Collecting of Details on Travelers Documented - washingtonpost.com

The U.S. government is collecting electronic records on the travel habits of millions of Americans who fly, drive or take cruises abroad, retaining data on the persons with whom they travel or plan to stay, the personal items they carry during their journeys, and even the books that travelers have carried, according to documents obtained by a group of civil liberties advocates and statements by government officials.

The personal travel records are meant to be stored for as long as 15 years, as part of the Department of Homeland Security#8217;s effort to assess the security threat posed by all travelers entering the country. Officials say the records, which are analyzed by the department#8217;s Automated Targeting System, help border officials distinguish potential terrorists from innocent people entering the country.

But new details about the information being retained suggest that the government is monitoring the personal habits of travelers more closely than it has previously acknowledged. The details were learned when a group of activists requested copies of official records on their own travel. Those records included a description of a book on marijuana that one of them carried and small flashlights bearing the symbol of a marijuana leaf#8230;.

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The San Diego city council signed a resolution that would allow gay marriage, and Mayor Sanders had publicly stated that he would veto it. Then, when he received the motion in his office and read it, he had an incredible change of heart. Here is a video of he and his wife at a news conference where he talks about his decision.

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________________________________________________________________
Now seems like YG finally registered Se7en#8217;s name for the trademark right on Sep 20th! mmm the other latest is that one of the Soompi#8217;s moderator#8217;s friend saw Se7en and seems like he has #8220;goatee#8221; now! (DO I HEAR A SCREAM?)

There is another news on the guy .. seems like YG dropped that #8220;white#8221; women this time .. now it#8217;s #8220;American Women#8221; pfewwww and like always the news about Se7en#8217;s debut is full of bragging on who he is working with *rolling eyes*
The Actual Trademark News>> (more#823

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Q: Why did you choose rain?
FM Exec: Because Rain’s skin is very good, like our cake
A journalist asked about the Oct 6th concert in Shanghai, the MC said that this is unrelated to the Fu Ma endorsement so cannot reply. But Rain finally jumped in: “Oct 6th concert, I am definitely coming!”

Q: Why are you going to the Namtong Asian Arts Festival and so many of these activities?
Rain: Chinese fans have been waiting for me for a long time, this is a way for me to make it up to my Chinese fans…

Other interesting things:
They prepared champagne at the press conference. The FM Exec took the glass and wanted to drink w/ Rain with their arms linked (sorry I don’t know how to describe/translate, you know like when newlyweds drink together and they link their arms through each other). Rain looked really embarrassed and was laughing; everyone else were laughing. Finally Rain was so embarrassed he switched the glass to the other hand.The MC said Rain fans will be jealous if the exec keeps hanging on to Rain… the crowd was laughing

_____________________________
Source: mimimi33 at Baidu
Translated by Cherry@rain-usa
Credit for pictures: Soompi

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Based on a request we had yesterday, I searched videos of 2007 Asia Song Festival in Seoul and almost burst in tears as the chinese site, the only site where i found the SUJU video, was sooo slow#8230;
Super Junior did the Don#8217;t Don gig, of course. The song is kinda boring for me, if i don#8217;t see the MV.

video : berlala @ youtube, credit to bestiz

Aside from the Asian stars, the festival also gives a chance for new performers to show their talent. Korean pop group FT Island and Thai singer James will receive New Singer awards, while new girl group Kara and singer Whee will also perform.

now unless there#8217;s another singer Whee in Korea, i guess Whee here refers to Wheesung, right?So what#8217;s so new about Wheesung that he still need to show his talent?and why they didn#8217;t put him together with the rest of the 13 performers?

After a useful soompi browsing, i found out that Whee is a new singer Hwi#8230;

SG Wannabe

Lee Hyori, bringing the new meaning of #8220;Sexhyeh Lips#8221;

Hyori and A Mei, competing to be the sexiest on the stage that night. Maybe they both attended the wrong event?

FT Island

Super Junior, not the most photogenic group at the moment.

Kara

more pics
(more#823

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#8220;Faça o link: Vergonha Nacional. Não demora nem cinco minutos#8221;

#8220;Make the link: National Shame. It doesn#39;t take more than five minutes#8221;

Just by cyber-coincidence, in another part of the country Blender Blog [pt] came up with the same idea:

Ao invés de sair por aí postando que o Senado é a vergonha nacional sugiro fazer algo diferente:
VERGONHA NACIONAL
Quanto mais gente lincar estes termos da forma que eu fiz, mais rapidamente o Google mostrará para o mundo que o senado brasileiro é a vergonha nacional. E então, alguém a fim de colaborar?

Instead of going around posting that the Senate is the national shame, I#39;d suggest you to do something different:
NATIONAL SHAME
The more people link to these words like I#39;ve done, the quicker Google will show the world that the Brazilian Senate is the national shame. So, is anybody up for helping?

Many people were very keen to help and even quicker to respond. Rodrigo Stulzer [pt] celebrates the achievement:

#8220;A blogosfera acabou de mostrar a sua união! Em menos de 24 horas de campanha conseguimos colocar o site do senado federal como sendo a primeira resposta quando procurado o termo Vergonha Nacional, no google. Se quiser experimente você mesmo clicando aqui. Parabéns a todos os cidadãos que defendem o seu país!#8221;

After the success of the protest, Bianca B from Não Pertube [pt] thinks that cyber-activism is the way to go. She says:

#8220;Acredito que iniciativas como essa se utilizando sa internet - coisa que usamos e conhecemos muito bem - só tende a ser cada vez melhor sucedida, e cada vez melhor planejada e com efeitos cada vez melhores#8221;

#8220;I believe that initiatives making use of the Internet - something that we use and know well - like this one are only going to succeed more and more, be better planned every time and achieve better results each time#8221;

Marcio Merlone from Merlone’s Binary Log [pt] believes these protests can be the embryo of bigger changes. He hopes that:

#8220;Ações isoladas como um Google Bombing não farão qualquer mudança em nada, porém em conjunto, as ações isoladas formam as sementes de modificações maiores amanhã. Os resultados sim serão motivo de orgulho, não estas ações#8221;

The first successful Brazilian Google bomb redirected president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva#39;s biography to searches for #8220;despota cachaceiro#8221; (boozer tyrant). On an international level, everyone must have come across George Bush#39;s CV when typing #8220;miserable failure#8221; or just #8220;failure#8221;. Since then, Google has announced that they now have #8220;an algorithm that minimizes the impact of many Googlebombs#8221;.

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The first post (SRP), published by the blog#39;s co-founder Milos Stefanovic (nicknamed Kiskovic), is a report from a recent Moscow conference on renewable energy, whose aim was to educate young scientists in order to make this planet greener. Below is the post#39;s translation:

[#8230;] Renewables are our planet’s future. It is very important for UNESCO to take a lead in educating young inventors. The European Network for Education in the Field of Renewable Energy (EURONETERS) met Sept. 3-7, 2007, in Moscow [#8230;]. Professors from FYROM, Lithuania, Greece, Serbia, Belarus and Russia held meetings at the All-Russian Institute for Electrification of Agriculture. The initial gathering of a task group for solar energy was followed by the executive committee of the network for education in this field. Professors coming from state universities across Europe are volunteers looking enthusiastically towards the future and working hard to establish joint educational program which involves publishing new booklets, creating online lab experiments and investing in lab equipment. The intention is to motivate students to handle innovative projects and opportunities in both research and application of renewables.

The main alternative sources of energy are wind and water power, solar energy, biofuel and geothermal energy. Between 1990 and 2003, renewable energy’s share in Germany’s electric power generation fuel mix grew from less than 3 percent to almost 9 percent. Over the same period, net electricity consumption in Germany grew by approximately 5 percent, while carbon dioxide emissions from electric power production declined by roughly 13 percent. The Renewable Obligation legislation places a commitment on licensed electricity suppliers in the United Kingdom to source an increasing proportion of electricity from renewable sources. The World Summit on Sustainable Development has placed the promotion of sustainable and renewable energies high on the international agenda.

Moscow UNESCO chair in renewable energy and rural electrification is lead by professor Dmitry Strebkov, who presided at the meeting of the EURONETERS Group for Solar Energy, which consisted of numerous papers and educational methods presentations. Scientists, gathered at a round table, exchanged their experiences. Conversation continued at labs where students showcased their works. Professor Igor Tyukhov introduced participants to the exciting methods to teach effects of the moving sun on solar cells. Polite hosts gave tour of a laboratory that produces solar panels. These panels are part of the extremely effective solar concentrators used to elevate the power of the electricity produced. The facility is capable of producing 1 megawatt of power by using these devices.

Meeting of the EURONETERS executive committee was presided by head of the network, professor Spyros Kyritsis. Academicians agreed to continue implementing agenda with minor changes. They applauded the completion of several new didactic tool, a book written by professor Kiril Popovski and colleagues on geothermal energy, a book of Strebkov and Tverjanovich on solar concentrators, Arbusov and Evdokimov on fundamentals of photovoltaics and Axaopoulos and colleagues on solar thermal conversion. Professor Vytautas Adomavicius highlighted hydrogen energy as highly promising for automotive industry of the future. Professor Viktor Bashtovoy said that biomass is a promising energy source for heating and electricity production when adequate technologies are present.

These educational materials are applied in many universities in Italy, Sweden and at the U.N. University for Peace in San Jose, Costa Rica. As students are satisfied with the educational procedures, executive committee recommended intensifying activities.

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Check out how some of the busiest people you know are least successful than people who play, rest, laugh or exercise. It’s a brain thing.

A person’s working memory holds a very tiny bit of new information at any time, and most of the contents spill out as the day progresses. People who dash from one encounter to another in a day – lose most of their best ideas – before the brain processes them. How so?

Before the brain can process and rewire itself based on your new idea – you have to act on it, sing, it dance it, build it or share it. Can you see why the busiest people often work against innovation at work? Does the problem of “too busy describe you or your business?

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Hillary Learned the Wrong Lesson from 1994 Health Care Fiasco

Posted September 18, 2007 | 04:46 PM (EST)

The pundits might have it right on this one. Hillary Clinton did learn a lesson from her 1994 fiasco on healthcare reform. Unfortunately for most of us who don#39;t have an Inc. after our name or a private jet to cart us around, it was the wrong lesson.

In the days leading up to the announcement of her latest, much anticipated health plan, Sen. Clinton threw around the word ‘consensus’ a lot. In this case, the consensus she was seeking was with the same industry that so savaged her prior experience with healthcare.

This time, she apparently wants to soften them up in advance with a proposal that will generate hundreds of millions of dollars in additional profits for the insurance giants. It#39;s probably not a coincidence that she is also the top recipient of healthcare sector contributions to her presidential campaign.

Looking past the bells and whistles #8212; which do at least include some good sound bites on retiree health and giving regular Americans the same health plan options as members of Congress #8212; the Clinton plan seems to rest on three shaky legs:

1. Forcing all Americans, who do not have current coverage and do not qualify for public assistance, to buy and maintain insurance;

2. Mandating large employers to either provide health benefits or contribute to the cost of coverage

3. Tax credits for just about everyone

If the central elements here sound familiar, they should. The plan is a smorgasbord of the worst elements of what we#39;ve seen and heard from some other presidential candidates and the plans floating around several state Capitols.

Ironically, given the overheated reaction from Republican candidates, Clinton#39;s plan most closely resembles the approach of two Republicans #8212; the Mitt Romney-crafted law in Massachusetts and the proposal by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

That#39;s hardly a badge of honor. The Massachusetts model is working best for those with public subsidies, and Schwarzenegger#39;s plan is now buried in the minutia of a special legislative session while public support for it has been plummeting in the polls.

The biggest failing of this plan, like the Romney and Schwarzenegger schemes before it and like most of the other Democratic candidates#39; proposals, is the abject failure to challenge healthcare industry price gouging and runaway costs.

Insurance premiums have climbed 87 percent the past decade, and though they have slowed a bit in the past year, the increase is still double the average increase in wages. That does not include, of course, the rising cost of deductibles, co-pays, prescription drug prices, hospital charges, and, the latest fad, annual doctor fees, like what many people are charged for the privilege of having a credit card or checking account.

This is only the biggest healthcare story of the year. One recent example. Consumer Reports last month reported that more than half of the ‘underinsured’ postponed needed medical care due to cost and a third had to dig deep into their savings to pay for medical expenses. Another third of those over 50 said decisions about their retirement were adversely affected by healthcare costs, one quarter had outstanding medical debt, 38% postponed home or car maintenance repairs due to medical bills, and only 37% said they were prepared to financially handle unexpected major medical costs in the next year.

Throwing more Americans under the wheels of the insurance industry will not solve this problem any more than criminalizing the uninsured is humane or sound health policy.

Clinton#39;s solution is a combination of tax credits, unspecified encouragement to drug companies to ‘offer fair prices,’ and promoting ‘consumer price consciousness in choosing health plans.’

But tax credits mostly benefit higher income Americans. And families grappling with skyrocketing prices, and no controls on costs, will likely choose the cheapest, high deductible plans that provide the worst coverage. The sad outcome may be seen in a report earlier this year by the American Academy of Pediatrics that families with high deductible health plans are far more likely to put off needed care, including immunizations and recommended treatment, due to the cost.

Sen. Clinton might have drawn an entirely different idea from her prior unpleasant history with the healthcare industry. She might have decided to cut them out of the business of profiting off pain, suffering and medical debt, and proposed a very different solution, such as expanding Medicare, Medicaid, or the State Children#39;s Health Program to cover everyone.

Accommodating the insurance behemoths, and effectively offering them massive public subsidies #8212; using the considerable power of government to force everyone to become paying customers of the private insurers #8212; is not the kind of leadership on healthcare we need.

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Michael Fauntroy talks about these subjects and more in his new book, Republicans and the Black Vote, and blogs about it at http://tools.knowmoremedia.com/cgi-bin/www.MichaelFauntroy.com. He is an assistant professor of public policy at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.

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Group Project

The students will also deliver a project. Each group has designed a business model over the last 3 courses. I am quite curious to see their final presentations. Here is what I asked for:

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When thousands of Jena marchers hit their mark today, I hope they’ll create racial respect where you and I work…. For that reason I’m asking both marchers and media 5 two-footed questions.

1. Are you marching with a war or peace plan in mind for all people?
2. Do you bring winning solutions and the guts to inspire others to try these?
3. Will you model tone today to turn differences into deep respect for all humans?
4. Will you vent today, or build a new legacy of trust and care and collaboration?
5. Would you consider powerful prosperity in Ireland now as a result of peace?

Hopefully somebody will answer my questions in a way that helps us progress together. Oh… by the way … racism#39;s not what we’ve been told either. In reality, the human brain is shaped literally by every action we do #8230; and rewires daily for more of the same. What if today’s march for Jena shaped the coming together of positive differences where you work?

I hope marchers check out out racism pools in the human brain#8230; before they begin, though. What do you think?

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Rounding out the list of winners for the Top 10 U.S. Golf Resorts:

1. Pinehurst Resort, North Carolina
2. Kiawah Island Golf Resort, South Carolina
3. Pebble Beach Resorts, California
4. Kapalua Resort, Hawai‘i
5. Bandon Dunes Golf Resort, Oregon
6. Princeville Resort, Hawai‘i
7. Doral Golf Resort & Spa, Florida
8. Four Seasons Resort Scottsdale at Troon North, Arizona
9. The Boulders Resort & Golden Door Spa, Arizona
10. The Greenbrier, West Virginia

“We are delighted that for the third year in a row, Travel+ Leisure Golf readers have recognized Kapalua Resort as the #1 golf destination in Hawai‘i,” said Gary Planos, senior vice president/ resort operations. “We are also honored to be listed with the nation’s premier golf resorts as one of the top 10 golf resorts in the U.S.”

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You can trick your brain … people do it daily at work … and the results can be deadly. How so?

The brain play tricks when you make it think what is not … really is. Check out this YouTube video to see and example of what I mean.

Fact is … your spatial intelligence plays vivid images onto mental screens in your brain – and eventually you begin to believe and act on these images … whether they’re accurate or not. Manipulate images to lie?

You’d be surprised how the brain begins to rewire itself to act on false visual information that it’s fed. It gets scarier…. Let me give a potent example.

Donatella Versace’s staff cover the message SMOKING KILLS on each pack of cigarettes before she sees it. There’s more.

They replace the genuine death warning with a fine sticker that highlights her DV monogram decked in a fine medieval script. So Donatella sees DV Marlboro Reds, each time she slips another cigarette into her mouth.

Yikes – what does that say about lies in the workplace? Do you see how faulty traditions can begin to trump current research? Eventually … like Donatella … you believe lies and teach your brain to do the same. Maybe that’s also what led this business celebrity to say … Happiness is a word I do not believe exists.

What do you see where you work…?

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