MensAlmanac

NCAA Tournament Bracket Pool

usdm419 — 2010-03-11T08:31:11-08:00

So I'm starting a NCAA bracket pool for work, but we'll need more people to join as my office here is small. Anyone interested?

$25 buy-in
Hosted on Yahoo. Everyone fills out their brackets and saves them. They are kept "hidden" until the tourney starts so nobody can copy each other or see others' picks.

Winner takes home 75% runner-up gets 25%

Money won't be due until the day of the championship game, but you ARE expected to pay. Don't make me 4-chan that ass.

fml! .rar files on a Macbook

C LICIOUS — 2010-03-11T09:46:05-08:00

how do i open .rar files on a macbook?

nice video

C LICIOUS — 2010-03-11T12:06:56-08:00

nice video with some nice editing

http://vimeo.com/10030304

Alright, who did it.

Nasty Nate — 2010-03-11T13:29:15-08:00

XBOX Live:

Diario — 2010-03-10T21:20:14-08:00

Please if anyone has a 1 month xbox live card please let me know. I hate to post this here but I'm desperate. I dont have a car right now since the rings fried on my truck and the nearest place is miles away if I had a credit card i'd buy it online but I left it in my fucking truck =X I have paypal willing to buy one month. Need my xbl. PLEASE HELP

Cheap Protein Finds

neenjah — 2010-03-10T12:46:34-08:00

WIll post all the good deals on whey I find

BSN Syntha-6 Protein -- 2.91lbs -- $16.99 Shipped
http://www.puritan.com/protein-su...?NewPage=1
Cookies n Cream
Vanilla
Strawberry

For $15 off 30 and Free Shipping, Apply coupon:
TE3QC2H

Other Products should end up being pretty cheap as well.

Your sedan, your coupe, your SUV, your bike, your girl

Jon Ay D — 2010-03-11T13:49:07-08:00

you get to have one of each. Assume you are Bill Gates status and money is not an issue.

Edit-POST PICS

Modified by Jon Ay D at 9:53 AM 3/10/2010

NY Soda Tax

Nasty Nate — 2010-03-11T01:55:36-08:00

I'm not sure if any of you know this, but the powers that be in New York (the whole state, not just the city) are proposing a $.01 per ounce tax on sugary drinks, now dubbed by the media as the "Soda Tax".

The politicians argue that this would raise approximately a billion dollars in revenue; revenue that NY desperately needs.

Many argue that due to inclement economic conditions, this will put a burden on families on extremely fixed budgets.

There have been several commercials circulating on both sides; the one's paid for by the government state that it's in the best interest of the people's health while the opposition states that there is no interest in their health but rather the money.

Do you think implementing this tax is a good idea?

Modified by Nasty Nate at 2:24 PM 3/10/2010

Ohhh Jefffffff...got that new Rockband download

IS'D YA — 2010-03-09T19:56:02-08:00

http://ccinsider.comedycentral...-face/

86 rules of boozing

CARTER — 2010-03-11T08:50:44-08:00

1. If you owe someone money, always pay them back in a bar. Preferably during happy hour.

2. Always toast before doing a shot.

3. Whoever buys the shot gets the first chance to offer a toast.

4. Change your toast at least once a month.

Buying-drink5. Buying someone a drink is five times better than a handshake.

6. Buying a strange woman a drink is still cool. Buying all her drinks is dumb.

7. Never borrow more than one cigarette from the same person in one night.

8. When the bartender is slammed, resist the powerful urge to order a slightly-dirty, very-dry, in-and-out, super-chilled half-and-half martini with a lemon twist. Limit orders to beer, straight shots and two-part cocktails.

9. Get the bartender's attention with eye contact and a smile.

10. Do not make eye contact with the bartender if you do not want a drink.

11. Unacceptable things to say after doing a shot: Great, now I�m going to get drunk. I hate shots. It�s coming back up.

12. Never, ever tell a bartender he made your drink too strong.

13. If he makes it too weak, order a double next time. He'll get the message.

14. If you offer to buy a woman a drink and she refuses, she does not like you.

15. If you offer to buy a woman a drink and she accepts, she still might not like you.

16. If she buys you a drink, she likes you.

17. If someone offers to buy you a drink, do not upgrade your liquor preference.

18. Always have a corkscrew in your house.

19. If you don't have a corkscrew, push the cork down into the bottle with a pen.

20. Drink one girly drink in public and you will forever be known as the guy who drinks girly drinks.

21. Our parents were better drinkers than we are.

22. Never talk to someone in the restroom unless you're doing the same thing�urinating, waiting in line or washing your hands.

23. Girls hang out, apply make-up, and have long talks in the bathroom. Men do not.

24. After your sixth drink, do not look at yourself in the mirror. It will shake your confidence.

25. It is only permissible to shout 'woo-hoo!' if you are doing a shot with four or more people.

26. If there is a d.j., you can request a song only once per night. If he doesn't play it within half an hour, do not approach him again. If he does play it, do not approach him again.

27. Learn how to make a rose out of a bar napkin. You'll be surprised how well it works.

28. If you can't afford to tip, you can't afford to drink in a bar. Go to the liquor store.

29. If you owe someone twenty dollars or less, you may pay them back in beer.

Ripple30. Never complain about the quality or brand of a free drink.

31. If you have been roommates with someone more than six months, you may drink all their beer, even if it's hidden, as long as you leave them one.

32. You can have a shot of their hard liquor only if the cap has been cracked and the bottle goes for less than $25.

33. The only thing that tastes better than free liquor is stolen liquor.

34. If you bring Old Milwaukee to a party, you must drink at least two cans before you start drinking the imported beer in the fridge.

35. Learn to appreciate hangovers. If it was all good times every jackass would be doing it.

36. If you ever feel depressed, get out a bartender�s guide and browse through all the drinks you�ve never tried.

37. Try one new drink each week.

38. If you are the bar's sole customer, you are obliged to make small talk with the bartender until he stops acknowledging you. Then you're off the hook. The same goes for him.

39. Never tip with coins that have touched you. If your change is $1.50, you can tellthe barmaid to keep the change, but once she has handed it to you, you cannot give it back. To a bartender or cocktail waitress, small change has no value.

40. If you have ever told a bartender, �Hey, it all spends the same,� then you are a cheap ass.

41. Anyone on stage or behind a bar is fifty percent better looking.

42. You can tell how hard a drinker someone is by how close they keep their drink to their mouth.

43. A bar is a college, not a nursery. If you spill a beer, clean it up. If you break a glass, wait for a staff member to clean it up, then blame it on someone else.

44. Being drunk is feeling sophisticated without being able to say it.

Drink Alone45. It's okay to drink alone.

46. After three drinks, you will forget a woman's name two seconds after she tells you. The rest of the night you will call her �baby� or �darling�.

47. Nothing screams 'nancy boy' louder than swirling an oversized brandy snifter.

48. Men don't drink from straws. Unless you're doing a Mind or Face Eraser.

49. If you do a shot, finish it. If you don't plan to finish it, don't accept it.

50. Never brood in a dance bar. Never dance in a dive bar.

51. Never play more than three songs by the same artist in a row.

52. Your songs will come on as you're leaving the bar.

53. Never yell out jukebox selections to someone you don't know.

54. Never lie in a bar. You may, however, grossly exaggerate and lean.

Slurring55. If you think you might be slurring a little, then you are slurring a lot. If you think you are slurring a lot, then you are not speaking English.

56. Screaming, �Someone buy me a drink!� has never worked.

57. For every drink, there is a five percent better chance you will get in a fight. There is also a three percent better chance you will lose the fight.

58. Fighting an extremely drunk person when you are sober is hilarious.

59. If you are broke and a friend is �sporting you�, you must laugh at all his jokes and play wingman when he makes his move.

60. If you are broke and a friend is �making sport of you�, you may steal any drink he leaves unattended.

61. Never rest your head on a table or bar top. It is the equivalent of voluntarily putting your head on a chopping block.

62. If you are trading rounds with a friend and he asks if you're ready for another, always say yes. Once you fall out of sync you will end up buying more drinks than him.

63. If you're going to hit on a member of the bar staff, make sure you tip well before and after, regardless of her response.

Tipping64. The people with the most money are rarely the best tippers.

65. Before you die, single-handedly make one decent martini.

66. Asking a bartender what beers are on tap when the handles are right in front of you is the equivalent of saying, �I'm an idiot.�

67. Never ask a bartender �what's good tonight?� They do not fly in the scotch fresh from the coast every morning.

68. If there is a line for drinks, get your goddamn drink and step the hell away from the bar.

69. If there is ever any confusion, the fuller beer is yours.

70. The patrons at your local bar are your extended family, your fathers and mothers, your brothers and sisters. Except you get to sleep with these sisters. And if you're really drunk, the mothers.

71. It's acceptable, traditional in fact, to disappear during a night of hard drinking. You will appear mysterious and your friends will understand. If they even notice.

72. Never argue your tab at the end of the night. Remember, you're hammered and they�re sober. It's akin to a precocious five-year-old arguing the super-string theory with a physicist. 99.9% of the time you're wrong and either way you're going to come off as a jackass.

Drink it or leave it73. If you bring booze to a party, you must drink it or leave it.

74. If you hesitate more than three seconds after the bartender looks at you, you do not deserve a drink.

75. Beer makes you mellow, champagne makes you silly, wine makes you dramatic, tequila makes you felonious.

76. The greatest thing a drunkard can do is buy a round of drinks for a packed bar.

77. Never preface a conversation with a bartender with �I know this is going to be a hassle, but . . .�

78. When you�re in a bar and drunk, your boss is just another guy begging for a fat lip. Unless he�s buying.

79. If you are 86�d, do not return for at least three months. To come back sooner makes it appear no other bar wants you.

80. Anyone with three or more drinks in his hands has the right of way.

81. If you�re going to drink on the job, drink vodka. It�s the no-tell liquor.

82. There�s nothing wrong with drinking before noon. Especially if you�re supposed to be at work.

83. The bar clock moves twice as fast from midnight to last call.

84. A flask engraved with a personal message is one of the best gifts you can ever give. And make sure there�s something in it.

85. On the intimacy scale, sharing a quiet drink is between a handshake and a kiss.

86. You will forget every one of these rules by your fifth drink.

http://www.moderndrunkardmagaz...s.htm

Thinking to do some Chinese dish

AwesomeMan — 2010-03-11T13:07:16-08:00

Hey ladies im thinking to prepare some Chinese dish ,could u pls help me in doing this.
Thanks in advance

things you learn when you get married

.cingham — 2010-03-11T01:53:34-08:00

latest one for me is that I bought a Hyundai Santa Fe (2002) for $2700 about two weeks ago. So far I've gotten to drive it to the store, on the weekends with my wife in the car, and short trips to the gym.

I thought I paid for that car.

Epic FAIL

FRANK — 2010-03-10T01:55:40-08:00

PASCO COUNTY (Bay News 9) -- A home was heavily damaged after Florida Highway Patrol officials say a teenager crashed into it overnight.

The incident happened about 1:30 a.m. in the 4200 block of Glissade Drive in New Port Richey.

Officials say the 17-year-old girl was in the neighborhood with a friend with the intention of egging her ex-boyfriend's car after discovering he was cheating on her.

While coming around a curve, she reportedly encountered another vehicle and swerved out of control to avoid hitting the other car.

According to the FHP, her silver Dodge Neon then smashed into a one-story block home, taking out a wall and leaving the garage door mangled.

No one was injured in the accident.

The teenager was cited for careless driving and for not having her driver's license with her. She was released from the scene a short time later.

A building inspector and insurance adjuster were called out to the home to appraise the damage.

Detroit plans to turn empty neighbor hoods into farmland

fifthgearonline — 2010-03-10T18:54:02-08:00

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35...-life/

I think this is a really good idea, put that useless land to some use and make me some corn!

Quote

DETROIT - Detroit, the very symbol of American industrial might for most of the 20th century, is drawing up a radical renewal plan that calls for turning large swaths of this now-blighted, rusted-out city back into the fields and farmland that existed before the automobile.

Operating on a scale never before attempted in this country, the city would demolish houses in some of the most desolate sections of Detroit and move residents into stronger neighborhoods. Roughly a quarter of the 139-square-mile city could go from urban to semi-rural.

Near downtown, fruit trees and vegetable farms would replace neighborhoods that are an eerie landscape of empty buildings and vacant lots. Suburban commuters heading into the city center might pass through what looks like the countryside to get there. Surviving neighborhoods in the birthplace of the auto industry would become pockets in expanses of green.

Detroit officials first raised the idea in the 1990s, when blight was spreading. Now, with the recession plunging the city deeper into ruin, a decision on how to move forward is approaching. Mayor Dave Bing, who took office last year, is expected to unveil some details in his state-of-the-city address this month.

"Things that were unthinkable are now becoming thinkable," said James W. Hughes, dean of the School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University, who is among the urban experts watching the experiment with interest. "There is now a realization that past glories are never going to be recaptured. Some people probably don't accept that, but that is the reality."

�People are afraid�
The meaning of what is afoot is now settling in across the city.

"People are afraid," said Deborah L. Younger, executive director of a group called Detroit Local Initiatives Support Corporation that is working to revitalize five areas of the city. "When you read that neighborhoods may no longer exist, that sends fear."

Though the will to downsize has arrived, the way to do it is unclear and fraught with problems.

Politically explosive decisions must be made about which neighborhoods should be bulldozed and which improved. Hundreds of millions of federal dollars will be needed to buy land, raze buildings and relocate residents, since this financially desperate city does not have the means to do it on its own. It isn't known how many people in the mostly black, blue-collar city might be uprooted, but it could be thousands. Some won't go willingly.

"I like the way things are right here," said David Hardin, 60, whose bungalow is one of three occupied homes on a block with dozens of empty lots near what is commonly known as City Airport. He has lived there since 1976, when every home on the street was occupied, and said he enjoys the peace and quiet.

For much of the 20th century, Detroit was an industrial powerhouse � the city that put the nation on wheels. Factory workers lived in neighborhoods of simple single- and two-story homes and walked to work. But then the plants began to close one by one. The riots of 1967 accelerated an exodus of whites to the suburbs, and many middle-class blacks followed.

Thousands of empty houses
Now, a city of nearly 2 million in the 1950s has declined to less than half that number. On some blocks, only one or two occupied houses remain, surrounded by trash-strewn lots and vacant, burned-out homes. Scavengers have stripped anything of value from empty buildings. According to one recent estimate, Detroit has 33,500 empty houses and 91,000 vacant residential lots.

Continued in the article.........

TR2N: Legacy

TreyJT — 2010-03-10T03:06:04-08:00

first trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...lated

Latest Trailer

http://www.traileraddict.com/trailer/tr2n/trailer

Modified by Trevor at 2:17 AM 3/9/2010

Modified by Trevor at 2:17 AM 3/9/2010

Modified by Trevor at 2:18 AM 3/9/2010

Request- Plies Album

C LICIOUS — 2010-03-09T01:10:18-08:00

Anyone got the plies album?

thanks

Twitter

Tizight — 2010-03-09T06:21:01-08:00

I know there is already a thread but its pretty outdated.

I just started using my account.

I think you should follow me and tell all of your friends to. http://www.twitter.com/tizight

Its basically a business experiment and gives me something to do during the day.

Obu....Nasty....let's talk about what went down NSFW

IS'D YA — 2010-03-10T02:54:46-08:00

there's video recording of you two, and I want answers

NSFW due to language

http://www.funnyordie.com/vide...ieber

Ludacris - Battle Of The Sexes

juan — 2010-03-10T22:22:02-08:00

Anyone have Sprint Cell service

usdm419 — 2010-03-09T01:39:08-08:00

They have some kickass deal right now for $70/mo. Unlimited calling, texting, and web.

But..... is it REALLY worth it???

Anyone care to chime in?

Ron Artest is buggin out.

Nasty Nate — 2010-03-10T00:06:45-08:00

He shaved the word defense in three different languages; Hebrew, Japanese and Hindi.

http://thehoopdoctors.com/onli...style/

True Protein

DeeeeJaaaay — 2010-03-08T12:28:05-08:00

http://www.trueprotein.com

An extremely reputable company for almost all lifting supplements. Whether you're looking for carbohydrates, fats, protein, aminos, meal replacements, creatine, etc, you can custom order in bulk mixes and flavors suited for your tastes.

I can't stomach whey or casein protein. Among other things, they bloat me and send my stomach into a fit. I recently ordered 4 pounds of beef protein isolate for use as a general purpose protein. I ordered it as 2lbs chocolate fudge 2lbs creamy peanut butter, both sweetened with stevia and both double flavored.

They have options to use aspartame, splenda, saccharin, stevia, and unsweetened with over 30 flavors. Couldn't be happier with it. All told: 4lbs protein, 2lbs micronised creatine monohydrate, 2lbs l-glutamine, 2lbs instantised bcaa's. $120 with overnight shipping. Not too bad.

Just keeping an eye out. Maybe some of the mere mortals on here might find this useful. Don't say I never did anything for you, you selfish bastards.

Modified by DeeeeJaaaay at 9:31 AM 3/8/2010

Professional Resume Services

TreDEE — 2010-03-07T20:33:34-08:00

I'm making the move from Hawai'i back to the mainland to be near my boys so its time to dust off the resume and start sending it out. This time I'd like to have a professional write, or rewrite it. Any recommendations? Ideas of cost?

spanish food gurus

tryin_to_be_jdm — 2010-03-11T12:49:32-08:00

I talked to some hispanics who were cooking the other day. They gave me some of their food and it was delicious. I think it was pork but it was dry and salty and almost tough to chew. It almost looked like shredded pork. They squeezed a lime onto it before they ate it. Anyone know what it could have been. They told me but i forgot what its called.

Happy Birthday Omar ( BMXicant )

TreyJT — 2010-03-08T13:55:16-08:00

Bruce Banner's Ann Arbor eating thread

Bruce Banner — 2010-03-08T20:03:44-08:00

I might as well put all the places I'm going to hit up in a single thread.
So lets start off with Blimpy's burger today.
Just got back.

Verdict:.......In N Out still wins
The line here is long, it crowds the place which affects seating. The patties weak, so you have to compensate by ordering triples etc... Taste wise, nothing special IMO.
Price? You be the judge

Adoption day at the pet store!

Prodigal Son — 2010-03-08T15:46:17-08:00

We had a fun day at the pet store today, with a vaccine clinic and an adoption day. I took a couple of pictures and figured I'd throw them up for the animal lovers in the crowd. I also have this big, sweet fisheye picture of the store I want to show off

Here's the clinic

And a few of the animals up for adoption

And a pile of bunnies just for fun!!

Everybody loves bunnies

Common dryer problems

tehmoonrulz — 2010-03-09T13:01:55-08:00

I have a fairly old dryer that doesn't seem to be drying anymore. It tumbles fine but clothes aren't getting warm or anything. Is there something common like a clogged exhaust vent or something I can do to see if it helps the issue? The thing is so old buying a new dryer is a better investment than fixing the old one

Severe Clear

FeelGoodPT916 — 2010-03-06T16:29:51-08:00

I just got word of this. Looks good.

SEVERE CLEAR is based on the memoir by First Lieutenant Mike Scotti as well as video footage shot by him and other members of 1st Battalion, 4th Marines on the outset of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Through their cameras we see the raw sounds of war, capturing the harrowing three hundred mile charge to Baghdad through hostile enemy territory. SEVERE CLEAR offers an unflinching look at the uncertainty, disorder and chaos of war from the remarkable perspective of one Marine. In theaters March 12th.

Trailer 1:

http://shock.military.com/Shoc...afd05

Trailer 2:

http://shock.military.com/Shoc...9e196

Big Rich & Ya Boy - Guns & Roses (The EP)

t0eknee — 2010-03-08T12:21:15-08:00

Tracklisting

1. (02:30) Ya Boy - Real african american Shit
2. (03:53) Ya Boy - Keep It Pushin' Ft. R.O.D.
3. (04:31) Ya Boy - Sugar Ft. Samm, Shad Gee, Dubb
4. (04:14) Ya Boy - Street african american
5. (03:05) Ya Boy - Remember When Ft. Clyde Carson
6. (04:43) Ya Boy - Yall Ain't Ready Ft. Black Card Boys & 3 Story Gang
7. (04:12) Big Rich - Can't Lose
8. (04:39) Ya Boy - Touchin The Floor
9. (04:46) Ya Boy - Gangstaz On Grove Ft. E-Gunna & Dip (Bonus)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTuwTAyRvFU

one of the tracks

ECAS DMV NOVA MD VA DC Douchebags etc...

ANTonio — 2010-03-10T19:34:02-08:00

I'll be up in your errea April 17 - 21.....anyone trying get some type of food and or drinks?

Saturday I have some bullshit wedding to go to, but chilling the rest of the time...

Save the SEALs

Jomo — 2010-03-07T21:45:06-08:00

Quote

The Washington Times
Friday, March 5, 2010
EDITORIAL: Save the SEALs

THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Rep. Dan Burton, Indiana Republican, and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, California Republican, yesterday renewed a call for

charges to be dropped against three Navy SEALs charged with the unspeakable crime of roughing up a terrorist.

The charges grew from circumstances surrounding the capture of Ahmed Hashim Abed, a terrorist mastermind who organized the killing, burning and mutilating of four American contractors in Fallujah, Iraq, in March 2004. Insurgents strung up the blackened remains on a box-girder bridge over the Euphrates River, a grisly event that made global headlines. Abed was brought in by the SEALs in September 2009.

Abed told Iraqi authorities that Special Operations Petty Officer 2nd Class Matthew McCabe punched him in the gut. That sailor is charged with unlawfully striking Abed "in the midsection with his fist" and with lying to a Naval Criminal Investigative Service officer about the incident. Petty Officers Julio Huertas and Jonathan Keefe are charged with impeding the investigation and dereliction of duty in failing to safeguard a detainee. Trials for these two sailors are set to begin in Iraq in April, and Petty Officer 2nd Class McCabe will be tried in Norfolk in May.

Public support for the three SEALs has grown steadily since the case came to light. Petitions circulated by Mr. Burton and the newspaper Human Events have collected more than 150,000 signatures. Combined Facebook pages supporting the SEALs have over 350,000 fans. Betty Kilbride, one of the organizers of the Facebook support groups, announced with Father's Press Publishing that they would donate $4 per copy from the sale of her book, "Soul of American Warriors," to the Navy SEALs Defense Fund.

Little evidence has been produced to substantiate Abed's abuse claim, and a planned deposition of the detained terrorist was canceled. Whether anything he says can be believed is highly doubtful anyway. Al Qaeda terrorists are trained to charge prisoner abuse whenever possible to create exactly this kind of situation. For Abed, a U.S. military court simply would be another front in his personal jihad.

Some in the SEAL community believe that dropping charges is the wrong approach because it would deny the defendants an opportunity to clear their names. The SEALs originally had been given the option of accepting administrative punishment but demanded a court martial for this reason. Jack Lynch, former president of the UDT-SEAL Association, who passed away in February, wrote that since a court martial has commenced, "it must be followed through." He believed that if the charges were dropped, "there would always be doubt in some folks' minds that we are hiding something. This could be a media fiasco no one needs. There is no choice but to go forward."

This argument would carry more weight if the SEALs could get a fair trial. But in the current politicized atmosphere and with an administration that goes out of its way to placate Muslim sentiment, it's not a sure thing that the accused would be vindicated. Having the charges dropped is preferable to seeing these young men railroaded to serve the political designs of the White House. That would be a fiasco indeed.

I fall into the group that believes in our criminal justice system and would love to, for once during this administration, receive a fair trial and clear their names in the name of mistreatment of terrorist suspects. It would be a huge blow to the current administration in their suspected mistreatment by all military personnel to suspects. It's the last paragraph that frightens me though.

Personally, I think he is lying, as the article points out this is the status quot for them, but even if he is not, I know most of you will agree the treatment he received is far less than the crime he committed. Criminals that participate in car chases without injuring anyone get worse treatment than this despicable excuse for a human being.

Protestors Walk on to Freeway to Demonstrate Against Education Budget Cuts

Obu — 2010-03-08T16:08:10-08:00

Quote, originally posted by SF Gate

Thousands rally on campuses, streets for schools

Nanette Asimov, Matthai Kuruvila, Justin Berton,Demian Bulwa, Chronicle Staff Writers

Friday, March 5, 2010

Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

An Oakland police officer escorts a protester after he and a large group attempted to block Interstate 880 following a rally for the national Day of Action against school funding cuts and tuition increases March 4, 2010 in Oakland.

(03-04) 17:58 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- Gathering for a series of feisty rallies on college campuses, in civic plazas and in the streets, thousands of protesters lashed out Thursday against the budget cuts and neglect that they say are breaking down the state's public education system.

The historic day of demonstrations in the Bay Area and beyond was largely peaceful, with students and others carrying signs like "Chop from the top," a reference to what they see as puffed-up executive salaries. They chanted, recited poetry and shared personal stories.

But amid an often festive atmosphere, there were also efforts to make more forceful statements during the protests, called the Day of Action to Defend Public Education.

More than 150 protesters were arrested on Interstate 880 in Oakland after using an exit ramp to walk onto the freeway and shut it down for nearly an hour. Many wore black, identified themselves as anarchists and carried a banner that read, "Occupy everything."

The action just before 5 p.m., which backed up rush-hour traffic for miles, came after a peaceful rally at Oakland City Hall. Police in riot gear chased and tackled some demonstrators. One was taken away in an ambulance after falling from the freeway onto a road below, witnesses said. Police said the man was expected to survive.
Schools of all kinds

The I-880 closure came near the end of a day that saw protests organized by students, labor unions, activist groups and others on campuses of all kinds, from elementary schools to UC Berkeley. They ripped state officials, who have cut millions of dollars from education budgets at all levels during the recession.

Hundreds rallied at the state Capitol in Sacramento, where speeches included calls to lower the two-thirds requirement in the Legislature to pass a state budget and to tax oil production and tobacco to fund higher education.

Some students at Oceana High School in Pacifica formed an "SOS" on a beach, while in San Francisco more than 50 Commodore Sloat Elementary fifth-graders boarded a Muni bus to the State Building. Each wore a handmade sandwich board sign protesting budget cuts to schools.

Students also rallied in Texas - where a day earlier regents had approved a tuition hike at state universities - as well as in Illinois and Alabama.

Many elected officials, including Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, responded with statements of support for the protesters. A spokesman for Schwarzenegger said he wanted a constitutional amendment guaranteeing that higher education received more funding than the state's prison system.

Many of the day's protesters, including Jennie Lew, said the issue was personal. Wearing a "Pissed-off parent" T-shirt at San Francisco State University, the mother of three college students - one at San Francisco State, another at UC Riverside and a third at De Anza College in Cupertino - said she and her husband were struggling to keep up with rising tuition.
Seeking return on dollar

The couple are graduates of UC Berkeley and were educated on federal aid and scholarships, Lew said, becoming members of what she described as the "educated middle class." Now, she said, her sons' graduation dates have been delayed because classes have been trimmed and teachers laid off.

"I'm not getting what I'm paying for," Lew said. "My husband and I were educated by the system, and now we're able to provide for our sons - just as it is supposed to work in society. But they may be the first generation who can't afford their education, much less receive it."

California's $20 billion budget gap this year, on top of $60 billion last year, has resulted in soaring tuition at the University of California and California State University. Courses are jammed, and many students can't get in at all. Lecturers have been laid off and employees furloughed. CSU wouldn't let new students enroll at all this semester.
Students turned away

More than 20,000 students will be turned away from community colleges next fall because there won't be enough classes for them, community college Chancellor Jack Scott said. According to the California Teachers Association, school districts across the state have issued almost 19,000 pink slips to public school teachers, warning that they may lose their jobs at the end of the semester.

The idea for protest, also known as March Forth, was hatched at UC Berkeley last fall and has spread to campuses in dozens of states.

University students began protesting Sept. 24, as UC and CSU were poised to raise tuition by 32 percent. UC had just raised tuition by 9.3 percent the previous May. The protests continued during the fall semester, growing increasingly angry and occasionally violent, as students seized buildings at UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz and San Francisco State.

Thursday's protest was an effort to keep the momentum going. Students set up Web sites and Twitter and Facebook pages. They formed committees to connect with high schools, community colleges, union leaders, teachers and workers.

In the end, demonstrators had different strategies. While some preferred to chant and hold signs, others decided they should try to shut down classes by storming into them or pulling fire alarms. At times, students debated the merits of attempting to occupy buildings at UC Berkeley and San Francisco State.

Calm prevailed in San Francisco, where thousands of demonstrators marched from 24th and Mission streets, stopping traffic on blocks of Mission, Market, Van Ness and Grove during a two-hour walk that concluded with a rally in front of City Hall.
Rallies mostly peaceful

Demonstrations were generally peaceful at UC Berkeley, the site of a campus rally last week that spilled onto city streets, leading to a riot and a clash with police. Thursday morning, about 100 protesters gathered at Sather Gate - the campus' main entrance - and blocked students from entering.

At Wheeler Hall, the site of a raucous protest in November, biology lecturer David Presti wasn't talking about molecular structures. Instead, he discussed a ballot initiative crafted by UC Berkeley linguistics Professor George Lakoff that would change the way the state Legislature passes budgets and raises taxes.

Groups of protesters ran through campus buildings beating drums and shouting, "Today we strike! Tomorrow go to school!"

When they threw open the door to an Italian class in Dwinelle Hall and shouted, "Out of the classrooms, into the streets," the professor smiled. Then he shouted in Italian to get out.

A 6-mile march from UC Berkeley to Oakland City Hall was calm. White-robed, Middle Eastern shopkeepers raised their fists in solidarity and people on the stoops of old Victorians nodded as marchers went past.
Car damaged in Santa Cruz

But at UC Santa Cruz, Provost David Kliger urged students, employees and others not to come to the campus. Up to 30 protesters, police said, smashed the rear and side windows of a car with either a hammer or a rock just before 8 a.m. The male driver, who was passing by the campus, was unhurt, and no one was arrested.

At UC Davis, almost 300 protesters tried to enter and block Interstate 80 before 3 p.m., prompting officers to form a human barrier and launch pepper spray balls to hold them back, said campus Police Chief Annette Spicuzza. The highway remained open.

In Oakland, a young man who had been with the splinter group of protesters said the move to occupy I-880 happened quickly.

"It seems like at a certain point everyone panicked," said Nick Xavier, 24, who did not walk onto the freeway. "It stopped traffic. They'll get on the news. That was the point of today, so they achieved some kind of success, I guess."
Day of Action to Defend Public Education

Thursday's statewide campus protests involved all levels of public education, from elementary grades through graduate school.

The purpose: To send a message to state legislators and the governor that students are suffering because of budget cuts.

Background: The University of California, California State University and community colleges are all struggling to find ways to operate after the state, in the midst of a budget crisis, withheld hundreds of millions of dollars in funding. School districts across the state also are facing severe budget shortfalls and are expected to issue almost 19,000 pink slips to public school teachers.

Universities: Tuition has soared at both UC and CSU. Classes are overcrowded, and many students can't get in. Lecturers have been laid off and employees furloughed. CSU wouldn't let new students enroll this semester.

Community colleges: The system expects to turn away more than 20,000 students next fall because of a shortage of classes.

K-12 schools: San Francisco Unified School District, facing a $113 million budget gap over the next two years, is one example of how the crisis is hitting the classroom. Almost 900 teachers and administrators employed by the district will receive pink slips this month, although not all of them will lose their jobs. In addition, there will probably be cuts to popular programs such as summer school and increases in class size.

Chronicle staff writers Victoria Colliver, Henry K. Lee and Jill Tucker contributed to this report. E-mail the writers at nasimov@sfchronicle.com, mkuruvila@sfchronicle.com, jberton@sfchronicle.com and dbulwa@sfchronicle.com.

I see their point but was this crossing the line?

OoVoo

FeelGoodPT916 — 2010-03-06T16:02:41-08:00

I love it. Video conferencing with 2 friends right now that are in CA. I will be purchasing the $17.95/month package after my 30 day trial period.

I suggest you get it to SEE up to 5 others (yourself makes 6) and talk to them. Video quality is pretty damn good. Going to be great with me going into the Navy.

I've been in video conference with my friends for about 2 hours now. Awesome.

* Official MA Friday :1UP: thread *

kengs — 2010-03-06T03:02:56-08:00

left ATL @ 6:30AM Thurs

arrv back @ ATL @ 3AM Fri

EOBR(s) Not that it specifically relates to you, yet.

serious face — 2010-03-10T08:56:16-08:00

I doubt very seriously that many of the members here will care much about this subject, but I am interested in someone's opinion outside the trucking community, as I already know how we feel about this. I'll be as brief as possible.

One of the biggest stipulations placed on a truck driver is something called Hours of Service. Basically, it outlines with few exceptions how long you are able to operate a commercial motor vehicle. Without going into much detail it's basically 11 hrs of driving, within a 14 hr window. So if you start your day at 0600 then you have until 2000 to drive your 11 hrs. at 2000 your truck can't legally move. You have to have an uninterrupted 10 hr break then you can start your new "day." I could go on about the unfairness of this rule, but that isn't the point of the post. In the past the accounting for this has been done with "paper logs." The driver fills out the log accounting for how he spent his time, shows his breaks etc. There is another way of doing this called electronic logs, which I currently (because of the company I work for) am a victim of. I don't decide what I drove, a computer tells my company how long my vehicle was in motion. Right now it is optional for the company to have this device. There is legislation that was defeated this year, but is expected to be reinstated next year that will require all commercial vehicles to have an Electronic On Board Recorder. This basically means that even if I am on paper logs a trooper could pull me over for an inspection (they don't need a reason to pull over a big truck) and plug into my truck, then write me a ticket because my EOBR recorded me doing 36 in a 25 mph zone, 6 days ago.

The argument is that "well if you aren't doing anything wrong, then it won't be a problem. This will only affect the outlaws." Well friends, I am an outlaw. However, my problems with this legislation transcends my life of crime. This is in my opinion a violation of human rights. I can't word it as poetically as I should be able to, but think about the novel 1984. Seems as though we should all have cameras in our houses because the only ones who don't want them are the "thought criminals." "Serves those goddamn truckers right..." Careful though, you may be next. Imagine the simplicity of just mailing your speeding ticket to you, as a private citizen. No more red light cameras, no more photo speed. Don't need it, because it is now installed on your car(s). Input appreciated...

Critique this photo please!!!!

fifthgearonline — 2010-03-05T15:34:34-08:00

I want to get this printed on foam board and eventually framed. But i want to know if i should make any other adjustments to it. I still have the PSD file so i can make any adjusments on top of this. Thanks for your input guys

Click here for 1920x1277

Smaller Version:

Deftones new single Rocket Skates - Free Download

fifthgearonline — 2010-03-10T18:49:35-08:00

http://www.gunsrazorsknives.com/

Right click save as

Vegas This Fall: Lets make this shit happen

fifthgearonline — 2010-03-09T20:36:45-08:00

I need a fucking vacation

An Uncapped Year FAQ

Agent Zero — 2010-03-04T22:51:52-08:00

Courtesy of the NFL:

Q. When can players start being signed in the 2010 free agency signing period?
A. Beginning at 12:01 AM ET on Friday, March 5.

Q. What are the categories of free agency?
A. Players are either "restricted" or "unrestricted" free agents. Within the categories are also "transition" and "franchise" players.

Q. What is the time period for free agency signings this year?
A. For restricted free agents, from March 5 to April 15. For unrestricted free agents who have received the June 1 tender from their prior Club, from March 5 to July 22 (or the first scheduled day of the first NFL training camp, whichever is later). For franchise players, from March 5 until the Tuesday after the 10th week of the regular-season (November 16). If he does not sign by November 16, he must sit out the season. There are no transition player designations this year

Q. What is the difference between a restricted free agent and an unrestricted free agent?
A. In the 2010 League Year, players become restricted free agents when they complete three, four or five accrued seasons and their contract expires. Unrestricted free agents have completed six or more accrued seasons. An unrestricted free agent is free to sign with any club with no compensation owed to his old club

Q. What constitutes an "accrued season?"
A. Six or more regular-season games on a club's active/inactive, reserved-injured or "physically unable to perform" lists.

Q. Other than accrued seasons, what determines a restricted free agent?
A. He has received a "qualifying" offer (a salary level predetermined by the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the league and its players) from his old club. He can negotiate with any club through April 15. If the restricted free agent accepts an offer sheet from a new club, his old club can match the offer and retain him because it has the "right of first refusal." If the old club does not match the offer, it can possibly receive draft-choice compensation depending on the amount of its qualifying offer. If an offer sheet is not executed, and the player receives the June 1 tender from his old club, the player�s rights revert exclusively to his old club on June 1.

Q. What determines an unrestricted free agent?
A. A player with six or more accrued seasons whose contract has expired. He is free to sign with any club, with no compensation owed to his old club, through July 22 (or the first scheduled day of the first NFL training camp, whichever is later). At that point, his rights revert to his old club if it made a "tender" offer (110 percent of last year's salary) to him by June 1. His old club then has until the Tuesday after the 10th week of the season (November 16) to sign him. If he does not sign by November 16, he must sit out the season. If no tender is offered by June 1, the player can be signed by any club at any time throughout the season.

Q. What determines a transition player?
A. A transition player must be offered a minimum of the average of the top 10 salaries of the prior season at the player�s position or 120 percent of the player�s prior year�s salary, whichever is greater. A transition player designation gives the club a first-refusal right to match within seven days an offer sheet given to the player by another club after his contract expires. If the club matches, it retains the player. If it does not match, it receives no draft pick compensation from that club. In 2010, a club may designate a franchise player or a transition player in lieu of a franchise player, as well as one additional transition player.

Q. What determines a franchise player?
A. The salary level offer by a player's club determines what type of franchise player he is. An "exclusive" franchise player -- not free to sign with another club -- is offered a minimum of the average of the top five salaries at the player's position for the current year as of April 15, or 120 percent of the player's previous year's salary, or the average of the top five salaries at his position as of the end of last season -- whichever of the three is greater. If a player is offered a minimum of the average of the top five salaries of last season at his position, or 120 percent of the player�s previous year�s salary, he becomes a �non-exclusive� franchise player and can negotiate with other clubs. His old club can match a new club's offer, or receive two first-round draft choices if it decides not to match.

Q. Can a club decide to withdraw its franchise or transition designations on a player?
A. Yes

Q. Can a club then use them on other players?
A. Not in the 2010 season. A club can withdraw its franchise or transition designations and the player then automatically becomes an unrestricted free agent either immediately or when his contract expires.

CBA-RELATED QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

Q. When does the CBA expire should there be no extension to the agreement?
A. In March of 2011

Q. Will there be a college draft in 2011?
A. Yes.

Q. What is the �Final League Year� in the current agreement?
A. The �Final League Year� is the term used in the CBA to refer to the last year of the agreement, which is 2010. The 2010 League Year begins on March 5.

Q. What are the differences between the �Final League Year� and any other �League Year?�
A. The principal differences are that in the �Final League Year� there is no salary cap and there are substantial additional restrictions on player free agency and reductions in player benefits.

Q. Are current player benefits affected in the Final League Year?
A. We expect the amount of current player benefits to decline in the Final League Year. The union agreed that in the Final League Year, clubs would be relieved of obligations regarding numerous benefit programs. Examples include second career savings (401K), player annuity, health reimbursement arrangement, severance pay and performance-based pay. The total league-wide contributions to such plans in 2009, the last capped year, were in excess of $335 million or more than $10 million per club.

Q. Are retired player benefits affected in the Final League Year?
A. Commissioner Goodell has stated in a letter to the NFL Alumni Association Board of Directors that there will be no reduction in pension or disability payments to retired players during the Final League Year (2010). Since at least the fall of 2007, NFL owners have consistently agreed and planned that they will not reduce the funding for pension or disability benefits for retired players, nor will they change qualifications on payments to players under the 88 Plan during the Final League Year.

Q. What determines an unrestricted free agent in the Final League Year (2010)
A. In capped seasons, a player whose contract has expired becomes an unrestricted free agent if he has four or more accrued seasons. In the Final League Year (2010), a player whose contract has expired becomes an unrestricted free agent only if he has six or more accrued seasons. An unrestricted free agent is free to sign with any club with no compensation owed to his old club.

Q. What determines whether a player is a restricted free agent in the �Final League Year?�
A. In capped seasons, a player whose contract expires becomes a restricted free agent if he has three accrued seasons. In the Final League Year (2010), a player whose contract expires becomes a restricted free agent if he has three, four or five accrued seasons

Q. In addition to the right to designate a franchise (or transition) player each capped year, can clubs designate additional players in the Final League Year?
A. Yes, one additional player can be tagged. In capped years, a club may designate a franchise player or a transition player in lieu of a franchise player. In the Final League Year (2010), the above rule also applies, however, a club may also designate one additional transition player. A transition player must be offered a minimum of the average of the top 10 salaries of the prior season at the player�s position or 120 percent of the player�s prior year�s salary, whichever is greater. A transition player designation gives the club a first-refusal right to match within seven days an offer sheet given to the player by another club after his contract expires. If the club matches, it retains the player. If it does not match, it receives no draft pick compensation from that club.

Q. What is the Final Eight Plan?
A. During the Final League Year, the eight clubs that make the Divisional Playoffs in the previous season have additional restrictions that limit their ability to sign unrestricted free agents from other clubs. In general, the four clubs participating in the championship games are limited in the number of unrestricted free agents that they may sign; the limit is determined by the number of their own unrestricted free agents signing with other clubs. They cannot sign any UFAs unless one of theirs is signed by another team. For the four clubs that lost in the Divisional Playoffs, in addition to having the ability to sign unrestricted free agents based on the number of their own unrestricted free agents signing with other clubs, they may also sign players based on specific financial parameters. Those four only will be permitted to sign one unrestricted free agent for $5,807,475 million or more in year one of the contract, plus the number of their UFAs who sign with another team. They also can sign any unrestricted free agents for no more than $3,861,823 million in year one of the contract with limitations on the per year increases. In the case of all final eight teams, the first year salary of UFAs they sign to replace those lost cannot exceed the first year salary of the player lost with limitations on the per year increases.

Q. Is there an Entering Player Pool in the Final League Year?
A. Yes. The CBA provides that the league has the right to keep the rookie pool in the Final League Year.

Q. Is there a Minimum Team Salary in the Final League Year?
A. There is no Minimum Team Salary in the Final League Year

Q. Are there individual player minimum salaries in the Final League Year?
A. Yes, but they rise at a rate somewhat slower than player minimum salaries rise in capped years.

Q. Do any player contract rules from capped years remain in place for the Final League Year?
A. Yes. Some rules like the �30% increase rule� are still in effect in the Final League Year for player contracts signed in capped years. That rule restricts salary increases from 2009 to 2010 and beyond. For example: a player with a $500,000 salary in 2009 would be limited to annual salary increases of $150,000 ($500,000 x 30%) beginning in 2010.

Just some incite to this crazy off season.

Guns and Coffee FTW

FRANK — 2010-03-07T21:36:53-08:00

SEATTLE � Coffee chain Starbucks Corp. is sticking to its policy of letting customers carry guns where it's legal and said it does not want to be put in the middle of a larger gun-control debate.
The company's statement, issued Wednesday, stems from recent campaign by some gun owners, who have walked into Starbucks and other businesses to test state laws that allow gun owners to carry weapons openly in public places. Gun control advocates have protested.
The fight began heating up in January in Northern California and has since spread to other states and other companies, bolstered by the pro-gun group OpenCarry.org.
Some of the events were spontaneous, with just one or two gun owners walking into a store. Others were organized parades of dozens of gun owners walking into restaurants with their firearms proudly at their sides.
Now, gun control advocates are protesting the policy. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, launched a petition drive demanding that the company "offer espresso shots, not gunshots" and declare its coffeehouses "gun-free zones." And Wednesday, that group delivered 28,000 signatures to the coffee giant's headquarters in Seattle.
The group also held a press conference near Seattle's Pike Place Market, just a few yards away from where the first Starbucks cafe opened. Gun rights advocates showed up as well, some carrying handguns in holsters around their waists.
Brian Malte of the Brady Campaign said carrying guns intimidates and frightens people, and said the group thinks Starbucks will "do the right thing" and change its policy.
"They're putting their workers in harm's way by allowing people to carry guns into their stores, especially open carry," Malte said.
More than a dozen pro-gun supporters, some with Starbucks coffee cups in hand, chanted during the press conference, at points interrupting speakers.
"I think the (Brady campaign is) trying to strong-arm private businesses into banning the rights of the people," said Bev Carman of Everett, Wash. Carman held a sign that said: "Criminal Control not Gun Control."
Businesses can choose to ban guns from their premises. And Starbucks said Wednesday that it complies with local laws in the 43 states that have open-carry weapon laws.
"Were we to adopt a policy different from local laws allowing open carry, we would be forced to require our partners to ask law abiding customers to leave our stores, putting our partners in an unfair and potentially unsafe position," the company said in its statement.
It said security measures are in place for any "threatening situation" that might occur in stores.

Starbucks asked both gun enthusiasts and gun-control advocates "to refrain from putting Starbucks or our partners into the middle of this divisive issue."

these brady campaign people suck.

J. Cole - The Warm Up

EGwhat!!! — 2010-03-04T16:36:34-08:00

Check it out. This guy is fire.

Anyone see Dac lately

fifthgearonline — 2010-03-04T15:08:29-08:00

dacalac last posted at 9:22 AM 1/28/2010

Trance Songs

C LICIOUS — 2010-03-04T22:24:08-08:00

Markus Schulz- Do You Dream (uplifting vocal mix)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgcM6aTCZ3w

convert VOB to AVI

Dissent — 2010-03-03T19:18:40-08:00

Looking for software that converts VOB files into AVI format. Anyone have any suggestions?

young model snitches; exposes drug ring...

daved — 2010-03-06T15:49:13-08:00

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new....html

Quote

An international arrest warrant has been issued for the 30-year-old, who is suspected of recruiting beautiful women and using them to move drugs to Europe and North America.

Many of these women are believed to be other lingerie and glamour models who compete in international beauty pageants, whom Valencia describes as "unsuspicious, beautiful angels".

She is thought to be on the run somewhere in either Mexico or Argentina. Her drug syndicate was exposed in December last year after a 21-year-old blew the whistle after being caught with 55kg of cocaine at Buenos Aires airport.

Investigators believe the beauty pageant winner quit modeling and left her native Colombia for Argentina to set up the empire last year.

They tried to trace her via her Pomeranian lapdog but found it registered to a disused warehouse. Her drug runners were paid �1,300 to board flights from Colombia to Cancun, Mexico, with bags of cocaine every 24 hours, according to The Sun.

The drugs were then trafficked to Europe. Valencia was crowned Columbia's "Queen of Coffee" in 2000 and is said to have split from a Mexican drug baron nicknamed The Monster to rival his empire.

awesome!

i don't know why, but i love drug running stories like this.

Help me get my ass in shape

twentywontowin — 2010-03-09T19:52:30-08:00

I've never been a big guy. About 5'8", normally between 145-150lbs. Being in IT work, I'm pretty inactive a lot of the day. Lately, I haven't been eating well, if much at all, and people have commented that I look like I've lost weight. I get winded going up stairs, and if I move any equipment around, I struggle.

I hit the scale this morning, and I'm in at 135. I decided I need to do something about this.

Here's a list of what I'm looking to accomplish.

1. I don't need to be ripped, but would like to get some noticeable muscle definition.
2. I plan on playing hockey again soon, so getting my speed and stamina up is a must.
3. If I could come in anywhere between 155-165lbs, I'm satisfied.
4. I don't belong to a gym, but will join one. Plan on getting in there four times a week.
5. More balanced nutrition. Instead of going with what is cheap, I need to eat what is right.

What I am trying to do is figure out a game plan, and get this into place. I am going to try and get six solid meals per day in if possible. This is what I'm looking at doing:

Breakfast
Bagels, Bananas, Yogurt, Oatmeal, Milk, Granola. I do not eat straight eggs, so that is out of the question.

Brunch
Nutrition/Protein shake, peanuts, crackers.

Lunch
Chicken breasts, steak stir-fry, vegetables, potatoes.

After-Lunch
Bagels, bananas, peanuts. Maybe toss in a shake

Dinner
Steak, chicken, stir-fry, fish, more vegetables and potatoes.

After-Dinner/Workout
Protein/Nutrition shake, maybe more chicken stir-fry.

I figure if I play with my options on the meals and portion sizes, I should get around 3000 calories, 150g protein, and as many carbs as I need. I work at a bakery, so getting carbs from grains is not a problem.

The part I am totally lost on is getting a workout routine going. Being my goal is to play hockey, it has to be a pretty equal mix of cardio and weights.

I do have access to the P90X DVD's so if I can't get into a gym right away, would this be a good start? I always hear pretty good things about it, but for someone like me who is totally out of shape, I imagine it's going to put me on my ass. But I'll man up and take the pain.

I've tried reading up on different routines and regimes built around sports, but you hear different things from everyone. May as well get some opinions from you guys as well.

Many thanks.

Suggest me Ladies

AwesomeMan — 2010-03-09T15:03:30-08:00

Hello ladies im new to cooking to and i want you suggest me some recipes which i can prepare easily.

Senator to Introduce Internet Human Rights Bill

Nasty Nate — 2010-03-03T17:30:46-08:00

Quote

A U.S. senator plans to introduce legislation that would impose criminal or civil penalties on U.S. Internet companies that bow to pressure of foreign governments and violate human rights.

Senator Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, gave few details about the proposed bill during a hearing of the Judiciary Committee's Human Rights and the Law Subcommittee Tuesday, but he said the legislation would seek to impose penalties on U.S. companies that violate the human rights of bloggers, activists and other Internet users living in repressive nations.

U.S. companies are too often bowing to pressure from other governments to censor Internet content or help track down human rights activists, said Durbin, the subcommittee chairman. Durbin asked several U.S. tech companies, including Facebook, Twitter, McAfee and Apple, to testify at Tuesday's hearing on global Internet freedom, but they declined, he said.

"With a few notable exceptions, the technology industry seems unwilling to regulate itself and unwilling even to engage in a dialogue with Congress about the serious human rights challenges that the industry faces," Durbin said. "In the face of this resistance, I have decided it's time to take a more active position."

The proposed legislation would require Internet companies to take "reasonable steps" to protect human rights, Durbin said. "I recognize that the technology industry faces difficult challenges when they deal with repressive governments," he added. "But we have a responsibility in the United States, and Congress shares in that responsibility, to ensure that American companies are not complicit in violating freedom of expression."

Durbin also complained that most Internet companies have so far not joined the Global Network Initiative (GNI), a group launched in October 2008 to help protect freedom of expression and privacy online. Google, Microsoft and Yahoo are the only Internet firm participants in GNI.

Durbin targeted Facebook for some of his criticism. Facebook told Durbin that it takes down some content when it violates local laws, he said.

When he asked Facebook why it was not part of GNI, the company said it didn't have the resources to participate in the group and it didn't have operations in China, one of the nations most identified with censorship, he said. But GNI dues are a maximum of US$60,000, Durbin said.

About 70 percent of Facebook's users are outside the U.S. The company, and others like it, could benefit from the dialog at GNI, said Michael Posner, assistant secretary for democracy, human rights and labor at the U.S. Department of State. Companies need to work collectively to combat censorship and human rights abuses, Posner said.

Durbin noted that Facebook had asked for the State Department's help when it was blocked in Vietnam. "If Facebook expects our government to help resolving efforts to censor its service, it only seems reasonable that they accept some responsibility themselves for addressing human rights issues," Durbin said.

Facebook's global operations are small, but as the company grows, it will consider whether to participate in new groups, said Andrew Noyes, spokesman for the company in Washington, D.C.

"When we come to evaluate doing business in any country, we do so thoughtfully and are mindful of the rules, regulations and customs," he added. "We welcome a continued dialogue with Senator Durbin and others who have an interest in this issue."

Durbin asked Rebecca MacKinnon, a visiting fellow at Princeton University's Center for Information Technology Policy and co-founder of international blogger network Global Voices Online, why more Internet companies don't join GNI. "It does seem, in part, a fear of acknowledging that human rights is part of their business," she said. "I think a lot of companies are afraid of even having that conversation for fear that people will then hang charges on them ... and they'd rather avoid having the conversation at all."

Witnesses and other senators at the hearing didn't question Durbin's proposed legislation. New legislation may be needed to "induce corporate responsibility," MacKinnon said.

The U.S. government should also fix export controls and allow Internet companies to serve residents in repressive countries, she added. But the U.S. government should block U.S. companies from selling filtering software or surveillance equipment to those same nations, she said.

The only Internet company represented at the hearing was Google, and Nicole Wong, the company's vice president and deputy general counsel, focused on efforts Google is taking to stop censoring search results in China.

Google doesn't have a timetable for making the change but it is committed to doing so, Wong said. Other companies may make different decisions about doing business in China and other countries, and Google's decision on China was a difficult one, she said.

Durbin and other senators didn't talk about whether U.S. government surveillance of residents would count as human rights violations. The U.S. National Security Agency conducted surveillance on U.S. residents without court-ordered warrants for several years in the past decade, with the help of U.S. service providers. Litigation involved in these incidents is ongoing.

I know it's a long read, but bare with me.

Do you think that internet-based companies in the private sector should take a stand, or to continue business as usual? At what point should ethics prevail over the bottom line?

Proposal would put Ronald Reagan's face on the $50 bill

Nasty Nate — 2010-03-09T13:14:41-08:00

Quote

Reporting from Washington - Ronald Reagan is honored by, among other things, an airport, a freeway, an aircraft carrier and -- ironically for a critic of big government -- one of the biggest federal buildings in Washington.

Now, some of the late president's admirers are launching a new effort to add another honor: printing his likeness on a $50 bill in place of Ulysses S. Grant's.

In polls of presidential scholars, Reagan consistently outranks Grant, said Rep. Patrick T. McHenry (R-N.C.), who introduced legislation to make the change.

But at least one Democrat who serves on the House Financial Services Committee, where the proposal has been sent, isn't ready to jettison Grant for "someone whose policies are still controversial."

"Our currency ought to be something that unites us," said Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks).

Grant admirers, who credit him for leading the Union Army to victory during the Civil War, were none too pleased either.

"I'm very upset," said Keya Morgan, a New York-based Grant scholar who has a Web page on the 18th president. "I have all the respect in the world for Reagan, but what he accomplished is not anywhere as important as what Ulysses S. Grant accomplished."

An earlier proposal to put Reagan on the dime in place of President Franklin D. Roosevelt drew objections from Democrats, for whom Roosevelt is as much of a hero as Reagan is for Republicans. An effort to put Reagan on the $20 bill in place of Andrew Jackson drew opposition from Tennessee lawmakers.

A 2005 move to put Reagan on the $50 bill never made it out of the House Financial Services Committee, even though Republicans controlled the chamber at the time.

"President Reagan is indisputably one of the most transformative presidents of the 20th century," McHenry said in a letter to colleagues seeking their support. "Like President Roosevelt on the dime and President Kennedy on the half dollar, President Reagan deserves a place of honor on our nation's currency."

The move comes as efforts are underway in California and Nevada to name mountains after Reagan and as planning gets underway for a yearlong observance in 2011 of the 100th anniversary of Reagan's birth.

Thoughts?

I just don't see this happening...ever.

http://www.latimes.com/news/na...story

I'm in Cincinnati

mjolnir — 2010-03-06T16:20:52-08:00

Well, I will be tonight. Getting in late tonight, staying the rest of this week and through to next Friday. I'll be staying in Blue Ash.

I want some Cincinnati chili.

Just had me some white castle

Bruce Banner — 2010-03-04T19:30:00-08:00

Mc donalds White castle.
Totally overrated.

Spartacus Series

FeelGoodPT916 — 2010-03-04T00:02:46-08:00

Any watching it? It's on STARZ I think... I watch it on NetFlix. Bad ass series so far. Blood, sex, fighting, twists, you name it.... Just finished episode 6.

GM Recalls 1.3 Million Cars - Ford and Honda look better and better every day

fifthgearonline — 2010-03-03T02:30:05-08:00

For the major car makers, ford and honda look fan-fucking-tastic now!

http://www.businessweek.com/au....html

Bad timing: GM recalls 1.3 million cars

Posted by: David Welch on March 02, 2010

Well, so much for racing through the gap left open by Toyota�s recall saga. General Motors said late Monday that it will recall 1.3 million compact cars to fix a power steering problem.

The timing is terrible. GM may have just benefitted from Toyota�s problems as the company�s sales rose 11.5% in February. The more important number is that sales for the four brands it is keeping �Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC�rose 32% in the month. That�s a sign that GM found some buyers who might have shopped Toyota otherwise.

Keeping that momentum just got a little tougher. GM said that the company will start the recall following 1,100 complaints about the power steering in its small cars. GM is recalling the 2005 through 2010 Chevrolet Cobalt, 2007 through 2010 Pontiac G5, 2005 and 2006 Pontiac Pursuit sold in Canada and the 2005 and 2006 Pontiac G4 sold in Mexico.

Iphone 3gs

AwesomeMan — 2010-03-09T16:57:13-08:00

Hey guys im thinking to buy Iphone 3gs ,many say the Iphone era is over,if thats true pls suggest me some cool phones............

Gorillaz - Plastic Beach

TreyJT — 2010-03-04T14:19:10-08:00

Modified by Trevor at 4:18 PM 3/2/2010

Boomshakalaka!

FeelGoodPT916 — 2010-03-02T16:46:15-08:00

Passed the SEAL PST last week. I ship out in 2 weeks.

Swim- 8:44
Push Up - 64
Sit Up - 55
Pull Up - 10
Run - 10:34

Today I took the Computerized Special Operations Resiliency Test (CSORT). "Scored" the best possible way you can. It determines if you show the same traits as those who have completed BUDs. The way they determine success rates is on a band score. You can get a 1-4 on the PST and a 1-4 on the CSORT. I got 4's on both. So I have a total of 8 of 8, the best you can have.

I'll be reclassed to SO once I get to RTC and pass the PST again. They can't reclass me right now since it's so close to me leaving. A $40,000 contract may still be available, but I don't care about the money. I just want to get my trident!

Workout challenge for this year

Landon Peters — 2010-03-01T18:10:10-08:00

I'd really like to see one, I would participate, too.

Anyone else interested in starting one?

Make the hole smaller

O.J.Sakuma — 2010-03-02T13:28:22-08:00

Example

The two holes on the top. I need to make them smaller. The reason is, the plate frame hole is too big, so it sort of dangles down a bit and therefore, covers up the state name = ticket.

I can push them up, and screw it supertight to hold it. But there is a chance it will slip back down over time.

Is there a solution?

I can maybe use a washer, but what it will do is center it. I need to push it as high as I can. I can stick some gum in the hole, but that will not hold up with time and weather.

Thinking to Invest in Shares

AwesomeMan — 2010-03-01T20:45:21-08:00

Hello everybody im thinking to invest some money in Shares ,will this be a good idea?
looking for your suggestions.

Who's PS3 broke last night

Lan — 2010-03-02T19:04:25-08:00

OBAMA

AwesomeMan — 2010-03-01T14:56:03-08:00

It has been more than a year since Obama became the President , what are the benefits he has done till now...?

What shall i wear

AwesomeMan — 2010-03-09T17:20:27-08:00

I am thinking of going out on a date this weekend with my girlfriend. How should I dress ? Will a t-shirt and jeans be ok ?

Modified by AwesomeMan at 10:54 AM 3/1/2010

Best Diet Plan to reduce Weight

AwesomeMan — 2010-03-03T13:23:01-08:00

Hello everybody im new to this forum ,
Im looking for the best Diet plan so that i can reduce my Weight.
Awaiting for your replies...........

Guru of Gang Starr Fame goes into a coma

Nasty Nate — 2010-03-04T19:34:02-08:00

Quote

According to many different sources, Hip-Hop Wired has acquired information that rapper Guru has fallen into a coma after suffering cardiac arrest.

Details right now remain very slim, but sources have stated that the news was broken by Guru's sister.

Guru, who is a former member of the rap duo Gang Starr, is considered to be one of the pioneers of Hip-Hop/jazz crossovers.

*UPDATE*

DJ Premier, the other half of Gang Starr called up Satelite XM radio station "Hip Hop Nation" and confirmed Guru's heart attack.

"Guru IS in a coma and will go under surgery tomorrow afternoon."

My prayers go out to him and his family.

MLB '10: The Show

CARTER — 2010-03-10T00:10:51-08:00

http://www.gametrailers.com/ga...12536

Comes out tomorrow

Heavy Rain

Noe Kozz — 2010-03-09T14:39:28-08:00

Anyone have this game? I'm reading great reviews on this and thinking about getting it.

Comments on the game from those who have it are welcomed.

44 Inch Chest

DeeeeJaaaay — 2010-03-01T20:48:42-08:00

Been waiting for this for a while. Can't wait.

http://trailers.apple.com/trai...chest/

The Crazies

Tizight — 2010-03-08T23:45:48-08:00

Was very meh...

3.5 stars out of 4 my ass.

Bruce Banner is now in Michigan!

Bruce Banner — 2010-03-01T09:10:30-08:00

Summer tires + snow/ice = BAD IDEA.

Extending Wireless Network

Everyones Hero — 2010-03-09T18:58:49-08:00

My dad has one of those old Linksys wireless routers & it's on the other side of the house. As a result my wireless connection is always dropping. Sometimes I have to go to the kitchen to get a decent connection.

My younger brother ran an ethernet cable under the house to a hub in his room. I ran another ethernet cable from his room to mine & it's attached to another hub which is only connected to my 360.

The ethernet port on my laptop is messed up so I can't run it wired & don't want to get a new ethernet adapter for it because I'd prefer to keep it wireless.

I would like to get something to plug into or replace my hub so I have a good, strong signal right in my bedroom.

Would something like this work:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...22016

or is there something else I would have to get? We have DSL & my laptop is pretty slow so there's no point in getting a wireless N router or anything like that.

Verizon Wireless Phone Upgrade

Everyones Hero — 2010-03-04T10:53:43-08:00

It's time for me to upgrade my phone & I have no idea what to get.

I stopped by Best Buy & just looked around. The Droid caught my eye but I'm not paying an extra $30/month for a data plan. Maybe if they would combine it with the $30 each of my brothers pay for their BBs then maybe I'd consider it.

I'd like to get one that has a keyboard & a decent camera. I've always had Motorolas in the past & they have good reception but they seem to be very laggy. The salesman said I should consider the Samsung Intensity. It has a keyboard & doesn't require a data plan.

Any other phone suggestions I should look into?

edit: After looking online I see that BB has a very limited selection of phones to choose from so I'm going to go by the Verizon store on Monday.

Here's the phone I have now but in black:

Nas - Lost Tapes

EGwhat!!! — 2010-03-04T14:14:39-08:00

Personally this is my favortie Nas album its an old one but still a must listen.

Used iPhone 3G 8 Gig Black

Obu — 2010-03-02T19:42:39-08:00

I have a used iPhone 3G 8Gig Black for sale. It's in great condition with minor scuff marks on the corners. No scratches on the front, it's never been dropped, and the phone is in fantastic working condition. It's locked to AT&T.

iPhone 3G 8 Gig Black
Version: 3.1.3
Price: $275

PM if you're interested.

Post Secrets

Landon Peters — 2010-03-03T12:18:53-08:00

Pretty interesting concept I think. I went out with this gal on Wednesday and I forgot how exactly we got on the topic of it but she told me about this website called http://www.postsecret.com where essentially people send this guy in Germany a post card with a secret written on it, about anything.

When he collects so many, he publishes them in a book. Pretty cool I think.

Official MA Fri - Time To Venture Away From 1MX, 7s, R&R Threads - thread

kengs — 2010-02-27T02:50:52-08:00

proceed...

My '10 Log

Jon Ay D — 2010-03-08T14:41:53-08:00

This is my '10 log. We'll see how long I keep it up

This are pics from Jan 13. After these I started to do pull-ups and some leg exercises to get ready for p90x.

These pics are from Feb 25. I will be starting P90x on Sunday (most likley) and well see what happens

FS: BNIB 22 (21.5") 1080p LCD monitor

neenjah — 2010-03-03T00:45:14-08:00

Emachines E211H (Acer rebranded panel). Brand new never opened

# 21.5" Active Matrix TFT Widescreen LCD Display
# Resolution 1920 x 1080
# Contrast ratio 50000:1 (dynamic)
# Response time 5ms
# Inputs VGA & DVI

I bought but lost the receipt

$105 Shipped

Time to get my ducks in formation

SuperMario66 — 2010-02-24T17:42:38-08:00

Well I've come to the conclusion that I'm being an idiot and need to set up a plan of action.

My first concern is the 20kish that I have sitting in my checking account and uncashed paychecks. I want to do something with this right away. I was thinking savings account, but the rates don't seem to be that great at the moment. Are there any other good alternatives? Any good leads on savings accounts? I'd like to keep this money liquid.

For as long as I can remember I've wanted to own investment property. I feel like I've reached a point where I can seriously set a plan into motion. I'd like to own property that will generate income, residential seems like the easiest place to start. I've looked at the local MLS and the listed prices on multifamily properties make any hope of positive cash flow impossible unless I can negotiate them down 30-50%, unlikely. I'd like to start looking at forclosures but I have no idea how to actually find these. What agency actually handles forclosures and can provide me with information? Do any of the pay sites actually provide anything worthwhile?

My next concern is about financing. I have absolutely no idea what I could borrow and at what rate. I've thought applying for a loan online, will this have any negative affect on my credit if I just look to see what they offer?

If I did find the right deal and made it happen, how can owning property (still paying a mortgage, but also having equity + income) help or hinder me in aquiring a second property from there? Does it become increasingly hard to borrow money, or does the equity built in previous properties make banks more likely to loan money?

Is it a good or bad investment to put up a large downpayment on an investment property? From reading online the "experts" make it seem like you are an idiot for putting up any money for a downpayment. Putting up a sizeable downpayment drops the expenses by a large amount, making it much more likely that I could see income after all expenses are accounted for.

These are all questions that I've been researching and will continue to do so on my own, but I'd like to hear discussion as well. I'm out to learn.

Tax Help

Kyle.Film — 2010-02-25T14:17:24-08:00

Hey guys, I need some help with a tax problem. Keep in mind I file single and independent and no one claims me. I'm 24, a grant student in college and I live and support myself 100% and my parents do not claim me.

Ok so I work for a "small" family owned business in my town. I put small in quotations because I'm thinking maybe that may have something to do with what's going on. We have 4 locations in my town, each location makes about 400 to 1,200$ a day and is open 28 days a month, I'm guessing we make around 25 to 30 grand a month so we shouldn't be in a small tax bracket.

My problem is that last year I made 10,840.75 $
I paid 672.13 $ in social security and
I paid 157.19 $ in "Medicare" - also in quotes because I have no health insurance and don't understand why it's pulled from my check.

This is where it gets tricky, It says I paid 70.00 $ in Federal taxes last year. Does that number seem extremely low to you guys? I'm worried because 2 years ago I worked for this same business making around the same amount of money and I received back around 600$ on my return. Seeing that 70$ makes me think I'm not getting shit back or I'm going to have to pay out 200$+ just to file this year.

I just need some help figuring this out because I think my boss is doing something under the table and it looks extremely ****ed up. I want to get back the most amount so I'm hoping you guys had some insight or some advice on what I need to do to make sure this is correct. I can get a print out of every check I received if that helps. I looked at my check stub from last week and it took out money for social security and medicare but it says 0.00 held in federal taxes, wtf?

Does the fact that I only make 7.50 an hour have anything to do with this? What about the fact it's a "small" business? Is something messed up here?

What are your dreams/aspirations in life

IS'D YA — 2010-03-02T18:08:44-08:00

And is what you're doing now getting you towards them?

I know a lot of my MA folks, because we talk on the regular. Just thinking today, how a lot of people it seems are in the middle of their goals/dreams....what are you wanting to do when you reach them?

discuss

Rhode Island school district fires ALL teachers at their high school

fifthgearonline — 2010-03-04T21:35:39-08:00

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35...ation/

Quote

CENTRAL FALLS, R.I. - A Rhode Island school district has voted to fire all the teachers at an underperforming school.

The Central Falls School Committee voted Tuesday evening to fire every educator at Central Falls High School at the end of the school year.

It's the only school in the tiny, impoverished city north of Providence. Only about half its students graduate, and only 7 percent of 11th-graders were proficient in math in 2009. The plan was developed because of a federal effort to makeover failing schools.

The Central Falls Teachers Union says it is reviewing legal options and hasn't decided what action to take.Education Secretary Arne Duncan applauds the decision and says "when schools continue to struggle we have a collective obligation to take action."

HAHAHAHA what a bunch of failures of teachers

How to back up music from iTunes to your computer.

Landon Peters — 2010-02-25T08:03:42-08:00

Pretty simple question, not sure if it's possible but my dad wants to copy the music he has on his iTunes to his harddrive and back it up from there. Is this possible?

If not, if you put a CD in a computer is it possible to rip its contents to your computer without loading it to iTunes?

Thanks,

offically joined Formula SAE, ideas

KyleN20 — 2010-02-24T22:01:38-08:00

hi guys i just joined the formula SAE team at my school (Lawrence Technological University) which mean me and my team of 15 or so are challenged to build a open wheel race car powered by no more then 600cc with air intake limited to 20mm, 19 if you use forced induction. we are kicking around a bunch of ideas and we currently run a turbo 599cc honda CBR engine but we are kicking around the idea of running a 530cc KTM single cylinder.

other ideas:
Carbon Fiber monocoque chassis
carbon fiber wheels
water intercooler
ect ect

im just trying to spitball, im pretty excited

My Vegas trip.

Deryk Peters — 2010-02-26T09:05:22-08:00

Good morning everyone. I made a thread last Friday stating that I was in Vegas and I was expecting to have a shitty time. I was flying down there solo to visit a friend and we had gotten into a pretty big fight the night before so I thought it was going to be a very tense and awkward trip. Couldn't have been further from the truth.

I got into Vegas around 8:30am on Friday. She picked up from the airport and we went back to her house and back to bed since we were both exhausted. We got up and she took me to the outlets to go shopping. I bought two new pairs of shoes, and a new pair of 7s. We just tooled around in Vegas the rest of the day, it was very relaxing. She works as a waitress down there and had to work 12am - 8am that Saturday morning. I was still pretty tired, so I went to bed around the time she left. She got home around 8:30 and we slept until about 1 that afternoon. More shopping ensued that day, I bought an ultra rare pair of Rock & Republics (see pictures below); a little pricey but very worth it in my opinion.

She had to work the same shift again that night, however this time I wasn't as tired. I hit the strip alone to walk around aimlessly and relive all the other spots I'd been to on previous trips out there. I decided to do a little gambling as well. Started with blackjack, was up about $45 and knew my luck wouldn't last long there. I moved to the craps tables. Starting with $60, I easily turned it into about $200 after about 30 minutes. I repeated this process that early Sunday morning 3 times for total winnings of around $500.

I got home around 5am that morning and went to bed. She got home around 10am that morning as she had to stay a bit late for work. She then told me we were taking a day trip, but it was a surprise. We hopped in her car and we got on the highway. We wound up going to Arizona to a small mining town called Oatman that is off Route 66, it was really cool. Donkeys, or burros freely roam the streets there; I fed them carrots. The baby burros were very small, fluffy and soft and were fun to play with. We then went about a mile north where she took me horse back riding. This is something I'd always wanted to do but had never done before; I had a great time riding the horse.

We got home to her house around 9pm that night but were both very tired from the day trip, so we called it a night early. Monday was my last day there, but we made the most of it. Did some more shopping where I bought three shirts, played some more craps and came up another $200 and had a good dinner at the Bellagio. I got back to Seattle around midnight. All and all, a very good trip. I won enough money to pay for everything that I spent on the trip, did some things I had always wanted to do and was really able to relax and forget about everything back home for a few days.

The jeans I bought:

How to do it right!

IS'D YA — 2010-02-24T13:06:04-08:00

http://boston.barstoolsports.c...gaged/

Cliffs: hilary gets the question popped....she's so happy, she starts givin some head, givin givin some head!

pix inside the linksors

room for rent!

t0eknee — 2010-02-27T14:02:41-08:00

OMFG!! v. Dave Matthews Band

fifthgearonline — 2010-03-01T20:46:42-08:00

So i have been listening to dave for a few years now and have been craving to see them in concert since i never have. I was talking to a co-worker about this tonight at happy hour. I get home and i have an email saying tickets go on sale this friday at 10am for Dave Matthews band here in minneapolis.

Holy expletive i hope i get tickets! I want to go so bad

I love traffic, got to see a white guy get rolled on

.cingham — 2010-02-24T11:28:54-08:00

So driving my wife back from lunch and going through a school zone when some white guy with earrings gets cut off at 3mph traffic by a camry. Best part white guy gets out of his car and starts going up to the window of the beat up camry, I rolled down my window and tell him to get back in the car because what ever he was planning wasn't worth it.

Good advice gone in one ear and out the other.

White guy starts yelling in the guys window and the guy looks at him and opens his door, in the back the doors open.....best surprised look ever ...SAMOANS!

I was laughing so hard and one of the dudes in the back look at me and gave me the islander smile as the white moron retreats.

Drill a muffler

O.J.Sakuma — 2010-02-28T19:07:39-08:00

I want to drill a hole in the muffler.

The idea is to drill a hole in the baffle inside the muffler, so I would have to do in from the outlet.

* Please help with the technical aspect and not comment on why I'm doing it. Maybe I'll explain it once I'm done, later.

- Muffler is made out of aluminize steel.
- Drill is 1/2 hp electric.
- I would need a drill bit. Let's say 1/8 inch. Because I'm going in from the outlet, the bit will have to be about 10 inches long (have not measure).
- Do they make bits that long?
- Is it "safe" to drill with a bit that long? Meaning will it break and snap off?
- I read that there is WD-40 drill oil to grease the bit. Can I use (regular) WD-40 or motor oil instead?
- What is aluminze steel? Is it steel that is coated with aluminum? So if I drill and there is an open wound, it can rust right? The by-product of the cat is water.

Man pleads guilty to New York subway bomb plot

Nasty Nate — 2010-02-23T18:49:09-08:00

Quote

A former airport shuttle driver accused of buying beauty products to make bombs for an attack on the New York City subway has admitted he agreed to conduct an al-Qaida-led "martyrdom operation" because of US involvement in his native Afghanistan.

Najibullah Zazi told a judge the network recruited him to be a suicide bomber in New York, where he went to secondary school and once operated a coffee cart near the World Trade Centre.

"I would sacrifice myself to bring attention to what the US military was doing to civilians in Afghanistan," Zazi said in court.

Earlier this month, it emerged that the jailed Zazi recently volunteered information about the bomb plot on the underground rail system in the first step toward a plea deal. His co-operation suggests prosecutors hope to expand the case and bring charges against other suspects in one of the most serious terrorism threats in the US since September 11 2001.

Zazi, 25, pleaded guilty to conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction, conspiring to commit murder in a foreign country and providing material support for a terrorist organisation. He faces life in prison without parole when sentenced in June.

The bombings "could have been devastating", the US attorney general, Eric Holder, said in Washington: "This attempted attack on our homeland was real, it was in motion, and it would have been deadly."

Zazi told the court he had travelled to Pakistan in 2008 to join the Taliban and fight against the US military but was recruited by al-Qaida in Peshawar and went into a training camp in Waziristan, a tribal region of Pakistan where the network is known to operate.

Zazi said he had received weapons training at the camp and learned about explosives. He also said he had been in contact with al-Qaida operatives while in Pakistan, but he did not identify them.

"During the training, al-Qaida leaders asked us to return to the United States and conduct martyrdom operation," he said. "We agreed to this plan."

The Pakistani embassy in Washington declined to comment on the case.

Zazi admitted using notes taken at the training camp to build homemade explosives using beauty supplies purchased in the Denver suburbs and cooked up in a Colorado hotel room. He then drove the materials to New York just before the eighth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

His plan was to assemble the bombs over the weekend and detonate them in the following days.

While entering the city, he was stopped by police for a routine traffic violation. Suspicious officers allowed him to go free but kept a close watch on his movements.

"The plan was to conduct a martydom operation on the subway lines in Manhattan as soon as the material was ready," he said, adding that the attack involved a number of bombs.

Days later, the authorities raided several apartments in Queens, including a friend's home where Zazi had stayed.

Asked by federal judge Raymond Dearie if he had been willing to be a suicide bomber, Zazi said, "Yes, your honour".

Some time after the routine traffic stop, Zazi realised the New York authorities were investigating him. "At that point, we threw away the detonator explosives and other materials," he said.

One of the people familiar with the investigation said Zazi told prosecutors he had made roughly 900gm (2lb) of a powerful and highly unstable explosive called triacetone triperoxide, or TATP.

The same explosive was used by the would-be shoe bomber Richard Reid in 2001 and the London bombers who killed 52 people in attacks on the city's transport system on 7 July 2005.

One of the people familiar with the New York case said Zazi decided to co-operate after being warned that his mother could face criminal immigration charges. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is in progress.

After yesterday's hearing, Zazi's lawyer, William Stampur, would say only: "The plea speaks for itself."

Zazi's father, Mohammed Wali Zazi, has also been charged in the case, accused of trying to get rid of chemicals and other evidence.

As a person who uses the subway pretty frequently, this scares me shitless.

Thick Chops

FeelGoodPT916 — 2010-02-24T14:03:13-08:00

I have 3 real thick pork chops, already marinated. I need to cook them but don't have a BBQ or any flour for frying. Pretty much all I have is the oven.

How do I go about cooking these?

Happy Birthday 92LSVTEC (Cody)

omarisramo — 2010-02-22T19:40:26-08:00

Happy Birthday MAN!!

A-hole of the year award has its first candidate.

CARTER — 2010-02-23T19:18:02-08:00

http://www.kypost.com/content/....cspx

GREENWOOD, Ind. -- An Indiana man has been turned into authorities for �knowingly and intentionally� spreading the AIDS virus.

A SWAT team arrested Tony Perkins at his home in Greenwood after police were told he was purposely infecting women.

Authorities say he had been using a website to solicit possibly hundreds of women in Central Indiana.

Perkins has allegedly been trying to spread the disease since being diagnosed in 2004. He's currently in jail on a $9,000 bond

Real Life Big Lebowski

816d16 — 2010-02-23T12:53:14-08:00

This whole thing is hilarious, what a bunch of failures.

http://www.kansascity.com/2010....html

Truth of kidnap caper, hatched in a Missouri bar, is stranger than fiction
By DONALD BRADLEY
The Kansas City Star

This much is police blotter history:

A budding band of armed Missouri kidnappers drove to New Jersey, grabbed the wrong guy, hauled him back across five state lines and ended up with car trouble a hundred miles short of their destination. When their captive took advantage and tried to make a break for it, they beat him down, all in front of a convenience-store clerk.

Note to the Coen brothers: We�ve got the script to your next movie right here.

The cast includes the self-proclaimed son of an infamous godfather of the Hells Angels, three bad-biker wannabes, a fellow burned in a construction deal out West and the straight man � an unassuming owner of a pet food store in Newton, N.J.

The whole cross-country caper is pretty funny, although before it ends, grim scenes unfold, including one in a Missouri kitchen where a man�s fingers are blown off, terrorizing his wife, and the moment outside the store where the wrong Jeffrey Muller gets Tasered, beaten and thrown in a car.

Then there�s this take: The three thugs try to convince the Ozark, Mo., clerk that the man screaming for help inside her store is crazy and they�re just trying to take him to a mental treatment facility in Nevada, Mo.
She doesn�t buy their act, 9-1-1 is punched into the phone, fade to flashing police lights.

�Comical and scary,� said a New Jersey detective. Even without a wood chipper.

So, Joel and Ethan Coen, when can we do lunch?
��

At the heart of the story is a man named William �Billy� Barger, 48, of Nevada, Mo. He claimed to be a �patched,� or full, member of the Hells Angels and the son of its founder.

The younger Barger talked of starting a new chapter of the motorcycle club and told Douglas Stangeland, 46, of Nevada, along with Lonnie Swarnes, 44, and Andrew Wadel, 21, both of Rich Hill, Mo., that they could join if they brought him money or Muller.

The Hells Angels connection added a dramatic element, especially after Bates County Sheriff Chad Anderson issued a news release during the investigation saying that Barger had recruited his Hells Angels wannabes to kill him and his chief deputy, Justin Moreland. Rich Hill is about 70 miles south of Kansas City in Bates County.

Two problems.

One was when Missouri investigators contacted Sonny Barger�s lawyer. Barger, the former motorcycle club president, now lives in Arizona after a bout with throat cancer and a term in federal prison. He has no children and had never heard of William Barger.

The other problem?

�Funny thing,� Vernon County Sheriff Ron Peckman said last week. �None of them owned a bike.�

��
Replaying the story from court documents, it�s not surprising that this caper began in a bar.

One night last fall, Roy Slates, 55, a Nevada, Mo., building contractor, sat drinking and bemoaning the loss of $400,000 in a Utah construction deal years before, in which one Jeffrey Muller reportedly defaulted on a loan. Douglas Stangeland listened to the story, then told it to Barger.

A deal soon was struck between Slates and Barger in which Barger would send his would-be gang members to find Muller and strong-arm money from him or, short of that, bring him the man himself.

In return, Slates agreed to pay them 25 percent of what they recovered, and he gave Barger $10,000 to finance the job.

On the night of Nov. 9, three armed men wearing ski masks barged into the rural Vernon County home of Charles Scammell, who runs a Kansas City-area construction firm.

Read more: Truth of kidnap caper, hatched in a Missouri bar, is stranger than fiction - KansasCity.com

Buy a PC without junk - Dell

O.J.Sakuma — 2010-03-01T17:49:02-08:00

I've always bought my computers from big box stores like CC or Best Buy.

When you start up the computer, it's full of advertising software, and junks pre-loaded on the HD. The desktop looks like a Christmas tree. I can remove and delete later, but why should I? Or worst, not sure if I can delete or not.

I want a computer like the ones I have at work. Nothing, other than what I want - need. Real programs, like Word, Outlook, IE, etc.

I've never order one from Dell. Are their computers pretty much "clean" without all the junk? Other options?

Note: Building my own is not an option.

my house buildup

tryin_to_be_jdm — 2010-02-26T17:45:43-08:00

I bought a townhouse last month. I was looking for a house and came across this. It was owned by a friend of mine who got a job at Coastal Carolina University. She had to move quick so I got a huge deal on the house.

It's a 2 bed/2 bath end unit townhouse. I got for 79K plus seller paid closing cost.

These are from right after we moved in.

the kitchen

the living room. This was before i mounted the tv on the wall.

the dining room

master bathroom

what I call the Lions den

guest bathroom

guest bedroom. Used for all my work gear right now

backyard. Havent decided where to put the table yet

Got the hot tub going last weekend.

Today I did the first small project. I put shelves in the storage room.

I wanna add a small peg board to the wall in front of the lawnmower.

Batteries for solar lights

O.J.Sakuma — 2010-02-22T14:06:21-08:00

A few of mine when out over the last few months, so I'm guessing it's the batteries. Didn't have the time to look at them till now.

The owner's manual said to use only "Hampton Bay" (their brand) replacement AA batteries.

Of course, they want to keep the business for themselves. Or are they really different from "standard" rechargeable AA batteries?

I can try it out, but I don't want to spend the money if it's the wrong kind or damage the light.

Anyone know?

Cool guessing game

CARTER — 2010-02-22T13:33:42-08:00

http://us.akinator.com/

it guessed Patrick Willis, Jerry Rice, Scarlett Johansen, Misa Campo, Tera Patrick

Who are your favorite tv characters

CARTER — 2010-02-23T13:49:35-08:00

USA vs Canada Hockey on now

Everyones Hero — 2010-02-22T00:14:39-08:00

Playing on MNBC DirecTV channel 356. Been an awesome game so far. US leads 3-2 after 2.

kids project car

ggrrssyydik — 2010-03-04T11:05:29-08:00

my kid now has a project car. i helped him lower it and put rims. he wants to do a swap next. but i'm gonna make him wait. he can drive it around the parking lot but too young to get a lic. i think we can get by (sneak by) the drag strip and local autoX in the next year or so.

Powdercoating rims - VOTE

Buddy Christ — 2010-03-05T19:38:57-08:00

Picked up some 19in Huffs for my GTI and wanting to get them powdercoated.

Here they are untouched:

And here are the different paint schemes im toying with:

The other one that i cant get photoshopped to look right would be painting the entire inside of the rim red and leaving the face and lip machined black. All paint will be factory matched paint except #4.

Thanks for your input fam

Shutter Island

Tizight — 2010-02-23T22:03:41-08:00

It was fucking great.

akinator

t0eknee — 2010-02-22T11:22:52-08:00

http://us.akinator.com/#

Play it, think of a person/character and see if it can guess it right. I was thinking megaman and it got it right.

The $555,000 Student-Loan Burden

Obu — 2010-02-20T16:34:57-08:00

Quote, originally posted by Wall St. Journal

The $555,000 Student-Loan Burden
by Mary Pilon
Tuesday, February 16, 2010

When Michelle Bisutti, a 41-year-old family practitioner in Columbus, Ohio, finished medical school in 2003, her student-loan debt amounted to roughly $250,000. Since then, it has ballooned to $555,000.

Andrew Spear for The Wall Street Journal
Michelle Bisutti borrowed $250,000 to pay for medical school. The debt has since ballooned to $555,000.

It is the result of her deferring loan payments while she completed her residency, default charges and relentlessly compounding interest rates. Among the charges: a single $53,870 fee for when her loan was turned over to a collection agency.

"Maybe half of it was my fault because I didn't look at the fine print," Dr. Bisutti says. "But this is just outrageous now."

To be sure, Dr. Bisutti's case is extreme, and lenders say student-loan terms are clear and that they try to work with borrowers who get in trouble.

But as tuitions rise, many people are borrowing heavily to pay their bills. Some no doubt view it as "good debt," because an education can lead to a higher salary. But in practice, student loans are one of the most toxic debts, requiring extreme consumer caution and, as Dr. Bisutti learned, responsibility.

Unlike other kinds of debt, student loans can be particularly hard to wriggle out of. Homeowners who can't make their mortgage payments can hand over the keys to their house to their lender. Credit-card and even gambling debts can be discharged in bankruptcy. But ditching a student loan is virtually impossible, especially once a collection agency gets involved. Although lenders may trim payments, getting fees or principals waived seldom happens.

Yet many former students are trying. There is an estimated $730 billion in outstanding federal and private student-loan debt, says Mark Kantrowitz of FinAid.org, a Web site that tracks financial-aid issues -- and only 40% of that debt is actively being repaid. The rest is in default, or in deferment, which means that payments and interest are halted, or in "forbearance," which means payments are halted while interest accrues.

Although Dr. Bisutti's debt load is unusual, her experience having problems repaying isn't. Emmanuel Tellez's mother is a laid-off factory worker, and $120 from her $300 unemployment checks is garnished to pay the federal PLUS student loan she took out for her son.

By the time Mr. Tellez graduated in 2008, he had $50,000 of his own debt in loans issued by SLM Corp., known as Sallie Mae, the largest private student lender. In December, he was laid off from his $29,000-a-year job in Boston and defaulted. Mr. Tellez says that when he signed up, the loan wasn't explained to him well, though he concedes he missed the fine print.

Loan terms, including interest rates, are disclosed "multiple times and in multiple ways," says Martha Holler, a spokeswoman for Sallie Mae, who says the company can't comment on individual accounts. Repayment tools and account information are accessible on Sallie Mae's Web site as well, she says.

Many borrowers say they are experiencing difficulties working out repayment and modification terms on their loans. Ms. Holler says that Sallie Mae works with borrowers individually to revamp loans. Although the U.S. Department of Education has expanded programs like income-based repayment, which effectively caps repayments for some borrowers, others might not qualify.

Heather Ehmke of Oakland, Calif., renegotiated the terms of her subprime mortgage after her home was foreclosed. But even after filing for bankruptcy, she says she couldn't get Sallie Mae, one of her lenders, to adjust the terms on her student loan. After 14 years with patches of deferment and forbearance, the loan has increased from $28,000 to more than $90,000. Her monthly payments jumped from $230 to $816. Last month, her petition for undue hardship on the loans was dismissed.

Sallie Mae supports reforms that would allow student loans to be dischargeable in bankruptcy for those who have made a good-faith effort to repay them, says Ms. Holler.

Dr. Bisutti says she loves her work, but regrets taking out so many student loans. She admits that she made mistakes in missing payments, deferring her loans and not being completely thorough with some of the paperwork, but was surprised at how quickly the debt spiraled.

She says she knew when she started medical school in 1999 that she would have to borrow heavily. But she reasoned that her future income as a doctor would make paying off the loans easy. While in school, her loans racked up interest with variable rates ranging from 3% to 11%.

She maxed out on federal loans, borrowing $152,000 over four years, and sought private loans from Sallie Mae to help make up the difference. She also took out two loans from Wells Fargo & Co. for $20,000 each. Each had a $2,000 origination fee. The total amount she borrowed at the time: $250,000.

In 2005, the bill for the Wells Fargo loans came due. Representatives from the bank called her father, Michael Bisutti, every day for two months demanding payment. Mr. Bisutti, who had co-signed on the loans, finally decided to cover the $550 monthly payments for a year.

Wells Fargo says it will stop calling consumers if they request it, says senior vice president Glen Herrick, who adds that the bank no longer imposes origination fees on its private loans.

Sallie Mae, meanwhile, called Mr. Bisutti's neighbor. The neighbor told Mr. Bisutti about the call. "Now they know [my dad's] daughter the doctor defaulted on her loans," Dr. Bisutti says.

Ms. Holler, the Sallie Mae spokeswoman, says that the company may contact a neighbor to verify an individual's address. But in those cases, she says, the details of the debt obligation aren't discussed.

Dr. Bisutti declined to authorize Sallie Mae to comment specifically on her case. "The overwhelming majority of medical-school graduates successfully repay their student loans," Ms. Holler says.

After completing her fellowship in 2007, Dr. Bisutti juggled other debts, including her credit-card balance, and was having trouble making her $1,000-a-month student-loan payments. That year, she defaulted on both her federal and private loans. That is when the "collection cost" fee of $53,870 was added on to her private loan.

Meanwhile, the variable interest rates continue to compound on her balance and fees. She recently applied for income-based repayment, but she still isn't sure if she will qualify. She makes $550-a-month payments to Wells Fargo for the two loans she hasn't defaulted on. By the time she is done, she will have paid the bank $128,000 -- over three times the $36,000 she received.

She recently entered a rehabilitation agreement on her defaulted federal loans, which now carry an additional $31,942 collection cost. She makes monthly payments on those loans -- now $209,399 -- for $990 a month, with only $100 of it going toward her original balance. The entire balance of her federal loans will be paid off in 351 months. Dr. Bisutti will be 70 years old.

The debt load keeps her up at night. Her damaged credit has prevented her from buying a home or a new car. She says she and her boyfriend of three years have put off marriage and having children because of the debt.

Dr. Bisutti told her 17-year-old niece the story of her debt as a cautionary tale "so the next generation of kids who want to get a higher education knows what they're getting into," she says. "I will likely have to deal with this debt for the rest of my life."

My Comupter is sick, with a Virus

Jon Ay D — 2010-02-20T03:09:55-08:00

Im pretty sure I have a trojan, but dont know how to get it out

AVG scan shows nothing
Spybot shows:DNSFlush.cws, Right Media, and Win32.Agent.ieu.
I also noticed UNK.exe in my running processes.
When i search it in google and click on any of the links, it always redirects me to some spam random search engine(I can go back and click on the same link and it sends me to a different place.
Sometimes when i leave my laptop and come back, several IE pages are open to random sites and I never use IE (Firefox is primary, Opera is backup)
AVG sometimes pops up blocking a .pdf file from opening.

What should I do?

Heres a Screenshot my my spybot with the problems expanded

Neon overheating

Landon Peters — 2010-02-20T23:15:28-08:00

My roomie got home tonight and told me her car was smoking, I checked the coolant level and both radiator and reservoir were empty. I brought her owners manual to AutoZone and the guy said this Prestone 'mixes with any color antifreeze/coolant' would be fine.

So I added that to the appropriate levels and now the car is overheating.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

I'm thinking thermostat but not sure.

Do you think I should flush the system and add what is listed in the owners manual?

Kid gets caught beating off, then sues school Bwhaha!

Bmonaye — 2010-02-22T23:16:24-08:00

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/...pt=T2

Quote, originally posted by 'Cnn.com'

Student says school webcam spied on him at homeBy Nicole Bliman, CNN
February 19, 2010 3:19 p.m. EST

Pennsylvania's Lower Merion School District, which faces a federal lawsuit, is proud of its laptop program, a rep says.STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Pennsylvania parents sue school district, school chief, board over son's laptop

Lawsuit alleges district unlawfully used its ability to access a webcam remotely

Suit: Son accused of engaging in "improper behavior" at home that school-issued webcam captured

District spokesman: School only remotely accesses webcam if laptop reported stolen, lost

RELATED TOPICS
Pennsylvania
Computer Technology
Education
(CNN) -- Pennsylvania parents are suing their son's school, alleging it watched him through his laptop's webcam while he was at home and unaware he was being observed.

Michael and Holly Robbins of Penn Valley are suing the Lower Merion School District, its board of directors and the superintendent. The parents allege the district unlawfully used its ability to access a webcam remotely on their son's district-issued laptop computer.

The lawsuit seeking class-action status was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

The suit said that on November 11, an assistant principal at Harriton High School told the plaintiffs' son that he was caught engaging in "improper behavior" in his home and it was captured in an image via the webcam.

According to the Robbinses' complaint, neither they nor their son, Blake, were informed of the school's ability to access the webcam remotely at any time. It is unclear what the boy was doing in his room when the webcam was activated or if any punishment was given out.

Doug Young, a spokesman for the Lower Merion School District, said the district would only remotely access a laptop if it were reported to be lost, stolen or missing.

Young said if there were such a report, the district first would have to request access from its technology and security department and receive authorization. Then it would use the built-in security feature to take over the laptop and see whatever was in the webcam's field of vision, potentially allowing it to track down the missing computer.

Young said parents and students were not explicitly told about this built-in security feature.

To receive the laptop, the family had to sign an "acceptable-use" agreement. To take the laptop home, the family also would have to buy insurance for the computer.

In an "acceptable-use" agreement, the families are made aware of the school's ability to "monitor" the hardware, he said, but it stops short of explicitly explaining the security feature. He termed that a mistake.

Young added that mistakes might be made when combining technology and education in a cutting-edge way.

All 2,300 students at the district's two high schools were offered laptops to "enhance opportunities for ongoing collaboration and ensure that all students have 24/7 access to school-based resources," according to a message on the superintendent's Web site, which the suit quoted.

Young said the district is proud of the laptop program and the ability to close the technology gap between students who have computers at home and those who don't. But he acknowledged schools will have to take a step back to re-evaluate the policies and procedures surrounding the program.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania isn't involved in the litigation, but its director, Vic Walczak, criticized the school district's action.

"Neither police nor school officials can enter a private home, physically or electronically, without an invitation or a warrant. The school district's clandestine electronic eavesdropping violates constitutional privacy rights, intrudes on parents' right to raise their children and may even be criminal under state and federal wiretapping laws," Walczak said "... George Orwell's '1984' is an overused metaphor, but it applies here in spades. Part of the school officials' punishment should be to retake ninth-grade civics class."

Kevin Bankston, a senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation who specializes in electronic privacy, also said the school may have broken federal wire-tapping laws. He called the school district's action "foolish and dangerous," saying the matter could prove to be a warning to other districts.

The best travelled $500 beater ever

Prodigal Son — 2010-03-09T21:12:38-08:00

Picked up a new car a couple of weeks ago, thought I'd share.

It's a 75 Volvo 242, which is a very unique car in it's own right. The coupe was only sold until the early 80s, and as a 75, this one still has the older pushrod motor under the hood. This particular car has had a really interesting history, which is amazingly well documented by the pile of paperwork that came with it.

From 83 until some point in the early 90's, this car lived in Europe. It spent time in Greece, Spain, and Great Brittan. I also have repair bills from Germany and Italy. It belonged to someone in the air force, who took the car all over the place. Stateside, it was registered in Sac in 1975, followed by West Virginia, several other California towns, Utah, Texas, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania. In other words, it's had more plates on it than a restaurant table.

It's rough, but it did drive itself to work today. I'll probably do some basic repairs and press this car into daily duty until the Edsel is out of the garage and through it's teething phase. With the unique history, I'd like to restore it.

The B20 motor under the hood is a really neat piece itself. Ultra old-school non-crossflow iron 4 banger. Big valves, solid lifters, and a surprising racing pedigree. Not to mention a really neat mechanical injection setup.

I'll get some more pictures, and scan some of the stranger documents from it's European vacation to post up.

Lupe Fiasco- Live From The Vaults (Unreleased & Rare)

t0eknee — 2010-03-02T10:57:35-08:00

01-Lupe_Fiasco-Im_Beaming_(Prod_By_The_Neptunes)_(O.G_Version)_(L asers_Sessions)
02-Lupe_Fiasco_Ft_Wildstyle-Poppin_Off_(Prod_By_DJ_Marbil)_(Unreleased)
03-Lupe_Fiasco-The_Commercial_(Prod_By_Soundtrakk)_(Unreleased)_( The_Cool_Sessions)
04-Lupe_Fiasco-I_Know_Why_Ft_Gemstones_(Prod_By_Prolyfic)_(Unrele ased)
05-Lupe_Fiasco- What_U_Want_(Lasers_Sessions)
06-Lupe_Fiasco-Proceed_(Unreleased)
07-Lupe_Fiasco-Solar_Midnite_(Lasers_Sessions)
08-Lupe_Fiasco-Accept_The_Troubles_(Unreleased)
09-Lupe_Fiasco-U_Dont_Know_(Produced_By_Prolyfic)_(Unreleased)
10-Lupe_Fiasco-Gansgta_(Up_In_Here)_(Prod_By_DJ_Marbil)_(Unreleas ed)
11-Lupe_Fiasco-All_The_Way_Turnt_Up_(Freestyle)
12-Lupe_Fiasco-Fire_(Top_10)
13-Lupe_Fiasco-This_Is_For_My_*****s_(Unreleased)
14-Lupe_Fiasco_Ft_Kenna-Resurrection_(Prod_By_M.Shinoda)
15-Lupe_Fiasco_Ft_Matthew_Santos-Shining_Down_(Lasers_Sessions)
16-Lupe_Fiasco-Hustlers_and_Customers_(Unreleased)
17-Lupe_Fiasco-Fire_(Unreleased)_(Prod_By_DJ_Marbil)
18-Lupe_Fiasco_Ft_Ghostface-Paint_A_Picture
19-Lupe_Fiasco-Lean_(Prod_By_The_Buchannans)_(Unreleased)
20-Lupe_Fiasco_Ft_Trey_Songs-Blackout_(Alternate_Version)_The_Cool_Sessions)
21-Lupe_Fiasco-Birds_&_The_Bees_(Prod_By_Kanye_West)
22-Lupe_Fiasco_Ft_Eva-Slow_Down

Epic Space Shuttle Picture!

fifthgearonline — 2010-03-09T12:59:31-08:00

http://mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.g...45510

Wallpaper sizes can be found here:
http://interfacelift.com/wallp....html

Obama In vegas

PistolStarta — 2010-02-28T23:50:01-08:00

Obama is in vegas right now talking about how great his stimulus has worked. TUNE IN!

Diablo III

Nasty Nate — 2010-03-01T12:51:46-08:00

Anybody else excited that this is coming out? I was a huge fan of I and II and as long as it's going to be free to play online over b.net I'll be picking this one up for sure!

http://us.blizzard.com/diablo3/?rhtml=y

Mit Romney gets a fist to the face from Sky Blu of LMFAO

816d16 — 2010-03-03T11:46:59-08:00

and

http://newsroom.mtv.com/2010/0...omney/

LMFAO And Mitt Romney Just The Latest Beef Between Politics And Music
Posted 45 minutes ago by Kyle Anderson in Music

In one of the stranger stories to come over the wire in a long time, it turns out that former Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney got into an altercation with Sky Blu of LMFAO on an airplane on Monday (February 15). Before the flight from Vancouver (where the group was hanging out at the Winter Olympics) to Los Angeles could even get off the ground, Romney asked Blu to put his seat up. When the artist didn't comply, the altercation became physical, and Blu was escorted off the plane by air marshals.

While this is probably the most direct confrontation between a musician and a politician, there have been no shortage of head-to-heads between the two worlds.

John McCain vs. John Mellencamp
At rallies during his 2008 presidential run, McCain's camp often played the rootsy midwestern rocker's "Our Country." One problem: Mellencamp is a staunch Democrat and at the time was endorsing the campaign of John Edwards (who was also using "Our Country" at rallies). Mellencamp asked McCain to stop using the songs, which lead to a parade of other rockers calling out McCain, including Eddie Van Halen (for the use of "Right Now") and Dave Grohl (because McCain was using Foo Fighters' "My Hero").

Ronald Reagan vs. Bruce Springsteen
During his reelection campaign in 1984, Reagan dropped Springsteen's name and attempted to associate "Born in the U.S.A." with his image. Springsteen, who wasn't a Reagan fan, didn't like that at all. During a concert in Pittsburgh after Reagan's mention, Springsteen introduced a song saying, "The President was mentioning my name the other day, and I kinda got to wondering what his favorite album musta been. I don't think it was the Nebraska album. I don't think he's been listening to this one." The Boss' main frustration was with the fact that Reagan (and most everybody, really) seemed to miss the fact that "Born in the U.S.A." wasn't a nationalistic anthem but a lament on the fading of the American dream.

Sarah Palin vs. Heart
When she was first introduced to the world at the 2008 Republican National Convention, former Alaska governor Palin used Heart's "Barracuda" as an entrance theme. That didn't sit well with Heart frontwoman Nancy Wilson, who sent a cease and desist letter to the National Republican Party. "I feel completely f---ed over," Wilson said. "Sarah Palin's views and values in no way represent us as American women."

George W. Bush vs. Everybody
There was never any particular direct confrontation, but most anybody with a guitar took a shot at George W. Bush during his eight years in office. Green Day? Check. Beastie Boys? Yep. Pearl Jam? Of course. Bright Eyes? Absolutely. Eminem? Certainly. Neil Young? You bet. The list goes on and on � in fact, there were two volumes of a punk compilation called Rock Against Bush.

What's your favorite musician versus politician feud? Did we forget any notable entries? Leave your ideas in the comments!

Tags Bruce Springsteen,

Angles and Airwaves - Love

fifthgearonline — 2010-02-23T22:13:32-08:00

Free download of their new cd from their website

http://modlife.com/download_ava.php?file=love

traveling out of the country for the 1st time

tegda9 — 2010-03-02T19:51:16-08:00

ok we are going to scotland in july we have no clue what to do. we are going there for a wedding her best friend's to be exact. (dont ask for pics its just not gonna happen since i dont have any).

we have never booked a flight and when we look online theres all kinds of of flights and im very confused and dont want to expletive this up.

this is form an email my g/f recieved.
1.okay you can get a flight from LA to Philly then Philly to Glasgow airport. or you can get any flight to englad and look for flights from that airport straight to Glasgow.
2.i hate all planes but brittish airways come straight to glasgow usually, but they're kinda shit. US airways is always pretty good, but they usually just go to london. so its a toss up on what you wanna do.

i know that the round trip tickets are about 1500 a piece.
so help me out please im so fuckn lost.

Myron Rolle: Neurosurgeon, NFL First Rounder, The Future of Black America

Carlton Banks, Esq. — 2010-02-19T21:03:05-08:00

It's a very long read, so I included the link (has great pictures of England)

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn...rolle

OXFORD, England -- Oxford at first light is an ode to potential. The purple sky throws shadows off churches and their saw-blade spires, bringing definition to the gap-toothed smiles of crenellated walls. The ghosts come out in the dream of early morning. Twelve saints and seven British prime ministers walked these streets. So did Bill Clinton and John Donne, Sir Thomas More and Kris Kristofferson, plus the guy who invented the World Wide Web.

Myron Rolle talks about what it means to be a Rhodes scholar.
That little list? It always happens. People construct a roster of famous yet diverse alumni when describing Oxford -- the quirky sum even more fantastic than the successful parts -- implying that greatness comes with the diploma. But a shadow lurks near those collections of names. Oxford University is full of students who will one day change the world, yes, but it is also full of those who have the gifts to change it and will fail. In the hope of morning, though, let your focus fall on Clinton and Donne, More and Kristofferson and now, as the dreamy purple light burns off as busses chug and belch down the ancient streets and another week of reality begins, Myron Rolle.

Rolle bounds down Banbury Road, long strides chewing up sidewalk, hurrying to his next lecture. Today's topic is "Pain and the Brain." He settles into a seat in the back of the room, the only student whose biceps strain against the fabric of his shirt. Around him, fellow Rhodes scholars open laptops, notebooks or leather-bound Moleskine journals. The professor, a world-renowned researcher, begins speaking, about Pavlov and the curious case of Phineas Gage. The students take notes furiously.

Rolle takes a few notes, too, but mostly he stares at the professor. The motors and gears in his head are spinning. This is how it's always been for him. His mind rarely stops computing; when his brother McKinley is throwing all the possible routes in random order during their regular morning football workout, Rolle just knows if they missed a 2, or maybe a 7. Today, he's focused on the man standing at the front of the room. What about this doctor? Where did he start? How did he immerse himself in the brain? When, and why, did pain come to interest him? Did he watch helplessly as someone he loved struggled against a devastating mental illness? Was it a wife? A child? What drove him to this very place at this very moment?

Suddenly, his focus shifts.

What about me? How did I get here?

Myron, who doesn't fail

A lifetime of unqualified successes, that's how.

Whatever he does, he does it well and, to the immense frustration of others, with ease and grace. He's an All-American safety. He can play saxophone and sing. He was the lead in his high school's production of "Fiddler on the Roof." He graduated from Florida State as an exercise science major in less than three years with a 3.75 GPA. He shadows doctors, dreaming of medical school. He says "please" and "thank you." He researches stem cells. He starts anti-obesity programs that the U.S. Department of Interior adopts, aimed at helping Native American children make smart choices about fitness and health. He raises money for hospitals. Myron Rolle, it can safely be assumed, not only eats vegetables, he likes them. Life hangs comfortably from his shoulders like a fine suit.

AP Photo/Rob Carr
On Nov. 22, 2008, Rolle entered the Maryland game late in the first half after spending part of the day in Alabama for his Rhodes interview.So, it's no surprise that during the 2008 football season he was named a finalist for a Rhodes scholarship, the most prestigious academic award given. Only, the deciding interview was scheduled for the day of a game at Maryland -- and the interview was in Alabama. No problem. SuperMyron would simply go to Birmingham, answer the committee's questions and still make it to the game by halftime. He might just leap a tall building while he was at it and keep right on going until he landed at midfield.

Nothing thrown at him by the interviewers shook him. He spoke with passion, threw in a joke or two and, at the end, stood there with a smile on his face. One of the judges winked at him. No need to drag out the suspense.

Another success. Rolle was chosen -- he soon would announce he was skipping his senior season to go to Oxford -- and minutes later he boarded a private jet, shadowed by reporters from both Sports Illustrated and the Chronicle of Higher Education. Halfway to Maryland, a crowd waiting to cheer his run out of the tunnel in garnet and gold, he put in his earphones and scrolled through his iPod.

What could provide the appropriate soundtrack for this kind of life?

Rolle chose two songs.

One was Ice Cube's "It was a Good Day."

But even that didn't seem to do his run of blessings justice.

The other one came closer, Frank Sinatra singing:

When I was 21

It was a very good year .

TUESDAY

Tucked into a narrow alley off High Street, St. Edmund Hall breathes students in and out of the long stone tunnel that opens into the main quadrangle, as the college has done for 800 years. Young men and women mill around the lush grass of the quad, in the shadow of the sundial and the well, and at night, they drink beer and smoke in the cemetery out back. Rolle, who doesn't have time for the graveyard bull sessions, stops by to check his mail. Two unfamiliar envelopes poke out of his slot.

The first one is from Ohio. He tears into the envelope and finds a note: I read about you in The Times and I thought you might be interested in this article from the New Yorker.

It's a recent piece by Malcolm Gladwell, and it offers and backs up the theory that professional football is a lot like dogfighting and is, ultimately, a sport that cannot be played without doing serious damage to the brain. This is, obviously, a conundrum for Rolle: He wants to be a pro football player and a neurosurgeon. Don't successful careers in each of these preclude the other? Of all the obstacles facing Rolle, including the luck and work and genetic blessings required to be one of the 32 chosen to be a Rhodes scholar and one of the 32 chosen to be a first-round pick, perhaps none is greater than this: People in each world don't believe anyone could possibly be passionate about the other. He's always asked: Which do you like more? Draft gurus question his commitment. His defensive coordinator at Florida State, Mickey Andrews, told Rolle that he was spending too much time on school and not enough time on football. Even Oxford University assigned him to St. Edmund Hall, known here as the jock college.

The other letter is from a London teacher.

I heard you this morning on Radio 4. Never have I heard a young man so articulate, forward thinking and inspirational. All I could think about listening to you was: I have to get him to speak at my school. I'm a teacher in London at an inner city school where I do lots of work around raising black achievement. To hear you speak about the importance of education and hearing about your life decisions -- putting off the NFL for Oxford, wanting to be a neurosurgeon, money not being your main goal in life -- it would all mean so much to the kids at my school.

Rolle considers his mail. Two letters, two totally different problems; if other people's myopia is an obstacle, then the exact opposite is, too. He is trying to stay on course in a vast sea of possibilities, and everywhere he goes, he is confronted by people lining up to tell him what he means and what he could be and, most confining of all, what he should be.

He is a vessel for other people's dreams.

Myron, who knows what others expect

Q: What do you struggle with most?

A: I have not had tragic incidences in my life that have rocked my personal being. The thing that really has been my biggest enemy in this world has been pressure. And people. People who I love. People who look at me differently. The pressure is tough, man. I'm not gonna lie. It's the hardest part. Easily.

Myron, whose dreams keep growing

Here are the three things to know about Rolle as he reads that second letter:

1. The Monday after he won the Rhodes scholarship, his cell phone rang. Jesse Jackson. At first, Rolle thought it was a joke. But no, it was actually Jesse Jackson, and he wanted to tell Rolle this: "If Dr. King were alive today, he'd be proud of you."

Chris Floyd for ESPN The Magazine
Myron Rolle skipped his senior season at Florida State to attend Oxford on a Rhodes scholarship.2. While Rolle was in D.C. for the inauguration, Princeton professor and African-American leader Cornel West spotted him on the street and bowed. Literally bowed down and said this: "You are the future of black America."

Everywhere he's been, for as long as he can remember, he's been singled out for future greatness, by strangers and family alike. When he was in high school, riding on the New Jersey Turnpike with his dad, he asked one day, "What would it be like to be normal?" He's thought about that a lot.

And this, too: What is enough for those who see so much in him? He opens his e-mail and there's a recruiting pitch from the Harvard Business School. His dad wants him to make a perfect score on the Wonderlic given at the NFL combine. Jesse Jackson wants him to be a leader for an entire generation. Florida State told him on his recruiting visit that he could be a Rhodes scholar � and now he is. Mickey Andrews wants him to react, and his professors want him to think. He deals, on a daily basis, with the crushing weight of having this much potential. He worries about losing himself. He never stops thinking about what other people want for him, and how it's easy to become a mosaic of their expectations instead of staying true to his own. "The danger is that you lose a sense of identity," he says, "you lose a sense of who you are. If you continue to try to navigate through constructs that are set up by other people, by other people's thoughts of who you are and who you should be, you will never be personally at peace."

So he understands he shouldn't spend his life pleasing other people. But what does he want?

This brings us to �

3. A year ago, Rolle spoke at the College of the Bahamas. His family comes from the nation, and he alone among his five brothers was born in the United States (his mom traveled to Houston so he could be an American citizen). He was chosen before birth.

One of his many dreams is to open a medical clinic in his hometown of Exuma, and so, after the speech, the Bahamian politicians crowded around him. Be the prodigal son, they told him. Come back and be president one day. Be prime minister. When he returned to Tallahassee, he was online one night in his room and saw a photo tagged on Facebook of himself and the current president of the Bahamas. A lot of things ran through his head: People want me to come back and save their country? I don't know if that's in my plan. I never thought of politics. This isn't me.

Sitting there in the dark, he finally began to understand: There is no enough.

All he can do is stay focused on his dreams: NFL, medical school, then a life as a groundbreaking neurosurgeon and head of a foundation that brings medical care to those without.

You know, simple stuff.

Myron, who has set the bar high

Q: Has anyone ever said to you: "Myron, if you want to go to the NFL and have a long career and retire and live off investments, that's OK � it's your life"?

A: No.

He explains: "It's always, 'What's next?' I think people align themselves with my way of thinking when they're talking to me. They try to create new avenues for me to pursue, so if you want to be a doctor and you have interest in human rights and philanthropy and social equality of medicine and disease, why don't you think about being surgeon general? Then you could have a political impact, with a stronger influence and a bigger platform. I'm that person. 'What's next? What's next?'"

WEDNESDAY

There are mornings when none of it seems strange. The Iffley Road Sports Complex opens early, and a crowd of scholars who are also athletes wait outside. The sweatshirts and gym shorts place the toned men and women: rowers from Harvard, swimmers from Oxford, lacrosse players from Navy and, soon, one safety from Florida State University. Why does a man have to choose? Roger Bannister, who ran the first sub-4-minute mile on a track some 20 or so yards from this crowd, was also a doctor. Bill Bradley was a senator and is in the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Chris Floyd for ESPN The Magazine
Myron and McKinley, right, have a regular morning football workout.The Rolle brothers park their car -- a Peugeot, a tiny European subcompact -- and, instead of joining the crowd, they head to the rugby pitch and the tiny dungeon of a gym beneath it. Most days, they work out here, alone. When they do use the bigger facilities, the other students gawk at the weight and the reps -- especially the female student-athletes. Rolle and his brother have a code for noticing a young thing sneaking a peek; one will say, with a sly grin: "Mama, there go that man."

This morning, McKinley opens up the binder containing speed guru Tom Shaw's workout and starts counting the reps, converting pounds into kilos. Rolle does leg presses, McKinley a step ahead preparing the next station, the small room echoing with the iPod mix. Except, in place of celebratory anthems, songs about how great today, or this year or his entire life has been, there's a steady stream of rap songs about people being doubted. Rolle sings along -- except when the rappers curse. He skips those words.

Claustrophobic cinderblock walls crowd them. A small window, the spires and castles of the town insignificant through the glass, lets in the only natural light. Rolle comes into focus when he's grinding in the weight room. Outside, the sun is fully up. A song called "Watch Dis" blares through the small speaker. He could lose a step this year, lose some ineffable part of his game that he'll never get back. He knows he risked something coming over here. Knows he still needs to convince people how much football means, and they can't come here, to this room, and see. Rolle lies down on a mat, his feet on a big green medicine ball, his brother taking notes from a nearby weight bench, the Rolle boys, a long, long way from home, counting out crunches in a dungeon, chasing something like that first purple light.

Outside, the chill has come, and, when lifting is finished, Rolle walks onto the wet field under changing leaves, the rugby pitch lined at both ends by a row of tall evergreen trees. They're working on increasing the fluidity of his hips, just one of the many questions about his game. Was he overrated out of high school? Is he too stiff? Does he think too much? Why just one interception in three years? Can he just react and make plays?

McKinley says they got the official e-mail today from the NFL: Myron is invited and will attend the combine. "It was nice to get that confirmation," McKinley says. "He's stronger. Faster. He'll open some eyes."

He urges on his brother through the final rep of the final drill. "Last one," he says. "Last one. Finish strong. First round, baby."

Rolle's face is a portrait of focus. He digs into the field, his cleats kicking up tiny sparks of mud.

Myron, who feels the doubt

The car is cranked, exhaust rising behind them. McKinley is at the wheel, Rolle in the passenger seat. They are ready to go, but Rolle tells his brother not to put it in drive. Not yet. They need the soundtrack first. He punches a button on the CD player, moving through the new Jay-Z album. There's one song he needs to hear right now, three months until February's NFL combine. It's not about good anythings.

"Don't move until we get that track," he says.

"No. 14?" McKinley asks.

"There you go," Rolle says.

As the bass fires up, McKinley pulls back on Iffley Road, headed toward town. The hook comes and Rolle sings along:

"The motivation for me � is them telling me what I could not be.

"Oh, well.

"I'm so ambitious."

Myron, who has secrets, too

About the only time Rolle cusses is for his Mickey Andrews impersonation. He talks real Southern and says "damn sumbitch" a lot. The impression's been on full display all morning; Coach Andrews retired the day before. Two hours ago, at 4 a.m. Tallahassee time, Rolle called. He thought he might get him, but he had to settle for leaving a message, thanking Andrews for all he's done.

When Rolle hung up, he thought about a coach who didn't always understand him but always loved him, thought about one moment in particular, and he found tears in his eyes.

"I needed someone," he says, "and he was there for me."

Can he tell the story?

"I can," he says. "But I have to brace myself. I'll tell it to you in a little bit."

Myron, who is consumed by his goals

Q: Are you chasing what you want or, because you are competitive and driven, are you chasing whatever happens to be society's agreed-upon definition of greatness?

A: Fascinating.

Silence. Then: "I'd say it has part to do with the perceived notion that the Rhodes scholarship, the NFL, are outstanding achievements and agreed upon by the vast majority. To me, it's the highest level of my passions, my individual passions, in academics and in athletics."

James Lang/US Presswire
Rolle has envisioned himself as a first-round NFL draft pick.When he got here, he found that some people came to Oxford to develop broad intellectual skills that could help change the world and, along the way, to enjoy the experience. Him? He's always been a barrier guy. He's kept a journal of his goals for years, the blueprint of his successes that seem from the outside to just happen. Be a big time recruit. Graduate in three years. Be an All-American. Rhodes Scholar. NFL. In the fifth grade, he read a journal about groundbreaking neurosurgeon Ben Carson, so med school. Be a neurosurgeon. The last page in that journal has two words written on it: First. Round.

Tell me I can't? Watch dis. Cue Track 14. I'm so ambitious.

Myron, who walks past the roses

The square outside the restaurant is filled with arts and crafts, booths selling flowers, people hawking things. Rolle finishes brunch at a breakfast spot he likes; the first time he ordered, the woman didn't believe one person could eat all that food. Now, she grins at him when he steps through the door. Over by a wall, there's an older guy with wild hair. Every college town's got 'em, the wannabe philosopher kings who came and never left. Rolle's carrying a football, and the man sees it.

"Where are you from?" he asks.

"I grew up in New Jersey," Rolle says, "but I played American football in Florida."

"Did you play college?"

"I did," Rolle says, hurry in his voice. "It was a lot of fun. I enjoyed it."

"The best years of my life are school days," the man says.

"I'm having a great time," Rolle says.

"Since I left school," the hippie philosopher says, "I've learned more about life than when I was in school."

"I've heard that," Rolle says.

His voice sounds wistful, or maybe that's the hurry talking. Whatever it is, the time for small talk with strangers is over. He's got an appointment soon, and he doesn't like to make people wait.

Myron, who knows everyone is watching

The students of St. Edmund Hall, wearing traditional academic subfuscs, enter the dining hall for weekly Formal Hall. The lights burn low. The candles flicker. The wine bottles come from their private cellar, and the students find their seats and wait for grace to be said in Latin. The Formal in Formal Hall is no joke. "Mac," Rolle says to his brother, "you remember what you're supposed to do?"

People are always watching Rolle, looking -- hoping? -- to see him slip. He always felt he was held to a different standard; the president of Florida State texted him. Sometimes, he'd see his teammates moving through the world with a carelessness and ease he coveted. As dinner begins, he and his brother joke with their Australian friend Dave Hille about a photo on Rolle's Facebook page. He's posing with two young ladies. It's innocuous, but he's wary.

"A part of me wants to take it down because that's not a good look if a young person sees it," Rolle says. "But a part of me wants to leave it up because I still got it."

This kind of pressure isn't new, either. It's why he doesn't curse when he sings along to music in public. It's why, when he and some teammates recorded a dis track about a fellow Nole to play on a bus to a game, he made sure not to curse there, either � he didn't want it showing up on FoxNews in 20 years. One wrong move and all this -- the Rhodes, the image, the foundation, all of it -- could disappear.

There was a night in college that still gives him chills. It was Halloween, and he and some teammates were at a bar. He doesn't drink, but he still likes to hang out with friends. All around him, drunken students, many wearing skimpy costumes, staggered and swayed. One coed, who he thought was attractive and cool, was dressed like a nurse. She was hammered, so Rolle decided he and his buddy should go home. Only, the girl followed them, got into their car and wouldn't get out. He looked in the back seat and just imagined the Tallahassee cops pulling them over: two big black men and a petite, soon-to-be-passed-out white girl dressed as a slutty nurse. He and his teammate whispered to each other: This isn't a good look.

Rolle phoned her friends, who freaked out, accused him of trying to assault her and threatened to call the cops. His mind raced: I'm like, Are you serious? I'm trying to do the right thing. He saw it all disappearing. They drove around the block, back to the same bar, and got her out of the car. "I would not be here right now," he says. "I shouldn't have even talked to her. I called my brother that night: 'I made a mistake, man.' He said, 'Myron, don't ever do that again.'"

He learned something. No mistakes. Not even one. So he is almost constantly on. When he is interviewed on camera, his vocabulary changes. When he speaks in class, it is not how he speaks in the FSU locker room. Dressing one evening not long ago, he fingered his letter jacket hanging on a chair and asked aloud, "Jock or no jock?" There is the person he is alone, and there is the person he is in front of people. They are not the same.

"He doesn't ever let his guard down," McKinley says.

Each step up, the stakes grow. It's a lot to keep together, through college, through the ancient ritual of Formal Hall, through Oxford, through an NFL career, through a long train of medical school and residency.

And that's just to get to the starting line.

Left, top right: Getty Images. Bottom right: AP Photo
Rolle is among the students at Oxford University who are expected to change the world.

THURSDAY

So what is he like when no one is looking?

Well, walk through the dining room of celebrity chef Jamie Oliver's Oxford restaurant, past the bar, down the spiral staircase, through the ambient candlelight of two more dining rooms, until you come to the last table in the last room, hard against the back wall.

Chris Floyd for ESPN The Magazine
Rolle isn't always so serious.It's Myron Rolle, unplugged; Myron Rolle with his brother and Dave Hille; Myron Rolle the comedian, running through his arsenal of impersonations. He can do Obama. He can -- and often will -- do a dead-on Mickey Andrews, and he imagines Seminoles O-line coach Rick Trickett sitting through one of his Oxford lectures. "Transcendentalism, my ass," Rolle-as-Trickett drawls.

He does SNL skits -- Hey, chicken, say hello to ya mutha for me -- and the unintentionally hilarious speech at the end of "Rocky IV," as comfortable with pop culture as he is with underground Florida hip-hop as he is with Italian opera. Did you know Rolle likes to freestyle rap? He's more than a Windsor knot and an impressive r�sum�. "People ask what does he do all day?" his brother says. "Study? No, he's carrying on his life. He goes on Facebook. Myron's one of the funniest people I know."

He and the other Rhodes scholars have vastly different life experiences. They're teaching him how to question everything anyone says. Him?

He's teaching them how to talk to girls.

"I'm the Chris Paul around here," Rolle deadpans, passing an imaginary basketball. "I dish. Dish. Dish."

He looks at his brother and grins. A slight clarification is clearly imminent.

"Sometimes I'm Kobe."

McKinley about spits out his food. "Most of the time he's Kobe," he says.

Rolle tells stories about football, about watching Noles make insane plays in practice. One guy leapt a blocker, then stripped the ball. Stunned, Rolle asked afterward: "How did you do that?" The guy's answer? "I just play football." These are the dudes who leave Rolle speechless. They are his boys. They would be on the next flight to Heathrow if someone messed with him. At the last practice before the final Rhodes interview, his teammates gathered around him at practice. They didn't know what exactly he was interviewing for -- some texted him good luck on the "Roads" -- but they knew it mattered to their brother. So they all put a hand on him and everyone said a prayer. "Someone asked me, 'Where do you feel more comfortable, in the locker room at FSU or around the Rhodes scholars?'" he says. "Probably my locker room. We didn't talk about politics or medicine or world health care or world peace. It was just laughing. Here you got to be on your toes. What do you think about Gadhafi's speech to the UN? What do you think about the legislation that was passed in Indonesia?"

Dinner is loose, almost three hours of football and family and girls -- whom the Rolle brothers rate, like, 40 times. She's a 4.4, wind aided. It's one of those meals. The food just keeps coming. Hille cracks on his brother, whose Aussie accent has become stronger since he got to Ohio State for a study abroad. Rolle cracks on Hille for eating so fast, mimicking the call of Bannister's run: "With a new United Kingdom record, Dave Hille consumes his meal."

Mostly, everyone laughs. The night comes to an end, and Rolle sings some '80s hair-band power ballad and women at a nearby table try not to get caught looking.

Mama, there go that man.

FRIDAY

After the talk about Camus' writing on plagues, Rolle leaves the classroom building and crosses the street. Ivy covers the old houses crowding the sidewalk. Tree trunks rise, thick and gnarled. He's going to get a face-to-face critique of a paper he turned in Tuesday. It's on epidemics and endemics, and it's well done, he thinks. He's been so successful for so long that failure is a stranger. Some of his classmates have more firsthand knowledge on the subject -- one of them worked in a refugee camp for Doctors Without Borders -- but Rolle feels confident. How many of them have survived a Bobby Bowden Tuesday practice?

Chris Floyd for ESPN The Magazine
McKinley says the NFL invited his brother to the combine, and that Myron will attend.It's chilly out, and he sings quietly to himself:

"The motivation for me �

"� is them telling me what I could not be."

Inside the office, his professor doesn't care that Rolle's a football star, has never heard the words Bobby and Bowden spoken together, isn't concerned with the pressures of being the future of black America.

The paper was not good.

He wants Rolle to do better, and tells him so. Specifically. Repeatedly. When it's over, Rolle's a bit shaken. This has rarely happened to him.

"That was tough," he says. "The last time I got blasted was with Mickey Andrews."

Just like Mickey?

"Less spitting and less profanity," he says.

Rolle dissects the critique. He needs to broaden his understanding of the words "epidemic" and "endemic," needs to think more like an anthropologist and less like a doctor, and he needs to write in a more academic style. He needs to be deeper, smarter.

Isn't this why he's here? To be challenged?

"I don't mind it," he says finally.

He's giving himself a pep talk, on a street in Oxford, and getting better at this paper has become What's Next. The essays aren't graded. That's not it. He wants to be seen as superior, and that means writing papers exactly how the professor wants them written.

"I don't want to be coddled," he reassures himself.

Then: "I love it, though. Challenges make you work."

And finally, convinced: "Let's do it."

Myron, who explains why he talks to himself

Q: Where are the fault lines?

A: How can you see that the pressure is getting to me? I think you can see me pull back more from the community around me. You can see me revert back to the baseline, which is that seclusion, isolation, in my room by myself, internal deep thought and really start to reassess, what's my purpose and should I let other people dictate how I live my life? To be honest, that's what happens whenever there's a failure, or where's there something I don't do well, I always come back to myself: "OK, Myron. You know what you need to do."

Myron, more a smart football player than an athletic student

There is joy on the field today. It's Friday. Another week is almost finished, and Rolle's lifted weights, got a world-class Mama There Go That Man from Harvard sweatshirt, and now he's gonna run some backpedaling drills and call it a day.

"Backpedal and then start sprinting off that," McKinley says. "I'll throw it up."

"What am I playing?" Rolle says. "What coverage?"

"Zone," McKinley says, then barks out a cadence. "Blue 4-2. Blue 4-2. Set, go."

Rolle catches the ball and tosses it back, a huge grin across his face. The little kid inside him comes out, and as he works, Rolle imagines what it will sound like to have his name called. He says it out loud:

"With the 29th pick of the 2010 NFL draft, the New England Patriots select Myron Rolle, safety, Oxford University."

He seems free out here on the field, finding something inside the lines he lacks everywhere else. The game makes sense. The game requires reaction, not obsessing over more academic language. Why does Rolle play football? He might explode without it.

Another rep, another backpedal, another pick. Rolle returns this one and scores an imaginary touchdown. It might be time.

"Prime that thing?" he asks.

Yes, it is time. The Deion Sanders dance, baby. He learned to do this on New Jersey playgrounds at recess, and he bounces from foot to foot, holding the ball high to his chest, in the moment. If potential can be stifling, kinetic is the opposite. He breathes in the crisp air, surrounded by his ancient town. Myron Rolle is on the field and he is happy.

At the end, he holds the pose and smiles.

"Prime that thing," he says.

SATURDAY

The leader of the discussion starts the day of questions with a statement. "The unexamined life is not worth living," he says. "Today our purpose is to address deep issues and examine our all-too-unexamined lives."

The best and brightest eagerly look up from the long table, morning light flooding in through the thick glass of the window panes. All the Rhodes scholars introduce themselves. They are soldiers and astrophysicists, atheists and Muslims, devout Catholics and fervent born-agains, and they are at Oxford because they always seemed to know the answers. Here, they are faced with a different sort of education. They are learning about questions.

Soon, it's Rolle's turn to introduce himself. "I'm Myron, and I'm from Florida," he says, "and I'm doing an MSc in medical anthropology."

Successful businessmen, global lawyers and politicians, many of them graduates of Oxford, sit at the head of the table and subtly direct the conversation. They talk about readings and the philosophy behind them.

There's a passage from "Siddhartha." Everyone discusses the Buddha. There is no reality. There are no individuals. One day, every achievement will be stripped away, and you will be dissociated from your wealth and accomplishments. What does this mean?

Rolle speaks up. "That you can see most clearly when you disengage from yourself?"

The other scholars nod. He breathes in and out, an ocean away from familiar, taking a break in the march toward greatness to ask some questions. What does he want? Are his dreams his own?

They've read Ayn Rand and George Steiner, Bonhoeffer and Eusebius, Martin Luther and John Cotton. "You've been called to be Rhodes scholars because someone believes you can make a difference," they are told. "Someone somewhere believes you can make a difference."

Soon, discussion leaders are peppering the scholars with provocative questions:

"What if you're successful in ways you didn't intend to be successful?"

"Do you need to be raised in a faith to lead a social revolution?"

"Does the Judeo-Christian ethos attempt to make humans be something they should never try to be?"

"This journey, what will you look back on it and see?"

"What will it mean?"

"So many people invested in you. Do you know your purpose?"

"What is your mission?"

And, finally, at the end of the first section: "Where do you get your passion from?"

The discussion has circled around to the central question for Rolle. Is What's Next enough?

The moderators give two options:

1. A burning desire to do something wonderful.

2. A deep righteous anger about a particular injustice.

Rolle murmurs to himself. Soon, the discussion breaks for coffee, and people gather in small clusters in the grand hall, beneath the portraits of Clinton and Mandela, and while Rolle joins in, his mind seems somewhere else. Where does he get his passion? How does this question impact his future?

The group returns to the long table in the room where the light flows through the heavy glass panes. They've moved on, except for one student.

Rolle raises his hand.

He has a final question about the earlier discussion. "What lasts the longest and doesn't fade or wane with time?" Rolle asks. "Which, in your experience, is the most efficient in following your dreams?"

The moderator doesn't hesitate.

The second, he says. The second. What does that mean for Rolle? Every answer at Oxford has a strange way of provoking more questions.

Why does he want to be a doctor? What if a never-ending quest for greatness isn't enough? What if Rolle, whose ability to reach goals has always been rooted in his own internal strengths and desires, has come to a place where hard work alone isn't enough? Is there something crucial that he lacks? Does he need a moment in his past as fuel for the long road spread out before him?

Where would he find such a wellspring of a deep righteous anger?

Myron, who believes he has a destiny

And so now it is time for the story about Mickey Andrews.

AP Photo/Phil Coale
Florida State defensive coordinator Mickey Andrews was there for Rolle when his player needed him.Rolle is talking about when he was called to help -- by becoming a doctor, by starting foundations that help obese Native American children, and by opening hospitals in the Bahamas -- when he decided that he was called to ease suffering of people with fewer blessings than him. "We came back full circle," he says. "I don't know if this was the moment that happened, but this was the moment that propelled it to new heights. Coach Andrews."

He exhales hard. A sigh.

"Boy, oh, boy.

"So you wanna hear the story?

"OK.

"So �

"� I am �

"� Hold on a second."

He exhales and looks down. "OK. All right. You can't cry this time."

His freshman year, the Noles were getting ready to play in the Emerald Bowl in San Francisco. One night, he left the hotel and found himself wandering around downtown by himself. Before long, he got hungry, so he stopped in a Denny's five or six blocks from the hotel. An older waitress caught his attention. She looked like someone's grandmother, docile and sweet, and she wore her suffering and sadness as a second skin. She'd been through a lot. He saw that in her face. He saw lots of things in this woman, saw her aura, and maybe a hint of divinity, too.

That's when it happened. Rolle, who was as surprised as anyone, started to cry. He felt her pain as if it were his own. He called his brother and asked, "Why am I feeling this way? I've never felt this way about a stranger. Why am I hurting? Why is my soul hurting?"

His brother's answers didn't satisfy, so he called Andrews. "Coach, I got to talk to you," he said. "Are you in your room?"

"Yeah, Myron, I'm here. What do you need to talk about?"

"It's urgent. I've got to come."

Who knows what Andrews expected? Certainly, when one of his players calls late at night and says it's urgent, they are dealing with something more grounded than an existential meltdown.

"What happened?" Andrews asked when Rolle arrived at his room. "What's wrong?"

Rolle broke down, crying, telling the story between sobs, just a kid, overwhelmed, trying to make sense of his own emotions. His path was already, at that moment, taking him somewhere different from his teammates, and he didn't know what to do. He asked his gruff defensive coordinator: "Can you explain what I'm feeling?"

Andrews didn't blow him off, didn't patronize him, didn't make him feel awkward or foolish. Andrews talked about the Bible, and he told Rolle that he had an uncontrollable love, and that God wanted him to see this woman and feel her pain and be inspired to do something. God, his coach told him, wants you to help her.

Rolle was still crying and Andrews -- gruff, tough, profane Mickey -- gave him a hug. Rolle went back downstairs, different than he'd been before, with a new understanding: He didn't need to know someone to love them, to want to serve them. Feeling the link between two souls who walked different lives, and had different backgrounds, changed him.

To this day, he clings to this story. It's a rudder in the sea of otherwise overwhelming possibilities.

Myron, who says he is self-aware

Q: Would your competitiveness allow you to even know if you no longer wanted to be a doctor?

A: I've done so much to prepare myself for that life, shadowing neurosurgeons, I promise you that if I didn't like it, if I didn't like being in an operating room and studying the brain and the nervous system, if they didn't appeal to me, I can be honest with myself. I can be honest. I can. I'm not so close-minded that I can't open my eyes and see what's happening. Is my interest waning? No.

Myron, who watches the game and misses it

Rolle's body might be in the flat of a professor who knows 13 languages, but his mind, his heart, is on a bus in Florida. He looks at his watch, does the math, and narrates the Seminoles' day.

They're on the bus.

They're at the stadium.

He's there with them, reading the program, getting taped, on the field, watching guys in the cold tub and the hot tub, seeing the dudes lining up early to get wristbands. Equipment managers are stingy with wristbands. He is there with them, missing it, nostalgic, thinking about the season he gave up to come here, and about Bobby Bowden, and about Mrs. Bowden's banana pudding. Mickey Andrews appears on the television screen.

"My man," Rolle says.

Kickoff is near. The band starts playing the fight song, and he gets tense, fired up, game-faced. Tingles. Goose bumps. In the small living room in the flat of the man who knows 13 languages, he looks ready to run through the television and flatten somebody.

"You hear it?

"Ahhhhhhhh."

MONDAY

What's next?

The first light is gone, and it's another week, a week not of distant goals, but of close ones, and Myron Rolle hurries down High Street, a head taller than the other students, and here, on these ancient streets where kings and poets have walked, two blocks from where Clinton studied, two blocks from where Boyle discovered Boyle's law, he begins to sing:

"The motivation for me �

"� is them telling me what I could not be.

"Oh, well."

* Official MA Slacker Edition FRIDAY thread *

kengs — 2010-02-20T03:14:36-08:00

proceed

Sink clog from hell

tehmoonrulz — 2010-03-06T18:34:05-08:00

The sink in my master bathroom has a clog that just got a lot worse. Through the course of the day it has gone from a slow drain, to a complete clog, and now back to a slow drain. I had no luck with draino max gel and I can't get a pipe auger far enough to push a hole through the gunk.
Any ideas before I shell out money to a plumber?

Plane crashes into building in Austin, TX

Prodigal Son — 2010-02-18T21:54:43-08:00

Haven't been here for a while, but logged on to see what was being said about the news. Surprised not to see a thread, is this not all over the news elsewhere? Sorry if I just couldn't find the thread.

Cliffs first: psycho sets his house on fire, takes off in plane, and crashes it into large building in Austin which contains IRS office

Here's the cnn story on it: http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/02/....html

Before guy does this, he goes to his defunt companies old website and on 2/16/10 and posts the following suicide note http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2...r.pdf

I can post the content of that letter directly, but it's long. The guy apparently had alot to say. He has kind of a thing against the government

So I'm a little disturbed at how close to home this is. Honestly, if it's not on the news in the rest of the country that would be weirder. Maybe you guys just don't give a shit about us nutter Texans

Former NYPD commissioner Kerik gets four year federal prison sentence

Nasty Nate — 2010-02-18T19:17:26-08:00

Quote

The former "top cop" in New York City will be viewing life from the other side for a spell.

Bernard Kerik was sentenced to four years in federal prison, after admitting "last year that he lied to the White House while being vetted for chief of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security," and then pleading "guilty to tax fraud and six other felonies," the Associated Press reports.

"Since his November guilty plea, the 54-year-old Kerik had been under house arrest in Franklin Lakes, N.J.," the AP adds.

NBC News in New York reports, "Kerik, who can voluntarily surrender, will report to jail on May 17."

"I make no excuses and take full responsibility for my grave mistakes," Kerik told the court. " I know I deserve punishment...I hope to return to be with my wife and girls as soon as possible."

At one point, the former police chief faced 142 years in jail and fines of almost five million dollars if convicted on all the charges. After he pleaded guilty to eight counts, he was staring at a potential maximum sentence of 61 years.

"The sentencing was the end of a legal saga in which federal prosecutors denounced Mr. Kerik, a former detective who rose to the upper echelons of power, as a corrupt official who sought to trade his authority for lavish perks," Sam Dolnick reports for The New York Times.

Rest assured every single inmate upstate's going to make his life a living hell.

Apparently Marines like to fight and f░*K

FeelGoodPT916 — 2010-02-18T20:57:09-08:00

Action at 1:25.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KY7gCSFocsE

Squeek Boogie Presents J. Dilla & Nas - DillMatic

t0eknee — 2010-02-28T14:23:33-08:00

01 Nas - Intro
02 Nas - Nas Is Like
03 Nas Ft. J Dilla - Fast Life
04 Nas - It Ain't Hard To Tell
05 Nas Ft. Az & Foxy Brown - Affirmative Action
06 Nas - Thief's Theme
07 Nas Ft. Rakim & Jay-Z - Streets Of New York
08 Nas - Made You Look
09 Nas Ft. Az - Life's A Bitch
10 Nas Ft. Kanye West & Krs-One - Classic
11 Nas - One Love
12 Nas - The World Is Yours
13 Nas - Reckless Driving
14 Nas Ft. J Dilla - The Money
15 Nas - You Know My Style
16 Nas Ft. Jadakiss & Ludacris - Made You Look (Remix)

new link!

Modified by t0eknee at 5:27 PM 3/2/2010

Found an old hard drive

Micha is cool — 2010-02-18T14:37:46-08:00

I used to have a Toshiba laptop that I trashed a long time ago.

Well, I found the old hard drive in my stuff that I think has a ton of old pictures on it.

It is this hard drive..
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...oduct

What can I get that will allow me to get the stuff off of it? Thanks.

Shrek - Forever After: May 21st 2010

fifthgearonline — 2010-02-19T14:13:40-08:00

http://www.movie-list.com/trailers.php?id=shrek4

Duke Lacrosse Accuser, Accused of Attempted Murder and Child Abuse

816d16 — 2010-02-21T22:58:46-08:00

Wow, just wow.
http://www.sportingnews.com/ge...arson

Duke lacrosse accuser Crystal Gale Mangum charged with attempted murder, arson

Sporting News staff reports
Comments (4) More
Login or register to post comments Printer-friendly version Thursday, Feb. 18, 2010 - 11:10 a.m. ET

Crystal Gale Mangum, the woman who accused three Duke lacrosse players of raping her in 2006, was arresred by Durham, N.C., police Wednesday for attempted murder and arson, among other charges, local TV station WRAL reports.

Mangum allegedly assaulted her boyfriend, Milton Walker, set his clothes on fire in a bathtub and threatened to stab him. She has been charged with attempted first-degree murder, five counts of arson, assault and battery, communicating threats, three counts of misdemeanor child abuse, injury to personal property, identity theft and resisting a public officer, according to the report.

There were three children, ages 3, 9 and 10, inside the house where the incident allegedly occurred, none of whom was injured. Authorities believe the 911 call came from one of the children.

Mangum was scheduled to appear in court Thursday morning.

The three Duke lacrosse players who were accused by Mangum of rape were eventually exonerated after North Carolina's attorney general dismissed the case.

Cleveland - Most Miserable in the US

fifthgearonline — 2010-02-19T21:57:21-08:00

Article
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35...iness/

List
http://www.forbes.com/2010/02/...msnbc

5 cities from ohio made the list

The city of Cleveland has had a colorful history.

The Cuyahoga River, which runs through the city, famously caught fire in 1969 thanks to rampant pollution, and it wasn't the first time. In 1978 it became the first U.S. city to default on its debts since the Great Depression.
leveland sports fans have had to endure more anguish than those in any other city.

The city has been dubbed with a less than endearing nickname: the Mistake by the Lake. This year Cleveland takes the top spot in our third annual ranking of America's Most Miserable Cities.

Cleveland secured the position thanks to its high unemployment, high taxes, lousy weather, corruption by public officials and crummy sports teams (Cavaliers of the NBA excepted).

Misery was on the rise around the country last year. Sure the stock market was up big, but so were unemployment, foreclosures and bankruptcy filings. Meanwhile housing prices, the U.S. dollar and approval ratings for Congress continued their downward spiral.

The widely tracked Misery Index initiated by economist Arthur Okun, which combines unemployment and inflation rates started 2009 at 7.3 and rose to 12.7 by the end of the year thanks to soaring joblessness. That is the highest level since 1983.

Our Misery Measure takes into account unemployment, as well as eight other issues that cause people anguish. The metrics include taxes (both sales and income), commute times, violent crime and how its pro sports teams have fared over the past two years. We also factored in two indexes put together by Portland, Ore., researcher Bert Sperling that gauge weather and Superfund pollution sites. Lastly we considered corruption based on convictions of public officials in each area as tracked by the Public Integrity Section of the U.S. Department of Justice.

We expanded the list of cities under consideration this year to include the 200 largest metropolitan statistical areas (in years past we've examined 150), which led to a shuffling in the ranks. Any area with a population of more than 245,000 was eligible.

Cleveland nabbed the top spot as a result of poor ratings across the board. It was the only city that fell in the bottom half of the rankings in all nine categories. Many residents are heading for greener pastures. There has been a net migration out of the Cleveland metro area of 71,000 people over the past five years. Population for the city itself has been on a steady decline and is now less than half of it what it was 50 years ago.

Cleveland ranked near the bottom when looking at corruption. Northern Ohio has seen 309 public officials convicted of crimes over the past 10 years according to the Justice Department. A current FBI investigation of public officials in Cuyahoga Country (where Cleveland is located) has ensnared more than two dozen government employees and businessmen on charges including bribery, fraud and tax evasion.

On the housing front Cleveland is dealing with thousands of abandoned homes. The city contributed to its foreclosure problem by providing down payments to many people that could not afford homes through the federally funded Afford-A-Home program. Cleveland led by Mayor Frank Jackson sued 21 large investment banks in 2008 who he felt were complicit in the subprime and foreclosure crisis that hit Cleveland hard. A federal judge dismissed the suit last year, but the city is appealing the ruling.

Teach me about funk.

Day_Walker — 2010-02-18T23:18:56-08:00

Haven't really listened to much funk but heard this song and love it.
Bootsy Collins - I'd Rather Be With You
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4t3qtgO1wHc

What's some other funk songs that are upbeat like this or similar style to this.

Please Rob Me

Obu — 2010-02-20T19:53:43-08:00

http://pleaserobme.com/

Listing all those empty homes out there

Why

Hey, do you have a Twitter account? Have you ever noticed those messages in which people tell you where they are? Pretty annoying, eh. Well, they're actually also potentially pretty dangerous. We're about to tell you why.

Don't get us wrong, we love the whole location-aware thing. The information is very interesting and can be used to create some pretty awesome applications. However, the way in which people are stimulated to participate in sharing this information, is less awesome. Services like Foresquare allow you to fulfill some primeval urge to colonize the planet. A part of that is letting everyone know you own that specific spot. You get to tell where you are and if you're there first, it's yours. O, and of course there's badges..

Foursquare

The danger is publicly telling people where you are. This is because it leaves one place you're definitely not... home. So here we are; on one end we're leaving lights on when we're going on a holiday, and on the other we're telling everybody on the internet we're not home. It gets even worse if you have "friends" who want to colonize your house. That means they have to enter your address, to tell everyone where they are. Your address.. on the internet.. Now you know what to do when people reach for their phone as soon as they enter your home. That's right, slap them across the face.

The goal of this website is to raise some awareness on this issue and have people think about how they use services like Foursquare, Brightkite, Google Buzz etc. Because all this site is, is a dressed up Twitter search page. Everybody can get this information.

Guy dumps cheating girlfriend on the radio

CARTER — 2010-02-18T21:59:29-08:00

http://media.1057thepoint.com/...y.mp3

Live Streaming Sports for Free...

King Wade — 2010-02-18T23:12:57-08:00

Anyone know any good sites? I use to catch them in justin.com but that's shut down now...PM if you got anything...

shed building

tegda9 — 2010-02-19T03:30:11-08:00

has anyone built a wood shed? do you know of any free plans for like a 8X10 or 10X10?

i am needing to build one at my girls grand fathers house but dont want to spend over like $1500.

any suggestions? or should i just go out and buy one of these
http://www.homedepot.com/Stora...10053

any one have any expeeriance with sheds?

Modified by tegda9 at 6:29 PM 2/17/2010

Atheist Billboards Vandalized In Sacramento Area

CARTER — 2010-02-17T20:02:16-08:00

One of a collection of billboards just put up in the Sacramento area supporting atheist beliefs has been vandalized.

Before being defaced, the billboard along the causeway between Sacramento and Davis read "Are you good without God? Millions are." But someone has spray painted the words "also lost?" to the end.

http://cbs13.com/local/athiest....html

Its just funny that someone actually went through all that trouble to do that. I can just imagine them climbing up there one late night and doing that. And in their mind they probably think they are getting extra credit from God. Lol

White Kimbo Slice Knocks Black Dude Out On The Bus

h8torade — 2010-02-17T13:43:09-08:00

A fight broke out on an AC Transit bus in Oakland, CA. The confrontation between an older white man and a younger black man started out as a conversation about shoe shining.

"How much you charge me for a shoe shine?" the older man asked the black man.

The two argued about the topic and racial tensions seemed to fly. Eventually the black man told his elder, "Take your ass back up there," to the front of the bus.

The white man, who was wearing a t-shirt that said "I am a Motherfucker" on the back, moved his seat but the black man followed. Quickly, their words escalated into a brief physical altercation.

http://h8torade.com/2010/02/17...-ass/

Google Gives $2 Million to Wikipedias Foundation

Nasty Nate — 2010-02-18T11:33:17-08:00

Quote

Google has opened up its charity wallet once again. This time, the search giant has donated $2,000,000 to the Wikimedia Foundation, the organization that runs and maintains Wikipedia.

The donation, in true social media fashion, was announced via tweets from Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales and Wikimedia Foundation advisory board member Mitch Kapor. Neither Google nor the Wikimedia Foundation have made an official announcement yet � it�s supposed to come tomorrow.

The donation�s definitely in line with Google�s generosity to foundations that promote a faster and more open web. However, we think it�s interesting that Google is giving money to the Wikimedia Foundation now, only a year and a half after the search giant launched its own Wikipedia killer, Google Knol.

Back then, we said it was doomed to fail, and so far Knol�s stagnation has proven us right. Is this a sign that Google�s abandoned the project and is embracing Wikipedia as the web�s center for knowledge? Hopefully we�ll get some answers tomorrow.

I'm glad Google is supporting Wikipedia. Any company that supports the open exchange of information for free gets two big 's from me

Three Die In Plane Crashes In East Palo Alto Neighborhood

Sick Boy — 2010-02-18T00:05:04-08:00

It's extremely, extremely foggy here today, I don't see why they took the risk. Sad.

http://www.ktvu.com/news/22589862/detail.html

Quote

Three Die; Plane Crashes In East Palo Alto Neighborhood

EAST PALO ALTO, Calif. -- A twin-engine Cessna crashed into transmission lines shortly after take-off from a small airport, exploding on impact, killing all three people onboard and crashing into an East Palo neighborhood, authorities said.

The plane, authorities said, was bound for Hawthorne Municipal Airport in Southern California and took off in foggy conditions and crashed about 7:50 a.m. near Garden and Beech streets northwest of the Palo Alto airport.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said all three who were on the plane were killed, but there had been no injuries on the ground.

Daniel Morales, who told KTVU he had previously flown with the pilot, identiifed him as a high-ranking official at Tesla Motors. Authorities, however, have not released the names of the victims.

The plane hit transmission lines that are draped 377 feet above the ground near the Dumbarton Bridge. It exploded on impact with the wires, splitting into two pieces and igniting fires at two homes. One of the homes housed a daycare center for 20 children. Fortunately, there were no children there at the time of the crash.

Heather Starnes , who lives in the neighborhood, was leaving her home to take her daughter to school when she saw the crash.

�We heard something and it blew up in the air,� she told KTVU. �There was this big explosion. Part of it hit my neighbor�s house who has a daycare and part of it hit my neighbor�s other house. They are burning.�

Starnes said fortunately there were no children at the daycare at the time of the crash.

�Praise God there were no kids in the daycare, it hit where they would have been in the daycare,� she said.

Starnes said the plane slammed into a power line.

�It hit a power line,� she said. �Then it exploded -- then half hit the next door neighbor�s house and the other half hit across the street. We were right in the road.�

Starnes said neighbors immediately flocked to the crash scene to help.

�There was one house, we couldn�t save it,� she said. �(Plane parts) It hit cars, there were a lot of explosions. There weren�t any injuries in the houses.�

Emergency vehicles were on the scene and there were no immediate reports of injuries.

Neighbors said that the area was draped in fog at the time of the crash. Gregor said it would have been up to the pilot to decide how safe it would have been to take off.

"That decision would have been up to the pilot," the FAA spokesman said.

Patricia Armistead, who lived in the neighborhood, heard the explosion and raced outside.

"You couldn't really see anything because the fog was so thick," she said, although she did see a few flames.

Another witness has told KTVU that the crash has caused a power outage in both East Palo Alto and Palo Alto.

Copyright 2010 by KTVU.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

toy story mofuckin 3!!

t0eknee — 2010-02-18T13:23:02-08:00

click for trailer

i cant wait to see it

Don't mess with crazy old men on the bus in the Bay Area!!

Sick Boy — 2010-02-24T14:09:34-08:00

Shit made my day!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQJFv9SMSMQ

Taking Man Cave to the Next Level

Jomo — 2010-02-18T21:09:02-08:00

Quote

By Associated Press | February 16, 2010

AQUILLA, Ohio - Jimmy Grey said he has been out of work for almost a year and needed a project to stay busy. So with the heavy snowfall this winter, the 25-year-old laborer got to work on an extreme igloo.

He built his four-room ice creation in his family�s yard in Aquilla, about 30 miles east of Cleveland.

It has 6-foot ceilings and an entertainment room. He powers the TV with an extension cord plugged into an outlet in the garage. He also ran wires for cable television with surround-sound stereo.

Grey says that candles help add ambiance for nighttime get-togethers with his friends, and that the freezing temperatures mean that the beer never goes warm.

Like most of the Midwest, Ohio has been hit hard by snow this season. As of Friday, snow was covering some ground in 49 states, representing two-thirds of the nation�s land mass.

Nice resume builder.

Can someone make a .gif of this please

Deryk Peters — 2010-02-18T14:47:50-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...edded

0:36 - 0:42.

Anyone please?

Modified by Deryk Peters at 3:45 PM 2/16/2010

Who makes a good saute pan

fifthgearonline — 2010-02-18T17:22:43-08:00

Replacing a hand me down saute pan thats got some teflon flaking off

Who makes a good 2-3qt saute pan for like 75bux. Also, should i get anodized aluminum, or stainless?

The Secret of Kells

Tizight — 2010-02-16T13:48:27-08:00

Its up for an award. Anyone check it out yet?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTPAvY4y0pY

Chevelle - Sci-Fi Crimes

TreyJT — 2010-03-04T14:20:14-08:00

How Far do you travel to work

Day_Walker — 2010-02-17T12:09:27-08:00

Seeing as I'm looking at a new job which would have me traveling 35 miles 1 way every day (which is far for this tiny country) just wondering how far do you guys travel to work?
This takes me 40 minutes since it's mostly open rd driving but just wondering if I'll get sick of it since I've only ever worked as far as 10 miles away at the furtherest.

(Yes we use km's but I converted to miles for your lazy bastards )

Ti Amo

Jon Ay D — 2010-02-19T23:35:19-08:00

Im looking for a song called Ti Amo by UMBERTO TOZZI, but its the dance verson, not the original song.

This is the song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3gxFAZ7LjE
Anyone have a torrent or know where I could download it from?

Windows Phone - Windows 7

IT GUY — 2010-02-15T15:27:27-08:00

http://www.microsoft.com/press...hone/

Quote, originally posted by

Microsoft upped the stakes in the red-hot phone market Monday, introducing a new version of its Windows software that, unlike its previous offerings in the category, has been built from the ground up with mobile devices in mind.
Perhaps most notably, Windows Phone 7 Series, as the software is called, features a start screen that rejects static icons in favor of real-time feeds from the Internet's most popular social networking sites, including Facebook and Twitter, as well as other applications.

It also offers always-on access to e-mail, Xbox games, Bing search, and other tools.
"In a crowded market filled with phones that look the same and do the same things, I challenged the team to deliver a different kind of mobile experience," said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, during a presentation at the Mobile World Congress 2010, in Barcelona.

"Windows Phone 7 Series marks a turning point toward phones that truly reflect the speed of people's lives and their need to connect to other people and all kinds of seamless experiences," said Ballmer.

Windows Phone 7 is also, effectively, a "Zune phone." Microsoft chose not to slap its MP3 brand on the software, perhaps because Zune has been somewhat of a flop in the consumer market. But users can import their Zune files and other multimedia content into Windows Phone 7's Music and Video hub.

Hubs are what Microsoft is calling partitions in the software that allow users to group similar content. In addition to Music and Video, Windows Phone 7 also has hubs for People, Pictures, and Games. Additionally, a Marketplace hub lets users purchase and download apps.

For corporate road warriors, the Office hub offers connections to Microsoft Office, SharePoint Workspace, and OneNote.

Windows Phone 7 represents a course change for Microsoft when it comes to the mobile market. For years, the company has tried to maintain a consistent look and feel across PCs, laptops, and portable devices. Windows Phone 7's predecessor, Windows Mobile, was therefore designed to look like an extension of the Windows desktop.

http://www.informationweek.com...00411

more pictures and video: http://www.engadget.com/2010/0...ions/

Expletive off Godzilla. SHARKTOPUS IS HERE!

Nasty Nate — 2010-02-15T13:26:51-08:00

Quote

Syfy's original movies director Karen O'Hara Tweeted last week the network has greenlit a long-rumored "Sharktopus" movie -- and directed by B-movie king Roger Corman.

Wrote O'Hara: "Just got off the phone with the legendary Roger Corman who's doing a new movie for us this year. Yes, it's the long-rumored SHARKTOPUS! ... Spent half am hour discussing what a sharktopus should look like, how many mouths it should have and how it should kill. That's my job!"

This. Is. Going. To. Be. EPIC.

We painted the interior of our house this weekend.

Landon Peters — 2010-02-16T12:53:18-08:00

Hey all, took all of Friday evening and a little bit on Saturday. We did two coats and I am happy with the way it turned out. I need to go around the trim in some spots to touch where the tape covered.

Yes, I know we need art for the walls. lol

Kicked in da fazzeeee

Bruce Banner — 2010-02-17T00:45:22-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...lated

MensAlmanac

NCAA Tournament Bracket Pool

fml! .rar files on a Macbook

nice video

Alright, who did it.

XBOX Live:

Cheap Protein Finds

Your sedan, your coupe, your SUV, your bike, your girl

NY Soda Tax

Ohhh Jefffffff...got that new Rockband download

86 rules of boozing

Thinking to do some Chinese dish

things you learn when you get married

Epic FAIL

Detroit plans to turn empty neighbor hoods into farmland

TR2N: Legacy

Request- Plies Album

Twitter

Obu....Nasty....let's talk about what went down NSFW

Ludacris - Battle Of The Sexes

Anyone have Sprint Cell service

Ron Artest is buggin out.

True Protein

Professional Resume Services

spanish food gurus

Happy Birthday Omar ( BMXicant )

Bruce Banner's Ann Arbor eating thread

Adoption day at the pet store!

Common dryer problems

Severe Clear

Big Rich & Ya Boy - Guns & Roses (The EP)

ECAS DMV NOVA MD VA DC Douchebags etc...

Save the SEALs

Protestors Walk on to Freeway to Demonstrate Against Education Budget Cuts

OoVoo

*** Official MA Friday :1UP: thread ***

EOBR(s) Not that it specifically relates to you, yet.

Critique this photo please!!!!

Deftones new single Rocket Skates - Free Download

Vegas This Fall: Lets make this shit happen

An Uncapped Year FAQ

Guns and Coffee FTW

J. Cole - The Warm Up

Anyone see Dac lately

Trance Songs

convert VOB to AVI

young model snitches; exposes drug ring...

Help me get my ass in shape

Suggest me Ladies

Senator to Introduce Internet Human Rights Bill

Proposal would put Ronald Reagan's face on the $50 bill

I'm in Cincinnati

Just had me some white castle

Spartacus Series

GM Recalls 1.3 Million Cars - Ford and Honda look better and better every day

Iphone 3gs

Gorillaz - Plastic Beach

Boomshakalaka!

Workout challenge for this year

Make the hole smaller

Thinking to Invest in Shares

Who's PS3 broke last night

OBAMA

What shall i wear

Best Diet Plan to reduce Weight

Guru of Gang Starr Fame goes into a coma

MLB '10: The Show

Heavy Rain

44 Inch Chest

The Crazies

Bruce Banner is now in Michigan!

Extending Wireless Network

Verizon Wireless Phone Upgrade

Nas - Lost Tapes

Used iPhone 3G 8 Gig Black

Post Secrets

Official MA Fri - Time To Venture Away From 1MX, 7s, R&R Threads - thread

My '10 Log

FS: BNIB 22 (21.5") 1080p LCD monitor

Time to get my ducks in formation

* Official MA Friday :1UP: thread *

* Official MA Slacker Edition FRIDAY thread *