Free Kareem
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Latest News from freekareem.org- 2 years ago..
- Another letter from Kareem
- Summary of Kareem’s latest letter from prison
- Practicing free speech continues to be a serious risk in the Egyptian blogosphere
- 808 days in prison
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Oscar De La Hoya
Oscar De La Hoya (IPA pronunciation: [ˈɑs.kɛɹ dÉ›.lÉ‘.ˈhɔɪ.jÉ‘][1]) (born February 4, 1973) — nicknamed the Golden Boy — is a Mexican American boxer who won a gold medal for the United States Boxing Team at the Barcelona Olympic Games and is considered one of boxing’s all time greats. Oscar De La Hoya became Ring Magazine’s “Fighter of the Year” in 1995 and Ring Magazine’s best “Pound for Pound” fighter in the world in 1997. His fights throughout his entire career have generated a total of almost half a billion dollars in sales alone. During his amateur career, De La Hoya’s record was 223-5 with 163 knockouts. He was the United States’ top Olympic boxing hope when his mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. She died at age 35. On her death bed, he promised her that he would win an Olympic gold medal.
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Childhood
De La Hoya was born in East Los Angeles, California. At the age of eight he was the youngest fighter to win first place in Freewill games. He never lost a fight for 4 years and 5 months until he met Marco Rudolph, who was the best fighter from Germany at the time. He avenged the loss by winning the gold medal in the Olympics. He had an impressive record in the amateurs with 223 wins, 5 losses and an impressive 163 knockouts, a record matched by only a handful of other boxers in history.
Career
On November 23, 1992, De La Hoya made his pro debut. He went on to win titles in 4 different weight divisions including lightweight, super lightweight, welterweight, and junior middleweight. He also beat former and current world champions Troy Dorsey (TKO 1), Jorge Paez (KO 2), Genaro Hernandez (TKO 6), John John Molina (W 12), Rafael Ruelas (TKO 2), Julio César Chávez (TKO 4, TKO 8), Miguel Angel Gonzalez (W 12), Jesse James Leija (TKO 2), Pernell Whitaker, Hector “Macho” Camacho (W 12), Ike Quartey (W 12), Arturo Gatti (TKO 5), Javier Castillejo (W 12), and Fernando Vargas (TKO 11). His losses include a controversial majority-decision loss to Félix Trinidad and two decision losses to Shane Mosley, a split-decision, and a controversial unanimous decision. He has been stopped once in his career by Bernard Hopkins (KO 9). The fight with Félix Trinidad was the highest selling non-heavyweight pay per view of all-time, selling over 1.2 million buys. [1]
On September 14, 2002, De La Hoya fought his nemesis “Ferocious” Fernando Vargas. Their feud had began when De La Hoya allegedly laughed at Vargas years earlier when Vargas fell into a snowbank. [2]. After fiercely competitive early rounds, De La Hoya seized control of the latter half of the fight. In round 11, De La Hoya dropped Vargas with a left hook. Vargas got up at the count of nine, but de la Hoya finished him with a barrage of punches forcing the referee to stop the fight at 1:48 of round 11 (TKO 11). It was later revealed that Vargas had tested positive for steroids in his post-fight drug test.
On May 3, 2003, as part of the Cinco de Mayo festivities, he retained his WBC and WBA world junior middleweight championships when the corner of former world champion Yory Boy Campas threw in the towel, and officially gave De La Hoya a seventh round technical-knockout win. On September 13, he and former rival Mosley met once again, in Las Vegas, and Mosley took away De La Hoya’s world title belts via controversial unanimous decision. De La Hoya would later demand an investigation into the scorecards. [3]
De La Hoya next challenged Felix Sturm for the WBO world middleweight title on June 5, 2004. He was awarded a controversial unanimous decision, to become the first boxer in history to win world titles in six different weight divisions. All three judges scored the bout 115-113 in favor of De La Hoya. Compubox statistics counted Sturm as landing 234 of 541 punches, while counting De La Hoya as landing 188 of 792. [4]
Middleweight Challenge against Hopkins
After that, he hoped to unify that title with the three other world middleweight championships, held by Bernard Hopkins, on September 18. He lost to Hopkins by a ninth round knockout. A left hand to the body sent him to the canvas, knocking De La Hoya out for the first time in his career. Hopkins was ahead on two scorecards by the scores of 79-73 and 78-74, while a third judge had De La Hoya winning 77-75.[5] De La Hoya made $30 million for the fight and Hopkins, who made only $300,000 in a fight just nine months before fighting De La Hoya, got a minimum of $10 million. It was the biggest payday of Hopkins’s career. Hopkins would later join de la Hoya’s own boxing promotion firm; he owns twelve percent of univision Golden Boy Promotions.
Comeback Against Mayorga
De La Hoya faced WBC world junior middleweight Ricardo Mayorga on May 6, 2006 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
In the opening round, he dropped Mayorga with a right hand followed by a huge left hook. Mayorga rose but walked into another hail of shots and was about to go down for a second time when De La Hoya ripped him with another right hand, but Mayorga grabbed on to De La Hoya to stay up. Mayorga’s only positive moment came in the third, when an uppercut stunned De La Hoya, but Oscar had done more than enough to win the round. In the 6th round, firing punch after punch, De La Hoya dropped Mayorga to his knees, and although Mayorga got up, he was in bad shape. De La Hoya pounced on Mayorga immediately and never stopped firing as Mayorga wilted along the ropes. De La Hoya fired 21 punches, landing the majority of them, forcing referee Nady to step in at 1:25.
Many have thought it would be a close fight because de la Hoya was coming off a long layoff. However, he fought much better than expected and won the bout by a TKO in round 6.
Mayweather Fight
- See also: De La Hoya-Mayweather
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The neutrality of this section is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. |
De La Hoya did not fight again in 2006, but recently lost his scheduled May 5, 2007 bout with Floyd Mayweather Jr., who is the recognized welterweight champion and pound-for-pound number one in the world. The fight took place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. De La Hoya lost his WBC super welterweight title to Mayweather by a split decision. Early Las Vegas odds had Oscar as a 2-to-1 underdog to the younger Mayweather.
Mayweather showed more speed than his opponent but frustrated De La Hoya and the crowd with his continued covering-up and clinching whenever the champion pressed him against the ropes.
The fight was close throughout, with neither man showing dominance. De La Hoya, constantly pursuing a foe that was clearly wary of standing toe-to-toe with the bigger, more powerful champion, tried to back the challenger against the ropes as often as possible in hopes of landing effective power punches.
Oscar, being the aggressor from the beginning to the end, had trouble landing his powerful left hook. He did catch Mayweather with some solid, straight right hands, but diminished the use of his highly effective jab as the fight wore on, and started to give the challenger more and more room to score from the outside.
Mayweather’s elusiveness, accurate power shots, and activity in the later rounds made a big enough impression on two of the three judges in Las Vegas that night to get the win. Mayweather Jr. won the bout by a split decision, winning the title and improving his record to 38-0. The final scores were 115-113 De La Hoya, 116-112 Mayweather and 115-113 for Mayweather.
It has been reported that Oscar will earn at least $25 million for the fight, and Floyd will earn at least $10 million.[citation needed]
De La Hoya became embroiled in controversy when Freddie Roach, who is training him for the Mayweather fight, admitted in a deposition that De La Hoya brought $250,000 in cash in a suitcase and gave it to super featherweight boxing star Manny Pacquiao as an inducement to try to sign him to a promotional contract. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported the story on March 1, 2007, and the Los Angeles Times followed with a report on March 2, 2007.
Amateur Highlights
| Olympic medal record |
- 1990 Gold Medalist U.S. Olympic Cup
- 1990 Gold Medalist Goodwill Games
- 1990 Gold U.S. National Championships
- 1991 Gold Medalist USA vs. Olympic Festival
- 1992 Gold Medalist USA vs. Boxing National Championships
- 1992 Gold Medalist USA vs. Bulgaria
- 1992 Gold Medalist World Challenge
Amateur record: 224-5 with 164 knockouts
Professional Record
| Record to Date | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Won 38 (KOs 30) | Lost 5 | Drawn 0 | Total 43 |
| Date | Opponent | W-L-D | Location | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WBC Super Welterweight Title |
Pay-Per-View History
Rafael Ruelas( 5/95) 330,000 buys = $9.9 million
Genaro Hernandez(9/95) 220,000 buys = $6.6 million
M.A. Gonzalez(1/97) 345,000 buys = $12.1 million
Pernell Whitaker(4/97) 720,000 buys = $28.8 million
Hector Camacho(9/97) 560,000 buys = $22.4 million
Wilfredo Rivera(12/97) 240,000 buys = $9.6 million
J.C Chavez II( 9/98) 525,000 buys = $23.6 million
Ike Quartey( 2/99) 570,000 buys =$25.7 million
Felix Trinidad(9/99) 1.4 million buys = $71.4 million
Shane Mosley(6/00) 590,000 buys = $29.5 million
Javier Castillejo(6/01) 400,000 buys = $16.0 million
Fernando Vargas(9/02) 935,000 buys = $47.8 million
Yory Boy Campas(5/03) 350,000 buys = $17.5 million
Shane Mosley II( 9/03) 950,000 buys = $48.4 million
Felix Sturm(6/04) 380,000 buys = $19.0 million
Bernard Hopkins(9/04) 1 million buys = $56.0 million
Totals: 9,515,000 buys, generating $444.3 million.[2]
Life Outside the Ring
Cover to Oscar de la Hoya’s self titled CD from EMI International. Released October 10, 2000
De la Hoya is one of the favorite boxers of American cable channel HBO, where he formerly produced a popular Spanish-language boxing show called Boxeo de Oro. De la Hoya’s interests outside the ring include architecture, acting, fashion designing, and singing. He designed his own house in Big Bear Lake, California, has one clothing line through Mervyns department stores, and released a Grammy-nominated CD, entitled Oscar de la Hoya. Released through EMI International on October 10, 2000, the self-titled CD is a Latin Pop album with thirteen tracks in both English and Spanish. His singing career was ridiculed in MTV, with the hosts telling him to stick to boxing instead.
He married Puerto Rican singer Millie Corretjer on October 5, 2001, and lives in Los Angeles and Puerto Rico. Their first child, Oscar Gabriel, was born on December 29, 2005, in Puerto Rico. An hour after his loss on May 5, 2007, to Floyd Mayweather, Millie told Oscar that she was pregnant again. This will be Millie’s second child, Oscar’s fifth. De la Hoya has three other children: Jacob (b. February 18, 1998) by a woman whose identity is unknown; Devon de la Hoya (b. November 30, 1998) by former Las Vegas showgirl, Angelicque McQueen, (a great niece of film star Steve McQueen) and Atiana Cecilia (b. March 29, 1999) by actress Shanna Moakler. A Santa Barbara woman brought civil charges against De La Hoya for allegedly raping her at his condo in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, in 1996 when she was 15. De La Hoya denies the rape but says he settled with the woman “for a very low amount of money.”
In the summer of 2004, de la Hoya starred in and hosted a boxing reality television series on Fox and Fox Sports Net titled The Next Great Champ.
In April 2005, de la Hoya and a Southern California real estate developer, Highridge Partners, formed a real estate investment partnership, named Golden Boy Partners, to invest in Latino neighborhoods.
In September 2005, de la Hoya’s wallet was stolen by a pickpocket. The wallet contained a $1 food stamp coupon, a reminder of his poverty-stricken childhood in East Los Angeles which was very important to him.
American Dream
American Dream
There are many concepts of the clichéd American Dream. Former President Bill Clinton’s administration believed the American Dream to consist of everyone residing in America to enjoy comfort and free medical care (Roark 1135). Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. believed the American Dream to be one of racial equality, as Barnet and Bedau described in their reproduced speech (803-806). Different people romanticize various notions of monetary, racial, and religious equality, diversity, and tolerance. This assortment of liberal ideals has caused the Americans’ accord to stray from the actual dream.
Ideal Society
Ideal Society
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.†In 1776, on July 4, Americans affirmed that they were free of the long-held, yet patronizing view that ordinary people are inept at self-government. These pioneers boldly declared that government is not a supreme entity to which the governed are subordinate, but rather it is an instrument of the people, by which, and more importantly through which, the peoples’ desires are achieved by their own accord. Read more
Literary Review: Declaration of Independence (Thomas Jefferson)
Thomas Jefferson’s “Declaration of Independenceâ€
Thomas Jefferson is esteemed as one of the most significant figures in American history, despite being misrepresented by scholars. The former American president, credited with a plethora of writings, is most famous for his Declaration of Independence. This political paper is the founding document for the United States of America. Through Jefferson, the Founding Fathers declared their independence from England and the rationale in support of their action (Raphael 117-152). Not generally thought of as a literary work, a few prominent historians have conducted critical analyses of its content, style, and sources. Some scholars focus on the text’s creative technique, while others ponder its sources and their relevance. Americans are wide-ranging in their evaluation of its assignment in the development of the county’s heritage and in their interpretations of its implications. Scholars dedicate a great deal of effort to study the Declaration. However, instead of expounding on the understanding, it greatly increases the amounts and variances of viewpoints.
Religion as a Cyber Society
The exponential growth of the Cyber society and Cyber culture within the Internet has not gone unnoticed by the “religious community.†As I write, church web sites are being published and electronic prayer groups zip by in modems and wire networks across the globe. Even isolated monasteries like the Monastery of the Christ in the Desert (see sidebar) are able to send their Benedictine messages from their cloister in New Mexico. New age religions also use the [virtual] soil of the Internet as the center of their “virtual church†(see end of the Cyber society Observation for links on religious web pages). With these in mind, it is safe to write that Religion has seamlessly incorporated itself within the realm of Cyber society. The presence of Religion in Net Culture is not an unforeseen trend. Although Religion and Modernity does not have the best relationship, Religion has learned that they need to conform with the current trends of technology to survive. Read more
Kentucky Derby
Kentucky Derby
| Grade 1 Race | ||
|---|---|---|
| Kentucky Derby | ||
 “The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports” |
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| Location | Churchill Downs Louisville, Kentucky, USA |
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| Inaugurated: | 1875 | |
| Race type | Thoroughbred | |
| Website: | 2007 Kentucky Derby | |
| Race information | ||
| Distance | 1¼ miles | |
| Track | Dirt, Left-handed | |
| Qualification | 3-year-old | |
| Weight | Colt/Gelding: 126 lbs (57.2 kg) Filly: 121 lbs. (54.9 kg) |
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| Purse | US$2 million | |
| Bonuses: | US$ 200 | |
The Kentucky Derby is a Grade I stakes race for three-year-old thoroughbred horses, staged annually in Louisville, Kentucky, on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The race is over one and a quarter miles (2 km) at Churchill Downs. Colts and geldings carry 126 pounds (57.2 kg) and fillies 121 pounds (54.9 kg).[1] The race is known in the United States as “The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports” for its approximate duration, and is also called “The Run for the Roses” for the blanket of roses draped over the winner. It is the first leg of the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing in the US and typically draws around 155,000 fans. It is the single oldest annually held sporting event in the entire South. Read more
Muhammad
Muhammad
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
“Muhammad” in a new genre of Islamic calligraphy started in the 17th century by Hafiz Osman.[1]
Joost
(pronounced ‘juiced’) is a system for distributing TV shows and other forms of video over the Web using peer-to-peer TV technology, created by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis (founders of Skype and Kazaa).
Joost began development in 2006. Working under the code name “The Venice Project,” Zennström and Friis have assembled teams of some 150 software developers in about a half-dozen cities around the world, including New York, London, Leiden and Toulouse. Joost’s CTO is Dirk-Willem van Gulik.[1]
The teams are currently in negotiations with FOX networks. It has signed up with Warner Music, Indianapolis Motor Speedway Productions (Indianapolis 500, IndyCar Series) and production company Endemol for the beta.[2] In February 2007, Viacom entered into a deal with the company to distribute content from its media properties, including MTV Networks, BET and film studio Paramount Pictures.
Company representatives have gone on record as saying the name should be pronounced as “juiced”, unlike the Dutch first name Joost, which is pronounced ‘Yohst.’
Technology
P2PTV overlay network serving three video streams.
P2PTV overlay network serving three video streams.
The program is based on P2PTV technology and is expected to deliver (relaying) near-TV resolution images. It turns a PC into an instant on-demand TV without any need for additional set top box. News updates, discussion forums, show ratings, and multi-user chat sessions (often linked to the active stream/channel) are made possible through the use of semi-transparent widget overlays.
The current version of the software is based on XULRunner and the audio management re-uses the ZAP Media Kit. The peer to peer layer comes from the Joltid company, which also provided the peer to peer layer of Skype. The video playback utilizes the CoreCodec, CoreAVC H.264 video decoder.
[edit] Financing
[edit] Joost development
As co-owners of Skype, Friis and Zennström received part of a $2.6 billion cash payment when eBay acquired Skype in 2005, which easily covered the development and marketing cost of their Joost venture. Just a week after launching the service, the founders announces that they have raised additional $45 million. Sequoia Capital, which backed Yahoo, Google and YouTube; Index Ventures, an early investor in Skype; Li Ka-shing, the Hong Kong tycoon; and CBS, the US media group, have all taken “small minority†stakes in the start-up. Viacom is also understood to be among the partners, although the nature of its backing has not been disclosed.
[edit] Content distribution
As opposed to streaming technology in which all clients get the feed from the server, P2P TV technology differs in the sense that the servers serve only a handful of clients; each of the clients in turn propagate the stream to more downstream clients and so on. This moves the distribution costs from the channel owner to the user.
The Joost service will be ad-supported, with advertising analogous to that shown on traditional TV, according to CEO Fredrik de Wahl.[4]
[edit] Availability
Currently, the software is in an open beta stage; an invite is required to become a user. However, a new stage of the beta was announced on May 1st, and all users were given unlimited invitations.[5] Linux is not yet supported.
[edit] Programming Content
Viacom Inc. and Joost entered into a content provider agreement for the Joost platform on February 20, 2007. Under the agreement divisions of Viacom (including MTV Networks, BET Networks and Paramount Pictures) will license their “television and theatrical programing” to Joost.[6] This came shortly after Viacom requested 100,000 potentially infringing videos to be removed from YouTube.com, which showed a preference by Viacom for the Joost platform over YouTube.[7]
Joost also currently has licensing agreements in place with Ministry of Sound TV, Warner Music, the production company Endemol[8], Diversion Media[9], CBS[10] and CenterStaging’s rehearsals.com[11]. On May 1, 2007, Joost signed a deal to distribute NHL content, including full game replays of the Stanley Cup Finals, and vintage games.[12]
[edit] Channels
The Joost applications includes three special channels What’s Popular, Search, and Joost Suggests which offers services, like searching the channel list or gathering statistics about channels, that can be used to find a channel that can be viewed. Apart from that, it also lists a number of channels serving various genres of content.[13]
[edit] History
[edit] Timeline
* 2006, October: The Venice Project announced.
* 2006, December: Invitation-only beta testing began.
* 2007, January 16: Officially announce real name, “Joost”[14]
* 2007, February 17: Macintosh beta testing began
* 2007, February 20: Viacom announces that it will be a “key partner” in television programming for Joost.
* 2007, March 7: CHUM Television announces its partnership with Joost to provide content, the majority of which to come from MuchMusic.
* 2007, April 5: Joost opens the newest beta version 0.9.1 to many new users, however bugs prevail and problems with playback now exist.
* 2007, April 10: Joost releases beta 0.9.2 to remove a hard-coded security certificate. Previous versions no longer run.
* 2007, April 24: Joost releases beta 0.9.4
* 2007, May 1: Joost releases beta 0.10.1 , granting existing beta users the ability to invite up to 999 peers to try Joost.
* 2007, May 9: Joost releases beta 0.10.2
[edit] See also
* Internet television
* Democracy Player
* TVUPlayer
* Babelgum
* Zattoo
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.
