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Topics - Bakes

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91
So Christian Bale finds himself in the news once again.. this time for cursing out and threatening one of his assistants on the set of Terminator 4...

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch/v/8Kzs8o-Rpck" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch/v/8Kzs8o-Rpck</a>


He subsequently apologized saying "I'm embarrassed by it. I ask everybody to sit down and ask themselves, have they ever had a bad day and have they ever lost their temper and really regretted it immensely. Feel free to make fun of me at my expense; I deserve it completely."
http://tmz.vo.llnwd.net/o28/audio/020609_bale-mp4.mp4

...but not before the fallout started hitting the fan

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch/v/Gbz6-7c_7Hk" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch/v/Gbz6-7c_7Hk</a>

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch/v/YTihsJQHt48" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch/v/YTihsJQHt48</a>


93
General Discussion / First America... then the World
« on: January 22, 2009, 01:47:42 AM »
Change has indeed come.

-----------

January 22, 2009

Op-Ed Contributor
The One-State Solution

By MUAMMAR QADDAFI

Tripoli, Libya-THE shocking level of the last wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence, which ended with this weekend’s cease-fire, reminds us why a final resolution to the so-called Middle East crisis is so important. It is vital not just to break this cycle of destruction and injustice, but also to deny the religious extremists in the region who feed on the conflict an excuse to advance their own causes.

But everywhere one looks, among the speeches and the desperate diplomacy, there is no real way forward. A just and lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians is possible, but it lies in the history of the people of this conflicted land, and not in the tired rhetoric of partition and two-state solutions.

Although it’s hard to realize after the horrors we’ve just witnessed, the state of war between the Jews and Palestinians has not always existed. In fact, many of the divisions between Jews and Palestinians are recent ones. The very name “Palestine” was commonly used to describe the whole area, even by the Jews who lived there, until 1948, when the name “Israel” came into use.

Jews and Muslims are cousins descended from Abraham. Throughout the centuries both faced cruel persecution and often found refuge with one another. Arabs sheltered Jews and protected them after maltreatment at the hands of the Romans and their expulsion from Spain in the Middle Ages.

The history of Israel/Palestine is not remarkable by regional standards — a country inhabited by different peoples, with rule passing among many tribes, nations and ethnic groups; a country that has withstood many wars and waves of peoples from all directions. This is why it gets so complicated when members of either party claims the right to assert that it is their land.

The basis for the modern State of Israel is the persecution of the Jewish people, which is undeniable. The Jews have been held captive, massacred, disadvantaged in every possible fashion by the Egyptians, the Romans, the English, the Russians, the Babylonians, the Canaanites and, most recently, the Germans under Hitler. The Jewish people want and deserve their homeland.

But the Palestinians too have a history of persecution, and they view the coastal towns of Haifa, Acre, Jaffa and others as the land of their forefathers, passed from generation to generation, until only a short time ago.

Thus the Palestinians believe that what is now called Israel forms part of their nation, even were they to secure the West Bank and Gaza. And the Jews believe that the West Bank is Samaria and Judea, part of their homeland, even if a Palestinian state were established there. Now, as Gaza still smolders, calls for a two-state solution or partition persist. But neither will work.

A two-state solution will create an unacceptable security threat to Israel. An armed Arab state, presumably in the West Bank, would give Israel less than 10 miles of strategic depth at its narrowest point. Further, a Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip would do little to resolve the problem of refugees. Any situation that keeps the majority of Palestinians in refugee camps and does not offer a solution within the historical borders of Israel/Palestine is not a solution at all.

For the same reasons, the older idea of partition of the West Bank into Jewish and Arab areas, with buffer zones between them, won’t work. The Palestinian-held areas could not accommodate all of the refugees, and buffer zones symbolize exclusion and breed tension. Israelis and Palestinians have also become increasingly intertwined, economically and politically.

In absolute terms, the two movements must remain in perpetual war or a compromise must be reached. The compromise is one state for all, an “Isratine” that would allow the people in each party to feel that they live in all of the disputed land and they are not deprived of any one part of it.

A key prerequisite for peace is the right of return for Palestinian refugees to the homes their families left behind in 1948. It is an injustice that Jews who were not originally inhabitants of Palestine, nor were their ancestors, can move in from abroad while Palestinians who were displaced only a relatively short time ago should not be so permitted.

It is a fact that Palestinians inhabited the land and owned farms and homes there until recently, fleeing in fear of violence at the hands of Jews after 1948 — violence that did not occur, but rumors of which led to a mass exodus. It is important to note that the Jews did not forcibly expel Palestinians. They were never “un-welcomed.” Yet only the full territories of Isratine can accommodate all the refugees and bring about the justice that is key to peace.

Assimilation is already a fact of life in Israel. There are more than one million Muslim Arabs in Israel; they possess Israeli nationality and take part in political life with the Jews, forming political parties. On the other side, there are Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Israeli factories depend on Palestinian labor, and goods and services are exchanged. This successful assimilation can be a model for Isratine.

If the present interdependence and the historical fact of Jewish-Palestinian coexistence guide their leaders, and if they can see beyond the horizon of the recent violence and thirst for revenge toward a long-term solution, then these two peoples will come to realize, I hope sooner rather than later, that living under one roof is the only option for a lasting peace.

Muammar Qaddafi is the leader of Libya.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/22/opinion/22qaddafi.html?hp

94
General Discussion / It's a good thing Canadians so perfect
« on: January 08, 2009, 01:56:40 PM »
Otherwise one might question why they love to pelt so much stone at America from dey glass houses...

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch/v/dEZV5WJEM-Y" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">http://www.youtube.com/watch/v/dEZV5WJEM-Y</a>

95
General Discussion / Thieves victimise Queen Latifah in Tobago
« on: December 31, 2008, 07:44:45 AM »
Not to be technical... but her jewelry was stolen, she wasn't "robbed".

Trinidad and Tobago's Newsday : newsday.co.tt :

Queen Latifah’s jewelry stolen

By NALINEE SEELAL Wednesday, December 31 2008

click on pic to zoom in« prev photo next photo »Hollywood star and Grammy Award winning singer Queen Latifah has fallen prey to thieves who stole more than US$10,000 (TT$65,000) in jewelry from the popular American entertainer’s luxury villa in Tobago where she has been staying for the Christmas holidays.

Tobago police believe the theft may have been committed by a member of the house and grounds staff assigned to the villa during Queen Latifah’s stay at the US$1,000 (TT$6,300) a night villa at Stone Haven Villas, Black Rock Tobago. Investigators said there were no signs of forced entry and this led them to believe the heist was an inside job.

Queen Latifah, whose real name is Dana Elaine Owens, arrived in Tobago last week for the Christmas holidays and checked into the villa under the name Cynthia Hadden. She gave her address as California.

Reports are the 35-year-old star, who received an Academy Award nomination for a supporting role in the movie Chicago, is staying at the villa with a female friend.

A barbecue brunch was organised on the secluded-gated compound in her honour by the Stone Haven management from at about 10 am on Monday. Queen Latifah, however, returned to her villa at about 12 noon and discovered that her US$10,000 bracelet, two gold rings, a gold chain and a silver ring had gone missing. She alerted the manager of the villas and three security guards were summoned to conduct a search. They did not find the missing jewelry and the police were contacted.

Investigators from the Old Grange Police Station, led by Sgt Alicia Piggott, went to the villa and took a statement from Queen Latifah, who said the jewelry had a sentimental value to her and expressed her willingness to offer a reward. The upset star hoped to have her jewelry returned before she leaves Tobago today.

Newsday understands Queen Latifah contacted a close friend in Trinidad and expressed her disappointment over the theft and the manner in which the case was being handled by the police.

On one phone call to Stone Haven yesterday, a receptionist said Queen Latifah was resting.

When a second call was made Newsday was told the celebrity was not taking any calls.

On the third try, Newsday was told that Queen Latifah was not a guest at Stone Haven.

Acting Police Commissioner James Philbert yesterday confirmed the theft, which he regretted, and said searches have been conducted. The police also questioned staff assigned to the villa and employees of Stone Haven.

“Several searches are being carried out and the police are trying to have the jewelry returned to Queen Latifah. Investigators said the larceny seems to be an inside job and efforts are being made round the clock to make a breakthrough,” Philbert told Newsday.

At about 4 pm yesterday, a police vehicle drove into the compound of Stone Haven. A guard at the booth at the gate spoke briefly with the police officers before they drove into the compound. The vehicle left about 20 minutes later.

Queen Latifah, who is also a celebrated jazz singer and began her entertainment career as rap artiste, is the latest foreigner to fall victim to rising crime in tourism-based Tobago.

Sources said the management of Stone Haven informed the police that Queen Latifah would be spending Christmas in Tobago and asked that special attention be paid to the area. Stone Haven has three security guards on duty round the clock.


96
General Discussion / Hostage Halts Robbery 'Like In the Movies'
« on: December 31, 2008, 03:34:11 AM »
Md. Family Is Held at Home, Then Forced to Drive to Bank



By Aaron C. Davis and Jenna Johnson
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, December 28, 2008; A01



Speeding on the Capital Beltway, James Spruill knew he had to act fast. His wife and boys were packed into the family car, and a masked man was in the back seat, jabbing a loaded gun into his 11-year-old son's ribs.

Twelve hours earlier, two gunmen had forced their way into his Prince George's County home. Spruill said they tied him and his wife up with cords from a clock radio and a PlayStation, holding them overnight in separate bedrooms and keeping the two children in a third. The men had said they would hold the boys hostage and use his wife, an assistant bank manager, to rob her branch in the morning.

"I wasn't sure what was going to happen," Spruill said. "A lot of times, criminals don't leave witnesses."

Spruill had gotten lucky once. The gunmen allowed him to drive to the bank. Then, about 7:30 a.m. yesterday, within a few miles of the target, Spruill got another break: In his rearview mirror, he saw a Maryland State Police car approaching quickly on the Beltway's outer loop near Route 1.

Spruill, 40, began to swerve his red Mitsubishi Gallant slightly. The one gunman who accompanied them didn't notice -- but Trooper Barrington Cameron did.

Cameron, a 22-year-old rookie, pulled the car over and walked to the passenger side, where Spruill's wife was seated. Spruill glanced back at his son, tilting his head to motion the boy away from the gunman.

In an instant, Spruill was in the back seat, pinning the man's hands and screaming about the gun. The trooper pulled his weapon, and the ordeal was over.

Late yesterday, the suspect was in custody and a search was on for the other man. Spruill, a maintenance worker with Metro, his wife and children -- the 11-year-old and his 8-year-old brother -- were back in their home in Clinton, shaken but unhurt.

"He put his family first, jumping on the guy with the gun," said Lt. Carl Miller, commander of the College Park barracks. "He did what most people would have done with their families bound up like that. Whether they would have done it to that degree, I don't know."

Spruill described the ordeal in an interview, denying the mantle of hero but saying he played "psychological games" with his family's abductors and gained advantages that made the difference.

"They were a bunch of amateurs," he said.

The attempted bank robbery, though unusual, comes three months after a similar attempted robbery in Southern Maryland. Both involved a scheme taken straight from the plot of Hollywood thrillers.

Police said yesterday that the assailants timed their attack as the 39-year-old woman returned home from her bank, a SunTrust branch in Silver Spring. At 7:30 p.m., as she entered the house in the 6800 block of Briarcliff Drive, they pounced.

Spruill said he was in the bedroom, preparing for work, when his wife called out. He rushed to the front room, where he saw two men wearing ski masks, one holding a gun to his wife's head. The men tied up the husband and wife, separating them, and forced the boys into their parents' bedroom.

The assailants spoke to their hostages in English but communicated with each other in Spanish. Spruill, bound in one of the boy's bedrooms, said he stayed awake all night, planning and listening as the men rummaged through his kitchen.

"It was like in the movies," he said. "You just had to think it all through and figure it out. I wanted to keep us all together."

In the morning, the assailants said one of them would stay at the house with the boys while the other went to the bank with Spruill and his wife.

Spruill fabricated a story to keep the family together. He told the men that his aunt was expected to visit that morning. He told them that if he was forced to call her to cancel the visit, he would find a way to let her know the family was in danger.

The assailants were fooled into changing their plan. The whole family would go to the bank, they decided. But there wasn't room for both would-be robbers in the car, so one would stay behind.

They headed for the bank, at Elton Road and New Hampshire Avenue. Spruill sped for much of 25 miles, hoping to get pulled over.

When Cameron flipped his lights on, the assailant pulled off his mask, showing his face for the first time. He instructed Spruill to tell the officer that they were headed to breakfast together.

On the right shoulder, approaching on the side away from traffic, Cameron asked for his license. Trying to alert the trooper that something was amiss, Spruill handed him his bank card. Cameron had by then noticed that someone in the back seat was making "suspicious movements," police said.

Cameron asked for his license again. Spruill unbuckled his seat belt and lunged.

After the traffic stop, state police and Prince George's police surrounded the house, concerned that the second assailant might have a hostage inside. About four hours later, police stormed into the house, finding it empty.

Detectives spent part of yesterday working with county police and federal authorities to identify the suspect apprehended in the car. He gave state police interrogators multiple names after his arrest, and police initially described him only as in his teens or early 20s.

About five hours after he was taken to the College Park barracks, the suspect attempted to hang himself by tying his shirt around his neck and to his cell door, police said.

Miller, the commander of the barracks, said the suspect was spotted quickly and cut down by a duty officer before he suffered any injuries. Miller said he was being held overnight at Prince George's County Hospital Center for a psychological evaluation.

Miller said little is known about the second assailant. He was described as black, 5-foot-7 and 160 pounds and was last seen wearing dark pants and black hooded sweat shirt.

A state police forensics team spent several hours combing through the family's home. Miller said those samples had not led to an identification last night.

On Sept. 24, a Southern Maryland bank manager and her two young children were abducted at gunpoint from their home. The suspects drove the woman to the PNC Bank she managed in St. Mary's County and held one of her children hostage while she went inside to get money out of the vault.

The next month, police charged three men and a woman, alleging that they secretly followed the bank manager for several weeks and planned the abduction and robbery. Police recovered about $110,000 of the $168,000 stolen, much of it buried in two safes in the back yard of one of the suspects.

Staff writer Mary Beth Sheridan and staff researcher Alice Crites contributed to this report.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/27/AR2008122700801_3.html


2nd Man Arrested, Another Sought, in Kidnap and Robbery Plot

Why Bank Worker, 39, Was Target Unclear

By Matt Zapotosky
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, December 29, 2008; B02



A second man was arrested yesterday in connection with a weekend Maryland kidnapping and bank robbery scheme so brazen that even the hostage who thwarted it compared the experience to a Hollywood thriller, police said.

Yosef Tadele, 23, of Silver Spring was arrested just before 5 a.m., joining Yohannes T. Surafel, 24, of the District in jail in Prince George's County, police said. Both men face kidnapping and other charges related to their attempt to abduct a bank manager and her family, hold them hostage in their home overnight and force the manager to withdraw money from her bank in the morning, police said.

Police said they are close to arresting a third man, whom they did not identify.

"We feel very, very confident that we'll pick him up in the next day or so," said Capt. Brian Cedar, commander of criminal investigations for the Maryland State Police. "We know who he is and where he frequents."

On Friday night, police said, Tadele dropped Surafel and the unidentified man off at the Clinton home of 40-year-old James Spruill. The pair forced their way inside, holding Spruill, his sons, ages 8 and 11, and his 39-year-old wife hostage overnight, the police said.

The men told Spruill's wife that in the morning, they would force her to withdraw funds from a Silver Spring SunTrust bank, where she worked as an assistant manager, police said.

Cedar said no one in the family knew any of the abductors, even casually. He said investigators were still working to determine why the family was targeted.

Cedar said the men must have been watching the woman's daily activities as she went to and from her Clinton house and the bank.

The men's plan went awry on the way to the bank Saturday about 7:30 a.m., when Spruill, who was driving the family car occupied by his wife, sons and Surafel, saw a Maryland state trooper in his rearview mirror, Spruill said Saturday. On the Beltway near Route 1, Spruill began to swerve, prompting the trooper, Barrington Cameron, 22, to pull him over. After handing Cameron a bank card instead of his license to indicate something was amiss, Spruill lunged into the back seat, pinning Surafel's hands while he yelled about the gun, police and Spruill said. When Barrington pulled his own weapon, Surafel surrendered.

"It was like in the movies," Spruill said Saturday. "You just had to think it all through and figure it out. I wanted to keep us all together."

After Surafel's arrest, police surrounded the Spruill residence, concerned that the man they believed was inside might have taken another hostage. When they stormed the house about four hours later, the man was gone, police said. He remains at large.

Surafel gave police multiple fake names and tried to hang himself in a cell at the state police College Park barracks Saturday, police said. He was held overnight at Prince George's County Hospital Center, and his identity was released yesterday, when he was taken to the jail.

Surafel has not given police any information, Cedar said. He said investigators located Tadele using a network of people connected to Surafel.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/28/AR2008122801587.html

97
Entertainment & Culture Discussion / Favorite TV shows
« on: December 30, 2008, 07:56:53 PM »
I doh really watch too much on TV, when I do it usually tends to be ESPN, CNN or FSC or something so.  However I'm a huge fan of the Discovery family of channels, along with History Channel/Biography/A&E and National Geographic Channel.

Right now my two favorite programs are:

The First 48- A&E

and The Dog Whisperer- National Geographic Channel

98
General Discussion / Jamaican Cop comes out of the closet- life threatened
« on: December 28, 2008, 06:00:53 AM »
http://current.com/items/89341432/gay_jamaican_cop.htm


De man say he became a cop to try and protect de "h'old and de h'innocent"...

99
Football / Ultimate XI
« on: December 28, 2008, 04:38:15 AM »
Jay DeMerit’s Ultimate XI

December 25, 2008, 1:14 pm
 
By Jay DeMerit

In the second installment of what will be a weekly feature on The New York Times Goal blog, we asked Watford’s American defender Jay DeMerit to pick a team of ultimate opponents he has faced during his four seasons in England. DeMerit, a native of Green Bay, Wis., has played nearly 150 matches with Watford since signing a contract in 2004. Check back every Thursday for the dream roster from a prominent player, coach or keen observer of the game in this feature based on a format made popular by FourFourTwo magazine in Britain.

Goalkeeper — Petr Cech

Chelsea’s keeper is so big, the goal seems like it’s the size of the ones I played on when I was 10. Can get down to stop-close range shots but can clear his box like a giant. Even his helmet is intimidating. He is the best keeper in the world.

Defender — Nemanja Vidic

My kind of central defender. Good on the ball when he needs to be, but is mainly there to be the beast of a defender that he is for Manchester United. Will battle and most likely win it with any forward in the league both in the air and on the ground. Would run through brick walls to get to the ball and is always consistent, which is probably the best quality you can have as a defender.

Defender — John Terry

Another one of those names that just stick out when it comes to defenders. Always in the right place at the right time and is a fearless leader. He is a great organizer and makes sure that the defense is always in the right shape and position. No wonder Chelsea has so many shutouts. Tough as nails, he got great respect from me when he got knocked out in the Carling Cup final by putting his face in front of a flying boot to save a goal against Arsenal. He still got out of the hospital in time to make it to the after-party. Thumbs up from me.

Defender — Ashley Cole

The best left back in the world, in my opinion. Works tirelessly down the whole left side for Chelsea, whether it’s helping in the attack with overlapping runs or getting back to make crucial blocks. If he can keep Christiano Ronaldo quiet, there is nothing left to say.

Defender — Gael Clichy

Quietly goes about his business of shutting down the world’s best. Never flashy or big headed, he always does his job. Along the lines of Ashley Cole, he is a bundle of energy who does not stop running for the whole 90 minutes. He is a quiet character, but a big piece of the puzzle if Arsenal is to get back to the top.

Midfielder — Ryan Giggs

The name speaks for itself. An absolute legend and still putting in world-class performances for Manchester United. Over the years he has dominated the Premiership with his crafty technique, pace and sweet left foot. Has won everything there is to win as a player and, most importantly, has the shown the commitment to stay at the top for so long.


Midfielder — Steven Gerrard

Probably in most people’s World XI, let alone England’s. Can pick a pass with pure precision from 45 yards away, can score goals from anywhere and when it comes to leadership, I don’t think the Liverpool veteran can be topped. He always comes up with a goal or an assist when it is needed most and always comes to play during the big games. He is a warrior who is never afraid of a tackle, but has the calmness to put away crucial goals.

Midfielder — Ashley Young

I may be a bit biased because I played with Ashley at Watford for three years, but the potential he showed with us is now there for all to see. He has really helped Aston Villa in becoming one of the Premiership’s new top teams. He whips in a great cross and has the pace to trouble any defender. He has one of the best free kicks in the Premiership and proves that by scoring every few games. Still getting better and hopefully a future star for England’s national team.

Midfielder — Cristiano Ronaldo

The Manchester United star was voted the World Player of the Year and for good reason. He has everything you’d ever need to be the best and more. He is physical, can score with his head or feet, from free kicks or free play. He can beat you with a trick inside or down outside with his pace. A defender’s nightmare and a woman’s dream. I am jealous.

Forward — Craig Bellamy

Quick off the turn and always on your shoulder ready to get in behind you, Bellamy is as fast on the ground as he is with his mouth. Always up for a moan, whether it’s to his West Ham United teammates, opposing defenders or, of course, the referee. He has a lethal finish and is one of those forwards who is always putting you under pressure and trying to cause you problems. You are physically and mentally tired after a game against him!

Forward — Didier Drogba

Probably my least favorite type of forward to mark, because players like him are as quick on the ground as the little forwards, but are physically dominant as well. Drogba is definitely both. He scored a hat trick for Chelsea the first time we played against him. With his aerial ability, along with a blistering shot and great movement in the box, he is as close to Lebron in cleats as it comes.

Substitutes

Wayne Rooney

Always a threat and always a character. Great to have in the team because of his passion for the game and his hunger to win. He can score goals from anywhere and has a fantastic work ethic. To come into the Premiership at such a young age with Everton and reach his full potential with Manchester United shows a lot about the type of person he is. Most of the time when United loses is when he isn’t playing. I don’t think that’s a coincidence.

Thierry Henry

Not in the starting 11 because he is no longer playing in England, but still deserves a mention from a distance — in Spain where he plays for Barcelona now. His pace, power and, dare I say, grace make him one the best players ever to walk the pitches of England. He has scored so many great goals that they can run TV programs just on him. He scored a few on me as well, but let’s not talk about that. The Premiership misses him.

Jamie Carragher

Another whole-hearted player you always need on your team. A great leader for Liverpool, he is willing to do everything to help his team win. A selfless player who will throw himself into the post to block a shot. You can’t understand a word he says, but either way you listen.

Manager — Alex Ferguson

Everyone who has worked under him says the same thing: Once you work with Sir Alex, you don’t want to work under anyone else. No wonder he gets the best players in the world to come to Manchester United and never leave. He is a good manager and demands the ultimate respect from his players without letting his ego get in the way. He’s been at the top for so many years for a reason.


Source

Previous blog... Claudio Suarez's Ultimate Mexican XI

100
Internet Law

RIAA to Stop Suing Over Music Downloads; ISPs are New Copyright Cops

Posted Dec 19, 2008, 02:21 pm CST

By Martha Neil

Ending a controversial enforcement effort in which it appeared to be fighting something of a losing battle, the Recording Industry Association of America says it will stop suing consumers over illegal music downloads via the Internet.

"The decision represents an abrupt shift of strategy for the industry, which has opened legal proceedings against about 35,000 people since 2003," reports the Wall Street Journal. "Critics say the legal offensive ultimately did little to stem the tide of illegally downloaded music. And it created a public-relations disaster for the industry, whose lawsuits targeted, among others, several single mothers, a dead person and a 13-year-old girl."

Instead of using lawsuits as leverage to try to protect music copyrights, the RIAA now plans a more practical enforcement effort concerning illegal downloads. With the help of Internet service providers, those who repeatedly download music illegally and ignore ISP warnings are expected to have their Internet service first slowed down and then stopped entirely, the newspaper explains.

Under the new enforcement plan, ISPs can cooperate with RIAA concerns about illegal downloads and warn customers about apparent copyright violations without revealing their identity.

The prospect of having ISPs as copyright cops, however, isn't music to the ears of a number of technology bloggers.

"Why can't the RIAA and its label cronies stop with the fear of the Web already and just embrace online realities?" writes Don Reisinger on the Digital Home. "A number of independent artists, as well as better-known bands like Radiohead have done extremely well offering their songs for free and asking for donations whenever people feel compelled to do so."

Additional Coverage:

PC Magazine: "RIAA Taking Piracy Fight to ISPs"

Seattle Tech Report (Post-Intelligencer): "RIAA shuts down its lawsuit machine"

http://www.abajournal.com/weekly/riaa_to_stop_suing_over_music_downloads_isps_are_new_copyright_cops

101
Other Sports / A Former MLB player (Trini) reflects...
« on: December 23, 2008, 02:06:02 AM »
Heading Home
A Gift From Puerto Rico


December 23, 2008
By DOUG GLANVILLE

I remember my father telling me the story of when he first landed in New York, having emigrated from Trinidad, West Indies. He was proud of his spanking new suitcase until he reached customs and couldn’t find the key to the lock, and they had to break it open to search his belongings. My father’s heart sank. After all, he saw the opportunity in this new world and wanted to make a good impression with the best he had to offer.

I was born in New Jersey, and couldn’t grasp the emotions of going to a new land full of hope and fear at the same time. That was until I was invited to play in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, for my first stint in “winter ball.” Think of it as baseball’s equivalent of “continuing education.”

It was 1995. I had most recently played in Des Moines, Iowa, at the highest level in the Chicago Cubs’ minor league system. It had been a rough year, between having to adjust to a new level of professional baseball after a labor strike and play for a manager who (let’s just say) didn’t exactly care for me. Even so, I was only one step away from the big time. And from what I was being told, a lot was riding on the success of my tenure as a member of the Mayaguez Indios.

Before the trip down to Puerto Rico, my new manager, Tom Gamboa, warned me that “things there are not like they are in the States.” I’d been to my father’s homeland of Trinidad many times, and I had seen some challenging conditions, so my mind raced with images of sleeping on a bed of nails with no roof. Nevertheless, I kept saying to myself, How bad could it be? Puerto Rico is practically part of the United States.

I arrived at the Mayaguez airport with a suitcase, a big baseball bag containing the tools of my trade and the hope of furthering my baseball education enough to make it to the major leagues. But even as I walked through that airport, I couldn’t help thinking about my father and his sunken heart.

Armed with strong book knowledge of Spanish and foot speed that would eventually earn me the nickname “la gacela” (the gazelle), I made my way to the small town of Cabo Rojo at the southwest tip of the island, and to my new home: Tony’s Restaurant, which doubled as a motel. The front part of the property had a fantastic restaurant. Its walls were covered with photos of Puerto Rican legends, from salsa singers to the brightest and best baseball players in its history (Vic Power and Juan Gonzalez, among others). Deeper within the property were small rooms with window air conditioning units that seemed to blow mosquitoes into your bed as much as cool you off. Within a week or so, I moved next door to Don Carlos Cabanas, which became my apartment for the winter.

I suppose I was thrown off immediately: my new digs didn’t include regular hot water, air conditioning, phone or TV. When people wanted to reach me, I drove my landlord, Carlos, and his wife Milagra, crazy by having the calls routed through their land line to my only phone — a pay phone on the street. I slept on a mattress covered in plastic, and would wake up in a cold sweat to the sound of an obnoxious rooster next door. But in some ways, I was happy that I didn’t have any reason to stay home. I’d saunter around town and visit the mall, practicing my Spanish every chance I got. And most importantly, I was focused.

Over time, Puerto Rico became home in the truest sense. The culture embraced me like family and I played the best baseball of my professional career to that point, leading the league in many categories — all while finding the most wonderful personal peace I had ever experienced.

To top it off, I had gained a true mentor in Tom Gamboa, who was fond of saying, “We didn’t lose, we just ran out of innings.” His optimism spread through the team, and gave some rising stars a newfound determination to surpass their potential. After my nightmare minor-league season in Iowa three months earlier (where I fought to keep my batting average above .250), I racked up an all-star appearance, a fastest-man award and an M.V.P. trophy in Puerto Rico. I could taste a promotion to the big leagues.

In baseball, as in any other profession, it helps to find a sponsor, someone — or some place — that has your back and will push the decision-makers on your behalf. It also requires you to spend time perfecting your craft by playing while others are sleeping. My Puerto Rican sojourn lasted two seasons, and in that period I played in close to 500 games, with only a week’s break between seasons. I never grew as much as I did in that time period, as a person and as a player.

To this day, I always try to give back to the people of Puerto Rico. I sponsored a band for the Puerto Rican festival in Harrisburg, Pa., to kick off a local Spanish-language radio station, I have also been a guest on numerous Spanish-language radio and television shows, where I always remember to thank Puerto Rico and its people for the gift of my experience there. They gave me so much and I never have forgotten.

Nor have they. Years later, when I went back for vacation, I made a stop at my old stomping grounds in Mayaguez. Other than having a new dance team to entertain fans at the ballpark, everything was the same. I ran into the same fans who were supporting the team five years earlier when I was playing there. They even sat in the same seats. As I caught up with some old friends, the announcer stopped the game to recognize my contribution to the team’s championship season in 1996. It was a moving moment.

I thank Puerto Rico for opening this door to myself and helping me see my possibilities through a new lens. I think of the players who are there now away from home this holiday season trying to become better ballplayers. I also remember that here in the States, my father’s heart did not stay sunken for very long after his suitcase was broken — he forged a wonderful life for himself and his family.

You would like to think that home is where your heart is, but there are those special experiences, like mine in “La Isla Del Encanto,” that help you understand the spiritual reason your heart is beating in the first place.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/23/opinion/23glanville.html

A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania where he majored in Systems Engineering, Glanville Currently, serves as President of GK Alliance, LLC, a Glen Ellyn, IL based company providing intellectual capital for start-up and emerging companies. In his role with GK Alliance, he serves as Director, New Business Initiative for both James Romes Consulting and MechTechnologies, and President of Glanville-Koshul Homes

102
Football / For British Players, Taste of Italy is Often Bitter
« on: December 23, 2008, 01:23:21 AM »
For British Stars, Even Taste of Italy Can Be Too Much

December 23, 2008
By JACK BELL

In Italian soccer, a bidone is known as a dud, a flop. And when it comes to British players in Italy since World War II, the bidoni have been the rule.

“Very few have built any kind of career,” said John Foot, the author of a book about Italian soccer, “Winning at All Costs,” and a professor in the Italian department at University College London. “You can count them on the fingers of one hand.”

Now that David Beckham has arrived in Italy, on a loan deal between Major League Soccer and A.C. Milan that is supposed to last until March, the Rossoneri, as the club is known, is in the spotlight more for its off-the-field luster than its mediocre performance on the field. And although Beckham is expected to be with Milan only on a short-term loan, his star presence has rekindled the discussion about why there are so few British players in Italy, and why Beckham is there now.

“It’s kind of a commercial thing as much as football,” Foot said about the loan, which will enable Beckham to play in about 10 Serie A games and several UEFA Cup matches. “He wanted somewhere to play in Europe for a short time, but it is a very bizarre idea.”

Beckham arrived in Milan over the weekend, attended Sunday’s 5-1 win over Udinese, and will travel with the team to Dubai for a midseason training camp.

“As a saleable commodity, Milan is the perfect place for Beckham,” Foot said Friday in a telephone interview from Milan.

Foot asserts that rigorous discipline in training, in tactical awareness and in technique have been a challenge for the few adventurous British players who have played in Italy. Plucked from a familiar environment, some top British players over the years struggled and ultimately failed in Italy — forever bidoni.

They were the good, the bad ... and Gazza.

JOHN CHARLES At 6 feet 2 inches, the Gentle Giant grew into a mythic figure with Juventus (1957-1962) when he scored 93 goals in 150 games.

“In the early ’60s, there were a lot of successful Brits, maybe not very good players, but you didn’t have to be very good,” Foot said.

Charles went to Italy from Leeds United on a transfer fee of more than $90,000, which was then a record. Juventus won three Serie A and two Italian Cup titles with him.

JIMMY GREAVES Greaves went from Chelsea (where he had scored 124 goals in 157 games) to A.C. Milan in 1961.

“I can pinpoint the day, the hour, the minute, the second that I doomed myself to life as an alcoholic,” Greaves wrote in his autobiography, “Greavsie.” “It was the moment I signed my name on a contract that tied me head and foot to A.C. Milan.”

He played in 10 games, and scored nine goals (four from penalty kicks) before returning to England. He scored 220 goals for Tottenham from 1961 to 1970.

DENIS LAW Perhaps a bad experience in Italy (10 goals in 27 games for Torino in 1961-62) transformed Law, a Scot, into the man who scored 171 goals for Manchester United from 1962 to 1973. “He was just not used to the tactical discipline in Italy,” Foot said.

LUTHER BLISSETT Fresh off winning the Golden Boot as England’s top scorer in 1982-83, Blissett left Watford for A.C. Milan. In Italy, he was so bad he was good.

“He became a folk hero because he was so bad,” Foot said. “He was a fantastic personality, but people thought he was John Barnes. Perhaps it was a matter of racism. But Blissett was able to hit the post from any position in front of the goal. A specialist. He became an absolute myth in Milanese history, quite liked, popular.”

But, in the end, a failure who scored only five goals and became a cult figure comparable to the film director Ed Wood.

IAN RUSH “He was at the peak of his career when he left Liverpool for Italy,” Foot said. “But he was like a fish out of water.”

After scoring 139 goals for Liverpool from 1980 to 1987, Rush had seven goals in 29 games in his only season at Juventus. A Welshman, he did not help himself when he reportedly said about his time in Turin, “It’s like living in a foreign country.”

LIAM BRADY A near legend during his time at Arsenal from 1973 to 1980, Brady used his midfield acumen to become a relative success in Italy. After two seasons at Juventus, where he scored 15 goals, he was supplanted by Michel Platini and moved on to Sampdoria, Inter and Ascoli. Brady, an Irishman, returned to England and finished his career with West Ham.

PAUL GASCOIGNE The king of the bidoni. He was the last English player to sign with an Italian team at the peak of his career. Known by his nickname, Gazza, he was still a superstar in England, but had problems with alcohol and his mental health. Sold by Tottenham to Lazio for an $8 million fee in 1992, Gascoigne receives most of the credit for popularizing Serie A on English television. In three tumultuous years in Rome, Gazza played in only 41 league games, scored six goals and was substituted 30 times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/23/sports/soccer/23goal.html?ref=sports

103
Editorial

The Torture Report

December 18, 2008

Most Americans have long known that the horrors of Abu Ghraib were not the work of a few low-ranking sociopaths. All but President Bush’s most unquestioning supporters recognized the chain of unprincipled decisions that led to the abuse, torture and death in prisons run by the American military and intelligence services.

Now, a bipartisan report by the Senate Armed Services Committee has made what amounts to a strong case for bringing criminal charges against former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld; his legal counsel, William J. Haynes; and potentially other top officials, including the former White House counsel Alberto Gonzales and David Addington, Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff.
The report shows how actions by these men “led directly” to what happened at Abu Ghraib, in Afghanistan, in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and in secret C.I.A. prisons.

It said these top officials, charged with defending the Constitution and America’s standing in the world, methodically introduced interrogation practices based on illegal tortures devised by Chinese agents during the Korean War. Until the Bush administration, their only use in the United States was to train soldiers to resist what might be done to them if they were captured by a lawless enemy.

The officials then issued legally and morally bankrupt documents to justify their actions, starting with a presidential order saying that the Geneva Conventions did not apply to prisoners of the “war on terror” — the first time any democratic nation had unilaterally reinterpreted the conventions.



That order set the stage for the infamous redefinition of torture at the Justice Department, and then Mr. Rumsfeld’s authorization of “aggressive” interrogation methods. Some of those methods were torture by any rational definition and many of them violate laws and treaties against abusive and degrading treatment.

These top officials ignored warnings from lawyers in every branch of the armed forces that they were breaking the law, subjecting uniformed soldiers to possible criminal charges and authorizing abuses that were not only considered by experts to be ineffective, but were actually counterproductive.

One page of the report lists the repeated objections that President Bush and his aides so blithely and arrogantly ignored: The Air Force had “serious concerns regarding the legality of many of the proposed techniques”; the chief legal adviser to the military’s criminal investigative task force said they were of dubious value and may subject soldiers to prosecution; one of the Army’s top lawyers said some techniques that stopped well short of the horrifying practice of waterboarding “may violate the torture statute.” The Marines said they “arguably violate federal law.” The Navy pleaded for a real review.

The legal counsel to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the time started that review but told the Senate committee that her boss, Gen. Richard Myers, ordered her to stop on the instructions of Mr. Rumsfeld’s legal counsel, Mr. Haynes.

The report indicates that Mr. Haynes was an early proponent of the idea of using the agency that trains soldiers to withstand torture to devise plans for the interrogation of prisoners held by the American military. These trainers — who are not interrogators but experts only on how physical and mental pain is inflicted and may be endured — were sent to work with interrogators in Afghanistan, in Guantánamo and in Iraq.

On Dec. 2, 2002, Mr. Rumsfeld authorized the interrogators at Guantánamo to use a range of abusive techniques that were already widespread in Afghanistan, enshrining them as official policy. Instead of a painstaking legal review, Mr. Rumsfeld based that authorization on a one-page memo from Mr. Haynes. The Senate panel noted that senior military lawyers considered the memo “ ‘legally insufficient’ and ‘woefully inadequate.’ ”

Mr. Rumsfeld rescinded his order a month later, and narrowed the number of “aggressive techniques” that could be used at Guantánamo. But he did so only after the Navy’s chief lawyer threatened to formally protest the illegal treatment of prisoners. By then, at least one prisoner, Mohammed al-Qahtani, had been threatened with military dogs, deprived of sleep for weeks, stripped naked and made to wear a leash and perform dog tricks. This year, a military tribunal at Guantánamo dismissed the charges against Mr. Qahtani.

The abuse and torture of prisoners continued at prisons run by the C.I.A. and specialists from the torture-resistance program remained involved in the military detention system until 2004. Some of the practices Mr. Rumsfeld left in place seem illegal, like prolonged sleep deprivation.



These policies have deeply harmed America’s image as a nation of laws and may make it impossible to bring dangerous men to real justice. The report said the interrogation techniques were ineffective, despite the administration’s repeated claims to the contrary.

Alberto Mora, the former Navy general counsel who protested the abuses, told the Senate committee that “there are serving U.S. flag-rank officers who maintain that the first and second identifiable causes of U.S. combat deaths in Iraq — as judged by their effectiveness in recruiting insurgent fighters into combat — are, respectively, the symbols of Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo.”

We can understand that Americans may be eager to put these dark chapters behind them, but it would be irresponsible for the nation and a new administration to ignore what has happened — and may still be happening in secret C.I.A. prisons that are not covered by the military’s current ban on activities like waterboarding.

A prosecutor should be appointed to consider criminal charges against top officials at the Pentagon and others involved in planning the abuse.



Given his other problems — and how far he has moved from the powerful stands he took on these issues early in the campaign — we do not hold out real hope that Barack Obama, as president, will take such a politically fraught step.

At the least, Mr. Obama should, as the organization Human Rights First suggested, order his attorney general to review more than two dozen prisoner-abuse cases that reportedly were referred to the Justice Department by the Pentagon and the C.I.A. — and declined by Mr. Bush’s lawyers.

Mr. Obama should consider proposals from groups like Human Rights Watch and the Brennan Center for Justice to appoint an independent panel to look into these and other egregious violations of the law. Like the 9/11 commission, it would examine in depth the decisions on prisoner treatment, as well as warrantless wiretapping, that eroded the rule of law and violated Americans’ most basic rights. Unless the nation and its leaders know precisely what went wrong in the last seven years, it will be impossible to fix it and make sure those terrible mistakes are not repeated.

We expect Mr. Obama to keep the promise he made over and over in the campaign — to cheering crowds at campaign rallies and in other places, including our office in New York. He said one of his first acts as president would be to order a review of all of Mr. Bush’s executive orders and reverse those that eroded civil liberties and the rule of law.

That job will fall to Eric Holder, a veteran prosecutor who has been chosen as attorney general, and Gregory Craig, a lawyer with extensive national security experience who has been selected as Mr. Obama’s White House counsel.

A good place for them to start would be to reverse Mr. Bush’s disastrous order of Feb. 7, 2002, declaring that the United States was no longer legally committed to comply with the Geneva Conventions.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/18/opinion/18thu1.html?pagewanted=2&hp

104
Football / Most Underrated Players in European football?
« on: December 15, 2008, 10:01:37 PM »
I'll start with my list of underrated EPL players:

Tom Huddlestone
Ji-Sung Park
Craig Bellamy
Stephen Ireland
Gaby Agbonlahor


You can either post your list separately... or copy and paste and keep one list going.


Men who follow La Liga and Serie A more closely could feel free to post their lists as well.

105
General Discussion / Local Based... serious question
« on: December 09, 2008, 05:35:16 PM »
People in Trinidad does suffer from lactose intolerance?

Allergies?

106
European Soccer Challenges Free Market


November 27, 2008

By ROB HUGHES

LONDON — Michel Platini is about as close as anyone can get to bridging the divide between those who play sports and those who govern them. His vision on the soccer field lighted up France in the 1980s. Now, at 53, he is the president of UEFA, which represents Europe’s national soccer associations.

Platini has become a player in the political arena, too. This week, he is central to an attempt to bypass European Union law so that his organization can gain regulatory power to stop clubs from spending whatever they want on the players they want.

Platini is addressing Europe’s sports ministers in Biarritz, France, on Thursday. He believes that the free market has allowed wealthy clubs — particularly in England — to grow too mighty.

The arrival of foreign investors has injected so much capital into England’s Premier League that Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City can vacuum up many of the best players in the world and thus, some fear, stay beyond competitive reach.

The presence of three English teams in the final four of last season’s Champions League — the European tournament run by UEFA — seems to bolster this view.

European laws forbid the type of restrictions on labor mobility being championed by Platini. No country in the bloc of 27 inside the European Union can bar the free movement of workers from member states.

Platini has the support of Joseph S. Blatter, the president of FIFA, the world governing body. He and Blatter argue that soccer is a special case. Their word is “specificity,” and their view is that soccer should step outside European labor laws.

Blatter’s notion, more or less supported by Platini, has a nationalistic core. It would require that a minimum of 6 players in the starting lineup of 11 be born or raised in the country where the club is based.

Because players are now scouted from almost kindergarten age, the sports ministers are also being urged to endorse Platini’s plan to stop the recruitment of foreign players younger than 18.

Some newspapers have criticized Platini, claiming that he is trying to protect French clubs that are no match for the English.

But Platini will counter by having Karl-Heinz Rummenigge on his side in Biarritz. As a player, with Germany and Bayern Munich, Rummenigge was Platini’s contemporary and sometimes his adversary. He is now the chairman of Bayern’s executive board.

Rummenigge also heads the European Club Association, which last year replaced the G-14 as the organization that represents the interests of European clubs. He may not use the term “youth trafficking,” which has become common parlance in UEFA circles, but he does know a young player who is coveted by clubs wealthier than Bayern.

“We at Bayern Munich had the best player at the 2007 FIFA world under-17 championship,” he said. “He is Toni Kroos, and there were 20-odd scouts from England sitting there. Something must be done.”

Kroos was the star of that tournament, held in South Korea. He was the winner of the Golden Ball, given to the best player. Still, it is more likely that the English scouts had their eyes on the even younger Ghanaians, who, unless they receive big bids from English clubs, will end up being groomed by teams in France or Belgium.

There are markets within markets, and big fish swallowing the smaller everywhere.

Bayern Munich’s coaches, for example, did not develop Kroos. He came to them from Hansa Rostock, the eastern German club that had taken him from his hometown team, Greifswalder.

Greifswalder had Kroos under its wing from 1997, when he was 7 years old.

Why has Kroos moved to Bayern Munich? Because it is the richest and best-known club in Germany, one that not long ago invited a 14-year-old Peruvian to train at its youth center.

Nobody is breaking laws, just bending them to get the best players at the youngest age before even bigger clubs add them to their crowded rosters.

Soccer dominance by clubs from one country is not new. Before England, Italy had the soccer barons and attracted foreign icons like Platini to Juventus, the Fiat-owned team in Turin. And in the 1950s, Real Madrid’s president, Santiago Bernabéu, recruited Alfredo di Stefano, an Argentine, and Ferenc Puskas, a Hungarian, to star on his team.

Now it is England’s turn to be wealthy. Still, it is easy to see why in some quarters the Biarritz meeting is being presented as another France-versus-England contretemps.

France created FIFA. France envisioned the World Cup. In 1984, with Platini, it was the Eurpean champion. In 1998, with Zinédine Zidane, it won the World Cup.

Bernard Laporte, the former rugby coach who is now France’s sports minister, is busy trying to convince his European Union counterparts to support Platini’s vision. Pierre Mairesse, the European Commission’s director for youth, sport and citizenship, is chairman of the Biarritz summit.

And Frédéric Thiriez, president of the Ligue de Football Professional in France, has joined the debate, calling England’s Premier League a threat to sporting justice.

“To counter financial doping, we propose financial fair play,” he said, referring to the debts taken on by English clubs. “If we continue with soccer at two speeds, which sees three English clubs in the semifinals each season, the competition will lose interest.”

Whatever the sports ministers support, they will still have to sell it to the full Europe Union, which, with its predecessor, has spent decades building open borders to professional workers. Soccer may ultimately find that it simply is not important enough to jeopardize the Union.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/27/sports/soccer/27soccer.html?ref=sports

107
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYi458oI0-8

Willard Wigan is the creator of the world's smallest sculptures, often taking months to complete one, working between heartbeats to avoid hand tremors [2] "You have to control the whole nervous system, you have to work between the heartbeat - the pulse of your finger can destroy the work." Wigan uses a tiny surgical blade to carve microscopic figures out of gold, and fragments of grains of sand which are then mounted on pinheads. To paint his creations, he uses a hair plucked from a dead fly (the fly has to have died from natural causes, as he refuses to kill them for the sake of his art). His sculptures have included a Santa Claus and a copy of the FIFA World Cup trophy, both about 0.005mm (0.0002in) tall, and a boxing ring with Muhammad Ali figure which fits onto the head of a match.

The 1993 British film An Eye on X follows Wigan's quest in carving two statues of American black activist Malcolm X, one life size and the other on the head of a toothpick. Additional footage in the production archive includes Willard flying aircraft made out of thin balsa wood, carving on the head of a toothpick and talking about his early life. Wigan was inspired to do his work beginning at the age of 5. He is learning disabled, and doesn't know how to read or write. He said that his childhood teachers "made [him] feel small, made [him] feel like nothing."[3] He decided to prove that "less is more," and that "nothing could be everything."

In May 2007, Wigan's 70-piece collection was purchased by tennis player and businessman David Lloyd, who has insured the collection for a total value of £11.2 million[4].

Wigan has said this of his work:

Though my sculptures are quite small, it's important for people to realize that I am life-size. Of course, at times, when I'm working on a piece, I might come to believe that I myself am microscopic. That's how involved in my work I become. My tiny world becomes everything to me.

A necessarily small touring exhibition of his work visited several cities in the UK in 2007 and 2008. The display included a piece especially made for Liverpool's year as Capital of Culture.[5]

(Taken from Wikipedia)

108
General Discussion / What happened to TI?
« on: November 20, 2008, 11:53:55 AM »
What's the story with TriniInfinite... anybody know?  Last I heard of him was when his grandmother died, now his account has apparently been deleted.

Anybody know the story?

109
General Discussion / Myron Rolle
« on: November 20, 2008, 05:23:31 AM »
Technically you could say it belongs in the "Other Sports" forum... but I think it has a high 'human interest' factor as well so I'm posting it here.


For Star Player and Scholar, This Game Day Is Different



November 20, 2008

By PETE THAMEL

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — By 5 p.m. on Saturday, Florida State safety Myron Rolle will find out if he is among the 32 winners of a Rhodes Scholarship, perhaps the world’s most prestigious postgraduate academic award.

At 7:45, Rolle’s Seminoles teammates will play at Maryland in a pivotal Atlantic Coast Conference matchup. Because Rolle’s final interview is in Birmingham, Ala., a private plane and about 700 miles will play an integral part in one of the most compelling story lines in college football this weekend.

Rolle’s decision to risk missing all or part of the game in order to be interviewed for the Rhodes Scholarship, and find out if he joins elite student-athletes like Bill Bradley in winning the Rhodes, has resonated deeply at Florida State. The university is in the final stages of dealing with an academic scandal in the athletic department that affected the eligibility of 60 athletes and resulted in three firings and self-imposed probation.

“He’s almost carrying a university and a football team right now, from a public relations standpoint, on his back,” the Florida State president, T. K. Wetherell, said Monday. “That’s a pretty heavy burden to lay on somebody.”

Considering all that Rolle has achieved in his three years at Florida State, his dealing with the frenzy of Saturday is just another accomplishment in an academic and athletic career filled with them.

A native of Galloway, N.J., Rolle arrived at Florida State from the Hun School in Princeton as the country’s No. 1 football recruit. He has had an all-American-caliber junior season, but Rolle’s list of off-field accomplishments is as lengthy as it is daunting.

He graduated from Florida State in two and a half years with a degree in pre-med and a grade point average of 3.75. He is so studious that the Seminoles’ defensive coordinator, Mickey Andrews, publicly criticized him for studying too much last year, saying it affected Rolle’s preparation for football. Rolle said the criticism was a “little unfair.”

“I gave him the benefit of the doubt,” Rolle said of Andrews. “I don’t think he’s ever sat through an organic chemistry lecture and seen just how difficult it is. He’s been through a couple ballgames, but that’s a different arena right there.”

Outside of class, Rolle was awarded a $4,000 grant for cancer research over the summer, and also started a program to help educate Seminole Indian children in Okeechobee, Fla., about the importance of health and physical fitness. He belongs to a fraternity, helps tutor his teammates, has studied in London and has written for The New York Times.

As he has been deluged by interview requests this week — including three reporters traveling with him on the plane to College Park — Rolle said he welcomed carrying the brand of the university.

“I have no problem holding the weight of that on my shoulders,” he said. “I think it’s more of a privilege and an honor than a burden.”

Those around Rolle say that he always has a plan. When Rolle arrived at the Hun School for his junior season of high school, he told the athletic director Bill Quirk his plan. He wanted to play big-time college football, graduate in three years, become a high N.F.L. draft pick, become a doctor and open a clinic to help needy people in the Bahamas, where he has family roots.

Quirk has marveled at how Rolle has stuck to that plan, and considers Rolle a “once in a lifetime” student-athlete whose legacy resonates off the field as much as on it. He calls Rolle a role model for time management and remembers his spending hours tutoring his teammates.

“He had this endless clock where he never seemed to run out of time for helping people out,” Quirk said.

Tim Logan, a professor and chemistry and biochemistry at Florida State, said he recalled having two football players in class in 14 years there.

“The other one was a walk-on,” he said.

Logan said he did not know Rolle was in his class until Rolle approached him after class to see if a television station could tape one of his lectures for a segment it was doing on Rolle.

Logan then winced, because he is a football fan and had made a few disparaging remarks about the team’s performance. He apologized, and Rolle politely said that the comments had been “killing me.”

Despite the digs, Rolle enjoyed Logan’s biochemistry class so much that he applied and was awarded a research grant to work with Logan over the summer. He spent three hours every morning studying the growth of proteins in different kinds of cancer. Rolle found himself so intrigued with the research that he occasionally went back at night, by himself, to do extra work.

“Myron has such a tremendous mind and intellect that it’s exciting to think about what he could do if he didn’t have all the distractions of football,” Logan said.

Along with extra research, Rolle is particularly proud of the project called Our Way to Health that he created to educate fifth-grade students at Pemayetv Emahakv Charter School, for Seminole Indians in Okeechobee.

The project was hatched when a group of Seminole students visited Florida State on a field trip to the state capitol in Tallahassee. Rolle spoke to them and was touched by the demeanor of the children. He approached a professor, Sally Karioth, about the project and started it with funding from Florida State.

Rolle’s program has been instituted in fifth-grade classes, which compete in teams in everything from physical fitness to “Jeopardy”-style questions about diabetes and heart disease. The winning team was introduced on the field between quarters at Florida State’s game against Virginia Tech this year.

Rolle spent a week in Orlando last summer with tribe leaders, and he has twice taken the six-hour drive to Okeechobee to monitor the program’s progress. Karioth has a pile of thank-you letters written to her and Rolle from the students. They include everything from the confession of a converted Miami Hurricanes fan to the lyrics of an educational rap song a student wrote about the signs of a heart attack.

“That was the first time I got to feel I had changed the life of someone,” Rolle said.

On the field this year, Rolle’s play has improved to the point that Andrews said that Rolle was having as good a season as any safety who had played at the university. That is especially high praise considering Florida State’s history of success. Rolle has had the full support of the coaching staff to risk missing all or some of the game against Maryland on Saturday to be interviewed for the Rhodes Scholarship.

“In my 55 years coaching, I’ve never had one quite like him,” Coach Bobby Bowden said.

Rolle and all the Florida State administrators interviewed stressed that the competition for such an elite academic award was overwhelming. Of the 15 finalists in Birmingham on Saturday, only two will receive scholarships.

As the day unfolds, football fans will be watching to see if Rolle can help deliver huge victories for Florida State on and off the field.


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/20/sports/ncaafootball/20rolle.html?ref=sports

110
General Discussion / The Obama Administration
« on: November 18, 2008, 08:09:41 PM »
Picking up on E-man's suggestion... I figure we'll  move the post-Election discussions here.

We all know that Hillary is in the running for Secretary of State... pending a vetting of Bill's current business dealings.


Now word is out that Eric Holder is the leading candidate to be the next Attorney General... he'd be the first black man to hold that office, particularly nice since his folks are bajan.

I predict that the Senate confirmation will go smoothly, but there has been talk of some potential Republican opposition.  He failed to block Clinton's pardon of Mark Rich... which he couldn't have really blocked even if he tried.  The knock on him was that he didn't bring certain issues about Rich's past to Clinton's attention.

Other than that Holder is squeaky clean... former Justice Dep't prosecutor, Assoc. Judge for DC under Reagan, U.S. Attorney for DC under Clinton, Deputy AG, then Acting AG under Bush, Jr. (until Ashcroft's confirmation).  Since then he's been in private practice.

112
Football / The Football Museum- São Paulo
« on: October 08, 2008, 01:33:31 AM »
An Elite Pastime That Became a Passion of the Masses



By ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO

SÃO PAULO, Brazil — Walking into Brazil’s new soccer museum is like entering a hall filled with busts of Greek gods. Suspended on glass screens some eight feet tall in the darkened chamber are the outlines of a dozen or so of Brazil’s soccer legends in action.

Underneath, the players’ names are printed in capital letters. For most, one name is enough.

Ronaldo...Didi...Falcão...Tostão...Garrincha...and the most famous of all, Pelé.

On the museum’s opening day last week, many visitors simply looked up at the glass screens in respectful silence.

“This is a place for us to worship,” said Mario Vieira, a 53-year-old banker standing outside the museum, which is housed in the Pacaembu Stadium. “Brazilians have soccer in their blood.”

The new museum is Brazil’s first truly national soccer museum, a reminder in this soccer-mad nation of how Brazilians — winners of five World Cups — became the most successful footballers the world has known.

Yet the Football Museum, as it is simply called, is not content with just being a place for Brazilians to worship its stars and recall their glorious moments. It also seeks to explain how an obscure import from England, once practiced here only by the elite, became the obsession of the masses in this multifarious country of 195 million people.

The museum tells the story of both sport and country, where the national pastime has come to represent and inspire the multiracial, samba-loving soul of the people. In Brazil, stuffy European soccer was transformed into “the beautiful game” of magical passing and dribbling that has won the country world renown.

The museum was the brainchild of Jose Serra, São Paulo’s governor, who first dreamed up the idea five years ago while serving as mayor of the city. Despite the nation’s dedication to soccer worship, such a museum had never been built in Brazil. A small museum in Rio de Janeiro’s famous Maracanã stadium was closed recently from lack of use.

Mr. Serra was able to get nearly two acres and collect contributions from the city and corporate sponsors. An inauguration ceremony last week drew politicians, including Sergio Cabral, Rio’s governor, and Pelé himself.

“I imagined a museum fundamentally made up of ideas, memories, and not so much of relics,” Mr. Serra told them. “I thought of something that would express the memory of our soccer, the great performances as well as our sufferings.”

Mr. Serra defused the usual rivalry between São Paulo and Rio by graciously acknowledging the presence of Mr. Cabral. The Rio governor, in turn, said that Rio had “lost its opportunity” over many years to build a national museum and was not ashamed to “learn from São Paulo.”

In some ways Mr. Serra was bringing soccer home to its official birthplace in Brazil: São Paulo. Charles Miller, the son of a Scottish father and English-blooded mother, was born here and educated in England, only to return in 1894 with two soccer balls and a rule book. Determined to make the sport he fell in love with in Europe a success at home, he helped found the São Paulo Athletic Club, where he played until 1910. An exhibit in the museum also notes, however, that employees of British companies were known to have played soccer on Paysandu Street in Rio as early as 1875.

On the museum’s opening day, hundreds of visitors absorbed the mix of history and fun. Pelé, in a suit, greeted entering visitors on a larger-than-life monitor. “Welcome to the Football Museum,” he said in a recording.

The museum features some 1,500 photos, including one of Leonidas da Silva, the top scorer of the 1938 World Cup, kissing the hand of Mother Teresa. There are six hours of movies, mostly showing clips of famous goals. In a glass case of the World Cup Room hangs the yellow jersey that Pelé wore when he scored the first goal in the final of the 1970 World Cup in Mexico City.

There are testimonials from journalists and the calls of famous radio announcers. As a placard explains, it was the era of radio in the 1930s and 1940s that helped increase interest in the sport and in popular music, “creating, in our minds, the idols that represented the nation.”

Famous writers, sociologists and musicians are celebrated throughout the museum. Images of Brazil’s five World Cups are blended with memories of world events and popular figures of those eras — the wars, the moon landings, the hippies, the samba dancers, the Beatles, Nelson Mandela.

Another room pays homage to Brazil’s fans. They dance shirtless, beating drums to samba rhythms on huge video screens, with cacophonous surround sound that makes you feel as if you are among the crowd.

A sport for the masses is a theme throughout. In one room, a short movie recounts how soccer in Brazil morphed from a country club sport that was socially segregated during Mr. Miller’s time, into one that took on the evolving character of the racially mixed working class that was propelling Brazil’s industrialization.

History aside, the museum offers a bit of fun as well. Visitors can kick a soccer ball while a radar gun measures its speed, and later retrieve a photo capturing the moment from the museum’s Web site. And they can don 3-D glasses to watch the star player Ronaldinho dribble a ball all over his body to a thumping rock soundtrack.

“Shooting a goal was my favorite part!” said Luiz Carlos dos Santos, 48, who visited the museum with his son Andrey, 15.

Another room, labeled Numbers and Curiosities, describes soccer strategies and the origin of the “bicycle kick.” It assaults visitors with eye-popping factoids, like the 1,282 goals Pelé scored in his 21-year career, and the 183,341 paid spectators who watched Brazil defeat Paraguay in 1969 at Maracanã.

But Brazil’s most painful soccer disappointment, its 2-1 loss to Uruguay in the 1950 World Cup final, is also on display. In a long, darkened room, a clip of the match runs with a soundtrack of a dying heartbeat. In a photo in the World Cup room, the Uruguayan goalie Roque Máspoli consoles a despondent Augusto da Costa, Brazil’s captain.

The defeat was devastating. The Maracanã stadium had been built with the certainty of a World Cup victory. “But from that moment on, Brazilian football would experience its greatest triumphs,” the museum proclaims.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/08/world/americas/08brazil.html?ref=sports

113
General Discussion / BMW Lovers
« on: October 05, 2008, 10:52:48 PM »
Here's a chance to test drive a Bimmer for free. 


Join the Ultimate Drive

Basically you sign up at a pre-determined time and go on a ten-mile test drive and for every mile test-driven BMW donates a dollar to the Susan G. Komen foundation for Breast Cancer research.

Typically there are only a handful of cars that you get to drive, not because they limit what you drive...all the mainstream models are available, but because they try to make as many cars available to as many folks as possible...so after two drives they might have you wait until something becomes available and no one else wants to drive that particular car. The first time I did it back in '98 I drove the Z-3, M-Coupe, 3-Series Convertible and the 7-Series.

Another component I did that day is the Autocross....teams of people competing to see who can make it around a course lined with cones the fastest w/o knocking down cones (2 or 10 second penalties). Lotta fun for a good cause...as a brilliant marketing campaign for BMW...once you get behind the wheel of one you....are....hooked.  Doesn't look as though they'll be having the Autocross this year again though.

114
2nd Victim of Taser Fire: Officer Who Gave Order

October 3, 2008

By ROBERT D. MCFADDEN and CHRISTINE HAUSER

He wanted to be an Air Force fighter pilot, but a hearing problem ended that dream. Devastated, he clammed for a while on Long Island, where he had grown up, then joined the New York Police Department.

He was levelheaded, calm, mild mannered, an ideal cop in many ways. In 21 years on the force, Michael W. Pigott made scores of arrests working in some of the city’s toughest precincts, won 20 medals for bravery and meritorious duty, and became a lieutenant in the elite Emergency Services Unit.

“Not your typical police officer,” said Jon O’Shaughnessy, a New York City fire marshal and an old friend. “That’s why he was a lieutenant. He was a very positive, upbeat guy. He could have retired last year.” The friend could say no more: His voice broke, and he began to cry.

Lieutenant Pigott, apparently distraught because he had authorized the Taser shooting last week of an emotionally disturbed man who pitched headlong to his death from a second-story building ledge, fatally shot himself on Thursday at the headquarters of the Emergency Services Unit in Brooklyn, the police said.

The lieutenant, who had been stripped of his gun and badge and placed on desk duty in another unit after the Taser incident, killed himself with a single shot to the head from a 9-millimeter Glock handgun taken from another officer’s locker at Floyd Bennett Field, a former airfield in Brooklyn where several police divisions are located, officials said.

The lieutenant’s body and a suicide note, alongside pictures of his children, were found about 6 a.m. The text of the note was not disclosed, but a law enforcement official said the lieutenant may have believed that he might face charges in an inquiry and did not want to bring disgrace upon his family.

Lieutenant Pigott’s death came on his 46th birthday and only hours before the funeral of Iman Morales, 35, who died in the confrontation with officers in Brooklyn. It also came days after the lieutenant had publicly apologized and received departmental counseling for his own emotional distress over ordering the use of the Taser in what police officials called a violation of department guidelines. The case is being investigated by the police and the Brooklyn district attorney’s office.

On the afternoon of Sept. 24, Mr. Morales, naked, ranting and swinging an eight-foot-long fluorescent light bulb at officers, tumbled to his death from a ledge atop a storefront security gate outside his building at 489 Tompkins Avenue, in Bedford-Stuyvesant, after Officer Nicholas Marchesona, on orders from Lieutenant Pigott, fired a Taser that immobilized him. He hit the pavement and suffered a fatal head injury. Officers had called for an inflatable cushion, but it did not arrive in time.

A day later, the police said Lieutenant Pigott’s order to use the Taser, which fires barbs that deliver a 5,000-volt shock, had violated department guidelines prohibiting its use in situations in which a person might fall from an elevated surface. The department also assigned a new commander to the Emergency Services Unit and ordered its 400 officers to take a refresher course on coping with mentally ill people.

The lieutenant’s suicide — one of about a half-dozen a year in the Police Department — underscored the intense pressures on New York’s emergency services officers, who confront as many as 80,000 emotionally disturbed people every year and often must make critical decisions in potentially deadly face-offs.

“It is worth remembering that our police officers are not supermen, but rather flesh and blood human beings who deal with life and death situations that most of us cannot even imagine on a daily basis,” said Thomas R. Sullivan, president of the Lieutenants Benevolent Association, who called Lieutenant Pigott an outstanding officer who had been a member of the Emergency Services Unit for six years.

The deaths of Lieutenant Pigott and Mr. Morales were reflected in expressions of sorrow on Thursday — in statements by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly and among officers on the beat, in sobs at the funeral and burial of Mr. Morales and in the voices of mourning families and friends of the victims.

“The lieutenant was deeply distraught and extremely remorseful over the death of Iman Morales in Brooklyn last week,” the mayor said at a City Hall news conference. “Sadly, his death just compounds the tragedy of the loss of Mr. Morales.”

At Our Lady of Pompeii Church, at Bleecker and Carmine Streets in Greenwich Village, about 40 people attended the funeral for Mr. Morales. His mother, Olga Negron, held a wooden crucifix as pallbearers carried the coffin out.

On the sidewalk, Ann DeJesus Negron, Mr. Morales’s aunt, spoke briefly about Lieutenant Pigott’s death. “I’m sure he was asking for forgiveness,” she said. “And I’m sure that Iman would want us to forgive.” And, referring to the lieutenant’s family, she added, “I just wish that they find peace and healing and trust in life again.” At Rosedale and Rosehill Cemetery in Linden, N.J., 25 people attended Mr. Morales’s burial. His mother wailed and had to be held up as the coffin went into the ground.

On a quiet street in Sayville, N.Y., where Lieutenant Pigott lived with his wife, Susan, two sons and a daughter in a one-story house with brown siding, neighbors spoke of the lieutenant with affection as a personable, friendly man who tended his garden and lawns, walked a golden retriever and often stopped to pass the time of day.

The lieutenant, who earned a bachelor’s degree in aeronautics from Dowling College, joined the Police Department in 1987 after failing, because of a hearing problem, to become an Air Force pilot. He did become a licensed civilian pilot, however, as well as a motor boat operator. His police work included many years as an officer and a sergeant working in Jamaica, Queens Village, Brownsville and elsewhere.

Six years ago, he joined the Emergency Services Unit, whose officers face a wide range of challenges, including rescuing window-washers dangling outside towers and trying to talk people out of killing themselves. The confrontation involving Mr. Morales, like his other assignments, was not routine.

Mr. Morales was described by neighbors as a quiet, polite tenant who formerly worked for a financial company, but in recent years had received public assistance and taken medication for a mental illness. They said he paid his rent on time, kept his one-bedroom apartment clean and never caused trouble.

In the days before his death, however, neighbors said Mr. Morales became increasingly distraught. He was heard shouting and agitated, having stopped taking his medication. His mother called the police, and emergency services was summoned. He climbed out his third-floor apartment window when officers went to his door, and, failing to get into a window on the fourth floor, climbed onto the storefront ledge.

The standoff lasted 22 minutes, the police said, and ended in Mr. Morales’s fatal fall when Lieutenant Pigott ordered him shot with the Taser. He was pronounced dead at Kings County Hospital Center. An amateur video of the incident was posted on Web sites and replayed on television news programs.

In the aftermath, Lieutenant Pigott was deeply affected by the death, by the announcement that he was apparently at fault and by decisions to strip him of his gun and badge and assign him to the fleet services division in Queens, in charge of vehicles. He was to answer phones, but worked at it for only one day. Both Lieutenant Pigott and Officer Marchesona had received counseling, officials said, but it did not seem to help the lieutenant.

On Tuesday, the day of a wake for Mr. Morales, Lieutenant Pigott spoke to a Newsday reporter outside his home, expressing regrets and apologies to Mr. Morales’s family and friends. “I am truly sorry for what happened to Mr. Morales,” he said.

On Thursday, a law enforcement official said, Lieutenant Pigott went to the headquarters of the Emergency Services Unit at Floyd Bennett Field. He apparently broke into the locker of another officer and took his handgun. The official said he set out his note, and pictures of his children, and shot himself.

Reporting was contributed by Cara Buckley, Daryl Khan, Colin Moynihan, Andy Newman, Nate Schweber and Karen Zraick.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/03/nyregion/03taser.html?hp

115
Football / Champions League- Liverpool v. PSV Eindhoven
« on: October 01, 2008, 12:44:40 PM »
Let the games begin...

Atletico put down ah cutass on PSV... time fuh dem tuh taste ah Anfield beatdown too.

116
General Discussion / From my blog...
« on: September 19, 2008, 01:06:57 AM »
You just can't make this stuff up...

 
"The work was being performed in a room eight by ten feet in area, in which there was a gas heater then lighted with an open flame. The cleaning was being done with gasolene. The testimony yields the unique circumstance that the immediate activating cause of a resultant explosion was the escape of a rat from the machine, and its disappointing attempt to seek sanctuary beneath the heater whereat it overexposed itself and its impregnated coat, and returned in haste and flames to its original hideout. Even though such be a fact, it is not a controlling fact, and serves chiefly to ratify the conclusion that the room was permeated with gasolene vapors. Negligence would be predicated of the juxtaposition of the gasolene and the open flame" 
        - United Novelty Co. v. Daniels, 42 So.2d 395 (Miss. 1949)


So the story goes that this fella was cleaning coin operated machines in a small (8x10) room in which there was an open flame, used ostensibly for heating...so far so good.  This genius however, was using gasoline as a cleaning solution.  Gas...open flame... shouldn't be too hard to see where this is going. 

Well, it turns out that a rat made his home under one of these machines... and the room being so small, the fumes from the gasoline soon permeated the air.  Overcome by the fumes, the rat bolted from it's hideout... and as the Mississippi Supreme Court justice so adroitly put it...made "it's disappointing attempt to seek sanctuary beneath the heater".  Apparently the rat's fur was saturated with gasoline fumes, and quickly burst into flames when it got close to the heater.  Panicked, our poor rodent friend thusly returned to the only safe haven it knew... the same coin-operated machine where our genius friend was hard at work with the gasoline.  And thus commenced the inferno and subsequent explosion which ultimately cost both our protagonists their lives.

The kid was relatively young, so I suppose I shouldn't be too harsh, but c'mon.  At any rate his employer was found liable (despite their claim that the deceased was warned against using gasoline as a cleaner), not for NOT having safety measures in place... but for not enforcing the same.

Gotta love it... these are the people who keep us employed.

117
Entertainment & Culture Discussion / How can you SLAP???
« on: September 09, 2008, 08:21:14 AM »
I musse watch dis thing about ah hundred times... and dead each time.  the sounds coming across de mic... and de accents  :rotfl: :rotfl:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFdkzdNqU-w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awOsooQNkl8


... all the action is really in the second clip, but the first one sets it up  ;D


119
In a joint statement issued by the presidents of the World Anti-Doping Agency, International Olympic Committee (IOC), and the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), the following foods have been placed on the list of banned substances issued by WADA:

Yam, green bananas, cocoa, dasheen, breadfruit, ackee and saltfish, mackeral run down, turned cornmeal, Jerked pork and chicken, escovietched fish Malta, Supligen, Milo (said to be the food drink of Champions), Horlicks and coconut oil. Jamaicans seem to become extremely athletic on diets with these foods. Coming out of WADA labs, one of the major banned substances from Jamaica is the Cassava root, a high fibre, high starch tuber root eaten in Jamaica. It has properties which are said to enhance endurance and cause muscle fibres to twitch faster.

This comes after extensive study of the diets of the Jamaican athletes which took part in the Beijing 2008 Olympic games. Though natural foods it is felt by WADA that these foods because of their unique properties give Jamaican athletes an unfair advantage. High concentrations of carbohydrates and other naturally occurring substances are said to be mimicking the effects of Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs). Some foods have been noted to in particular cause an unusual increase in the male hormone testosterone. As such WADA has seen it fit to add these foods to the list of banned substances.

Given the sensitivity of this issue, Jamaican athletes participating in the current Olympic games underway in Beijing have not been banned but must submit to these new restrictions within the next two years. Two substances which have been discovered in testing of the Jamaican foods are “yamstenine”, a yam derivative and “cocosterone”, a derivative of the coco plant. These substances have been found to mimic nandrolone and the blood booster EPO, hence the preliminary banning of the substances themselves and the banning of the foods they derive from.

This ruling will also affect other Caribbean and some African countries which share similar diets as Jamaicans.





this is just for kicks people...

120
What about Track & Field / Issa Connell
« on: August 17, 2008, 01:53:54 PM »
Anybody have any info on this athlete?  Somebody just was just asking mih on another board but ah have no info for them.


thanks..

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