Beyonce has finally infiltrated my house. My kids and my wife are all singing “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It).” Nonstop. Every day. It’s the answer to every question and the response to every statement. It’s worse than waterboarding. I’d leave, but I know they’d follow me.
There are songs you wish you could forget but can’t. They’re like a virus that won’t leave your system no matter how hard you try. You’re in the shower, and before you can stop yourself “Y.M.C.A.” pops out of your mouth. You catch yourself chanting, “Who let the dogs out?” in the car. You respond to a friend’s recent troubles with “I get knocked down but get up again.”
You try to erase these unwelcome melodies by thinking about something else. Nothing. You sing them ten times really loud and fast, hoping to push them out of your head. No luck. They won’t leave you. You’re afraid to go out at night. You used to be so much cooler than this.
Go easy on yourself. You’re not to blame. There’s a name for the affliction, and it’s called “brain itch.” And the type of song that causes the brain itch? That’s an “earworm.” Dr James Kellaris of the University of Cincinnati has studied the phenomenon (for real). It seems the combination of repetitive words and unchanging melody makes for the perfect earworm. We’re helpless against its power.
Here are the all-time itchiest of the brain-itch tunes. You can rest easy knowing that it’s not really you singing that song. It’s that earworm dug into your mind, like in the movie “Scanners.” At least now no one can blame you when your friends ask what you want for lunch and you say, “I want my baby back, baby back.”
The Boss is owning up to a mistake.
In an interview with The New York Times, Bruce Springsteen says he shouldn’t have made a deal with Wal-Mart. This month, the store started exclusively selling a Springsteen greatest-hits CD.
Some fans were critical because Springsteen has been a longtime supporter of worker’s rights, and Wal-Mart has faced criticism for its labor practices. Springsteen’s team didn’t vet the issue as closely as it should have, and that he “dropped the ball on it,” he told the Times for a story to be published in Sunday editions and previewed on its Web site.
Springsteen went on to say: “It was a mistake. Our batting average is usually very good, but we missed that one. Fans will call you on that stuff, as it should be.”
“Millions of Springsteen fans have counted on Wal-Mart over the years to deliver his music into their lives, and we will continue to offer those fans this ‘Greatest Hits’ exclusive and his other popular albums at unbeatable prices,” Wal-Mart said in a statement, adding: “We are proud of the good jobs, benefits and career opportunities we provide to more than 1.4 million U.S. associates who choose to work at Wal-Mart and serve our customers every day.”
Springsteen released his new CD “Working on a Dream” this week and is performing the halftime show at the Super Bowl.
BEIJING (AP)-The area around Beijing’s massive Bird’s Nest stadium will be turned into a shopping and entertainment complex in three to five years, a state news agency said Friday.
Officially known as Beijing National Stadium, the showpiece of the Beijing Olympics has fallen into disuse since the end of the games. Paint is already peeling in some areas, and the only visitors these days are tourists who pay about $7 to walk on the stadium floor and browse a pricey souvenir shop.
Plans call for the $450 million stadium to anchor a complex of shops and entertainment outlets in three to five years, Xinhua News Agency reported, citing operator Citic Group. The company will continue to develop tourism as a major draw for the Bird’s Nest, while seeking sports and entertainment events.
The only confirmed event at the 91,000-seat stadium this year is Puccini’s opera “Turandot,” set for Aug. 8-the one-year anniversary of the Olympics’ opening ceremony. The stadium has no permanent tenant after Beijing’s top soccer club, Guo’an, backed out of a deal to play there.
Details about the development plans were not available. A person who answered the phone at Citic Group on Friday said offices were closed for the Chinese New Year holiday.
A symbol of China’s rising power and confidence, the stadium, whose nickname described its lattice of exterior steel beams, may never recoup its hefty construction cost, particularly amid a global economic slump. Maintenance of the structure alone costs about $8.8 million annually, making it difficult to turn a profit, Xinhua said.
(CNN) — A “handful” of United Nations staff are working around the clock to save a growing number of children caught in heavy crossfire between government forces and Tamil rebels in Sri Lanka’s volatile northeast, a U.N. spokesman said Saturday.
Children as young as 4 months old are being treated in local hospitals for shrapnel injuries and other “wounds of war,” spokesman James Elder told CNN.
“There is just intense fighting in a small area where children and other civilians are,” Elder said. “The space (where conflict is taking place) is shrinking and the fighting is augmenting.”
Thursday, U.N. aid workers rescued 50 critically injured children and 105 adults from intense fighting, he said.
“We are trying to get as many people out of there as we can,” Elder said.
Humanitarian groups say as many as 250,000 unprotected civilians are trapped in the crossfire between government troops and rebel forces in northern Sri Lanka.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa this week promised to allow safe passage to trapped civilians and urged the Tamil Tigers to promise the same.
“We have declared a safe zone for civilians, the coordinates of which were announced by the security forces,” Rajapaksa said on his government’s Web site.
“It is unfortunate that the (Tamil Tiger group) is exploiting this declared safe zone for civilians by placing their heavy artillery within the safe zone and using it as a launching pad to attack security forces and indiscriminately kill civilians.”
The fighting has created a “nightmarish” situation for civilians living in the conflict zone, Elder said.
An emerging shortage of humanitarian supplies and diminished access to clean water, sanitation, and food are compounding a crisis that has humanitarian agencies fearing for the safety of civilians, he said.
Sunday, Sri Lanka soldiers seized a key rebel stronghold in a surprise attack deep in Tamil held territory.
Troops crossed a lagoon and entered the town of Mullaittivu before encountering heavy resistance from Tamil fighters, according to the government-run news agency.
advertisement
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) — commonly known as the Tamil Tigers — have fought for an independent homeland for the country’s ethnic Tamil minority since 1983. The civil war has left more than 70,000 people dead.
source:cnn
ISMAILIA, Egypt (Reuters) – Egypt has begun installing cameras and motion sensors along its border with the Gaza Strip to try to combat smuggling to the Hamas-run territory, security sources said on Saturday.
The sources said Egyptian authorities had begun installing the equipment two days ago with joint U.S., French and German expertise, and added that they hoped the sensors and cameras would help detect any tunnel construction in the border area.
“Cables that are part of a tunnel detection device are being installed along the Gaza-Egypt border,” a security source said, adding the cables were being installed from south of Rafah to the Mediterranean coast.
The source said some cameras and sensors had already been installed, and the cameras would be connected by the cables.
For the 1.5 million people in the Gaza Strip, the tunnels have become a main source of goods, including fuel, since Israel tightened its embargo after Hamas seized control of Gaza from the forces of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in 2007.
Israel bombed the tunnels during its recent 22-day Gaza offensive, and its military fears Hamas could use them to re-arm. But many tunnels have sophisticated systems and seem to have survived weeks of Israeli bombardment.
Roughly 1,300 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed in the Gaza offensive before both sides declared an end to the fighting on January 18. Israel says its offensive was aimed at halting Hamas rocket attacks on its southern communities.
Egypt, which has kept its Rafah border crossing with the territory largely closed, has agreed to help stop the tunnel smuggling with international technical assistance.
But no firm plan is yet in place as Israel and Hamas argue through Egyptian mediators about installing a longer term ceasefire that would meet Israel’s demands for shutting off the arms supply and Hamas’s demands for an easing of the blockade.
source:reuters
U.S. President Barack Obama warned his fellow Americans Saturday that no single administrative measure will be able to single-handedly pull the country out of the economic doldrums.
“No one bill, no matter how comprehensive, can cure what ails our economy,” he said in his second presidential radio address, broadcast on radio and on the Internet on Saturday.
“So just as we jump-start job creation, we must also ensure that markets are stable, credit is flowing and families can stay in their homes.”
On Friday, government economists said the national economy shrank 3.8 per cent over the final three months of 2008 and is expected to decline even further during the current quarter. It was the latest sign that America’s economic troubles are worsening.
The president and his staff are currently working on adjusting the US$700 billion financial bailout program signed into law by President George Bush last October. At present, the bailout has only $350 billion left for investment.
Some of Obama’s aides suggest the president may ask Congress for more money to tackle what he described as the “devastating” economic problems at hand.
On Saturday, Obama didn’t give concrete details on how his administration would allocate the remaining bailout dollars, but said his ideal bailout would include “a strategy for reviving our financial system that gets credit flowing to businesses and families.”
“We’ll help lower mortgage costs and extend loans to small businesses so they can create jobs. We’ll ensure that CEOs are not draining funds that should be advancing our recovery.”
And as the president has promised, any incoming financial package will be subject to “unprecedented transparency” measures Americans will be able to use to follow their money as it is invested, Obama said.
The president also said the full details of his bailout efforts will “soon” be announced by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
Last week, Obama’s $825 billion stimulus package — a separate investment of taxpayer dollars that is unrelated to the bailout money introduced by Bush — was passed in the House even though not a single Republican voted for it. Now it must pass through the Senate, though Vice President Joe Biden has said it will do better with the GOP the second time around.
The Republican Party signalled Saturday that it was willing to work with the president on his stimulus plan, but said party members hold concerns about the level of spending included in the plan.
Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a Republican radio address that “a problem that started on Wall Street is reaching deeper and deeper into Main Street.”
McConnell said, however, that Obama’s stimulus plan, as tabled, “falls short of the president’s vision for a bill that creates jobs and puts us on a path to long-term economic help.”
He said he hopes the Obama administration will listen to their concerns.
source:ctv
BEIJING, China (CNN) — A 29-year-old man in southwest China is in critical condition after testing positive for bird flu, making him the country’s sixth confirmed case of the virus this month, state media said Sunday.
Chickens at a market in Kaili, Guizhou province on January 22. China has the world’s largest poultry population.
Chickens at a market in Kaili, Guizhou province on January 22. China has the world’s largest poultry population.
The man fell ill on January 15 in Guizhou province, and tested positive for the H5N1 virus on Sunday, the Xinhua news agency said.
Authorities are monitoring others who came in contact with the man, but no one else has been found ill, Xinhua said.
In recent days, China’s health ministry has moved to allay fears over a bird flu outbreak. The ministry said that although further human bird flu cases were possible throughout China, there wouldn’t be a large-scale outbreak, Xinhua and CCTV said.
The country also announced it was setting up a nationwide network to test for the virus.
On Saturday, health officials said a 31-year-old woman from Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in the far northwest died from the virus. And a 16-year-old boy, who had fallen ill on January 8, died in the city of Huaihua in central Hunan province.
One week ago, a 27-year-old woman from eastern China died of bird flu, and on January 5, a 19-year-old Beijing woman died after handling poultry, officials said.
In addition, the World Health Organization said a two-year-old girl in northern Shanxi province had tested positive for bird flu.
Since the end of 2003, the H5N1 virus has infected numerous species of birds in more than 60 countries in Asia, Europe and Africa.
It has not been found in birds in North or South America or the Caribbean, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
Human-to-human transmission of avian flu is rare, but in some cases the virus has passed from poultry to humans. It has killed more than 200 people since 2003.
China reported its first human-to-human infection case in 2005. Of the 34 cases confirmed to date in the country, 23 have been fatal, the World Health Organization said Saturday.
WASHINGTON, Jan 24: Hours after US missiles killed 22 people in Fata, President Barack Obama convened a meeting of his top national security advisers and endorsed the decision to continue drone strikes into Pakistan.
The US media, quoting unidentified official sources, reported that the first meeting of Mr Obama’s National Security Council focused on Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The New York Times reported on Saturday that the decision to attack alleged terrorist targets in Fata on Friday “dispelled for the moment any notion that Mr Obama would rein in the Predator attacks.”
The Washington Post noted that the strikes “offered the first tangible sign of President Obama’s commitment to sustained military pressure on the terrorist groups” in Fata.
At his daily White House briefing, press secretary Robert Gibbs declined to answer questions about the strikes, saying: “I’m not going to get into these matters.”
Remotely piloted Predator drones operated by the Central Intelligence Agency have carried out 28 missile attacks in Fata since last summer, killing at least 132 people.
The NYT, quoting Pakistani officials, reported that as many as 100 of them were civilians.
Although US and Pakistani officials insist that the missiles targeted Al Qaeda and Taliban suspects, many civilians were also killed in the attacks, making it harder for the country’s shaky government to win support for its decision to join the US-led war against terror.
After Friday’s strikes, a Pakistani security official said in Islamabad that at least 10 insurgents, including five foreign nationals and possibly a high-value target such as a senior Al Qaeda or Taliban official, were among the 22 killed.
But US officials told NYT in Washington that “there were no immediate signs that the strikes had killed any senior Qaeda leaders.”
Husain Haqqani, Pakistan’s ambassador to Washington, however, said that Islamabad “hopes President Obama will be more patient while dealing with Pakistan”.
Appealing to the new US administration to “hear us out,” Mr Haqqani said: “We will review all options if Obama does not adopt a positive policy towards us.”
Meanwhile, the US media reported that President Obama and his top national security team are likely in the coming days to review other counterterrorism measures put in place by the Bush administration. These include former President George W. Bush’s decision to send US Special Operations forces to Fata in July to carry out ground attacks without the approval of the Pakistan government.
The Washington Post noted that the ‘shaky’ Zardari government had hoped for warm relations with the Obama administration, “but members of Mr Obama’s new national security team have already telegraphed their intention to make firmer demands of Islamabad than the Bush administration.”
The Obama administration, the report said, backed up those demands with a threatened curtailment of the plentiful military aid that has been at the heart of US-Pakistan ties for the past three decades.
In August 2007, Mr Obama had declared that he favoured taking direct action in Pakistan against potential threats to US security if Pakistani security forces do not act.
Islamabad, however, had hoped that Mr Obama will tone down his rhetoric after the election.
But his Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton indicated during her Senate confirmation hearing that the new administration will not relent in holding Pakistan to account for any shortfalls in the continuing battle against extremists.
In her written answers to the lawmakers’ questions, published in the US media on Saturday, Secretary Clinton pledged that Washington will “condition” future US military aid on Pakistan’s efforts to close down terrorist training camps and evict foreign fighters.
She also demanded that Pakistan “prevent” the continued use of its historically lawless northern territories as a sanctuary by either the Taliban or Al Qaeda. And she promised that Washington would provide all the support Pakistan needs if it specifically goes after targets such as Osama bin Laden, who is believed to be using Pakistani mountains as a hideout.
At the same time, Ms Clinton pledged to triple non-military aid to Pakistan, long dwarfed by the more than $6 billion funnelled to Pakistani military forces under President George W. Bush through the Pentagon’s counterterrorism office in Islamabad.
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama took to the airwaves yesterday to promote his economic aid plan in what’s-it-mean-for-me terms: thousands of better schools, lower electricity bills, health coverage for millions who lose insurance.
It was the latest appeal from the new president for a massive spending bill designed to inject almost $1 trillion into the economy and fulfill campaign pledges.
As lawmakers consider an $825-billion plan and Obama woos them with an eye toward a second economic package, he used his first White House-based radio and Internet address to update the public about his goals.
“Our economy could fall $1 trillion short of its full capacity, which translates into more than $12,000 in lost income for a family of four. And we could lose a generation of potential, as more young Americans are forced to forgo college dreams or the chance to train for the jobs of the future,” Obama said in a five-minute address.
“In short, if we do not act boldly and swiftly, a bad situation could become dramatically worse.”
Obama aides have refused to rule out that the administration would seek a second economic recovery plan – even before Congress approves the first – to patch an ailing economy. Some are considering a sequel to assuage members of their own Democratic Party who fret that too little of the money is going toward public works projects that would employ constituents.
Along with the speech, Obama’s economic team released a report designed to outline tangible benefits of the plan and shore up support. Aides said they wanted people to understand exactly what they could expect if Congress supported the proposed legislation.
The stimulus plan
Aspects of the $825-billion stimulus plan being put together by the Obama administration and Congress
CASH PAYMENTS
Seniors, disabled and veterans: $300 payments to Social Security beneficiaries, and $300 payments under the Supplemental Security income program for elderly and disabled people living in poverty. Veterans receiving disability or pension payments would also receive $300. The cash payments are one-time only.
TAXES
Individuals: $500-per-worker, $1,000-per-couple tax cut for two years, costing about $142 billion; greater access to the $1,000-per-child tax credit for the working poor; expanding the earned-income tax credit to include families with three children; a $2,500 college tuition tax credit; $7,500 tax credit for middle-income, first-time home buyers who purchase homes in the first half of 2009; temporarily suspends taxation of unemployment benefits.
Businesses: An infusion of cash into money-losing companies by allowing them to claim tax credits on past profits dating back five years instead of two; bonus depreciation for businesses investing in new plants and equipment; a doubling of the amount small businesses can write off for capital investments and new equipment purchases.
Energy: $31 billion in tax credits to boost renewable energy production and promote energy efficiency, including making it easier for money-losing companies to benefit from energy tax credits. Makes tax credits for energy-efficient homes more generous.
SPENDING
Aid to the poor and unemployed: $40 billion to provide extended unemployment benefits through Dec. 31, increase them by $25 a week and provide them to part-time and other workers.
Health care: $27 billion to subsidize health care insurance for the unemployed and provide coverage through Medicaid; $87 billion to help states with Medicaid.
Infrastructure: About $140 billion, including $27 billion for road and bridge construction and repair; $20 billion to repair and renovate school and university buildings; $9 billion for improved access to broadband; and $1.4 billion for western water projects.
Education: Almost $100 billion, including $77 billion in grants to states for special education, local school districts, and a $500 increase in the maximum Pell Grant.
GOALS
Double within three years the amount of energy that could be produced from renewable resources.
Upgrade 10,000 schools for about 5 million students.
Save $2 billion a year by making federal buildings energy efficient.
Triple the number of undergraduate and graduate fellowships in science.
Tighten security at 90 ports.
Source:newsday
LONDON, Jan 22 (APP): The crime in the British capital is at a ten-year low, according to the latest figures released by the Metropolitan Police. The statistics reveal that crime in London is continuing to fall with clear reductions in knife and gun crime, robbery, and hate crime. Overall crime has fallen for the sixth consecutive year and is now at the lowest level for ten years.
Londoners and those who visit London have been reassured that the Capital is continuing to get safer with gun crime down by 26% and knife crime down by over 12% compared with 2007. Further, robbery has been reduced by over 17% with over 6,900 less robberies compared with 2007.
The percentage of crimes resulting in the offenders being charged, cautioned or receiving another penalty has also risen with the ‘sanctioned detection’ rate exceeding once again the Metropolitan Police Authority target of 24%, at 26.6%.
The success, according to the Police, has been to a range of initiatives over the past year to deter individuals from carrying and using knives and guns and the ongoing success of the Safer Neighbourhoods teams to counteract robbery.
Serious violence and assaults that incur injuries have dropped by nearly 2,400 offences (3.2%) since 2007.
While hate crime is down in terms of racial and homophobic violence it is concerning that domestic violence has seen an increase of around 6% over the last year. However, rape offences have gone up by 306 since 2007.
London’s acting deputy Police Commissioner Tim Godwin said:
“These figures show that London is getting safer and that our strategies and those of our partners in tackling knife and gun crime are beginning to take effect. We are not complacent and there is far more to be done.”
« Previous Entries