Watch Get Ready for Amtrak's New High-Speed Trains... in 2040

Get Ready for Amtrak's New High-Speed Trains... in 2040


Yes, you read that right. In 30 years, and for the cost of a mere $117 billion, America will finally catch up to the rest of the industrialized world.

The purposed plan would connect Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and DC. In a mere three-and-a-half hours, the new high-speed trains will be able to zoom a professor from MIT down to meet the President at the White House (both of whom are likely now in their 20s and posting things on Facebook they will later regret) to discuss the policy implications of teleporters, which will totally exist by then. This is compared to the current travel time of eight hours on conventional local service, and six-an-a-half hours on the Acela.

Progress!

To keep things in perspective, here are some other things that will also occur the year Amtrak's high-speed trains comes on-line:

The people born 12 years from today will be able to vote.
Noted philosopher, Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino will be entitled to the senior discount at Chick-fil-A.
Justin Bieber will be six years past the American Urological Association's recommended age for receiving his first digital rectal exam for prostate cancer.
Wasn't "Amtrak Joe" supposed to be all over this?
Coppied by http://www.gearlog.com/emerging_tech/

watches New Mandela book offers personal portrait

New Mandela book offers personal portrait
AP – FILE - In this Jan. 2007 file photo, former South African President Nelson Mandela attends the Mandela

JOHANNESBURG – Nelson Mandela failing classes, fussing over his children, fighting with his wife.
This is not the anti-apartheid icon of "Long Walk to Freedom," Mandela's 1995 autobiography. "Conversations with Myself," which goes on sale Tuesday in 22 countries and 20 languages from Catalan to Turkish, presents a more human Mandela, faults, frailties and all.
"Conversations" was compiled with the 92-year-old former South African president's blessing by a team of archivists, editors and collaborators who worked from decades of notes, letters, recorded conversations and other material.
In a foreword, U.S. President Barack Obama writes that Mandela, who largely retired from public life in 2004, is inspiring even if he is no saint.
"Underneath the history that has been made, there is a human being who chose hope over fear — progress over the prisons of the past," Obama wrote. "And I am reminded that even as he has become a legend, to know the man ... is to respect him even more."
"Conversations" is best read as a companion to "Long Walk," which was in part calculated by Mandela and other members of his African National Congress party to stir support for anti-apartheid activists as they stepped into new roles as leaders trying to heal and develop a divided, impoverished nation.
As he puts it in "Conversations," an autobiography of "a freedom fighter must inevitably be influenced by the question whether the revelation of certain facts, however true they may be, will help advance the struggle."
Certainly, the possibility of violence within Mandela's first marriage, to Evelyn Mase, who died in 2004, had no place in the official autobiography. But it has been raised elsewhere, including in "Young Mandela," an unauthorized biography by British writer David James Smith that appeared earlier this year.
In "Conversations," Mandela puts his version on record. In a transcript of a conversation with Ahmed Kathrada, a friend and fellow veteran of the anti-apartheid struggle who was helping him polish "Long Walk," Mandela denies he once tried to choke his first wife. Instead, he said, she threatened to burn him with a red hot poker.
"So I caught hold of her and twisted her arm, enough for me to take this thing out," Mandela says.
"The poker away," Kathrada responds.
Mandela: "That's all."
Mandela has said his first wife did not understand or support his political activism. A second marriage, to Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, also ended in divorce. His anguish over sacrificing family life to politics is a recurrent theme of "Conversations."
"I love playing and chatting with children, giving them a bath, feeding and putting them to bed with a little story, and being away from the family has troubled me throughout my political life," he writes in a passage drawn from an unpublished autobiography he had intended as a sequel to "Long Walk," but never completed.
Other "Conversations" passages are taken from notes Mandela made in calendars in his careful, upright penmanship. On Dec. 12, 1984, he jotted: "Results: failed all six subjects." He writes elsewhere of having too little time to study for his advanced law degree, taken by correspondence while he was in prison.
The editors of "Conversations" promise the Mandela behind the public figure. But a tell-all would be hard to imagine from Mandela, who spent years as a secretive underground ANC agent, and knew throughout his 27 years in prison that letters to even his closest confidants were being read and censored by apartheid authorities.
Mandela emerged from prison as the most famous African leader of the 20th century, whose words could have far-reaching impact. giving him more reason to be guarded. But there are fascinating glimpses of the inner man, and flashes of his celebrated humor in "Conversations."
He describes being taken from prison to a hospital to be treated for tuberculosis, and being presented with a breakfast of bacon and eggs despite being on a cholesterol-free diet. When an official warned him against defying doctor's orders, he replied: "Today, I am prepared to die; I am going to eat it."
Sales of the book will benefit the Nelson Mandela Foundation.
The foundation, which houses a Mandela archives and supports development and other projects in his name, switched in recent years from a logo featuring Mandela's face to one of his hands. That reflected his desire to shift the focus from himself, and his concern his legacy would mean little if South Africans did not take it upon themselves to build their country.
"It is in your hands to create a better world for all who live in it," Mandela said last year, calling on people around the world to celebrate his July 18 birthday by doing good for others.
"Conversations" presents a Mandela more people may feel they can emulate. It ends with a passage from his unpublished autobiography in which he insists he was never a saint — "Even on the basis of an earthly definition of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying."
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Watches this New threat from Hungary reservoir

New threat from Hungary reservoir


Rescue workers have evacuated a Hungarian village due to a heightened threat of a second flood of toxic red sludge from a broken reservoir at an alumina plant.

A weakened wall in the reservoir from which one million cubic metres of sludge flooded several nearby villages, fields and waterways skirting the Danube river earlier this week is in danger to collapse.

Authorities evacuated 800 inhabitants from the village of Kolontar to the town of Ajka, Hungarian disaster agency spokesman Tibor Dobson confirmed and Kolontar has been sealed off.

Hungary declared a state of emergency in three counties after sludge from the alumina plant flooded three villages on Monday about 160 km (100 miles) west of Budapest, killing seven people and injuring around 150.

"Last night the interior minister informed us that cracks have appeared in the northern wall of the reservoir, whose corner collapsed, which make it likely that the entire wall will collapse," Prime Minister Viktor Orban told a news conference.

"Thank God, we have managed to rescue the large majority of people after the dam burst on Monday, but the region has been practically destroyed," Mr Orban said.

Speaking in Ajka, he said another 500,000 cubic metres of sludge could escape the reservoir but this substance would be thicker than the initial tide of the corrosive, caustic waste material.

The spill from the Ajkai Timfoldgyar plant could have been avoided and there will be "the toughest possible consequences" to ensure such a disaster does not recur, Mr Orban said.

In remarks carried by private broadcaster HirTV, he said a decision on whether to allow the plant to resume bauxite refining would not be made before Monday.

Mr Orban said the government was ready to foot the entire bill of the rescue and recovery effort, but it was too early at this stage to make precise estimates about the size of the damage.

Earlier today, Gyorgy Bakondi, head of the National Disaster Unit, told the daily Magyar Nemzet in an interview the final bill could top 10 billion forints (€36.25 million).

He said checks were made of all similar reservoirs in Hungary. Mr Orban said Hungary had launched a disaster relief fund, which accepted contributions from Hungarians across the world.

Mr Orban, who called the spill Hungary's worst ecological disaster to date, said there was now a high risk of up to 500,000 cubic metres of even thicker sludge escaping the reservoir due to a deterioration of a wall in the stricken part.
coppied by http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2010/1009/breaking2.html

Watches New Zealand ‘sorry’ for racial slur

New Zealand ‘sorry’ for racial slur


New Delhi: New Zealand on Thursday officially apologised for television host’s racial slur, ridiculing Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit by deliberately mispronouncing her name.

The Ministry of External Affairs had earlier in the day summoned New Zealand High Commissioner to register the offence.

Taking a tough stand, India has decided not to participate in the lunch hosted by New Zealand envoy.



Paul Henry, who hosts the popular morning show on state-owned broadcaster TVNZ, had said that her name is "so appropriate" because she is Indian. And what added to the insult was TVNZ featuring it on its website.

During his show, earlier in the week, Henry had deliberately ridiculed the way Dikshit is pronounced, despite being told that it is "Dikshit".

The TV station has received at least four complaints about the clip, the Sydney Morning Herald reported on its website on Wednesday.

The Chief Minister was in the news recently after she was called in to take charge of the Commonwealth Games Village, days before the mega event was scheduled to start on October 03.

Taking strong exception to the racial slur, New Zealand Indian Central Association president Paul Singh Bains said the fact that TVNZ promoted the clip on its website showed it had "totally lost the plot" and was insensitive to the offence Henry had caused.

The clip was promoted on the Video Extras section of TVNZ's website under the heading "Paul Henry laughs about the name Dikshit”, however, it has been removed now.

Henry is a serial offender; after abusing the Delhi Chief Minister, he went on to abuse the country's Indo-Fijian Governor-General Sir Anand Satyanand.

During a programme Henry had asked Prime Minister John Key whether Anand was a New Zealander or not. When Key told him that Anand was a New Zealander, Henry asked if he was going to pick someone who looked more like a New Zealander next time.

Henry has now been suspended.

Bains said he accepted that Dikshit’s name and other Indian names could be difficult to pronounce, but Henry had moved beyond that to ridicule.

"He has an attitude about Indians and all other ethnicities for that matter. If we sound different, if we look different, he thinks there's no place for us in New Zealand," Bains said.

Greens human rights spokesman Keith Locke said the clip, first aired last Friday, was a "particularly graphic illustration of Paul Henry's cultural insensitivity".

Henry has a long history of on-air gaffes, including describing British singer Susan Boyle as "retarded", gays as "unnatural", and accusing a female guest from Greenpeace of having a moustache.

TVNZ initially fuelled the Satyanand row by saying Henry was popular because "he's prepared to say the things we quietly think but are scared to say out loud".
Coppied by http://www.zeenews.com/news660108.html

Watches this 26 NATO tankers torched in new attack in Pakistan

26 NATO tankers torched in new attack in Pakistan

PESHAWAR—At least 26 NATO oil tankers were torched when militants opened fire on a convoy of dozens of vehicles parked in Nowshera in northwestern Pakistan, senior police officials said Wednesday.

The attack was the second of the day after militants opened fire on a terminal on the outskirts of the southwestern city of Quetta earlier, killing a staff member and destroying at least 18 vehicles.

The Nowshera attack was the fifth of its kind in a week, and both were claimed by the Pakistani Taliban "to avenge US drone attacks" in the northwestern tribal region on the Afghan border.

There were more than 70 vehicles including oil tankers and containers at the depot in Nowshera, and so far 26 tankers have been gutted, local police chief Nisar Ahmed Tanoli told AFP.

"Militants opened fire and also lobbed rockets which triggered fire," he said. "We have summoned fire brigades and efforts are underway to extinguish the fire."

There was no immediate report of casualties, he said.

Siraj Ahmed, a doctor at a state-run hospital near the depot, said he heard gunfire and several explosions.

"I went out and saw fire is raging at two places in a long row of NATO supply vehicles parked in the area. Firing was also heard," he said.

Another police official Imtiaz Ali said more than 25 tankers were destroyed.

"We are trying to remove other tankers to prevent fire from spreading further," he said.

Local Taliban militants have launched five attacks on NATO supply vehicles in Pakistan in the past week to avenge the new wave of US drone strikes targeting Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants.

Pakistani authorities have reported 25 drone attacks since September 3 which have killed more than 140 people in the region, a hub for homegrown and foreign militants fighting in Afghanistan.
Coppied by http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/world/view/20101007-296449/26-NATO-tankers-torched-in-new-attack-in-Pakistan

Watch Daniel Sunjata Rocks New York - NYC CAN 9/11 Truth March 09/27/09

We are saw this Daniel Sunjata Rocks New York - NYC CAN 9/11 Truth March 09/27/09



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Enjoy Kenya's new constitution sparks hopes of rebirth

Kenya's new constitution sparks hopes of rebirth

Supporters of the new constitution say it brings much-needed changes
Nairobi's Uhuru Park is awash with the red, green and black of the Kenyan flag.
Workers have been painting the stones, trimming hedges, and sweeping the leaves.

Performers have been stamping up and down the road that runs past the official dias, rehearsing for the moment that the nation's intellectuals are calling "the birth of the second republic".

And there is plenty to celebrate.

Continue reading the main story
“
Start Quote

We are trying to create a nation that runs on the competition of ideas and individuals rather than forcing people to coalesce around ethnicities in order to defend their interests”

Kwamchetsi Mokhoke
Political analyst
The debate over a new constitution began 20 years ago, then surged and receded with each national crisis. Finally, a referendum early this month approved the proposed document.

Through it all was a recognition that something fundamental had to change if Kenya was ever going to escape the repeated rounds of ethnic blood-letting that came with each election.

The fact that the troubles only emerged around election time was the clue to the problem.

It was not that there is anything inherently incompatible about the tribes; it was the way the original constitution encouraged politicians to exploit tribal differences.

Corruption 'rife'
The president was all-powerful; he was able to make appointments without parliamentary oversight.

Previous presidents were able to create a bloated cabinet filled with parliamentarians who owed them favours.

There was no clear separation between the government and the judiciary. The system of provincial government encouraged tribal competition for jobs and money. Corruption was rife, and accountability almost non-existent.

And land - an issue that lies at the very heart of tribal identity - was carved up and parcelled out as a way of manipulating electoral numbers and returning political favours.

Political analyst Kwamchetsi Mokhoke believes this new constitution tackles all those issues and more.

"It's a new experiment in which we are trying to create a nation that runs on the competition of ideas and individuals rather than forcing people to coalesce around ethnicities in order to defend their interests".

This is not just a tinkering at the edges of the way the country is designed.

The authors of the new document have utterly transformed the way power is distributed and managed.

The most significant changes include:

Parliamentary oversight of most presidential appointments and decisions
Constitutional limits on the number of cabinet posts
A senate to review parliamentary decisions
Powerful provincial governments replaced by a network of smaller counties
The creation of a Judicial Service Commission
A citizens' Bill of Rights
A land commission to return stolen property and review past abuses
All of those changes, in their own way, add checks and balances to the centres of power, and undermine tribal politics.

Continue reading the main story
“
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I think the real changes will only come when the leaders also want to change”

Austin Ajowi
'Opened our minds'
The Kikuyus who live in the Pipeline camp for displaced people know about tribalism.

All 1,250 families who live in the squalid plastic tent city outside the Rift Valley town of Nakuru fled there to escape their neighbours after the elections of 2007.

Even now, almost three years later, they cannot go back. Yet people, like camp chairman Paul Thiongo, are surprisingly optimistic.

"Kenyans have now opened their minds," he said.

"They know what they are doing now. Not like before. They were being told things by their leaders and they were following them without question.

"Now we know our rights. And that's why I think everything will change."

Even so, a sceptical shadow still hangs over the celebrations.

Kenyan military have been rehearsing for the ratification ceremony
Austin Ajowi also experienced some of the worst of the bloodshed in the notorious Mathare Valley slum in Nairobi.

There, it was not only rival ethnic groups who were killing one another - the police got involved as well.

He organises football tournaments on a sloping, pitted and dusty square of reclaimed land, as a way of healing some of the rifts within his community.

"I think there will be some changes. But to me, I think the real changes will only come when the leaders also want to change," he said.

And asked about whether he thought the nation's politicians were ready for change, all he could do was shrug.

Still, there is a sense perhaps born of hope more than confidence, that something profound is about to happen in Kenya.

But the nation that is about to be reborn is far wiser than the one that emerged at independence almost half a century ago.
Coppied by http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11103008

New Orleans community rises and shines

We are enjoy New Orleans community rises and shines

Editor's note: Lisa P. Jackson is the administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. She also served as chief of staff to New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine and commissioner of the state's Department of Environmental Protection. Learn more about how the residents of Pontchartrain Park banded together to help rebuild their community on CNN's "New Orleans Rising" at 8 p.m. ET Saturday and Sunday.
(CNN) -- Pontchartrain Park was -- and still is -- the American dream. The historic African-American neighborhood was born in the 1950s, emerging at the height of the Civil Rights era and Jim Crow segregation laws.
Homes were arranged around a golf course planned by Joseph Bartholomew, who had designed several golf courses in the New Orleans, Louisiana, area, but as a black man, was forbidden to play on them.
The homeowners and families in Pontchartrain Park were among the first African-Americans to buy their own homes in the New Orleans suburbs. Despite the racial inequality of the time, they shared a belief that the nation's opportunity should be equal for everyone.
In 2010, Pontchartrain Park is being reborn, re-emerging after the destructive power of Katrina and the failure of the New Orleans levee system left the neighborhood devastated. Today's vision is no less bold than it was in the 1950s.
Pontchartrain Park is re-emerging as model of new urbanism, a place where livability, environmental responsibility and economic opportunity come together. My dad, my aunt and uncle, my cousins and the many other Pontchartrain Park pioneers who are no longer with us would be proud.
That's because the first residents of Pontchartrain Park measured their success not by the sizes of their homes, but, like most Americans, by the range of new possibilities opened for the next generation. I was fortunate enough to be part of that "next generation."
The success of my parents and their neighbors became apparent as the kids I grew up with went on to become lawyers, teachers, doctors, artists and more. Some were the first in their families to go to college. The Park was home to Ernest M. Morial, the first African-American mayor of New Orleans. His son Marc Morial went on to be mayor as well.
Today my generation is working to open up new possibilities for our children. Led by our parents' example, some have even committed to moving back to the Park to restore the community that gave us so much.
Coppied by http://edition.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/08/20/jackson.pontchartrain.park/index.html?hpt=C2#fbid=BRhT0Nxv594&wom=false

Ballack warns Lahm over Germany captaincy

Germany coach Joachim Loew will have to choose between Lahm and Ballack
Watches Ballack warns Lahm over Germany captaincy
Injured Germany captain Michael Ballack has warned World Cup skipper Philipp Lahm he expects to take back the armband on his return to fitness.
Lahm, 26, led Germany to third place in South Africa in the absence of Ballack and wants to keep the role.
But Ballack, 33, said: "This is no issue for me. I am the captain.
"A player cannot request in what position he wants to play and it is the same with the captaincy. One should respect this. There are hierarchies."
Ballack was ruled out of the tournament because of an ankle injury suffered playing for Chelsea against Portsmouth in last season's FA Cup final.
The midfielder, who signed a two-year deal with Bayer Leverkusen in June, saw his country play impressively in South Africa before they lost to eventual winners Spain in the semi-finals.
Ballack, capped 98 times by Germany, added: "Philipp has made his claim at a moment that I feel is inopportune. I was injured and could not defend myself.
"I am going to talk to Philipp about this business."
Lahm last week told the Bild newspaper: "It is clear I would like to retain the captaincy. The job is a lot of fun for me. Why should I then voluntarily give up the role?"
The issue is dividing opinion in Germany with midfielder Bastian Schweinsteiger and ex-skipper Lothar Matthaus taking different sides.
Despite being Lahm's club-mate at Bayern Munich, Schweinsteiger, told newspaper Die Welt: "For me, it is Ballack who is the captain.
"Philipp took on the role solely because Michael was injured."
But Matthaus has said: "I don't mean that in a spiteful way but Ballack was arguably holding up a number of players who've now blossomed."
Coach Joachim Loew, who has yet to sign a new contract with the German football federation, has not commented on the situation.
Coppied by http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/world_cup_2010/8822906.stm

Maradona inspired a nation Argentina to offer Diego Maradona new four-year deal

We saw this Argentina to offer Diego Maradona new four-year deal
Diego Maradona will be offered a new deal that would keep him in charge of Argentina through to the summer of 2014 - when Brazil stages the World Cup.
He led Argentina to the 2010 World Cup quarter-finals in South Africa and the contract would mean he would be still be coach if they qualify next time.
The Argentine Football Association president Julio Grondona will meet the 49-year-old next week.
Maradona had hinted he would quit after the 4-0 last-eight defeat by Germany.
Grondona intends to have talks with Argentina's former World Cup-winning captain no later than Wednesday of next week to discuss extending his contract.
Despite leading Argentina to victory at the 1986 finals in Mexico as a player, Maradona was a controversial appointment as coach in 2008.


He had little coaching experience and had endured a host of personal problems following his retirement.
However, Maradona guided Argentina to the recent World Cup finals after a late winning goal in their final qualification match against Uruguay.
In South Africa, Argentina looked like convincing contenders for the trophy, comfortably winning their first three group matches and their last-16 clash with Mexico.
But the well-organised German outfit negated Argentina's array of attacking talent, including Barcelona star Lionel Messi, Real Madrid striker Gonzalo Higuain and Manchester City's Carlos Tevez, before ruthlessly highlighting the defensive frailties of Maradona's side.
"I may leave tomorrow," was Maradona's immediate response to the exit from the tournament.
But he added: "We will see what happens. I haven't thought about leaving. I have to check that with my family and the players and there are things I have to consider."


coppied by http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/world_cup_2010/8823478.stm