Forum: News & Topical Issues
A 27-year-old man, who was shot during an illegal gun salute at a New Year's party in Meggie Hill, St James, died yesterday while undergoing treatment at the Cornwall Regional Hospital.
The Constabulary Communi-cation Network (CCN) said Kimani Manderson, also called 'Bread Back' and who resides in Meggie Hill, was shot at approximately 12:10 am when a group of men at the party began giving gun salutes to welcome the new year. Manderson was rushed to the Cornwall Regional Hospital where doctors there tried to help him, but he died.
The barking of illegal guns to welcome a new year have become a 'tradition' in many communities across Jamaica, and yesterday the police said the many gun salutes by hoodlums to ring in 2009 was an indication of the problems that they will have to grapple with this year.
"This has always been an area of concern for the police. The presence of illegal guns on the streets," said Superintendent Karl Bowen.
He said that while it may not be possible to prove that all the gunfire heard in some areas during the New Year's celebrations were from illegal weapons, "it was a harsh reminder to the police about the number of illegal guns on the street".
"It is a sad reminder to the society and the police that the guns are still there and it is part of our (the police's) aim for the New Year to rid the streets of the guns," said Deputy Superintendent Karl McKenzie.
St James man shot during illegal gun salute dies
A 27-year-old man, who was shot during an illegal gun salute at a New Year's party in Meggie Hill, St James, died yesterday while undergoing treatment at the Cornwall Regional Hospital.
The Constabulary Communi-cation Network (CCN) said Kimani Manderson, also called 'Bread Back' and who resides in Meggie Hill, was shot at approximately 12:10 am when a group of men at the party began giving gun salutes to welcome the new year. Manderson was rushed to the Cornwall Regional Hospital where doctors there tried to help him, but he died.
The barking of illegal guns to welcome a new year have become a 'tradition' in many communities across Jamaica, and yesterday the police said the many gun salutes by hoodlums to ring in 2009 was an indication of the problems that they will have to grapple with this year.
"This has always been an area of concern for the police. The presence of illegal guns on the streets," said Superintendent Karl Bowen.
He said that while it may not be possible to prove that all the gunfire heard in some areas during the New Year's celebrations were from illegal weapons, "it was a harsh reminder to the police about the number of illegal guns on the street".
"It is a sad reminder to the society and the police that the guns are still there and it is part of our (the police's) aim for the New Year to rid the streets of the guns," said Deputy Superintendent Karl McKenzie.
The robber got about $400 but left half of his note. Investigators found the other half outside the bank's front doors. Authorities say that part of the man's October pay stub had his name and address.
The suspect was arrested at his Cary home. A judge ordered him held without bond Monday. If convicted of bank robbery, he faces 20 years in prison.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081230/...OrMZnXrti BIF
mi feel sumbody bounce me and me see seh a she, suh mi seh spice everything nice she a seh 'yea mon, alrite babez'
suh mi seh "RAMING SHOP ENO MON" b4 she step weh and she a seh 'yea yea' and mi fren a tel mi seh ar man did a screw eno mon lol
RASTA OFFENDS SCHOOL?, Student leaves institution after dispute about 'His Imperial Majes
Alty 'Little Joe' Nunes said he did not do anything offensive. However, following his performance, some teachers came and asked him to apologise. He refused and has decided to stop attending the school.
"My head of department came to me and told me he wanted me to do a song. He asked me to perform the song before I go on stage so that he can be sure it would not offend anybody," he said.
The 20-year-old singer, who has dreadlocks, said he obliged and the teacher said the song was fine. He said the teacher also warned him not to use any offensive language or do anything offensive during the performance.
"I went up and I said greetings in the name of his imperial majesty. And then started the song . The audience loved it but after, one of the teachers greeted me and said I shouldn't say his imperial majesty," he said.
He said a small argument developed between his mother and some teachers who were displeased with the greeting. He said his mother then decided to leave and he left with her and severed all ties with the school.
Christian service
When contacted by THE STAR, Dahlia Repole, principal of the school, said that she is currently doing an investigation into what actually happened at the service and after Nunes' performance. She said that the investigation is not yet completed. However, Ms. Repole said that what had happened occurred during a Christian service. "When students perform at the school, we expect a certain standard," she said.
The school is owned by the Methodist Church and the ceremony was being officiated by the school's priest. She also said he was not asked by the school to stop attending because of the incident.
But Nunes, who was entering the final semester of a performing arts course, said he decided to leave because it was obvious to him that the school was offended by his religious beliefs. "It end up that my faith is an offence and that just show you seh wi still in Rome," he said.
He said he has always been a practising Rastafarian and this was known by his department head. He also said he has performed at the school on occasions prior to the Founder's Day and there were no problems. He also says in those performances, he used the phrase and made even greater references to his religion.
Nunes said in the future, he will be studying at private institutions where his religion would not be frowned upon. He also said he would be pursuing his music and when he has enough money will return to school.
The Jamaican Supreme Court has ordered a freeze of the assets of businessman Joseph 'Joey' Issa, following a US million-dollar fraud/negligence suit slapped on the Cool Group of Companies boss by his close friend of 14 years.
Court documents reveal that Issa, son of hotelier John Issa, was named as second defendant in the lawsuit filed against him by St Ann businessman Arthur Von Strolley, who is claiming US$1.5 million in damages after an investment deal linked to the ill-fated forex trading outfit, Olint TCI went sour.
Also named with Issa in the October 16, 2008 suit are first defendant Wisdom Investments Holdings Jamaica Limited; third defendant, Sasha Harjani, secretary of Wisdom Investments Holdings Jamaica Limited; and fourth defendant, Wisdom Investments Holdings Limited.
Both companies are owned and controlled by Issa.
The parties are expected back in the Supreme Court this morning where Issa, who is represented by attorney Michelle Champagnie, will seek to get the injunction lifted.
Based on a "Without Notice Application for Court Orders", Supreme Court Justice Roy Anderson issued an injunction on December 15, 2008 restraining the defendants from "disposing of and/or dealing with their assets..." and from "withdrawing or transferring any funds from their accounts wheresoever held until judgement or further order herein".
Justice Anderson also ordered that the defendants declare all their assets and that Issa, Harjani and Wisdom Investments Holdings Limited instruct FirstCaribbean International Bank (Jamaica) Limited to provide Von Strolley's attorneys with a statement of account covering the period from June 1, 2007 to date of disclosure in respect of Account No 1001603835 in the name of the Wisdom Investments Holdings Limited, indicating details of deposits and withdrawals "whether by cheque or otherwise".
Von Strolley, who is represented by Abe Dabdoub of the Kingston law firm Dabdoub, Dabdoub and Company, is contending that he was induced by Issa to invest US$1.19 million with Wisdom Investments Holdings Jamaica Limited, with the agreement that he would get a four per cent per month return on the principal.
The claimant said that the money was generated from the sale of his house and from his business, and was invested over a period from June 2007.
In the suit, Von Strolley said that he received various amounts as returns on his investment. However, since February 2008, Wisdom Investments Holdings Jamaica Limited had ceased making returns - calculated at US$337,343.63 - nor had he received his principal, despite repeated demands.
Von Strolley further alleged that Issa had advised him that some of the funds had been invested with Olint TCI without his (Von Strolley's) authority or instructions, "knowing the said company to be unable to meet its financial obligations".
Olint TCI, operated by foreign exchange trader David Smith, has had its funds frozen in the Turks and Caicos Islands where it is based and is the subject of several other lawsuits or threats of lawsuits. At its peak, the trader offered upwards of 10 per cent interest per month on investments.
But in an affidavit filed Tuesday, December 30, Issa urged the court to set aside the asset freeze and disclosure orders. He alleged that Von Strolley's claim was "riddled with lies and he has not told this Honourable Court what actually transpired".
"He has failed to disclose material information and has generally misrepresented the facts," the businessman shot back. He denied that Wisdom Investments Holdings Jamaica Limited had any dealings whatsoever with Von Strolley, and that either himself or Harjani had any "personal contract or dealings with the claimant with regard to the subject matter of this suit".
Issa charged, in the court documents, that the dispute arose "in respect to an investment which the claimant requested the 4th defendant (Wisdom Investments Holdings which was incorporated in the British Virgin Islands) to have made on his behalf in Olint".
In addition to freezing Issa's assets, the Supreme Court ordered FirstCaribbean Bank to immediately disclose to the court details of all accounts held by the defendants from June 1, 2007, a copy of which was to be presented to Von Strolley's attorneys.
Failure to comply with the order would put Issa in contempt of court and he could be liable to be imprisoned or have his assets confiscated, the court warned.
According to Labour Minister Pearnel Charles, the ministry has not yet met the required quota of 360,000 people.
"We were supposed to reach that number (360,000) by the end of October, but we had to extend the date to satisfy the requirement," Charles told The Gleaner.
In his contribution to the Budget Debate in 2008, Prime Minister Bruce Golding said the Government intended to increase the scope of the programme to include everyone who lived below the established poverty line.
At the time, statistics from the Planning Institute of Jamaica identified approximately 360,000 Jamaicans who lived below the poverty line, of which only 245,000 were benefiting from PATH.
PATH is a programme funded by the Government of Jamaica and the World Bank. It aims to deliver benefits by way of cash grants to the most needy and vulnerable in the society.
However, Charles noted that not every vulnerable person is an ideal candidate for the programme.
"A strong man who is over the required age cannot qualify as a beneficiary of programme," he said.
Instead, the ministry has a programme in place - Step to Work - to assist destitute persons who are not eligible for PATH benefits. Through the Step to Work programme, people can get assistance in returning to school or starting small businesses.Multimillion-dollar vehicle purchases for police force
The National Contracts Commis-sion (NCC) on Tuesday published a list of contract approvals and endorsements for November, comprising four major contracts to supply vehicles to the force.
In its list of endorsements, the NCC has given the nod for Stewart's Auto Sales Limited to supply and deliver 90 patrol cars to the constabulary at a cost of US$1.8 million ($143.6 million).
Kingston Industrial Garage has been endorsed by the NCC to supply and deliver 50 double-cab pickup trucks for the JCF, valued at approximately US$1.5,($123 million).
The JCF is also expected to receive 24 Sport Utility Vehicles from Toyota Jamaica Limited under a proposed contract endorsed by the NCC, valued at US$846,477 (roughly $68 million).
Another NCC-endorsed contract for Toyota Jamaica Limited, valued at US$210,650 ($17 million), will see the JCF receiving eight 15-seater buses from the company.
Contracts worth more than $30 million are subject to Cabinet approval.Yet the Irvine woman was more curious than ecstatic about her daughter's find. After all, who would leave money in such a place?
"We just thought, 'This is someone's money,'" she said. "We would never feel good about spending it."
Rather than go on a shopping spree, the family called police and was initially told the money could be part of a drug drop.
Police later heard from store managers at Whole Foods in Tustin that an elderly woman had come in a few days earlier, hysterical because she had mistakenly returned a box of crackers with her life savings inside. In a mix-up the store restocked the box rather than composting it.
The Lake Forest woman, whose identity was not released, had lost faith in her bank and decided the box would be a safer place for the money.
Luckily for her, the box of Annie's Sour Cream and Onion Cheddar Bunny crackers were bought by the Rogoffs, who discovered the crisp $100 bills in an unmarked white envelope on Oct. 10.
The Rogoffs never heard from the woman and didn't receive a reward, but Rogoff did return to Whole Foods a couple weeks later.
"I asked them if I could have another box of crackers," she said with a laugh. The store obliged.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081227/...cker_box_money
The U.S. Coast Guard suspended its search Monday for Jennifer Ellis Seitz, a Florida journalist, who was reported missing by her husband about eight hours after a surveillance camera captured a person falling overboard on Christmas night. Mexican authorities said they planned to search until Wednesday.
The FBI said agents were still trying to determine whether a crime was committed. No one has been charged.
Seitz had "previous emotional issues," yet there were no outward signs of distress while on the seven-night cruise from Miami, her family said in a statement given to two Florida newspapers where she had previously worked. Seitz's mother joined her daughter and son-in-law on the cruise.
"Jennifer was in a very happy and uplifted mood both before and during the cruise," the Ellis family said in the statement. "She was excited about starting a new job and her future career with a local newspaper. She and her husband had been talking about starting their family. The family suspects that Jennifer chose an unfortunate ending to her life. She was a beautiful and caring person and will be truly missed by all who love her."
Seitz and her husband, Raymond, were celebrating their one-year anniversary on the Norwegian Pearl cruise ship.
FBI spokesman Mike Leverock said agents were "still trying to determine if a crime occurred" after collecting evidence when the ship docked Sunday in Miami.
Norwegian Cruise Line said it is "cooperating fully" with the FBI.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of the guest during this difficult time," the company said in a news release.
Raymond Seitz has not been charged with any crime, authorities said Monday. A message left seeking comment at the couple's house wasn't immediately returned, and a call to the paving company that employs him rang unanswered.
The couple met in a weight loss support group; both had undergone bariatric surgery. She chronicled her weight loss journey for an Orlando TV station.
She was also a freelance writer, having written articles for The Tampa Tribune, The Ledger in Lakeland, and an online article titled, "Battling the Bulge Onboard," about how not to gain weight while aboard a ship.
On her Web site, Seitz described herself as an "avid traveler and an amateur chef." She was previously a reporter for Florida Today, a newspaper in Melbourne.
Raymond Seitz was arrested in April on a charge of domestic violence-battery after being accused of head-butting his wife. The charge was dropped after he entered a pretrial diversion program. Records show that she asked the prosecutor not to pursue the case.
A fellow passenger on the ship, Jim Nestor, told NBC's Today show that Seitz and her new husband stood out on the ship with "large and raw personalities."
Many of the passengers saw them as contestants on an on-board game called "The Not-So-Newlywed Game," modeled after a 1960s TV quiz show. The game was also carried on the ship's closed-circuit TV channel.
"They stood out a lot more than other people," Nestor, a retired police officer, told NBC.
Nestor, who appeared on the game show with his own wife, said he ran into Raymond Seitz a day after his wife was reported missing.
"I had given him my condolences, and he had a plastic bag filled with quarters, and he said to me that he was going to the casino to see if he could change his luck," Nestor said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081230/...uise_passenger
Bristol Palin, 18, gave birth to Tripp Easton Mitchell Johnston on Saturday, People magazine reported online. He weighed 7 pounds, 4 ounces. Colleen Jones, the sister of Bristol's grandmother, told the magazine that "the baby is fine and Bristol is doing well."
The governor's office said it would not release information because it considers the baby's birth a private, family matter. Palin family members, hospital employees and spokespeople for the governor's former running mate, John McCain, either would not confirm the birth or did not return messages from The Associated Press.
The father is Levi Johnston, a former hockey player at Alaska's Wasilla High School.
Palin announced on Sept. 1, the first day of the Republican National Convention, that her unwed daughter was pregnant. The campaign issued a statement saying Bristol "and the young man" would get married.
Levi Johnston's mother eventually disclosed that her 18-year-old son was the father. The following week, the young man attended the convention in St. Paul, Minn., when Palin accepted the vice presidential nomination.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081230/...tol_palin_baby
The Maricopa County attorney's office also charged Joe Sauceda Gallegos on Monday with child abuse and dangerous crimes against children. A court appearance is scheduled Tuesday. Prosecutors have not said whether they will seek the death penalty.
Ten-year-old Edwin Pellecier and 7-year-old Jesse Ramirez died Friday after being beaten Dec. 23. Police have said the suspect apparently followed the cousins when they went to the park to play.
Gallegos remains jailed on $1 million bail. Court records don't list an attorney.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081230/...hildren_beaten
He said he took about five years to earn his first 62 badges and then nearly doubled that number in a matter of months. He did it with the encouragement of his grandmother, who died shortly before he reached his goal.
The Binghamton University freshman was awarded his final badges on Dec. 19. He said he hopes to become a businessman and politician.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081230/...1_merit_badges
A number of foreigners were among the casualties from the blaze that erupted shortly after midnight at the Santika Club in an entertainment district of Bangkok.
Victims died from burns, smoke inhalation and injuries during the stampede to escape from the club, which had only one door for the public, police Maj. Gen. Chokchai Deeprasertwit said. Firefighters said a door at the rear was known only to the staff, while an Associated Press reporter saw a third door at one side of the building.
Video footage of the disaster showed *lo**ied, bruised and burned victims being dragged out of the burning club or managing to run through the door or shattered windows. The video provided to AP Television News by rescue workers showed flames racing through the entire building even as the rescue operation was going on.
Bodies in the morgue
Police Gen. Jongrak Jutanont put the death toll at 59, which included an undetermined number of foreigners. He said that among the injured were nationals of Australia, Nepal, Japan and the Netherlands.
An Associated Press photographer saw the bodies of at least 10 foreigners from the fire at the police morgue but authorities did not provide immediate identification.
Most of the victims were confirmed dead at the club but at least one person died at a hospital. Rescue workers counting bodies told AP that about 130 others were injured. They said they believed other bodies were still inside the blaze-gutted building, which has two stories and a basement.
Local press reports said as many as 200 people sustained injuries and were rushed to five city hospitals.
Firecrackers to blame?
Chokchai said that the fire may have been caused by firecrackers brought into the Santika Club by guests or sparks flying from a New Year's countdown display on the nightclub stage.
The Web site of The Nation newspaper quoted one party-goer, Somchai Frendi, as saying the blaze was caused by fireworks that ignited the second floor ceiling, which was made largely of sound-proofing material.
The club was packed with about 1,000 celebrants, according to police officers who declined to be named because they were not authorized to speak to the press.
The rescue workers said most of the bodies were found in a pit area surrounding the stage. The club attracts a well-heeled crowd of Thais and foreigners. The corpses, placed in white body bags, were laid out in rows in the parking lot in front of the club, which was strewn with shoes of the victims.
Lack of exits
The emergency workers said the rescue operation was delayed because of heavy New Year's traffic in the Ekamai entertainment district and the large number of cars parked at the club.
Firefighter Watcharapong Sri-saard said that in addition to a lack of exits, a number of staircases inside the club as well as bars across the second-floor windows made escape difficult.
An AP reporter who peered inside the still burning building said everything in sight had been burned.
"Bodies, some of them probably alive, were falling off the stretchers as the rescue workers rushed them away. The flames were glowing through the broken glass windows. A part of the building had already collapsed," said Andrew Jones of England, who arrived at the scene shortly after the fire erupted.
One local Web site about the entertainment scene in Bangkok described the club as attracting "an affluent Thai student crowd, with Euro models and Westerners also popping in" with a "whisky-sipping crowd all focused on a large stage."
Another site says that the high ceiling and a cross in the main room makes one feel "like walking into a church."
It was not immediately known whether the club owners had adhered to the city's safety regulations, which are infrequently monitored and often loosely enforced.
Thailand, for example, passed a law in 1994 requiring motorcyclists to wear helmets, but bareheaded riders with policemen blithely looking on are a common sight on Bangkok's streets today.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28451806/
The Swiss air rescue association Rega says it received a distress call from the French tourists late Friday but the skiers' phone battery went dead before they could be reached.
Rega spokesman Gery Baumann says the two men were eventually found after midnight in steep, wooded terrain by a helicopter crew that spotted the light from their digital music player.
Baumann said Saturday that the two 22-year-olds suffered only mild hypothermia despite enduring temperatures as low as 5 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 15 degrees Celsius).
The incident happened near the town of Savognin in southeastern Switzerland.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...e/6183298.html
Six years of stock gains disappeared as the economy crumbled and markets crashed around the globe, shaking the confidence of professional and individual investors alike.
But the year's chaos went far beyond the stock market. Credit markets that drive lending became paralyzed, plunging the country further into recession and touching off an unprecedented rush for the safety of Treasury bills, notes and bonds. Commodities markets, usually ignored by most investors, soared on speculative buying and then collapsed when it became clear that the world economy was in trouble and that record high prices, including oil's peak above $147 a barrel, were unjustified.
"It was a feeling of flailing," said Jerry Webman, chief economist at Oppenheimer Funds Inc. "People couldn't get a grasp because there were not obvious historical precedents."
By the year's end, many market analysts were predicting that 2009 would be better, but that recovery would be slow as investors, shaken by the devastation to their portfolios, U.S. companies and the overall economy, remain reluctant to buy.
"I think this may be much more of a show-me market than we're used to. The market is going to be looking for some stabilization, increases in earnings, a few more positives before it begins to recover," said Webman.
Wall Street's stats for 2008 provide evidence of how stunningly terrible the year was:
The average price of a share listed on the New York Stock Exchange plunged 45 percent to $41.14 by the end of the year from $75.01 a year earlier.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 33.8 percent for the year and 38 percent from its record close of 14,165.53 in October 2007, making it the Dow's worst year since 1931, when the country was in the midst of the Great Depression.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index, the indicator most watched by market pros, slumped 38.5 percent in 2008 and 44.8 percent from its 2007 high of 1,565.15.
Investors lost $6.9 trillion as relentless selling reduced the value of stocks across the market. That amount, measured by the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 Composite Index, represented 38 percent of the total value of U.S. stocks at the start of 2008.
Yet the last week of the year was almost serene.
On Friday, the Dow rose 108.00, or 1.25 percent, to 8,776.39.
Broader stock indicators also rose. The Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 12.61, or 1.42 percent, to 903.25. The Nasdaq composite index rose 26.33, or 1.70 percent, to 1,577.03 and ended the year down 40.5 percent. It's down 44.8 percent from its highest level in March 2000. The tech-heavy index peaked in the dotcom bubble.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 16.68, or 3.46 percent, to 499.45.
The tranquility was a welcome change in a year that was rocky from the start as worries about the financial system were fed by reports that banks had suffered billions of dollars in losses on securities tied to defaulting mortgages. The forced-sale of Bear Stearns Cos. in March unnerved Wall Street, yet it still managed to right itself through the spring.
The surging price of oil and other commodities dealt another blow to the market. As a barrel of crude leaped from $112 at the beginning of May to a once-unthinkable $147.27 on July 11. With retail gasoline prices soaring above $4 a gallon, stocks fell amid fears that consumers would have to cut back their spending because of higher energy prices.
But the market again stabilized until the September bankruptcy of one of the most venerable Wall Street investment firms, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., set off a panic on Wall Street and in the credit markets. Banks, fearing that other financial institutions would be unable to repay, stopped lending to each other. The market for short-term corporate debt known as commercial paper was frozen. Interest rates soared.
The only thriving part of the credit markets was government debt. Investors desperate for safety poured money into Treasury issues, particularly short-term bills. The yield on the three month bill plunged to zero, and briefly to a negative return, as investors decided no return or a slight loss was better than the losses on Wall Street or in commodities.
Wall Street's crash in 2008 didn't come in one day like the famous 22.6 percent plunge of Oct. 26, 1987. In many ways it was more nightmarish than Black Monday because there wasn't a quick end to the selling and record volatility.
From Sept. 15 to Nov. 20, when the Dow fell to a close of 7,552.29, the depths it had reached in the bear market of 2002, the blue chips rose or fell by triple digits 41 trading days out of 49.
Relative stability returned to the market during December. But Wall Street's horrific performance has cast a new mold for modern bear markets, often defined as a decline of more than 20 percent, and made expectations for 2009 so low that any reduction in the economic *lo**letting would be considered a victory.
"Everyone is so down in the dumps about everything that I do think it gives you the opportunity to have a positive surprise if maybe the economy does turn quicker," said Bill Stone, chief investment strategist at PNC Wealth Management.
Wall Street is hoping for signs of recovery by the second half of 2009, including evidence the housing market has hit bottom, increased lending by banks and a drop in unemployment accompanied by increased consumer spending.
But for the near future economists and market experts predict more bad news.
"I have yet to see anyone who anticipates that the first half of next year is going to be rosy," said Dean Junkans, chief investment officer at Wells Fargo Private Bank.
But even a modest improvement in the economy, which has been in recession since last December, could help stocks extend their recent run.
"If you're standing still, walking is a pickup of speed," said Alan Levenson, chief economist at T. Rowe Price Associates Inc.
The government has helped calm markets with a $700 billion rescue of the financial sector and by agreeing to provide financing to the major U.S. automakers. The Federal Reserve slashed its benchmark interest rate to near zero to reduce borrowing costs.
Cheaper oil prices it settled at $44.60 a barrel on Wednesday are expected to help bolster the economy, draining less money away from consumers and businesses. The declining prices of other commodities, which have come down in response to rapidly waning demand for raw materials around the world, should also help.
In addition, some analysts believe the market will improve because so many investors have pulled out, leaving little room for more selling.
"Given the nasty carnage how much further risk is there?" said David Darst, chief investment strategist for Morgan Stanley's global wealth management group.
Still, the credit markets remain nearly stagnant as banks continue to be anxious about lending.
Corporate forecasts in January could help shape investor sentiment, even as expectations are modest.
David Kelly, chief market strategist at JPMorgan Funds, said the prospects for the market are "exceptionally uncertain."
For the market to hold its advance from November he contends the calmer trading of the past month must continue and president-elect Barack Obama's plan to boost the economy with spending on infrastructure must show it is working quickly.
"The great risk is we are in a wait-and-see economy," Kelly said. "What Obama needs to do is turn this into a do-it-now economy, give people a reason to buy.
Thousands of Microsoft's Zune media players the software company's answer to Apple Inc.'s iPod unexpectedly conked out Wednesday and showed users an error message, prompting references to "Y2K for Zunes." The problems appeared when people tried to start up their devices.
Frustrated users lit up Microsoft's online support forum for Zunes with more than 2,500 messages by Wednesday afternoon.
Late Wednesday, the Redmond, Wash.-based company said the outage affected only the 30-gigabyte Zune models and was caused by a problem with their internal clock. Microsoft expected the problem to clear up as the clocks ticked over to Jan. 1, though users will have to jump through some hoops to get their Zunes back to normal, including letting the batteries die down completely before the devices will restart successfully.
The crash of so many Zunes at once drew comparisons to the Y2K programming problem that stoked fears about a widespread computer meltdown in 2000 when the machines ticked over to the new millennium.
Zunes have paltry popularity compared the iPod, which owns nearly three-quarters of the MP3 market, compared with Zune's single-digit market share, according to statistics from the NPD Group. But some users are fiercely loyal, and newer Zunes have gotten positive reviews.
http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/200812...c_zunes_zapped
An international agreement to set up such a force would give Israel a way to end its devastating, six-day offensive against Hamas, even as thousands of Israeli ground troops massed along the border in anticipation of a possible land invasion. So far, the campaign to crush rocket fire on southern Israel has been conducted largely from the air, and a poll on Thursday showed most Israelis aren't eager to see a ground push.
Gaza officials said more than 390 people have died and 1,600 have been wounded since Israel began its aerial campaign on Saturday. The U.N. says at least 60 Palestinian civilians have died.
In Israel, three civilians and a soldier have been killed by rocket fire that has reached deeper than ever into Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who rebuffed a French proposal for a two-day cease fire, won't agree to a truce unless international monitors take responsibility for enforcing it, government officials said. He's made this point in talks with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other world leaders who are pressing for an end to the violence, they added.
The government officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks were confidential.
International intervention helped Israel to accept a truce that ended its 2006 war with Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas, when the U.N. agreed to station peacekeepers to enforce the terms. This time, Israel isn't seeking a peacekeeping force, but a monitoring body that would judge compliance on both sides.
The idea was floated before the offensive but did not gain traction because of the complications created by the existence of rival Palestinian governments in the West Bank and Gaza, defense officials said.
Gaza has been under Hamas rule since the militant group overran it in June 2007; the West Bank has remained under the control of moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who has been negotiating peace with Israel for more than a year but has no influence over Hamas. Bringing in monitors would require cooperation between the fierce rivals.
An Abbas confidant said the Palestinian president supported the notion of international involvement. "We are asking for a cease-fire and an international presence to monitor Israel's commitment to it," aide Nabil Abu Rdeneh said.
Israeli Cabinet ministers have been unswayed by a flurry of diplomatic activity meant to bring about a truce, instead authorizing the military on Wednesday to push ahead with its campaign. Militant rocket fire into Israel persisted, though at a low level Thursday, with four rockets fired by late morning.
France had proposed a 48-hour cease-fire to allow humanitarian supplies into Gaza, but Olmert said the time was not ripe to consider it. A separate proposal by Turkey and Egypt, two of Israel's few allies in the Muslim world, also seemed to be attracting little serious study in Israel or Gaza.
The U.N. Security Council, meeting for emergency consultations Wednesday night, discussed but did not vote on an Arab request for a legally binding resolution that would condemn Israel and halt its attacks.
A draft resolution was labeled "unbalanced" by the United States because it made no mention of halting Hamas rocket fire at Israeli towns the immediate cause behind Israel's massive air offensive.
Echoing Israel's cool response to truce proposals, a senior Hamas leader with ties to its military wing said now was not the right time to call off the fight. Hamas was unhappy with the six-month truce that collapsed just before the fighting began because it didn't result in an easing of Israel's crippling blockade on Gaza.
The Hamas leader, Osama Mazini, said in a statement distributed by the Hamas press office that his fighters were eager for a ground assault. "The people of Gaza are waiting to see the Zionist enemy in Gaza to tear them into pieces of flesh," said Mazini.
Israel and Egypt blockaded Gaza after Hamas seized control of the territory, and have opened their borders only to let in limited amounts of humanitarian aid.
Explosions shook Gaza City on Thursday as Israeli planes targeted three government buildings, including the parliament. Hospital officials said 25 wounded were evacuated from nearby houses. The military said aircraft also b****ed smuggling tunnels along the Gaza-Egypt border, part of an ongoing attempt to cut off Hamas' last lifeline to the world outside the embattled Palestinian territory.
Aircraft also went after Hamas police and their vehicles.
One pre-dawn strike targeting the house of a Hamas operative in northern Gaza killed a 35-year-old woman and wounded eight people, a Gaza Health Ministry official said.
Israeli ground forces, meanwhile, were putting the final touches on preparations for a possible ground invasion, which would have to be ordered by Israel's Cabinet to go ahead. The thousands of troops who are to take part have been moved to the border, along with armored vehicles and artillery pieces.
Israelis are not eager to see the operation expand beyond the air-based campaign, a poll Thursday showed.
The survey of 472 people showed that 52 percent want the air assault to continue, while only 19 percent wanted to see a ground offensive. Twenty percent favored a cease-fire.
The Dialog company poll appeared Thursday in the daily Haaretz. It had a margin of error of 4.6 percentage points.
In five days of raids, Israeli warplanes have carried out some 500 sorties against Hamas targets, and helicopters have flown hundreds more c****at missions, a senior Israeli military officer said on condition of anonymity in line with military regulations.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090101/...l_palestinians
So, get out your 2009 calendar and put a big circle around Saturday morning, Jan. 3.
That's the expected peak date for the Quadrantids, a notoriously unpredictable meteor display. In 2009, peak activity is due to occur in the pre-dawn hours of Jan. 3 and will strongly favor western North America. If the "Quads" reach their full potential, observers blessed with clear, dark skies could be averaging one or two meteor sightings per minute in the hour or two prior to the break of dawn.
The Quadrantid (pronounced KWA-dran-tid) meteors provides one of the most intense annual meteor displays, with a brief, sharp maximum lasting but a few hours. Adolphe Quetelet of Brussels Observatory discovered the shower in the 1830's, and shortly afterward it was noted by several other astronomers in Europe and America.
The meteors are named after the obsolete constellation Quadrans Muralis the Mural or Wall Quadrant (an astronomical instrument), depicted in some 19th-century star atlases roughly midway between the end of the handle of the Big Dipper and the quadrilateral of stars marking the head of the constellation Draco. (The International Astronomical Union phased out Quadrans Muralis in 1922.)
Usually difficult to see
Unfortunately, many factors c****ine to make the peak of this display difficult to observe on a regular basis.
Peak intensity is exceedingly sharp: meteor rates exceed one-half of their highest value for only about 8 hours (compared to two days for the August Perseids). This means that the stream of particles that produce this shower is a narrow one apparently derived within the last 500-years from a small comet. The parentage of the Quadrantids had long been a mystery. Then Dr. Peter Jenniskens, an astronomer at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif., noticed that the orbit of 2003 EH1 a small asteroid discovered in March 2003 ''falls snug in the shower.'' He believes that this 1.2 mi. (2 km.) chunk of rock is the source of the Quadrantids; possibly this asteroid is the burnt out core of the lost comet C/1490 Y1.
As viewed from mid-northern latitudes, we have to get up before dawn to see the Quadrantids at their best. This is because the radiant that part of the sky from where the meteors to emanate is down low on the northern horizon until about midnight, rising slowly higher as the night progresses. The growing light of dawn ends meteor observing usually by around 7 a.m. So, if the "Quads" are to be seen at all, some part of that 8-hour active period must fall between 2 and 7 a.m.
In one out of every three years, bright moonlight spoils the view.
Over northern latitudes, early January often sees inclement/unsettled weather.
It is not surprising then, that the Quadrantids are not as well-observed as some of the other annual meteor showers, but 2009 could be an exception.
Excellent prospects in 2009
According to the International Meteor Organization, maximum activity this year is expected on 4:50 a.m. Pacific Standard Time on Jan. 3. For those across the western half of the United States and Canada, the radiant will soar high in the eastern sky just prior to the onset of morning twilight. Over the eastern United States and Canada, the spike of activity is predicted to come after sunrise.
Quadrantid meteors are described as bright and bluish with long silvery trains. Some years produce a mere handful, but for favorably placed observers, an excellent meteor display may be in the offing; at greatest activity, Quadrantid rates will likely range from 30 to 60 per hour for eastern parts of the U.S. and Canada, to perhaps 60 to 120 per hour for the western United States and Canada. For those in Europe, the shower's sharp peak will likely come long after sunrise. Nonetheless, hourly rates of perhaps 15 to 30 may still be seen.
As far as the moon is concerned, it will not be a factor at all this year. It's a waxing crescent, two days from first quarter phase and will have set around 11 p.m. local time on Friday, Jan. 2, leaving the rest of the night dark for meteor watching.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/200812...teorshowerjan3
The two sides, citing disagreement over fee hikes, had threatened a damaging blackout at a minute past midnight Thursday that would have cut off shows such as "SpongeBob SquarePants" and "The Colbert Report" to about 15.7 million subscribers.
"We are pleased that our customers will continue to be able to watch the customers will continue to be able to watch the programming they enjoy on MTV Networks," said Glenn Britt, president and CEO of Time Warner Cable Inc. "We are sorry they had to endure a day of public disagreement as we worked through this negotiation."
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Details must still be finalized over the next few days, the companies said.
Viacom president and CEO Philippe Dauman said the company was happy a deal was struck. Viacom had mounted an advertising onslaught warning customers of the possible blackout, taking out ads in major newspapers and Web sites from The New York Times and TVGuide.com featuring a tearful "Dora the Explorer" crying and clinging to her monkey pal, Boots.
"Why is Dora crying?" the ad read. "Tonight you will lose Nickelodeon and 18 other channels from your TV." It then prompted people to call their cable company to complain.
The dispute would have affected some 13.3 million Time Warner Cable subscribers, mainly in New York state, the Carolinas, Ohio, Southern California and Texas; and 2.4 million customers of Bright House Networks in Michigan, Indiana, California, Alabama and Florida.
Time Warner Chief Executive Glenn Britt on Wednesday had called Viacom's demand for a 12 percent increase in fees an extra $39 million on top of the estimated $300 million it pays Viacom annually extortion and outrageous given the recession. Viacom countered that the requested increase amounted to an extra $2.76 annually per subscriber.
Viacom had argued that Americans spend a fifth of their TV time watching Viacom shows but its fees made up less than 2.5 percent of the Time Warner cable bill.
Spokeswoman Kelly McAndrew said that despite ranking high in the ratings, Viacom's cable networks' average daily license fee was 65 percent lower than that of networks run by The Walt Disney Co., News Corp.'s Fox, Time Warner Inc.'s Turner Broadcasting System and Discovery Communications Inc.
Analyst Michael Nathanson with Bernstein Research said Viacom's channels had been "underpriced relative to their peers."
Public carriage fee disputes of this scale between a programmer and a cable operator are not that common, especially when there's a threat of a blackout, said Derek Baine, senior analyst at SNL Kagan in Monterey, Calif. Typically, both sides agree on contract extensions as they negotiate on terms, he said, and any blackouts don't last long because TV operators get calls from outraged customers.
One prominent carriage fee fight in recent years was in 2004, between Viacom and EchoStar, the former name of Dish Network Corp. Shows were dropped for two days.
In October, Time Warner Cable wrestled with LIN TV Corp., which operates local TV stations affiliated with NBC, CBS, Fox and CW. But this time, Time Warner Cable faced Viacom, the largest cable programmer, not a small independent with a handful of channels.
The channels in the dispute were Comedy Central, Logo, Palladia, MTV, MTV 2, MTV Hits, MTV Jams, MTV Tr3s, Nickelodeon, Noggin, Nick 2, Nicktoons, Spike, The N, TV Land, VH1, VH1 Classic, VH1 Soul and CMT: Pure Country.
Viacom shares rose 88 cents, or 4.5 percent, to close at $20.12 on Wednesday, while Time Warner Cable shares fell 31 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $21.45.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090101/...e_warner_cable
The study suggests that secondhand smoke may be a terrible and under-recognized cause of heart attack deaths in this country, said one of its authors, Terry Pechacek of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
At least eight earlier studies have linked smoking bans to decreased heart attacks, but none ran as long as three years. The new study looked at heart attack hospitalizations for three years following the July 1, 2003 enactment of Pueblo's ban, and found declines as great or greater than those in earlier research.
"This study is very dramatic," said Dr. Michael Thun, a researcher with the American Cancer Society.
"This is now the ninth study, so it is clear that smoke-free laws are one of the most effective and cost-effective to reduce heart attacks," said Thun, who was not involved in the CDC study released Thursday.
Smoking bans are designed not only to cut smoking rates but also to reduce secondhand tobacco smoke. It is a widely recognized cause of lung cancer, but its effect on heart disease can be more immediate. It not only damages the lining of *lo** vessels, but also increases the kind of *lo** clotting that leads to heart attacks. Reducing exposure to smoke can quickly cut the risk of clotting, some experts said.
"You remove the final one or two links in the chain" of events leading to a heart attack, Thun said.
Secondhand smoke causes an estimated 46,000 heart disease deaths and about 3,000 lung cancer deaths among nonsmokers each year, according to statistics cited by the CDC.
In the new study, researchers reviewed hospital admissions for heart attacks in Pueblo. Patients were classified by ZIP codes. They then looked at the same data for two nearby areas that did not have bans the area of Pueblo County outside the city and for El Paso County.
In Pueblo, the rate of heart attacks dropped from 257 per 100,000 people before the ban to 152 per 100,000 in the three years afterward. There were no significant changes in the two other areas.
"The need for protection from secondhand smoke in all workplaces and public places has never been clearer," said Matthew Myers of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, in a prepared statement. He is president of the Washington, D.C.-based advocacy organization.
But the study had limitations: It assumed declines in the amount of secondhand smoke in Pueblo buildings after the ban, but did not try to measure that. The researchers also did not sort out which heart attack patients were smokers and which were not, so it's unclear how much of the decline can be attributed to reduced secondhand smoke.
One academic argued there's not enough evidence to conclude the smoking ban was the cause of Pueblo's heart attack decline.
The decline could have had more to do with a general decline in smoking in Pueblo County, from about 26 percent in 2002-2003 to less than 21 percent in 2004-2005. If there were stepped-up efforts to treat or prevent heart disease in the Pueblo area, that too could have played a role, said Dr. Michael Siegel, a professor of social and behavioral sciences at the Boston University School of Public Health.
"I don't think it's as clear as they're making it out to be," Siegel said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081231/...king_ban_heart
Some weren't wearing their bulky protective gloves and still had their helmet visors open. Some weren't fully strapped in. One was barely seated.
In seconds, the darkened module holding the crew lost pressure. The astronauts blacked out. If the loss of pressure didn't kill them immediately, they would be dead from violent gyrations that knocked them about the ship.
In short, Columbia's astronauts were quickly doomed.
A new NASA report released Tuesday details the chaotic final minutes of Columbia, which disintegrated over Texas on Feb. 1, 2003. The point of the 400-page analysis is to figure out how to make NASA's next spaceship more survivable. The report targeted problems with the spacesuits, restraints and helmets of the Columbia crew.
Many of the details about the astronauts' deaths have been known they died either from lack of oxygen during pressure loss or from hitting something as the spacecraft tumbled and broke up. However, the new report paints a more detailed picture of the final moments of the Columbia crew than the broader investigation into the accident five years ago.
Astronaut Pam Melroy, deputy study chief, said the analysis showed the astronauts were at their problem-solving best trying to recover Columbia, which was starting to crack up as it re-entered Earth's atmosphere with a hole in its left wing, damage that had occurred at liftoff. "There was no way for them to know that it was going to be impossible."
The crew had lost control of the motion and direction of the spacecraft. It was pitching end-over-end, the cabin lights were out, and parts of the shuttle behind the crew compartment including its wings were falling off.
"It was a very disorienting motion going on," NASA deputy associate administrator Wayne Hale said in a telephone conference call. "There were a number of alarms going off simultaneously. The crew was trying very hard to regain control. We're talking about a brief time in a crisis situation."
The NASA study team is recommending 30 changes based on Columbia, many of them aimed at the spacesuits, helmets and seatbelts for both the shuttle and the next space capsule NASA is building. Since the accident, NASA has quietly made astronauts put more priority on getting their protective suits on, Melroy said.
NASA's suits don't automatically pressurize, "a basic problem of suit design and it is one we intend to fix with future spacecraft," Hale said.
Had the astronauts had time to get their gear on and get their suits pressurized, they might have lived longer and been able to take more actions. But they still wouldn't have survived, the report notes.
The report lists events that were each potentially lethal to the crew: Loss of cabin pressure just before or as the cabin broke up; crew members, unconscious or already dead, crashing into objects in the module; exposure to a near vacuum at 100,000 feet; and crashing to the ground.
Killed in the Columbia disaster along with pilot McCool, were commander Rick Husband, Michael Anderson, David Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark, and Israel's first astronaut, Ilan Ramon.
Columbia was the second space shuttle NASA has lost. The hole in its wing was caused by a piece of foam insulation that broke off the fuel tank and slammed into it at launch. The shuttle Challenger blew up shortly after liftoff on 1986, also claiming seven lives. Investigators in both accidents pointed to a NASA culture of ignoring problems that later turned fatal.
Dr. Jonathan Clark, a former NASA flight surgeon and husband of Laurel Clark, praised NASA's leadership for the report "even though it says, in some ways, you guys didn't do a great job."
"I guess the thing I'm surprised about, if anything, is that (the report) actually got out," said Clark, who was a member of the team that wrote it. "There were so many forces" that didn't want to produce the report because it would again put the astronauts' families in the media spotlight.
Some of the recommendations already are being applied to the next-generation spaceship being designed to take astronauts to the moon and Mars, said Clark, who now works for the National Space Biomedical Research Institute at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
Kirstie McCool Chadwick, sister of William McCool, said a copy of the report arrived at her Florida home Tuesday morning but she had not read it.
"We've moved on," Chadwick said. "I'll read it. But it's private. It's our business ... Our family has moved on from the accident and we don't want to reopen wounds."
NASA held the report till after Christmas at the request of the families.
John Logsdon, who was a member of the original Columbia accident investigation board, questioned the need for the report, saying, "Those people are dead. Knowing in specifics how they died should be a private matter."
But for friends of the astronauts working on the investigation, confirming that the crew didn't suffer much "is a very small blessing," Melroy said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081231/...wi9O7C.s0 NUE
Zip FM's Diva Nikki Z is yet to return to the airwaves.
In a short conversation with the disc jock, whose real name is Nicole Duhaney, she said she has not been fired.
When asked about the letter to the editor published in The Gleaner
yesterday titled 'Impact of Broadcasting Commission being felt', in
which Broadcasting Commission's Executive Director Cordel Green said a
female DJ had been fired from her prime-time slot on a popular radio
station, Nikki Z said she did not know if that was referring to her as
she has not been fired.
No worries
"First, I am hearing that. But as far as my boss and I
know that is not so, but either way no worries," said Nikki Z, who is
currently off the island.
In the letter, Green said the DJ played a song on the station on December 4, which contained an expletive.
Nikki Z played Munga Honourebel's Ride It on December 4, which contained expletives.
In addition, the letter said the station's new policies require all presenters to only play music from the library.
Sufficient time
He said, "The station's morning show is now being
presented by two persons in order to allow each presenter sufficient
time to research the music, write the music sheet and ensure that it is
vetted by the programme manager."
ZJ Sparks and ZJ Rose have since been occupying Nikki Z's morning spot, which comes on air between 6 and 10 a.m.
After her suspension on December 11 Nikki Z also sent out an apology to her listeners.
Despite this, the situation has not changed. When contacted,
programmes manager for ZIP FM, D'Adra Williams, also denied any
knowledge of Nikki Z being fired from the station.
"I don't know of anything being added to the situation as before," she said.
As the clock struck midnight, a ton of confetti rained down while the partygoers hugged and kissed.
Josh Torres and his girlfriend, Sarah Manganello, both 21, screamed and cheered as they watched the ball drop. Manganello had advice for people in the new year: "Learn from what you've done and move forward."
The wind chill made it feel like 1 degree in the area, but that didn't stop the throngs bundled in fur hats, heavy coats and sleeping bags from attending the event.
Former President Bill Clinton and Sen. Hillary Clinton helped Mayor Michael Blo****erg lower the ball atop 1 Times Square for the 60-second countdown to midnight. Last year, Hillary Clinton was in Iowa campaigning for the presidency, and now she's expecting to be secretary of state in President-elect Barack Obama's administration.
Many other New Year's Eve traditions around the country were in place, but some festivities fell victim to hard times, and those that remained felt somewhat subdued. The nation's economic troubles made many people less interested in giving 2008 an expensive send-off. Public celebrations were canceled in communities from Louisville, Ky., to Reno, Nev., and promoters in Miami Beach, Fla., reported slower ticket sales than expected for celebrity-studded parties that they say would have sold out in past years.
But New York's celebration was still going strong. Five minutes before midnight, 1,000 balloons with the words "Joy," "Hope" and "2009" were released from rooftops in the area. The Waterford crystal ball 12 feet in diameter and weighing nearly 12,000 pounds dropped as the crowd erupted in cheers.
Sam Tenorio and his family drove to New York from Orlando, Fla., so his teenage daughter Brianna could see the Jonas Brothers perform live in Times Square.
"The economy is what it is. It's going to turn around. You just have to be positive," Tenorio said. "That's what we're doing, otherwise we wouldn't be here. I think that's why most people are here tonight: optimism."
Along with the Jonas Brothers, Lionel Richie and the P**ycat Dolls performed. Dick Clark made several TV appearances from inside a studio, and Ryan Seacrest hosted the event.
Las Vegas casinos put on a midnight fireworks display and daredevil acts, including a 200-foot jump at The Mirage hotel-casino by Robbie Knievel, son of the late Evel Knievel.
The stunt made Knievel appear to jump over a manmade volcano perched in front of the hotel-casino, though he actually jumped next to it as it spewed a fireball under him for live spectators.
Others weren't so lucky. Windy weather and rough harbor waters caused Baltimore officials to postpone a New Year's Eve fireworks celebration. In Reno, officials canceled their fireworks show for the first time since 2000.
"With the downturn in the economy, with people getting laid off and with the tightening of budgets all over town, we just didn't think it was right to spend $20,000 or $30,000 on something that goes up in smoke," Mayor Bob Cashell said.
Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson expected to save $33,000 by canceling a New Year's Eve party he traditionally throws.
Elkhart, Ind., planned a party at its outdoor skating rink, with volunteers leading some games, instead of a $5,000 event with fireworks. The city hadn't gotten any complaints about the scaled-back celebration, said Arvis Dawson, executive assistant to the mayor.
"I think most people understand," he said.
Philadelphia planned to celebrate New Year's Day with its more than century-old Mummers Parade, though it had fallen into jeopardy when city officials withdrew about $400,000 in support.
After weeks of limbo, the Mummers Association successfully raised enough private donations to continue the pageant filled with flamboyantly dressed performers, sometimes described as the city's Mardi Gras.
Rich Porco, a Mummer for 51 years, said the uncertainty made this "one of the worst years I've ever been involved with."
Instead of preparing for the festivities, "you found yourself thinking more about, 'Is there going to be a parade?'" Porco said. "It was hard."
In Pasadena, Calif., hundreds of thousands of spectators were expected for the Rose Parade. Organizers said any economic hit they might have suffered was lessened because commitments to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on floats have been in place for at least a year.
"We may or may not feel the effects of the economy this year, but more likely next year," Tournament of Roses Chief Operating Officer Bill Flinn said. "We do feel one of our jobs is to bring optimism at a time when things are not so good for so many people."
The Peach Drop, which has been the staple of downtown Atlanta's New Year Eve since 1989, was expecting almost 100,000 in attendance at Underground Atlanta an 80,000 dropoff from last year. Some attendees believed the shaky economy played a part in fewer people showing for the event, but they said it wouldn't deter their spirits.
John Buleey, a building contractor from Dawsonville in north Georgia, expects hard times to come next year. The 39-year-old also said the struggling economy should improve by the year's end.
"Sure, we'll go through tough times," said Buleey, who wore a shiny, gold-colored hat that read "Happy New Year" across the front along with his five family members. "But judging from the past, this country will overcome our financial woes."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090101/...s/new_year_rdp
Prince says he is releasing three albumslikely through an exclusive deal with a major retailerin 2009, including an electro-pop effort tentatively titled MPLSOUND and Lotus Flower, tracks from which were featured on L.A. indie station 103.1 FM this year.
He has been experimenting with "new ways of recording," the quirky Purple One told the Los Angeles Times in a recent interview at his Hollywood Hills home, during which he also talked up new tunes by his protégé, Bria Valente, and mentioned that he didn't vote in November because of his religion.
Meaning, Prince said, he didn't cast a ballot for Barack Obama, nor officially come out on either side of Proposition 8, the gay marriage ban that controversially passed last month.
"I have friends that are gay and we study the Bible together," Prince, who's been a Jehovah's Witness for most of the last decade, said in reference to some remarks he made about gay marriage in a November New Yorker interview.
Remarks that made some people wonder whether the dapper rock star wasn't quite so liberal as his eyeliner and frock coats would have us believe.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/eonline/2009...Oz7e2pUMB2F78C
Consumers, civil-rights activists, engineers, Internet providers and politicians from opposition parties are among the critics of a mandatory Internet filter that would block at least 1,300 Web sites prohibited by the government mostly child pornography, excessive violence, instructions in crime or drug use and advocacy of terrorism.
Hundreds protested in state capitals earlier this month.
"This is obviously censorship," said Justin Pearson Smith, 29, organizer of protests in Melbourne and an officer of one of a dozen Facebook groups against the filter.
The list of prohibited sites, which the government isn't making public, is arbitrary and not subject to legal scrutiny, Smith said, leaving it to the government or lawmakers to pursue their own online agendas.
"I think the money would be better spent in investing in law enforcement and targeting producers of child porn," he said.
Internet providers say a filter could slow browsing speeds, and many question whether it would achieve its intended goals. Illegal material such as child pornography is often traded on peer-to-peer networks or chats, which would not be covered by the filter.
"People don't openly post child porn, the same way you can't walk into a store in Sydney and buy a machine gun," said Geordie Guy, spokesman for Electronic Frontiers Australia, an Internet advocacy organization. "A filter of this nature only blocks material on public Web sites. But illicit material ... is traded on the black market, through secret channels."
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy proposed the filter earlier this year, following up on a promise of the year-old Labor Party government to make the Internet cleaner and safer.
"This is not an argument about free speech," he said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. "We have laws about the sort of material that is acceptable across all mediums and the Internet is no different. Currently, some material is banned and we are simply seeking to use technology to ensure those bans are working."
Jim Wallace, managing director of the Australian Christian Lobby, welcomed the proposed filter as "an important safeguard for families worried about their children inadvertently coming across this material on the Net."
Conroy's office said a peer-to-peer filter could be considered. Most of today's filters are unable to do that, though companies are developing the technology.
The plan, which would have to be approved by Parliament, has two tiers. A mandatory filter would block sites on an existing blacklist determined by the Australian Communications Media Authority. An optional filter would block adult content.
The latter could use keywords to determine which sites to block, a technology that critics say is problematic.
"Filtering technology is not capable of realizing that when we say breasts we're talking about breast cancer, or when we type in sex we may be looking for sexual education," Guy said. "The filter will accidentally block things it's not meant to block."
A laboratory test of six filters for the Australian Communications Media Authority found they missed 3 percent to 12 percent of material they should have barred and wrongly blocked access to 1 percent to 8 percent of Web sites. The most accurate filters slowed browsing speeds up to 86 percent.
The government has invited Internet providers to participate in a live test expected to be completed by the end of June.
The country's largest Internet provider, Telstra BigPond, has declined, but others will take part. Provider iiNet signed on to prove the filter won't work. Managing director Michael Malone said he would collect data to show the government "how stupid it is."
The government has allocated 45 million Australian dollars ($30.7 million) for the filter, the largest part of a four-year, AU$128.5 million ($89 million) cybersafety plan, which also includes funding for investigating online child abuse, education and research.
One of the world's largest child-advocacy groups questions such an allocation of money.
"The filter may not be able to in fact protect children from the core elements of the Internet that they are actually experiencing danger in," said Holly Doel-Mackaway, an adviser with Save the Children. "The filter should be one small part of an overall comprehensive program to educate children and families about using the Internet."
Australia's proposal is less severe than controls in Egypt and Iran, where bloggers have been imprisoned; in North Korea, where there is virtually no Internet access; or in China, which has a pervasive filtering system.
Internet providers in the West have blocked content at times. In early December, several British providers blocked a Wikipedia entry about heavy metal band Scorpion. The entry included its 1976 "Virgin Killer" album cover, which has an image of a naked underage girl. The Internet Watch Foundation warned providers the image might be illegal.
Canada, Sweden, the United Kingdom have filters, but they are voluntary.
In the United States, Pennsylvania briefly imposed requirements for service providers to block child-pornography sites, but a federal court struck down the law because the filters also blocked legitimate sites.
In Australia, a political party named the Australian Sex Party was launched last month in large part to fight the filter, which it believes could block legal pornography, sex education, abortion information and off-color language.
But ethics professor Clive Hamilton, in a column on the popular Australian Web site Crikey.com, scoffed at what he called "Net libertarians," who believe freedom of speech is more important than limiting what children can access online.
"The Internet has dramatically changed what children can see," said the professor at Charles Sturt University in Canberra, noting that "a few extra clicks of a mouse" could open sites with photos or videos of extreme or violent sex. "Opponents of ISP filters simply refuse to acknowledge or trivialize the extent of the social problem."
http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/200812...nternet_filter
-- Edited by MZJ at 20:19, 2008-12-29
-- Edited by dj_remix at 07:00, 2007-08-25
Child star on Steve Urkel Show no longer innocent
Nikki-Z Suspended From Radio
| In an exclusive interview the queen of morning gossip radio told us that the incident occurred on Friday (September 12th). "I was playing Erup song on the Money Machine Riddim and a curse word leaked onto the air, unaware of the mistake I was informed by my boss the following day and told I would be placed on suspension for my actions". "I am not going to deny anything, it happened and I am only human, I will admit though that since lately my focus has been a little blurry, but I am not going to use that as an excuse for what happened" - Nikki-Z added. Checks by our team revealed that she has been placed on an indefinite suspension which could be anywhere from a week to as long as the station deems fit. Since lately, Nikki-Z has been facing some tough time coping with her mother's illness and other family issues. However even in the wake of the suspension she is still upbeat and promises to not waste time reflecting on the matter, but instead will be using the time off to go to the Prisons to give motivational speeches to inmates as a part of her drive to give back to society. |
Popular dancehall vocalist, Singing Melody, was shot and injured in Portmore, St. Catherine, when gunmen fired at his car in an apparent robbery attempt as he drove along the Hellshire main road, early Sunday morning.
The singer, whose real name is Everton Hardware, was treated and released from the Spanish Town Hospital for a gunshot wound to the left forearm.
Reports are that at about 1:30 a.m., Hardware was driving along the Hellshire main road, when unknown persons signalled him to stop. Instead of stopping however, it is said that the complainant sped off, wherein the gunmen opened a barrage of gunfire at the vehicle.
Hardware received a single gunshot wound to the left forearm, and was taken to the hospital and admitted in stable condition.
Singing Melody says he is still in shock from the incident, and was not able to give a detailed account of his ordeal. However, he affirmed that he is doing well, and will soon be fully recovered.
"I feel all right, everything good, just trying to get some bedrest ... Right now I'm still in shock 'bout the whole thing, but I'm 'bedresting' and recuperating," the singer said.
Singing Melody who is also a member of the popular group LUST made waves in the local industry with hits such as Say what, and Want you back.
Cars have been a popular sex spot since Henry Ford started rolling them off the lot, and cities and states differ on whether a car can legally be considered a 'public' place.
"It's against the law if it offends someone or someone can see it, so it's a fine line," says Andrew, an Indiana police officer. "They could be arrested, but usually we just tell them to find a better place to do it."
Bathrooms are another popular locale, and these kinds of semi-public spaces are a good start for beginners since you're more likely to get an annoyed 'Move on,' from a police officer or bar bouncer than arrested. In fact, according to an article in Time Out New York, one enterprising bathroom attendant has started cashing in on couples' desires for fast fornication by charging $20 for ten minutes in a stall.
Read more
-- Edited by MZJA at 22:01, 2008-12-04
Catch a Fire: How Reggae and Dancehall Scorched the US. Part Three: The late '90s to today
1996 Shaggy sold platinum and received a Grammy Award for Bo****astic.
1996 The Fugees released the R&B/Hip-Hop/Reggae infused album, The Score, with hits including a cover of Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly" and Wyclef's cover of Bob Marley's "No Woman Nuh Cry. The album went on to sell more than 17 million copies.
1996 The melody for King Yellowman's song was replicated in Tupac's "Hit 'Em Up" ("Grab your glocks if you see Tupac, call the cops if you see Tupac") - a song hitting back at Junior Mafia's "Players Anthem.
1996 The alleged romantic couple, Jamaican deejay Spragga Benz and rapper, Foxy Brown collaborated for the song "Oh Yeah" off the Broken Silence album.
"Oh Yeah" video:
1997 Diana King's second album Think Like a Girl entered the Billboard Top Reggae Albums chart at Number One. King also scored another well-received hit on the Billboard Hot 100 and the Hot Dance Club Play with her cover version of the song "I Say a Little Prayer" (originally recorded by Dionne Warwick in 1967), featured on the soundtrack to the film My Best Friend's Wedding.
That year, King was also featured on the soundtrack to the documentary When We Were Kings, where she performed a duet of the same title with Brian McKnight.
1997 Born Jamericans' "Yardcore" climbed to the No. 8 spot on the US Hot Rap Singles chart.
1997 The hit track "All About the Benjamins (remix)" featuring Lil Kim and Notorious B.I.G. on the Puff Daddy album No Way Out, contained Lil Kim's infamous deejay lines ("Uhh, uhh, what the blo*o*dclaawt? Wanna bumble wit the Bee, huhh?") much to the dismay of many austere West Indian parents.
1997 Super Cat was featured on the Number One hit single "Fly by Sugar Ray.
1997 Rapper Warren G covered "I Shot the Sheriff" for his Take a Look over Your Shoulder (Reality) album. The track peaked at Number 20 on the Billboard Hot 100.
1997 Beenie Man released what was to be his first international hit "Who Am I. After which, the single quickly went Gold. Needless to say, a new Reggae superstar was born.
1997 Bounty Killer, one of Jamaica's most inexhaustible deejays, released "Hip Hopera" featuring the Fugees on his album I. The track peaked at No. 81 on the Hot 100 charts.
Bounty Killer and Fugees - "Hip Hopera":
1998 Though Barrington Levy had been a chart-topper on the Jamaican and UK scene as early as the 1970s, Levy finally got his minor US breakthrough when he released Living Dangerously, which included a dynamic collaboration with Bounty Killer.
1998 In 1998, Diana King joined Celine Dion and Brownstone on stage to perform their hit "Treat Her Like a Lady" at the Essence Awards.
1998 Black Star (Mos Def and Talib Kweli) released the track "Definition. Not only is the track a sample of King Yellowman's 1982 single, "Zungguzungguguzungguzeng" (which was a sample of an Alton Ellis 1967 track), but Mos Def's cry of "Laaaawd have 'is mercy! Follow mi now" and subsequent style in the song, echoes Super Cat's rap cadence.
1998 "Send My Love" by Born Jamericans peaked at No. 18 on the US Hot Rap Singles chart.
"Send My Love" video:
A Born Jamericans' Edley Shine paints a picture for AllHipHop.com Alternatives of how difficult it was to conquer mainstream US and Jamaica at the simultaneously. Click Here for a past AllHipHop interview with Notch of Born Jamericans.
AllHipHop.com Altermatives: At that time were you perceived as being odd because you were rapping yet using Jamaican patois in your music?
Edley Shine: I guess so. There was a big no twanging thing going in Jamaica at the time, so I guess people might have had a bias against my approach to deejaying, but now it's a common thing in dancehall to use rapping and American slang in your chune.
Give props to Mad Lion, Super Cat, Daddy Freddie, KRS-ONE, Shinehead & Shabba for paving the way to making Hip-Hop Dancehall accepted in the mainstream!
AHHA: Did you break into mainstream America immediately?
ES: No our first tour was with Shabba Ranks on the Strictly Dancehall Tour bout 1994 I think. It was us and artists straight outta Jamaica like [Mad] Cobra, Ghost & Culture & Patra. I think that exposed us to a mainstream audience along wit "Boom-Shak-Attack" getting heavy TV and radio play.
AHHA: How difficult was it to be accepted by Jamaicans and those in the Jamaican music industry?
ES: I always feel like Jamaica never gave us a chance they just weren't having it. We checked mad producers in Jamaica when we first got our deal. The only producer who showed love was Computer Paul.
Everybody else was worried about getting to our budget from the label. Yard was the first place we went when we got our deal and it hurt me to see how most doors was close to us until "Boom-Shak-Attack" blew up then we was everybody yute dem.
AHHA: Do you think if you were doing it now, instead of then, it would have been easier?
ES: Now it would be harder because everybody seen the formula now. I see it in a lot of the artists that have that foreign-yard-hybrid going on, but they will never mention Born Jamericans. I guess that's life, but God know who set it.
AHHA: Who were some of your Reggae and Dancehall musical influences?
ES: My influences musically were my family growing up around Freddy Dread and Emperor sound (Big Up Harbor View), that made me wanna deejay. As far as music business, I guess all Hip-Hop and Reggae from 80-90s.
I use to buy everybody tape every Tuesday. Anybody that know me know I had everyone's album; I just soak myself in music all day, everyday!
AHHA: What kind of impact do you think you had on the musical landscape?
ES: Well I just found out "Boom-Shak-Attack" will be in a videogame Saints Row 2, and I just came off tour. Sometimes I feel like I fell short of my goal to impact music, but when I go out people never hesitate to tell me they want back Born Jamericans.
But it will take someone to come back to the Garrison to make it happen. I'm here, never leaving it. Lewisdale all day!"
AHHA: But do you sometimes think the contributions of Born Jamericans have been overlooked by today's artists?
ES: Very much so. I'm challenging people to get Kids From Foreign and Yardcore on iTunes and weigh what we did in '93-'98 to all the Dancehall, Reggae/Hip-Hop/Pop stuff you hear today and see if we were overlooked. We never went Gold unless the label lying to me. Our legacy was shortchanged by people I loved like brothers and sisters!
AHHA: What does the name Born Jamericans mean?
ES: A Born Jamerican is a yute born in America to Jamaican parents who never forgot their heritage. Even with all the advantages of growing up in America, they still acknowledge the family they have down inna the garrison, the gully and the trenches whether they studying to be a doctor, lawyer whatever. They maintain their essence and keep both cultures alive for generations to come."
AHHA: Since the group split, what are you up to these days?
ES: I just drop the Foreign Finest Street Mix: Volume 1. It's a compilation of my favorite chunes I made in the last ten years, plus a lot of fresh bangers and it's a good price!
1998 Lauryn Hill's Miseducation of Lauryn Hill was unquestionably one of the greatest soul albums, which seamlessly fused Hip-Hop and Reggae to date.
Jamaican deejay Shelly Thunder was featured on the song "Forgive them Father" spitting heavy dancehall lyrics over the mellow track. That year, Hill won five Grammy Awards for Miseducation.
Lauryn Hill tribute to Bob Marley:
1999 Sean Paul Henriques, better known as Sean Paul started to attract a US audience when he and Mr. Vegas worked on the song "Top Shotter, which was featured in the Hype Williams directed film, Belly. Also that year, Sean Paul emerged in the top ten on the Billboard Rap chart with the single Hot Gal Today, further bolstering his international status.
1999 Lauryn Hill was featured on the Bob Marley track "Turn Your Lights Down Low" from the Bob Marley tribute album Chant Down Babylon.
2000s
A new day had dawned in music. As the millennium set in, it became the norm for Dancehall/Reggae acts to collaborate with rap artists and exchange styles and ideas. At times, the musical marriage was so perfect it became increasingly difficult to place the songs in any one genre.
New strides were made among Beenie Man feat. Janet Jackson, Sean Paul and Beyonce, Elephant Man feat. Twista, No Doubt feat. Lady Saw and more recently, Shaggy feat. Akon.
Alicia Keys feat. Junior Reid, Mariah Carey feat. Damian Marley, Mavado feat. Jay-Z, not to mention Lil Wayne straight up deejaying on the track "The Only Reason" featuring T Streetz and Sizzla Kalonji.
2000 Barrington Levy appeared on rapper, Shyne's debut single, "Bad Boyz.
2000 Beenie Man's album, Art and Life was released. The album featured the hit "Girls Dem Suga" featuring R&B singer Mya.
"Girls Dem Sugar" featuring Mya:
2000 Bob Marley was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
2000 Diana King entered into negotiations with Madonna's Maverick Records label.
2000 Once a singer for the group Black Uhuru in the late 1980s, Junior Reid's vocals have been sampled in the Hip-Hop scene, as early as Wu-Tang-Clan's "One *lo** Under W" from the album, The W.
2001 Shaggy's Hotshot was the best-selling album that year, grossing over 13 million albums worldwide and topped the charts in the US, UK, Germany and Australia simultaneously.
The album was seven times platinum certified in Canada and six times platinum in the US. With the help of two phenomenal singles, "It Wasn't Me" and "Angel, which featured Big Yard protégés Rik Rok and Rayvon, respectively. Hotshot surged to the top of the charts. Shaggy remains Jamaica's only living Diamond-plus selling artist.
2001 Supercat collaborated with India.Arie on her hit song "Video.
2001 Beenie Man received a Grammy award for Best Reggae Album, Art and Life.
2001 "I'm Serious" by T.I. featuring Beenie Man was released.
2001 No Doubt's heavily dancehall-influenced track, "Hey Baby" (from the album Rock Steady a steady fusion of Reggae and Rock) featuring Bounty Killer landed in the No. 5 position on the US Hot 100 chart.
2002 Sean Paul released his second album, Dutty Rock. The album, which featured the hit singles "Gimme the Light" and the Billboard Hot 100 topper, "Get Busy, eventually sold over six million copies worldwide.
2003 The soundtrack, The Harder They Come was ranked No. 119 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
2003 Sean Paul became a major force behind Beyoncé's single, "Baby Boy" and Blu Cantrell's "Breathe" both of which topped the charts that year.
2003 Keith Richards (founding member of the Rolling Stones) recorded a rendition of "Pressure Drop" with Toots and the Maytals, (though it was released in December 2007).
2003 Supercat collaborated with Jadakiss and The Neptunes on "The Don Of Dons. Also in that year he collaborated with 112 for their song "Na, Na, Na.
Supercat's musical influence remains evident in the styles of international reggae and dancehall stars Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley, Collie Buddz, Sean Paul, among others.
2003 Sean Paul and Sasha released the single "I'm Still in Love with You, a sample of Alton Ellis' 1960s hit of the same name.
Alton Ellis featuring Hortense Ellis (his sister) "I'm Still In Love with You":
2003 Elephant Man's international single, "Pon De River, Pon de Bank" from the album, Good 2 Go, landed at the No. 19 spot on the US R&B/Hip-Hop chart.
2004 Jimmy Cliff's song, "The Harder They Come" was ranked No. 341 on Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time. The song which was the entrance music for heavyweight boxer Samuel Peter, has been covered by artists including, Jerry Garcia, Keith Richards, Willie Nelson, Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros, the Waco Brothers, Madness, Rancid and Dubnium.
2004 Beenie Man's single, "Dude" featuring rapper Shawna and dancehall artist, Miss Ting helped cement him as a legendary figure in mainstream dancehall his career now spanning over 20 years with consistent hits.
2004 Elephant Man landed an international contract with Puma for using his single "All Out" for their Olympics commercial campaign.
2004 Toots and the Maytals' song, "Pressure Drop" appeared on the K-Jah West radio station in the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
2004 Sean Paul wins the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album for Dutty Rock. Also, Sean became the first Dancehall act to be nominated for a non-reggae category Best Male Rap Solo Performance and Best New Artist.
2004 Elephant Man's "Jook Gal (Head Gawn Remix)" featuring Twista, Young*lo**z and Kiprich from the Good 2 Go album, peaked at No. 20 on the US R&B/Hip-Hop chart.
2004 Though he had amassed a few solo hits on the local Jamaican scene, Cham finally came to the international fore when he released "Ghetto Story" which held the no. 15 spot on the US R&B chart. The song was later re-released featuring R&B singer, Alicia Keys.
2005 Ini Kamoze's the song "World a Music" was sampled by Damian Marley's international hit, "Welcome to Jamrock.
2005 Lil Kim released a sample of Damian Marley's "Welcome to Jamrock" which was called "Lighters Up (Welcome To Brooklyn)" from her album The Naked Truth.
2005 Elephant Man signs to P. Diddy's Bad Boy Label.
2005 Sean Paul wins the Billboard Music Award for Top Selling Reggae Album of the Year The Trinity. The album features a number of hits including: "We Be Burnin, "Temperature" and "Give It up to Me" (the remix featuring Keyshia Cole appeared on the Step Up film soundtrack).
2006 The City of New York renamed a section of Church Avenue to East 98th Street in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, "Bob Marley Boulevard.
2006 Diana King's third album, Respect, became available to the US market (was previously only released in Japan) and its first single "Summer Breezin'" featuring Bounty Killer released.
2006 Junior Reid collaborated with former G-Unit rapper, The Game, on the song "It's Okay (One *lo**), which also samples Reid's 1990 single "One *lo**.
2006 Sean Paul wins Favorite Pop/Rock Male Artist at the American Music Awards. Also during that year "Temperature" was voted Hot 100 single of the year at the Billboard Music Awards.
2006 Beenie Man's "Girls" featuring Akon from the album Undisputed was released.
2007 Chaka Demus & Pliers performed "Murder She Wrote" with Alicia Keys at the American Music Awards.
2007 Junior Reid and Cham appeared on the Blackout remix of Mims' "This Is Why I'm Hot" from Mims' album M.I.M.S. (Music Is My Savior), effectively integrating Jamaican patois with the culture of New York City.
2007 Reggae crooner Sean Kingston stood out with his chart topper, "Beautiful Girls, which was a sample of Ben E. King's 1961 hit, "Stand By Me.
The song maintained it No. 1 status on the US Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks. Simultaneously, Sean gained popularity with Mims' "Like This (remix)" also featuring She Dirty, Red Cafe, & N.O.R.E.
2007 Kat DeLuna's "Whine Up" featuring Elephant Man on the album 9 Lives peaked at No. 29 on the US Hot 100 chart.
2007 Actor Will Smith sang a snippet of Bob Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff" in the movie I Am Legend.
2008 British singer, Estelle, released her sophomore album, Shine, which features her hit single "American Boy" (with Kanye West) and the Reggae-laced tracks "Come Over, "Magnificent" featuring Kardinal Official, "No Substitute Love" (a reggae sample of George Michael's "Faith"), among others. Estelle has been hailed by Wyclef Jean, who she also worked with on the album, as another Lauryn Hill.
Recollecting the past is no easy feat, but it's easier to see the irony in it. It's a brief, yet, a long way from the untackled possibilities of the 1960s when Reggae first made its entranceto the beautifully over-sampled modern era of Reggae-Dub-Dancehall-Rap music a time and place in music that undiluted Reggae and Dancehall undoubtedly helped to create, yet, still struggle when they attempt to capture a large mainstream audience.
Catch a Fire: How Reggae and Dancehall Scorched the US. Part One: The '60s and '70s
Many of you have had that one conversation with a youngling when you've tried to explain who DJ Kool Herc, Alton Ellis, Shabba Ranks, Supercat or even Shinehead were.
Instead, as it slowly progresses, it turns out to be a dramatic remake of (an urban) Titanic, where it seems you (unknowingly) heralded the end of today's Hip-Hop Meets Reggae Meets Dancehall world as they know it.
Nonetheless, you brace against the youthful and frigid ocean of the kid's stare and continue your tale about this time called "huuuh?"
Precursors
Since the Ska and Rocksteady yielding days of the 1950s, the Reggae of the 1960s, the Dub of the 1970s and the Dancehall of the 1980s, Jamaica's mainstay musical forms have had an obvious and profound impact on the American urban market and history with the help of innumerable artists spanning the decades each seeking to improve the course his forerunner had charted.
"Do the Reggay" Toots and the Maytals:
1960s
Winding down from the days of the upbeat and optimistic Ska and the slower Rocksteady, Jamaica made way for a new musical hybrid called Reggae. It has never been fully agreed upon whether the name Reggae was inspired by Toots and the Maytals' 1968 dance single, Do the Reggay, or as Bob Marley said, the word was Latin word for "the king's music, (the latin suffix Regis, meaning "of a king" or "belonging to a king").
Nonetheless, the music was a mid-tempo fusion of its two predecessors and had a distinct difference in its message: it was music of change and gave voice to the oppressed and impoverished of Jamaicaand later the world.
Mid Late 1960s Also during reggae's fecund years, yet another subgenre called Dub began to emerge in Jamaica. The Dub sound was comprised of instrumental remixes of existing recordings and was achieved by manipulating the recordings by removing the vocals, and alas, the remix was born.
Producers Osbourne "King Tubby" Ruddock (while working as a selector for Duke Reid's Sound System, began using a dub machine to eliminate the vocals from the tracks) and Lee "Scratch" Perry pioneered the style.
At night, the country's dancehalls were filled with patrons who would gather to hear the latest mixes while the selectors spoke to them over the beats. This became known as rapping or toasting, which was given a new, versatile, heavily rhymed flavor by DJ U-Roy "The Originator.
1967 Alton Ellis records the "Mad Mad" riddim, which is later sampled and re-interpreted by Henry "Junjo" Lawes in the "Diseases" riddim on King Yellowman's 1982 hit "Zungguzungguguzungguzeng.
1969 Though Reggae music was undeniably later made internationally famous by Marley and the Wailers, artists including Desmond Dekker and the Aces climbed the US top 40 charts with their hit, "Israelites.
But in no time Marley and the Wailers (who at the time had been signed to Chris Blackwell's Island Records) would hit the international scene and change the face of Reggae music forever.
1970s
At the cusp of the 1970s, Reggae music was beginning to make strides in the US market, though it was still rejected in its homeland a newly independent Jamaica. Often associated with the slums of Trench town (also Marley's hometown), Reggae music was rarely featured on the nation's radio stations.
Instead, soul, funk and other overseas musical forms inundated the airwaves. In addition, Reggae didn't do itself any favors when the already marginalized Rastafarians (who were still attempting to unshackle themselves from the criminal "Natty Dread" stereotype affixed to them) found solace in its anti-oppression message.
Reggae music documented what the impoverished masses felt and more so, it spoke a universal language of self-love and Black unity that many in the newly un-segregated United States (both natives and the West Indian migrants, who found it easier to enter with the liberalization of the American immigration laws of the 1960s) could identify with. Thus, propelling the music, its message and its artists up the charts.
1970 Jimmy Cliff's "Wonderful World, Beautiful People" was released.
1972 The soundtrack to Perry Henzel's film, The Harder They Come was released and undoubtedly helped popularize Reggae across the world. Though the film released in New York, the following year did so to little appeal, Cliff's songs, "The Harder they Come" and "Many Rivers to Cross" along with Toots and the Maytals' "Pressure Drop" helped the album peak on Billboard's North America Pop Albums chart at no. 140.
"The Harder They Come" Jimmy Cliff:
via videosift.com
1973 Producers, Lee "Scratch" Perry and the Aquarius studio engineer Herman Chin and (producer) Errol Thompson recognized that there was a lucrative market for Dub and released the first undiluted Dub albums. Perry's album Blackboard Jungle Dub was released in Spring of that year.
1973 The Wailers' first album, Catch A Fire, featuring the songs "Stir it Up" and "No More Trouble," was released and peaked at No. 171 on Billboard's North American charts.
1973 Jamaican-born DJ Kool Herc, after migrating to the United States in 1967, started playing his own sound system around New York City.
Yet, in a time when the US urban scene was still heavily influenced by R&B and funk, Herc found it difficult to amass a large enough following with the new Jamaican sounds at his street parties.
He therefore decided to fuse (remix) Jamaican toasting elements, inspired by U-Roy, with some of his James Brown records, which help shape a new genre Hip-Hop and one of its fundamental elements of deejaying.
1974 Bob Marley and the Wailers' Burnin, which included the songs "Get Up, Stand Up" and "I Shot The Sheriff" was released. These releases came at a pivotal time for the West Indies and United States. Prior to Malcolm X's assassination nine years before, a shift away from naive nationalism started to occur.
People and Black Power movements were moving toward employing legitimate force if they had to, as shown in the numerous riots sweeping Atlanta, Detroit and other US cities.
This is starkly evinced in Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff" a grim dramatization against injustice that anyone could identify with, though he chose to use American characters ("Deputies" and "Sheriffs" do not exist in Jamaica, only "Police Officers").
1974 Eric Clapton made a hit cover of "I Shot the Sheriff, which reached No. 1 in the United States and most of Europe, thus raising Marley's international profile and that of Reggae music.
1975 Marley had his first international crossover with "No Woman, No Cry," from the Natty Dread album.
1975 The first cover of Toots and the Maytals' "Pressure Drop" was done by British singer/songwriter Robert Palmer (who later settled in New York) on his second solo album, also entitled Pressure Drop.
1976 Bob Marley and the Wailers released Rastaman Vibration, which spent four weeks on the Billboard charts Top Ten; they were also named Band of the Year by Rolling Stone magazine that year.
1977 Bob Marley and the Wailers released Exodus. It remains one of his biggest records to date, generating hits including, "Jamming, "Waiting in Vain" and "One Love/People Get Ready."
One Love (with appearances by Paul McCartney) Bob Marley and the Wailers:
1977 Inspired by DJ Kool Herc and Kool DJ Dee, DJ Afrika Bambaataa, began organizing block parties around the South Bronx. He later formed the Bronx River Organization, then later, "The Organization", which was later reformed as the Zulu Nation. As time went by, break dancers, more DJs, rappers and artists joined him in the Zulu Nation, thus spreading their different musical styles across urban America.
BOUNTY QUESTIONNED BY DETECTIVEES[posted in NEWS IN THA STREETSZ]
Reckless Driving
Reports are that about 4 a.m., the deejay and the other man were travelling along Old Hope Road, near Jamaica College. It was reported that the deejay's vehicle was being driven recklessly, causing potential danger to the other occupants of the car. The other car was occupied by a female, known to the deejay and was being driven by a male.
Shortly after, shots, believed to be coming from the deejay's vehicle, were heard. The occupants of the other car, panicked and sped off, but crashed a few metres down the road. No one was seriously hurt.
A report was made to the police and the two brought in for questioning yesterday.
-- Edited by xxXMightyXxx at 16:33, 2008-12-22
What we did not know until now is that Rays sister, Brandy, rear-ended another car at 65 mph and caused a motorists death.
Brandy, the R&B sensation, was involved in the fatal accident last month, and it appears to be her fault. It happened on December 30 on the 405 Freeway in Los Angeles.
Law enforcement sources said that Brandy was cruising in her 2007 Land Rover at 65 mph and did not notice that the cars in front of her had slowed considerably. Brandys vehicle struck a 2005 Toyota, which then hit a 1989 Toyota. The 2005 Toyota slid sideways and hit the center divider. As it came to a halt, it was struck by a 1988 Acura.
The driver of the 2005 Toyota was taken to Holy Cross Hospital in critical condition and died. Brandy, who joins Prison Breaks Lane Garrison in the club of troubled stars responsible for fatal accidents over the past few months, was not injured and the driver of the Acura suffered moderate injuries. Janice Dickinson was also rammed recently, but that was in a different car crash, dont worry.
Poor Moesha.
Brandy was not placed under arrest and there was no evidence drugs or alcohol involved.
Getting rid of excess body fat poses a huge challenge for a lot of people. With all the health warnings about the risks of being overweight, many individuals try all kinds of weight-loss diets with little success.
The bad news is that obesity rates are rising sharply all over the world. Even the medical profession is struggling to find a solution to this problem. Unfortunately, doctors are now resorting to dangerous and expensive surgical procedures on their obese patients. Gastric bypass surgery, stomach stapling, gastric banding, suctioning and cutting out of belly fat, not to mention wiring up of the mouth, are some of the medical procedures now performed in unhealthy attempts at losing fat.
The Latino community in the United States is running particularly high levels of obesity. In such societies, like Jamaica, the associated diseases of diabetes, high *lo** pressure and heart disease continue to claim many lives and create suffering at an alarming rate.
Recently, the Latinos developed a very effective way to get the human body to burn, rather than store fat. This programme is called La Bamba.
WHAT IS LA BAMBA?
La Bamba is a scientifically designed three-day programme (initially) designed to kick-start your metabolism to burn fat. The initial day involves drinking lots of liquid: a c****ination of a patented, highly nutritious protein blend, digestive herbs and herbal tea. This drink, while pleasant-tasting and satisfying, puts your system into fat-burning mode.
On the second day, you consume meal-replacement protein shakes and on the third day healthy solid food is reintroduced into your diet. This can be repeated once a month or whenever you hit a plateau in your weight-loss programme.
HOW DOES LA BAMBA WORK?
The pancreas, an abdominal organ, produces two hormones that greatly influence your body's metabolism: insulin and glucagon. Insulin is the hormone produced when you eat carbohydrates. It tells the body to store fat. Glucagon, on the other hand, is produced in response to the consumption of protein and it encourages the body to burn stored fat.
On the La Bamba programme, you are given optimal quantities of healthy protein with lots of water, while having very little carbohydrates.
This makes your body burn fat like crazy. With the aid of the herbs, the body flushes out the waste, leaving you lighter and energised.
Body-composition analysis, before and after La Bamba, confirms that the weight lost during this programme is not due to water loss but fat loss. Thus it is not rapidly regained as with many other programmes.
THE RESULTS
Many people lose more than five pounds of fat and lots of inches from the waistline in the first week. It is ideal for those persons who struggle to get their weight-loss programme started. The programme is not very expensive and is easy to follow.
Because of the high fluid intake that results in frequent trips to the toilet, many find it convenient to start their programme on a weekend.
La Bamba is safe for everyone except those who have kidney disease, and have been instructed by their doctor to limit their consumption of protein.
In fact, the protein used in La Bamba is very healthy protein and is safe for diabetics and persons with high *lo** pressure as long as they are not on a protein-restricted diet.
is there a CD quality version of Buju Banton "Hard Runnings" (Shoot Out Riddim)?
"There are no new leads that we are aware of at the present time but the Hunts Bay police are still investigating," an officer at the Constabulary Communication Network told one876 today.
According to police blotters, Smith was shot and killed at 7:55 a.m. on Boxing Day, moments after he exited a bar where he had gone to purchase cigarettes. Ice was the creator of the popular Gully Creepa dance, a dance that garnered international attention after Jamaican speedster Usain Bolt performed the move for television cameras after winning the 100-metre event during the 2008 Summer Olympics in China.
100. Janet Jackson - Feedback
099. T.I. - No Matter What
098. Sean Kingston - There's Nothin' (Remix)
097. N.E.R.D - Everyone Nose (All the Girls Standing in the Line for the Bathroom) [Remix]
096. DJ Khaled - Go Hard
095. Dolla - Who the Heck Is That?
094. Ryan Leslie - Diamond Girl
093. Cassie - Official Girl
092. Soulja Boy Tell 'Em - Yahhh!
091. V.I.C. - Wobble
090. Pretty Ricky - Cuddle Up
089. Unk - Show Out
088. G-Unit - Rider, Pt. 2
087. Lil Mama - Shawty Get Loose
086. Mary J. Blige - Stay Down
085. Flo Rida - Elevator
084. Kanye West - Homecoming
083. Usher - Moving Mountains
082. Three 6 Mafia - Lolli Lolli (Pop That Body)
081. Nelly - Party People
080. Ludacris - What Them Girls Like
079. Erykah Badu - Honey
078. Bow Wow - Marco Polo
077. Raheem DeVaughn - Customer
076. Ashanti - Good Good
075. Missy Elliott - Ching-a-Ling
074. Pleasure P - Did You Wrong
073. Nelly - Body On Me
072. Beyonce - If I Were a Boy
071. Alicia Keys - Superwoman
070. Mariah Carey - Bye Bye
069. Brandy - Right Here (Departed)
068. Rick Ross - The Boss
067. The Game - Game's Pain
066. Mike Jones - Drop & Gimme 50
065. Plies - Put It on Ya
064. Akon - I'm So Paid
063. Nas - Hero
062. Marvin Sapp - Never Would Have Made It
061. Keyshia Cole - Playa Cardz Right
060. The Game - My Life
059. The-Dream - I Luv Your Girl
058. Kardinal Offishall - Dangerous
057. Ciara - Go Girl
056. M.I.A. - Paper Planes
055. Chris Brown - Forever
054. Mariah Carey - I'll Be Lovin' U Long Time
053. 50 Cent - Get Up
052. Busta Rhymes - Don't Touch Me (Throw da Water on 'em)
051. Pop It Off Boyz - Crank Dat Batman
050. Ace Hood - Ride
049. Keyshia Cole - Heaven Sent
048. Rocko - Umma Do Me
047. Ludacris - One More Drink
046. Jazmine Sullivan - Bust Your Windows
045. Estelle - American Boy
044. Jay-Z - I Know
043. Fat Joe - I Won't Tell
042. 2 Pistols - She Got It
041. Yung Berg - The Business
040. Alicia Keys - Teenage Love Affair
039. Ll Cool J - Baby
038. Mariah Carey - Touch My Body
037. Plies - Please Excuse My Hands
036. David Banner - Get Like Me
035. Ne-Yo - Closer
034. Hotstylz - Lookin Boy
033. Lloyd - Girls Around the World
032. Slim - So Fly
031. Usher - Trading Places
030. Trey Songz - Last Time
029. John Legend - Green Light
028. Ashanti - The Way That I Love You
027. Webbie - Independent
026. Robin Thicke - Magic
025. Rick Ross - Here I Am
024. Keyshia Cole - I Remember
023. T-Pain - Chopped & Screwed
022. Jim Jones - Pop Champagne
021. Lil Wayne - Got Money
020. V.I.C. - Get Silly
019. T.I. - Live Your Life
018. Lil Wayne - Mrs. Officer
017. Ne-Yo - Miss Independent
016. Maino - Hi Hater
015. T-Pain - Can't Believe It
014. Jazmine Sullivan - Need U Bad
013. Kanye West - Love Lockdown
012. Jennifer Hudson - Spotlight
011. Rihanna - Take A Bow
010. Ray J - Sexy Can I
009. Young Jeezy - Put On
008. Plies - Buss It Baby, Pt. 2
007. Snoop Dogg - Sexual Seduction
006. Jordin Sparks - No Air
005. T.I. - Whatever You Like
004. Beyonce - Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)
003. Usher - Love in This Club
002. Lil Wayne - A Milli
001. Lil Wayne - Lollipop
Lil' Wayne Won't Put Down The Lean, "I Pour It Up For Pimp C"
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| Wednesday, 19 March 2008 19:18 | |
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The rapper has made no bones about the contents of the cup he's always seen carrying around. It's a mixture of soda and/or alcohol and prescription-strength codeine, which is the main ingredient in the popular illegal beverage, "sizzurp." "I pour it up for Pimp C, I pour it up for Bun B, I pour it up for young me, ya dig?" Bun B had already layed off the syrup himself, and after losing his friend and UGK group mate to the popular prescription-strength codeine concoction, he's even erased it from his lyrics. "I had had a verse on this album (II Trill) about sizzurp and just all things considered with my personal situation; I thought it would've been in poor taste for me to do a song talking about drinking syrup but that's just me," Bun B said. He also noted that neither he, nor anyone else, can make Wayne stop drugging. "If Wayne chooses to stop at some point that'll be Wayne's decision," Bun said. Bun B couldn't even tell the Young Money Millionaire to put the cup down. "If [Pimp C] was here he'd probably tell me don't, and [to] stop, but I mean ... Rest in peace Pimp C," Wayne said. "I am an Underground King, sorry." And if the syrup does take him out? "Just honor me like they honor him [Pimp] and that'll be great enough for me, especially peace to Pimp," he said refilling his cup. "I'm pourin' up right now for you, homie. I promise I am." http://www.megavideo.com/?v=5JM1M18M |
Just months after rapper Pimp C's shocking death in a hotel room due to sleep apnea complications and an accidental codeine overdose, the self-proclaimed greatest rapper alive, Lil' Wayne, refuses to put his cup of codeine-laced drink down.-- Edited by Aidan at 01:15, 2008-03-24
WHo think Lil Wayne Is Really da Best Rapper After This??
*lo** and gore - Portland tragedy scene a mess of broken bodies
Prime Minister Bruce Golding looks down at the Ford truck which plunged over a precipice in Dam Bridge, Portland, resulting in the deaths of 14 persons on Friday night. - Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer
A nurse who was part of the emergency team that rushed to Dam Bridge, Portland, where 14 people aboard a market truck plunged to death Friday, described the ravine scene as a macabre collage of *lo** and bodies.
Rackell Wilson, 23, said the bottom of the precipice was dark and heavily saturated with water from a river, and bodies were strewn all over. To make matters worse, the entire area was covered in *lo**.
"There were bodies which had bones protruding from the skin; a man was bleeding through his mouth, nose and ears, while a woman's face was banged in. And that little boy, Neiko Palmer, was covered in *lo**," she said.
"The victims of Friday's accident were ordinary individuals, who were trying to earn their own income but instead died, some of them with faces flattened, arms bent around their backs, and necks twisted in the opposite direction."
Higgler's career over
Novelette Fuller, a wife and mother of four who has been a higgler for the last three years, has vowed to find a new job after surviving the deadliest accident on the nation's roads in 30 years.
With 15-year-old twin daughters and two sons aged 25 and 18 years, Fuller is insisting her career as a higgler is over.
"This is the last straw. I am going to find a new occupation, as this kind of life is too risky," Fuller, who is recuperating at the Port Antonio Hospital, told The Gleaner yesterday. "This accident is a wake-up call for me and this time I am answering that call. I have my kids and husband to live for, and to me that is very important."
Lots of screaming
Though in pain and shock from the ordeal, the painful imagery of the accident is fresh in her mind. She credits God for preserving her life.
"We were travelling in the vicinity of Dam Bridge near Rivers View, in the Rio Grande Valley, when the truck suddenly swerved to avoid colliding with another vehicle," she said. "The truck started to plunge into the gully, and I remembered distinctly that persons were screaming."
The vendor said the tragedy could have been far worse had her twins made the fateful trip.
"I was to receive some money, which I did not get, and this extra cash would have allowed my two daughters to make the trip to our intended destination of Coronation Market in Kingston," she said."President Ahmadinejad has during his time in office made a series of appalling anti-Semitic statements," a Foreign Office spokeswoman said.
"The British media are rightly free to make their own editorial choices, but this invitation will cause offence and bemusement not just at home but amongst friendly countries abroad."
The move had already been criticised by some Jewish groups and the Israeli ambassador to London, Ron Prosor, who labelled it a "scandal and a national embarra**ment".
judge for yourself. . .
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=FF_CEtv5jpA&feature=related
No surprise Caracas named 'murder capital of world'
A chalk message reads No More Murders as a student protests killings in Caracas in this file photo.
It's against that backdrop that the country's minister for Interior Relations and Justice announced efforts this week to c****at crime in 2009.
Minister Tareck El Aissami said Monday he will form 50 community police units in Caracas and take other measures so that "we can have in a short time a culture of peace, tranquility and calm for all the Venezuelan public."
By all accounts, it will be a tall order.
Foreign Policy magazine said in September that Caracas tops the list of five murder capitals of the world, with an official tally of 130 homicides per 100,000 residents. The city, which is Venezuela's capital, has about 4 million inhabitants.
Foreign Policy is owned by The Washington Post Co. and published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
The United States made the magazine's top five, too, with New Orleans, Louisiana coming in at No. 3. Its murder rate is estimated as 67 per 100,000 by its police department and 95 per 100,000 by the FBI.
Still, the rate in Caracas comes in far ahead of the following four murderous capitals.
"Caracas has become far more dangerous in recent years than any South American city, even beating out the once notorious Bogota, [Col****ia]," Foreign Policy said.
"The numbers also don't count those who died while 'resisting arrest,' suggesting that Caracas' cops -- already known for their brutality against student protesters -- might be cooking the books," the magazine said.
CNN affiliate Globovision TV reported this week that officials reported 510 killings in Caracas this month, capping a particularly brutal year.
"It's shocking," said Jennifer McCoy, director of The Americas Program at the Carter Center in Atlanta. "It's the biggest concern of the population -- crime and security."
Federico Welsch, a political science professor at La Universidad de Simon Bolivar in Caracas for 25 years, has seen that crime up close.
"Violence is the major problem for Venezuelans, according to any source you use," Welsch told CNN on Tuesday. "It's doubly sad because, primarily, the deaths occur almost exclusively in the poor sectors, and, secondarily, it's among youth under 30 years old."
McCoy points out that the killings are "basically poor on poor."
From the 1970s to the 1990s, the poverty rate nearly tripled, from 25 percent to 65 percent, McCoy said. Even though the poverty rate declined during the oil boom that started in the 1990s, she said, the rate remains high.
"It's a c****ination of economic-driven crime ... with other types of gangs, to police abuse," McCoy said. "The police are not properly trained and not properly equipped."
Anti-crime efforts in Caracas also suffered, she said, when the national government took over the city's police force in 2002.
"There has been trouble getting the police force back to par," she said.
Welsch said he doubts the anti-crime measures El Aissami announced Monday will work.
"You can't resolve this problem with police," Welsch said. "The government is co-responsible for there being so many firearms. There is no good gun control, there are no permits and there is no good control over the militias."
The problem, Welsch and McCoy said, transcends the drug trade and gang battles.
"You don't have the guerrilla problems," McCoy said. "You don't have drug cartels. You don't have a large mafia."
Welsch lays much of the blame on the 10-year-old government of socialist President Hugo Chavez.
"The government discourse," he said, "is that if you are lacking something it is because of injustice. Then look for it, take it away from those who have it. You can obtain justice with your own hands."
The magazine lists, in descending order, Caracas; Cape Town, South Africa; New Orleans; Moscow, Russia; and Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, as the top five murder capitals in the world
A DAD wept yesterday as he recalled the nightmare moment he had to choose which of his two children to save from drownin
A DAD wept yesterday as he recalled the nightmare moment he had to choose which of his two children to save from drowning after their canoe capsized.
Ian Clayton was riding rapids with his nine-year-old daughter Billie Holliday and her twin brother Edward when the tragedy unfolded.
The Yorkshire TV presenter, 48, told an inquest that all three had been pitched into the water after they took a wrong turn into fast water during an outing on the River Wye in Mid Wales.
Ian who had never been canoeing before was forced to make a split-second decision over which of the children to rescue after Billie slipped under the water.
Edward was clinging desperately to the branches of a felled tree lying in the river.
Heartbreak ... dad Ian could save only one of his children
But there was no sign of his daughter, whom he suspected was still under the overturned canoe, stuck 20 yards upstream.
Devastated Ian said: At times I dream I went the wrong way. It is something that has been in my mind for two years and two months. Did I make the right decision? I dont know and I suppose I will never know.
Should I go for the one I can see and hope that later I can find the one I cant see?
In the end I went for the one I could see. Getting him out wasnt without difficulty.
He added: When I eventually got to Edward in the river, the first thing he said to me was, Save my sister first.
Tipped
It is hard to imagine what must have been going through that little lads mind for him to say that.
Mr Clayton, from Featherstone, West Yorks, said the canoe overturned after he took a wrong turn in the river while they tried to make their way downstream to Hay-on-Wye.
His partner Heather Parkinson, the mother of Billie and Edward, did not want to go on the water and was waiting for them.
The inquest heard how Ian and the children got into difficulty just over an hour into the trip.
He realised he had taken a wrong turn and was trying to make his way back upstream when he encountered a fast current. He said I could hear the water was fast, bearing in mind wed been on a very placid part of the river.
I wondered whether it was too fast for me and should I stop to reassess what we were doing.
Suddenly we were taken and I couldnt steer the canoe because it was forceful on the bend.
In the blink of an eye we hit something I thought was a fallen tree and the canoe tipped over.
He climbed out, stripped off, and then jumped back into the icy water to save his son.
He went on: I edged my way across the tree to him. His life jacket was flapping in the water.
I pulled him up and he nearly strangled me because he was holding on so tight.
I kept saying, Youre going to be okay but he kept saying, Youre not going to let me die, are you, Daddy?. The pair managed to scramble to safety.
But Mr Clayton then fought back tears as he told how his PHONE had rung as he prepared to go back in the river after the capsize.
Ian, who had earlier raised the alarm, said: I know you wouldnt even think about answering the phone in that situation but I did. It was an emergency dispatcher. She was telling me that under Health and Safety rules I shouldnt jump back in the water.
I was frightened to go back in there. I will admit it. Im not sure if I would have if that woman hadnt told me not to do it.
Which twin to go for? Even to this day I wonder if I made the right decision. Ill never know.
Desperate attempts were made to find Billie, first of all by dad Ian and then by two policemen alerted to the incident. But it was too late when she was located nearly an hour later. She was airlifted to Hereford Hospital where she was pronounced dead, the inquest in Welshpool, Mid-Wales, heard.
Mr Clayton, who was nearly fainting from his exertions, and son Edward were treated for hypothermia after the tragedy.
He was persuaded to enter an ambulance while his daughter was still missing for the sake of his son, who had turned blue from the coldness of the water.
He said: I didnt see Billie again. The next time I saw her was in the hospital.
Beautiful
Before describing the events of the fateful day, he held up a school photo taken of his daughter and paid her an emotional tribute.
Ian said: I want people to remember who we are talking about. This is Billie when she was eight and it is her last school photograph.
Most people who look at it say, What a beautiful girl.
She was a delight, an absolute delight. Heather and me waited 18 years before we had children.
River ... canoeists on Wye
Weve been together 30 years next year and our family often showed concern we hadnt had any children, particularly my granny who wanted great-grandchildren before she died. We decided to have a family after Heather completed her degree at university and I got on with my career as a writer and broadcaster.
Heather became pregnant and at the first scan at 13 weeks we were told we were having twins. I couldnt wait to tell my granny.
Ian, who hosts a documentary series My Yorkshire, added: Its difficult to tell you how much we miss Billie. People tell you that time is a great healer and its not.
The distance between Billie dying that day and where we are two years and two months on has not healed us in any way.
The inquest heard that staff at the company that rented the family the Canadian open canoe had only offered limited advice before they set off on their trip.
Mr Clayton said he had been told by a man called Wayne to follow his nose, keep out of the shallows and they would eventually find themselves back in Hay-on-Wye in three hours time.
Two men were arrested over the tragedy but did not face charges.
James Gamon, who runs another canoe hire company in Hay-on-Wye, told the inquest he would never have let Mr Clayton take his two children out on to the river.
He said: The reason for that is that you cant save two children you can only go for one. He acknowledged that his policy of making sure every child was accompanied by at least one adult was not a binding regulation.
Coroner Peter Maddox said that there was a serious cause for concern about the way canoes are rented to novices across the UK.
He said: There seems to be an apparent contradiction in the licensing laws, which gives me serious cause for concern.
There seems to be a potentially large hole into which the very inexperienced may fall into if the hazards have not been properly explained.
I believe that avoidance of danger is assisted by knowledge.
He had been told by Marcus Bailie, head of inspection at the Adventure Activities Licensing Service, that the licensing laws gave them no power to prevent boat hire companies letting beginners go out alone.
Howard Jeffs, of the British Canoeing Union, said checks carried out after Billies death in April 2006 had failed to identify any faults. All the equipment used was brand new.
The inquest, which is expected to last three days, continues today.
Naples sex strike over fireworks
 New Year's Eve could go off without a bang for some Neapolitan men |
New Year's Eve could prove to be something of a damp squib for some men in the Italian city of Naples.
Hundreds of Neapolitan women have pledged to go without sex unless their men promise to refrain from setting off dangerous illegal fireworks.
Local authorities are backing the women and have sent out text messages urging the men to "make love, not explosions".
The women say it is the only way to persuade their partners that they are serious about their concerns.
"Setting off illegal fireworks isn't celebrating, it's dangerous," Carolina Staiano, a founder of the campaign, told La Stampa newspaper.
 |  The idea of no sex is not exactly popular  Local councillor Vincenzo Sorrentino |
''If a sex strike is what it takes in order to get the attention of our men, husbands, partners and sons, then we're ready for it," Mrs Staiano, 44, told Italy's Ansa news agency.
'Sensitive issue'
Mrs Staiano, who has the support of local churches, speaks from personal experience when warning of the dangers of fireworks.
She has spent her life caring for her father, who was left partially paralysed and with epilepsy after a firework exploded next to him at New Year's Eve party before she was born.
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''I'm receiving phone calls all the time from people who want to join. To be honest, I really wasn't expecting this level of interest,' said Mrs Staiano.
The move was inspired by the ancient Greek play Lysistrata, in which the women of Athens refuse to have sex unless their men folk forge a truce with their rivals from Sparta.
Doctor and local councillor Vincenzo Sorrentino, who has long campaigned against the illegal fireworks, said a sex ban was "an issue that men are particularly sensitive to''.
''The idea of no sex is not exactly popular and polls among local men have suggested they plan to make much greater efforts this year to prevent illegal fireworks being let off," he said.
Previous attempts to prevent the New Year's Eve mayhem had proved unsuccessful, said Mr Sorrentino, but he hoped the women's threat would do the job.
"They are more convincing and they always achieve their goals," he said.
The BBC's Duncan Kennedy in Rome says if the men of Naples fail to get the women's message, an awful lot of them could be waking up on sofas on New Year's Day.
No Woman No Cry 'songwriter' dies
 No Woman No Cry was based on the ghetto where both men lived |
Vincent Ford, the songwriter credited with composing the Bob Marley reggae classic No Woman, No Cry has died in Jamaica. He was 68.
Ford lost both his legs to diabetes and died in hospital from complications caused by the disease, said a spokesman for the Bob Marley Foundation.
His smash hit appeared on Marley's 1974 Natty Dread album.
It was inspired by the Trench Town ghetto in Kingston where both men lived in the 1960s.
Some claim Marley wrote it himself but gave Ford the credit to help his friend support himself with the royalties.
Ford is also credited with three songs on Marley's 1976 album Rastaman Vibration.
Marley remains the most widely known and revered performer of reggae music, and is credited for helping spread Jamaican music to the worldwide audience.
He died of cancer in Miami in 1981, aged 36.In recent weeks, he's been interviewed as much as twice a day about his predictions. "It's a record," says Prof. Panarin. "But I think the attention is going to grow even stronger."
Prof. Panarin, 50 years old, is not a fringe figure. A former KGB analyst, he is dean of the Russian Foreign Ministry's academy for future diplomats. He is invited to Kremlin receptions, lectures students, publishes books, and appears in the media as an expert on U.S.-Russia relations.
But it's his bleak forecast for the U.S. that is music to the ears of the Kremlin, which in recent years has blamed Washington for everything from instability in the Middle East to the global financial crisis. Mr. Panarin's views also fit neatly with the Kremlin's narrative that Russia is returning to its rightful place on the world stage after the weakness of the 1990s, when many feared that the country would go economically and politically bankrupt and break into separate territories.
Sting Promoters Salivating for Kartel-Mavado Rematch In Febuary
Just for a few days after a memorable Sting clash,industry insiders are already desirve of another clash between the two artists.The Cheif Executive Officer Isaiah Laing of Supreme Promotions Says"The argument is unsettled,we could arrange a rematch as soon as February if both parties argee to it.However,other promoters are reportedly interested in organizing and bankrolling a clash between the two.They Believe the sting promoters botched there chance and relish the opportunity to arrange another one,this time with rigidly enforced guidelines and rules of engagement.
"What Happened At Sting was not how it was to be,the rules were violated,Mavado's entourage was allowed onstage,and it was conducted on a band with a clear bias.You need a neutral band,and clear rules of engagement.No artiste is allowed to exit the stage until the winner is decided.I am shocked that liand did such a poor job,"one infamous dancehall promoter said.
More Info ONLY On http://www.datmad.com
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