare 12 MegaPixel 5x Optical Zoom Image Stabilized Digital Camera

Includes Kodak Easyshare Z1275 Zoom Digital Camera (SD memory card is a separate purchase), Kodak AA Oxy-Alkaline Digital Camera Batteries, USB cable, Wrist strap, Getting Started Guide with Kodak Easyshare Software, Custom camera insert for separately purchased Kodak Easyshare Camera and Printer Docks.

* Kodak Z1275 Easyshare Digital Camera combines user friendly features with 12 megapixels and high ISO capability for shooting in bad lighting.

* 12 MP captures every detail with outstanding resolution.

* Images print up to 30 x 40 in. (76 x 102 cm).

* 5X optical zoom, professional-quality SCHNEIDER-KREUZNACH VARIOGON Optical Zoom Lens, plus 5X digital zoom.

* 2.5 in. (6.4 cm) wide angle tion color display.

* View vertical or horizontal images right-side-up with the orientation sensor.

* Review mode magnifies up to 8X.

* Fast scroll through pictures.

* 64 MB internal memory.

* Kodak Z1275 digital camera accepts separately purchased SDHC/SD/MMC memory cards.

* Digital image stabilization.

* KODAK PERFECT TOUCH Technology.

* Smart scene mode.

* Panorama stitch mode.

* Shutter speed 1/2-1/2000 sec. in smart scene mode and 8-1/1000 in manual mode.

* Auto focus zones: continuous AF, single AF, TTL multi-zone AF (5 zones), (4) center zone AF.

* ISO sensitivity auto, 64, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200.

* Metering modes: multi-pattern, center-weighted, spot.

* Compensation +/-2.0 EV with 1/3 EV steps.

* Bracketing +/-2.0 EV with 1/3 EV steps, 3 images.

* White balance auto, daylight, tungsten, fluorescent, open shade.

* Flash Modes: auto, red eye reduction, fill, off.

* Drive modes: single shot, first burst (1.7 fps, 3 frames), last burst (1.7 fps, last 3 frames), self timer (10 sec.), delay shutter, 2 sec. two-shots self-timer.

* Shooting modes: smart scene, SCN, P (program), M (manual), video capture, high ISO, digital image stabilization.

* Scene modes: portrait, sports, landscape, close-up, night portrait, night landscape, snow, beach, text/document, fireworks, flower, manner/museum, self-portrait, children, backlight, panning, candlelight, sunset, panorama stitch.

* Click to capture Manufacturer 1 Year Limited Warranty.

Kodak EasyShare Z1275

Berea College

Berea College

How Berea College does itHistory: Founded in 1855 by ardent Christian abolitionists, the first interracial and coeducational college in the South. Its motto: "God has made of one blood all peoples of the earth." Since 1892, has not charged tuition.

How does it do that? In 1920, the board of trustees voted to salt away gifts, rather than spending them. That "seed corn," as college officials like to call it, has grown into a $1 billion endowment. It earns about 75 percent of the cost of keeping the 1,500 students on campus.

And the rest? Some comes from government funds. But a large percentage comes from annual giving by people who have heard the Berea story and responded with their checkbooks. Expenses are kept down through students doubling as the campus workforce.

How do you get in? Berea is pledged to serve academically promising young people from the impoverished Appalachia region. Its student body comes from the bottom rungs of the economic ladder.

How does it measure success? When its alumni enjoy the financial success that makes their children ineligible to go to Berea because family income is over the limit.

Original Source : http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-berea-college-080721-ht,0,5568400.story

Joshua Rosa Convicted Of Murder

Joshua Rosa Convicted Of Murder TAMPA, FL -- Youth minister Joshua Rosa was found guilty of first degree murder Monday morning in the strangulation death of 13-year-old Stephen Tomlinson of Citrus Park.

The jury reached a verdict after deliberating Friday afternoon but postponed further proceedings until Monday.

Rosa appeared visibly upset as the verdict was read. Several family members cried as the jury was polled.

Tomlinson's body was found the Logan Gate Park Hillsborough County in December 2005.

Rosa was hired by the Zion Pentecostal Church as a youth minister.

Original Source : http://www.abcactionnews.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=896b0297-1607-46f8-9488-7125c30b0f3a

Hurricane Dolly

Hurricane Dolly

Storm Dolly may become hurricane

CANCUN, Mexico (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Dolly headed toward southern Texas on Monday, and forecasters said they expected it to strengthen into a hurricane before hitting land near the Mexican border later this week.

The storm, with sustained winds of nearly 50 mph (85 kph), emerged from the Yucatan Peninsula over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. A hurricane watch was issued for the southern Texas coast, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

Dolly was forecast to hit Texas just above the Mexican border near Brownsville on Wednesday.

In Cancun, home to high-rise hotels overlooking white sand beaches, the local government lifted a weekend storm warning and all ports and airports were operating normally. Tourists hit the beaches as usual on Monday morning.

Concerns that the storm could affect oil production from the Gulf of Mexico pushed crude futures higher Monday, although dealers said Dolly appeared likely to pass south and west of the biggest concentration of U.S. platforms.

Shell Oil Co began flying workers from platforms in the western Gulf on Sunday, but Mexico's state oil company Pemex said its production was unlikely to be hit.

"As of now there are no changes in the routine activities at Pemex platforms. The course of the storm is passing far away from the installations," said Javier Delgado, a local spokesman for Pemex on Mexico's coast.

The United States has largely escaped the past two Atlantic hurricane seasons, with just one hurricane -- Humberto in November 2007 -- making landfall on its coasts.

But it was pummelled in 2004 and 2005, when a series of powerful hurricanes, including Katrina, ravaged Florida and the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Original Source : http://uk.reuters.com/article/americasCrisis/idUKN2142017920080721

Janet Jackson Wardrobe Malfunction

Janet Jackson Wardrobe Malfunction

Court overturns ruling on Janet Jackson's 'wardrobe malfunction'

A federal court this morning threw out a half-million dollar fine against CBS television for the split-second exposure of pop singer Janet Jackson's breast during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show.

The 3rd circuit court of appeals in Philadelphia overturned a ruling by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the US government's indecency watchdog. The court ruled that the body's sanction of the television network was "arbitrary and capricious," and departed from its past policy of more mild censure.

The commission's fine, the largest ever levied against a television broadcaster for indecency, provoked concern that Bush administration officials on the commission had yielded to pressure from social conservative groups.

CBS described the ruling as a victory for the broadcasting industry.

"We are gratified by the court's decision which we hope will lead the [commission] to return to the policy of restrained indecency enforcement it followed for decades," CBS spokeswoman Shannon Jacobs said in a statement. "This is an important win for the entire broadcasting industry because it recognizes that there are rare instances, particularly during live programming, when it may not be possible to block unfortunate fleeting material, despite best efforts."

On February 1, 2004, during halftime of the National Football League's Super Bowl game between the New England Patriots and the Carolina Panthers, MTV Networks produced a live show featuring Jackson and entertainer Justin Timberlake. The pair sang Timberlake's Rock Your Body, and danced suggestively. Toward the end of the performance, Timberlake sang that he would "have you naked by the end of this song," and tore away part of Jackson's black leather bustier. Jackson's right breast was bared for nine-sixteenths of one second.

The network had implemented a five-second delay to prevent against indecent language from being broadcast, but didn't take such a precaution for video images.

Nearly 90m people, many of them children, were tuned into the show. CBS apologised and said the stunt was unscripted. MTV said the event was "unrehearsed, unplanned and completely unintentional". Timberlake said he regretted the "wardrobe malfunction".

The episode led to outraged cries from conservative groups and hand-wringing from all sides about crassness in the media. The FCC, which regulates television and radio broadcasts over the public airways, received a large number of complaints. Many complaints were generated by organised conservative political groups, and CBS disputed their significance.

The commission ordered CBS to pay $550,000, finding that the display was "graphic and explicit," "shocking and pandering" and also "fleeting," and that the broadcaster had violated "contemporary community standards".

In overturning the fine, the court today found that the commission had long "practiced restraint" in exercising its authority to sanction broadcasters for indecent content, and that the mammoth fine was an improper departure from that.

"During a span of nearly three decades, the commission frequently declined to find broadcast programming indecent, its restraint punctuated only by a few occasions where programming contained indecent material so pervasive as to amount to 'shock treatment' for the audience," chief judge Anthony Scirica wrote in the decision. "Throughout this period, the commission consistently explained that isolated or fleeting material did not fall within the scope of actionable indecency."

The commission, the court found, may change its policies "without judicial second-guessing."

"But it cannot change a well-established court of action with supplying notice of and a reasoned explanation for its policy departure," Scirica wrote.

Original Source : http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/21/usa1

BOK Center Tulsa

Sandites get peek at BOK center Despite the clanging of metal and the hundreds of workers focused on tasks that range from painting to checking the stadium seats, Construction Director Bob Eggleston said that the new BOK Center is on schedule and will be ready for its first event coming in September.

Sand Springs guests were given a tour of the new BOK Center. Pictured entering the building are City Manager Doug Enevoldsen, in the blue shirt, Home Trustee Joe Williams, in the yellow shirt, and Chamber President J.C. Kinder, in the white. -- Leader photo by Caitlin Getchell.

Eggleston gave several Sand Springs employees and residents a tour of the new facility on Thursday afternoon.

"Our hotels are just 10 minutes away door to door. As we continue to develop our local retail and entertainment base, more and more people will want to stop and visit us on their way to a BOK Center event," Mayor Bob Walker said.

The group discussed how Tulsa overflow was likely to come to Sand Springs as the tour began and they were led through the back of the building onto the arena floor.

The new arena, located at Third Street and Denver Avenue in downtown Tulsa, cost $184 million, seats 18,500, covers 550,000 square feet and will be able to accommodate a variety of events, from hockey and basketball games to concerts.

From the arena floor the group went to see the dressing rooms, the locker rooms and beer distribution room. Eggleston said that rather than lugging kegs to the separate concession stands, the BOK center is equipped with pipes that each concession area can tap into for beer.

"The most important room in the entire stadium," Eggleston joked.

The tour also included a chance to see the main entrance and the view from each seating area.

As one enters the arena the main staircase and ramp-allowing every part of the building to be handicap accessible-are directly ahead and while an area to the right is open to the arena.

"Immediately when you walk in, you become a part of the event," Eggleston said.

The open area leads into the bowl seating. Following the ramp up, past the walls of windows with spectacular downtown views, leads to the premiere floor, where suites and special seating is available.

"This is first class all the way," Walker said. "We're standing with the finest sporting and entertainment venues in the nation."

The BOK Center will open to the public with a free community open house on Saturday, Aug. 30 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. A free multi-faith celebration titled "One Song-Many Voices" featuring Sandite native singing star Sam Harris will be held from 3 to 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 31. The Eagles will perform the first concert in the new facility on Sept. 6.

Original Source : http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19863254&BRD=2754&PAG=461&dept_id=574071&rfi=6

Tropical Storm Moves Over Mexico's Yucatan

Tropical Storm Moves Over Mexico's YucatanMIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- A tropical storm warning remained in effect Monday as Tropical Storm Dolly moved over Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.

Dolly has spurred storm warnings from the Mexico-Belize border northward to the city of Campeche, on the opposite side of the Yucatan Peninsula. The warning encompasses the tourist resort of Cancun.

At 5 a.m. ET Monday, the storm was about 150 miles (240 kilometers) east of Progreso, Mexico.

The National Hurricane Center said the storm is moving northwest at about 15 mph (24 kph) and is expected to cross the Yucatan Peninsula and enter the Gulf of Mexico later Monday.

By Tuesday, Dolly could become a hurricane, the hurricane center reported.

Meanwhile, forecasters dropped warnings for the North Carolina coast after Tropical Storm Cristobal began turning away from land. Storm warnings that had been posted for the North Carolina coast were lifted Sunday night. Video Watch as Dolly is expected to strengthen over the Gulf of Mexico »

Cristobal evolved Saturday from a tropical depression that formed Friday. Dolly became a tropical storm Sunday, forecasters said. The Atlantic hurricane season began June 1 and ends in November.

Original Source : http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/weather/07/21/tropical.weather/