Syria's First Lady Has Arms Like Michelle!

Asma Al Assad: Syria's First Lady And All-Natural Beauty (SLIDESHOW): "A couple weeks ago headlines were made when Syrian First Lady, Asma Al Assad invited the Obamas to Damascus. HuffPost readers ended up commenting more on Asma's beauty and less on what an Obama/Assad meeting would mean for the Middle East. And we couldn't help but notice the Syrian beauty either. In a region where the women love to cake on their make-up, it is very refreshing to see the wife of President Bashar al-Assad with very little on. (See the post 'Less Is The New More: The Case For Taking Off Your Make-Up.')

We also noticed her love for Christian Louboutin platforms, sunglasses, and her signature wavy hair. From her natural look to her classic style, we picked some of our favorite Asma looks below."

Here is the beginning of my post. And here is the rest of it.

Why is this funny?

Oscar Mayer Wienermobile Crashes Into Wisconsin Home

LROC's first look at the Apollo landing sites | Eureka! Science News

NASA/GSFC/Arizona State university

The imaging system on board NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) recently had its first of many opportunities to photograph the Apollo landing sites. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) imaged five of the six Apollo sites with the narrow angle cameras (NACs) between July 11 and 15, within days of the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission. The early images obtained by LROC, operated by Arizona State University Professor Mark Robinson, show the lunar module descent stages left behind by the departing astronauts. Their locations are made evident by their long shadows, which result from a low sun angle at the time of collection.

Community Stimulus Plan?

Politics, Political News - POLITICO.com: "There's no stimulus like service
By JOHN BRIDGELAND AND ALAN KHAZEI | 7/17/09 4:39 AM
A low-cost, bipartisan way to create jobs: Fully fund the law expanding national and community service"

Experts in Defense

Danger Room:
"...Riki Ellison, the onetime NFL linebacker .. hung up his cleats to become the one of the most prominent U.S. advocates for missile defense.

(A)s an owner of three Super Bowl rings, Ellison can’t resist a football metaphor.

“Sometimes you play zone defense, other times you play man-to-man, the key is to layer your defense so you can protect your goal line no matter how they attack you,” Ellison told Eichelberger. “That’s essentially how a missile defense system works.”
....
Of course, Ellison isn’t the only missile-defense celeb. Doobie Brothers guitarist Jeff “Skunk” Baxter has made a name for himself as a missile-shield advocate as well."

Drones, Drones, Everything that Flies?

Danger Room: "It was without much fanfare that the Air Force published its new Unmanned Aircraft System Flight Plan on Wednesday. But the low-key launch of the study, which aims to sketch out drone development through the year 2047, belies the radical future the air service envisions. In an acronym-dense 82 pages, the Air Force explains how ever-larger and more sophisticated flying robots could eventually replace every type of manned aircraft in its inventory — everything from speedy, air-to-air fighters to lumbering bombers and tankers.

Emphasis on “might” and “could.” While revealing how robots can equal the capabilities of traditional planes, the Air Force is careful to emphasize that an all-bot air fleet is not inevitable. Rather, drones will represent “alternatives” to manned planes, in pretty much every mission category."

Judge to pot farmer: 'What did you tell your kids?'

Judge to pot farmer: 'What did you tell your kids?': "Judge to pot farmer: 'What did you tell your kids?'
Attorney questions usefulness of 7-year prison term

By LEVI PULKKINEN
SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF

The accused leader, Jerry R. Berkey, 36, had pleaded guilty in April to running a series of marijuana grows in Snohomish County. The grows made him a good living, according to prosecutors, affording him a home and a recreational vehicle.

Describing their product as the 'pollution (they) spread in the community,' (Judge) Pechman hectored Berkey for drawing others into his business.......

(She sentenced him to seven years in fed prison) Had he been prosecuted under state law having pleaded guilty to the same crime -- conspiracy to manufacture marijuana -- he would likely face no more than six months in jail, Ressler told the court. The likely maximum sentence would have been five years.

(His attorney} disputed how a lengthy sentence would promote respect for the law.

'Persons involved in growing marijuana in the United States receive sentences that run the gamut,' Ressler said in court documents. 'Whether any of these sentences promote respect for the law is unknown. Counsel assumes that it would be difficult to establish any statistical relationship between the sentence imposed and respect that persons might feel for the law.'

How to Prevent Peace

Al-Ahram Weekly | Region | Quick paint job: ".......... it is widely expected that Israel will declare its 'willingness' to freeze settlement construction in return for far-reaching concessions from the Arab camp: first, a recognition by the Palestinians of Israel as an exclusively Jewish state in which non-Jews have to accept racial inferiority or leave, and, second, a deep multi-faceted normalisation between Israel and the entire Arab world.

......

(this) is also an indication that Israel is not really interested in reaching an honest and dignified peace with the Palestinians but is only trying to throw the proverbial ball into the Arab or at least the American court.

How can there be peace if the Arab world will not accept two states where one is "jewish?" What is Israel supposed to do? accept a peace where Jews have no control over their own state? Maybe the answer is to require Israel, Jordan AND Palestine to be "open" societies and accept immigration from anyone who wnats to live there! We could have a war of the mortgages?

65000 deaths from Swine Flu in Britain

Swine flu: Medical chief orders NHS to prepare for 65,000 deaths - with a toll of as many as 350 a day

Health officials are now preparing for a 'worst case scenario' of 65,000 deaths this year in what they fear may only be the first wave of the disease. There have been 12 deaths since Monday

The Official Palm Blog: Mojo SDK available to all

The Official Palm Blog: Mojo SDK available to all: "Mojo SDK available to all

After a successful early access program, Palm’s Mojo Software Development Kit is available to all interested app developers. The SDK can be downloaded from a new developer portal -- Palm webOSdev -- at developer.palm.com. Any interested developer with a valid email address can access the SDK, its associated documentation, and new Mojo developer forums.
The initial response to Palm webOS apps -- from both developers and customers -- has been enthusiastic. Even in its initial beta stage, over 1.8 million apps have been downloaded from the beta App Catalog since Palm Pre was released less than six weeks ago. Thousands of developers have participated in the Mojo SDK early access program since it began in early April. New applications are in the pipeline for the Palm App Catalog, and the App Catalog submission process will be opened to all developers beginning this fall.

Developers interested in exploring Palm webOS and the Mojo SDK further may be interested in these upcoming events:"

This is much more than it appears. The pre re4presents the clear evolution of the handheld into a web appliance. Other OS do this too0, but Web OS is the first time an OS has been developed with its hardware specifically for this purpose. Android might dispute this but the level of integration in my Pre is very different than any other "phone' Basically the line between talk and web is invisible.

Google and MS may want to remember that Palm was founded as an OS company. Their business model wilol be worth watching.

Study reveals major genetic differences between blood and tissue cells | Eureka! Science News

Study reveals major genetic differences between blood and tissue cells | Eureka! Science News: "AAA is one of the rare vascular diseases where tissue samples are removed as part of patient therapy. When they compared them, the researchers discovered major differences between BAK genes in blood cells and tissue cells coming from the same individuals, with the suspected disease 'trigger' residing only in the tissue. Moreover, the same differences were later evident in samples derived from healthy individuals."

Gottlieb B, Chalifour LE, Mitmaker B, Sheiner N, Obrand D, Abraham C, Meilleur M, Sugahara T, Bkaily G, and Schweitzer M

Human mutation 30(7):1043-7, 2009 Jul

This is amazing! It raises questions about mutation in human diseases other tha cancer .. including atherosclerosis!

Rational Humans

Eureka! Science News | Latest science news articles: "University of Michigan survey: Ask permission to use newborn data, parents say

More than three-quarters of parents would be willing to permit the use of their children's newborn screening samples for research purposes if their permission were obtained beforehand, a University of..."

for free ... Adam Smith Style

Microsoft Office to go online — for free - Big Tech - Fortune Brainstorm Tech: "Get this: Microsoft – the king of paid software – will announce today that it is going to give a version of Office away for free online. Both the online and desktop versions are scheduled to arrive in the first half of next year. Yes, you read that right. The latest version of its ubiquitous productivity software, dubbed Office 2010, will come as both a piece of software you can buy for your computer, and as a service you can access in your browser. [UPDATE: Microsoft says it will support the Firefox and Safari browsers as well as IE.]"

This is clear evidence of capitalism at work!

Publicola

Publicola: "1. Liberals who are looking for Sen. Maria Cantwell to lead on health care reform, should check this behind-the-scenes action out: Cantwell wants to impose a 1.45 percent tax on short-term capital gains to help fund Medicare, and she’s asked the Senate Joint Committee on Taxation to look at the budgeting details of her populist tax idea.

Currently, short-term capital gains—which includes profits made on day trades and short-sales by hedge funds—aren’t subject to Medicare taxes like a workers’ income is.

Cantwell’s office tells PubliCola: 'This is … about fairness. People who live on profits they make in day trades don’t contribute into the Medicare trust fund in the same way as a worker who earns wages.'"

What does this mean? I assume that these people do pay taxes on their net income? Why would one wanty to tax ojnly nthe up trades?

Danger Room

Danger Room: "As the BBC reports, the ad is a “rare nod to commercial motives” in decidedly anti-capitalist North Korea, and the ad features young women in traditional dress serving Taedong River to men in suits. But if you watch closely, you’ll also see the image of a happy proletarian hoisting a frosty one."

Apple's iPhone and iPod Monopolies Must Go - Business Center - PC World

Apple's iPhone and iPod Monopolies Must Go - Business Center - PC World: "Apple's iPhone and iPod Monopolies Must Go"

Palin's Posse

FiveThirtyEight: Politics Done Right: "Sarah Palin's political action committee -- SarahPAC -- raised $733,000 in the first half of the year and is set to push past $1 million in the wake of the recent attention she's gotten herself. On the one hand, this isn't that impressive ... but $443,608, or 60 percent of SarahPac's total, which came from small donors. That is a very high percentage -- higher than for any of the '08 presidential candidates but for Ron Paul -- as you can see from this chart where I've colored Palin's total in Misogynist Pink."

Rape and Bra Straps

A Slip of a Girl: "Johnny Can't Concentrate On His Math Because Sue's Bra Strap Is Showing - I Guess His Only Option Is To Fail Math & Rape The Girl"

Death with Swiss Dignity

Conductor Edward Downes And Wife Joan Die In Swiss Suicide Clinic

LONDON — He spent his life conducting world-renowned orchestras, but...

More on Collins

Short Sharp Science - New Scientist: "Last week, President Barack Obama announced his nomination of geneticist and physician Francis Collins as the new director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the government organisation that funds medical research in the US. The appointment has sparked a flurry of mixed reactions across the country, largely because Collins, former head of the Human Genome Project, is an outspoken evangelical Christian.

Collins is a staunch supporter of evolution and a highly-respected scientist who is responsible for the discovery of genes responsible for several diseases, including cystic fibrosis, neurofibromatosis, Huntington's and adult onset diabetes. He is also the author of The Language of God: A scientist presents evidence for belief (Simon & Schuster, 2006) and recently the founder of the BioLogos foundation, which aims to reconcile science and religion by promoting 'theistic evolution' - the idea that God chose to create life by way of evolution."

Here is the beginning of my post. And here is the rest of it.

Al Jazeera vs Palestinians

PA closes Al Jazeera bureau

He Pitches Too?

RAHM IT THROUGH: NATIONALIZED HEALTH CARE IN WEEKS!

Can Apple Spell "Monopoly?"

PreCentral.net | all things Palm Pre: "It has begun. With the release of iTunes 8.2.1 (via TiPb), gut46 tells us, Palm Pre syncing with iTunes is indeed kaput. At least on this Pre user's Mac, iTunes sync isn't working after the 8.2.1 update.* According to Apple's surprisingly forthcoming release notes:

iTunes 8.2.1 provides a number of important bug fixes and addresses an issue with verification of Apple Devices."

Popular Science

Popular Science: "SpaceX Successfully Delivers First Payload to Space
The first successful commercial space mission deposits a Malaysian satellite in orbit"

Questioning Sotomayor

FiveThirtyEight: Politics Done Right: "Ann Althouse, a professor of law at the University of Wisconsin:


If a diverse array of justices is desirable, should we not be concerned that if you are confirmed, six out of the nine justices will be Roman Catholics, or is it somehow wrong to start paying attention to the extreme overrepresentation of Catholicism on the court at the moment when we have our first Hispanic nominee?"

and from the NY Times two years back:

"Should (religion) even be discussed? In the wake of the 5-4 ruling in Gonzales v. Carhart, these questions have been raised and debated in venues from the blog of the American Constitution Society (where Geoffrey R. Stone, a constitutional law professor, said the justices’ religious identity was “too obvious, and too telling, to ignore,”) to ABC’s “The View,” (where Rosie O'Donnell declared, "How about separation of church and state in America?" according to ABC News.)

The pushback from conservative Catholics was immediate - even pre-emptive. Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, declared, “We need more, not fewer, Catholics on the Supreme Court.” On his Web site, the Rev. Richard John Neuhaus, an influential conservative, wrote last week, “I expect it is on the minds of many, but so far there has been only marginal public comment on the fact that all five in the Carhart majority are Catholics.” He added, “What can one say? Know-Nothings of the world unite?”

"

Eureka! Evolution Is Real!

A new study finds that a change in a single gene has sent two closely related bird populations on their way to becoming two distinct species. The study, published in..."

Moscow News - Business - Pepsi opens new factory

Moscow News - Business - Pepsi opens new factory: "Pepsi opens new factory
> print version

Ayano Hodouchi

Amid some fanfare, PepsiCo opened its largest bottling plant in the world last week in Domodedovo, on the southern outskirts of Moscow.

The opening came immediately after US President Barack Obama's visit to Moscow, and a day before the 50th anniversary of Pepsi coming to the Soviet Union. Exactly 50 years earlier, then-CEO Donald Kendall personally helped hand out 3 millions cups of Pepsi to visitors at the American National Exhibition in Moscow, and Nikita Khrushchev was said to have downed several cups of the drink."

Jim Crow in China

The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan: "Jim Crow In China

by Patrick Appel

Fallows posted a picture on Friday of a help wanted sign in the Xinjiang region that read 'This offer is for Han Chinese (汉族) only.' This sort of racial bias is widespread in China according to Jim's readers. Here's a bit from a 'foreigner with experience in China':"

Has The OS Grown Up?

Latest news headlines - CNET News: "Survey: Many businesses plan to skip Windows 7

July 12, 2009 10:01 PM PDT

In a new poll, 60 percent of IT administrators said they have no plans to move to Redmond's new operating system.

By Ina Fried in Beyond Binary"

Autotopia: Autos To Throw Down a Black Hole | Autopia | Wired.com

5 Auto Atrocities To Throw Down a Black Hole | Autopia | Wired.com: "There are no shortage of automotive abominations that should be cast into a black hole with narration from Rod Serling. We’ll begin with three obvious candidates: the Pontiac Aztek, the Hummer H2 and the Renault Dauphine. They will be spared.

Why? Because as horrible as these “cars” are, they are too horrible to be destroyed. Nature abhors a vacuum, so if we destroy something so hideous as the Aztek, so garish as the H2 or so unreliable as the Dauphine, something will replace them. We simply cannot fathom the hellish creations that might spring forth to take their places, so we shall spare those cars for the sake of the planet.

We drew up a list of cars that should be wiped from the pages of automotive history. Feel free to set us straight or make any additions — just know that whatever goes in will never come out."

Here is the beginning of my post. And here is the rest of it.

Funny the cars they left out. I would have included the monster finned Caddy, Mercedes Hummer-like tank, the Yugo, the six figure Rolls, the Corvair, ... funny think, I can not think of a Japanese car to include?

Danger Room

Danger Room: "Dozens of U.S. Troops Found on Neo-Nazi Site

* By Noah Shachtman Email Author
* July 9, 2009 |

With nearly three million people in the U.S. military, there are bound to be a small handful of nut-jobs and foam-at-the-mouth radicals. Still, the idea that you can find dozens of active-duty servicemembers on a single neo-Nazi website is sickening, and more than a little disturbing."

As Space Station Nears Completion, It Faces End of Mission - washingtonpost.com

As Space Station Nears Completion, It Faces End of Mission - washingtonpost.com: "Space Station Is Near Completion, Maybe the End
Plan to 'De-Orbit' in 2016"

Hawaii considers adding space flights - Outdoors - The Olympian - Olympia, Washington

Hawaii considers adding space flights - Outdoors - The Olympian - Olympia, Washington: "Hawaii could become the first place where travelers can use the planes for real transportation. Planners envision planes taking off in one place, traveling through space, then landing in another, going from the Big Island to Oahu. Within a decade, space travelers could island hop from Hawaii to Japan in 45 minutes."

Private tuition soars in India

Al Jazeera English - Focus - Private tuition soars in India: "Private tuition soars in India
By Amrit Dhillon in New Delhi"

Despite the fact that half of India's population is below the age of 25, the Indian government has not built a new university for 50 years.

India has 338 government universities. A government commission looking into the state of higher education said last month that it needed 1,500 universities.

Kapil Sibal, India's education minister, has promised long overdue root-and-branch reform of the educational system, saying it had to be 'de-traumatised' for the sake of pupils and parents. He also plans to encourage foreign universities to open shop in India to alleviate the shortage of places.

He also wants the Grade 10 exam for 15-year-olds to emphasise grading a pupil's work throughout the year so that the focus switches from marks-based to knowledge-based learning.

Sticks and Stones

Haaretz Daily Newspaper Israel, Israeli News Source: "Netanyahu: Palestinian recognition of Jewish state 'key to peace'

Paleontology & Archaeology | Eureka! Science News

Paleontology & Archaeology | Eureka! Science News: "Analysis of Copernicus putative remains support identity

This Copernicus book in Museum Gustavianum, Uppsala University, contained some hairs that were DNA analyzed.Swedish and polish researchers now publish results from the analysis of the putative remains of Copernicus. A DNA-analysis of shed of hairs found in a book from Museum Gustavianum, Uppsala..."

Picture This: Tractor Art - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

Tractor Art

AP

Barack Obama is used to having his picture taken, but something he is probably less accustomed to is having his image carved out in grass by a tractor. This aerial photograph shows how the US President's face now adorns an area of countryside near Verona in Northern Italy, as the result of artist Dario Gambarin's most recent project. The portrait, accompanied by the words, "The Hope is in the Land", covers an area of 27,000 square meters and was created during a 90 minute performance by the Italian on July 5 2009. The release of the image coincides with Obama's visit to Italy for the G-8 summit in L'Aquila.

Homesick for the DDR

Homesick for a Dictatorship: Majority of Eastern Germans Feel Life Better under Communism - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International: "Majority of Eastern Germans Feel Life Better under Communism

By Julia Bonstein

Glorification of the German Democratic Republic is on the rise two decades after the Berlin Wall fell. Young people and the better off are among those rebuffing criticism of East Germany as an 'illegitimate state.' In a new poll, more than half of former eastern Germans defend the GDR."

Rethinking Retirement in Germany

International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - Nachrichten: "Germany's Increasingly Powerful Seniors

Things are changing for Germany's aged. On one hand, their influence is growing and, controversially, they got the biggest pension increase in more than a decade last week. On the other hand academics are calling for a rethink on retirement, arguing that the old must work longer and harder. By SPIEGEL Staff more..."