Wino

Seems Rio is having a little problem with their electric power grid. Hope they resolve thing before 2016. SAO PAULO (AFP) – Brazil on Wednesday sought to uncover the cause of a massive and mysterious blackout overnight, amid concerns of energy supply stability for the 2016 Olympic host nation. The outage, which hit at 10:15 pm Tuesday (0015 GMT Wednesday) and lasted four to six hours, plunged nearly half the country into darkness. http://news.yahoo.co...lenergyblackout

Or find another friend that can drive you?

I certainly do not have the details of the red flags, but I can think of a few reasons this guy's action slipped through the cracks. He was a major and a medical doctor and so he was well-respected. Bureaucracy in the armed forces is entrenched. I imagine the information had to make its way up the chain of command. Some people in that chain are lazy and some don't want to rock the boat. Perhaps none of his actions were against the law or rules of the army?

I have not been haunted or visited by a spirit, but that does not mean I do not believe that it is possible. Many others have had this experience.

I am not sure if he will go to jail or not, since I am sure he has some influencial friends. I do believe in Karma. His past bad actions will come back to haunt him.

This sale does not include any travel around Songkran. If you sign up for Air Asia's sale alerts (I think they call it red alerts), perhaps you can find a deal around April. If you can travel between May and October 2010, there are some great deals. I checked a fare between Bangkok and Bali in July and it was under $30 US roundtrip. You can fly many places within Thailand for under $6 US.

That's right. Nobody said he was a typical Thai. He would be in the Thai elite category. I understand the Thai government has asked Interpol and the international community to be on the lookout for Thaksin. Seems they want to have him arrested and extradited back to Thailand. Paper have even been filed with Cambodia, according to the article I saw in the Nation. It is my opinion, there is a good chance that Cambodia will probably not follow through on that request.

Air Asia has another "free seats" promotion. Make your website purchase beginning Novemeber 11 and travel May to October 2010. Some real good deals.

This is really a scary thought. One good reason to have a very good anti-virus software. By JORDAN ROBERTSON, AP Technology Writer - Mon Nov 9, 2009 12:10AM EST Of all the sinister things that Internet viruses do, this might be the worst: They can make you an unsuspecting collector of child pornography. Heinous pictures and videos can be deposited on computers by viruses — the malicious programs better known for swiping your credit card numbers. In this twist, it's your reputation that's stolen. Pedophiles can exploit virus-infected PCs to remotely store and view their stash without fear they'll get caught. Pranksters or someone trying to frame you can tap viruses to make it appear that you surf illegal Web sites. Whatever the motivation, you get child porn on your computer — and might not realize it until police knock at your door. An Associated Press investigation found cases in which innocent people have been branded as pedophiles after their co-workers or loved ones stumbled upon child porn placed on a PC through a virus. It can cost victims hundreds of thousands of dollars to prove their innocence. Their situations are complicated by the fact that actual pedophiles often blame viruses — a defense rightfully viewed with skepticism by law enforcement. "It's an example of the old `dog ate my homework' excuse," says Phil Malone, director of the Cyberlaw Clinic at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society. "The problem is, sometimes the dog does eat your homework." The AP's investigation included interviewing people who had been found with child porn on their computers. The AP reviewed court records and spoke to prosecutors, police and computer examiners. One case involved Michael Fiola, a former investigator with the Massachusetts agency that oversees workers' compensation. In 2007, Fiola's bosses became suspicious after the Internet bill for his state-issued laptop showed that he used 4 1/2 times more data than his colleagues. A technician found child porn in the PC folder that stores images viewed online. Fiola was fired and charged with possession of child pornography, which carries up to five years in prison. He endured death threats, his car tires were slashed and he was shunned by friends. Fiola and his wife fought the case, spending $250,000 on legal fees. They liquidated their savings, took a second mortgage and sold their car. An inspection for his defense revealed the laptop was severely infected. It was programmed to visit as many as 40 child porn sites per minute — an inhuman feat. While Fiola and his wife were out to dinner one night, someone logged on to the computer and porn flowed in for an hour and a half. Prosecutors performed another test and confirmed the defense findings. The charge was dropped — 11 months after it was filed. The Fiolas say they have health problems from the stress of the case. They say they've talked to dozens of lawyers but can't get one to sue the state, because of a cap on the amount they can recover. "It ruined my life, my wife's life and my family's life," he says. The Massachusetts attorney general's office, which charged Fiola, declined interview requests. At any moment, about 20 million of the estimated 1 billion Internet-connected PCs worldwide are infected with viruses that could give hackers full control, according to security software maker F-Secure Corp. Computers often get infected when people open e-mail attachments from unknown sources or visit a malicious Web page. Pedophiles can tap viruses in several ways. The simplest is to force someone else's computer to surf child porn sites, collecting images along the way. Or a computer can be made into a warehouse for pictures and videos that can be viewed remotely when the PC is online. "They're kind of like locusts that descend on a cornfield: They eat up everything in sight and they move on to the next cornfield," says Eric Goldman, academic director of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University. Goldman has represented Web companies that discovered child pornographers were abusing their legitimate services. But pedophiles need not be involved: Child porn can land on a computer in a sick prank or an attempt to frame the PC's owner. In the first publicly known cases of individuals being victimized, two men in the United Kingdom were cleared in 2003 after viruses were shown to have been responsible for the child porn on their PCs. In one case, an infected e-mail or pop-up ad poisoned a defense contractor's PC and downloaded the offensive pictures. In the other, a virus changed the home page on a man's Web browser to display child porn, a discovery made by his 7-year-old daughter. The man spent more than a week in jail and three months in a halfway house, and lost custody of his daughter. Chris Watts, a computer examiner in Britain, says he helped clear a hotel manager whose co-workers found child porn on the PC they shared with him. Watts found that while surfing the Internet for ways to play computer games without paying for them, the manager had visited a site for pirated software. It redirected visitors to child porn sites if they were inactive for a certain period. In all these cases, the central evidence wasn't in dispute: Pornography was on a computer. But proving how it got there was difficult. Tami Loehrs, who inspected Fiola's computer, recalls a case in Arizona in which a computer was so "extensively infected" that it would be "virtually impossible" to prove what an indictment alleged: that a 16-year-old who used the PC had uploaded child pornography to a Yahoo group. Prosecutors dropped the charge and let the boy plead guilty to a separate crime that kept him out of jail, though they say they did it only because of his age and lack of a criminal record. Many prosecutors say blaming a computer virus for child porn is a new version of an old ploy. "We call it the SODDI defense: Some Other Dude Did It," says James Anderson, a federal prosecutor in Wyoming. However, forensic examiners say it would be hard for a pedophile to get away with his crime by using a bogus virus defense. "I personally would feel more comfortable investing my retirement in the lottery before trying to defend myself with that," says forensics specialist Jeff Fischbach. Even careful child porn collectors tend to leave incriminating e-mails, DVDs or other clues. Virus defenses are no match for such evidence, says Damon King, trial attorney for the U.S. Justice Department's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section. But while the virus defense does not appear to be letting real pedophiles out of trouble, there have been cases in which forensic examiners insist that legitimate claims did not get completely aired. Loehrs points to Ned Solon of Casper, Wyo., who is serving six years for child porn found in a folder used by a file-sharing program on his computer. Solon admits he used the program to download video games and adult porn — but not child porn. So what could explain that material? Loehrs testified that Solon's antivirus software wasn't working properly and appeared to have shut off for long stretches, a sign of an infection. She found no evidence the five child porn videos on Solon's computer had been viewed or downloaded fully. The porn was in a folder the file-sharing program labeled as "incomplete" because the downloads were canceled or generated an error. This defense was curtailed, however, when Loehrs ended her investigation in a dispute with the judge over her fees. Computer exams can cost tens of thousands of dollars. Defendants can ask the courts to pay, but sometimes judges balk at the price. Although Loehrs stopped working for Solon, she argues he is innocent. "I don't think it was him, I really don't," Loehrs says. "There was too much evidence that it wasn't him." The prosecution's forensics expert, Randy Huff, maintains that Solon's antivirus software was working properly. And he says he ran other antivirus programs on the computer and didn't find an infection — although security experts say antivirus scans frequently miss things. "He actually had a very clean computer compared to some of the other cases I do," Huff says. The jury took two hours to convict Solon. "Everybody feels they're innocent in prison. Nobody believes me because that's what everybody says," says Solon, whose case is being appealed. "All I know is I did not do it. I never put the stuff on there. I never saw the stuff on there. I can only hope that someday the truth will come out." But can it? It can be impossible to tell with certainty how a file got onto a PC. "Computers are not to be trusted," says Jeremiah Grossman, founder of WhiteHat Security Inc. He describes it as "painfully simple" to get a computer to download something the owner doesn't want — whether it's a program that displays ads or one that stores illegal pictures. It's possible, Grossman says, that more illicit material is waiting to be discovered. "Just because it's there doesn't mean the person intended for it to be there — whatever it is, child porn included." http://tech.yahoo.co...virus_framed_me

Perhaps this was before the enactment of the mental health code laws? Years ago, officials had much more freedom to do as they wanted with the mentally ill. Look at Ken Kesey’s book, “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.â€

You are lucky you have the willpower to quit and stick to it. I had a neighbor that had lung cancer, had surgery, told to quit but kept smoking. He was on oxygen and kept smoking. The lung cancer returned but he kept smoking until the day he died.

I have to laugh to myself when I see the beached whales in those skimpy beach outfit. Don't they know how gross that is, or is it, they just don't care.

In the US, except Arizona and Hawaii, it is now daylight saving time. I think they turn the clock back an hour in the fall to save energy. I wonder why there is nothing similar in Thailand? I guess in the tropics, it would not really save energy? Maybe the Thais believe as this old Indian quote about daylight saving time, “Only the Government would believe that you could cut a foot off the top of a blanket, sew it to the bottom, and have a longer blanket.â€

George W. wanted this guy to be Homeland Security chief. Glad he didn't make it. Bernard Kerik, who was police commissioner at the time of the 9/11 attacks, also confessed to having his apartment renovated by a construction firm which was later given a city contract. Kerik was once considered a star in law enforcement and national security but his career unravelled when Mr Bush nominated him as US Homeland Security secretary in 2004. Checks into his background revealed he lied to White House officials and led to the criminal charges. Kerik, 54, wiped away tears as he appeared in court yesterday to admit eight charges. His corruption trial had been due to start next week, and he faced up to 30 years in prison on the most serious charge. Now he is likely to receive 27 to 33 months in prison under a plea bargain deal when he is sentenced in Feb. Judge Stephen Robinson said Kerik was "not a one-dimensional character" and vowed to take his achievements into consideration at sentencing. "I think this is a very sad day," said Judge Robinson. "But I think you have had a full life." Kerik was once former Mayor Rudy Giuliani's driver but rose to head the largest police department in the United States. When he was nominated to become Homeland Security secretary, investigations revealed he had failed to pay taxes for a nanny and he withdrew from consideration. It later emerged he had made false statements to the White House and failed to report more than £300,000 in taxable income between 1999 and 2004. http://www.telegraph...rs-in-jail.html

My vote, as well.

I did read the entire story. My fault for not doing an easy Google!

I had no idea that scientist could use the HIV virus for good use. By Lauran Neergaard, AP Medical Writer WASHINGTON – French scientists mixed gene therapy and bone marrow transplants in two boys to seemingly halt a brain disease that can kill by adolescence. The surprise ingredient: They disabled the HIV virus so it couldn't cause AIDS, and then used it to carry in the healthy new gene. The experiment marks the first time researchers have tried that long-contemplated step in people — and the first effective gene therapy against a severe brain disease, said lead researcher Dr. Patrick Aubourg of the University Paris-Descartes. Although it's a small, first-step study, it has "exciting implications" for other blood and immune disorders that had been feared beyond gene therapy's reach, said Dr. Kenneth Cornetta, president of the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy. "This study shows the power of combining gene therapy and cell therapy," added Cornetta, whose own lab at Indiana University has long researched how to safely develop gene delivery using lentiviruses, HIV's family. The research was published in Friday's edition of the journal Science. In 20 years of gene therapy research, there have been few home runs and some headline-making setbacks — including a risk of leukemia caused by otherwise successful gene therapy for another rare disorder, "bubble boy disease." That's a risk that specialists hope a lentivirus-based gene therapy will eliminate. Best known from the movie "Lorenzo's Oil", adrenoleukodystrophy, or ALD, is a rare genetic disease that, in its most devastating form, destroys the coating of nerve fibers in boys' brains. Without that coating, called myelin, the neurological system breaks down. The disease typically strikes between the ages of four and 10, leading to blindness, deafness, dementia and loss of muscle control, and killing them within a few years. Bone marrow transplants can halt ALD by letting new myelin-forming stem cells take root. But it's difficult to find a matching marrow donor, and the transplant itself is very risky. So what if stem cells from the boys' own bone marrow could be genetically corrected, eliminating the ALD mutation? To do that, Aubourg's team had to overcome a technical hurdle: Gene therapy works when scientists harness deliver a healthy new gene by attaching to a virus that can harmlessly infect cells. But none of today's so-called gene therapy "vectors" could penetrate enough of the stem cells needed for an ALD treatment to work. Unlike most viruses, HIV can penetrate stem cells, and it sticks permanently. So Aubourg's team removed the genetic parts of HIV that make it dangerous, leaving basically a scaffolding to carry the new therapeutic gene. Then they culled stem cells from two 7-year-old boys in the early stages of ALD, and mixed in the healthy gene. The boys underwent bone marrow-destroying chemotherapy and then had their genetically corrected stem cells reinserted. Two years later, the boys have shown no sign of worsening brain damage and are functioning well with 15 percent of their blood cells producing the healthy protein, said Aubourg, who plans to test the experimental procedure in more patients. An advocacy group, the Stop ALD Foundation, is working to raise money for a similar U.S. study.

Who knows, death might be alright. Coming back to haunt some people may be fun.

I am not sure the reason was for fear of appearing racist. According to this article, the FBI is looking into it. WASHINGTON – Nearly a year before Maj. Nidal Hasan allegedly went on a shooting rampage at Fort Hood, terrorism investigators conducted an "assessment" of him before deciding he did not pose a threat. After the shooting, the FBI is doing a new assessment — of its own conduct. The FBI will conduct an internal review to see whether it mishandled early information about the man accused in the bloody rampage that killed 13 people and wounded 29 FBI Director Robert Mueller</SPAN> ordered the inquiry into the bureau's handling of the case, including its response to potentially worrisome information gathered about Hasan beginning in December 2008 and continuing into early this year. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091110/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_fort_hood_shooting;_ylt=AqpToenPvq6MzlWKeNOTCplH2ocA;_ylu=X3oDMTNhdWdxZGQ1BGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkxMTEwL3VzX2ZvcnRfaG9vZF9zaG9vdGluZwRjY29kZQNtb3N0cG9wdWxhcgRjcG9zAzIEcG9zAzIEc2VjA3luX3RvcF9zdG9yaWVzBHNsawNmYmlyZWFzc2Vzc2k-

I would hate to see one of those silicone implants pop in a catfight.

You are very lucky to have a friend to chauffeur you. Although I do not like to drive in Thailand, I enjoy the independence that driving affords me.

I did not see the super size me documentary, but I imagine portion sizes are one of the reason so many Americans are obese.

Yes, it is interesting, but a smoker is not going to quit until he wants to quit. Even if he wants to quit, it is very difficult. I worked with a guy that tried to quit for years. He tried hypnosis, acupuncture, pills and will power, but had no success. Last time I saw him, he was still smoking.

Answer one question and that is all a guy has to do in order to determine if he is insane? Yeah, right.

Beauty queens that can fight. I can understand if it was a ladyboy beauty contest but this is Miss England. Isn’t this what the world needs now? LONDON — The reigning Miss England has relinquished her crown after being accused of a fight in a bar. Pageant organizers say Rachel Christie has also withdrawn from next month's Miss World competition in South Africa. They said in a statement that the 21-year-old heptathlete will now focus on clearing her name and training for the 2012 Olympics. British newspapers reported that Christie got into a dustup with another beauty queen – Miss Manchester Sara Beverley Jones – in a nightclub earlier this week. Greater Manchester Police said Friday that a 21-year-old woman was arrested on suspicion of assault after an altercation at the city's Mansion nightclub on Monday. She was released on bail pending further enquiries. Read more at: http://www.huffingto..._348287.html&cp