Wino

Stories like the following, is heart wrenching and sad. The story puts into perspective, how very lucky I am. NEW DELHI - Arun Kumar was born to disabled parents, beaten by his grandparents, ran away from home, got a job in a garment factory and had all his savings stolen by the police. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091120/ap_on_re_as/world_s_children

Reusing the bags are a great idea. When at home, I usually save them up and return them to a recycling bin at the grocery store.

That may be true but we need to take one step at a time. I think it will help if Burma comes back into the international community.

And the US is #19. Ouch

Prevention is a good idea. I hope for a vaccine.

I was on the same plane as Jimmy Carter on a trip to Tokyo. Of course, I was back with the common people while he was in first class. I did see him as we were walking towards immigration. Tom Foley was there to greet him.

I think his prison time will be hell and could even be killed by fellow inmates. I hear that other prisoners do not like child molesters.

I usually always take my canvas shopping bag to the Tuesday, Friday market at Soi Bakou. Nevertheless, the vendors seem to always put the goods in a plastic bag. I think it would be a good idea to start charging for plastic bags throughout Thailand.

They do things differently in Texas, too. Here is yet another example of a wacko. This nut is trying an innovative approach to push his pot. BROWNSVILLE, Texas – A 19-year-old man was jailed on a drug charge after he allegedly went door-to-door trying to sell marijuana. A Brownsville police spokesman said Anthony Carrazco's alleged scheme went awry when he knocked on a police officer's apartment door. Spokesman Jimmy Manrrique said the episode happened Thursday downtown near the University of Texas-Texas Southmost College campus. He said Carrazco appeared to be intoxicated and allegedly had three ounces of marijuana with him that he tried to sell door-to-door. Finally, Manrrique knocked the off-duty police officer's door. The officer "said he would be right back and went to get his badge and handcuffs." Manrrique said the officer, whose identity was withheld, also found a handgun hidden on the man. Carrazco remains in a Cameron County jail with bonds totaling $10,000. No attorney was listed in his booking record. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091117/ap_on_fe_st/us_odd_door_to_door_pot

That's about $18 each. Even with free popcorn and drinks, that is too much money for a movie in Thailand. I bet they never have a crowd in that section.

One reason not to eat food from vendors on the streets of Moscow. MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian police have arrested three homeless people suspected of eating a 25-year-old man they had butchered and selling other bits of the corpse to a local kebab house. Suspicions were raised when dismembered parts of a human body were found near a bus stop in the outskirts of the Russian city of Perm, 1,150 km (720 miles) east of Moscow. Three homeless men with previous criminal records have been arrested on suspicion of setting upon a foe with knives and a hammer before chopping up his corpse to eat, local investigators said in a statement on their www.susk.perm.ru Web site. "After carrying out the crime, the corpse was divided up: part was eaten and part was also sold to a kiosk selling kebabs and pies," the Prosecutor-General's main investigative unit for the Perm region said in a statement issued Friday. It was not immediately clear from the statement if any of the corpse had been sold to customers. http://news.yahoo.co...nm/us_cannibals

Maybe this was part of the Leonid meteorite shower? LIBERAL, Kan. – A father and son have an extraterrestrial explanation for the strange rock that recently landed in their backyard in southwest Kansas. They are convinced it's a meteorite. Chandler Harp, 10, was playing in the backyard of his Liberal home when he heard what sounded like an explosion about 15 feet from where he was standing. He looked over to see a plume of dirt and debris shoot 5 feet high. At the bottom of a foot-deep hole, he found a 2-inch rock and showed it to his dad, Lee. Once Lee Harp got a look at the metallic rock, he was certain it wasn't from this world. He said, "I knew he had a meteorite." http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091117/ap_on_fe_st/us_odd_meteorite_backyard

Looks like the incident is giving this student fame in Brazil and maybe a well-trained security guard, as well? By ALAN CLENDENNING, Associated Press SAO PAULO – Brushing back freshly dyed blond hair as she posed for pictures, the Brazilian woman whose short pink dress got her kicked out of college said Tuesday she's enjoying her newfound fame, but wants go back to school — with a security guard. Just the day before, 20-year-old Geisy Arruda took her first trip on an airplane so she could relive her experience in a comedy skit on one of Brazil's most popular television shows. Star-struck business executives on the flight to Rio de Janeiro asked if she really was Geisy, then used their cell phones to snap pictures of themselves with her. It was heady stuff for a 20-year-old freshman from a blue-collar industrial suburb who says she just wants to get a tourism degree so she can fulfill dreams of working for a resort or a cruise line someday. She'd already appeared on two of Brazil's top interview programs, recounting how she was hounded from the campus of Bandeirantes University in October by male students yelling "Whore! Whore!" and was then expelled by school officials. The private university, which doesn't have a conservative reputation, backtracked amid a national uproar and said last week she was welcome to return for her regular routine of night classes. But Arruda's lawyer says she won't go back until she's promised a well-trained security guard to accompany her on campus. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091117/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_brazil_short_dress

I do not believe Brits are among the ugliest people but this dating website thinks so. LONDON (Reuters) – Britons are among the ugliest people in the world, according to a dating website that says it only allows "beautiful people" to join. Fewer than one in eight British men and just three in 20 women who have applied to BeautifulPeople.com have been accepted, an emailed statement from the website showed. Existing members of the "elite dating site" rate how attractive potential members are over a 48 hour period, after applicants upload a recent photo and personal profile. Swedish men have proved the most successful, with 65 percent being accepted, while Norwegian women are considered the most beautiful with 76 percent accepted, the website said. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091111/od_nm/us_ugly_dating

If this helps the environment, I am all for it. Maybe people will bring their own canvas bags when they go shopping. PHUKET CITY: Some said it could never happen, but starting on December 4 most of the island’s major retailers will begin charging customers for plastic bags. Already on board with the project are Central, Big C, Tesco-Lotus, Makro, Supercheap and Jungceylon. Do you think this initiative will cut down significantly on the approximately 500 tonnes of garbage sent to the island’s incinerator every day? http://www.phuketgazette.net/news/index.asp?id=8004

I think the message has been received. Now let us see if they act upon it. I think she might be freed before the elections. Let's hope.

I think Carter ranks high with many people. He seems to enjoy himself as an ex-president and has done much in that role.

You can can get an income verification letter in November but doesn't mean the letter will work for a February retirement visa. Hope you find the same immigration officer when you apply and it goes well for you.

Nice that T-Mobile gave a $100 gift card to the customers that lost data. Here is an update. NEW YORK - T-Mobile USA resumed selling Sidekick phones Tuesday, more than a month after a server meltdown at Microsoft Corp. caused contact numbers, pictures and other personal information to disappear from many of the phones. In the intervening time, Microsoft managed to restore most of the missing user data. T-Mobile provided $100 gift cards to affected customers. The Sidekicks listed on T-Mobile's Web site are now slightly cheaper. For instance, the top-of-the-line LX model is now $150, down from $175. Unlike most phones, Sidekicks can lose all personal data when the batteries run down. The data is then restored from Microsoft's servers over the wireless network. When the servers went down in early October, Sidekicks lost e-mail and Web access, and phones that ran down their batteries or were reset lost all personal data. Microsoft bought Danger Inc., the maker of the Sidekick, last year in an attempt to revitalize its own "smart" phone software portfolio. T-Mobile is part of Deutsche Telekom AG. http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20091117/ap_on_hi_te/us_tec_t_mobile_sidekick

This word is a new one for me. I am not on Facebook or other social networking sites and so that might be the reason why. NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) – "Unfriend" has been named the word of the year by the New Oxford American Dictionary, chosen from a list of finalists with a tech-savvy bent. Unfriend was defined as a verb that means to remove someone as a "friend" on a social networking site such as Facebook. "It has both currency and potential longevity," said Christine Lindberg, senior lexicographer for Oxford's U.S. dictionary program, in a statement. http://news.yahoo.co..._words_unfriend

Not to spoil the movie's ending, but does NASA come to the rescue and save the day? Read this interesting article. http://news.ph.msn.com/weird-news/article.aspx?cp-documentid=3698761

From one maverick to another, you betcha.

You obviously have not met the "little old lady from Pasadena." She can, go baby, go baby, go.

Here is Obama and his counterparts in their Singaporean outfits. Don't they look good in their linen shirts with Mandarin collars?

I wonder if Hasan would have used a vest full of explosives to kill 13 people, would we be having this same conversation?