FIRELYNX

OPRAH WINFREY

2011-05-26T09:09:00.000-07:00

Oprah Winfrey (born Orpah Gail Winfrey; January 29, 1954) is an American television host, actress, producer, and philanthropist, best known for her self-titled, multi-award winning talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011. She has been ranked the richest African American of the 20th century, the greatest black philanthropist in American history, and was for a time the world's only black billionaire. She is also, according to some assessments, the most influential woman in the world.

Winfrey was born into poverty in rural Mississippi to a teenage single mother and later raised in an inner-city Milwaukee neighborhood. She experienced considerable hardship during her childhood, claiming to be raped at age nine and becoming pregnant at 14; her son died in infancy. Sent to live with the man she calls her father, a barber in Tennessee, Winfrey landed a job in radio while still in high school and began co-anchoring the local evening news at the age of 19. Her emotional ad-lib delivery eventually got her transferred to the daytime talk show arena, and after boosting a third-rated local Chicago talk show to first place she launched her own production company and became internationally syndicated.

Credited with creating a more intimate confessional form of media communication, she is thought to have popularized and revolutionized the tabloid talk show genre pioneered by Phil Donahue, which a Yale study claims broke 20th century taboos and allowed LGBT people to enter the mainstream. By the mid 1990s, she had reinvented her show with a focus on literature, self-improvement, and spirituality. Though criticized for unleashing confession culture and promoting controversial self-help aids, she is often praised for overcoming adversity to become a benefactor to others. From 2006 to 2008, her support of Barack Obama, by one estimate, delivered over a million votes in the close 2008 Democratic primary race.

Winfrey was called "arguably the world's most powerful woman" by CNN and Time.com, "arguably the most influential woman in the world" by the American Spectator, "one of the 100 people who most influenced the 20th Century" and "one of the most influential people" from 2004 to 2010 by Time. Winfrey is the only person in the world to have appeared in the latter list on all eight occasions.

At the end of the 20th century Life listed Winfrey as both the most influential woman and the most influential black person of her generation, and in a cover story profile the magazine called her "America's most powerful woman". In 2007 USA Today ranked Winfrey as the most influential woman and most influential black person of the previous quarter century. Ladies Home Journal also ranked Winfrey number one in their list of the most powerful women in America and senator Barack Obama has said she "may be the most influential woman in the country". In 1998 Winfrey became the first woman and first African-American to top Entertainment Weekly's list of the 101 most powerful people in the entertainment industry.[99] Forbes named her the world's most powerful celebrity in 2005, 2007, 2008 and 2010 In 2010 Life magazine named Winfrey one of the 100 people who changed the world, along side such luminaries as Jesus Christ, Elvis Presley and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Winfrey was the only living woman to make the list.

Columnist Maureen Dowd seems to agree with such assessments: "She is the top alpha female in this country. She has more credibility than the president. Other successful women, such as Hillary Clinton and Martha Stewart, had to be publicly slapped down before they could move forward. Even Condi has had to play the protegé with Bush. None of this happened to Oprah — she is a straight ahead success story. Vanity Fair wrote: "Oprah Winfrey arguably has more influence on the culture than any university president, politician, or religious leader, except perhaps the Pope. Bill O'Reilly said: "this is a woman that came from nothing to rise up to be the most powerful woman, I think, in the world. I think Oprah Winfrey is the most powerful woman in the world, not just in America. That's — anybody who goes on her program immediately benefits through the roof. I mean, she has a loyal following; she has credibility; she has talent; and she's done it on her own to become fabulously wealthy and fabulously powerful.

In 2005 Winfrey was named the greatest woman in American history as part of a public poll as part of The Greatest American. She was ranked #9 overall on the list of greatest Americans, however polls estimating Winfrey's personal popularity have been inconsistent. A November 2003 Gallup poll estimated that 73% of American adults had a favorable view of Winfrey. Another Gallup poll in January 2007 estimated the figure at 74%, although it dropped to 66% when Gallup conducted the same poll in October 2007. A December 2007 Fox News poll put the figure at 55%. According to Gallup's annual most admired poll, Americans consistently rank Winfrey as one of the most admired women in the world. Her highest rating came in 2007 when she was statistically tied with Hillary Clinton for first place. In a list compiled by the British magazine New Statesman in September 2010, She was voted 38th in the list of "The World's 50 Most Influential Figures 2010".

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER

2011-05-23T09:40:00.000-07:00

Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (born July 30, 1947) is an Austrian-American former professional bodybuilder, actor, model, businessman and politician who served as the 38th Governor of California (2003–2011).

Schwarzenegger began weight training at the age of 15. He was awarded the title of Mr. Universe at age 20 and went on to win the Mr. Olympia contest seven times. Schwarzenegger has remained a prominent presence in the sport of bodybuilding and he has written several books and numerous articles on the sport. Schwarzenegger gained worldwide fame as a Hollywood action film icon. He was nicknamed the "Austrian Oak" and the "Styrian Oak" in his bodybuilding days, "Arnie" during his acting career and more recently the "Governator" (a portmanteau of "Governor" and "Terminator").

As a Republican, he was first elected on October 7, 2003, in a special recall election to replace then-Governor Gray Davis. Schwarzenegger was sworn in on November 17, 2003, to serve the remainder of Davis's term. Schwarzenegger was then re-elected on November 7, 2006, in California's 2006 gubernatorial election, to serve a full term as governor, defeating Democrat Phil Angelides, who was California State Treasurer at the time. Schwarzenegger was sworn in for his second term on January 5, 2007.

Schwarzenegger has been married to Maria Shriver for over 25 years and the couple has four children together. In 2011 it was revealed that he had fathered a son fourteen years earlier with an employee, Mildred Baena, leading to Shriver's separation from him.

Schwarzenegger was born in Thal, Austria, a small village bordering the Styrian capital Graz, and was christened Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger. His parents were the local police chief, Gustav Schwarzenegger (1907–1972), and Aurelia (née Jadrny; 1922–1998). His father served in World War II with the German Army as a Hauptfeldwebel of the Feldgendarmerie and was discharged in 1943 after contracting malaria. They were married on October 20, 1945 – Gustav was 38, and Aurelia was a 23-year-old widow with a son named Meinhard. According to Schwarzenegger, both of his parents were very strict: "Back then in Austria it was a very different world, if we did something bad or we disobeyed our parents, the rod was not spared." He grew up in a Roman Catholic family who attended mass every Sunday.

Gustav had a preference for his stepson Meinhard, over his son, Arnold. His favoritism was "strong and blatant," which stemmed from unfounded suspicion that Arnold was not his child.[ Schwarzenegger has said his father had "no patience for listening or understanding your problems... there was a wall; a real wall." Schwarzenegger had a good relationship with his mother and kept in touch with her until her death. In later life, Schwarzenegger commissioned the Simon Wiesenthal Center to research his father's wartime record, which came up with no evidence of atrocities despite Gustav's membership in the Nazi Party and SA. Ironically, Schwarzenneger's father's background received wide press attention during the 2003 California recall campaign, in contrast to the absence, ever, of press reporting of Schwarzenneger's opponent's family history during, or since the gubernatorial recall election in 2003, that the then Governor, Gray Davis's grandfather, William Rhodes Davis, was described in the press after WWII to have been a Nazi Abwehr agent accused of funding republican presidential candidate, Wendell Wilkie in the 1940 U.S. presidential election campaign.

At school, Schwarzenegger was apparently in the middle but stood out for his "cheerful, good-humored and exuberant" character. Money was a problem in their household; Schwarzenegger recalled that one of the highlights of his youth was when the family bought a refrigerator.

As a boy, Schwarzenegger played many sports, heavily influenced by his father. He picked up his first barbell in 1960, when his football coach took his team to a local gym. At the age of 14, he chose bodybuilding over football (soccer) as a career. Schwarzenegger has responded to a question asking if he was 13 when he started weightlifting: "I actually started weight training when I was 15, but I'd been participating in sports, like soccer, for years, so I felt that although I was slim, I was well-developed, at least enough so that I could start going to the gym and start Olympic lifting." However, his official website biography claims: "At 14, he started an intensive training program with Dan Farmer, studied psychology at 15 (to learn more about the power of mind over body) and at 17, officially started his competitive career." During a speech in 2001, he said, "My own plan formed when I was 14 years old. My father had wanted me to be a police officer like he was. My mother wanted me to go to trade school." Schwarzenegger took to visiting a gym in Graz, where he also frequented the local movie theaters to see bodybuilding idols such as Reg Park, Steve Reeves and Johnny Weissmuller on the big screen. "I was inspired by individuals like Reg Park and Steve Reeves." When Reeves died in 2000, Schwarzenegger fondly remembered him: "As a teenager, I grew up with Steve Reeves. His remarkable accomplishments allowed me a sense of what was possible, when others around me didn't always understand my dreams ... Steve Reeves has been part of everything I've ever been fortunate enough to achieve." In 1961, Schwarzenegger met former Mr. Austria Kurt Marnul, who invited him to train at the gym in Graz. He was so dedicated as a youngster that he broke into the local gym on weekends, when it was usually closed, so that he could train. "It would make me sick to miss a workout ... I knew I couldn't look at myself in the mirror the next morning if I didn't do it." When Schwarzenegger was asked about his first movie experience as a boy, he replied, "I was very young, but I remember my father taking me to the Austrian theaters and seeing some newsreels. The first real movie I saw, that I distinctly remember, was a John Wayne movie."

In 1971, his brother Meinhard died in a car accident. Meinhard had been drinking and was killed instantly. Schwarzenegger did not attend his funeral. Meinhard was due to marry Erika Knapp, and the couple had a three-year-old son, Patrick. Schwarzenegger would pay for Patrick's education and help him to immigrate to the United States. Gustav died the following year from a stroke. In Pumping Iron, Schwarzenegger claimed that he did not attend his father's funeral because he was training for a bodybuilding contest. Later, he and the film's producer said this story was taken from another bodybuilder for the purpose of showing the extremes that some would go to for their sport and to make Schwarzenegger's image more cold and machine-like in order to fan controversy for the film.[21] Barbara Baker, his first serious girlfriend, has said he informed her of his father's death without emotion and that he never spoke of his brother. Over time, he has given at least three versions of why he was absent from his father's funeral.

CROWD CONTROL IS NEEDED

2011-05-23T09:29:00.000-07:00

I was called by the school administration this morning. It was all about the visitation of the governor of the province in the area. The school admin wanted to make the place safe for the governor and crowd control must be well maintained. Last year, when a top province official visited the school, there was chaos. This time, the admin wanted to make the visit peaceful and organized.

I already submitted the things that must be present like the stanchions, velvet rope and the barricades to prevent the supporters from rushing in the venue without control. I have few days left to make the place secured. With all the things needed around, I know I won't have any problem at all.

CHARLIE SHEEN THE ACTOR

2011-04-19T20:38:00.000-07:00

Carlos Irwin Estevez (born September 3, 1965), better known by his stage name Charlie Sheen, is an American film and television actor. He is the youngest son of actor Martin Sheen.

His character roles in films have included Chris Taylor in the 1986 Vietnam War drama Platoon, Jake Kesey in the 1986 film The Wraith, and Bud Fox in the 1987 film Wall Street. His career has also included more comedic films such as Major League, the Hot Shots! films, and Scary Movie 3 and Scary Movie 4. On television, Sheen is known for his roles on two sitcoms: as Charlie Crawford on Spin City and as Charlie Harper on Two and a Half Men. In 2010, Sheen was the highest paid actor on television, earning US$1.8 million per episode of Two and a Half Men.

Sheen's personal life has also made headlines, including reports about alcohol and drug abuse and marital problems as well as allegations of domestic violence. He was fired from his role on Two and a Half Men by CBS and Warner Bros. on March 7, 2011. Sheen subsequently announced a nationwide tour.

Sheen was born Carlos Irwin Estevez in New York City, the youngest son and third of four children of actor Martin Sheen and artist Janet Templeton. Sheen has two older brothers, Emilio Estevez and Ramon Estevez, and a younger sister, Renée Estevez, all actors. His parents moved to Malibu, California, after Martin Sheen's Broadway turn in The Subject Was Roses. His first movie appearance was at age nine in his father’s 1974 film The Execution of Private Slovik. Sheen attended Santa Monica High School in Santa Monica, California, where he was a star pitcher and shortstop for the baseball team.

During his days at Santa Monica High School he showed an early interest in acting, making amateur Super-8 films with his brother Emilio and school friends Rob Lowe and Sean Penn, at the time still using his birth name. A few weeks before graduation, Sheen was expelled from the school for poor grades and attendance. Deciding to become an actor, he took the same stage name as his father, who had adopted it in honor of the Catholic archbishop and theologian Fulton J. Sheen.

Sheen's film career began in 1984 with a role in the Cold War teen drama Red Dawn with Patrick Swayze, C. Thomas Howell, Lea Thompson, and Jennifer Grey. Sheen and Grey reunited in a small scene in Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986), where he portrayed a drug dealer. He also appeared in an episode of the anthology series Amazing Stories. Sheen had his first major role in the Vietnam War drama Platoon (1986). In 1987, he starred with his father in Wall Street. Both Wall Street and Platoon were directed by Oliver Stone. In 1988, Stone asked Sheen to star in his new film Born on the Fourth of July (1989), but later cast Tom Cruise in place of Sheen. Sheen was never notified by Stone, and only found out when he heard the news from his brother Emilio. Sheen did not take a lead role in Stone's subsequent films, although he does have a cameo role in Money Never Sleeps, Stone's sequel to Wall Street.

In 1987, Sheen was cast to portray Ron in the unreleased Grizzly II: The Predator, the sequel to the 1976 low budget horror movie Grizzly. In 1988, he starred in the baseball film Eight Men Out as outfielder Happy Felsch. Also in 1988, he appeared opposite his brother Emilio Estevez in Young Guns and again in 1990 in Men at Work. In 1989, Sheen, and John Fusco, Christopher Cain, Lou Diamond Phillips, brother Emilio Estevez, and Kiefer Sutherland, were honored with a Bronze Wrangler for their work on the film Young Guns.

In 1990, he starred alongside his father Martin Sheen in Cadence as a rebellious inmate in a military stockade and Clint Eastwood in the buddy cop action film The Rookie. The films were directed by Martin Sheen and Eastwood, respectively. In 1992, he starred in Beyond the Law with Linda Fiorentino and Michael Madsen. In 1994, Sheen was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 1997, Sheen wrote his first movie, Discovery Mars, a direct-to-video documentary revolving around the question, "Is There Life on Mars?" The next year, Sheen wrote, produced and starred in the action movie No Code of Conduct.

Sheen appeared in several comedy roles, including the Major League films, Money Talks, and the spoof Hot Shots! films. In 1999, Sheen appeared in a pilot for A&E Network, called Sugar Hill, which wasn't picked up. In 1999, Sheen played himself in Being John Malkovich. He also appeared in the spoof series Scary Movie 3 and follow up Scary Movie 4. Sheen appears as Dex Dogtective in the unreleased Lionsgate animated comedy Foodfight.

On May 20, 1998, Sheen overdosed while using cocaine and was hospitalized. On August 11, 1998, Sheen, already on probation for a previous drug offense, had his probation extended for an extra year and entered a rehab clinic. In a 2004 interview, Sheen admitted that the overdose was caused by his experimentation with injecting cocaine.

In 2009, Sheen was arrested and released from jail after posting an $8,500 bond. Sheen was charged with felony menacing, as well as third-degree assault and criminal mischief. On August 2, Sheen pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault as part of a plea bargain that included dismissal of the other charges against him. Sheen was sentenced to 30 days in a drug rehab center, 30 days of probation, and 36 hours of anger management.

On October 26, 2010, the police removed Sheen from his suite at the Plaza Hotel after he reportedly caused $7,000 in damage. According to the NYPD, Sheen admitted to drinking and using cocaine the night of the incident. He was taken to a hospital for observation and released.

On March 7, 2011, CBS and Warner Bros. fired Sheen from Two and a Half Men. The official statement read: “After careful consideration, Warner Bros. Television has terminated Charlie Sheen's services on Two and a Half Men effective immediately.” In the aftermath of his dismissal, Sheen remained vocally critical of the show's creator, Chuck Lorre, and repeatedly attacked him in an eight minute Ustream video.

In February 2010, Sheen announced that he would take a break from Two and a Half Men to enter a rehab facility voluntarily. In March, Sheen's press representatives announced that he was preparing to leave rehab and return to work on the popular sitcom. On May 18, Sheen signed an agreement to return to the sitcom for another two years for a reported $1.8 million per episode.

On January 27, 2011, Sheen was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center by paramedics. Sheen's representative said the actor was suffering from "severe abdominal pains." On January 28, Sheen began undergoing a substance rehabilitation program in his home and CBS announced that Two and a Half Men would go on hiatus. The network subsequently announced that the current season, already under way and due to shoot its last four episodes, had been canceled after Sheen made derogatory comments about Chuck Lorre on the February 24 edition of a radio broadcast hosted by Alex Jones. On February 28 it was reported that Warner Bros. officially banned Sheen from entering the Warner Bros. production lot.

Sheen was accused of anti-Semitism for referring to Lorre by his Hebrew name. In an interview with TMZ, Sheen denied being anti-Semitic, saying, "I wanted to address the man, not the bullshit TV persona. So you're telling me, anytime someone calls me Carlos Estevez, I can claim they are anti-Latino?" Later in March, Sheen went on Access Hollywood Live and said that because his mother is Jewish, he is also Jewish and therefore not anti-Semitic.

On February 28, 2011, during a national television interview in his home, Sheen publicly demanded a 50% raise for the show Two and a Half Men. Already the highest-paid actor on television, Sheen demanded $3 million per episode, claiming that in comparison to the amount that the series is making, he is "underpaid." He later retracted that demand. A March 3, 2011, telephone survey of 1,000 people found that 71% of them had an unfavorable impression of Sheen and 16% had a positive opinion of him.

Charlie Sheen is in deed a sound maker with all of his escapades. His The Violent Torpedo of the Truth has gain popularity across America and Canada. Charlie Sheen is a good man only misguided by his actions.

JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE

2010-12-25T17:29:00.000-08:00

Justin Randall Timberlake (born January 31, 1981) is an American pop musician and actor. He has won six Grammy Awards as well as two Emmy Awards. He achieved early fame when he appeared as a contestant on Star Search, and went on to star in the Disney Channel television series The New Mickey Mouse Club, where he met future bandmate JC Chasez. Timberlake became famous in the late 1990s as the lead singer of the boy band 'N Sync, whose launch was financed by Lou Pearlman.

In 2002, he released his debut solo album, Justified, which sold more than 7 million copies worldwide. The album was a commercial success, spawning the hits "Cry Me a River" and "Rock Your Body". Timberlake continued his success with his second solo album, FutureSex/LoveSounds (2006), debuting at number one on the Billboard 200 chart, and produced the US number-one hit singles "SexyBack", "My Love", and "What Goes Around.../...Comes Around".

Timberlake's first two albums made him one of the most commercially successful singers in the world, each selling in excess of 7 million copies. Aside from music, he has also begun an acting career, while his other ventures include record label Tennman Records, fashion label William Rast, and the restaurants Destino and Southern Hospitality.

Timberlake was born in Memphis, Tennessee, the son of Lynn Harless (née Bomar) and Randall Timberlake. Timberlake is of English descent, and has also claimed unconfirmed American Indian ancestry. His paternal grandfather, Charles L. Timberlake, was a Baptist minister, and Timberlake was raised Baptist, though now considers himself more "spiritual than religious".

Timberlake's parents divorced in 1985, and both have remarried. His mother, who now runs an entertainment company called Just-in Time Entertainment, remarried to Paul Harless, a banker, when her son was five. His father, a choir director at a Baptist church, has two children, Jonathan (born c. 1993) and Steven Robert (born August 14, 1998), from his second marriage to Lisa Perry. Timberlake's half-sister, Laura Katherine, died shortly after birth on May 14, 1997, and is mentioned in his acknowledgments in the album *NSYNC as "My Angel in Heaven." Timberlake grew up in Shelby Forest, a middle class crime-free suburb between Memphis and Millington. His first attempts at a singing career were country music songs on Star Search as "Justin Randall."

In 1993, Timberlake joined the cast of The Mickey Mouse Club. His castmates included future girlfriend and pop superstar Britney Spears, future tourmate Christina Aguilera, and future bandmate JC Chasez. The show ended in 1994, but late in 1995 Timberlake recruited Chasez to be in an all-male singing group organized by boy band manager Lou Pearlman that eventually became 'N Sync.

In April 2007, Timberlake was seen entering a London studio with Madonna, thus confirming rumors that he was collaborating with her. A song "4 Minutes", was first played by Timbaland at Philadelphia's Jingle Ball on December 17, 2007. When released on March 17, 2008, "4 Minutes" was revealed to be a duet between Timberlake and Madonna, with backing vocals by Timbaland. It was lead single from Madonna's eleventh studio album Hard Candy, which featured four other song-writing collaborations with Timberlake. The single was an international hit, topping the charts in over 21 countries worldwide. Timberlake also appears in the music video, which was directed by Jonas & François. On March 30, 2008, Timberlake performed the song at Madonna's Hard Candy Promo Show at Roseland Ballroom in New York City. On November 6, 2008, Timberlake performed the song with Madonna on the Los Angeles stop of her Sticky & Sweet Tour.

Around June 2007 Timberlake co-wrote, produced and provided vocals for the songs "Nite Runner" and "Falling Down" for Duran Duran's album Red Carpet Massacre, released on November 13, 2007. "Falling Down" had been released as a single in the UK on the previous day.

Also in 2007, Timberlake made an appearance on 50 Cent's third album, Curtis. Timberlake, along with Timbaland, is featured on a track called "Ayo Technology", which was the album's fourth single. Also, another possible collaboration was to occur with Lil Wayne for his album Tha Carter III with Nelly Furtado and Timbaland.

With the wrapping up of the FutureSex/LoveSounds tour of Australasia and the Middle East in November 2007, Timberlake resumed his film career. Projects underway early in 2008 were starring roles in Mike Myers' comedy The Love Guru (released June 20, 2008) and Mike Meredith's drama The Open Road (released August 28, 2009). In March 2008 it was announced that he was be an executive producer in an American adaptation of the hit Peruvian comedy My Problem with Women for NBC.

On November 20, 2008, TV Guide reported that Timberlake’s next single, "Follow My Lead", which also featured vocals by Timberlake’s protégée, former YouTube star Esmee Denters, would be available for exclusive download through MySpace. All proceeds would go to Shriners Hospitals for Children, a charity dedicated to improving pediatric care for sick children.

In 2008 a collaboration between Timberlake and T.I., "Dead and Gone" featured on T.I.'s sixth studio album, Paper Trail, and was released as its fourth single late in 2009. In November 2008, it was confirmed that Timberlake would make a guest appearance and produce some tracks on R&B/pop singer Ciara's upcoming album Fantasy Ride due out May 5, 2009. Timberlake featured on Ciara's second single "Love Sex Magic", the video being shot on February 20, 2009. The single became a worldwide hit, reaching the top ten in numerous countries and peaking at number one in several countries including Taiwan, India, and Turkey. The single was nominated for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals at the 52nd Grammy Awards.

Timberlake and his production team The Y's, along with Mike Elizondo, produced and co-wrote the song "Don't Let Me Down" for Leona Lewis's second studio album, Echo, released (in the US) on November 17, 2009.

Timberlake also co-wrote and performed on "Carry Out", the third single from Timbaland's album Shock Value II, released on December 1, 2009.

Timberlake appeared at the 2010 MTV VMAs on September 12, 2010.

Timberlake has co-owned or provided celebrity endorsement for three restaurants in the United States: "Chi" opened in West Hollywood, California in 2003, and "Destino" and "Southern Hospitalty" in New York opened in 2006 and 2007, respectively. He also has his own brand of tequila called 901; the name comes in part from the area code of his hometown of Memphis.

In 2005, Timberlake launched the William Rast clothing line with childhood friend Juan ("Trace") Ayala. The 2007 line contained cord jackets, cashmere sweaters, jeans and polo shirts. The pair reports inspiration from fellow Memphis native Elvis Presley: "Elvis is the perfect mixture of Justin and I," Ayala says. "You can go back and see pictures of him in cowboy boots and a cowboy hat and a nice button-down shirt, but then again you can see him in a tux and a collared shirt with rhinestones on it and slacks. We like to think 'If he was alive today, what would he be wearing?'" Target has announced that a William Rast collection, including denim, outerwear and sportswear for men and women, would launch in December and be available for a month.

Timberlake provides celebrity endorsement for many commercial products, this aspect of his business being managed by IMG Sports & Entertainment since April 2008. Major endorsements in 2009 included Sony electronic products, Givenchy's men's fragrance "Play", Audi's "A1", and Callaway Golf Company products.

An avid amateur golfer, in 2007 Timberlake purchased the run-down Big Creek Golf Course in his home town of Millington, Tennessee, which he redeveloped as the eco-friendly Mirimichi Golf Course at a cost of some $US16 million. It was reopened on 25 July 2009 but closed again on 15 January 2010 for further improvements expected to take six months.

Early in 1999, Timberlake began what eventually became a high-profile celebrity relationship with fellow pop singer Britney Spears, with whom he had worked on the New Mickey Mouse Club. This ended abruptly in March 2002, amidst tabloid press speculation on Spears' infidelity with choreographer Wade Robson, a mutual friend of Spears and Timberlake. Lynn Harless says as a mother she too was devastated regarding the break-up, but to this day speaks warmly of Spears, "Britney grew up on my living room floor. I still love her to death. They (Justin and Britney) were together 10 or 11 years and had, from day one, instant chemistry between them. She's a sweet girl. I just hate what she's going through now." The breakup influenced the lyrics and theme of Timberlake's hit "Cry Me A River", one of the most popular singles from Justified.

Post-Spears, Timberlake has generally refused to discuss his personal life with the media, as a result of which his relationships have been the subject of much speculation in the tabloid and celebrity press. He was involved with singer-actress Stacy Ferguson prior to 2001. He was romantically linked with actress-dancer Jenna Dewan (in mid-2002) and actress-singer Alyssa Milano (between September and October 2002). Timberlake began dating actress Cameron Diaz soon after they met at the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards in April 2003. Regular rumours of break-ups reported in the tabloid press were either ignored or occasionally denied. On the December 16, 2006 episode of Saturday Night Live, Diaz introduced Timberlake as the night's musical guest, and the couple officially split shortly afterwards. After the tabloid press alleged an affair between Timberlake and Scarlett Johansson, with whom he had shot the video for his single "What Goes Around.../...Comes Around Interlude", Diaz and Timberlake issued a joint statement on January 11, 2007.

KEEP THE PERIMETER SAFE AND SECURED

2010-12-25T17:13:00.000-08:00

There is an upcoming concert in the city and the mayor told me that I will be assigned as the ground control in case there will be a rush of crowd in the concert area. The duty of being a crowd control is not easy because you need to make sure that the crowd won't be harmed from the controls that you are going to implement. I have an experience on this job because every time there is a major concert in the city I am always assigned to it.

In this assignment, I have already requested for barricades in the entrance area for security reason. In the previous event like this, many fans rushed to the entrance area. They even used cars just to break through the barricades in the event. I want to make sure that nothing like this happens again. I also asked for velvet rope, several length of them. The velvet rope will be used for the VIP of the event. The area where the velvet rope will be the entrance of the VIP's of the concert. In an event with so many VIPs, it is advisable to high security system implemented in the venue where the event will be happening. it is not good to be lenient in the security. There will also be stanchions placed in the ticket booth area in case there will still be fans buying for their tickets. This will minimize the rushers who will be buying their tickets on the concert day. Keep the perimeter safe and secured, that's the order of the mayor of the city.

MILEY "HANNAH MONTANA" CYRUS

2010-10-16T20:14:00.000-07:00

Miley Ray Cyrus (born Destiny Hope Cyrus; November 23, 1992) is an American actress and pop singer. She achieved wide fame for her role as Miley Stewart/Hannah Montana on the Disney Channel sitcom Hannah Montana.

Cyrus recorded music for the soundtracks, Hannah Montana (2006) and Hannah Montana 2/Meet Miley Cyrus (2007), released by Walt Disney Records. With the success of the Hannah Montana franchise she established herself as a teen idol. In 2007, Cyrus signed to Hollywood Records to pursue a solo career. She went on the Best of Both Worlds Tour the same year, in which she performed as both herself and in character as Hannah Montana. The tour was eventually turned into a high-grossing concert film entitled Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert (2008). In July 2008, Cyrus released her first solo album, Breakout (2008), which was commercially successful.

She began her foray into film by providing the voice of "Penny" in the animated film Bolt (2008). Cyrus earned a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song for her performance of Bolt's theme song, "I Thought I Lost You". She also reprised her role as Miley Stewart/Hannah Montana in Hannah Montana: The Movie (2009). The Hannah Montana: The Movie' soundtrack introduced her to new audiences within country and adult contemporary markets.

She began to cultivate an adult image in 2009 with the release of The Time of Our Lives (2009), an extended play which presented a more mainstream pop sound, and by filming The Last Song (2010), a coming-of-age drama film. The former included Cyrus's best-selling single, "Party in the U.S.A." (2009). A studio album titled Can't Be Tamed was released in 2010 and presents a new dance-pop sound. The music video and lyrics of the album's lead single, "Can't Be Tamed", portrays a more sexualized image for the entertainer. Cyrus ranked number thirteen on Forbes' 2010 Celebrity 100.

Cyrus was born on November 23, 1992 in Nashville, Tennessee to parents Leticia "Tish" (née Finley) Cyrus and country singer Billy Ray Cyrus. Her parents named her Destiny Hope because they believed that she would accomplish great things with her life. They gave her the nickname "Smiley", which was later shortened to "Miley", because she smiled so often as a baby. Cyrus suffers from a mild heart condition causing tachycardia which, though not dangerous, is often bothersome.

Against the wishes of her father's record company, Cyrus's parents secretly married a month after Cyrus's birth on December 28, 1992. The marriage gave Cyrus three half-siblings: Trace and Brandi, Tish's children from a previous relationship, and Christopher Cody, Billy Ray's son from a previous relationship. Billy Ray adopted Trace and Brandi when they were toddlers and paid child support for Cody, who was also born in 1992 and grew up with his mother in South Carolina. The couple later gave birth to Cyrus's two younger siblings, Braison and Noah. Cyrus's godmother is entertainer Dolly Parton. Cyrus was very close to her paternal grandfather, Democratic politician Ronald Ray Cyrus. Cyrus has paid her grandfather several tributes since his death in 2006, including eventually changing her middle name to "Ray". According to Cyrus's father, "A lot of people say Miley changed her name to Miley Ray because of Billy Ray, but that's not true. She did that in honor of my dad, because the two of them just loved each other to pieces."

Cyrus grew up on a 500 acre farm in Franklin, Tennessee, approximately an hour away from Nashville, and attended Heritage Elementary School. She was raised Christian and was baptized in a Southern Baptist church prior to moving to Hollywood in 2005. She attended church regularly while growing up and wore a purity ring. Cyrus displayed an affinity for performing as a toddler, although she would not seriously consider acting until she was eight. Several of Cyrus's siblings also eventually entered the entertainment business: Trace became a vocalist and guitarist for the electronic pop band Metro Station, Noah became an actress, and Brandi became a guitarist.

1998–2005: Early work

In 1998, when Cyrus was six, she and her family moved to Toronto, Canada while her father filmed the television series Doc. Cyrus said watching her father film the show inspired her to pursue acting. After Billy Ray took her to see a 2001 Mirvish production of Mamma Mia! at the Royal Alexandra Theatre, Cyrus grabbed his arm and told him, "This is what I want to do, daddy. I want to be an actress." She began taking singing and acting classes at the Armstrong Acting Studio in Toronto. In her first role, Cyrus played a girl named Kylie on Doc. In 2003, Cyrus was credited under her birth name for her role as "Young Ruthie" in Tim Burton's Big Fish.

At age 11, Cyrus learned about the casting for what became Hannah Montana, a Disney Channel children's television series about a school girl with a secret double life as a teen pop star. Cyrus sent in a tape auditioning for the show's best friend role, but received a call asking her to audition for the lead, "Chloe Stewart". After sending in a new tape and flying to Hollywood for further auditions, Cyrus was told that she was too young and too small for the part. However, her persistence and ability to sing in addition to act led the show's producers to invite her back for further auditions. Cyrus eventually received the lead, renamed "Miley Stewart" after herself, at the age of twelve.

As Cyrus's career took off, Tish Cyrus made several critical decisions regarding her daughter's representation. She signed Cyrus with Mitchell Gossett, director of the youth division at Cunningham Escott Slevin Doherty. Gossett, who specializes in creating child stars, had arranged for Cyrus's auditions for Hannah Montana and is credited with "discovering" her. For Cyrus's music career, Tish followed the advice of Dolly Parton, Cyrus's godmother and a singer herself, and signed Cyrus with Jason Morey of Morey Management Group. "Dolly said the Moreys are people you can trust around your daughter," Tish Cyrus recalls, "and she said they have good morals, which is not always the case in this business." According to trade magazine The Hollywood Reporter, Parton's advice was "the best advice [Tish] could [have gotten] on who should rep her daughter." Tish also recruited Billy Ray's business manager to manage her daughter's finances. Tish herself continues to co-manage or produce many of Cyrus' career decisions. For her education, Cyrus enrolled at Options for Youth Charter Schools[25] and studied with a private tutor on the set of her television show.

Hannah Montana became an instant hit and propelled Cyrus to teen idol status, according to The Daily Telegraph. The series premiered on March 26, 2006 to the largest audience ever for a Disney Channel show and soon became one of the highest-rated series on basic cable, elevating Cyrus's wealth and fame along with it. Time magazine reports that Cyrus's "phenom[enal]" success is due partially to her talent and partially to "Disney learning to use its vast, multimedia holdings" and market Cyrus and Hannah Montana appropriately. Cyrus eventually became the first artist to have deals in television, film, consumer products, and music within The Walt Disney Company.

Cyrus's first single was "The Best of Both Worlds", the theme song to Hannah Montana, which was released on March 28, 2006. "The Best of Both Worlds" is credited to "Hannah Montana", the pop star Cyrus portrays on the series by the same name. As with other songs credited to Montana, Cyrus typically dressed as the character when performing the song live. Cyrus's first release under her own name was a cover of James Baskett's "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah", released on April 4, 2006 on the fourth edition of DisneyMania. Dressed as Hannah Montana, Cyrus opened for The Cheetah Girls on twenty dates of their The Party's Just Begun Tour, beginning on September 15, 2006. On October 24 of same year, Walt Disney Records released the first Hannah Montana soundtrack. Of the nine tracks on the soundtrack performed by Cyrus, eight were credited to "Hannah Montana" and one, a duet with her father titled "I Learned from You", was credited to Cyrus as herself. The album peaked at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart.

After the end of the Best of Both Worlds Tour in January 2008, Walt Disney Pictures released Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert, a 3D concert film of the tour, on February 1, 2008 for what was expected to be a one-week run. The film earned $29 million at the box-office and an average of $42,000 per theater, twice the expected total, convincing Disney executives to extend the release for an indefinite run. "We don't want to turn away kids from the theaters who couldn't get into the concerts," said Chuck Viane, Disney's chief of distribution. The film's soundtrack was released by Walt Disney Records/Hollywood Records on March 11, 2008 and peaked at number three on the Billboard 200.

On July 22, 2008, Cyrus released her second studio album under her own name, entitled Breakout. Cyrus said Breakout was inspired by "what's been going on in my life in the past year." Cyrus co-wrote eight out of twelve songs on the album. "Songwriting is what I really want to do with my life forever, [...] I just hope this record showcases that, more than anything, I'm a writer." The album debuted at #1 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart and its lead single, "7 Things", peaked at number 9 on the Billboard Hot 100. She hosted the 2008 CMT Music Awards with her father in April and the 2008 Teen Choice Awards by herself in August. Cyrus provided the voice of Penny in the 2008 computer-animated film Bolt, which was released on November 21, 2008 to critical acclaim. Cyrus also co-wrote and recorded the song "I Thought I Lost You" as a duet with John Travolta for the film, for which she received a Golden Globe nomination. In September 2009, she participated in the charity single "Just Stand Up!" in support of the anti-cancer campaign Stand Up to Cancer and in the City of Hope Benefit Concert in support of cancer research and training programs. She also became involved in Disney's Friends for Change, an environmentalist group, for which she recorded the charity single "Send It On" along with several other Disney Channel stars.

Cyrus had already begun transitioning to a more grown-up image in late 2008, when her representatives negotiated a deal for novelist Nicholas Sparks to write the screenplay and novel basis for a film that would serve as a star vehicle for Cyrus by introducing her to audiences older than the young fans she had gained through Hannah Montana. Sparks and co-writer Jeff Van Wie developed The Last Song. It was important to Cyrus that she not be type cast as a singer: "I didn't want to be a singer in another film. I don't want to do that anymore. You have no idea how many musicals show up on my door. I want to do something a little more serious." In March 2009, Cyrus published Miles To Go, a memoir co-written by Hilary Liftin chronicling her life through age sixteen. Cyrus starred as Miley Stewart/Hannah Montana in Hannah Montana: The Movie, released April 10, 2009. Both the film and its soundtrack, which contained twelve songs performed by Cyrus, achieved commercial success. The soundtrack's lead single, "The Climb", became a Top 40 hit in twelve countries and introduced Cyrus to listeners outside her typical teen pop audience. Cyrus had considered ending Hannah Montana after its third season, which finished production on June 5, 2009, but Disney retained and exercised its option for a fourth season.

Production on The Last Song lasted from June 15, 2009 to August 18, 2009. In between, Cyrus launched the third Hannah Montana soundtrack, recorded the extended play The Time of Our Lives, and released the EP's lead single, "Party in the U.S.A." Cyrus said The Time of Our Lives "is a transitioning album. [...] really to introduce people to what I want my next record to sound like and with time I will be able to do that a little more." "Party in the U.S.A." debuted at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 for her best-ever ranking on the chart. The Time of Our Lives was released in conjunction with a clothing line co-designed by Cyrus and Max Azria for Walmart.

From September 14, 2009 to December 29, 2010, Cyrus toured on her Wonder World Tour to promote Breakout and The Time of Our Lives.[citation needed] On December 7, 2009, Cyrus performed for Queen Elizabeth II and numerous other members of the British Royal Family at the Royal Variety Performance in Blackpool, North West England.

In 2008, Cyrus earned $25 million, up from her earnings of $18 million in 2007, and was ranked number 35 on Forbes magazine's "Celebrity 100" list. Parade magazine reported she was the richest teenage celebrity and that her franchise would be worth approximately $1 billion by the end of the year. With Cyrus's increased success came increased media attention. In a May 2008 interview with The Los Angeles Times, Francois Navarre, the proprietor of the X17 photo agency, said Cyrus's market value had picked up considerably after the Vanity Fair photo controversy: "She's started to sell more. [...] It used to be $300, and now it's $2,000 for a picture." Estimates for a picture of the then-15 year old's first kiss ranged from $30,000 to $150,000. Navarre noted that Cyrus rarely behaved against her wholesome image or went out without a parent and stated, "She has people waiting for the moment she starts to be less traditional. [...] It's natural. Any teenager. But it's going to come very fast. [...] As soon as her mom lets her go out by herself. It's going to start to be interesting." Time magazine included her on the 2008 Time 100, the magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Her write-up was written by former child star Donny Osmond, who warned, "As an idol to tweens the world over, singer-actress Miley Cyrus, 15, is riding a huge tidal wave at the pinnacle of her career; this is as it should be. I hope she enjoys it. [...] Within three to five years, Miley will have to face adulthood. [...] As she does, she'll want to change her image, and that change will be met with adversity."

On October 8, 2009, Cyrus deleted her account on the social networking site Twitter, citing a desire for more privacy. She also told Parade magazine, "I deleted my Twitter account because I said on there that I believed in gay marriage because everyone should have the right to love each other, and I got such hate mail about my being a bad person." Cyrus was very popular on the site: her account was watched by approximately 2 million Twitter users in addition to the general public at the time of deletion.

Cyrus celebrated her 16th birthday at Disneyland with a charity fundraiser for Youth Service America, a youth volunteer service organization.

At the end of 2009, Billboard magazine ranked Cyrus the fourth best-selling female artist[100] and the fifth best-selling singer overall. Forbes ranked her #29 on the Celebrity 100 and reported she had earned a total of $25 million.

n December 2007, a brief controversy emerged when photos Cyrus had posted on her private MySpace account, depicting her and a female friend sharing a piece of licorice, were spread across the internet. "For me, I was like, That's two girls—it's not a big deal. But they got spread around. Like someone copied and pasted and said, Omigod, look at this, and blah blah blah," said Cyrus.

In April 2008, several provocative images of Cyrus in her underwear and swimsuit were leaked onto the web by a teenager who hacked Cyrus's Gmail account. Cyrus described the images as "silly, inappropriate shots" and stated, "I am going to make mistakes and I am not perfect. I never intended for any of this to happen and I am truly sorry if I have disappointed anyone." On April 25, 2008, the televised entertainment program Entertainment Tonight reported that Cyrus, then 15, had posed topless for a photoshoot taken by photographer Annie Leibovitz for Vanity Fair. On April 29, 2008, The New York Times clarified that though the pictures left an impression that she was bare-breasted, Cyrus was wrapped in a bedsheet and was actually not topless. Some parents expressed outrage at the nature of the photograph, which a Disney spokesperson described as "a situation [that] was created to deliberately manipulate a 15-year-old in order to sell magazines." Gary Marsh, president of entertainment for Disney Channel Worldwide, was quoted by Portfolio magazine to have said, “For Miley Cyrus to be a 'good girl' is now a business decision for her. Parents have invested in her a godliness. If she violates that trust, she won't get it back." In response to the Internet circulation of the photo and ensuing media attention, Cyrus released a statement of apology on April 27, 2008: "I took part in a photo shoot that was supposed to be 'artistic' and now, seeing the photographs and reading the story, I feel so embarrassed. I never intended for any of this to happen and I apologize to my fans who I care so deeply about." Leibovitz also released a statement: "I'm sorry that my portrait of Miley has been misinterpreted. The photograph is a simple, classic portrait, shot with very little makeup, and I think it is very beautiful."

In May 2008, Gossett, Cyrus's longtime acting agent, left Cunningham Escott Slevin Doherty for United Talent Agency, partially with the hope of "giving Cyrus the major-agency backing that would support a widening career", according to The Hollywood Reporter. About a year later in June 2009, Cyrus left both Gossett and UTA, which had recently negotiated her deals for The Last Song and the fourth season of Hannah Montana, and joined the Creative Artists Agency, which had already represented her for music. Nikki Finke, who broke the news, reported, "Is this fair to UTA? Of course not. But I hear the decision was made by Miley's mother Trish [sic] Cyrus".

Cyrus's performance of "Party in the U.S.A." at the 2009 Teen Choice Awards incited a media uproar, with some viewers criticizing Cyrus's provocative outfit and inclusion of a brief pole dance as inappropriate for her age, then sixteen, and for her young fans. Conversly, Newsday reported that her sexualization "has been coming for some time." Ian Drew, senior editor of US Weekly, said, "She already has this risque image, so it really wasn't much of a stretch. That's how Britney [Spears] took off. She was the good girl gone bad, and it looks to be working for Miley as well." Cyrus was also criticized that year for dating Gaston, five years her senior,[119] and for a photo displaying Cyrus and friends making "slant-eyed" expressions, which the Organization of Chinese Americans claimed was offensive to the Asian community. Cyrus apologized for the photo on her website, defending her actions and saying, "In NO way was I making fun of any ethnicity!"

Later in 2010, TMZ released a video of Cyrus, then 16, giving Adam Shankman, producer of The Last Song, a lap dance at the film's wrap party. Cyrus's father defended her actions, saying Miley was just "having fun" and that "it's what people her age do".

At the end of 2007, Cyrus broke up with her boyfriend of two years, Nick Jonas of the Jonas Brothers. Cyrus told Seventeen magazine that she and Jonas had been dating for two years and "were in love", but were "fighting a lot" by the end. After the break-up, Cyrus says that she initially "rebell[ed] against everything Nick wanted me to be. And then I was like, I've got to be by myself for now, and just figure out who I really am." In February 2008, Cyrus and her friend Mandy Jiroux opened a YouTube account and began posting videos of what they called The Miley and Mandy Show. The show, described as a "YouTube hit," is said to be filmed for fun by Cyrus and Jiroux and to be entirely their work, with Cyrus and Jiroux editing the footage together. Cyrus filed a petition to have her name changed to "Miley Ray Cyrus", her middle name reflecting that of her paternal grandfather's, on March 18, 2008. The change became official on May 1, 2008.

In June 2009 Cyrus ended her nine month relationship with model Justin Gaston shortly before flying to Georgia to film The Last Song. While filming later that month, Cyrus began dating her co-star in The Last Song, Australian actor Liam Hemsworth. She later called him her "first serious boyfriend". In August 2010, it was confirmed that her relationship with Hemsworth had ended. Cyrus and Hemsworth were seen together a month later, and are reportedly back together.

PRESIDENT BENIGNO "pinoy" AQUINO III

2010-07-27T16:59:00.000-07:00

Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III also known as Noynoy Aquino, is the 15th and current President of the Philippines. Aquino is a fourth-generation politician: his great-grandfather, Servillano "Mianong" Aquino, served as a delegate to the Malolos Congress; his grandfather, Benigno Aquino, Sr., held several legislative positions from 1919–44; and his parents were former President Corazon Aquino and former Senator Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino, Jr. Aquino is a member of the Liberal Party.

Born in Manila, Aquino graduated from Ateneo de Manila University in 1981 and joined his family in their exile in the United States shortly thereafter. He returned to the Philippines in 1983 shortly after the assassination of his father and held several positions working in the private sector. In 1998, he was elected to the House of Representatives as Representative of the 2nd district of Tarlac province. He was subsequently re-elected to the House in 2001 and 2004. In 2007, having been barred from running for re-election to the House due to the term limit, he was elected to the Senate in the 14th Congress of the Philippines.

Following the death of his mother on August 1, 2009, many people began calling on Aquino to run for president. On September 9, 2009, Aquino officially announced he would be a candidate in the 2010 presidential election, held on May 10, 2010.

On June 9, 2010, the Congress of the Philippines proclaimed Aquino the winner of the 2010 presidential election.

On June 30, 2010, at the Quirino Grandstand in Rizal Park, Manila, Aquino was sworn into office as the fifteenth President of the Philippines, succeeding Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, by Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines Conchita Carpio-Morales.

Benigno Simeon "Noynoy" Cojuangco Aquino III was born on February 8, 1960 in Manila. Aquino is the third of the five children of Benigno Aquino, Jr., who was then the Vice Governor of Tarlac province, and Corazon Aquino. He has four sisters, Maria Elena (Ballsy) Aquino-Cruz, Aurora Corazon (Pinky) Aquino-Abellada, Victoria Eliza (Viel) Aquino-Dee, and Kristina Bernadette (Kris) Aquino-Yap.

From 1965 to 1981, Aquino attended Ateneo de Manila University from elementary to college.

Eleven months after Aquino's father, Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino, Jr., was arrested and detained for "advocating the overthrow of the government by force or violence", Ninoy was brought before a military tribunal in Moran Hall, Fort Bonifacio in August 1973. On August 25, 1973, Ninoy wrote a letter to his son, Noynoy from Fort Bonifacio at 11:10 p.m., giving advice to his son;

"The only advice I can give you: Live with honor and follow your conscience.

There is no greater nation on earth than our Motherland. No greater people than our own. Serve them with all your heart, with all your might and with all your strength.

Son, the ball is now in your hands."

In 1981, Aquino graduated from Ateneo de Manila University, earning a Bachelor's degree in Economics. Shortly after graduation, he joined his family in Newton, Massachusetts, in exile.

In 1983, after two years in exile in the United States, Aquino returned to the Philippines with his family, shortly after the assassination of his father on August 21, 1983. He had a short tenure as a member of the Philippine Business for Social Progress, working as an assistant of the executive director of PBSP. He later joined Mondragon Industries Philippines, Inc. as an assistant Retail Sales Supervisor and assistant promotions manager for Nike Philippines, Inc.

From 1986 to 1992, during the presidency of his mother, Aquino joined the Intra-Strata Assurance Corporation, a company owned by his uncle Antolin Oreta Jr., as vice president.

On August 28, 1987, eighteen months into the presidency of Aquino's mother, rebel soldiers led by Gregorio Honasan staged an unsuccessful coup attempt, attempting to siege Malacañang Palace. Aquino was two blocks from the palace when he came under fire. Three of Aquino's four security escorts were killed, and the last was wounded protecting him. He himself was hit by five bullets, one of which is still embedded in his neck.

From 1993 to 1998, Aquino worked for Central Azucarera de Tarlac, the sugar refinery in charge of the Cojuangco-owned Hacienda Luisita, as the executive assistant for administration from 1993 to 1996, then he worked as manager for field services from 1996 to 1998.

The Budget Impoundment and Control Act (SB 3121), wherein "impoundment" refers to the power of the President to refuse the release of funds appropriated by the Congress of the Philippines, is another bill Aquino is proud of; he regretted, however, that such power has been used and abused by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, a result of which abuse has been the significant emasculation of Congress' ability to check the President's authority. Aquino filed this bill so the President would have to pass through Congress every time the President decides to impound part of the budget.

Another significant Aquino contribution to the Philippines' corruption problem is Senate Bill 2035, which is the Preservation of Public Infrastructures bill, seeking to raise standards in the construction of all public infrastructures by penalizing contractors of defective infrastructures. The bill also requires the Bureau of Maintenance under the Department of Public Works and Highways to conduct periodic inspections of public infrastructures.

Aquino also pushed for the passage of the Amending the Government Procurement Act (SB 2160), which applies to all government procurement activities regardless of source of funds whether local or foreign; only treaties or international/executive agreements entered into by the government prior to its enactment shall be exempt from coverage. The bill was filed in light of the Department of Justice declaration regarding the validity of the controversial NBN-ZTE scandal, wherein its international aspect, as well as the fact that it was an executive agreement, was cited as one reason for its exemption from the procurement process stipulated in Republic Act 9184.

Focusing further on accountability in government appropriations and spending, Aquino filed other reform-oriented, well-thought-out types of bills, among which were for: Philippine National Police reform; an increase in penalties for corporations and work establishments not compliant with minimum wage; the banning of reappointment to the Judicial and Bar Council; the prevention of reappointment and bypassing of the Commission on Appointments; real property valuation based on international standards; and superior responsibility for senior military officers, who are ultimately responsible for their own subordinates. However, none of these bills were passed into law.

The Presidency of Benigno S. Aquino III began at noon on June 30, 2010, when he became the fifteenth President of the Philippines, succeeding Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Aquino is the third-youngest person to be elected president, and the fourth-youngest president after Emilio Aguinaldo, Ramon Magsaysay and Ferdinand Marcos. Aquino is the first president to be a bachelor, being unmarried and having no children. Aquino is the second president not to drink alcoholic beverages; the first president not to drink alcohol was Emilio Aguinaldo. Aquino is the eighth president to be a smoker. Aquino is the first graduate of Ateneo de Manila University to become president. Aquino is the third president who will only hold office in Malacañang Palace, but not be a resident, following Corazon Aquino and Fidel V. Ramos. Aquino is the third president to use his second given name, Simeon, as his middle initial, as Manuel L. Quezon and José P. Laurel did. Aquino is the second president to be a child of a former president, his mother was former President Corazon Aquino; the first president to be a child of a former president was President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who is the daughter of former President Diosdado Macapagal.

The presidential transition began on June 9, 2010, when the Congress of the Philippines proclaimed Aquino the winner of the 2010 Philippine presidential elections held on May 10, 2010, proclaiming Aquino as the President-elect of the Philippines. The transition was in charge of the new presidential residence, cabinet appointments and cordial meetings between them and the outgoing administration.

Traditionally, it is the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines who administers the oath of office to the incoming President and Vice President, however, Aquino refused to allow Chief Justice Renato Corona to swear him into office, due to Aquino's opposition to the midnight appointment of Corona by outgoing President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on May 12, 2010, two days after the 2010 elections and a month before Arroyo's term expired. Instead, Aquino formally requested Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines Conchita Carpio-Morales, who opposed the midnight appointment of Corona, to swear him into office.

Aquino took the oath of office on June 30, 2010, at the Quirino Grandstand in Rizal Park, Manila. The oath of office was administered by Associate Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales, who officially accepted Aquino's request to swear him into office, reminiscent of the decision of his mother, who in 1986, was sworn into the presidency by Associate Justice Claudio Teehankee. After being sworn in as the fifteenth President of the Philippines, succeeding Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Aquino delivered his inaugural address.

On June 29, 2010, a day before Aquino's inauguration, Aquino officially named the members of his Cabinet, with Aquino himself as Secretary of the Interior and Local Government. Aquino also announced the formation of a truth commission that will investigate various issues including corruption allegations against outgoing President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Aquino named former Chief Justice Hilario Davide, Jr. to head the truth commission.

From June 30–July 9, 2010, Aquino was Secretary of the Interior and Local Government, until Aquino named Jesse Robredo, a former Naga mayor, as Interior Secretary.

The new presidential residence of Aquino is Bahay Pangarap (English: House of Dreams). Bahay Pangarap has one-bedroom and a swimming pool, and is located at the headquarters of the Presidential Security Group across the Pasig River from Malacañang Palace. Bahay Pangarap was built and designed by architect Juan Arellano in the 1930s, and underwent a number of renovations, with the latest renovation in 2008 led by architect Conrad Onglao. Bahay Pangarap was used by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to welcome special guests. Aquino refused to live in Malacañang Palace, the official residence of the President of the Philippines, or in Arlegui Mansion, the residence of former Presidents Corazon Aquino and Fidel V. Ramos, stating that the two residences are too big, and also stated that his small family residence at Times Street in Quezon City would be impractical, since it would be a security concern for his neighbors.

On July 14, 2010, the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) called an emergency meeting in Camp Aguinaldo to assess the damage caused by Typhoon Basyang. Aquino attended the meeting to obtain information on the damage caused by Typhoon Basyang and to personally monitor the repair and recovery work in the aftermath of the typhoon. In the meeting, Aquino criticized the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) for failing to predict and to warn the residents of Metro Manila that Typhoon Basyang would ravage Metropolitan Manila.

On July 26, 2010, at the Batasang Pambansa, in Quezon City, Aquino delivered his first State of the Nation Address (SONA)
Cabinet

Aquino is the first president to be a bachelor, being unmarried and having no children. Aquino is currently in a relationship with Shalani Soledad, a 30-year-old Valenzuela councilor and niece of former Senator Francisco Tatad. Aquino and Soledad first met around 2000 or 2001, when she interviewed him for a media project; they ran into each other some years later, in August 2008, and began going out.

He had previously dated Korina Sanchez, and Bernadette Sembrano. Aquino had been an enthusiast of shooting and billiards, but today, he relaxes by playing computer games since he could no longer engage in the first two aforementioned pastimes. He is a history buff, an audiophile and enjoys listening to music.

He does not drink alcoholic beverages. He is the second president not to drink alcohol, the first being Emilio Aguinaldo. Aquino is a smoker, and has admitted to smoking up to three packs a day. During his presidential campaign, Aquino promised to quit smoking if he wins the election. However, he decided later he would not quit smoking, preferring to do it at the "appropriate" time. He also said he is not keen on being a poster boy for anti-smoking advocates. He is the eighth president to be a smoker.

FERDINAND MARCOS

2010-03-27T09:43:00.000-07:00

Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos (September 11, 1917 – September 28, 1989) was President of the Philippines from 1965 to 1986. He was a lawyer, member of the Philippine House of Representatives (1949–1959) and a member of the Philippine Senate (1959–1965). He was Senate President in 1963. He claimed that during World War II he had been the leader of Ang Maharlika, a guerrilla force in northern Luzon. As Philippine president and strongman, his greatest achievement was in the fields of infrastructure development and international diplomacy. However, his administration was marred by massive authoritarian corruption, despotism, nepotism, political repression, and human rights violations. He benefited from a large personality cult in the Philippines during his regime. In 1983, his government was implicated in the assassination of his primary political opponent, Benigno Aquino, Jr.. The implication caused a chain of events, including a tainted presidential election that served as the catalyst for the People Power Revolution in February 1986 that led to his removal from power and eventual exile in Hawaii. It was later alleged that he and his wife Imelda Marcos had moved billions of dollars of embezzled public funds to the United States, Switzerland, and other countries, as well as into fictitious corporations during his 20 years in power.

Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos was born September 11, 1917, in Sarrat, Ilocos Norte outside Laoag City to parents Mariano Marcos and Josefa Edralin. He was named after Ferdinand VII of Spain and baptized into the Philippine Independent Church. According to the Marcos family's oral history, the family name was originally Taguktok, and their Ilokano roots have some Japanese and Chinese ancestry. Ferdinand was a champion debater at the University of the Philippines, where he also participated in boxing, swimming and wrestling.

In December 1938, Mariano Marcos, his brother Pio, his son Ferdinand, and his brother-in-law Quirino Lizardo were prosecuted for the murder of Julio Nalundasan. On September 20, 1935, the day after Nalundasan for the second time defeated Mariano Marcos for the National Assembly seat for Ilocos Norte, Nalundasan had been shot and killed in his house in Batac. According to two witnesses, the four had conspired to assassinate Nalundasan, with Ferdinand Marcos eventually doing the killing. Late January 1939 they were denied bail,[2] and in the fall[when?] of 1939 they were convicted, Ferdinand and Lizardo receiving the death penalty for premeditated murder, while Mariano and Pio were found guilty only of contempt of court. The Marcos family took their appeal to the Supreme Court of the Philippines, which on October 22, 1940, overturned the lower court's decision and acquitted them of all charges but contempt.

In 1939, while incarcerated, Ferdinand Marcos graduated cum laude with a law degree from the U.P. College of Law and was elected to the Pi Gamma Mu international honor society. While in detention Governor Roque B. Ablan Sr. of Ilocos Norte helped Marcos study for the bar exams by providing a desk lamp in his cell, law books and reviewers. Marcos passed the bar examination with an almost perfect score of 98.01%, while also writing an 830-page defense. Several people contested his score and a retake was taken albeit an oral bar examination witnessed by several people. His second bar examination resulted in a 92.35% score(21st in all time list of highest grades obtained in the Philippine Bar).

According to Marcos's book, "Notes on the New Society," it was a movement urging the poor and the privileged to work as one for the common goals of society and to achieve the liberation of the Filipino people through self-realization. Marcos confiscated businesses owned by the oligarchy. More often than not, they were taken over by Marcos's family members and close personal friends, who used them as fronts to launder proceeds from institutionalized graft and corruption in the different national governmental agencies as "crony capitalism," Marcos' friends using them for personal benefit. With genuinely nationalistic motives, crony capitalism was intended to redistribute monopolies traditionally owned by Chinese and Mestizo oligarchs to Filipino businessmen though in practice, it led to graft and corruption via bribery, racketeering, and embezzlement. Marcos also silenced the free press, making the state press the only legal one. He also seized privately owned lands and distributed them to farmers. By waging an ideological war against the oligarchy, Marcos gained the support of the masses though he was to create a new one in its place. Marcos, now free from day-to-day governance which was left mostly to Enrile using his power to settle scores against old rivals, such as the Lopezes, who were always opposed to the Marcos administration. Leading opponents such as Senators Benigno Aquino, Jr., Jose Diokno, Jovito Salonga and many others were imprisoned for months or years. This practice considerably alienated the support of the old social and economic elite and the media, who criticized the Marcos administration endlessly.

The declaration of martial law was initially very well received, given the social turmoil the Philippines was experiencing though the rest of the world was surprised at how the Filipinos accepted Marcos's self-imposed dictatorship. Soon after Marcos declared martial law, one American official described the Philippines as a country composed "of 40 million cowards and one son of a bitch"; otherwise, he reasoned, they should have risen against the destroyer of their freedom.[22] Crime rates plunged dramatically after dusk curfews were implemented and the country would enjoy economic prosperity throughout the 1970s in the midst of growing dissent to his strong-willed rule toward the end of martial law. Political opponents were given the opportunity of compliance or forced to go into exile. As a result, thousands migrated to other countries, like the U.S. and Canada. Public dissent on the streets was not tolerated and leaders of such protests were promptly arrested, detained, tortured, or never heard from again. Communist leaders, as well as sympathizers, were forced to flee from the cities to the countrysides, where they multiplied. Lim Seng, a feared drug lord, was arrested and executed in Luneta in 1972. As martial law dragged on for the next nine years, human rights violations went unchecked, and graft and corruption by the military and the administration became widespread, as made manifest by the Rolex 12.

Over the years, Marcos's hand was strengthened by the support of the armed forces, whose size he tripled to 230,000 troops, after declaring martial law in 1972. The forces included some first-rate units as well as thousands of unruly and ill equipped personnel of the civilian home defense forces and other paramilitary organizations.

Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile, Chief of Staff of the Philippine Constabulary Fidel Ramos, and Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Fabian Ver were the chief administrators of martial law from 1972 to 1981, and the three remained President Marcos's closest advisers until he was ousted in 1986. Enrile and Ramos would later abandon Marcos's 'sinking ship' and seek protection behind the 1986 People Power Revolution. The Catholic hierarchy and Manila's middle class were crucial to the success of the massive crusade.

His practice of using the politics of patronage in his desire to be the ninong or godfather of not just the people but the judiciary, legislative and administrative branches of the government ensured his downfall, no matter how Marcos justified it according to his own philosophy of the "politics of achievement." This practice entailed bribery, racketeering, and embezzlement to gain the support of the aforementioned sectors. The 14 years of his dictatorship, according to critics, have warped the legislature, judiciary and the military.

Another allegation was that his family and cronies looted so much wealth from the country that to this day investigators have difficulty determining precisely how many billions of dollars have been salted away. The Swiss government has also returned 684 million USD in allegedly ill-gotten Marcos wealth.

According to staunch Marcos critic Jovito Salonga, author of the book "Presidential Plunder: the Quest for the Marcos Ill-Gotten Wealth," monopolies in several vital industries have been created and placed under the control of Marcos cronies, such as coconut (under Eduardo Cojuangco, Jr. and Juan Ponce Enrile), tobacco (under Lucio Tan), banana (under Antonio Floirendo), sugar (under Roberto Benedicto) and manufacturing (under Herminio Disini and Ricardo Silverio). The Marcos and Romualdez families became owners, directly or indirectly, of the nation's largest corporations, such as the Philippine Long Distance Company (PLDT), the Philippine Airlines (PAL), Meralco (a national electric company), Fortune Tobacco, the San Miguel Corporation (Asia's largest beer and bottling company), numerous newspapers, radio and TV broadcasting companies (such as ABS-CBN), several banks, and real estate properties in New York, California and Hawaii. The Aquino government also accused them of skimming off foreign aid and international assistance.

However, he put these talents to work by building a regime that he apparently intended to perpetuate as a dynasty. A former aide of Marcos said that "nobody will ever know what a remarkable president he could have made. That's the saddest part." Among the many documents he left behind in the palace, after he fled in 1986, was one appointing his wife as his successor.

Opponents state that the evidence suggests that he used the communist threat as a pretext for seizing power. However, the communist insurgency was at its peak during the late 1960s to early 1970s when it was found out that the People's Republic of China was shipping arms to support the communist cause in the Philippines after the interception of a vessel containing loads of firearms. After he was overthrown, former Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile stated that certain incidents had been contrived to justify the imposition of martial law, such as Enrile's ambush.

His most ardent supporters[who?] claim Marcos had genuine concern for reforming the society as evidenced by his actions during the period, up until his cronies, whom he entirely trusted, had firmly entrenched themselves in the government. By then, they say he was too ill and too dependent on them to act. The same has been said about his relationship with his wife Imelda, who became the government's main public figure in light of his illness, by then wielding perhaps more power than Marcos himself.

It is important to note that many laws written by Marcos are still in force and in effect. Out of thousands of proclamations, decrees and executive orders, only a few were repealed, revoked, modified or amended. Few credit Marcos for promoting Filipino culture and nationalism. His 21 years in power with the help of U.S. massive economic aid and foreign loans enabled Marcos to build more schools, hospitals and infrastructure than any of his predecessors combined. Due to his iron rule, he was able to impose order and reduce crime by strict implementation of the law. The relative economic success that the Philippines enjoyed during the initial part of his presidency is hard to dispel. Many of Marcos's accomplishments were overlooked after the so-called "People Power Revolution," but the Marcos era definitely had accomplishments in its own right.

Writer Manuel L. Quezon III states that "in the end, as Marcos’s health and grip on power weakened, he came to validate what is said to be the fundamental weakness of all strong man regimes: as the saying goes, nothing grows under the shade of a great tree. Marcos could not — would not — provide for a successor; and it was on the fundamental question of what should come after Marcos that his regime began to crumble, and fell... that he himself, with his virtues (and he had many: love of country, love of learning, discipline, loyalty) and his defects (confusing form with substance, ignoring how the means power is acquired is as important as how you use it, tolerance of his supporters’ mistakes, and his using armed force to compensate for some political weaknesses) are as much about our society’s strengths and weaknesses, as they were about his own."

According to Transparency International, Marcos is the first Philippine Head of State and the second most corrupt head of government ever, after Suharto, with Estrada as the tenth and second Philippine Head of State in terms of corruption. Even so, according to a recent survey, some Filipinos prefer Marcos's rule due to the shape of the country in administrations succeeding his.

BENIGNO S. AQUINO JR, THE MODERN DAY HERO

2009-10-16T07:52:00.000-07:00

Benigno Servillano "Ninoy" Aquino, Jr. (November 27, 1932 – August 21, 1983) was a Philippine Senator, Governor of Tarlac, and an opposition leader against President Ferdinand Marcos. He was assassinated at the Manila International Airport (later renamed in his honor) upon returning home from exile in the United States. His death catapulted his widow, Corazon Aquino, to the limelight and subsequently to the presidency, replacing the 20-year Marcos regime. In 2004, the anniversary of his death was proclaimed as a national holiday now known as Ninoy Aquino Day.

Benigno Servillano Aquino was born in Concepcion, Tarlac, to a prosperous family of hacienderos (landlords). His grandfather, Servillano Aquino, was a general in the revolutionary army of Emilio Aguinaldo while his father, Benigno Aquino, Sr. (1894-1947) was a prominent official in the World War II Japanese-organized government of José P. Laurel. His mother was Doña Aurora Aquino-Aquino (who was also his father's third cousin). His father died while Benigno Aquino was in his teens amid rumors of collaboration with the Japanese during the occupation. Aquino was educated in private schools--St. Joseph's College, Ateneo de Manila, and De La Salle College. He finished high school at San Beda College. Aquino took his tertiary education at the Ateneo de Manila to obtain a Bachelor of Arts degree, but he interrupted his studies.At age 17, he was the youngest war correspondent to cover the Korean War for the newspaper The Manila Times of Joaquin "Chino" Roces. Because of his journalistic feats, he received a Philippine Legion of Honor award from President Elpidio Quirino at age 18. At 21, he became a close adviser to then defense secretary Ramon Magsaysay. Ninoy took up law at the University of the Philippines, where he became a member of the Upsilon Sigma Phi. He interrupted his studies again however to pursue a career in journalism. According to Maximo V. Soliven, Aquino "later 'explained' that he had decided to go to as many schools as possible, so that he could make as many new friends as possible."[4] In early 1954, he was appointed by President Ramon Magsaysay to act as personal emissary to Luis Taruc, leader of the Hukbalahap rebel group. After four months of negotiations, he was credited for Taruc's unconditional surrender. He became mayor of Concepcion in 1955 at the age of 22. In the same year he married Corazon "Cory" Cojuangco, and they had five children; Maria Elena (Ballsy), Aurora Corazon (Pinky), Benigno Simeon III (Noynoy), Victoria Eliza (Viel), and actress and TV host Kristina Bernadette (Kris).

Benigno Aquino was no stranger to Philippine politics. He came from a family that had been involved with some of the country's political heavyweights. His grandfather served under President Aguinaldo while his father held office under Presidents Manuel L. Quezon and Jose P. Laurel. Benigno Aquino became the youngest municipal mayor at age 22, and the nation's youngest vice-governor at 27. He became governor of Tarlac province in 1961 at age 29, then secretary-general of the Liberal Party in 1966. In 1967 he made history by becoming the youngest elected senator in the country's history at age 34. He was the only "survivor" of the Liberal Party who made it to the senate, where he was inevitably singled out by Marcos and his allies as their greatest threat. In 1968, during his first year in the Upper House, Aquino warned that Marcos was on the road to establishing "a garrison state" by "ballooning the armed forces budget", saddling the defense establishment with "overstaying generals" and "militarizing our civilian government offices"--all these caveats were uttered barely four years before martial law.

In myriad ways Aquino bedeviled the Marcos regime, chipping away at its monolithic facade. His most celebrated speech, insolently entitled "A Pantheon for Imelda", was delivered on February 10, 1969, and assailed the first lady's first extravagant project, the P50 million Cultural Center, which he dubbed "a monument to shame". An outraged President Marcos called Aquino "a congenital liar". The First Lady's friends angrily accused Aquino of being "ungallant". These so-called "fiscalization" tactics of Aquino quickly became his trademark in the senate. During his tenure as senator, he was selected by the Philippine Free Press magazine as one of the nation's most outstanding senators. His achievements at such a young age earned him the moniker "Wonder Boy" of Philippine politics.

No chance Aquino was seen as a contender by many for the highest office in the land, the presidency. Surveys during those times showed that he was the number one choice among Filipinos, since President Marcos by law was prohibited to serve another term.

Throughout his years of expatriation, Aquino was always aware that his life in the U.S. was temporary. He never stopped affirming his eventual return even as he enjoyed American hospitality and a peaceful life with his family on American soil. After spending 7 years and 7 months in prison, Aquino's finances were in ruins. Making up for the lost time as the family's breadwinner, he toured America; attending symposiums, lectures, and giving speeches in freedom rallies opposing the Marcos dictatorship, with the most memorable held at the Wilshire Ebell Theater in Los Angeles, California on February 15, 1981.

In the first quarter of 1983, Aquino was receiving news about the deteriorating political situation in his country combined with the rumored declining health (due to lupus) of President Ferdinand Marcos. He believed that it was expedient for him to speak to Marcos and present to him his rationale for the country's return to democracy, before extremists took over and make such a change impossible. Moreover, his years of absence made his allies worry that the Filipinos might have resigned themselves to Marcos' strongman rule and that without his leadership the centrist opposition would die a natural death.

Aquino decided to go back to the Philippines, fully aware of the dangers that awaited him. Warned that he would either be imprisoned or killed, Aquino answered, "if it's my fate to die by an assassin's bullet, so be it. But I cannot be petrified by inaction, or fear of assassination, and therefore stay in the corner..." His family, however, learned from a Philippine Consulate official that there were orders from Ministry of Foreign Affairs not to issue any passports for them. At that time, their visas had expired and their renewal had been denied. They therefore formulated a plan for Ninoy to fly alone—to attract less attention—and the rest of the family to follow him after two weeks. Despite the government's ban on issuing him a passport, Aquino was able to acquire one with the help of Rashid Lucman, a former congressman from Mindanao. It carried an alias, Marcial Bonifacio (Marcial for martial law and Bonifacio for Fort Bonifacio, his erstwhile prison). He eventually obtained a legitimate passport from a sympathizer working in a Philippine consulate. The Marcos government warned all international airlines that they would be denied landing rights and forced to return if they tried to fly Ninoy to the Philippines. Aquino insisted that it was his natural right as a citizen to come back to his homeland, and that no government could prevent him from doing so. He left Logan International Airport on August 13, 1983, took a circuitous route home from Boston, via Los Angeles, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Taipei, before heading towards Manila. He had chosen Taipei as the final stopover when he learned the Philippines had severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan. This made him feel more secure; the Taiwan authorities could pretend they were not aware of his presence. There would also be a couple of Taiwanese friends accompanying him.

It would have been perfectly convenient for the Marcos government if Aquino had stayed out of the local political arena, however Ninoy asserted his willingness to suffer the consequences declaring, "the Filipino is worth dying for." He wished to express an earnest plea for Marcos to step down and seek a peaceful regime change and a return to democratic institutions. Anticipating the worst, during a pre-return interview held in his suite at the Taipei Grand Hotel, he revealed that he would be wearing a bullet-proof vest, but he also said that "it's only good for the body, but for the head there's nothing else we can do". Sensing his own doom, he told the journalists accompanying him on the flight that they "have to be ready with your (hand) camera because this action can become very fast... in a matter of 3 or 4 minutes it could be all over... and I may not be able to talk to you again after this...."In his last formal statement that he wasn't able to deliver, he said, "I have returned to join the ranks of those struggling to restore our rights and freedom through nonviolence. I seek no confrontation."

Despite a convoy of security guards (all assigned to him by the Marcos government), a contingent of 1,200 military and police personnel on the tarmac, three armed bodyguards personally escorting him, and a bulletproof vest Aquino was wearing, Aquino was fatally shot in the head as he was escorted off the airplane. From the airplane, aviation security personnel were seen firing into the body of an unknown man dressed in blue, who was identified as Rolando Galman. Aquino's body was quickly loaded into a van and sped away.

Initially government ran radio and television reported that Benigno Aquino was killed together with an "unknown" assassin. Then the government claimed that Aquino was killed by a Communist hitman named Rolando "Rolly" Galman, who was shot dead at the scene by the aviation security. However, politicians and diplomats found evident contradictions between the claim and the photos and the videotape footage that documented the time before and after the shooting. The footage had circulated throughout the Philippines at that time.

Everyone from the Central Intelligence Agency, to the United Nations, to the Communist Party of the Philippines to First Lady Imelda Marcos was accused of conspiracy. President Marcos was reportedly gravely ill, recovering from a kidney transplant when the incident occurred. Theories arose as to who was in charge and who ordered the execution. Some hypothesized that Marcos had a long-standing order for Aquino's murder upon the latter's return.

Aquino's body lay in state in a glass coffin. No effort was made to disguise a bullet wound that had disfigured his face. Aquino's funeral procession on August 31 lasted from 9 a.m.--with a funeral mass officiated by the Catholic archbishop of Manila, Jaime Cardinal Sin, and held at Santo Domingo Church—to 9 p.m., when his body was interred at the Manila Memorial Park. Two million people lined the streets during the procession which was aired by the Church-sponsored Radio Veritas, the only station that covered the procession. The procession reached Rizal Park, where the Philippine flag was brought to half-staff.

ERNESTO "CHE" GUEVARA

2009-08-13T06:12:00.000-07:00

Ernesto "Che" Guevara (June 14, 1928 – October 9, 1967) commonly known as Che Guevara, El Che, or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, guerrilla leader, military theorist, international statesman and major figure of the Cuban Revolution. Since his death, his stylized visage has become a ubiquitous countercultural symbol and global insignia within popular culture.

As a young medical student, Guevara traveled throughout Latin America and was transformed by the endemic poverty he witnessed. His experiences and observations during these trips led him to conclude that the region's ingrained economic inequalities were an intrinsic result of monopoly capitalism, neocolonialism, and imperialism, with the only remedy being world revolution. This belief prompted his involvement in Guatemala's social reforms under President Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán, whose eventual CIA-assisted overthrow solidified Guevara's radical ideology.

Later, while living in Mexico city, he met Raul and Fidel Castro, joined their 26th of July Movement, and invaded Cuba aboard the Granma with the intention of overthrowing U.S.-backed Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. Guevara soon rose to prominence among the insurgents, was promoted to second in command, and played a pivotal role in the successful two year guerrilla campaign that deposed the Batista regime. Following the Cuban Revolution, Guevara performed a number of key roles in the new government. These included reviewing the appeals and firing squads for those convicted as war criminals during the revolutionary tribunals, instituing agrarian reform as minister of industries, serving as both national bank president and instructional director for Cuba’s armed forces, and traversing the globe as a diplomat on behalf of Cuban socialism. Additionally, he was a prolific writer and diarist, composing a seminal manual on guerrilla warfare, along with a best-selling memoir about his youthful motorcycle journey across South America. Guevara left Cuba in 1965 to incite revolutions first unsuccessfully in Congo-Kinshasa and later in Bolivia, where he was captured by CIA-assisted Bolivian forces and executed.

Notorious as a ruthless disciplinarian who unhesitatingly shot defectors, yet revered by supporters for his rigid dedication to professed doctrines, Guevara remains a controversial and significant historical figure. As a result of his perceived martyrdom, poetic invocations for class struggle, and desire to create the consciousness of a new man driven by moral rather than material incentives, Guevara evolved into a quintessential icon of leftist-inspired movements. He has been mostly venerated and occasionally reviled in a multitude of biographies, memoirs, essays, documentaries, songs, and films. Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century, while an Alberto Korda photograph of him entitled Guerrillero Heroico (shown), was declared "the most famous photograph in the world."

Ernesto Guevara was born to Celia de la Serna and Ernesto Guevara Lynch on June 14, 1928 in Rosario, Argentina, the eldest of five children in a family of Spanish, Basque and Irish descent. In lieu of his parents surnames, his legal name (Ernesto Guevara) will sometimes appear with de la Serna, or Lynch accompanying it. In reference to Che's "restless" nature, his father declared "the first thing to note is that in my son's veins flowed the blood of the Irish rebels." Growing up in a family with leftist leanings, Guevara was introduced to a wide spectrum of political perspectives even as a boy. His father, a staunch supporter of Republicans from the Spanish Civil War, often hosted many veterans from the conflict in the Guevara home.

Though suffering crippling bouts of acute asthma that were to afflict him throughout his life, he excelled as an athlete, enjoying swimming, soccer, and golf. He was an avid rugby union player and earned himself the nickname "Fuser"—a contraction of El Furibundo (raging) and his mother's surname, de la Serna—for his aggressive style of play. His schoolmates also nicknamed him "Chancho" ("pig"), because he rarely bathed, and proudly wore a "weekly shirt."

Guevara learned chess from his father and began participating in local tournaments by age 12. During adolescence and throughout his life he was passionate about poetry, especially that of Pablo Neruda, John Keats, Antonio Machado, Federico García Lorca, Gabriela Mistral, César Vallejo, and Walt Whitman. He could also recite Rudyard Kipling's "If" and José Hernández's "Martín Fierro" from memory. The Guevara home contained more than 3,000 books, which allowed Guevara to be an enthusiastic and eclectic reader, with interests including Karl Marx, William Faulkner, André Gide, Emilio Salgari and Jules Verne. Additionally, he enjoyed the works of Jawaharlal Nehru, Franz Kafka, Albert Camus, Vladimir Lenin, and Jean-Paul Sartre; as well as Anatole France, Friedrich Engels, H.G. Wells, and Robert Frost.

As he grew older, he developed an interest in the Latin American writers Horacio Quiroga, Ciro Alegría, Jorge Icaza, Rubén Darío, and Miguel Asturias. Many of these authors' ideas he cataloged in his own handwritten notebooks of concepts, definitions, and philosophies of influential intellectuals. These included composing analytical sketches of Buddha and Aristotle, along with examining Bertrand Russell on love and patriotism, Jack London on society, and Nietzsche on the idea of death. Sigmund Freud's ideas fascinated him as he quoted him on a variety of topics from dreams and libido to narcissism and the oedipus complex. His favorite subjects in school included philosophy, mathematics, engineering, political science, and sociology.

Years later, a February 13, 1958, declassified CIA 'biographical and personality report' would make note of Guevara’s wide range of academic interests and intellect, describing him as "quite well read" and offering the racist proclamation that "Che is fairly intellectual for a Latino".

In 1948, Guevara entered the University of Buenos Aires to study medicine. But in 1951, he took a year off from studies to embark on a trip traversing South America by motorcycle with his friend Alberto Granado, with the final goal of spending a few weeks volunteering at the San Pablo Leper colony in Peru, on the banks of the Amazon River. Guevara used notes taken during this trip to write an account entitled The Motorcycle Diaries, which later became a New York Times best-seller, and was adapted into a 2004 award-winning film of the same name.

By trip's end, he came to view Latin America not as collection of separate nations, but as a single entity requiring a continent-wide liberation strategy. His conception of a borderless, united Hispanic America sharing a common 'Latino' heritage was a theme that prominently recurred during his later revolutionary activities. Upon returning to Argentina, he completed his studies and received his medical degree in June 1953, making him officially "Dr. Ernesto Guevara". Guevara later remarked that through his travels of Latin America, he came in "close contact with poverty, hunger and disease" along with the "inability to treat a child because of lack of money" and "stupefaction provoked by the continual hunger and punishment" that leads a father to "accept the loss of a son as an unimportant accident". It was these experiences which Guevara cites as convincing him that in order to "help these people", he needed to leave the realm of medicine, and consider the political arena of armed struggle.[

On July 7, 1953, Guevara set out again, this time to Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador. On December 10, 1953, before leaving for Guatemala, Guevara sent an update to his Aunt Beatriz from San José, Costa Rica. In the letter Guevara speaks of traversing through the "dominions" of the United Fruit Company, which convinced him "how terrible" the "Capitalist octopuses" were. This affirmed indignation carried the "head hunting tone" that he adopted in order to frighten his more Conservative relatives, and ends with Guevara swearing on an image of the then recently deceased Josef Stalin, not to rest until these "octopuses have been vanquished."[30] Later that month, Guevara arrived in Guatemala where President Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán headed a democratically elected government that, through land reform and other initiatives, was attempting to end the latifundia system. Guevara decided to settle down in Guatemala so as to "perfect himself and accomplish whatever may be necessary in order to become a true revolutionary".

In Guatemala City, Guevara sought out Hilda Gadea Acosta, a Peruvian economist who was well-connected politically as a member of the left-leaning Alianza Popular Revolucionaria Americana (APRA, American Popular Revolutionary Alliance). She introduced Guevara to a number of high-level officials in the Arbenz government. Guevara then established contact with a group of Cuban exiles linked to Fidel Castro through the July 26, 1953 attack on the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba.[32] During this period he acquired his famous nickname, due to his frequent use of the Argentine diminutive interjection che, a slang casual speech filler used similarly to "eh" or "pal."

Guevara's attempts to obtain a medical internship were unsuccessful and his economic situation was often precarious. On 15 May 1954 a shipment of Škoda infantry and light artillery weapons was sent from Communist Czechoslovakia for the Arbenz Government and arrived in Puerto Barrios, prompting a CIA-sponsored coup attempt. Guevara was eager to fight on behalf of Arbenz and joined an armed militia organized by the Communist Youth for that purpose, but frustrated with the group's inaction, he soon returned to medical duties. Following the coup, he again volunteered to fight, but soon after, Arbenz took refuge in the Mexican Embassy and told his foreign supporters to leave the country. After Hilda Gadea was arrested, Guevara sought protection inside the Argentine consulate, where he remained until he received a safe-conduct pass some weeks later and made his way to Mexico. He married Gadea in Mexico in September 1955.

The overthrow of the Arbenz regime cemented Guevara's view of the United States as an imperialist power that would oppose and attempt to destroy any government that sought to redress the socioeconomic inequality endemic to Latin America and other developing countries. This strengthened his conviction that Marxism achieved through armed struggle and defended by an armed populace was the only way to rectify such conditions. Gadea wrote later, "It was Guatemala which finally convinced him of the necessity for armed struggle and for taking the initiative against imperialism. By the time he left, he was sure of

Guevara arrived in Mexico City in early September 1954, and renewed his friendship with Ñico López and the other Cuban exiles whom he had met in Guatemala. In June 1955, López introduced him to Raúl Castro who subsequently introduced him to his older brother, Fidel Castro, the revolutionary leader who had formed the 26th of July Movement and was now plotting to overthrow the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. During a long conversation with Castro on the night of their first meeting, Guevara concluded that the Cuban's cause was the one for which he had been searching and before daybreak he had signed up as a member of the 26J Movement. By this point in Guevara’s life, he deemed that U.S.-controlled conglomerates installed and supported repressive regimes around the world. In this vein, he considered Batista a "U.S. puppet whose strings needed cutting."

Although he planned to be the group's combat medic, Guevara participated in the military training with the members of the Movement, and, at the end of the course, was called "the best guerrilla of them all" by their instructor, Colonel Alberto Bayo. The first step in Castro's revolutionary plan was an assault on Cuba from Mexico via the Granma, an old, leaky cabin cruiser. They set out for Cuba on November 25, 1956. Attacked by Batista's military soon after landing, many of the 82 men were either killed in the attack or executed upon capture; only 22 found each other afterwards. Guevara wrote that it was during this bloody confrontation that he laid down his medical supplies and picked up a box of ammunition dropped by a fleeing comrade, finalizing his symbolic transition from physician to combatant.

Only a small band of revolutionaries survived to re-group as a bedraggled fighting force deep in the Sierra Maestra mountains, where they received support from the urban guerrilla network of Frank País, the 26th of July Movement, and local campesinos. With the group withdrawn to the Sierra, the world wondered whether Castro was alive or dead until early 1957 when the interview by Herbert Matthews appeared in The New York Times. The article presented a lasting, almost mythical image for Castro and the guerrillas. Guevara was not present for the interview, but in the coming months he began to realize the importance of the media in their struggle. Meanwhile, as supplies and morale grew low, and with an allergy to mosquito bites which resulted in agonizing walnut-sized cysts on his body, Guevara considered these "the most painful days of the war."

As the war continued, Guevara became an integral part of the rebel army and "convinced Castro with competence, diplomacy and patience." Guevara set up factories to make grenades, built ovens to bake bread, taught new recruits about tactics, and organized schools to teach illiterate campesinos to read and write. The man who three years later would be dubbed by Time Magazine: "Castro's brain", at this point was promoted by Fidel Castro to Comandante (commander) of a second army column.

As the only other ranked Comandante besides Fidel Castro, Guevara was an extremely harsh disciplinarian. Deserters were punished as traitors, and Guevara was known to send execution squads to hunt down those seeking to go AWOL. As a result, Guevara became feared for his brutality and ruthlessness. During the guerrilla campaign, Guevara was also responsible for the execution of a number of men accused of being informers, deserters or spies, often without conducting trials. Although he maintained a demanding and harsh disposition, Guevara also viewed his role of commander as one of a teacher, entertaining his men during breaks between engagements with readings from the likes of Robert Louis Stevenson, Cervantes, and Spanish lyric poets.

His commanding officer Fidel Castro has described Guevara as intelligent, daring, and an exemplary leader who "had great moral authority over his troops." Castro has further remarked that Guevara took too many risks, even having a "tendency toward foolhardiness".

Guevara was instrumental in creating the clandestine radio station Radio Rebelde in February 1958, which broadcast news to the Cuban people with statements by the 26th of July movement, and provided radiotelephone communication between the growing number of rebel columns across the island. Guevara had apparently been inspired to create the station by observing the effectiveness of CIA supplied radio in Guatemala in ousting the government of Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán.

In late July 1958, Guevara played a critical role in the Battle of Las Mercedes by using his column to halt a force of 1,500 men called up by Batista's General Cantillo in a plan to encircle and destroy Castro's forces. Years later, Major Larry Bockman of the United States Marine Corps would analyze and describe Che's tactical appreciation of this battle as "brilliant." As the war extended, Guevara led a new column of fighters dispatched westward for the final push towards Havana. In the closing days of December 1958, Guevara directed his "suicide squad" in the attack on Santa Clara, that became the final decisive military victory of the revolution. In the six weeks leading up to the Battle of Santa Clara there were times when his men were completely surrounded, outgunned, and overrun. Che's eventual victory despite the formidable odds and being outnumbered 10:1, remains in the view of some observers a "remarkable tour de force in modern warfare." Radio Rebelde broadcast the first reports that Guevara's column had taken Santa Clara on New Year's Eve 1958. This contradicted reports by the heavily controlled national news media, which had at one stage reported Guevara's death during the fighting. Batista, upon learning that his generals were negotiating a separate peace with the rebel leader, fled to the Dominican Republic the next day on January 1, 1959.

On January 8, 1959, Castro's army rolled victoriously into Havana. In February, the revolutionary government proclaimed Guevara "a Cuban citizen by birth" in recognition of his role in the triumph. When Hilda Gadea arrived in Cuba in late January, Guevara told her that he was involved with another woman, and the two agreed on a divorce, which was finalized on May 22. On June 2, 1959, he married Aleida March, a Cuban-born member of the 26th of July movement with whom he had been living since late 1958.

During the rebellion against Batista's dictatorship, the general command of the rebel army, led by Fidel Castro, introduced into the liberated territories the 19th century penal law commonly known as the Ley de la Sierra. This law included the death penalty for extremely serious crimes, whether perpetrated by the dictatorship or by supporters of the revolution. In 1959, the revolutionary government extended its application to the whole of the republic and to those it considered war criminals, captured and tried after the revolution. According to the Cuban Ministry of Justice, this latter extension was supported by the majority of the population, and followed the same procedure as those in the Nuremberg Trials held by the Allies after World War II.

To implement a portion of this plan, Castro named Guevara commander of the La Cabaña Fortress prison, for a five-month tenure (January 2 through June 12, 1959). Guevara was charged with purging the Batista army and consolidating victory by exacting "revolutionary justice" against those considered to be traitors, chivatos (informants) or war criminals. Serving in the post as commander of La Cabaña, Guevara reviewed the appeals of those convicted during the revolutionary tribunal process. On some occasions the penalty delivered by the tribunal was death by firing squad. Raúl Gómez Treto, senior legal advisor to the Cuban Ministry of Justice, has argued that removing restrictions on the death penalty were justified in order to prevent citizens themselves from taking justice into their own hands, as happened twenty years earlier in the anti-Machado rebellion. Many of those sentenced to death by the tribunals were accused of gouging out eyes and other physical atrocities towards Batista's opponents. Moreover, with 20,000 Cubans estimated to have been killed at the hands of Batista's accomplices, and a survey at the time showing 93% public approval for the tribunal process, the newly empowered Cuban government along with Guevara concurred with the public's "lynching mood." Although the exact numbers differ, it is estimated that several hundred people were executed during this time.

Conflicting views exist of Guevara's delight towards the executions at La Cabaña. Some exiled opposition biographers report that he relished the rituals of the firing squad, and organized them with gusto. What is acknowledged by all sides is that Guevara had become a "hardened" man, who had no qualms about the death penalty or summary and collective trials. If the only way to "defend the revolution was to execute its enemies, he would not be swayed by humanitarian or political arguments."

On June 12, 1959, as soon as Guevara returned to Havana, Castro sent him out on a three-month tour of 14 countries, most of them Bandung Pact members in Africa and Asia. Sending Guevara from Havana allowed Castro to appear to be distancing himself from Che and his Marxist sympathies, that troubled both the United States and some of Castro's 26th of July Movement members. He spent 12 days in Japan (July 15–27), participating in negotiations aimed at expanding Cuba's trade relations with that nation. During this visit, Guevara secretly visited the city of Hiroshima, where the American military had detonated an atom-bomb 14 years earlier. Guevara was "really shocked" at what he witnessed and by his visit to a hospital where A-bomb survivors were being treated.

Upon returning to Cuba in September 1959, it was evident that Castro now had more political power. The government had begun land seizures included in the agrarian reform law, but was hedging on compensation offers to landowners, instead offering low interest "bonds", which put the U.S. on alert. At this point the affected wealthy cattlemen of Camagüey mounted a campaign against the land redistributions, and enlisted the newly disaffected rebel leader Huber Matos, who along with the anti-Communist wing of the 26th of July Movement, joined them in denouncing the "Communist encroachment." During this time Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo was offering assistance to the "Anti-Communist Legion of the Caribbean" who was training in the Dominican Republic. This multi-national force comprised mostly of Spaniards and Cubans, but also of Croatians, Germans, Greeks, and right-wing mercenaries, were plotting to topple Castro.

These developments prompted Castro to further clean house of "counter-revolutionaries", and appoint Guevara as Director of the Industrialization Department of the National Institute of Agrarian Reform on October 7, 1959 and as President of the National Bank of Cuba on November 26, 1959. This allowed him to retain his military rank.

On March 4, 1960, the French freighter La Coubre, carrying munitions from the port of Antwerp, exploded twice while being unloaded in Havana Harbor, killing well over 100 people. Guevara provided first aid to victims. It was at the memorial service for the victims of this explosion the following day that Alberto Korda took the famous photograph now known as Guerrillero Heroico.

Guevara desired to see a diversification in Cuba's economy, as well as an elimination of material incentives in favor of moral ones. He viewed capitalism as a "contest among wolves" where "one can only win at the cost of others," and thus desired to see the creation of a "new man and woman". An integral part of fostering a sense of "unity between the individual and the mass", Guevara believed, was volunteer work and will. To display this, Guevara "led by example", working "endlessly at his ministry job, in construction, and even cutting sugar cane" on his day off. He was known for working 36 hours at a stretch, calling meetings after midnight, and eating on the run. Alongside his work schedule he wrote several publications advocating a replication of the Cuban revolutionary model, promoting small rural guerrilla groups (foco theory) as an alternative to massive armed insurrection. During this time his wife Aleida encouraged him to explore classical music, which he came to love, with Beethoven as his favorite. Other luxuries which he afforded himself were maté, his favorite beverage, and Montecristo No. 4's, his cigar of choice.

Guevara did not participate in the fighting of the 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion, having been ordered by Castro to a secretly prearranged command post in Cuba's western Pinar del Río province, where he fended off a decoy force. During this deployment, he suffered a bullet grazing to the cheek when his pistol fell out of its holster and accidentally discharged.

In August 1961, during an economic conference of the Organization of American States in Punta del Este, Uruguay, Che Guevara sent a note of "gratitude" to U.S. President John F. Kennedy through Richard N. Goodwin, a young secretary of the White House. It read "Thanks for Playa Girón (Bay of Pigs). Before the invasion, the revolution was shaky. Now it's stronger than ever." In response to U.S. Treasury Secretary Douglas Dillon presenting the Alliance for Progress for ratification by the meeting, Guevara antagonistically attacked the United States claim of being a "democracy", stating that such a system was not compatible with "financial oligarchy, discrimination against blacks, and outrages by the Ku Klux Klan." Guevara continued, speaking out against the "persecution" that in his view "drove scientists like Oppenheimer from their posts, deprived the world for years of the marvelous voice of Paul Robeson, and sent the Rosenbergs to their deaths against the protests of a shocked world."

Guevara, who was practically the architect of the Soviet-Cuban relationship, played a key role in bringing to Cuba the Soviet nuclear-armed ballistic missiles that precipitated the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962 and brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. During an interview with the British Communist newspaper The Daily Worker a few weeks after the crisis, Guevara still fuming over the perceived Soviet betrayal, stated that if the missiles had been under Cuban control, they would have fired them off. Sam Russell, the British correspondent who spoke to Guevara at the time came away with "mixed feelings", calling him "a warm character" and "clearly a man of great intelligence", but "crackers from the way he went on about the missiles."

In 1965, Guevara decided to venture to Africa and offer his knowledge and experience as a guerrilla to the ongoing conflict in the Congo. According to Algerian President Ahmed Ben Bella, Guevara thought that Africa was imperialism's weak link and therefore had enormous revolutionary potential. Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, who had fraternal relations with Che dating back to his 1959 visit, saw Guevara's plans to fight in the Congo as "unwise" and warned that he would become a "Tarzan" figure, doomed to failure. Despite the warning, Guevara led the Cuban operation in support of the Marxist Simba movement, which had emerged from the ongoing Congo Crisis. Guevara, his second-in-command Victor Dreke, and 12 other Cuban expeditionaries arrived in the Congo on April 24, 1965 and a contingent of approximately 100 Afro-Cubans joined them soon afterward. They collaborated for a time with guerrilla leader Laurent-Désiré Kabila, who had previously helped supporters of the slain Patrice Lumumba lead an unsuccessful revolt months earlier. Disillusioned with the discipline of Kabila's troops, Guevara dismissed him, stating "nothing leads me to believe he is the man of the hour."

South African mercenaries, led by Mike Hoare in concert with Cuban exiles and the CIA, worked with the Congo National Army to thwart Guevara. They were able to monitor his communications, and so pre-empted his attacks and interdicted his supply lines. Despite the fact that Guevara sought to conceal his presence in the Congo, the U.S. government was aware of his location and activities: The National Security Agency was intercepting all of his incoming and outgoing transmissions via equipment aboard the USNS Pvt Jose F. Valdez (T-AG-169), a floating listening post that continuously cruised the Indian Ocean off Dar es Salaam for that purpose.

Guevara's aim was to export the revolution by instructing local anti-Mobutu Simba fighters in Marxist ideology and foco theory strategies of guerrilla warfare. In his Congo Diary, he cites the incompetence, intransigence and infighting of the local Congolese forces as key reasons for the revolt's failure. Later that year, ill with dysentery, suffering from acute asthma, and disheartened after seven months of frustrations, Guevara left the Congo with the Cuban survivors. (Six members of his column had died.) At one point Guevara considered sending the wounded back to Cuba, and fighting in Congo alone until his death, as a revolutionary example; however, after being urged by his comrades and pressed by two emissaries sent by Castro, at the last moment he reluctantly agreed to retreat. A few weeks later, when writing the preface to the diary he kept during the Congo venture, he began: "This is the history of a failure."

Guevara was reluctant to return to Cuba, because Castro had made public Guevara's "farewell letter" — a letter intended to only be revealed in the case of his death — wherein he severed all ties in order to devote himself to revolution throughout the world. As a result, Guevara spent the next six months living clandestinely in Dar es Salaam and Prague. During this time he compiled his memoirs of the Congo experience, and wrote drafts of two more books, one on philosophy and the other on economics. He then visited several Western European countries to test his new false identity papers, created by Cuban Intelligence for his later travels to South America. As Guevara prepared for Bolivia, he wrote a last letter to his five children to be read upon his death, which ended with him instructing them:

"Above all, always be capable of feeling deeply any injustice committed against anyone, anywhere in the world. This is the most beautiful quality in a revolutionary."

MARIA CORAZON "Cory" SUMULONG COJUANGCO AQUINO

2009-08-11T05:56:00.000-07:00

Maria Corazon "Cory" Sumulong Cojuangco Aquino (January 25, 1933 – August 1, 2009) was the 11th President of the Philippines and the "Mother of Democracy", serving from 1986 to 1992. She was the first female president of the Philippines and the first female president of any country in Asia.

A self-proclaimed "plain housewife", Aquino was married to Senator Benigno Aquino, Jr. (born 1932 – died 1983), a leading figure in the political opposition against the autocratic rule of President Ferdinand Marcos. After her husband was assassinated upon his return from exile in the United States on August 21, 1983, Aquino, who had no prior political experience, became a focal point and unifying force of the opposition against Marcos. She was drafted to run against Marcos in the 1986 snap presidential elections. After Marcos was proclaimed the winner despite widespread reports of electoral fraud, Aquino was installed as President by the peaceful 1986 People Power Revolution.

Aquino's presidency saw the restoration of democratic institutions in the Philippines, through the enactment of a new Constitution which limited the powers of the presidency, restored the bicameral Congress, and renewed emphasis on civil liberties. Her administration was likewise hampered by several military coup attempts by disaffected members of the Philippine military which derailed a return to full political stability and economic development. After suffering from colon cancer she died on August 1, 2009 due to cardiorespiratory arrest.

Maria Corazon Sumulong Cojuangco was born to Jose Cojuangco of Tarlac and Demetria Sumulong of Antipolo, Rizal. She was the sixth of eight children in what was considered to be one of the richest Chinese-Mestizo families in the Philippines, in Tarlac. Her ancestry was one-eighth Tagalog from her maternal side, one-eighth Kapampangan and one-fourth Spanish from her paternal side, and half-Chinese from both maternal and paternal sides.

She was sent to St. Scholastica's College in Manila where she finished grade school as class valedictorian in 1943. In 1946, she enrolled for a year in high school at the Assumption Convent in Manila. Later, she was sent to the United States to study in Kuba at the Ravenhill Academy in Philadelphia, the Notre Dame Convent School in New York, and the College of Mount Saint Vincent, also in New York. Meanwhile, she worked as a volunteer in the 1948 United States presidential campaign of Republican Thomas Dewey against President Harry Truman. She studied Liberal Arts and graduated in 1953 with a Bachelor of Arts in French Language, with a minor in Mathematics. She intended to become a math teacher and a language interpreter.

Aquino returned to the Philippines to study law at the Far Eastern University, owned by the family of the late Nicanor Reyes, Sr., who had been the father-in-law of her older sister Josephine. She gave up her law studies when in 1954, she married Benigno Servillano "Ninoy" Aquino, Jr., the son of a former Speaker of the National Assembly. They had five children together: a son, Benigno Simeon "Noynoy" Aquino III, who was elected to the Philippine Senate in 2007, and four daughters, Maria Elena "Ballsy" A. Cruz, Aurora Corazon "Pinky" A. Abellada, Victoria Eliza "Viel" A. Dee, and actress-television host Kristina Bernadette A. Yap. Aquino had initial difficulty adjusting to provincial life when she and her husband moved to Concepcion, Tarlac, in 1955, after he was elected the town's mayor at the age of 22. The American-educated Aquino found herself bored in Concepcion, and welcomed the opportunity to have dinner with her husband inside the American military facility at nearby Clark Field.

A member of the Liberal Party, Aquino's husband rose to be governor of Tarlac, and was elected to the Philippine Senate in 1967. During her husband's political career, Aquino remained a housewife who helped raise the children and played hostess to her spouse's political allies who would frequent their Quezon City home. She would decline to join her husband on stage during campaign rallies, preferring instead to stand at the back of the audience and listen to him. Nonetheless, she was consulted upon on political matters by her husband, who valued her judgments enormously.

Benigno Aquino soon emerged as a leading critic of the government of President Ferdinand Marcos of the Nacionalista Party, and there was wide speculation that he would run in the 1973 presidential elections, Marcos then being term limited. However, Marcos declared martial law on September 21, 1972, and later abolished the 1935 Constitution, allowing him to remain in office. Aquino's husband was among those arrested at the onset of martial law, later being sentenced to death. During his incarceration, Aquino drew strength from prayer, attending daily mass and saying three rosaries a day. As a measure of sacrifice, she enjoined her children from attending parties, and she herself stopped going to the beauty salon or buying new clothes, until a priest advised her and her children to instead live as normal lives as possible.

In 1978, despite her initial opposition, Aquino's imprisoned husband decided to run the 1978 Batasang Pambansa elections. Aquino campaigned in behalf of her imprisoned husband and for the first time in her life, delivered a political speech, though she willingly relinquished having to speak in public when it emerged that her six-year old daughter Kris was more than willing to speak on stage.

In 1980, upon the intervention of United States President Jimmy Carter, Marcos allowed Senator Aquino and his family to leave for exile in the United States, where he sought medical treatment. The family settled in Boston, and Aquino would later call the next three years as the happiest days of her marriage. He returned without his family to the Philippines on August 21, 1983, only to be assassinated on a staircase leading to the tarmac of the Manila International Airport, which was later renamed in his honor. Corazon Aquino returned to the Philippines a few days later and led her husband's funeral rites, where more than two million people were estimated to have participated, the biggest funeral ever in Philippine history.

Aquino participated in many of the mass actions that were staged in the two years following the assassination of her husband. In the last week of November 1985, Marcos unexpectedly announced a snap presidential election to be held in February 1986. Initially, Senator Salvador Laurel of Batangas, the son of a former president, was seen as the favorite presidential candidate of the opposition, under the United Nationalists Democratic Organizations. However, business tycoon Don Joaquin "Chino" Roces was not convinced that Laurel could defeat Marcos in the polls. Roces initiated the Cory Aquino for President Movement to gather one million signatures in one week for Aquino to run as president.

Aquino was reluctant at first to run for presidency, despite pleas that she was the one candidate who could unite the opposition against Marcos. She eventually was convinced following a ten-hour meditation session at a Catholic convent. Laurel did not immediately accede to calls for him to give way to Aquino, and offered her the vice-presidential slot under his UNIDO party. Aquino instead offered to give up her affiliation with her husband's political party, the Lakas ng Bayan (LABAN), which had just merged with Partido Demokratiko Pilipino, and run under the UNIDO banner with Laurel sliding down to the vice-presidential slot. Laurel gave way to Aquino to run as President and ran as her running-mate under UNIDO as the main political umbrella of the opposition.

In the succeeding political campaign, Marcos charged that Aquino was being supported by communists and agreed to share power with them, to which she responded that she would not appoint one to her cabinet. Marcos also accused Aquino of playing "political football" with the United States with respect to the continued United States military presence in the Philippines at Clark Air Base and Subic Naval Base. Marcos also derided Aquino as "just a woman" whose place was in the bedroom.

The elections held on February 7, 1986 were marred by the intimidation and mass disenfranchisement of voters. Election day itself and the days immediately after were marred by violence, including the murder of one of Aquino's top allies, Antique governor Evelio Javier. While the official tally of the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) consistently showed Marcos in the lead, the unofficial tally of the National Movement for Free Elections indicated that Aquino was leading. Despite the job walkout of 30 COMELEC computer technicians alleging election-rigging in favor of Marcos, the Batasang Pambansa, controlled by Marcos allies, ratified the official count and proclaimed Marcos the winner on February 15, 1986. The country's Catholic bishops and the United States Senate condemned the election, and Aquino called for a general strike and a boycott of business enterprises controlled by Marcos allies. She also rejected a power-sharing agreement proposed by the American diplomat Philip Habib, who had been sent as an emissary by U.S. President Ronald Reagan to help defuse the tension.

The relatively peaceful manner by which Aquino assumed the presidency through the EDSA Revolution won her widespread international acclaim as an icon of democracy. She was selected as Time magazine's Woman of the Year in 1986. She was also nominated to receive the Nobel Peace Prize but lost to Elie Wiesel also in 1986. In September 1986, Aquino delivered a speech before a joint session of the United States Congress which was interrupted by applause several times, and which then U.S. House Speaker Tip O'Neill hailed as "the finest speech I've ever heard in my 34 years in Congress." Above the din of cheering officials, Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole said to Mrs. Aquino, "Cory, you hit a home run." Without missing a beat, Aquino smiled and shot back: "I hope the bases were loaded."

The six-year administration of President Aquino saw the enactment of a new Philippine Constitution and several significant legal reforms, including a new agrarian reform law. While her allies maintained a majority in both houses of Congress, she faced considerable opposition from communist insurgency and right-wing soldiers who instituted several coup attempts against her government. Her government also dealt with several major natural disasters that struck the Philippines, as well as a severe power crisis that hampered the Philippine economy. It was also during her administration that the presence of United States military bases in the Philippines came to an end.

One month after assuming the presidency, Aquino issued Proclamation No. 3, which proclaimed her government as a revolutionary government. She suspended the 1973 Constitution installed during martial law, and promulgated a provisional “Freedom Constitution” pending the enactment of a new Constitution. She likewise closed the Batasang Pambansa and reorganized the membership of the Supreme Court. In May 1986, the reorganized Supreme Court declared the Aquino government as “not merely a de facto government but in fact and law a de jure government”, whose legitimacy had been affirmed by the community of nations.

Aquino appointed 48 members of a Constitutional Commission tasked with drafting a new Constitution. The commission, which was chaired by retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Cecilia Muñoz-Palma completed its final draft in October 1986 The 1987 Constitution was approved in a national plebiscite in February 1987. Both the “Freedom Constitution” and the 1987 Constitution authorized President Aquino to exercise legislative power until such time a new Congress was organized. She continued to exercise such powers until the new Congress organized under the 1987 Constitution convened in July 1987. Within that period, Aquino promulgated two legal codes that set forth significant legal reforms—the Family Code of 1987, which reformed the civil law on family relations, and the Administrative Code of 1987, which reorganized the structure of the executive branch of government.

However, as President instead of repudiating debts incurred by the former regime or repudiating the debts through selective debt repudiation Mrs. Aquino chose to honor the debts to the detriment of the country. In 1991, Aquino signed into law the Local Government Code partly written by Aquilino Pimentel, which further devolved national government powers to local government units. The new Code enhanced the power of local government units to enact local taxation measures, and assured them of a share of the national internal revenue.

On July 22, 1987, Aquino issued Presidential Proclamation 131 and Executive Order 229, which outlined the President’s land reform program, and expanded land reform to sugar lands. Her agrarian reform policy was enacted into law by the 8th Congress of the Philippines, which in 1988 passed Republic Act No. 6657, also known as “The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law”. The law authorized the redistribution of agricultural lands to tenant-farmers from landowners, who were paid in exchange by the government just compensation and allowed to retain not more than five hectares of land. Corporate landowners were also allowed under the law to “voluntarily divest a proportion of their capital stock, equity or participation in favor of their workers or other qualified beneficiaries”, in lieu of turning over their land to the government for redistribution. The Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the law in 1989, characterizing the agrarian reform policy as “a revolutionary kind of expropriation.”

Prior to signing CARP a large farmer's group under Jimmy Tadeo tried desperately to air their grievances to the government. Among their grievances was the desire of peasants and farmers to acquire the land being tilled by them. However, instead of holding a dialogue with Heherson Alvarez, the group marched to Mendiola; as the group of farmers tried to breach the line of the police, several Marines fired, killing around 12 of the marchers and injuring 39. This caused Ka Pepe Diokno and several members of the Aquino government to resign.

Controversies eventually centered on the landholdings of Aquino, who inherited from her parents the 6,453-hectare large Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac, which was owned through the Tarlac Development Company. Opting for the stock distribution option under the agrarian reform law, Tarlac Development Company established Hacienda Luisita, Incorporated (HLI) in order to effect the distribution of stocks to the farmer-tenants of the hacienda. Ownership of the agricultural portions of the hacienda were transferred to the new corporation, which in turn distributed its shares of stocks to the farmers. The arrangement withstood until 2006, when the Department of Agrarian Reform revoked the stock distribution scheme implemented in Hacienda Luisita, and ordered instead the redistribution of a large portion of the property to the tenant-farmers. The Department had stepped into the controversy when in 2004, violence erupted over the retrenchment of workers in the Hacienda, eventually leaving seven people dead.

From 1986 to 1989, Aquino was confronted with a series of attempts at military interventions by some members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, aimed at the overthrow of the Aquino government. Most of these attempts were instigated by the Reform the Armed Forces Movement (RAM), a group of middle-ranking officers closely linked with Defense Secretary Juan Ponce Enrile. Soldiers loyal to former President Marcos were likewise involved in some of these attempts. The first five of the attempts were either crushed before they were put in operation, or repelled with minimal or no violence. The sixth attempt, staged on August 28, 1987, left 53 people dead and over 200 wounded, including Aquino's son, Noynoy. The seventh and final attempt, which occurred throughout the first week of December, 1989, ended with 99 dead (including 50 civilians) and 570 wounded.

The coup attempts would collectively impair the Aquino government, even though it survived, as it indicated political instability, an unruly military, and diminished the confidence of foreign investors in the Philippine economy. The 1989 coup alone resulted in combined financial losses of between 800 million to 1 billion pesos.

The November 1986 and August 1987 coup plots would also lead to significant reorganizations within the Aquino government. Given the apparent involvement of Defense Secretary Enrile in the November 1986 plot, a fact which was reaffirmed by the Davide Commission Report, Aquino fired him on November 22, 1986, and likewise announced an overall Cabinet revamp, "to give the government a chance to start all over again." The revamp would lead to the dismissal of Labor Secretary Augusto Sanchez, a perceived leftist, which was believed to be a compromise measure in light of a key rebel demand to cleanse the Cabinet of left-leaning members. Following the August 1987 coup attempt, the Aquino government was seen to have veered to the right, dismissing perceived left-leaning officials such as Executive Secretary Joker Arroyo and tacitly authorizing the establishment of armed quasi-military groups to combat the communist insurgency. It was also believed that General Fidel Ramos, who remained loyal to Aquino, emerged as the second most powerful person in government following his successful quelling of the coup. Across-the-board wage increases for soldiers were also granted.

Aquino herself would sue Philippine Star columnist Louie Beltran and publisher Maximo Soliven for libel after Beltran wrote that the President had hid under her bed during the August 1987 coup as the siege of Malacañang began.

The Aquino administration faced a series of natural disasters during its last two years in office. The 1990 Luzon earthquake left around 1,600 dead, with around a thousand of the fatalities in Baguio City. The 1991 eruption of the long-dormant Mount Pinatubo was the second largest terrestrial eruption of the 20th century, killing around 300 people and causing widespread long-term devastation of agricultural lands in Central Luzon. The worst loss of life occurred when Tropical Storm Thelma (also known as Typhoon Uring) caused massive flooding in Ormoc City in November 1991, leaving around 6,000 dead in what was the deadliest typhoon in Philippine history.

It was during the term of Corazon Aquino that brownouts became sporadic and many of households during that time bought generators. Complaints were made against Napocor which was headed by Aboitiz who also owns shares in a firm making generators. It was also during Aquino's term that the MV Doña Paz sank, which is the World's worst peace-time maritime disaster of the 20th century. The disaster occurred in December 1987 which killed more than 1,700 people.

After leaving the presidency, Aquino received several awards and citations. In 1994, Aquino was cited as one of 100 Women Who Shaped World History in a reference book written by Gail Meyer Rolka and published by Bluewood Books in San Francisco, California. In 1996, she received the J. William Fulbright Prize for International Understanding from the Fulbright Association, joining past recipients such as Jimmy Carter and Nelson Mandela. In August 1999, Aquino was chosen by Time Magazine as one of the 20 Most Influential Asians of the 20th century. The same magazine cited her in November 2006 as one of 65 great Asian Heroes, along with Mahatma Gandhi, Deng Xiaoping, Aung San Suu Kyi, Lee Kuan Yew, and King Bhumibol Adulyadej. In January 2008, the Europe-based A Different View selected Aquino as one of the 15 Champions of World Democracy, alongside Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jr., Lech Wałęsa, and Vaclav Havel.

In 2002, Aquino became the first woman named to the Board of Governors of the Board of the Asian Institute of Management, a leading graduate business school and think tank in the Asia Pacific region. She served on the Board until 2006.

THE NEW NISSAN NUVU THE CAR OF THE FUTURE

2008-12-16T04:38:00.001-08:00

Nissan's Nuvu concept (think "New View") is Nissan's vision for the type of car we'll be driving in cities by the middle of next decade. Although it is an electric car, Nissan says the Nuvu is not the electric car the company recently announced it will sell in the U.S. and Japan in 2010. The Nuvu does carry some technology destined for the production vehicle.

As befitting a proper city car, the Nuvu is small: about a foot longer than a Smart Fortwo. A unique 2+1 seating arrangement allows for a third passenger when needed, or the seat can be folded down. Unlike many city cars, the Nuvu has enough luggage capacity for a proper supermarket run.

Of note, the Nuvu's roof has 12 small leaf-shaped solar panels, which charge the battery via a "tree-trunk" within the car. And to further emphasize the Nuvu's "green-ness," the cabin makes use of natural, organic and recycled materials.

"Nuvu is a concept car, for sure, but it is an entirely credible vehicle," says Francois Bancon, the general manager of Nissan's Exploratory and Advanced Planning Department.

THE 2009 LAMBORGHINI GALLARDO LP 560-4 SPYDER

2008-12-01T06:49:00.000-08:00

The year 2009 has another thing to offer. The world debut of the 2009 Lamborghini Gallardo LP 560-4 Spyder at the Los Angeles Auto Show is designed to build on the success of the coupe version, which was launched in early 2008.

According to Lamborghini president and CEO Stephan Winkelmann, "With the Spyder, we are now unveiling a car that is quite simply a new dimension of the latest Gallardo range."

Underpinning the car is the same mechanical package of the coupe — a brawny V-10 engine that produces 560 bhp, delivered to all four wheels. In addition to delivering 40 more horsepower than the previous-generation Gallardo, the new generation model is also lighter, further improving the car's power-to-weight ratio. The drivetrain includes Lamborghini's e.gear automated manual that has an automatic mode or can be shifted manually via steering wheel-mounted paddles. Improvements to the e.gear transmission have reduced shift times by 40 percent.

Lamborghini claims a 0–100 km/h (62mph) acceleration of just 4.0 seconds and 0–200 km/h (124 mph) in 13.1. Top speed is listed at 201 mph.

Unlike the trend toward retractable hardtops, the Gallardo LP 540-4 Spyder employs a soft top that when in place, nicely integrates with the lines of the car. Although the styling is similar to the coupe's, the Spyder looks slightly more aggressive and muscular thanks to its more prominent haunches that house the convertible mechanism. The power top takes just 20 seconds to open or close. One unique feature of the top: The backlight functions as a wind blocker when the roof is stowed.

MY ZENNI EYEGLASSES IS MY BEST BUDDY

2008-11-17T15:19:00.000-08:00

Working in a trial court can be very tiring and stressful, especially there are so many paperworks and documents to be read. Good thing I am using a good prescription eyeglasses. Zenni Optical offers wide range of affordable and quality assured eyeglasses. It is indeed a Great Eyeglasses For Less. What makes Zenni Optical the preferred brand is that the Variable Dimension frames From Zenni makes the eyeglasses more fashionable and trendy, unlike other brands. Zenni Optical was on Fox News! See more eyeglasses when you visit their site at www.zennioptical.com now.

Zenni On Fox see more.

NICOLE KIDMAN AND KEITH URBAN IN THE GLAMOUR 2008 WOMEN AWARD NIGHT

2008-11-12T06:11:00.000-08:00

What more can I say about this lovely couple. Nicole Kidman is as ever beautiful in picture and in person. Along with her is Keith Urban. They were considered the most well dressed couple of the night. Simplicity really move mountains.

KATE BECKINSALE REFUSES TO LET GO HER DESSERT

2008-11-10T06:47:00.000-08:00

Kate Beckinsale proves her point when she decided not to let go of her dessert cake. I think it is the right decision after all. Who wants to get thin and being fat is being healthy. kate Beckinsale should monitor her food intake because she might get fat unnoticed.

PIGGERY SEARCH

2008-09-27T05:54:00.000-07:00

In this time, people should be smart enough and must have a business. That is why me and my friend went to a place where we want to have a small business. We are thinking of starting to have a small piggery. That is why we went to this place where we talked to someone who could help us achieve or dream piggery business.

The place was quite far and the road is unconventional. We have to cross a small stream or a river just to reach the place. The person that we wanted to talk to was the father of our co-employee who has the experience in taking care and growing of pigs. The place was dark and electricity is still non-existing in the place. I saw the pens and it were still in condition but the problem was that the location has no running water, especially clean one. Right there I can see that the place is not conducive to start a piggery since the basic elements are not there. besides Jerry's father declined to our offer.

After chatting for a awhile and talking about our plan, it was time to leave the location. We have to walk through huge stones and running water just to climb the upper area for our ride. Well we didn't get want we were looking for but still we are confident that we will be able to find a location suitable for our business.

TODAYS HOTJOBS

2008-09-26T07:44:00.001-07:00

What's on employer wish lists? Based on the latest job-offer facts and findings, the most in-demand bachelor's degrees may surprise you, or even have you reconsider your chosen field of study.

The following list highlights the top five in-demand bachelor's degrees according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) Spring 2008 Salary Survey, with starting salaries. Job descriptions are based on details provided by the Bureau of Labor and Statistics.

1. Mechanical Engineering ($57,821)

Mechanical engineers are curious about how things operate. Professionals in this broad discipline research, design, develop, and test tools, machines, and mechanical devices. Along with a knack for science and math, engineers need strong oral and written communication skills.

While most entry-level mechanical engineering positions require a bachelor's degree, continuing education is critical -- protecting engineers from potential layoffs or cutbacks.

Job outlook: As more engineers retire, and many professionals transfer to managerial positions, job opportunities are good.

2. Accounting ($47,429)

For those who delight in number crunching, a bachelor's degree in accounting can lead to occupations in financial and investment planning, budget analysis, tax preparation, bookkeeping, payroll services, and auditing. Opportunities are often best for CPAs, MBAs, or professionals proficient with accounting software.

Accountants ensure that a firm is run efficiently and records are kept accurately. Expect long hours -- especially around tax season.

Job outlook: Thanks to retirees and a faster-than-average job growth due to new business and changing financial laws and regulations, accountants can enjoy favorable job opportunities.

3. Finance ($48,616)

Financial analysts and personal financial advisors gather and analyze financials and provide investment guidance to businesses and individuals. They must feel comfortable with money markets, tax laws, and the workings of the economy, and have good communication skills to explain complex strategies and concepts.

A bachelor's degree will get your foot in the door, but additional certifications or an MBA is a plus. Many finance professionals opt to open their own business; almost a third of personal financial advisors are self-employed.

Job outlook: Personal financial advisors are projected to be among the 10 fastest-growing occupations. Though job growth is strong across the board, competition is still keen for finance positions.

4. Business Administration/Management ($44,195)

Business administration professionals may work as contract administrators, facility managers, or administrative services managers in the private industry and government, where they keep offices running efficiently, conducting records management to administration to telecommunications to support services.

Leadership and communication skills are as valuable as flexibility, and being detail-oriented, and decisive. Experience can get business administration professionals promoted in smaller organizations, while formal education credentials -- including advanced degrees -- are beneficial to advancement in larger organizations.

Job outlook: Jobs are projected to grow as quickly as average among all occupations. Competition for top-level business administration management jobs will be high while more opportunities will exist for lower-level management jobs and facility managers.

5. Civil Engineering ($50,940)

Civil engineering is considered one of the oldest engineering disciplines, attracting those who are analytical by nature. Civil engineers design and supervise the construction of highways and byways -- from roads and bridges to tunnels and dams -- and work in fields such as water resources and structural concerns.

These professionals must simultaneously be inquisitive, detail-oriented, and interested in the big picture. In their designs, civil engineers must consider potential environmental hazards, construction costs, and government regulations that can affect their creations. Bachelor's degrees are required for most entry-level jobs and continuing education is critical as new technologies emerge.

Job outlook: Employment growth for civil engineers is expected to move at a pace that is faster than the average for all occupations.

Elizabeth Weiss McGolerick is a freelance writer and editor specializing in features on education, relationships, parenting, and health. Her work has appeared on MSN, AOL, and Yahoo! HotJobs, and she is a regular contributor to ClassesUSA.

THINGS THAT YOU MUST DO TO YOUR COMPUTER

2008-09-25T15:01:00.000-07:00

Your home computer is prone to damage as any other machine in your house, more, if you are connected to the Internet. You must take measures and learn some basic home computer repair methods to safeguard your computer against any potential damage. Here are the top-most important tools that serve as home computer protection as well as home computer repair methods:

• Anti-virus: You should invest in good anti-virus software for continuous online protection. To help with home computer repair, anti-virus software provides fixes for latest viruses and guards against spamming and phishing. You should update the anti-virus package periodically. The most popular ones include BitDefender, McAfee, Kaspersky Lab, F-Secure, Symantec Norton, and Panda. A typical package will cost you $30 to S50. Some basic anti-virus packages are also available for free.

• Anti-spyware/Anti-adware: Spyware and adware prove a menace when it comes to the performance of your computer. As a home computer repair and protection method, scan your computer using an anti-spyware, anti-adware package like Ad-Aware and Spybot Search & Destroy. These packages are available for free online.

• Operating System and Program Update/ Specific Computer Manufacture's Update: Updating your computer periodically with critical and recommended updates goes a long way in protecting your home computer against damages and rectifying non-functional devices.

• Firewalls: Your operating system may provide you with a firewall by default. You should install a personal firewall if your computer does not have one. A firewall acts as a filter, protecting your computer from malicious content from the Internet. Some popular firewalls include McAfee, Norton, and Zone Alarm. Some firewalls like Kerio are also available for free.

• Disk Defragmentation and Disk Cleanup: These tools come built-in with your computer and serve as important home computer repair methods. These tools help free up space on your computer. You should run these tools periodically.

• Error-checking utility: The computer provides another built-in home computer repair utility called the Error-checking utility. It checks the hard disk for bad sectors and tries to recover them.

• Back up and Recovery: A very dependable method for home computer repair is system restore. You should create restore points on your computer so that in case of any damage, you can restore your computer to a previously secure checkpoint. Also, to avoid losing any important data in case of a system damage or failure, it is a good idea to back up your data periodically.

NAOMI WATTS PREGANANT AND LOOKING GOOD

2008-09-25T07:05:00.000-07:00

Just four months after giving birth, Jessica Alba, was flaunting her fabulous figure in a white hot bikini. Jessica Alba and husband Cash Warren soak in the sun with their daughter Honor Marie, almost 4 months, in Los Cabos, Mexico on Tuesday. She was very visible to the public when she was saw walking and wearing a jeans short.

JESSICA ALBA SHOW HER BODY WEARING WHITE BIKINI

2008-09-25T07:03:00.000-07:00

Just four months after giving birth, Jessica Alba, was flaunting her fabulous figure in a white hot bikini. Jessica Alba and husband Cash Warren soak in the sun with their daughter Honor Marie, almost 4 months, in Los Cabos, Mexico on Tuesday. She may have a son already but Jessica is still one hot property that men should not miss.

ALEXA TOOL FOR YOUR BLOG

2008-09-25T06:56:00.001-07:00

# Download the Alexa toolbar and surf your own site.
# Have a few friends download the Alexa Toolbar and surf your site.
# Shift the focus of your site toward a more webmaster like theme.
# Participate in many webmaster forums which allow you to place your site in your signature.
# Write articles about webmaster topics and distribute them around the web.
# Optimize pages of your site for Alexa and related phrases.
# Buy ads on search engines to increase your traffic. Your Alexa traffic rankings will increase.
# Write an article with tips on how to increase your Alexa rankings.
# Advertise that article on the world's largest network.
# Join an autosurf network which exchanges Alexa credits. <--- this actually exists and they sell off some of the credits. The problem is that those are credits. They are not real visitors. They are not what you need.

Direct Hit failed as a search engine because it based a large portion of its algorithm on web traffic. Alexa ranking is highly inaccurate and easy to manipulate.

DANCING QUEEN IS BRITNEY SPEARS

2008-09-23T10:26:00.001-07:00

She’s pulling out all the stops for her latest comeback attempt, and last night Britney Spears was spotted on her way home from yet another dance rehearsal.

The MTV VMA award-winner looked sporty in a pink tank top underneath an orange zip-up hoodie teamed with a pair of black velour pants and white athletic sneakers.

HILARY DUFF DRESSES WELL IN ALL OCCASIONS.

2008-09-23T10:24:00.000-07:00

Enjoying the last day of summer with a shopping excursion, Hilary Duff was spotted combing the racks at The Americana at The Brand in Glendale, California on Sunday.

The “Foodfight!” actress dressed casually in a white tank top with black leggings, as she also sported a scarf despite the warm temperatures.

THINGS THAT YOU SHOULD NOW BEFORE DRIVING

2008-09-22T19:31:00.000-07:00

#1-crumple zones-A mainstay in todays automobiles, this is the harmonic flow of numerous body panels and brackets that absorb the energy normally associated with a crash. Parts like the hood, bumper and fenders are engineered to crumple like an accordion, therefore taking the brunt in any accidental situations.

#2-Wraparound Headlights-Just like its name implies, it's a one piece headlight design that integrates the low beam, high beam, and turn signals. The headlights wrap around from the front or back of the car to the sides. Not only are the halogen headlights brighter and wider with the use of reflective cuts in the chamber, but folks driving along our blind spots can easily know our lane changing intentions. As a result, causing less accidents.

#3-Breakaway Motor Mounts-These mounts attach the engine to the frame of the car. They're not noticeable, but the life saving impact is huge. In a front impact collision, they're specifically designed to break the engine away from the frame and with the forward motion, will make the engine slide underneath the car at a 45 degree angle. Making it less likely to have an engine sitting in your lap when the crash comes to a halt.

#4-steel belted radials-It's pretty obvious, our tires are very important safety features, it is what keeps the car on the road. Tires are built with steel fibers built right in, how do they help? Well, motorists will have the peace of mind that their tires will hold up in even the most extreme conditions. Those belts will also give these tires a longer lasting life span. Less maintenance in the long run.

#5-ventilated disc brakes-Equally important as the tires are, disc brakes stop the car. Brakes are constructed of a rotor, pads, and calipers for short. The rotors are engineered with internal vanes, to help vent out the heat. And this will help defend against fade and making it less likely to repair the brakes often.

#6-Side Impact Door Beams-Like the crumple zones, this aids in absorbing energy in a side impact collision. They are steel intrusion beams built inside the door for extra reinforcement. Every car and truck have these.

#7-Laminated Windshield-This might be important, it is the very object that keeps bugs out of our teeth, and the rain out of our hair. The windshield is made up of two pieces of tempered glass with a laminate sheet in between. This is a glass sandwich that holds together well when sharp or heavy objects smash into it. There's no shattering or large pieces of glass flying about.

#8-Tempered Safety Glass-The other glass that gives us 360 degrees of protection is also designed with safety in mind. Automotive glass is heat tempered, so that when it breaks, it shatters into a multitude of small cubes. The small cubes won't cut or injure the occupants.

#9-Child Safety Door Locks-As this name indicates, they are small locks in the inside door jams of the rear two doors(4 door sedan or suv only). Lock them up and the little guys in the back seat can't unlock and pull the inside door handles while we are driving.

#10-5 mph bumpers-I would classify this as a safety item for the car itself. In the event a driver lightly hits a lightpole, grocery cart, etc. at 5mph or under, it is unlikely there will be any major structural damage. These days, the government mandated limit to follow is 2.5 mph, most automakers have the 5 mph variety.

#11-Center High Mounted Brake Light-It's actually just a 3rd brake light mounted higher than the two main brake lights, and most autos have them. They're main purpose is to make drivers behind the motorist aware of their braking intentions, normally cars 6-10 back can see this clearly.

#12-Safety Cage Construction-Think of a built in rollcage, it's the main exo-skeletal feature that provides the most protection. In every accidental situation, this protects 360 degrees. We can even literally turn a car or truck upside down on its roof, the cage will support 1.5x it's own weight. There's nothing more important.

WHAT TO DO WHEN YOUR COMPUTER CRASHES

2008-09-22T14:30:00.000-07:00

One of the most annoying problems a PC users faces in computer crashes. This problem is particularly frustrated because it severely interrupts all programs running and collapses the entire system. Windows Vista is Microsoft most powerful and stable operating system. However, like all new software its not complete and filed with bugs. This is a formula that will cause innumerable computer crashes. But, computer crashes are not always the fault of your operating system. The user shares a large amount of blame. Poorly maintained PCs can build up damaging corrupt files and coding errors. Also dust particles can clog fans and produce heat. All these are elements that will eventually lead to computer crashes. This articles hope to give you enough information to avoid future problems and repair current ones.

The Top 4 Reasons For Computer Crashes.

#1 Cause of Computer Crashes: TOO HOT

Problem: Computer components are more powerful than ever. A piece of silicon hardware can produce an enormous amount of heat. However, your computer is usually configured to manage perfectly regardless of high temperatures. When dust is added to your hard ware, it creates an form of insulation that traps heat instead of ventilating it properly. This is the most common cause of computer crashes. If you see your computer fan clogged with cake like dust, you have created an environment for constant computer crashes due to overheating.

Solution: Remove the computer case and use a can of compressed air to blow out all the dust in the case. Make sure to completely clean the fan. Be careful not to dislodge an wires or components during the process.

#2 Cause of Computer Crashes: Bad Drivers

Problem: Computer crashes are often caused by system drivers not functioning properly. The driver provides a link between your software and hardware. If your operating system can not communicate with the hardware it shuts down and re-attempts attempt to contact the driver during the start up process.

Solution: Updating the driver or troubleshooting it may eliminate this problem. Check your device drivers for any errors which are indicated by an yellow exclamation mark or an X. Follow the below instructions to evaluate the driver:

1.Click "Start"

2.Click "Control Panel"

3.Click "System"

4.In the System menu, click the "hardware" tab

5.Click Device Manager to bring up a full list of

hardware drivers.

6.Right click and choose "Properties" to evaluate the status and troubleshoot the hardware device.

In Vista you can reach the the device manager the following method:

1.Click "Start"

2.Click "Control Panel"

3.Click "Hardware and Sound"

4.Click "Device Manager"

#3 Cause for Computer Crashes

Problem: Bad Power Supply

Most people are completely unaware that their computer has an internal power supply. The Power Supply Unit (PSU) problems are usually indicated by your PC inability to boot or use RAM. Int this case, pressing the power button produces only able to get a blank or blue screen. When the power supply goes bad, your RAM and graphic card begin to malfunction. The final result is your computer crashes when Windows demands a large amount of power.

Solution: PSU are very easy to replace. If you are a gamer who puts high demands on your system with large amount of RAM and high powered graphics cards, you should definitely upgrade to bigger power supply unit.

#4 Corrupt Files

Problem: Many programs, especially ones with online access have encoding problems. Not to mention malware which is purposely coded to disrupt your system. They leave broken foot prints in many areas of your PC memory. However, once these programs are disengaged or removed from your computer, it leaves the error filled tags which also are known as corrupt files. Dlls, Direct Link Library, are files that are shared by multiple programs and are especially sensitive to damage. If one rogue programs damages a dll file, registry file or any essential process, it can cause computer crashes.

Solution: You can repair these files if you are in possession of your original Windows CD. Both XP and Vista offer a wonderful scan and repair tool that can usually repair your disrupted system and stops computer crashes.

How to use Window's SFC Scan and Repair command:

1.Click Start

2. Right Click the Command Prompt or type cmd

3. Type sfc/scannow

4. The tool will scan for damaged files. When prompted provide the Windows original disk for repair.

Remember that computer crashes are not random occurrences. There is a source for this fatal error. You just have to pin point and discover the cause. Remember to always update drivers when install new hardware or any resources intensive software. Show your PC love and care by cleaning it's external and internal parts.

SPYWARE REMOVAL MADE EASY.

2008-09-22T10:29:00.000-07:00

Spyware removal is a tedious but necessary chore. At best, spyware slows down your computer and brings up those annoying popup windows. At worst, spyware can monitor your activities on your computer without your knowing, steal vital information from your computer such as passwords and bank account numbers, and even crash your computer. Thus, the removal of spyware, no matter how laborious and time-consuming, is a very important task.

Free Tools for Spyware Removal

To get rid of the spyware plaguing your computer system, you would need to get your hands on software that does spyware removal. If you can afford to buy software for spyware removal, there are a lot of proprietary programs available in the market that can do the job for you.

But if you are not willing to spend money on software, there are also plenty of spyware removal programs that you can download for free from various reliable websites. Some are demo versions of proprietary spyware removal software, while others are free for home use.

Whether you choose to invest on spyware removal software or opt to download free spyware removal tools, there are three programs that you must get in order to rid your computer completely of such malware. These programs are a spyware scanner, an antivirus program and a registry cleaner. The spyware scanner removes the obvious spyware while the antivirus program will get rid of the viruses included in the spyware. The registry cleaner will dredge out the malicious code hiding within your Windows registry.

The Proper Way of Spyware Removal

Below is a step-by-step guide in spyware removal:

Install the spyware removal software that you have bought or downloaded for free - the spyware scanner, the antivirus and the registry cleaner. Once installed, disconnect your computer from the Internet and then run the scan for a first pass.

Once the first pass is done, reboot your computer, run it on safe mode, and do a second pass. Sometimes, spyware include resuscitators that will keep them from being completely wiped out of your system. By running only the essential applications on your computer on safe mode, you can be sure that these resuscitators will not be able to stop your spyware removal software from doing their work.

After the second pass, restart your computer and let it run normally. Check your Internet browser if the malicious websites that were the source of your spyware managed to include themselves in your list of trusted websites.

To prevent spyware from infesting your computer again, set your spyware removal software to do regular runs. Your antivirus software and spyware scanner should be running while you are using your computer to block all incoming malware. As for your registry scanner, you can run it once or twice a month to delete all malicious code hiding in your registry.

A STORY TO TELL

2008-09-20T09:14:00.000-07:00

This is one story that I would like to share to you all. A simple kindness means a lot to others. I got this nice story in the book Ripples of Joy. I hope you like it. CLICK HERE read the story.

NEW FURNITURE LOOKS GOOD

2008-09-19T09:01:00.001-07:00

Many of my friends told me that I need to get a new furniture because the furniture that I am using is quite old already and considering it was originally from my grandparents handed to me. Well, I guess they are right. I think it is about time to have a new furniture.

A friend of mine who owns a furniture shop was kind enough to help me find that perfect furniture. he told me the available items in his furniture shop and the type of wood used in the furniture. After several hours of looking around, I found the right furniture.

The furniture was made of mahogany. It has 2 small chairs and the large chair can accommodate around 5 persons. It is really big and spacious kind of furniture chair. I am planning to have a party in my house and I am sure the new furniture would be eye catching to all of my friends.

THE STATUE OF DAVID

2008-09-19T09:01:00.000-07:00

Tonight, I was with my office friends. we dined together and after that we proceeded to the Bay walk. The bay walk is a 5000 sqm property that has been reclaimed. The reclamation site is situated at Times Beach. The place is now a prime destination, especially at night. The air is fresh and the wind is cold. The splash of the waves are like sounds in an orchestra playing a symphony. But the main attraction in the baywalk area is the stadning high Statue of David. This statue was build to serve as a landmark in the area. The statue has vacummed many controversies, especially in the local city hall. Some councilors consider this statue as an immoral figure in the area. Since it is near a motel, Queensland Hotel, the place where lovers would spend the night to express the greatest love for their partner. The Bay Walk park has a free admission to all. You can take pictures and dine at the nearby resto bar.

PETRA NEMCOVA LOOKING SEXY EVEN WHEN TIRED

2008-09-18T08:13:00.001-07:00

I think this is one of the first times, if not the only time, that I’ve seen Petra Nemcova looking a little worn out. Here she is at the “An Evening of Dreams with Somaly Mam” fundraiser with (gasp!) dark circles around her eyes. Now, having said that, she’s still hotter than 99%. She is one of the pretty faces in the movie industry today.

ASHLEY TISDALE PAYS TRIBUTE TO PINK FLOYD

2008-09-18T08:13:00.000-07:00

Out for a stroll and enjoying the beautiful weather, Ashley Tisdale was spotted leaving a studio in Universal City, California yesterday.

The “Suite Life of Zack and Cody” babe looked sexy and stylish in a silver waistcoat overtop a black Pink Floyd t-shirt (commemorating the death of Richard Wright on Monday) with sandblasted jeans and black shoes.

U.S.A. FINANCIAL CRISIS

2008-09-17T23:39:00.000-07:00

The US economy has suffered the worst since 1930's. Read more news about the current financial condition of USA by just clicking USA FINANCIAL CRISIS.

BE A MILLIONAIRE IN AN INSTANT

2008-09-15T14:11:00.000-07:00

So, you want to be a millionaire.

It's a big goal, and for most people there are only four options to make it happen. You can inherit money, win money, save money or earn money.

In other words, you can inherit money from a rich relative, win the lottery, save for most of your life, or earn a million in your own business.

Inherit Money

This one is pretty straightforward. You either come from money or you don't. Movies are full of stories about people inheriting millions unexpectedly from long-lost relatives, but don't count on it. Even if you do have rich relatives, you could wait years and years before the millions become your own.

Bottom Line: It's not your money, so don't waste your life waiting for it.

Win the Lottery

The odds of winning the lottery in a single state lottery are about 18 million to one. Looking to win one of the multi-state Mega-Millions? Your odds of winning jump as high as 120 million to 1.

Your odds of being struck by lightening are about 2.65 million to one. You are 6 to 45 times more likely to be struck by lightening than to strike it rich on your next lottery ticket.

Bottom Line: Buying that lottery ticket is about as productive for your financial future as striking a match to that dollar and watching it burn.

Save Money

Finally, a guaranteed way to become a millionaire! If you discipline yourself to save and safely invest 10% of your income from the time you are 18, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that you will have accumulated at least a million dollars by the time you are ready to retire at 65.

That means you need to be sensible and practical your entire life. No splurge spending on your dream car, or vacations in paradise. After all you are saving for your future!

Saving for your future is a great habit. But most of us just don't have the self-discipline to be successful at it. Personally, I would rather earn money fast so I don't have to sacrifice to save. I want to spend money on things that make my current life rewarding. Patience has never been one of my strong suits. If you can make the save and invest method happen, I applaud you.

Bottom Line: You can become a millionaire by saving wisely. But life is not guaranteed. How do you know you will be around to benefit from all your scrimping and saving?

Start Your Own Business

As far as I'm concerned, this is really your own option. The first three methods are either out of your control, or take so long that it may not be worth the wait. Generating extra income through your own business gives you the best odds of success.

Owning your own business gives you control over your income. Your success is solely dependent on your efforts. You don't have to be dependent on your boss for your next raise, fate to give you the winning ticket, decades of time to earn interest and dividends, or death to take away a family member.

Owning your own business also gives you the opportunity to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on ineffective marketing programs, training materials, and overhead expenses. If you have dabbled in business ownership at all, you know that running a business can cost big bucks, too.

Bottom Line: The best guarantee of generating income in a business is finding a product or service that people want to buy. Forget all that feel good fluff about "finding something you love". Get rolling by starting something that is tried and true, find someone experienced to help you along, and be willing to work.

Becoming a millionaire is a big goal. But there are more millionaires now than at any other time in history. If millionaire status is your dream, there is absolutely no reason why you can't achieve it.

At the same time, positive mental attitude and luck does not create millionaires. You have to have a plan and work your plan in order to make your dream a reality. Most importantly, expect that you will make mistakes, have to backtrack, and sometimes even have to start over.

Start researching your options now. Your best bet is to find a business you can start part-time. Keeping your day job limits your financial risk. Give yourself time to start making sales and generating income. If you don't need the business income to survive, you can invest everything back into your business at the beginning. This will give your business extra capital to grow more quickly.

It all starts with your vision. If you want it bad enough, and are willing to do more than want and dream, your vision can become your reality. Earning extra income is not dependent on luck or being born into the right family. You need to be willing to do whatever it takes, and stop settling for less.

Set aside just one hour a day to work on your business. I challenge you to schedule one hour each day as your Millionaire Hour. Start with research, but as soon as possible, find a product or service you can market, and start selling! Quit dreaming about being a millionaire, and start doing.

Where will you be one year from today if you have invested 365 hours into starting and running your own business? In five years, you would have worked a total of 1825 hours in your business, simply by spending just one hour a day, or seven hours each week on your business rather than the next prime time TV show.

Or, you can keep dreaming and keep on buying next week's lottery ticket.....

WEBHOSTING

2008-09-15T10:09:00.000-07:00

A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to provide their own websites accessible via the World Wide Web. Web hosts are companies that provide space on a server they own for use by their clients as well as providing Internet connectivity, typically in a data center. Web hosts can also provide data center space and connectivity to the Internet for servers they do not own to be located in their data center, called colocation.

The scopes of hosting services vary widely. The most basic is webpage and small-scale file hosting, where files can be uploaded via File Transfer Protocol (FTP) or a Web interface. The files are usually delivered to the Web "as is" or with little processing. Many Internet service providers (ISPs) offer this service free to their subscribers. People can also obtain Web page hosting from other, alternative service providers. Personal web site hosting is typically free, advertisement-sponsored, or cheap. Business web site hosting often has a higher expense.

Single page hosting is generally sufficient only for personal web pages. A complex site calls for a more comprehensive package that provides database support and application development platforms (e.g. PHP, Java, Ruby on Rails, and ASP.NET). These facilities allow the customers to write or install scripts for applications like forums and content management. For e-commerce, SSL is also required.

The host may also provide an interface or control panel for managing the Web server and installing scripts as well as other services like e-mail. Some hosts specialize in certain software or services (e.g. e-commerce). They are commonly used by larger companies to outsource network infrastructure to a hosting company. To find a web hosting company, there are searchable directories that can be used. One must be extremely careful when searching for a new company because many of the people promoting service providers are actually affiliates and the reviews are biased.

Hosting uptime refers to the percentage of time the host is accessible via the internet. Many providers state that they aim for a 99.9% uptime, but there may be server restarts and planned (or unplanned) maintenance in any hosting environment.

A common claim from the popular hosting providers is '99% or 99.9% server uptime' but this often refers only to a server being powered on and doesn't account for network downtime. Real downtime can potentially be larger than the percentage guaranteed by the provider. Many providers tie uptime, and accessibility, into their own Service Level Agreement, or SLA. SLAs may or may not include refunds, or reduced costs if performance goals are not met.

Internet hosting services can run Web servers; see Internet hosting services.

Hosting services limited to the Web:

* Free web hosting service: is free, (sometimes) advertisement-supported web hosting, and is often limited when compared to paid hosting.
* Shared web hosting service: one's Web site is placed on the same server as many other sites, ranging from a few to hundreds or thousands. Typically, all domains may share a common pool of server resources, such as RAM and the CPU. A shared website may be hosted with a reseller.
* Reseller web hosting: allows clients to become web hosts themselves. Resellers could function, for individual domains, under any combination of these listed types of hosting, depending on who they are affiliated with as a provider. Resellers' accounts may vary tremendously in size: they may have their own virtual dedicated server to a colocated server.
* Virtual Dedicated Server: dividing a server into virtual servers, where each user feels like they're on their own dedicated server, but they're actually sharing a server with many other users. The users may have root access to their own virtual space. This is also known as a virtual private server or VPS.
* Dedicated hosting service: the user gets his or her own Web server and gains full control over it (root access for Linux/administrator access for Windows); however, the user typically does not own the server. Another type of Dedicated hosting is Self-Managed or Unmanaged. This is usually the least expensive for Dedicated plans. The user has full administrative access to the box, which means the client is responsible for the security and maintenance of his own dedicated box.
* Managed hosting service: the user gets his or her own Web server but is not allowed full control over it (root access for Linux/administrator access for Windows); however, they are allowed to manage their data via FTP or other remote management tools. The user is disallowed full control so that the provider can guarantee quality of service by not allowing the user to modify the server or potentially create configuration problems. The user typically does not own the server. The server is leased to the client.
* Colocation web hosting service: similar to the dedicated web hosting service, but the user owns the colo server; the hosting company provides physical space that the server takes up and takes care of the server. This is the most powerful and expensive type of the web hosting service. In most cases, the colocation provider may provide little to no support directly for their client's machine, providing only the electrical, Internet access, and storage facilities for the server. In most cases for colo, the client would have his own administrator visit the data center on site to do any hardware upgrades or changes.
* Clustered hosting: having multiple servers hosting the same content for better resource utilization.
* Grid hosting : this form of distributed hosting is when a server cluster acts like a grid and is composed of multiple nodes.
* Home server: usually a single machine placed in a private residence can be used to host one or more websites from a usually consumer-grade broadband connection. These can be purpose-built machines or more commonly old PC's.

Some ISP's actively attempt to block these servers by disallowing incoming requests to TCP port 80 of the user's connection and by refusing to provide static IP addresses.

Some specific types of hosting provided by web host service providers:

* File hosting service: hosts not web pages but files
* Image hosting service
* Video hosting service
* Blog hosting service
* One-click hosting
* Shopping cart software

Web hosting is often provided as part of a general Internet access plan; there are many free and paid providers offering these services.

A customer needs to evaluate the requirements of the application to choose what kind of hosting to use. Such considerations include database server software, scripting software, and operating system. Most hosting providers provide Linux-based web hosting which offers a wide range of different software. A typical configuration for a Linux server is the LAMP platform: Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP/Perl/Python. The webhosting client may want to have other services, such as email for their business domain, databases or multi-media services for streaming media. A customer may also choose Windows for its hosting platform. The customer still can choose from PHP, Perl, and Python but may also use ASP .Net or Classic ASP.

Web hosting packages often include a Web Content Management System, so the end-user doesn't have to worry about the more technical aspects.

One may also search the Internet to find active webhosting message boards that may provide feedback on what type of webhosting company may suit his/her needs.

WATER THERAPY

2008-09-14T06:04:00.000-07:00

WATER ON EMPTY STOMACH

It is popular in Japan today to drink water immediately after waking up every morning. Furthermore, scientific tests have proven a its value. We publish below a description of use of water for our readers. For old and serious diseases as well as modern illnesses the water
treatment had been found successful by a Japanese medical society as a 100% cure for the following diseases:

Headache, body ache, heart system, arthritis, fast heart beat, epilepsy, excess fatness, bronchitis asthma, TB, meningitis, kidney and urine diseases, vomiting, gastritis, diarrhea, piles, diabetes, constipation, all eye diseases, womb, cancer and menstrual disorders, ear nose and throat diseases.

METHOD OF TREATMENT

1. As you wake up in the morning before brushing teeth, drink 4 x 160ml glasses of water.

2. Brush and clean the mouth but do not eat or drink anything for 45 minute.

3. After 45 minutes you may eat and drink as normal.

4. After 15 minutes of breakfast, lunch and dinner do not eat or drink anything for 2 hours.

5. Those who are old or sick and are unable to drink 4 glasses of water at the beginning may commence by taking little water and gradually increase it to 4 glasses per day.

6. The above method of treatment will cure diseases of the sick and others can enjoy a healthy life.

The following list gives the number of days of
treatment required to
cure/control/ reduce main diseases:

1. High Blood Pressure - 30 days

2. Gastric - 10 days

3. Diabetes - 30 days

4. Constipation - 10 days

5. Cancer - 180 days

6. TB - 90 days

7. Arthritis patients should follow the above treatment only for 3 days in the 1st week, and from 2nd week onwards - daily.

This treatment method has no side effects, however at the commencement of treatment you may have to urinate a few times. It is better if we continue this and make this procedure as a routine work in our life.

Drink Water and Stay healthy and Active.

This makes sense .. The Chinese and Japanese drink hot tea with their meals ..not cold water. Maybe it is time we adopt their drinking habit while eating!!! Nothing to lose, everything to gain...For those who like to drink cold water, this article is applicable to you.

It is nice to have a cup of cold drink after a meal. However, the cold water will solidify the oily stuff that you have just consumed. It will slow down the digestion.

Once this "sludge" reacts with the acid, it will break down and be absorbed by the intestine faster than the solid food. It will line the intestine. Very soon, this will turn into fats and lead to cancer. It is best to drink hot soup or warm water after a meal.

A serious note about heart attacks: Women should know that not every heart attack symptom is going to be the left arm hurting. Be aware of intense pain in the jaw line. You may never have the first chest pain during the course of a heart attack.

Nausea and intense sweating are also common symptoms.

60% of people who have a heart attack while they are asleep do not wake up. Pain in the jaw can wake you from a sound sleep. Let's be careful and be aware. The more we know, the better chance we could survive...

A cardiologist says if everyone who gets this article shares it to everyone they know, you can be sure that we'll save at least one life.

KARAOKE WITH FRIENDS

2008-09-13T08:58:00.000-07:00

Me and my friends went videoke singing. This is our first time we have gathered since our graduation day. First in our agenda was a dinner at Greenhills Sea Food House. The last time i was in this restaurant was in 2005. I was really surprised that the price of their food had increased from 99 to 128. The foods that were cooked where below what I was expecting from them. I would say it was really below par. Next in our agenda was to look for our place for singing. We rented a single room that offers videoke. At 100 pesos an hour it was worth the amount after all. We decided to go separate ways after the second hour. I went straight home riding a taxi. We will have another gathering soon. It will be no going home until morning comes!

CONSTANT IMPROVING YOUR BLOG

2008-09-12T22:28:00.000-07:00

Comment at related blogs - This is probably the biggest thing you can do to improve and promote your blog. It is very simple. Just make comments on other blogs that are related to yours. When you make a comment, it is standard to leave your name and URL. If you leave a relevant comment, maybe even with some free advice, other readers will visit your blog to see what you are all about.

Write a weekly "best of" post - It is fairly simple to do. Make a weekly post that spotlights the best posts that you have read on other peoples blogs. By linking directly to the post, you create trackback links on other blogs and this will result in new readers to your blog. This is sort of works like a backwards blog comment.

Be sure to link - A very important persona of your blog is the links that you provide. The more link outs you have the more your readers perceive it as more authoritative and valuable. It also shows that you are not trying to hide something and also show that you put credit where credit is due.

Improve your blog's look - Why use the same templates and designs that many other blogs are using? Use a design that is totally different than everyone else and people will remember "that cool looking blog" that they had seen earlier and come back to it. If you can not find a unique template or don't know how to change your design, consider outsourcing to have it done.

Know your readers - Just because you have a blog, don't put yourself on a pedestal above everyone else. Get to know your visitors by responding to their comments, become friends with them and in return they will spread the word about you and your blog.

Create reader friendly content - Make sure that your content speaks to all of your potential audience. Make it entertaining and interesting for all to read. You want your content to be shared, if it reads like a tech manual, readers are going to give up on it let alone share it.

Remember that blogging is supposed to be fun, for you and your readers. I hope this will help you improve your blog and take it to the next level.

KATHERINE MCPHEE IS SHOWING HER ASSETS

2008-09-12T09:44:00.000-07:00

Katharine McPhee may be known for her singing and her killer legs (at least around here she is), but what you may not know is that she could also drop some serious cleavage when she wants to. Here she is arriving at the Moet & Chandon Spring fashion show and dropping everyone’s jaw with her breast.

SPAMMERS BEWARE

2008-09-12T09:26:00.000-07:00

In the society that we live in today people now class all unsolicited email as spam. This includes automatic replies, emails containing viruses and unwanted but legitimate business propositions.

Spam is nearly as old as the Internet and many believe that the problem of spam will never really go away as spammers are becoming increasingly difficult to stop. They are also finding more and more ways of delivering spam mail around the Internet.

One thing that many of us never really understand is how spammers get our email addresses in the first place. One of the main ways in which this is done is through spammers using computers to check almost every page of websites on the Internet looking for the '@' symbol. If the symbol is found the spammer knows that it is an email address and then simply adds your email address to their database so that when the spammer sends out an automated spam message everyone who is on the database will receive it.

Spammers get your email address without you even realising it. The way in which you can reduce the chance of this happening is to ensure that you don't place your email address on pages across the Internet; however if you need to do this for example for customers of your business to get in touch with you or if someone has requested your email address you should make it accessible to them by replacing the @ symbol, i.e. name[at]domain[dot]com. Spammer programmes will not be able to pick this up as an email address and you will still be able to place your email address on webpage's.

Another way in which spammers are able to get a hold of your email address is if your email address is sorted on someone's computer who gets a virus. Spam virus takes advantage of an infected computer and sends spam emails to all the addresses sorted within that PC. These spam emails do not get sent from the email address of the infected computer owner; they are sent from a fake, spam email address.

If you are finding that you are getting spam messages there are certain steps that you can take to reduce the amount of spam that you receiving, as well as getting a spam blocker/filter you should always remember to never reply to the spam email and never un-subscribe. Many people think that if they request to be taken off a 'mailing' list that they won't receive any more spam emails. This is in fact opposite of what actually happens. If you request to un-subscribe the only thing that you are doing is verifying to a spammer that your email account is valid and they will simply send you more spam mail as they think that you are reading them.

The best reaction to take to spam mail is no reaction. You should never interact with a spammer in anyway as they will just send you more spam emails. To tackle spam messages you should invest in an anti-spam software and let that take care of the spam for you.

THE PILOT EPISODE

2008-09-11T06:58:00.000-07:00

In the first five minutes of this show, viewers are treated to a visual definition of the phrase "fish out of water."

I generally don't like any comedy that starts out with the the main character losing everything and starting her life all over again. In a drama, it kind of works that the hero has to go from town to town searching for something she lost. In a comedy, it just means that we'll be spending the next half hour watching the hero say things like, "What did I get myself into?"

NICOLE KIDMAN AND HUSBAND, KEITH URBAN OUTING IN LONDON

2008-09-11T00:51:00.000-07:00

Making their first public appearance since she gave birth to baby Sunday Rose in July, Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban spent Monday night at the National Movie Awards in London.

Wearing a gem-encrusted shift minidress from the Prada Resort collection, Nicole was on-hand as she presented the award for Best Musical to the Abba flick “Mamma Mia” at the glitzy ceremony.

HOW LOVE SHOULD BE SPELLED

2008-09-09T17:35:00.000-07:00

When Joey was 5 years old, his kindergarten teacher told the class to draw a picture of something that they love. Joey drew a picture of his family, and then he took his red crayon and drew a big circle around the stick figures on his paper. Joey wanted to write a word on top of the circle, so he got up from his chair and approached the teacher’s desk.

“Teacher,” he asked, “how do you spell----?”

But before he could finish his question, the teacher told him to go back to his seat and not interrupt the class again. Joey folded the paper and stuck it in his pocket.

When Joey got home from school that day, he remembered his drawing and dug it out of his pocket. He smoothed it out on the kitchen table, got a pencil from his backpack, and looked at the big red circle. Joey’s mother was busy cooking supper, but Joey wanted to finish the picture before he showed to her.

“Mom, how do you spell----?”
“Joey, can’t you see I am busy right now? Why don’t you go outside and play? And don’t slam the door,” she told him.

Joey folded the drawing and stuck it back in his pocket. Later that evening Joey dug the picture out from his pocket again. He looked at the big red circle and then ran into the kitchen to get a pencil. He wanted to finish the drawing before he showed it to his father. Joey smoothed out all the wrinkles and laid the picture on the floor near his dad’s big recliner.

“Daddy, how do you spell----?”
“Joey I’m reading the paper right now, and I don’t want to be bothered. Why don’t you go outside and play? And don’t slam the door.”

Joey folded the drawing and put it in his pocket. His mom found the drawing the next morning while she was doing the laundry. She threw it in the trash without ever opening it, along with a small rock, a piece of string, and two marbles Joey had found while he was outside playing.

When Joey was twenty-eight years old, his daughter Annie drew a picture. It was a picture of their family. Joey laughed when five-year-old Annie pointed to a squiggle stick figure and said, “That’s you daddy!”

Annie laughed too. Joey looked at the big rd circle his daughter had drawn around the stick figures and began to slowly trace the circle with his finger.

“I’ll be right back,” Annie said as she jumped off her father’s lap. When she came back she had a pencil clutched in her small hand. Her father moved the drawing aside to make room on his lap for his small daughter.

Annie positioned the pencil point near the top of the big red circle. “Daddy, how do you spell LOVE?” she asked.

Joey gathered the child in his arms and guided her small hand as he helped her form the letters.

“Love is spelled T-I-M-E,” he told her.

THE CAREGIVER

2008-09-09T09:33:00.000-07:00

I am a caregiver. My forty-year-old husband, David, has a little known genetic disease called Huntington’s disease. He can do almost nothing for himself.

I can tell you that caregivers experience a wide range of emotions, depending on the largely upon the person whom we are caring. Lately, I have to admit; I’ve been feeling there’s really no reward for what I am doing.
David has difficulty feeding for himself, and swallowing is accomplished only with great deal of effort. One day, with more food landing on his shirt than in his mouth, David and I were going through the usual “ change the shirt” game.
“David lift up your arms,” I pleaded. And then, “if you do, we can go and have ice cream.”

David’s garbled speech made his response to my urging impossible to comprehend. I did figure out, however, that he had no intention of lifting his arms or cooperating as I changed his shirt.

I felt myself tense up, and I sighed in frustration. I didn’t need this today. Try as I would, I simply couldn’t understand what he was saying. And we weren’t moving any near our goal-getting him into a clean shirt.

‘David,” I finally said, “my job is to feed you, make sure you take your medications, and help your doctors and nurses. Your job is to help me help you. You need to lift your arms, please.”

With an endearing smile so like that of the man I had married before the ravages of Huntington’s disease took him away, David said, “No. My job is to say ‘I love you’ in as clear voice as possible.”

Care giving is not something I would ever choose to do. Imagine most people would not choose what is usually an almost thankless job-especially without pay. Still, there are rewards. Remembering David’s smile and his comment about his “job” is a nice memory I can pull out on days when things get really tough. We all have our Jobs, and David’s job is to say, “I love you.”

David, I love you too.

MORE FROM PLAYBOY MAGAZINE

2008-09-08T10:34:00.000-07:00

Partying it up Playboy-style on Saturday night, National Lampoon threw a big shindig at the Playboy Mansion in Beverly Hills called A Night of Fantasy with The Girls Next Door & Ludacris.

With Holly Madison, Bridget Marquardt and Kendra Wilkinson leading the way, party-goers included everyone from Ludacris, Tom Green, Bai Ling and Lorenz Tate to Katie Lohmann and George Clooney’s ex, Sarah Larson.

UNDERSTANDING PEOPLE WITH PROSTATE CANCER

2008-09-08T10:28:00.000-07:00

Prostate cancer is a disease in which cancer develops in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system. It occurs when cells of the prostate mutate and begin to multiply out of control. These cells may spread (metastasize) from the prostate to other parts of the body, especially the bones and lymph nodes. Prostate cancer may cause pain, difficulty in urinating, erectile dysfunction and other symptoms.

Rates of prostate cancer vary widely across the world. Although the rates vary widely between countries, it is least common in South and East Asia, more common in Europe, and most common in the United States. According to the American Cancer Society, prostate cancer is least common among Asian men and most common among black men, with figures for white men in-between. However, these high rates may be affected by increasing rates of detection.

Prostate cancer develops most frequently in men over fifty. This cancer can occur only in men, as the prostate is exclusively of the male reproductive tract. It is the most common type of cancer in men in the United States, where it is responsible for more male deaths than any other cancer, except lung cancer. In the UK it is also the second most common cause of cancer death after lung cancer. Around 35,000 men in the UK are diagnosed per year; where around 10,000 die of it. However, many men who develop prostate cancer never have symptoms, undergo no therapy, and eventually die of other causes. That is because malignant neoplasms of the prostate are, in most cases, slow-growing, and because most of those affected are very old. Hence they often die of causes unrelated to the prostate cancer, such as heart/circulatory disease, pneumonia, other unconnected cancers or old age. Many factors, including genetics and diet, have been implicated in the development of prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer is most often discovered by physical examination or by screening blood tests, such as the PSA (prostate specific antigen) test. There is some current concern about the accuracy of the PSA test and its usefulness. Suspected prostate cancer is typically confirmed by removing a piece of the prostate (biopsy) and examining it under a microscope. Further tests, such as X-rays and bone scans, may be performed to determine whether prostate cancer has spread.

Prostate cancer can be treated with surgery, radiation therapy, hormonal therapy, occasionally chemotherapy, proton therapy, or some combination of these. The age and underlying health of the man as well as the extent of spread, appearance under the microscope, and response of the cancer to initial treatment are important in determining the outcome of the disease. Since prostate cancer is a disease of older men, many will die of other causes before a slowly advancing prostate cancer can spread or cause symptoms. This makes treatment selection difficult. The decision whether or not to treat localized prostate cancer (a tumor that is contained within the prostate) with curative intent is a patient trade-off between the expected beneficial and harmful effects in terms of patient survival and quality of life.

The prostate is a part of the male reproductive organ which helps make and store seminal fluid. In adult men a typical prostate is about three centimeters long and weighs about twenty grams. It is located in the pelvis, under the urinary bladder and in front of the rectum. The prostate surrounds part of the urethra, the tube that carries urine from the bladder during urination and semen during ejaculation. Because of its location, prostate diseases often affect urination, ejaculation, and rarely defecation. The prostate contains many small glands which make about twenty percent of the fluid constituting semen. In prostate cancer the cells of these prostate glands mutate into cancer cells. The prostate glands require male hormones, known as androgens, to work properly. Androgens include testosterone, which is made in the testes; dehydroepiandrosterone, made in the adrenal glands; and dihydrotestosterone, which is converted from testosterone within the prostate itself. Androgens are also responsible for secondary sex characteristics such as facial hair and increased muscle mass.

Early prostate cancer usually causes no symptoms. Often it is diagnosed during the workup for an elevated PSA noticed during a routine checkup. Sometimes, however, prostate cancer does cause symptoms, often similar to those of diseases such as benign prostatic hypertrophy. These include frequent urination, increased urination at night, difficulty starting and maintaining a steady stream of urine, blood in the urine, and painful urination. Prostate cancer is associated with urinary disfunction as the prostate gland surrounds the prostatic urethra. Changes within the gland therefore directly affect urinary function. Prostate cancer may also cause problems with sexual function, such as difficulty achieving erection or painful ejaculation. The Vas deferens deposits seminal fluid into the prostatic urethra and secretions from the prostate gland itself are included in semen content, which is why Prosate Cancer can affect sexual performance and cause painful ejaculation.

Advanced prostate cancer can spread to other parts of the body and this may cause additional symptoms. The most common symptom being bone pain, often in vertebrae (bones of the spine), pelvis or ribs. Spread of Cancer into other bones such as the femur is usually to the proximal part of the bone. Prostate cancer in the spine can also compress the spinal cord, causing leg weakness and urinary and fecal incontinence.

Prostate cancer is classified as an adenocarcinoma, or glandular cancer, that begins when normal semen-secreting prostate gland cells mutate into cancer cells. The region of prostate gland where the adenocarcinoma is most common is the peripheral zone. Initially, small clumps of cancer cells remain confined to otherwise normal prostate glands, a condition known as carcinoma in situ or prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia (PIN). Although there is no proof that PIN is a cancer precursor, it is closely associated with cancer. Over time these cancer cells begin to multiply and spread to the surrounding prostate tissue (the stroma) forming a tumor. Eventually, the tumor may grow large enough to invade nearby organs such as the seminal vesicles or the rectum, or the tumor cells may develop the ability to travel in the bloodstream and lymphatic system. Prostate cancer is considered a malignant tumor because it is a mass of cells which can invade other parts of the body. This invasion of other organs is called metastasis. Prostate cancer most commonly metastasizes to the bones, lymph nodes, rectum, and bladder.

The specific causes of prostate cancer remain unknown. A man's risk of developing prostate cancer is related to his age, genetics, race, diet, lifestyle, medications, and other factors. The primary risk factor is age. Prostate cancer is uncommon in men less than 45, but becomes more common with advancing age. The average age at the time of diagnosis is 70. However, many men never know they have prostate cancer. Autopsy studies of Chinese, German, Israeli, Jamaican, Swedish, and Ugandan men who died of other causes have found prostate cancer in thirty percent of men in their 50s, and in eighty percent of men in their 70s.In the year 2005 in the United States, there were an estimated 230,000 new cases of prostate cancer and 30,000 deaths due to prostate cancer.

A man's genetic background contributes to his risk of developing prostate cancer. This is suggested by an increased incidence of prostate cancer found in certain racial groups, in identical twins of men with prostate cancer, and in men with certain genes. In the United States, prostate cancer more commonly affects black men than white or Hispanic men, and is also more deadly in black men. Men who have a brother or father with prostate cancer have twice the usual risk of developing prostate cancer. Studies of twins in Scandinavia suggest that forty percent of prostate cancer risk can be explained by inherited factors. However, no single gene is responsible for prostate cancer; many different genes have been implicated. Two genes (BRCA1 and BRCA2) that are important risk factors for ovarian cancer and breast cancer in women have also been implicated in prostate cancer.

Dietary amounts of certain foods, vitamins, and minerals can contribute to prostate cancer risk. Men with higher serum levels of the short-chain ?-6 fatty acid linoleic acid have higher rates of prostate cancer. However, the same series of studies showed that men with elevated levels of long-chain ?-3 (EPA and DHA) had lowered incidence. A long-term study reports that "blood levels of trans fatty acids, in particular trans fats resulting from the hydrogenation of vegetable oils, are associated with an increased prostate cancer risk." Other dietary factors that may increase prostate cancer risk include low intake of vitamin E (Vitamin E is found in green, leafy vegetables), omega-3 fatty acids (found in fatty fishes like salmon), and the mineral selenium. A study in 2007 cast doubt on the effectiveness of lycopene (found in tomatoes) in reducing the risk of prostate cancer. Lower blood levels of vitamin D also may increase the risk of developing prostate cancer. This may be linked to lower exposure to ultraviolet (UV) light, since UV light exposure can increase vitamin D in the body.

There are also some links between prostate cancer and medications, medical procedures, and medical conditions. Daily use of anti-inflammatory medicines such as aspirin, ibuprofen, or naproxen may decrease prostate cancer risk. Use of the cholesterol-lowering drugs known as the statins may also decrease prostate cancer risk. More frequent ejaculation also may decrease a man's risk of prostate cancer. One study showed that men who ejaculated five times a week in their 20s had a decreased rate of prostate cancer, though others have shown no benefit. Infection or inflammation of the prostate (prostatitis) may increase the chance for prostate cancer. In particular, infection with the sexually transmitted infections chlamydia, gonorrhea, or syphilis seems to increase risk. Finally, obesity and elevated blood levels of testosterone may increase the risk for prostate cancer.

Research released in May 2007, found that US war veterans who had been exposed to Agent Orange had a 48% increased risk of prostate cancer recurrence following surgery.

Prostate cancer risk can be decreased by modifying known risk factors for prostate cancer, such as decreasing intake of animal fat.

One research study, by the Cancer Council Victoria, has shown that men who report that they regularly ("more than five times per week") masturbate have up to one third fewer occurrences of prostate cancer. The researchers hypothesize that this could be because regular ejaculation reduces the buildup of carcinogenic deposits such as 3-methylcholanthrene is produced from the breakdown of cholesterol, which could damage the cells lining the prostate. The researchers also speculated that frequent ejaculation may cause the prostate to mature fully, making it less susceptible to carcinogens. It is also possible that there is another factor (such as hormone levels) that is a common cause of both a reduced susceptibility to prostate cancer and a tendency toward frequent masturbation. There is also some evidence that frequent sexual intercourse is associated with reduced risk of prostate cancer, although contrarily the risks associated with STDs have been shown to increase the risk of prostate cancer. Once the lining of the prostate is affected with cancer, the only known treatments are surgery and radiation therapy. Both may limit the ability to have erections afterward.

Several medications and vitamins may also help prevent prostate cancer. Two dietary supplements, vitamin E and selenium, may help prevent prostate cancer when taken daily. Estrogens from fermented soybeans and other plant sources (called phytoestrogens) may also help prevent prostate cancer. The selective estrogen receptor modulator drug toremifene has shown promise in early trials. Two medications which block the conversion of testosterone to dihydrotestosterone, finasteride and dutasteride, have also shown some promise. The use of these medications for primary prevention is still in the testing phase, and they are not widely used for this purpose. The problem with these medications is that they may preferentially block the development of lower-grade prostate tumors, leading to a relatively greater chance of higher grade cancers, and negating any overall survival improvement. Green tea may be protective (due to its polyphenol content), though the data is mixed. A 2006 study of green tea derivatives demonstrated promising prostate cancer prevention in patients at high risk for the disease. In 2003, an Australian research team led by Graham Giles of The Cancer Council Australia concluded that frequent masturbation by males appears to help prevent the development of prostate cancer. Recent research published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute suggests that taking multivitamins more than seven times a week can increase the risks of contracting the disease. This research was unable to highlight the exact vitamins responsible for this increase (almost double), although they suggest that vitamin A, vitamin E and beta-carotene may lie at its heart. It is advised that those taking multivitamins never exceed the stated daily dose on the label. Scientists recommend a healthy, well balanced diet rich in fiber, and to reduce intake of meat. A 2007 study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute found that men eating cauliflower, broccoli, or one of the other cruciferous vegetables, more than once a week were 40% less likely to develop prostate cancer than men who rarely ate those vegetables. Scientists believe the reason for this phenomenon has to do with a phytochemical called Diindolylmethane in these vegetables that has Anti-Androgenic and immune modulating properties. This compound is currently under investigation by the National Cancer Institute as a natural therapeutic for prostate cancer. Australian research concluded that the more men ejaculate between the ages of 20 and 50, the less likely they are to develop prostate cancer. The protective effect is greatest while men are in their twenties: those who had ejaculated more than five times per week in their twenties, for instance, were one-third less likely to develop aggressive prostate cancer later in life. The results contradict those of previous studies, which have suggested that having had many sexual partners, or a high frequency of sexual activity, increases the risk of prostate cancer by up to 40 per cent. The key difference is that these earlier studies defined sexual activity as sexual intercourse, whereas the latest study focused on the number of ejaculations, whether or not intercourse was involved.

Prostate cancer screening is an attempt to find unsuspected cancers. Screening tests may lead to more specific follow-up tests such as a biopsy, where small pieces of the prostate are removed for closer study. Prostate cancer screening options include the digital rectal exam and the prostate specific antigen (PSA) blood test. Screening for prostate cancer is controversial because it is not clear if the benefits of screening outweigh the risks of follow-up diagnostic tests and cancer treatments.

Prostate cancer is usually a slow-growing cancer, very common among older men. In fact, most prostate cancers never grow to the point where they cause symptoms, and most men with prostate cancer die of other causes before prostate cancer has an impact on their lives. The PSA screening test may detect these small cancers that would never become life threatening. Doing the PSA test in these men may lead to overdiagnosis, including additional testing and treatment. Follow-up tests, such as prostate biopsy, may cause pain, bleeding and infection. Prostate cancer treatments may cause urinary incontinence and erectile dysfunction. Therefore, it is essential that the risks and benefits of diagnostic procedures and treatment be carefully considered before PSA screening.

No major scientific or medical organizations currently support routine screening for prostate cancer.

* In 2002, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) concluded that the evidence was insufficient to recommend for or against routine screening for prostate cancer using PSA testing or digital rectal examination (DRE). The previous 1995 USPSTF recommendation was against routine screening.
* In 1997, American Cancer Society (ACS) guidelines began recommending that beginning at age 50 (age 45 for African-American men and men with a family history of prostate cancer, and since 2001, age 40 for men with a very strong family history of prostate cancer), PSA testing and DRE be offered annually to men who have a life-expectancy of 10 or more years (average life expectancy is 10 years or more for U.S. men under age 76) along with information on the risks and benefits of screening. The previous ACS recommendations since 1980 had been for routine screening for prostate cancer with DRE annually beginning at age 40, and since 1992 had been for routine screening with DRE and PSA testing annually beginning at age 50.
* The 2007 National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guideline recommends offering a baseline PSA test and DRE at ages 40 and 45 and annual PSA testing and DRE beginning at age 50 (with annual PSA testing and DRE beginning at age 40 for African-American men, men with a family history of prostate cancer, and men with a PSA = 0.6 ng/mL at age 40 or PSA > 0.6 ng/mL at age 45) through age 80, along with information on the risks and benefits of screening. Biopsy is recommended if DRE is positive or PSA = 4 ng/mL, and biopsy considered if PSA > 2.5 ng/mL or PSA velocity = 0.35 ng/mL/year when PSA = 2.5 ng/mL.
* Some U.S. radiation oncologists and medical oncologists who specialize in treating prostate cancer recommend obtaining a baseline PSA in all men at age 35 or beginning annual PSA testing in high risk men at age 35.

Since there is no firm evidence or general agreement that the benefits of PSA screening outweigh the harms, major scientific and medical organizations recommend that clinicians use a process of shared decision-making that includes discussing with patients the risks of prostate cancer, the potential benefits and harms of screening, and involving the patients in the decision.[54]

However, because PSA screening is widespread in the United States, following the recommendations of major scientific and medical organizations to use shared decision-making is legally perilous in some U.S. states.[55] In 2003, a Virginia jury found a family practice residency program guilty of malpractice and liable for $1 million for following national guidelines and using shared decision-making, thereby allowing a patient (subsequently found to have a high PSA and incurable advanced prostate cancer) to decline a screening PSA test, instead of routinely ordering without discussion PSA tests in all men = 50 years of age as four local physicians testified was their practice, and was accepted by the jury as the local standard of care.[56]

An estimated 20 million PSA tests are done per year in North America and possibly 20 million more outside of North America.[57]

* In 2000, 34.1% of all U.S. men age = 50 had a screening PSA test within the past year and 56.8% reported ever having a PSA test.[54]
* In 2000, 33.6% of all U.S. men age 50–64 and 51.3% of men age = 65 had a PSA test within the past year.[58]
* In 2005, 33.5% of all U.S. men age 50–64 had a PSA test in the past year.
o 37.5% of men with private health insurance, 20.8% of men with Medicaid insurance, 14.0% of currently uninsured men, and 11.5% of men uninsured for > 12 months.[59]
* In 2000–2001, 34.1% of all Canadian men age = 50 had a screening PSA test within the past year and 47.5% reported ever having a screening PSA test.[60]
* Canadian men in Ontario were most likely to have had a PSA test within the past year and men in Alberta were least likely to have had a PSA test with the past year or ever.[61]

Digital rectal examination (DRE) is a procedure where the examiner inserts a gloved, lubricated finger into the rectum to check the size, shape, and texture of the prostate. Areas which are irregular, hard or lumpy need further evaluation, since they may contain cancer. Although the DRE only evaluates the back of the prostate, 85% of prostate cancers arise in this part of the prostate. Prostate cancer which can be felt on DRE is generally more advanced.[62] The use of DRE has never been shown to prevent prostate cancer deaths when used as the only screening test.[63]

The PSA test measures the blood level of prostate-specific antigen, an enzyme produced by the prostate. Specifically, PSA is a serine protease similar to kallikrein. Its normal function is to liquify gelatinous semen after ejaculation, allowing spermatozoa to more easily navigate through the uterine cervix.

The risk of prostate cancer increases with increasing PSA levels.[64] 4 ng/mL was chosen arbitrarily as a decision level for biopsies in the clinical trial upon which the FDA in 1994 based adding prostate cancer detection in men age 50 and over as an approved indication for the first commercially available PSA test.[65] 4 ng/mL was used as the biopsy decision level in the PLCO trial, 3 ng/mL was used in the ERSPC and ProtecT trials, and 2.5 ng/mL is used in the 2007 NCCN guideline.

PSA levels can change for many reasons other than cancer. Two common causes of high PSA levels are enlargement of the prostate (benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH)) and infection in the prostate (prostatitis). It can also be raised for 24 hours after ejaculation and several days after catheterization. PSA levels are lowered in men who use medications used to treat BPH or baldness. These medications, finasteride (marketed as Proscar or Propecia) and dutasteride (marketed as Avodart), may decrease the PSA levels by 50% or more.

Several other ways of evaluating the PSA have been developed to avoid the shortcomings of simple PSA screening. The use of age-specific reference ranges improves the sensitivity and specificity of the test. The rate of rise of the PSA over time, called the PSA velocity, has been used to evaluate men with PSA levels between 4 and 10 ng/ml, but it has not proven to be an effective screening test.[66] Comparing the PSA level with the size of the prostate, as measured by ultrasound or magnetic resonance imaging, has also been studied. This comparison, called PSA density, is both costly and has not proven to be an effective screening test.[67] PSA in the blood may either be free or bound to other proteins. Measuring the amount of PSA which is free or bound may provide additional screening information, but questions regarding the usefulness of these measurements limit their widespread use.[6

Treatment for prostate cancer may involve watchful waiting, surgery, radiation therapy including brachytherapy, High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU), chemotherapy, cryosurgery, hormonal therapy, or some combination. Which option is best depends on the stage of the disease, the Gleason score, and the PSA level. Other important factors are the man's age, his general health, and his feelings about potential treatments and their possible side effects. Because all treatments can have significant side effects, such as erectile dysfunction and urinary incontinence, treatment discussions often focus on balancing the goals of therapy with the risks of lifestyle alterations.

The selection of treatment options may be a complex decision involving many factors. For example, radical prostatectomy after primary radiation failure is a very technically challenging surgery and may not be an option.[76] This may enter into the treatment decision.

If the cancer has spread beyond the prostate, treatment options significantly change, so most doctors who treat prostate cancer use a variety of nomograms to predict the probability of spread. Treatment by watchful waiting, HIFU, radiation therapy, cryosurgery, and surgery are generally offered to men whose cancer remains within the prostate. Hormonal therapy and chemotherapy are often reserved for disease which has spread beyond the prostate. However, there are exceptions: radiation therapy may be used for some advanced tumors, and hormonal therapy is used for some early stage tumors. Cryotherapy, hormonal therapy, and chemotherapy may also be offered if initial treatment fails and the cancer progresses.

WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF ONLINE INVESTING

2008-09-08T10:24:00.000-07:00

A High-Yield Investment Program (HYIP) is a type of scam. At one time, it was used to refer to an investment program which may have offered a high return on investment. The term "HYIP" was abused by the operators of scams to camouflage their scams as legitimate investments. Due to this overuse by scammers, HYIP has almost become synonymous with Scam or Ponzi.

Most HYIPs disclose little or no detail about the underlying management, location, or other aspects of how money is to be invested (often because money is not actually invested), and relatively little information (other than asserting that they do various types of trading on various stock and other exchanges) on how they actually generate the returns they purport. They are sometimes presented with some form of an emotional appeal, appeals for faith, and promises that they will help investors achieve financial freedom.

Online HYIP schemes rarely last for more than a couple of years and typically accept small deposits while promising astoundingly high returns. An overwhelming number of cases suggest that HYIPs are Ponzi schemes, in which new investors provide the cash to pay a profit to existing investors, which they typically then withdraw. This approach allows the scam to continue as long as new investors are found and/or old investors leave their money in the scheme, known as compounding (because even higher profits are promised). The SEC has said the following on the matter: "These fraudulent schemes involve the purported issuance, trading, or use of so-called 'prime' bank, 'prime' European bank or 'prime' world bank financial instruments, or other 'high yield investment programs.' ('HYIP's) The fraud artists... seek to mislead investors by suggesting that well regarded and financially sound institutions participate in these bogus programs."

The introduction of e-currencies has made it possible for HYIPs to operate on the internet and cross international boundaries, and to accept large numbers of small investments. HYIPs usually accept deposits by either e-currency, like e-gold, and INTGold, or use specialist third party payment processors like AlertPay, SolidTrustPay, CEPTrust, TriStarMoneyChangers and StormPay. HYIPs typically offer a significant incentive commission (for example, 9% of invested funds) for members to attract and refer new investors.

Arguably, the largest HYIP scam that has existed on the internet was PIPS (People in Profit System or Pure Investors). The investment scheme was started by Bryan Marsden in early 2004, (according to the Wayback Machine record of http://pureinvestor.com) and spanned more than 20 countries. PIPS was investigated by Bank Negara Malaysia in 2005 which resulted in Marsden and his wife being charged in a Malaysian court with 97 counts of money laundering involving more than RM77 million - US$20 million. Even after these charges were brought forth many of Marsden's followers/investors continued to support him and believe they would see their money some day. This behavior and denial could be seen and still is seen on hyip forums.

As a result of online forums and monitoring sites which have made HYIP investors more aware of their nature, a different sort of "honest" HYIP began springing up in the early months of 2006. Basically, the HYIP owner calls his or her program a "ponzi-structured game" where one should "not invest money one cannot afford to lose", and where there is "never a guarantee of earnings or refunds". They promise to pay out up to (for example) 95% of deposits, the rest going to hosting or other fees and the owner's profit.

In such "games", the first participants ("investors") may make a good profit and are encouraged to refer other people to the program because of referral commission, the fact that they have already made back their principal and are playing with profit, and that the more people who deposit money, the more money can be paid out to participants. In theory, strategies can be developed to maximize profit using these games (but, of course, since this is a zero-sum game, such strategies work by taking advantage of ignorance or errors by others). Some forum users may gain a reputation whereby others will trust their word that they have been able to withdraw their profits, encouraging others to invest in the hopes that more will invest after them and that they can therefore make a profit. As these games are by definition Ponzi schemes, it is inevitable that the vast majority of investors who are not at the top of the pyramid will lose their money.

These "games" might be considered as lotteries. However, the odds of winning cannot be determined, as one cannot know whether one is playing early enough to win money (that is, whether a sufficient number of new participants will follow). Thus, these activities are unlike a lottery or other forms of gambling, where a player has an equal chance of winning no matter when a ticket is bought, or where the odds of the game are known.

HYIP monitors, or HYIP listing/rating sites, are personal or commercial websites that list and/or promote HYIPs for referral commissions. The monitor charges each HYIP a listing fee which is usually then invested into that program, although there exist free listings and occasionally monitors which invest their own money. The monitor then labels the HYIP as "Paying" or "Not paying/Scam" depending on whether interest is received within the terms specified by the program. Monitors also allow other HYIP investors to rate and comment on the programs, based on factors such as promptness of payouts and responsiveness of the HYIP administrator. Programs with higher ratings achieve higher rankings on the monitor sites, which coupled with a "Paying" status may entice more investors who rely on the monitor.

In most cases, HYIPs only pay monitor sites to keep their "Paying" status visible, but do not pay other investors. As HYIP monitors are not affiliated with the HYIPs themselves, they are unable to prevent investors from being scammed; they neither help to recover lost funds nor track down the scammers. Promoting or perpetuating Ponzi schemes is a criminal offense punishable by jail terms or fines in most countries. That the monitor sites place disclaimers saying that they "do not promote the programs advertised on their website" does not absolve them from criminal liability.

In order to generate a "paying" status early (so that future visitors will see it) and maintain it for the longest possible time, newly opened HYIPs list their site quickly as well as constantly pay monitors their interest on time. Added to the fact that many monitors invest the listing "fee", and that a commission is received on each deposit made by people who visit the HYIP via the monitor, they are the most likely to profit when a program runs out of funds.

HYIP owners can manipulate monitors and forums, by paying people to comment positively or by using a range of IP addresses or proxy servers in different locations so that "paying" votes appear to come from around the world. This allows the HYIP to rise up the rankings more quickly than others, giving investors a false sense of security. Additionally, even if they know it will scam in the future, some investors will also rate new HYIPs positively until the HYIP stops paying, because they want more people to invest after them in the hopes that the program will last longer. Future scammers can also build up a good reputation on forums for a large payoff once most forum members trust them.

The problem is seen as many monitors appear only to make certain programs more acceptable and trustworthy. It basically shows the true face of the HYIP scene.

TARA REID LOOKS STRANGE AND BEAUTIFUL

2008-09-07T08:28:00.000-07:00

I don’t really know how this happened, but shocking recent pictures of Tara Reid have emerged. Shocking because she’s so thin? No. So bloated in the face? So very clearly on eight kinds of drugs? Nope. Shocking because she looks decent. Non-totally-freak show ugly.

WORM INFESTATION TREATMENT

2008-09-06T20:02:00.000-07:00

WORM INFESTATION
Ascaris and other parasitic worms infest the intestines and cause malnutrition in children.

Preventive Measures
1. Give daily bath to children and babies.
2. Wash hands with soap and water before and after eating.
3. Wash with soap and water and disinfect fruits and vegetables eaten raw like duhat or black plum, sineguelas, guava and vegetable salads.
4. Cut fingernails short.
5. Instruct children not to put fingers in the mouth.
6. Encourage children and everyone to wear slippers and shoes at all times, especially when walking on the ground.
7. Maintain a clean environment. Keep the house clean. Teach children to use the toilet.

Herbal medication for ascaris and trichina
1. Ipil-ipil or Santa Elena Seed. For children: eat the seeds of 5 fresh pads raw. Repeat after one week, if there are no results. For children and adults: cook 1 cup of dried seeds in frying pad without oil. Do not burn the seeds. Pulverize. Mix with milk or water. Dosage: adult-1 teaspoon, 2 hours after supper. Children (7-9 yrs) ¼ teaspoon, 2 hours after supper, (10-12 yrs)-1/2 teaspoon, 2 hours after supper.
2. Papaya Seeds. Dry 1 cup of seeds and pulverize. Mix with 1 cup milk or water.
3. Akapulko Seeds. Cook 1 cup of dried seeds in frying pan without oil. Pulverize. Mix with 1 cup milk or water. Dosage: Adult – 1 teaspoon, 2 hours after supper. Children (7-9 yrs) ¼ teaspoon, 2 hours after supper, (10-12 yrs) – ½ teaspoon, 2 hours after supper.

For Pin Worms:
1. Niyog-niyogan or Burma Cruper seeds. Eat raw 2 hours after supper. Repeat after one week if needed. Dosage: Adults – 10 seeds. Children (4-7 yrs) 4 seeds, children (8-9 yrs) 6 seeds, children (10-12 yrs) 7 seeds.
2. Pineapple Fruit, ripe. Eat 2-3 slices with every meal for one week. Note: when pinworms come out at night, wet cotton with oil and remove pinworm with cotton soaked in oil. Change bed sheet, underwear and pajamas every night for one week.

Read more health related topics. Visit the Medical Chronicles, the online first aid solutions online.

NAOMI WATTS WITH SON ALEXANDER

2008-09-06T12:46:00.000-07:00

Mere months after giving birth to her son Alexander, Naomi Watts is pregnant again with her second child. And it sounds like she’s just getting started!

The “King Kong” hottie was spotted toting her son around New York City yesterday, on her way out to the Hamptons to escape the hustle and bustle around her.

GERARD BUTLER IN TORONTO FILM

2008-09-06T07:43:00.000-07:00

Gerard Butler gets tough and rough with costar Chris Bridges, aka Ludacris, at the premiere screening of their new movie RocknRolla during the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) held at the The Visa Screening Room at the Elgin Theatre on Thursday in Toronto, Canada.

BEYONCE WANTS TO BE A MUSIC ICON

2008-09-05T06:50:00.000-07:00

Beyonce, the famous music star disclosed to the media that being a pop star is not enough for her. she wants more than that. She is thinking of being an icon in the music industry just like Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey or even Madonna. We cannot blame the lady for she deserves to be an icon in the music industry. She has been secretly married to her boyfriend. She is said to be having a baby soon with Jay Z the father of the kid soon.

THE PRINCE'S PICTURE SCANDAL - THE ROYAL MESS

2008-09-04T06:46:00.000-07:00

Prince William nearly got himself into a ‘royal mess.’ Police were able to apprehend two men who were trying to sell sexy photos of him and his girlfriend, Kate Middleton, to tabloids. The photos were in a camera that was stolen.

CHRIS BROWN AND RIHANNA EXITS SEPARATELY

2008-09-03T13:18:00.000-07:00

Following a morning breakfast at McDonald’s, Rihanna and her beau Chris Brown were spotted leaving their midtown Manhattan hotel - sneakily heading out of the exit one-by-one on Tuesday afternoon.

The 20-year-old “Take A Bow” hitmaker looked sexy in a decorative skirt with a black tanktop and heels, while Chris kept it casual with a pair of jeans, sneakers and a black buttondown sweater overtop a v-neck t-shirt.

BURJ DUBAI IN DUBAI.

2008-09-03T08:37:00.000-07:00

Burj Dubai (Arabic: برج دبي‎ "Dubai Tower") is a skyscraper under construction in the Business Bay district of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and is the tallest man-made structure on Earth, despite being incomplete. Construction began on September 21, 2004 and is expected to be completed and ready for occupation in September 2009.

The building is part of the 2 km2 (0.8 sq mi) development called "Downtown Dubai", at the "First Interchange" (aka "Defence Roundabout") along Sheikh Zayed Road at Doha Street. The tower's architect is Adrian Smith[4] who worked with Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM) until 2006.The architecture and engineering firm SOM is in charge of the project.The primary builders are Samsung Engineering & Construction and Besix along with Arabtec. Turner Construction Company was chosen as the construction manager.

The total budget for the Burj Dubai project is about US$4.1 billion and for the entire new 'Downtown Dubai', US$20 billion. Mohamed Ali Alabbar, the CEO of Emaar Properties, speaking at the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat 8th World Congress, said that the price of office space at Burj Dubai had reached $4,000 per sq ft and that the Armani Residences, also in Burj Dubai, were selling for $3,500 per sq ft.

As of September 1, 2008, Burj Dubai had reached a height of 688 m (2,257 ft), with 160 completed floors. Although fan websites report that the tower has risen higher since that time, no official height increase has been reported. The Burj Dubai is now the tallest building, tallest freestanding structure and tallest man-made structure of any kind ever built on the planet.

SPONGE REALLY WORKS FOR FEVER

2008-09-01T18:47:00.000-07:00

Fever sponge bath
Definition:
A sponge bath given to a person with fever.

Effects:
1. Reduces fever or lower body temperature
2. Sedative effects.
Things needed:
1. Basin of water – temperature as needed.
2. Sheet or blanket to cover patient.
3. Two bath towels.
4. One face towel or washcloth.
5. Ice cubes as indicated
6. Alcohol

Hot Sponge Bath: is given to patients with very high fever but whose skin of the legs and arms are cold. Water for hot sponge bath should be as hot as can be tolerated. The sponge bath should be done fast and with friction to encourage blood to surface. The sponge may be repeated after 1 or 2 hours if the fever persists.

Procedure:
a. Make the patient comfortable. Remove clothing and cover with cover with sheet or blanket. Close windows to avoid drafts.
b. Protect the bed with towels as each part is being sponged. Put one bath towel across the chest and sponge the face, ears and neck. Dry the areas that had been sponged with the towel across the chest.
c. Sponge on part at a time in the following order: arms, chest, abdomen, legs, feet, and back. For the arm or leg. Spread the towel under the whole length of the arm or leg while it is being sponged. Rub skin briefly with face towel to draw blood to the surface. Dry each part after the sponge to avoid chilling. Be sure that the patient is dry before replacing clothing and covers. Hot drinks (lemonade juice) can be offered to encourage perspiration.

PAMELA ANDERSON WITH KIDS IN SYDNEY

2008-08-31T06:54:00.000-07:00

Pamela Anderson spends some quality time with her two sons Dylan and Brandon as they visit The Sydney Opera House and The Jewish Museum in Darlinghurst, Australia on Friday. Anderson, 41, is in Sydney to promote her new observational TV documentary called Pam: Girl On The Loose.

VANESSA AND NICK LACHEY LOVES EACH OTHER SO MUCH

2008-08-31T06:51:00.000-07:00

Heading out of town for the weekend, Vanessa Minnillo and Nick Lachey were spotted getting ready for departure at LAX airport on Friday. The former Miss Teen USA and her man strolled through the terminal, with Vanessa toting around her pet pooch, Wookie, as they headed towards the security checkpoint.

CHARLIZE THERON IN VENICE FILM FESTIVAL

2008-08-31T00:04:00.000-07:00

She’s been making her rounds at the 2008 Venice Film Festival, and the latest stop for Charlize Theron was the photo call for her film “The Burning Plain.”

The “Battle in Seattle” babe looked absolutely gorgeous in a sleeveless pink wrap-textured dress teamed with a pair of shiny black high heels as she posed for the paparazzi.

VICTORIA BECKHAM IS AN ANGEL AS SHE THINKS SHE IS

2008-08-30T07:02:00.000-07:00

- Victoria Beckham hijacked angel cat’s look - Justin Timberlake wrote, directed, and composed a series of ads for William Rast - Michael Lohan gets one-hour special to ‘expose Dina Lohan‘. When is she getting one on him? Robin Thicke says “Vibe Wouldn’t Put Me On the Cover Because I’m White.”

REAL TRUTH ABOUT PAGE RANK

2008-08-29T20:10:00.000-07:00

Ranking in Google is not as hard as it is constantly made out to be. A lot of forums will beat on about how difficult this is and that you have to be aware of all the algorithm workings before you get to the top of Page 1 on Google.

The truth is that to rank well for a very competitive market does take longer than if you were trying to rank for a small niche market but it is not difficult.

You have to be realistic in your goals. Don't even bother trying to get to page one with "Credit Cards" or "Personal Loans". These are highly competitive keywords and it would take you a lifetime to outrank the current page 1 holders.

The basic ingredients that you need to get noticed by Google are, links to your site, on page relevancy and basic title tag keyword insertion. The last 2 ingredients are no brainers and should be followed as a matter of course. The first ingredient is the most important.

If you don't have links to your site your site is like an island with no connecting bridge. The spiders need to be able to find you from somewhere. Ranking for sites in Niche markets becomes very easy when you focus 90% of you time in building links back to your site. Now not just any links will do. The links to your site must contain the Keywords as anchor text that you wish to rank for. If you own a website on speed boats then the links to your site must have the words "Speed Boats" in the anchor text. You can and should suggest variations of your keywords to those that are linking back to you. Make sure you do not build your links too quickly as this will raise a red flag with Google. It should happen over time so that it looks organic in nature. Get links from all sorts of other websites. It's a bit of a myth that you have to get links from sites that are similar to yours.

To recap as long as you have these key steps covered you will see a huge improvement in your rankings.

1. Links. Lots of them, built slowly and from any geographic location. Anchor text to be placed in the links to your sites. Vary the keywords in your anchor text. 3 Word anchor texts work best.

2. On site relevancy. If your anchor text is "Baby Joggers" than don't write about Baby Cribs.

3. Title Tags: Make sure you have a good Title for your webpage. Make sure your keyword or variation thereof is included in the title.

If you can stick to these basic principles and you are competing in a niche market then you will be guaranteed good rankings as this is what Google is looking for.

RIHANNA GOES TO PARTIES OFTEN

2008-08-29T14:13:00.000-07:00

When it comes to sexy young singers, not many young ladies can hold a candle to Rihanna. And the “Umbrella” songstress was spotted out and about in Los Angeles last night.

Looking so very sexy in a strapless black thigh-length dress teamed with a coordinating necklace/bracelet ensemble, the “Good Girl Gone Bad” was the center of the paparazzi attention as she made her way around West Hollywood.

NEW PERFUME OF VICTORIA BECKHAM

2008-08-29T08:06:00.000-07:00

Victoria Beckham dons a conservative black gown as she heads out to dinner at the trendy Ithaca restaurant in Manchester, England on Thursday. The 34-year-old former Spice Girl is in town for the Harvey Nichols launch of her new perfume, Signature For Her.

HILARY DUFF OUT OF LA AGAIN

2008-08-28T12:35:00.000-07:00

Taking full advantage of the beautiful southern California weather earlier today, Hilary Duff was spotted out and about all by her lonesome.

The “So Yesterday” songstress donned a beige striped tank top layered over a white tank top with a pair of jeans and sneakers as she made her way to a friend’s house.

EVA LONGARIA IS PRO DEMOCRAT

2008-08-28T10:21:00.001-07:00

With the impending Presidential Election getting closer and closer, our favorite celebrities are stepping up to support their choice for President of the United States. And Eva Longoria was busy showing her support for the Democratic Party.

The “Over Her Dead Body” hottie was spotted dropping into the MySpace Café in the Corner Office Restaurant in Denver, Colorado, and her Presidential preference was clear.

DANIELLE LLOYD IN HER BIKINI

2008-08-28T10:12:00.000-07:00

Danielle Lloyd was stripped of her 2006 Miss Great Britain title after posing topless in Playboy and an alleged affair with one of the judges. Oh big freaking deal. You can’t try to tell me that almost every girl who goes for one of those “Miss So and So” titles gets there by being beautiful.

TRIP PLANNERS AT YOUR SERVICE

2008-08-27T09:38:00.000-07:00

The free trip planners are of great help if you have first hand information on the kind of trip you are headed to. Whether it is a simple car trip or the simple road trip, it pays to plan well in advance before you actually start the trip. When you know what to expect, your travel becomes much more enjoyable and pleasant to anticipate. The trips basically fall into two categories in a broad way; it is either for the business or for the pleasure. Whatever may be the nature and goals of the trip, an advance planning shall make your travel experience more enjoyable and memorable and you may feel like renewing the plan to visit again due to the initial success of the former. It is highly lamenting that people huddle their family onto the car and drive for constant long hours without actually a proper road map or knowing the stop destinations in advance. They, thus, do not stop at a fast food joint to refresh their kids and snack in between. As a result, they eventually arrive totally worn out from the long drive, difficult highway driving, deplorable food and road rage experiences.

Traveling with the children is great fun as they can be handed the road map of the surrounding geography and can follow the route you take. Encourage the kids to bring their individual travel packs that should contain books and projects to keep their little brains ticking. With kids, travel time is much longer and you need to stop more as well as prepare and organize more than ever. Stop for playgrounds as indicated in the free trip planners. This will release the pent up energy of kids and motivate them to exercise in fresh air. Most parks have picnic facilities so that you revel in healthy and cheap meals, very good to taste.

It is best not to purchase items while traveling, update your checklist and include extensive packing checklist as a part of free trip planner. Printable activities for the kids, exclusively for such trips, may be downloaded from specific websites to keep the children engaged while traveling.

Scan out the free trip planner for interesting signs of picnic spots, lakes, historical markers and parks so that you can get off from the busy highway, take out and distribute the home packed lunch and stretch out to improve the blood circulation and simultaneously relax with the kids. A folding picnic table shall also be handy. If the travel is going to take some more days, remember to stuff the travel pack with ingredients of next day's picnic from the local market (where you plan to spend your night). Pack from the night your favorite juice in plastic bottles and refrigerate them in the freezer. Thus, the free trip planners are there to give you exclusive information on lodging and camping locations, driving time of your destination, mileage, gas stations nearby and where to contact in case of unforeseen emergencies like the breakdown of the car.

STEALING HAIR PRODUCT IS A CRIME

2008-08-27T07:48:00.000-07:00

Actress Kate Hudson, who has appeared in hits such as "Almost Famous", is being sued by Los Angeles-based 220 Laboratories for stealing their volcanic ash hair products.According to TMZ.com, Hudson is being sued for not just stealing the product but selling it off as her own.The firm has reportedly given 17 reasons to take action against Hudson and her hair guru Babaii, saying the duo made an oral contract with the lab and appointed them as the sole providers of the range's raw materials.The suit was filed in the Los Angeles County Superior Court. They are seeking unspecified damages.Hudson's representative refused to make any comment.

BRITNEY SPEARS LIKES HOME DECORATIONS

2008-08-27T05:43:00.000-07:00

Taking care of a few daily errands, Britney Spears was spotted out and about shopping for home decor in Beverly Hills on Monday afternoon.

The “Gimme More” singer sported a white tank top paired with denim Capri pants as she sniffed away at the candles before picking up a few items.

SOLVING INTESTINAL PARASITES

2008-08-27T00:35:00.000-07:00

One of the most often overlooked illnesses plaguing mankind are intestinal parasites. Especially in developed and technologically advanced societies, parasite symptoms are often misdiagnosed and mistakenly attributed to something else. Medical professionals in underdeveloped nations are much more likely to correctly diagnose the problem as they are culturally expectant of it's frequent occurrence.

In our culture, however, our medical professionals are not taught to look for intestinal parasites in humans. We would like to believe that our water and food supplies are not contaminated with bacteria and parasites, however, as recent news stories can attest, that is simply not the case. In fact, intestinal parasites in humans are a very frequent occurrence and it's fast becoming more and more obvious that, sadly, our water, food supplies, and general environment are sorrowfully contaminated.

The good news is that, if properly diagnosed, intestinal parasites can be quite effectively dealt with. We need to be prepared to as readily deworm ourselves as we are our domesticated animals. We know and accept that if we do not routinely deworm our animals that their health will be seriously compromised and that serious disease, illness, and potential death will result not to mention the genuine risk of our animals transmitting their parasitic infestations to us and our children...now is the time to understand the same about our own bodies. It's time to take charge of our own health and to do something about it.

What to do?

Consulting your physician is the best option if you think your health is being compromised by intestinal parasites Your doctor can recommend appropriate testing and followup treatment. Don't be embarrassed or feel uncomfortable discussing this with him or her. Remember, you have to be an advocate for your own health.

Many people, myself included, also turn to safe and natural remedies proven effective in the removal of parasites and unhealthy toxic buildup as it's just as important to maintain the cleanliness of your insides as it is your outside. Intestinal parasites in humans is a serious problem in our society today, however, if motivated to do so, we can overcome.

MOLES CAN BE CANCER AT ALL

2008-08-26T09:36:00.000-07:00

All of us know someone who has been touched by cancer in some way, whether it is skin cancer or another type. Skin cancer, while normally not considered to be as serious as other types, can still be a dangerous disease. However, if skin cancer is caught in the early stages, as when a individual notices changes in the moles that they have on their body, then it can possibly be cured. This is why it is so important to watch for any changes that may be occurring that would lead you to believe that you may have skin cancer, such as skin tags and changes in the moles, especially if you believe they are cancer moles.

Cancer moles can be identified by using what is called the ABCD method. The letters stand for the symptoms of the disease and can be used to pinpoint when medical attention needs to be sought.

It is important to remember that if you suspect that you may have skin cancer, then the earlier that it is caught, the better. This can mean looking for any changes in the moles that you may have and also being aware of what those changes could be.

The first letter A stands for 'asymmetry.' Normally, a mole is round and symmetrical in shape. It is often when the mole begins to grow that it looks a little skewed or asymmetric. In case this happens, ensure that you visit a doctor and mention the first time you observed the change in the skin moles. The second letter B stands for 'border.'

If the border of your moles looks jagged or irregular, instead of definite and strong, then this could be a sign of cancer. The letter C indicates another important aspect, 'color.' Often, these moles change in color suddenly, leaving you quite surprised. Lastly, the letter D stands for 'diameter.' Most cancerous moles will grow in size; hence, an increasingly larger diameter could alert you to see a doctor.

If you think that the moles that you have could be cancer moles, then you will want to speak to a physician as soon as possible. You will also want to keep a close watch for the moles that might be cancerous if you are a lighter skinned individual or if other individuals in your family have had cancer. While anyone can be susceptible to this type of cancer, those who have a fair complexion or a family history of cancer are more likely to develop it.

IS THE HAIR PRODUCT WORTH STEALING?

2008-08-26T08:30:00.000-07:00

Actress Kate Hudson, who has appeared in hits such as "Almost Famous", is being sued by Los Angeles-based 220 Laboratories for stealing their volcanic ash hair products. According to TMZ.com, Hudson is being sued for not just stealing the product but selling it off as her own. The firm has reportedly given 17 reasons to take action against Hudson and her hair guru Babaii, saying the duo made an oral contract with the lab and appointed them as the sole providers of the range's raw materials. The suit was filed in the Los Angeles County Superior Court. They are seeking unspecified damages. Hudson's representative refused to make any comment.

SWEATING CONTROL

2008-08-26T00:34:00.000-07:00

No matter when you experience excessive sweating it can be challenging. We all know what it is like when we sweat in hot weather but for those who sweat excessively on a regular basis the condition can become a bit of a nightmare.

No only do you have to deal with drenched clothing but you also have the added effects of body odor. This makes social interaction even more difficult and there is always the fear in your mind that somebody will notice.

There are steps you can take to combat excessive sweating. You can get over the counter deodorants. The key ingredient is aluminum chloride. Generally when you do get deodorants or anti-perspirants over the counter they are not as strong.

If you find this to be the case then you will need to get a prescription from a doctor or dermatologist so that you can get a stronger anti-perspirant. This is one way to curb the effects of profuse sweating.

You can also get botox injections, these injections can be expensive and as a result of which out of some peoples budget. Basically a botox injection inhibits the discharge of a specific chemical.

This chemical is responsible for sweat production. However take note that the relief is short term, which makes it even more expensive.

There are also surgical procedures; one such procedure involves inserting titanium clips into the affected area. As painful as it may sound the procedure is actually painless, however it has one serious draw back.

That is because it may stop sweating in one area - but then extra sweat is produced elsewhere.

There are things you can do yourself which are not expensive and do not require medical assistance. One is wear lose clothing so as to make sure your skin can breathe. Secondly watch what you eat and drink. Thirdly consume less sugar and caffeine, especially processed sugars.

Last but not least exercise, especially breathing exercises that can relieve stress in the body, just a few minutes a day could make all the difference.

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2008-08-25T10:17:00.000-07:00

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PARIS HILTON'S BEACH PROMOTION

2008-08-25T10:10:00.000-07:00

Joining Sally Beauty Supply, Paris Hilton was out on Carbon Beach in Malibu on Saturday to launch the Bandit from Dreamcatchers, a hair extension headband. The heiress playfully posed for photographers alongside a few bikini-clad models, hoping to boost sales for the new line offering up three lengths in eight different shades.

ARMPIT PROBLEM

2008-08-25T09:33:00.001-07:00

Axillary hyperhidrosis is a medical terminology for armpit sweating. Although sweating in underarms is normal, excessive amount of the sweat is considered a disease. It is not high risk or deadly though, just that the patient may feel embarrassed and his/her social life may be affected. So what are different options to fight armpit sweating?

First off, if you are doing heavy exercises, it is important to know that profuse sweating is just normal. However, if you sweat in a relatively cold weather while sitting, that may be a sign of hyperhidrosis.

It can be hard to diagnose the cause of excessive sweating, as there are a lot of factors that matter. The stress level also contributes to sweating problems.

Soaked clothing can cause great embarrassment. Some people use various strategies to conceal sweat like wearing extra shirt inside. This may help, but unless the fabric is natural, it may increase the body temperature, which in turn will worsen the case.

Antiperspirant products are created specially to decrease the activity of sweat glands in perspiration-prone areas. However, not every kind of product suits everyone though.

Some antiperspirant products are combined with deodorants and those can be effective in certain cases. Many people also find that deodorant-only products are enough. You may test different kind of them and switch products if that doesn't make your sweat better.

Botox, iontophoresis (introducing low electric current to the body) and surgery are also other options, but they are more drastic. Botox and iontophoresis may not be permanent.

Finally, for mild cases of armpit sweating, you want to keep your body clean by taking a bath every day and change cloth after that. Consider trimming hairs in the underarm areas to help decrease the amount of sweat around the armpits at the same time. That may promote bacterias, which in turn cause foul smell (body odor).

KATE BECKINSALE RETURNS FROM HER MEXICAN ADVENTURE TRIP

2008-08-23T22:47:00.000-07:00

It was fun while it lasted, but last night Kate Beckinsale, her husband Len Wiseman, and daughter Lily Sheen returned home from their fabulous Mexican holiday.

The “Serendipity” actress looked sexy and sun-soaked in a strapless black and white summer dress as she made her way through the terminal at LAX International Airport.

AMY WINEHOUSE IS GOING TO REHAB

2008-08-23T15:51:00.000-07:00

Sporting yet another flattering look, Amy Winehouse was spotted leaving her North London home this morning to spend some time in the city.

The “Back to Black” babe was smoking a large hand-rolled cigarette as she made her way to the car wearing a black tank top and long red shorts.

HILARY DUFF IS LOOKING BEAUTIFUL EVERYDAY

2008-08-23T14:46:00.000-07:00

While most celebrities have high-paid assistants to do their dirty work, Hilary Duff seems just as happy to just do it herself.

The “War, Inc.” actress was spotted out and about in Los Angeles yesterday running all kinds of errands, from dropping off her dry cleaning to stopping into a gift card and wrapping paper store.

JENNIFER ANISTON IS SUPER SEXY AS ALWAYS

2008-08-23T12:43:00.000-07:00

Clearly enjoying her new single status, Jennifer Aniston was spotted out and about in New York City doing a little shopping earlier this week. The “Rumor Has It” hottie looked scorching in a graphite-colored tube top along with a pair of belted baggy jeans with sandals and sunglasses. I hope she can find that true love that would stay with her until she grows old.

ESSAYS ARE EASY TO FIND

2008-08-23T12:15:00.000-07:00

I am presently working for a university as an International English Instructor. I have been doing this since 2001. Being an instructor is a challenging profession. You get to meet different types of personalities and the best of all; you are well respected anywhere you go. As an English instructor, I really require my students to write an essay. This is my way to train my student to write in proper English and for them to be confident in writing as well as speaking. I personally Compare and Contrast Essay that is submitted to me by my student. If there are questions about the topic I always make sure that I explain it properly to them o that they can understand immediately. Based on my personal assessment of my students, they are really doing well and the way they write is improving everyday as we continue the course study. International English is easy to study and that is why I always let them to write an essay. I remember before in college my friend would Buy Essay and they submit it to our instructor so that they will pass the course in college. The essays that they buy are well written and the idea on the paper is very radiant to the reader. Aside from the essay, my classmate would also buy Research Papers and they submit it to our instructor. The essays and research papers are well written. The grammar and punctuation is perfect. If you are interested in buying essays and research papers, visit www.masterpapers.com for good and quality written essays and research papers.

VANESSA HUDGENS SHOWS HER UNDERWEAR THE UNUSUAL WAY

2008-08-23T08:20:00.000-07:00

Today’s panty watch level, provided by Vanessa Hudgens, is: Striped - Playful with a high chance of gettin’ some. Related posts Update: Vanessa Hudgens nude Vanessa Hudgens gets fired, eats a wiener Vanessa Hudgens might have a sex tape. Zac Efron tries to prove his manliness Vanessa wants Zac to stop being a sissy. Well this is not the first time we saw Vanessa Hudgens in this manner. She personally shot some pictures of herself wearing nothing at all. hmmmm.

TO BRA OR NOT TO BRA - LINDSAY LOHAN

2008-08-22T06:13:00.000-07:00

If you’d like to see Lindsay Lohan’s side boob, please make an appointment. There will be showings today at 9 a.m., 11 a.m., 3 p.m., 6 p.m. and a final showing at 10 p.m. where there will be fireworks and lemonade.

RICKY MARTIN ROCKS

2008-08-22T06:08:00.000-07:00

Ricky Martin is apparently the father of twin boys. Unmarried, ungirflriended Ricky Martin. Turns out he decided to rock the ol' rent a uterus and had a surrogate mother deliver him a pair of sons. The AP reports: "The children, delivered via gestational surrogacy, are healthy and already under Ricky's full-time care," said the statement. "Ricky is elated to begin this new chapter in his life as a parent and will be spending the remainder of the year out of the public spotlight in order to spend time with his children."

A representative said there was no further information on the details of the children's birth. Ricky Martin, much like Clay Aiken, has been constantly plagued by rumors that he's gay. And, much like Clay Aiken, he chose the absolute worst possible route to dispel those rumors. What did these two sit in a room together and spitball ideas on how to look straight? RICKY: We could maybe make love to the strippers, no? CLAY: I dunno if that'll work, Ricky... RICKY: How 'bout if we impregnate a woman? CLAY: Wait... that's it. We'll impregnate women! But without touching their vaginas. My God, it's perfect. RICKY: Why would we not touch the vagina? What's wrong with vagina? CLAY: Christ, man, have you ever see one before? I hear they not only have teeth but can see into a man's soul. RICKY: I'll get the test tubes.

ASLEE SIMPSON CRAVING

2008-08-20T00:49:00.000-07:00

Out enjoying the summertime weather, Ashlee Simpson ventured in the midst of the ever-present Robertson Boulevard paparazzi as she dined at the trendy Ivy restaurant in Beverly Hills.

For the Monday afternoon outing, the growingly pregnant “Outta My Head” singer was accompanied by a female friend - with Ashlee hopping into the passenger seat before being driven away from the growing mob of fans and photogs.

MILEY CYRUS TALKS ABOUT BUSINESS

2008-08-19T14:47:00.000-07:00

Offering up her signature smile and a peace sign, Miley Cyrus stepped out in Los Angeles to drop by Disney offices on Monday afternoon.

The “Hannah Montana” starlet was reportedly there to “talk business” - and though no details were made available, the visit’s assumed to be related to the promotions of tomorrow’s release of “Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert: The 3-D Movie”.

BRITNEY SPEARS' SEXY COME BACK

2008-08-19T07:45:00.000-07:00

Britney Spears has been picking up all the right pieces to her puzzle of a life!Britney is doing fine with the visitation appointments with her kids, has been exercising and getting back in shape, has been busy working on her new album and was seen going into a recording studio to work on her songs. Above it all, she's gotten three nods at the upcoming MTV VMA Awards in September! A Britney Spears comeback would have been “unimaginable a year ago,” said Carrie Melago in the New York Daily News. “Her sloppy, lip-synched performance” of “Gimme More” at least year’s VMAs “was universally panned and ushered in a year of lousy luck.” If she gets the chance to perform at the awards show this year, it would offer her a much-needed “chance at redemption.”“MTV would have to be crazy" not to put Spears on stage, said Alan Fein in AXcess News. Her “popularity is still strong,” and even if she blows a performance again this year, MTV still comes out on top: “To advertisers, a bomb can sometimes be worth more than a win.”Isn't that just great?Britney Spears Is Looking Pretty Good.

EVA LONGARIA AND TONY PARKER IN THE RED CARPET

2008-08-18T14:59:00.000-07:00

Eva Longoria Parker, pictured here with hubby Tony Parker, takes time out from her hosting duties to pose on the red carpet for the 2008 ALMA Awards. Eva is not just the host of the awards, but also the executive producer of the event which celebrates the outstanding artistic achievements of Latinos in motion pictures, TV and music.

In addition to Eva, stars turning out for the event at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in Pasadena, CA, included Paula Abdul, Ryan Seacrest, Ashley Tisdale, Ana Ortiz, Roselyn Sanchez and Disney Channel's Selena Gomez.

LEWIS HAMILTON AND NICOLE SCHERZINGER OUTING IN MALAGA

2008-08-18T10:53:00.000-07:00

Lewis Hamilton and his girlfriend, Nicole Scherzinger were about to leave for a lunch date together at some fancy restaurant. Some believed that they were arguing about Lewis Hamilton's extra curricular activities at night. Nicole is suspecting that Lewis hamilton is dating another woman or worst a prostitute. Hmmmmmm. Very intriguing!

JESSICA ALBA AND CASH WARREN DATES ALWAYS

2008-08-17T13:12:00.000-07:00

They’ve been on non-stop parent duty ever since their little Honor Marie was born. But last night, Jessica Alba and Cash Warren took a little time for themselves.

The “Good Luck Chuck” babe and her handsome hubby were spotted grabbing a cup of coffee after making their way out of the Arclight Cinemas in Hollywood, California looking lovey-dovey and refreshed.

WHAT TO DO WHEN YOUR COMPUTER CRASHES

2008-08-17T07:57:00.000-07:00

THE SHOPPING MATES

2008-08-17T07:10:00.000-07:00

Following a fun-filled night at the grand opening of Apple Lounge, Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson were spotted doing a little retail therapy yesterday.

The “Labor Pains” cutie and her deejay girlfriend looked like they were ready to spend some loot as they made their way to the Fred Segal and Dior boutiques in Hollywood.

MAJOR CAUSES OF PIMPLES AND ACNE

2008-08-16T07:56:00.000-07:00

1) Bacteria - Bacteria is one of the main factors that can lead to acne breakouts. This is especially true if you do not cleanse your face thoroughly at the end of the day. As we go through the day, we are exposed to pollutions, dirt, fumes and etc. Bacteria that are built up on the skin should be eliminated. To do this, it is most effective to use an acne face wash that is aimed at removing bacteria on the skin. This will keep the acne causing bacteria at bay and prevent new breakouts.

2) Excess oil - People with oily skin have the tendency to have acne. Overproduction of oils in the skin can cause the pores to be clogged. This, in combination with bacteria, is the perfect condition for acne to form. To treat acne, you have to keep your skin dry. However, this does not mean to dehydrate your skin. You still need water content to keep your skin moist but you have to cut out the oil. The best treatment for this is to use a product containing salicylic acid. This agent will help to reduce excessive oil on the skin as well as to unclog pores.

3) Hormones - An imbalance in the hormones can be triggered by a number of factors. It can be due to puberty, menstruation, poor diet and stress. To deal with hormone imbalance, it is best to use acne herbal supplements. These supplements are aimed at treating acne and keeping out bodies' composition well balanced. Also, it is safer to consume these herbal supplements than prescriptive medication, as they are natural.

BRAD PITT AT THE ZAHARA MUSEUM

2008-08-16T06:29:00.000-07:00

Getting her dad all to herself, Zahara Jolie-Pitt and papa Brad Pitt enjoyed a day at the Aime and Marguerite Maeght Foundation in Saint Paul de Vence, France on Wednesday.

The father/daughter duo intently checked out the contemporary and modern art museum, which has been designed to harmonize with its natural surroundings, with Brad’s parents Jane Pitt and William Pitt.

AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL

2008-08-15T10:27:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, we introduced readers to a few contestants on season 11 of America's Next Top Model. Included Isis, the first-ever transgender cast member on the show.

Here are three more aspiring models that will be under the wing of Tyra Banks this cycle...

Name: Elina
Age: 19
Hometown: Berdichieve, Ukraine (currently Seattle, Washington)
Occupation: Currently unemployed

Name: Hannah
Age: 19
Hometown: Fairbanks, Alaska
Occupation: Student

Name: Joslyn
Age: 23
Hometown: Lucky, Louisiana (currently Shreveport, Louisiana)
Occupation: Student

LINDSAY LOHAN BLOGS ABOUT HER SIS BOOBS

2008-08-15T06:24:00.000-07:00

Lindsay Lohan slapped on her blogging bra to discuss allegations that her 14-year-old sister Ali has breast implants. In the lengthy diatribe on her MySpace page, Lindsay also surprisingly defends her mom Dina who has the parenting skills of asbestos: hey everyone..
i just had to share something that came up today and it made me feel a bit sick to my stomach.
so, here's the visual...
me and my friend Patrick walking into a store, and two paparazzi come up out of nowhere (like usual) and start throwing questions at me...
one of them being, "Hey Lindsay, what do you have to say about people commenting on your sisters implants?"
WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
my response simply was, "Did you really just ask me that? She is a 14 year old girl, and you are a pedophile!"
i was caught out of nowhere so i didn't really come up with the proper response at the time.. there's many other things that i felt like saying, but why give it to a random guy with a camera so that he can make money!
All i am trying to say is, is that, i was raised with a wonderful family surrounding me, of course we have our ups and downs, but all in all my mother taught us to appreciate what we have been given. Nor would she ever encourage, or allow a 14 year old child to alter her body.
i am not judging people that do, but i am just saying that its not something that my family finds necessary to do, especially when you're not even fully developed yet!
It is hard enough being 14 years old and you have enough insecurities to begin with, then add being in the public eye...
i just find it really disconcerting that people have to focus on the negative and that some people are sooooo bored with their own lives that they need to manifest lies to hurt another person.
in a more positive light...
i got some great clothes from alexander wang and i miss samantha cuz she's out of town :(
have a wonderful day everyone~
til next time..

SOLVENT RECYCLING

2008-08-15T06:00:00.000-07:00

Today, industries have evolved from being too much commercial into an entity taking care of the environment. Industries today have adopted a recycling program for their waste materials before it goes into the environment. The Waste Recovery System that each company implemented really worked.

In many cases, solvent has become the major problem in industries once they release it as waste. That is why many industries have adopted a Solvent Recovery System that will enable them you reuse the substance, and the end material is safe to release as total waste that is free from harmful substance that is detrimental to heath of human beings and the environment. Solvent Recovery is now the major concern in every industry in the world. Recycling is the only means in having a safe environment to live in and for the next generation. For more information visit http://www.nexgenenviro.com/

RIHANNA THE BEHIND SCENE

2008-08-14T00:28:00.000-07:00

Continuing to bask in the beauty of her homeland, Rihanna and her main man Chris Brown were spotted out on the beaches of Barbados on Tuesday. The “Take A Bow” singer and her R&B beau made the venture to the Caribbean island on Sunday, with the duo making the most of every minute of their trip to paradise with boating and wave runner excursions throughout. Everybody needs a timeout from work and rtelaxing in the beach is the best way to do relaxing. having Rihanna around is an additional bonus!

SAM RONSON AND LINDASAY LOHAN ARE TRULY IN A RELATIONSHIP

2008-08-13T16:22:00.000-07:00

Samantha Ronson is talks about her "relationship" with Lindsay Lohan in the pages of the new Harper's Bazaar. Because you know who loves lesbians? Housewives. That's science: When asked about Lohan, Samantha is polite but firm. "I'm not going to talk about Lindsay because she's my friend, you know? She's great. She's also 22 years old. I think people forget that. With the Internet the way it is, one second we're enemies, one second we're best friends, one second we're lovers, and then we're broken up."

By press time, reports had trickled out on the Web that Samantha had changed her personal status on Facebook to "in a relationship," while photos of her and Lohan holding hands had circulated. She is accustomed to the speculation. "Even the airport-security guy in Canada asked me, 'So, is it true?'" laughs Samantha. "It's like, 'Oh, yeah, I'm telling you.'" So, reading between the lines, I've finally concluded this whole lesbian engagement thing is an orchestrated effort to revive Lindsay's career. But who is she really having sex with, and where are they hiding the bodies? (You can't talk if you're dead.) I mean, sure, Lindsay could be sleeping with just one guy who's on the payroll, but that would constitute monogamy which is a fancy word for "crazy talk."