Split (1)

train · 386k rows

pred_label stringclasses 2 values	pred_label_prob float64 0.5 1	wiki_prob float64 0.25 1	text stringlengths 113 974k	source stringlengths 39 45
__label__cc	0.53135	0.46865	by Peter Smith October 7, 2016, 7:24 am Last modified on December 14th, 2016 at 10:56 am in Entertainment, From The Editors Kim Kardashian Robbed At Gunpoint in Paris Hotel $10 Million Robbery of Kim Kardashian West. ShareTweetSubscribePinterest There is a very well known idiom which says” if you have got it, flaunt it.“ This literally means that if one is endowed with some good qualities, such as riches, beauty or talent then one should go about showing to the world. This actually relates to a personal trait as some people do not like to show off and keep to themselves despite their good fortunes while others go overboard in strutting their stuff. This tendency of flaunting it is a common feature among celebrities who are constantly in the limelight, and prefer to display their wealth, beauty and lifestyle to gain more publicity. There have millions of fans who follow them probing into their personal lives through social media. Sometimes always wishing to hog the limelight is has its negative impact as recently witnessed when a top Class model Kim Kardashian was robbed in broad daylight in her apartment in Paris by a group of people posing as a policeman and looting her of the millions of dollars worth of jewelry. Kimberly “Kim” Kardashian West is an American reality television personality, socialite, businesswoman, and model. She was a friend of Paris Hilton and her stylist. She and her other three sisters have become fashion and reality T-V personalities. Kim is married, her third to Rapper, Kanye West and they have two children together. She gained fame for the reality, T,V shows, Keeping Up with the Kardashians. The success of which led to shows like Kourtney and Kim take New York and Kourtney and Khloe take Miami in addition to various business ventures. Kardashian’s personal life soon became subject to widespread media attention and basking in fame and glory she wanted more and more. In a very short time, she became an instant hit on social media with an estimated 84 million followers on Instagram and 48 million on Twitter and she really flaunted it online. She posted images of herself wearing fabulous jewelry priced exorbitantly. What these people or rather celebrities don’t realize that apart from the averages Joes and Janes who follow them on social media, there are many weirdos, crazy people, sexual predators who become obsessed with them and some become stalkers as in the case. They become easy prey to criminals also who track their movements. According to police in Paris, Kim Kardashian was a target of social media. She had posted pictures of her wearing fashionable clothes and expensive jewelry. Kardashian has become an iconic fashion symbol and pop cult. Time magazine, has cited her as one of the 100 most influential people of the times. Thus she was easy picking for thieves who robbed her at her apartment. It was really fortunate for the beautiful Kim that she was not hurt by the robbers although reports say she was badly shaking. Kim & West Leaving to their NYC apartment after the robbery in Paris The French police are absolutely certain that her social media posting was why she became a target. She immediately left Paris after the incident but is in touch with the investigators. A key witness in the heist was the concierge who was forced to help the robbers enter the apartment with a gun pointed at his head. The robbers it is believed handcuffed the concierge and at one point Kardashian asked him if they would be killed. They were not harmed but jewelry worth 11 million dollars were stolen. It now appears that Kardashian West and her husband, Kanye West, are reevaluating their security detail and are on their guard. They have rescheduled their appearances and Kim has canceled an appearance in a high-profile appearance in Dubai. So there you have it. At times the price of flaunting it is too high for iconic stars like Kim. Usually, it so happens that celebrities are stalked by stalkers which in most cases are harmless but sometimes stalkers get unhinged. Perhaps the most famous case is that of John Hinckley, who was obsessed with actress Jodie foster so much so that he concocted an assassination plan of Ronald Reagan and almost succeeded. Some famous stars who have been stalked are Selena Gomez. Halle Berry and Sandra Bullock where stalkers have gone up to their doorsteps despite heavy security gates and alarms. This is a downside of Hollywood. In a very sad case a young actress, Rebecca Schaeffer was killed at the door of her apartment in Los Angeles on July 19, 1989, by her stalker by the name of Robert Bado. Bado had written letters and tried to meet her at the studio but failed and somehow traced her address through Motor Vehicle Registration Department using a private investigator whom he had paid. He was imprisoned for life without parole. Other famous celebrities who have been stalked are Madonna, Steven Spielberg, Ryan Seacrest, Paris Hilton and others. The Internet has made stalking easier but even when Internet was not there-there were stalkers. In 1949, Elizabeth Taylor was sent three obscene letters but police could not trace the stalker. This is how the cookie crumbles. Perhaps this will be a lesson to Kim Kardashian West to flaunt less and guard more. Leave your vote Previous article Top 5 Most Expensive Cars In The World Next article 11 Of The Weirdest And Most Frequent Things Lost In Dubai Nightclub We would like to hear from you? Trending news insight report. We will deliver every week to your inbox. List choice TimelyBuzz Subscribers Kim and Kanye Welcome “Healthy, Beautiful Baby Girl” Via Surrogate by Beren Smith in Entertainment, From The Editors Google Cuts Android Ties with Huawei After Trump’s Blacklisting of the Mobile Giant by Syed Waseem in Uncategorized Farm Robots are Replacing Human Agricultural Workers Faster than we Thought by Beren Smith in From The Editors, Technology New Hypersonic Aircraft Will Cut Down NY-London Flight Time to Just 90 Minutes by David Johnson in From The Editors, Technology NASA Mobilizes Eleven US Companies to Develop Lunar Lander Prototypes by Peter Smith in From The Editors, Science Alabama Senate Passes Controversial Near-Total Ban on Abortion by Syed Waseem in From The Editors, Politics First Trailer for Final Season of ‘Game of Thrones’ Released: Premiering April 14, 2019 by Beren Smith January 14, 2019, 10:01 pm Marvel Finally Releases the Trailer for Avenger: Endgame – Here’s a Breakdown by Leia Gomzi December 9, 2018, 6:16 pm The Lion King (2019) Trailer Review by Syed Waseem November 25, 2018, 7:53 pm Top Five Trailers of Upcoming 2018\|2019 Movies Captain Marvel Trailer Review by Beren Smith September 19, 2018, 2:10 pm Emmy Awards 2018: A Quick Recap by Syed Waseem September 19, 2018, 1:56 pm Google Cuts Android Ties with Huawei After Trump’s Blacklisting of the Mobile Giant May 21, 2019 Farm Robots are Replacing Human Agricultural Workers Faster than we Thought May 20, 2019 New Hypersonic Aircraft Will Cut Down NY-London Flight Time to Just 90 Minutes May 19, 2019 NASA Mobilizes Eleven US Companies to Develop Lunar Lander Prototypes May 18, 2019 Alabama Senate Passes Controversial Near-Total Ban on Abortion May 17, 2019 © 2016-2018 TimelyBuzz. All Rights Reserved. About TimelyBuzz	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0096.json.gz/line1394139
__label__wiki	0.530218	0.530218	Film, Drama (97user reviews) When ‘Kidulthood’ came out in 2006, I was put off by the over-ambition of Noel Clarke’s screenplay, which tried to cram every hot-button teen issue into a melodramatic 90 minutes of violence, sex and drugs on London’s streets. It had an impressive energy and a little insight but the acting was ropey and the directing superficial. Its follow-up, ‘Adulthood’, is again written by Clarke, who had an ensemble part in ‘Kidulthood’, but now he directs and reassumes the role of Sam Peel, a lad fresh out of jail after serving six years for the manslaughter that brought the first film to a close. There’s barely a scene without Clarke skulking about the streets of Ladbroke Grove and he has several brooding close-ups that make you wonder if he has ever heard of humility. The story has a tighter focus than its predecessor: Sam spends a busy day trying to avoid being dragged back into a cycle of revenge and violence. He fails – and much chasing and cursing follow. There’s a thoughtful side to this maturer sequel as Clarke ponders the struggle of growing up: a plot involving a lonely young woman (Scarlett Alice Johnson) scarred by her past offers a welcome, maudlin aside from the gun and knife play. But there are bum notes that will have people chewing the arm rest: a posh guy buying drugs is the worst sort of cartoon, and the location of a late showdown – Compromise Avenue, W11 – is a distraction. It’s a film with its target audience – teenage boys and the youngest of men – firmly in mind and we’re never far from a rapid edit, a loud tune or a fight. Posted: Tuesday June 17 2008 Friday June 20 2008 Scalett Alice Johnson Users say (97)	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0096.json.gz/line1394140
__label__wiki	0.951813	0.951813	Uganda Remembers AIDS Victims By Halima Athumani FILE - A campaign supporter lights candles in the Philippines as part of commemorations of International AIDS Candlelight Memorial Day in Quezon city, metro Manila, the Philippines, May 14, 2016. Uganda is marking International AIDS Candlelight Memorial Day with activities to remember the estimated 2 million Ugandans who have died of the disease. While the government and development partners have increased campaigns for HIV awareness, however, the stigma and discrimination attached to the disease keep many Ugandans fearful from learning of or talking about their HIV status, says those who carry the virus. Twenty-five-year-old Namanya Martin Paul was born with HIV. Having lost his father to AIDS at the age of 2, he only learned about his status at age 10 when his mother, also HIV positive, was attending antenatal care. His other three siblings were then found to be HIV-positive. Paul was forced to change schools due to discrimination until he made a decision to open up. “It’s not easy. There’s a particular point in time where a nurse got to know my situation, where I was keeping my medication and she actually, like, made it very open to school," Paul said. "So, I called for a school parade and told these people, this is who I am. Am living with HIV, am taking my medication. And, you need to support me.” The International AIDS Candlelight Memorial Day is one of the world's oldest and largest grassroots mobilization campaigns for HIV awareness. According to the Uganda AIDS Commission, the country records 50,000 new infections annually, about one-third of them being young people. Sarah Nakku, the U.N. AIDS community mobilization adviser, says many infected people are careful about revealing their status. “We do have laws that discriminate against people living with HIV. ... That instead of allowing people to come out openly," Nakku said. "Incidentally, people decide to hide because they do not want to fall victims of the law. We also have schools where discrimination does happen. If you don’t tap into the teachers, this young person cannot be supported to adhere on treatment.” In 2018, the government launched an initiative that demands every institution, both government and private, address the needs of HIV-positive people as part of its workplace policy. Dr. Nelson Musoba, director-general of the Uganda AIDS Commission, says that even though the government has set up more effective measures to curb the disease, Ugandans need to be more careful about exposing themselves to HIV. “So, we also have the pre-exposure prophylaxis, which the HIV-negative partner takes to ensure that they remain HIV-negative. There’s research going on, on vaccines, on other treatments, but we need to stay alive for us to benefit from those technologies. We can’t afford to be reckless just because there’s treatment," Musoba said. The Ministry of Health says Uganda is close to achieving its "90-90-90" target, set in 2014. The aim is for 90 percent of people living with HIV to know their status, 90 percent who test positive to enroll in care and treatment, and 90 percent of those in treatment to achieve "viral load suppression" -- that is, for the virus to become inactive. Ugandan Legislator-Singer Vows to Continue Protest in Music The Ugandan singer and legislator known as Bobi Wine has vowed to continue using music to denounce longtime President Yoweri Museveni. But his music increasingly faces stiff controls from the state. Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, has been singing and entertaining Ugandans since he was a teenager. Now 37 and a member of parliament, his songs today carry a political message. Wine says it’s time for the country’s young people to awaken and… Ebola Outbreak Could Spiral Beyond DRC, WHO Warns Contributors include Erikas Mwisi reporting from Butembo, North Kivu; Margaret Basheer from the United Nations; and Eddy Isango, James Butty and Carol Guensburg from Washington.Armed attacks, misinformation and a growing funding gap continue to impede the response to the Ebola outbreak in northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, with the World Health Organization warning that the situation could spiral out of control.Insecurity leaves response teams “unable to… By Carol Guensburg Ugandan Media Bow to Government, Reassign Journalists for Opposition Coverage More than a dozen Ugandan media outlets said on Tuesday that they will reassign senior journalists in response to government complaints over coverage of opposition lawmaker and pop star Bobi Wine, prompting criticism that media freedoms are under attack. Halima Athumani	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0096.json.gz/line1394144
__label__cc	0.706916	0.293084	@volunteeringsant @volunteeringnt #SAvolunteer #volunteeringnt Find volunteering positions NT Volunteer of the Year Awards Spontaneous emergency volunteering Subscribe Contact us Types of Volunteering Volunteer Involving Organisations Business and Corporate Volunteering Membership and Merchandise Volunteering SA&NT Inc.(Volunteering SA&NT) is committed to protecting the personal information of its advisors, users, volunteers and paid staff. Volunteering SA&NT is bound by the Commonwealth Privacy Act 1988 and the National Privacy Principles (NPP). Volunteering SA&NT collects personal information only to provide and market its services. Read more Volunteering SA&NT endeavours to produce accurate and complete information, however Volunteering SA&NT accepts no responsibility for any inaccuracies contained in any material on this site. Any views or recommendation expressed by third parties that are included on this site do not necessarily reflect the views of Volunteering SA&NT. Links to other internet sites are provided for your convenience only. The inclusion of any links does not constitute endorsements by Volunteering SA&NT of the organisations, its views, products or services. Volunteering SA&NT accepts no responsibility whatsoever for any malfunctioning of any Internet links or inaccuracies in any URLs of provided links. This website is intended to provide general useful information. However, any legal information is not proposed to be comprehensive advice. Users of the website are advised that before acting on any matters arising out of this website, they should seek specific advice about their situation. Policy and Requests The material contained in this site is copyright to Volunteering South Australia and Northern Territory Inc. under the Copyright Act 1968 except when explicitly stated to the contrary, and is intended for your general use and information. You may download, store in cache, display, print and copy the information in unaltered form only (retaining this notice) for your personal, non-commercial use or use within your organisation. You may not re-transmit, distribute or use the material for any commercial purpose without the permission of Volunteering South Australia & Northern Territory Inc., or the stated copyright owner. That permission, if given, will be subject to conditions that will include a requirement that the copyright owner's name and interest in the material be acknowledged when the material is reproduced or quoted, either in whole or in part. No permission to reproduce or use Volunteering SA&NT's copyright material, other than that expressly stated above, is to be implied by the availability of that material on this Site. Trademarks used in this site are the property of their respective owners. © Volunteering South Australia & Northern Territory Inc. Adelaide Head Office Darwin Office Alice Springs Office Darwin: 08 8963 5624 Alice Springs: 08 8952 9630 We need to confirm your location to show you the most relevant content. I'm visiting from outside SA & NT	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0096.json.gz/line1394146
__label__cc	0.542315	0.457685	Vipassana Research Institute ipassana esearch nstitute founded by S. N. Goenka in the tradition of Sayagyi U Ba Khin ABOUT VRI PROJECTS OF VRI Vipassana Meditation WHAT IS VIPASSANA? Code of Discipline History and Spread of Vipassana Vipassana in Society Chain of Teachers Ven Ledi Sayadaw Saya Thetgyi Sayagyi U Ba Khin Anapana What is Anapana? Anapana Courses for Children Children Courses Schedule FAQs on Anapana Children Courses: History & Spread Anapana in Schools MITRA Project 10 Day Courses Teenagers Courses Courses in Prisons Courses for Executives Courses for Old Students Vipassana Centers Search a Center Old Students Pali Students Assistant Teachers Storehouse of Answers Discourses by Mr. S. N. Goenka VRI Newsletters वयधम्मा सङ्खारा, अप्पमादेन सम्पादेथ Impermanent are all compounded things Home » Discourses » How to Defend the Republic! How to Defend the Republic! Life of S N Goenka Remembering S N Goenka Discourses by S N Goenka Discourses by Mr. S. N. Goenka: Daily Life \| Dharma \| Noble Truths \| Morality \| Concentration \| Wisdom \| Loving Kindness \| Society \| Teachings of the Buddha \| The Buddha \| Tipiṭaka \| Spread of Vipassana \| Hindi couplets \| What is Vipassana What is Dhamma? 10-Day Courses Teenagers' Courses History & Spread of Vipassana A Store-House of Answers Discourses by Mr. Goenka It was the first year of the dispensation of the Dhamma. After attaining perfect enlightenment at Bodh Gaya and setting in motion the Wheel of Dhamma at Varanasi, the Buddha came to Rājagaha passing through Bodh Gaya on the way. Licchavī Mahāli, the commander of the Vajji republic, met the Buddha there. He benefited from his teaching and became his first Licchavī disciple. Inspired by him, many Licchavīs of Vesālī became devoted disciples of the Buddha within a few days. Mahāli’s skill in the art of warfare made the army of Vesālī a major force in the region. The Licchavīs had great respect for him. Unfortunately, he lost both his eyes. Therefore, they appointed him the chief military adviser and designated a brilliant Licchavī youth named Sīha as the commander of the army. At that time Sīha was a prominent disciple of another spiritual teacher. But when he saw that many Licchavīs of Vesālī had become the followers of the Buddha he came, after initial hesitation, to meet the Buddha out of curiosity. After talking to him, he was deeply influenced and became his devoted follower. Like Mahāli, Sīha fulfilled the responsibility of commanding the army with great skill and diligence even after becoming a follower of the Buddha. The Buddha did not teach his lay devotees to neglect their familial, social and official responsibilities. On the contrary, he would encourage them to gain more proficiency in them. Once the Buddha came to Vesālī and stayed at the Sāraṃdada stupa. Many Licchavīs came to meet him and saluting him, they sat on one side. There was a constant threat of an attack upon Vesālī because the neighboring kingdoms were envious of its prosperity. The Buddha was aware of this. He also knew about the mutual antagonism between Magadha and Vesālī. Being born and raised in the Sākya republic, he understood the inherent advantages and disadvantages of a republic. Therefore, for the security of the Vajji republic, he gave seven practical instructions which would make them unassailable. These teachings were: Licchavīs! As long as the Vajjians maintain their unity and meet regularly they will remain invincible. The members of the state parliament of the Vajji republic (called rājās) would meet in the assembly hall regularly and discuss the security of the country. If they failed to assemble because of laziness, the enemies outside the border would get an opportunity to attack. On seeing that the rājās were not alert, these enemies would intrude into the country and loot the people. But when the rājās were alert, as soon as they were informed of any intrusion into the country, they would immediately send the army to rout the enemy tato balaṃ pesetvā amittamaddanaṃ karonti. Then the intruders would understand that they would not be allowed to ravage the country na sakkā amhehi vaggabandhehi vicaritunti. As a result they would bhijjitvā palāyanti scatter and flee. Licchavīs! As long as the Vajjians meet together in unity, rise in unity and perform their duties in unity, they will remain invincible. During times of danger, when the warning trumpet was sounded, every rājā would immediately come to the assembly hall. If any rājā was having his meal, he would leave it unfinished; if he was adorning himself with clothes and jewellery, he would come to the assembly hall at once, in whatever clothes he was wearing. There, everyone would sit together, and after deliberation and discussion, a unanimous decision would be taken. Thus, everyone would rise in unity. Thereafter whatever action had to be taken would be accomplished unitedly. Everyone should be eager to protect the country. Whenever there is an announcement from any part of the country that the enemy has invaded any town or village – ‘asukaṭṭānesu gāmasīmā vā nigamasīmā vā’ and when the people are asked, "Who will go there and crush the enemy?" – “ko gatvā imaṃ amittamaddanaṃ karissati” brave shouts of "First me, first me"- “ahaṃ paṭhama, ahaṃ paṭhama” should echo throughout the country. During times of danger, all citizens should consider it their fundamental duty to defend the country. They should never fail to fulfil this duty. Licchavīs! As long as the Vajjians do not transgress their ancient principles of governance and system of justice, they will remain invincible. If any rājā arbitrarily increases taxes in his region or imposes fresh taxes, this will be a violation of the constitution and will cause discontent. Discontented people will not help during times of crisis. Or if any rājā does not collect tax in his region out of favouritism, it will result in depletion of the state treasury. The army will not be able to procure necessary weapons. If the army does not get its salary on time, its strength will diminish. There should never be any violation of the ancient penal code of the judiciary. According to the penal code, any person arrested on suspicion of having committed any crime has the right to appeal up to seven levels. He can appeal in turn to the minister of enquiry, the judicial magistrate, the chief magistrate, the jury, the commander, the crown prince and the king. If proved innocent in the course of any of these appeals, he is released. If he is ultimately proved to be guilty, he is punished. If he is punished in this way, the law-breaker and his family as well as the people in the community will not have any grievance. But if he is punished without a fair trial and is not given an opportunity to appeal, it will be in violation of the judicial system, and people will become discontented. They will not give their full co-operation to resist the enemy in times of danger. If the government is run without the slightest violation of the judicial system, the people will be contented and will gladly help in the defence of the country. Licchavīs! As long as the Vajjians revere, respect, venerate, and honour their elders and pay regard to their words, they will remain invincible. If the respect for experienced elderly retired rājās of the country is maintained, if they are not ignored, then the country will continue to benefit from their long experience of governance and security of the state. The security of the republic can be strengthened with their experience about the way they united at the time of danger and saved the country; the way they deployed the army in the battlefield and destroyed the army formations of their enemies. If their advice is ignored, the country will be deprived of the benefit of their vast experience. Licchavīs! As long as the Vajjians protect their women and do not abduct them, they will remain invincible. The intoxication of power is extremely potent. If any rājā intoxicated by power harasses the womenfolk of others, their families will become unhappy and turn into enemies of the state. When the country is attacked, they will join the enemy and help in the destruction of the country to avenge the wrong done to them. If the rājās refrain from immorality, the security of the country will not be endangered. Licchavīs! As long as the Vajjians venerate the objects of worship inside and outside their republic, and maintain monetary support to them, they will remain invincible. There were many sects in those days too, with their own temples and places of worship. A wise nation should keep all the people happy and satisfied. They should not be harassed, compelling them to become enemies of the state. Their places of worship should be provided adequate protection. Whatever financial assistance they have been receiving from the state should never be stopped. Otherwise, not only will the deities of those places of worship become displeased, even more dangerous will be that their devotees will become enemies of the rulers and the state. They will join hands with the enemies invading the country. Therefore, for the security of the country, it is necessary to give suitable protection to these places of worship. Licchavīs! As long as the Vajjians provide protection and support to saints and arahants, they will remain invincible. Saints and arahants leave the country where they are not allowed to live peacefully, are disrespected, and even physically attacked. Moreover, saints and arahants from outside do not enter such a country. As a result, people are deprived of discourses on true Dhamma, and become immoral. Corruption increases and peace, prosperity and harmony are lost. The lack of virtuous people weakens the country. Therefore, the protection of saints and arahants is always necessary for the security of the country. The Buddha stated that as long as the Vajjians followed these seven instructions, they would remain undefeated and the Vajji republic would prosper. Truly, following these instructions, the Vajjians remained invincible for a long time. Years later, the scene of a tragic historical incident comes before us. The Buddha was about eighty years of age; forty-five years of his Dhamma sāsana was about to be completed. Leaving Rājagaha, he was setting out on his last journey on foot. The king of Magadha, Ajātasattu sent his minister, Vassakāra to the Buddha with the news that Magadha was going to attack their enemies, the Licchavīs, soon. Without saying anything to Vassakāra, the Buddha asked Ānanda who was standing nearby, "Ānanda! Are the Vajjians following the seven instructions that I had given them years ago perfectly? Ānanda said, "Yes Lord, they are following them perfectly." Upon this, the Buddha said, "As long as the Vajjians follow these seven instructions, they will remain undefeated." Vassakāra was skilled in the use of craft and deceit. He immediately understood that as long as the Vajjians remained united, they would truly remain unconquerable. He postponed the attack upon the Vajjians. The events that followed are the painful history of Vassakāra’s deceit and the foolishness of the Vajjians, because of which their strong unity was completely destroyed. The dissension within them became so deep that they were not even able to unite to face the Magadhan army, let alone repulsing their attack. The Licchavī republic became desolate forever. They forgot the beneficial teaching of the Buddha, and sowed the seeds of their own destruction. The universal teaching of the Buddha regarding the security of the republic is just as relevant today as it was then. The danger of destruction caused by internal discord is just as relevant today. Let the India of today learn a lesson from the Vajjians who forgot the teaching of the Buddha. To preserve the strength of the republic for a long time, the seeds of dissension in the country should be removed. The issues that divide the county should be eliminated and the elements of unity should be strengthened. The country should not be divided because of sectarianism or casteism. The people of different sects can live together harmoniously in any country as long as they do not consider any sect as Dhamma. The difference between the two is clear. Different sects have different places of worship, different philosophical beliefs, different rites and rituals, as well as different clothes, festivals, traditions, food habits and fasts. Every sect may carry out its sectarian practices freely on the condition that the festivities of any sect do not offend the feelings of others. One should not consider any aspect of one’s sect as Dhamma and generate blind devotional emotion. Sects may be different and may have different aspects; but Dhamma is always indivisible. Let the knowledge of the true nature of universal indivisible Dhamma spread among the people. Living a life of morality is Dhamma. One should not do any vocal or physical action that causes harm or injury to others and affects their peace and happiness. There is no monopoly of any sect on this; it is the Dhamma of all. To live such a life, it is essential to gain mastery over the mind. Gaining mastery over the mind, controlling the mind is the Dhamma of all; it is not the monopoly of a particular sect. To gain mastery over the mind there should be a technique, which is acceptable to all sects. Freeing and purifying the mind from the negativities of aversion and antagonism, one should fill it with love, affection and goodwill. This is the Dhamma of all; it is not the monopoly of any one sect. For this, one has to practice a technique which every sect can accept without any opposition. The science that India gave to keep the body healthy in the form of āsanas and prānāyāma was accepted world-wide because it is universal. It is not objectionable to any sect. In exactly in the same way, rising above the sectarian walls of all religions, the universal Vipassana technique of ancient India, capable of controlling the mind and making it strong and healthy, has been accepted world-wide. By taking the support of this beneficent universally acceptable technique of sīla, samādhi, paññā, and mettā, it is possible to establish an atmosphere of friendship and mutual love and affection. This will strengthen the unity of the republic. Like the belief in sectarianism, the demon of belief in the caste system has also been dangerous to the security of the country in the past, it is dangerous today also and will continue to be dangerous in the future. This is the lethal poison that has filled the blood vessels of the nation. The sooner it is removed, the better it is for the country’s security and glory. The difference between high and low will persist in society, it cannot be eliminated; but it is necessary to eliminate the existing basis of discrimination. One should not be considered high or low just because of being born from the womb of one’s mother. If a person commits unwholesome actions, if he is immoral, then he is wicked, unrighteous. He has little position in society; his status is low. Similarly, if he does wholesome deeds, is virtuous, then he is a good person, a saint. He has the respect of society; his status is high. When the false belief in high and low status because of birth flourishes, Dhamma becomes weak. Then living a life of morality, that is, the practice of Dhamma is of no importance. If an immoral person gets a high position in society because of birth, morality becomes irrelevant. If because of birth, someone is considered to be of low status, there is no importance of morality for that person. If one is considered big or small, high or low, respectable or disrespectable in society on the basis of morality, then one who is low and dishonoured today because he is immoral can become moral tomorrow and become high and respectable in society. When conduct instead of birth will be considered as the yardstick of high or low status in society, the progress of society will be abundant, the progress of the country will be abundant. The poison flowing through the blood vessels of the country since such a long time will turn into nectar. May the practice of the non-sectarian universal technique of Vipassana that fills one with pure Dhamma lead to all-round development of the country; instead of mutual hatred and hostility, may love, affection and brotherhood increase. In this alone lies the security of the republic, in this alone lies the welfare and happiness of the country. Map of Vipassana Centers Mini-Anapana Meditation © 2010 VIPASSANA RESEARCH INSTITUTE All Rights Reserved	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0096.json.gz/line1394147
__label__wiki	0.916405	0.916405	Home News U.S. News Hacker group Anonymous reportedly targeting North Dakota officers U.S. News Adam Schrader - December 7, 2016 YouTube user J Grady published a video, which called on two men who harassed Standing Rock protesters Dec. 5, according to video footage, to turn themselves in -- lest... Veterans, hippies unite to support natives protesting Dakota Access Pipeline Old hippies and festival culture kids from across America have showed their support of the Lakota nation and the protesting of the Dakota Access pipeline for months. Now, veterans... Lakota elders forgive veterans for historical atrocities against natives at Standing Rock forgiveness ceremony Hundreds of protesters and veterans held a “forgiveness ceremony” at Prairie Knights Casino and Resort on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation on Monday, one day after the U.S. Army Corps... Police in riot gear knocked down and arrested Granny RedFeather less than 10 feet from me. They had already pointed guns, fingers on their triggers, and used ear-piercing sound... North Dakota governor signs executive order for evacuation of Standing Rock U.S. News Adam Schrader - November 28, 2016 Jack Dalrymple, the governor of the State of North Dakota, issued an executive order on Monday calling for an evacuation of the same plot of land that the United... Army Corps issues eviction notice to Standing Rock protesters John Henderson, District Colonel for the Army Corps of Engineers, issued an eviction notice for the present location of the Oceti Sakowin camp to Chairman David Archambault II "to... Symbols mark unrest at Standing Rock over Thanksgiving Protesters marching against the completion of the Dakota Access Pipeline near Mandan, North Dakota, took to the city streets near Burger King on Thanksgiving Day. The action, just days after... North Dakota police claim rubber bullets not used on Standing Rock protesters The Nov. 20 events started with Standing Rock protesters removing one of the trucks from the bridge around 6 p.m., said Lieutenant Tom Iverson with the North Dakota State Highway... State of North Dakota sends probable cause affidavit for arrest of journalist Adam Schrader... Adam Schrader, 26, was arrested while covering the Standing Rock protests on Oct. 27, despite identifying himself as press to arresting officers. This is the state's justification for his... Police use fire hose, tear gas and rubber bullets against protesters attempting to clear... Standing Rock protesters attempted to clear large burned trucks off a bridge north of the Oceti Sakowin camp Sunday night. The bridge was incapacitated during illegal actions to protest...	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0096.json.gz/line1394151
__label__wiki	0.963694	0.963694	Home>The Business>Legal Photo: Mitch Hotts -- The Macomb Daily Former Rizzo Environmental Services CEO Asks for Brief Jail Release to Address Family Issues A judge is reviewing the findings of Pretrial Services before making a decision on the request. Waste360 Staff \| May 01, 2018 Chuck Rizzo, the former CEO of Rizzo Environmental Services, pleaded guilty to bribery and fraud in November 2017 after being inducted on almost two dozen charges in June. The former CEO had bribed several government officials in exchange for preferential treatment in waste contracts. Shortly after that, in January 2018, Rizzo was accused of allegedly intimidating witnesses in an ongoing public corruption investigation. And last week, he was sentenced on corruption charges. After the judge announced the charges, Rizzo’s attorneys asked the judge if he could briefly be released from jail to address some family issues. U.S. District Court Judge Robert Cleland dubbed the request unusual and is currently reviewing the findings of Pretrial Services before making a decision on the request. The Macomb Daily has more: When former Macomb County trash titan Chuck Rizzo Jr. was sentenced last week on corruption charges, his attorneys asked the judge if he could be briefly released to deal with some family issues. “It is an unusual request,” U.S. District Court Judge Robert Cleland said at the end of the hearing in Port Huron. This week, Judge Cleland is expected to review the findings of Pretrial Services as he works to make a decision on the request. TAGS: Business Operations Legislation & Regulation Financials	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0096.json.gz/line1394152
__label__cc	0.540519	0.459481	A Sample Installation Further down on this page you'll find a link to our animation video. But first let's take a look at a sample installation. The first two photos below provide a visual reference of what a typical retrofit installation might look like. The first photo is a small sink and vanity combination. The next photo shows a shot of the inside of the vanity cabinet showing a representation of the Waterdance Valve, the plumbing, and the accumulator. We've removed the water drainage pipe to allow full viewing. A close-up of the valve and plumbing shows the incoming water supply coming from the standard on/off valves (in chrome). Hoses route the water directly to the top of the Waterdance Valve (in blue) where the water-saving functionality is performed. Cold-water being saved to the accumulator (shown in the picture on the right) flows through the blue hose. Likewise, previously-saved cold water will flow from the accumulator back to the Waterdance Valve through the same blue hose. Water exiting the bottom of the Waterdance Valve is directed to the correct outlet hose based on temperature and proceeds to the faucet. view animation video Thinking "Outside the Valve" - The focus of this site is to explain the basic concepts of the valve. But from an engineering standpoint, we can do still more. Tweaking the design and thinking on a larger scale can open up additional possibilities. The Waterdance Valve functionality can be engineered directly into a standard shower valve which is where many of us waste the most water. Tuning the Drip A deliberate intermittent drip indicates the water saving cycle has begun. A slow drip can be eliminated or increased to a steady trickle, such as for hand washings. Kitchens & Industrial Larger accumulators are used for special environments or for those who require more hot water than most. Mandate it The low-flush toilet decreased water waste by 1 to 2 gallons per flush. A government mandate of the Waterdance Valve could have a similar significant impact. WATERDANCE © 2018Privacy Policy	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0096.json.gz/line1394153
__label__wiki	0.683134	0.683134	Tap these 5 local beers for National Independent Beer Run Day on Wednesday If you need a newly declared holiday as an excuse to buy craft beer, National Independent Beer Run Day is just the thing. And it's July 3. Tap these 5 local beers for National Independent Beer Run Day on Wednesday If you need a newly declared holiday as an excuse to buy craft beer, National Independent Beer Run Day is just the thing. And it's July 3. Check out this story on wausaudailyherald.com: https://www.jsonline.com/story/entertainment/beer/2019/07/02/5-local-craft-beers-celebrating-national-independent-beer-run-day/1620159001/ Kathy Flanigan, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Published 9:00 a.m. CT July 2, 2019 \| Updated 10:00 a.m. CT July 2, 2019 Wednesday is National Independent Beer Run Day. It sounds official, don't you think? The Brewers Association, a not-for-profit trade association dedicated to small and independent (read: craft) American brewers, has declared it to be. Because you somehow need to be convinced to buy beer for the Fourth of July. In honor of the occasion, we can recommend these beers be included among your holiday sipping. Now go forth and be of good beer. Flavor Town: Eagle Park Brewing, 823 E. Hamilton St., will release Flavor Town at its taproom on Wednesday. The brew is a northeast-style IPA (India Pale Ale) with notes of tropical fruit, pine and citrus. Eagle Park releases Flavor Town on Wednesday, which is also National Independent Beer Run Day. (Photo: Eagle Park Brewing) Kettle Sour Wheat Ale with Plum: The creative-sounding beer from Lakefront Brewery will be the featured firkin Wednesday at the Lakefront tent at Summerfest. They'll tap a cask at 4 p.m. Double Ditty: City Lights, 2200 W. Mount Vernon Ave., released the hazy double IPA last week, but it's still available at the taproom and in cans. The regular version of the hazy IPA won a medal, so the hazy double must be twice as good. Blackberry Brandy Alegria: If you're lucky, Third Space Brewing, 1505 W. St. Paul Ave., still has some of its barrel-aged Alegria on tap. The beer, which was brewed with California Zinfandel grape juice, was released on Saturday two ways — a brandy barrel-aged kettle sour and its variant (available on tap and in bottles), and a blackberry brandy barrel-aged kettle sour (available on tap). Double Dry Hopped Oranje IPA: Raised Grain Brewing, 1725 Dolphin Drive, Waukesha, brings back the juicy double IPA. If you can't find it there, retail shops should have it back in stock. Best described as a "beermosa without the orange juice." Contact Kathy at (414) 224-2974 or kathy.flanigan@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter or Instagram at @katflanigan. Today's Best from Entertainment: The 20 best Milwaukee songs and albums of the 2010s, as chosen by leaders in the music scene (subscriber exclusive) 15-plus Milwaukee-area restaurants open on Christmas Eve and Christmas 32 small breweries have opened in Milwaukee since 2009. The craft beer revival finally arrived. FOLLOW JS ENTERTAINMENT: Facebook \| Twitter \| Instagram Read or Share this story: https://www.jsonline.com/story/entertainment/beer/2019/07/02/5-local-craft-beers-celebrating-national-independent-beer-run-day/1620159001/ New pedestrian pathway opens in Kronenwetter, will be plowed in winter Oct. 30, 2019, 6:49 a.m. Wausau celebrates Indigenous Peoples' Day with free events this weekend Halloween is here! Check out our trick-or-treat hours guide for the Wausau area	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0096.json.gz/line1394155
__label__wiki	0.58177	0.58177	Partly cloudy. High temperature around 97F. Dew point will be around 50F with an average humidity of 31%. Winds will be 4 mph from the NE. Partly cloudy. Low temperature around 72F. Dew point will be around 59F with an average humidity of 51%. Winds will be 4 mph from the SW. Partly cloudy. High temperature around 98F. Dew point will be around 59F with an average humidity of 47%. Winds will be 3 mph from the NNE. Partly cloudy. Low temperature around 75F. Dew point will be around 64F with an average humidity of 63%. Winds will be 4 mph from the SSW. Partly cloudy. High temperature around 98F. Dew point will be around 63F with an average humidity of 51%. Winds will be 4 mph from the N. Mostly cloudy. Low temperature around 70F. Dew point will be around 52F with an average humidity of 45%. Winds will be 3 mph from the S. Mostly cloudy. High temperature around 98F. Dew point will be around 43F with an average humidity of 31%. Winds will be 6 mph from the NE. Clear. Low temperature around 70F. Dew point will be around 34F with an average humidity of 20%. Winds will be 5 mph from the NNE. Sunny. High temperature around 98F. Dew point will be around 28F with an average humidity of 13%. Winds will be 8 mph from the NE. Mostly clear. Low temperature around 69F. Dew point will be around 36F with an average humidity of 23%. Winds will be 5 mph from the NNE. Partly cloudy. Low temperature around 67F. Dew point will be around 37F with an average humidity of 25%. Winds will be 4 mph from the N. Mostly cloudy. High temperature around 96F. Dew point will be around 34F with an average humidity of 18%. Winds will be 4 mph from the NNE. Mostly cloudy. High temperature around 95F. Dew point will be around 48F with an average humidity of 37%. Winds will be 3 mph from the N. Mostly cloudy. Low temperature around 71F. Dew point will be around 50F with an average humidity of 41%. Winds will be 4 mph from the SSW. Partly cloudy. High temperature around 94F. Dew point will be around 61F with an average humidity of 51%. Winds will be 2 mph from the ESE. Mostly clear. Low temperature around 70F. Dew point will be around 54F with an average humidity of 44%. Winds will be 3 mph from the S.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0096.json.gz/line1394157
__label__cc	0.510585	0.489415	Miss Bliss Retail Published on June 6, 2018 \| in Eat/Drink Miss Bliss Wholefood Kitchens is about to send Brisbane foodies into a shopping frenzy, with its new retail line Miss Bliss Treats due to officially launch at Indooroopilly’s Best of Brisbane Style and Design Market this month. After an abundance of success running her Miss Bliss Cafe located in West End, nutritionist and food entrepreneur Jacqui Toumbas is taking a huge step and bringing her nutritious goodies to the world of retail. She says her ongoing passion for nutrition and helping others find good food options, as well as the success of her cafe, is what made her want to start the exciting line. “From a commercial perspective, I knew it was the right time to start a retail line when our ‘grab and go range’ became one of our most popular go-to choices for customers,” said Jacqui. “The growing rise in popularity for this offering was confirmation that customers are looking for food options they can enjoy anytime, anywhere. In coming months, I’m looking forward to seeing how this new line continues to spread the bliss and make good food choices readily available for all Australians.” Jacqui believes that Miss Bliss Treats is a brand for the health conscious, food lover in everyone, which is why sourcing local and Australian ingredients is important to her. “I never want the quality of our products to be compromised, so everything is handmade in our East Brisbane commercial kitchen to the highest of standards,” she said. “Our bespoke style of cooking also focuses on using local and Australian made products wherever possible, which then allows us to be competitive in both commercial and boutique markets. The magic that the retail line brings, therefore, is its ability to reach a wider range of customers than just those who typically visit us at the café. On top of that, it brings bliss into our customers’ homes and everyday life.” By the end of the year, Miss Bliss aims to be delivering to Aussies across the country with this new retail range. Miss Bliss is already a crowd favourite among many locals and now, nationally. “Only recently, we had strong interest from Melbourne, asking when they can get their hands on the new granola range as they haven’t been able to find anything quiet like it,” said Jacqui. “To me, this is a huge compliment and continues to remind us why we are in business – to provide healthy, nutritious food choices that actually taste and look good. The new range ultimately provides us with an opportunity to share the bliss beyond Brisbane while still staying true to who we are.” Miss Bliss treats its retail range like any item served at its cafe – all made in small batches with a high level of care and by only the best in the business, and it is strategies like these that have made the Miss Bliss reputation soar in the health food industry. “We work exceptionally hard to create magical food at Miss Bliss – we don’t substitute nor cut corners when we make our products,” said Jacqui. “For example, our tropical granola is made with the most delicious dried pineapple and hemp cacao crunch granola, so it tastes just like a chocolate treat. If you have a taste of one of our products, the results speak for themselves, so pop into The Best of Brisbane Style and Design Market to enjoy our products we love so much!” Readers also enjoyed this story about Le Festival. Words by Emilia Kurylewska Images via Miss Bliss Wholefoods Kitchen ← 80yo Rides for MS Haldane Drums →	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0096.json.gz/line1394162
__label__wiki	0.971954	0.971954	ACTIVISTS: Politicians are 'mushrooms' on CSG intentions Elly Bird, eAdministration and Events Coordinator at Lock the Gate Alliance. Photo Marc Stapelberg / The Northern Star Marc Stapelberg by Melissa Gulbin and Hamish Broome Melissa Gulbin Hamish Broome 11th May 2016 11:02 AM \| Updated: 4:51 PM Update: TODAY 11am: Gasfield Free Northern Rivers activists, outraged that the NSW government were caught 'accidentally' spruiking CSG on the Northern Rivers to mining companies overseas, have likened the government to 'mushrooms'. Although Minister for Industry, Resources and Energy was adamant the CD containing maps and documents spruiking the CSG potential of the documented Northern Rivers was a regrettable mistake, and the government was committed to keeping the Northern Rivers CSG-free. Elly Bird regional coordinator for Gasfield Free Northern Rivers, said ,"The Nationals are either lying to us or they are complete mushrooms, kept completely in the dark as to the government's true intentions. "First we see references to CSG in the Draft North Coast Regional Plan and now this news that the Department of Trade is still promoting our region as open for business for CSG " said "It's absolutely outrageous that this government is acting one way and speaking another way. Our National Party MPs are falling all over themselves promising that we are protected when it is becoming more and more obvious that the truth is the complete opposite, " she said "Our community will not stand for it. What sort of fools do they take the people of the Northern Rivers to be? It's obvious that the National Party cannot be trusted to tell us the truth. Update, 5pm: FEDERAL Member for Page Kevin Hogan has leapt to the defence of his state Nationals counterparts, saying bungling Sydney bureaucrats needed to "keep up" with the State Government's gasfield free policy and he was "very proud" of his colleagues of their action on CSG. "I think the man and woman on the street in our community know that CSG is dead and buried," Mr Hogan said. "I think the government has shown the commitment to that with the buyback of the licences, obviously this is just bureaucrats who need to keep up. "They're obviously sitting in their little office in Sydney completely oblivious to the fact that not only the government but this community has said this industry is not suitable for this region. "I'd certainly be having some stern words, I would certainly be chatting to the head of the department and those staff and saying you need to keep up." "The state government policy in this region is very clear, they just spent $25 million buying back all the licences and saying CSG isn't relevant to this region." But Federal Greens candidate for the neighbouring seat of Richmond Dawn Walker has taken full advantage of the bungle, accusing the NSW Government of "double crossing" the people of the Northern Rivers. She noted the CD-ROM in question, XplorPak 2016, was presented at a convention of 20,000 mining investors in early March in Toronto, Canada. "If the government was genuine about protecting the Northern Rivers, then why was it included in this international investment package?" Ms Walker said in a statement. "This revelation that coal seam gas is still on the government's agenda will put CSG front and centre in this federal election campaign." But Mr Hogan wasn't fazed by the fear-mongering, saying some people would try to "beat this issue up" for political purposes. He said he was "very proud" of his state colleagues about how they dealt with the CSG issue, as well as the community who successfully "who led the charge" against gasfields. "I think this will be something that will be forgotten very quickly because it's not changing government policy." Nationals answer questions about PEL445: Lismore MP Thomas George, Deputy Premier and Nationals leader Troy Grant and Minister for the North Coast Duncan Gay, answer questions about the Nationals vow to buyback the massive PEL445 gas exploration license. Update, 4PM: CLARENCE MP Chris Gulaptis has labelled the accidental spruiking of the Northern Rivers as a potential gasfield as an unfortunate "stuff up" which "reopens old wounds". It's understood government MPs are furious over the bungle in which bureaucrats prepared scientifically accurate - yet politically stupid - materials about coal seam gas and uranium reserves in NSW to be sent to international investors. A spokesman from Anthony Robert's office conceded it was an "own goal" by the government. Mr Gulaptis, who spoke to the Northern Star shortly after Parliamentary question time, said the promotional material "was not in line with government policy". "It was regrettable, unfortunate and a pain in the butt to be quite honest because it just reopens old wounds after the North Coast National fought very hard to ensure the North Coast was made gasfield free," he said. "It's disappointing, but a stuff up is a stuff up and it's great to see quick response... the government is not debating this issue." "The long and short of it there will not be any further CSG exploration on the Northern Rivers. Minister for Resources Anthony Roberts has also issued a mea culpa, confirming for what must be the upteenth time that "the NSW Government has no intention of any further petroleum or gas exploration in the Northern Rivers, in fact we bought-back all the petroleum exploration licences in the area- all of which were issued by the former Labor Government". "The Government is also introducing a new Strategic Release Framework for coal and petroleum. This will ensure a potential area will only be released for exploration following an assessment of environmental, social and economic factors, with community consultation. This is in conjunction with the government's independent planning assessment framework for any potential production. "The Government remains on track to have the Strategic Release Framework, with its advisory body and independent chair, in place by the mid 2016." Update 2PM: A statement from Anthony Roberts office indicates that the XplorPak was regrettable because it gave international investors the 'wrong impression' about Northern Rivers CSG gas reserves, which he said would not be released for exploration. "The NSW Division of Resources and Energy is fully aware that the NSW Government policy is that there will be no further petroleum or gas exploration or production in the Northern Rivers region of NSW. "Promotional materials produced by the Division and used at various investor conferences does acknowledge where gas finds and mineral deposits have been identified across the state. "It is with regret that we acknowledge that these materials did not make clear that while gas resources may have been identified in these areas, they will not be released for any exploration or production activities in the Northern Rivers. The same promotional material also highlighted NSW's policies and potential with respect to Uranium. The materials do set out that whilst the ban was lifted from exploring for uranium in NSW, it remains a declared mineral and the ban on mining Uranium in NSW remains. We acknowledges and accepts that our materials may have given the impression that exploring for Uranium in NSW is a current opportunity for investors. We acknowledge that this is not in line with the Government's resources agenda and regret that this information has been shared in this way. These department promotional materials have been withdrawn. New processes to ensure that any future promotional materials align with Government policies are being implemented. UPDATE, 12.15pm: IT APPEARS Energy and Resources Minister Anthony Roberts is continuing to push for coal seam gas in the Northern Rivers and elsewhere, despite the public commitments made by the government about the Northern Rivers being "CSG Free". The Greens have obtained the CD prepared by the Department of Industry Resources and Energy's Geological Survey team, XplorPak 2016, formerly called the annual Explorers Directory. The package provides information on mineral, geothermal, coal and petroleum exploration and production in NSW, with links and data to help prospective foreign explorers and stakeholders who gathered together for the March PDAC conference in Canada. The XplorPak 2016 promotes coal seam gas resources in the Clarence-Morton Basin (situated in the Northern Rivers) as having"very good potential" and there being "potential for commercial opportunities". It included a map of the Richmond electorate as well as a geological survey of the Clarence-Moreton Basin titled 'CSG potential'. XplorPak 2016 - showcasing NSW to international investors CSG in the Riverina? In addition: XplorPak 2016 notes that the potential for coal seam gas is currently being evaluated in the Oaklands Basin, near Griffith and Albury and the Murray Basin, from Griffith to Mildura. Greens candidate for Richmond Dawn Walker was quick to pick up on the government's backflip, producing the following video. Uranium in the New England The pack also notes the potential for uranium in the New England area. Government questioned This comes after the potential for CSG was included in the Draft North Coast Regional Plan. Anthony Roberts, NSW Minister of Industry, Resources and Energy has said that new CSG licence areas would be announced mid-2016. However, according The Greens Jeremy Buckingham, Mr Roberts refused to state in a written reply to Buckingham, in which geographic areas these licences would be allowed. ORIGINAL: THE GREENS have uncovered documents which reveal the Northern Rivers is being spruiked to overseas investors as having 'very good potential' for coal seam gas. This morning The Sydney Morning Herald broke the news that the state government has been selling northern NSW to foreign mining investors as having "very good potential" for coal-seam-gas exploration, while local voters were told the practice had been stopped, documents show. NSW is also being spruiked as a "greenfields opportunity" with "known potential" for uranium exploration, even in the farming region of New England. The Sydney Morning Herald published that marketing material was prepared by NSW Trade and Investment bureaucrats and presented in March to a Toronto conference of more than 20,000 mining investors from more than 100 countries. "The Clarence-Morton basin has very good petroleum potential," investors were told of a 16,000 square kilometre region in the state's Northern Rivers. "Almost all wells drilled' have yielded gas and/or oil". The news comes just months after NSW National MPs declared the Northern Rivers gasfield free and the state government spent $25 million buying out Metgasco's license to explore the region. csg greens miners northern rivers premium_icon 29 people to appear in Charleville court tomorrow News Here is a list of everyone who is appearing in front of the Charleville Magistrates Court on January 20. premium_icon Southwest locals' funniest excuses for committing crimes News From being spiked with meth at a 14th birthday party to assaulting someone because they didn’t have a cake plate, here are the odd excuses criminals have used. premium_icon IN PHOTOS: Gas leak shuts down Roma streets News Around midday four QFES were called to the scene of a chlorine leak shutting down... premium_icon Rural teenagers more likely to ride with drunk drivers News New RACQ statistics have revealed the startling number who admitted to getting in... premium_icon Fireys’ quick response stops Cunnamulla fire News A grassfire close to town is believed to have been started by a campfire.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0096.json.gz/line1394163
__label__wiki	0.653619	0.653619	Block your dates for 2014! by YRF User3 \| Jul 06, 2016 YRF announces its releases for 2014. Block your dates for a great year ahead! Starring Ranveer Singh, Arjun Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra and Irrfan Khan Directed by Ali Abbas Zafar and Produced by Aditya Chopra Music by Sohail Sen Starring Rishi Kapoor, Ayushmann Khurrana and Sonam Kapoor Directed by Nupur Asthana and Produced by Aditya Chopra Music by Raghu Dixit DAAWAT-E-ISHQ Starring Aditya Roy Kapoor and Parineeti Chopra Directed by Habib Faisal and Produced by Aditya Chopra Music by Sajid-Wajid Starring Rani Mukerji Directed by Pradeep Sarkar and Produced by Aditya Chopra Starring Ranveer Singh, Ali Zafar, Parineeti Chopra and Govinda Directed by Shaad Ali and Produced by Aditya Chopra Music by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and Lyrics Gulzar DETECTIVE BYOMKESH BAKSHY! Starring Sushant Singh Rajput. Directed by Dibakar Banerjee Starring Ranveer Shorey and Amit Sial Directed by Kanu Behl and Produced by Dibakar Banerjee And more to follow! The entire slate will be announced this Diwali! This news is downloaded from yashrajfilms.com at 20-January-2020 16:37 https://www.yashrajfilms.com/news/detail/2016/07/06/block-your-dates-for-2014	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0096.json.gz/line1394167
__label__wiki	0.753768	0.753768	Yechiel Szeintuch Professor Yechiel Szeintuch, scholar of Yiddish literature, was interviewed by Christa Whitney on June 17, 2014 in Jerusalem, Israel. Part of Yiddish Book Center's Wexler Oral History Project Shop the Yiddish Book Center Museum Store for curated Jewish literature and Yiddish-related gifts. Unquiet Pages An exploration of modern Yiddish literature, drawing on the Center’s collection of more than one million Yiddish books Isaac Bashevis Singer, "Not a Typical Yiddish Writer" Marvin Zuckerman, retired English and Yiddish professor, discusses Isaac Bashevis Singer's views on Jewish literature and political leanings. An Opportunity to Be an Expert: Why Study Yiddish Jessica Kirzane, specialist in American-Jewish literature, speaks about the joy of studying and researching undiscovered Yiddish authors and thinkers. Advice for Raising Children in Yiddish: It Should Be Fun for Them Anne (Khane) Eakin Moss, Yiddishist and Russian Literature Professor, offers advice for those considering raising children in Yiddish. A “Bashert” Encounter with Di Brider Ashkenazi (The Brothers Ashkenazi) by I. J. Singer Stage director Michael Yashinsky talks about the novel that sparked his interest in Yiddish literature. Two Types of Yiddishists: Speakers and Scholars Jessica Kirzane, specialist in American-Jewish literature, speaks about her decision to study Yiddish instead of learning the language. Celebrating Jewish Holidays In A Literary Yiddishist Fashion Leo Melamed - child survivor of the Holocaust and former chairman of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange - remembers the presence of Yiddish literature in his home - and how his parents replaced religion with literature when celebrating holidays. Bontshe Shvayg in Lethbridge: Teaching Yiddish Literature in the Canadian Bible Belt I teach Jewish literature to non-Jews. That statement may not seem very remarkable; after all, I also teach Victorian literature to non-Victorians and nineteenth-century literature to students born in the late twentieth century.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0096.json.gz/line1394168
__label__wiki	0.587928	0.587928	Surgery where the ‘doctor’ prescribes only songs Opera singer Bibi Heal Published: 11:45 Saturday 09 November 2019 A passage by Brahms might not be what the doctor would usually have ordered, but it might be music to the ears of visitors to an experimental surgery today. The prescribing of soothing melodies to ease ailments of the mind, or even the physical variety, is said to be gaining traction among alternative practitioners, and a project in the Yorkshire Dales is among the first to put it to the test. The Arts Council-funded Great Place Lakes and Dales initiative, which aims to encourage younger people to live and work in the two National Parks, is behind the drop-in Song Surgery, the first of which is at Ambleside Parish Centre this afternoon, with a concert in Settle to follow. Producer Jane Rice-Bowen and Bibi Heal, her opera singer neighbour in Skipton, will conduct the experiment with performing arts students from Bradford College. “We’re prescribing songs to make people feel better,” said Ms Heal, who will sing capsule classics to the patients. “There will be the opportunity to go away with a prescription in your hand for the piece of music that has resonated with you, which you can then look up on YouTube or Spotify and have as a new piece you’ve discovered through this process.” Ms Rice-Bowen added: “You don’t have to be based in London to create exciting work. This will be an intimate experience that people will not have had before, certainly not in Ambleside.” Ms Heal suggested that to cure insomnia, a century-old song by the composer Ivor Gurney might do the trick. “Come sleep,” he wrote, “and let some pleasing dream beguile all my fancies.” Clinicians, she added, were increasingly advising patients to sing themselves to health, “in the same way as taking a walk in the countryside”. Gig review: Jah Wobble and The Invaders of the Heart at Brudenell Social Club, Leeds Championship transfers LIVE: Leeds United 'eye' shock loan move as Sheffield Wednesday 'show interest' in League One ace	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0096.json.gz/line1394170
__label__wiki	0.925712	0.925712	https://www.yourconroenews.com/neighborhood/moco/news/article/Montgomery-County-Sheriff-s-Office-is-13804470.php Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office investigating incident with pedestrian and train in Porter By Jose R. Gonzalez, Staff writer Updated 4:36 pm CDT, Monday, April 29, 2019 Law enforcement investigate the scene of a train pedestrian accident which occurred at 2:30 a.m. near Texas-494 Loop and FM 1314, Monday, April 29, 2019, in Porter. The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office is investigating an early Monday morning train incident in Porter involving a pedestrian. Dispatchers received calls around 2:30 a.m. near Texas Loop 494 and FM 1314 and investigators responded soon after and were still on scene as late as 8:39 a.m. Sheriff’s spokesman Lt. Scott Spencer said the incident is still being investigated. Spencer declined to say whether anyone was killed by the train and did not respond to questions about the gender or approximate age of the pedestrian involved. This pedestrian-involved incident is the fourth within the last 12 months in Montgomery County and the second event in Porter within the same time. All three of the prior incidents were fatal and involved men struck by a Union-Pacific frieght train, according to past reports in The Courier. RELATED: Pedestrian fatally hit by train near Porter In the previous Porter incident a 59-year-old east Montgomery County man died after being hit by a train May 10 at East Martin Road and Texas Loop 494. On July 23, 39-year-old Charles Bradford was fatally struck in Conroe near Lewis Park. The train conductor in that incident, Spencer said then, began sounding the horn and unsuccessfully attempted to break. Only four days later, another man was killed by a train in Oak Ridge North. He was described as wearing a hard hat and a yellow vest. NEWS WHEN YOU NEED IT: Text CHRON to 77453 to receive breaking news alerts by text message \| Sign up for breaking news alerts delivered to your email here. At the time, Oak Ridge North Police Chief Andrew Walters, who has since retired, warned pedestrians about the dangers of oncoming trains. “Trains always come out undamaged, people never,” Walters said. jose.gonzalez@chron.com twitter.com/jrgzztx	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0096.json.gz/line1394172
__label__cc	0.542338	0.457662	“To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson What if your dedication to animal protection lived on long after you left this world? With proper planning, it can. By including Where Pigs Fly Farm Sanctuary in your will, you can help build a kinder future for animals for decades or even centuries after your passing. Please read on to find out everything you need to know about leaving a bequest in your Will to Where Pigs Fly Farm Sanctuary. Choosing to leave a legacy to Where Pigs Fly Farm Sanctuary will create lasting change for the animals close to your heart. Every dollar we receive goes towards rescuing and advocating for the most vulnerable and voiceless within our society, farmed animals. A symbol of your kind support, a bequest to Where Pigs Fly Farm Sanctuary will help bring hope to so many animals who once had none. As a registered, non-profit charity we receive no government funding and rely solely on the generous public, who believe in our work, to continue our mission of kindness. Every single day we work tirelessly for the animals we care so deeply about. We are on the ground rescuing and rehabilitating the farmed animals we can save and speaking out on behalf of the animals we cannot through our thought-provoking campaigns, humane education programs and educational farm tours. Have you met Molly? Hers is one story of hope only made possible by the valued support of people like you. Molly, named after ‘The Unsinkable Molly Brown’ from the Titanic, has been through absolute terror, survived and thrived. Before rescue, Molly was used as bait by humans to train pig-hunting dogs. When she was found both her ears had been ripped off and she had large, open sores over her body. The absolute terror and pain Molly would have gone through is heartbreaking. Thankfully, all the cruelty she endured is behind her now. We are so lucky to be able to give Molly the life she so deserves. Molly is home now, safe and loved. She need never worry again. We want to thank you for considering making a bequest to Where Pigs Fly Farm Sanctuary, but more than that, we want to say thank you for caring for animals as dearly as we do. We all seek to leave this world a better place than we found it, your donation, no matter how small it may seem, will go a long way to making the world a kinder place for farmed animals. We truly thank you for believing in our life-saving and changing work. How to leave a bequest? (PDF) We understand that deciding to leave a legacy to Where Pigs Fly Farm Sanctuary is a big decision, so we are here to assist. If you would like to know more about the impact your bequest would have on Where Pigs Fly Farm Sanctuary and the animals, please contact Debbie Pearce, Founder and President on 0421 666 890 or hello@wherepigsfly.org. Download sample wording for bequests	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0096.json.gz/line1394175
__label__wiki	0.903842	0.903842	Je T’Aime Moi Non Plus (2019 ReRelease) Je T’Aime Moi Non Plus (2019 ReRelease) Release Date: October 11, 2019 Serge Gainsbourg directed Je T’Aime Moi Non Plus, an arthouse-meets-trashploitation wild ride through 1970s America—part queer road movie, part gonzo romance. Warhol Superstar Joe Dallesandro stars as a gay garbage-truck driver who falls (kind of) for Jane Birkin’s tomboyish whistle-stop waitress, Johnny. But consummating the new relationship proves… problematic. Gainsbourg displays a striking visual dynamism via the freewheeling, fluid camerawork, while making the most of the infamously racy title track in this sexually delirious ode to America’s heartland, as seen by France’s most outré provocateur. Look out for a surprise appearance from Gérard Depardieu. Originally released in 1976 the film gets a 4K restoration from Kino Lorber. Jane Birkin is the inspiration for the iconic Hermes Birkin bag. Je T’Aime Moi Non Plus (2019 ReRelease) Trailer Starring: Jane BirkinJoe DallesandroGérard Depardieu Directed By: Serge Gainsbourg Studio: Kino Lorber MPAA Rating R Interested in Je T’Aime Moi Non Plus (2019 ReRelease)? Check out these films	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0096.json.gz/line1394180
__label__cc	0.553932	0.446068	CTRL Forward Blog Connect with Science and Technology Innovation Program @WilsonSTIP @WilstonSTIP Wilson STIP Global Mosquito Alert: Building Citizen Science Capacity for Surveillance and Control of Disease-Vector Mosquitoes Policy Brief: Executive Summary According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are over 500 million cases of mosquito-borne illnesses such as Zika, yellow fever, chikungunya, dengue, malaria, and the West Nile virus each year. Proactively managing these diseases requires acquiring information on the current and predicted presence and distribution of disease-vector mosquitos, including information on adults, larvae, and breeding habits. But traditional monitoring methods cannot always deliver information on the desired scale and resolutions required and often fail to engage or educate the public. Citizen science, a process where the public contributes to scientific research, can augment information from other sources to help researchers, government officials, and the general public understand and manage risks. In May 2017, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars worked with the European Citizen Science Association (ECSA) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment) to host a workshop to discuss the use of citizen science for coordinated mosquito-vector monitoring. This workshop culminated in the formation of the Global Mosquito Alert Consortium (GMAC), the first global platform dedicated to advancing citizen science to tackle mosquito monitoring. GMAC will be an open, common set of protocols and toolkit that is augmented with modular components created to meet both global and local research and management needs. Each protocol associated with the Global Mosquito Alert Consortium will be structured around a common list of “core” fields. These fields may be augmented by additional information collected by local projects. A toolkit will list the protocols, supporting technologies, and resources such as guidance on volunteer management, information on working with decision-makers including public health agencies and pest managers, and lesson plans for bringing citizen science into educational environments. Data associated with the Global Mosquito Alert Consortium will be made available through the dynamic UN Environment platform Environment Live. The future of citizen science lies in coordination and partnership. The Global Mosquito Alert Consortium seeks to leverage the activities of existing citizen science projects to dramatically improve local, national, supra-national, and global research and management of disease-vector mosquitos. GMAC also hopes to become a model for coordination and partnership that emerging consortia of citizen science projects tackling other challenges can leverage and improve. With the growth of citizen science comes the challenge of coordinating people, projects, and data. These challenges also present an opportunity. Through the use of data and metadata standards and other mechanisms to promote interoperability, data can support multiple research questions, allowing citizen science to help address ever-grander issues and problems on local, regional, national, and global scales. Elizabeth Tyson, Anne Bowser, John Palmer, Durrell Kapan, Frederic Bartumeus, Martin Brocklehurst, Eleonore Pauwels Outline of Report Vector Surveillance, Control, and Citizen Science Global Mosquito Alert Data A Common Platform for the Global Mosquito Alert Consortium Stakeholder engagement within and beyond the scientific research community Read PDF of report below. Global Mosquito Alert Global Mosquito Alert: Taking a Bite Out of Vector-Borne Disease Global Mosquito Alert: NASA DEVELOP Project Partners Handoff global_mosquito_alert_2018.pdf (4.92 MB) Stay up to date with the Science and Technology Innovation Program	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0096.json.gz/line1394181
__label__wiki	0.787639	0.787639	Apple iPhone, Mac users are the newest targets of malware attack A user's iPhone or computer is often infiltrated by a phishing campaign Abigail Elise Apple iPhone and Mac users are being targeted by the same Russian hackers accused of infiltrating the Democratic National Committee servers last year, according to a report from BitDefender Tuesday. The cybercriminals have enhanced the Komplex Trojan, a MacOS/OS X computer program that can now obtain data backed up from iPhones as well as passwords and screenshots from Mac-based operating systems. "The analysis reveals the presence of modules that can probe the system for hardware and software configurations, grab a list of running processes and run additional files, as well as get desktop screenshots and harvest browser passwords," Bitdefender said. "But the most important module, from an intelligence-gathering perspective, is the one that allows the operator(s) to exfiltrate iPhone backups stored on a compromised Mac." Once the malware infiltrates a Mac-based device (possibly through a spear phishing campaign), stolen data is sent back to dishonest third parties by impersonating legitimate Apple domains. "Once connected...the payload sends a HelloMessage, then spawns two communication threads running in infinite loops," according to Bitdefender. That means your computer's saved passwords, screenshots and iPhone backups are sent to cyber criminals. Komplex will likely target public figures like journalists, politicians and military personnel, according to Laptop magazine. Still, it's better to be safe than sorry. Always avoid clicking on links in suspicious emails and make sure to verify the domain name of a sender. Phishing scams are becoming harder to detect, so always remain vigilant. More tips for avoiding phishing scams can be found here. Apple iPhone and Mac users are being targeted by the same Russian hackers accused of infiltrating the Democratic National Committee servers last year, according to a report from BitDefender Tuesday. The cybercriminals have enhanced the Komplex Trojan, a MacOS/OS X computer program that can now obtain data backed up from iPhones as well as passwords and screenshots from Mac-based operating systems. Your financial data maybe at risk if you shopped at these e-retailers in 2016 "The analysis reveals the presence of modules that can probe the system for hardware and software configurations, grab a list of running processes and run additional files, as well as get desktop screenshots and harvest browser passwords," Bitdefender said. "But the most important module, from an intelligence-gathering perspective, is the one that allows the operator(s) to exfiltrate iPhone backups stored on a compromised Mac." Once the malware infiltrates a Mac-based device (possibly through a spear phishing campaign), stolen data is sent back to dishonest third parties by impersonating legitimate Apple domains. "Once connected...the payload sends a HelloMessage, then spawns two communication threads running in infinite loops," according to Bitdefender. That means your computer's saved passwords, screenshots and iPhone backups are sent to cyber criminals. Komplex will likely target public figures like journalists, politicians and military personnel, according to Laptop magazine. Still, it's better to be safe than sorry. Always avoid clicking on links in suspicious emails and make sure to verify the domain name of a sender. Phishing scams are becoming harder to detect, so always remain vigilant. More tips for avoiding phishing scams can be found here.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0096.json.gz/line1394187
__label__wiki	0.516646	0.516646	Worthy Christian News » World News » Russia again successfully tests ship-based hypersonic missile — which will likely be ready for combat by 2022 Russia again successfully tests ship-based hypersonic missile — which will likely be ready for combat by 2022 Thursday, December 20, 2018 \| Tag Cloud Tags: News, Russia, United States, Worthy News (Worthy News) - Russia has conducted another successful test of its ship-based hypersonic missile, a weapon the United States is currently unable to defend against, according to two people with direct knowledge of a U.S. intelligence report. The people, who spoke to CNBC on the condition of anonymity, said Russia has carried out five total tests of its ship-based hypersonic missile since 2015. The last known test of the device, dubbed "Tsirkon," was successfully conducted Dec. 10 and reached a top speed of Mach 8, approximately eight times the speed of sound, or about two miles per second. [ Source: CNBC (Read More...) ] Israel to step up fight against Iranian proxies after U.S. steps out of Syria Powerful earthquake strikes off Russia's far east, no tsunami threat	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0096.json.gz/line1394192
__label__wiki	0.652286	0.652286	Baptism, Weddings and Funerals Worship Live Stream The Big Idea Guide Sudanese Dinka Congregation Zumbro Women of the ELCA Life Milestones The Zumbro Current Monthly Newsletter ZED Talks ourchurch. ourfuture. Singing Opportunities Do You Like to Sing? For information on any of the choirs at Zumbro, please contact Music Minister, Kristy Giere. Zumbro Lutheran Choir High School-Adult \| Wednesdays beginning September 5 \| 7-8:30pm \| Choir Room \| Childcare provided The Zumbro Lutheran Choir, under the direction of Bob Giere, is a non-auditioned 60 voice mixed choir for high school and adult singers. The choir sings for worship regularly with one Sunday off per month and alternates between 8:30 and 10:30am services. The choir leads in worship with inspiring and challenging repertoire and occasionally presents major works. For more than 35 years, the choir has participated in the Festival of Lessons and Carols at St. Mary Hospital Chapel. The Zumbro Lutheran Choir toured England and Ireland in 2013 and has recorded two CDs, Rise Up Shepherd, and Follow featuring Christmas selections and LUX, a recording of Morten Lauridsen’s Lux Aeterna and the premiere of K. Lee Scott’s The Suffering Servant as well as other sacred choral favorites. Zumbro Choristers Grades 3-9 \| Mondays beginning September 10 \| 5:55-6:40pm \| Choir Room The Zumbro Choristers, under the direction of Janette Reeves, sing for worship twice a month, and present an annual musical that is part of worship in February. The Choristers also participate in the annual Festival of Lessons and Carols at St. Marys Hospital Chapel each December. The Choristers sing a wide variety of musical styles and developing great friendship is a very important part of the musical experience. Dolce Children’s Choir Kindergarten-3rd Grade \| Mondays beginning September 10 \| 5:15-5:50pm \| Choir Room The Dolce Children’s Choir, under the direction of Janette Reeves, is an introductory choir for Zumbro’s youngest singers. The choir will sing occasionally in worship throughout the year. Sunday at 8:30am & 10:30am 624 Third Ave. SW Rochester, MN 55902 Can't make it to church? Listen on the radio, KOLM (1520 AM), Sundays at 8:30am Sign Up for Zumbro’s Weekly ENews Keep up with the latest news and events. 624 Third Ave. SW Copyright © 2019 Zumbro Lutheran Church. All Rights Reserved.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0096.json.gz/line1394194
__label__wiki	0.745034	0.745034	Should Microsoft become multiple mini-Microsofts? Here we go again. Every so often, the debate resurfaces as to whether Microsoft could or should be better off if the company were broken into two or three mini-Microsofts. By Mary Jo Foley for All About Microsoft \| October 4, 2010 -- 07:23 GMT (00:23 PDT) \| Topic: Microsoft Every so often, the debate resurfaces as to whether Microsoft could or should be better off if the company were broken into two or three mini-Microsofts. This week, thanks to a new Goldman Sachs report which is putting a hurt on Microsoft's stock price, the issue has come to the fore again. Goldman Sachs has downgraded Microsoft to "neutral" from "buy" and analyst Sarah Friar has proposed a three-pronged plan to "unlock value" in Microsoft shares. As some others have noted, Friar's plan includes a couple of ... fanciful... ideas, such as "become a cloud leader." (Boom! You're now a cloud leader, said the genie!) One of her ideas, however, is not quite so far-fetched. What about "divesting more peripheral assets such as gaming," Friar suggests. There have been as many different proposals for splitting up Microsoft as proposers of the concept. Split the company along Windows/Office lines was a favorite of at least one antitrust judge. How about an enterprise/consumer split? What about a consumer/enterprise/services break-up? Or a three-way split between Windows, Office and search? Just last week, CEO Steve Ballmer named three new presidents. Instead of having a single president running both mobile and gaming, Ballmer opted to name two different presidents to head those units (even though mobile and gaming will continue to report as a single profit-and-loss center when the company details its earnings). It's been a long time since gaming was seen as an afterthought by Microsoft or those watching the company. In fact, Microsoft seems to be trying to tie in ever more tightly its Xbox Live gaming service into its mobile communications business with its heavy focus on gaming with Windows Phone 7. Microsoft execs continue to play up the coming Kinect sensors' appeal beyond gaming, claiming that Kinect is indicative of the company's broader natural-user-interface direction. And Microsoft, like Google and other tech leaders, seems to think social gaming will be the next big thing, and no doubt sees plenty of potential search/ad synergies in that space. Based on these trends, I have to say I don't see the Softies thinking about spinning off its Interactive Entertainment unit under Don Mattrick any time soon. Would more mini-Microsofts be more profitable, more focused and more responsive? Can you see Microsoft's CEO voluntarily splitting the company up into "Baby Ballmers" any time soon? Mobility Enterprise Software Windows Windows 10 Collaboration Cloud	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0096.json.gz/line1394199
__label__wiki	0.90424	0.90424	South Korea raises cyber attack warning amid heightened regional tensions Following the North Korean long-range missile launch and the subsequent closing of the Kaesong Industrial Complex, South Korean government offices have again raised the InfoCon cyberthreat warning level. By Philip Iglauer \| February 16, 2016 -- 04:42 GMT (20:42 PST) \| Topic: Security South Korea increased its cyberthreat level for a second time in less than a month on Sunday in response to what it said was a growing danger posed by North Korean cyber attacks. Three government offices that track cyber threats -- the Ministry of Defense; the National Information Service; and the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning -- raised the cyberthreat level as tensions on the Korean peninsula ratchet up. "We believe there's a larger possibility that North Korea may launch cyber attacks on the South, and recently upgraded our Information Operation Condition (InfoCon)," a defense ministry official was quoted as saying in the local media. The Defense Ministry raised the InfoCon warning one notch to level three. The five-tier threat level system is used by the military to assess threats to the government's IT network. South Korea's Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIP) also increased its cyberthreat assessment one notch from "moderate" or level one, to "substantial", the equivalent of level two, following a week of escalating tensions in East Asia after North Korea launched a space rocket on February 7 and put a small weather satellite into orbit. Latest news on Asia India 'anti-colonial' to its economic detriment: Marc Andreessen in incoherent Twitter rant LG Pay will be a no show at MWC: Report Singtel shrinks net profit by SG$16m Facebook withdraws Free Basics project in India Samsung to provide public safety network in South Korea The Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA), an arm of the science ministry, said cyberthreats to the nation increased from moderate to substantial for private sector websites, ecommerce sites, and email addresses "because of [the] North Korean long-range missile launch and closing of Kaesong Industrial Complex". "In substantial cyberthreat level [to the] private sector, KISA and MSIP recommend that every corporation raise cybersecurity monitoring, people update their PC software, and don't open unknown emails," a KISA official said. South Korea's National Intelligence Service, its spy agency, could not be reached for comment on its cyberthreat assessment. On February 11, North and South Korea cut off an emergency "hot line" between the military of the two countries as hundreds of staff were repatriated to the South, days after Seoul announced it will withdrawal its participation in the Kaesong Industry Complex, the last remaining inter-Korean economic cooperation project. Late last month, the science ministry increased the cyberthreat level from normal to "moderate" about one week after computers in South Korea received a barrage of malicious emails, around the same time North Korea tested a nuclear device. The Defense and Science ministries both said that no new series of cyber attacks have been detected this time around. "We believe North Korea is more likely to launch cyber attacks than before and we're keeping close tabs on potential signs," said one Defense ministry official, according to local media reports. South Korea is the target of many cyber attacks, and in particular, its government offices, financial and IT sectors, and the accounts of its personnel get hit by advanced persistent threats (ATP), phishing, and smishing attacks frequently. The last time the cyberthreat level was this high was in 2013, following a wave of attacks that downed scores of government, banking, and media sites including the website of the presidential office. That attack took place on the 63rd anniversary of the start of the Korean War, on June 25. Malware used in the 2013 attack has been dubbed by cyber professionals as DarkSeoul. The attack was tracked by officials who linked it to a single IP address in China. South Korea blames the North for that attack. North Korea was also blamed by South Korea and the US for the Sony Pictures hack in November 2014, which forced the company to pull its film, The Interview, from theatrical release. But conclusive evidence that the country was indeed behind the attack remains to this day scant at best. That incident employed a phishing attack. Source: ZDNet.co.kr Korea Security TV Data Management CXO Data Centers More from Philip Iglauer Samsung Electronics' US sales account for over a third of global revenue SK Telecom, Ericsson demonstrate programmable 5G infrastructure Kakao Pay tops 10 million users in South Korea SK Telecom launches live-streaming tech	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0096.json.gz/line1394200
__label__wiki	0.977772	0.977772	Airtel clears Rs 32,000 crore rights issue Business / Airtel clears Rs 32,000 crore rights issue India Today : Mar 01, 2019, 09:53 AM Billionaire Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Airtel said that its board of directors has approved a plan to raise Rs 32,000 crore through a mix of rights issue & bonds, a move that will give the telecom major moneybags to take on sector disruptor Reliance Jio. Airtel's announcement came days after parent firms Vodafone & Aditya Birla Group said they will infuse over Rs 18,000 crore into the country's largest telecom operater. Airtel's announcement came days after parent firms Vodafone and Aditya Birla Group said they will infuse over Rs 18,000 crore into the country's largest telecom operator Vodafone Idea Ltd through a rights issue. The Board of Directors has approved the fund raising of upto Rs 32,000 crore through rights issuance of upto Rs 25,000 crore and Perpetual Bond with equity credit upto Rs 7,000 crore, an Airtel statement said. "The terms of the rights issue cleared by the Board include price of Rs 220 per fully paid equity share (a premium of Rs 215 per fully paid equity share over face value of Rs 5 per share); and a rights entitlement ratio of 19 shares for every 67 shares held by eligible shareholders," the statement added.India's telecom sector, world's second largest in terms of subscriber base, is going through a debilitating financial crisis due triggered by Richest Indian Mukesh Ambani-led startup Jio's free voice calls and dirt-cheap data.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0096.json.gz/line1394201
__label__cc	0.737879	0.262121	Zophar's Message Domain > Emulation Talk > Emulation News Important info on ROMs View Poll Results: What's your stance on ZD hosting ROMs? Hell yeah! That would be kickass. 6 16.22% It'd be nice. If not, then that's okay. 9 24.32% I don't give a damn either way. 4 10.81% I wouldn't like it. If so, then that's okay. 2 5.41% Screw that! ZD isn't a place for ROMs! 16 43.24% Cornellius Location: Québec/Canada The thing is that, roms are legal for those who owns the real cartridge. My copy of Zelda - A link to the past broke (can't save my game anymore, battery is messed up), so emulating it is the only way I'm able to play it. The problem is that nobody respect that rule. It's like mp3s, I download a lot, but when I see that I'm listening to the same album for about 2 week, I say to myself: Hey, I like that album/band a lot !, and I buy the CD/songs. Industrial electronic technician Industrial mechanic (Millwright) Send a private message to Cornellius Find More Posts by Cornellius Soushkin Location: Dislocated Originally Posted by Cornellius Simply because there's no way they can actually verify if you own the actual cartridge or not. Unless they (police, or who ever) pay you a visit, but that just costs too much for them old games. It's more lucrative to go after the ones sharing Wii/DS/PS3/PSP/XBox360 games. Over at CoolROM we received some complaint from www.theesa.com once that we had ESA protected ROMs up for download. They never mentioned any of the other ROMs, just the protected IPs. We took those down and that was it, the ESA never bothered us again. So yes, if you stick to the "rules" you can host ROMs just fine. Once you got protected IPs (Super Mario Bros. for instance) up for download you can expect the ESA knocking on your door sooner or later. If you can see it and you can touch it, it's real. If you can't see it, but you can touch it, it's transparant. If you can see it, but you can't touch it, it's virtual. If you can't see it and you can't touch it, it's gone! Send a private message to Soushkin Find More Posts by Soushkin SparroHawc Location: Seattle area, WA ROMs are legal for -you- to make if you have the means of dumping a backup. It is, according to the companies that have enough money to succeed at suing your butt, illegal to provide ROMs for all-and-sundry to download, especially if said company is currently distributing any form of the original game (such as through the Virtual Console). Also, if there is -any- encryption on the game cartridge/CD/what have you, the DMCA makes it ILLEGAL to bypass that encryption even if it's a Caesar cipher. By any method. It's illegal to record a DVD with a camcorder pointed at your TV screen because the DVD is encrypted. I play ROMs, but I have no illusions about the legality of such. Hell, I started playing Zelda: LttP on the Wii via emulator recently, for exactly the same reason you gave, but I know it's not legal since I can purchase it for Virtual Console. The fact that I own the cartridge means exactly zilch; my cartridge is WELL past warranty. It broke, boohoo. I'm supposed to buy a replacement for it. I'm cheap and I don't want to, but I also know I'm using a less-than-legal method to get around it. I did not make that backup I am playing. Just because no one else knows that doesn't make it legal, it just makes it impossible to prove in a court of law. And then there's the Mickey Mouse Rule. You cannot use a character that is currently under copyright. Sonic, Mario, Link, Samus, Kirby, all those characters cannot be duplicated in any fashion because they are owned wholly by their corporations. Just like how you can't legally draw a picture of Mickey Mouse and use it for your own gain unless it's for educational purposes or satire, you can't distribute a ROM of a game that contains a copyrighted character. This doesn't mean you'll actually get in trouble for it; litigation is expensive and has no guaranteed return. But it's still illegal. I personally condone the playing of ROMs on emulators. It's the best way to experience old games outside of hunting down the original cartridge and a system that still works. I cannot suggest it as a -legal- pastime though. This space intentionally left blank. Send a private message to SparroHawc Find More Posts by SparroHawc Then again, I know some people who download roms because they can't find the game anywhere. If I was a game producer, instead of trying to find people downloading a game, let's say, Zelda - ALTTP, I'd re-release this game as a special edition or something like that. I applause Nintendo for the Virtual Console, really great idea. Plus, less electronic components (no physical cartridge), so less chance of game failures. I applause Nintendo for the Virtual Console, really great idea. Plus, less electronic components (no physical cartridge), so less chance of game failures. Sweet mercy, yes. I've probably already blown $100 on VC games. Xeon3D Location: Albufeira, PT Originally Posted by the_importer Just stating a contradiction, that's all. Dude, I know the music archives existed in that time. I didn't have anything to do with them, Death Adder did. My nostalgia, what I remember doing on the website, speaking on the forums, all of that never involved piracy. If any companies that matter (Nintendo, SEGA, SNK, Hudson, Capcom, Konami, etc..) ever ask for Zophar to remove ROMs, you have full bragging rights (providing that there is proof of a request for removal) I hope I never have to. Even if I'm totally against the idea of Zophar having ROMS. (Note that they're not even hosted here...) Unfortunately, I didn't work 10 years ago because I was already an adult when I got into emulation and it sure as hell doesn't work now [ Didn't quite grab what you meant to say with this phrase. You trying to say that you're not a ROM Kiddie but instead a "ROM Adultie" ??? Also, Rule 45 dude !!! Yeah, whatever rule 45 is. -Again, Planetemu.net has been hosting ROMs for the past 7 years and no big video game companies as EVER asked them to remove ROMs. There are also a lot of Serial Killers over there that did kill some people 20 years ago and they're never been caught. Let's all turn into serial killers then! Last edited by Xeon3D; 07-18-2008 at 06:38 AM. Reason: typos Send a private message to Xeon3D Find More Posts by Xeon3D Originally Posted by Xeon3D ROM Kiddiez !!! I haven't heard that one in years. Unfortunately, I didn't work 10 years ago because I was already an adult when I got into emulation and it sure as hell doesn't work now Doesn't matter how old you are, if you ransack forums making posts asking "HOW DO I GET THIS ROM LOL" you are a ROM Kiddie. ...which, I think, was Xeon's point. Actually, I want to know what rule 45 is too... Whoa, whoa there Xeon! Take a deep breath... You're going into flame mode. If you're going to get snarky at him, you ought to at least be subtle about it. For the most part, this has been a fairly calm and level-headed discussion (surprisingly). Let's keep it that way, mm? Incidentally, Soushkin gave a good rebuttal to this comment already. Originally Posted by Soushkin I wonder where you got that from. I'm from Holland and we can download movies and music as much as we desire. And it's actually legal too because we pay a fee on blank media. One movie can get you 250k fine in the USA, same for music. Or three years in jail. No way we have such stupid sentences here to serve them dumbass companies. France and England can be pretty harsh on downloading music and movies. They don't care much about them old games though, their police got better things to do than busting some ROMsites. Again, it comes down to this... It's illegal to host commercial ROMs. There is a good chance that it is also illegal to host music rips from games, but there's no reason to suspect that anyone will come after ZD for hosting the music when it's such a fringe item. (Technically, hosting fanart on a page with ads is also illegal, but I don't see DeviantART complaining about cease-and-desist e-mails.) I, personally, have seen SEVERAL ROM sites go down due to legal activity, making hosting ROMs a high-risk activity. And I'm sorry, but pointing out one or two ROM sites that have survived so far isn't sufficient proof that it's sanctioned. The subdomain ROM hosting on ZD is plausible deniability; it will either go away or it will stay, and either way it shouldn't affect the main ZD site. Especially considering how the poll seems to be turning out. Originally Posted by SparroHawc Nope, I wasn't saying that he's a ROM Kiddie. Not in that way. It was more in the way of "ZD HAS TO HAVE ROMS!" since he's so supportive of it. And the mistery continues... Google results say that Rule 45 of your civil code is related to subpoenas and that rule 45 of the USA criminal code speaks about extending time? And I thought google helped everytime... Hey, I'm cool. Actually I'm just replying for the fun of it, as I've got nothing funnier to do ATM. I was just trying to end that point. Since he said that "if they're doing it and are not getting caught why should we do it as well", I was just trying to prove that that way of thinking was wrong. Maybe the serial killer was a bit exaggerated but it was the first thing that came to mind. Again, it comes down to this... It's illegal to host commercial ROMs. Behold, for he speaks the truth! There is a good chance that it is also illegal to host music rips from games, but there's no reason to suspect that anyone will come after ZD for hosting the music when it's such a fringe item. (Technically, hosting fanart on a page with ads is also illegal, but I don't see DeviantART complaining about cease-and-desist e-mails.) It's illegal. The fact that we are or we aren't getting complaints about it doesn't change the legal or not level. There are legal things or illegal things, I have yet to see a (input percentage level here)% illegal thing. I, personally, have seen SEVERAL ROM sites go down due to legal activity, making hosting ROMs a high-risk activity. Oh, so did I... good old times those were. (and no, I'm not nostalgic this time, lol) The subdomain ROM hosting on ZD is plausible deniability; it will either go away or it will stay, and either way it shouldn't affect the main ZD site. Especially considering how the poll seems to be turning out. I don't really think we're hosting the ROMS. I think he's getting them from some other place. At least the roms aren't hosted on roms.zophar.net, they're on a xxx.yy.zzz.aaa (IP only) server, and I can't really bother to go check where it'll lead. Last edited by Xeon3D; 07-18-2008 at 06:51 AM. the_importer Couple of things: 1- PlanetEmu and other sites aren't still Online because they haven't been caught, they're still Online because game companies don't give two fucks as long as they keep it old school (I'm sure that any of those sites start hosting NDS ROMs, they'll be shut down). 2- Rule 45 Anyone on the Internet going on record stating that they are against a form of piracy are pirates themselves. If you're on the Internet and know about piracy, odds are that you do it in some way, shape or form such has illegal: Music, Movies, TV Shows, Anime, Softwares, PC Games, Console Games, ROMs, Operating Systems, etc... These people could be defined as hypocrites for judging people on doing something that they do themselves. The only explanation of this behavior would be fear of getting caught or fear of judgment. -Nintendo_Fanguy0007: Downloading Wii games is a crime, you shouldn't be doing this!!! They'll catch you and throw your ass in jail...... -Common_Sense_Guy8080: Rule 45 man!!! You're probably typing this on your PC with a cracked copy of Windows XP, listening to music downloaded via Lime Wire and watching bootlegged movies on your TV that you got via Bitorrent. Send a private message to the_importer Find More Posts by the_importer Ahh, clarification! Thanks for defining the rule. (But why 45?) It's getting a little off the topic, though - the question isn't whether or not Xeon3D has illegal roms, but whether or not Zophar's Domain should host illegal material. I'm viewing it in my previous comment as a question of risk. ROMs themselves are high-risk; music rips are low-risk. They aren't no-risk, I will admit, and if they disappear I wouldn't cry about it. I'd miss them, but I wouldn't be heartbroken. The only legality issue in regards to the music isn't 'can we legally host these files?' because as Xeon pointed out, the definitive answer is no, it isn't legal. Instead, the question is 'will anyone get upset at us for hosting these files?' So far the answer seems to be no, but there is always the possibility this will change, and it isn't the sort of thing the ZD administrators should fight for as it isn't the main focus of the site. Last edited by SparroHawc; 07-18-2008 at 06:11 PM.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0096.json.gz/line1394202
__label__wiki	0.69512	0.69512	Galena from Showa-shinzan volcano (Usu-shinzan), Usu-zan, Date City, Iburi Subprefecture, Hokkaidō Prefecture, Japan Locality type: Volcano Species: Galena Formula: PbS References: Africano, F., & Bernard, A. (2000). Acid alteration in the fumarolic environment of Usu volcano, Hokkaido, Japan. Journal of volcanology and geothermal research, 97(1), 475-495. Mineral Data: Click here to view Galena data Locality Data: Click here to view Showa-shinzan volcano (Usu-shinzan), Usu-zan, Date City, Iburi Subprefecture, Hokkaidō Prefecture, Japan Nearest other occurrences of Galena 2.7km (1.7 miles) ⓘUsu-zan, Date City, Iburi Subprefecture, Hokkaidō Prefecture, Japan 46.1km (28.7 miles) ⓘOshamambe Mine, Yamakoshi District, Oshima Subprefecture, Hokkaidō Prefecture, Japan 50.7km (31.5 miles) ⓘToyoha mine, Minami-ku, Sapporo City, Ishikari Subprefecture, Hokkaidō Prefecture, Japan 52.0km (32.3 miles) ⓘTodoroki mine, Yoichi District, Shiribeshi Subprefecture, Hokkaidō Prefecture, Japan 54.4km (33.8 miles) ⓘKunitomi Mine, Iwanai District, Shiribeshi Subprefecture, Hokkaidō Prefecture, Japan 67.0km (41.6 miles) ⓘTeine mine, Sapporo City, Ishikari Subprefecture, Hokkaidō Prefecture, Japan 69.1km (43.0 miles) ⓘOue mine (Oye mine; Ohe mine; Ooe mine; Oe mine), Shakotan Peninsula, Shiribeshi Subprefecture, Hokkaidō Prefecture, Japan 70.1km (43.6 miles) ⓘInakuraishi mine, Furubira District, Shiribeshi Subprefecture, Hokkaidō Prefecture, Japan 76.1km (47.3 miles) ⓘYoichi Mine, Yoichi District, Shiribeshi Subprefecture, Hokkaidō Prefecture, Japan	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0096.json.gz/line1394206
__label__wiki	0.858221	0.858221	CLAPTON CAST OUT Eric Clapton has been due to play a gig in Red Square, right outside the Kremlin. But now... well, now he's not. The authorities have withdrawn permission for reasons they haven't shared with the wider world. There are rumours someone played Vladimir Putin some of the stuff Clappo's done since Layla, but that's probably just been made up by people with too much time on their hands. Clappo's stuck out a statement: "Eric Clapton is extremely sorry to disappoint his numerous Russian fans but the circumstances of the cancellation are completely beyond his control." Tschaw. D'you think Lenin would have called off a rally just because the Tsarist regime said no? music eric clapton THE SECOND TIME AS FARCE Congartulations, we suppose to Pamela Anderson, who has married Kid Rock. At least, after her time as wife of Tommy Lee, it proves Hilda Rumpole's theory that women always marry the same sort of man. music pamela anderson kid rock tommy lee LIVERPOOL CONFUSES WISHES AND CONTRACTS A couple of months ago, we pointed out that Liverpool City of Culture had issued an excited press release talking about a forthcoming visit by Bono to the city that they'd not even yet invited him to make. Now, they're at it again, with a big spread in the local press about Madonna headlining the Capital of Culture year Summer Pops in 2008. If you read closely, though, they seem to have done little more than come up with her name during a brainstorming session. So it's less 'Madonna to play Liverpool', more 'Man writes pop star name on flipchart'. music madonna liverpool More from No Rock on madonna KASABIAN AND KAISER CHIEFS SITTING IN A TREE... One of the few things Kasabian had going for them was the rumoured hatred of the Kaiser Chiefs. You know, the Chiefs are alright and that, but if a species doesn't have a few natural predators they tend to run out of control - it's what happened with U2, for example. If Bono had had to spend more time fighting in the music press with Mark Knopfler or whatever, he would have had less time to invest in property and U2 might have still been making decent records today. But it turns out that Kasabian don't hate the Kaisers at all: "That's absolute rubbish. I know Ricky Wilson well and it really hurts. We get on. When people quote me saying I'm going to smash his face in, that's wrong because I didn't say that." And he said: "Ricky is a nice guy and we bump into the Kaiser Chiefs on tour all the time, just like we bump into a whole bunch of bands on the road. It's horrible when stories are blown out of proportion." "Ricky will know those quotes are rubbish. People just want to create a feud that doesn't exist." Well, yes. Otherwise you really are left with Kasabian being nothing more than a bunch of blokish blokes and, erm, that'd be it. Go on... surely you must hate them a little? Dislike them? What about Wilson's shirts, though? They must rile you somewhat... music kasabian kaiser chiefs WHY JOURNALIST'S VERBATIM NOTES ARE ADMISSIBLE IN EVIDENCE This piece from the Mirror's 3AM girls was deemed worthy of publishing by the paper that was once edited by Hugh Cudlipp: Eva Simpson & Caroline Hedley CHRISTINA Aguilera has a face like a slapped a*** despite stuffing her face at posh LA restaurant The Ivy. Cheer up, you miserable cow. We're not sure if we're more surprised that it took two people to write that, or that (presumably) their editors thought it was an item which had any value in it whatsoever. music christina aguilera More from No Rock on christina aguilera TIMBO HOMO OK We're not sure how likely anyone thought it was that Justin Timberlake would have been either surprised by Lance Bass coming out, or expected him to go "burn the fag! Gays are dirty and are wrong" in response. He isn't and hasn't: “Lance is one of my great friends. I support him and wish him all the happiness in the world." Joey Fatone is equally warm: “He took years to really think about how he was going to tell everyone. I back him 100 per cent.” We're not sure what form Bass can expect this support and backing to take - presumably he'll get calls from Timbo in the middle of the night saying "I've just met this Norton Graham bloke, he's gay - do you want to meet him, then? As you're gay as well..." music justin timberlake lance bass MELTING DOLLS We love the detail that you get in reports of noisy neighbours being taken to court, as if it was the fact it was the Pussycat Dolls being played at 4am in the morning rather than any music whatsoever that led to the complaints against Sam Healy of Cheltenham. Sam's had her stereo taken away as punishment, although she doesn't see why: “What have I done wrong? It wasn’t fair.” Clue, Sam: Playing the Pussycat Dolls at high volume at four in the morning. There would be the hint. music pussycat dolls IT'S NOT WAR. REALLY. Pete Townshend says reports of war between him and Daltrey miss the mark. It's just conflict: “Lebanon and Israel are ‘at war’ — not Roger and Pete. Roger and I are in full accord about our lack of accord. Always have been.” Actually, Lebanon isn't at war with Israel - Israel is bombarding a sovereign nation nation and killing it's citizens because of a beef with a third party, but we get the point: the phrase we think he's looking for is "old married couple." They're like the Duckworths. music pete townshend roger daltrey MADONNA SPOTTED IN ALCOHOL-SOAKED CLOTHES Thrifty, that Madonna, isn't she? Rather than spending a fortune on getting her clothes properly washed, she's having them sprayed with vodka. Apparently, it "kills the bacteria", or at least gives them a hell of a headache. An "insider" (we think a Madonna insider, rather than a bacterium) explains: “It’s fantastic for perspiration marks. Alcohol kills the bacteria, keeping stage clothes fresher. “It’s a trick they use in opera houses because the big divas perspire a lot.” We're sure Madonna will love being compared to a hefty opera singer. Let's hope nobody goes too close to her with a lit fag or anything. If Guy's looking for some Christmas gift ideas, she might appreciate this... music madonna GROUNDS FOR DIVORCE: BEING SNIPPY WITH STAFF Having been more-or-less stopped from running the Heather Mills porn pictures, The Sun has had to keep quiet about her for a while. Now, though, the divorce papers are out, and so they're returning to the fray. Apparently, Paul Macca is filing on the grounds of Heather's unreasonable behaviour, which includes being rude to the staff and "being argumentative", which perhaps gives more of an indication of how much McCartney has become accustomed to people not contradicting him. Original plans to file on the basis that Heather turned out to not be Linda fell by the wayside. Mills - at least as far as the Sun claims - is planning to fight back (so he was right about the argumentative bit, then). Paul's hired the same lawyer who represented Charles Windsor when he divorced Diana Spencer - because that went so well and smoothly, didn't it? Heather, meanwhile, is attempting to recast "argumentative" as "feisty": A spokeswoman for her said yesterday: “Heather’s going to be filing her own counter claims about matters both in this country and America. Any views she has on her divorce will be handled discretely. “She does not feel the need to repudiate claims that she may be headstrong or feisty. She is hugely disappointed that matters of such a confidential nature should be aired in public and feels it is inappropriate to speak about such matters with a child involved.” We love the idea that she's got a spokesperson having a pop at Paul while simultaneously insisting that the divorce will be handled "discretely" - presumably this was a press statement released in invisible ink and without a subject line on the email. The Mirror, meanwhile, takes the opportunity to update readers on how Mills' battle with the Murdoch papers over the hooker claims are going: apparently, she's tracked down Adnan Khashoggi who says he doesn't have a clue who she is, despite having supposedly paid her for sex at some point in the past. Which might help her case, although surely asking someone to recognise a hooker from twenty years ago is like having a line-up and saying "can you spot the woman who served you at the Dunstable Harvester three months ago?" music heather mills paul mccartney More from No Rock on heather mills NUMBER ONE NO SELL The big auction of every number one single ever that the papers have been getting so excited about this week turned out to be slightly more St Winfireds School Choir than Pulp: bids only reached £22,000, some three thousand shy of the reserve. We're waiting for the BPI to blame the lack of a sale on internet-based computer music piracy. music auctions More from No Rock on pulp J ON SCREEN If they do decide to can Lindsay Lohan, they could find a replacement LL to take her part. CBS have just thrown a large pile of cash at LL Cool J to "develop" stuff, on the grounds that he was quite good in House one time. This is kind of like shovelling sackloads of cash in the direction of whoever it is turning up doing the semi-famous cameo in The Bill this week, an idea so stupid we're expecting Charles Allen to be floating it down ITV HQ within the next couple of weeks. music ll cool j CEO SAYS NO MO' TO LO Singer and actress and train-wreck Lindsay Lohan got a surprise letter while in hospital recovering from "heat exhaustion or something plausible sounding like that", from the CEO of the company paying for her current movie. James Robinson also thought to CC the entire world in, too: "You have acted like a spoiled child and in doing so have alienated many of your coworkers and endangered the quality of this picture," Robinson added, claiming that Lohan's actions had caused "hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage" to the production. A spokesperson for Morgan Creek Productions confirmed the letter's authenticity, but said the company had no further comment. There was no immediate comment from Lohan's camp. Robinson, 70, rather savvily informed his 20-year-old talent that he was "well aware" that her "ongoing heavy all night heavy partying" was the reason for her "so-called exhaustion," rather than the illness to which she had attributed her late arrivals and absences from the set. Mind you, if all it takes to send a Lohan movie into turnaround is a couple of Bacardi Breezers and Spiral from Big Brother djing, surely that's a price worth paying? music lindsay lohan BONO'S FRIENDS You might be wondering what Bono is up to this weekend. Go on, guess. Nope, not some light DIY followed by a barbecue for The Edge and that bloke from the Virgin Prunes. No: his plans to sort out the lagging in the loft must be put on hold for another week. Because, in fact, Bono will be sharing a stage with Fox News' Roger Ailes addressing a bunch of Rupert Murdoch's flunkies at the News International summer getaway. Clinton, Gore, Blair and Peres will be there, but they at least have the grace to admit they're politicians seeking approval of the world's most Australian American. But how does Bono justify going along to be a dancing bear for the Fox News massive? Oh... yes, he's one of them, isn't he. We keep forgetting that. Remember, Bono - when you're rubbing the suntan lotion into Murdoch's crackly old skin, make sure there's plenty round the butt. It needs to be fresh for the weekend of kissing you've signed up to. music bono rupert murdoch fox news ALBARN ADDS ANOTHER SIDE PROJECT Damon Albarn seems to start on projects like an especially enthusiastic a-student with incredibly pushy parents and a fear of death. His latest take-up is a side-band called (steady) The Good The Bad And The Queen. In some ways it's like a supergroup, featuring Paul Simonon and Albarn and a couple of others. In other ways, it's nothing like a supergroup, sounding not entirely super and more like the sort of revue band thrown together by teachers to fill a quiet spot in the school play. music damon albarn SOMETHINGS TO LISTEN TO If you're anything like us, you really should accept that you can love PVC, or you can love cheese, but you can't love both. You'll also enjoy these superior aural products: The latest Popjustice podcast features a half-hour chat with the Pet Shop Boys, ranging over the demise of Top of the Pops, Turkey's accession to the EU and Neil Tennant misunderstanding Sandi Thom's songs: "I thought it was a dialectic." The Art of Pop - Jarvis Cocker explores the links between art schools and British music for Radio 4. St Martin's College, of course. Front Row - Mark Lawson talks to Cerys Matthews. Only one of these people has appeared in a skintight catsuit on the front of FHM. So far. Mixing It - Joan As Policewoman's particulars taken down by Radio 3. All these links will decay, of course, so be quick (we think you've only got 12 hours to get the Mixing It before the next one goes out). music jarvis cocker joan as policewoman cerys matthews More from No Rock on jarvis cocker TECHNOLOGY DEFEATS THE RIAA. AGAIN. Just as the RIAA were enjoying their moment of having closed down the defunct Kazaa comes some bad news for them: they've been forced to drop two of their fabulously expensive lawsuits against music fans. The two being sued connected to the internet through a wi-fi connection which was open to their neighbours as well; the record industry had no way of proving that files pulled down from their IP address went to computers owned by the person who payed for the connection. Of course, the motivation for dropping the cases was less about throwing more good money after bad, and the fear that if this became widespread public knowledge, it could derail lots of their legal activity. music riaa GONNA GET HIGH TIL THE DAY I DIE It won't come as a surprise that Bobby Gillespie likes his drugs. Although it seems to come as a surprise to the 3AM Girls: GRANGE Hill's Just Say No campaign obviously didn't wash with Bobby Gillespie, who claims he's at his "best" when off his nut on cocaine. The Primal Scream singer - who ties the knot with fashion stylist Katy England tomorrow - clearly can't remember Zammo and Roland's tough anti-drugs stance. Yes, girls, the world is divided into those who take drugs and those who bought Just Say No. It's like pointing at someone smoking a fag and saying "don't you remember that Nick O'Teen is a weed?" Or perhaps it's because Gillespie would have been twenty-two years old when the It's Not Just Zammo storyline shocked a nation with the surprise that "heroin dragon" wasn't a made-up thing, but very real. In other words, some seven or eight years past the target audience for the Grange Hill campaign. What does come as a surprise is his love of table tennis: "I used to do loads of cocaine. Me and my mates used to get sniffed up and play table tennis at my house. That's the way to do it. "Put lines on the table and then you can do those Japanese top spins and back spins right... Cocaine and table tennis - it's a great recreational activity. That's when I'm at my best. You know what I mean?" Which is kind of apt - table tennis is played with undersized balls which bounce a lot but are completely empty. music bobby gillespie primal scream More from No Rock on bobby gillespie LEE RYAN'S DREAM IS OVER It's hard to believe, we know, but the dream of Lee Ryan - solo superhero is over. He's been dropped by Sony-BMG after disappointing sales. Of course, Lee wouldn't want you to be upset at this news. Not while elephants are dying. music lee ryan blue EVEN A STOPPED CLOCK IS RIGHT SOME OF THE TIME Victoria Newton is careful to describe the list of tracks she says will appear on the Oasis boast-of, Stop The Clocks, as "the full list of tracks Noel wants to make up the collection", rather than a definitive final list. Anyway, here's what she reckons the listing will be: 1 Some Might Say 2 Don't Look Back In Anger 3 D'You Know What I Mean? 4 All Around The World 5 Go Let It Out 6 The Hindu Times 7 Lyla 8 The Importance Of Being Idle 9 Masterplan 10 Half The World Away 11 Acquiesce 12 Champagne Supernova 13 Rock 'n' Roll Star 14 Supersonic 15 Wonderwall 16 Whatever 17 Boy With The Blues 18 Stop The Clocks What's extraordinary about this, though, is not that it includes some clunkers - if they don't want to just repackage the first album, the need to feature post-success stuff means there's always going to be some stinking old carcasses like The Hindu Times or - god have mercy on our souls - Lyla. But no Live Forever? Possibly the only claim Oasis really have to having produced something that could justify their existence? FEEDER ME WITH YOUR LESBIAN KISS We're almost too weak to comment on Grant Nicholas' strangely fifteen year-old take on his own fans: "There were two lesbians snogging at the front. I was on stage and did a double take. "I didn’t think we had a particularly large lesbian following. I don’t mind it at all though! It’s definitely better than two men. "Gay, straight etc, it’s all OK by me. I want everyone to hear our music." Yeah, bisexuals love being lumped in as "etcetera", Grant. And especial kudos for the "better than two men" observation. We suspect the women weren't lesbians at all, but just felt that snogging each other was better than having to pay attention to anything going on the stage. To be honest, we'd rather snog a camel than listen to a Feeder live set. music feeder grant nicholas More from No Rock on feeder LETOYA'S BACK! BACK, BACK, BACK! Letoya! Hurrah! Of course you do... she was in Destiny's Child. Yes she was... you remember the song: Kelly, can you handle this? Michelle, can you handle this? Beyonce, can you handle this? I don't think they can handle this! Um... Letoya, can you... oh. Alright, she was one of the bags of ballast lobbed over the side to help the group rise to new heights (or, more accurately, got herself axed when she suggested that Beyonce's Dad be canned as manager), but now Letoya Luckett is back. And not - can we get this straight - bitter: It was more just hurt. "I knew I would never get to see them again. I couldn't call Beyonce just to talk. "The only way of seeing them was in magazines and on TV, showing how successful they were. But I never felt like I didn't want them to be successful." It's funny how after you get sacked for trying to unseat someone's Dad they stop returning you calls. It's also funny how she wasn't ever bitter, but has tried to sue Beyonce twice (come to think of it, that might have made it tricky to call her up to chat about hemlines, too.) The Sun suggests this is Letoya's second crack at fame, which is true, if you ignore her post-Destinys band Anjel. Which didn't really do anything much. music letoya luckett destinys child beyonce MICHAEL PREPARES TO SUE George Michael has announced his intention to sue - no, not the News of the World, but the bloke who he was supposedly shagging in the bushes on Hampstead Heath and people who reported stories that Kenny Goss had called off the wedding as a result. He's also thinking of bringing a legal action against the photographers who were harrassing him on the Heath and generally, which might have more grounds to it. Since Michael is laid-back and open about his love of cruising, though, surely the only grounds he could have for claiming libel from a bloke who said he's had sex with him under those circumstances is on the grounds that he'd never do it with a bloke like that - I may have sex with strangers in bushes, but I have my standards about which strangers; and since Michael has been rude about him on television you could argue that it's the van driver who has been held up to ridicule and belittlement by George rather than the other way round. Michael has a strong point on the harrassment; we're not sure suing a fellow cruiser is that wise a move. FLOWERS SAYS SORRY After his damning of the likes of Fall Out Boy and Panic at the Disco, Brandon Flowers has now said sorry. It's just he's opinionated: "I'd like to take it all back. These people are just doing what they want to do, just like I am.” "I'm actually a nice person and I love people. I just am opinionated, and sometimes jealous. It's not something I'm proud of." Flowers added that he was especially upset by his slagging of Panic! At The Disco because he’s never actually listened to his fellow Nevadans. “I don't even know what their music's like, or if I would even like it. That made me feel even worse, to think they could have been fans of ours and I hurt their feelings. That's just stupid." Flowers had been targetted by emo hardliners after his comments - some had strummed electric guitars in a very angry way; others had made plans to send very angry emails just as soon as Mom and Dad had finished with the computers. Mind you, saying hurtfull things about bands he's never even heard: if they ever revive the Melody Maker, Flowers could make an excellent editor. music brandon flowers the killers fall out boy panic at the disco I WON'T DIE 4U NEMORE I'm not sure that I knew that Prince had got married a couple of years back; now that we've found out, it's all over and Manuela Testolini Nelson has filed for the legal right to return her name to plain old Manuela Testolini. They got married in 2001, Prince's second and longest marriage to date. EMI TELLS WARNERS "WE DON'T REALLY LOVE YOU" Following the potentially hella-messy EU ruling which could see Sony-BMG forced to seek an annullment to their merger, EMI have formally announced they're no longer seeking a merger with Warners. It's a bit of a shame for the companies which have put lots of money and time into trying to draw a link-up. We'll leave you alone for a moment to think kind thoughts of them. music emi warners All is not peace and light in the reunited Who ranks, as Daltrey and Townshend have a falling-out: "Roger seems to think when I provide bandwidth for The Who website, and for live streaming, he is being exploited in some way and wants a piece of the future 'profit'. Don't think there is much chance of profit when it is all aimed at charity." "Daltrey seems to be unconvinced that the web has any real contribution to make to our career, and I am not going to spend any more time or money mortgaging my half of the stage. "Roger is my partner in The Who. He is not my partner in anything else. We love each other but we are not regular social buddies like Bono and The Edge, we do not discuss or share ideas, and we have no unified joint vision of strategy for The Who or for creative projects in general." Maybe the word "reunited" we used earlier was slightly misjudged. music the who roger daltrey pete townshend MICHAEL: THE WEDDING IS ON For the benefit of tabloid journalists who have trouble keeping up, George Michael has reiterated that his personal relationship with Kenny Goss allows each of them to dally on the side, that a spot of cruising doesn't, for some gay men, constitute a "sex shame" and he's still marrying Goss. The ceremony has been put on hold, though, so as to reduce the number of hacks attempting to disrupt proceedings by, say, dressing up as hedges or something. KAZAA GOES LEGIT In what the record industry is portraying as a famous victory, and everyone else sees as the last squirt of a spent force, Kazaa has agreed to pay USD100 million to the music industry and to go legitimate. Money, we suspect, it just hasn't got. "We have won another battle in an ongoing war," said John Kennedy, chairman and CEO of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industries (IFPI). "We move forward with a spring in our step." This, of course, despite most filesharers having migrated to bittorrent years ago. This move is about as significant in the battle of copyrights as the closure of Napster was - it's a torching of a ghost town. Kennedy tries to engage with the awkward fact that, for all the legal actions and upbeat press releases, people are still sharing files in a way they perceive as illegal: "We're not sure whether we should be pleased that it has not increased or displeased that it has not gone down," said Mr Kennedy. "We're not proud or disappointed." You're not sure? Well, lets try and give you a clue, Kennedy. If you had rats in your basement, and you spent a fortune hiring exterminators, and the number of rats didn't change at all, how would you feel? Like you'd wasted a lot of money, we'd bet. The other downside to this agreement is that now Kazaa have accepted responsibility for their user's filesharing and come to an agreement to compensate the music industry for what it claims are its losses, does the RIAA have any moral right to claim to be compensated for the same losses from the end users? Hasn't this agreement effectively closed off much of the legal action that the RIAA has been pursuing? music riaa kazaa I'M A SAM, NOT A BOY Good lord. Marilyn must be pissing himself laughing this morning. Meet Sam, who has been chosen to take the lead role in the revived, Boy George free, Culture Club. The band had said they weren't going to go with the first karaoke George who walked in, so we must assume Sam was the second one. But, oh, what mystery: they're not revealing his second name. music culture club boy george More from No Rock on boy george KORN'S APPEAL TO VFM It's not the most compelling argument in support of a gig, but you cant fault Korn's family value tour on price. To their credit, the band have cut a deal which allows prices to start at around a fiver - hardly a celebrity price-tag and raises the question: if a bunch like Korn can do it, why can't some smarter bands take the same sort of move to stop ripping their fans off? music korn YOU'RE HOFF THE FLIGHT Pop legend (in Germany) and worldwide joke-butt David Hasselhoff was allegedly barred from a BA flight after turning up a little worse for wear. Apparently, he didn't even know who he was: A witness told the Sun: "A passenger asked if he was David Hasselhoff and he said, 'Not at all, you must be mistaken'. "He wasn't aggressive, he just had problems standing." The Hoff said he was upset following his divorce. music david hasselhoff THAT'S CHRISTMAS RUINED, THEN Reports from the other side of the shark suggest that Peter Kay is plotting with Sharleen Spiteri to cook up some sort of Christmas musical confection. Spiteri promises a nightmare line up and, of course, hilarity: “Peter’s got so many mates in the music industry now so I’ve told him to get an album together. He’s performed with me, TONY CHRISTIE and ELTON JOHN and he’s friends with PAUL WELLER, BILLY JOEL and TAKE THAT. “If he got an album together with all of them on there it is bound to go to No1. I’d definitely be on it. “We are already doing something together at Christmas which I can’t talk too much about. — but of course, it is going to be hilarious. “It would be great if he managed to get the album together for then as well.” Kay, of course, somehow managed to get a credit on a re-release of Tony Christie's Is This The Way To Amarillo despite not actually doing anything on the record at all. Yes, he was in the video - but so was Sooty. Older readers might recall a time when Kay was a mildly amusing commedian rather than a kind of entertainment giant knotweed. music peter kay sharleen spiteri HOW FAR CAN YOU MAKE A BAG OF ICELAND CHICKEN KIEVS STRETCH? Kerry Katona - that strange cross between Kate Moss and Eileen Grimshaw - is apparently going to have another baby; congratulations to her and Mark Croft. The foetus is pitching a 'My womb hell' story round Fleet Street. music kerry katona atomic kitten warrington HAS ANYONE SEEN AMY WINEHOUSE RECENTLY? Nobody's seeming to see very much of her, as apparently she's abandoned her Thomesque disdain for Heat-style celeb image-obsession and adopted some sort of wacky over-enthusiastic workout regime. A friend, all worried, tells the Daily Mail: "Naturally she found the attention quite difficult to handle especially as not all of it was flattering. "While she doesn't mind people criticising her music, she was devastated when snide remarks about her appearance were made. "She has experimented with new piercings, hairstyles and even make-up but the single biggest thing that makes Amy feel better about herself is going to the gym. "For the past 18 months she has been going to her local women's-only gym, for a two hour session, every single day. She is neurotic about it, completely obsessed. "Amy will do a full cardio, fat-burning workout followed by lots of repetitions, on a relatively light load, on the weights machines. As her body has become transformed, the more weight she's lost, and the more obsessed she has become." We're not really sure we can remember anyone making snide remarks about her appearance but we're at least delighted to hear she's too busy doing star-jumps to worry about people like us calling her Whiney Almshouse and similar things. It is odd, though, that she used to insist on following the Tori Amos playbook and now doesn't really care much about the music at all. If you can believe a friend filtered through the Mail. music amy winehouse ENTER SANDMAN DOWNLOADS They've hitherto refused to come to the party, bemoaning the very idea that anyone could buy one of their precious songs without taking the whole album, but Metallica have finally realised the only hope of selling their music online is by joining iTunes. The famously grumpy band have decided to allow Apple to help their bottom line. music metallica itunes apple More from No Rock on metallica THEY DON'T APPEAR TO HAVE ASKED CALLMEDAVE A survey of the favourite albums of British MPs have proven them to be as slavishly mainstream as their policies, with Led Zep II coming out on top. Mark Oaten, who is stepping down as an MP following a bad year of private life "miscalculations", picked Dare as his favourite: This album reminds me of my last year at school and brings up a lot of happy memories. Every track is a killer, not a filler." Yes, he really did say that. George Galloway saluted the indefatigability of Dylan's Blood on the Tracks, while foreign secretary Margaret Beckett simply said they should ask America and Israel what they thought, as that's how it works round here. Lembit Opik went with Led Zeppelin: "Zeppelin made a new kind of music. They created a genre many have copied but no-one has equalled. And Whole Lotta Love is the greatest rock song ever." Pretty much like the Social Democrats broke the mould of British politics, then. The album quiz may have had something to do with the British Library introducing listening posts, or could just have been a task the speaker gave the MPS before they break up for summer to keep them busy. The trade and industry select committee were outside playing rounders all morning. BASS: OUT, PROUD AND AT PEACE One of those announcements that are surprising only in that they expect us to be surprised: Lance Bass has come out. As, you know, gay. Apparently, he hid his true self because he was thinking of Justin Timberlake (and how many men can honestly say they've not taken themselves in hand thinking of young Justin?): "I knew that I was in this popular band and I had four other guys' careers in my hand, and I knew that if I ever acted on it or even said (that I was gay), it would overpower everything. "I didn’t know: Could that be the end of ’N Sync? So I had that weight on me of like, ‘Wow, if I ever let anyone know, it's bad.' So I just never did." Mr. Bass really believes this - that had he said "I like boys", nobody would ever have been able to think about anything else N'Sync ever did again. The fact he thought that being out would harm his band doesn't mean, you know, that he thinks it's dirty or wrong. And you can't read anything into the longeur between the end of N'Sync and this outing, either: "The thing is, I’m not ashamed – that’s the one thing I want to say," he explains of his decision to come out. "I don't think it's wrong, I'm not devastated going through this. I'm more liberated and happy than I’ve been my whole life. I'm just happy." As for why he's talking about this now Bass says, "The main reason I wanted to speak my mind was that (the rumors) really were starting to affect my daily life. Now it feels like it's on my terms." Got that? It's "on his own terms", although, apparently, he's only coming out because of rumours, which is a bit like a person being run out of town on a stick saying that it's something they were planning to do anyway. "I'm at peace with my family, my friends, myself and God so there's really nothing else that I worry about." God was unavailable for comment at time of going to press, we understand. But when people are described as being "at peace", doesn't that usually mean they've died? music lance bass nsync BON STONE GONE That's not what you want on what would have been your 60th birthday - someone nipped down to Bon Scott's grave and made off with the plaque. Rumours that he was also shaken all night long couldn't be confirmed. music ac dc bon scott CERYS FOR A MONTH In a bid to raise money to help Autistic Welsh children, S4C have pulled together a calendar which, in a bit of a twist, doesn't feature naked people. Instead, twelve Welsh celebs show off their favourite little black dresses. None of them are men, sadly, but Cerys Matthews is amongst them. music cerys matthews MR. DOHERTY'S DIARY Today i done an intervue with the NME where I told them about how I've sold you down the river in order to get money to use on skagimplants (better remember these are going to be published - don't wanna get meself in nah bovver, eh?) I told 'em this abaaaaht you: "It's amazing nonsense. The book's very personal and very open. There'll be stuff that people haven't seen before. Very private thoughts, very private thoughts indeed. You'll have to wait and see. Raise a toast to it." Naaaahbaaaady ahhhhsked me what sort of private forts you sell for one hundred and fifty smackers, though. Haaaaaaaarrrgh! Pete. music pete doherty babyshambles THE BURGER QUEENS SUPER-SIZE Placebo are limbering themselves up in order to play the hugest UK gigs of their glitter-strewn lives: Wednesday 6th December SECC Glasgow Thursday 7th December Nottingham Arena Nottingham Saturday 9th December Wembley Arena London Sunday 10th December Evening News Arena Manchester Yes, yes, they've done Wembley before, but this is the first time they've attempted to fill stadia outside of the capital. Blimey. music placebo brian molko More from No Rock on brian molko, placebo SCIENTISTS DISCOVER NEW ASTRONOMICAL MEASURE: THE PRECISE DISTANCE OF A JOKE STRETCHED TOO FAR Buckethead, sort of out of Guns N Roses, is going on tour. We know. music buckethead V GOOD NEWS While we're talking tickets, apparently the Chelmsford branch of the V Festival has got a small pile of leftover camping tickets. This might be your only chance. [Earlier: V line-up] music v festival MAGIC TELEPHONE NUMBERS The Magic Numbers are doing a gig for one of the mobile phone companies in Manchester this coming Friday. Most of the tickets will go to the company's customers, but apparently you can go into some sort of hat to win some spares by sending an email to t-mobilestreetgigs@redmandarin.com with such details as you choose to share with them. music magic numbers SHARLEEN SPITERI'S EYE FOR THE GIRLS Back before anyone had heard of KT Tunstall - oh, and weren't they the days, my friends? - the number one question about the sexuality of Scottish female singers was "Is Sharleen Spiteri a lesbian?" The answer is no, but Shar doesn't mind people asking: People are probably clear that it in no way bothers me. I came on in my sailor suit. It was my big lesbian moment. People went, 'Is that for the boys?' and I was like, 'No, the girls'." "I adore women. I just don't sexually fancy women. "I mean, who knows, maybe in my life at some point a woman will come along and I'll just fall madly in love with her. "I always claim that I'm the one member of the band who could actually pull the most beautiful women." Well, yes, although that isn't saying much. music sharleen spiteri texas OH, MY SISTERS While we're considering this morning's Sun, does it really believe Jake Shears from the Scissor Sisters really was seriously considering suicide when he came off the band's tour? Because if so, isn't the headline I wanted to Jake it all in a little bit insensitive? Mind you, we're not entirely sure that Shears means he literally was going to drown himself: “Getting off the road was the most miserable thing I’ve ever experienced in my life. “I’ve never felt so low. I was ready to go walk over to the Hudson and float away. It was more than a comedown. It was like shooting a torpedo into the ground.” Now, that sounds like a metaphorical expression of a feeling to us, but the paper is on the phone to The Samaritans: Despite becoming one of the most loved performers in music Jake returned to New York on the brink of throwing himself in the city’s Hudson River. There's a difference between "I could have" and "I almost" that they've missed, surely? Meanwhile, Shears' decision to marry his boyfriend gets an odd treatment: Now Jake is planning to follow his pals SIR ELTON JOHN and DAVID FURNISH’s example by, walking boyfriend Chris up the aisle. Up the aisle - geddit? What we love, though, is the suggestion that Elton is the only gay man who has ever got married and so any gay weddings have to be done in emulation of him - it's like reporting Cheryl Tweedy and Ashley Cole's nuptials as "following the lead of Britney Spears and Jason Alexander." Still, like Elt and mycivilpartnerdavid, they're planning a quiet wedding in a traditional setting, are they? And he plans to do it at the Glastonbury festival. He told Attitude magazine: “Chris thinks it might be too much of a scenario but I think it’d be a great party. “We could have naked trannies jumping out of cakes and stuff. It’d be fun.” If a transvestite is naked, are they still a trannie? music jake shears scissor sisters gay weddings elton john suicide More from No Rock on glastonbury LINDSAY LOHAN'S SPOT SPOT While it's not very good, we're trying to understand why The Sun is so exercised over Lindsay Lohan's advert for some sort of acne treatment. COULD this be Lindsay's worst acting performance ever? booms the tabloid - well, not really, it's no more wooden than most of her stuff. Better still, the paper breathlessly reports We've managed to get our hands on the starlet's cringey new acne commercial. How have they managed this? Bribery? A journalistic sting with a muppet dressed up as a make-believe Arab prince? Erm... no, it's a YouTube embed. So The Sun has "managed" to use a search engine, then. IN DEFENCE OF BOB Strange times over at The Guardian's comment is free weblogs, where Tom Robinson springs to a second post about Bob Geldof in 24 hours, after his first led to some comments suggesting that, actually, Geldof might not be much cop. I'm appalled by the torrent of ignorant, spiteful bile directed towards Bob Geldof and his music in response to yesterday's post - typified by HowSoonIsNow's comment: "As a musician he's a dead loss: mountain of attitude, molehill of talent." Blimey. An Italian promoter made a major miscalculation as to venue size and ticket price - a not uncommon occurrence - and suddenly it seems to be open season on Geldof's musical career and personal integrity. Well, yes, it was a "major miscalculation" on venue size - although since the Rome gig booked for Bob only attracted fifty takers, anything larger than a home economics classroom would have been ill-advised; what is debatable, though, is if the comments on the original post really constituted an attack on either Geldof's career or integrity - a few suggestions that his glory days were in the past and the odd querying of why he didn't just turn up and play is hardly "open season." However, Robinson wants to prove that Geldof isn't washed up, and launches into a bizarre defence: To begin with the music: you don't have to like Bob's songs to at least respect the fact that others - including me - have liked them a lot. Here is a man who wrote 13 top-30 hits between 1977 and 1990, including two number ones. Any fool with modest talent, reasonable looks and towering ambition can knock out one or two hits if they are lucky and pushy enough. Look at James Blunt. Or me, come to that. As Lady Bracknell might have said, to have written half a dozen hits may be regarded as good fortune; to have written more than a dozen looks like talent - at least from where I'm sitting. There's a strange double standard here - if we've read this right, Tom argues that even if you don't like somebody's songs, you should respect them for being popular. He then slags off James Blunt - who, surely, might not be to Tom's taste but ought to win his respect. But what of Bob's 13 top thirty hits? We loved the Boomtown Rats - I Don't Like Mondays and Rat Trap are brilliant pieces of work, by anyone's standards. There's Someone Lookin At You (woah-oh-oh-oh) and Banana Republic weren't quite as good, but could have held their heads up at the time as some happy bits of nonesense that Ed Tudor Pole would have killed to write. Beyond that... there's meant to be another nine? Certainly, artists and their music fall in and out fashion. But album tracks such as The Beat of the Night (Deep in the Heart of Nowhere) and The New Routine (Sex, Age and Death) make regular appearances on my iPod - and radio playlists - on sheer musical merit alone. Without wishing to do Tom down, we can't imagine we'd ever see a collection of CDs stacked in HMV with a sticky label proclaiming "As heard on Tom Robinson's iPod"; and if Geldof is frequently appearing on radio playlists (on merit or even through his company being a major independent supplier of programmes to Radio 2) it's odd that we've not heard his music coming out of a radio in years. Except one time in Asda a few weeks back. And that was the Rats. And, contrary to Scrittipolitti's posting, the Boomtown Rats didn't have a "heyday" in 1981, when they may or may not have been "reassuringly shite": they had a genuine, measurable, shout-it-from-the-rooftops heyday in 1977-8, when they clawed their way from obscurity to the NME front pages with a series of blinding gigs that blew away all competition night after night. The songs were great, the band were hot and Geldof was a rivetingly charismatic frontman. Spot on, Tom. Sadly, the words "were" and "was" are the key ones here. If they lost the plot later on under the pressures of success, it was no more than happened to contemporaries such as TRB, Squeeze, the Hot Rods, Graham Parker and countless others. So why all this bitter schadenfreude when it comes to Bob and the boys ? Perhaps, in this case, because nobody posted anything to a website about Squeeze or Graham Parker this week? Or maybe because - and this is probably their good luck - none of those have been turned into living saints and thus feel the urge to try and bolster their claims to be as famous for their music as their philanthropy? The uncharitable sneer from Correspondent Bob's solo career was "a half-hearted exercise which never took off and was over 20 years ago" is simply incorrect: Bob's hilariously defiant Great Song of Indifference made number 15 in 1990 and was widely covered in dozens of languages by recording artists across the globe - for the simple reason that people everywhere liked the song - on its own merits - very much indeed. Well, yes, that does make it factually incorrect, although since a number fifteen hit isn't so much a take-off as a soft landing, Correspondent should have said Bob's solo career was a "half-ignored exercise which barely took off and was sixteen years ago." As to his subsequent lack of musical output, Bob's personal life, in case you've forgotten, was devastated by loss, strife and tragedy during the 90s in the full intrusive glare of the world's media, gleefully detailing every fresh blow. He told me three years ago that at times of crisis there would be an average of 40 reporters camped outside his house. A scooter from the Daily Mirror and a van from the News of the World with blacked out windows tailed him everywhere he went. Even when he escaped the pressure at the weekends in Paris with close friends, there would still be journalists waiting for him on the Eurostar home. The astonishing thing is not that it took him until 2002 to write another album - the critically acclaimed Sex, Age and Death - but that he managed to make one at all under such conditions. Tom could have a point here - if Bob had been beseiged and unable to function during the 1990s, that is. However, he did manage to put together Planet 24, executive producing The Big Breakfast and The Word and building it into a company which Carlton would buy off him and his partners for £15million, while Geldof would establish another company, Ten Alps, to make TV and radio programmes and do PR for the likes of the Ministry of Defence. Indeed, it could be argued that Bob's creative desert was less because of family crises and more because he was spending so much time with his money. Whatever it is Bob Geldof wants, I'll bet you a quiet family life comes top of the list and getting his picture in the papers is pretty close to the bottom. The problem is that, whether he likes it or not, he has one of the most recognisable faces on the planet, which gives him almost unique access to the world's media - and most powerful political leaders - whether he chooses to use it or not. We suspect, though, he likes it quite a bit, don't you? Many of us feel that world debt and global trade barriers are a humanitarian scandal and Aids is an unfolding global catastrophe. But not many of us can do much about it beyond charitable giving, letter writing and attending the occasional demonstration. Let's suppose for a moment that Bob actually would like a quiet, easy life - News of the World permitting. What would you do in his place, knowing that simply picking up the phone might save dozens or even hundreds of lives? Put up the shutters, mutter "I've done enough" and tell the world to go fuck itself? Oddly, unless we've missed something, Tom seems to have started to responding to criticisms that hadn't been made of Bob in response to his original post. But since he asks: we like to think if we could ring up Blair, or go and play golf with Bush, we might take the opportunity to tell them to do something, rather than just appear with them on stage and tell them how great their half-arsed promises are. The idea behind Live8 was (supposedly) to demonstrate to the powerful that we, the people, were firmly behind the idea of justice for the impoverished, the ill and the uneducated of the world. That was why it was allowed to more-or-less railroad the Make Povery History movement. Instead, it seems to have been used by Bob and chum Bono to calm down the angry crowds on behalf of their friends inside Gleneagles. Or would you be big enough to accept the facts, the horrible responsibility that circumstance had thrust in your lap? Would you have the strength to put yourself in the firing line all over again, resigned to the fact that the media would think and write the worst about you whenever possible; and that whether you sought to alleviate a little of the world's unnecessary suffering or simply sit on your arse like everyone else, armchair critics would rip you to shreds? "Just think, all that self promotion and no one wants to know. Perhaps he should put up a montage of suffering Africans to get the punters in," wrote Xuitlacoche on yesterday's blog. Well, comment is free, and you are entitled to your opinion. Mine is that, on balance, the world is a better place thanks to Geldof's efforts than if simply sat down, shut up and crawled into a corner, as you would seem to prefer. Bob himself expressed all this far more eloquently, and at greater length, in his review of 1985 for the Guardian last December. Bigmouth strikes again? More power to his larynx. A short while after taking one of his commenters to task for suggesting the Rats big hits came three years after they actually arrived, Robinson manages to suggest that Geldof was reviewing a year twenty years later than the one he was actually looking back over. And that article is just an apologia, even down to the tired old line that "if we'd just saved one Ethiopian life then it would all have been worth it" - which, frankly, if he believes, makes him an idiot. What makes Robinson's defence of Geldof even odder is that even Bob himself admitted that in terms of sales and musical influence alone, he wouldn't have qualified for a place on the Live8 stage. If Geldof admits he's less musically significant than Razorlight and Snow Patrol, why can't Tom? [Thanks to Jim McCabe for the link] music tom robinson bob geldof YOU CAN FIT A ZUNE IN THE PALM OF YOUR HAND One of the biggest companies in the world, with an understanding of dealing across the market places of various countries would, you think, be able to come up with a name for its products that would avoid the pitfalls that befell, say, the Nova. (or the "Won't go" in Spanish.) So how have Microsoft managed to give their iPod killer the name Zune, French-Canadian slang for the cock? [Thanks to Karl T] music microsoft nuva DOHERTY GOES SOLO Having reached the point where there's only really him left to let down, Pete Doherty is going to go solo: "There'll be a solo acoustic album released this year. It differs from Babyshambles because it will be just me." 'Just what Pete wants to do' doesn't sound too different from Babyshambles, when you think about it. Oh, and he cheerfully admits he's doing the odd spot of skag: "I went to (Portugal) to detox and got clean ready for the implant. Things just kept going wrong with the implant, it was like, some public holiday, then customs cut it open. [A]fter Sweden, it was so bad I had to have a nasty, dirty old hit as soon as we got back to London. It fucked me up for three days." We didn't know that implants got bank holidays off. Or, come to that, that the patients have to hump their medical requisites with them from country to country. CONCRETES OVER Bad news for lovers of sub-Cardiganny sunshine pop: Victoria Bergsman has quit The Concretes. The band are pledging to carry on, carry on, as if nothing really matters: "The Concretes have announced that lead singer Victoria Bergsman is departing the band to pursue a solo career. The Concretes' performance of recent single 'On The Radio' on the last series of the Jonathan Ross TV Show is the last time the band will have played together prior to Bergsman's departure. "Anyway... Life goes on. We are working on new stuff and so is Victoria. We wish her the best of luck." Anyone else remember the Sneaker Pimps? No? Exactly. music the concretes victoria bergsman Arvel Jett Reeves secretly tapes Michael Jackson while Jacko was heading to hand himself in on child molestation charges. He gets eight months for conspiracy. And quite right - privacy is important. On the other hand, the US government asks phone companies to hand over acres of private data on millions of Americans, and most of the phone companies do so without a second thought. Nobody gets charged with anything. music michael jackson I REALLY LOVE YOUR TIGER FEET Lurking deep - okay, lurking fairly shallowly - beneath Britney Spears' pleather-clad exterior is a twelve year-old girl. The latest entry onto her Britblog is a picture what she found of a tiger and a thing about how she's like a tiger and how they're great: I'm mesmerised by tigers. Their eyes, their stripes, their constant quest for survival. They almost have a sense of mysteriousness about them. Almost, you'll note. They pull you in and make it difficult to look away. Especially if you poke them with your stick with the horse's head handle. They make you wonder what is behind their gaze. A sense of eerie awe comes over you when you are in their presence. And, of course, their tops are made out of rubber, their bottoms are made out of spring. music britney spears tigers MADONNA WILL ONLY GO WHERE NOBODY HAS GONE BEFORE The demands for Madonna's backstage comforts during the British leg of her Look, Look, Look At Me tour have wound up in today's Daily Mirror, and top of the list is having a brand new toilet seat installed in her dressing room. With a full inspection and a proper seal, too - she's not going to settle for a sash telling her it's been sanitised for her comfort. A DNA Of The Soul candle, made of a blend of lemon, lemon grass, tea, cinnamon and myrrh, which is meant to "restore meaning to lives that often feel meaningless". Now, why, we wonder, would Madonna feel the need to something to cure life of meaninglessness? Perhaps it's for Guy. A POWER of Prosperity candle which is meant to give you the strength to keep your ego in check To be honest, if you're the sort of person who refuses to use a toilet seat someone else might have sat on, you're probably going to need a few of these. AN Evil Eye candle, which offers protection from negative glances. Doesn't work, love. But at least you'll be set if there's a rolling brownout, so it's not all bad. Ein Gedi Dead Sea Foot Spa. We imagine this is a bit like a Clairol one, only stupider. Unsalted Edamame A type of Japanese pea, apparently. She couldn't just ask for M&Ms like everyone else, could she? Her very own love-seat [and she] insists that everything else in her dressing room, including the walls, will be draped in white - the symbolic colour of her faith, Kabbalah. Luckily, also the symbollic colour of having the painters and decorators in. Dozens of white roses will decorate the backstage area and the all-important bottles of Kabbalah water will be on hand. Or, we suspect, any old water put into Kabbalah bottles. Which is, after all, more or less what Kabbalah water is. THE FIRST ROCK GUITAR Robert Johnson's guitar, the one on which rock and roll was invented, is up for sale at a hefty $3.25 million. You'd have to sell your soul or something to get that sort of cash. Still, it does make it unlikely it'll wind up in the Frinton-On-Sea Hard Rock Cafe wedged between Tin Tin Out's shoes and some chains used by Jez, Howard Jones' interperative dancer. music robert johnson EAST 17 CAMEBACK, YOU'LL RECALL Or maybe you won't, as the resurrection hardly got the nation talking. And now it looks as if it might all be over, with reports of Tony Mortimer slapping Brian Harvey during a business meeting. Not the first time Harvey has fallen foul of a sack of spuds, of course. An eyewitness trilled: “Something inside Tony just snapped and he flew at Brian, punching him in the face over and over again. “He had to be pulled off Brian by the other lads in the band. Then he spent the next half an hour swearing at Brian.” He's living the dream, isn't he? The meeting was a discussion about a new contract for the band. So, a bit of a waste of time all round, then. music tony mortimer brian harvey east 17 ROBBIE WILLIAMS IS NOT HAVING A GOOD DAY We don't know what Robbie Williams has done to annoy The Sun, but they're currently handing out a kicking (footing out a kicking?) to him on a daily basis, inviting readers to deliver their verdicts on his new single, Rudebox. We'd love to think it was genuine outrage that he's pillaged the wonderful Boops (Here To Go) by Sly and Robbie - which is like melting down a Henry Moore to make some garden furniture - but we smell some other sort of score being settled here. Anyway, an apparent ninety per cent of Sun readers aren't fond of the track: “Rudebox sounds like Roland Rat’s 1983 hit Rat Rapping. It’s the worst song released by a major artist in the history of pop music.” That's a little unfair, as Rat Rapping wasn't that bad, but it does throw up the intriguing possibility that Jonathan Wilkes is the Kevin The Gerbil of our age. music robbie williams roland rat 100 LINES FOR ALLEN Uh-oh. Lily Allen's gotten herself into trouble for talking about taking cocaine. Now she's been bounced into a humiliating and meaningless apology: Lily, who had a No1 hit with Smile, said she “did not want to encourage youngsters to take drugs”. In her website apology, Lily, 21, added: “I made a silly joke while being interviewed. “I’m so sorry if I have disappointed any of you.” Well, we're not disappointed, but this sort of mealy-mouthed career-centered apology doesn't reflect any better on you. music lily allen A DUPREE DON'T COME FOR FREE Steely Dan are pissed, in a light-hearted but still meaningful sort of way. They reckon Owen Wilson has ripped the plot of their My Cousin Dupree for his new yukyukfest You, Me and Dupree. So they've filed a complaint with Luke Wilson: What we suspect may have happened is this: some hack writer or producer or whatever they call themselves in Malibu or Los Feliz apparently heard our Grammy winning song "Cousin Dupree" on the radio and though, hey, man, this is a cool idea for a character in a movie or something... Nevertheless, they, like, took our character, this real dog sleeping on the couch and all and put him in the middle of some hokey "Down and Out in Beverly Hills" ripoff story and then, when it came time to change the character's name or whatever so people wouldn't know what a rip the whole thing was, THEY DIDN'T EVEN BOTHER TO THINK UP A NEW FUCKING NAME FOR THE GUY!" Wilson - currently filming a story about a girl called Rikki who has a series of misadventures while trying to hold on to an important phone number - has yet to respond. music steely dan owen wilson ALLEN WINS CASH FOR MISSING OUT ON THE MERCURYS Last week, while we were busy elsewhere, the Mercury Music Prize shortlist was announced. These, then, are the 12 "best" albums of the last year: Arctic Monkeys - 'Whatever People Say I Am That's What I'm Not' Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan - 'Ballad Of The Broken Seas' Editors - 'The Back Room' Guillemots - 'Through The Windowpane' Richard Hawley - 'Coles Corner' Hot Chip - 'The Warning' Muse - 'Black Holes & Revelations' Zoe Rahman - 'Melting Pot' Lou Rhodes - 'Beloved One' Scritti Politti - 'White Bread Black Beer' Sway - 'This Is My Demo' Thom Yorke - 'The Eraser' From these, only one can go ahead to be given the career kiss-of-death and small cash reward; you'd have to fancy Editor's chances in the "not too obvious, but not too much of a showing-off" stakes. Lily Allen, apparently, was considered by her record company to be such a likely candidate for the prize (her album, Alright, That'll Do, came out on the very last day to qualify) that they've lobbed her twenty grand to make up for the harsh discovery that, when pressed, people don't actually think it's up to much. Not that the record company are being generous - they'll probably claw it back through "marketing" costs anyway. music mercury music prize editors lily allen WE'VE ALWAYS THOUGHT THEIR NAME CONJURES URINE-SPRAYING PONIES Sparklehorse. Perhaps it's just us, but they have one of the most off-putting names this side of those bands who try to be unpleasant by calling themselves things like Whooping Cough Blind Babies. Anyway, they're going off on tour for what seems like a big chunk of the Fresher's Circuit: September 26 Norwich Waterfront 27 Bristol Fleece 28 London Hammersmith Working Mens Club 29 Oxford Zodiac 30 Reading Fez October 1 Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms 3 Nottingham Rescue Rooms 4 Glasgow King Tuts 5 Aberdeen Moshulu 6 Leeds Cockpit 8 Sheffield Leadmill 9 Brighton Old Market 10 Newcastle Academy 11 Birmingham Gee Club 12 Liverpool Stanley Theatre 19 Edinburgh Liquid Rooms 20 Manchester Royal Northern College Of Music It's all in aid of a new album, apparently. music sparklehorse IRS EYES STIPE'S BOTTOM LINE Proving you can never sweat your assets too hard, IRS records is set to release a "new" best-of album of REM's time on the label, rather like the 1991 one. Only, you know, slightly different. WILLIAMS IS NOT GETTING MARRIED Pharrell Williams, that is, Apparently, he's got other commitments which makes romancing a lady a bit of a non-starter: "No, no romance. Music's been my girlfriend. That's the truth! It sounds crafty but it's really the truth. I haven't really been able to put time into anything other than music and fashion." Blimey. Let's hope he never finds out what music gets up to with Peaches and Andrew Lloyd Webber when his back's turned. music pharrell williams ONE OFF FROM FRANZ In order that they can remember how to tie their ties before going on stage for Reading-Leeds, Franz Ferdinand are doing a warm-up. Forum, Kentish Town (London again, sorry) on August 23rd. More from No Rock on franz ferdinand SPROUT-FACED MAN SAVES MADONNA FANS So, there you are, at a Madonna gig. Just as you're asking yourself why, there's a crowd surge and you're in danger of being knocked out your wheelchair. The security guards are no help. Who will save you? Leonardo DiCaprio, apparently, who shuffled up to make room for two wheelchairs in his part of Madison Square Garden. Of course, if he was really kind he'd have helped them to the exit. music leonardo dicaprio madonna PARK ATTACKED IN PARK Either Chris Park was hit so hard he lost all ability to handle perspective, or he still thinks that "having been in Phixx" counts as being, in some way, famous. Not that anyone would want to make light of the lad being jumped in a Newcastle park, but his reaction is a little curious: "I just thought, why me? It was so random and pointless - it shows everyone has to be careful. It can happen to anyone, anywhere." God, yes. It's almost like you're identical to any other member of the public who wouldn't be recognised in the street. music phixx chris park DEAD DRUMMER'S "FIANCEE" APPEARS Paul Hester, the former drummer with Crowded House, is offering an object lesson in the risks of dying intestate, as a woman who says she was engaged to him has turned up demanding a third of his estate - and also insisting that there's a lot more cash around than the official record suggests. She isn't, of course, Mardi Somerfeld, the woman Hester was living with when he committed suicide, which might make the whole situation even more messy and unmanageable. Oh - and unpleasant. Did we mention unpleasant? music crowded house SANCTUARY TO COME TO MAMA? Struggling uber-indie label and management company Sanctuary is facing a takeover bid from MAMA - and, if need be, MAMA is prepared to be hostile. Sanctuary have, apparently, yet to respond to the offer; difficulties incurred through growth have left the company forecasting losses of up to twenty-two million quid for the year to September. Equally unknowable at the moment is if MAMA are interested in the whole of Sanctuary's business, or if it would be looking to offload the record company part of the operation - a sizeable gem that might satisfy either EMI or Warners without causing them too many problems with the regulators. music sanctuary ZUNE: LESS AN iPOD KILLER, MORE A SELF-ABUSER Since never a week goes by without the launch of something or other touted as an iPod killer, and because the details of Microsoft's Zune device are so limited at the moment, nobody is getting very excited by the pre-announcement of a mobile device from the people who bring you Excel spreadsheets and soft-crashing operating systems. People who are looking closely, though, aren't even less than impressed. Wired sniff and point out that not only has virtually every piece of hardware coming from Redmond been a bit of a flop (the X-Box aside), but the long chain of partners involved in flogging the music, other (supposedly) compatable players and the company itself makes it very difficult to adapt to changes in the marketplace. And that's without the massive current lead Apple has. While the iPod isn't impregnable, it's still looking like it might have a few more years before Steve Jobs needs to lose any sleep. music zune ipod apple microsoft ROBBIE WILLIAMS IS NOT GOING TO BE POPULAR Robbie Williams is keen to ensure his privacy is only breached when he sees fit - indeed, he's managed to annoy press photographers by banning them from his German gigs, so keen is he to keep control of his public appearances. Oddly, the same Robbie Williams has now recorded a song which is, in effect, a tabloid-style invasion of someone else's privacy. It seems he once dated the same person (Tania Strecker) as Guy Ritchie, and Ms Stricker told him that when Ritchie dumped Strecker for Madge, he used the explanation that Tania was very nice, "but she's Madonna." This exchange has now formed the basis for a track on Williams' forthcoming album, which does raise the interesting question of if Robbie feels its okay for him to make public private conversations between the vaguely famous, can he ever complain if the press rake through his private life in the future? music robbie williams madonna guy ritchie tania strecker THE ONE WHO INSISTS HE'S FIRST ON THE GUEST LIST IS THE LAST TO REMEMBER HIS NAME We're not in London, and the odds are you're not in London, either. But if you are, chin up, it could be worse. At least you get the chance to sample the delights of Pretty In Pink clubnight at The Fly. The next one is this Thursday. Upstairs, it's Val and Nick pumping your ears full of New Wave goodness, while downstairs, Sean Turner surrounds himself with boys in make-up and girls in ra-ra skirts for 80s pop explosions. music pretty in pink GENNARO CASTALDO WATCH: Snow job Gennaro Castaldo had been so quiet of late we'd started to wonder if he'd been offloaded to keep the takeover panel happy, but here he is again, in the Belfast Evening Telegraph talking about Snow Patrol: But Gennaro Castaldo of HMV reckons Chasing Cars could be the sound of the summer and the band's first number one single. "HMV has placed a sizeable order for the new single, so we certainly think they're in with a chance of landing their first-ever UK number one." Gennaro is styled as a "music industry insider" for this one. Meanwhile... can this be the same Gennaro Castaldo? music gennaro castaldo snow patrol WHAT THE WORLD IS WAITING FOR Like some sort of musical unabomber, Geri Haliwell has been coming up with a masterplan to revive her career: Strategy - Game plan USA? Europe? Films?... how many can we get? TV Productions? Although, to be fair, Geri, you might want to try this: Bridlington? New Brighton? Behind the counter in Blockbuster? how much would I get from OK for twins? Is it too late for Celebrity Love Island? music geri halliwell I'M KARL-OFF Tom Meighan is feeling his heart-wrench as Kasabian guitarist and keyboard player Chris Karloff walks, citing "musical difficulties." That doesn't always mean "the bassist slept with the drummer's girlfriend", you know. Tom sniffles into his sleeve: "I am gutted. It's sad after you've been with someone all those years and he's a great person and friend and it's just one of those things. We wish him the best, he's a wonderful musician." ... which will stand him in good stead down the Underground. We find the idea of musical differences in the Kasabian camp pretty puzzling, to be frank - it's not like they're the sort of band who strike you as being overblessed with options for their future musical direction, so we can only conclude Karloff maybe pointed out how much all the songs sound like each other. music kasabian FOX SAVAGES ALLEN In a surprising explosion of exploding, Dr Fox has revealed he still exists. Fox - he's the one who was Capital Radio once, not the one who shared the sofa with Esther, that was Doc Cox - isn't impressed by Lily Allen: "I do think it’s all just hype with her. In two years’ time are we still going to be talking about her? No." He added: "Smile is a good summer tune, and very appropriate for the weather we’re having, but I think she’ll pretty much be a one-hit wonder." Doctor Fox used to present a chart show a few years back, so is something of an expert in how one minute you're going "this is a number one" and the next it's "you must remember me..." music lily allen dr fox WHERE WERE YOU HIDING WHEN THE WATERS BROKE? Good news from Wales, as not only has Mike Peters beaten cancer, and not complained about the state of the charts with all these young people and there not being any respect, but he's going to be a Dad again. Plus, he's got excellent blood: “My haematologist told me I had the worst blood diagnosis he had ever seen. Now he says I have the best blood result ever achieved in a cancer patient.” music mike peters the alarm CHURCH'S NAZI PAST How they even heard about it in the first place is a bit of a mystery, but under pressure from a catholic music publisher in the States, Charlotte Church has dropped a sketch from the creaking pilot of her 'comedy' show. The gig revolved round saying the Pope was a Nazi. The publishers weren't happy, although, erm, the Pope was a member of the Hitler Youth (and, of course, the Vatican had its 1933 Concordat with Hitler's Germany) and that doesn't seem to have bothered them. We suspect the opportunity to junk any of the weak sketches - and, frankly, this sounds pretty gnat's strength stuff - is just too tempting for the production team. music charlotte church pope benedict More from No Rock on charlotte church THE LONGEST STREETS As part of the victory celebrations for its 25th anniversary, MTV is getting The Streets to make the longest music video ever. We know it seems crazy - MTV planning to show a music video, but older readers may remember that before it started showing rappers touring houses they were pretending are theirs and Tim Westwood presiding over the ElizabethDukification of cars, MTV used to be a pop music station. Actually, though the finished piece will weigh in at twenty minutes, since Mike Skinner is going to provide the music for footage shot by filmmakers, this isn't a music video at all. Videos are films shot to fit music; what this seems to be is The Streets providing a short score for a film. music mtv the streets More from No Rock on mike skinner PIERCE YOUR EARS Back from his near-death experiences, Jason Pierce is about to tour the UK. Trying out new material for his next solo album, it appears: October Friday 20th Salisbury Arts Centre Sunday 22nd Brighton Komedia Monday 23rd London, Queen Elizabeth Hall Tuesday 24th Colchester Arts Centre Wednesday 25th Leicester, The Y November Wednesday 22nd Kendal, Brewery Arts Centre Thursday 23rd Gateshead, Sage Friday 24th Manchester, Lowry Saturday 25th Edinburgh, Queen’s Hall We are led to expect more dates might manifest themselves as and when. music jason pierce spaceman DURST THOU TAKE THIS WOMAN... Lets hope this time he's actually spoken to the woman, because apparently Fred Durst is getting married. Again. He met a woman called Krista Salvatore on Memorial Day weekend, and felt he should tell the world before the "rumours": "I wanted to set the record straight before it became something it is not. "This is very special to me. I am loving life." We love the idea that he's convinced there's an enormous gossip network just waiting to buzz into life to yakk about Durst's love life. It's more a case of "I thought I better announce it while people can still barely remember who I am." music fred durst limp bizkit More from No Rock on fred durst, limp bizkit While Israel continues to over-react Lebanon back into the twelfth century, the fairly grim question that arose when they told people living in the south of the country to get out was "as you've bombed the bridges and the airport and blockaded the port, how, exactly are we meant to flee?" Part of the answer? Pray to the god of heavy metal. No, really: Bruce Dickinson piloted a 757 from Cyprus taking Britons evacuuated by the navy from Beirut. music beirut bruce dickinson israel lebanon	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0096.json.gz/line1394208
__label__wiki	0.539289	0.539289	Problems in Mathematics Problems by Topics Gauss-Jordan Elimination Inverse Matrix Linear Transformation Vector Space Eigen Value Cayley-Hamilton Theorem Diagonalization Exam Problems Group Homomorphism Sylow’s Theorem Module Theory Ring Theory LaTex/MathJax Login/Join us Solve later Problems My Solved Problems You solved 0 problems!! Solved Problems / Solve later Problems Tagged: nonsingular matrix by Yu · Published 02/12/2018 True or False Problems on Midterm Exam 1 at OSU Spring 2018 Problem 702 The following problems are True or False. Let $A$ and $B$ be $n\times n$ matrices. (a) If $AB=B$, then $B$ is the identity matrix. (b) If the coefficient matrix $A$ of the system $A\mathbf{x}=\mathbf{b}$ is invertible, then the system has infinitely many solutions. (c) If $A$ is invertible, then $ABA^{-1}=B$. (d) If $A$ is an idempotent nonsingular matrix, then $A$ must be the identity matrix. (e) If $x_1=0, x_2=0, x_3=1$ is a solution to a homogeneous system of linear equation, then the system has infinitely many solutions. Read solution Click here if solved 42 Add to solve later If $\mathbf{v}, \mathbf{w}$ are Linearly Independent Vectors and $A$ is Nonsingular, then $A\mathbf{v}, A\mathbf{w}$ are Linearly Independent Let $A$ be an $n\times n$ nonsingular matrix. Let $\mathbf{v}, \mathbf{w}$ be linearly independent vectors in $\R^n$. Prove that the vectors $A\mathbf{v}$ and $A\mathbf{w}$ are linearly independent. Find a Nonsingular Matrix $A$ satisfying $3A=A^2+AB$ (a) Find a $3\times 3$ nonsingular matrix $A$ satisfying $3A=A^2+AB$, where \[B=\begin{bmatrix} 2 & 0 & -1 \\ 0 &2 &-1 \\ -1 & 0 & 1 \end{bmatrix}.\] (b) Find the inverse matrix of $A$. Determine whether the Matrix is Nonsingular from the Given Relation Let $A$ and $B$ be $3\times 3$ matrices and let $C=A-2B$. \[A\begin{bmatrix} 1 \\ \end{bmatrix}=B\begin{bmatrix} \end{bmatrix},\] then is the matrix $C$ nonsingular? If so, prove it. Otherwise, explain why not. Determine whether the Given 3 by 3 Matrices are Nonsingular Determine whether the following matrices are nonsingular or not. (a) $A=\begin{bmatrix} 1 & 0 & 1 \\ 2 &1 &2 \\ 1 & 0 & -1 \end{bmatrix}$. (b) $B=\begin{bmatrix} 4 & 1 & 4 Click here if solved 285 For What Values of $a$, Is the Matrix Nonsingular? Determine the values of a real number $a$ such that the matrix \[A=\begin{bmatrix} 3 & 0 & a \\ 0 & 18a & a+1 \end{bmatrix}\] is nonsingular. Are Coefficient Matrices of the Systems of Linear Equations Nonsingular? (a) Suppose that a $3\times 3$ system of linear equations is inconsistent. Is the coefficient matrix of the system nonsingular? (b) Suppose that a $3\times 3$ homogeneous system of linear equations has a solution $x_1=0, x_2=-3, x_3=5$. Is the coefficient matrix of the system nonsingular? (c) Let $A$ be a $4\times 4$ matrix and let \[\mathbf{v}=\begin{bmatrix} \end{bmatrix} \text{ and } \mathbf{w}=\begin{bmatrix} \end{bmatrix}.\] Suppose that we have $A\mathbf{v}=A\mathbf{w}$. Is the matrix $A$ nonsingular? If $M, P$ are Nonsingular, then Exists a Matrix $N$ such that $MN=P$ Suppose that $M, P$ are two $n \times n$ non-singular matrix. Prove that there is a matrix $N$ such that $MN = P$. The Vector $S^{-1}\mathbf{v}$ is the Coordinate Vector of $\mathbf{v}$ Suppose that $B=\{\mathbf{v}_1, \mathbf{v}_2\}$ is a basis for $\R^2$. Let $S:=[\mathbf{v}_1, \mathbf{v}_2]$. Note that as the column vectors of $S$ are linearly independent, the matrix $S$ is invertible. Prove that for each vector $\mathbf{v} \in V$, the vector $S^{-1}\mathbf{v}$ is the coordinate vector of $\mathbf{v}$ with respect to the basis $B$. Click here if solved 5 Diagonalize a 2 by 2 Symmetric Matrix Diagonalize the $2\times 2$ matrix $A=\begin{bmatrix} 2 & -1\\ -1& 2 \end{bmatrix}$ by finding a nonsingular matrix $S$ and a diagonal matrix $D$ such that $S^{-1}AS=D$. If the Sum of Entries in Each Row of a Matrix is Zero, then the Matrix is Singular Let $A$ be an $n\times n$ matrix. Suppose that the sum of elements in each row of $A$ is zero. Then prove that the matrix $A$ is singular. by Yu · Published 10/12/2017 · Last modified 10/13/2017 A Diagonalizable Matrix which is Not Diagonalized by a Real Nonsingular Matrix Prove that the matrix 0 & 1\\ \end{bmatrix}\] is diagonalizable. Prove, however, that $A$ cannot be diagonalized by a real nonsingular matrix. That is, there is no real nonsingular matrix $S$ such that $S^{-1}AS$ is a diagonal matrix. Three Linearly Independent Vectors in $\R^3$ Form a Basis. Three Vectors Spanning $\R^3$ Form a Basis. Let $B=\{\mathbf{v}_1, \mathbf{v}_2, \mathbf{v}_3\}$ be a set of three-dimensional vectors in $\R^3$. (a) Prove that if the set $B$ is linearly independent, then $B$ is a basis of the vector space $\R^3$. (b) Prove that if the set $B$ spans $\R^3$, then $B$ is a basis of $\R^3$. Linear Algebra Midterm 1 at the Ohio State University (3/3) The following problems are Midterm 1 problems of Linear Algebra (Math 2568) at the Ohio State University in Autumn 2017. There were 9 problems that covered Chapter 1 of our textbook (Johnson, Riess, Arnold). The time limit was 55 minutes. This post is Part 3 and contains Problem 7, 8, and 9. Check out Part 1 and Part 2 for the rest of the exam problems. Problem 7. Let $A=\begin{bmatrix} -3 & -4\\ 8& 9 \end{bmatrix}$ and $\mathbf{v}=\begin{bmatrix} -1 \\ (a) Calculate $A\mathbf{v}$ and find the number $\lambda$ such that $A\mathbf{v}=\lambda \mathbf{v}$. (b) Without forming $A^3$, calculate the vector $A^3\mathbf{v}$. Problem 8. Prove that if $A$ and $B$ are $n\times n$ nonsingular matrices, then the product $AB$ is also nonsingular. Problem 9. Determine whether each of the following sentences is true or false. (a) There is a $3\times 3$ homogeneous system that has exactly three solutions. (b) If $A$ and $B$ are $n\times n$ symmetric matrices, then the sum $A+B$ is also symmetric. (c) If $n$-dimensional vectors $\mathbf{v}_1, \mathbf{v}_2, \mathbf{v}_3$ are linearly dependent, then the vectors $\mathbf{v}_1, \mathbf{v}_2, \mathbf{v}_3, \mathbf{v}_4$ is also linearly dependent for any $n$-dimensional vector $\mathbf{v}_4$. (d) If the coefficient matrix of a system of linear equations is singular, then the system is inconsistent. (e) The vectors \[\mathbf{v}_1=\begin{bmatrix} \end{bmatrix}, \mathbf{v}_2=\begin{bmatrix} \end{bmatrix}\] are linearly independent. An Example of a Matrix that Cannot Be a Commutator Let $I$ be the $2\times 2$ identity matrix. Then prove that $-I$ cannot be a commutator $[A, B]:=ABA^{-1}B^{-1}$ for any $2\times 2$ matrices $A$ and $B$ with determinant $1$. Two Matrices are Nonsingular if and only if the Product is Nonsingular An $n\times n$ matrix $A$ is called nonsingular if the only vector $\mathbf{x}\in \R^n$ satisfying the equation $A\mathbf{x}=\mathbf{0}$ is $\mathbf{x}=\mathbf{0}$. Using the definition of a nonsingular matrix, prove the following statements. (a) If $A$ and $B$ are $n\times n$ nonsingular matrix, then the product $AB$ is also nonsingular. (b) Let $A$ and $B$ be $n\times n$ matrices and suppose that the product $AB$ is nonsingular. Then: The matrix $B$ is nonsingular. The matrix $A$ is nonsingular. (You may use the fact that a nonsingular matrix is invertible.) A Singular Matrix and Matrix Equations $A\mathbf{x}=\mathbf{e}_i$ With Unit Vectors Let $A$ be a singular $n\times n$ matrix. \[\mathbf{e}_1=\begin{bmatrix} \vdots \\ \end{bmatrix}, \mathbf{e}_2=\begin{bmatrix} \end{bmatrix}, \dots, \mathbf{e}_n=\begin{bmatrix} \end{bmatrix}\] be unit vectors in $\R^n$. Prove that at least one of the following matrix equations \[A\mathbf{x}=\mathbf{e}_i\] for $i=1,2,\dots, n$, must have no solution $\mathbf{x}\in \R^n$. The Matrix $[A_1, \dots, A_{n-1}, A\mathbf{b}]$ is Always Singular, Where $A=[A_1,\dots, A_{n-1}]$ and $\mathbf{b}\in \R^{n-1}$. Let $A$ be an $n\times (n-1)$ matrix and let $\mathbf{b}$ be an $(n-1)$-dimensional vector. Then the product $A\mathbf{b}$ is an $n$-dimensional vector. Set the $n\times n$ matrix $B=[A_1, A_2, \dots, A_{n-1}, A\mathbf{b}]$, where $A_i$ is the $i$-th column vector of $A$. Prove that $B$ is a singular matrix for any choice of $\mathbf{b}$. The Transpose of a Nonsingular Matrix is Nonsingular Let $A$ be an $n\times n$ nonsingular matrix. Prove that the transpose matrix $A^{\trans}$ is also nonsingular. Find the Inverse Matrices if Matrices are Invertible by Elementary Row Operations For each of the following $3\times 3$ matrices $A$, determine whether $A$ is invertible and find the inverse $A^{-1}$ if exists by computing the augmented matrix $[A\|I]$, where $I$ is the $3\times 3$ identity matrix. \end{bmatrix}$ (b) $A=\begin{bmatrix} -1 &-3 &2 \\ This website’s goal is to encourage people to enjoy Mathematics! This website is no longer maintained by Yu. ST is the new administrator. Linear Algebra Problems by Topics The list of linear algebra problems is available here. Elementary Number Theory (1) Field Theory (27) Group Theory (126) Linear Algebra (485) Math-Magic (1) Module Theory (13) Ring theory (67) Mathematical equations are created by MathJax. See How to use MathJax in WordPress if you want to write a mathematical blog. Linearity of Expectations E(X+Y) = E(X) + E(Y) Successful Probability of a Communication Network Diagram Lower and Upper Bounds of the Probability of the Intersection of Two Events Find the Conditional Probability About Math Exam Experiment What is the Probability that Selected Coin was Two-Headed? Determine Bases for Nullspaces $\calN(A)$ and $\calN(A^{T}A)$ The Matrix Exponential of a Diagonal Matrix Determine Dimensions of Eigenspaces From Characteristic Polynomial of Diagonalizable Matrix Normalizer and Centralizer of a Subgroup of Order 2 7 Problems on Skew-Symmetric Matrices How to Diagonalize a Matrix. Step by Step Explanation. Determine Whether Each Set is a Basis for $\R^3$ How to Find a Basis for the Nullspace, Row Space, and Range of a Matrix Prove Vector Space Properties Using Vector Space Axioms Show the Subset of the Vector Space of Polynomials is a Subspace and Find its Basis 12 Examples of Subsets that Are Not Subspaces of Vector Spaces The Intersection of Two Subspaces is also a Subspace Express a Vector as a Linear Combination of Other Vectors Summary: Possibilities for the Solution Set of a System of Linear Equations Rank of the Product of Matrices $AB$ is Less than or Equal to the Rank of $A$ Site Map & Index abelian group augmented matrix basis basis for a vector space characteristic polynomial commutative ring determinant determinant of a matrix diagonalization diagonal matrix eigenvalue eigenvector elementary row operations exam field theory finite group group group homomorphism group theory homomorphism ideal inverse matrix invertible matrix kernel linear algebra linear combination linearly independent linear transformation matrix matrix representation nonsingular matrix normal subgroup null space Ohio State Ohio State.LA rank ring ring theory subgroup subspace symmetric matrix system of linear equations transpose vector vector space Search More Problems Membership Level Free If you are a member, Login here. Problems in Mathematics © 2020. All Rights Reserved.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0096.json.gz/line1394216

Subsets and Splits

No community queries yet

The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.