iPhone 3G

First looks: New iPhone mostly delivers

2.0 software is the biggest improvement, reviewers say

The new iPhone 3G is “worth the wait,” “mostly keeps its promises,” but is “not so much better that it turns all those original iPhones into has-beens,” according to reviews published today by USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.

The phone, which goes on sale Friday, a little more than a year after the original iPhone was launched, is being lauded for its improvements, including a faster Web-browsing experience and built-in GPS receiver.

But one of the most important improvements to Apple’s device is not in its hardware, reviewers said, but rather the 2.0 software that comes with it, which will also be available at no cost to current iPhone owners on Friday.

While the iPhone 3G still does not have voice dialing, video recording or copy-and-paste features used in many other smartphones, it does have “one towering tsunami of a feature” that should silence “Appleholics” who have “expressed dismay at how little the handset has changed,” wrote David Pogue of The New York Times.

That feature is the iPhone App Store, part of the 2.0 software, and “a central, complete, drop-dead simple online catalog of new programs for the iPhone,” he said.

The iPhone 3G, so named for the faster, third-generation wireless network it runs on, instead of 2.5G used by the first-generation iPhone, is definitely faster for e-mail and Web access, reviewers found.

‘Mostly keeps its promises’
Walt Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal wrote that the new iPhone “mostly keeps its promises.” In his 3G tests done in Washington, D.C., and New York, he saw data speeds “mostly ranging between 200 and 500 kilobits per second,” between three to five times faster than with the original iPhone, he said.

Edward C. Baig of USA Today, who said the new iPhone “is worth the wait,” wrote that it generally took him “10 to 30 seconds to load popular Web sites through 3G, a lot zippier” than with the first-generation iPhone.

AT&T Wireless, the exclusive provider of the iPhone in the United States, says that 3G service is available in 280 “leading” metropolitan areas in the country, and should be in 350 metropolitan areas by the end of the year.

“But as I discovered in my own greater New York City neighborhood, there are still holes in 3G coverage areas,” Baig wrote.

Pogue noted that 3G “means that you can talk on the iPhone and surf the Internet simultaneously, which you couldn’t do before.”

However, he added, “you don’t get that speed or those features unless you’re in one of AT&T’s 3G network areas — and there aren’t many of them.”

Baig noted that using the phone’s Wi-Fi, where available, “is still the fastest method for downloads.”

The new iPhone, Pogue wrote, is “not so much better that it turns all those original iPhones into has-beens.”

Hidden costs
All three reviewers praised the new iPhone’s improved audio quality.

And while all three noted the phone’s price drop — to $199 from $399 for an 8-gigabyte model, and $299 from $499 for a 16-gigabyte version, they also made it clear that AT&T’s monthly service plan increase of at least $10 will offset some of the savings.

The current lowest-priced iPhone plan is now $59.99 a month for unlimited data, up to 200 text messages and 450 voice minutes.

Those who purchase the iPhone 3G will have a minimum monthly plan of $69.99 a month for unlimited data and 450 voice minutes, plus an additional $5 a month for up to 200 text messages.

“There are two big hidden costs to the new iPhone’s faster speed and lower price tag,” wrote Mossberg. The higher monthly service plan is one, and the other is the iPhone 3G’s battery life.

The new phone’s battery “was drained much more quickly in a typical day of use than the battery of the original iPhone, due to the higher power demands of 3G networks,” he wrote. “This is an especially significant problem because, unlike most other smartphones, the iPhone has a sealed battery that can’t be replaced with a spare.”

In daily use, Mossberg wrote, “I found the battery indicator on the new 3G model slipping below 20 percent by early afternoon or midafternoon on some days, and it entirely ran out of juice on one day. I overcame this problem by learning to use Wi-Fi instead of 3G whenever possible, turning down the screen brightness and even turning off 3G altogether, which the phone permits.”

The new iPhone has a built-in GPS receiver, but “unfortunately, there’s not much you can do” with it, wrote Pogue of The New York Times.

“According to Apple, the iPhone’s GPS antenna is much too small to emulate the turn-by-turn navigation of a GPS unit for a vehicle, for example,” he wrote. “Instead, all it can do at this point is track your position as you drive along, representing you as a blue dot sliding along the roads of a map.”

USA Today's Baig said he was “pretty impressed by the accuracy” of the GPS as he drove in his car, searching for nearby pizza parlors and seeking directions.

“Alas, the feature begs for the audible turn-by-turn directions found on Samsung’s Instinct (phone) and others,” he wrote, adding that he hopes a third-party developer “will fill the void” with a software program that will work with the iPhone’s GPS.

In all, the new iPhone is “not so much better that it turns all those original iPhones into has-beens,” wrote Pogue. “Indeed, the really big deal is the iPhone 2.0 software and the App Store, neither of which requires buying a new iPhone.”

Original Source : http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25608901/

Jesse Jackson Appologises To Obama

US elections: Jackson apologises to Obama for 'crude' comments

Civil rights activist and religious leader Jesse Jackson this afternoon publicly apologised to Barack Obama for remarks that remain undisclosed, but which Jackson described as "crude" and "hurtful".

Jackson told CNN that a Fox News microphone had picked up a private conversation about the Democratic presidential nominee.

Jackson, a long-time figure in Chicago politics, said he had been talking about the Illinois senator's recent comments directed to the black community.

"For any harm or hurt that this hot mic private conversation may have caused, I apologise," Jackson said. "My support for Senator Obama's campaign is wide, deep and unequivocal. I cherish this redemptive and historical moment.

"My appeal was for the moral content of his message to not only deal with the personal and moral responsibility of black males, but to deal with the collective moral responsibility of government and the public policy which would be a corrective action for the lack of good choices that often led to their irresponsibility," Jackson continued.

Jackson's remarks had not been reported in the US news media as of this afternoon. He told the Associated Press today that he didn't remember his exact words. He was being interviewed about healthcare by a Fox News reporter on Sunday when he was asked his opinion about Obama speaking in black churches.

Obama last month told a predominantly African-American church in Chicago that too many black fathers are "missing from too many lives and too many homes" and need to be more responsible for their families.

In addition to serving as an aide to the Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Jr and founding the Rainbow/PUSH coalition, a civil rights group, Jackson was a pioneering Democratic politician. His 1984 and 1988 bids for the Democratic nomination were the first serious forays into presidential politics by an African American. While falling far short of the nomination, in 1988 he won several states and helped pave the way for Obama's nomination this year.

Original Source : http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jul/09/barackobama.uselections20082?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront

Police Eat Space Cakes Not Donuts These Days Says Chief Wiggum

Texas teen accused of baking drugs into cookies, delivering them to cops

A teen is accused of baking drugs into cookies and then delivering them to police stations in Texas.

Christian Phillips, 18, was arrested Monday and charged with drug possession after officers smelled marijuana in the homemade cookies he brought to the Lake Worth Police Department.

"We had already received a call to be on the lookout," Lake Worth Police Chief Brett McGuire tells the Star-Telegram. "He was detained after we took one of the cookies and it tested positive for LSD."

The paper says Phillips had checked off 12 of 25 police departments on a list of agencies in the Dallas-Fort Worth region.

"Of the stations Phillips made deliveries to, there were reports of at least three Fort Worth officers who ate the cookies last week," WFAA-TV reports. "As of yet, there have been no reports of anyone getting sick."

KTVT-TV says Phillips denied the accusations.

Original Source : http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/07/texas-teen-accu.html

Flat Belly/Warrior Diet

Latest Fad Diet: The Flat Belly Diet

Most people go on a diet for purely aesthetic reasons, with a goal of getting rid of a spare tire around the midsection or unsightly back fat, so it's no wonder that with a name like "the flat belly diet" people are jumping on the latest fad diet bandwagon. Details of the new diet are, of course, chronicled in a book written by Liz Vaccariello and Cynthia Sass.

Vaccariello, editor-in-chief of Prevention Magazine, and Sass, a registered dietitian and the nutrition director of Prevention Magazine, stress the importance of mind tricks in achieving your weight loss goals. This could be something as simple as keeping those skinny size 28 jeans that no longer fit hanging in plain view.

According to the authors, getting a flat stomach is all about food and attitude. The mind tricks serve to remind you at mealtime that "you have embarked on a new way of life."

Mindtricks aside, the key component of the flat belly diet is a 1600 calorie per day plan spread out over four 400-calorie meals. The diet also stresses the importance of allowing no more than four hours between meals, and that each meal should include a monosaturated fatty food to help get rid of that flabby belly.

Creators of the diet claim that new research shows that monosaturated fatty acids help make weight loss easier, but specifically target belly fat. The fine flat belly foods in the diet include oils, olives, nuts and seeds, dark or semisweet chocolate, and avocado. Specifically, the nuts and seeds include almond butter, almonds, chunky natural peanut butter, and Brazil nuts. Oils include olive oil, flaxseed oil, and canola oil.

The diet itself lasts 28 days, and begins with a four-day anti-bloat start designed to eliminate swelling and prep the body for the diet. Water mixed with ginger and a prescribed list of food and drinks are consumed to "help flush out fluid, reduce water retention, and relieve digestive issues."

Some sample meals on the diet include a # Crunchy Tuna Melt, Shrimp and Snow Pea Sesame Pasta, Cheesy Spinach Ziti, and more. Additional recipes, customizable daily menus, and online support are available at the diet's subscription based website located at flatbellydiet.com.

Original Source : http://www.clevelandleader.com/node/5906

The Real Estalker

Celebrity foreclosures show extent of housing woes

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Tabloid magazines like to reassure us that celebrities are just like us — they go grocery shopping, take their dogs for a stroll around the neighborhood, even pump their own gas.

These days, that can also hold true when it comes to the plummeting real estate market. Several celebrities have dealt with foreclosure issues on their luxurious estates and many more have had to drop their asking prices, putting some high-profile faces on a growing problem: the real-estate meltdown is now hitting every socio-economic class.

The case of Ed McMahon has shown that you can make millions over a lengthy show business career and still find yourself in foreclosure. Johnny Carson's former "Tonight Show" sidekick owes more than $644,000 in mortgage payments on his Mediterranean estate in Beverly Hills, a house he and his wife have been trying to sell for the past two years. The six-bedroom, five-bathroom home — in the same exclusive, gated community where Britney Spears lives — is now on the market for $6.5 million, down from an original price of $7.6 million.

The 85-year-old television personality, who has been unable to work since breaking his neck in a fall 18 months ago, described his economic problems as "a perfect storm."

"If you spend more money than you make, you know what happens. And it can happen. You know, a couple of divorces thrown in, a few things like that. And, you know, things happen," McMahon said on "Larry King Live" recently. "You want everything to be perfect, but that combination of the economy, I have a little injury, I have a situation. And it all came together."

McMahon certainly is not the only celebrity to find himself in such financial trouble. Former NBA player Vin Baker saw his home in Durham, Conn., go up for auction last weekend. The seven-bed, six-and-a-half-bath mansion, on about 11 acres with a basketball court and a bowling alley, had been on the market for $2,950,000. Earlier this year, former baseball star and "Juiced" author Jose Canseco stopped making payments on his $2.5 million home in the upscale Encino section of LA's San Fernando Valley.

Rick Sharga, vice president of marketing for RealtyTrac, which monitors foreclosures, says that people of any income level can get in trouble by buying overvalued homes at the peak of the market that they ultimately can't afford.

"Ed McMahon's a sympathetic character in this scenario in that he got into a house that possibly he could have afforded if he had been able to keep working, then he had an injury that upset his financial apple cart pretty badly," Sharga said. "What you don't know is, in a normal real estate market, if the same lender would have taken a look at an 82-year-old man at the tail end of his career and written him a $4.6 million mortgage he had to keeping working to be able to afford."

It's not all doom and gloom, of course. Avril Lavigne listed her nearly 6,900-square-foot Mulholland Estates mansion for $5.8 million and, after just 36 days on the market, recently accepted a cash offer of $5.2 million.

But as celebrity real estate columns like "Hot Property" in the Los Angeles Times and "Gimme Shelter" in the New York Post show, other stars can't command the same prices for their homes that they might have been able to a few years ago.

The price of Angela Bassett and Courtney B. Vance's house has dropped more than $2 million in the past year. The French Colonial in a gated section of Los Angeles' old-money Hancock Park neighborhood has five bedrooms, seven and a half bathrooms, a gym, a hair salon and a two-story guest house. An agent listed it last year for $5,999,000, then a month later took it off the market for seven months. Then June Ahn of Coldwell Banker got the house and listed it for $4,999,000; she reduced it soon afterward to $4.6 million, and now has reduced it again to $3.9 million.

"It was overpriced," Ahn said. "The price difference from $5,999,000 to $3.9 (million), obviously we'll have a bigger number of buyers that can afford to get into it and even take a look at it."

It helps that the husband and wife, who bought the house 17 years ago for about $1.8 million, own it outright. "They're very flexible, they just go with the flow of the market," Ahn said. "Unfortunately, this happens. Last year was better than this year. Now they realize they didn't reduce in time. They were hoping to get the best (price) last year but it didn't happen so they learned the lesson."

Then again, property values can be a matter of perspective, says Ed Kaminsky, a Manhattan Beach, Calif.-based real estate agent who helps professional athletes relocate.

"You've got the new guys with the big contracts that are excited about the $8 million check they just got and they want to spend some, and I'd say rightfully so. Sometimes it's not a smart investment and sometimes it is," he said. "But if you make $8 million a year and you blow $5 million on a house and you sell it for $3 million a few years later, is it really wrong?

"What I try to do is identify what is it that they want, and let them know that it is possible that they could buy a home for a lot of money and sell it for less than they paid for it, and are you OK with it?" he added. "If I handed you $25 million right now, would you think differently about the $2 million house that's down the street? You may not really care that it's 50 grand overpriced 'cause you like the swing set in the backyard for your kids."

The primary element driving where a celebrity chooses to live is privacy, said Jordan Cohen of Re/Max, who has represented more than 50 stars and athletes in real estate transactions, including Shaquille O'Neal and Marilyn Manson. He's now selling actress Joely Fisher's house — a four-bed, seven-bath, mid-century craftsman at the end of a secluded drive with a pool and a screening room — for $3,295,000, about $1 million less than the asking price when another agent first listed it last summer.

He believes a star's property can bring in more money than a regular house.

"I know it adds value," said Cohen, sitting on a limestone countertop in the kitchen of the suburban Encino home. "A good analogy would be, shoe companies pay athletes millions of dollars to wear a specific shoe so you'll have young America buy that shoe because a celebrity endorses it. It's the same thing with a house."

"Why does anyone read Hot Tracks in People magazine or any other publication?" he continued. "I've never understood that, because they're just, like, people — just like you and me. From the celebrities I've gotten to know, they're just normal people. . .. I don't know why America is fascinated by that, but they are."

But Mark David, who follows celebrity real estate on his cheeky blog "The Real Estalker," doesn't think prospective buyers are willing to pay top dollar for houses simply because someone famous has lived in them.

"It's not common. Property values are property values," said David, a 38-year-old graphic designer who writes under the pseudonym "Your Mama." "You've really got to be somebody for it to add cachet. Maybe if it's a major A-list celebrity who's going to go down in Hollywood history, like Jack Nicholson. But does anybody really care about most of these people's houses? Would you pay more for Danny Bonaduce's house? And I'm not trying to bag on him. I can't imagine that people would do it — then again, there's a lid for every pot."

Bonaduce's house, by the way, is still on the market. It was listed last July for $4.5 million — now it's down only slightly to $4.2 million. The ornate Spanish-style mansion, with four bedrooms, five and a half bathrooms and a theater on just over 7,000 square feet, sits in the hills of LA's Los Feliz section.

So why not drop the price further and finally sell the property?

"He can afford to wait it out for 20 years," said Alfonso Milanese of Show4you Realty, who co-listed the home with another agent when Bonaduce and his wife, Gretchen, filed for divorce. "It's such a minuscule mortgage on there. He's one of the few the people who are not in dire straits in selling their house."

As for McMahon's home, "we've actually gotten a bunch of offers," his real estate agent, Alex Davis of Hilton & Hyland, said recently. "I think we're going to sell it very soon and that it's going to be onward and upward for the McMahons."

Original Source : http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iku-VQO8WggsyAVNZ7it6lHpJm_wD91Q71MG2

Vortec Cyclone Helps Save Gas

Gas-saving products boosted by high fuel prices

NEW YORK (AP) — With fuel prices soaring, sales of products designed to boost gas mileage are also rising — even though the government says they're not worth the money.

The products range from devices that fit inside an engine's air intake valve to fuel additives. Their makers claim they boost mileage by helping gasoline burn more efficiently.

"The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) has tested hundreds of these products," said Laura DeMartino, a Federal Trade Commission attorney. "Even for the few that worked, the gas savings was so small it didn't justify the price."

But that's not discouraging people from searching for ways to eke extra mileage out of their vehicles when gas prices are hovering above $4 a gallon nationally.

"Our sales have probably close to doubled," over the past year, said Dan Baxley, founding partner of Automotive Research Laboratory LLC, which makes the Vortec Cyclone, a device designed to boost gas mileage by improving an engine's air flow.

The $40 device fits inside a car's air intake hose, where it, "creates a swirling mass like a tornado," Baxley said. That creates a finer gas-air mix than normal, which burns more efficiently. Some Vortec Cyclone users have claimed a benefit of as much as 6 miles per gallon, though most see an improvement of 1 to 2 mpg, Baxley said.

Kevin Shaw, vice president of development at The Coffee Beanery, has tested it on four of his company's vehicles. The coffee chain found that it improved the performance of two of his service vans by 2 miles per gallon, while one passenger car's fuel efficiency rose by 1 mile per gallon. The fourth car saw no improvement, but Shaw said three out of four is enough to convince him that the device is well worth the money.

"I have nine on order right now," said Shaw, who believes the devices will save his company at least $1,400 a year per vehicle in fuel expenses.

Like other companies that sell gas-mileage-improvement products, Baxley is used to skepticism.

He says his company's tests prove that the Vortec Cyclone improves gas mileage, and Automotive Research Laboratory backs its product up with a money-back guarantee. Returns run only around 5 percent of sales, he said.

Automotive Research Laboratory has never received a complaint from the FTC, which declined to comment on specific products.

National Fuelsaver Corp., which makes Platinum Gas Saver, can improve fuel mileage by 22 percent, said company owner and technical director Joel Robinson. The product, which the company started selling nearly 30 years ago, injects a small amount of platinum into a vehicle's air intake system. The platinum molecules boost the amount of fuel burned by the engine, company press materials say. The remainder is expelled as vapor and burned off by the catalytic converter.

Robinson said he has been contacted by the FTC and some state attorneys general. But he's been able to defend his product thanks to his victory in an early 1980s lawsuit brought by the U.S. Post Office, which said he was trying to obtain money through the mail by making false claims.

"They all thought we were frauds until I sent them the judge's decision," Robinson said.

Robinson produced data that, he says, show Platinum Gas Saver works. But he also notes that — aside from his product — there is merit to the FTC's warnings.

"Except for ours, I think there's a lot of truth to it," Robinson said. "The problem in selling this product is that in the last 10 years there have been 10,000 phony fuel savers."

Platinum Gas Saver costs $150 for a 30,000 mile supply. Robinson declined to disclose annual sales.

Another company, Magnetizer Industrial Technologies Inc., has stopped selling a $150 gas-savings device to the general public, citing high costs to fulfill individual orders and the general skepticism that surrounds any kind of magnetic gas savings device.

"There is a technology here that can benefit," said Ron Kita, director of research, but "there has been a lot of negative press."

Magnetizer's magnets work by changing naturally formed chemical associations, "into a single, potentiated molecular state," which burns more efficiently, the company's Web site explains. The company still sells the system to fleet operators as an emissions reduction device.

The government's advice to people looking to save on gas: Drive the speed limit, use cruise control, combine errands and remove excess weight from the trunk.

Original Source : http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iViBqZdaZNfs99wGz4Co_kTHmTLwD91PS4BG0

Teens Brain Goes On Spike

Metal spike shoots into teen's brain

A young man from Penrose survives an incredible head wound. A metal pin from a roto-tiller shot into the 19 year old's brain.

Chris Clear's unbeliveable story starts in April. His mom Dawn says, "It's changed his life, because of what happened." As a volunteer firefighter in Penrose, his free time was spent saving lives.

That was, until the accident. He was helping a friend move a roto-tiller, when something snapped. Chris says, "At first, it just felt like a rock hit me in the face. It didn't feel like anything went into my head, just a rock hit me."

His mom Dawn say his nose bleeding profusely. She says, "He said, do you think this is bad. I said yea, it looks bad. I think your nose is broke."

Chris says he went to St. Thomas Moore Hospital in Canon City. He says the pain shifted from his nose, to the back of his neck. So the X-ray was focused on his neck. Dawn says, "They just sent him home. They said it was a cervical sprain".

The pain got worse. Dawn says Chris was very tired, and started vomiting. Chris says, "It hurt real bad. When I turned in either direction, leaning back, leaning forward. If I looked down it would hurt real bad. If I leaned back the pain got a lot worse."

It was during their second trip to the hospital, that Dawn learned what was causing that pain. She says, "If he went forward, the pin would move forward. If he would lay down, the pin would sink down."

That's right. A large metal pin from the roto-tiller was lodged in his brain. It was that, not a rock, that hit him. Chris describes how it went in. He says the blunt end of the large pin shot in through his nose. The pin went right past his eye socket, and lodged in the back of his brain.

Dawn was at home when she got the news from Chris' father. She says, "He said you need to sit down. He said Chris has a metal pin in his brain. My knees buckled, and I just hit the floor."

An ambulance rushed Chris and his Dawn to a hospital in Aurora. Dawn was given a grim diagnosis. She says, "Death was number one. We knew he wasn't going to come out of it. Paralysis, mobility, speech."

Luckily, the pin just missed several major arteries. Chris was in surgery for 9 hours. Dawn says, "It was like we were in a movie. The double doors opened up, and the doctor was holding the pin like this."

Two months later, Chris is working again as a volunteer firefighter. He's also training to be an EMT. Dawn says, "that's the second miracle."

Chris says he feels fine. There's not even a scar, but he has kept the pin.
Chris also says if you touch his scar, his front teeth go numb. His mom says his tastes have also changed. She says he had a real sweet tooth before, but not so much now. Those seem to be the only lasting effects.

Chris had no insurance when the accident happened. His family set up a website. If you purchase anything there, most of the money will go towards his medical bills. The rest will go to the Penrose Volunteer Fire Department. To get there, just click on this link: Chris Clear

Original Source : http://www.koaa.com/aaaa_featured_stories/x471793239/Metal-spike-shoots-into-teens-brain

Microsoft Hurts Zone Alarm Users

Microsoft update hits Zone Alarm users


A Microsoft update is causing problems for Zone Alarm users, causing a complete loss of internet access.

The KB951748 update is the offending piece of software, which alters files relating to Windows networking.

Zone Alarm reportedly interprets this as a malicious attack and completely blocks all internet traffic in response.

"For those of you using ZoneAlarm who installed the windows updates today, you probably already know that your internet connection has died," warns a user of the Broadband Reports forum.

"It appears that KB951748 made changes to the networking files that ZA doesn't see/recognise."

"After two hours of messing around, I found an inelegant solution that will work temporarily... set the Internet Zone Security permission slider from high to medium. The connection will be restored," continues the user.

"We are investigating the issue with the MS update KB951748. For the time being we suggest you uninstall KB951748 until the issue has been resolved," says a company spokesperson on the Zone Alarm forum.

This is not the first time that Zone Alarm has fallen foul of a Microsoft update. Earlier this year Windows Vista was found to conflict with the software, prompting the removal of several key features of the program.

Because of these changes to the program it was removed from its position as our A-listed security software.

Original Source : http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/211299/microsoft-update-hits-zone-alarm-users.html

Steve & Barry's Going Down

Reports: Steve & Barry's headed for bankruptcy

Steve & Barry's, the high-flying national chain based in Port Washington and known for its cheap chic, seems headed for a crash into bankruptcy, according to reports in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times Wednesday morning.

With more than 275 stores selling high-fashion items for less than $20, the chain started by a pair of Long Island friends has hit a huge liquidity wall, according to the papers and market analysts. It has been unable to raise rescue financing in recent weeks and could be force to sell all its assets, the Journal said. But eleventh hour talks also continues about a bailout, the paper said.

A bankruptcy filing could come as early as Wednesday, the Journal and Times said.

For years, analysts and the core market of teens and young adults have adore Steve & Barry's for its offerings, often designed by celebrites such as Sarah Jessica Parker, Amanda Bynes, Venus Williams and Stephon Marbury. But the profit margin was razor-thin and now volume seems unable to support rent, licensing and other expenses.

Last week there were reports that the chain could shutter about 100 of its stores, but there was never confirmation or explanation of which stores might close. Stores, including the ones on Long island, have continued to operate.

Original Source : http://www.newsday.com/business/ny-bzsteve0710,0,7462884.story

Aribert Heim Dr. Death

ARIBERT ist frei:

Israel’s chief Nazi hunter has gone to Chile to step up the hunt for the most wanted Nazi fugitive, believed to be in the country or neighbouring Argentina.

Efraim Zuroff says new information strongly suggests Aribert Heim - known as Dr Death - is hiding in Patagonia, where his daughter lives.

Heim tortured and killed prisoners in Mauthausen concentration camp in WWII…

Heim kept meticulous notes of his activities at Mauthausen.

According to Holocaust survivors, he performed operations and amputations without anaesthetic to see how much pain his victims could endure.

Injecting victims straight into the heart with petrol, water or poison were said to have been his favoured method at Mauthausen…

He practised medicine in the German town of Baden-Baden until 1962, when he fled the country after being tipped off that the authorities were about to prosecute him.

Never too late…

Original Source : http://www.anorak.co.uk/twitterings/185570.html

Julie Donaldson Attacked By Boyfriend Ivan Lattimore

Reporter says boyfriend attacked her

Tearfully details four violent episodes

"He grabbed me by my hair and took my hands by my wrists and made me punch my face," Julie Donaldson testified.

Channel 7 sports reporter Julie Donaldson, who said she was injured in an assault last month, testified yesterday that her boyfriend threw her against a wall and punched her in the face.

Sobbing as she spoke, Donaldson said it was the latest in a series of violent episodes involving Ivan Lattimore, whom she has been dating since Thanksgiving. Lattimore has been held without bail since his arrest. Yesterday's testimony came during a hearing to determine whether Lattimore poses a threat to Donaldson. The hearing will continue today.

A sports reporter at WHDH-TV since March, Donaldson is a graduate of the University of Florida and former Miss Florida USA. Before coming to Boston, she worked at SportsNet New York.

Lattimore lives in California, but Donaldson said he visits her every few weeks, staying with her in her Back Bay apartment. Donaldson told the court that Lattimore plays professional Slamball, a variation of basketball using trampolines.

Questioned yesterday by Assistant Suffolk District Attorney Patrick Devlin, Donaldson at first identified herself as Julie Cochrane. She explained that she is married but that her divorce is nearly final.

Since she and Lattimore started dating, Donaldson said, there have been at least four violent episodes. The first, she said, occurred at the Super Bowl in Arizona and resulted in bruises on her arms. "I wore a long sleeve shirt and didn't tell anyone," she said.

The second attack was more serious, she said. After a Celtics game against the Miami Heat on March 30, Donaldson said that she lied to Lattimore about her whereabouts and that he was waiting for her when she returned to her apartment.

"He grabbed me by my hair and took my hands by my wrists and made me punch my face," she said, adding that she had to miss work the next day because of bruises on her face. A few months ago, she said, another fight ensued after a night of drinking at Sonsie on Newbury Street.

At 6-foot-4 and 215 pounds, Lattimore is an imposing presence. Dressed yesterday in a pink pinstripe shirt and baggy jeans, he sat shackled and largely expressionless while Donaldson detailed the alleged abuse.

Donaldson said the latest assault took place in Donaldson's Exeter Street apartment after a night of dancing and drinking at the Back Bay nightclub Saint. On June 27, Lattimore's 32d birthday, Donaldson said she, her boyfriend, and another man went to the club. They drank several shots of liquor, she said, and bought rounds of drinks for others at the bar. At closing time, she said, Lattimore paid the $386 bar tab, and the drunken crowd spilled out onto the street. Wanting to "keep the party going," Donaldson said, she invited a group of six young women back to her apartment around 2 a.m. on June 28.

One of the women, Sounsano Phouthavoq, testified yesterday that Lattimore groped one of her friends at the apartment. Alarmed, the women tried to leave, Phouthavoq said. She said Lattimore became angry and grabbed her by the hair. When Donaldson tried to calm him, Phouthavoq said he threw his girlfriend approximately 5 feet against a wall.

"He snapped and went into a rage," Donaldson told Judge Raymond Dougan Jr.

Donaldson said she ran to her bedroom and locked the door, but Lattimore kicked it in. He punched her in the face at least twice, she said, and also bit her on the left cheek. "I remember a slow motion punch coming from the right side of my face," she said, weeping.

Donaldson said she managed to escape to the street, where she was met by the six young women and the police.

"She was crawling around the corner, saying, 'He's coming after me; he's going to kill me," Rosalyn Pen, one of the women, said in court. "It was like a Lifetime movie. I'd never seen anything like it."

Donaldson, who's filed a restraining order against Lattimore, said her boyfriend called her 47 times on her cellphone immediately after his arrest. She said he doesn't understand why he's in jail, and encouraged her to tell police they were playing a game.

Original Source : http://www.boston.com/sports/other_sports/articles/2008/07/09/reporter_says_boyfriend_attacked_her/?p1=Well_MostPop_Emailed2