Free Kareem
ALERT!! A serious injustice was committed. Please take action now! Kareem Amer, an Egyptian blogger who was imprisoned for exercising his right to freedom of speech, is still in prison and needs YOUR help!
Find out more information by visiting FreeKareem.org or by networking with us.
Latest News from freekareem.org- Free Kareem campaign in Berlin, Germany – PICTURES February 27th, 2010
- Video: Free Kareem rally in Washington, DC
- Kareem forbidden visits by his lawyer
- Meklit Hadero sings a song for Kareem
- Kareem’s final appeal rejected
Kareem has been in prison for: 1226 days.
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Amazon Kindle
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Amazon Kindle is an ebook reader which uses an electronic paper display, reading Amazon’s proprietary Kindle format (AZW format), and connects by downloading content over Amazon Whispernet, which uses the Sprint EVDO network. The Kindle does not need access to a computer. Whispernet is accessible through Kindle free of charge. The day that the Kindle was released, the Kindle Store had over 88,000 digital titles available for download. The initial sale of the Kindle sold out in 5.5 hours.
Technical specifications
The Kindle features a 6″ diagonal, 4-level grayscale electrophoretic display (E Ink material) with a resolution of 600×800 pixels (167 ppi), although the largest graphic image that can be displayed without being resized is 450×550 pixels. It measures 5.3 inches × 7.5 inches × 0.7 inches (134.5 mm × 190 mm × 19 mm) and weighs 10.3 oz (295 g). The Kindle’s internal storage capacity is 256 MB, shipping with 180 MB free. A SD memory card expansion slot is present, officially supporting up to 4GB which implies support for SDHC. It has 64 MB of RAM. The battery lasts roughly two days with wireless on, and one week with wireless off. The battery charges in about two hours. A USB 2.0 port (mini-B connector) is available for connecting to a computer (where it acts as a USB flash drive). The Kindle features a headphone jack and one-year warranty. The device runs on a modified version of Linux based on the 2.6.10 kernel.
Content
The internal memory of the Amazon Kindle can hold approximately 200 non-illustrated titles. Users can download content from Amazon in the proprietary Kindle format (AZW), or load unprotected Mobipocket (PRC, MOBI) or plain text content. Amazon offers an email-based service that will convert HTML, DOC (Microsoft Word), JPEG, GIF, PNG, and BMP documents to AZW. It also supports audio in the form of MP3s and Audible 2, 3, and 4 audiobooks, which must be transferred to the Kindle over USB or on an SD card.
Users can download content through the Kindle Store. The Kindle Store is accessed through Whispernet, over Sprint’s EVDO network, which Amazon provides free of charge. New releases and New York Times bestsellers are offered for approximately $10. Classics like Bleak House sell for around $1.99, with free samples available of the first chapter of each book. Subscriptions to newspapers cost between $5.99 and $14.99 per month, magazines between $1.25 and $3.49 per month, and blogs for $0.99-$1.99 per month. Users can send documents to a conversion service which will send a Kindle-formatted file to the device directly for $0.10 or to a personal e-mail account for free. Users can transfer converted documents from a computer to the Kindle via a USB cable or an SD card for free. Access to Wikipedia is offered at no additional charge.
Digital Text Platform
Concurrently with the Kindle device, Amazon launched the Digital Text Platform, a system for authors to self-publish directly to the Kindle. Currently in open beta, the platform was promoted to established authors by e-mail. Authors can upload documents in several formats for delivery via Whispernet and charge between US$0.99 and $200 per download. The authors receive 35% of revenues based on their list price, regardless of discounts by Amazon.
Fidel Castro Steps Down – Cuba News
On February 18, 2008, Fidel Castro revealed in a letter that he would not be accepting the roles and responsibilities of President and Commander in Chief at the February 24, 2008 National Assembly meetings, saying “I will not aspire nor accept – I repeat I will not aspire or accept – the post of President of the Council of State and Commander in Chief.” This decree will effectively announce his retirement and stepping down from government service. This letter is published on the internet by the official Communist Party Paper Granma. In it, Fidel Castro noted that his health was a large reason for this critical decision, saying that “It would betray my conscience to take up a responsibility that requires mobility and total devotion, that I am not in a physical condition to offer,” however such has yet to be confirmed.
Somewhat crazy guess for today…Castro is actually dead. If Radio Havana starts playing mournful, dirge-like salsas later today, watch out. I would guess this means he’s probably not too far from death, based on his known health. Lots of turnover in world leadership.. Blair, Musharraf, Castro, and now Bush.
Diet enacts law to reduce air pollution in big cities
TOKYO — The Diet enacted a revised law Friday aimed at reducing motor vehicle emissions by tightening regulations on the construction of department stores, offices and other facilities in Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka. The revised law on vehicle-emitted nitrogen oxides and particle matters is designed to regulate those facilities, which may generate heavy vehicle traffic.
The revised law empowers prefectural governors to formulate and implement antipollution measures such as building flyover roadways at intersections or other designated areas polluted heavily with nitrogen oxides and particles from vehicle emissions that cause asthma. It requires reporting to governors projections of gas emissions and plans for reducing emissions before building facilities such as hotels and theaters that may draw vehicles.
In addition, trucking and transport companies in areas surrounding the designated ones are required to work out measures to cut vehicle emissions such as reducing the number of their entries into such areas.
Bullying Stories
“So, what is Bullying Long Term Effects and Bullying Stories Blog about. It’s actually been 28 years in the making for me. I am currently working on a documentary film about the long term effects of bullying. With this blog, I am hoping to collect your stories and start to share in what I believe to be the long term effects that being bullied or being a bully has on us as adults. This isn’t the kids perspective, but an adult perspective on how those informative years affect how we are as adults today: our fears, our attitude, and our memories of childhood.
Lauren Nelson helps nab child preditors and pedophiles
Lauren Nelson is a beauty queen from Lawton, Oklahoma who holds the Miss America 2007 title. Nelson is the second consecutive Miss America and sixth in the history of Miss America to hail from this state.
Nelson was Miss Teen Oklahoma 2004, and in this role, she performed at the 2005 Miss America Pageant.[2] En route to Miss America, she won the Miss Oklahoma State Fair local title and then competed in the Miss Oklahoma pageant for the first time on June 11, 2006, and was crowned Miss Oklahoma 2006, for which she received a $16,000 scholarship. At age nineteen, she was the youngest contestant to become Miss Oklahoma.
Nelson went on to represent Oklahoma in the Miss America 2007 pageant broadcast on CMT from the Aladdin Resort and Casino on January 29, 2007. She won a preliminary swimsuit award on Thursday night, becoming her state’s first Swimsuit preliminary award since 1955. At the conclusion of the live telecast, Nelson was crowned the 82nd Miss America. She succeeds Jennifer Berry, of Jenks, Oklahoma, in the first occurrence of consecutive winners from the same state since 1959-1960.
A graduate of MacArthur High School, Nelson is a student at the University of Central Oklahoma. She is also a member of Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority. She is a member of Centenary United Methodist Church in Lawton, Oklahoma. Her goal is to become a Broadway performer. Her Miss America talent was a vocal performance, and her platform issue is “Be NetSmart – Protecting Kids Online”. She receives a $50,000 scholarship award along with the title.
In a recent article she expressed support for Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama.[3]
Nelson recently teamed up with host John Walsh on the FOX television show America’s Most Wanted to assist in the apprehension of potential child predators. Initial reports as of May 1, 2007, stated that she did not plan to return to testify against those predators that were apprehended, putting the prosecution’s case in jeopardy. [4] However, she appeared to change her mind later that day, and it is reported that she will testify against the perpetrators.
Source: Wikipedia
Immigration
Immigration
Although human migration has existed throughout human history, immigration in the modern sense refers to movement of people from one nation-state to another. Immigration implies long-term permanent residence (and often eventual citizenship) by the immigrants: tourists and short-term visitors are not considered immigrants (see expatriates). However, seasonal labour migration (typically for periods of less than a year) is often treated as a form of immigration. The global volume of immigration is high in absolute terms, but low in relative terms. The UN estimated 190 million international migrants in 2005, about 3% of global population. The other 97% still live in the state in which they were born, or its successor state.
Northern Illinois Shooting
Five dead in Illinois university mass shooting
By Tom Leonard in New York
Last Updated: 2:38am GMT 15/02/2008
A gunman has opened fire in a packed university lecture hall in Illinois, shooting 18 people and killing four before turning his gun on himself.
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| Rescue workers carry a victim out of the university lecture hall where the gunman opened fire |
The attacker, described as a tall skinny white young man dressed entirely in black, walked out from behind a screen in a geology class around 3pm, said officials at Northern Illinois University.
The gunman, armed with a shotgun and two handguns, then opened fire before shooting himself on the stage.
Police officials said five people had died, including the gunman. Many victims were shot in the head at the university in DeKalb, 65 miles west of Chicago.
Witnesses said the gunman- said to be aged between 18 and 20 – kicked open a door near the stage in Cole Hall just 10 minutes before the end of the lecture and started shooting with the shotgun without saying a word.
Dispensing with the shotgun, the gunman – who was wearing a black ski cap and black trenchcoat – pulled out a pistol and walked down the aisles firing it into the crowd of terrified students.
Police Chief Donald Grady said the gunman was a student but not at the DeKalb campus.
Kevin McEnery, who was sitting in the fourth row of the lecture, estimated that he let off around 30 shots. He said: “He just kicked the door open and started shooting. I didn’t hear him say anything, just people shouting and screaming to get out.”
Some students dived for cover under their desks while others ran for the exits.
The campus was plunged into panic, as students poured out of the building, many trying to use their mobile phones and others simply praying.
All the injured were taken to the local Kishwaukee Community Hospital which said it had received 17 victims, of whom three or four had head wounds.
The university issued a statement on its website about an hour after the shooting saying that “the immediate danger has passed. The gunman is no longer a threat.”
George Gaynor, a fourth year geography student, who was in Cole Hall when the shooting happened, described the gunman as “a skinny white guy with a stocking cap on”.
He described the scene immediately following the incident as terrifying and chaotic. “Some girl got hit in the eye, a guy got hit in the leg,” he said.
Some witnesses said the gunman shot at random but Edward Robinson, another student, claimed he appeared to target students in one part of the lecture hall. “It was almost like he knew who he wanted to shoot. He knew who and where he wanted to be firing at,” he said.
All classes were cancelled on Thursday night and the 25,000-student campus was closed on Friday.
In April last year, 32 died after a mentally-disturbed and heavily armed student ran amok in the Virginia Tech campus. The incident prompted immediate changes in Virginia law that had allowed the gunman, Seung-Hui Cho, to buy handguns.
Bebo
Bebo is a social networking website, designed to allow friends to communicate in various ways. It has developed into an online community where users can post pictures, write blogs and send messages to one another, and is similar in format to MySpace, Xanga, and Yahoo! 360. The site was founded in January 2005 by Michael Birch and his wife, Xochi Birch. It was given a major relaunch in July of that year.
Bebo is the 89th most popular English-language website (at 2 May 2007) according to Alexa Internet. In the United States, Bebo was the fastest growing social networking site in June 2006 according to Hitwise, Inc. Bebo also announced on March 17, 2007 that it was the most popular website in the Republic of Ireland. Bebo as a keyword was also listed as the number one term most representative of search trends on Google in 2006.
Features
Once a user has registered an account, they edit and maintain their own profile page using online forms. The top of a user’s profile contains information about the user, which would typically include their name, a customizable profile image (often a photo of the user), and some miscellaneous information under various headings. Although default headings are provided, many users create their own to reflect their own interests.
Profiles include; a whiteboard, in which other users can draw pictures with a variety of colors using a system called ffArt, a comment section where other users can leave a message, and a list of the user’s friends. These are all publicly viewable, unless the user selects the “Private Profile” option, which limits access to the profile to friends specifically added by the user.
Profiles are also capable of including quizzes, slide-shows of images uploaded by the user, polls for their friends to vote in, photo albums, blogs with a comments section for others’ responses, a list of bands (see below) of which the profile-holder is a “groupie” and a “Flash Box”; which plays video, often linked from popular Internet site YouTube, or uploaded directly to Bebo’s servers. Members can also add “widgets” which are more graphically rich components provided by an external site — typically something like a slide-show of the member’s photos with some transition effect applied.
Bebo Bands
On 11 July 2006, “Bebo Bands” was launched On this section of the site, bands or solo artists are able to create a profile showcasing their music. Along with undiscovered talents, it has a section called “New Music Only on Bebo” linking to established artist pages including Paris Hilton, Matt Willis, Orson, Coldplay, Kylie Minogue, The Kooks, Lily Allen, and others.
The band pages include; a band member list which is similar to the friends list on a normal profile, a list of “groupies” (fans who have added the band as though it were a friend), an area for tour dates, a blog, and a list of songs which have been uploaded for playing through Bebo’s media player, or to be added to other user’s playlists. These songs can be grouped by the band into albums, along with cover-art. All band members can edit the content of the band profile.
Although the Bebo Band section is intended for use by musical groups, the facility is also used by many to form clubs or societies, or as unofficial fan pages for established bands.
Controversy
Concern has been raised about potential risks to children from pedophiles accessing personal information contained in profiles. This can, however, be prevented by making one’s profile private. A survey of two million profiles by Bigulo.com found that one in three publicly accessible profiles belonged to children under the age of eighteen.
In March 2006 Norfolk County Council is believed to have become the first LEA in the United Kingdom to order all schools in its authority to block the website from school computers due to its being used for “unsavoury activities”.
In March 2006 in Derry, Bebo was used to organise a sectarian fight under the guise of a cross community football match.
Source: Wikipedia
Michael Steven Bublé
Michael Steven Bublé (born 9 September 1975) is a critically acclaimed Grammy-nominated, multiple Juno Award-winning Canadian crooner, big band singer and actor. While achieving modest chart success in the United States, his 2003 self-titled album has reached the top ten in Canada, the UK and Australia. In 2004, a live album and video called Come Fly with Me was listed on the Billboard music video charts and reached Australia’s top 40 album charts. He reached commercial success in the U.S. with It’s Time. He currently lives in Vancouver. His third album, Call Me Irresponsible, was released on May 1, 2007
Early years
Bublé was born in Burnaby, British Columbia. He is of Italian descent with dual citizenship in Italy. He graduated from Cariboo Hill Secondary School. Bublé grew up listening to his grandfather’s collection of jazz records. On his website, Bublé highlights the importance of his grandfather in encouraging his musical tastes. “My grandfather was really my best friend growing up. He was the one who opened me up to a whole world of music that seemed to have been passed over by my generation. Although I like rock and roll and modern music, the first time my granddad played me the Mills Brothers, something magical happened. The lyrics were so romantic, so real… the way a song should be for me. It was like seeing my future flash before me. I wanted to be a singer and I knew that this was the music that I wanted to sing.”
Bublé’s grandmother encouraged him to learn the standards that he loved and to enter a talent contest in Vancouver which he won before a later disqualification for being underage. Not discouraged, he won first prize in a Canadian Youth Talent Search at the age of seventeen.
For the next few years, Bublé pursued a musical career without great success. He appeared as Elvis in a Red Rock Diner road show and sang as a star of a musical revue called Forever Swing. He also appeared in an episode of pleth Game in 1996. He recorded a couple of independent albums, one as a present to his grandfather. Bublé received two Genie Award-nominations in 2000 for both songs he wrote for the film Here’s to Life starring fellow Canadian Eric McCormack.
Career breakthrough
Bublé’s career breakthrough came when Michael McSweeney, associate to former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, saw his performance at a business party. Having enjoyed Bublé’s performance, McSweeney was given an album, which he gave to Mulroney and his wife. Bublé was then invited to sing at the wedding of Mulroney’s daughter Caroline in 2000, where he sang Kurt Weill’s “Mack the Knife”. At the wedding, Brian Mulroney introduced Bublé to David Foster, a multi-Grammy award winning producer and a Warner Brothers record executive who had worked with Josh Groban previously. Foster signed Bublé to his ‘143′ record label, producing the self-titled album Michael Bublé in 2000. The album features a range of standards from various eras including “Fever”, “The Way You Look Tonight”, “For Once in My Life”, Van Morrison’s “Moondance” and Lou Rawls’s “You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine”. Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees sang back up vocals on Bublé’s version of the group’s “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?”.
Michael Bublé was released in early 2003 and soon entered the Canadian album charts. Chart success in the UK, U.S., Australia and elsewhere soon followed with the album going Platinum and reaching the top ten of the album charts in the UK and Canada and going all the way to #1 in Australia. The album has reached the top 50 of the Billboard 200 album charts in the U.S. His version of George Michael’s “Kissing a Fool” was released as a single from the album and reached the top 30 of the Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart. “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart” reached the top 30 of the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart as well. His third single “Sway”, originally performed by Dean Martin, also reached the top 30 of the Adult Contemporary chart, while a Junkie XL remix of the song reached the top 20 in Australia in May 2004.
Bublé won the “Best New Artist” award at the Juno Awards of 2004 and his self-titled album was nominated for “Album of the Year”, but lost out to Sam Roberts.
Bublé released a Christmas EP Let it Snow in late 2003. The title track reached the top 40 of the Antartica singles chart, ironically in mid-summer in that country. He released a live album and video in April 2004 with the video reaching the top 10 of the Billboard video charts. The album also reached the top 50 of the Australian album charts as at the end of April and the Billboard 200 album charts.
Bublé has also appeared in a variety of films in the past few years including his appearance as a karaoke singer in Duets opposite Gwyneth Paltrow and Huey Lewis. He also has appeared in Totally Blonde in 2001 and in The Snow Walker in 2003.
Songs from Bublé’s debut album (“For Once in My Life”, “Kissing a Fool”) were released on the soundtrack for the Ewan McGregor/Renée Zellweger movie Down with Love, but the soundtrack also included a previously unreleased duet with Holly Palmer on the movie’s title theme. The Junkie XL remix of “Spider-Man” from Bublé’s Babalu album was played during the closing credits of Spider-Man 2, and this version was also released as a single.
It’s Time: Bublé goes mainstream
Bublé’s second studio album, It’s Time, debuted as a hugely successful sophomore performance. The album reached number 7 on the Billboard 200 album chart and number 2 on the ARIA Album Charts in Australia. It’s Time also debuted at number 4 on the UK Album Charts. The album features covers of Beatles and Ray Charles songs, and the hit single “Home”.
Bublé can be seen in Starbucks commercials singing his cover of the Jimmy Van Heusen/Sammy Cahn swing standard, “Come Fly with Me” from his debut album, and more recently, ESPN has used “Feeling Good” in commercials for poker tournaments.
Michael Bublé has now sold in excess of ten million recordings worldwide. His popularity continues to grow as he has a massive following across Europe, North America, Australia, Southeast Asia, South Africa and Brazil.
Michael Bublé won four Juno Awards (equivalent of the American Grammy Awards) at the 2006 Juno Awards in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, including “Pop Album of the Year” (It’s Time), “Single of the Year” (“Home”), Album of the Year (It’s Time), and Artist of the Year. He was also nominated for the Juno Fan Choice Award, but did not win. Overall, Michael Bublé took away the most awards at the 2006 Junos.
He is managed by Bruce Allen, who also manages Martina McBride and Bryan Adams.
Bublé has collected some of the best musicians in the world to appear with him, many of which have released albums of their own. In concert, he often features an instrumental number.
On April 4, 2007, Bublé appeared on American Idol, as a last minute replacement to Tony Bennett, singing Frank Sinatra’s “Call Me Irresponsible.” He later joked with Ryan Seacrest asking, “Am I wasting my votes still voting for Antonella Barba?” The next day, members of the media speculated as to whether or not Bublé was intoxicated while on American Idol because of slurred speech and frequent laughing during his performance.
Personal life
Bublé was engaged to long-time girlfriend Debbie Timuss, a stage actor, dancer/ballerina, and singer. Both were in the musicals Red Rock Diner in 1996 and Dean Regan’s Forever Swing in 1998. Timuss was listed as one of the dedicatees in Bublé’s self-titled album Michael Bublé and It’s Time, and as background vocalist on It’s Time. While away in Italy, Bublé co-wrote the hit single “Home” for Timuss. She was also featured in his Home music video. They were later engaged in 2004 and ended their relationship in November 2005. He then dated Grammy-winning Canadian singer Emma Banigan. They met in 2004 at his concert in Toronto. He is now dating British actress Emily Blunt.
Bublé grew up with a best friend from Denmark (‘Rasmus’) with whom he celebrated julefrokost quite often. He is fond of Danish Schnapps, familiar with Danish culture and Danish drinking songs, and speaks a bit of Danish, which he mentioned at a concert in Denmark. He is also good friends with Vancouver Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongo.
Source: Wikipedia
Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy
| Nicolas Sarkozy |
