In 2005, [Roy] Pearson was starting his new job as a judge and therefore needed to start wearing suits again after a couple of years of unemployment. He brought five suits in for alterations because he'd put on 20 pounds and needed to have the pants let out. Four suits came back fine. One came back without the pants.Um $65 million in damages, which Pearson has reduced to $54 million.Pearson says the Chung family -- Korean immigrants who came here from the charcoal factories of Seoul in 1992 and now own three cleaners, including the one a short walk from Pearson's place in the Fort Lincoln section of Northeast -- had no intention of living up to the sign in their shop that said "Satisfaction Guaranteed." Therefore, Pearson said, he had no choice but to take on "the awesome responsibility" of suing the Chungs on behalf of every resident of the District of Columbia.
"Ci rivolgiamo a voi con una richiesta di miglioramento della qualità della vita in Senato. La buvette non è provvista di gelati. Noi pensiamo che sarebbe utile che lo fosse e siamo certi di interpretare in questo il desiderio di molti. E' possibile provvedere? Si tratterebbe di adeguare i servizi del Senato alle esigenze della normale vita quotidiana delle persone. In attesa di riscontro, porgiamo cordiali saluti".In a nutshell, "The cafeteria is not supplied with ice cream. We think it would be useful if it were and we are certain that it can be interpreted as the desire of many."
Doctors at Vancouver's St. Paul's Hospital came across something highly illogical when they tried to put an arterial line into a patient about to undergo surgery: his blood was dark green.The doctors claimed that the green blood was due to the side effects from the medication that the patient was taking.
Kindness, compassion break out at Princes ParkI find the last two points confusing. I could never let any living being suffer whether they deserve it or not.
Michael Lallo
June 10, 2007
JUDGING by the hushed awe, the crowd of 20,000 expected a profound utterance from the Dalai Lama.Instead, the exiled Buddhist spiritual leader of Tibet tweaked his nipples.
"What do you call these things where milk comes out of?" he asked, trying to illustrate the bond between mother and child.
But his cheeky grin suggested he already knew the answer.
Indeed, it was a playful mood that dominated the Dalai Lama's free public lecture yesterday at Princes Park.
If he was annoyed at having being snubbed by Melbourne Lord Mayor John So, who refused to meet him yesterday morning, he did not show it.
After an effusive introduction from actress Kerrie Armstrong, His Holiness — who claims to be the 14th reincarnation of the Bodhisattva of Compassion — took his seat. Barely a minute later, he was back on his feet, preferring to stand.
He pointedly avoided issuing specific instructions, instead urging the world's 6 billion people to adopt an attitude of "unbiased compassion".
"Limited compassion is based on others' attitudes towards you," he explained. "As soon as their attitude changes, hatred will come."
There were few surprises throughout the lecture, with the religious leader sticking to his usual themes of tolerance, kindness and compassion, and with an environmental focus. But his response to written questions raised a few eyebrows, as he appeared to advocate euthanasia in certain circumstances.
"If a human has no hope of recovery and is in a coma, it can be very expensive, and the rest of their family can suffer immensely," he said.
But sick pets, he said, must never be put down. "The suffering of the animal is due to previous karma. They have to experience their suffering, so they can live out their karma."
Japan: The Ukita family of Kodaira City
Food expenditure for one week: 37,699 Yen or $317.25
Favorite foods: sashimi, fruit, cake, potato chips
Italy: The Manzo family of Sicily
Food expenditure for one week: 214.36 Euros or $260.11
Favorite foods: fish, pasta with ragu, hot dogs, frozen fish sticks
United States: The Revis family of North Carolina
Food expenditure for one week: $341.98
Favorite foods: spaghetti, potatoes, sesame chicken
Great Britain: The Bainton family of Cllingbourne Ducis
Food expenditure for one week: 155.54 British Pounds or $253.15
Favorite foods: avocado, mayonnaise sandwich, prawn cocktail, chocolate fudge cake with cream
Germany: The Melander family of Bargteheide
Food expenditure for one week: 375.39 Euros or $500.07
Favorite foods: fried potatoes with onions, bacon and herring, fried noodles with eggs and cheese, pizza, vanilla pudding
As politicians squabble over how to act on climate change, Greenland's ice cap is melting, and faster than scientists had thought possible.
The brightly painted houses of Illulissat, a town in western Greenland where tourists travel to look at the icebergs.
Photo: Reuters
See also the animation and reaction covered by BBC News.The new emblem is dynamic, modern and flexible. It will work with new technology and across traditional and new media networks.
It will become London 2012’s visual icon, instantly recognisable amongst all age groups, all around the world. It will establish the character and identity of the London 2012 Games and what the Games will symbolise nationally and internationally.
This is ridiculous. Surely people and businesses who have a wireless router/modem should password protect it. Otherwise, it is their own stupid fault that other people can piggy-back on their internet access.Michigan Man Fined for Using Coffee Shop's Wi-Fi Network
Friday, June 01, 2007
A man surfs the Internet using his Wi-Fi-enabled laptop in a Philadelphia park. (picture by AP)
A Michigan man has been fined $400 and given 40 hours of community service for accessing an open wireless Internet connection outside a coffee shop.
Under a little known state law against computer hackers, Sam Peterson II, of Cedar Springs, Mich., faced a felony charge after cops found him on March 27 sitting in front of the Re-Union Street Café in Sparta, Mich., surfing the Web from his brand-new laptop.
Last week, Peterson chose to pay the fine instead as part of a jail-diversion program.
"I think a lot of people should be shocked, because quite honestly, I still don't understand it myself," Peterson told FOXNews.com "I do not understand how this is illegal."
More
Umpires: Sully, Grun, McInerney
Official crowd: 28,093 at Telstra Dome
Posted on Wed, May. 23, 2007Hmmm... I have this kind of philosophy at work. Unfortunately it doesn't always balance out other people who seem to have a sense of unnecessary urgency over the most trivial of things.
Toddler's dance destroys monks' intricate sand painting
By MATT CAMPBELL
The Kansas City Star
Talk about a test of faith.
Eight Tibetan monks spent two days cross-legged on the floor at Union Station, leaning over to meticulously create an intricate design of colored sand as an expression of their Buddhist faith. They were more than halfway done.
And then, within seconds, their work was destroyed by a toddler.
Monks are bald, so they couldn’t rip their hair out. But were they angry? Did they curse?
No. They simply smiled and started over.
“No problem,” said Geshe Lobsang Sumdup, leader of the group from the Drepung Gomang Monastery in southern India.
“We didn’t get despondent,” he said Wednesday through a translator. “We have three days more. So we will have to work harder.”
That the monks were able to shrug off their setback can be attributed to their religion.
“It teaches us that nothing is permanent,” said Staci Olsen, a volunteer at the Rime Buddhist Center in Kansas City.
Sometime Tuesday after the monks had finished their labors for the day a woman with her small child visited the post office inside Union Station, near where the design was being created. The child, apparently attracted by the pretty colors, wandered over to play with it.
“He did a little tap dance on it, completely destroying it,” said Lama Chuck Stanford of the Rime center.
The mother did not report the incident, but a security camera at Union Station captured the moment.
“She summarily picked the child up and boogied,” said Bob Smock, security manager for the station.
The sand design was surrounded by stanchions, but the child simply went under the tape. Officials have said they now will place benches around the new creation to further protect it.
The design is called a mandala, and there are thousands of different patterns. The one these monks are working on represents Chenrezig, the bodhisattva of compassion.
Traditionally, monks create a mandala to mark the new year.
To start, they put brightly colored sand into a metal funnel called a chakbu and rub it gently to distribute the sand. When they have finished the mandala they sweep up the sand and deposit it into a river.
These monks are on a yearlong tour of the United States and Canada to raise money for their monastery; the original in Tibet was destroyed by the Chinese. This is not the first time monks from the monastery have visited Kansas City and Union Station. On this trip, they will continue to work on the mandala today and Friday.
During a closing ceremony at 2 p.m. Saturday they will sweep up the sand and offer bits to onlookers to place in their gardens. The rest of the sand will be placed in the Missouri River.
“The belief is that it will carry the blessings all over the planet, from the Missouri River to the Mississippi to the gulf and to all the oceans of the world,” Stanford said.
Jampa Tenzin, one of the monks who can speak a little English, said this was the first time on this tour a mandala in progress had been destroyed. But the monks know the child was innocent.
“They have meditated so long they have developed this equanimity,” Stanford said. “Regardless of what happens — if a kid dances on your sand mandala — it’s OK. If everybody in the world had that kind of stability of mind we’d be better off.”
India to protest grant of yoga patents by USHmmm... greed! Imagine if those gymnasts who created new routines had patented them.
30 May 2007
NEW DELHI: The Indian government has decided to lodge its protest against yoga-related patents issued by the US Patents & Trademarks Office.
While the health ministry has decided to take up the issue directly with USPTO, the commerce department is writing to the US Trade Representative against what it sees as a violation of rights over traditional knowledge.
If the move fails to impress USPTO, government is prepared for a legal battle to get the patents and trademarks vacated.
Officials said government was of the opinion that USPTO has been careless in granting patents and trademarks in matters related to traditional knowledge.
While details of a counter-offensive by government are still being worked out, sources indicated that a protest was the first line of attack. There is a digital traditional-knowledge library, which has enough reference material, and a proper search should be done before USPTO grants a patent, India is telling the US authorities.
US-based Bikram Choudhury has applied for a patent of yoga practised in a steam-room. USPTO is learnt to have issued 150 yoga-related copyrights, 124 trademarks on yoga accessories and 2,315 yoga trademarks so far.
"It's ridiculous to even think that an asana which has been practised for several years can be patented just because they think it is different. They have not been looking at the digital library," said an official.
The two humpback whales that captured worldwide attention for their two-week sojourn in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta returned to San Francisco Bay on Tuesday and came within only a few miles of the Golden Gate and their Pacific Ocean home.Meanwhile, from the Sydney Morning Herald reporting about the International Whaling Commission meeting
Sometimes, the media just aren't able to connect the dots.Japan says it is pushing ahead with its controversial plan to hunt humpback whales after key powers refused a compromise offer and despite warnings by Australia and New Zealand it would be a "provocative act."
"Japan is proceeding with its full research program as planned at this stage and this includes the humpbacks," Glenn Inwood, the spokesman for the Japanese delegation at the annual talks of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), told AFP.
Gay' tubbies face government ban
May 29, 2007 - 6:21AMPoland is concerned the Teletubbies promotes homosexuality.
Poland's conservative government took its drive to curb what it sees as homosexual propaganda to the small screen on Monday, taking aim at Tinky Winky and the other Teletubbies.
Ewa Sowinska, government-appointed children rights watchdog, told a local magazine published on Monday that she was concerned the popular BBC children's show promoted homosexuality.
She said she would ask psychologists to advise if this was the case.
In comments reminiscent of criticism by the late US evangelist Jerry Falwell, she was quoted as saying: "I noticed (Tinky Winky) has a lady's purse, but I didn't realise he's a boy."
"At first I thought the purse would be a burden for this Teletubby ... Later I learned that this may have a homosexual undertone."
...But in a sign that the government wants to distance itself from Sowinska's comments, Parliamentary Speaker Ludwig Dorn said he had warned her against making public comments "that may turn her department into a laughing stock".
The 10-year-old Teletubbies, which features four rotund, brightly coloured characters loved by children around the world, became a target of religious conservatives after Falwell suggested Tinky Winky could be homosexual.
ABC reaction
The ABC will not be removing Teletubbies from their roster, regardless of the findings of a Polish Government probe into whether the show is homosexual propaganda.
"We've been showing it for ten years. It's basically a non-issue for us. Australian kids love the Teletubbies,'' Catherine Bocking, publicist for ABC Kids, said.
"The issue's come up before hasn't it, this whole handbag thing, we don't see anything in it.''
...
"It's colour and movement for children, it's nothing political,'' Ms Bocking said.
Reuters and Erik Jensen
For goodness sakes, the purple character doesn't even resemble a human. What if it is normal for purple Teletubbies from their alien planet to carry handbags?
One of the posters that asked people to vote 'yes' in the 1967 referendum. © DAA Collection, A/V Archives, AIATSIS
Of course, before the referendum process, a lot of work was done by Indignenous civil rights workers to petition the Australian Parliament. Women played a major role in the campaign.
