Beating Illegals around the Bush...

Bush confronts immigration deal skeptics

By BEN FELLER, Associated Press Writer from yahoo.com

GLYNCO, Ga. President Bush attacked opponents of an immigration deal Tuesday, suggesting they "don't want to do what's right for America"...

..."You can use it to frighten people," Bush said. "Or you can show leadership and solve this problem once and for all."

The bill would give temporary legal status to millions of unlawful immigrants, provided they came forward, paid a fine and underwent criminal background checks. To apply for a green card, they would have to pay another fine, learn English, return to their home country and wait in line.

The plan also would create a guest worker program. It would allow foreign laborers to come to the U.S. for temporary stints, yet with no guarantee they can eventually gain citizenship.

Both the new visa plan and the temporary worker program are contingent on other steps coming first. Those include fencing and barriers along the Mexico border, the hiring of more Border Patrol agents and the completion of an identification system to verify employees' legal status.

The legislation would also reshape future immigration decisions. A new point system would prioritize skills and education over family in deciding who can immigrate.

Georgia's senators both played leading roles in producing Bush's deal with the Senate. Yet they have also said they may not support the final bill, depending upon how it is amended.

Bush chastised those who say the proposal offers amnesty to illegal immigrants. He called it empty political rhetoric.

Cultural Creative?

You scored as a Cultural Creative

Cultural Creatives are probably the newest group to enter this realm. You are a modern thinker who tends to shy away from organized religion but still feels as if there is something greater than ourselves. You are very spiritual, even if you are not religious. Life has a meaning outside of the rational.

Cultural Creative 81% Postmodernist 56% Idealist 56% Existentialist 44% Fundamentalist 38% Materialist 38% Romanticist 38% Modernist 6%

What is your worldview?

I also found a definition for being a cultural creative...

Pencil...the little tail...of breadcrumbs...

20 Things You Didn't Know About... Pencils

by Dean Christopher from Discover.com

1 There is no risk of lead poisoning if you stab yourself (or someone else) with a pencil because it contains no lead—just a mixture of clay and graphite. Still, pencil wounds carry a risk of infection for the stabees, lawsuits for stabbers.

2 And bad juju for anyone linked to Watergate: In his autobiography, G. Gordon Liddy describes finding John Dean (whom he despised for “disloyalty”) alone in a room. Spotting sharpened pencils on a desk, Liddy fleetingly considered driving one into Dean’s throat.

3 Graphite, a crystallized form of carbon, was discovered near Keswick, England, in the mid-16th century. An 18th-century German chemist, A. G. Werner, named it, sensibly enough, from the Greek graphein, “to write.”

4 The word “pencil” derives from the Latin penicillus, meaning—not so sensibly—“little tail.”

5 Pencil marks are made when tiny graphite flecks, often just thousandths of an inch wide, stick to the fibers that make up paper.

6 Got time to kill? The average pencil holds enough graphite to draw a line about 35 miles long or to write roughly 45,000 words. History does not record anyone testing this statistic.

7 The Greek poet Philip of Thessaloníki wrote of leaden writing instruments in the first century B.C., but the modern pencil, as described by Swiss naturalist Conrad Gesner, dates only to 1565.

8 French pencil boosters include Nicolas-Jacques Conté, who patented a clay-and-graphite manufacturing process in 1795; Bernard Lassimone, who patented the first pencil sharpener in 1828; and Therry des Estwaux, who invented an improved mechanical sharpener in 1847.

9 French researchers also hit on the idea of using caoutchouc, a vegetable gum now known as rubber, to erase pencil marks. Until then, writers removed mistakes with bread crumbs.

10 Most pencils sold in America today have eraser tips, while those sold in Europe usually have none. Are Europeans more confident scribblers?

11 Henry David Thoreau—American, but a confident scribbler all the same—used pencils to write Walden. And he probably got them free. His father owned a pencil-making business near Boston, where Henry allegedly designed his own pencils before becoming a semi-recluse.

12 In 1861, Eberhard Faber built the first American mass-production pencil factory in New York City.

13 Pencils were among the basic equipment issued to Union soldiers during the Civil War.

14 The mechanical pencil was patented in 1822. The company founded by its British developers prospered until 1941, when the factory was bombed, presumably by pencil-hating Nazis.

15 Je suis un crayon rouge. After the 1917 Soviet revolution, American entrepreneur Armand Hammer was awarded a monopoly for pencil manufacturing in the USSR.

16 More than half of all pencils come from China. In 2004, factories there turned out 10 billion pencils, enough to circle the earth more than 40 times.

17 Pencils can write in zero gravity and so were used on early American and Russian space missions—even though NASA engineers worried about the flammability of wood pencils in a pure-oxygen atmosphere, not to mention the menace of floating bits of graphite.

18 Those concerns inspired Paul Fisher to develop the pressurized Fisher Space Pen in 1965. After the Apollo 1 fire, NASA banned pencils in favor of his pen on manned spaceflights.

19 The world’s largest pencil is a Castell 9000, on display at the manufacturer’s plant near Kuala Lumpur. Made of Malaysian wood and polymer, it stands 65 feet high.

20 At the other extreme, engineers at the University of California at Santa Barbara have used an atomic force microscope as a kind of pencil to draw lines 50 nanometers (two millionths of an inch) wide. Just because they could.

Pharoahe Monche Tribute...

Another tribute show at Gallapagos on May 16...It was very entertaining, reminded me of shows during the nineties..Especially those Mic-Check 1, 2 shows in the BX...Props to Nabila...Division X fired it up early in the night and were really high energy kicking off an impressive lineup and through all the glitches in technology, they were professional and North even spat out an acapella..., Beatboxer Entertainment, the Canadian female lyricist Eternia surprised me...and many more, though Pharoahe spit out a nice freestyle, short but juicy at the end of the evening, and DJ Skeme was in the back where there were some really ill dancers and though it was at the end of the night, my movies (Docu-Album 1: Route 66 and Docu-Album 2: Influences and Long glances) played as visuals...It was an honor to be accompanied by such an awesome DJ...Special shoutout to Kevin for hanging out...and thanks to Joan and CRic for a crazy whirlwind evening of jolliness...Happy birthday to a 80-year young Nina, the life of the party, and thanks to Nidia for dinner...

Hmmmm....Scooch down to make room, and close the door...

Immigration deal survives early test from Yahoo.com

By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, Associated Press Writer 48 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The Senate turned back an early attack on the broad immigration overhaul Tuesday, keeping alive a temporary worker provision that could bring in as many as 600,000 foreign laborers each year.
Senators voted 64-31 to reject a proposal offered by Sen. Byron Dorgan (news, bio, voting record), D-N.D., and supported by some labor unions to delete the program, which is one of the measure's key elements.

The vote was the first big test for the improbable coalition that wrote the measure and is struggling to keep the fragile deal from unraveling under pressure from across the political spectrum.

The bill still faces myriad assaults, including further Democratic attempts to limit or alter the temporary worker program, which would bring in foreign employees on two-year visas.

The bill would also toughen border security, give quick legal status to the estimated 12 million immigrants in the country unlawfully and create a new workplace verification system to bar undocumented workers from getting jobs.

It would create a point system for future immigration applicants that would place less emphasis on family connections and more on education and skills in demand by U.S. businesses.

Republicans were considering efforts to strengthen the bill's security measures and make it more difficult for illegal immigrants to get on the path to citizenship. Democrats were eyeing changes that would ensure more visas would be available for family members of permanent residents or U.S. citizens.

Conservatives, liberals and centrists who worked out the White House-backed deal are struggling to keep the bill intact while giving Democrats and Republicans who harbor grave concerns about it opportunities to make revisions.

Coalition members meet each day to decide which proposed changes are deal-breakers to what they call their "grand bargain." Dorgan's was considered one such poison pill.

The temporary worker plan has come under attack from several fronts. It would allow most of the workers — largely unskilled, nonagricultural workers in areas such as construction, landscaping and meatpacking — to stay for up to three two-year stints, provided they left the United States for a year between each stay.

Many labor unions say that would depress wages and create a class of workers with no job rights. Business groups call the leave-and-return element unworkable. Hispanic advocacy organizations and religious groups say it unfairly denies workers the chance to stay in the U.S. and ultimately gain citizenship.

"It is just a fiction that these are jobs Americans aren't willing to do," Dorgan said. "The main reason that big corporations want a guest worker program is that it will drive down U.S. wages."

Dorgan's was just one of a host of modifications senators are seeking to the broad immigration plan, a measure that evokes strong emotions among the public. Aware of the potent crosscurrents on the issue, leaders have abandoned an effort to speed the measure through the Senate this week, and now plan a final vote in June.

Democrats and Republicans are to take turns offering amendments, a process expected to last all week and resume after next week's Memorial Day recess.

"There's good and bad in this," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (news, bio, voting record), D-Nev., said of the bill. "That's what amending the legislation is all about — trying to improve it."

Sen. Jeff Bingaman (news, bio, voting record), D-N.M., plans to offer an amendment to slash the number of annual visas available for temporary workers to 200,000. A similar proposal passed the Senate last year by an overwhelming margin.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (news, bio, voting record), R-S.C., plans to propose instituting mandatory prison sentences for foreigners caught crossing the border illegally. Sen. James Inhofe (news, bio, voting record), R-Okla., wants to add language to the measure declaring English the country's official language.

Sen. David Vitter (news, bio, voting record), R-La., announced he will seek to kill the legalization provisions altogether, calling them "amnesty, plain and simple."

>>Themed Designs and Global Schemes...Universal?

Universal plans South Korea theme park from Yahoo.com

By KELLY OLSEN, AP Business Writer Tue May 22, 11:43 AM ET

SEOUL, South Korea - Universal Parks & Resorts and a local partner signed an agreement Tuesday aimed at establishing a Universal Studios theme park in
South Korea that they want to see up and running in 2012.

"What we are hoping to do is to bring in a world class attraction not only for the Korean people but to draw tourism to this country," Frank P. Stanek, president of USKOR & Associates Co., Universal's South Korean partner, said at a press conference, citing the attraction of possible visitors from nearby China.

Other than the proposed date for opening the park, other details were vague, including how much the project might eventually cost. No site has been decided and financing remains in the planning stage, officials said.

"We are in the process of evaluating our options," said Stanek, a former Walt Disney Co. executive involved in setting up Disney them parks in the United States, Japan and France.

He said that officials hoped to decide on a location by the end of this year.

Universal Parks & Resorts, a division of General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal, operates Universal Studios theme parks in Orlando, Florida, and Hollywood, California, in the United States, as well as in Osaka, Japan.

The parks include attractions based on Universal films including "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial" and "King Kong," as well as movies made by other studios such as "Spiderman" and "Shrek."

Universal Parks & Resorts Chairman and CEO Thomas L. Williams said South Korea's economic development, the concentration of half its almost 50 million population in the Seoul area and South Korean's familiarity with American cinema were positive factors behind the decision to bring a theme park to the country.

"We want to put you into your favorite scene from your favorite movie," he said, referring to attractions at Universal's other theme parks based on the films of Universal Studios.

In a press release, USKOR and Universal Parks & Resorts said that a facility in South Korea could potentially exceed the size of Universal Studios Hollywood or Universal Studios Japan.

Officials also said a them park would also draw on elements of South Korean cinema, which has developed an international reputation, especially in Asia.

"We want to be part of the Korean Wave," Williams said, referring to the popularity of South Korean culture and cinema in the region.

Williams said that the important thing at this stage was to be open and transparent and let the South Korean people know what the companies aim to do.

"We want to have an open transparent process by which first off the public in Korea ... that they all understand that we're committed to Korea for the long haul," he said.

USKOR's Stanek said he is confident that a park in South Korea would serve as a powerful draw for tourists from nearby China. But Williams said that for now Universal has no plans for a theme park there.

USKOR also said it has entered into a memorandum of understanding with South Korea's Posco Engineering & Construction Co., a unit of Posco, the world's third-largest steelmaker, to join the consortium it is organizing to invest in the park.

Universal Parks & Resorts is developing Universal Studios parks in Singapore and Dubai.

>>Themed Designs and Global Schemes...Universal?

Thriller, not Jackson, Pass the Aloo Gobi...

courtesy of North Star...

DJ SKEME RICHARDS!!

Click here to get your own player.



http://djskemerichards.podomatic.com/

My latest buddy in the hiphop scene...Check him out...He's got skillz!!

Mad Dogs, Motorcycles and Large Pro Tribute...

Thanks to Joan Reilly for hanging...Firstly, the Crash show at Wooster Projects was a great place to witness the amazing reunion of old school TC5 members Juice and Totem and Ink76 and his crew of Mad Dog riders...Then, the Large Professor Tribute at Gallapagos in Williamsburg was off the hook due to acts like my boys from the Boogie Down, Division X and the incredibly talented Beatboxer Entertainment and special thanks to DJ Skeme Richards, who is good peoples and also plays the most amazing bboy music...Haven't had a night like that in a while but it was the kind of night that makes NYC so special and makes me happy to be here...Hiphop is not dead...Another thing, I'm so glad I no longer live in Williamsburg, but man has it changed since I lived there...There's all kinds of new stores, one would never have to leave that area...Ever...I mean when I was living there, there were like two polish bars, a punk rock bar, and a couple of restaurants...I left before Anytime opened up...That was the beginning of the demise...Ah, gentrification...

Dalek: Very clean, nice colors...

from Desperate, Rejected, and Angry by Dalek...juxtapoz.com

...The garbage Pail Phony Lisa, that's tight...

Yo! Nobody's Nastyer!

Menu Foods Scare...Oh no my baby boy Battra...

Tainted Pet Food-Kidney Illness Link
by Andrew Bridges AP Writer

...That suggests the contamination was more toxic to cats, Lewis said. That is in line with what other experts have said previously.

At least six pet food companies have recalled products made with imported Chinese wheat gluten tainted with the chemical. The recall involved about 1 percent of the overall U.S. pet food supply.

Measuring the tainted food's impact on animal health has proved an elusive goal. Previous estimates have ranged from the FDA's admittedly low tally of roughly 16 confirmed deaths to the more than 3,000 unconfirmed cases logged by one Web site.

"On a percentage basis it's not breathtaking, but unfortunately it's a number that, if it was your pet that was affected, it's too high," veterinarian Nancy Zimmerman, Banfield's senior medical adviser, said of the newly estimated incidence rate.

In another estimate Monday, the founder of a veterinary group said 5,000 to 10,000 pets may have fallen ill from eating the contaminated food, and 1,000 to 2,000 may have died.

The estimate was based on a Veterinary Information Network survey of 1,400 veterinarians among its 30,000 members. About one-third reported at least one case, said Paul Pion, the Network's founder. He cautioned that a final, definitive tally isn't possible, and that even his estimate could be halved — or doubled.

"Nobody is ever going to know the truth," Pion said. "It's always going to be a guess."

Also Monday, the Web site petconnection.com said it had received reports of 3,598 pet deaths, split almost evenly between dogs and cats. The site cautioned that the numbers were unconfirmed.

Banfield's veterinarians treat an estimated 6 percent of the nation's cats and dogs. After the first recall was announced, the chain beefed up its software to allow those veterinarians to plug in extra epidemiological information to help track cases, Zimmerman said.

The new template allowed vets to log what a sick pet had eaten, any symptoms its owner may have noticed, the results of a physical examination, any urine and blood test results and other observations.

Lewis said there is no reason to believe the company's findings — including an apparently heightened vulnerability of kittens to the contaminant — wouldn't hold for other veterinary practices as well.

In outbreaks of foodborne disease in humans, the FDA leans on its sister agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to help track and confirm cases. During the ongoing pet food scare, FDA officials have repeatedly reminded the nation that there is no CDC for dogs and cats.

A spokesman for the American Veterinary Medical Association said the lack of hard numbers has worried pet owners eager to understand the extent of the problem. He suggested the recall could spur the creation of an animal counterpart to the CDC.

"This might be something that would push this in the future," AVMA spokesman Michael San Filippo said.

From CNN.com (Pet food scare: Details on recall) POSTED: 9:27 a.m. EDT, April 17, 2007

...Menu Foods said the problem was traced to wheat gluten obtained from the Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology Development Company in China. The FDA has blocked further gluten imports from the company.

The Chinese company termed the reports of chemicals in its product "rumors," but says it is cooperating with the FDA investigation.

Gluten brings elasticity and chewiness to baked products.

Menu Foods makes only "wet" pet food, such as "chunks and gravy" style varieties.

Nestle Purina also has recalled its Alpo Prime Cuts in Gravy dog food that was supplied with some of the suspect wheat gluten.

The only dry product affected is Prescription Diet dry cat food made by Hill's Pet Nutrition of Topeka, Kansas. Hill's obtained wheat gluten from the same supplier as Menu Foods.

Cheers...

russtammy.jpg
Originally uploaded by snailsone.

Final version of the wedding portrait for Russ and Tammy in New Hampshire...

The quotes say:
"For you see, I love you more today, more than yesterday and less than tomorrow."

"There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy."

"Give me one friend, just one, who meets the needs of all my varying moods."

We wii, oui, weeeeeee....

Wii Game Console bowling over retirees...From Sciam.com

By Lisa Baertlein (Los Angeles Reuters)

...UNDERDOG DELIVERS

Japan's Nintendo has been on a mission to expand the $30 billion global video game market far beyond the children and young males who make up its core consumers.

And the company, a former underdog best known for fun, high-quality games based on off-beat characters like plumbers -- think Mario Bros. -- has sent shock waves through game industry with the unexpected and runaway success of the Wii.

That $250 console has been stealing the show from Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 and Sony Corp.'s <6758.t> PlayStation 3, higher-powered consoles that are much more expensive than the Wii.

While those rivals focused on cutting-edge graphics and high-tech bells and whistles, Nintendo focused on making game play easier, more intuitive and more appealing to a mass market.

That bet paid off.

The Wii outsold the new Microsoft and Sony consoles in January and February and is generating its own buzz with everyone from nuns to cancer patients to toddlers.

There are Wii parties and Wii bowling contests. Players, who often look quite silly and occasionally injure themselves in fits of overzealous play, upload video of their Wii antics to a variety of technology Web sites like GameTrailers.com and Google's YouTube.

Carsalesman Wonder Dog...

Germ did the music...and he's saying dibs on the car in the second commercial...

Graff Lite...Courtesy of Devon...

MIT for Free...?

MIT to offer its courses free online by year end
Yahoo.com

BOSTON (Reuters) - The Massachusetts Institute of Technology will become by year's end the first U.S. university to offer all of its roughly 1,800 courses free on the Internet, a school official said on Friday.

"We started this project because MIT believes that one of the best ways to advance education around the world is through the Internet," said Anne Margulies, head of online curriculum.

Online students will not be able to earn an MIT degree or have contact with faculty at the university, located across the river from Boston in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

MIT launched its "OpenCourseWare" program in 2003 and already offers hundreds of courses online. A small number of other U.S. schools are following suit. Stanford put some classes on line last year and Bryn Mawr plans to do so soon.

Last month, 1.5 million users went to the MIT course site, sampling offerings like Cognitive Robotics, Inventions and Patents, and Superconducting Magnets.

Most users -- 60 percent come from outside the United States -- gravitate toward the subjects MIT is best-known for: computer science, physics and mathematics, Margulies said.

Even MIT students who pay thousands of dollars in tuition fees for each course use the free online service to study for exams or sample what courses they may want to take on campus, Margulies said.

Flashy...

Are Flash-Based Apple Notebooks Coming?
by Elizabeth Millard, newsfactor.com (Yahoo.com)

Apple might begin selling notebook computers that use flash memory instead of hard-disk drives, an analyst has predicted, and the change could come before the end of the year.
Apple already uses flash memory in its music players, and several digital camera manufacturers also employ the technology. The memory uses less space, is lighter than a traditional hard drive, and also requires less power.

Although Apple would not confirm the accuracy of the rumors, American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu noted in news reports that he believes Apple is working on creating smaller computers called "subnotebooks" that will be unveiled in the second half of 2007.

Wu was one of the first analysts to predict the launch of Apple's iPhone music player and phone, which caused a huge splash at its recent unveiling. The analyst cited unnamed industry sources for that report, and is keeping mum now on how he might have gotten the subnotebook information.

Memory Games

If Apple does pursue flash memory, it could put pressure on manufacturers of traditional disk drives, Wu noted. Some chip memory producers, such as Micron Technology, have stated in the past that a switch to flash could be inevitable because flash has several advantages and prices have been dropping recently.

In his prediction, Wu noted that price declines have made it an ideal time for flash memory makers to gain momentum in the laptop arena. Because flash memory does not have moving parts, they are less likely to be damaged than hard drives. This fact has saved many iPod owners from finding their music players kaput after they're dropped.

The small size of the memory also could spur innovation in creating smaller laptops. Flash is already used in small devices like cell phones and digital cameras, and laptops could undergo a similar miniaturization.

Flash Laptops

Even if the speculation surrounding Apple does not pan out in the near term, flash-based portable computers are likely to be the wave of the future, said Forrester Research analyst Ted Schadler. "The benefits to consumers are big," he noted. "Longer battery life, more flexibility in form factors, much more durable, smaller computers."

Apple is particularly well poised to create a flash-based laptop, he added: "With Apple's modular operating system built on open-source components, they are in a good position to build a flash-based notebook computer."

One drawback to such a system is that it would be more expensive than the types of laptops made now, but that higher price is also in line with Apple, Schadler said. Because of Apple's proprietary systems, Mac fans are used to paying more than they would for a PC.

"It's in line with Apple's strategy and premium customer base," Schadler said. "If Apple builds a flash-based computer, consumers will buy it."

Opposition to folk pop for popes...What do Popes listen to in modern times? Benedict definitely not a hip pope...

Pope Opposed Bob Dylan Singing to John Paul in 1997
By Phillip Pullella

Yahoo.com
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) -

Pope Benedict was opposed to Bob Dylan appearing at a youth event with the latePope John Paul in 1997 because he considered the pop star the wrong kind of "prophet," Benedict writes in a new book issued on Thursday.

Benedict, who wasCardinal Joseph Ratzinger at the time of the concert in Bologna, Italy, makes the disclosure in a new book of memoirs about his predecessor, who died in 2005.

"There was reason to be skeptical, -- I was, and in a certain sense I still am, -- to doubt if it was really right to let these types of prophets intervene," Benedict writes, only mentioning Dylan among the stars who appeared.

At the 1997 concert, Dylan, the anti-conformist troubadour of the 1960s and one of the 20th century's greatest influences on popular music, sang three songs before the Pope as part of a concert that included a number of other, mostly Italian artists.

Dylan sang "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," his 1960s anti-war classic "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall," and "Forever Young," a song of hope and courage.

In his new book, Pope Benedict does not explain why he does not like Bob Dylan or why he considers him a false "prophet."

Benedict is a lover of classical and sacred music, and an accomplished classical pianist. Last year, he canceled the Vatican's traditional fund-raising Christmas concert, which was a magnet for pop stars.

Dylan, born Robert Zimmerman into a middle-class Jewish family in Minnesota, has been at times agnostic, Jewish and a born-again Christian during his musical career.

At the 1997 concert, John Paul referred to what is perhaps Dylan's most famous song, "Blowing in the Wind," which became an anthem for young people seeking meaning in life in the 1960s.

John Paul told the crowd of some 300,000 young Italian Catholics that the answer was indeed "in the wind" -- but not in the wind that blew things away, rather "in the wind of the spirit" that would lead them to Christ.

After Dylan sang, he took off his beige cowboy hat and went up to a podium to greet John Paul.

Benedict's new book, called "John Paul II, My Beloved Predecessor," is mostly a reflection on John Paul's personality and his religious writings.

Just surfin'...

Found an interesting blog, Sketchkrieg...Found a page on friendship...