She may be only a few months away from her third birthday, but Suri Cruise is already proving quite the skilled youngster. The toddler was spotted showing off her karate skills as she took a walk with her mum Katie Holmes on the streets of New York yesterday. As the former Dawson's Creek actress kept a watchful eye on her daughter, the little girl stretched out her growing limbs as she performed a high karate kick on the streets of Manhattan's trendy East Village. Karate kid: Suri Cruise does a karate kick as she walks with mother Katie Holmes down the streets of New York's East Village Despite the chilly winter weather, which hovered around zero degrees yesterday, determined Suri looked happy without a coat as she larked around in her brown velvet dress and leggings. The toddler was also wearing her trademark style staple - buckled ballet pumps. As Suri practised her martial arts along the street, her 30-year-old mother had her hands full carrying her designer handbag, a Paddington Bear teddy and a £140 My Little Travelwrap cashmere blanket. Under Mummy's watch: Katie looks in delight as her daughter keeps herself entertained Toddler chic: Suri wore a brown velvet dress, leggings and grey Mary-Jane pumps Even though Katie's Broadway run ended over a week ago, the actress is yet to move back to Beverly Hills, where she has a mansion with husband Tom Cruise. She flew back to Los Angeles briefly a week ago to join her spouse at the Golden Globe after-parties, before returning to the Big Apple. Suri has been living in New York City since September after temporarily relocating with her mother while Katie starred in the Broadway production of All My Sons. The toddler's daily appearances on the streets of Manhattan made her a tabloid favourite and she was recently voted most influential celebrity offspring in a poll. 2009 is set to be a low-key year for Katie, who has no film roles lined up after her role in crime caper Mad Money last year. No doubt, Katie will be planning a special celebration for Suri's third birthday on April 18 - which also marks the fourth anniversary of Katie and Tom's first date. Meanwhile, husband Tom is set to start filming new comedy drama called Men in the next few months after he is finished promoting his latest release Valkyrie. Source : www.dailymail.co.uk
Scientists said Sunday they had uncovered new marine animals in their search of previously unexplored Australian waters, along with a bizarre carnivorous sea squirt and ocean-dwelling spiders. A joint US-Australian team spent a month in deep waters off the coast of the southern island of Tasmania to "search for life deeper than any previous voyage in Australian waters," lead researcher Ron Thresher said. What they found were not only species new to science -- including previously undescribed soft corals -- but fresh indications of global warming's threat to the country's unique marine life. "Our sampling documented the deepest known Australian fauna, including a bizarre carnivorous sea squirt, sea spiders and giant sponges, and previously unknown marine communities dominated by gooseneck barnacles and millions of round, purple-spotted sea anemones," Thresher said. Using a submersible car-sized robot named Jason, the team explored a rift in the earth's crust known as theTasman Fracture Zone, a sheer two kilometre (1.24 mile) drop to 4,000 metres (13,200 feet) below the ocean's surface. Blogging on board the ship, researcher Adam Subhas said the team witnessed some "cool biology" as they descended the fracture, including the sea squirt, which he described as "basically an underwater Venus fly trap, but much bigger." The sea squirt, also known as an ascidian, stands 50 centimetres tall on the sea floor at a depth of just over 4,000 metres. It traps prey in its funnel-like front section if they touch it when they swim past. "The geology was fascinating too -- the sediment was incredibly fine and lightly packed; it made me think of powder snow," Subhas wrote. Fossil coral fields were found, dating back more than 10,000 years. Thresher said samples taken would provide ancient climate data for use in global warming projections. "Modern-day deep-water coral reefs were also found, however, there is strong evidence that this reef system is dying, with most reef-forming coral deeper than 1,300 metres newly dead," he said. Though close analysis of samples was still required, Thresher said modelling suggested ocean acidificationcould be responsible. "If our analysis identifies this phenomenon as the cause of the reef system's demise, then the impact we are seeing now below 1,300 metres might extend to the shallower portions of the deep-reefs over the next 50 years, threatening this entire community," he said. Rising sea temperatures are blamed on global warming caused by the build-up in the atmosphere ofgreenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide -- which is also blamed for higher acidity in sea water. A UN report warned in 2007 that Australia's Great Barrier Reef, described as the world's largest living organism, could be killed by climate change within decades. The World Heritage site and major tourist attraction, stretching over more than 345,000 square kilometres(133,000 square miles) off Australia's east coast, could become "functionally extinct", the report said. Source : www.news.yahoo.com
Tom Cruise Childhood Dream : To Kill Hitler!
Posted by Alif Rafik Khan Labels: Celebrity News, Controversial IssuesWhile most kids were dreaming of new toys, playing outside with friends and watching their favorite cartoons, Tom Cruise was dreaming about killing dictators. At the Korean premiere of “Valkyrie,”Cruise’s film about the unsuccessful plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, the actor admitted that his disdain for the Nazi leader led to a desire to take him out personally, according to a Reuters report. “I always wanted to kill Hitler, I hated him,” Cruise, 46, said. “As a child studying history and looking at documents, I wondered, ‘why didn’t someone stand up and try to stop it?’ When I read the script, it was entertaining and informative to know what the challenges were and what it was like to be in the environment.” Based on a true story, Cruise plays Col. Claus Von Stauffenberg in “Valkyrie,” a German solider who plants a briefcase bomb under a table at Hitler’s military headquarters. The assassination attempt proves unsuccessful and Stauffenberg is later executed by his co-conspirators. Several skeptical critics predicted that the film would be a box-office bomb in the U.S., where it fared better than expected, reaching No. 4 in the North American box office during its opening weekend, Reuters said. The film opens Asia on Jan. 22 in Seoul, Korea. Source : www.foxnews.com
"[T]he TV Web site offers a dynamic, lean-back, 10-foot television viewing experience through a streamlined interface that enables you to discover, watch, and share YouTube videos on any TV screen with just a few quick clicks of your remote control," YouTube explained in a blog post. "With enlarged text and simplified navigation, it makes watching YouTube on your TV as easy and intuitive as possible." One way YouTube is making itself more TV-friendly is by including an auto-play option that lets viewers watch related videos in sequence, without the interaction required on a computer. Initially, YouTube on Television (www.youtube.com/tv) is available as a beta test through Sony (NYSE: SNE) PS3 and Nintendo Wii game consoles, in 22 countries and in 12 languages. Additional devices are likely to be added in the future. YouTube began its migration from the computer in the office to the TV in the living room in June 2007 via Apple TV. Other device makers like Sony, Hewlett-Packard, Panasonic, TiVo, and Verismo soon followed Apple's lead, aided by the addition of new APIs for partners and external developers in March 2008. YouTube's aim in providing APIs for developers is "YouTube on any screen, any time," as the company puts it. What's less clear is whether anyone is watching YouTube on TV. TVs, after all, tend to have access to professionally produced content that people, not to mention advertisers, will pay for. Such content presumably fares well when competing for viewers against less-polished amateur videos on YouTube. A YouTube spokesperson didn't immediately respond to a request to provide statistics detailing the number of people viewing YouTube through televisions and other non-PC hardware. The Internet has made video accessible to everyone, including your competition. InformationWeek has published a how-to series on this topic. Download the report here (registration required). Source : www.informationweek.com
On February 10, 2007 when Barack Obama announced his candidature for the United States Presidency in front of the Old State Capitol building in Springfield, Illinois, only a few believed the dream was realisable. The cynicism was not because those who viewed Obama‘s ambition as too tall doubted his intellect. Many had thought a man that is neither white nor even ”African-American enough” could never make it to the White House. Barack Obama But as the campaign thickened, many doubting Thomases began to have change of hearts as sterling qualities of the Harvard-trained lawyer began to manifest. Even at that, Obama needed to face an insurmountable obstacle in Senator Hillary Clinton, a former US First Lady, many considered to be more experienced than Obama, especially on foreign policy. This was considered to be extremely important at a time when the image of the US had been badly battered abroad as a result of the egregious foreign policy of George Bush‘s administration. Like the proverbial cat with nine lives, Obama survived the Clinton dynasty’s challenge. On June 3, 2008, he had secured enough delegates to secure the nomination of the Democratic Party after the Montana and South Dakota primaries. A feat already achieved by his opponent and Republicans‘ John McCain since March 4. There was fear that the Democrats would go into the more important November 4 election as a divided house especially as Hillary Clinton did not concede defeat immediately. But she eventually conceded defeat on June 7 and urged her supporters to shift their allegiance to the man of the moment, Obama. After a dinner on June 23, Obama encouraged his fundraisers to provide a lifeline for Clinton‘s debt-ridden campaign. This paved the way for Obama/Clinton first post-primary campaign in New Hampshire on June 27. Knowing the importance of establishing a good relationship with the outside world, Obama took his campaign beyond the shores of America. In July, he travelled to Kuwait, Afghanistan, Iraq, Jordan, the West Bank, Israel, Germany, France and Great Britain. During his sojourn abroad, he met with different world leaders, including President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, Iraqi‘s Nouri al-Maliki, King Abdullahi II of Jordan, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, and a host of others. However, Obama‘s visit to Germany was remarkable as about 200,000 people went to see him in Berlin. This, of course, became a campaign tool in the hands of McCain who accused him of already behaving like a President and being more popular abroad than at home. But Obama proved that he was not only popular abroad but more popular among the American electorate when he convincingly won the election on November 4. This victory further gave credence to America as the country with the brightest hope for democracy and a land of possibilities. In his acceptance speech, Obama reinforced this belief when he said, ”If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is still alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.” As Obama mounts the podium to become the 44th US President and the first African-American to achieve this feat, he carried with him enormous responsibilities, not only for the Americans but also for the peoples of the world in view of the leadership position of the US in world affairs. So, the Obama‘s administration right from its threshold, is being viewed with high hopes and expectations. And analysts have continued to debate on how President Obama will structure its priorities, especially in the first 100 days, which will shape the direction his administration will head to in its four-year sojourn. The President-elect had already had a lunch date with the outgoing President George Bush, and four former US Presidents to draw from the experiences of the men who once governed the country. The lunch date, Obama‘s idea, which took place on January 8 was the first of its kind since 1981. Past US presidents usually only gather at sombre events such as funerals or historic ceremonies. Asking Buch to invite past presidents to a dinner was not a sign of a weakling but rather a humble recognition of the past to project into the future. Bush and Obama later met privately for about half an hour in the Oval Office with events in the Gaza Strip and the depressed US economy topping the list of their decision. The economy will no doubt take the front burner as the top most priority of the Obama‘s administration. He had already visited the Congress over two weeks ago to enlist the support of the Republicans for a massive stimulus package with talk of big tax cuts. ”We are in a very difficult spot and the situation is getting worse,” Obama reportedly told reporters. Obama had assured Americans that the big economic stimulus bill -- now put at as much as $775bn over two years -- will not be waiting on his desk when he takes office on January 20. Some key Republicans were already moving to his side on his economic recovery plan. According to Senate Republican Leader, Mitch McConnell, ”I think there will be widespread Republican enthusiasm for having a significant percentage of the package and tax relief. We‘ll be interested to see not only the size of the tax package but how it‘s crafted”. As Obama proposed during the campaign, workers would get a $500 payroll tax credit and businesses would receive tax breaks to create jobs, part of what the Democrats said could be $300bn in tax cuts. As part of the economic stimulus package, Obama had promised to create four million jobs to cushion the effects of unprecedented mass job losses, which was 2.6million in 2007, the largest since World War II. With additional 524,000 job loses in December alone, the US unemployment rate is 7.2 per cent. This has heightened fear that the US economy is heading for a long period of recession. Analysts estimated that the unemployment rate at the end of 2010 would be 1.8 percentage points lower if the plan was enacted. ”It‘s not too late to change course, but only if we take immediate and drastic action, If nothing is done, economists from across the spectrum tell us that this recession could linger for years and the unemployment rate could reach double digits. ”They warn that our nation could lose the competitive edge that has served as a foundation for our strength and standing in the world,” he said in his weekly YouTube address. Some Democratic senators have expressed the hope that tax cuts will lead to growth and job creation. In spite of this optimism, Obama on Saturday at Baltimore War Memorial where he addressed several thousands of his supporters and well wishers as part of the build up to his inauguration, warned that the trials America was facing today were severe and the country needed a new declaration of independence in its quest to be out of its abysmal economic recession. ”There is flattering economy. We have two wars and our future is our choice. A better life is in store for those who are willing to work. Let all of us do our parts to rebuild this country. We are a people of common dream and we will be called to show patience,” he said. In line with his electioneering promise, it is expected that Obama will completely withdraw the US troops from Iraq by the summer of 2010. Analysts have said this would allow Obama to fulfil his other major foreign policy pledge - to increase troop levels in Afghanistan. Military officials said some 20,000-30,000 extra troops could be sent to the country by summer 2009, doubling the existing number of troops there. International observers had said Obama‘s opposition to the Iraqi war was one of the reasons for his popularity and buoyed his chance during the election as an average American did not see any economic sense in spending $2bn every month in prosecuting the war. Closing the Guantanamo Bay, the controversial detention camp for terror suspects at the naval base in Cuba is also one of the items on the to-do-list in the early days of the administration as part of its security agenda. In a recent interview with Time magazine, he said that if his administration had not ”closed down Guantanamo in a responsible way, put a clear end to torture and restored a balance between the demands of our security and our constitution” within two years of taking office, then it would have failed. But this task is being challenged with where to relocate the suspects. Australia has already turned down the request due to security reason. Polls suggest that in contrast to his predecessor, Obama is very popular in many countries - a big change, which he is likely to exploit. Specifically, a poll carried out by WorldPublicOpinio.org, a consortium of research centres around the world, shortly before the election showed that most countries of the world preferred an Obama‘s presidency to McCain‘s. He has promised to handle Iran with a new approach contrary to the belligerent attitude of the Bush’s administration. This is also in line with his belief that if bringing an American “enemy” to the negotiation table is what is required to bring peace to the world, his administration will not hesitate to do so. Analysts have said this, coupled with his promise to give a major speech in the Muslim world and a pledge to ”make progress on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a key diplomatic priority from day one”, his international goodwill could be vital to the success of his administration. It also expected that there will be challenges on labour relation, healthcare reform, Climate Change among other numerous domestic issues. Obama cannot afford to disappoint young and old, rich and poor, Democrats and Republicans and working men and women ”who dug into what little savings they had to give $5 and $10 and $20 to this cause.” Source : www.punchng.com
MONDAY, JAN. 19
— National Day of Community Service event: To honor Dr. King’s legacy, Obama, Biden and their families, joined by Americans across the country, will participate in activities dedicated to serving others in communities across the Washington, D.C. area.
— Black Tie & Boots Inaugural Ball, sponsored by the Texas State Society, at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center.
— Green Inaugural Ball at the Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture. Ball hosted by former Vice President Al Gore.
— Huffington Post preinaugural ball at the Newseum.
— Hip-Hop Inaugural Ball at the Harman Center for the Arts. Hosted by the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, Russell Simmons, LL Cool J, among others.
— A children’s evening concert at the Verizon Center honoring military families. Event hosted by Michelle Obama, who will attend. Miley Cyrus, the Jonas Brothers are among the entertainers.
— Obama to attend three private dinners to honor former secretary of State Colin Powell, Biden and Sen. John McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, for their public service. Dinners at the Hilton Washington, National Building Museum and Union Station.
TUESDAY, JAN. 20 (INAUGURATION DAY)
Gates to the Inaugural Ceremony open at 8 a.m. The inaugural festivities are scheduled to start at 10 a.m. on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol. They will include:
— Musical selections of The United States Marine Band, followed by the San Francisco Boys Chorus and the San Francisco Girls Chorus.
— Sen. Dianne Feinstein provides call to order and welcoming remarks.
— Invocation by the Rev. Rick Warren.
— Musical selection of Aretha Franklin.
— Biden will be sworn into office by Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens.
— Musical selection of John Williams, composer/arranger with Itzhak Perlman, (violin), Yo-Yo Ma (cello), Gabriela Montero (piano) and Anthony McGill (clarinet).
— Obama will take the Oath of Office, using President Lincoln’s Inaugural Bible, administered by Chief Justice John Roberts. Scheduled around noon.
— Obama gives the inaugural address.
— Poem by Elizabeth Alexander.
— Benediction by Rev. Joseph E. Lowery.
— The National Anthem by The United States Navy Band “Sea Chanters.”
After Obama gives inaugural address, he will escort outgoing President George W. Bush to a departure ceremony before attending a luncheon in the Capitol’s Statuary Hall.
The 56th Inaugural Parade will then make its way down Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the White House.
Later that day, the Presidential Inaugural Committee will host 10 official inaugural balls:
— Neighborhood Inaugural Ball at the Washington Convention Center.
— Obama Home States (Illinois and Hawaii) Inaugural Ball at the Washington Convention Center.
— Biden Home States (Pennsylvania and Delaware) Inaugural Ball at the Washington Convention Center.
— Midwest Inaugural Ball at the Washington Convention Center.
— Mid-Atlantic Inaugural Ball at the Washington Convention Center.
— Western Inaugural Ball at the Washington Convention Center.
— Commander in Chief’s Ball at the National Building Museum.
— Southern Inaugural Ball at the National Guard Armory.
— Eastern Inaugural Ball at Union Station.
— Youth Inaugural Ball at the Washington Hilton.
Unofficial balls include:
— Congressional Black Caucus Inaugural Ball at the Capitol Hilton.
— Creative Coalition Inaugural Ball at the Harman Center for the Arts.
— Recording Industry Association of America’s ball for Feeding America.
— BET’s Inaugural Ball at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.
— Africa on the Potomac inaugural celebration at Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, Va.
— American Music Inaugural Ball at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel.
— Inaugural Purple Ball at the Fairmont Hotel.
— Human Rights Campaign’s Equality Ball at the Renaissance Mayflower Hotel.
— Inaugural Peace Ball at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum.
— Impact Film Fund ball.
WEDNESDAY, JAN. 21
— The president, vice president and their families will participate in a prayer service at the Washington National Cathedral.
Source : www.ajc.com
Beetles taste like apples, wasps like pine nuts, and worms like fried bacon. Of all the words in the English language, the word 'set' has the most definitions! What is called a "French kiss" in the English speaking world is known as an "English kiss" in France. "Almost" is the longest word in the English language with all the letters in alphabetical order. Horatio Nelson, one of England's most illustrious admirals was throughout his life, never able to find a cure for his sea-sickness. The skeleton of Jeremy Bentham is present at all important meetings of the University of London Adolf Hitler was a vegetarian, and had only ONE testicle. The average lead pencil will draw a line 35 miles long or write approximately 50,000 English words. The six official languages of the United Nations are: English, French, Arabic, Chinese, Russian and Spanish. The worlds oldest piece of chewing gum is 9000 years old! The longest recorded flight of a chicken is 13 seconds Queen Elizabeth I regarded herself as a paragon of cleanliness. She declared that she bathed once every three months, whether she needed it or not The average person laughs 10 times a day! An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain Source : www.world-english.org
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