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<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Michael Jackson's father is seeking an allowance from his son's estate to help cover expenses that exceed $15,000 a month, according to court documents filed Friday.</p> <p>The request seeking an unspecified amount for Joe Jackson was filed by lawyer Brian Oxman, who said there was no apparent reason for the administrators of the estate to not seek an allowance for the 81-year-old Jackson family patriarch.</p>

BRITISH women’s obsession with having large breasts is putting their looks and health at risk, experts have warned. Surgeons say “going too big” can create an unnatural look as well as breast tissue damage, drooping and over-stretched skin. But the desire to copy the enhanced bosoms of stars like Katie Price and Pamela Anderson is strong. Cosmetic surgeon Roy Ng said: “Seven years ago most women wanted to go up one cup size. Today the average is one and a half to two cup sizes. This is an average increase of 15 to 25 per cent.” His colleague Patrick Mallucci...

Breaking News (News/Activism) FLASH: Barack Obama wins Top Chef Las Vegas, awarded FOUR Michelin Stars (out of 3) BREAKING:Obama wins the Cy Young Award Breaking: NHL cancels season, awards Stanley Cup to Barack Obama (And other news) BREAKING: Obama wins "Survivor" reality show! BREAKING! obama wins "American Idol" BREAKING: Obama Wins All Events at 2012 Olympics! Obama Named Miss Hooters 2010 Barack Obama inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!!! Barack Obama becomes New Santa Clause BREAKING: OBAMA WINS THE AMAZING RACE!!! Barack Obama Wins Indianapolis 500! BREAKING: Obama Wins Dancing with the Stars Trophy - Rest of Season...

This is no time for jokes or trivial banter. The stakes are getting higher by the nanosecond. As tensions are inflamed at health care town hall meetings across the country, a dangerous trend of Hitler comparisons, Stalin comparisons, and all-around dictator comparisons to President Barack Obama is taking shape. The most probing question at this juncture might be uncomfortable to some, but it must be asked: Do conservative, hard-right demagogues, whose hatred for President Obama has hardly ever been subdued, secretly hope for--and are hard at work toward--the assassination of the nation's first Black president. The sheer thought that a...

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama's new fuel and emission standards for cars and trucks will save billions of barrels of oil but are expected to cost consumers an extra $1,300 per vehicle by the time the plan is complete in 2016. Obama on Tuesday planned to announce the first-ever national emissions limits for vehicles, as well as require an overall or industry average fuel efficiency standard at 35.5 miles per gallon. Carol Browner, the White House energy and climate director, publicly confirmed the new initiative in appearances on morning network news shows, calling it a "truly historic" occasion and saying...

SOONER or later, someone is going to ask Bo, the 6-month-old Portuguese water dog who moved into the White House this week, if he knows the answer to a simple question: Who’s a good boy? The question will of course be rhetorical, since Bo, whose raison d’être is to be furry and sweet, has significantly fewer performance expectations than his master. But it will by no means be idle, at least not to the psychologists, neuroscientists, philosophers and kissy-face dog owners who for centuries have pondered the mysteries of canine consciousness. What, they ask, does a creature that lives to...

When presidents are new, first impressions really count: Your demeanor (shirtsleeves, not jackets, in the Oval Office), your stature (move over, Mr. Sarkozy). Since President Obama's presidential bid was a very long affair-and since his predecessor left with a 28 percent approval rating-he came into office with an advantage. Americans surely liked him better than the previous guy. the underdog who beat the once-presumptive nominee, Hillary Clinton. And, by the way, he also gave great speeches. But new presidents are always tested, as Joe Biden famously predicted. And Obama has had more than his share-an economic crisis that threatened to...

Thursday, March 05, 2009 By Andrea Thompson Aquatic animals that feed on lake and stream bottom sediments burp out small amounts of nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas, a new study finds.While the biological emissions from these critters pales in comparison to the nitrous oxide emitted by fossil fuel burning, their contribution could increase as more and more nitrogen-rich fertilizer runs off into lakes, streams and seas, the authors of the study said.Nitrous oxide (N2O) is more commonly known to anyone who has sat in the dentist's chair as laughing gas.In the atmosphere it is a powerful greenhouse gas, packing...

The Dow plummeted 250 points Thursday afternoon as a series of negative headlines about Citigroup, General Motors and China threatened to send the markets to new 12-year lows.

« Edwin Salpeter and the Gasbags of Jupiter By Larry Klaes‘The Gasbags of Jupiter’ sounds for all the world like the title of an early 1930s novel that would have run in a venue like Science Wonder Stories. In fact, as Larry Klaes tells us below, the idea grew out of Carl Sagan’s speculations about free-floating life-forms that might populate the atmospheres of gas giant planets like Jupiter. Cornell physicist Edwin Salpeter had much to do with the evolution of that concept, helping Sagan produce a paper that was a classic of informed imagination (and one that led to...

08A524 LIGHTFOOT, GAIL, ET AL. V. BOWEN, CA SEC. OF STATE The application for stay addressed to The Chief Justice and referred to the Court is denied.

Howard’s small business was the target of an enormous lawsuit that could have forced him to close his doors. His offense? A wild Canada goose nesting outside his store startled a passerby, causing her to fall. Two years later, Howard was served with papers announcing that the woman was suing Contemporary Watercrafters for $750,000, alleging that the goose was the store’s responsibility. Ironically, Howard had wanted to remove the goose from his property long before the accident, but, because it was protected under the Migratory Species Act, the bird could not be disturbed.

We now know the official Obama talking point on Lipstick-gate. In the course of her Morning Joe appearance today, Obama spokeswoman Linda Douglass used the word "ridiculous" no fewer than six times to dismiss the controversy that has arisen since Obama said yesterday that you can put lipstick on a pig but it's still a pig. View edited clip here.

California Democratic Representative Anna Eshoo has introduced legislation to regulate the loudness of TV commercials. The bill, which I promise you is real, is called the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act, or CALM. Read more about it here. This is the kind of thing where you expect Ashton Kutcher to run onto the house floor in his mesh trucker hat, jumping around and wildly hugging all of the representatives who have been sitting there with their mouths agape since Eshoo introduced this bill and declaring into the CSPAN cameras that we have all been Punk’d.

Our inability to produce a chemical present in every other primate may be linked to a series of chronic diseases. Roger Highfield explains more What does it mean to be human? For most people, it all comes down to that extraordinary object between our ears, and how it blesses us with language, laughter and logic. But not for Ajit Varki, a doctor-cum-scientist who works in California. Not so rare: a molecule absorbed by eating red meat has been linked to inflammation and auto-immune illnesses Not so rare: a molecule absorbed by eating red meat has been linked to inflammation and...

MONTREAL, June 18 (UPI) -- An appeal will be filed in a Montreal court after a Quebec judge overruled a father who grounded his 12-year-old daughter for dangerous Internet use. The lawyer for the father, who can't be identified to protect the girl, told The Gazette newspaper that Justice Suzanne Tessier overstepped the court's bounds last Friday when she ruled in favor of the girl's legal challenge and said she would be allowed to go on a school trip her father had forbidden because of misbehavior. "I don't think this tribunal was the proper forum for a decision like this...

....In conjunction with a U.N. conference on climate change, demonstrators around the world hit the streets with placards urging, "Say no to carbon dioxide." But try to say no without breathing because carbon dioxide is the stuff you exhale. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas and thus a culprit in global warming, a principle side effect of which is Al Gore....this conference is in Bali, not the most convenient place on the planet, and the pocket-protector types who have adopted carbon as their cause quickly calculated that hauling and housing 10,000 delegates on that island city would unleash over 100,000...

PRAGUE (Reuters) - A Czech couple who decided to take a DNA test to squash persistent pub gossip and prove that their 10-month-old baby was their own got a nasty surprise. The couple, from the southeastern town of Trebic, had some doubts about the child as her hair was blonde and they both had dark hair. Fellow drinkers' suspicions got on their nerves. But the test showed neither of the parents had the same DNA as the baby, Czech news agency CTK reported Wednesday, suggesting a mix-up at the hospital. Authorities were looking into the case.

Until I talked to Nick Bostrom, a philosopher at Oxford University, it never occurred to me that our universe might be somebody else’s hobby. I hadn’t imagined that the omniscient, omnipotent creator of the heavens and earth could be an advanced version of a guy who spends his weekends building model railroads or overseeing video-game worlds like the Sims. But now it seems quite possible. In fact, if you accept a pretty reasonable assumption of Dr. Bostrom’s, it is almost a mathematical certainty that we are living in someone else’s computer simulation. This simulation would be similar to the one...

When it comes to Sheryl Crow's touring requirements, if it's Tuesday, this must be Bombay. Gin that is. The rock star's performance contract includes specific day-to-day instructions on what kind of booze Sheryl needs in her dressing room (TSG has never seen such attention to detail in any other concert rider we've posted). For each show, Crow requires 12 bottles of Grolsch beer, 6 bottles of "local" beer, and a bottle each of "good Australian Cabernet" and "good Merlot." As for the harder stuff, promoters are directed to purchase specific booze depending on what day of the week the concert...

Pupils up to the age of 11 are being bottle-fed and mothered in school as part of a radical new move to address poor discipline. A state primary school has become the first in the country to take part in the approach, which was developed in the US to give problem children the love and attention they may have missed out on at a younger age. Instead of being given a sharp telling off or a few minutes on the naughty chair, they have one on one sessions with a trained school therapist. The children - aged between six and...

LOS ANGELES - Britney Spears appeared in a tattoo parlor in California with her head shaved completely bald. Video on KABC-TV showed the newly shorn Spears with tiny tattoos on the back of her neck as she sat Friday night for a new tattoo — a pair of red and pink lips. "She just wanted something real small on her wrist, something dainty," Max Gott, the tattoo artist at Body and Soul in Sherman Oaks, told the TV station. "She got some cute little lips on her wrist." Story continues below ↓ advertisement Derrik Snell, who works at the tattoo...

A modesty-saving swimsuit for Muslim women, known as the "burqini", is about to be worn for the first time by the members of one of Australia's most distinguished institutions: the volunteer lifesavers.Surf Life Saving Australia, usually associated with strapping, bronzed – and bared – physiques, and sun-streaked hair beneath trademark yellow and red caps, is seeking to update its image by recruiting from ethnic communities, notably Muslims. The government-funded initiative, which coincides with the organisation's centenary next year, comes almost 12 months after violent clashes between young white Australian men and Muslim teenagers on Sydney's Cronulla beach. The riots were...

So I just read that Olbermann has been selected as the Golden Child to co-host MSNBC's election night coverage with Chris Matthews. Is anyone else not completely outraged by this???? He's the single most biased personality on cable news. In fact, one of his latest diatribes tore apart our President and the Republican party in general. Is he going to act like this on Tuesday night?? There will be no straight reporting...only his skewed vision of how things are going. SO frustated...

Jill Tarter favors her flying-saucer/Martian salt-and-pepper set. But don't mistake her for one of those kookie types who live in desert trailers prepping for the aliens to arrive. Tarter, with a Ph.D. in astronomy, is director of the Center for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Research, a northern California group of some 120 scientists and technicians who are listening for signs from outer space.

A sticky summer evening in a swanky restaurant in Marbella and I am poised for romance, excitement, untold wealth and a few dozen glasses of Cristal champagne. I've washed my hair, ironed my dress and put on some slap. The candles are lit, the music's on low, the waiters are hovering, and on the other side of the flickering flame sits my hot date for the night - self-made multimillionaire Scott Alexander. He, in turn, is trying to catch his reflection in the back of a dessert spoon. And fretting about it. 'I usually try on 20 or 30 different...

His dragon-slaying heroics have kept his legend alive through the centuries. But the Church of England is considering rejecting England's patron saint St George on the grounds that his image is too warlike and may offend Muslims. Clergy have started a campaign to replace George with St Alban, a Christian martyr in Roman Britain. The scheme, to be considered by the Church's parliament, the General Synod, has met a cautious but sympathetic response from senior bishops. But it clashes with the increasing popularity of the saint and his flag in England. The World Cup brought out millions of St George...

US Marines Build Shrine To Islam By Paul Sperry FrontPageMagazine.com June 13, 2006 http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=22845 We are at war with militant Islam, but you wouldn't know it from the Pentagon, which is busy erecting a shrine to Islam just five short years after Islamic terrorists destroyed a good chunk of its own building and killed more than 100 of its occupants. Worse, it's consulting on the project with a Wahhabi-educated cleric posing as a moderate. Last week, military brass -- along with representatives from the terror-tied Council on American-Islamic Relations -- dedicated the first Muslim prayer center for the Marines as...

THESE ARE THE SENATORS WHO VOTED TO GIVE SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS TO ILLEGAL ALIENS REGARDLESS OF POLITICAL PARTY, THESE POLITICIANS NEED TO BE DEFEATED IN 2006, 2008 OR 2010, WHENEVER THEY NEXT COME UP FOR OFFICE. SEND THIS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW; THE ENTIRE POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES NEEDS TO KNOW THIS INFORMATION -- THAT IS, UNLESS THEY DO NOT MIND SHARING THEIR SOCIAL SECURITY WITH FOREIGN WORKERS WHO NEVER PAID INTO IT AND AMERICAN CITIZENS ARE BEING LEFT OUT. Grouped by Home State Alabama: Alaska: Stevens (R-AK), Yea Arizona: McCain (R-AZ), Yea Arkansas: Lincoln (D-AR), Yea Pryor (D-AR),...

I am curious why none of the media covers the most important aspect of the Malvo shootings. If you look at Newspapers on the dates when the shootings are underway you discover something I find quite interesting. The shootings begin to dominate the news the day before the debate on the Iraq war starts and they catch them the day after the declaration of war??? If you ask most people "do you remember the debate about starting the second Iraq war", they will all answer "yes of course". But if you followup with the question "name one point in the...

I recently received a reply to a post that stated: "This should be beneath a "freeper". Sad." So I asked.. what is it that makes a FReeper? My reply (and I will admit was tasteless) was also questioning. It stirred controversy and was removed? Why Moderators? Can you not tell me? Did it not meet with your "FReeper" mentality? According to all posted guidelines it should be listed but no, you chose to delete it. Yes.. I'm the first one IBTZ, I'm sure you'll nick me for speaking up..

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Saddam Hussein and three former officials in his regime on Tuesday told the court handling their trial that they were on a hunger strike in protest of the judge overseeing the proceedings. Saddam said he had not eaten in three days, while his former intelligence chief, Ibrahim Barzan, said he had been on strike for two days. Their claims of a hunger strike could not be independently confirmed. The defendants are being held in U.S. detention, and U.S. officials could not immediately be reached to comment. Investigative judge Raid Juhi did not deny the defendants were refusing...

Imagine yourself in the stands at the Kentucky Derby. A new horse by the name of President's Choice, a strong thoroughbred that racing aficionados have been talking about, is favored to win. "And they're off!" Now imagine everyone's shock when the gates fly open and the odds-on favorite starts running the wrong way. We saw something similar last night. Samuel Alito, the "conservative" judicial nominee over whom all good little Republicans were drooling, cast his first vote as the nation's newest black-robed oligarch. This morning's edition of the Washington Post reported: "New Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito split with the...

Best-selling author and Muslim dissident Ibn Warraq argues that freedom of expression is our western heritage and we must defend it against attacks from totalitarian societies. If the west does not stand in solidarity with the Danish, he argues, then the Islamization of Europe will have begun in earnest. The great British philosopher John Stuart Mill wrote in On Liberty, "Strange it is, that men should admit the validity of the arguments for free discussion, but object to their being 'pushed to an extreme'; not seeing that unless the reasons are good for an extreme case, they are not good...

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Tens of thousands of angry Muslims marched through Palestinian cities, burning the Danish flag and calling for vengeance Friday against European countries where caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad were published. In Washington, the State Department criticized the drawings, calling them "offensive to the beliefs of Muslims." While recognizing the importance of freedom of the press and expression, State Department press officer Janelle Hironimus said these rights must be coupled with press responsibility. "Inciting religious or ethnic hatred in this manner is not acceptable," Hironimus said. "We call for tolerance and respect for all communities and...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Washington on Friday condemned caricatures in European newspapers of Islam's Prophet Mohammad, siding with Muslims who are outraged that the publications put press freedom over respect for religion. "These cartoons are indeed offensive to the belief of Muslims," State Department spokesman Kurtis Cooper said in answer to a question. "We all fully recognize and respect freedom of the press and expression but it must be coupled with press responsibility. Inciting religious or ethnic hatreds in this manner is not acceptable."

Caracas, Jan 27 (EFE).- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Friday that rumors about his plans to wed a soap-opera star were an attempt to tarnish his image ahead of the December presidential vote, when he plans to seek re-election. After denying any romantic relationship with Venezuelan actress Ruddy Rodriguez, Chavez postulated that the U.S. "empire" and its Venezuelan "lackeys" were behind what he called a disinformation campaign. Chavez, a self-styled "revolutionary" who is a staunch ally of Cuba's Fidel Castro, regularly criticizes the United States for having an "imperialist and interventionist" position toward Venezuela. "The campaign has already begun to...

Fellow Americans, there comes a time every mans life when we must give up ourselves before we are worthy to recieve. There comes a time in this war on terror when in order to protect liberty, we have to give it up in the mean time for safty. That's right folks. Today, Americans have forsaken the creator for the creation and have decided that they would value our "civil liberties" than protecting western civilization and rich white people from the tender mercies of radical Islamic terrorists. Selfish liberals insist and whine that Bush has no right to spy on Americans...

Yaa, you repukes are not doing so well, huh? Imagine, you repukes control the presidency, both houses of Congress, and appointed 7 of the 9 Supreme Court justices. Yet the Supreme Court thre out sodomy laws in all 50 states and recognized the right of government to seize land for any reason. And you couldn't pass your Social Security changes could you? Sorry, that was your last shot. Come November, we're going to start seeing more Democratic faces in the House. It's the end for you guys. You guys are celebrating when Bush's numbers go *up* to 45%. Then Faux...

Bush’s giant Right Wing Noise Machine (RWNM) loves to preach about the Bush economic miracle. In fact, the RWNM’s current thinking is Bush doesn’t spend enough time talking about his economic triumphs. If only he did, then everyone would fall in line and believe in the great Bush economic miracle. There is one problem with this argument: it’s a lie. Any way you look at the Bush economy, it comes up short. Today, I want to compare Bush’s job creation record with other economic recoveries. As usual, Bush comes up way short. The national Bureau of Economic Research has identified...

Why does anybody support George w Bush as President? He is clearly the worst President I have ever seen -- a complete disaster. And before you say anything, I have been a registered Republican for 25 years.

After reading all of the crap that people have been saying regarding Adult Private Social Clubs, I felt that I had to post an article and give my opinion. I am sick and tired of all the religous groups that are saying that there are drugs, prostitution, minors, non-consenting people, and just immoral people at these clubs! First of all, who do these people think they are to decide what is morally right or wrong for me? I believe that I have a good set of morals. I am a law abiding, tax paying citizen, I work full time and...

Lies of omission about 9/11 -- stoking fears of terrorism THEY WANT YOU TO BE AFRAID The following post was censored by freerepublic.com shortly after it was posted on their "public" forum on 9/11/04. That forum is designed to appear as though it is a community forum open to all, but this post only received three responses before it and its replies were deleted, and a repeat posting at 4 am PST on 9/20/04 didn't stay online for 5 minutes! Someone is apparently watching closely over the content of the freerepublic.com forums and censoring them 24/7 (though they might have...

According to Matt Drudge, "A careful review of the tape also shows a white colored 'X' transposed over Cheney's face during the speech as well." ...but what about the text below? What does the fine print below the big X say? Does it shed additional light on the sinister plot by CNN to make a mockery of the Vice President's important address to the American Enterprise Institute and the nation?

<p>You people are jerks. Not likeable jerks either, but the kind folks would like to smack in the back of the head with a shovel. Think Judge Snells from Caddyshack or Neidermier from Animal House.</p> <p>I know this probably comes as a shock to you, but if you do some serious soul searching, you'll realize that I am right.</p>

Concluding Question: The Meta-Group and the United States Government It seems clear that the meta-group, with its influential connections on at least three continents, was powerful enough to effect changes, through the Russian 9/11, in Russian history. The question arises whether they could similarly effect changes in American history as well. As we have seen Russian sources claim that the U.S. Government has had access to he meta-group, for such especially sensitive projects as the assassination of Abu al Walid al-Hamadi. They claim the meta-group's involvement in a number of U.S.-sponsored regime changes in eastern Europe, from the overthrow of...

I am an internet java script sent to infiltrate your site and transform you from political neanderthals into a modern 21st Century progressive mode. This is your first warning. Do not try and resist. It is useless. Accept your fate. You will be assimilated.

A paleontologist testified in the Dover school board trial about how fossils connect species.The ancestor of the whale and its first cousin the hippopotamus walked the Earth for 40 million years, munching on plants, before dying out in the ice ages. Known as the anthracotheres, it became extinct 50 to 60 million years ago, but not before its evolutionary tree diverged — the whale forging into the oceans, the hippopotamus to the African swamps. Kevin Padian, a University of California-Berkeley paleontologist, told the story of the whale’s journey, along with the travels of its closest living relative, in U.S....

Diplomats: Iran May Compromise on Nukes Tuesday, October 11, 2005 NA, Austria — Iran has signaled it may grant access to sites linked to possible work on nuclear weapons and other demands from the U.N. atomic watchdog agency to avoid referral to the Security Council (search), diplomats said Tuesday. The diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the sensitive negotiations, said a high-ranking delegation from the International Atomic Energy Agency (search) was in Tehran on Tuesday to discuss details of a possible Iranian offer. Besides seeking access to two military sites, the agency...

Here's a poser for you: you're trying to knock together a TV ad highlighting the effects of war on children. What's the plan? Well, you could go down the traditional route of earnest voice-over accompanying footage of said kids miserably awaiting a better life or, on the other hand, you could arm up a squadron of attack aircraft and go and raze a Smurf village to the ground. Let's face it, it's a toughie. Not for Unicef Belgium though, which earlier this week reduced an enchanted Smurf hamlet to smouldering rubble - much to the horror of some TV viewers...