last year

In tooling around on blogs, I came across this neat video of Sarah Palin on the Ferguson Show last year. So she's not unknown to late night TV. I've known about her since maybe January, 2008. The Dems and MSM...

Panama’s government is reporting that economic activity has increased 6.96% this past June in comparison to the same period last year. Panama’s economy still appears to be staying strong, despite the sinking dollar and turmoil hitting the markets in the United States and Europe. It will be particularly interesting to see if the trend continues [...]

Seriously, what the hell happened last season? I’m not going to pretend that the St. Louis Rams were good enough to compete for a Super Bowl berth last season, but they were at least good enough to compete in the NFC West. Once Orlando Pace went down, it was like they gave up. Don’t get me wrong, he was a huge loss, but that team just flat out fell apart. Once it got to the point where Marc Bu

Forget Marbella and the French Riviera, Formentera is the hippest hangout for the jet set these days. Kate Moss, Sylvester Stallone, Charlotte Casiraghi... and me - we've all been topping up our tans there of late. And yours truly was...

For a country that popularized the motorized transportation field, and that's had a multi-generational love affair with the car, saying that Americans are driving less is indication of a serious problem. According to U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters "We have seen the longest decline in vehicular miles [...]

"At 9.45am on Saturday, June 23 2007, I killed a man. A perfectly ordinary man, on a perfectly ordinary summer's day. CCTV pictures show him entering the station, unremarkable among all the passengers going to the West End. He waited at the front of the platform until he could hear my train approaching, then he calmly stepped down on to the tracks and looked directly at me as he waited for the imp

-The number of foreclosures are up 121 percent compared to a year ago.-The "Hanuman" factor is behind the Indian-American support of Barack Obama.-A group in the U.K. is saying that U.K. couples need to be limited to only two children in order to combat climate change.-Bird flu has been found in a South Korean cat.-A claim is being made that pesticides are causing the disappearance of the bees.-Ba

One year ago, on this day precisely, I started to blog. 161 posts and more than 49000 visitors later here I am. Still utterly fascinated by writing and blogging as I was a year ago. Not jaded or tired. Not of writing. Because here, on this blog, in these words, I live and relive. I live once in reality and once when I write about it and many, many times when I go back and read it. What started

How many sewage spills did you think there were in California last year?Twenty?One hundred?Four hundred?Five thousand!I work at Surfrider and I didn't know the number was that large. Truth is that we don't really hear about sewage spills in the news. With nearly 5,000 last year that's...More than 13 sewage spills per day."Last year, over 16 million gallons of raw and partially treated sewage, from

Business Times - 11 Jul 2008 Price surge last year sees more owing over $1m Number of such borrowers nearly doubles to 8,280 in April from a yr ago By SIOW LI SEN BANKS have been tightening the screws on first-time home buyers but more big loans have been made. More speculators and investors have also taken additional mortgages.The number of people owing more than $1 million on their home loan has

This from the Lebanon Enterprise:Superintendent Roger Marcum announces his intent to retire in 2009Marion County Superintendent [and President of the Council for Better Education] Roger Marcum announced his intent to retire next year during the Marion County Board of Education's regular monthly meeting Tuesday evening, July 8.The 2008-09 school year will be Marcum's 10th year of service assuperint

Last year, I started this blogAnd the very next day, you started visiting meThis year, there's a lot more to comeSince you all are so very special![to be hummed to the tune of Last Christmas by Wham!]Tee hee!Happy first b'day to An Indian Summer!* Well, it did all begin this day last year. A lot, a Whole Lot has happened since then....this blog and YOU have changed my life in more ways than one! T

Mumbai, (IANS) Not very long ago Manisha Koirala was declared ‘down and out’ by critics and audiences. But her life seems back on track now - she is enjoying her relationship with golfer boyfriend Chris and is looking forward to the release of long-pending film “Mehbooba”.After meeting Chris, Manisha is hooked on to golf and she attended the US Open 2008 golf championship in San Diego

After winning 2 awards at last year’s Star Parivaar Awards, this year Benaf has been nominated in two categories - Favorite Yogya Jodi along with Amit Verma and Favourite Beti, both for Baa Bahu Aur Baby.“Since I have been winning for the last two years, this year too I am expecting to win. It’s fun to attend the award function and to top it all if you win an award it’s even be

From Watts Up With That’s website:  from the looks of that graph, provided by the University of Alabama at Huntsville, 2008 has been consistently cooler than 2007 by between 1/4 and 1/2 degree fahrenheit.  More evidence of global cooling.  Gore can blame it on La Nina, but we can blame 1998 on El Nino. wattsupwiththat.wordpress.com Tags: cooler, [...]

BROKE Brits spent over £50million more on lottery tickets last year. They splashed £4.9billion on draws and scratchcards in the hope of beating the credit crunch. New figures from Camelot showed the 1.1% rise helped boost the amount given to good causes. Over £16m more was given away, bringing the total since The National Lottery began [...]

This day, last year I set off on a journey... A journey that took a while to get a pace And to find its path Many twists and turns had to be faced But then, what is a journey without a twist? And here we are going on smooth Our bond growing by the day Love you so much and thanks for everything From you I have learnt a lot about myself Cause of you life opened many a vista for me Happy Birthday

Playmate of the Year, originally uploaded by oregonianphoto.So Jayde Nicole is Playmate of the Year in 2008. Who was last years Playmate of the Year? None other than blond beauty Sara Jean Underwood. Sara Jean Underwood first appeared as the cover model for the October 2005 issue of Playboy. She went on to become Playmate of the Month for July 2006 and 2007 and Playmate of the Year in the June

Bahamas Ranks 37th In World Press Freedom - Report Says Press Freedom Declines: Bahama Journal - A non governmental organization based in the United States has ranked The Bahamas 37th in a worldwide assessment of press freedom, referring to instances where undue pressure might have been exerted on the Bahamian media in the past. Freedom House has published its detailed report on press freedom, which came out ahead of World Press Day that is being observed today. The group classified The Bahamas as having a "free" press, giving this country two points for its legal environment, nine for the political environment and six for the economic environment. The group acknowledged that the Constitution of The Bahamas guarantees freedom of speech and of the press. The report added that althoug

Britney Spears has all the reasons to be upset. She is going throw a difficult moment in her life and she is struggling to get back on track as her past years have been like a tornado in her life. We all know her father Jamie was named to be in charge of Britney’s financial [...]

The U.S. won the dubious honor of having the worst housing market in the world in 2007, recording an 8.9 percent drop in housing prices nationwide. The second worst housing market after the U.S. was Ireland, which saw a 7.32 percent drop. We all knew things were bad in the U.S. housing market, but the worst in the world? That is quite a distinction.When looking at these numbers we must remember a couple things, though.First, not all the countries in the world provide national housing market data, so many countries are not even included in the data set.Second, the U.S. is a large country and housing markets across cities and states are different from one another, so the number is simply a national average. Florida and California in particular had an extremely strong negative effect on these

Two teens arrested in connection with the Mount Vernon schoolyard slayings last August in Newark will be tried as adults, Essex County Prosecutor Paula Dow announced recently.Shahid Baskerville, 16, of Morristown, and Gerardo Gomez, 15, of Newark, were waived up to adult court last week by Essex County Superior Court Judge James G. Troiano of the Family Division.Baskerville has been charged with 20 criminal offenses including three counts of murder, four counts of robbery, one count of conspiracy to commit robbery, three counts of felony murder, one count of attempted murder, three counts of aggravated sexual assault, one count of aggravated criminal sexual contact, one count of unlawful possession of a weapon (machete), one count of possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose (machete)

Australia is now the number one supplier of imported wines in the UK, Ireland, Singapore and New Zealand, and holds the number 2 spot in the US and Canada. However, that success is now under threat as the industry faces two of its greatest challenges - a strong local currency and, crucially, a lack of cheap, abundant water. The drought-stricken Murray-Darling basin supplies about 60% to 70% of Australia's wine grape production, and most growers are now operating on 16% of their water entitlements.

Hope this isn't some sort of April fool's joke, but blogger is not allowing me to upload pictures in my post(for unknown reasons). Probably it is my internet connection or something else weird (I'm lazy to figure out what it is) and hence my WWC post for this week is ruined. I'll be around checking other WWC's and April fool's day jokes and pranks! One of the post which really caught me is

A reader of the site directed me to this one.The 2008 Street of Dreams is only 5 months away and builders are gearing up for another successful run.The only problem is that the 2007 Street of Dreams wasn’t a success. Five of the six homes built for the annual showcase are still sitting on the market with little interest. The one that actually sold went for less than the asking price.Cottage in the TreesAsking price $2,200,000.004,300 square feet Elegant simplicity and Old-World charm are the only words to describe this one level, four bedrooms, four bathrooms artisan home built by Blazer Development. The home comes complete with a putting green and sand trap in the backyard.Timbers EdgeSOLD!5,500 square feetThe home is designed in a contemporary lodge style with vast windows and rough ti

Last year’s boom in investment sales likely to continue in ‘08 By JEREMY NLAKE IT was an eventful 2007 for the Singapore property investment sales market, which hit a record $55.29 billion in volume of transactions. This was 81 per cent higher than the previous record of $30.59 billion in 2006. The robust momentum in the investment [...]

Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe’s largest oil company by market value, replaced 124 percent of the oil and natural gas it pumped last year with new discoveries.The so-called reserve replacement ratio fell from 150 percent in 2006, The Hague-based Shell said today in a statement distributed by PR Newswire. The figure excludes acquisitions and divestments [...]

A refreshing admission by Simon Dickson: OK, Im an idiot. The lengthy and fair-minded piece I wrote this morning about a speech by Tory shadow chancellor George Osborne at the RSA was a year late. Osborne made some interesting points about the need to recast the political settlement for the digital age. And now today, theres an email doing the rounds (see Nick Booths piece) pointing out similarities between this 2007 speech and the one made by Tom Watson on Monday. Amusingly, it condemns the Watson speech as a mashup. But hold on. Surely its entirely in keeping with the whole ethos of open source, to take good ideas and build on them? Didnt you say mass collaboration was a good thing? Kudos up one notch for the Puffbox Man. He makes some good points about Open Source Politics. I made a few

Perhaps not totally aware of it, nearly half of all teenagers bought online music and software and downloaded it, instead of buying CDs, which is a great relief to the environment. You see, all of those billions of CDs and plastic CD cases will eventually end up in a dump or incinerator somewhere only to [...]

British Gas, having recently come under fire for raising gas and electricity priced by 15%, has reported annual profits of £571m up from the previous year's £95m. It's parent company, Centrica, also reported a 40% rise in it's profits to £1.95bn.Chairman Roger Carr said: "Centrica delivered very strong financial results during another challenging year for UK energy retailers."The average gas bill for British Gas customers has risen by 76.7% since 2003 - bringing them up to an average of £653. Electricity bills have risen by 74.3% to £413.Source: news.bbc.com

Gartner Research has long been a leader in evaluating new computer-based technologies, and I personally know several of the researchers who write about business communications. Bern Elliot, Vice President of Research at Gartner, did a pretty good job in the middle of last year of putting UC technologies into an enterprise business perspective for their [...]

January 2008 was the first month that more suicide vests were used than car bombs in Iraq. There has dramatic drop from 80 car bombs in January 2007 to only three total car bombs this past month. However, there were 16 suicide bombers this January compared to 10 in December. Greg Smith, a spokesman for the U.S. military in Iraq. We think that because of our operations, al-Qaeda has moved into a much more defensive position, and they clearly have to physically move, Smith said. That's making their ability to conduct more lethal larger-scale bombings more difficult. USA TODAY ()

Just in case you did not read my Story Blob, Share Your Christmas Moments post - last year I decided to dress up as Santa Clause. My Santa costume (on the photo above) is hand made by me, and yes it took a long time, every night of the whole week and one weekend, and I still forgot to make myself a belly. I was sawing like crazy, and on the end all this work was really worth something - we all had a blast. I did special appearance for my two nephews and one niece, and of course I delivered few gifts to my neighbors. Note no snow on Christmas Day last year. Gifts are nice, but I think the feeling of Christmas, the laughter and most of all time with the family is the best gift one can get. Dressing up as Santa is something I really enjoy, and this personal addiction or kind of funny side of

Last year, I went to Moalboal with my son. It was his first time to be there ever and my first time to return in a very long while. The Moalboal that exists in my mind is far different from the one I found. There are more people there now, more stores and the houses were more expensive. They had reclaimed a portion of the shore where I used to play as a young boy and turned it into a market which might be a push for progress but which I thought was a little unfortunate. The "tulay" which juts like a dagger from the shore to the sea allowing people to walk on dry concrete is feeling the forces of nature, the waves pushing constantly against it, and the boulders that supported it, held together by cement for a long time is slowly moving away from the bonding that kept them intact and togeth

Sent to me by Greg. I have to scrub the top of every can I open. I no longer have any savings because I gave it to a sick girl (Penny Brown) who is about to die in the hospital for the 1,387,258th time. I no longer have any money at all, but that will change once I receive the $15,000 that Bill Gates/Microsoft and AOL are sending me for participating in their special e-mail program. I no longer worry about my soul because I have 363,214 angels looking out for me, and St. Theresa’s novena has granted my every wish. I no longer eat KFC because their chickens are actually horrible mutant freaks with no eyes or feathers. I no longer use cancer-causing deodorants even though I smell like a water buffalo on a hot day I have learned that my prayers only get answered if I forward an email to seven of my friends and make a wish within five minutes. I no longer drink Coca Cola because it can remove toilet stains. I no longer can buy gasoline without taking someone along to watch the

12/6/06 - 13 Yuletide Traditions 12/8/06 - part a - Winter Solstice Books 12/8/06 - part b - Places to buy Yule Cards 12/14/06 - Tree Trimming Day - a rant 12/19/06 - Making a Merry Yuletide, Feeling like the Grinch 12/20/06 - Shopping for the Holidays 12/25/06 - A Christmas Meme 12/26/06 - part a - Christmas the Aftermath 12/26/06 - part b - There’s a Porcupine in my Throat a Cold in my Nose and a Birthday Girl in the House

I have been seeing a lot of celebrities still using the same bags they used a year ago so I have come to the conclusion that celebrities actually keep their bags for more than a year. You would think that they would just wear a bag for a season and then just get rid of it. Well, I guess I am wrong. Here you can see Jessica Simpson wearing the last year Fendi Spy in blue and Lilo wearing the last year Black and White stripped Balenciaga Bag. These bags are great but what happened to the celebs staying up to date and wearing the latest bags. You can also see a picture of Nicky Hilton wearing the same Balenciaga bag more than a year ago so I found it kinda odd to see Lilo wearing this bag just a few days ago. Maybe she got it as a hand me down because that Black and White stripped Balenciaga bag is not my best pick. I’m also pretty sure you can purchase the Fendi spy bag Jessica Simpson is wearing at the outlet store if they have not sold out it already. As for the Balenciaga Bag

(CSTV U-WIRE) AMHERST, Mass. — The Massachusetts hockey team blames no one but itself for its exit in the quarterfinals of the 2007 NCAA Division I Hockey Tournament. Facing Maine for the fifth time in a three-week span, the Minutemen dropped a 3-1 decision to the Black Bears 24 hours after upsetting top-seeded Clarkson in the tournament’s East Regional opening round, 1-0. Thoughts of their two-day adventure in Rochester, N.Y., last March inevitably crossed the minds of the 18 players more…

...We we shooting our film.  There is a definite smell to Autumn and I think its the wet leaves.  I caught a whiff of it the other day and it brought back the memories of that weeks filming a year ago. And as a nice present to mark the passing of a year we were one of only a handful of films to be Highly Recommended in the Turner Classic Shorts competition this year. Congratulations to the six finalist.

Sometimes a player's past fantasy football performances against a team can predict future successes. Lets take a look at some week 1 RB FF matchups and see how they performed last year against the same team.Steven Jackson vs Carolina - 7 rushes for 27 yards, 7 rec. for 30 yards, no TDsFrank Gore vs. Arizona - 16 rushes for 87 yards, 6 rec. for 83 yards, 2 TDsShaun Alexander vs. Tampa Bay - 28 rushes for 92 yards, 1 rec. for 14 yards, 1 TDWillie Parker vs. Cleveland - 16 rushes for 46 yards, 4 rec. for 17 yards, 2TDs 32 rushes for 223 yards, 1 TDLaurence Maroney vs. NYJ - 16 rushes for 65 yards, 1 TD 12 rushes for 37 yards, 0 TDsRudi Johnson vs. Baltimore - 18 rushes for 78 yards, 1 rec. for 2 yards, 1 TD 16 rushes for 47 yards, 2 rec. for 17 yards, 0 TDsMaurice Jones-Drew vs.

First, the poster for Season 2… just awesome. Now watch the cool clip. It’s a 3 minute hilarious fast track recap. Dexter Season 2 starts on September 30th on Showtime and The Movie Network. Don’t forget to program your PVRs.

All I could think of was how great ‘this’ summer will be. Coupe would be walking, Woodrow would be talking, life would be great. Life is chaos, crazy and exhausting. It’s the roller coaster of life. I think as humans we always see the grass greener on the other side. I know I do. I’m happy with my life. It’s insane, but I can not imagine my life without Coupe in it. When he was first born I was in shock…I think after having a child your on a type of cruise control. Your body is trying to survive on very little sleep, you have a toddler to take care of and you come last. You just coast through your nights and days wondering, hoping for it to be better tomorrow. Then they turn six months. Cooper was crawling then. He was becoming quite a little man then. Woodrow was 18 months old and getting into everything, communicating, learning. I’m still overwhelmed by how close in age they are. I think I may be getting in over my head here, but I am rea

With the recent news that ABC will have 9 new series, I started to think on how many would last more than 3-4 episodes. Don’t forget that Traveler and last mid-season Day Break, The Nine were made by them and those, I liked. I still which the actors to break a leg. It may be the last year that I invest my time with any networks. If a new show do get a full season, I may rent the Blu-Ray boxset IF they get a second season. I may watch it live if the buzz around it is very strong like it was with Heroes. Some channels are not good with their new shows and drop them too much fast. Are you listening ABC and Fox! For this season(2007-08), I will give them one last chance to regain my trust. I will be fair and gave them a chance. You may read this: How to make a new TV show survive the whole season

This time last year the weather wasn't much different than what it is now - wet, cold, stormy and fairly depressing. The garden was in its dormancy period and optimism had flown north for the winter. Yet there were still some highlights from my garden as well as posts that were included that are worth mentioning again. So here's a quick recap of July 2006. One of my bromeliads began flowering its head off I took my children camping overnight and fell in love with some gorgeous Acacia dealbata We spent a day with the family in Perth's Kings Park Botanic Gardens. These gardens are absolutely stunning with their efforts to beautify the landscape with native Australian species. Tips on choosing appropriate plants for a xeriscape garden A few thoughts on why we choose the colours we do in our gardens. How to grow and care for your impatiens And, 10 backyard landscaping ideas you could do in a weekend became one of the most visited posts on this blog.

Construction in the Russian capital might be second to none in terms of profitability. A report issued in March 2007 by a high-end property developer working in Ostozhenka that was recently admitted to the London Stock Exchange shows that construction costs start from $1,300 per sq m

The motion picture industry is back on course. After a disappointing 2005, the six major companies have received official confirmation from the MPA that their all-media revenue from filmed entertainment -- comprising money from home video, television, theatrical and pay TV -- expanded by 8% in 2006 to reach $42.6 billion.The MPA confidential report sent to industry executives discloses that all-media sales in the U.S. grew by 10%, while the international market (top 25 markets) showed a 5% advance. Of the $42.6 billion, the U.S. contributed $24.3 billion and international $18.3 billion.In 2005, all-media revenue tumbled 8.2% from $42.9 billion 2004, with the U.S. segment off 10% and international down 5.8%.read more | digg story

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The "American Idol" triumph of 17-year-old Jordin Sparks drew nearly 6 million fewer viewers than last year's finale, in the latest sign that U.S. television's highest-rated show may have finally hit its peak.According to a final tally from Nielsen Media Research on Thursday, 30.7 million fans watched as the Arizona teenager was crowned the youngest champion at the end of the sixth installment of Fox network's amateur singing contest.The Wednesday night total is down 16 percent from the 36.4 million who tuned in to see gray-haired soul crooner Taylor Hicks claim victory at the conclusion of last year's competition.For the season as a whole, "American Idol" was down slightly in average overall audience compared with 2006, and off a bit more in ratings for viewers aged 18 to 49, the key young-adult crowd most prized by advertisers.That marks the first year-to-year decline in the show's Nielsen numbers since its 2002 inception, despite media hype and Internet

TAPES N' TAPES ARE BACKA little more than a year after they hit the Middle East with Cold War Kids and Figurines (what a bill!), Tapes are back and ready to rock Boston! The Paradise will showcase some serious indie-rock this Saturday night as Ladyhawk and Harlem Shakes open. Check out the Tapes n' Tapes main page and myspace for the latest including tour dates in your hometown. Just don't say I didn't warn you when the tickets to this Saturday (May 19) are all gone. It's sure to happen! Be there.SONG OF THE DAYOmahahttp://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j37/stinkingbadges/Charlie.jpg

allafrica.com  The Reporter (Addis Ababa) Addis Ababa Countries in every region of the world are making substantial progress in increasing access to HIV treatment, but the goal of achieving universal access by 2010 will remain out of reach unless the pace of growth rises rapidly, according to a joint report from three United Nations agencies published this [...]

Online fraud losses soared to £33.5 million ($88 million) last year, with an increase of 44 per cent from 2005 following a surge in phishing attacks, new research shows. The fraudulent use of UK credit and debit cards abroad also escalated last year, as a result of the uptake of chip and PIN [...]

For those of you that follow the politics that drive this great nation of ours, no doubt you know tonight in the infamous night of the annual State of the Union address. For those of you that don't follow politics, I hope you're not planning to tape Deal or No Deal. The State of the Union is such an institution of our democratic lifestyles, we pretty much take it for granted. When I was a kid,

{mosgoogle right}More than 13,000 stalking incidents were confirmed last year, according to statistics released by the National Police Agency (NPA) on Thursday.Police departments across the country received complaints about being stalked in 13,463 cases in 2007, up 7.7 percent from the previous year, NPA officials said.Of these cases, police made arrests or filed investigation reports in 718 cases after they developed into assault or murder, 10 percent more than the year [...]

Miley Cyrus is one rich teen! The Us Power Girl, 15, earned $18.2 million last year, according to Parade magazine's annual "What People Earn" issue. Knocked Up star Katherine Heigl raked in $11 million, while newly single Carrie Underwood banked $7 million. Entrepreneur Mary-Kate Olsen earned $17 million — nearly double what pregnant ...