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1
Other Sports / Ex-boxing champ Morrison dies at 44
« on: September 02, 2013, 09:59:35 PM »
OMAHA, NEB. (AP)
Tommy Morrison's career reached its pinnacle on a hot June night in Las Vegas, when he stepped into the ring and beat George Foreman to become heavyweight champion.

It reached its nadir when he tested positive for HIV three years later.

The last 20 years of the brash boxer's life would be defined by extensive legal troubles, erratic behavior and mounting health problems. Morrison would later claim that he never tested positive for the virus that causes AIDs, even as he was hospitalized during the last days of his life.

Morrison died Sunday night at a Nebraska hospital. He was 44.

His longtime promoter and close friend, Tony Holden, confirmed that "the Duke" had died, but his family would not disclose the cause of death. Morrison and his wife, Trisha, continued to deny that the former champion ever had HIV during the final years of his life.

"Tommy's a very stubborn person and he views things the way he wants to view things. That's his right and privilege," Holden said. "All through his career, him and I would come not to physical blows but disagreements on certain things. We always ended up friends. That was Tommy.

"That's the way Tommy took off after he was told he was HIV-positive," Holden added. "When he first was told, I was taking him to seek treatment and to different doctors around the country. And then he started research on the Internet and started saying it was a conspiracy. He went in that direction and never looked back."

The controversy, along with Morrison's rapid decline, overshadowed a stellar career.

Morrison was a prodigious puncher whose bid to fight in the 1988 Seoul Olympics ended at the hands of Ray Mercer, who later dealt him his first professional loss. Along the way, Morrison became such a recognizable face that he was cast in "Rocky V" alongside Sylvester Stallone.

Morrison won his first 28 professional fights, beating faded champions such as Pinklon Thomas along the way. He hit it big at the Thomas & Mack Center in the summer of 1993 -- a unanimous decision over Foreman, then in the midst of his comeback -- to claim a vacant world title.

As with so many things in Morrison's life, the good was quickly followed by the bad.

Morrison was in line for a high-profile bout with Lennox Lewis when he was upset by unheralded fighter Michael Bentt in Tulsa, Okla., not far from where Morrison was raised. He was knocked down three times and the fight was called before the first round ended.

The loss meant a potential $7.5 million payday for a title unification fight simply vanished.

"I zigged when I should have zagged," Morrison said afterward. "It's one of those situations you have to live with and learn from it. I'll be back."

Morrison indeed came back, but he was never the same feared fighter. He beat a bunch of long shots and faded stars over the next couple of years before getting knocked out by Lewis in the sixth round.

That fight happened in October 1995. By February, Morrison had tested positive for HIV.

He'd been preparing for another fight that winter when his blood test came back positive for the virus that causes AIDs. Morrison's license was quickly suspended by Nevada, and the ban was, in effect, upheld by every other sanctioning body. Morrison said at a news conference in 1996 that he'd never fight again, blaming his plight on a "permissive, fast and reckless lifestyle."

His lifestyle never changed, though, even when he stepped away from the ring.

He had already run afoul of the law in 1993, when he pleaded guilty to assaulting a college student. He also dealt with weapons charges and multiple DUI incidents over the years.

Morrison was finally sentenced to two years in prison in 2000, and another year was added to his sentence in 2002 for violating parole.

When he was released, Morrison said his HIV tests were in fact false positives, and he wanted to resume his career. He passed medical tests in Arizona -- even as Nevada stood by its decision to suspend his license -- and returned to the ring. Morrison fought twice more in his career, winning once in West Virginia and for the final time in Mexico. He finished with a record of 48-3-1 with 42 knockouts.

Morrison started to fade from the public eye in the final years of his life. He tried to stay connected to the sport by opening a gym in Wichita, Kan., but the enterprise was short-lived.

"If Tommy was fighting today, he no doubt would be a world champion," Holden said. "You have to look at who he was fighting in the `90s, the guys in that division were Tyson, Lennox Lewis, Riddick Bowe, Ray Mercer, George Foreman. There's no one with that talent today. Tommy would absolutely dominate if he were in his prime boxing today."

2
Jokes / blond buys new bmw
« on: April 23, 2012, 10:48:16 AM »

A rich blond buys the New Automatic BMW X6 Sport.

 She drives the car perfectly well during the day, But at night the car just won't move at all.

 She tries driving the car at night for a week but still no luck.

 She then furiously calls the BMW dealer and they send out a technician to her, the technician asks: Ma'am, are you sure you are using the right gears??

 Full of anger, the blond replies: You fool, idiot man, how could you could ask such a question, I'm not stupid!!

 I use D for the Day and N for the Night.

3
Other Sports / Super Bowl XLVI NY Giants V NE Patriots.
« on: January 25, 2012, 10:03:44 AM »
UPDATED JAN 24, 2012 11:25 AM ET     
 

New York Giants players were getting sick of media questions about the 2007 season weeks ago.

Too bad.

A torrent of nostalgia is about to gush forth with New York facing New England in Super Bowl XLVI There will be incessant comparisons between this Giants squad and the one from four years ago. That team also got hot in December and rode the momentum through a Super Bowl XLII upset of the previously unbeaten Patriots.

Both Giants squads needed overtime road victories in the NFC Championship Game to reach the Super Bowl. Both contests ended with game-winning field goals by Lawrence Tynes.

Coughlin was reminded of the eerie similarities by defensive end Osi Umenyiora after Sunday’s 20-17 win over San Francisco.

“Osi sat next to me and just looked at me with a smile on his face and said, ‘Have you thought about how this is coming down? Do you realize that this is scary because of the way it’s coming about?’” Coughlin said during his postgame news conference. “That’s a little deep for me, I guess.”




 
Coughlin, though, won’t let the Giants live in the past for long. While New York is once again a feel-good story, there is a new script that both the Giants and Patriots have followed to reach Indianapolis. There are at least nine major differences from the last time both franchises played for the Lombardi Trophy.

1. Different faces: While icons like Tom Brady and Eli Manning remain, a majority of Patriots and Giants players weren’t with those teams during the 2007 campaign. There are just seven returning Patriots, with defensive lineman Vince Wilfork the lone remaining defensive starter. The Giants have 12 of 53 players making a second trip, but many of the Super Bowl XLII heroes like Plaxico Burress, David Tyree and current FOX NFL Sunday analyst Michael Strahan are long gone.

2. Eli Manning wasn’t elite: Before stepping out of his older brother Peyton’s shadow with his own Super Bowl victory, Eli was being engulfed by it. Manning had three of four interceptions returned for touchdowns in a late November 2007 loss at Minnesota that dropped New York to 7-4. Following a home defeat against Dallas earlier that month when he was outplayed by Tony Romo, the New York Daily News surveyed four NFL personnel executives asking for their Top 10 ranking of current quarterbacks. Manning made only one list — and that was at No. 10.

If the same polling were done today, Manning’s inclusion would be a no-brainer. He carried New York’s offense during the regular season with a 4,933-yard, 29-touchdown campaign. Manning has continued to shine in the playoffs with eight touchdowns, one interception and a 103.1 quarterback rating that is just a shade below that of Brady’s (105.8).


GIANT GAME
Look back at how the New York Giants made it to the Super Bowl.
3. The Giants are no longer a run-first team: In 2007, the Giants passed on 53.7 percent of their offensive snaps. That number rose to 58.9 percent in 2011. Manning’s career-high 589 attempts represent 60 more than he threw four seasons ago. Some of the shift stems from Manning’s blossoming but the Giants also have slumped in overall rushing yards (2,148 to 1,427) and per-carry average (4.6 to 3.5). While the ground game did improve in December, Ahmad Bradshaw and Brandon Jacobs are more complementary players rather than the main part of the offensive focus like in Super Bowl XLII.

4. The heat is off the Patriots: Although crowned an early 3.5-point favorite by oddsmakers, the Patriots won’t be facing anything close to the scrutiny like when they were on the cusp of the first 19-0 season in NFL history. New England will never be footloose and fancy-free under taskmaster Bill Belichick, but this should be a less pressure-packed Super Bowl trip with the Patriots able to avoid the kind of major media distraction that their head coach abhors.

5. Spygate is dead and buried: Speaking of distractions, the Patriots had to deal with a major one on the eve of Super Bowl XLII. Quoting an anonymous source, the Boston Herald claimed that New England illegally videotaped a St. Louis Rams practice before their Super Bowl XXXVI matchup. While the newspaper later apologized for what was proven an erroneous report, the damage was done.

Patriots owner Robert Kraft — who had to deal with the fallout from one of the NFL’s biggest scandals — will be back in the spotlight for this Super Bowl but for a far different reason. The Patriots have dedicated this season to Kraft’s late wife Myra, who died last summer from cancer-related complications. Kraft claimed that “forces at work beyond anything we can understand” helped push Baltimore kicker Billy Cundiff’s 32-yard field goal attempt wide left in the final moments of last Sunday’s 23-20 AFC Championship Game victory. Patriots players also believe something spiritual is afoot, which will provide further inspiration heading into this Super Bowl matchup.


FINAL DESTINATION
Look back at how the New England Patriots made it to the Super Bowl.
6. The Boston TE Party: When the Pats and Giants last played in Super Bowl XLII, Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez were college freshmen and New England was starting two tight ends (Kyle Brady and Ben Watson) used primarily as blockers or intermediate receiving targets. Brady was the only Patriots tight end with a reception — a measly three-yard catch at that — in that contest.

The position is now the focal point of New England’s passing offense with wide receiver Randy Moss having departed the club following a 2010 trade. The 2011 Patriots set a single-season record for tight end catches with Gronkowski and Hernandez combining for 169 grabs. Twelve of them that produced 136 yards and two touchdowns came in New England’s 20-16 loss to the Giants in Week 9.

7. A lack of Patriots defensive star power: The 2007 Patriots had three Pro Bowl selections and Hall of Fame-caliber veterans like Junior Seau and Rodney Harrison. The 2011 Patriots field one Pro Bowler in Wilfork (defensive end Andre Carter is on injured reserve). New England also is chock with more castoffs and young players than household names. But to its credit, the defense played well in New England’s postseason victories against Denver and Baltimore.

8. New England can now play the revenge card: The Patriots defeated New York in the 2007 regular season finale to complete a 16-0 season. This time, New England will be seeking to avenge a regular-season loss to the Giants.

 
THEY'RE THE BEST
Where does the first Giants-Pats Super Bowl matchup rank among the 10 best Super Bowl games?
9. Tom Brady is healthier: He’s not completely healthy, as Brady was forced to miss a day of practice last week because of an ongoing problem with his left (non-throwing) shoulder. Brady, though, will be entering this game in far better shape than when forced to wear a protective walking boot for his right ankle during the Super Bowl XLII bye week. Brady has never used that injury as an excuse but it did seem his mobility and overall play was slightly off with the Giants sacking him five times in a 29-of-48 passing performance.

That being said, there are some things that remain the same since Super Bowl XLII. New York’s fierce pass rush from its front four is one of them. So is Brady’s strong connection with wide receiver Wes Welker, who had nine catches for 136 yards in the October game against New York. Coughlin and Belichick also have proven their coaching acumen when winning NFL titles previously.

“I’m sure there’re going to be comparisons and that’s fine,” Manning said after Sunday night’s game. “But that doesn’t mean that’s going to make anything guaranteed.”

Especially the outcome.

4
Trinbago, NBA & World Basketball / NBA 2011-2012
« on: January 12, 2012, 08:46:54 AM »
early prediction......de final is chicago vs oklahoma.them 2 teams on fire and with the short season they eh runnin outta steam.

5
General Discussion / Cock kills man
« on: February 08, 2011, 07:16:28 AM »
DELANO, Calif. — A California man attending a cockfight has died after being stabbed in the leg by a bird that had a knife attached to its own limb.

The Kern County coroner says 35-year-old Jose Luis Ochoa was declared dead at a hospital about two hours after he suffered the injury in neighboring Tulare County on Jan. 30.

An autopsy concluded Ochoa died of an accidental "sharp force injury" to his right calf.

Sheriff's spokesman Ray Pruitt says it's unclear if a delay in seeking medical attention contributed to Ochoa's death. Tulare officials are investigating, and no arrests were made at the cockfight.

Cockfighting is a sport, illegal in the United States, in which specially bred roosters are put into a ring and encouraged to fight until one is incapacitated or killed.

"When deputies arrived, people started fleeing," Sgt. Martin King told kget.com in Bakersfield. "One of the roosters jumped at the decedent, inflicting some type of injury and causing his death."

Authorities told kget.com that this is the first time they have seen a human die as the result of a cockfight.

"Number one, the sport is illegal in the state of California," King told the website. "As far as the dangers, this was just an unfortunate freak accident. I really can't compare it to anything or say anything else because that's basically all that it is."


6
Other Sports / 2010 Australian Open
« on: January 27, 2010, 09:55:00 AM »
Federer, Serena survive scares; Venus, Djokovic ousted
 
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP)
Serena Williams saved some family pride Wednesday at the Australian Open.

After older sister Venus' loss to Li Na of China in the previous match on Rod Laver Arena, four-time champion Serena was down a set and 4-0 in the second before rebounding for a 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-2 win over Victoria Azarenka of Belarus.

Top-seeded Roger Federer overcame an awkward start to win 13 straight games and beat Nikolay Davydenko 2-6, 6-3, 6-0, 7-5 to reach the semifinals for a 23rd straight Grand Slam.

Novak Djokovic, who beat Federer in the semifinals here two years ago en route to the title, was beaten by the man he defeated that year, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France, in a later quarterfinal.
2010 Australian Open
 

Tsonga beat Djokovic 7-6 (8), 6-7 (5), 1-6, 6-3, 6-1 in a near four-hour match and will play Federer in a semifinal Friday. Djokovic appeared to be affected by breathing difficulties and stomach problems during part of the match and took a medical timeout trailing 2-0 in the fourth set.

Last year, Djokovic retired in the fourth set of his quarterfinal with Andy Roddick with a heat-related illness, but the weather conditions Wednesday night were cool and breezy.

``I think I was in good shape, maybe better than him,'' the 10th-seeded Tsonga said.

Andy Murray and Marin Cilic are already through to the semis and will play Thursday night.

Federer is impressed with his Grand Slam semifinal streak.

``It's incredible, looking back on how many years that is now, I'm able to deliver at Grand Slam play,'' Federer said. ``For some reason I was just a bit worried I was not going to make it this time in the semis.

``Now obviously that it's safe again and I've been able to add one. Definitely one of the most incredible things I have in my resume.''

Federer's victory snapped a 13-match Davydenko winning streak after the Russian won the season-ending ATP World Finals in November at London and his 20th career title in Doha earlier this month.

``I've played him many times before, and I know he goes through ... some rock-solid phases at times,'' Federer said. ``I just tried to stay positive.''

Venus Williams couldn't make it to an expected sister semifinal, losing in a mistake-filled match featuring in a combined 110 unforced errors against Li.

The result is that Serena will take on Li, who beat Venus 2-6, 7-6 (4), 7-5. Justine Henin, playing in her first Grand Slam tournament in two years after coming back from a two-year retirement, will play Zheng Jie in the other semifinal.

Serena Williams was far from confident after the first hour of the match, thinking of her sister's loss.

``It was obviously on my mind,'' Serena said of Venus' defeat. ``I saw maybe one or two points, maybe three. I don't want to watch too much, I get too nervous watching. Obviously I was incredibly disappointed.''

So she started off tentatively.

``I wasn't playing my best, especially in the first two sets,'' she said. ``I was down the whole match from the first point. I wasn't surprised but I was definitely shocked.''

Instead of wilting, she fought back from her big deficit in the second set with two service breaks of her own, easily won the tiebreaker and dominated the third.

Li and Zheng were the first Chinese pair to reach the quarterfinals at the same Grand Slam. Add semifinals now, and could the final be possible?

Serena Williams and Henin, with a combined 18 Grand Slam singles title between them (Serena 11, Henin 7) would seem to have the inside edge. But Li, who lost the first set and was twice down breaks in the second, says anything can happen.

``In China, we say if you have tough time and then you return back, maybe have good luck,'' Li said.

Venus Williams had more mistakes than luck against Li, who called the win the ``best day of my life'' and said she might celebrate with a beer Wednesday night.

``It's important to put the ball in the court,'' said Venus Williams, who served for the match in the second set. ``I felt like sometimes I made some errors.''

That was an understatement. The pair's unforced error count went over the 100 mark midway through the final set, which produced eight service breaks in the first 10 games.

``Unfortunately I let my errors creep in, and then I allowed her to dictate too much,'' Williams said. ``But she played really well.''

Azarenka wilted in her fourth-round match with Serena here last year, retiring in the second set with a virus after taking the first set.

This time, the 20-year-old Belarussian was undone by a trademark comeback by Williams, who is the only player to save match points on the way to three Grand Slam titles. She did it at Wimbledon last year and at the 2003 and 2005 Australian Opens.

Initially, Azarenka looked like she'd continue the Williams family woes. She broke Serena in the opening game and then, after fending off three break points, held her own opening serve in a game that lasted more than 15 minutes and went to deuce nine times.

It was mostly one-way until Williams started her comeback in the second - winning five straight games and then getting on top again at the end of the tiebreaker. She dominated the third set, converting both her breakpoint chances.

Li, who is forecast to go into the WTA's top 10 rankings after the tournament ends, was dominant in the third set when it counted against Venus Williams, who has five Wimbledon titles and two at the U.S. Open.

``I don't like losing at all,'' Williams said. ``No one does. I put in a lot of hard work to come out here and get a win (I'm) not at all pleased.''


7
Jokes / Once upon a time
« on: January 06, 2010, 12:49:16 PM »
Once upon a time, a Prince asked a beautiful Princess....
 

'Will you marry me?'

 

The Princess said, 'No'  !!!

   

And the Prince lived happily ever after and rode motorcycles, went fishing and hunting, played golf, drank beer and scotch, saved tons of money in the bank, left the toilet seat up and farted whenever he wanted.


                                         The end

8
General Discussion / Woman Allergic to Husband's Semen
« on: November 06, 2009, 10:02:17 AM »
Woman Allergic to Husband's Semen
By Michelle Burford

In 2005, newlyweds Julie and Mike Boyde of Ambridge, Pennsylvania spent their wedding night at a bed and breakfast, where, for the first time since becoming a couple, they had intercourse without a condom. Immediately afterward, Julie was in excruciating pain. Doctors would eventually diagnose her with a rare and incurable disorder known as seminal plasma hypersensitivity, meaning Julie is allergic to her husband's sperm.

She tells her story in a riveting new episode of Discovery Health's "Strange Sex," a documentary that follows women who are struggling to overcome sexual disorders, including involuntary orgasm and sexsomnia -- engaging in sexual intercourse while asleep.



AOL Health had the opportunity to talk to Julie about her painful condition and how it has affected her marriage, her life and her chances of becoming pregnant.

AOL Health: What’s the clinical name of your condition and when did you realize that you had it?

Julie Boyde: It’s called human seminal plasma hypersensitivity [an allergy to the proteins in semen]. I discovered that I had it on my wedding night. At first, I didn’t really know what was happening. It was kind of scary. I thought maybe I had an infection. There was just this horrible painful feeling -- I felt like I had needles inside of me. It was also burning. It happened right after intercourse. My husband was scared because he didn’t know what was happening either. I ran into the bathroom and I jumped in the shower, trying to get the pain to go away.

AOL Health: Is the allergic reaction connected to whether you have a climax?

Boyde: Yes. That’s usually when it happens.

AOL Health: So is sex pleasurable up until the point of climax?

Boyde: Yes, but I would worry. Sometimes, I would have a bad reaction, and other times, it wouldn’t be so bad. So I was always thinking, I wonder how bad it’s going to be this time?

AOL Health: People with human seminal plasma hypersensitivity can be allergic to all semen or the unique proteins in just one individual's. In the documentary, you said that you and your husband always used condoms before you were married. Had you ever had unprotected sex with anyone else?

Boyde: Never. So we don’t know if my allergy is just with my husband.

AOL Health: How long does the pain usually last?

Boyde: The pain usually lasts a full 24 hours. On a scale of one to 10, it’s probably an eight or nine. For a few days after intercourse, it starts to feel like a yeast infection. It’s really itchy and really red. It actually blisters inside. That’s the painful part -- when the blisters become open sores. As the blisters are healing, that’s when it becomes itchy.

AOL Health: Didn’t your doctor misdiagnose you with a yeast infection?

Boyde: Yes. I never made it to the doctor on the same day that the allergic reaction happened, so the doctor would always see it as it’s healing, when it’s red and itchy.

AOL Health: Did you suspect that it was more than an infection?

Boyde: Yes. After it happened so many times, I thought, It can’t be the same thing over and over again. Once it had been happening for awhile, I finally felt comfortable enough to talk to my friends about it. It kind of started off as a joke with my friends, who said, “Maybe you’re allergic to him!” None of us thought that was really possible, but I went home that night and did a little research online. The more I read up on it, I realized it was possible. I thought, Oh my God, those are all my symptoms exactly!

AOL Health: So after your wedding night, did you consider going back to using condoms?

Boyde: No, because we wanted to have a baby. So for a whole year, I put up with the pain. We were having intercourse a couple of times a week, depending on how bad the reactions were. When I had a reaction, it made it difficult to have intercourse again for at least a couple of days after that.


9
Other Sports / Foreman finally at peace with loss to Ali
« on: October 29, 2009, 11:51:15 AM »
Foreman finally at peace with loss to Ali
The reminder that yet another anniversary is here had George Foreman thinking that maybe it's time to visit an old friend.
They once had their differences, once came to blows. Time, though, is a great healer.
"Maybe I should go and see him," Foreman said. "He's like a brother. We're that close."
They weren't 35 years ago, on an early morning in Africa when all Foreman had in mind was dealing some serious hurt to Muhammad Ali. He had been in Zaire way too long as it was, and the big, brooding heavyweight champion was in no mood to take any nonsense from anybody.
That included Ali, whom Foreman saw as little more than his next knockout victim.
"I figured no one could stand up to me," Foreman said during a recent telephone interview from his home in Houston. "I went out there to knock him out."
Ali had other ideas. Ten years had passed since he shocked the world by winning the heavyweight title against Sonny Liston, and he knew a thing or two about beating a bully.
The great trainer Cus D'Amato had given him a piece of advice for the fight: Hit him as hard as you can with the first punch, Cus said, and let him know you're there.
Others had tried it, others had failed. But none was Muhammad Ali.
In Foreman's dressing room before the fight, the mood was as dark as the African night. This wasn't going to last long, and the price Ali would pay would be dreadful.
"There's death in the air," a Foreman camp member kept shouting.
Back in Ali's dressing room, the challenger wanted to know what they were saying just before they went to battle.
"They're saying your kids will soon be in an orphanage," Ali's confidante, Gene Kilroy, told him.
"I can't wait," Ali thundered. "Let me at him. I'm going to teach George Foreman a lesson."
We know it now as the Rumble in the Jungle, a fight so epic that it had to have a name just as memorable. Ali coined the name himself, but to boxing fans at the time it was just Foreman versus Ali for the heavyweight title.
It ended up in Zaire because the country's brutal dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko, put up the $10 million purse to bring it there. It was, he said, his gift to the people for the "honor of the black man" and a way to put the former Belgian Congo on the world map.
Don King was just learning how to promote fights, and got this one mostly because he talked Foreman into signing for a $5 million share of the purse. King was also trying to make some money on the side, selling charter flights to Africa that included hotel rooms and tickets to the fight for $2,500.
He expected 5,000 people to fly from the United States, but then Ali began ranting about being in the jungle and having the natives boil reporters he didn't like in pots. King was forced to lower the price to $1,500, prompting one scribe to ask whether the people who had already bought packages would get the lower rate.
"Well, we haven't sold any," King said.
The claims that 1 billion people would watch the fight from around the world would turn out to be wildly inflated, too. But the fight between the brutish Foreman and the man who called himself The Greatest was primed to be a major event.
How much of a fight it would be was debatable. Foreman had knocked out his last 24 opponents and spent barely more than 11 minutes in the ring in winning and defending the title twice. He was a 3-1 favorite in the Vegas sports books, and many feared he would seriously hurt Ali.
People were eager for a diversion, though, even from a fight so far away. Inflation was up, Watergate had just toppled a president, and the fight offered a temporary escape from the problems of the world.
Ali, as always, was eager to entertain.
"You think the world was shocked when Nixon resigned," he said. "Wait till I whup George Foreman's behind."
Before Foreman reinvented himself as a lovable lug of a heavyweight, and long before he sold America millions of hamburger grills, he was an angry fighter. Taking his cues from Liston, he scowled at anyone who came close and scared other fighters before they even entered the ring.
Ali, he figured, would be no different.
At a boxing writers' dinner in New York a few months before the fight, Foreman ripped Ali's suit and the two had to be pulled apart. As he was escorted out by his handlers, Ali threw water glasses at him, and they smashed to pieces on the ground.
"Ali had no fear of him, no fear," said Kilroy, who was Ali's business manager and now is an executive at the Luxor casino in Las Vegas.
Maybe that was because Ali knew something. After the fight was signed he watched tapes of Foreman's bouts, at one point telling Kilroy to run it back when he saw Foreman lumbering to a corner after knocking Joe Frazier down for the umpteenth time.
"Look! No stamina. No stamina," Ali shouted.
He would later hint to reporters what would happen, though few believed him. Foreman, he said, would fall flat on his face after the 10th round, felled by sheer exhaustion.
Foreman didn't pay attention to any of it. He knew he would knock Ali out early. He couldn't wait to get the chance.
"I just had so much rage," Foreman said. "It was just the fighter in me. I didn't know any different."
The fight was originally set for Sept. 25, 1974, but Foreman was cut in sparring soon after arriving in Zaire. He wanted to go home to heal, but Mobutu's men weren't about to let anyone leave before there was a fight.
The heavyweight championship would finally be decided on Oct. 30. The day before, Foreman and Ali made separate trips to the presidential palace to pay homage to the dictator. Ali hugged Mobutu and kissed him on both cheeks, startling the security guards who figured someone would pay for touching the president.
It was 4 a.m. in Zaire when the bell sounded for the first round and Ali came out and did just what D'Amato wanted him to do, landing a big right hand to open the fight. Foreman shook it off and quickly went to work himself, ripping powerful punches to Ali's head and body.
The same shots had dropped Frazier six times, and stopped Ken Norton in the second round. Foreman was sure Ali would fall, and the time looked ripe in the third round when he landed a savage right hand to Ali's neck.
"I hit him hard and he looked at me like he was going to fight back, then just covered up," Foreman recalled. "He figured, 'I'm not going to let this guy do this to me.' After the bell he looked up and said 'I made it, I made it.' He realized that he had taken the best I had and gotten through it."
Indeed, Ali had found his way to win. He laid on the ropes, covering up and letting Foreman punch him at will. The "rope-a-dope" may have been born out of desperation, but there was no question what it was doing to Foreman.
He began to tire, just as Ali had predicted. Then, with just seconds left in the eighth round, Ali landed a left hook that snapped Foreman's head up, then followed it with a right that sent him staggering to the canvas.
The fight was over, but it could have been worse. As Foreman was going down, Ali had the perfect chance to hit him with another right hand, but didn't.
"He started to do it, then put the gun back in the holster," Foreman said. "He had mercy on me. Would I have done the same for him at that time? No."
Foreman had barely gotten off the plane from Zaire when he held a press conference in Paris and called for an investigation of the fight. The ropes had been too loose, he said, the count too quick, the canvas too soft.
It had to be something because there was no way he could have lost, something he had trouble coming to grips with for years. In his 2007 book, "God In My Corner," he claimed that someone had spiked his water to drug him into submission.
But he's done making excuses. Ali, he now says, was simply smarter than he was that day.
"This man could think. He understood I would go out there to try and knock him out," Foreman said. "But no one had ever knocked him out. Where in the world did I get it in my mind I could knock him out? That's why I lost."
Foreman would come back 20 years later to become the oldest man to win the heavyweight title at age 45, knocking out Michael Moorer in an upset almost as huge as the one Ali pulled off in Zaire. He couldn't have imagined that, just as he could never have imagined becoming hugely rich as a popular pitchman.
"Thirty-five years ago I walked off that canvas thinking I was dead," Foreman said. "Turns out I hadn't even begun to live."
Ali had said he was going to retire after the fight, and Kilroy pleaded with him to do it. But he liked the idea of being heavyweight champion once again, and soon there was an offer of another $5 million to defend against Joe Bugner in what would be little more than a glorified sparring session.
Ali is muted now, his once magnificent voice not heard publicly in years. He lives mostly in Arizona with his wife, Lonnie, and, though Parkinson's Syndrome has taken a terrible toll on him, still travels frequently.
Foreman and Ali became friends over the years and until recently would talk on the phone. If there's a rumor about Ali's health, one of his daughters will call Foreman to reassure him that things are fine.
He hasn't seen him in a few years, but thinks it could be time.
"He's always coming to you, but he's not getting around well these days," Foreman said. "I guess I will have to go to him. This will probably push me out the door to find him."
Foreman knows that he will always be defined by what happened in that faraway ring, but that's OK now, too. He understands that maybe he was just a part of something with Ali that was much bigger than either of them could understand at the time.
Yes, he lost to Ali in the ring, but in the end he may have gained even more.
"I don't call him the best boxer of all time," Foreman said, "but he's the greatest human being I ever met."

10
General Discussion / D.C. sniper set to die by lethal injection
« on: October 27, 2009, 05:59:32 PM »
Mastermind behind 2002 killing spree faces execution on Nov. 10


updated 2:14 p.m. ET, Tues., Oct . 27, 2009
RICHMOND, Va. - The mastermind of the 2002 Washington, D.C.-area sniper attacks will die by lethal injection next month, Virginia officials said Tuesday.

John Allen Muhammad declined to choose between lethal injection and electrocution, so under state law the method defaults to lethal injection, Virginia Department of Corrections spokesman Larry Traylor said.

Muhammad is scheduled to be executed Nov. 10 for the October 2002 slaying of Dean Harold Meyers at a Manassas gas station during a string of shootings.

The three-week killing spree in October 2002 left 10 dead in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia.

Muhammad and his teenage accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, were also suspected of shootings in several other states, including a killing in Louisiana and another in Alabama. Malvo is serving a life sentence in prison.

Muhammad's lawyers have asked the Virginia governor for clemency and plan to file an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court early next month.


11
General Discussion / self proclaimed child molester
« on: October 22, 2009, 08:05:18 PM »
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83WguskQWz0




MyIDIsPhat, also known as Gary Wolchesky, is a YouTube pedophile who has created over 9000 accounts on Youtube, all have which have been suspended due to faggotry, AIDS, and fail. He is one of the boldest supporters of pedophilia on Youtube, and is of course friends with every baby-raper, child molester, and sick f**k on the intrawebs, and is one of the leaders of the pro-pedophilia movement on Youtube. He freely and cheerfully admits to having lured and groomed a shitload of young boys over Xbox Live, and having molested tons of young boys IRL, claiming he did all of this out of profound love for the children whose lives he ruined forever. Isn't this guy adorable??

Gary is, without question, also one of the dumbest f**ktards ever to walk the Earth, being unable to talk in complete sentences, finish trains of thought, or think or speak coherently. Whenever Gary's microcephallic brain is unable to comprehend something (approximately 350% of the time), he rants about how "profounded" he is (lulz). Of course, the rest of us are simply DUMBfounded how someone as f**king stupid as Gary even managed to graduate from elementary school! Some hypothesize that Gary was mercilessly beaten with the stupid stick throughout his childhood, while others propose that Gary's mental retardation is directly caused by his AIDS and epic phail. Which of these hypotheses are true remains to be seen.


12
Arizona man allegedly upset she wasn't following traditional Iraqi values
 

PEORIA, Ariz. - Police in a Phoenix suburb are looking for a man suspected of running down his daughter because she was becoming too "Westernized" and was not living according to their traditional Iraqi values.

 
Police say 48-year-old Faleh Hassan Almaleki of Glendale allegedly ran his daughter down Tuesday at a parking lot in Peoria.

The victim, 20-year-old Noor Faleh Almaleki of Surprise, remains hospitalized with life-threatening injuries.


A second woman, 43-year-old Amal Edan Khalaf, also of Surprise, suffered non-life threatening injuries. Police say the women are roommates.

Police spokesman Mike Tellef said family and friends of the victims told detectives that the father had threatened his daughter because of her lifestyle.


13
General Discussion / Former nurse's aide in US becomes Ugandan king
« on: October 20, 2009, 08:37:24 AM »
KASESE, Uganda – For years, Charles Wesley Mumbere worked as a nurse's aide in Maryland and Pennsylvania, caring for the elderly and sick. No one there suspected that he had inherited a royal title in his African homeland when he was just 13.

On Monday, after years of political upheaval and financial struggle, Mumbere, 56, was finally crowned king of his people to the sound of drumbeats and thousands of cheering supporters wearing cloth printed with his portraits.

At a public rally later in the day, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni officially recognized the 300,000-strong Rwenzururu Kingdom. Museveni restored the traditional kingdoms his predecessor banned in 1967, but has been adamant that kings restrict themselves to cultural duties and keep out of politics.

"It is a great moment to know that finally the central government has understood the demands of the Bakonzo people who have been seeking very hard for recognition of their identity," Mumbere told The Associated Press in the whitewashed single-story building that serves as a palace.

The Rwenzururu parliament sits nearby, in a much larger structure made of reeds. It was here the traditional private rituals were held Sunday night and Monday morning to crown Mumbere king.

Thousands walked several miles (kilometers) to see Mumbere, dressed in flowing green robes and a colorful hat, be officially recognized.

Old men clutching canes shuffled up the hill beside women in colorful Ugandan dresses called "gomesi." Among them was Masereka Tadai, 43, proudly overseeing practice for a march that retired scouts and girl guides would perform before the king.

"Everyone is very happy because the president has accepted to come here and officially recognize the Rwenzururu Kingdom," Tadai said over a nearby drumbeat.

The new King of Uganda's Mountains of the Moon has undergone many transformations — from teenage leader of a rebel force to impoverished student to a nursing home assistant working two jobs in the U.S., where he lived for nearly 25 years.

Mumbere's royal roots only became public in Pennsylvania this July, when he granted an interview to The Patriot-News of Harrisburg as he was preparing to return to Uganda.

He inherited the title when his father, Isaya Mukirania Kibanzanga, died while leading a secessionist group in the Rwenzori Mountains, otherwise known as the Mountains of the Moon. The rebels were protesting the oppression of their Bakonzo ethnic group by their then-rulers, the Toro Kingdom.

The Bakonzo demanded to be recognized as a separate entity and named Kibanzanga, a former primary school teacher, as their king in 1963.

"It was very difficult growing up in the bush," remembered Mumbere, who was 9 years old when his father took the family into the mountains. Although he received military training, Mumbere did not fight.

"Our country has been independent (from the British) for 40-something years but in Rwenzururu you may not find running water, there are no hospitals," Mumbere said.

Shortly after Kibanzanga died, his son led the fighters down from the mountains to hand in their weapons. Mumbere went to the United States in 1984 on a Uganda government scholarship, attending a business school until Uganda's leadership changed and the stipend was stopped. He gained political asylum in 1987, trained as a nurse's aide and took a job in a suburban Washington nursing home to pay his bills, said The Patriot-News of Harrisburg in a July 2009 story.

In 1999, he moved to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania's capital, where he worked for at least two health care facilities.

He was "very loyal, a very hard worker, a very private person," said Johnna Marx, executive director of the Golden Living Center-Blue Ridge Mountain on the outskirts of Harrisburg.

Mumbere said he chose to train as a nurse's aide because the work, "was more reliable. Other jobs you can be laid off easily."

Living in the U.S., however, was "a very difficult experience," he said. "Sometimes you have two jobs. You go to college in the morning, between 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. Then you go prepare to go to work at 3 p.m. and then return at 11 p.m."

He is now a green card holder, and his son and daughter live in Harrisburg. But he never forgot the people he left behind. When the Ugandan government decided to reinstate the traditional kingdoms, Mumbere lobbied the Rwenzururu Kingdom to be among them.

After 10 years of negotiation, President Museveni announced in August the government would recognize the Rwenzururu Kingdom as Uganda's seventh kingdom. Government recognition does not grant any executive power but allows the monarchs to determine cultural and social issues affecting their people.


14
Football / Ballon d'Or nominees revealed
« on: October 19, 2009, 08:40:44 AM »
Ballon d'Or nominees revealed(PA) Monday 19 October 2009

Real Madrid's record signing Cristiano Ronaldo leads a list of 30 nominees for this year's Ballon d'Or that does not include a single player from current world champions Italy.

Ronaldo, 24, won the prestigious award last year and will be one of the favourite for this year's title after his stunning start to his career at the Bernabeu. The Portuguese attacker has scored nine goals in seven games since joining the Spanish giants for a world record £80million from Manchester United in the summer.

Ronaldo, who is currently sidelined by an ankle injury, headed Madrid's significant summer spending which also saw them sign Kaka and Karim Benzema - who were both also included in the list.

There was, however, no room for any players from world champions Italy. Goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon and Luca Toni were Gli Azzurri's only nominees last year.

European champions Spain are the best represented nation with six players listed, while the Primera Liga boasts the most players from a single league with 12. The Premier League is next best with 10 players, while Serie A has just four.

UEFA Champions League and La Liga winners Barcelona top the list in terms of club representation, with six players: Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Thierry Henry, Andres Iniesta, Lionel Messi, Yaya Toure and Xavi.

Chelsea and Manchester United both had three players selected on the list. The Blues' nominees are England captain John Terry, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba while United's selection affords another accolade to 35-year-old midfielder Ryan Giggs, as well as Wayne Rooney and Nemanja Vidic.

The Ballon d'Or is an award handed out to the world footballer of the year. It is voted for by journalists and organised by France Football magazine. The winner will be announced on 1 December.

Nominees: Andrey Arshavin (Arsenal), Karim Benzema (Real Madrid), Iker Casillas (Real Madrid), Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid), Diego (Juventus), Didier Drogba (Chelsea), Edin Dzeko (Wolfsburg), Samuel Eto'o (Inter Milan), Cesc Fabregas (Arsenal), Fernando Torres (Liverpool), Diego Forlan (Atletico Madrid), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Ryan Giggs (Manchester United), Yoann Gourcuff (Bordeaux), Thierry Henry (Barcelona), Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Barcelona), Andres Iniesta (Barcelona), Julio Cesar (Inter Milan), Kaka (Real Madrid), Frank Lampard (Chelsea), Maicon (Inter Milan), Lionel Messi (Barcelona), Luis Fabiano (Seville), Franck Ribery (Bayern Munich), Wayne Rooney (Manchester United), John Terry (Chelsea), Nemanja Vidic (Manchester United), David Villa (Valencia), Xavi (Barcelona), Yaya Toure (Barcelona).

15
General Discussion / Fight against crime will always be tough.
« on: October 12, 2009, 07:20:17 AM »
Officials: Criminals cooperate better than police

SINGAPORE – Transnational crime syndicates are becoming stronger by exploiting technology, forging links with one another and taking advantage of insufficient coordination among the world's police forces, officials at an Interpol conference said Monday.

Delegates warned that law enforcement agencies must urgently boost the sharing of intelligence to fight criminals, who are increasingly in cahoots with terrorist networks including al-Qaida.

"It is fair to say that criminals are ahead of governments in exploiting the most advanced tools of globalization," such as international travel, banking and trade, U.S. Deputy Attorney General David Ogden said.

"Criminals are at the most advanced stage of globalization," Ogden told The Associated Press on the sidelines of the conference organized by the United Nations and Interpol. "There is no question that we are behind, and the power of these international criminals has grown."

By one estimate, organized crime today comprises up to 15 percent of the global gross domestic product, Ogden said.

The Lyon, France-based Interpol was created in 1923 and is the world's largest international police organization with 187 member countries. It facilitates cross-border police cooperation and focuses on terrorism, organized crime and the trafficking of drugs, weapons, and humans.

But it appears Interpol is behind in the fight against crime, thanks to insufficient cooperation among countries. Part of the problem is corruption of police departments in many countries. Because of their shaky reputations, other countries are reluctant to share information with them.

"In order to share information you have to have confidence that it won't be misused," Ogden said.

Also, various law enforcement agencies — even within the same country — suffer from rivalries, resulting in information not being disseminated.

Examples of transnational crimes abound. Ogden cited an emblematic case disclosed last year — a racketeering enterprise in Romania that had joined forces with criminals around the world, including street gangs in Los Angeles, to use the Internet to defraud thousands of people and hundreds of financial institutions.

Those charged in the case operated from locations in the Canada, Pakistan, Portugal, Romania and United States, and were citizens or permanent residents of Cambodia, Mexico, Pakistan, Romania, the United States and Vietnam.

Earlier Monday, Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik drew the attention of the growing synergy among terrorism, drug trafficking, money laundering and cybercrime.

Pakistan, a front-line state in the fight against the Taliban and al-Qaida terrorists, has experienced all the crimes firsthand, said Malik, warning that they can quickly spread beyond its borders if not tackled jointly by the international community.

"Terrorists have no boundaries, no religion," he said. "This is the time we have to sit together and put our heads together. The cooperation needs to be even more effective."

Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who opened the four-day conference, said that while globalization may have bought untold benefits to countries, it has also made crime global.

"When good gains a foot, evil adds a yard. As you upgrade your knowledge, skills and equipment, you can be sure that criminals are doing the same," he said.

Also Monday, Interpol and the U.N. agreed to increase the role of the police in peacekeeping and peacebuilding operations. An action plan to fulfill this aim would be drafted in the next 12 years, a statement said.

If U.N. peacekeepers in post-war zones are asked to perform police-like functions and to combat transnational crime, then more peacekeepers should come from the ranks of police, Interpol Secretary-General Ronald K. Noble said.

Interpol's huge databases including names of criminals, fingerprints, DNA profiles, stolen passports, and stolen vehicles make the organization "an essential partner for police peacekeepers," he said.

___

Associated Press writer Alex Kennedy contributed to this report.

16
Apocalypse Next? Experts trace fears to modern, not ancient sources

MEXICO CITY - Apolinario Chile Pixtun is tired of being bombarded with frantic questions about the Mayan calendar supposedly "running out" on Dec. 21, 2012. After all, it's not the end of the world.

Or is it?

Definitely not, the Mayan elder insists. "I came back from England last year and, man, they had me fed up with this stuff."

It can only get worse for him. Next month, Hollywood's "2012" opens in cinemas, featuring earthquakes, meteor showers and a tsunami dumping an aircraft carrier on the White House.

At Cornell University, Ann Martin, who runs the "Ask an Astronomer" Web site, says people are scared.

"It's too bad that we're getting e-mails from fourth-graders who are saying that they're too young to die," Martin said. "We had a mother of two young children who was afraid she wouldn't live to see them grow up."

Chile Pixtun, a Guatemalan, says the doomsday theories spring from Western, not Mayan, ideas.

A significant time period for the Maya does end on the date, and enthusiasts have found a series of astronomical alignments they say coincide in 2012, including one that happens roughly only once every 25,800 years.

But most archaeologists, astronomers and Maya Indians say the only thing likely to hit Earth is a meteor shower of New Age philosophy, pop astronomy, Internet doomsday rumors and TV specials — such as one on the History Channel that mixes predictions from Nostradamus and the Maya and asks: "Is 2012 the year the cosmic clock finally winds down to zero days, zero hope?"

Grains of truth
It may sound all too much like other doomsday scenarios of recent decades — the 1987 Harmonic Convergence, the Jupiter Effect or "Planet X." But this one has some grains of archaeological truth.

One of them is Monument Six.

Found at an obscure ruin in southern Mexico during highway construction in the 1960s, the stone tablet almost didn't survive; the site was largely paved over, and parts of the tablet were looted.
 
It's unique in that the remaining parts contain the equivalent of the date 2012. The inscription describes something that is supposed to occur in 2012 involving Bolon Yokte, a mysterious Mayan god associated with both war and creation.

However — shades of Indiana Jones — erosion and a crack in the stone make the end of the passage almost illegible.

Archaeologist Guillermo Bernal of Mexico's National Autonomous University interprets the last eroded glyphs as maybe saying, "He will descend from the sky."

Spooky, perhaps, but Bernal notes there are other inscriptions at Maya sites for dates far beyond 2012 — including one that roughly translates into the year 4772.

And anyway, the Maya in the drought-stricken Yucatan peninsula have bigger worries than 2012.

"If I went to some Mayan-speaking communities and asked people what is going to happen in 2012, they wouldn't have any idea," said Jose Huchim, a Yucatan Mayan archaeologist. "That the world is going to end? They wouldn't believe you. We have real concerns these days, like rain."

Talent for astronomy
The Maya civilization, which reached its height from the year 300 to 900, had a talent for astronomy.

Its Long Count calendar begins in 3114 B.C., marking time in roughly 394-year periods known as Baktuns. Thirteen was a significant, sacred number for the Maya, and the 13th Baktun ends around Dec. 21, 2012.

"It's a special anniversary of creation," said David Stuart, a specialist in Mayan epigraphy at the University of Texas at Austin. "The Maya never said the world is going to end, they never said anything bad would happen necessarily, they're just recording this future anniversary on Monument Six."

Bernal suggests that apocalypse is "a very Western, Christian" concept projected onto the Maya, perhaps because Western myths are "exhausted."


17
Michelle Obama's family journey from bondage to the White House

WASHINGTON - In 1850, the elderly master of a South Carolina estate took pen in hand and painstakingly divided up his possessions. Among the spinning wheels, scythes, tablecloths and cattle that he bequeathed to his far-flung heirs was a 6-year-old slave girl valued soon afterward at $475.

In his will, she is described simply as the “negro girl Melvinia.” After his death, she was torn away from the people and places she knew and shipped to Georgia. While she was still a teenager, a white man would father her first-born son under circumstances lost in the passage of time.

In the annals of American slavery, this painful story would be utterly unremarkable, save for one reason: This union, consummated some two years before the Civil War, represents the origins of a family line that would extend from rural Georgia, to Birmingham, Ala., to Chicago and, finally, to the White House.

Melvinia Shields, the enslaved and illiterate young girl, and the unknown white man who impregnated her are the great-great-great-grandparents of Michelle Obama , the first lady.

Viewed by many as a powerful symbol of black advancement, Mrs. Obama grew up with only a vague sense of her ancestry, aides and relatives said. During the presidential campaign, the family learned about one paternal great-great-grandfather, a former slave from South Carolina, but the rest of Mrs. Obama’s roots were a mystery.

Now the more complete map of Mrs. Obama’s ancestors — including the slave mother, white father and their biracial son, Dolphus T. Shields — for the first time fully connects the first African-American first lady to the history of slavery, tracing their five-generation journey from bondage to a front-row seat to the presidency.

The findings — uncovered by Megan Smolenyak, a genealogist, and The New York Times — substantiate what Mrs. Obama has called longstanding family rumors about a white forebear.

While President Obama ’s biracial background has drawn considerable attention, his wife’s pedigree, which includes American Indian strands, highlights the complicated history of racial intermingling, sometimes born of violence or coercion, that lingers in the bloodlines of many African-Americans. Mrs. Obama and her family declined to comment for this article, aides said, in part because of the personal nature of the subject.

“She is representative of how we have evolved and who we are,” said Edward Ball, a historian who discovered that he had black relatives, the descendants of his white slave-owning ancestors, when he researched his memoir, “Slaves in the Family.”

“We are not separate tribes of Latinos and whites and blacks in America,” Mr. Ball said. “We’ve all mingled, and we have done so for generations.”
 
The outlines of Mrs. Obama’s family history unfolded from 19th century probate records , yellowing marriage licenses, fading photographs and the recollections of elderly women who remember the family. Ms. Smolenyak, who has traced the ancestry of many prominent figures, began studying the first lady’s roots in earnest after conducting some preliminary research into Mrs. Obama’s ancestry for an article published in The New York Times earlier this year.

Of the dozens of relatives she identified, Ms. Smolenyak said, it was the slave girl who seemed to call out most clearly.

“Out of all Michelle’s roots, it’s Melvinia who is screaming to be found,” she said.

Strange and unfamiliar world
When her owner, David Patterson, died in 1852, Melvinia soon found herself on a 200-acre farm with new masters, Mr. Patterson’s daughter and son-in law, Christianne and Henry Shields. It was a strange and unfamiliar world.

In South Carolina, she had lived on an estate with 21 slaves. In Georgia, she was one of only three slaves on property that is now part of a neat subdivision in Rex, near Atlanta.

Whether Melvinia labored in the house or in the fields, there was no shortage of work: wheat, corn, sweet potatoes and cotton to plant and harvest, and 3 horses, 5 cows, 17 pigs and 20 sheep to care for, according to an 1860 agricultural survey .

It is difficult to say who might have impregnated Melvinia, who gave birth to Dolphus around 1859, when she was perhaps as young as 15. At the time, Henry Shields was in his late 40s and had four sons ages 19 to 24, but other men may have spent time on the farm.

“No one should be surprised anymore to hear about the number of rapes and the amount of sexual exploitation that took place under slavery; it was an everyday experience, “ said Jason A. Gillmer, a law professor at Texas Wesleyan University, who has researched liaisons between slave owners and slaves. “But we do find that some of these relationships can be very complex.”

In 1870, three of Melvinia’s four children, including Dolphus, were listed on the census as mulatto. One was born four years after emancipation, suggesting that the liaison that produced those children endured after slavery. She gave her children the Shields name, which may have hinted at their paternity or simply been the custom of former slaves taking their master’s surnames.

Even after she was freed, Melvinia stayed put, working as a farm laborer on land adjacent to that of Charles Shields, one of Henry’s sons.


18
Football / Aston Villa V Manchester City
« on: October 05, 2009, 10:49:30 AM »
live on espn2 @ 2:55.with victory city could jump into 3rd place.

19
General Discussion / Pilots, crew in fistfight at 30,000 feet
« on: October 05, 2009, 10:41:09 AM »
Cabin crew says a pilot molested a female staffer, leading to mid-air brawl

Air India has grounded four crew members after reports that they engaged in a fistfight at 30,000 feet above sea level, the Times of India reported on Monday.

India’s main airlines authority, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, has also ordered a probe, the paper said.

"The airline didn't even inform us of this incident in time. We're going to summon the crew members on Monday. This incident is shocking and we may need to take exemplary action,” an official said.

The Airbus A-320 was flying over Pakistan, en route to New Delhi, from Sharjah when passengers witnessed the fight between two members of the cabin crew and two of the pilots.

According to the report, the cabin crew alleged that one of the female crew was molested by a pilot, which led to fighting in both the cockpit and the cabin.

The pilots, for their part, accused a male worker of misconduct that compromised flight safety, and said that the molestation claim was aimed to protect him.

Neither party has denied that blows were exchanged on board the plane, which was carrying 106 passengers.

Sources told the Times of India that the female cabin crew member and the co-pilot sustained bruises.

The police are investigating the woman's complaint.

"There are several eyewitnesses and we are recording their statements," a spokesman said.


20
General Discussion / Woman killed by pet bear
« on: October 05, 2009, 08:24:55 AM »
Woman killed by pet bear while cleaning cage
Bear was kept inside a steel and concrete enclosure near her home

ALLENTOWN, Pennsylvania - Authorities say a Pennsylvania woman was killed by her pet 350-pound black bear Sunday evening as she cleaned its cage.

The Morning Call newspaper reported that a state Game Commission spokesman said Kelly Ann Walz, 37, kept the bear inside a steel and concrete cage near her house in northeastern Pennsylvania.

Officials said Walz threw some dog food to one side of the cage to distract the bear while she cleaned the other side. At some point the bear turned on her and attacked.


The bear was shot and killed. No information was available about who shot the bear.

Game officials say Walz also owned a Bengal tiger and an African lion and had licenses to own them.


21
General Discussion / Jurassic park could happen.
« on: October 03, 2009, 03:46:05 PM »
Cluster of dinosaur eggs found in India
65 million-years-old eggs were under ash from volcanic eruptions

CHENNAI, India - Geologists have found a cluster of fossilized dinosaur eggs, said to be about 65 million years old, in a village in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, according to media reports.

"We found layer upon layer of spherical eggs and body parts of dinosaur and each cluster contained eight eggs," M. Ramkumar, a geologist at Periyar University who led a survey team, said Thursday, according to The Hindu newspaper.

The eggs, about 5-8 inches in diameter and lying in sandy nests about 4 feet wide, were discovered during a study funded by Indian and German scientific institutions.

The clusters were under ash from volcanic eruptions on the Deccan plateau, which geologists said could have caused the dinosaurs to become extinct.

The nesting site was found along the banks and bottom of streams in the Cauvery river basin, containing clusters of fossilized eggs, dung and bone remains of dinosaurs.

"Occurrences of unhatched eggs in large numbers at different stratigraphic levels indicate that the dinosaurs kept returning to the same site for nesting," Anbarasu, another survey team member, said.

The researchers have requested local officials to cordon off the site since a similar discovery in northern India led to a plunder of the fossils.


22
Other Sports / Tiger past $1B mark
« on: October 02, 2009, 07:23:27 AM »
Report: FedEx Cup pushes Tiger past $1B markby FOXSports.com


Michael Jordan, eat your heart out.

Tiger Woods is the first athlete to reach a billion dollars in career earnings, according to Forbes.com, cementing his status as the top pitchman/athlete in sports history.

The $10 million prize he claimed for winning the FedEx Cup title on Sunday pushed him over the top, according to Forbes' estimates.

Woods had earned $895 million coming into the season and took home $10.5 million in winnings to go with his championship bonus and endorsement money, appearance fees and earnings from his course design business.

Don't feel too bad for Jordan, by the way. He still receives a reported $45 million annually from Nike and is projected to pass the $1 billion mark himself in 4-5 years.

Formula 1 driver Michael Schumacher is also close behind with $700 million in career earnings.

But neither Schumacher or Jordan figure to catch Woods. Schumacher peaked at $80 million annual earnings in 2003 and Jordan's best year was only $69 million in 1998.

Plus, Woods is only 33 and his earning power is still on the rise. His lucrative side businesses ($10 million or so per course design, as much as $3 million in appearance fees according to Forbes) figure to help him through the tough times after he decides to put down the clubs as well.

In other words, he'll be sports first multibillionaire well before he's old enough to play on the Champions Tour.

23
Jokes / go kick his ass
« on: September 30, 2009, 09:19:49 PM »
There was a shoe sales man sitting in his store when a beautiful woman comes in. He looks at her and can't stop staring. While helping her try on a pair of shoes he glances up her skirt to find she isn't wearing any panties. He started thinking and something slipped out. The man said "I'd like to fill your pussy with ice cream and lick it all out!" Hearing this the woman runs out to tell her husband. She says, "Honey, this shoe salesman said he'd like to fill my pussy up with ice cream and lick it all out!" "Now go kick his ass!". The husband replied "Dear, anyone that can eat that much ice cream, I ain't f**kin' with!"

24
Jokes / here kitty, kitty, kitty
« on: September 30, 2009, 09:16:20 PM »
A lady goes to the doctor's office and tells the doctor that she can't get her husband to have sex with her anymore. So, the doctor gives her some pills and says to give her husband one each night in his dinner whenever she wants to have sex. That night she gave him one and they had a decent night of sex. The next night she decided to try 4 pills and she had even better sex. Well the next night she tried 8 pills and the sex was wonderful. So the next night she decided to dump the whole bottle in his dinner. The next day her son showed up at the doctor's office and and said, "Doctor, Doctor, what did you do to my Daddy? My mom's dead, my sister's pregnant, my butt hurts, and my dad's going around saying here kitty, kitty, kitty!"


25
Football / Manchester City V West Ham United
« on: September 27, 2009, 02:58:08 PM »
live on espn2 @ 2:55pm tomorrow.with victory tevez and boys could replace assanal in de top 5. ;D

26
Football / UEFA investigating 40 cases of match-fixing
« on: September 25, 2009, 02:20:08 PM »
LONDON (AP) - Soccer's European governing body is investigating 40 cases of match-fixing involving Champions League and UEFA Cup matches.

Peter Limacher, head of disciplinary services at UEFA, told The Associated Press on Friday that the cases involved early qualifying matches of clubs "mainly from eastern Europe" over the last four years.

Of the 40 matches where UEFA has been alerted to suspicious betting patterns, 15 took place in the last two years, Limacher said.

"Right now it's mainly eastern Europe clubs being investigated. They know they are not going to be involved later in the tournament and they are going out, so decide, 'Let's make a profit," Limacher said. "In the cases we have seen, it's really the deliberate planned fix of the games, the whole games. First the result at halftime, then after 90 minutes.

"It might take some time (to convict) but, in cases where we can work together with the police, that might be possible."

Limacher said UEFA is building a network of informers across Europe to clamp down on match fixing.

UEFA announced last month that three Macedonian clubs were being investigated after banning the former champion FK Pobeda from European competitions for eight years.

One of the fixtures under suspicion is FK Milano's 12-2 aggregate loss in July against Croatia's Slaven Koprivnika in the second qualifying round of the Europa League, the new format for the UEFA Cup.

27
General Discussion / Man loses daughter in card game
« on: September 23, 2009, 10:24:49 AM »
Man loses daughter in card gameSeptember 20, 2009
NEW DELHI - A father in eastern India gave away his teenage daughter to a fellow gambler after he lost a card game, media reported on Sunday, with police launching a hunt to retrieve the girl.

Ismail Sheikh, from a village in West Bengal, used his 18-year-old daughter as a stake after he lost all his money, The Times of India said.

"Ismail lost the game again and Mustafa walked away with the girl," said Satyajit Bandhopadhyay, a senior police officer investigating the case.

The girl protested but the victorious Mustafa dragged her out of the village, the report said.

Family members were quoted as saying the father was a compulsive gambler with a drink problem and they had thrown him out the house after losing the teenager.

Gambling is illegal in India but thousands of underground dens operate, attracting poor villagers who hope to make a quick buck.



28
Jokes / little Johnny
« on: September 22, 2009, 11:41:51 AM »
A teacher asked little Johnny if he knows his 1 to 10 well
"Yes! Of course! My pop taught me...even more than 10"
"Good. What comes after three?”
"Four," answers the boy.
"What comes after six?"
"Seven."
"Very good," says the teacher. "Your erm...dad did a good job. Now...so what comes after...lets say ten?"
"A jack"

29
Jokes / Wedding Cake
« on: September 22, 2009, 11:31:20 AM »
A Doctor was addressing a large audience in Tampa.. 'The
material we put into our stomachs is enough to have killed most of us
sitting here, years ago. Red meat is awful. Soft drinks corrode your
stomach lining.. Chinese food is loaded with MSG. High fat diets can
be disastrous, and none of us realizes the long-term harm caused by the
germs in our drinking water. However, there is one thing that is the
most dangerous of all and we all have eaten, or will eat it. Can anyone
here tell me what food it is that causes the most grief and suffering
for years after eating it?' After several seconds of quiet, a
75-year-old man in the front row raised his hand, and softly said,
'Wedding Cake.'


30
Entertainment & Culture Discussion / Eid Mubarrak
« on: September 20, 2009, 10:52:45 AM »
to all de muslim brothers and sisters on de forum.enjoy allyuh sawine.

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