JUAN GONZALEZ: What do you say to those who will argue that even though they may agree with you on a lot of your concerns, that the impeachment process itself would drag out for so long that it may as well -- people should just move forward toward the elections and elect a new president?

REP. DENNIS KUCINICH: Right, well, you think about that. You know, the administration will be in office for at least fourteen more months. They can cause a lot of damage in that time. They?re planning to attack Iran. When you think about the defense authorization budget including a provision that would retrofit Stealth B-2 bombers so they can carry 30,000-pound bombs, which would then be dropped on nuclear research labs, creating an humanitarian and ecological disaster, ?What are we waiting for?? is the question, not ?Why don?t we wait for the election??

If there is one group in our culture that deserves this honor, it is the American Indian and the many who have American Indian blood in their veins. Our local historian, Bill Woodiel, has done so much towards the recognition of the Trail of Tears. What caused the Trail of Tears was absolutely disgraceful. A removal of people from their very successful plantations and forcing them into the wilds of the Oklahoma territory.

An example as a descendant is actor James Garner, who is from Oklahoma and is half Cherokee and active in American Indian organizations. Also, who can forget the Oklahoma Cherokee Cowboy and philosopher, Will Rodgers?

(Editors Note: If youd like to read President Bushs proclamation for National American Indian Heritage Month, go online to: www.whitehouse.gov/news/re-leases/2007/10/20071031-2.html.)

At a Rudy Giuliani event at University of Northern Iowa this afternoon, a public speaking instructor asked Giuliani what he would say to young people who are disillusioned by politics.

Giuliani didnt deny that there are imperfections in American politics that turn young people off, but claimed that young people could change what they didnt like. "You get a chance to vote. And if you pass it up," he said, "its your fault."

Cases are treatable with antibiotics, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that up to 50 percent are fatal if the disease causes pneumonia. The Coconino County Medical Examiner has said Yorks lungs were filled with fluid and his body showed signs of pneumonia.

Liberals and conservatives may be duking it out over the issue of universal healthcare, but more than a few participants at the Health Industry Group Purchasing Association?s 2007 International Expo, held Oct. 22-24 in Palm Desert, Calif., said the outcome of the fight is a foregone conclusion: Like it or not, within the next few years the U.S. is going to have a nationwide, single-payer system.

The Army is spending $2.6 billion on hundreds of European-designed helicopters for homeland security and disaster relief that turn out to have a crucial flaw: They arent safe to fly on hot days, according to an internal report obtained by The Associated Press.

While the Army scrambles to fix the problem -- adding millions to the taxpayer cost -- at least one high-ranking lawmaker is calling for the whole deal to be scrapped.

The retrofitting will cost at least $10 million and will come out of the Armys budget, according to the Army.

1)      I created the negative things in my life through my actions, but/because there were outside influences of which I had absolutely no control over. These outside influences just happened and may happen again in the future.

2)      I created the negative things in my life through my thoughts and actions and in the future I will not create these negative experiences because I realize I, and I alone, am responsible for creating them. I believe I will control all my future experiences from this point forward and I choose to create a life full of positive experiences I want.

You?ll notice there is one glaring difference between the two statements. The first statement contains a ?but?, the second does not.

And it is in the ?but? where many of us, either in whole or in part, are interacting with a great and powerful law. From our perspective it is a default law, the antithesis of the mighty Law of Attraction. Well learned colleagues have even stated it as a corollary of the Law of Attraction.

Mr Kerik, the citys top police officer at the time of the 9/11 terror attacks, was indicted by a federal grand jury.

He has been charged with 14 offences, including fraud, obstructing an FBI investigation and lying to the federal government, a US attorney said.

The matter is awkward for presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani, who backed Mr Kerik to run homeland security in 2004.

President George W Bush nominated Mr Kerik for homeland security in part on the strength of Mr Giulianis recommendation.

Read this BEFORE you get a flu shot

The vaccine may not be as good?or as safe?as you think.

How effective is the shot?
The flu shot is only as good as the educated guesses of a group of vaccine researchers across the globe. Every February, they try to predict which flu viruses will work their evil during the next fall and winter. Their three top choices are put into the vaccine. The CDC claims that vaccine will be 70 to 90 percent effective against just those strains of flu. ?We hope that these smart scientists who get together with the vaccine producers make the right call,? says immunologist Randy Horwitz, MD, medical director of the University of Arizona?s School for Integrative Medicine. But sometimes they don?t, partly because the virus mutates from year to year. In 2003?2004, the CDC admitted that it completely missed the virulent Fujian flu strain that hit hard that winter.

Advantages And Disadvantages For Wind Power

When thinking about wind power, there are several advantages and disadvantages that can sway you to either use or not use it. Some of the advantages of wind power include that it?s a natural resource therefore making it free and friendly to the environment not harming or depleting the ozone layer. No fossil fuels have to be burned so that we may generate electricity.

If you use a photo sharing site like Shutterfly, Flickr or Facebook, the card will send photos over the Internet to Eye-Fi, which then formats them for the site. It also automates sign-in and passwords so that your photos seem to appear magically.

I look upon those who would deny others the right to urge and argue their position, however irksome and pernicious they may seem, as intellectual and moral cowards.

        ?William E. Borah

Iraq films remain a difficult sell for audiences because of the swirl of confusion surrounding the rights and wrongs of the conflict, he added.

As a computer user, when you get stuck, when you want help, and just before you start banging your head... remember to call in at ScreencastCentral.

No more lectures...
No more classrooms...
No more boring manuals!

Club Rosters & Photo Album (password-protected)

(updated as of September 27, 2007)

If you need help accessing password-protected elements of this site
or of the District 7890 site, please double-click here and email request
specifying what you are trying to access. You MUST be a member
of the East Hartford Rotary Club to have access to these elements!

We have previously discussed the matter of the Times editorializing by placement. As another example, this was the squib in the teaser box on the front page of Thursdays paper: Rebel Force Out of Baghdad: American Troops have routed Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia from every neighborhood of Baghdad, the commander of United States forces in Baghdad says.

Not the front page. Not the second nor third nor fourth page. Page 19. Following a four-page advertisement by the Siemens Corporation.

"American forces have routed Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the Iraqi militant network, from every neighborhood in Baghdad a top American General said today, allowing American troops involved in the surge to depart as planned."

Routed. Every. Planned.

Not "making headway against." Routed.

Not "some neighborhoods." Every.

Not "leave in disgrace." Depart as planned.

Am I misreading the reporting here? If this is true, this isnt just pretty good news, this is extraordinary news. This is GREAT news.

Surfer Todd Endris needed a miracle. The shark ? a monster great white that came out of nowhere ? had hit him three times, peeling the skin off his back and mauling his right leg to the bone.

That?s when a pod of bottlenose dolphins intervened, forming a protective ring around Endris, allowing him to get to shore, where quick first aid provided by a friend saved his life.

Our finned friends
No one knows why dolphins protect humans, but stories of the marine mammals rescuing humans go back to ancient Greece, according to the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society.

Nov. 9, 2007 -- A real da Vinci code is indeed hidden within Leonardos "The Last Supper," according to a book to be published in Italy next week.

But rather than conspiracy theories, the new code points to a hidden musical score, a sacred text and a three-dimensional chalice.

"This is not another spin-off of Dan Browns novel. Its real," musician Giovanni Maria Pala told Discovery News in an exclusive interview. "Ive always been intrigued by the possibility of finding a (piece of) music in the Last Supper, but I would have never imagined to find myself decoding a secret message by Leonardo."

Indeed, Leonardo was an accomplished lyre player who also enjoyed hiding puzzles in his work.

Since the war in Afghanistan began six years ago, Bush has met quietly with more than 450 such families, and is likely to do so Sunday, Veterans Day, in Waco, Texas, near his Crawford ranch. Bush often says he hears their voices - "Dont let my son die in vain," he quotes them as saying - when making decisions about the war. Yet war critics wonder just whose voices the president is hearing.

But when the president met families of the fallen that day in Lancaster, it did not escape Adamss notice that he was not among them.

"I cant help but be left with the suspicion that possibly his advance team screened those families for people who would be sympathetic," Adams said. Given the chance, he said, he would have told Bush "that my sons life was squandered."

Senate inquiry targets televangelists

The top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee said Tuesday he has launched an investigation into alleged financial wrongdoing involving six well-known televangelists.

Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa sent letters to six Christian media ministries this week requesting information about their expenses, executive compensation and amenities given to executives.

The organizations and their leaders are:

-- Randy and Paula White of Without Walls International Church and Paula White Ministries of Tampa, Fla.;

-- Benny Hinn of World Healing Center Church Inc. and Benny Hinn Ministries of Grapevine, Texas;

-- David and Joyce Meyer of Joyce Meyer Ministries of Fenton, Mo.;

-- Kenneth and Gloria Copeland of Kenneth Copeland Ministries of Newark, Texas;

-- Bishop Eddie Long of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church and Bishop Eddie Long Ministries of Lithonia, Ga.;

Thanks to alert reader Cedric, we now have a confession form David Thorpe that he was , indeed, the person who intentionally put up the fraudulent GEOCLIMATICSTUDIES.INFO website, that he did so with the intent of trying to discredit people he disagrees with and one other very, very important thing for the media to remember.

He lies to reporters. Intentionally and directly to their faces.

Zahar also said an international meeting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that the United States is preparing to host later this month would fail.

He also warned Israel that its soldiers would be "cut to pieces" if the army launched a much threatened widescale offensive on the Islamist-run Gaza Strip.

"The occupiers should know that if they intend to enter the Gaza Strip they will leave cut into pieces," he said.

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak warned late last month that every day brought closer the prospect of a full-scale military operation against the Gaza Strip to curb frequent rocket attacks on Israel.

"The autumn leaves will fall but so will the yellow flags," added Zahar, alluding to the colour of the Fatah party.

BANGALORE, India (AP ) -- Doctors began operating Tuesday on a 2-year-old girl born with four arms and four legs in an extensive surgery that they hope will leave the girl with a normal body, a hospital official said.

The girl is joined to a "parasitic twin" that stopped developing in the mothers womb. The surviving fetus absorbed the limbs, kidneys and other body parts of the undeveloped fetus.

The girl, Lakshmi, is named after the four-armed Hindu goddess of wealth, and some in her village in the northern state of Bihar revere her.

"Everybody considers her a goddess at our village," said her father, Shambhu, who goes by one name. "All this expenditure has happened to make her normal. So far, everything is fine."

Others sought to make money from Lakshmi. Her parents kept her in hiding after a circus apparently tried to buy the girl, they said.

Provenzano had run the Corleone Mafia, which gained supremacy in the 1980s. It hailed from the town of the same name in central Sicily, immortalised as the birthplace of the Marlon Brando character in the film The Godfather.

Sicilys regional governor, Salvatore Cuffaro, said he hoped Mondays arrest of Lo Piccolo would be "a mortal, definitive blow to Cosa Nostra".

But, Leoluca Orlando, the former mayor of Palermo renowned for fighting the Mafia, warned against making the mistake of thinking that the arrests would bring an end to the Mafia in Sicily.

?Iraq has become the singular litmus test for Democratic candidates. No Democratic presidential primary candidate today speaks of America?s moral or strategic responsibility to stand with the Iraqi people against the totalitarian forces of radical Islam, or of the consequences of handing a victory in Iraq to al Qaeda and Iran. And if they did, their campaign would be as unsuccessful as mine was in 2006. Even as evidence has mounted that General Petraeus? new counterinsurgency strategy is succeeding, Democrats have remained emotionally invested in a narrative of defeat and retreat in Iraq, reluctant to acknowledge the progress we are now achieving, or even that that progress has enabled us to begin drawing down our troops there.?

ROME - Its a new Da Vinci code but this time it could be for real.

An Italian musician and computer technician claims to have uncovered musical notes encoded in Leonardo Da Vincis "Last Supper," raising the possibility that the Renaissance genius might have left behind a sombre composition to accompany the scene depicted in the 15th-century wall painting.

"It sounds like a requiem," Giovanni Maria Pala said. "Its like a soundtrack that emphasizes the passion of Jesus."

In a book released Friday in Italy, Pala explains how he took elements of the painting that have symbolic value in Christian theology and interpreted them as musical clues.

Pala first saw that by drawing the five lines of a musical staff across the painting, the loaves of bread on the table as well as the hands of Jesus and the Apostles could each represent a musical note.

Guy Fawkes Mask in Origami

OTTAWA - Talk about a party platform.

The Rhinos are back and theyre hoping to lure voters with the tantalizing promise of weekly orgasms - and marijuana in every pot. The Neorhino party promises to declare Spanish as Canadas official language and pass legislation forcing Prime Minister Stephen Harper to go on a diet.

Theyre proud of smoking pot, they draw their political inspiration from cigar-chomping comics and rock legends, and they want to get elected so they can stick it to "The Man."

The new party - officially called neorhino.ca - is one of at least two groups claiming to be a reincarnation of the defunct Rhinocerous party that specialized in political satire.

Like the old Rhinos, the party has no clear political ideology except for two deep beliefs: somethings seriously wrong with the state of modern politics, and Canadian public discourse could use a lot more fun.

Do you think that psychology is just for students, academics and therapists? Then think again. Because psychology is both an applied and a theoretical subject, it can be utilized in a number of ways. While research studies arent exactly light reading material for the average person, the results of these experiments and studies can have important applications in daily life. The following are some of the top 10 practical uses for psychology in everyday life.

1. Get Motivated

2. Improve Your Leadership Skills

3. Become a Better Communicator

4. Learn to Better Understand Others

5. Make More Accurate Decisions

6. Improve Your Memory

7. Make Wiser Financial Decisions

8. Get Better Grades

9. Become More Productive

10. Be Healthier

The world could be on the brink of a tuberculosis apocalypse unless new ways of fighting the incurable strains of the disease are found.

That grim warning was issued yesterday by Mario Raviglione, the director of the Stop TB department of the World Health Organisation, at an international conference in Cape Town.

He told reporters that 4 percent of tuberculosis cases around the world were currently untreatable ? caused by so called multi-drug resistant and extreme drug resistant strains.

But this percentage could grow.

Clinton Campaign Confirms Planting Town Hall Question, Says It Wont Happen Again

Clinton campaign spokesman Mo Elliethee admitted that the campaign had planted the question and said it would not happen again.

In a state where the caucus is held sacred and the impromptu and candid style of the town hall meeting is held dear, Clinton?s planted question may come as a great offense to Iowans.

According to a report on the Grinnell University Web site, the Clinton campaign arranged for some of the questions for the candidate to be asked by college students:

ITS THE kind of thing that might give a banana republic a bad name: the editor of one of South Africas biggest newspapers threatened with arrest for exposing a minister as a drunk and a thief while the countrys top prosecutor is suspended for investigating corruption allegations against the chief of police.

Thirteen years after President Nelson Mandela inspired the world by overseeing a peaceful transition from apartheid to democracy, the shine has rubbed off his successor Thabo Mbeki.

The soft-spoken but aloof academic the West regarded as a safe pair of hands has, according to his critics, become increasingly autocratic and paranoid. He has sacked officials and ministers who fail to show "slavish deference" and is accused of leading an assault on press freedom the like of which South Africa has not seen since the dark days of apartheid.

Sixteen years later her body bears the scars of countless battles with Turkish soldiers and her eyes are haunted by the memories of friends she has lost. No longer a guerrilla for the Kurdistan Workers? Party (PKK), she is trying to fit back into society, using a mobile phone for the first time and discovering treats such as ice cream and pizza that she never had in the mountains.

It?s been one year since version 1 of FireFox was released! Chewed up a nice bit of Internet Explorers Market share. The fun has only just begun with IE 7 around the corner!

To join in this effort, simply create an account.

A 2.5 kg brick is supported on top of a piece of aerogel weighing only 2 grams.

Though with a ghostly appearance like an hologram, aerogel is very solid. It feels like hard styrofoam to the touch.

?Why We Lie? [1] is a fascinating book about a fascinating subject. Two related general themes run throughout the book. The first theme is that lying is deeply embedded in our subconscious as a result of evolution. Most of the books stories are linked to this theme. Evolution means simply that those who survive by lying possess among their talents the ability or the features that deceive predators who could harm them, as well as the ability or the features that deceive victims whom they may harm. The living things that did not have the knack to deceive or that had less ability to lie died of starvation or by being eaten. They did not survive to reproduce, more than those who possessed the quality to lie and had a better chance of multiplying. Thus, evolution produced the best liars.

We had never met, but as we talked on the phone I knew she was Googling me. The way she drew out her conjunctions, just a little, that was the tip off ? stalling for time as new pages loaded. It was barely audible, but the soft click-click of the keyboard in the background confirmed it. Oh, well, its the information age. Normally, shed have to go through my staff first, but I gave her an appointment.

Chiles San Rafael glacier fast disappearing

A scorpion giving birth

In the above photo you can see the scorpion giving live birth. In front of her, a baby is struggling out of its embryonic sac (not sure if its that). Her front legs (not the claws) form a kind of cradle to catch the babies when they leave her body. One tiny newly born scorpion is climbing up. Baby scorpions ride on the back of their mother for the first week or so.

Scorpion mother with babies on her back

The scorpion is probably a Vaejovis species, and she is carrying around 25 tiny babies on her back. The scorpion mother gives live birth (vivipary). The babies climb on her back and stay with her for about 2 weeks before they wander away from her for good. While the babies are with the mother they also change their exoskeleton for the first time. I have seen mother scorpions eat the cast-off skin (exuvia) of her offspring.

In a wide-ranging interview with the Daily Telegraph, Muhammad Abdul Bari said the amount of discussion relating to Muslims was disproportionate.

He cited Nazi Germany in the 1930s as an example of how peoples minds could be poisoned against a whole community.

Dr Bari also called for more emphasis on positive aspects of Muslim culture.

"If your community is perceived in a very negative manner, and poll after poll says that we are alienated, then Muslims begin to feel very vulnerable," he said.

"We are seen as creating problems, not as bringing anything and that is not good for society."

"I think it is creating a scare in the community and wider society. It probably helps some people who try to recruit the young to terrorism.

"Muslim young people are as vulnerable as any others. Under this climate of fear they will begin to feel victimised."

10 Skills EVERY computer user should have (or learn)

1. Cut, Copy, Paste
2. Print just what you want (word processing, email, web)
3. Backup your address book
4. Select (highlight) text or files
5. Properly uninstall unwanted programs
6. Burn a CD
7. Download files from the Internet
8. Use MSCONFIG ; Another MSCONFIG tip
9. Search the Internet
10. Attach Files to an email
    

When we look back someday at the catastrophe that was the Bush administration, we will think of many things: the tragedy of the Iraq war, the shame of Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib, the erosion of civil liberties. The damage done to the American economy does not make front-page headlines every day, but the repercussions will be felt beyond the lifetime of anyone reading this page.

WASHINGTON | House Democrats said Thursday that they would send President Bush $50 billion for combat operations on the condition that he begin withdrawing troops from Iraq.

Several anti-war liberals said Thursday that they were willing to get behind the measure as long as Democrats would not send Bush the money anyway if the bill is vetoed.

?What I don?t want to do is get on this merry-go-round where we try to end this war and negotiate it down to a blank check,? said Rep. Jim McGovern, a Massachusetts Democrat. ?It?s time to play hardball.?

The $50 billion included in the bill represents about a quarter of the $196 billion requested by Bush. It would finance about four months of combat, Pelosi said.

After December 2008, Pelosi said, troops left behind in Iraq should be restricted to a narrow set of missions: counterterrorism, training Iraqi forces and protecting U.S. assets.

Do It Better
Go for reasonable amounts of the real thing
If you adore ice cream, have a small scoop of premium. "You wont stick to a diet that doesnt include your favorites," says David Grotto, RD, a spokesperson for the ADA. Bottom line: Lifes too short for forbidden foods.

LONDON (Reuters) - A rise in healthy people popping pills to boost performance in exams or work, raises long-term ethical and safety concerns about the effects of such treatments, British doctors said on Thursday.

The British Medical Association (BMA) wants a public debate about the risks and benefits of using drugs to improve memory and concentration, sometimes called "cognitive enhancement."

The ability of prescription drugs and medical procedures to improve intellectual performance is likely to increase significantly in the next 20 to 30 years as technology advances.

"However, given that no drug or invasive medical procedure is risk free, is it ethical to make them available to people who are not ill?"

Surreptitious use of brain-boosting prescription drugs is particularly common in the United States and likely to increase in Britain, the BMA said.

Iraqi Death Estimator

Traditional advertising players risk major revenue declines as budgets shift rapidly to new, interactive formats, which are expected to grow at nearly five times that of traditional advertising. To survive in this new reality, broadcasters must change their mass audience mind-set to cater to niche consumer segments, and distributors need to deliver targeted, interactive advertising for a range of multimedia devices. Advertising agencies must experiment creatively, become brokers of consumer insights, and guide allocation of advertising dollars amid exploding choices. All players must adapt to a world where advertising inventory is increasingly bought and sold in open exchanges vs. traditional channels.

The legislation is formally entitled, the Matthew Shepard Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act (S. 1105).  It was offered as a bipartisan amendment by Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) and Senator Gordon Smith (R-OR) to the Department of Defense authorization bill currently before the U.S. Senate.  The virtually identical House version of the bill passed overwhelmingly on May 3rd, 2007 with a bipartisan vote of 237 to 180 as an appropriate and measured response to the unrelenting and under-addressed problem of hates crimes against individuals based on sexual orientation, gender, gender identity and disability.


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LibriVox Releases 1,000th Public Domain Audio Book

Congratulations to LibriVox, who?ve just released their 1,000th public domain audio book! Previously featured on this site, LibriVox has been a consistent supporter of access to open content by building a digital library of free public domain audio books.

From their release:

LibriVox, the free audio book project has just cataloged its 1,000th book: Murders in the Rue Morgue, by Edgar Allan Poe (read by Reynard T. Fox).

LibriVox.org started in August 2005 with a simple objective: ?to make all public domain books available as free audio books.? Thirteen people collaborated to make the first recording, Joseph Conrad?s Secret Agent.

Hour by hour technology continues to demassify, to shrink in size while expanding in power, and to obsolesce earlier measures of excellence. Through the rear view mirror we spy the manufactured stuff of yesterday and are generally happy to have it recede into the past. Although there are exceptions, today?s technology is more desirable to what came before it. In particular, the products of the first phases of the industrial revolution seem rough, rigid, inert, and harmful compared to products available now. Who would not prefer the solar power panel to the long copper cables strung along on poles, or the efficient compact refrigerator to a clumsy behemoth icebox? To judge from consumer patterns from around the world, apparently no one.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The head of Iraqs main humanitarian group said an 18-year-old approached him with a baby suffering from leukemia. The desperate mother said shed do "anything" for treatment for her child -- and then offered herself up for sex.

Said Ismail Hakki breaks down in tears as he recalls that story. Leukemia can be treatable to a degree in much of the world, but not in Iraq. The baby died two months later.

"It shook me like hell," said Hakki, the president of the Iraqi Red Crescent. "All my life Ive been a surgeon. Ive seen blood; Ive seen death. That never shook me -- none whatsoever. But when I see the suffering of those people, that really shook me."

The plight of Iraqs children is nearing epidemic proportions, he said, with mothers and fathers abandoning their children "because theyre becoming a liability." The parents dont do it out of convenience, they do it out of desperation. Watch the plight of Iraqs children »

The past seven years have given us some helpful hints on what we want to avoid in the next president. I?m starting to make a list.

Quality to avoid No. 1: Loyalty.

How about if this time we try for a president who would recruit gifted people who can accomplish great things, as opposed to a room full of dopes who will never write tell-all memoirs?

The Giuliani version of loyalty, which bears a terrifying resemblance to the George W. Bush brand of loyalty, is entirely about self-protection. An administration safe beneath the loyalty cone does not have to worry much about leaks to the press, or even whistle-blowing.

People can screw up, or fail to achieve their missions, knowing the guy at the top will protect them as long as they put his well-being ahead of anything else. When disaster strikes, the whole world may be falling apart, but they will all be clumped together, walking north.

Growing up Irish in Queens and on Long Island, Daniel Cassidy was nicknamed Glom.

He began finding one word after another that seemed to derive from the strain of Gaelic spoken in Ireland, known as Irish. The word ?gimmick? seemed to come from ?camag,? meaning trick or deceit, or a hook or crooked stick.

Mr. Cassidy, 63, began compiling a lexicon of hundreds of Irish-inspired slang words and recently published them in a book called ?How the Irish Invented Slang,? which last month won the 2007 American Book Award for nonfiction, and which he is in New York this week promoting.

There are no sheep are in sight either. The animals were sold long ago, because there is no grass for them to graze on.

Chalmers is among many farmers whose crops are withering in an unusual spring heat, following one of the warmest and driest winters on record.

In the seventh year of a crippling drought, much of Australia is in an unprecedented water crisis. The Big Dry, as Australians have dubbed the weather, is the worst in a century and has forced water restrictions on an entire nation.

But when the president met families of the fallen that day in Lancaster, it did not escape Mr. Adams?s notice that he was not among them.

The whole not supporting a candidate because they won?t say ?I hate those people?? That has got to stop.

It fired her.

"I bawled for three days after I got fired," she says. "I was the most loyal, dedicated employee they could have. In 30 years, I never called in sick or was late to work. Not once! And I was good at my job. Damn good."

When the cops came, she was in shock and called Doug, asking him to bring her a clean uniform. Why, he asked. "Because the one Im wearing has holes in it and theres blood all over."

Shilson says she was rated "superior" in a company performance review last spring, but that her supervisor added personal comments that she needed improvement. She says she felt she was being prepared to be pushed out.

The uninvited guest: Chinese sub pops up in middle of U.S. Navy exercise, leaving military chiefs red-faced

At least a dozen warships provide a physical guard while the technical wizardry of the worlds only military superpower offers an invisible shield to detect and deter any intruders.

That is the theory. Or, rather, was the theory.

American military chiefs have been left dumbstruck by an undetected Chinese submarine popping up at the heart of a recent Pacific exercise and close to the vast U.S.S. Kitty Hawk - a 1,000ft supercarrier with 4,500 personnel on board.

By the time it surfaced the 160ft Song Class diesel-electric attack submarine is understood to have sailed within viable range for launching torpedoes or missiles at the carrier.

The incident, which took place in the ocean between southern Japan and Taiwan, is a major embarrassment for the Pentagon.

PERVEZ Musharraf took a huge gamble when he declared emergency rule last week.

He raised the stakes yesterday, sending police to cordon off the house of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, just a few hours before she was due to lead a rally against the state of emergency.

Musharraf has also gambled that his main international backer, the US, wont turn against him. Its $US10.5 billion in mostly military aid has been a mainstay of his rule.

So far, the general has survived.

Bhutto, who returned to Pakistan this month after eight years in self-exile, had called for street protests against Musharrafs grab for power.

She earlier dismissed his pledge to hold fresh elections by mid-February as a distraction.

"Its too vague; its too generalised and its an attempt to break the momentum of opposition," Bhutto says.

"We think it is a good thing that President Musharraf has clarified the election date for the Pakistani people," a White House spokesperson says.

Gutless

Cover your ass

"Its important for us to say that we gave money to the military," the source said. "Because when Bush starts coming at us and saying that the troops are running out of money [when the Iraq funding battle fight starts], well be able to say, `We just gave you $450 billion. It kind of gives us a cushion here."

Behind the upward spurt is a tightening in supply from the 12-nation Opec cartel and a slowdown in output from alternative sources. Added to the mix are Turkeys sabre-rattling towards northern Iraq, trouble in Pakistan - a nuclear power - and storms in the North Sea, prompting a feverish atmosphere of concern.

  Realistically, it?s almost impossible to believe that Bush is some kind of Manchurian President, intentionally screwing up and deliberately undermining the United States. But sometimes, it?s hard not to wonder. Dan Froomkin, for example, did a nice job today describing Bush?s disastrous dollar policy.

President Bush doesn?t talk about the dollar much, but when he does, he?s got exactly one thing to say about it: ?We have a strong dollar policy.?

It?s becoming increasingly clear, however, that Bush?s ?strong dollar policy? is driving the greenback into the ground.

The dollar is hitting record lows this week amidst fears that the mortgage-market meltdown will spread to other parts of the economy and as the Chinese make noise about moving more of their investments into euros. But it is the underlying dynamics of the American economy ? continued massive trade deficits and a whopping national debt ? that have put the dollar in such a precarious position.

Imagine never having to delve in the world of doctors, hospitals and pharmaceuticals until the very end (when it?s absolutely necessary).

2. Laugh HARD

8. Stretch

Elizabeth Gladys Dean of Southampton, England, known as Millvina, who was 2 months old at the time the Titanic sank, is now the only remaining survivor, according to the Titanic Historical Society. The last American survivor, Lillian Gertrud Asplund, died in Massachusetts last year at the age of 99.

Ms. Dainton, born in Bournemouth, in southern England, in 1911, was too young to remember the night when the huge liner hit an iceberg and sank in the Atlantic on April 14 and 15, 1912, killing 1,500 people, including her father, Edwy Arthur West.

1. Remember a birthday

2. Stand up for someone

3. Ping

4. Listen

5. Tell a joke

6. Buy a friend lunch

7. Lend a good book

8. Compliment

9. Buy a small gift

10. Babysit

11. Give chocolate

12. Believe in friend

13. Show your love

14. Smile

15. Share a happy memory

16. Compile a music CD

17. Cook a meal

19. Say thank you

20. Donate to a charity

21. Give someone a dizzy wizzy

A transgender minister is allowed to remain pastor of a Baltimore congregation, the United Methodist Churchs highest council announced Tuesday.

The Judicial Councils ruling affirmed a decision by Baltimore-Washington Bishop John R. Schol last spring who reappointed the Rev. Drew Phoenix to St. Johns of Baltimore City after the transgender minister underwent surgery and hormone therapy to become a male. Phoenix was formerly the Rev. Ann Gordon who had led the church for five years.

After considering whether to remove Phoenix from leadership, the Judicial Council decided to allow the transgender minister to stay on the job, referring to a church policy stating that a clergyperson in good standing cant be terminated without administrative or judicial action.

At the Democrats presidential debate last week, the candidates were asked to comment on issues pertaining to education. This was Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodds response:

"Ive been asked the question over the years, Whats the single most important issue? I always say education because it is the answer to every other problem we confront as a people here."

There are, of course, links between education and professional success, between education and the ability to read and write. And obviously we need well-educated people in order to be able to compete with other countries. But for at least the few generations in the Western world there has been no link between higher education and human decency.

Period.

Mr. Toilet builds commode-shaped house in campaign to bolster worldwide hygiene

"When you lay photos of the two next to each other, you can see it relatively clearly," Kuchenbecker told the Reuters news agency.

The ornate 185-foot-tall (56-meter-tall) Pisa edifice, though, would tower over the 84-foot-tall (26-meter-tall) village landmark.

Link to Paul Erdos wikipedia webpage

Man forgets car at gas station

"He just forgot about it and walked off home," said a spokesman for police in the western city of Wuppertal.

After the car had sat blocking the pump for about an hour, a woman working at the petrol station became suspicious and alerted authorities.

Officers contacted the 63-year-old from Remscheid, who came straight back to fetch the vehicle. He had paid to fill up the car before walking off.

Broadway Set To Go Dark Tonight As Workers Vote Strike

More than two dozen Broadway plays and musicals were set to go dark Saturday in the crucial run-up to the lucrative holiday season as stagehands prepared to strike, a person familiar with contract negotiations.

The work stoppage was to begin at 11 a.m., affecting an early matinee of "Dr. Seuss How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical," said the person, who spoke Friday on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

Brain can tell real memories from false ones

Absolutely certain youve seen that persons face before? Now there is a tool to help you weed out the real memories from the false ones. Roberto Cabeza at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, and Hogkeun Kim at Daegu University in South Korea asked 11 volunteers to view 82 related-word lists, each with a theme - like "farm animals".

Immediately afterwards, they were given more lists and asked which ones they had seen before and how confident they were about their answer. All of this was done inside an MRI scanner, which measures brain activity.

Robert T. Francoeur, Ph.D., A.C.S., General Editor

Chad Varah, the founder of the Samaritans, died yesterday. He was 95.

Mr Varah, who set up the support group from the crypt of his church in the City of London more than 50 years ago, died peacefully in his sleep at a hospital in Basingstoke, Hants, said a spokesman for the charity.

The Prince of Wales, who is the Samaritans patron, said: "Chad Varah was an utterly remarkable man who founded an organisation which has saved the lives of countless people since 1953. He was an outstanding humanitarian and a great Briton."

There are in this world, in every country, people who seem to be ordinary, but who, when meeting a suicidal person, turn out to be extraordinary.

"They can usually save lives. How? They give the sad person their total attention. They completely forget themselves. They listen... and listen... and listen, without interrupting.

He complained of chest pains and was taken to hospital, but was discharged and will appear in court later.

Mr Murphy is due to face nine charges of failing to file tax returns under the Taxes Consolidation Act.

He lives on a farm close to the border at Ballybinaby, Hackballscross, in County Louth.

The bureau has been investigating his financial affairs for three years and has twice searched his home.

The Republic of Irelands Criminal Assets Bureau was set up in 1996, and was the model for the UKs Assets Recovery Agency.

Natan Sharansky is perhaps on the mark with his observation that Bush, in holding onto his belief, is a lonely man even within his own circle of power. To come to that belief, Bush needed no great literacy in political theory. Intuitively, he grasped the connection between autocracy and terror. Norman Podhoretz?s argument on behalf of liberty reads that landscape with clarity. The peace of pharaohs and autocrats, the stability presented by despotism, is deceptive. The politics of democracy can be messy, of new democracies messier still. But we ought to have the courage of running freedom?s risks.

BEIJING (AP) -- A Chinese official gave the clearest sign yet that Beijing will reject binding caps on greenhouse gas emissions at a global meeting next month, saying Friday developing countries must be allowed to raise emissions to fight poverty.

"Climate change is caused mainly by developed countries," Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui said. "They should have the main responsibility for climate change and to reduce emissions."

Beijing is about to overtake the United States as the worlds top greenhouse-gas producer. It is under pressure from Washington to accept binding limits at a meeting in Indonesia of environment ministers from 80 nations to discuss a possible replacement to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on emission reductions.

Nations agreed in Kyoto to cut output of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases to below 1990 levels by 2012. But China, India and other developing economies are exempt.

Cellphones, Internet help Westerners share information about where to travel ? or move ? abroad to seek out sex with children

If the international headlines over the arrest of alleged Canadian pedophile Christopher Neil has put a chill on Southeast Asian sex tourism, it isnt evident on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City. It takes all of 30 minutes to find a boy who earns his living having sex with foreigners.

Just go to the backpacker district, a shabby collection of bars, budget travel agencies and cheap hotels. Sit down at an outdoor table, order a beer and wave to the first street vendor who walks by. A teenaged bookseller in a baseball cap and flip-flops first offers himself, then heads off to find someone even younger.

A Queens University, Ontario, team examined volunteers walks and the levels of sex hormones in their saliva.

They found those with alluring walks were the furthest away from ovulation.

A British expert said the research, featured by New Scientist magazine, supported the idea women disguise their fertility to deter unsuitable partners.

Gore Vidal, with whom he frequently wrangled, once wrote: ?Mailer is forever shouting at us that he is about to tell us something we must know or has just told us something revelatory and we failed to hear him or that he will, God grant his poor abused brain and body just one more chance, get through to us so that we will know. Each time he speaks he must become more bold, more loud, put on brighter motley and shake more foolish bells. Yet of all my contemporaries I retain the greatest affection for Norman as a force and as an artist. He is a man whose faults, though many, add to rather than subtract from the sum of his natural achievements.?

Heres one for the annals of counterintuitive findings: When asked to contemplate the occasion of their own demise, people become happier than usual, instead of sadder, according to a new study in the November issue of Psychological Science. Researchers say its a kind of psychological immune response ? faced with thoughts of our own death, our brains automatically cope with the conscious feelings of distress by nonconsciously seeking out and triggering happy feelings, a mechanism that scientists theorize helps protect us from permanent depression or paralyzing despair.