encino man

• Rating:
• Genre: Comedy
• Movie Type: Sci-Fi Comedy, Teen Movie
• Themes: Fish Out of Water, Time Sleepers, Assumed Identities
• Director: Les Mayfield
• Main Cast: Sean Astin, Pauly Shore, Brendan Fraser, Mariette Hartley, Richard Masur, Megan Ward, Rick Ducommun, Rose McGowan, Robin Tunney
• Release Year: 1992
• Country: US
• Run Time: 88 minutes
• MPAA Rating: PG

Plot

A clueless caveman meets his intellectual match in the form of Pauly Shore in this teen-oriented comedy. Dave Morgan (Sean Astin) is a high school student in Encino, California, where he spends most of his time with his dazed-and-confused buddy Stoney Brown (Shore) and tries to figure out why his girlfriend Robyn (Megan Ward) left him for thick-headed jock Matt (Michael DeLuise). Hoping to boost his low status in the High School pecking order, Dave wants to put in a swimming pool at his family's home for a massive post-prom party. While Dave and Stoney are digging the pit, an earthquake strikes that unearths a frozen caveman (Brendan Fraser). To Dave and Stoney's surprise, the frozen Neanderthal soon comes to life, and after a bath, a shave, and a new set of clothes, the boys are passing off their dim-witted-but-friendly companion "Link" as an exchange student from Estonia. Link soon becomes the most popular guy at school, and Dave is determined to use Link's social success as a way to win back Robyn and foil Matt. Encino Man marked the directorial debut of Les Mayfield, who previously produced the critically acclaimed documentary Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

free levi coffin

A leading American antislavery reformer and a conductor of the Underground Railroad, Levi Coffin (1789-1877) contributed to the good repute in the North of illegal and contested fugitive slave activities.

Levi Coffin came of an old Nantucket, Mass., family, part of which had settled with a Quaker community in New Garden, N.C. There he was born of farmer parents on Oct. 28, 1789, and raised with little schooling. What he learned came by his own efforts. Coffin aspired at the time to be a teacher and taught a number of seasons in the area. North Carolina still permitted moderate antislavery measures. Coffin, already a friend of runaway slaves, sought means for helping them. In 1821 he opened a Sunday school for slaves. It was successful but stirred the antagonism of white neighbors, who discouraged friendly slave-holders from permitting their slaves to attend its sessions.

Increasing repression in the state dissatisfied many of Coffin's Quaker associates, and in 1826 they moved to Newport (later Fountain City), Ind., where African Americans resided freely. There Coffin opened a country store, which became a successful enterprise, soon including pork curing and the manufacture of linseed oil. By this time Coffin was wholly dedicated to peaceful measures for opposing the institution of slavery. His home became a center of secret activity for conducting runaways north to freedom on the Underground Railroad, and he gained fame as informal "president" of what was largely a loose federation of people and routes for encouraging fugitive slave enterprises. He also continued his educational efforts in behalf of African Americans.

Coffin was outstanding in his search for alternatives to slave labor and was a major advocate of "free produce," that is, goods produced by free labor. He hoped to persuade Southerners as well as Northerners of its virtues, and he visited the South in his efforts to win partisans for his program. While there he expressed himself freely in criticism of the morals and economics of slavery.

In 1847, with the cooperation of Quaker associates, Coffin moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, to build a business dealing in free produce. Thanks to his commercial abilities, it operated at a profit, though its success did not advance the free-labor movement significantly. He also continued his Underground Railroad and educational work. During the Civil War he gave much thought to the future of slaves who were being freed by military actions or proclamations. He contributed to the work of the Freedmen's Aid Associations set up to ease their plight. In 1864 he visited England to appeal for funds from auxiliary associations there and received more than $100,000 to help feed, clothe, and educate freedmen. The adoption of the 15th Amendment to the Constitution in 1869, giving the vote to African American men, marked his retirement from active service. He died on Sept. 16, 1877.

Further Reading

Coffin's autobiography, Reminiscences of Levi Coffin (1876; 3d ed. 1898), is the major source. See also Wilbur H. Siebert, The Underground Railroad from Slavery to Freedom (1898), and Carter G. Woodson, The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861 (1915).

Lewis and Clark Expedition

In 1803, Thomas Jefferson commissioned Capt. Meriwether Lewis and Lt. William Clark to explore what is now the northwest United States. The Louisiana Purchase later the same year altered the character of the planned expedition from an exploration of French territory to a first glimpse of lands that, in the view of many contemporaries, were essential to maintaining the agrarian, republican character of the nation.

The party of nearly thirty men—including Lewis and Clark, three sergeants, twenty‐two enlisted men, volunteers, interpreters, and Clark's slave—departed St. Louis in May 1804 heading up the Missouri River. They wintered at the present site of Bismarck, North Dakota, where they acquired a guide and translator, the Shoshone woman Sacagawea. In spring 1805, they continued to the headwaters of the Missouri River, struggled across the Continental Divide, and headed west along the Salmon, Snake, and Columbia Rivers to the Pacific. They returned to St. Louis the following year.

Their exploration revealed both the absence of a trans continental water route and a wealth of information, including detailed maps of their route, the earliest descriptions of Plains Indian culture, and observations of the environment. Until the development of the railroad and steamboat, however, the region they had explored remained a fur‐trapping ground and repository for removed Indians.

[See also Native Americans, U.S. Military Relations with.]

Bibliography

• James P. Ronda, Lewis and Clark Among the Indians, 1984.
• Stephen E. Ambrose, Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West, 1996

Furlong

The furlong was removed from official UK measures in 1985.The UK Weights and Measures Act 1985 explicitly excluded from use for trade the bushell, cental, chain, drachm, dram, fluid drachm, furlong, grain, hundredweight, ounce apoth., peck, pennyweight, quarter, quintal, rood, scruple, stone, ton, the square mile, cubic inch, cubic foot, cubic yard, and the term ‘metric ton’. However, the legal status of the bushell, fluid drachm, and peck had been repealed, along with all apothecaries' units and troy units other than ounce, by Order in 1970. Besides the remaining BI units and the simple SI units, the Act included the kilometre, decimetre, centimetre and millimetre, the square metre, square decimetre, square centimetre and square millimetre, the hectare and decare along with the are, the cubic metre, cubic decimetre and cubic centimetre, the hectolitre decilitre, centilitre and millilitre, the tonne (or ‘metric tonne’), kilogram, hectogram, milligram and carat (metric). All had been included in the similar Act of 1963, but with some variation of name: -gram was -gramme, decare was dekare, the tonne appeared only as metric ton.

Movie features the love song 'Everlasting Love

Everlasting Love Song

It depends on the version of Everlasting Love you are referring to and who sings it.

Songs titled "Everlasting Love" were on the following soundtracks:

- Must Love Dogs - Forces of Nature - American Psycho - Bridget Jones's diary and Hairspray

It was also in Happy Gilmore, when Happy was on the ice with his girlfriend and the caretaker mimes the song.

U2's "Everlasting Love" was in the soundtrack for the movie Forces of Nature.

It was also in the movie 'American Psycho' and music and lyrics

it was also in parent trap with Lindsay Lohan

The song Everlasting Love performed by the band U2 was on the soundtrack of the 1999 movie Forces Of Nature.

The song Everlasting Love performed by Jamie Cum was on the soundtrack of the 2004 movie Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason.

The song Everlasting love was also in the movie, "The Parent Trap", the one with Lyndsay Cohan not the one with Hayley Mills.

NKorea moving closer to restarting nuclear plant: US

WASHINGTON (AFP) — North Korea has not restarted its nuclear plant at Yongbyon but is moving closer to doing so, the US State Department said Friday.

United States Of America is pressuring North Korea not to restart there nuclear program as it can be dangerous for the U.S too.North Korea is not the first nuclear capable country beside there are many countries like Israel,India,Pakistan,South Africa,Russia,China and America too.

"I would expect that this (North Korea) will be an important topic of conversation," McCormack said.

McCormack said Christopher Hill, Rice's nuclear negotiator, would travel to New York on Sunday, but he did not know his schedule when a reporter asked if Hill would meet North Korean officials at the UN.

The officials of North Korea Said that we did previous mistakes as we will not do it again because the terrorism is not yet finished.We will restart our nuclear program and we will not come in any other pressure.

SP leader says son held after Delhi encounter innocent

Azamgarh, Sept 19: Samajwadi Party leader and father of suspected militant Mohammad Saif, who was arrested by Delhi Police after an encounter in the national capital on Friday, claimed his son was innocent and demanded a thorough probe before any punishment is meted out to him.

My son is innocent said by Tauqueer's mother and she said that my son is not involved in the serial blast held in dehli.His mother lashed out at the media and said, "Wherever my son is, he is listening and I hope that he comes forward and offers explanation."

Solankar said that Quereshi was estranged from his parents since 2001 and has been estranged even from his wife since the Mumbai train blasts."He is gentle, kind and generous and could never do such a deed," adds Solankar.

At least 20 people died in a multiple bomb attack on Delhi last week.This was happened recently before the iftaar as the Holy Month of Ramazan is going on.The terrorist belive that Indian Mujhadeen were involved in the serial blast of dehli not only this but they are also involved in the blast of Ahmedabad.


On the other, when visiting reporters were heading for Saif's house, villagers gheraoed them for about an hour before they were rescued by police and PAC personnel.
Bureau Report

cobra nav one 5000‏

Cobra NAV ONE 5000 Portable GPS with 5" Touchscreen, Text to Speech and Bluetooth

This is the Cobra NAV ONE 5000 Portable GPS that comes with a large 5-inch LCD display, an
SD memory card expansion slot, automatic rerouting capabilities, and text-to-speech technology.

more hot features

* Portable navigation system with a 5” LCD screen that shows 20% more of the road ahead when compared to traditional widescreen navigation systems
* Detailed street maps for United States and Canada
* Fixed speed and red light camera location database alerts you in advance of intersections which are often marked by Camera Enforcement devices
* iA.S.A.P – Intelligent Accelerated Satellite Acquisition Protocol allows for faster acquisition and uninterrupted satellite signal reception in urban canyons and dense foliage, using state-of-the-art GPS Engine
* Over 7 Million Points-of-Interest including banks, hotels, restaurants, gas stations, attractions and many more subdivided into over 200 sub-categories for easy searching
* Over 600 brands available with 1 touch. Choose your favorites from categories such as restaurants, large retail chains, famous coffee shops, etc and see the actual brand icon on the map
* OptiView Ultra-Bright 5-Inch Display provides large text for easy reading on your dashboard
* Text-to-speech technology, speaks street names for easy navigation
* Bluetooth hands free provides easy hands-free communication for Bluetooth enabled cell phones. Make or receive calls directly from the touch-screen on the Cobra navigation unit. View the caller-id information on the navigation screen and answer incoming calls without touching your phone
* Works under extreme temperature conditions of -4°F to 158°F, much wider than typical units
* Turn details screen is a simplified and magnified view of an approaching turn to quickly see the exact maneuver with the least amount of distraction
* Automatic rerouting capabilities includes detour and “via” capabilities
* Visually compare 2 routes on your map screen and choose the one you prefer
* Includes odometer, trip timers, speedometers, and verbal warnings when exceeding your chosen vehicle speed
* Optional real-time traffic lets you monitor traffic conditions, and warns you of traffic delays then offers the option of re-routing
* SD Memory Card Expansion Slot for future feature expandability
* SmartPower™ Automatically shuts off power to the unit when ignition is turned off
* Adjustable Speed Warning Voice warning when exceeding your chosen vehicle speed
* Rechargeable lithium-ion battery
* Dimensions: 4.25×1.25 x 5.25

US Market Down‏

Worries over Inflation Send U.S. Market down

The U.S. stock market traded down for a second straight day on Wednesday over new concerns about the rate of inflation, according to Bloomberg and other news sources.

bor costs rose 1.8%, which was higher than analysts had been predicting and investors had been expecting. The data raised fears about inflation not being as tamed as the Federal Reserve believes, and interest rates might be targeted for raising by the Fed later on. The Labor Department reported the rise in labor costs while also reporting the expected drop in productivity in the first quarter.

Analysts had expected a 1.3% rise in the cost of labor.The Standard & Poor's 500 index shed 4.69% while the Nasdaq composite index was 3.60% lower by close of trade.The falls came after shares in leading European indexes had ended lower.Earlier in the day, the UK's FTSE 100 index had closed 3.92% down, while France's Cac 40 index shed 3.78% and Germany's Dax lost 2.74%.Asian markets were hit by the news with Australian shares down 1.8%.

The U.S Market Was not only down but it effected the Whole Market special these cities london,tokyo,Sao Palo and may other cities.

Dollar rally unsustainable'

On the London Bullion Market, the price of gold rose to 785.70 dollars per ounce, from 750.25 late on Friday.Gold was bought as a safe haven and initially knocked the dollar to two-month lows against the yen.

Loan fund

Lehman Brothers has suffered losses of billions of dollars in the sub-prime crisis, and has seen its share price plummet during recent months.A consortium of international private sector banks and securities firms announced a new $70bn loan fund, intended for use by financial companies to help ease the credit shortage.

Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Sandra Pianalto and Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke issued a statement to the extent that they feel that prices are rising too."Inflation causes reduced consumer spending, it squeezes profit margins. The market has been making new highs. It can't go up forever," John Kornitzer of Kornitzer Capital Management in Shawnee Mission, Kansas, told Bloomberg. quickly.

Yemen News

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Militants disguised as soldiers detonated two car bombs outside the United States Embassy compound in Sana, Yemen, on Wednesday morning, killing 16 people, including 6of the attackers, Yemeni officials said.

In Yemen One of the city sana where there is only peace no war came in the world of darkness because there was a massive explosion in the city of Sana,Yemen.No american Officials or embassy employees were killed or wounded.Six of the dead were Yemeni guards at the compound entrance, and the other four killed were civilians waiting to be allowed in.

Tourists feared among dead in Yemen blast.At least five people were killed in a car bombing today at a tourist site in Yemen's northeastern provinceof Mareb, police said.
Yemeni security sources said the attack could be the work of al-Qaida. The blast came after the terror group issued a statement demanding the release of militants jailed in Yemen, and warned of unspecified actions.

Not Only This Many of American Embassy Have Been Targeted By Talibans Some of the countries are Pakistan,Afghanistan,Iraq and Many More.In the press conference President Of United States Of America (George Bush) Said that after the bomb blast held in sana,yemen America is still not save and war against terrorism will go on.

The attack on Wednesday was the deadliest and most ambitious in years in Yemen, a poor south Arabian country of 23 million people where militants aligned with Al Qaeda have carried out a number of recent bombings.

On the campaign trail, Senator Barack Obama issued a statement condemning the bombing and calling for increased counterterrorism assistance to the alliesof the United States. “We must do more to strengthen the military, police, and intelligence capability in nations like Yemen that are on the front lines in the fight against terrorism,” Mr. Obama said.

After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, Yemen joined in a counterterrorism partnership with the United States, and its elite American-trained forces have had some important successes in fighting jihadists.

America said that Yemen is against terrorism and we are with yemen.Yemen is also facing serious security threats on other fronts, including an intermittent rebellion in the north that has left thousands of people dead since it began in 2004 and periodic riots and instability in the south.

bronco direct

BroncoDirect provides convenient access to important university information, administrative services, and business transactions by signing in using your BroncoName and BroncoPassword.

Please refer to the Help Sections included on the right hand side of each page if you have questions about how to make the best use of BroncoDirect.

Important Dates for bronco direct

• September 19 - October 2, Fall 2008 Add/Drop Registration
• September 25, Fall 2008 Begins
• October 3 - October 15, Fall 2008 Drop Registration
• October 17, Last Day to Apply for Fall 2008 Graduation
• October 27 - November 7, Winter 2009 Registration

BroncoDirect Status

Campus networks and services may experience maintenance outages between 5:00 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. daily and between 9:30 p.m. and midnight on Thursdays. These outages may affect BroncoDirect.

California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

Type: School
On the web: http://www.csupomona.edu

Forget crackers, if Polly wants a degree in the industrial arts? California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona) is the place to go. The school offers bachelor's and graduate degrees in a variety of disciplines in the industrial arts and applied sciences. Areas of study include agriculture; business; education; engineering; environmental design; letters, arts, and social sciences; and science. The university operates on a system of four quarters per year, each quarter being 11 weeks long. Cal Poly Pomona covers 1,438 acres 30 miles east of Los Angeles.

Officers:
President: J. Michael Ortiz
VP, Academic Affairs and Provost: Tomás D. Morales
VP, Instructional and Information Technology: Colleges & Universities

Competitors:
AIS
TOT
True Corporation

Artist David Ruffin

• Genre: Rhythm & Blues
• Active: '60s, '70s, '80s
• Instrument: Vocals

Biography

One of the greatest lead singers the Motown stable ever had, David Ruffin became one of the artistic cornerstones of the Temptations after his lead vocal on "My Girl" (1965) paved the way for such majestic follow-ups as "Since I Lost My Baby" (1965), "Beauty Is Only Skin Deep" (1966), "All I Need" (1967), and "I Wish It Would Rain" (1968). Unfortunately, ever-mounting internal pressures within the group, coupled with Ruffin's swelling ego, led to his dismissal from the group in late 1968. His solo career got off to a promising start with the powerful ballad "My Whole World Ended (The Moment You Left Me)," which cracked the pop and soul Top Ten in early 1969. His last hit to reach the Top Ten was the Van McCoy-produced dance ballad "Walk Away From Love," from 1976. After leaving Motown in 1977, Ruffin recorded for Warner Brothers and later for RCA accompanied by Eddie Kendricks. Unfortunately, Ruffin's career, marred by years of substance abuse and artistic indifference, culminated in his death from a drug overdose in 1991. ~ John Lowe, All Music Guide

Orkut Legal Issues

Brazil

On August 22 2006, Brazilian Federal Judge José Marcos Lunardelli ordered Google to release Orkut user’s information of a list of about two dozen Brazilian nationals, believed to be using Orkut to sell drugs and involved in child pornography by September 28. The judge ordered Google to pay $23,000 per day in fines until the information is turned over to the Brazilian government. The information the government is requesting would also be used to identify individuals that are spreading child pornography and hate speech, according to the Brazilian government. As of September 27 2006 Google has stated that they will not release the information, on the grounds that the requested information is on Google servers in the U.S. and not Google servers in Brazil, and is therefore not subject to Brazilian laws.

India

Of late, the number of Indians on Orkut has been increasing rapidly.^[10] On October 10, 2006, the Bombay High Court's Aurangabad bench served a notice on Google for allowing a hate campaign against India.^[11] This referred to a community on Orkut called 'We Hate India', which initially carried a picture of an Indian flag being burned and some anti-India content.^[12]

The High Court order was issued in response to a public-interest petition filed by an Aurangabad advocate. Google had six weeks to respond. Even before the petition was filed, many Orkut users had noticed this community and were mailing or otherwise messaging their contacts on Orkut^{[citation needed]} to report the community as bogus to Google, which could result in its removal. The community continues to exist and had spawned several 'We hate those who hate India' communities.

Prior to the 60th Independance Day of India, orkut's main page was revamped. The section which usually displayed a collage of photos of various people, showed a stylized orkut logo. The word orkut was written in the Devanagiri script and was colored in the Indian national colours. Clicking on the logo redirects to a post by the orkut India Product Manager, Manu Rekhi,^[13] on the orkut internal blog. There has also been some media outcry against Orkut after a couple of youngsters were apparently lured by fake profiles on the site and later murdered.^[14]

On November 23, Bombay High Court asked the state government to file its reply in connection with a petition demanding a ban on social networking site, Orkut, for hosting an anti-Shivaji Web community.^[15]

Recently, the Pune rural police cracked a rave party which is illegal in India.^[16] The accused have been charged under anti-narcotic laws, the (Indian) Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropics Substances Act, 1985 (NDPS). Besides the NDPS, according to some media reports, the police were deliberating on the issue of charging the accused under the (Indian) Information Technology Act, 2000 perhaps because Orkut was believed to be one of the mode of communication for these kind of drug abuses

Orkut Session Management and Authentication Issues

On June 22, 2007 Susam Pal and Vipul Agarwal published a security advisory on Orkut vulnerabilities related to authentication issues. ^[6] The vulnerablities are considered very dangerous in cybercafes, or in the case of man-in-the-middle attack as they can lead to session hijacking and misuse of legitimate accounts. ^[7] The vulnerabilities are not known to be fixed yet and therefore pose threat to the Orkut users.

A week later, on June 29, 2007 Susam Pal published another security advisory which described how the Orkut authentication issue can be exploited to hijack Google and GMail sessions and misuse the compromised account of a legitimate user under certain conditions.

Joseph Hick performed an experiment on the basis of the advisories published by Susam Pal, to find out how long a session remains alive even after a user logs out. ^[8] His experiment confirmed that the sessions remain alive for 14 days after the user has logged out. It implies that a hijacked session can be used for 14 days by the hijacker because logging out does not kill the session.
Next

Orkut Security and safety

Hacking accounts and communities with XSS

In 2005 dozens of communities' ownership was hacked by a Computer Security expert known as Shamsher Terror to demonstrate the undiscovered security vulnerabilities. A similar feat was performed by a Brazilian hacker called Vinícius K-Max , using a cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability. Eventually, various phishing sites were developed with the intent of stealing other people's accounts and communities.

MW.Orc worm

On June 19, 2006 FaceTime Security Labs' security researchers Christopher Boyd and Wayne Porter [discovered a worm], dubbed MW.Orc.^[5]

The worm steals users' banking details, usernames and passwords by propagating through Orkut. The attack was triggered as users launched an executable file disguised as a JPEG file. The initial executable file that causes the infection installs two additional files on the user's computer. These files then e-mail banking details and passwords to the worm's anonymous creator when infected users click on the "My Computer" icon.

The infection spreads automatically by posting a URL in another user's Orkut Scrapbook, a guestbook where visitors can leave comments visible on the user's page. This link lures visitors with a message in Portuguese, falsely claiming to offer additional photos. The message text that carries an infection link can vary from case to case.

In addition to stealing personal information, the malware can also enable a remote user to control the PC and make it part of a botnet, a network of infected PCs. The botnet in this case uses an infected PC's bandwidth to distribute large, pirated movie files, potentially slowing down an end-user's connection speed.

The initial executable file (Minhasfotos.exe) creates two additional files when activated, winlogon_.jpg and wzip32.exe (located in the System32 Folder). When the user clicks the "My Computer" icon, a mail is sent containing their personal data. In addition, they may be added to an XDCC Botnet (used for file sharing), and the infection link may be sent to other users that they know in the Orkut network. The infection can be spread manually, but also has the ability to send "back dated" infection links to people in the "friends list" of the infected user.

According to statements made by Google, as noted in Facetime's Greynets Blog the company had implemented a temporary fix for the dangerous worm.^[5]

HTTPS Not Obvious

On and around April 17, 2007 users began reporting that secure (https) access to the orkut login server was no longer available. This led to some users cancelling accounts, because of fears that insecure access could lead to compromise of Orkut accounts and by extension Google accounts as well as Gmail accounts since the password for login is transmitted as clear text.

In fact, Google had changed the main login page to http rendering to improve efficiency, but the actual login is still secure using https in an iframe [7]. This information has not been well published by Google, and does not give the users the reassurance of seeing the "secure connection" padlock in the browser. On Friday 17 July 2007 a revised logon page, which is rendered in https was brought in, addressing these issues. Next

Orkut State Censorship

Orkut was very popular in Iran, but the website is now blocked by the government. As they say, this is due to national security issues, as Orkut users have the ability to spread messages rapidly, but the government says it's due to Islamic ethical issues about dating and match making. To get around this block, sites such as orkutproxy.com (now defunct) were made for Iranian users. Other websites such as Yahoo! Groups and Google Groups have communities dedicated to receiving updates on the newest location of Iran's Orkut proxy. Though it was once possible to bypass governmental blockage of Orkut, the site has closed its HTTPS pages on all anonymous proxies. Now it is almost impossible for ordinary users to visit this site inside Iran. Also many sites have been published since Orkut's blockade in Iran following the same path such as MyPardis, Cloob or Banhaneh. Of course these websites deal with a high degree of risk to get filtered too, so they have their own censorship policies to meet Iran's un-written regulations and rules of filtering.

In August 2006, United Arab Emirates followed the footsteps of Iran in blocking the site. This block was subsequently removed in October 2006. On July 3, 2007, Gulf News revisited the issue, publishing complaints from members of the public against Orkut communities like "Dubai Sex", and officially bringing the complaints to the attention of the state telecom monopoly Etisalat [3]. The ensuing moral panic resulted in a renewed ban of the site by Etisalat by July 4, 2007 [4], still in effect despite Google's promise to negotiate the ban with the UAE [5]. Saudi Arabia is another country that has blocked access to Orkut, while Bahrain's information ministry is also under pressure to follow suit. Next

Orkut Copyright disclaimer

Orkut's terms of service state:

By submitting, posting or displaying any Materials on or through the orkut.com service, you automatically grant to us a worldwide, non-exclusive, sublicenseable, transferable, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable right to copy, distribute, create derivative works of, publicly perform and display such Materials.

However, they also state:

This licence is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services.

Orkut users retain copyright to all original work posted on the Orkut service Next

Orkut Criticism

Flooders and fake profiles

As the number of Orkut users increased, there was a rise in the number of fake and clone profiles, something that can be achieved just in a matter of a few minutes.^[1] Due to the large number of users and the deactivation of the jail system, the profiles were often left unremoved or, when removed, recreated easily. These profiles are normally created to troll, to spam, to flood or just for fun. It isn't hard to find users owning more than one profile, with some stating they own hundreds. Also, many of the users use these profiles to steal art that has previously posted online and deem it their own. The original artist are not asked for approval, much less even named.

Later, the clones started to flood communities and scrapbooks by submitting topics or scraps hundreds or thousands of times manually. Shortly thereafter, by simply examining the source code of the page, they found it was possible to create Javascript codes to automatically flood the site. Soon (given that Orkut is a complex social network), flooding wars started to occur frequently between some antagonistic groups. Another new phenomenon is Scrapbook wars, when a group of users are engaged to zero or increase the scrapbook counter of someone.

In 2005 invisible profiles, communities and topics started to appear in Orkut. This could be achieved by using HTML escaping codes and 1x1 pixel photos to fool the engine behind the site.^[2]

In the August 2005 a freeware program made in Delphi called Floodtudo ("tudo" in Portuguese means "everything" - this was developed by a Brazilian) specifically for flooding Orkut. It quickly spread through the users and was easily downloadable (the most common Floodtudo versions were 1.2, 1.5, 2.0 and 2.2). As this program was massively used by thousands of spammers, a big spam wave struck Orkut in September and October 2005. However, changes implemented by the developers in November made this program non-functional.

As the flooding of Orkut was getting out of control, the developers implemented some features in order to stop this, such as not allowing two or more verbatim topics or scrapbook entries to be submitted, forcing the user to wait before posting another topic or scrapbook entry, and the usage of captchas, whenever a scrap entry has a hyperlink. They gave more rights to community moderators as well, so that they can just ban users instead of relying on the developers to remove them, and now community moderators are able to mass-delete posts too.

Other ways of profile and community attacks still exist, like testimonial flooding attacks on scrapbook and member counters, multi-profile floods and social engineering.

Hate groups

There has recently been controversy revolving around the use of Orkut by various hate groups. Virulent racists allegedly have a solid following there. Several hate communities focused on racism, Nazism and white supremacy have been deleted due to guideline violation. However the number of these communities and profiles has not stopped growing because they can be very easily created and it is hard for Orkut to check them ^{[citation needed]}.

In 2005, various cases of racism were denounced to police and reported in the Brazilian media.^{[citation needed]} In 2006, a judicial measure was opened by the Brazil federal justice denouncing a 20-year-old student accused of racism against those of African ancestry and spreading defamatory content on Orkut.^[3]. Brazilian Federal Justice subpoenaed Google on March 2006 to explain the crimes that had occurred in Orkut.^[4]

Anti-religion, anti-national, and anti-ethnic hate groups have also been spotted. Recently an Indian court has issued notices to Google on some of the groups. The Mumbai Police too is seeking a ban on Orkut post objections raised by political groups. Groups denigrating various political leaders and celebrities have also emerged. Next

Orkut Redesign

Orkut Redesign

The new orkut interface announced on 24th august..

On Friday, 24th of August Orkut announced that the whole new face of website will be launched soon. The new UI contains round corners and soft colors including small logotype at upper left corner. The redesign has been announced on the official Orkut Blog. Orkut will be spreading out this UI by the next week to some of the user groups, says Eduardo Cordeiro.

By Thursday, 30th of August, most users on orkut could see changes on their profile pages as per the new redesign. On the 31st, Orkut announced its new features including improvements to the way you view your friends, 9 rather than 8 of your friends displayed on your homepage and profile page and basic links to your friends' content right under their profile picture as you browse through their different pages. It also announced the initial release of Orkut in 5 new languages: Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, and Telugu. Profile editing can take place by clicking the settings button under your profile photo (or alternatively, click the blue settings link at the top of any page).

On 4th September, Orkut announced another new feature. You can now see a "Updates from your friends" box on the homepage where you'll get real-time updates when your friends update or make changes to their profiles, photos and videos. Moreover in case of some things on your profile you want to keep private, Orkut has added an easy opt-out button on the settings page.

Next

Orkut Home

A social networking site sponsored by Google and named after Google developer Orkut Buyukkokten. Launched in early 2004, Orkut was originally an invitation-only site, but was later opened to the general public. Membership exceeded 40 million users within two years.

Lists of Friends

Orkut members list and rate their friends; for example, "Best Friends," "Acquaintances," etc. If a friend is dropped from a user's list, that user is dropped from the friend's list. If an Orkut member places another member on a "Crush List," both members are notified when the other member does the same.

Orkut is an Internet social network service run by Google and named after its creator, Google employee Orkut Büyükkökten. It claims to be designed to help users meet new friends and maintain existing relationships. Similar to Facebook, Friendster and MySpace, Orkut goes a step further by permitting the creation of easy-to-set-up simple forums (called "communities") of users. Since October 2006, Orkut has permitted users to create accounts without an invitation. In April 2007, Orkut introduced polls in communities.

History

Orkut was launched on January, 2004 by the search company Google, the brainchild of Orkut Büykökten, a Turkish software engineer, who developed it as an independent project whilst working at Google.

In late June 2004, Affinity Engines filed suit against Google, claiming that Orkut Büyükkökten and Google based Orkut on inCircle code.^{[[[Ambiguous]]]} Originally the Orkut community was felt to be elitist, because its membership was by invitation only. At the end of July 2004 Orkut surpassed the 1,000,000 member mark and by the following September it had surpassed 2,000,000. As of August 2007, the number of members equated to over 67,000,000 users.

Features

Orkut has a list of features unique to itself like "Scrapbook","Communities" etc., apart from normal features such as messaging and photo albums.

A user first creates his or her "Profile", in which he/she mentions his/her "Social", "Professional" and "Personal" details, with the option of choosing which group ("Friends", "Friend's friends","everyone") of people would be allowed to view the particulars. A user can also upload his/her photo as the photo of his profile. If necessary, a user can completely remove his profile photo if they wish.

Scrapping, though the word is not accepted officially in english, is popular among the Orkut community as a kind of offline chatting. Users can scrap on another member's scrap book, even if that member is offline. The scrap recipient will be able to see it when he or she visits their scrapbook. Contrary to personal messaging or email, scrap book entries are public, meaning that any one with an orkut account can read others' scraps. Users can reply to a scrap from their scrapbook itself by replying to a scrap. Scraps can also be in HTML, enabling users to post photos, videos, audio files and other embedded objects directly into others' scrapbook.

Another unique feature of orkut is "Communities". Anyone with an orkut account can create a community on anything. One can post topics, inform users about an event, ask them questions or just play games. There are more than a million communities on Orkut with topics ranging from pizza to pasta or from film star to superstar. The first five communities on Orkut were started with in 24 hrs of launch of orkut. Users can upload photos into their Orkut profile with a caption. Users can also add videos to their profile from either YouTube or Google Videos with the additional option of creating either restricted or un-restricted polls for polling a community of users.

In addition to this, there is a personal messaging feature which is rarely used by members.^{[citation needed]} It is mainly used by community owners to ask others to join their community. One issue of this feature is that it lacks confidentiality, ^{[citation needed]} owing to the reason that if you know the exact link of the message then you can read such messages.

Users have options to rate their friends in the order of "Best Friends", "Good Friends", "Friends", "Acquaintances" and "Haven't met". Further, each member can become fans of any of the friends in their list and can also evaluate whether their friend is "Trustworthy", "Cool", "Sexy" on a scale of 1 to 3 (marked by icons) and is aggregated in terms of a percentage. Unlike Facebook where a member can view profile details of people only on their network, Orkut allows anyone to visit anyone's profile, unless a potential visitor is on your "Ignore List". Importantly, each member can also customize their profile preferences and can restrict information that appear on their profile from their friends and/or others (not on the friends list). The highlight feature is where any member can add any other member on Orkut to his/her "Crush List" and both of them will be informed only when both parties have added each other to their "Crush List".

When a user logs in, they see the people in their friends list in the order of their logging in to the site, the first person being the latest one to do so. Orkut's competitors are other social networking sites including MySpace and Facebook. Next

Ed Harris

• Born: 28 November 1950
• Birthplace: Tenafly, New Jersey
• Best Known As: The intense actor who wrote and starred in Pollock

Four-time Oscar nominee Ed Harris is often cast in the movies as a thoughtful tough guy with a steely stare. A veteran character actor and sometime lead, his best-known early movies include The Right Stuff (1983, as astronaut John Glenn), Places in the Heart (1984, starring Sally Field) and The Abyss (1989, directed by James Cameron). A dramatic actor known for onscreen intensity, he has received three nominations as a supporting actor, for Apollo 13 (1995, as flight director Gene Kranz), The Truman Show (1998, starring Jim Carrey) and The Hours (2002, with Meryl Streep). Harris also earned an Oscar nomination for best actor for his performance as painter Jackson Pollock in the 2000 film Pollock, which also marked Harris's debut as a director. His other films include Glengarry Glen Ross (1992, with Jack Lemmon), Absolute Power (1997, starring Clint Eastwood), Enemy at the Gates (2001, with Jude Law) and A History of Violence (2005, starring Viggo Mortensen). Harris is married to actress Amy Madigan, with whom he has worked many times, including in the films Places in the Heart, Alamo Bay (1985), the TV movie Riders of the Purple Sage (1996) and Pollock.

Actor:

Ed Harris

• Born: Nov 28, 1950 in Tenafly, New Jersey
• Occupation: Actor, Director
• Active: '80s-2000s
• Major Genres: Drama, Thriller
• Career Highlights: The Right Stuff, Places in the Heart, The Truman Show
• First Major Screen Credit: Borderline (1980)

Biography

Bearing sharp, blue-eyed features and the outward demeanor of an everyday Joe, Ed Harris possesses a quiet, charismatic strength and intensity capable of electrifying the screen. During the course of his lengthy career, he has proven his talent repeatedly in roles both big and small, portraying characters both villainous and sympathetic.

Born Edward Allen Harris in Tenafly, NJ, on November 28, 1950, Harris was an athlete in high school and went on to spend two years playing football at Columbia University. His interest in acting developed after he transferred to the University of Oklahoma, where he studied acting and gained experience in summer stock. Harris next attended the California Institute of the Arts, graduating with a Fine Arts degree. He went on to find steady work in the West Coast theatrical world before moving to New York. In 1983, he debuted off-Broadway in Sam Shepard's Fool for Love in a part especially written for him. His performance won him an Obie for Best Actor. Three years later, he made his Broadway debut in George Firth's Precious Sons and was nominated for a Tony. During the course of his career, Harris has gone on to garner numerous stage awards from associations on both coasts.

Harris made his screen debut in 1977's made-for-television movie The Amazing Howard Hughes. The following year, he made his feature-film debut with a small role in Coma (1978), but his career didn't take off until director George Romero starred Harris in Knightriders (1981). The director also cast him in his next film, Creepshow (1982). Harris' big break as a movie star came in 1983 when he was cast as straight-arrow astronaut John Glenn in the film version of Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff. Twelve years later, Harris would again enter the world of NASA, this time playing unsung hero Gene Krantz (and earning an Oscar nomination) in Ron Howard's Apollo 13.

The same year he starred in The Right Stuff, Harris further exhibited his range in his role as a psychopathic mercenary in Under Fire. The following year, he appeared in three major features, including the highly touted Places in the Heart. In addition to earning him positive notices, the film introduced him to his future wife, Amy Madigan, who also co-starred with him in Alamo Bay (1985). In 1989, Harris played one of his best-known roles in The Abyss (1989), bringing great humanity to the heroic protagonist, a rig foreman working on a submarine. He did further notable work in David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross, and turned in a suitably creepy performance as Christof, the manipulative creator of Truman Burbank's world in Peter Weir's The Truman Show (1998). Harris earned a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his work. The following year, he could be seen in The Third Miracle, starring as a Catholic priest who finds his faith sorely tested.

The new millennium found Harris' labor of love, the artist biopic Pollock, seeing the light of day after nearly a decade of development. Spending years painting and researching the modernist painter, Harris carefully and lovingly oversaw all aspects of the film, including directing, producing, and starring in the title role. The project served as a turning point in Harris' remarkable career, showing audiences and critics alike that there was more to the man of tranquil intensity than many may have anticipated; Harris was nominated for a Best Actor Academy Award for his work. 2001 saw Harris as a German sniper with his targets set on Jude Law in the wartime suspense-drama Enemy at the Gates, and later as a bumbling Army captain in the irreverent Joaquin Phoenix vehicle Buffalo Soldiers. With his portrayal of a well known author succumbing to the ravages of AIDS in 2002's The Hours, Harris would recieve his fourth Oscar nominattion. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The Temptations

• Genre: Rhythm & Blues
• Active: '60s - 2000s
• Major Members: Otis Williams, Melvin Franklin, Paul Williams, Eddie Kendricks, David Ruffin, Dennis Edwards

Biography

Thanks to their fine-tuned choreography -- and even finer harmonies -- the Temptations became the definitive male vocal group of the 1960s; one of Motown's most elastic acts, they tackled both lush pop and politically charged funk with equal flair, and weathered a steady stream of changes in personnel and consumer tastes with rare dignity and grace. The Temptations' initial five-man lineup formed in Detroit in 1961 as a merger of two local vocal groups, the Primes and the Distants. Baritone Otis Williams, Elbridge (aka El, or Al) Bryant, and bass vocalist Melvin Franklin were longtime veterans of the Detroit music scene when they joined together in the Distants, who in 1959 recorded the single "Come On" for the local Northern label. Around the same time, the Primes, a trio comprised of tenor Eddie Kendricks, Paul Williams (no relation to Otis), and Kell Osborne, relocated to the Motor City from their native Alabama; they quickly found success locally, and their manager even put together a girl group counterpart dubbed the Primettes. (Later, three of the Primettes -- Diana Ross, Mary Wilson and Florence Ballard -- formed the Supremes).

In 1961, the Primes disbanded, but not before Otis Williams saw them perform live, where he was impressed both by Kendricks' vocal prowess and Paul Williams' choreography skills. Soon, Otis Williams, Paul Williams, Bryant, Franklin, and Kendricks joined together as the Elgins; after a name change to the Temptations, they signed to the Motown subsidiary Miracle, where they released a handful of singles over the ensuing months. Only one, the 1962 effort "Dream Come True," achieved any commercial success, however, and in 1963, Bryant either resigned or was fired after physically attacking Paul Williams. The Tempts' fortunes changed dramatically in 1964 when they recruited tenor David Ruffin to replace Bryant; after entering the studio with writer/producer Smokey Robinson, they emerged with the pop smash "The Way You Do the Things You Do," the first in a series of 37 career Top Ten hits. With Robinson again at the helm, they returned in 1965 with their signature song, "My Girl," a number one pop and R&B hit; other Top 20 hits that year included "It's Growing," "Since I Lost My Baby," "Don't Look Back," and "My Baby."

In 1966, the Tempts recorded another Robinson hit, "Get Ready," before forgoing his smooth popcraft for the harder-edged soul of producers Norman Whitfield and Brian Holland. After spotlighting Kendricks on the smash "Ain't Too Proud to Beg," the group allowed Ruffin to take control over a string of hits including "Beauty's Only Skin Deep" and "(I Know) I'm Losing You." Beginning around 1967, Whitfield assumed full production control, and their records became ever rougher and more muscular, as typified by the 1968 success "I Wish It Would Rain." After Ruffin failed to appear at a 1968 live performance, the other four Tempts fired him; he was replaced by ex-Contour Dennis Edwards, whose less polished voice adapted perfectly to the psychedelic-influenced soul period the group entered following the success of the single "Cloud Nine." As the times changed, so did the group, and as the 1960s drew to a close, the Temptations' music became overtly political; in the wake of "Cloud Nine" -- its title a thinly veiled drug allegory -- came records like "Run Away Child, Running Wild," "Psychedelic Shack," and "Ball of Confusion (That's What the World Is Today)."

After the chart-topping success of the gossamer ballad "Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)" in 1971, Kendricks exited for a solo career. Soon, Paul Williams left the group as well; long plagued by alcoholism and other personal demons, he was eventually discovered dead from a self-inflected gunshot on August 17, 1973, at the age of 34. In their stead the remaining trio recruited tenors Damon Harris and Richard Street; after the 1971 hit "Superstar (Remember How You Got Where You Are)," they returned in 1972 with the brilliant number one single "Papa Was a Rolling Stone." While the Tempts hit the charts regularly throughout 1973 with "Masterpiece," "Let Your Hair Down," and "The Plastic Man," their success as a pop act gradually dwindled as the 1970s wore on. After Harris exited in 1975 (replaced by tenor Glenn Leonard), the group cut 1976's The Temptations Do the Temptations, their final album for Motown. With Louis Price taking over for Edwards, they signed to Atlantic, and attempted to reach the disco market with the LPs Bare Back and Hear to Tempt You.

After Edwards returned to the fold (resulting in Price's hasty exit), the Temptations re-entered the Motown stable, and scored a 1980 hit with "Power." In 1982, Ruffin and Kendricks returned for Reunion, which also included all five of the current Tempts; a tour followed, but problems with Motown, as well as personal differences, cut Ruffin's and Kendricks' tenures short. In the years that followed, the Temptations continued touring and recording, although by the 1990s they were essentially an oldies act; only Otis Williams, who published his autobiography in 1988, remained from the original lineup. The intervening years were marked by tragedy: after touring in the late '80s with Kendricks and Edwards as a member of the "Tribute to the Temptations" package tour, Ruffin died on June 1, 1991, after overdosing on cocaine; he was 50 years old. On October 5, 1992, Kendricks died at the age of 52 of lung cancer, and on February 23, 1995, 52-year-old Franklin passed away after suffering a brain seizure. In 1998, the Temptations returned with Phoenix Rising; that same year, their story was also the subject of a well-received NBC television miniseries. Ear-Resistable followed in the spring of 2000. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide

Abram Boise

The North River is a river, approximately 50 miles (80 km) long, in the mountains and Shenandoah Valley of northern Virginia, the United States. It joins the South River to form the South Fork Shenandoah River.^[1]

The river rises at 4,000 feet above sea level in western Augusta County, below Dyers Knob on the Virginia-West Virginia border. From the man-made Elkhorn Lake it flows south and then east through the George Washington National Forest. The river breaks out of the Allegheny Mountains at North River Gap and flows into the broad Valley of Virginia. The river passes through the town of Bridgewater and flows southeast, joining the South River at Port Republic. The Middle River, a major tributary, joins the North River just west of the town of Grottoes, four miles above the juncture with the South River.

Other towns along the river include Stokesville, Sangersville, Natural Chimneys, Mount Crawford, and the village of North River.

The river is popular among canoers, rafters and inner tubers. At one point during the 19th Century barges shipped goods upstream via a canal/lock system.

Typical wildlife of the North River includes Great Blue Herons, Wood Ducks, Canada Geese,Belted Kingfisher, Baltimore Orioles, Painted Turtles, Snapping turtles, Largemouth Bass, Sun Perch, Catfish, Eastern Cottontail Rabbits, White-tailed Deer, Raccoons, Opossums, Brown bats, Freshwater Clams, Mink, Tiger Swallowtails and Black-winged Damselflies.

Typical Plantlife of the North River includes Cardinal flower, Joe pye Weed, Purple Monkeyflower, Great Blue Lobelia, Bullrush, Yellow Flag Iris, Sycamore, Cottonwood, Box Elder, Silver Maple, Virginia Bluebells, and Spring Beauty.

Amy Madigan

• Born: Sep 11, 1951 in Chicago, Illinois
• Occupation: Actor
• Active: '80s-2000s
• Major Genres: Drama
• Career Highlights: Places in the Heart, The Day After, The Sleepy Time Gal
• First Major Screen Credit: Love Child (1982)

Biography

Actress Amy Madigan is the daughter of Chicago political commentor John Madigan, well known in the Windy City for his WBBM radio signoff, "John Madigan...News Radio Ssssseventy-eight." After studying piano at the Chicago Conservatory and philosophy at Milwaukee's Marquette University, Madigan spent the next decade as a touring rock musician. In the late 1970s, she began preparing for an acting career at L.A.'s Lee Strasberg Institute, making her TV bow on an episode of Hart to Hart. While she may have looked like a standard blonde ingenue, Madigan's endearingly raspy voice and '60s-style ebullience secured her a series of offbeat leading roles, culminating with her performance as Kevin Costner's ex-activist wife in Field of Dreams (1989). In 1985, Amy Madigan was Oscar-nominated for her performance as Gene Hackman's embittered daughter in Twice in a Lifetime. She is married to actor Ed Harris, with whom she has co-starred in Places in the Heart (1984) and Alamo Bay (1985), ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Los lonely boys

• Genre: Rock
• Active: 2000s
• Major Members: Ringo Garza, JoJo Garza, Henry Garza

Biography

The Tex-Mex rock group los Lonely Boys hail from San Angelo, TX, and consist of three brothers, guitarist Henry Garza, bassist JoJo Garza, and drummer Ringo Garza, Jr. Their father, Ringo Garza, Sr., also was a member of a band made up of his brothers, the Falcones, who played conjunto music around Texas in the '70s and '80s. After that group broke up, Garza went solo, backed by his three sons even before they reached their teens. The family relocated to Nashville in the 1990s, and gradually the sons emerged as a group separate from their father. They moved back to Texas, and in 2003, their debut album, Los Lonely Boys, was recorded at Willie Nelson's Pedernales recording studio in Austin with Nelson sitting in; the album was issued by Or Music, and earned national attention. Epic Records picked the album up for major-label distribution in March 2004, resulting in a Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal the following year. The Boys released their anxiously awaited sophomore album, Sacred, in 2006. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide

Representative Albums:

Los Lonely Boys, Sacred, Live at the Fillmore

Who hacked into Sarah Palin's email?

Group Posts E-Mail Hacked From Palin Account -- Update

Vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin's private Yahoo e-mail account was hacked, and some of its contents posted on the internet Wednesday.

The internet griefers known as Anonymous took credit for the intrusion, and screenshots of e-mail messages and photos belonging to the Alaska governor have been published by WikiLeaks. Threat Level has confirmed the authenticity of at least one of the e-mails.

"This is a shocking invasion of the Governor's privacy and a violation of law," Rick Davis, McCain-Palin campaign manager said in a statement. "The matter has been turned over to the appropriate authorities and we hope that anyone in possession of these e-mails will destroy them. We will have no further comment."

FBI spokesman Brian Hale said, "The FBI is aware of the alleged hacking incident involving Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and is coordinating with the United States Secret Service on the matter."

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was tapped by Senator John McCain to be his vice-presidential running mate.

Photo: Associated Press/Al Grillo

The cache of stolen data contains five screenshots from Palin's account, including the text of an e-mail exchange with Alaska Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell about his campaign for Congress.

Another screenshot shows Palin's inbox and a third shows the text of an e-mail from Amy McCorkell, whom Palin appointed to the Governor's Advisory Board on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse in 2007.

The e-mail, a message of support to Palin, tells her not to let negative press get to her and asks Palin to pray for McCorkell, who writes that "I need strength to 1. keep employment, 2. not have to choose."

McCorkell, reached at her office, confirmed that she did send the e-mail to Palin. McCorkell later called and said the FBI has been in touch with her about this investigation.

A fourth screenshot shows an e-mail sent to Ivy Frye, a Palin aide, from someone claiming to belong to the group Anonymous advising that the person has changed the password to Palin's Yahoo account to prevent other members of Anonymous from accessing it again. The e-mail includes the new password.

The data posted by WikiLeaks also includes a list of Palin's e-mail contacts and two photos of her children.

Palin has come under fire for using private e-mail accounts to conduct state business. Critics allege that she uses the account to get around public records laws, as the Bush administration has also been charged with doing.

An index of the e-mails in her inbox, which includes sender, subject line and date sent, indicates that Palin received numerous e-mails from her aides in the governor's office, some of which could be work-related.

An e-mail from her press secretary, Meghan Stapleton, indicates the message is about the "Motor Fuel Tax Suspension".

The subject line of an e-mail from Randall Ruaro, her deputy chief of staff reads, "Draft letter to Governor Schwarzenegger." Another one from Ruaro says, "Please approve" and another one is about "Court of Appeals Nominations."

Other e-mails from Ruaro indicate they're about employee and budget issues for the DPS. DPS is how Alaska refers to its Department of Public Safety.

Palin's chief of staff, Michael Nizich, sent her an e-mail August 22 with the subject line, "Using Royalty Oil to Lower the Cost of Fuel for Alaskans." The subject line of another e-mail from Nizich reads "CONFIDENTIAL Ethics Matter."

E-mails from the governor's scheduler, Janice Mason, indicate that they're about Palin's schedule for the week of August 10.

WikiLeaks said in a press release sent to reporters that Anonymous gained access to Palin's e-mail account around midnight Tuesday.

(Updated with reactions from the McCain campaign and the FBI, as well as new information about e-mails that indicate Palin used the account for official government work.)

battle in seattle

Battle in Seattle is a dramatic film written and directed by Stuart Townsend and is based on a political uprising, the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 protest activity, sometimes referred to as the Battle in Seattle. This movie will be Stuart Townsend's directorial debut.

Plot summary

Thousands of activists arrive in Seattle, Washington en masse to protest a meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The movie takes an in-depth look at characters during those five days in 1999 as demonstrators protested the meeting of the WTO in Seattle's streets. Although it began as a peaceful protest with a goal of stopping the WTO talks, it escalated into a full-scale riot and eventually, a State of Emergency that put peacful and unarmed protesters against the Seattle Police Department and the National Guard.

Cast

• Martin Henderson as Jay
• Michelle Rodriguez as Lou
• Charlize Theron as Ella
• Woody Harrelson as Dale
• Channing Tatum as Johnson
• Timothy Socey as Johnson's Brother
• Andre 3000 (aka André Benjamin) as Django
• Ray Liotta as Mayor Jim Tobin
• Ivana Milicevic as Carla
• Rade Serbedzija as Dr. Maric
• Joshua Jackson as Randall
• Connie Nielsen as Jean

Filming locations

• Seattle, Washington
• Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
  • Granville Square
  • Corner of Hastings and Hornby
  • Foot of Vancouver Public Library

chris angel

Criss Angel (born Christopher Nicholas Sarantakos on December 19, 1967) is an American magician, illusionist, musician, mentalist, hypnotist, escapologist, stunt performer, yoga master and actor. He is best known for starring in his own television show, Criss Angel Mindfreak.

Early life

Angel was born on December 19, 1967, raised in East Meadow, New York and is of Greek descent. Angel grew up loving music (playing drums, flute and accordion) and has always had an interest in magic. His parents are John and Dimitra Sarantakos. His mother hails from Mystra, Greece. He has two brothers, Costa and JD, as well as two cats, Minx and Hammie (short for Hamlet). One of Criss's biggest influences has been his father, who died from stomach cancer.^[1]

Criss Angel first became interested in magic at the age 6, when his Aunt Stella showed him a card trick.^[2] Two of his biggest magic influences are Harry Houdini and Aldo Richiardi.^[2] As a teenager, Angel performed at birthday parties, at night clubs, at home to entertain his family, and at private events.^[2] Early in his magic career, magician James Randi designed Angel's professional business card.^[3]

He played in an Industrial music band called AngelDust with friend Klayton Scott (Celldweller, Argyle Park) who produced, co-wrote and helped arrange the music for his show, Mindfreak.

Magic career

Angel performed in World Of Illusion at Madison Square Garden in 1998. Criss then scored a show on Broadway titled "Criss Angel Mindfreak," which ran up until January 6, 2003 following a run of 600 performances at The World in The World Underground Theater in Times Square. He also starred in several television specials.

Criss Angel won the Academy of Magical Arts' Magician of the Year award in 2005^[4] and the IMS Magician of the year in 2001 and 2004.^[5]

He has even revealed the methods for many of his tricks to viewers at home on TV and in videos, although the effects revealed are usually very simple such as making a toothpick disappear, picking a pocket, or making a Styrofoam cup float. Angel discusses magic and his life in Mindfreak: Secret Revelations (published April 24, 2007), which became a Los Angeles Times best seller.

Angel is scheduled to appear in a new illusion-based Cirque du Soleil production at the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas, and it is expected to open in September 2008.^[6] Angel has recently said that there are plans for this attraction to run for 10 years, including 4,600 shows with a possible 5 year renewal option of his contract. The show is a permanent Las Vegas show and will not be in any other city.

In July 2007, NBC signed Angel and Uri Geller for Phenomenon, a show airing on October 24 that searches for the next great mentalist.^[7] Angel does not believe Geller has any paranormal abilities.^[8]

Criss Angel Mindfreak

Main article: Criss Angel Mindfreak

Angel is the star and creator of the A&E Network show Criss Angel Mindfreak. Seasons 1 and 2 were filmed at the The Aladdin in Las Vegas, with Season 3 at the Luxor Hotel. Premiering on July 20, 2005, the illusions have included walking on water, levitating above the Luxor Hotel, floating between two buildings, causing a Lamborghini to disappear, surviving in an exploding C4 Crate, and cutting himself in half in full view of an audience.^[9] Criss is scheduled to begin filming Season 4 of Mindfreak in October 2007, and the show is scheduled to run for two more seasons after that.

In the first episode of season three of his series "MINDFREAK", Angel demonstrated the illusion of levitation at the Luxor Hotel, Las Vegas. In one scene, he appears to levitate from the 26th floor inside the hotel, slowly descending through the hotel's atrium to the entrance lobby. Later, he levitated above the 500-foot-high apex of the hotel at night, in the middle of the famous Luxor's spotlight which has an output of 42.2 billion candlepower.^[10] This episode was viewed by almost 3 million viewers making it the most watched episode in series history and the number one show in its time slot on cable television.

Other television appearances and movies

Angel was the featured guest star on CSI: NY on February 28, 2007 in an episode titled "Sleight Out of Hand" as a character named Luke Blade, a famous magician whose assistants die in unusual ways that are strangely related to the illusions he preforms in the episode. ^[11] In the episode, he performed three illusions (being sawed in half, being set on fire, and a version of his "Submerged" illusion).

Angels' more notable television appearances include but are not limited to Las Vegas, The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Late Show with David Letterman, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, as well as VH1's Rock Honors Awards performing and introducing legendary Honoree Ozzy Osbourne. In June 2007, Angel appeared on the cover of the DUB Magazine. He also appeared on CNN's Larry King Live on July 12, 2007. On June 8, 2007, he stated on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson that Richiardi was one of his greatest influences.

Criss Angel is cast to star in the upcoming movie Mandrake the Magician.

Smith & Wesson Model 500

The Model 500 Revolver is a five-shot, double-action revolver produced by Smith & Wesson, firing the .500 S&W Magnum cartridge.

Based on S&W's largest frame, the X-Frame, the Model 500 is the world's most powerful production revolver.[1] The .500 Smith & Wesson Magnum cartridge can fire at incredible velocities and deliver an unusually large quantity of kinetic energy - the most high-powered commercial round weighing 440 grains (28.5 g) has a muzzle energy of 2600 foot·pounds force (3.5 kJ). However, handloaders have experimented with 325 grain bullets at 2300 feet per second, developing 3817 foot·pounds (5.1 kJ) of muzzle energy.[citation needed]

Articles, statements, and opinions vary widely on this firearm. Any of the available bullet weights can be relied on to take game at a range in excess of 200 yards (180 m), a feat matched by only a handful of other handguns.[citation needed]

While firearms of this size can scare un-seasoned shooters with the recoil, the advanced design of the firearm helps in counteracting recoil felt by the shooter. This includes the sheer weight of the firearm, use of rubber grips, the forward balance, and the use of a compensator. (The later is traded for a full muzzle brake on certain S&W Performance Center models.) These additions make the firearm entirely manageable for those accustomed to the shooting of large caliber handguns, but still extreme for an inexperienced shooter.[citation needed]

Variants

There are four versions currently manufactured by Smith & Wesson:

* The standard Model 500 with an 8 3/4 in (222 mm) barrel
* 500S (Short) with 4 in barrel. Weight 56 oz. (3-1/2 lbs)
* 500H (Hunter) with a longer 10.5 in (26.6 cm) barrel
* Performance Center model also has a barrel length of 10.5 in (26.6 cm) and includes improvements to enhance accuracy. [citation needed]

Like most big caliber handguns, the Model 500 is suitable for sport and hunting applications.

There have also been at least a small number of Model 500 "survival guns" produced. These guns, with a 2-3/4 in (51 mm) barrel and no compensator, are intended to be kept in survival kits carried by bush pilots and pilots operating in Alaska and similarly hostile environments. The purpose of having such a heavy round with a snub-nosed barrel is to give survivors of an airplane crash a weapon capable of taking down an attacking bear or other hostile wildlife at point blank range, while conserving necessarily limited ammunition. The short barrel allows the gun to take up less space and weight in the survival kit.[citation needed]

Controversy

When the Model 500 was introduced, it immediately sparked action by gun control advocates. Senator Chuck Schumer claimed that the firearm was finding its way into the hands of gangs and other criminals, and that he did not believe that the firearm would be used for hunting as it was "too heavy". The Violence Policy Center also released a report on the Model 500 calling it the "vest-buster."[2]

Pro-gun supporters pointed out that the firearm was not yet on the market at the time the accusations were made, as well as the fact that it weighed less than most hunting rifles. Despite the fact that subsequent ballistics testing has shown that factory loaded .500 S&W Magnum ammunition is not capable of penetrating body armor of the type used by law enforcement officers, political pressure to ban the .500 Smith & Wesson Magnum cartridge persists.