russian homeless really screwed

Without an address to show residency it's almost impossible to find work in Moscow or to have a valid ID issued, without these you are homeless; seems like a pretty hopeless cycle.

In Russia Homeless Means Nearly Hopeless

Created: 16.06.2005 15:35 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 18:06 MSK

MosNews

Foreigners coming to Moscow are often struck by how different homeless street beggars are from what they are used to seeing at home — if they are used to it at all. Seated on ripped cardboard and begging for spare change are women with children, an unusual sight for a Westerner. In reality, these sad-looking women and dirt-smudged toddlers usually belong to the clan of roaming professional beggars. Russians who are truly homeless are mostly male and rarely beg; they are usually people who have lost their place in life after doing time or fallen victim to real estate con artists, and their frequent alcoholism, combined with social rejection, keep them from ever surfacing and having a normal life again.

“Abroad, the issue of the homeless is 90% an issue of unemployment,” says Andrey Pentyukhov of Moscow City’s Department for Social Help to the Homeless. The people his institution is trying to help are in much deeper trouble than being out of work. In Russia, where there are no social security numbers, for all legal purposes, people are identified by their legal registered address. A legal address is required to get a job in the first place — or to get social benefits a person might otherwise be entitled to.

“We must legalize the homeless as society’s citizens,” Pentyukhov says. “Right now if they don’t have a home, if they don’t have registration — they can’t get employed, or get disability status, they can’t do anything. Without a home, you’re nobody.”

Some services — like getting official ID reissued — are supposed to be available without a legal place of residence. According to Pentyukhov, 70% of all homeless don’t have any ID. Even if they do scrounge up the money for photographs and passport fees, their application for a new passport (which is the main form of identification in Russia) is likely to be arbitrarily rejected by the local passport office, where the officials might not want to deal with a homeless person. “They tell them, go away, you’re not registered here. Even though they are obliged to take the application and issue a passport,” Pentyukhov said.

The department works on a voluntary basis, helping everyone who comes and asks for help. They offer shelter, food, clothes, help in recovering lost documents, help with employment, alcoholism treatment programs, and legal help to those who lost their apartments because of fraudulent real estate sales — in other words, everything to help reintegrate the homeless back into society. Their facilities can house up to 1,512 people. With the city’s homeless population estimated at 30,000, one might expect people beating down the office doors.

Not so. There are usually about 400-500 spots available, Pentyukhov says. “They don’t want to live a normal life,” he complains. 85% of his charges are men, and 70% suffer from alcoholism — which is a disease, he underscores, but one that can only be cured with the patient’s cooperation. Because shelter rules forbid drinking and demand that all able-bodied individuals try and hold down a job, alcoholics who don’t succeed in their rehab treatment are once again out in the street.

Currently, Russians have little compassion for the homeless. Last winter, I came across a homeless man lying face down in the street. People hurried by without stopping. When I stopped to touch him, another man stopped after seeing my puzzled face. A couple more people stopped and helped to turn him over. Apparently, he just walked down the street, slipped on the ice and cracked his head open. He was dead — no one had stopped to help him out.

Pentyukhov would like to see Russian society as a whole change this callous attitude toward the homeless, who are usually contemptuously referred to as bomzh, or bums. “If you call someone a bum, it means they’re social waste. But they’re people just like us, with their own problems and diseases that must be treated.”

Enough oil and for how long?

For all of you following the alleged impending catastrophic destruction of modern society known as peak oil; which is the moment when global oil extraction 'peaks' and begins its terminal decline which will theoretically force radical changes through the very fabric of our completely oil dependent society, it’s possible that there is some ok news on the horizon. Keep building those underground bunkers, just in case!

Is There Plenty Of Oil?

First came Holstein, then Mad Dog, and soon, Thunder Horse. Atlantis will join them next year. The four giant oil fields, operated by BP PLC (BP ) and located under thousands of feet of water off the coast of Louisiana, are just beginning to pump their first barrels. At their peak rates later in the decade, they'll produce some 500,000 bbl. per day, an amount akin to floating a small Middle Eastern country such as Syria or Yemen into the Gulf of Mexico. "Add them together, and it's a massive step change," says David Eyton, BP's vice-president for deepwater in the Gulf. "The investment we're making will more than offset declines we're seeing in Alaska and the Continental Shelf."

keep reading...

Happy 4th everyone!!

Happy Fourth of July people! Everyone lucky enough to live life on soil owned by the United States of America, fuck yeah bros, we are the kings of the world, and don't fuckin' forget it ever. This is our day of celebration, every natural born and properly naturalized US citizen should use this holiday to do whatever the fuck they deem proper, as that's your birthright, and too many people whose names will not be remembered made incredible sacrifices so that we will have the freedom to exercise our collective will as we see fit. As long as our flag waves proud over the domain of a grateful nation, we will forever be able to hold our heads high and demonstrate to the rest of the world that the model of democratic society that we have established is the right and correct model that the entire world, even universe, should adopt. Long live the United States of America, may the torch of liberty never dim!!!!!!!!

Viva la Estonia!!

I love Estonia, rock on!!

Estonians snatch world wife-carrying title again

Jul 2, 1:43 PM (ET)

SONKAJARVI, Finland (Reuters) - Estonia reigned supreme once again in the wife-carrying world championship on Saturday, as Margo Uusorg sprinted home to win the Baltic country's eighth straight title in the offbeat competition.

Forty couples from 10 countries gathered in the remote Finnish village of Sonkajarvi to complete a 253.5-meter-long obstacle course. A man must carry a woman, not necessarily his spouse, through a pool and across hurdles.

The few rules require a minimum weight of 49 kg (108 lb) for the "wife" and state that all contestants must have fun.

Uusorg, 25, completed the course in 59 seconds with friend Egle Soll, 23, clinging to his back in the trademark "Estonian Carry" -- hanging upside down with her legs clenched around his neck.

Uusorg's prizes were his partner's weight in beer and a high-tech mobile phone.

It was his fourth victory, and the third in a row for his family. Brother Madis won in 2004.

"We don't have a secret, we just try to run fast and hope the legs work," said Uusorg, who works in Stockholm as an embassy driver. He warned that the family would be even stronger contenders next year when brother number three, Urmet, takes part.

"He holds the Estonian record for the 800 meters," Uusorg said.

Uusorg and Soll received first prize from the hands of visiting U.S. basketball legend Dennis Rodman, who declined to compete, saying he lacked both a wife and proper training.

"I'm not in shape ... It could hurt the back," said the former Chicago Bulls and Detroit Pistons forward. But he promised to train for next year.

"I'll carry the kids around the house or something," he said.

Some 9,000 people came to view the event, set deep in forests and lakes a couple of hours' drive from the Arctic Circle. It began in 1992 as a purely Finnish contest based on local legend, according to which wife-stealing was once commonplace in the region.

Ned Kelly

Wow, this guy must have been some style of royal badass. This is the first time I have heard about this story, I'm gonna try and find out more, maybe track down the movie mentioned.

Kelly hideout made heritage site

The place where Ned Kelly, Australia's outlaw and folk hero, made his last stand before being caught and hanged has been made a national heritage site.

Government minister Ian Campbell said the move acknowledged the role the 19th century bushranger had played in the country's history.

Seen by some as a Robin Hood-like hero and by others as a mere bandit, he was executed for murdering three policemen.

The eight-hectare (20 acre) area is located in southern Victoria state.

"Ned Kelly has become part of the Australian history - both as one of our best-known historical figures and also as a mythological character," said Australian Heritage Minister Ian Campbell.

"To some a bushranger, some see him as a larrikin [boisterous, loutish young man, maverick] and some a hero."

Kelly and his gang, including his younger brother, robbed banks and held towns hostage after Kelly's mother was accused of the attempted murder of a policeman and imprisoned.

After nearly two years on the run, he and his gang were confronted by police in the small town of Glenrowan on 28 June 1880.

Kelly, who wore a makeshift helmet and armour made of iron ploughs during his last battle, was shot 20 times before being arrested.

He was hanged on 11 November 1880.

A film of his life was made in 2003.

more cell phones than landlines in the US

Wireless subscriptions could pass wireline soon, but some carriers are wary of marking the event. Very few people I know have landline phones, I live with four other young professionals, we all use cell phones. I wonder what the ratios are like for other countries?

Wireless Landmark Looms
By Mark Rockwell
July 1, 2005
Wireless Week

WASHINGTON–Carriers are carefully considering whether to mark an important milestone with great fanfare or a quiet nod.

For the first time, the telecom industry is anticipating official word that the number of wireless subscribers has surpassed the number of wireline phone subscribers. The FCC was set to release its twice-yearly local competition report in late June. The report may, or may not, show that wireless phone subscribers outnumber wireline subscribers. Wireline and wireless carriers are anticipating that moment has either already occurred, or will occur this year.

The landmark moment would seem to be a great thing for wireless carriers that can point to the success of flourishing, relatively unregulated wireless competition as the reason for the technology's success. That would be only half the story, however.

Wireless carriers affiliated with former local Bell wireline operating companies may have to walk a fine line in their praise, as trumpeting wireless' success too much could draw more regulatory attention. Too little trumpeting could come at the expense of wireline parents that want to use the relatively unregulated success of wireless as a model for their industry. The rhetorical line is a hard one to walk for those carriers.

At former Bell company BellSouth, officials in North Carolina extrapolated numbers in the FCC's December 2004 local competition report that show the number of wireline subscribers and the number of wireless subscribers will converge in the state at 5.2 million a piece this month or thereabouts. Over the next 10 years, wireless subscribers will climb to 6.5 million in the state, while wireline subscribers are projected to drop to 3.7 million there, according to BellSouth's charts.

Although the comparison isn't really an accurate tool to show wireless communications' ascendancy over wireline, as there are many differing factors in the numbers, it is an important psychological milestone for an industry increasingly looking to head off regulation. Measuring one against the other doesn't mean one technology has overtaken the other, as there are too many variables, such as the number of people who have two wireless phones, as well as several wireline connections, and people who have dropped wireline completely.

Officials at Cingular Wireless, whose parents include BellSouth and SBC Communications, had no comment on the predictions. A spokesman for "pure wireless play" carrier Nextel Communications applauded the possibility of wireless subscriptions overtaking wireline but declined further comment until after the FCC releases the official numbers.

Analysts for months have been predicting wireless subscriptions would pass wireless. Estimates from Bear, Stearns & Co. show wireless lines already surpassed local lines in 2004.

The trend of wireless replacing wireline "underscores the success of a light regulatory touch," says Jeffrey Nelson, spokesman for Verizon Wireless. "It underscores the need for a continued light touch on taxation and regulation" for wireless services.

Privately, officials at wireless carriers with local wireline parents say they fear making too much noise about the landmark because state regulators may use it to show wireless service needs more oversight because it is more common than wireline.

Other observers say wireline companies are looking to leverage the success of wireless into lighter regulations for themselves.

Either way, the milestone isn't a clearly drawn line for either wireline or wireless as convergence descends upon the industries.

Another casting call in dc

July 1, 2005
EXTRAS CASTING FOR "THE SENTINEL" AND "FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS"

Central Casting will be casting for the following up-coming projects: “The Sentinel” with Michael Douglas and “Flags of Our Fathers,” a Clint Eastwood/ Steven Spielberg project.

Actors interested in “Flags of Our Fathers” must be available August 8 as well as one day prior for a wardrobe fitting, as the project is set in 1954. Filming on “The Sentinel” will begin July 28th. They will be looking for many different types of people, but specifically, a lot of Military and Secret Service types.

Actors interested in either project should come by Central Casting between 10am-12pm or 2-4pm Monday through Friday on any day from July 5 to July 15. Please make sure you bring a Headshot and Resume with you — even if they have you on file.

Central Casting
623 Pennsylvania Avenue SE
Washington, DC 20003
202-547-6300 Phone
202-547-8196 Fax

Trance scene in Japan

Just in case anybody was wondering where to go to hear good trance music while in Japan; this is where it's at.

Weekend trance party picks

By JEFF OGRISSEG
Special to The Japan Times Online

Friday 07.01

Psy16 and Earthcore Japan present "Fractal," a monthly Goa psy-trance party at Club M in Nishi Azabu (aka Club a-life). On the B2 psychedelic floor, live act Gokofuto (Manas) plus DJs Kemix (Psy16), Shed (Apoxina Records/ Chronic Pain), Asteca (El Dorado Sounds) and Yk (Earthcore Japan). On the B1 chill and progressive floor are live acts Fine Diner (Zennon) and Random (Guidelines) plus the Flying Kamoshika DJ Team (Coldring & Matto), Pedro (Psy16) and Jef (Psy16). Starts at 11 p.m. At the door it's 3,000 yen (2,500 yen with a flyer), or send e-mail to psychedelik16@yahoo.com for a discount. I caught Gokofuto, Matto and the Psy16 gang at the Manas open-air a few weeks ago and it was the most fun I've ever had at an overnighter without a tent.

Saturday 07.02

Vision Quest presents "Free Party @ Yoyogi Park" in Shibuya Ward, from noon to 7 p.m. DJs listed are Mitsumoto (Joujouka), Ami (Vision Quest) and Roger (Psyfreaks, Brazil). The weather is looking a bit iffy, 30 degrees and a 60 percent chance of rain. But this party will launch the promotion campaign for The Gathering 2005 (Sept. 23-25), the dates for which have just been announced on VQ's Web site.

Saturday 07.02

Emotional Beat presents "Emotional Beat" at Club Citta in Kawasaki. Live acts Wizzy Noise, Deedrah (aka Synthetik) and Mad Funny Boys, plus DJ sets by Dado (Deedrah) and Ree-K (Hypnodisk / Space Gathering). B-Magic will be providing the laser show. Opens at midnight. At the door it's 5,500 yen. The vibe on this party is going to be a little different - Wizzy Noise (Micky Noise and Uriel from Greece) and Deedrah play techno-influenced full-on trance, while Mad Funny Boys are a "new wave" trance unit and Ree-K can and will blend anything to get the sound she wants.

Upcoming:

Sirius Summer Blast Open Air, Aug. 20-21

It's a full moon and daylight blast somewhere in Gunma! We'll soon know where. Watch the Sirius Web site for emerging details. Live acts now listed are Psysex, Hujaboy vs. E-jekt, Paranormal Attack and 40% and more to come. Tokage has been cooking up this party for months, so it will be worth the drive.

Weekend trance party picks and information are selected and compiled from reliable Web listings, event fliers, verifiable e-mail, first-hand experience and trusted word of mouth. Send potential party pick info to the2ndroom@yahoo.com

The Japan Times: July 1, 2005

wtf, saddam a published author?

Wow, who knew?

Saddam book a hot seller:-
AMMAN, Jordan | July 01, 2005 10:11:23 PM IST

The novel's plot is not at all gripping nor is its prose elegant, but a bootlegged version has become a hit in Jordan because its author is Saddam Hussein.

The Times of London says the book's sales appeal has been further enhanced by a ban on it by the Jordanian government.

The book, titled, Get Out, You Cursed One, is the tale of an Arab tribesman who defeats foreign infidels. The Times said its popularity may point to growing sympathy for the former Iraqi dictator among Arabs as postwar Iraq lies in chaos.

Hussein apparently wrote the 186-page book in 2003, the year of the U.S.-led invasion, the Times said. His older daughter, Raghad, who fled to Amman with her sister during the war, decided to publish it in Jordan to highlight her father's legacy and boost pan-Arab sentiments.

In a dedication to her father in the back cover, the daughter wrote: You, who raised our heads high, the heads of the Iraqis, Arabs and Muslims -- we present to you our souls -- to the father of the heroes, to my beloved and dear father, with all my respect and glory to you.
(UPI)

thanks alot asshole.

Makes sense from MS's point of view; but it leaves many of us in the lurch. fuck a bill gates! I could totally see this as a first move towards a pay for patches download service.

Less than a month after Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Server Update Services enterprise patch-management platform was released to manufacturing, Microsoft has turned off downloads of the previous version.

Beginning Thursday, Microsoft will no longer be offering the predecessor SUS 1.0 (Software Update Services) for download, but some IT administrators are grumbling that the software giant did not provide adequate notice of the forced upgrade.

"If I have a SUS deployment in the works, Microsoft is now telling me that I must change right now. Microsoft is making the assumption that customers have fully deployed SUS 1.0 and have no further deployment plans. They're now making budgeting decisions for us," said one enterprise IT administrator with a high-profile company, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"Actions taken in this manner leave many people to suspect some ulterior, possibly shady motives are involved. Will WSUS cost $10 per month starting July 2006?" he added.

According to Microsoft, SUS will be supported through June 6, 2006. After that date, no new update content will be delivered to that version of the platform.

Another information security engineer at a major university told Ziff Davis Internet News that Microsoft should have provided more notice of the forced upgrade plans. "It's not a question of not wanting the latest technology, but we don't want to be changing deployment plans every three months," he said.

"What we have today with SUS works very well, so it's a bit of a headache to have to start deploying something new all over again. Even though it's free, the added value [with the new WSUS] isn't really that distinguishable," the university administrator added.

Jason Leznek, senior product manager in Microsoft's Windows and Enterprise Management division, argued that the company has been "strongly encouraging" users to download Windows Server Update Services in place of SUS 1.0 for the last year and a half, saying that it "should come as no surprise to customers."

In fact, Leznek said Microsoft has not seen any customer push back about the timing for the discontinuation of SUS since Windows Server Update Services has been much anticipated and will be superior in meeting customer needs.

He stressed that SUS will continue to be supported for another year for those who have already deployed it. Leznek said the company has provided clear guidance for migration in the WSUS deployment guide.

Leznek said Microsoft has seen the number of SUS downloads decrease drastically since WSUS shipped in early June. "There have been more WSUS downloads in the first month of release than SUS's downloads in its first year," he said.

" We have strong feedback from customers that they were deploying WSUS RC [Release Candidate] in production, so they didn't want to wait for the final code before they migrated from SUS. We also spoke with several ISVs who build products on top of SUS who plan on upgrading their solution to be built on top of WSUS, and they were overwhelmingly in support of doing so," Leznek said.

According to Microsoft, WSUS offers significant improvements over SUS with broader patching capabilities, simple patch targeting and bandwidth management, verification reporting and consistent engine scanning.

can i drive it, please?

This sounds pretty cool!

German creates construction theme park

DPA , HAMBURG
Friday, Jul 01, 2005,Page 6

Almost every boy has dreamt of driving a bulldozer or operating a big crane or pressing the pedal to the metal of an earth mover the size of a house.

Alas, that dream never comes true for most boys, who grow up to work in stuffy offices, wearing stuffy suits and neckties, driving nothing bigger than a family car.

But an enterprising construction contractor in Germany has come up with a money-making scheme for putting his idle machinery to use on weekends -- by turning his bulldozer lot into a theme park where boys of all ages can come and make that childhood dream come true.

He calls it the Monster Park, and on any given Saturday the sprawling dirt lot in the Bavarian town of Rattelsdorf near Bamberg is teeming with men and boys happily clambering into truly monstrous equipment.

Under supervision, they turn the ignition key and throttle up to do some really big work. The park offers plenty of mounds of earth that just beg to be picked up by some gigantic shovel and dumped a few yards away.

Or just dumped back where they started. It doesn't matter that no actual work gets done. The whole point of the Monster Park is just to give guys a go at a some of the biggest behemoths on wheels.

"I can't believe I'm actually doing this," one beaming 30-something man told RTL Television as he shifted gears in the cab of a Caterpillar track dozer. "It's like being in one great big sandbox with the toy bulldozer I had as a kid, except this is the real thing."

Another father and his two small sons were under the canopy of an Allis Chalmers road grader, testing out the eight-speed powershift in preparation for some really serious work on an imaginary autobahn.

"This is a wonderful experience for my boys which they'll no doubt remember all their lives," he told the TV interviewer as he worked the gearshift while his two boys looked over his shoulder in unabashed envy.

Other, luckier boys had a piece of equipment all to themselves, like 14-year-old Dennis Weiner.

"It doesn't get cooler than this," Dennis said as he operated a mini track excavator, shifting man-sized mounds of dirt here and there to his heart's content.

In all, there are about 30 machines on offer at the 15,000m2 lot, a veritable big boys' sandbox. Anything and everything is just waiting to be put into use, on a sliding scale from US$50 an hour for a one-man digger to US$150 for a mammoth two-drum compactor.

Overseeing it all is Gerhard Seibold, the genial contractor who runs the place. He says he got the idea when the post-unification building boom in Germany began to lag in recent years.

"The building industry is in a slump and everybody's hurting," Seibold said.

"So I looked around my lot and saw all this equipment just standing there idle and thought to myself, gosh, a lot of guys would pay good money for the chance just to sit in one of these things."

"That's how the idea was born," he said.

So he opened his Monster Park to the public on Saturdays. With just word-of-mouth publicity, the park draws up to 50 men and boys each weekend, and national television exposure has resulted in long lines of guys waiting their turn to get in.

"People ask why I bother," Seibold said as he surveyed the machinery chugging aimlessly around the lot. "Just look at these guys. They're having the time of their lives. It's a boy's dream come true."

National Council of Churches speaks out about Iraq.

Wow, Bush's fanbase is starting to wake up, be sure and sign the petition.
http://ga3.org/campaign/endorsement

The Governing Board of the National Council of Churches USA invites you to join them in this call to pursue peace and justice in Iraq.

July 4, 2005

This year our nation is at war as we observe the 4th of July, a day that honors those founders who spoke out for independence from tyranny. Today in Iraq a cruel dictator has been deposed, yet the suffering of the Iraqi people continues. Mandated elections have been held, yet the future of Iraq remains as uncertain as ever. Day by day the cost of this war for the United States, for Iraq, for peace grows clearer. No weapons of mass destruction have been found; no link to the attacks on September 11, 2001 has been shown. It has become clear that the rationale for invasion was at best a tragic mistake, at worst a clever deception.

As people of faith, we believe in the transcendent sovereignty and love of God for creation, and that the responsibility of human beings is thus to pursue justice and peace for all. We also believe that, as the biblical prophets of old, who in faithfulness to God spoke out to a people and a nation they loved, in humility before God we too are to speak to a land and people we love. As religious leaders we invite others who share our affections and dismay to recognize the time has come to speak out.

The time has come to say:

- NO to leaders who have sent many honorable sons and daughters to fight a dishonorable war;

- NO to the violence that has cost over seventeen hundred American lives, left thousands grievously injured, and killed untold numbers of Iraqis whose deaths we are unwilling to acknowledge or count;

- NO to the abuse of prisoners that has shamed our nation and damaged our reputation throughout the world;

- NO to the price tag for this war that has rendered our federal budget incapable of adequately caring for the poorest of our own citizens; and,

- NO to theologies that demonize other nations and religions while arrogantly claiming righteousness for ourselves as if we share no complicity in human evil.

The time has come to say:

- YES to foreign policies that seek justice rather than domination, compassion rather than control;

- YES to an early fixed timetable for the withdrawal of United States troops and the establishment of a credible multinational peacekeeping force;

- YES to the honoring of human rights even for our enemies and for a restoration of our reputation as a people committed to the rule of law;

- YES to spending and taxing priorities that put the poor first, providing health care, housing, employment, and quality education for all, not just the few; and,
- YES to a restoration of truth telling in the public square and to "last resort" rather than "first strike" as the criterion for the use of force to restrain evil.

On the day we celebrate our freedom, we acknowledge that the freedom promised in the toppling of a dictator has been replaced by the humiliation of occupation and the violence of a civil war. The sacrifice of brave men and women has been used to serve policies that have diminished our nation's prestige and our capacity to be agents of justice in the world.

It is time to speak out that this 4th of July will celebrate the best ideals of our nation for our sake and for the sake of the world.

Casting call for new movie

There is an open casting call on Thursday, June 30 here in DC, for principal and background/extra positions for LADY IN THE WATER, a feature film to be shot in the Philadelphia area beginning in August. (yes I know it's philly but hey, it's also M KNIGHT PEOPLE!)

Open call is 3 pm-7pm on Thursday, June 30 at the Wyndham Washington DC which is located at 1400 M Street, NW. They want anyone who auditions for background to come dressed casually and they especially want an 'urban' look.

The casting office assigned this movies casting is:

REBELLION CASTING
1735 Market Street, Suite A-532
Philadelphia, PA 19103-7502

They ae looking for anyone for the background roles, but also specifically looking for the following types to play PRINCIPAL roles:

African American boy 10yr – 12yr age range
Caucasian boy & girl 8yr age range
Korean woman 55yr+ age range
Spanish speaking Latino man 55yr+ age range
Spanish speaking Latina women in the 20-30 age range

CASTING HOTLINE 215.552.8880

Details about the film are listed below.

LADY IN THE WATER
Writer/Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Producers: M. Night Shyamalan, Sam Mercer
Associate Producer: Jose Rodriguez
SAG Feature Film/Big Wheel Productions LLC

Alladin goes bra shopping.

Wow, that's so progressive of them!

Lingerie Shops to Employ Women
P.K. Abdul Ghafour, Arab News

JEDDAH, 30 June 2005 — The Labor Ministry yesterday announced a timetable for employing Saudi women instead of men in shops selling women’s clothing, underwear and other such items.

“Labor Minister Ghazi Al-Gosaibi has taken a decision that limits employees in shops selling women’s lingerie and clothing to Saudi women,” the Saudi Press Agency said, adding that the decision would be fully implemented within two years.

The ministerial decision stipulates that all lingerie shops in the Kingdom must employ only Saudi women within a year while shops selling women’s clothing have two years to comply with the decision.

“Shop-owners must also design their shops so those outside cannot see inside and that prevents any interaction with men. Shops must also have special entrances for women only,” the decision said.

The move comes after a Cabinet decision in May last year which directed that more jobs and business opportunities be created for women. The Cabinet issued a nine-point plan which included restricting jobs in shops selling items for women only to Saudi women.

Al-Gosaibi said his ministry would gradually stop the recruitment of foreign workers to fill jobs in shops selling women’s accessories, adding that labor cards would not be given to foreigners working in a sector restricted to Saudis.

The minister urged shop-owners to take the necessary steps to comply with the decision within the specified period. Women should also be given training to enable them to do the new jobs; the training will be with the support of the Manpower Development Fund and in coordination with other government agencies engaged in training Saudis.

Many women’s shops in the Kingdom are currently staffed by men. Recently several women have written articles complaining about the irony of the situation in a country that does not allow women to drive or to be seen with a man who is not a relative.

The Labor Ministry said it would conduct a survey of shops selling women’s clothes and accessories and monitor the measures they take in order to comply with the new decision.

On Tuesday, addressing a graduation ceremony at the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Al-Gosaibi said the nationalization of jobs was the duty of every Saudi. He said the ministry had been successful in finding jobs for nearly 30,000 Saudis in a single month.

Al-Gosaibi urged the private sector’s cooperation in ending the problem of unemployment among Saudis. He said young Saudis were adapting to the job environment in private companies.

New Iranian president is a frickin' terrorist.

Lovely.....

Photo claimed to show Iran President with hostage
By Sam Knight, Times Online

A photo has emerged which it is claimed links the President-elect of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, with the taking of 60 American hostages during the US embassy siege in Tehran in 1979.

A London-based Iranian news agency which opposes Mr Ahmadinejad is circulating the photograph, which it says was taken by the Associated Press news agency on the first day of the hostage crisis.

In the picture, a man which the Iran Focus agency claims it has identified as Mr Ahmadinejad, is seen holding the arm of a blindfolded US hostage.

The possible role of Mr Ahmadinejad in the embassy takeover, which lasted 444 days and remains a significant sore between America and Iran, came to light in the run-up to the presidential elections on June 17.

Mr Ahmadinejad is known to have been member of the "Office for Strengthening of Unity Between Universities and Theological Seminaries" or the OSU, the main student group behind the takeover, but his precise role in the hostage-taking was unclear.

Yesterday, in an article on the BBC website, the broadcaster John Simpson appeared to pour fuel on the controversy when he said he recalled meeting Mr Ahmadinejad after the hostage crisis and remembered seeing him in the grounds of the embassy.

"When I read a profile of him in the English-language Tehran Times, I realised where I must have seen him: in the former American embassy in Tehran," writes Mr Simpson.

"Ahmadinejad was a founder of the group of young activists who swarmed over the embassy wall and held the diplomats and embassy workers hostage for 444 days."

And today, Mo Jazayeri, the executive editor of Iran Focus, the agency distributing the picture, was adamant that it showed Mr Ahmadinejad. He said: "We strongly believe it was 4 Nov 1979, the first day of the hosting taking in Tehran. The AP took these photos. There is also apparently footage which shows Ahmadinejad and several other hostage takers taking this hostage out of the compound and bringing him in front of the crowd which chants ‘Death to America.’ It was a very horrific scene which was shown on television outside Iran worldwide."

According to Michael Theodoulou, who covers Middle East affairs for The Times, the photograph, if genuine, could have a damaging effect on Mr Ahmadinejad's relationship with America, which is already expected to be fractious.

"These images will really anger the Americans," he told Times Online. "Britain is never really aware of the impact the hostage crisis had on the American pysche. No other foreign crisis had the same effect. It really formed the image of Iran in America and is a real source of the continuing hostility between the two countries."

But the claims have been strongly denied by Mr Ahmadinejad's office, which says that the man in the image is not him. Other hostage-takers who were present at the embassy siege also say that the President-elect was not involved in the storming of the embassy.

Ramita Navai, correspondent for The Times in Tehran, spoke to Abbas Abdi, one of the leading hostage takers, who has recently been released from prison, this morning. She said: "I spoke to Abbas Abdi today and he said that Ahmadinejad didn't storm the embassy. And he also said: 'Look, a lot of people came in and out of the embassy during the crisis. It went on for more than a year'."

Ms Navai said that so many of the students involved in the hostage crisis went on to become politicians that there is no reason why Mr Ahmadinejad would disguise his role in the siege.

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Who says a penny isn't worth much these days?

The details involved in this LAPD prison break story are just too funny; you can't make stuff like this up.

A Penny Exposes Jail's Weak Points

LAPD's 77th Division lockup has been fraught with problems, such as lack of reinforced walls, since it was built in 1997.

By Hector Becerra, Times Staff Writer

How hard was it for Francisco Puemas to escape from the 77th Division police station earlier this month?

He took a penny, sharpened it and chipped at a holding cell wall, digging a hole and fleeing less than an hour after entering the cell.

On Monday, Los Angeles Police Department officials outlined how profoundly broken the police station's detention system is.

The 20-year-old burglary suspect was able to escape from the jail because the station's holding cell walls, unlike those at other stations, were not reinforced with sheet metal or made of cinderblock to prevent escape. While officials reacted with surprise at the June 9 escape, documents released Monday show the city was aware that the holding cell was not secure when the station was built in 1997.

Originally, officials planned to build the cell with two pieces of drywall that sandwiched empty space around a metal frame. At the last minute, the city ordered wire mesh installed between the drywall as a security measure, documents show.

But officials acknowledge the mesh would do little to stop an inmate bent on escaping.

Since then, the holding cells have been closed as officials work to reinforce the walls with sheet metal.

In addition to the penny, Puemas also chatted incessantly with police officers and asked "inane" questions, apparently in order to lull them into ignoring him, said LAPD Capt. Bill Murphy.

"He would say all kinds of stuff, like 'Hey, I want food.' He engaged whoever he could in conversation" Murphy said. "He was real smart, he was really street smart. He knew how to engage people and aggravate them. That was part of his plan."

Murphy said Puemas cut a hole 15 inches by 9 inches into the front of the holding cell, crawled through and made his way down a corridor about 18 feet from the watch commander's office.

He went through two interior doors and then through a fire door with an alarm that has not worked in more than a year, Murphy said.

"That door, unfortunately, led into 77th Street," he said.

He added that Puemas, who was picked up a day later, was rather proud of his escape, and eagerly shared with police details about how he did it.

The walls are only one of the station's many problems, which have already cost the city about $700,000 in repairs and could cost at least $1 million in further repairs and improvements.

"Where do I start?" LAPD Lt. Paul Von Lutzow said when asked about the problems.

Sprinklers in the jail cells are situated low enough that inmates have climbed their bunk beds and kicked them loose, causing flooding. The flooring of the jail ward showers is buckling.

And the panic button does not work in the jail ward. "The idea is that you hit that button and patrol comes to your aid. If it doesn't work, the jailers could be in a world of trouble," said Murphy, the commander in charge of the 77th Division's patrol division. "It's scary. We shouldn't allow that."

At a meeting Monday of the Los Angeles City Council public safety committee, Councilman Dennis Zine asked how a relatively new station could be plagued with so many problems.

"Why have we had so many failures with jail wards, … video cameras and basically the whole operation itself?" Zine asked. "Every time I go down there, honestly, I find more problems."

Gail Kennard, president of the firm that designed the building, said the problems at the station were the result of poor "maintenance and housekeeping." She added that the design, which was done by her late father, Robert Kennard, involved input and approval from the LAPD and city agencies and that to "say that we kind of willy-nilly did this on our own would be a mischaracterization."

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drugs are bad, mkay?

Ok, so some of the facts in this story aren't very accurate, but the general gist is dead on. METH IS VERY FUCKIN' BAD!!! I have seen friends totally fuck thier lives over this shit, it is no joke. If you know anybody doing meth; get them help! People will say that it's no big deal and they can stop anytime, but that's not the case with meth, it will rob them of the will to live. So please spread the word.

Meth's Grip in Midwest Strangles Authorities

By Stephanie Simon Times Staff Writer Mon Jun 27, 7:55 AM ET

HILLSBORO, Mo. — The detectives were relaxing over fried pork rinds when they saw a car turn into the driveway of the farmhouse they had just raided.

The car rattled past the Confederate flag, past the skull and crossbones, heading for the overgrown yard where several addicts had been cranking out the illegal drug methamphetamine. The detectives exchanged glances. They ducked behind a truck.

When the car stopped and the driver got out, they rushed him.

"Randy!" Det. Darin Kerwin exclaimed in mock surprise. "I thought you were trying to clean up."

"Oh, man," the driver said, sweating. "Oh, man."

Rummaging through the back seat, Kerwin pulled out a McDonald's bag crammed with decongestant pills — a key ingredient for manufacturing meth.

"Oh man," the driver said again. He banged his head on his car trunk. "I'm dead."

In fact, he'd be released within hours — just as he had been the last time these officers arrested him at a meth lab, and the time before that. Swamped with meth cases, the crime lab that serves Jefferson County is six months to a year behind in processing evidence. That's not unusual.

A decade after meth took hold in the heartland, the inexpensive, highly addictive home-brewed stimulant is straining rural law enforcement resources to the breaking point.

The Polk County Jail in central Iowa is so packed with addicts that the sheriff sends the overflow out of state, at a cost of $5 million a year. Indiana's state crime lab has such a huge backlog of meth cases that the governor has appealed for help from chemistry graduate students.

In central Missouri, nearly every case of child abuse involves meth. Social workers in Franklin County keep a log of parents under investigation and the circumstances involved; this spring, it read: Cocaine. Meth. Medical and physical neglect. Meth. Sexual abuse. Meth. Meth. Manufacturing meth.

"It becomes the only work you can do," said Cpl. Jason Grellner of the Franklin County Sheriff's Department.

Meth is not just a Midwestern drug. It's popular among club-hoppers in Miami and gay men in New York City. It poses a challenge for law enforcement in cities such as Phoenix, Sacramento, San Jose and Honolulu, where two out of every five men arrested test positive for meth.

But it's in the Midwest that the drug has most severely tested the justice system, in part because sheriff's deputies, jail wardens and crime lab technicians in rural counties don't have the resources or the experience to deal with a drug epidemic.

Officers struggle to subdue addicts so high on meth that even a Taser won't stop them. They complain of a justice system clogged with so many meth cases that it can take a year after an arrest for prosecutors to file charges.

"It's not effective law enforcement," said Sheriff Mark Kenneson of Greenwood County, Kan.

His deputies used to handle calls about stray cattle. Now they're being asked to raid booby-trapped labs. In one such bust in January, Kenneson's predecessor was fatally shot in the neck.

Kenneson has been trying ever since to scrape up the funds for bulletproof vests with neck guards. He can't — not with calls coming in from every small town in his county reporting suspected meth labs. "It drains your budget," he said.

About two-thirds of the U.S. meth supply — including most of what's available in big cities — comes from superlabs run by organized crime. In the Midwest, most of the meth is homemade, a few ounces at a time, in informal labs heaped with toxic, highly flammable chemicals.

To enter an active lab, a detective must wear a hazmat suit, a respirator and a $2,500 self-contained breathing apparatus. Once the investigative work is done, deputies must guard the site until cleanup crews arrive. That can take up to 36 hours.

In a rural county with just a few deputies on duty each shift, baby-sitting a lab overnight — much less for several nights — can paralyze the department.

"It just cripples my patrols," said Sheriff Steve Frisbie of McMinn County, Tenn.

Though the White House acknowledges that meth presents "a unique problem" for law enforcement,
President Bush has proposed cutting the two main grant programs for rural narcotics teams — one by 56% and the other by 62%, according to John Horton, associate deputy director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

The administration plans to focus instead on the meth superlabs in Mexico and along the border. With a "belt-tightening budget," that's the most efficient way to run the war on drugs, Horton said.

Lt. Steve Dalton, who heads a drug unit in southwest Missouri, said: "If those cuts go through, they're going to wipe us out. Meth is a totally different drug from everything we've seen. It's extremely stressful on law enforcement."

The strain doesn't end when a meth offender is put behind bars.

The drug is such a potent stimulant that users often can't sleep for 10 days after a binge. Besieged by hallucinations and paranoid to the point of psychosis, addicts often holler through the night, setting other inmates on edge. Some go on destructive rampages, smashing their heads through cell windows and ripping bolts out of walls.

"We have a concrete and steel holding cell, and they still manage to tear it up," Sheriff Wayne Youell said of the Mason County Jail in central Illinois, where thousands of dollars have been spent on repairs.

Once the offenders get to state prison, the cost skyrockets. The drug can cause such severe damage to addicts' organs that 30-year-olds may enter prison needing pacemakers and liver transplants. Many suffer from "meth mouth" — their teeth rotted to the gum — and require a complete set of dentures.

Treating a single meth addict in prison costs taxpayers thousands — and there are more of such inmates every day. About half of those entering the Nebraska state prison have a meth-related conviction. Minnesota counts more than 1,000 meth offenders in state facilities — up from about 140 four years ago.

"It's been awful, just awful. Our costs have gone through the roof," said Kathleen Bachmeier, director of medical services at the North Dakota State Penitentiary.

Here in the farm country of eastern Missouri, Cmdr. Gary Higginbotham sometimes longs for the days when a roadside patch of marijuana was considered a major drug threat.

These days, he commands a squad of 12 detectives, including the men who raided the farmhouse in Hillsboro, about 40 miles south of St. Louis. The squad often works double or triple shifts. Last year, they shut down 313 labs.

"I've never seen anything like this drug," Higginbotham said. "I don't want to use the word 'overwhelming,' but it's nonstop."

He pulled his Ford Explorer up next to the sagging farmhouse. Last week, his squad discovered an outdoor meth lab here, just beyond the sign warning: "Trespassers Will Be Violated and Survivors Will Be Shot." Now they had returned to arrest the 46-year-old addict living on the farm.

They found him with his pit bull mix, Dixie, a fat stack of cash, and a few grams of meth. He didn't bother trying to flee.

"They're going to catch up with me anyhow," the man said bleakly.

Like many addicts, he had already spent a few years in prison for meth possession. More than a dozen states in recent years have passed stiffer penalties for meth-related crimes. But the drug has such a strong pull on addicts — one hit can produce a 12-hour high — that the tougher laws have had little effect.

With less than $600 worth of supplies (decongestants, lithium batteries, antifreeze, anhydrous ammonia), addicts can produce enough meth to keep them and their friends high for days, with a few grams left over to sell.

Meth cooks rarely aim to strike it rich; they simply hope to bring in enough cash to keep the cycle going. Often, they pay others to go out and buy the ingredients for them.

Detectives say one arrest may lead to a string of busts as each person in the supply chain turns in his contact in hopes of winning leniency.

The farmhouse raid here was typical. Detectives got a bonus arrest when the man drove up with his McDonald's bag full of pills. Though he denied even knowing they were in his car, officers suspected he was planning to trade them for meth.

Then the man who ran the lab agreed to wear a hidden microphone and buy cold pills from a woman who often supplied his lab. "Just being a good citizen," he explained. (His name is being withheld at law enforcement's request because he is working as an informant.)

Higginbotham listened from his Explorer as the woman with the pills pulled up next to the informant at a gas station.

"I got 600 here," she said. "Don't forget about me when you get done [cooking], all right?"

"I won't," the man said. He handed her $85 in exchange for a Walgreen's bag stuffed with cold tablets.

"Be careful," she said.

"Be careful yourself," he responded.

At that, five detectives swarmed in, surrounded the woman and grabbed the pills.

Surveying the stash, Higgenbotham grinned. "Someone isn't going to be making meth today," he said. He thought for a moment, then amended: "At least, not with these pills."

"We can't catch 'em all," his deputy commander, Det. Derrick Blankenship, said. "All we can do is inconvenience them as much as possible."

Sweating in the Missouri humidity, Blankenship took a swig of his sports drink and contemplated the afternoon ahead.

He and his partners would interrogate the woman they'd just arrested and track down any partners she had named. Maybe they could persuade her to cooperate in another sting.

But they wouldn't have much time; she would be out of custody within hours. It could be well into 2006 before prosecutors file charges against her for this afternoon's bust.

In the meantime, Blankenship had no doubt she'd keep chasing her high. And he would keep chasing her.

Take my fox, please!

I just thought this was wierd.

The tale of a fox out of its element

M. Madan Mohan

HUBLI: In what may well provide a modern-day twist to ancient tales featuring its art and cunning, a nervous fox has become something of a celebrity in a northern Karnataka village. And everyone is waiting for its next move.

This is the story of a fox, which on June 16 strayed into the house of Channabasappa Hadkar, a farm labourer of Chebbi village, about 15 km from here. Foxes are known to be endemic but extremely elusive, as is their wont, in this region.

The female fox, which entered the pooja-cum-kitchen room of a typical village house and took position next to the pedestal called the "virabhadra gaddige" where the family deities are kept, has not come out of the room even once, although the doors have been kept open for three days and nights.

The unexpected visitor has almost become a member of the family after a week's stay. A symbiotic relationship appears to have developed between the family and the animal. A week of coexistence has changed the perspective on both sides. It sits quietly, pensively, in a corner as the family members go through their daily pooja rituals of lighting the lamp and burning incense sticks. It shrinks away from human contact.

Iravva, the woman of the house and mother of three, said that initially she was afraid. Was it a mad dog that had strayed into the house, she had wondered. She had even picked up a stick to shoo it away. "Once I came to know it was a fox, I felt relieved. We kept the doors open for three nights for the animal to move out. It did not but continued to stay put. We were all worried and anxious when it did not take food for two days. We are now glad that it is taking food, some rice and milk, which are offered periodically. We have begun to love it as the days pass and have taken a liking to it."

"Why should we dislike the fox? It has not harmed anybody so far," says Mr. Channabasappa. They have a dog, but it has not been allowed near the fox. "Its behaviour over the days has made us feel there is something divine in the unexpected visit. We are convinced that something good will come out of this," says Mr. Channabasappa, who has consulted village elders and astrologers about the strange occurrence.

The family faced some disconcerting moments when officials of the Forest Department came calling on Tuesday with a request to hand over the animal to them. They indicated that keeping a wild animal in a domestic situation could constitute a punishable offence. However, Mr. Channabasappa's young daughter told them that the animal had come of its own and there was no question of driving it away.

On the seventh day on Thursday, the animal sat huddled in a corner. "An effort made by the Forest Department officials to catch it apparently scared it. And camera flashes added to its nervousness," said a family member.

How long will the fox stay? A number of curious people from nearby villages have come to the house to have a look. Many of them speculate feverishly, but the family members are not too worried.

It is not immediately clear which specific species this animal belongs to. According to the website of the World Conservation Union (IUCN), in addition to the nearly ubiquitous red fox, the widely distributed golden jackal, and the wolf, four canid species are found in south Asia: the dhole, the Bengal fox, the corsac fox, and the Tibetan fox. In South-East Asia, canids are represented by three species: the dhole, the golden jackal, and the dingo.

All eyes are now on the Forest Department. Its officials were expected to come calling again on Wednesday. E. Vidyasagar, Conservator of Forests, Dharwad, said that it was not a good idea to let the fox stay. "It has to be removed and kept in the zoo or let out in the forests," he told The Hindu. They would work out a strategy to entice it out of the house, he said.

The unpalatable truth is that Haiti just does not matter very much.

A very interesting article on the continuing fallout stemming from the recent US orchestrated coup in Haiti. It offers a seldom seen window into the problems affecting the beleaguered island nation. The title of this post unfortunately is the painful truth. The people of Haiti suffer constantly as the victims of international neglect, rarely discussed in the mainstream news reports and then only when a change of government takes place or the UN is sent in to restore order, the quiet tragedy continues unabated. I have traveled through Haiti working on relief aid projects sponsored by the United Methodist Church, I have helped build schools and wells, etc.. You can't begin to understand the island until you travel there and witness it first hand, I urge all Americans to go there, it probably wont be a fun vacation but it could very well change your life and the way in which you view the world.

Faking Genocide in Haiti
Canada’s Role in the Persecution of Yvon Neptune
by Kevin Skerrett
June 23, 2005

The US, Canada, and France-backed coup d’état that overthrew Haiti’s elected President on February 29, 2004 put an end to almost ten years of constitutional democratic government in that country. Ostensibly, the removal of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was an expression of the “international community’s” desire to “re-establish democracy” in Haiti. But having seen similar rationales used to justify support for an attempted coup in Venezuela in 2002 (as part of a long-term and continuing destabilization program there), observers of US, French, and Canadian intentions in Haiti are well advised to examine what has happened there – both prior to and following the 2004 coup – with an especially critical and skeptical eye.

Such a critical eye now finds a growing number of very credible and well-documented human rights reports revealing that the human rights situation in this desperately poor country has now completely unraveled. The unelected post-coup “Interim Government of Haiti” (IGH), backed by Canada, the US, and France, is now carrying out what many observers have referred to as a low-grade civil war of repression. Hundreds of political killings have been reported, as well as summary police executions, more than 700 political prisoners held without charge in Haitian jails, and court decisions exonerating the convicted paramilitaries and killers who carried out the first visible phase of the coup. All of this has followed Haiti’s “coup for human rights”.

In the midst of these countless tragedies, one particular human rights case has attracted more attention than any other since the coup – the case of Haiti’s most famous political prisoner, the constitutional (now former) Prime Minister Yvon Neptune. Neptune turned himself in to police on June 27, 2004 upon hearing that a warrant had been issued for his arrest accusing him of responsibility for what some opponents had referred to as a “genocide” during the violence in Haiti preceding the February 29 coup.

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Woof!

Ha Ha... As soon as I saw this story I thought, "this belongs on my blog".

Spartanburg, South Carolina (FOX Carolina News) - People living in one Campobello neighborhood say they'll do whatever it takes to get seventeen-year-old Cory Williamson out of there before someone is seriously hurt.

Williamson is in jail accused of raping his neighbor's dog. Sylvia Jones says she wouldn't have believed it had she not seen it with her own eyes. "When I got here we were laying on the deck looking at him and he had his pants down and he was doing sexual activity with the dog like a man would do to a woman."

Renee Hulburt says her family is way too familiar with Williamson. She knows he's charged with molesting a three-year-old girl and the statutory rape of a thirteen-year-old girl. Williamson is still awaiting trial on those charges.

Hulburt says, "Basically he's a sociopath."

She went on to say that she's afraid if Williamson gets out of jail, children everywhere could be in danger.

"I'd like him out of the neighborhood. I'd like him put away, he's a danger to everybody. My youngest won't even walk through my house because she's afraid."

FOX Carolina called Solicitor Trey Gowdy's office about the new charge against Williamson. A spokesman said the solicitor's office will petition the judge next Friday to have Williamson's bond revoked.

Neighbors hope he'll be in jail at least until trial begins. "As a community we shouldn't have to watch our kids every second they're playing. We want him out of this neighborhood."

The Solicitor's office also says it will ask that Williamson undergo a mental evaluation. FOX Carolina also tried calling the Williamson family several times but there was no answer.