Wed, 13 Jun 2007 04:30:32 GMT

Katie Holmes Ready For Another Baby

Source:www.starz.ru

The mom thing has taken hold of Katie Holmes, big time. Mrs. Cruise, seen here waiting for Tom to get off his new motorcycle, says she's having the time of her life raising little Suri, and it looks like she'll be keeping Tom Cruise busy because she wants another child.

That's a job I'm sure Tom is happy to do.

Katie says that Tom is a "great dad" and she really wants "more children."

Here's the link to a blog that's loaded with Katie and Tom information. Posted by: jim      Read more     Source

Sat, 09 Jun 2007 16:29:42 GMT

Hot Celebrity Women Over Age 35

Source:www.men.msn.com

At my age a 35-year-old woman is young, but in this world of 14-year-old models and 18-year-old starlets, 35 is granny time.

Still, some of today's hottest babes are well over 35, and provide inspiration to women of all ages who are concerned about growing older.

Above you see an example, Monica Bellucci, who reminds me of my wife, because she too is over 35, and this link will take you to a slide show of other women who defy the aging process. Posted by: jim      Read more     Source

Sat, 09 Jun 2007 11:09:04 GMT

Book Review: Richistan by Robert Frank

Combine a decade of technological breakthroughs, unprecedented entrepreneurial activity, and ever-more-lucrative executive compensation packages, and you have the largest pool of wealthy people in history. Not only are there more of the rich, but more of what you might call the "new" rich---former middle class folks who've struck gold and are now shaking up politics, the non-profit world, and the old guard. Robert Frank, who's been covering the uber-wealthy in the pages of The Wall Street Journal, has now put together an entertaining yet thoughtful book-length profile of this new upper crust called Richistan.

Richistan gets its title from the thought that today's wealthy have gotten so rich that they no longer live among us, but instead exist in their own outsized country, where homes are the size of hotels and your 100-foot boat may be referred to as a "dinghy." In their economy, doctors and lawyers are merely affluent, and having a few million in the bank means you're falling behind.

Frank does the obligatory "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" thing, detailing the yachts and the planes and the cars and the clubs, and all the other baubles that the rich have always indulged in, so if your sole goal is to see how the richest of the rich live, you won't be disappointed. And his take on the clash between the new rich and the old is fascinating---the new wealthy label old wealth as boring and stuffy while simultaneously trying to buy their way into the very society they claim to disdain. Thankfully, however, Richistan is about more than the soap opera lives of rich people.

Perhaps the most unique phenomenon of the past decade has been the massive wealth that certain individuals have achieved by starting and selling their companies, or by sitting on mounds of paper wealth in the forms of public stock. In more and more cases, these people are relatively young with years to go and plenty of gas in the tank. While they're enjoying their wealth, they're also eager to use it to create change. Where wealthy families have traditionally created foundations that fund non-profits in perpetuity, the new wealthy are blowing their cash now in order to create change they can see during their lifetimes.

Richistan's most interesting chapters look at this new attitude. In "Performance Philanthropy," Frank profiles Philip Berber, who made his money by selling his online brokerage to Charles Schwab for over $450 million. Berber is now using that money on multiple projects in Ethiopia, giving out money in smaller amounts to fund the building of wells, schools, health clinics and more. But there are always strings attached. If the non-profits request money but fail to deliver on their promises, they aren't funded again. Berber isn't interested in giving money to the Red Cross or other big aid organizations; he's more interested in seeing his money in action---and having control of that action.

Likewise, in "The New Political Kingmakers," Richistan profiles Colorado's "Gang of Four," who helped oust the state's leading Republicans in 2004 and who even have political aspirations of their own. While political contributions from the wealthy are nothing new, these "Richistanis" aren't supporting candidates who will tax them less, but are instead seeking to change the political landscape in ways that they feel will benefit the larger society. In their worldview, the money they have to spend is a drop in the bucket compared to what the government spends. So, working to create a government that supports their views is the most effective way to use their money in creating positive change. Whether you agree or disagree with their political views, it's hard to accuse them of ulterior motives.

Frank also looks at the downside of wealth. For the new rich the biggest drawback may be how wealth will affect their children---many of these people were brought up in the middle class and they're afraid that their children won't inherit the work ethic that led to their own successes. (Of course, it's not easy to teach it when their children have butlers and other household staff constantly at their disposal.) How will these kids handle the money they will eventually inherit? Or should the parents give it all away and force the kids to make it on their own?

Frank does not glorify wealth in Richistan; nor does he villify it. He simply reports, and that may be the book's greatest strength. Without offering an opinion of these new rich as either worthy of admiration or worthy of scorn, and without offering an opinion of the larger forces that have created such wealth, Frank leaves it to the reader to decide if the wealth boom is good, bad, or simply dependent on whether you've made it into the club. Posted by: Justin McHenry      Read more     Source

Sat, 09 Jun 2007 07:16:44 GMT

Let Aliens Worry About Our Emissions!

What do we do when lots of garbage mounts up in our homes? Easy, we throw it out. A scientist has extended this logic and suggested we treat Carbon dioxide in the same manner.

Alfred Y. Wong professor of Physics and director of the Plasma Physics Laboratory at the University of California, Los Angeles, has come up with a very interesting way to get rid of our carbon emissions. In the latest issue of The Economist, he hypothesizes a conveyor built in the Arctic that vents out emissions into the outer space. He speculates that a little effort on our part and the Earths magnetic field over the poles could be used to expel the gas into the space, from where it would never return.

The Arctic and the Antarctic are the only two places on the Earth above which the magnetic shield directly opens into space. It is in the Arctic that Prof. Wong proposes to build the conveyor belt. To be more precise about the location, he proposes the site of the conveyor belt as his workplace near Fairbanks, Alaska.

The poles are so special in this regard because there the magnificent auroras are witnessed. These magnetic particles could be harnessed for their vast amounts of power that, in turn, would expel greenhouse gases.

The concept is a bit far-fetched but coming from a Physicist, it seems workable. Wong builds up from the fact that some CO2 molecules team up with free electrons to form negatively charged CO2 ions. The second base for his theory is that all over the planet, a constant vertical electrical field is present. This field, automatically, makes the negatively charged ions drift upwards. This occurs slowly at first, but beyond 125 km of altitude, the atmosphere is rarified and the ions freely drift rapidly. Here they can float into outer space along the vast magnetic fields of the Earth.

So, as far as the theory part is concerned, it seems that Mr. Wong has got that figured out nicely. The question is to translate this process and carry it out artificially. Here, too, Wong is optimistic. He proposes to create ions in the atmosphere by zapping dust with lasers. Then those ions that have drifted upwards can be pushed on using radio waves. Thence on he expects the natural process of auroras to take over and add their own spark to the entire process.

So far, Wong has only made rough estimates required to carry on the entire process. Nonetheless, he believes, even if powered using fossil fuels, the overall effect of the process would be positive and the expulsions will always outweigh the emissions.

Do you think it is plausible? Already the levels of greenhouse gasses have reached a melting point. We cannon afford to be wasting our time in mere discussions of pros and cons. Desperate times call for desperate measures and this ones is at least taking a different route to solve the problem. Who knows this might just work.

Aliens might be better equipped to handle our emissions. Give them a chance!

Image

Source Posted by: Gagan      Read more     Source

Fri, 25 May 2007 02:54:24 GMT

Purchase The Borat Book?

Borat is releasing a book! I'm just hoping there's chapters on "Why a horse is ranked higher than a woman" and 'There's always time to talk about sex with your incest wife at dinner".
The ever eloquent ambassador from Kazakhstan has a book, with two titles, coming out this fall: "Borat: Touristic Guidings To Minor Nation of U.S. and A." and "Borat: Touristic Guidings To Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan."

"There is one and only Borat and we are honored to have him join our pantheon of international writers," Suzanne Herz, publisher of Flying Dolphin Press, an imprint of Random House, Inc.'s Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group, said in a statement Wednesday.

According to Flying Dolphin Press, "one half will be a guide to America for Kazakhs and the other half .... a guide to Kazakhstan for Westerners." It will feature Borat's timeless wisdom, plus illustrations and photographs.Could a Borat book be nearly as good as his movie? I personally think not..... Unless he has illustrations of him tea-bagging people. I'm a big fan of Sacha Baron Cohen and all of his Da Ali G Show characters, but I think he might have jumped the gun with the Borat book. Reading this article, I almost wonder if this Suzanne chick realized Borat is just a fictional character?

source Posted by: Joy A      Read more     Source

Fri, 25 May 2007 02:51:30 GMT

Orlando Bloom's Women and Hollywood

Quote Me Of The Day:

I couldn't decide which picture to post, so I decided to go with both :)
I grew up predominantly with my mother and my sister, so I'm comfortable in the presence of women. I have a lot of female friends, and I can't step outside with any of them without being linked to them in some form or another. It's sort of annoying but what can you do?.... It's sad to me that the celebrity culture has taken over in such a way that it overshadows a lot of what this industry is - or should be - about. It feels like it's all about celebrity and fame and less about talent and ability."

source Posted by: Joy A      Read more     Source

Fri, 25 May 2007 02:50:17 GMT

Peregrine travels again

Long-time readers may remember this log, which goes by the name of Peregrine (as suggested by the Queen of All Blogs, Rurality). Peregrine has been sitting on dry land for many months as the lake water had receded far from it. But the recent full pool allowed Peregrine to continue its peregrinations about the lake.

When this log first washed ashore, it came to rest on the grassless scar of clay on the south side of the lake. In the months of completely unenthusiastic rain, much of this clay washed down the scar and collected itself beneath the log.

And so it was that although Peregrine was in water deep enuf to float it free, it was held in place by the clay mud that had collected under it. So, of course, I had to try to free it with the long-handled shovel that is my regular companion on my hikes about Roundrock. (There are so many uses a shovel can be put to in the woods.) I managed to free it, but it needed nudging to get it away from shore. The length of the shovel could get it some of the way, but even this didn’t really get it adrift. I couldn’t walk any closer to it because the mud was thick and threatened to take me down. I despaired of succeeding in liberating Peregrine and hoped that another big rainstorm would come and wash it free.

But I was hiking with a competitive person. Adam saw that I hadn’t succeeded and decided he would succeed just to best me. (Fathers provide all kinds of functions for their sons.) Unfortunately for him, he was wearing sneakers, which the mud would suck from his feet with great delight. But he had a plan.

Adam threw a smaller log onto the muddy area and then stepped onto it, thus giving himself the range to push Peregrine into the deeper water and set it adrift.

And so Peregrine travels again. Someday I suppose it will grow waterlogged enuf to sink to the bottom, but until then I’ll always be eager to walk around the lake with an eye out for Peregrine.

Missouri calendar:

• Listen for the gray treefrog chorus.

Posted by: Roundrockjournal      Read more     Source

Fri, 25 May 2007 02:47:47 GMT

Cannes. Alexandra.

"Alexander Sokurov's latest feature is his most conventional film in recent memory," writes Premiere's Glenn Kenny of Alexandra (in Competition). "Not a shot is fired in this antiwar film; what Sokurov is up to here is bringing to light the tedious oppression of occupation..... Conventional as it may seem, this is actually one of his most subtle pictures."



Nick Holdsworth talks with Sokurov for the Hollywood Reporter.

Updated. Posted by: dwhudson      Read more     Source

Fri, 25 May 2007 02:45:40 GMT

Bloggers Can Pull In the Big Bucks

Wow! Did you have any idea that some bloggers are making a mint just writing on the Internet. Some bloggers are making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year just blogging, some even more.

OK, I make pretty good money on the Internet myself, but I'm not in the 6 digits, yet. I'm not on the list, no one asked me what I make. That's alright though, I don't think I'm allowed to tell.

There are 3 guys on this list who make over a million and 15 others who make in the 6 digits. I'm going to have to do some studying to see how they do it. Posted by: Linda Roeder      Read more     Source

Fri, 25 May 2007 01:44:36 GMT

Drive into Your Kitchen Garden

When your vehicle runs out of fuel what do you do? Drive to nearest fuel station. But what if you drive to your kitchen garden or farmhouse instead. This could be a reality if you plant Jatropha in your garden. Jatropha seeds are a source for bio-dieselan alternative for petroleum fuels.

Bio-diesel has been successfully used to fuel motor vehicles either in pure form or by diluting it with the conventional fuels. The experiments have been encouraging and its use is on gradual increase. Indian government is keen to tap the potential of the magical herb and make use of the large areas of waste land in the country. This does not only helps reduce the carbon emissions but also reduce dependence on oil imports that account for large share of our money. The bio-diesel that costs less than Rs 20 a litre is also a money saving alternative. Jatropha is also seen as an option to improve the conditions of rural people.

Jatropha, a perennial shrub, can grow on wasteland in drought like conditions and tolerate extremes. The shrub grows easily and lives for about 50 years producing seeds. The oil from Jatropha seed can be easily extracted and be ready for use. Huge refineries are not required. Every village, even cultivator, can have an extraction unit.

Jatropha is being promoted as an easily grown bio-fuel crop in hundreds of projects throughout India and the third world. Jatropha shrubs can be seen planted on both the sides of rail line between Mumbai and Delhi and some trains are also running on 15-20% bio-diesel mixture. If bio-diesel can be used as an alternative fuel successfully on large scale, India [and also other countries growing Jatropha] would be able to save huge amount of foreign reserves that can be subsequently used for development programmes for the benefit of the people.

Source: Groovygreen.com
Image Source:Daimlerchrysler.com Posted by: Bahadurshahzafar      Read more     Source