Swine flu in Venezuela?

Of course the swine flu is all over the news. The alert level was recently raised to 5 (of 6) which means that its a worldwide pandemic.

However, it was a regular day for Venezuelan politics. President Hugo Chavez went yesterday on national television saying that there was not a single case of swine influenza in Venezuela. Also, continuing with the dictated line, the Health Minister also went on national television saying that some cases in Merida where they initially thought was swine flu, they are not, so Venezuela is protected against swine flu.

Now, do you really believe what these public officials are saying? Apparently it has been almost 4 weeks since the first case of swine flu in Mexico, and now a world pandemic. I do not want to sound alarming or controversial, but did you Mexicana has a daily non stop flight between Caracas and Mexico City? How many people came into Venezuela from Mexico in that timeframe? 2 weeks of daily flights transporting people from Mexico to Venezuela? And thats not considering the people that might connect in the United States from Mexico? And Panama? And Colombia? Aruba?

I understand that the risks of Venezuela are minimal in contrast to say, United States, but to go on national television and say that Venezuela is secure from swine flu is just down right irresponsible in my book.

Emerson on Travelling (Self Reliance)

It is for want of self-culture that the idol of Traveling, the idol of Italy, of England, of Egypt, remains for all educated Americans. They who made England, Italy, or Greece venerable in the imagination, did so not by rambling round creation as a moth round a lamp, but by sticking fast where they were, like an axis of the earth. In manly hours we feel that duty is our place and that the merry men of circumstance should follow as they may. The soul is no traveler: the wise man stays at home with the soul, and when his necessities, his duties, on any occasion call him from his house, or into foreign lands, he is at home still and is not gadding abroad from himself, and shall make men sensible by the expression of his countenance that he goes, the missionary of wisdom and virtue, and visits cities and men like a sovereign and not like an interloper or a valet.

I have no churlish objection to the circumnavigation of the globe for the purposes of art, of study, and benevolence, so that the man is first domesticated, or does not go abroad with the hope of finding somewhat greater than he knows. He who travels to be amused or to get somewhat which he does not carry, travels away from himself, and grows old even in youth among old things. In Thebes, in Palmyra, his will and mind have become old and dilapidated as they. He carries ruins to ruins.

Traveling is a fool's paradise. We owe to our first journeys the discovery that place is nothing. At home I dream that at Naples, at Rome, I can be intoxicated with beauty and lose my sadness. I pack my trunk, embrace my friends, embark on the sea and at last wake up in Naples, and there beside me is the stern Fact, and sad self, unrelenting, identical, that I fled from. I seek the Vatican and the palaces. I affect to be intoxicated with sights and suggestions, but I am not intoxicated. My giant goes with me wherever I go.

3. But the rage of traveling is itself only a symptom of a deeper unsoundness affecting the whole intellectual action. The intellect is vagabond, and the universal system of education fosters restlessness. Our minds travel when our bodies are forced to stay at home. We imitate; and what is imitation but the traveling of the mind? Our houses are built with foreign taste; our shelves are garnished with foreign ornaments; our opinions, our tastes, our whole minds, lean, and follow the Past and the Distant, as the eyes of a maid follow her mistress. The soul created the arts wherever they have flourished. It was in his own mind that the artist sought the model. It was an application of his own thought to the thing to be done and the conditions to be observed. And why need we copy the Doric or the Gothic model? Beauty, convenience, grandeur of thought and quaint expression are as near to us as to any, and if the American artist will study with hope and love the precise thing to be done by him, considering the climate, the soil, the length of the day, the wants of the people, the habit and form of the government, he will create a house in which all these will find themselves fitted, and taste and sentiment will be satisfied also.

On Imperialism

I make huge efforts not to laugh when I hear Venezuelan President Chavez attacking the United States on account that it represents the Empire. Any argument that this or that specific nation or company represents or is in fact the Empire, really reflects ignorance about history. But this naive ignorance is not as bad as when it is mixed with Marxist or Socialist arguments...

Not going into detail about Marxism and Socialist and its failed concepts in this post. Two really clever academics came up with a contemporary view of the empire and a view from Marxism. Their names Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt. Negri and Hardt wrote a book, title "Empire" and it has been deeply studied by constitutional academics in law schools around the world. Negri and Hardt have outlined the revised marxist concepts. Concepts with have failed throughout history in my personal opinion.

What is truly important is that two neo-marxists have seem to agree that

"Imperialism...is over."

Classical 19th and early 20th c. imperialism, as the extension of national sovereignty beyond the borders of the nation-state no longer organizes nor articulates the world economy. For Negri and Hardt imperialism has been replaced by imperium (Empire) or "a series of national or supranational organisms united under a single logic of rule."

Empire is a consequence of the globalization of Capital which they claim is unlike the global spread of capitalism which has characterized the previous 450 years of the world economy. As such, Empire, is a qualitative break with the past and all previous forms of hegemony.

Therefore to talk about Imperialism against a specific country, company or even product is really naive. What remains as the empire is the single logic of rule, and the rule seems to dictate towards the economic gain of the individual. For me money is empire, in the sense that everyone works for it and needs it.

Does Chavez know what is talking about? Would he give his personal wealth on currency just to abolish the empire? Would his Ministers and Chavista businessmen give away their money for socialist causes? I do not think so...

Perhaps the abolition of currency could entail the end the empire? If so...welcome to Utopia City, Population 1.

Oh the places you will go

by Dr. Seuss

Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You're off to Great Places!
You're off and away!

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.
You're on your own. And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go.

You'll look up and down streets. Look 'em over with care.
About some you will say, "I don't choose to go there."
With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet,
you're too smart to go down any not-so-good street.

And you may not find any
you'll want to go down.
In that case, of course,
you'll head straight out of town.

It's opener there
in the wide open air.

Out there things can happen
and frequently do
to people as brainy
and footsy as you.

And when things start to happen,
don't worry. Don't stew.
Just go right along.
You'll start happening too.

OH!
THE PLACES YOU'LL GO!

You'll be on your way up!
You'll be seeing great sights!
You'll join the high fliers
who soar to high heights.

You won't lag behind, because you'll have the speed.
You'll pass the whole gang and you'll soon take the lead.
Wherever you fly, you'll be the best of the best.
Wherever you go, you will top all the rest.

Except when you don' t
Because, sometimes, you won't.

I'm sorry to say so
but, sadly, it's true
and Hang-ups
can happen to you.

You can get all hung up
in a prickle-ly perch.
And your gang will fly on.
You'll be left in a Lurch.

You'll come down from the Lurch
with an unpleasant bump.
And the chances are, then,
that you'll be in a Slump.

And when you're in a Slump,
you're not in for much fun.
Un-slumping yourself
is not easily done.

You will come to a place where the streets are not marked.
Some windows are lighted. But mostly they're darked.
A place you could sprain both you elbow and chin!
Do you dare to stay out? Do you dare to go in?
How much can you lose? How much can you win?

And IF you go in, should you turn left or right...
or right-and-three-quarters? Or, maybe, not quite?
Or go around back and sneak in from behind?
Simple it's not, I'm afraid you will find,
for a mind-maker-upper to make up his mind.

You can get so confused
that you'll start in to race
down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace
and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space,
headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.
The Waiting Place...

...for people just waiting.
Waiting for a train to go
or a bus to come, or a plane to go
or the mail to come, or the rain to go
or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow
or waiting around for a Yes or a No
or waiting for their hair to grow.
Everyone is just waiting.

Waiting for the fish to bite
or waiting for wind to fly a kite
or waiting around for Friday night
or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake
or a pot to boil, or a Better Break
or a sting of pearls, or a pair of pants
or a wig with curls, or Another Chance.
Everyone is just waiting.

NO!
That's not for you!

Somehow you'll escape
all that waiting and staying.
You'll find the bright places
where Boom Bands are playing.

With banner flip-flapping,
once more you'll ride high!
Ready for anything under the sky.
Ready because you're that kind of a guy!

Oh, the places you'll go! There is fun to be done!
There are points to be scored. there are games to be won.
And the magical things you can do with that ball
will make you the winning-est winner of all.
Fame! You'll be famous as famous can be,
with the whole wide world watching you win on TV.

Except when they don't.
Because, sometimes, they won't.

I'm afraid that some times
you'll play lonely games too.
Games you can't win
'cause you'll play against you.

All Alone!
Whether you like it or not,
Alone will be something
you'll be quite a lot.

And when you're alone, there's a very good chance
you'll meet things that scare you right out of your pants.
There are some, down the road between hither and yon,
that can scare you so much you won't want to go on.

But on you will go
though the weather be foul
On you will go
though your enemies prowl
On you will go
though the Hakken-Kraks howl
Onward up many
a frightening creek,
though your arms may get sore
and your sneakers may leak.

On and on you will hike
and I know you'll hike far
and face up to your problems
whatever they are.

You'll get mixed up, of course,
as you already know.
You'll get mixed up
with many strange birds as you go.
So be sure when you step.
Step with care and great tact
and remember that Life's
a Great Balancing Act.
Just never forget to be dexterous and deft.
And never mix up your right foot with your left.

And will you succeed?
Yes! You will, indeed!
(98 and 3 / 4 percent guaranteed.)

KID, YOU'LL MOVE MOUNTAINS!

So...
be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray
or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O'Shea,
you're off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So...get on your way!

Haile Selassie the I of Ethiopia

“Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph.”

"We have finished the job. What shall we do with the tools?"

Haile Selassie I (Ge'ez: ኃይለ፡ ሥላሴ, "Power of the Trinity"; 23 July 1892 – 27 August 1975), born Tafari Makonnen, was Ethiopia's regent from 1916 to 1930 and Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. The heir to a dynasty that traced its origins to the 13th century, and from there by tradition back to King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, Haile Selassie is a defining figure in both Ethiopian and African history.

At the League of Nations in 1936, the Emperor's condemnation of the use of chemical weapons against his people was a pivotal moment in the onset of World War II, as well as a foreshadowing of the "barbarism" which was to come.His internationalist views led to Ethiopia's becoming a charter member of the United Nations, and his political thought and experience in promoting multilateralism and collective security have proved seminal and enduring.His suppression of rebellions among the nobles (mekwannint), as well as what some perceived to be Ethiopia's failure to modernize adequately, earned him criticism among some contemporaries and historians.

Haile Selassie is revered as the religious symbol for God incarnate among the Rastafari movement, the number of adherents of which is indeterminate due to the loose structure of the religion, but is estimated between 1 and 2 million. Begun in Jamaica in the 1930s, the Rastafarian movement perceives Haile Selassie as a messianic figure who will lead the peoples of Africa and the African diaspora to a golden age of peace, righteousness, and prosperity.

A dream

"A dream is not what you see in your sleep.
A dream is what does not let you sleep"
Vishal Katariya, Pune India

Manuel Rosales, Maracaibo´s elected mayor seeks political assylum

Maracaibo´s elected mayor, Manuel Rosales, yesterday requested political assylum in the Republic of Peru, on account of politicial prosecution of the Chavez regime. Manuel Rosales is being criminally prosecuted by the Chavez regime on 2 counts of unjust enrichment. The judicial process has been tainted from the getgo, including leaking a draft of the judicial decision by the Judge to the media before the hearing. The judicial process started when President Chavez went on national television and declared "that Rosales is going to be put in jail"...and "the mission is called, lets put Rosales in jail"

Not only that but Chavez has also blocked Antonio Ledezma as Metropolitan mayor of Caracas, by enacting a law creating a superior official for Caracas which is appointed by the President. Also, the inconstitutional reversion of jurisdiction of State governorships over highways, ports and airports.

This is further evidence of the lack of democracy in Venezuela and that even though some democratic features are still present (aka freedom of speech) the Chavez regime is on offensive mode to control their political adversaries. Its what we term as Neodictatorship. What is really shocking is that lack of division of powers in Venezuela and the obsene control exerted from Chavez to all public powers in Venezuela.

Do not be surprised if communications are heavily monitored...

ala Sieyes for the Sixth Venezuela

What is the third [Sixth Venezuelan] Estate? Everything. What has it been hitherto in the political order? Nothing. What does it desire? To be something.

This is a manifesto for the establishment of the next Venezuelan state. The Fifth State starting from 1999 proved to a failure. After constantly violating human rights, freedom of expression and electoral fraud.

Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès (3 May 1748 – 20 June 1836) (pronounced [sjejɛs] or [sijɛs]) was a French Roman Catholic abbé and clergyman, one of the chief theorists of the French Revolution, French Consulate, and First French Empire. His liberal 1789 pamphlet What is the Third Estate? became the manifesto of the Revolution that helped transform the Estates-General into the National Assembly in June 1789. In 1799, he was the instigator of the coup d'état of 18 Brumaire (9 November 1799), which brought Napoleon Bonaparte to power. He was also the first to coin the term "sociologie" (French for "sociology") in an unpublished manuscript. Sieyès and his party "spoke the language of democracy", unlike Jean Joseph Mounier and his party the Monarchiens.

In 1788, Louis XVI of France proposed convocation of the Estates-General of France after the interval of more than a century and a half, and the invitation of Jacques Necker to writers to state their views as to the organization of the Estates, enabled Sieyès to publish his celebrated January 1789 pamphlet, Qu’est-ce que le tiers état? ("What Is the Third Estate?") He begins his answer:
"What is the Third Estate? Everything. What has it been hitherto in the political order? Nothing. What does it desire? To be something."

This phrase, which was to remain famous, is said to have been inspired by Nicolas Chamfort. The pamphlet was very successful, and its author, despite his clerical vocation (which made him part of the First Estate), was elected as the last (the twentieth) of the deputies the Third Estate of Paris to the Estates-General. He played his main role in the opening years of the Revolution, drafting the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, expanding on the theory of national sovereignty, popular sovereignty, and representation implied in his pamphlet, with a distinction between active and passive citizens that justified suffrage limited to male owners of property.

Impact on the Revolution

The contributions of Sieyès’s pamphlet were indispensable to the revolutionary thought that projected France towards the French Revolution. In his pamphlet he outlined the desires and frustrations of the alienated class of people that made up the third estate. In many senses of the expression, he was the force that ripped the band-aid off the Ancien Régime in France by arguing the nobility to be fraudulent and preying on an overburdened and despondent bourgeoisie. The pamphlet was essentially the rallying cry that united a hitherto neglectable class into an unheard-of political force outlining and stating grievances that for the first time were not to be overlooked in the convocation of the Estates General.
Whereas the aristocracy defined themselves as an elite ruling class charged with maintaining the social order in France, Sieyès saw the Third estate as the primary mechanism of public service. Expression of radical thought at its best, the pamphlet placed sovereignty not in the hands of aristocrats but instead defined the nation of France by its working class, whose daily trials and tribulations “are the activities which support society”. The French Revolution could not have been what it was without this patriotic and radical message, more importantly one so eagerly dispersed by the rising revolutionary politics within the third estate.
In being perhaps the most daunting of his rhetorical repertoire, Sieyès essentially argued from the nobility's privileges that to establish the aristocracy as an alien body acting outside of the nation of France and deemed noble privilege “treason to the commonwealth”. As a consequence, the resulting conflict between the orders inspired the proper political sphere from which the revolution grew.

Perhaps most significant was the influence of Sieyès’s pamphlet on the structural concerns that arose surrounding the convocation of the Estates general. Specifically, the third estate demanded that the number of deputies for their order be equal that of the two privileged orders combined, and most controversially “that the States General Vote, Not by Orders, but by Heads.” The pamphlet took these issues to the masses and their partial appeasement was met with revolutionary reaction. By addressing the issues of representation directly, Sieyès inspired resentment and agitation that united the third estate against the feudalistic traditions of the Ancien Régime.
be

Obama's lack of street smarts

The infamous handshake that over shadowed the Americas Summit at Trinidad & Tobago. As the press covered it, Obama surprised Chavez with an initial handshake. Clearly in the picture Chavez seemed very surprised. In the second meeting, Chavez entered a room where Obama was giving a press conference and gave him a copy of Eduardo Galeano's Open Veins of Latin America. Obama was surprised and said that he "thought that it was one of his books, I was going to give him mine". How naive can you be? The book in my opinion represents the message Chavez wants to send to Americans, please dont be stupid and naive and read history...

Lets remember that recently Chavez cursed against Obama in relation to the report of Human Rights in Venezuela. The political prisoners and the constant violations of human rights, including freedom of speech and economic freedom. Chavez said to Obama, "go and clean your suit Mr Obama" [vaya a lavarse el palto Mr Obama]....if not to say "go and clean your ass Mr Obama"...

Chavez appears to be a local barrio thug with this language and antics. Now, Obama appears to be a golden boy from Harvard Law who clearly lacks street smarts to deal with latin thugs.

I think this is a political disaster against the United States and could be an omen for Latin American relations...

GI JOE gone wrong...

I think this picture is really funny...or pathetic...


or both

Jeff Koons- Artist review

I remember going almost a year ago to the Metropolitan Museum with my childhood buddy, NYC Brooklyn resident Diego Dax Rooks *aka prux, and going in an elevator to the roof top of the museum. The day was sunny and the people in the elevator crowded, I remember the elevator made a stop at some floor and some staff of the Met came in the elevator. I remember flirting with a girl staff she was really cute...and at the roof top they were displaying some works of Jeff Koons...

Jeff Koons (born January 21, 1955) is an American artist whose work incorporates kitsch imagery using painting, sculpture, and other forms, often in large scale.

Koons was born in York, Pennsylvania; as a teenager he revered Salvador Dalí, to the extent of visiting him at the St. Regis Hotel in New York City. Koons studied painting at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Maryland Institute College of Art. After college, he worked as a Wall Street commodities broker while establishing himself as an artist. He gained recognition in the 1980s and subsequently set up a factory-like studio in a SoHo loft on the corner of Houston and Broadway in New York. It was staffed with over 30 assistants, each assigned to a different aspect of producing his work—in a similar mode to Andy Warhol's Factory.

Copyright litigation

Koons has been sued several times for copyright infringement over his use of pre-existing images in his work. In Rogers v. Koons, 960 F.2d 301 (2d Cir. 1992), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld a judgment against him for his use of a photograph of puppies as the basis for a sculpture, String of Puppies.[21]
Koons also lost lawsuits in United Features Syndicate, Inc. v. Koons, 817 F. Supp. 370 (S.D.N.Y. 1993), and Campbell v. Koons, No. 91 Civ. 6055, 1993 WL 97381 (S.D.N.Y. Apr. 1, 1993). More recently, he won a lawsuit in Blanch v. Koons, No. 03 Civ. 8026 (LLS), S.D.N.Y., Nov. 1 2005 (slip op.),[22] affirmed by the Second Circuit in October, 2006, brought over his use of a photographic advertisement as source material for legs and feet in a painting, Niagara (2000). The court ruled that Koons had sufficiently transformed the original advertisement so as to qualify as a fair use.

Manuel Rosales speaks from his safehaven

Manuel Rosales, who recently has been subject of judicial criminal prosecution by the Chavez regime, has today issued a letter to the people of Venezuela. I will free translate some relevant parts of the letter.

Manuel Rosales was democratically elected to be Mayor of the city of Maracaibo (Western Venezuela, and second most populated city in Venezuela) in the last election of November 2008. During the campaign Chavez declared publicly that he was corrupt and leader of local mafias and that "he will send Rosales to jail" and even further insulting him as "one thousand times disgraced". Rosales and his candidate for the Zulia State governorship Pablo Perez won cleanly and notwithstanding Chavez's efforts to include last minute people in the electoral college, and including electronic fraud. Rosales won fair and square and the difference in the city of Maracaibo was brutal. Recently, Rosales has been the center of a criminal investigation prompted by the National Assembly concerning corruption charges. The core issue was his economic gain for private endeavors in a cattle ranch he invested some time ago. Now, according to the prosecuting lawmakers (Representative Mario Isea) they argue that Rosales can not lawfully admit such economic gains. The amount in question is roughly $70,000 and considering that Rosales has been a public official for the last 15 years, previously 2 time governor and 2 time elected Mayor for the city of Maracaibo, at least he can account for $70,000 as private economic gain. From another side the prosecuting party also argues that Rosales executed a donation of a 10 year old pick up truck to a Governorship employee of more than 30 years. Rosales has gone in the media and has declared that he will stand by the legal process and will submit his defense and further evidence. Now, do you really think that after a President of Venezuela on live Television declaring that "he will send Manuel Rosales to jail" is not a political trial? It is obvious that it is, and Rosales is a trophy for any Chavez government official.

Excerpt of the letter from Manuel Rosales to the people of Venezuela

"Dear and beloved people of Venezuela

From my safehaven, protecting my physical integrity with the support of democratic factors, I have reflected upon the last events produced in the national political scene, and remain expectant to observe the fashion in which the Government and his boss, Hugo Chavez, without shame or remorse, is conducting us to the establishment of a totalitarian and authocratic regime, that without a doubt, has closed all the democratic spaces.

We are in front of a President that has proposed to control the functioning mechanisms of our country, and has obtained the silent support of the public powers, who remain dominated and directed in a obscene fashion, just like dictators have done when comparing history."

Bernie the Relentless

Yes, I agree with Gore Vidal who recently said about Bernie Madoff that he was "relentless". He fooled everyone and thats not quite easy to do. 13 years without ever processing a single financial transaction. The lists of clients include Wall Street CEOs, CFOs, Hollywood actors, directors and producers, international banks from Spain, Swiss, Japan, Hong Kong and loads of charitable foundations. Bernie was relentless because he had no favorites, I mean everyone has to have to favorite, specially when you see charitable foundations on the list. Not only that but he also rejected thousands of investors, apparently the minimum to invest with Bernie was US 20 Million.

Now, a UK High court approves of data transfer to the US in Madoff case

The Chancery Division of the High Court gave its nod of assent - on 27 February 2009 - to the transfer of personal data to the Unites States (US) to further ongoing legal proceedings against Madoff Investment Securities LLC.

In the case (Re Madoff Securities International Ltd, 2009 EWHC 442), Justice Lewison ruled that although such transfers are normally barred under the Data Protection Act of 1998 (DPA), certain exemptions apply "when the transfer is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest and ...for the purpose of, or in connection with, any legal proceedings (including prospective legal proceedings)”. Section 4 of the DPA specifically forbids the transfer of personal data to countries outside of the European Economic Area, unless that country ensures an adequate level of protection – the US is not deemed to have such an adequate level of protection.

"I am satisfied that it is in the public interests for an alleged fraud on this scale and of this complexity to be investigated," said Justice Lewison, "and on the evidence before me, I am therefore satisfied that the transfers of the information scheduled to the draft order are necessary for reasons of substantial public interest."

The Court was also satisfied that the exemption relating to legal proceedings was applicable in this situation as well.

"The unravelling of the fraud will undoubtedly involve legal proceedings", said Justice Lewison. "Indeed...there are two such proceedings already on foot, namely the liquidators both in New York and in this country, and the establishment of legal rights will no doubt be necessary in order to wind up the affairs of both companies in an orderly fashion."

Madoff Investment Securities LLC, including its English subsidiary Madoff Securities International Limited, is alleged to have been at the heart of a $50 billion fraud, involving a number of charities and public authorities. The provisionally appointed UK liquidators, under the request of the US liquidators, had requested the UK High court to consider the data transfer under Section 112 of the Insolvency Act of 1986.

The Roots take Manhattan by storm

My favorite Hip Hop band, the Roots, and probably best musical live show ever, are taking NYC by storm...a really good article and pics...

The Roots Take Manhattan
Meet the new kings of late-night, God (and Jimmy Fallon) willing
By Rob Harvilla
Tuesday, February 24th 2009 at 4:02pm
Chad Griffith

Now let's just hope their new boss is funny. More photos of the Roots and the set here.

The Roots, perhaps hip-hop's most deified live act—and an increasingly rare sure-thing concert draw for a desperately flailing music industry—have now largely confined their tour bus route to the lonely 100 miles or so between Philly and New York City, there and back again four or five times a week, having tied their future success and viability to Jimmy Fallon's decidedly unproven skills as a late-night talk-show host.

This is a time of great possibility and profound terror.

Late Monday/early Tuesday, Late Night With Jimmy Fallon will premiere on NBC: The Saturday Night Live alum is replacing Conan O'Brien, who is replacing Jay Leno, who is jumping to an unprecedented prime-time slot as part of a bizarre internal fiasco you're better off avoiding entirely—except the Roots did not, as they have agreed to be Fallon's house band. Doc Severinsen begot Paul Shaffer begot Max Weinberg begot ?uestlove (a/k/a Ahmir Thompson), the Roots' drummer and bandleader, who now sits with rapper Black Thought (a/k/a Tariq Trotter) in a Manhattan recording/rehearsal studio, a scene from the imminent Fame remake being shot right outside, acknowledging the fact that Jimmy's quest for greatness and longevity is far from assured.

?uestlove: "It's a concern."

Black Thought: "Yeah, it's definitely a concern, but I wouldn't call it a worry. It's a concern. We're all putting forth the best effort to make sure he's the next Conan and not the next . . ."

"Chevy."

"I'm not gonna say . . ."

"Magic."

"Yes."

"Joan."

"Right. The list goes on and on."

"Whoopi."

"Whoopi, I was gonna say next—the list goes on and on," Black Thought allows. "It's definitely an everyday, ongoing thing of trying to figure out what is gonna set this show apart from all these late-night shows that flopped or whatever."

"NBC's very committed—they're very excited," ?uestlove adds. "Watching it yesterday on the monitor, I see this as a staple. I don't see this as a Pat Sajak Hour."

It was actually the Pat Sajak Show, but who cares, really? The Late-Night Graveyard is a terrible and dangerously overloaded place, and however affable and likable Fallon may be, the notion that the dude perhaps best known for biting his drumsticks in a failed attempt to stop himself from cracking up during the SNL "more cowbell" sketch will now prevail over the next great witching-hour empire is, not a stretch exactly, but a roll of the dice, a leap of faith—pick your cliché, atheistic or devout.

The Roots are here to help. With apologies to Sheila E. (she of The Magic Hour, RIP, June to September, 1998), they're easily the most established and revered musical entity to go the talk-show-band route, with eight studio albums (including last year's fantastically surly Rising Down) and nearly 20 years of nonstop touring to their credit, their status as tireless, peerless globe-trotters pounding out two-hour-plus concert spectaculars beyond dispute. But that's just the thing. Consider the possibility that they're tired, and consider the draw of something a bit more stable, or at least somewhat stationary.

"This is the beginning of a new phase," Black Thought says. "I don't know, we may have different opinions on this, but I definitely don't look at this like the end of the Roots, the end of touring. A lot of people are like, 'Aw, yeah, you guys retired.' We're, we're—no. No. It's just, we're gonna be touring like a normal, human band now."

Flying cars, closer than you think...

A Boston startup is confounding naysayers with a plane that combines the ease of driving with the thrill of flying, and it could shake up the industry by ushering in a new wave of recreational aviation.
Terrafugia's unusual aircraft just made a 30-second test flight as historic as it was brief, proving that flying cars aren't as outlandish as you might think. But as much as people might want to call the Transition a flying car, Terrafugia insists it's actually an airplane you can drive.
"We're excited by the reality of what we're doing here, but this is not the start of the flying car," company CEO Carl Dietrich told Wired.com. "This is a light sport plane that can be driven home after a day of flying and parked in the garage. It's designed for pilots. That's our target market."
Inventors, engineers and crackpots have been promising promising flying cars since the 1920s. The Aerocar is perhaps the most famous and successful attempt, but it is hardly the only one. All of the Big Three automakers have considered them at one time or another. Boeing toyed with them. And everyone from the Naval Air Warfare Weapons Division to guys in their garages have pitched ideas for flying machines we can drive to the airport.
They've all been beaten to the punch by Terrafugia, which has already received 49 orders for a $194,000 plane it won't start delivering until 2011.

Murdoch unloads against Google, Yahoo

According to Rupert Murdoch, the owner of News Corp. and The Wall Street Journal, Google and Yahoo are giant copyright scofflaws that steal the news.

"The question is, should we be allowing Google to steal all our copyright ... not steal, but take," Murdoch says. "Not just them, but Yahoo."

But whether search-engine news aggregation is theft or a protected fair use under copyright law is unclear, even as Google and Yahoo profit tremendously from linking to news. So maybe Murdoch is right.

Murdoch made his comments late Thursday during an address at the Cable Show, an industry event held in Washington. He seemingly was blaming the web, and search engines, for the news media's ills.

"People reading news for free on the web, that's got to change," he said.

Real estate magnate Sam Zell made similar comments in 2007 when he took over the Tribune Company and ran it into bankruptcy.

We suspect Zell and Murdoch are just blowing smoke. If they were not, perhaps they could demand Google and Yahoo remove their news content. The search engines would kindly oblige.

Better yet, if Murdoch and Zell are so set on monetizing their web content, they should sue the search engines and claim copyright violations in a bid to get the engines to pay for the content.

The outcome of such a lawsuit is far from clear.

It's unsettled whether search engines have a valid fair use claim under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The news headlines are copied verbatim, as are some of the snippets that go along.

Fred von Lohmann of the Electronic Frontier Foundation points out that "There's not a rock-solid ruling on the question."

A Sad moment for Venezuelan justice

Today a Judge in the city of Maracay, Aragua State has issued a judicial decision against three former Police officers of the Metropolitan Police force in Caracas. The Judge Marjory Calderon handed down sentences of 30 years in jail. Albeit the maximum amount of time permitted by the Venezuelan Constitution under Article 44 subsection 3.

This is further evidence of the lack of justice in Venezuela. The three policemen were held prisoners from 2002 and now in 2009 after infinite appeals and Judges recusing themselves, the Chavista Judge handed down the veredict.

According to Chavistas, trying to reconstruct history in their favour, the three policemen were directly responsible for ordering other policemen to fire upon the Chavista population gathering at Puente Llaguno in Caracas. The time was April 2002, when a civil manifestation of people requesting the outing of Hugo Chavez from the Presidency after a general strike supported by the majority of Venezuelans.

The sad part is that the real shooters are not held accountable. On the contrary Chavez has publicly recognized the shooters as supporting the honor and dignity of the Venezuelan people. So far from the truth.

I will post a few pictures of the shooters at Puente Llaguno in April 2002. Lets remind the people that during that specific time a general protest was called in Venezuela and Chavez at the same time, in order to block Televisions from transmitting the protest feed, ordered a National interest transmission that was previously recorded and ordered the activation of what was called Avila Plan. The Avila Plan was a code name for a plan to militarize the whole city of Caracas, with tanks and whatever force means necessary. What happened was that the military did not recognize Chavez as legitimate President, and was ordered arrested. He was transferred to a military jail in Orchila Island and he himself requested to be flown with his family to Cuba. Shortly thereafter, Pedro Carmona Estanga a leader of the Chamber of Commerces in Venezuela and a group of illed advised Generals, ordered the dissolution of public powers in Venezuela (executive, legislative and judicial) and the celebration of general election in 90 days. Shortly thereafter a General in the State of Aragua started asking himself that Chavez was still the President and that he must return to power. Following the Statement of that General (whose name is General Raul Baduel) military Generals started retracting and to recognize Chavez as legitimate President. He was return to Power as President, and since then has absurdly and ilegitimately exercised power in Venezuela. A military regime with a mask of socialism...

Russian President Medvedev at the LSE

Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev was elected President of the Russian Federation in March 2008. In November 2005 he was elected First Deputy Prime Minister, previous to this he was Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office. The President graduated from the Faculty of Law of Leningrad State University in 1987 and completed his post-graduate studies at Leningrad State University in 1990. The President holds a PhD in law and the title of associate professor. The President lectured at St Petersburg State University from 1990-1999. At the same time, between 1990-1995, he was an adviser to the Chairman of the Leningrad City Council and an expert consultant to the St Petersburg City Hall’s Committee for External Affairs.


In August, during the third month of Medvedev's presidency, Russia took part in the 2008 South Ossetia war with Georgia, which drove tension in Russian-American relations to a post-Cold War high. On 26 August, following an unanimous vote of the Federal Assembly of Russia, Medvedev issued a presidential decree officially recognizing Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states, an action condemned by the G7. On 31 August 2008, Medvedev announced a shift in the Russian foreign policy under his government, built around five main principles:[54]

Fundamental principles of international law are supreme.
The world will be multipolar.
Russia will not seek confrontation with other nations.
Russia will protect its citizens wherever they are.
Russia will develop ties in friendly regions.
In his address to the parliament on 5 November 2008 he also promised to deploy the Iskander missile system and radar-jamming facilities in Kaliningrad Oblast to counter the U. S. missile defence system in Eastern Europe
Medvedev is married and has a son named Ilya (born 1996). His wife, Svetlana Vladimirovna Medvedeva, was both his childhood friend and school sweetheart. They married several years after their graduation from secondary school in 1982.

Dmitry Medvedev and his wife Svetlana MedvedevaMedvedev is a devoted fan of English hard rock, listing Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, and Led Zeppelin as his favorite bands. He is a collector of their original vinyl records and has previously said that he has collected all of the recordings of Deep Purple.[57][58] As a youth, he was making copies of their records, although these bands were then on the official state-issued blacklist. In February 2008, Medvedev and Sergei Ivanov attended a Deep Purple concert in Moscow together.

Despite a busy schedule, Medvedev always reserves an hour each morning and again each evening to swim and lift weights. He swims 1,500 meters (approximately one mile), twice a day. He also jogs, plays chess, and practices yoga. Among his hobbies are reading the works of Mikhail Bulgakov, and following his hometown professional football team, FC Zenit Saint Petersburg.

Medvedev keeps an aquarium in his office and cares for his fish himself.Medvedev owns a Neva Masquerade male cat named Dorofey. Dorofey used to fight with a cat belonging to Mikhail Gorbachev—who was Medvedev's neighbor—so the Medvedevs had to have Dorofey neutered.

Medvedev's reported 2007 annual income is $80,000, and he reported approximately the same amount as bank savings. Medvedev's wife reported no savings or income. They live in an upscale apartment house "Zolotye Klyuchi" in Moscow.

On the Runet, Medvedev is sometimes associated with the Medved meme, linked to padonki slang, which resulted in many ironical and satirical writings and cartoons that blend Medvedev with a bear. (The word medved means "bear" in Russian and the surname "Medvedev" is a patronymic which means "bear's son"). Medvedev is familiar with this phenomenon and takes no offence, stating that the web meme has the right to exist.

Reportedly,Dmitry Medvedev uses an Apple iPhone, despite the fact that this cell phone is not officially sold or even certified in Russia.

Medvedev speaks English, but due in part to protocol he speaks Russian in interviews.

Hotel-Copter?

if you thought you've seen it all, you better think again...

My initial thought was....wow thats cool, reminds me of the movie the Fifth Element

3 minutes later....some people just dont know what to do with their money

Apocalypse

Apocalypse as published in the Harvard Lampoon

The townspeople called me crazy for building a bomb shelter in the post-Cold-War era. But who’s crazy now? The guy with a shelter stocked to the roof with Lite-Brites and bedpans? Or the dead townspeople riddled with meteorites? Probably a toss-up.

Having the town to myself was great at first. I could walk through Wal-Mart naked and no one was there to stop me! But no one was there to greet me either. No one was there to tell me about the low, low prices. No one was there to scold me for stomping on the plasma TVs and wearing them as shoes. What good are TV-shoes if no one’s there to see you dance in them?

You might ask, “Why don’t you go down the road to another town? Meteorites can’t have hit every town on Earth.” Oh, how naïve you are, my friend. Sure, another town might have drinkable water or acceptable levels of radiation. But if I don’t keep on living my life like I used to, the meteorites win. Plus, I have all my stuff here.

CRS '09