Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Britney Spears was more popular than US president-elect Barack Obama among Internet searches through 2008, according to a web portal.
The results came from ranking billions of search enquiries. Troubled-racked Britney Spears has been the top search term for seven out of the last eight years on the portal.
Also beating the history-making politician was World Wrestling Entertainment. But Obama shouldn't feel too bad. According to the website, he was the second most searched-for person and the third most searched-for term overall.
Also making the top 10 searches were teen singer Miley Cyrus in fourth place, the online game Runescape, actress Jessica Alba, anime series Naruto, actresses Lindsay Lohan and Angelina Jolie, and the TV show American Idol.
In addition to the top 10 searches, the web portal said the major search themes for 2008 included the economy, the Olympics and news stories.
IRS stimulus checks, followed by oil prices and gold prices were the most popular economy-related searches, while swimmer Michael Phelps was the most-searched Olympian.
Hurricanes topped the list of most popular news stories, the web portal said, while Obama led the list of political searches ahead of the Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and presidential candidate John McCain.
In this video, shot by Art (Sorry i don’t have a photo for him) Britney Spears is at the nail salon chatting on her Blackberry while she gets a manicure. Her mom, Lynne, is also at the salon, though not getting her cuticle beds worked on, and chatting on her phone. When the pairs decides to leave they are escorted home by the L.A.P.D. from above in a helicopter and on land by a car.
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Our planet is running out of room and resources. Modern man has plundered so much, a damning report claims this week, that outer space will have to be colonised.
Earth's population will be forced to colonise two planets within 50 years if natural resources continue to be exploited at the current rate, according to a report out this week.
A study by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), to be released on Tuesday, warns that the human race is plundering the planet at a pace that outstrips its capacity to support life.
In a damning condemnation of Western society's high consumption levels, it adds that the extra planets (the equivalent size of Earth) will be required by the year 2050 as existing resources are exhausted.
The report, based on scientific data from across the world, reveals that more than a third of the natural world has been destroyed by humans over the past three decades.
Using the image of the need for mankind to colonise space as a stark illustration of the problems facing Earth, the report warns that either consumption rates are dramatically and rapidly lowered or the planet will no longer be able to sustain its growing population.
Experts say that seas will become emptied of fish while forests - which absorb carbon dioxide emissions - are completely destroyed and freshwater supplies become scarce and polluted.
The report offers a vivid warning that either people curb their extravagant lifestyles or risk leaving the onus on scientists to locate another planet that can sustain human life. Since this is unlikely to happen, the only option is to cut consumption now.
Systematic overexploitation of the planet's oceans has meant the North Atlantic's cod stocks have collapsed from an estimated spawning stock of 264,000 tonnes in 1970 to under 60,000 in 1995.
The study will also reveal a sharp fall in the planet's ecosystems between 1970 and 2002 with the Earth's forest cover shrinking by about 12 per cent, the ocean's biodiversity by a third and freshwater ecosystems in the region of 55 per cent.
The Living Planet report uses an index to illustrate the shocking level of deterioration in the world's forests as well as marine and freshwater ecosystems. Using 1970 as a baseline year and giving it a value of 100, the index has dropped to a new low of around 65 in the space of a single generation.
It is not just humans who are at risk. Scientists, who examined data for 350 kinds of mammals, birds, reptiles and fish, also found the numbers of many species have more than halved.
Martin Jenkins, senior adviser for the World Conservation Monitoring Centre in Cambridge, which helped compile the report, said: 'It seems things are getting worse faster than possibly ever before. Never has one single species had such an overwhelming influence. We are entering uncharted territory.'
Figures from the centre reveal that black rhino numbers have fallen from 65,000 in 1970 to around 3,100 now. Numbers of African elephants have fallen from around 1.2 million in 1980 to just over half a million while the population of tigers has fallen by 95 per cent during the past century.
The UK's birdsong population has also seen a drastic fall with the corn bunting population declining by 92 per cent between 1970 and 2000, the tree sparrow by 90 per cent and the spotted flycatcher by 70 per cent.
Experts, however, say it is difficult to ascertain how many species have vanished for ever because a species has to disappear for 50 years before it can be declared extinct.
Attention is now focused on next month's Earth Summit in Johannesburg, the most important environmental negotiations for a decade.
However, the talks remain bedevilled with claims that no agreements will be reached and that US President George W. Bush will fail to attend.
Matthew Spencer, a spokesman for Greenpeace, said: 'There will have to be concessions from the richer nations to the poorer ones or there will be fireworks.'
The preparatory conference for the summit, held in Bali last month, was marred by disputes between developed nations and poorer states and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), despite efforts by British politicians to broker compromises on key issues.
America, which sent 300 delegates to the conference, is accused of blocking many of the key initiatives on energy use, biodiversity and corporate responsibility.
The WWF report shames the US for placing the greatest pressure on the environment. It found the average US resident consumes almost double the resources as that of a UK citizen and more than 24 times that of some Africans.
Based on factors such as a nation's consumption of grain, fish, wood and fresh water along with its emissions of carbon dioxide from industry and cars, the report provides an ecological 'footprint' for each country by showing how much land is required to support each resident.
America's consumption 'footprint' is 12.2 hectares per head of population compared to the UK's 6.29ha while Western Europe as a whole stands at 6.28ha. In Ethiopia the figure is 2ha, falling to just half a hectare for Burundi, the country that consumes least resources.
The report, which will be unveiled in Geneva, warns that the wasteful lifestyles of the rich nations are mainly responsible for the exploitation and depletion of natural wealth. Human consumption has doubled over the last 30 years and continues to accelerate by 1.5 per cent a year.
Now WWF wants world leaders to use its findings to agree on specific actions to curb the population's impact on the planet.
A spokesman for WWF UK, said: 'If all the people consumed natural resources at the same rate as the average US and UK citizen we would require at least two extra planets like Earth.'
The world's ticking timebomb
Marine crisis:
North Atlantic cod stocks have collapsed from an estimated 264,000 tonnes in 1970 to under 60,000 in 1995.
Pollution:
The United States places the greatest pressure on the environment, with its carbon dioxide emissions and over-consumption. It takes 12.2 hectares of land to support each American citizen and 6.29 for each Briton, while the figure for Burundi is just half a hectare.
Shrinking Forests:
Between 1970 and 2002 forest cover has dwindled by 12 per cent.
Endangered wildlife:
African elephant numbers have fallen from 1.2 million in 1980 to half a million now. In the UK the songbird population has fallen dramatically, with the corn bunting declining by 92 per cent in the past 30 years.
Devika Chhibber
Love transcends all boundaries. It is love, which bring two strangers together. It helps in better understanding between friends. It is the only way to show and express human emotions. A mere expression and true gesture of love can make anybody yours. However, today this word is losing its force and sex is gaining momentum. Sex – though, an essential aspect of anybody’s life – is incomplete without love. So let us join hands and share the feeling of love on AIDS Day, as December 1 is celebrated world wide as World AIDS Day.
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome or Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome i.e. (AIDS or Aids) happens due to damage to the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus or HIV. I would like to highlight the human side of AIDS through this short story —
Last year while visiting my aunt in Bhopal, I met a man in the local bus who was very handsome, attractive and dynamic. After exchanging glances, I asked him about his professional life. To my surprise, he was a police officer. A happily married man he seemed to be full of zest for life. Sometime later, I heard him telling his wife that he has taken all his medicines. Curious, I asked him if he was well. Nothing much, he said, he just had AIDS. I got the shock of my life. I just could not believe that he was suffering from the so-called deadly disease, which we have studied in our textbooks. Nevertheless, it was true.
The incident was a revelation for me. I had a poor opinion for such people but after meeting this man, I started looking at the perspective more broadly. I remembered some slogans used in advertisements like ‘Pyar chune se failta hai na ki aids’.
We must realize that there are people who are living with this disease as if nothing has changed. For them it has become their normal routine. They know their precautions, they know that have to live with it and they live daringly. What matters to them most is the care and affection of the world surrounding them. What helps them in facing their critical situation is the gentle touch of their dear ones. What helps them in surviving through the problems of life is our love.
So let us stand united on this day and vow to show love and affection to all AIDS sufferers and make this world a better place for them to live in.
KARACHI (AFP) — Pakistani authorities on Tuesday arrested 24 men at an Afghan refugee camp on suspicion of involvement in recent riots that killed 35 people and injured more than 200, officials said.
"We have arrested 24 men who were either directly involved in the violent acts or harboured the criminals," Sohail Zafar Chattha, a senior police official, told AFP.
Police and paramilitary forces also seized weapons and ammunition from the suspects in the operation aimed at securing Pakistan's largest city, which was gripped with violence from Saturday until Monday.
The incidents were mainly blamed on activists from the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and the Pashtun nationalist Awami National Party (ANP). Leaders from both the parties denied their members were involved in the violence.
"Most of the suspects we have arrested are Afghan refugees. Some of them are locals," Chattha said.
During the two days of deadly disturbances, troops were authorised to use guns to quell the violence in which rioters set shops and houses on fire.
Police and paramilitary Rangers were still patrolling the city streets and affected areas to maintain peace Tuesday evening, paramilitary spokesman Major Mohammad Ali told AFP.
Karachi has experienced unrest in the past from tensions between the influential MQM and Pashtuns from the North West Frontier Province, who have settled in Karachi for jobs.
If the problem of 'soft on terror' stance of India has to be traced to roots, it may not be just Congress politicians as the BJP and other political parties are alleging now. We might as well start with cells in the Indian media.
A media portal SAWF (sawf.org), appears to be symptomatic of this. Just recently, the portal 'reported' the Jihadi 'fidayeen' attacks on India as 'tragedy' while lambasting the likes of Ajay Devgan and Raveena Tandon for calling out the failure of the basic government infrastructure that any government is hired to provide (national and domestic security). The latter group has been merely echoing the frustration and anger of the hundred of millions of Indians and people worldwide.
Maybe Sawf type media do not understand language very well so let us help them out. Hamlet was a tragedy. This is not. Or to put it more subtly, tragedy is what happens when these media people get run over by a speeding Indian army truck. That might be tragic. Tragedy however is not Jihadis from Pakistan or Middle-East, using local support, managing to infiltrate Mumbai, starting seizing city landmarks and slaughtering innocent people there. What happened in Mumbai was no tragedy.
Terrorism is mass murder of unarmed civilians with intention to terrorize the rest into gradual submission. And Islamic Terrorism is an offensive, escalating worldwide problem which in India is neither a 'tragedy' nor an 'accident'. It is designed to create murderous panic via symbolic attacks to drive subsequent mental surrender of the infidel civilian population who the terrorists tend to target in the first place.
The least Bollywood and Hindi cinema figures then could do is to raise the call on behalf of themselves and for the country they have gotten so much from and which has made them what they are, not to mention where public safety at public places like movie theaters is essential for their profession to sustain. So that's what number of them are doing.
That's more than what some others are showing however, including elements of the Indian media.
Calling terrorism 'tragedy' is like calling cold-blood murder an 'unseemly incident'. Many in media do this deliberately to reframe the situation and problem as one of 'helplessness' and 'no source' and 'no solutions' as if it is a tragedy (like the cyclone), then it must not be a deliberate mass targeted crime against the country, its institutions and its people.
Which of course is exactly what it is.
It is ridiculous that as the operation to flush out the attackers was going on, the Indian security authorities had already determined that the attackers had come from Pakistan. This is an absurd and illogical approach which will not help the ongoing CBMs between the two countries. Also, we should not send our ISI chief to India just because their prime minister made the request. This will send the wrong signals across the border and to the Pakistani public.
Ihtesham Kayani
Rawalpindi
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India blaming Pakistan for a terrorist act on its soil is not something new. India has always jumped to such hasty conclusions — and usually without offering any evidence — without the consideration that it will help the enemies of peace between the two countries.
Surely, India knows that it has dozens, nay hundreds, of groups on its own soil which can, and have in the past, take up arms against the state. Besides, Pakistan itself of late has been a victim of terrorist acts, so what could it possibly stand to gain by doing something similar on Indian soil?
Kamran Kiani
Islamabad
