| HORROR LANDING
A Lufthansa jet nearly crashed as it attempted a dramatic landing at Hamburg's airport during a wind storm on Saturday. All 137 passengers arrived safely after a second landing attempt. German aviation experts say the near-disaster is unprecedented in Germany. .
Outright roster purge or gradual transition?
Dimitroff and Smith have to be sure they find the right replacements, though because if they're going to make wholesale changes, they better not miss on the players they bring in. Not to say immediate results would be demanded by Blank but if things stagnate or get even worse over the next few years… Possibly weakening the Falcons' input on personnel was the loss of assistant general manager Billy Devaney, who bolted over the weekend to become the executive VP of football personnel with the St. Louis Rams. Devaney is a longtime pro personnel man who could have helped Dimitroff, whose background is scouting college personnel. Devaney is a solid pro personnel guy but with Blank's insistence on change, Devaney was never considered to replace Rich McKay as GM. In terms of the Falcons' roster, there is some talk that quarterback Chris Redman played well enough to generate the interest of some other teams around the league.
Kevin in '07 became a real click magnet
Anna Nicole Smith, Britney Spears or Paris Hilton. According to the official count, Phillip Coorey's front page story on the Tuesday after the election - "Libs turn on Howard" - was the year's most popular story on Australia's leading news website. Coorey's article told of how senior Liberals, in the aftermath of the emphatic defeat, set off on a round of self-flagellation as survivors distanced themselves from the unpopular policies that brought their party unstuck. Another of Coorey's post-election wraps, "Libs implode as Costello bales out", was the tenth most read story of the year: Published on the Monday after the election, the report detailed the disarray in the Liberal's ranks in the wake of Peter Costello's announcement to abandon his quest to lead the party.
Animal Planet Embarks on Three New Adventures that Immerse Viewers in ...
SILVER SPRING, Md., Jan. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Animal Planet president and general manager Marjorie Kaplan has announced three new series to debut over the next year as the network rebrands beginning on February 3, 2008. The new series -- GROOMER HAS IT, WHALE WARS and A YEAR WITH LIONS -- are all reflective of the network's new brand definition of entertaining and instinctually-charged storytelling that is emotionally tethered with the animal kingdom. "I'm excited to share these new series with our audiences and deliver on Animal Planet's new brand promise," notes Kaplan. "GROOMER HAS IT is a smart and humorous series that opens our eyes to animal beauty while WHALE WARS will be an adrenaline adventure that looks at the consequences of taking a stand on an issue. Then there's A YEAR IN LIONS with signature personality Dave Salmoni.
Food Prices Straining U.S. Aid
The Bush administration's 2008 USAID budget request calls for $1.2 billion in food aid with a supplemental $350 million to cover assistance in Darfur and critical situations in southern Africa, Kenya and other hot spots. USAID officials said the administration, facing a tight budget year, was not planning to request funds to cover the projected $200 million shortfall from the price increases. USAID purchases grains in the same domestic commodities market as the U.S. companies that serve up Wonder bread or Big Macs, meaning they pay the same high market rates. As a result, officials said, the program cuts are necessary. "At this point, this is the administration's request," Borns said yesterday. Aid groups said they would press USAID and the Bush administration to pursue more funds from Congress to cover the shortfall.
Starbucks gives an express course in espresso making
For 3 1/2 hours Tuesday evening, it was spring training Starbucks style. The coffee company -- for the first time in its history -- shut all of its U.S. stores to retrain employees on how to create a first-class espresso drink. "It's like baseball players," said Ann-Marie Kurtz, manager of global coffee and tea education for Starbucks Corp. "They practice all the time. This gives our baristas a chance to not be in front of customers and to slow down." The training of 135,000 baristas in nearly 7,100 company-operated stores is the latest effort by Chairman Howard Schultz to turn around a company facing intense competition and working to appeal to consumers wary of paying $4 for a cup of specialty joe in a challenging economy. The training didn't cover licensed shops in airports, malls, hotels and supermarkets.
Ad executive's suicide puts blogs under scrutiny
She said the strong reactions had not changed her view on anonymity in posts, which she said "allows for more compelling, insider content" because the writers need not fear retribution. Parker said it was "worth considering" a policy that would require those who leave scathing, personal comments on his site to identify themselves. In the meantime, the incident has helped the sites in some ways. Parker said his blog ordinarily received 4,000 to 5,000 hits a day, but last week, it had more than 12,000 a day. AgencySpy's writer said that traffic had "obviously grown" and that advertisers on the site had not complained. .
Hobart family claims police abuse
HOBART | Candace Olig couldn't hold back the tears Monday as her lawyers played a videotape they say provides visual proof of her family's accusations of police abuse. Watch the surveillance video (Edited for brevity).The 32-minute videotape, taken on the night of Aug. 30 in the Oligs' front yard, shows police arriving at the home in response to a call by the Oligs, who reported a disturbance in their neighborhood involving a speeding car. In moments, the scene turns violent.Words are exchanged before a police officer enters the Oligs' front yard and then is seen throwing a punch that knocks Candace Olig to the ground. As a struggle ensues involving other officers and family members, the same officer is seen in the video pointing his gun at her.Other family members, including husband James Olig, 46, and sons David, 21, and Brian, 18, can be seen in the videotape being grabbed, wrestled to the ground and handcuffed by police.
Mercury in New Jersey Day-Care Center 3,000 Times Standard
During the past three weeks, PEER has released a series of internal e-mails from current and former Interior scientists raising troubling questions about how badly environmental assessments of Arctic offshore oil development were skewed. These e-mails have fueled two new lawsuits in the past week that threaten to stymie new lease sales and lend further support to ongoing litigation against earlier lease sales. Reflecting mounting concern about the legal consequences of this growing stream of internal e-mails that contradict official pronouncements, Jeffery Loman, the Deputy Regional Director for Interiors Minerals Management Service, in a January 31, 2008 e-mail to all employees sought to limit further damage: we have been directed to refrain from discussing the PEER press releases and the e-mail messages with anyone outside our organization including any representative with the media.
Printer Friendly
One of the characteristics of the real Cairo is the ability to fuse all the different historical eras. Walk in a street like Al-Muizz li-Din Allah or in some parts of Abassiya: Youll find that styles and histories are juxtaposed. You find a house from one era built on the remains of houses from other eras. Cairo may be one of the few cities in the world that can boast so much history, yet there are attempts to destroy it through faulty restoration. .
Back up photos on the road
Every minute of footage can fill 100MB or more of storage. To save space, you may want to edit video on the camera to remove the less interesting parts. This kind of feature is available on newer Canon, Olympus, and other cameras. It's no iMovie, but it typically allows you to trim a series of frames from the beginning or end of a clip. Create backups There's a downside to relying solely on media cards for storage: if a problem develops with your card, you could lose all your photos. Flash-memory cards are susceptible to accidental erasure and even corruption. They're also small (especially SD cards), and therefore easy to misplace. That's why it's a good idea to back up images. Here are some options: Transfer to an iPod Using the $29 Apple iPod Camera Connector, you can transfer images from a digital camera to a photo-capable iPod (except the iPod nano, alas) via your camera's USB cable (see “Image Go-Between").
|
