| Save the Planet by Surfing the Web, 'Green' Websites Promise
On the internet, anyone can be an environmentalist. All you have to do, is, well, nothing. A number of "green" internet businesses promise users they can help save the planet by doing little more than surfing the right websites. For instance, Blackle.com claims to help you save energy by offering a version of Google that has a black background, which may cut down on your display's electricity consumption. There are green search engines, green shopping sites, and even green dating sites -- it's an impressive abundance of good intentions. .
DVD Report
Look at some of the other geopolitically minded movies meriting only capsule reviews on this page, then look at "Elah," and there's no questioning Haggis's storytelling smarts. He has a weakness for overdone statement at times; bookend sequences in which Hank gruffly raises a schoolyard American flag stick out unnecessarily. But there's also a fair amount here that's unexpected. Jones could easily be on curmudgeon auto-pilot, but instead he and Haggis make Hank a man who's crustily driven but also crushed in a way he won't admit to himself. It's a vital, vastly more effective character choice. Extras: A 45-minute production segment underscores that the filmmakers are against the war, not the troops, as it chats with the movie's young soldiers - some of them actual former servicemen - and a father whose story served as an inspiration.
What to Watch: Fast Haulin' and B-Ballin'
Thinking back, oh, let's say about 30 years ago to 1978, both the NBA and NASCAR were entering their modern era with events and personalities that stretched fandom of those sports to new levels. Both sports shared a common problem. Live TV broadcasts. NASCAR events were an ABC "Wide World of Sports" staple but shown on tape-delay. CBS had the NBA rights but small-market teams and tape-delayed playoff games — sometimes shown after midnight here in San Antonio — generated disastrously low ratings. Fast-forward to 2008 — the NBA has games on national TV seven days a week, its own TV channel and billion-dollar price tags for tradition & digital broadcast rights. NASCAR's fortunes ballooned into the billion-dollar stratosphere after its landmark 2001 TV deal to become the second-most watched sports on TV.
Arab League chief resumes Lebanon talks
ARAB League chief Amr Mussa resumed talks with rival political leaders in Lebanon overnight in a bid to break a deadlock that has left the country without a president for three months. Mr Mussa hosted a meeting yesterday bringing together two leading members of the Western-backed ruling coalition, parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri and former president Amin Gemayel, with Michel Aoun, a Christian leader in the Syrian-backed opposition. The four-hour meeting ended at midnight (9am AEDT Monday) with no agreement between the parties on how to end a political crisis that has paralysed the government and led to mounting communal tensions. Today's meeting came on the eve of a fresh attempt in parliament to elect a new president. Fourteen attempts to hold a vote have been cancelled, triggering Lebanon worst internal crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war.
December 2006 Archives
Oh, and I love how they released this on a Friday night before a long holiday weekend. (Flashback to Nick and Jessica – Thanksgiving 2005.) Again, that's the typical celeb move so that the shock of it will be over on Tuesday when all the entertainment writers are back at work. But this is the Internet age, fools. We're on the case 24/7. Also I should add that Michael has a reputation of playing around on the wifey for years. Now he can play all he wants. .
Falun Gong activists make appeals
Members of the Covina City Council heard a convincing plea last month familiar to many officials in San Gabriel Valley cities. "After the brutal crackdown on Falun Gong I was sent to work in a forced labor camp," said Bin Li, a local Falun Gong practitioner who was asking the City Council to pass a resolution condemning the Chinese government's persecution of her group. "I was brainwashed and mentally, spiritually and physically tortured," she added. Reacting as most people would to Li's plea, Covina Mayor John King promised council members would vote on a resolution at the following meeting. Two weeks later, enthusiasm for the resolution faded quickly after Councilman Walter Allen quoted passages from the group's founder that condemned marriage and reproduction between races.
State sues Brooks-based contractor for alleged fraud
Attorney General Hardy Myers sued a Marion County contractor Wednesday, accusing the three principals of Ross Bros. & Company of attempting to defraud the state of more than $1 million. The state's lawsuit seeks to keep the firm, based in Brooks, from bidding on or obtaining any government contracts and from working as a subcontractor or supplier until a court orders otherwise. The suit, filed in Malheur County Circuit Court, alleged that Steven M. Ross, Greg Ross and Jeff Howell violated Oregon's anti-racketeering law. They are accused of submitting false documents to the Oregon Department of Transportation in 2004, obtaining or attempting to obtain public funds through false claims submitted to ODOT in 2003 and 2004, and obstructing governmental administration. Oregon's anti-racketeering law, passed in 1981, is modeled on the 1970 federal law that strengthens government's authority to prosecute a pattern of crimes and seek increased penalties.
One in 100 US adults behind bars: study
WASHINGTON: More than one in 100 adults are now behind bars in the United States, home to the worlds largest penal population, with a startling one in nine young black men incarcerated, a study showed Thursday.
The prison and jail population rose by 25,000 to 2.3 million last year, out of a US adult population of 230 million, bringing the incarceration rate to one in 99.1 for the first time in US history, said the Pew Centre on the States. By comparison, China, with a population of one billion people, was second in the world with 1.5 million inmates, followed by Russia with 890,000 people in the slammer, said the study.
America also has the dubious distinction of leading the planet in the rate of incarceration, which is higher than nations like South Africa and Iran.
Children's Theatre fans ask council, 'Why?!'
Theater for children is very, very popular in the bay area. Most other rep companies charge one hundred dollars or so for participating in a play, with scholarships available for those who cannot afford it. Perhaps this would reduce the bias and nepotism present in the current casting process, as well as reduce the load on Palo Alto taxpayers.
Posted by replier to former Pact parent, a resident of the Professorville neighborhood, on Jan 29, 2008 at 4:52 pm .
|
