31 August 2008

ICNA - Moonsighting

ICNA - Moonsighting

It might be a surprise for people who belong to other religion than Islamic, but ICNA (Islamic Circle of North America) is involving in society and humanitarian problems as any other people. That's a good thing to know, but the reason why ICNA is on the top searches on Google is because of one of their announcements:

In the Name of Allah, the most Compassionate, the most Merciful In consultation with national Islamic organizations and local hilaal committees it has been determined that the moon was not sighted on the night of (August 31/Shaban 29) (based on the local sighting of the moon). Ramadan will begin on Tuesday September 2.
Source:Islamic Circle of North America


The controversy is the beginning of the Ramadan, as you can read below:
Inevitabley, every year the Muslims (at least those of us in the West) fall into debating and confusion about the beginning of Ramadan.
.....
In recent years before Ramadan, Muslims in different states are in confusion on whether they should go by the Moon sighting or by using astronomical calculations.

Source:A Glimpse Into The Life of A Muslimah

So, as you see the Muslims have this debate before Ramadan each year.

25 August 2008

Marriage in different centuries

Sophie Charlotte and Prince Eitel Frederick

Love doesn't change in time, the only thing that changes is the reason why people get married. More traditionalist families had alliances instead of marriages and that happen only in royal niche of society. Above is the picture of The Duchess Sophie Charlotte of Oldenburg and Prince Eitel Frederick, a couple which got married about one hundred years ago. An excerpt from a New York Times said at that time:

BERLIN, Feb. 27. -- The Duchess Sophie Charlotte of Oldenburg, daughter of the Grand Duke of Oldenburg, and Prince Eitel Frederick, the second son of the Emperor, were married this afternoon in the chapel of the palace by the Court Chaplain, Dr. Dryander. The 500 persons present included members of the royal families of Germany, the Cabinet Ministers, and a number of Generals and Admirals. Ambassador and Mrs. Tower were present in the diplomatic circle.
Source:New York Times Archive

Michelle and Barack Obama These days we are witness to a 'love statement' of Michelle Obama that surrounds the news. I'm not impressed about it, but is nice to see these two couples at one hundred years distance. Below is Michelle Obama preparing for speech:




21 August 2008

Tom Cruise

Tom Cruise in Tropic Thunder and Valkyrie


No, is not Santa Cruise on the left ! Is that guy...what was his name...Tom, Tom Cruise. Maybe you think that Tom looks funny bald, fat and with a big belly, but actually this might be his look in 10-15 maybe 20 years from now. Tom Cruise claims that the leaked images of him being fat will be the sentence to something for the one who showed the world his future... But seriously, this is just another marketing move. He have an insignificant role in 'Tropic Thunder' and he uses this images to direct people's attention to this movie.
And I was thinking that a successful movie must have beautiful characters... Anyway, on the second image of Tom is a photo taken for the 'Valkyrie' movie, a highly anticipated war-and-Christmas movie (is set to be released on 26th of December this year). Below is the plot and the trailer for this movie.

At the height of WW2, a group of high-ranking German officers hatched a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, and seize power of the military command in order to end the war. The operation was codenamed "Valkyrie", for the emergency plan that was meant to be used in case of a revolt against the Nazi government. This plan had been modified by the conspirators to ensure their success, but for various reasons the plot failed when finally carried out on 20 July 1944. The conspirators of the inner circle were shot after a kangaroo trial or sentenced to death soon after.
Source:IMDB



This is the Tom Cruise that we know and as a funny thing, I've found one of his quotes:
Have you ever gotten the feeling that you aren't completely embarassed yet, but you glimpse tomorrow's embarrassment?
by: Tom Cruise



15 August 2008

Blood with gunpowder taste

Blood taste


No matter the reason of this war, from Georgia (located at southern Russian border),the fact is that it caused casualties among journalists, human rights fighters, soldiers, but most important, people like most of us, simple civilians. Who is right and who is wrong in this fight? Georgia is an independent state, so Russia is there for what?! This war follows the pattern 'I do this and you stay out of my business'.

Putin drinking whisky Where did we see this before ? I remember the yelling to Bush's so called 'anti terrorism war', when Russia closed its eyes to this. It was US run for oil and then Putin was drunk with oil flavored whiskey. Then we could hear only lamenting and ferocious comments from Russia, told by a drunk man, Putin.

It's the turn of Russia to share a glass of oil flavored vodka with US. Of course there is lamenting and ferocious comments from the United States and many countries, but who can do more than this ?! Can you send troops there ? This would mean war and we don't want that. But getting all the small wars together don't we get a big war ?! The purpose is not to involve directly into war more powerful armies and this even with accepting lots of civilian casualties.

Bush drinking vodka One more question, why now? Because most of the people are in holiday now and because of this. And when you come back from that page don't say you aren't revolted and you don't feel fooled.

Below is the video of the georgian journalist Tamara Urushadze, who was shot while being reporting live.



13 August 2008

Shelley Malil

Shelley Malil
Shelley Malil, is 42 years old and is not virgin, but he has some serious sexual problems perhaps. He is known as the partner of the main character of the '40 years old virgin' movie and yesterday he stubbed for more than 20 times his girlfriend. Why would he do something like that ?! That is the question that the trial will answer. He can go to jail for life and his bail is set to 2 million $.
He is known as a comic actor, but this time he wasn't funny at all and for that he will pay. He could do like others, but he chose the weapon way. That's all folks. Here is a brief from AP

Authorities confirmed the victim's identity as Kendra Beebe. According to her Facebook page, she is a 35-year-old mother of two who works as an insurance broker in Carlsbad, a coastal suburb. She was listed in critical condition Monday, according to the San Diego Sheriff's Department. Spokeswoman Jan Caldwell said Tuesday she had no update on Beebe's condition.
Source:Associated Press

12 August 2008

My Best Friend's Girl

My Best Friend's Girl


My Best Friend's Girl poster Looks like this autumn we gonna laugh ! :D At least that's what "My Best Friend's Girl" promises. Starring Dane Cook, Kate Hudson (photo above), Jason Biggs, Alec Baldwin and Lizzy Caplan, the movie looks very good for taking your partner to a date. Here is the plot:

A master at seducing – and offending – women, Tank is a professional "My Best Friend's Girl." When guys get dumped, they hire Tank to take their ex-girlfriends out on the worst date of their lives – an experience so horrible it sends them running gratefully back to their beaus. So when Tank's best friend, Dustin, is dumped by his new girlfriend, Tank naturally offers to help out... and ends up meeting the challenge of a lifetime. Smart, beautiful and headstrong, Alexis is the first girl who knows how to call his bluff, and Tank soon finds himself torn between his loyalty to Dustin and his love for his best friend's girl.
Source:ComingSoon.net

Below is the trailer for 'My Best Friend's Girl'


Perseid Meteor Shower

Perseid meteor shower


Perseid Meteor Shower Perseid Meteor Shower is about to "wash" the whole earth in a few days. As the VietNamNet says, is the nicest meteor shower of the year. VietNamNet come with a new photo of this year's meteor shower, which you can see on the right. The nice thing about natural wonders is that each time it happen, we have the chance to see new unbelievable images. Below is a excerpt from VietNamNet, which share the Vietnam's experience of the Perseid Meteor Shower, which has just passed over there:

The Perseids meteor shower comes annually, often from July 23 to August 22. People in the Northern Hemisphere, including Vietnam, can see the Perseids from August 12 at night to early morning August 13. During the peak time, one can see 60 to 100 meteors per hour. Different from the Delta Aquarids meteor shower on July 29, the peak time of Perseids is quite long. Dang Vu Tuan, Chairman of the Vietnam Young Astronomy Club, also said that this will be the largest meteor shower of the year, and should be very beautiful.
Source:VietNamNet

And here is a description from scientists:
The source of the shower is Comet Swift-Tuttle. Although the comet is far away, currently located beyond the orbit of Uranus, a trail of debris from the comet stretches all the way back to Earth. Crossing the trail in August, Earth will be pelted by specks of comet dust hitting the atmosphere at 132,000 mph. At that speed, even a flimsy speck of dust makes a vivid streak of light when it disintegrates--a meteor! Because, Swift-Tuttle's meteors streak out of the constellation Perseus, they are called "Perseids."
Source:Space Daily



10 August 2008

Laura Manaudou - gold dust

laura manaudou
The Olympics from Beijing are a big opportunity for those with something to say, to finally say it. Laura Manaudou, is a swimmer from France who not only that pretends the gold medal at swimming (although she already had a world record at 400m freestyle), but also is famous for some pictures and video tapes which are just for adults. Maybe it wasn't in her intention to go like Alexandra Dupre, but is obviously that is going to be famous all over the world, not just in France. If Alexandra Dupre was bringing a personality to dust, Laura Manaudou is bringing her self to a different platform. We have to admit that is hard to be an Olympic swimmer, the subject of a sex scandal (without intention) and a normal person. Just as writing this the final ended and she took the last place.

laura manaudou

The question is, will she try something different now ?! Maybe I'm mean, but you can't expect to have a big career while having such a tumultuous personal life. Or maybe the media is guilty for this end. Paris Match talks about the end of a career with these recent results. We will see about this.

In the meantime take a look of the video below. Even if you don't understand French, the images talks for itself.



08 August 2008

Beijing Olympics Opening





There is no comment or need to comment for this.

Emily Robison

Emily Robison

Flame on the internet: 'Emily Robison' is divorced. Wow ! What's so great news about that? People are divorcing everyday and get married over and over again until they can't even think clear.

The Dixie Chick and the Bandera cowboy rocker have called it quits. A representative for Charlie Robison confirmed that the singer and Emily Robison of the Dixie Chicks are divorced. They "remain close friends and their family is the priority and will continue to be," he said.
Source:My San Antonio

Morgan Freeman You know which is a great divorce ?! Morgan Freeman's divorce. His wounds are still bleeding and is in hospital as I write this and the press is covering his divorce. After 24 years of marriage he decided that enough is enough. Although is 71 years old, Freeman chooses to take it on his own instead of wasting his time with that....wife (Myrna Colley-Lee is his second wife).

Ok, let's get back to the subject. When people reach the point of no return, then is something very wrong. Emily Robison has three children and this can't stop her divorce. Freeman also has 24 years of marriage and still is divorcing, but in his case there is one more chance : maybe this serious car crash will get him and his wife back together. Or this happen only in movies ?!

Quoting a Morgan Freeman statement dated June this year:

I don't know anything about that


Quoting a recent statement of his lawyer:

(they)are involved in divorce action for legal and practical purposes

07 August 2008

Kwame Kilpatrick

Kwame Kilpatrick


It looks like entire Detroit,Michigan is happy now because their mayor is now in jail. Kwame Kilpatrick is in jail for perjury in sex scandal. He lied that he is not in an affair with Christine Beatty, his former chief of staff at City Hall. He was considered a charismatic character in Detroit, but it was proved that he was hiding before racial excuses. Is understandable the rage of the Destroit's citizens, but they have their part of guilt in this case; how is possible to be fooled so long time ?! Is like chewing a candy and saying 'this candy is bitter' and doing this everyday. So, who's to blame ?! Kwane because he managed so well lying, or the people who believed it ?! At least some of them can say it straight:

We are the fools, for letting this awful chapter in the city's 300-year history develop to this point. We are the fools, for not standing up en masse to escort Kilpatrick out of the Manoogian, and out of our public lives. We are the fools, for enduring the national and international, embarrassment time after time, while prattling idly about his right to a fair trial, the sanctity of his elected status and various other irrelevancies.
Source:Freep.com

06 August 2008

Jose Ernesto Medellin



Jose Ernesto Medellin
It's true that death can't be stopped, but a murder can be stopped. If Jose Ernesto Medellin couldn't be stopped when he did his murders, so his penalty was unstoppable. Here is before and after in the press:
Just before execution:

Lawyers for convicted murderer Jose Ernesto Medellin are awaiting word from the Supreme Court whether his execution in Texas by lethal injection, set for this evening at 7 pm CST, will be stayed.

Published on August 5, 2008 4:37 PM on The Swamp

Right after execution:

Texas has put to death a Mexican convicted murderer, defying a ruling from the International Court of Justice and ignoring a last-minute appeal from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. Jose Ernesto Medellin, 33, was killed by lethal injection in the Huntsville death chamber at 9:57 p.m. (0257 GMT Wednesday), Texas Department of Criminal Justice official Jason Clark told AFP. Medellin was sentenced to die for the 1993 rape and murder of two girls, aged 14 and 16, in Houston, Texas. Medellin, a Mexican-born member of the Black and Whites street gang, was 19 at the time.

Published on August 6, 2008 21 PM GMT on AFP

05 August 2008

John "Junior" Gotti

John Jr Gotti
Not too much to comment on this, Gotti's words are enough.

"I know my father loved me, but I got to question how much, to put me with all these wolves." "This is the world you put your kid in? So much treachery. ... My father couldn't have loved me, to push me into this life."
Who's John Jr Gotti ?!
John "Junior" Gotti—son of the late Gambino family crime boss John Sr. and brother to Growing Up Gotti star Victoria—was arrested this morning on murder conspiracy charges, reportedly "in connection with a drug smuggling ring and 3 prior mob-hits." Gotti was tried twice before for the 1992 attempted murder of talk show host Curtis Sliwa, but got off both times, and had seemed to be poised for a quiet retirement in his Long Island home. Source:Gawker

Below is a video recommended to John Jr Gotti. Just listen the lyrics.

04 August 2008

Candles leaving the world

Candles leaving the world


One weekend to mourn. Although is no war, many countries had to say goodbye to some of their fellows.

One of that is India, with 151 deaths toll at time of writing this. Pilgrims were going to visit a temple at Himachal Pradesh.

Pilgrims in Andhra Pradesh
Quoting The Indian Express:

More than 150 pilgrims, a majority of them women and children, were killed and hundreds injured in a stampede near the hilltop Naina Devi temple in Himachal Pradesh on Sunday morning, following rumours of a landslide. The toll is expected to rise, with officials confirming that 151 bodies had arrived at Anandpur Sahib’s Civil Hospital alone till evening, 50 of them children.

There is no need to think how many families are being in mourning after this tragedy.



Somewhere, a few thousand miles west from India, Alexander Solzhenitsyn had to close his eyes for the last time. He was the word of the people who were deported, taken to slavery or political camps, the frozen blade of those who were starving and freezing in the long Siberian nights and the carrier of people who died in the Soviet Union gulag. He was the symbol of the victims of intolerance.
Quoting his autobiography:


Alexander Solzhenitsyn
For I would probably not have survived the eight years in camps if I had not, as a mathematician, been transferred to a so-called sharashia, where I spent four years; and later, during my exile, I was allowed to teach mathematics and physics, which helped to ease my existence and made it possible for me to write. If I had had a literary education it is quite likely that I should not have survived these ordeals but would instead have been subjected to even greater pressures.


He won Nobel Prize and wrote the famous "The Gulag Archipelago". To be remembered by Russian people.
Leaving Russia thinking at the cold war, we find the fans of Atlanta Braves crying for "Skip" Carey, who died yesterday during sleeping. His family have tradition in baseball journalism with more than 35 years only for Skip Carey. He is now resting, but his voice will be remembered.
Quoting from his biography:
Skip Caray
He came to broadcasting naturally as the son of the late Harry Caray, the Chicago Cubs Hall of Fame announcer. A high school all-city linebacker in St. Louis, Caray began his broadcasting career with KMOX Radio after a career-ending knee injury. His son, Chip, who called Chicago Cubs games for WGN through the 2004 season and previously World Series games for Fox Sports will join Skip in the 2005 season with the Atlanta Braves broadcast team with of Skip Caray, Joe Simpson, Pete VanWeiren and Don Sutton.


We leave America with the hope that Skip Carey had time to say goodbye to the loved ones and find an Irish family in Europe who lost Gerard McDonnell, one of the the climbers who died in the tragic accident from the mount K2. Gerard was taken by the avalanche and ended a career to remember right after he claimed to be the first Irish climber who succeeded to beat K2. Quote from a recap found at K2climb.net: Gerard McDonnell
On August 1 at 1 am local time, Norwegian, Dutch, French, Italian, Serbian, Korean, Pakistan and Nepali climbers started their summit push from camp 4. Going well ahead of schedule, a few hours into the ascent a Serbian accident held the Dutch up somewhat. The Norwegians and French Hugues d’Aubarade reportedly summited before the Dutch and Irish Gerard (it's unclear yet who used supplementary oxygen) and were coming down at the time of the Dutch summit at around 8 pm. Around 17 people were reported in the summit party. On descent, a big piece of ice fell below the summit, taking a large part of the fixed lines with it. About 12 people, including Wilco, Gerard, Marco and Korean climbers got stuck either above the traverse or above the Bottleneck.

We had to say good bye to all of them.


Mount K2

03 August 2008

Tila Tequila says: eat this

Tila Tequila

I'll try to explain the image above. It's about her success and also other women's success.

It's true that she looks hot in the photo, but to her success contributes some more factors too. You can observe that her skin color is quite close to the color of that roasted chicken. When a men looks at this photo associates his hunger and appetite with her skin color. On the other hand, is the beer glass, which "transpires" and the men associates his thirst to the transpiration that covers her body. So, you see ?! It's not all about her; it's also about the food.

In Tila's case, the success is increased even more, because as everybody knows, the alcohol is an aphrodisiac, and "tequila" is a quite popular drink. So each time a men asks for a "tequila" he would asks for himself a "Tila" too.

That's why lots of celebrities look roasted, baked and oiled. There are also some stars that bets on other food, like cheese for example. Is the case of Miley Cyrus, who is dressed in white in that photo and tries to look innocent. But white is the color of the cheese (and her skin too). The cheese is good to eat with a glass of red wine. So, this way, Miley gives a shot on the food and alcohol too.

For now on, when you want to be "hot" think at a food before, and then get dressed and make up like that food.