Wino

My mistake. A friend told me Chicago was second. Looks like the bodyguard businss will be booming in Rio or else everybody will be packing heat.

10) They are running to the bathroom to vomit. 9) All the pretty young ladies have a big smile on their face. 8) A CBS intern says Bill Clinton said it's OK. 7) They all wore a paper bag over their head so their mommas wouldn't see them on the next Top 10 list. 6) You Can Tell If A CBS Employee Had Sex With Dave because they are the ones with hundred dollar bills coming out of their pockets. 5)

The 2016 Olympic Games will be in Rio. Chicago came in second place.

10) They are running to the bathroom to vomit. 9) All the pretty young ladies have a big smile on their face. 8)

Good thing you were in a medical situation. There were probably plenty of people around to give you mouth-to-mouth respirations.

Or "who's your grandpa" even tackier.

They had a big one there back in 1812. There was not much loss of life because it was mostly wilderness but it made the Mississippi river run backwards. More information at http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/states/missouri/history.php

Get everyone in US online, high-level panel says By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer NEW YORK - The nation needs to give the same urgency to making sure all Americans have broadband access as the Eisenhower administration did in building an interstate highway system a half-century ago, a report released Friday concluded. The Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy expressed worry about whether the news industry's financial woes will make for a less educated citizenry and considered whether the government should prop up independent journalists. The commission includes two former FCC chairmen, newspaper publishers, a top Google executive, the NAACP president and a former CNN president. It concluded that a free flow of information "is as vital to the healthy functioning of communities as clean air, safe streets, good schools and public health," and that it's time for leaders to give it a higher priority. It drew parallels to both the Eisenhower administration's building of roads and the Lincoln administration's effort to build the transcontinental railroad. Considering how much business is done on the Web, including the process of applying for jobs, it's vital to get as many people plugged in as possible, the commission said. More than a third of Americans do not subscribe to broadband services and, in many rural communities, they don't even have the option. "You have to have access in order to be socially first class, economically first class and politically first class," said Alberto Ibarguen, former Miami Herald publisher and president and CEO of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. He said he is encouraged that the Obama administration appears to be making the effort a priority. Government should also provide incentives to broadband and cable television service providers so they quickly wire areas that are underserved. Michael Powell, a former Federal Communications Commission chairman and member of the Knight group, said he would like to see the FCC be less entangled in regulation and take a more active role in seeing these goals are met. As this is being done, the commission said funding should be provided so public libraries can make Internet access and media literacy programs readily available. The commission said independent journalism plays a vital watchdog role and wrestled with how to encourage it. "We do have something that is deteriorating and is not being replaced in the old form, and that is cause for worry," Powell said. Government should increase support for news-gathering at public radio and television stations and explore how it could provide incentives for new business models that offer quality journalism, the commission said. But the commission came to no consensus on whether private-sector journalists should get public subsidies, an idea that would test the historical tradition of journalists' independence from government. ABC News President David Westin, who was not on the commission, said he hoped the report would not be misinterpreted as a call for government to replace local reporting done by newspapers as newspapers retrench. There are already new businesses emerging to try and fill that role, he said. Powell noted the same, saying people should be less concerned about the format in which information is provided and more concerned that people are available to provide it. "It's difficult enough when I get the call from somebody in government complaining about the way we reported something," Westin said. "But if the person himself who is getting the call is either directly or indirectly employed by government, that could be dangerous." The commission urged that the government operate with as much transparency as it can in coming years, offering low-cost access to public records and making social data readily available. It endorsed efforts to provide communities with information in as many forms possible, including mobile phones. Each community should also have an Internet hub — a Web site that provides links to many forms of local information, it said. "This is an extraordinarily propitious moment," Ibarguen said. "We didn't have this when we started out two years ago. This is an opportunity."

A CBS News employee is accused of trying to extort $2 million from David Letterman, forcing the late-night host to admit in an extraordinary monologue before millions of viewers that he had sexual relationships with female employees. The full story at http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091002/ap_on_en_tv/us_tv_letterman_extortion;_ylt=Ah6l8YdSvRUXkhtPkLI3dQhvzwcF;_ylu=X3oDMTJxOXRjcDVtBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkxMDAyL3VzX3R2X2xldHRlcm1hbl9leHRvcnRpb24EY3BvcwMxBHBvcwMzBHNlYwN5bl90b3Bfc3RvcnkEc2xrA2Z1bGxuYnNwc3Rvcg--

Here is a story about the swine flu nasal spray. By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer Lauran Neergaard, Ap Medical Writer WASHINGTON – The long-awaited first vaccinations against swine flu — the squirt-in-the-nose kind — begin early next week in parts of the country, and states are urging people to be patient until more arrives. Just a trickle of vaccine, 600,000 doses of the nasal spray FluMist, will be divided among 21 states and four large cities by Tuesday, with more small shipments to more states later in the week. "We're moving this out as quickly as we can," said Oregon's public health director, Dr. Mel Kohn, who hopes shipments arrive in time to begin some vaccinations on Monday. "This doesn't do any good sitting in a warehouse." Most states are aiming their first small batches at health care workers, hoping to keep them well enough to be on the job as cases of swine flu — what doctors prefer to call the 2009 H1N1 strain — are rapidly increasing nationwide. In Chicago, firefighters will share first doses with hospitals, to get some emergency responders protected, too. Alaska wants its meager first 4,000 FluMist doses to head directly to preschoolers, ages 2 to 4. And Pennsylvania will target its initial 58,000 FluMist doses mostly to 5- to 9-year-olds in parts of the state where H1N1 is most active. It's the school-age kids who are getting infected most, said Pennsylvania's acting physician general, Dr. Stephen Ostroff, and the under-10 crowd is going to need two doses of swine flu vaccine. "Our figuring is, let's get started in the group that's going to take longest to get protected," he said. Stay tuned: How much vaccine is available and for whom is going to change week by week. "This is really just the beginning," said Dr. Anne Schuchat of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "We need a little bit of patience the first couple of weeks." Indeed, some states were surprised that the first shipments were FluMist, which is only for healthy people ages 2 to 49, which leaves out some of the groups at high risk for H1N1 flu. The more common flu shot will be close behind, part of the 6 million to 7 million doses of vaccine the CDC expects to ship around the country by the end of next week. Far larger batches — about 40 million doses — start shipping the second week of October. That's when states expect enough of both shots and FluMist to start heavily targeting the high-risk groups: pregnant women, children and young adults from 6 months to 24 years, the young and middle-aged who have flu-risky conditions like asthma or diabetes, and caregivers of infants. Hospitals in Pinellas County, Fla., plan to give new parents a special reminder. On the newborn checklist — infant car seat, going-home outfit — comes a plea to get themselves vaccinated before discharge. Because newborns can't be vaccinated, "the only way to protect your baby is for Mom, Dad and the family to receive the vaccine," the flyer says. By the end of October, Arizona expects 1 million doses on hand, enough for schools to start onsite vaccination programs, said Health Services Director Will Humble. What about everybody else? Massachusetts officials are warning that people who aren't at high risk from swine flu may have to wait until November for an H1N1 shot. In other states, officials are more optimistic. Milwaukee has earmarked its first shipment for health workers and its second for schoolchildren, kindergarten through high school. Then by late October, "we should be able to open it up to anyone who wants it," said Milwaukee's disease-control chief, Paul Biedrzycki. "We're expecting two to three times the demand for seasonal flu vaccines." This year brings an unusually complex vaccination schedule: Most people will need two different inoculations, one against regular winter flu and the H1N1 vaccine. Plus, children under 10 will need two H1N1 doses. The federal government bought the nation's entire supply of H1N1 vaccine and is dividing doses as they arrive among states according to population. State health departments submit orders, and doses are shipped to the vaccination sites the states deemed able to quickly get shots into arms and squirts up noses — a mix of doctors' offices, hospitals, drugstores and public clinics. CDC in turn will track those shipments to see how fast vaccine is used, and for whom, to ensure the populations at highest risk are vaccinated.

By Rosemarie Francisco Rosemarie Francisco MANILA (Reuters) – The Philippines declared a nationwide state of calamity on Friday as a "super typhoon" bore down a week after flash floods killed nearly 300 people in and around Manila. Typhoon Parma, about 150 km (100 miles) east of Luzon, was gaining strength as it churned west-northwest toward the mainland, bringing heavy rain. It was expected to make landfall in or near the northeastern province of Isabela on Saturday. The area is mountainous and not heavily populated, but Parma was likely to lash Luzon with rain over the next two days, making life worse in flood-hit regions. "We're concerned about the effects of more rain on the relief work in flooded areas because the water level could rise again," Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said in a briefing aired live on national television. The Asia-Pacific region has been hit by a series of natural disasters in recent days, including Typhoon Ketsana which killed more than 400 in the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. Tens of thousands were also displaced in southern Laos and flash floods were reported in northern Thailand. Two powerful earthquakes rocked the Indonesian island of Sumatra, with the death toll likely to be in the thousands, and a tsunami battered American and Western Samoa, killing nearly 150. In Taiwan, authorities identified 12 villages for mandatory evacuation ahead of Parma and another storm in the Pacific, Typhoon Melor. The Taiwan government came in for heavy criticism after a deadly typhoon in August killed as many as 770 people. In the Philippines, harsh criticism of the slow response to last week's floods could affect the chances of Teodoro in next May's presidential election, where he seeks to replace President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Teodoro, also the head of the National Disaster Coordinating Council, has placed the military and police on alert and ordered civilian agencies to stockpile food, water, medicine, fuel and other relief supplies. Arroyo declared a state of calamity across the country, which will allow local governments access to emergency funds for relief work. She also ordered provincial governments to evacuate people living in low-lying areas in the path of Parma, by force if necessary. Airlines also canceled about 26 domestic flights to four destinations in typhoon-affected areas in the central Philippines from 1 p.m. (0500 GMT) on Friday, airport authorities said. The weather bureau said Parma, with gusts of up to 230 kph (143 mph) at the center, will be the strongest typhoon to hit the country since 2006. "It's still very much possible that we will raise signal number 4 as it closes in on northern Luzon," Prisco Nilo, head of the weather bureau, told reporters. At signal number 4, residential and commercial buildings may be severely damaged, large trees uprooted, and power and communication lines may be cut. Last week's storm, Ketsana, left hundreds of thousands homeless in and around Manila and areas around a lake near the capital remain submerged under 2-3 meter floodwaters. It also damaged or destroyed more than $108 million in crops, infrastructure and property. The Philippines is hit by frequent typhoons in the summer which often continue on their track to hit Vietnam, China and Taiwan before weakening over land.

I guess eventually progressive bifocals will be in my future. For now, I am resisting. Putting on and taking off the reading glasses is what I do. When I was working I would have a string on the glasses and hang them around my neck. It looked funny but I always knew where the glasses were and easy to put on.

Here is a story about Obama's performance in Copenhagen. By JULIE PACE, Associated Press Writer Julie Pace, Associated Press Writer COPENHAGEN – Combining hometown pride and political muscle, President Barack Obama lobbied Olympic leaders on Friday to give the 2016 Summer Games to Chicago, saying a nation shaped by the people of the world "wants a chance to inspire it once more." The president and his wife, fellow Chicagoan Michelle Obama, put their capital behind an enormous campaign to win the Olympics bid. Never before had a U.S. president made such an in-person appeal. "I urge you to choose Chicago," Obama told members of the International Olympic Committee, many of whom he later mingled with as some snapped photos of him on their cell phones. "And if you do — if we walk this path together — then I promise you this: The city of Chicago and the United States of America will make the world proud," the president said. Chicago, Rio de Janeiro, Madrid and Tokyo have been making their cases to the IOC for more than a year, but many IOC members were believed to be undecided about which city they would vote for Friday. By the time the winning bid is announced, the Obamas should be back on a plane to Washington. The president's whirlwind trip put him in the Danish capital for less than five hours Friday, with Chicago-backers hoping that would be sufficient to give Obama's adopted home town the advantage it needed to win the close, four-way race to become the host city of the 2016 Summer Games. But the compressed time frame did not shield Obama from Republican criticism that he shouldn't be hopscotching to Europe in Air Force One when there were so many pressing issues to deal with at home. Asked by a reporter how he thought his pitch went, Obama gave a thumbs up — and he said the video montage of Chicago during the U.S. presentation made him miss home. "Obviously now it's up to the IOC members, but we are just grateful for the incredible hospitality," Obama said. He joked that only one part upset him: "They arranged for me to follow Michelle — that's always bad." Both Obamas spoke on deeply personal terms about Chicago, the city at the center of the world's spotlight so many times, including in November when the former Illinois senator won the White House. The president described Chicago as a city of diversity and warmth, a place where he finally found a home. "It's a city that works, from its first World's Fair more than a century ago to the World Cup we hosted in the nineties," Obama said. "We know how to put on big events." For all the anticipation surrounding Obama's appearance in Copenhagen, his arrival at the IOC meeting was decidedly subdued. The 100-plus committee members, who had already been warned not show bias during the presentations, sat silently as the Obamas walked into the Bella Center with the rest of 12-member Chicago delegation. Mrs. Obama gave a passionate account of what the games would mean to her father, who taught her as a girl how to throw punches better than the boys. She spoke fondly of growing up on the South Side of Chicago, sitting on her father's lap and cheering on Olympic athletes. She noted that her late father had multiple sclerosis, so she knows something about athletes who compete against tough odds. "Chicago's vision for the Olympic and Paralympic movement is about so much more than what we can offer the games," she said. "It's about what the games can offer all of us — it's about inspiring this generation and building a lasting legacy for the next." The president anchored the U.S. charm offensive. He referenced his own election as a moment when people from around the world gathered in Chicago to see the results last November and celebrate that "our diversity could be a source of strength." "There is nothing I would like more than to step just a few blocks from my family's home and with Michelle and our two girls welcome the world back to our neighborhood," Obama said. "At the beginning of this new century, the nation that has been shaped by people from around the world wants a chance to inspire it once more." In advance of Obama's arrival, Mrs. Obama did some high-powered lobbying for Chicago. The first lady has been in Copenhagen since Wednesday, holding one-on-one meetings with IOC members. "I'm sure you'd all agree that she's a pretty big selling point," the president told his audience. After the Obamas' comments, the U.S. delegation fielded questions from committee members, and at one point the president jumped in to answer. He said he envisioned that the Chicago games would allow the United States to restore its image as a place that, at its best, is "open to the world." He emphasized that the White House and the State Department would put their full weight behind making sure international visitors "feel welcome and will come away with the sense of the incredible diversity of the American people." And Americans, he said, will be reminded of their links to the rest of the world. Though IOC President Jacques Rogge has said heads of state aren't required to attend the IOC meeting, recent votes indicate their presence can make a difference. During the 2005 IOC meeting in Singapore, then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair successfully lobbied members on behalf of London's bid for the 2012 Summer Games. Two years later, Vladimir Putin, then president of Russia, helped secure the 2014 Winter Games for Sochi on Russia's Black Sea coast. Before leaving Copenhagen, the Obamas met briefly with Queen Margrethe II and Prince Consort Henrik. The president wrapped the trip by visiting Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen. Obama noted his interest in the pivotal climate change summit in Copenhagen in December but did not answer questions about whether he would attend it.

Oh those generals in Burma! Here is the latest story. YANGON, Myanmar – A court in military-ruled Myanmar rejected opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's latest bid for freedom Friday, turning down the Nobel Peace laureate's appeal of her most recent sentence of house arrest, her lawyer said. Suu Kyi was convicted and sentenced in August for briefly sheltering an uninvited American at her home earlier this year, in a verdict that drew international condemnation and ensured that she would not be able to participate in elections scheduled for next year. She argued in the appeal that the conviction was unwarranted, but the Yangon Division court ruled against her, lawyer Nyan Win said. He said Suu Kyi's legal team would file a new appeal to the Supreme Court within 60 days, and that Friday's proceedings had opened a new possibility for the defense's legal arguments. If that fails, the final resort would be a special appeals court in the new capital, Naypyitaw. He said the court accepted the argument that the military-abolished 1974 constitution under which Suu Kyi was charged was null and void. However, it said a 1975 security law — based on some clauses of the 1974 constitution — under which she has been held under house arrest remained in force. "I think there is a window open over there. They have opened a window," Nyan Win said. Already in detention for about 14 of the last 20 years, Myanmar's pro-democracy icon was sentenced in August to another 18 months for sheltering the American, John Yettaw. Yettaw has said he wanted to warn Suu Kyi he had a "vision" that she would be assassinated. He was sentenced to seven years in prison but released on humanitarian grounds and deported less than a week after the verdict. Security was tight for Friday's ruling, with riot police ringing the court house. In the appeal, Suu Kyi's lawyers raised no new substantive arguments that had not been heard in the original district court trial. Myanmar's courts almost always follow the same hard line toward Suu Kyi and the country's democracy movement, which the military government often accuses of collaborating with the country's enemies to destroy the nation. But Friday's ruling came amid a tentative change in the political winds, after the United States announced last week it was modifying its tough policy of seeking only to isolate the military regime and would instead try to engage it through high-level talks. The U.S. said it will not give up its political and economic sanctions against the regime. It and other Western nations apply sanctions because of Myanmar's poor human rights record and its failure to turn over power to Suu Kyi's party after it won the last elections in 1990. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, the top U.S. diplomat for East Asia, told the Senate Foreign Relations Asia Subcommittee on Wednesday that lifting sanctions as the administration tries to start a dialogue, without Myanmar making any democratic changes, would be a mistake. At the same time, Suu Kyi, 64, has made what appears to be a confidence-building gesture toward the junta, suggesting last week in a letter to leader Senior Gen. Than Shwe that she is willing to cooperate with it to have the sanctions lifted, according to a statement from her National League for Democracy party. She had previously welcomed sanctions as a way to pressure the junta to achieve political reconciliation with the pro-democracy movement. The movement has insisted on concessions from the government if they are to work together, particularly the freeing of political prisoners and the reopening of party offices around the country. Suu Kyi was convicted Aug. 11 and sentenced to three years in prison with hard labor after Yettaw secretly swam to her home. The sentence was commuted to 18 months of house arrest by Than Shwe. Suu Kyi has described the conviction as unfair. Authorities would not let her attend the appeal hearing.

It is very weird and very rare. I guess the woman won't tell her husband much. You know she is from Arkansas and so the father could be a relative. hahahaha.

What is the latest report on the King? Is he doing better? Long live the King.

Good point, WannaGo. I find it best to give directly. Scam artists are everywhere (sometimes I think Thailand has more than it's fair share). This scum are some of the lowest of the low.

What you say here makes a lot of sense to me. Like Nuremberg, Amsterdam either legalized or looked the other way with their red light district. Prostitution, marijuana, hash (and maybe other drug use) were essentially confined to one part of town. If you did not like what was going on, you stayed away from that section of town. Made perfect sense to me.

I have never felt like I am in any danger walking the streets of Pattaya or Bangkok, day or night. Of course, there are more dangers anywhere late at night.

I am not much of a fan of American based airlines. I haven't flown to Thailand on United or Northwest but have on American Airlines. I don't think much of American Airline. The few people I know that have used Northwest say that it is the pits. I much prefer the Asian Airliners because of the friendliness and good service. Lately I have been flying either China Airlines or Eva. Maybe I should investigate a credit card that is linked to those frequent flyer programs.

Has anyone tried these over the counter teeth whitening kits? I wonder if they work.

Why do you think they feed babies with a spoon?

I am sure with the onslaught of more tourists, this beautiful island and the nice beaches will not stay the same. I have not been to Phuket since 1996 but I am sure it has already drastically changed.

I like them both. I do not like to receive my news from only one place.

And New York is a world class city!! How long has LaGuardia been opened?