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From (No title):
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Hiatus
by JD
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OM: Sleep, take two… basically
by JD
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On this anniversary of 9/11
by JD
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“A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.�
by JD
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — A Thanksgiving dispute over chores turned deadly outside Colorado Springs, where police say a 76-year-old man shot and killed his son after the two argued for most of the day.
Ayalis Clay Oliver is being held without bond in the El Paso County jail. He's accused of shooting his 49-year-old son, Keith Oliver of Denver.
The older Oliver told police that he and his son had been arguing for hours when the victim's mother, 75-year-old Marjorie Oliver, asked her son to leave. When he refused, the arrest affidavit says the father went upstairs, retrieved a .357-calber revolver and shot his son once in the head.
Ayalis Oliver then sat on some steps in the house and waited for police to arrive. He makes his next appearance in court Dec. 2.
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Information from: The Gazette, http://www.gazette.com
Want porn on your iPhone? There's not an app for that.
Because Apple has banned "adult-only content" from the iPhone app store, among the 100,000 apps available to iPhone users, not a one is "adults only."
Google has also adopted rules for its own app store, the Android Market, to prevent app developers from selling pornographic applications for use on cell phones running Google's Android operating system.
But Android apps need not necessarily go through the official Android Market.
One company, MiKandi, has taken advantage of the open platform by launching the first mobile store for porn.
Mikandi's 18-and-over-only apps aren't available through the Android Market, and instead must be purchased through the MiKandi Market, which can be downloaded from Mikandi.com.
According to Phandroid, the MiKandi Market is,
a portal for Android users to find, download and use adult themed applications in one central location. Likewise, it serves as a place where application developers can distribute their free or paid adult-themed locations without fear of being rejected from Android Market.
MiKandi's adults-only apps are listed in categories that include Fun and Games, Adult News, Erotica, and Eye Candy.
As Phandroid notes, MiKandi is tapping into a potentially huge market opportunity:
There is a reason that pornography leads the internet in traffic and revenue and with everybody going after the mobile web, it's a wonder that some enterprising adult company didn't pursue this earlier.
iPhone lovers will not be totally forgotten: MiKandi is reportedly planning to offer its pornographic apps on jailbroken iPhones, and notes on its website, "Currently available for Android phones only, but other devices coming soon."
Learn more about MiKandi in the video below.
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The two lead actors of the television show "Friday Night Lights" visited wounded warriors, military family members and U.S. servicemembers with a message of appreciation Nov. 14 at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio.
Vicki Escarra, the president and CEO of Feeding America, calls hunger America's "dirty little secret." Mara Schiavocampo from NBC Nightly News discovered America's hunger problems first-hand as she visited a struggling family in Branford, Connecticut.
Though the mother of this family says her three kids always used to have three meals a day, they skip breakfast most days and she eats at a soup kitchen since being laid off from her job in purchasing.
Food pantries across America have seen demand rise as times have gotten tougher, and Schiavocampo interviewed several other diners who said things have never been so bad for them. Meanwhile, studies estimate that 40% of all the food produced in America ends up in the garbage.
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She is writing a memoir, "Staying True," to be released in April by Ballantine Books, about grappling with her husband's marital infidelity. She has applied to trademark her own name in order to sell clothing, mugs and other items. She will appear next month on a Barbara Walters special on ABC as one of the "10 Most Fascinating People of 2009."
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WESLEY CHAPEL, Fla. — Ariana Leonard's high school students shuffled in their seats, eagerly awaiting a cue from their Spanish teacher that the assignment would begin.
"Take out your cell phones," she said in Spanish.
The teens pulled out an array of colorful flip phones, iPhones and SideKicks. They divided into groups and Leonard began sending them text messages in Spanish: Find something green. Go to the cafeteria. Take a picture with the school secretary.
Leonard's class at Wiregrass Ranch High School in Wesley Chapel, a middle-class Florida suburb about 30 miles north of Tampa, is one of a growing number around the country that are abandoning traditional policies of cell phone prohibition and incorporating them into class lessons. Spanish vocabulary becomes a digital scavenger hunt. Notes are copied with a cell phone camera. Text messages serve as homework reminders.
"I can use my cell phone for all these things, why can't I use it for learning purposes?'" Leonard said. "Giving them something, a mobile device, that they use every day for fun, giving them another avenue to learn outside of the classroom with that."
Much more attention has gone to the ways students might use phones to cheat or take inappropriate pictures. But as the technology becomes cheaper, more advanced and more ingrained in students' lives that mentality is changing.
"It really is taking advantage of the love affair that kids have with technology today," said Dan Domevech, executive director of the nonprofit American Association of School Administrators. "The kids are much more motivated to use their cell phone in an educational manner."
Today's phones are the equivalent of small computers – able to check e-mail, do Internet searches and record podcasts. Meanwhile, most school districts can't afford a computer for every student.
"Because there's so much in the media about banning cell phones and how negative phones can be, a lot of people just haven't considered there could be positive, educative ways to use cell phones," said Liz Kolb, author of "From Toy to Tool: Cell Phones in Learning."
Even districts with tough anti-use policies acknowledge they will eventually need to change.
"We can't get away from it," said Bill Husfelt, superintendent of Bay County District Schools, a Florida Panhandle district of 27,000 students where cell phones aren't allowed in school, period. "But we've got to do a lot more work in trying to figure out how to stop the bad things from happening."
Seventy-one percent of teens had a cell phone by early 2008, according to a survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. That percentage remains relatively steady regardles of race, income or other demographic factors. Meanwhile, many schools are low-tech compared with homes outfitted with home networks, wireless Internet and a smartphone for every family member.
Most schools still have prohibitive policies curtailing cell phone use – often with good reason. At Husfelt's district, seven students were recently arrested after they got into a fight on campus that he says was instigated through text messages.
In other parts of the country, teens have been arrested for "sexting" – sending indecent photographs taken and sent through their cell phones. Students also use the devices to cheat: In one poll, more than 35 percent of teens admitted cheating with a cell phone.
But phones are so common now that seizing them is huge hassle for teachers.
"It's just a conflict taking them up and having to deal with them," Husfelt said. "It's too disruptive."
Teachers who have incorporated cell phones into their classes say that most students abide by the rules. They note that cheating and bullying exist with or without the phones, and that once they are allowed, the inclination to use them for bad behavior dissipates.
"Kids cheat with pen and paper. They pass notes," said Kipp Rogers, principal of Passage Middle School in Newport News, Va., "You don't ban paper."
Rogers started using cell phones as an instructional tool a couple of years ago, when he was teaching a math class and was short one calculator for a test. He let the student use his phone instead. Twelve classes, including math, science and English, now use them. Students do research through the text message and Internet browser on some phones. Teachers blog. Students use the camera function to snap pictures for photo stories and assignments.
Classes often work in groups in case some students don't have phones.
In Pulaski, Wis., about 130 miles north of Milwaukee, Spanish teacher Katie Titler has used cell phones for students to dial and record themselves speaking for tests.
"Specifically for foreign language, it's a great way to both formally and informally assess speaking, which is really hard to do on a regular basis because of class sizes and time," Titler said.
Jimbo Lamb, a math teacher at Annville-Cleona School District in south-central Pennsylvania, has students use their phones to answer questions set up through a polling Web site. Instantly, he's able to tell how many students understood the lesson.
"This is technology that helps us be more productive," he said.
People are using wiki technology in lots of ways to help each other out.Starting in San Francisco, early 2007, social workers and lawyers got together...
SHANGHAI — A Zimbabwe-registered cargo plane crashed in flames during takeoff from Shanghai's main airport Saturday, killing three American crew members and injuring four others on board.
The accident closed two runways at the Pudong airport in China's largest city for several hours. More than 30 international flights were delayed, leaving about 4,000 travelers stranded on planes or in airport lounges, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
The MD-11 cargo plane, operated by Zimbabwe-based Avient Aviation, was heading to Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, Xinhua said. Avient's chief operating officer, Simon Clarke, refused to say what cargo it was carrying.
The aircraft's tail struck the ground on takeoff, China Central Television reported, and Xinhua said the plane veered off the runway and burst into flames. Footage showed black smoke billowing from the wreckage.
Three Americans on the seven-member crew died and a fourth was injured, U.S. Embassy spokesman Richard Buangan told The Associated Press. He did not give their names, saying the embassy had not yet asked their families for permission to release the information.
Shanghai television showed what it called a 61-year-old American co-pilot in a hospital bed, conscious and saying, "Thank you" to staff and officials.
The TV report said the other crew members were from Indonesia, Belgium and Zimbabwe.
Clarke said the crash was Avient's first.
"We're trying to ascertain the facts and the circumstances," he said. "It would be premature to release any information before that."
The company's site says it is "fully trained to move most categories of dangerous goods," but it adds, "as a company policy we do not carry any arms and/or ammunition."
In March, another MD-11 cargo plane crashed and exploded while landing at Japan's largest international airport, killing its two American pilots. Xinhua said another MD-11 with Korean Air crashed shortly after takeoff 10 years ago at Shanghai's Hongqiao Airport.
The Pudong airport, located by the East China Sea, opened a cargo facility in March 2008 that officials said was aimed at making Shanghai the cargo hub of Asia by 2010.
Recent crashes in China include two Chinese air force jets colliding in June 2008 in Inner Mongolia, with both pilots parachuting to safety. In June 2006, a Chinese military plane crashed in eastern Anhui province, killing all 40 people aboard.
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Associated Press writers Cara Anna in Beijing and Angus Shaw in Harare, Zimbabwe, and Paisley Dodds in London contributed to this report.
More on China
TEHRAN, Iran — A conservative Iranian legislator warned Saturday that his country may pull out of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty after a U.N. resolution censuring Tehran – a move that could seriously undermine world attempts to prevent Iran from developing atomic weapons.
Iran's official news agency quoted a hardline political analyst who made the same point, another indication the idea could be gaining steam.
If Iran withdraws from the treaty, its nuclear program would no longer be subject to oversight by the U.N. nuclear agency. That in turn would be a significant blow to efforts to ensure that no enriched uranium is diverted from use as fuel to warhead development.
The lawmaker's threat came a day after the board of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency passed a resolution demanding Tehran immediately stop building its newly revealed nuclear facility near the holy city of Qom and freeze uranium enrichment.
"The parliament, in its first reaction to this illegal and politically-motivated resolution, can consider the issue of withdrawing from the NPT," Mohammad Karamirad was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency, referring to the treaty. "The parliament ... (also) can block the entry of IAEA inspectors to the country."
Karamirad, a senior lawmaker and member of the Iranian parliament's national security committee, does not speak for the government but his statements often reflect the government's thinking. His threat could be a tactic to warn the West of possible consequences if it pursues further action against Iran, such as strengthened sanctions.
Another hardline lawmaker, Hossein Ebrahimi, was quoted by IRNA as saying that Iran's parliament will discuss the IAEA resolution on Sunday and will make a decision on how to react.
Iran's parliament has issued similar warnings in the past, most recently in 2006 when some lawmakers threatened to pull the country out of the nonproliferation treaty during another time of increased U.N. pressure over Tehran's nuclear program. Iran backed down, and the government has said that it has no intention of withdrawing from the treaty, which aims to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology.
Iran's government insists its nuclear program is meant only for peaceful purposes, though the U.S. and other Western nations suspect Tehran is seeking to acquire atomic weapons.
Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's chief delegate to the U.N. nuclear agency, was also defiant Saturday in the face of the agency's fresh demands, saying on state television that Iran will limit its cooperation with the U.N. watchdog to its treaty obligations and will not cooperate beyond that.
"Our first reaction to this resolution is that they (the U.N. agency) should not expect us to do what we did several times in the past few months when we cooperated beyond our obligations to remove ambiguities," Soltanieh said.
He added that the country's nuclear activities will not be interrupted by resolutions from the U.N. nuclear agency's board, the U.N. Security Council or even the threat of military strikes against the facilities.
Ali Shirzadian, spokesman of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said his agency his ready to proceed with its nuclear projects.
"Technically speaking, we are fully prepared to produce fuel required for the Tehran reactor. To begin this, we are waiting for the order from top authorities," Shirzadian told the government-run Borna news agency.
Friday's resolution – and the resulting vote of the IAEA's 35-nation decision-making board – were significant on several counts.
The resolution was approved by 25 members of the 35-nation board – including the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany – marking a rare measure of unity from the six world powers on Iran.
Moscow and Beijing have traditionally cautioned against efforts to punish Iran for its defiance over its nuclear program, either preventing new Security Council sanctions or watering down their potency.
The IAEA resolution criticized Iran for defying a U.N. Security Council ban on uranium enrichment – the source of both nuclear fuel and the fissile core of warheads.
It also censured Iran for secretly building a uranium enrichment facility, known as Fordo, and demanded that it immediately suspend further construction.
The resolution noted that IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei cannot confirm that Tehran's nuclear program is exclusively geared toward peaceful uses, and expressed "serious concern" that Iranian stonewalling of an IAEA probe means "the possibility of military dimensions to Iran's nuclear program" cannot be excluded.
The Iranian news agency also quoted hardline political analyst Mahdi Mohammadi as saying that the U.N. agency's resolution was forcing Iran to reconsider its membership in the nonproliferation treaty.
"The attitude of the agency is gradually bringing Iran and the rest of the developing nations to the conclusion that membership in NPT has no benefit but damage and restriction. In this case, the question that will be raised seriously is will continuation of this path serve Iran's national interests?" IRNA quoted him as saying.
More on Iran
The Cold War made for strange partners -- including the CIA and a well-known magician named John Mulholland. In 1953, Mulholland was hired by the C.I.A. to adapt his craft for its agents. The documents he produced, long thought destroyed, were discovered in 2007 by two C.I.A. historians, who have recently published "The Official C.I.A. Manual of Trickery and Deception."
ABU DHABI (Reuters) - Abu Dhabi, wealthy capital of the United Arab Emirates, will "pick and choose" how to assist debt-laden neighbor Dubai, a senior official said on Saturday, after fears of a Dubai default sent global markets reeling.
More on Dubai
The COP15 Climate Conference in Copenhagen is a defining moment: We can choose to go down the road towards green prosperity. Or we can choose a pathway to stalemate and do nothing about climate change.
I've been contemplating the parallels between political candidates and Olympic athletes. Both require great physical stamina, a highly competitive nature, raw talent and a drive to win.
Life is painful and miserable and often filled with horrific tragedy. But love is really the only cure. We are very lucky here in America to have many barriers to love removed -- we can marry for love and have indoor plumbing.
The Phoenix Suns have surprised the NBA by storming off to a 13-3 start, the best mark in the league, and Steve Nash has been integral to the team's success. Nash, who leads the NBA with 11.8 assists per game, added a beautiful one to his total last night against the Timberwolves. With just more than five minutes remaining in the first quarter and the Suns leading by six, Nash passed the ball through his legs to Robin Lopez for the assist. The Suns went on to win comfortably, 120-95.
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