Occupy Wall Street plans 'people's wall' outside NY Stock Exchange for anniversary

New York Stock Exchange.(AFP Photo / Spencer Platt)

Occupy Wall Street will turn one year old in a few weeks, and organizers with the group want to make sure the movement's first anniversary won't be forgotten. To commemorate, OWS plans on staging a mass protest outside the New York Stock Exchange.
Organizers with Occupy, a protest movement formed last year to address issues of corporate greed and big businesses’ relationship with politics, are asking supporters to participate in a mass sit-in outside the NYSE when their first birthday comes around next month on September 17.
"There'll be a mass of people converging on the Stock Exchange to deliver our message: that we're the 99 percent and we're not going to take it,” OWS organizer Dana Balicki tells AFP.
The spokesperson with the group says that Occupy hopes to erect a massive “people’s wall” outside the NYSE.
"That will be a pretty substantial act of civil disobedience,” Balicki says.

-  Rt.com

380,000 residents involved in disaster exercises in Japan

Station workers guide people as though they were having difficulty
going home at Minatomirai Station

20,000 people were killed or are still missing after last year's earthquake and tsunami in Japan. To prepare for future disasters, Japan has been holding large-scale emergency exercises today. 380,000 residents have been involved in the drills which will be held every year. Coordinated anti-disaster responses were carried out across the country, based on major earthquake and fire scenarios.

Do you know to save your life and those around you in a tsunami or a fire? Japan is trying to make sure that everyone does know. Disaster exercises are being held across the country.

In Tokyo, people were mobilized to respond to the potential effects of a 7.3 magnitude earthquake just north of Tokyo Bay. Cabinet members walked to the prime minister’s office for an "emergency meeting". Ministers and strategic teams were then briefed by Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda. Noda said he attached great importance to these exercises.

A Ground Self-Defense Force helicopter carrying
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda takes off from near the
Diet compounds in Tokyo on Sept. 1, 2012, as Japan
 held nationwide disaster drills.

Yoshihiko Noda, Japanese Prime Minister, said, "I think that public awareness about disaster prevention is certainly increasing. It is important to have preparations on a routine basis. I felt once again the significance of many people’s participation in the drill."

Volunteers and firefighters took part in a fire disaster drill, where wooden structures are in close proximity to each other. They practiced putting out fires using a bucket relay system. They also helped lift sandbags and carried the injured to safety on stretchers. Rescuing people from quake-damaged homes is also part of their mission. Many say that practicing is a big help.

One drill participant said, "It was the first time I’ve used a stretcher to carry a person. It was really good experience for me."

Another drill participant said, "I think it is important to hold this annual drill. Without hands-on activities, it is difficult to know what I need to do in a real case."

Ambulances and motorcycles were on the scene to provide an extra level of realism. In the event of a 7 magnitude quake in the Tokyo area, official estimates suggest the subsequent impact could lead to death tolls as high as 10,000 people. This annual exercise could effectively reduce that number.

-  english.cntv.cn/01/index.shtml

Headline Sep2,2012/ "As Go The Students-So Goes The World!"

"AS GO THE STUDENTS -
SO GOES THE WORLD!"

I have the honour to thank the President of India and I have the honour to thank the Prime Minister of India for the "Rite of Passage". This great and timely gesture befits the growing confidence of this Great Nation! God bless you all! The Indian Students and the world can now access : www.samdailytimes.blogspot.in  What is important now is that Indian Students step forward and make a great contribution. Remember, the World will beat a path to your Work and submissions, if you succeed in building SDT and !WOW! to the World's highest standards and once manage those lofty heights and ideals!

Onwards to Mali, where at the time, people were petrified on hearing about the hunger crises in Niger. It had a massive locust crises year before, which ate up the crops. Timbuktu is in the northern Mali, on the banks of Niger river. But the villages on the south side of Timbuktu are the worst of the worst. I asked the village chief, what are you living on now? What are you going to do? It was obviously a very painful conversation. For him to be answering in front of everybody was not the easiest thing in the world, yet we needed to have the conversation.

One option apparently was that they were going to borrow some seed, because they had lost everything - food, seed - to the locusts.And I asked what the terms would be. He had been looking down at the sand, and he raised his head and looked at me. The terms would be that they would have to pay it back twice, a 100 percent interest rate in one growing season, due in 4 months. Literally an impossible situation. But I had an idea that we were testing.

A couple of months before I was in Mali, I had been to the Indian State of Andhra Pradesh, which is along the Ganges River. The Ganges plain is home to hundreds of millions of people because you have intensive agriculture there. You go from farmhouse to farmhouse and everyone has a hand-pump and many treadle pump which you use to pump water by foot. And the reason is that the water table is very close to the surface. You just dig down to ten or fifteen feet and you hit water. In Mali, you had the Niger River, but no pumps. And it looked so familiar to me I said, How far down is the water table? Three meters, they said. Why don't you have a well down there? I asked, because everyone is without water. And they said, maybe we could do that. Maybe a large project could come in. I said, But you just need a Treadle pump here. This is perfect for small scale irrigation. Now a real expert will judge this. And we have great hydrologists and agronomists on our team. So we are going to start a village in Timbuktu, and we are going to prove that along the Niger you can have irrigation. The south of Mali is a cotton growing area where we also decided to build a village. And it is here that you can see the direct manifestation of how American Cotton subsidies actually lead to the "Death of Impoverished communities!"

Good night and God bless!

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless

PG medical student attempts suicide

AHMEDABAD, INDIA: A 25-year-old post-graduate medical student, Dr Narendra Jadav, of the NHL Municipal Medical College at the VS Hospital attempted suicide on Friday afternoon by jumping off the terrace of the three-storey building.

Police are yet to ascertain the reason for suicide. "His family members alleged that the hike in fees for the PG course drove him to suicide," said a police official.

"He was rushed to the trauma center where he was diagnosed with broken ribs and severe spinal injuries that resulted into internal rupture and bleeding. He was immediately taken to the operation theater and a surgery was performed to stabilize his neck and spinal cord. Till late on Friday, he had not regained consciousness," said an Ellisbridge police official.

VS Hospital authorities said that 32 units of blood were administered and multiple surgeries were performed to save him. They, however, indicated that his situation is delicate. Jadav, a first year master's student of surgery at the NHL Municipal Medical College and a resident doctor, was found unconscious from below the Doctors Quarters at VS Hospital at 1 pm by fellow doctors. Jadav had cut his left wrist which had caused profuse bleeding.

Since Friday morning, the medical college campus was abuzz with students debating on the recent fee hike. "On Thursday night, our college's website reflected the hike that for PG course it will be hiked from Rs 6 lakh to Rs 12 lakh. The students also threatened to go on strike if the hike is implemented from the current academic year," said a student of the college.

College dean and in-charge superintendent Pankaj Patel told TOI that Jadav was depressed for the past few days and was in constant touch with his family members. "Jadav had earlier got admission in MD (anesthesia) course, but after the announcement of vacant seats at the NHL in MS course, he opted for the college. The fees issue is under consideration at the moment," he said.

-  THE TIMES OF INDIA

Student loans: pay off early or let them run their course?

(UK) This year's freshers will be the first students to pay up to £9,000 a year in tuition fees under new funding arrangements for English universities.
Students don't have to pay these fees upfront, but will be given loans to cover the costs, alongside maintenance loans – of up to £5,500 a year – to pay accommodation and living expenses.
Many parents might shudder at the thought of their child graduating with debts of £43,000 alongside their degree, and may be looking at ways to offset these costs now.
But most financial experts are cautioning parents against paying tuition fees upfront, pointing out that the cost of doing so could exceed the likely repayments.
For students starting a degree course this autumn, the cap on tuition fees has risen from £3,375 a year to up to £9,000 a year. Universities have discretion to set their own course fees, but more than two thirds of institutions will charge the full amount on the majority of their courses – giving an "average" tuition fee of £8,300 a year.

Read More

Harvard Students in Cheating Scandal Say Collaboration Was Accepted

Harvard students suspected in a major cheating scandal said on Friday that many of the accusations are based on innocent — or at least tolerated — collaboration among students, and with help from graduate-student teachers who sometimes gave them answers to test questions.

Students said they were tripped up by a course whose tests were confusing, whose grading was inconsistent, and for which the professor and teaching assistants gave contradictory signals about what was expected. They face the possibility of a one-year suspension from Harvard or revocation of their diplomas if they have already graduated, and some said that they will sue the university if any serious punishment is meted out.

Read More

Can You Really Run a Car on Moonshine?

In the new movie Lawless, brothers Jack Bondurant (Shia LaBeouf) and Forrest Bondurant (Tom Hardy) find themselves unexpectedly out of gas on a tense drive out of Franklin County, Va. Luckily, they’re booze-running bootleggers, and after emptying a mason jar of moonshine into the tank, their automobile is back up and running. Can cars really run on moonshine?

Only if it’s really strong stuff. To power a car, moonshine—in this case, illicit homemade whiskey—must  have an extremely high alcohol content, at minimum 150 proof (or 75 percent alcohol by volume), or 190 proof for best results. During the Prohibition, moonshine could be as weak as 63 proof and as strong as 190 proof.

Alcohol has been used to fuel cars since the dawn of the modern automobile. Henry Ford’s Model T was equipped for running on ethanol as well as gasoline. And in recent years, the federal government has mandated that ethanol make up about 10 percent of most gasoline bought at the pump. Others drive on the more controversial E85, which is 85 percent alcohol. Some penny pinchers have even installed legal “moonshine” stills in their own backyards, to save on gas money.

Practically any car could run on high-potency hooch, though the level of performance would vary. The Ford Model A driven in the historical novel Lawless is based on would run pretty smoothly, though it would lose about 30 percent of its horse power. Most automobiles made prior to 2000 aren’t equipped to handle alcohol long-term, and fueling with ethanol can lead to leaks, rust, and corrosion. However, since alcohol has become a regular additive to gasoline, modern fuel systems have developed a much higher tolerance for the substance. While a car made today could run just as well on some stiff “white lightning” as it could on E85 fuel, drivers should beware of cold winters: Below 40 degrees, it’d be a challenge to get it started.

-  Slate.com

Storekeeper Finds Insanely Old Piece Of Cheese

Wisconsin Cheese Mart plans on selling this 40-year-old
cheese

MILWAUKEE — A recently discovered block of eastern Wisconsin cheddar cheese that dates back to the Nixon presidency will be sold for $10 per ounce.

Edward Zahn, 73, was in Z's Cheese Shoppe's walk-in cooler last month, preparing to shut down his Oconto store. He pushed aside stacks of cheese to reveal several wooden boxes that had been overlooked for years.

Inside were blocks of unintentionally aged cheddar – 28, 34 and 40 years old – that, some experts say, might comprise the oldest collection of cheese ever assembled and sold to the public.

"It just got overlooked," Zahn told the Wisconsin State Journal of the 40-year-old cheese. "It looks just like the others except it's just a lot sharper. It's got character."

Ken McNulty, who owns the Wisconsin Cheese Mart in Milwaukee, bought about 20 pounds of the 40-year-old cheddar and 120 pounds of 34-year cheddar. He declined to reveal the price he paid.

Cheese is often sold by the pound, but McNulty plans to sell the oldest cheese by the ounce so more people can get a taste.

"Because there's so little, we didn't want to sell blocks of it on the Web," he told The Associated Press. "We just wanted people to sample it."

So what does cheddar taste like when it's been sitting around since 1972.

"If you get a piece close to the outside, it's all crystallization, so it's crunchy like Corn Flakes," McNulty said. "As you get closer to the interior, it's creamier and overwhelmingly sharp."

-  AP

The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure (2012)

The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure is a children's film directed by Matthew Diamond and starring Toni Braxton, Christopher Lloyd, Chazz Palminteri, Cary Elwes, Cloris Leachman, Maya Stange and Jaime Pressly. The film was released on August 29, 2012.

Marketed as an "interactive film" with the full-bodied puppets, the film will encourage singing and dancing along in the theater by children and their parents.

Synopsis: On Schluufy's birthday, the Oogieloves (Goobie, Zoozie and Toofie), and their friends J. Edgar, Windy Window and Ruffy, work on organizing a party. Everything is going as planned until J. Edgar trips and loses the last five magical balloons in all of Lovelyloveville, prompting The Oogiloves set out to find the magical balloons in time for the party. Along the way, they meet Dotty Rounder (Cloris Leachman), Bobby Wobbly (Carey Elwes), Marvin Milkshake (Chazz Palminteri), Rosalie Rosebud (Toni Braxton) and Lola and Lero Sombrero (Christopher Lloyd and Jaime Pressly).

Development: The film was written by Scott Stabile and produced by Kenn Viselman, who was behind the American localization of the British children's series Teletubbies and Thomas & Friends. Viselman claims that he and Teletubbies creator Anne Wood had multiple disputes with each other, because Wood refused to let Viselman pursue a film adaptation of the show, but when he went to a showing of the Tyler Perry film Madea Goes to Jail, he saw how people in the audience would shout out advice to the characters on screen. This lead him to the idea of creating a children's film in the vein of Teletubbies with the interactive aspect, allowing the children to sing, dance, and respond to the characters on screen.

Ashley Smith new face of Forever 21

American high street chain Forever 21 announced that Texan it-girl Ashley Smith will model the brand's new collection.

Ashley Smith is one of the US's models of the moment, known for her unconventional smile and sexy silhouette. She has recently been seen on runways for Balenciaga and Prada.

The 20-year-old has been chosen to model the Fall/Winter collection for Forever 21 shot by photographers Santiago & Mauricio Sierra.

Bewitching (Kendra Chronicles, #1) by Alex Flinn

Kendra Hilferty, the witch who curses Kyle Kingsbury in Beastly, tells about her immortal existence-how she discovered she was a witch and the various ways she has used her powers to help people throughout the centuries. (Unfortunately her attempts have often backfired.) As it turns out, Kendra has actually had a hand in "Hansel and Gretel," "The Princess and the Pea," and "The Little Mermaid"-but these are not the fairy tales you think you know! Kendra's reminiscences are wrapped around a real-time version of "Cinderella," except the "ugly" stepsister is the good guy. With dark twists, hilarious turns, and unexpected endings, Bewitching is a contemporary read for fairy-tale lovers, fantasy fans, and anyone looking for more Alex Flinn.

1906 + today, earthquake photo mash-ups

(USA) It’s hard to imagine today that 106 years ago, much of the city we know now was a broken wasteland of rubble and charred wood. The 1906 earthquake, and its subsequent fires, destroyed much of San Francisco and killed thousands.

Photographer Shawn Clover created “photo mash-ups” of the ruins with the modern day cityscape, in hopes of going beyond the typical setup of “then and now” photos. The project began in 2010, with the second installation out a few weeks ago.

To capture the image as the original photographer did, Clover said on his website that he tried his best to analyze exactly where the photographer stood, how high off the ground he held his camera, the time of day he took the photo and then tried to match a focal length.

The result: cyclists about to plummet into sinkholes. Pedestrians walking precariously close to charred lumber. Cars blocked in by dead horses.

And to think we thought the potholes were bad.

Check out the full, two-part collection here.

http://blog.sfgate.com

As Singapore Globalizes Its Schools, Locals Worry

“This is how our society treats us and our parents who pay taxes,” read a post this year on The Thinking Fish Tank, a Singapore-based blog. “They’d rather give scholarships to others than their own.”

The writer, who identifies herself as G.T. and an engineering student at theNational University of Singapore , is not the only one complaining online that international students, some of whom receive scholarships, are squeezing Singaporeans out of public universities.

Universities around the world have made attracting international students a fundamental goal. And Singapore has been successful in its pursuit, with foreigners representing 18 percent of the undergraduate student population.

But the globalization of the country’s higher education sector has some Singaporeans concerned that bringing in more international students may have come at a cost to citizens, despite a rise in the number of Singaporean students attending universities in recent years.

Read More

Djokovic rolls into U.S. Open third round as Roddick announces retirement

Defending champion Novak Djokovic marched into the third round of the U.S. Open on Friday with a 6-2 6-1 6-2 victory over world number 112 Rogerio Dutra Silva.

The Serb was a class above the 28-year-old Brazilian as he stormed to victory in one hour, 39 minutes.

Second seed Djokovic dropped just two games in his opening-round win and Dutra Silva managed only three more as the Serb ripped his game apart.

Djokovic made just 14 unforced errors as he cruised through to a meeting with France's Julien Benneteau or American wildcard Dennis Novikov.


Roddick to retire, Federer and Serena play on

30-year-old Andy Roddick stunned the tennis world by announcing that the U.S. Open would be his last tournament on Thursday but there was no sign of the end of the road for his contemporaries Roger Federer and Serena Williams on day four at Flushing Meadows.

Top seed Federer absolutely dominated German Phau to win 6-2 6-3 6-2 in the opening match of Thursday's night session before paying tribute to Roddick, who he defeated in three Wimbledon finals.

Serena also remained on course for a fourth U.S. Open crown with an easy 6-2 6-4 victory over Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez.

Roddick's announcement of his impending retirement came shortly after France's fifth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga produced his worst match of the year to be the first big-name casualty of the men's draw.

The former world number one and U.S. Open champion said he realized during his first-round victory over Rhyne Williams that he had lost the desire to remain on tour.

Large earthquake strikes off Philippines

A 7.6-magnitude earthquake has struck off the eastern Philippine island of Samar, causing tsunami evacuations and power cuts.

The regional tsunami warnings have now been lifted.

The earthquake struck at a depth of 33km (20 miles) at 20:47 local time (12:47 GMT), the US Geological Survey said.

The quake was said to be long and violent, with some roads and bridges reported to be damaged.

One woman was reported to have been killed and a young child injured when a house collapsed in Cagayan de Oro city, on the main southern island of Mindanao, officials said.

Tsunami warnings were initially issued for Indonesia, the Philippines, Palau, Taiwan, Japan, Papua New Guinea, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and Yap, but they have all now been lifted.


The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said a tsunami had been generated, but the waves witnessed were small. Some parts of the southern and eastern Philippines were hit by a wave of 16cm (6in).

The epicentre of the quake was 146km from the town of Guiuan, on the southern tip of Samar.

- BBC.co.uk