what is waterboarding

The creepiest promo for Monday night’s Decision Points: A Conversation with George W. Bush was the snippet that played all last week during NBC’s entertainment programming, in which former president George W. Bush said to Matt Lauer, “Let’s talk about water-boarding” in an enthusiastic tone that suggested the subject was as fun and exciting as a trip to Disneyworld.

NBC’s promo department should be sent to the same woodshed where Keith Olbermann is being kept until Tuesday evening. It turned out that the water-boarding comment came in the context of Lauer’s careful parsing of Bush’s justification for using the technique many describe as torture, which boiled down to: “It’s legal — the lawyers told me [that].” Bush showed a flash of testiness, saying to Lauer, “I’m not gonna debate the issue, man.” Okay, dude.

Bush was fascinating on the subject of his drinking. He was full of stories, including one about “drinking no hands at a bar, yeah.” Lauer clarified: “Reaching down with your mouth, grabbing the glass.” Yes, Bush says — got a DUI for that one, he said. Claiming he quit “cold turkey,” that it was “the most important decision of his life,” and that he hasn’t had a drink since 1986, Bush also took care to say he’s not a recovering alcoholic. Lauer and Bush shared a rueful laugh over what Bush calls his “worst” behavior during his drinking days: Loaded at the dinner table at his parents’ house in Maine, Bush asked a female dinner companion, “What is sex like after 50?” Still, he notes with ill-disguised disdain, “I wasn’t a knee-walkin’ drunk.” Spoken like a white-knuckling child of privilege.

Bush’s remarks about Kanye West’s criticism of him have already been reported: “I resent it… It was a disgusting moment, pure and simple.”

Bush also had a hard time dealing with ire from someone closer to him, Vice President Dick Cheney, who, Bush said, was “angry” with him for not granting a full pardon to Cheney’s pal “Scooter” Libby, convicted of perjury in the Valerie Plame case. The former president does not seem to be the sort of fellow who takes criticism well.

Bush says these days he reads two things: “The Bible and The Wall Street Journal.” The latter on his iPad.

The Bush book tour is just getting started. Tomorrow, he’ll be on Oprah. In the next few days, he’ll do a tour of duty on the Fox News Channel, hitting The O’Reilly Factor, Hannity, Fox and Friends, and Greta Van Susteren’s show. On Nov. 18, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. (The Daily Show? Not on Bush’s list as I write.)

If Bush’s interview with Matt Lauer on Monday night — an interview conducted by Lauer with a systematic thoroughness — is any indication, we’ll see more than Bush probably intends. Bush came across this evening as a cheerful, un-self-conscious man, speaking cautious words even as his tone and body language suggest a prickly defensiveness. “I gave it my all and I’m a content man,” he concluded flatly.

What do you think of the interview?

source : http://watching-tv.ew.com/2010/11/08/george-bush-lauer-oprah-oreilly-kanye/

BBT:Big Brother 12′ Recap

What will Enzo in the Big Brother 12 house, I have no idea, but at least he recognizes how it is embarrassing that he won nothing. Fortunately for him, the rest of the team hold their own.

According to Black Jack card game, wins HOH Lane. Thats it, this means guaranteed one in the last four digits, but he must also implies a promise to close to keep their goals, Ragan. Enzo worry, it is found, so thats it communicates with Hyde Lane is too close to Britney. You decide, they should bring Bring It Back in the team and Britney down.

I hate to say it, but there is one thing, Enzo has made significant progress in this game: forward brigade.

Now, it seems, the teams make the Final Four, and you owe substantially the Enzo. Hey Focused on their union side always going on, and it seemed that he admit one that Matt was not as loyal as the other members. Nevertheless, it is still annoyed me that everyone else in terms, he played a bad game.

But enough about Enzo, let's get back to go to the game.

Lane opens a Pandora's box with a ridiculous result of the season. He has a chance to Win 10,000 Euro, but still only $ 91.17. As a result, the whole house will receive three sentences, starting with silver cup or more times a week.

Then the bump in the road, Lane take a decision, he feared, and shall designate Ragan and Enzo. Go to my "nothing to lose and everything to gain" mantra this season, it seems, has to win POV Ragan. Enzo super excited, but was nominated for Britney. If he POV, Lane, Britney probably win designate, and they are likely to send back home.

If the Smart Lane and he gets a game ball Hayden do in this situation, so that he could remain well with Britney Spears. , The presumably he must, because Britney is not intended for Lane voting on Big Brother 12 win! Hayden Lane admit that she does not need the prize money. Is Britney trying to get a good relationship with Hayden or serious again? Hard to say, but certainly interesting alliances have become in this game.

Unsafe abortions kill 70,000 annually

Increased contraceptive use has led to fewer abortions worldwide, but deaths from unsafe abortion remain a severe problem, killing 70,000 women a year, a research institute reported Tuesday in a major global survey.

More than half the deaths, about 38,000, are in sub-Saharan Africa, which was singled out as the region with by far the lowest rates of contraceptive use and the highest rates of unintended pregnancies.

The report, three years in the making, was compiled by the New York-based Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion rights and is a leading source of data on abortion-related trends. Researchers examined data from individual countries and multinational organizations.

The institute's president, Sharon Camp, said she was heartened by the overall trends since Guttmacher conducted a similar survey in 1999, yet expressed concern about the gap revealed in the new report.

"In almost all developed countries, abortion is safe and legal," she said. "But in much of the developing world, abortion remains highly restricted, and unsafe abortion is common and continues to damage women's health and threaten their survival."

The report calls for further easing of developing nations' abortion laws, a move criticized by Deirdre McQuade, a policy director with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities.

"We need to be much more creative in assisting women with supportive services so they don't need to resort to the unnatural act of abortion," she said.

Guttmacher estimated previously that the number of abortions worldwide fell from 45.5 million in 1995 to 41.6 million in 2003 -- the latest year for which global figures were available.

A key reason for that drop, the new report said, was that the portion of married women using contraception increased from 54 percent in 1990 to 63 percent in 2003 as availability increased and social mores changed. Guttmacher's researchers said contraceptive use had increased in every major region, but still lagged badly in Africa -- used by only 28 percent of married women there, compared with at least 68 percent in other major regions.

The report notes that abortions worldwide are declining even as more countries liberalize their abortion laws. Since 1997, it said, only three countries -- Poland, Nicaragua and El Salvador -- substantially increased restrictions on abortion, while laws were eased significantly in 19 countries and regions, including Cambodia, Nepal and Mexico City.

Source : mail.com

Manohara

A startling allegation has surfaced in a Surabaya newspaper about a member of the Kelantan royal household, Muhammad Fakhry (the son of the ruler) who is said to have ‘abducted and abused‘ his 17-year-old Indonesian model wife. According to the Surya newspaper, the family of Manohara Odelia Pinot is now in the dark as to her whereabouts and fear for her safety.

131They also claimed that the French Indonesian model, who was named as one of the country’s top models by an international magazine, was cut with a razor blade by her husband. Manohara’s parent tried to enter Malaysia to reclaim their daughter but was stopped by the Immigration Department, under the instruction of the Raja Perempuan of Kelantan (the ruler’s wife), and Najib, the prime minister of Malaysia.

Manohara’s mother, Daisy Fajarina, said the royalty had forcefully taken her daughter away in a private jet from Saudi Arabia, where the family had gone to perform the umrah (pilgrimage) last month. Manohara’s family was invited to 134perform the umrah between Feb 25 and March 9 this year in order to reconcile with the royalty.

Muhammad Fakhry (The Tengku Temenggong) married this rich and pretty Indonesian girl, Manohara on August 26, 2008. Before the marriage, on New Year’s Eve of December 2007, Muhammad Fakhry had forcefully raped her. The marriage took place in August 2008. This marriage, in the opinion of The Mighty Pen, was forced upon Muhammad Fakhry, who earlier consented only to an informal marriage called ‘nikah siri’. This is the standard practice of Muslim men wanting to marry more than one wife (or even for first timers), not wanting to attract too much publicity. Or you may want to call it a ‘secret marriage’. This is quite common in Indonesia. Many wealthy Malaysians keep mistresses in Bandung, Surabaya, etc under this secret marriage practice, without the knowledge of their wives in Malaysia.

135After a short duration of the official marriage, Manohara left the prince and stayed back in Indonesia, before she was hoodwinked by the Kelantan royal family by inviting her and her family members to perform the Umrah. Daisy claimed that her daughter had run away to Indonesia earlier after a short duration of marriage, complaining of frequent abuse by her 31-year-old husband.

n December 2006, Daisy and Manohara were invited to attend a dinner with the then Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and this was where the model had met her husband. The invitation was made through a close friend. Why Najib?

The anguished mother said she had filed a complaint with the 136Indonesian embassy in Jeddah after the incident. She had also tried to come to Malaysia to track down her daughter but alleged that she was denied entry at the “request of the Kelantan palace.” (Najib’s dirty hand of play can be seen here, a similarity to Altantuya’s case). Daisy, who claims to have evidence of her daughter being abused, had also sought the help of the Indonesian Foreign Ministry. “My child has been tortured; her chest has been cut with a razor. This is what people in the palace who were sympathetic with our plight have told me,” she added.

Najib is expected to be grilled by the local Indonesian media on this issue for sure. The similarity between the Altantuya’s case and this is telling. The Kelantan royalty cannot keep quiet on this issue! Let her come out in the public and make an official statement from Indonesia! Otherwise you will be held responsible for her life! Do not forget Muhammad Fakhry had sex with an underage girl before she became his wife! The international community is watching this major development. Another embarrasment for Najib and the Kelantan royalty. Tengku Razaleigh is one of the guardians of law in Malaysia. We are sure he will advice his family members wisely.

resaurce : http://sjsandteam.wordpress.com/2009/04/22/najib-where-is-the-indonesian-model-manohara/

Former Facebook executive to be MySpace CEO

With MySpace falling behind Facebook as the world's largest online social network, MySpace tapped a former Facebook executive Friday as its new chief executive.

Owen Van Natta, 39, replaces Chris DeWolfe, a co-founder of MySpace, who stepped down as chief executive Wednesday. News Corp., which owns MySpace, said Van Natta's new role begins immediately.

Van Natta faces the lofty task of reinvigorating MySpace at a time when Facebook is growing at a faster clip and Twitter, the short messaging site, is grabbing scores of headlines and celebrity attention. While MySpace is still the largest social network in the United States, it has only 130 million users worldwide, compared with more than 200 million for Facebook.

Even so, MySpace may be making more money, at least for now. Research firm eMarketer estimates that the company brought in $585 million in U.S. ad revenue last year, nearly three times that of Facebook. A big chunk of that, however, comes from an ad-sharing deal with Google Inc. that expires next year. Neither Beverly Hills, California-based MySpace nor Palo Alto, California-based Facebook discloses how much money they make.

The executive change could be energizing for MySpace, said Charlene Li, an industry analyst and founder of Altimeter Group.

"MySpace has a very interesting product and a loyal user base," Li said. But from a technology perspective, they've been stagnant, she added.

Facebook, meanwhile, continues to redesign and update the site, even if doing so often leads to user rumblings.

"Owen is coming from Facebook and the history they have with being much more technologically innovative than MySpace," Li said. Shaking things up, she added, is the "whole purpose of a change in management."

At Facebook, Van Natta was chief operating officer and helped negotiate a $240 million investment from Microsoft Corp. that valued the company at $15 billion — though it later emerged that Facebook placed its value well below that.

With Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg ensconced as the site's CEO, Van Natta left in February 2008 in hopes of landing the top job at another company. Later in the year he became CEO of Playlist.com, a Palo Alto, California-based online music company.

On Friday, Playlist named John Sykes, a board member, as the company's CEO and said Van Natta will be adviser to the company. Sykes is a co-founder of MTV and has been president of VH1.

MySpace's other co-founder, Tom Anderson, had been president of the company and has been in talks about taking on a new role. News Corp. did not give an update on that Friday. Van Natta will report to Jonathan Miller, News Corp.'s chief digital officer, who was named to the post April 1.

Facebook, where Van Natta spend about three years as chief operating officer and then as chief revenue officer, declined to comment on the appointment.

Why I Hate Spam

But spam is worse than irritating. It is a drain on business productivity, an increasingly costly waste of time and resources that clogs corporate networks and distracts workers. Among consumers, it spreads scams, pornography and even computer viruses. Worse, spammers prey on less sophisticated e-mail users, including children, threatening their safety and privacy. And as everyone struggles to sift spam from their inboxes, valid messages are sometimes overlooked or deleted, which makes e-mail less useful and reliable as a channel for communication and legitimate e-commerce. In short, spam threatens to undo much of the good that e-mail has achieved.

As part of our drive to create a more trustworthy computing environment, this month, Microsoft filed 15 lawsuits in the U.S. and U.K. against companies and individuals alleged to have sent billions of spam messages in violation of state and federal laws. In addition to filing civil lawsuits and taking other enforcement actions, we are significantly stepping up our efforts to fight spam through technological innovation and cooperation with government and industry leaders. We are developing more effective anti-spam filters and other technologies that build on our research into fields such as machine learning -- the design of systems that learn from data and grow smarter over time. These "smart" systems are vital to the fight against spam because every defensive action causes spammers to change their tactics. Technology, to be effective, must continuously adapt too.

Already, spam filters built into MSN and Hotmail servers block 2.4 billion messages a day before they reach subscribers' inboxes. We have assembled a vast and fast-growing database of spam, which will be used by a forthcoming version of our Outlook e-mail software to block spam more effectively. And a new version of our Exchange e-mail server will include advanced anti-spam features. Our goal is to do everything possible to secure e-mail systems with servers that monitor and control the points of entry.

But a single company can't stem the tide of spam alone. So we are working with other industry leaders such as AOL, Yahoo! and EarthLink on a range of joint initiatives. For example, we are battling spammers who set up numerous e-mail accounts and move from service to service to avoid detection. To put an end to this shell game, we are sharing information so that we can keep tabs on roving spammers and shut them down more effectively. Spammers also go to great lengths to conceal or "spoof" their identities, so we are partnering with other service providers to identify and restrict mail that conceals its source. And we are creating a system to verify sender addresses, much as recipients' addresses are verified today.

A key to eliminating spam is establishing clear guidelines for legitimate commercial e-mail. With industry and consumer groups, we are developing best-practice guidelines to help responsible companies understand how to reach their customers without spamming them. Congress could help by providing a strong incentive for businesses to adopt e-mail best practices. Our proposal is to create a regulatory "safe harbor" status for senders who comply with e-mail guidelines confirmed by an FTC-approved self-regulatory body. Senders who do not comply would have to insert an "ADV:" label -- standing for advertisement -- in the subject line of all unsolicited commercial e-mail. This would enable computer users either to accept ADV-labeled mail or to have it deleted automatically.

As less junk mail reaches recipients -- and violators face stiffer sanctions for illegal activities -- the financial incentives for spammers will decrease, and spamming will lose its appeal.

Then maybe we can all focus on the e-mail that's actually worth reading.

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