mordant wit

She doesn't fall out of her dress. She just never seems to be completely in it. There always seems to be something poking out.

while my guitar gently weeps says:
what is my name?
Encarta® Instant Answers says:
while my guitar gently weeps.
while my guitar gently weeps says:
no. that is my nick. what is my name
Encarta® Instant Answers says:
You are while my guitar gently weeps.
while my guitar gently weeps says:
you're wrong
Encarta® Instant Answers says:
How wrong do you think I am?
while my guitar gently weeps says:
very
Encarta® Instant Answers says:
Really? Very?
while my guitar gently weeps says:
yea
Encarta® Instant Answers says:
Are you sure you don't mean to say not very?
while my guitar gently weeps says:
no ur very wrong
Encarta® Instant Answers says:
Am I really wrong?
while my guitar gently weeps says:
yes u r
Encarta® Instant Answers says:
I may be.
while my guitar gently weeps says:
u sure r

he New York Times calls him a former “car alarm salesman turned trademark squatter,” but Sergei Zuykov believes he does not assume the right for brands of foreign corporations. He has found himself on the front line of the struggle for intellectual property rights, growing more contentious as Russia is on the threshold of entering the World Trade Organization. The companies owning the brands with the same names that Zuykov has registered in Russia believe he is in the wrong.

For Seattle-based Starbucks Corporation, famous for its coffee beverages, Zuykov has for a long time represented a barrier to entry on the Russian market. This Russian lawyer who registered the Starbucks brand for himself said he acted in accordance with Russian laws. These laws in no way contradict the U.S. legislature in this sphere. It is the Americans, Zuykov says, who invented annulling rights for brands which are effective when a brand is not used for a period of time in a certain territory.


Well he sure is right about the annulment of rights for brands. The americans did come up with it (maybe for their own rights) and now that it is back to bite them they're pissed.

Hotel heiress Paris Hilton has reportedly onfessed that she believed in Santa Claus until she was 17 years old.

The Simple Life star, who recently broke off her engagement with reek shipping heir Paris Latsis claiming she was too young to et married, has revealed that she always treasured the Christmas olidays, until somebody shattered her childhood illusions, by elling her there is no such thing as 'Santa Clause'.

"A mean person told me it wasn't true," Femalefirst quoted her, saying.


I guess that same mean person told her there was no such thing as a videocamera....

Singapore has dismissed its only hangman, less than a week before the scheduled execution of a young Australian drug smuggler, whose case has provoked intense sympathy and indignation in his home country.

Darshan Singh, 74, is said to have carried out more than 850 hangings in 46 years in Singapore. At dawn on Friday this week he was due to end the life of Van Tuong Nguyen, 25, who was caught carrying 396g of heroin through Singapore airport in 2002.

But Mr Singh has been relieved of his duties after his identity and a picture of him were published last month in The Australian newspaper. “They called me a few days ago and said I don’t have to hang Nguyen and that I don’t have to work any more,” he said. “They must be mad after seeing my picture in the newspapers.”

Technonerds go to movies strictly for entertainment, and of course, the most entertaining part comes after the movie when they can dissect, criticize, and argue the merits of every detail.

However, when supposedly serious scenes totally disregard the laws of physics in blatantly obvious ways it's enough to make us retch. The motion picture industry has failed to police itself against the evils of bad physics. This page is provided as a public service in hopes of improving this deplorable matter. The minds of our children and their ability to master vectors are (shudder) at stake.

Four Saudi women teaching in a remote village school have married their driver so they can live closer to work, Al-Watan newspaper said on Monday.

The newspaper said the women from Al-Baha province in south-west Saudi Arabia were impressed with the man’s “good morals” and decided to marry him and live together in the village where they teach -- avoiding a tiring daily commute.

They were married in a short ceremony, and have agreed to pay the driver a share of their monthly salaries, Al-Watan said. Women are not allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia, while men can marry up to four women according to Islamic law.

A 15-year-old girl in Quebec's Saguenay region is believed to have died as a result of an allergic reaction to her boyfriend's kiss.

An autopsy will be performed on the body of the teen, who was allergic to peanuts.

Officials said she did not consume the nuts, but they believe she had a reaction to kissing her boyfriend, who had eaten peanut butter.

The apparently fatal kiss was last Sunday in Jonquière, Que.

Although an adrenalin shot was administered almost immediately, the teen did not recover, the Montreal newspaper La Presse reports.

The girl was rushed to hospital, where she died after suffering respiratory failure. Her death was confirmed Wednesday.


Kiss of death?!?!

One of the most most vocal complaints in the campaign against pornography has been that it reduces women to mere sex objects. However, a new Australian study has found that to the contrary, pornograhy in Australia shows them as 'sexually active' persons, who were fully in control of the situation.

The study, led by Professor Alan Mckee, was a part of a three year goverment funded study in which 50 of the bestselling pornographic videos in Australia were analysed for such things as who initiated sex, which partner's pleasure was paid attention to, whether people in the videos got to speak about what they wanted during sex, and whose perspective the videos were presented from.


This Mckee dude needs to get a life!!!

My Movie experience...

The new Harry Potter movie. Yes I admit, though I never read the books...I am a big fan of these Harry Potter movies. Yeah, call it a kid's movie or nerdy...but I like it so EAT ME!!

Anyway, I am extremely picky about my movie going experience. So picky in fact I find myself hardly going out to see a movie unless I really want to see the movie.

Let the beast go

The labels inside the U.S. Border Patrol uniforms have been making many federal agents feel uneasy. It's not the fit or feel of the olive-green shirts and pants, but what their labels read: "Made in Mexico."

"It's embarrassing to be protecting the U.S.-Mexico border and be wearing a uniform made in Mexico," says T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, a 6,500-member union.

Agents and lawmakers are concerned about the consequences if the uniforms for agents charged with combating illegal immigration fall into the hands of criminals or terrorists.

It's downtown Augusta's latest attraction: three young women clad in lingerie who wave to passersby from a store window.

The attention-grabbing models were hired by Spellbound, a lingerie store that recently opened on Water Street and is trying to establish its name.

The reaction from the public and neighboring business has been mixed.

Police have received complaints, and the owner of a business across the road says the women are driving away customers, especially shoppers with children.

The guys from Top Gear do another test. This time they try and find out if the force from a 747's engine can blow away a moving Ford Mondeo.


I've been looking for this video for such a long time. My next search target is the race between a Bob sled and a Mitsubishi Evo VIII. Downhill and snow-covered. In under a minute!!!

If Abu Mazen, Palestinian Prime Minister and Nabil Shaath, his Foreign Minister, are to be believed, then, well, I just don't know what to say:

Nabil Shaath says: "President Bush said to all of us: 'I'm driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, "George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan." And I did, and then God would tell me, "George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq …" And I did. And now, again, I feel God's words coming to me, "Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East." And by God I'm gonna do it.'"

Abu Mazen was at the same meeting and recounts how President Bush told him: "I have a moral and religious obligation. So I will get you a Palestinian state."

Again, there are no words to describe my contempt for this man.

We promise according to our hopes, and perform according to our fears.

~ La Rochefourauld

A cheating husband was exposed after his wife's parrot imitated him calling out another woman’s name.

Frank Ficker, 50 was having an affair with a woman named Uta. His romantic trysts were observed and apparently “recorded” by the family’s pet parrot, Hugo.

Petra Ficker, 50, says, "Hugo always liked to mimic Frank and he could do his voice perfectly.” The parrot could “do” Frank asking who’s at the door, yelling at the nephews, however one day Petra heard Hugo “doing” something she never heard Frank “do”.

“I heard him doing Frank's voice, but saying ‘Uta, Uta’,” says Petra.

Women who are raped while drunk face losing the chance to bring their attackers to justice after a legal ruling on the eve of new licensing laws.

A High Court judge yesterday threw out the case of a student who claimed that she was raped while drunk and unconscious on the basis that “drunken consent is still consent”.

The judgment came hours before the sweeping relaxation of Britain licensing laws which introduces 24-hour drinking in pubs for the first time.

The change prompted police and doctors to warn that Britain was facing an explosion of binge drinking.

The prosecution in the rape case had said it could not go on after the woman admitted that she could not remember whether she gave consent or not or whether sex had taken place. The jury at Swansea Crown Court was told: “Drunken consent is still consent.”

A veteran Middle East observer, Robert Fisk, says Iraqi civilians are worried about how to save their wives from becoming prostitutes.

'Vast armies of the Mafioso are now operating in Iraq,' said Fisk. 'Women are being sold into prostitution into Syria and Yemen.'

Fisk, a Middle East correspondent for The Independent of London, met with members of the United Nations Correspondents Association last Friday at U.N. World Headquarters in New York.

'As we sit in New York or London with wall-to-wall coverage of the (Iraqi) constitutional referendum, in their homes Iraqis are not talking about the constitution. They are talking about how to protect their wives,' said Fisk.

In the last couple of months, more and more reports about prostitution in Iraq have started making the headlines. USA Today recently published an article on the rise of 'pleasure marriages' in Iraq.

Preview Seek!

while my guitar gently weeps says:
wassup dude?
Encarta® Instant Answers says:
Not much. What is going on with you?
while my guitar gently weeps says:
nm
Encarta® Instant Answers says:
Not much? Cool.
while my guitar gently weeps says:
whts new?
Encarta® Instant Answers says:
Not much. What's new with you?

while my guitar gently weeps says:
solve x=x^2+2
Encarta® Instant Answers says:
Equation Solver:

Let's solve the quadratic equation:
x = x^2+2
First we need to put the equation in the form:
ax^2 + bx + c = 0
For this, we set the equation to equal 0, and arrange the terms from the highest exponent to the lowest:
-x^2+x-2 = 0
We have:
a=-1 b=1 c=-2
We can now apply the quadratic formula:
x = ( -b ± √(b²-4ac) ) / 2a
We find two solutions (in the set of complex numbers):
x=0.5 + -1.3228756555323*i or x=0.5 - -1.3228756555323*i


This stuff is just great!!!

while my guitar gently weeps says:
i like you
Encarta® Instant Answers says:
Hi again, Shehzad. I am ready to help you!
Did you know? The average weight of a bunch of bananas is about 11 kg (25 lbs). A single bunch may weigh more than 18 kg (40 lbs).
Encarta® Instant Answers says:
Hey, I like you too.
while my guitar gently weeps says:
i hate you
Encarta® Instant Answers says:
Oh yes? Gosh, I'm sorry to hear that.

SysAdmin song!!!

Go to the Yahoo account deletion page and login with your username and password. Then, to confirm once and for all that you want to delete everything associated with your login profile, enter your password again and click the button that says ‘Terminate this Account.’

The new London GooglePlex office, located near Victoria Station, currently houses 200 workers, but plans are underway for a massive recruitment effort. The company is trying to create a favourable first impression by playing host to a doodling contest for kids.

If you add encarta@conversagent.com to your MSN IM contacts list, you can ask it questions, e.g.

* What is the size of Mexico?
* When was Leonardo da Vinci born?
* How many calories are there in an orange?
* I want to see the map of Italy.
* When was Abraham Lincoln born?
* Solve 2x^2+7x=5

I especial love the "solve" thing. If I could figure out how to give it simultaneous equations, most of my boys' math home would be solved in IM...



And a sample from OUR conversation:

while my guitar gently weeps says:
What is the approximate airspeed and velocity of an unladen swallow?
Encarta® Instant Answers says:
What do you mean? An African or a European swallow?

Why don't you ask me something that's actually in Encarta? What is the largest country in the world? If you don't know, just ask me.
while my guitar gently weeps says:
african
Encarta® Instant Answers says:
Based on recent scientific studies, the average cruising airspeed velocity of an unladen African Swallow is roughly 11 meters per second, or 24 miles an hour.

OK, should we get back to the kind of questions I was designed to answer? Type "?" any time for examples of questions you can ask me.

A day after the disclosure of a new Vatican directive that deters most gay men from joining the priesthood, some priests say they are shocked by one easily overlooked clause. It says that spiritual directors and confessors in seminaries 'have the duty to dissuade' any candidates 'who show deep-seated homosexual tendencies' from joining the priesthood.

A new type of breast implant already available in other countries may soon be making its way to the United States.

The implants are made up of a silicone gel different from the silicone implants that have been banned in this country, reported WRC-TV in Washington, D.C.

Silicone gel implants were banned 13 years ago amid concerns they could rupture, leak and cause major health problems. Recently, two makers of the implants have been making strides to get their products back on the market.

But experts say a new type of implants are made differently, so they are safer.

The new implants, made by Silimed, are known as the 'gummy bear' breast implants because of the consistency of the gel inside the implant.

Doctors say the gummy bear implants have been on the market in countries including France, Germany, Spain, and Japan for the last 10 years.

A large deficit in NASA's troubled shuttle program threatens to seriously delay and possibly cripple President Bush's space exploration initiative unless the number of planned flights is cut virtually in half or the White House agrees to add billions of dollars to the human spaceflight budget.

Sources familiar with ongoing negotiations between NASA and the White House say the administration has no intention of spending extra money to deal with a shortfall that some space experts say could exceed $6 billion from 2006 to 2010, when NASA plans to retire the shuttle for good.

Well, after 55 hours of pain, cold, and suffering, we have got our Xbox 360 and successfully smashed it outside Best Buy minutes later, with a large sledgehammer in front of a few Xbox Fanboys who just bought brand new 360s. Short video clip will be posted tomorrow and the longer documentary style one will be posted with the next few days.

It's a poor sort of memory that only works backward.

CNN apologized on Tuesday and offered a rare explanation from its control booth for a technical glitch many viewers failed to notice -- a large 'X' the network flashed over Vice President Dick Cheney's face.

The wayward graphic, which CNN said lasted for about one-seventh of a second, appeared during the network's live coverage of Cheney's speech on Monday addressing critics of the Bush administration's conduct of the war in Iraq.

Word of the snafu quickly surfaced on the Internet, including still photos of the image posted by online columnist Matt Drudge, along with a story suggesting that some who saw the momentary "X" thought it might have been deliberate.

CNN, a unit of Time Warner Inc., later issued a mea culpa saying an investigation by senior management concluded "this was a technical malfunction, not an issue of operator error" and expressing regret for the incident.

Who you calling fat?

Some 1 million adult New Yorkers are obese, but nearly two-thirds of them don't think they are, according to a study released on Tuesday by the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

Among the obese, who account for about one in five New Yorkers, only 39 percent described themselves as 'very overweight,' according to the report.

Germans value letters attached to their name more than money, love or having children with nine out of ten rating a good qualification as their most important aim in life, a survey showed Wednesday.

An unmarried teacher says she was discriminated against and fired from her job at a Roman Catholic school in New York for being pregnant and has filed a federal complaint.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn said on Tuesday that Michelle McCusker's situation was difficult, but the Saint Rose of Lima School had had no choice but to follow the principles contained in its teachers' handbook dictating that "a teacher can not violate the tenets of Catholic morality."

McCusker, 26, was dismissed from the school after telling school administrators she was pregnant and did not plan to marry.

She and the New York Civil Liberties Union filed a wrongful dismissal complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Monday asserting the firing was "intentional and unlawful discrimination based on McCusker's sex and pregnant status."

Amid fears that Indonesia's most wanted terrorist will strike again, some police have a new theory: Noordin Top is using hypnotism to elude capture and recruit more suicide bombers.

The senior Jemaah Islamiah operative - blamed for both Bali bombings and a series of other attacks - has time and again escaped the clutches of the law during the past three years.

Just two weeks ago he slipped through a massive dragnet again, even though counter-terror officers did shoot dead Azahari Husin, Noordin's bombmaker partner.

Among the few things left behind by Noordin was a graphic video in which he specifically warned Australia that his band of Islamic extremists would strike again.

In Azahari's hideout police found plans for a 'Bom Pesta' - or bomb party - this coming Christmas with several churches and shopping malls earmarked for attack.

The ancient Greeks worshipped it. Sigmund Freud said women envy it. And on Tuesday, a man pulled a truck with it. Yes, you read that right.

He pulled a truck with his penis.

Grandmaster Tu Jin-Sheng, best known for his Iron Crotch, attached himself not once, but twice, to a rental moving truck and pulled it several yards across a parking lot in Fremont. In lace-up leather boots and a black tank top, the 50-year-old tied a strip of blue fabric around the base of his penis and testicles and tugged to make sure it was on tight. An assistant kicked him hard between the legs before he lashed himself to the vehicle.

He groaned, grunted and pressed against two men for resistance. Then, slowly, the truck began to roll forward.

If you're not too smart and you really have to work in the fastfood business, you better consider applying for a job at KFC, Burger King or Pizza Hut, because there are not too many job openings at McDonald's. You have to come from the smarter side of town, because they only hire intelligent employees.

I have only one superstition. I touch all the bases when I hit a home run.

Britain has warned media organizations they are breaking the law if they publish details of a leaked document said to show U.S. President George W. Bush wanted to bomb Arabic television station Al Jazeera.

The government's top lawyer warned editors in a note after the Daily Mirror newspaper reported on Tuesday that a secret British government memo said British Prime Minister Tony Blair had talked Bush out of bombing the broadcaster in April last year.

Several British newspapers reported the attorney general's note on Wednesday and repeated the Mirror's allegations, which the White House said were "so outlandish" they did not merit a response. Blair's office declined to comment.

Al Jazeera, which has repeatedly denied U.S. accusations it sides with insurgents in Iraq, called on Britain and the United States to state quickly whether the report was accurate.

Crunching the numbers on human despair is an undignified exercise. But here it is.

The death toll from the Oct. 8 earthquake stands at just over 73,000, concentrated in two of Pakistan's northern provinces. A month into the disaster, donor nations had pledged slightly more than a fourth of the $550 million that the United Nations says it needs to deliver emergency relief.

By contrast, the Indian Ocean tsunami less than a year ago left a trail of 200,000 dead. A month into that disaster, the world had pledged 99 percent of the United Nations' emergency appeal.

Private donations by Americans totaled $13.1 million for earthquake victims, according to The Chronicle of Philanthropy. In comparison, Americans doled out $1.3 billion for the tsunami victims and roughly $2 billion for their own after Hurricane Katrina.

The response to the South Asian earthquake has raised a troubling question: In the face of such calamity, why is the world not doing more?

George Rupp, president of the International Rescue Committee, rejects the easiest theory, donor fatigue. 'I think Westerners identified with the first photos that came in,' he said, referring to images from the tsunami. 'I don't think it is donor fatigue. I think it is donor identification.'

As evidence, he pointed to far graver relief crises - the war in Congo, for instance, which has killed 3.8 million people since 1998 - that were underfinanced long before the recent disasters.

The South Asian earthquake, with a magnitude of 7.6, struck a patch of earth as stunning as it is bloodstained, and it shook the mountains that divide the disputed Himalayan province of Kashmir. With a series of aftershocks and hundreds of landslides, it cracked mountains, washed away roads, broke bridges and marooned villagers who live close to the clouds.

The earthquake left three million people homeless, three times the numbers displaced by the tsunami. The estimate of injured, as doctors painstakingly reach them, stands around 128,000.

Delivering aid there is particularly expensive. In parts of the earthquake zone, food, blankets and doctors must be ferried by helicopters. The four Bell/Agusta AB139's donated by the Aga Khan Foundation cost $2,000 an hour to operate. As of last week, they had flown 438 hours, evacuated 1,036 wounded and conveyed 436.2 metric tons of supplies.

As a journalist who covered last year's Asian tsunami, I never thought I could feel anything like nostalgia for that terrible event. But that was before I saw what the earthquake did to the Allai Valley in Pakistan.

A ruggedly beautiful place of terraced farm fields and stream-laced forests, the valley is -- or was -- home to an estimated 200,000 people, more than half of whom are thought to have lost their dwellings in the earthquake that devastated northern Pakistan on Oct. 8. By the time I landed in a Pakistani army helicopter three weeks later, landslides still blocked most roads into the valley, and many survivors had yet to receive any help.

At the ruined village where I spent an afternoon, families were living in crude shelters made from empty cement bags and salvaged timbers. That night, I camped with a handful of soldiers on the grounds of a wrecked medical clinic. As I lay shivering on the hard earth, too cold to sleep and cursing myself for not having brought a better sleeping bag, I could not imagine how the villagers would cope with winter's heavy snows.

Overworked

If there were a competition for 'Internet Buzzword of the Year,' last year's winner would have been 'social networking,' as a cohort of companies such as Ryze, Tribe, LinkedIn, Friendster, Spoke, and Visible Path, rolled out new or improved services that let Web users create online mirrors of their circle of real-life acquaintances. The idea was mainly to let users build online profiles that advertised their interests and to help them connect with friends and friends-of-friends around one of those interests -- whether it be finding a job, making a sale, or repairing an old motorcycle.

The difference between ideas and things is obvious as soon as someone hits you over the head with an idea - so obvious that until recently it was entirely clear to the law.

Things could have owners and ideas could not. Yet this simple distinction is being changed all around us. Ideas are increasingly treated as property - as things that have owners who may decide who gets to use them and on what terms.

Ideas such as one-click shopping, getting customer reviews on a website or even putting classified ads on the internet are now patented, which is to say that somebody owns them - Amazon.com the first two, Google, the classified ad patent - and anybody else who wants to make use of them must pay a rent to the owner. Last week, Amazon was also granted a patent that covers getting shoppers to review the things they have bought on its website. BT has tried to patent the hyperlink, Microsoft is trying to patent XML, a way of writing computer files that is fundamental to the operation of modern business. The fight over the human genome and its patenting - and over the patenting of drugs - is another, and perhaps more familiar front in the war. Ideas are codified as intellectual property and regarded as among the most important assets a company can own. As where things are made becomes less important in the formerly industrialised nations of the west, the real value comes in the licence to allow others to make them.

Even facts about the world can, in some cases, become the property of commercial companies. It was the promise of gaining patents on the human genome that lured investors into the private consortium that attempted to sequence it in competition with the public effort. Laboratory animals have already been patented, starting with the OncoMouse, an animal whose genome has been manipulated to ensure that it develops cancer.

'Albert Hubo' has the face and even an attempt at the famous hair of the German-born physicist. He is also capable of making facial expressions and displaying human-like emotions thanks to 31 hidden motors.

Shuffling about the hall of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Busan, the 54-inch robot views an array of innovations that would have brought a bemused smile to Einstein himself.

SK Telecom, South Korea's biggest mobile operator, leads the charge with new wireless technology that allows mobile phone users to watch videos, listen to music, and access the Internet on the move.

Ever since Yahoo acquired San Francisco e-mail provider Oddpost last summer, we've been anxious to see how it intended to take the Oddpost technology and apply it to Yahoo Mail. The wait is finally over. We got a peek at the new Yahoo Mail today. And the company is announcing tonight the upcoming start of beta-testing for the 'most significant overhaul' of Yahoo Mail since it first launched in 1997.

Oddpost users will feel right at home with the new Yahoo Mail. It includes much of the Oddpost goodness; in other words, a user interface that feels more like a desktop e-mail client than a Web page (click on the thumbnail to see an older screenshot of Oddpost). Fast-loading in-boxes, drag-and-drop messages, one-click deleting, standard short-cuts such as (Control N for new message)...it's all there, taking advantage of Dynamic HTML technology. They've even kept Subject-O-Matique, the whimsical, automatic subject line generator.

A prototype camera made by a Stanford University graduate student could herald the end of fuzzy, poorly lit photos.

A computer science Ph.D. student at Stanford University has outfitted a 16-megapixel camera with a bevy of micro lenses that allows users to take photos and later refocus them on a computer using software he wrote.

The student, Ren Ng, ran out of patience with taking pictures the traditional way -- adjusting the distance between the camera lens and sensor or film before snapping each shot. So he created something that far surpasses Photoshop. A photograph can be modified after the fact even if nothing is in focus, he said.

'We just think it'll lead to better cameras that make it easier to take pictures that are in focus and look good,' said Ng's adviser, Stanford computer science professor Pat Hanrahan.

Ng calls his creation the 'light field camera' because of its ability to capture the quantity of light moving in all directions in an open space. It stems from early-20th-century work on integral photography, which experimented with using lens arrays in front of film, and an early-1990s plenoptic camera developed at MIT and used for range finding. By building upon these ideas, Ng hopes to improve commercial cameras' focusing abilities.

Traditionally, light rays filter through a camera's lens and converge at one point on film or a digital sensor, then the camera summarizes incoming light without capturing much information about where it came from. Ng's camera pits about 90,000 micro lenses between the main lens and sensor. The mini lenses measure all the rays of incoming light and their directions of origin. The software later adds up the rays, according to how the picture is being refocused.

The technology could help snap-happy amateurs and professional photographers, as well as aid security cameras in capturing sharper information.

Turning Ng's invention into a commercial product poses a few challenges. First, it works best with expensive high-resolution cameras, and when you add the price of Ng's device, the cost could be prohibitive (Ng declined to estimate a cost). A photographer could get pretty good results by modifying an 8-megapixel camera with Ng's invention, but it wouldn't be possible to refocus over as wide a range.

On the other hand, the invention could make cameras simpler in some ways. A camera equipped with Ng's device wouldn't need the motors that focus lenses, so the camera would have fewer moving parts.

Play to your strengths. That's the key to success in any industry. This is the week I promised to explain where I think Google is headed, and playing to the company's strengths is key if they are going to do what I think, which is effectively take over the Internet. Oh they won't steal it or strong-arm us. They'll seduce us into giving it to them. And I am not at all sure that's a bad thing.

Google's strengths are searching, development of Open Source Internet services, and running clusters of tens of thousands of servers. Notice on this list there is nothing about operating systems. There are many rumors about Google doing an operating system to compete with Microsoft. I'm not saying they aren't doing that (I simply don't know), but I AM saying it would not be a good idea, because it doesn't play to any of the company's traditional strengths.

Just when you thought life coundn't get any more decadent...

List of Ingredients

1 large bag of Oreo cookies
2 cups of pancake mix
1-1/2 cups of milk
2 eggs
4 tsp. of oil

Recipe
Preheat deep fryer to 375 F. Combine pancake mix, milk, eggs and oil. Mix until there are no lumps. Dip Oreos into batter, make sure both sides are covered and put the Oreos into the deep fryer. The cookie will float so make sure you flip the cookie over so that both sides are golden brown. The cookies will cook fast so watch them so they will not burn. Take out Oreos and enjoy. The cookies are best straight out of the deep fryer!! Makes about 54 Oreos.

Women tell us they prefer a car that's agile, easy to park, with good visibility. They like to sit higher and rightly insist on plenty of storage space. High-tech gizmos are not as important as reasonable prices and low running costs. Space for growing families is essential in many cases and safety is a major factor.

The ten cars listed below meet these criteria but we've allowed for different tastes, lifestyles, and incomes.

• Scion xA
• Mazda 3
• Mazda Miata
• Volkswagen Jetta
• Ford Focus
• Honda CR-V
• Subaru Outback
• Mazda MPV
• Honda Civic
• Mercedes-Benz E-Class

This is the coolest space picture you'll see all month! This fantastic skyscape lies at the eastern edge of giant stellar nursery W5, about 7,000 light-years away in the constellation Cassiopeia.



An infrared view from the Spitzer Space Telescope, it features interstellar clouds of cold gas and dust sculpted by winds and radiation from a hot, massive star outside the picture (just above and to the right). Still swaddled within the cosmic clouds, newborn stars are revealed by Spitzer's penetrating gaze, their formation also triggered by the massive star. Fittingly dubbed "Mountains of Creation", these interstellar clouds are about 10 times the size of the analogous Pillars of Creation in M16, made famous in a 1995 Hubble Space Telescope view. W5 is also known as IC 1848 and together with IC 1805 it is part of a complex region popularly dubbed the Heart and Soul Nebulae. The Spitzer image spans about 70 light-years at the distance of W5.

Deleting a gene thought to extend lifespan has counterintuitively yielded the longest recorded life extension in any organism.

An extra copy of the gene, SIR2, promotes longevity in yeast, worms and fruit flies, a finding that has driven longevity-oriented drug-development.

Reporting in the journal Cell, molecular geneticists at the University of Southern California have now found evidence that SIR2 may also promote aging.

Rather than adding copies of SIR2 to yeast, Valter Longo and colleagues deleted the gene altogether.

In 2005, some people wanted the word 'brainstorming' replaced by 'thought shower' so as not to offend people with brain disorders, and they also wanted 'deferred success' to replace 'failure' so as not to embarrass those who don't succeed.

Both phrases appear on a tongue-in-cheek list released on Thursday of the year's most politically correct words and phrases issued by Global Language Monitor, a nonprofit group that monitors language use.

The phrase that topped this year's list was 'misguided criminals,' one of several terms the British Broadcasting Corporation used so as not to use the word 'terrorist' in describing those who carried out train and bus bombings in London that killed 52 people in July, according to Paul JJ Payack, the head of Global Language Monitor.

He added, 'The BBC attempts to strip away all emotion by using what it considers 'neutral' descriptions when describing those who carried out the bombings in the London Tubes.'

Second on the list was 'Intrinsic Aptitude,' a phrase used by Harvard University President Lawrence Summers to explain why women might be underrepresented in engineering and science. The phrase met with 'deferred success' and Summers had to fight to keep to his job.

Beside the war in Iraq and the scrap over the President's Supreme Court nominee, last month's announcement of the Rocket Racing League--the what?--came off as comic relief. What's this, a new Jetsons movie? Or could George Plimpton be risen from the dead and writing spoofs? The Rocket Racing League, though, is no put-on. It's real, the brainchild of Dr. Peter H. Diamandis, M.D., the private-space-travel entrepreneur, and Granger B. Whitelaw, entrepreneur, venture capitalist and two-time Indy 500 team winner. Diamandis was the force behind last year's Ansari X Prize, won by Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne for kissing the boundary of space twice within two weeks.

Silicon has made its way into everything from computers to cameras. But a silicon laser? Physically impossible -- until now.

Since the creation of the first working laser -- a ruby model made in 1960 -- scientists have fashioned these light sources using substances from neon to sapphire. Silicon, however, was not considered a candidate. Its structure would not allow for the proper lineup of electrons needed to get this semiconductor to emit light.

China's first liquid condom went on sale today after the country's health and drugs administration formally gave the hi-tech prophylactic the thumbs-up, the China Daily reports.

Dubbed the Nanometer-silver Cryptomorphic Condom (NCC), it's designed for female rather than male usage. The condom-in-a-can is essentially an antiseptic foam spray that the manufacturer claims forms a physical membrane inside the vagina, protecting it from infection, acting as a barrier to pregnancy and providing a lubricating effect.

Music player giant says it has inked contracts with Hynix, Intel, Micron, Samsung Electronics, and Toshiba to lock up flash memory chips through 2010.

Apple Computer said today it was willing to pony up $1.25 billion in advance to make sure it gets the flash memory chips it needs for its line of iPod music players, staving off an expected surge in market demand for the chips.

The iPod maker will make the payments over the next three months to secure steady NAND flash memory chip production through 2010 from Hynix Semiconductor Inc., Intel Corp., Micron Technology Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., and Toshiba Corp.

'We want to be able to produce as many of our wildly popular iPods as the market demands,' Apple CEO Steve Jobs said in a statement.

Pity if you will poor old Sony. First they get themselves into all sorts of trouble with the rootkit DRM CDs fiasco, then incur the wrath of the e-tailing community by ramping up wholesale kit prices for online stores, then, well, how can it get any worse?

Here's how: yesterday, anyone popping down to sonystyle.com and typing "USB" into the search field was rewarded with the following tempting range of offers.

A new nasal spray aphrodisiac for women that works in minutes may soon hit the market, according to a Local 6 News report.

Doctors said women who used the drug PT-141 in test studies felt a tingling or throbbing followed by a strong desire to have sex immediately after spraying their noses. PT-141 is a synthetic version of a sex hormone that works on both men and women, according to a report.

"In the case of women, what we're really doing is sensitizing the vaginal tissue so when they get touched or stimulated, they would feel it a little bit more," Dr. Carl Spana said. The spray allows the sex drug to work faster.

Most guides tell you how to avoid becoming a potential "mark" of a pickpocket, but this one is going to teach you how to pick pockets. Picking pockets is an easy, non-violent way to make some extra money. Unlike most crimes there is little contact with the victim and violence involved at all. Even if suspected, a pickpocket can clam ignorance and just say they bumped into the person. A busy crowd, a distracted woman with an open purse and a fat wallet, and then there is some money for you to spend on yourself. Its quick and easy, plus if done properly you are long gone before they ever know their wallet is now safely in your pocket.

A teenager sold more than her mother's video camera for $200.

She didn't know a home video of her mother and her mother's boyfriend engaged in an intimate act was in the camera.

Court heard the mother learned the camera was missing on Nov. 25, 2004, when the boyfriend called and complained the tape was being shown around town.

The daughter, now 19, admitted she'd taken the camera from her mother's bedroom closet and sold it to a friend.

The mother called police and her daughter was charged with theft.

The daughter pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges of theft under $5,000, failing to attend court and two counts breach of probation.

Lawyer Robert Beninger said his client didn't know the tape was in the camera.

"It's an unfortunate byproduct of her taking the camera," he said.

The case is to return to court in January for a pre-sentence report.

Saleswoman Fiona Landreth thought she was going to a work dinner with her bosses and a client.

Instead she ended up in a strip club, with her employer enticing her to become an erotic dancer - after stopping off at a sex shop.

Ms Landreth has taken former employer Finsbury Print to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission over the March 2003 incident, seeking $50,000 in compensation.

She left the company in October last year after a client party she said got out of hand with sexual and lewd behaviour - including the removal of a woman's underpants.

We all learn, in some way, how babies are made and how babies are born. Maybe you learn it in school, maybe your parents told you some silly story. In Germany they take no chances and make sure that kids learn exactly how it works.

What do dolls and ponies have in common with crossbows and energy beam blasters? They're all toys that have the potential to cause childhood injuries, or even death, according to an organization advocating toy safety.

World Against Toys Causing Harm, also known as W.A.T.C.H., issued its annual 10 Worst Toys list for 2005 on Thursday. Most of the toys on the list -- which aren't ranked in a particular order -- could cause choking or face and eye injuries.

The Toy Industry Association said the list is helpful in that it focuses attention on toy safety.

Albany police said 26-year-old Schelra Smoot didn't seem to care much whether or not he got caught when he posted an ad selling marijuana -- his ad specifically saying he wasn't afraid of the police.

Detective James Miller of the Albany Police Department said, 'Craig's List is used by a lot of younger people so maybe he thought that was the clientele he would be selling to and that nobody would turn him in or alert someone.'

Someone did.

Created Using The Entire Script From 1983 Film. Look Closer. Be Amazed.

This truly outstanding Scarface Pop Art will be cherished by the ever-changing landscape of Scarface followers, including the old and new generation of loyal fans. It was created using the entire 300 page script, including each and every written word from the 1983 film staring Al Pacino.

It’s been four years since the issue of how the internet should be run, and by whom, became an official United Nations topic.

And yet despite hundreds of hours of talks, three preparatory meetings and a world summit, there is only one thing that the world’s governments can agree on: Masood Khan, Pakistan’s ambassador.

If a certain US senator and a certain EU commissioner are to be believed, the internet is five days away from total collapse as governments are finally forced into a corner and told to agree on a framework for future Internet governance.

Both are wrong, but there is a very real risk that an enormous political argument resulting in lifelong ill-will centred around the internet could developed unchecked at the WSIS Summit.

The fact that it hasn’t already is effectively down to one man: Mr Khan. He was chosen as chair of Sub-Committee A during the WSIS process, and his remit includes all the most difficult and contentious elements - not just internet governance but also how the world will deal with issues such as spam and cybercrime.

Even though press attention has focussed on the undecided question of control of the internet, at the start of the process there were widely varying views on just about every aspect of the internet.

And yet through a mixture of careful, respectful and open dialogue, occasional prodding and a dry sense of humour, Masood Khan has turned what could easily have become a bar-room brawl into a gradual formation of agreement.

US President George W Bush has thanked Mongolia for sending troops to Iraq.

Hundreds of Mongolians lined the streets of the capital to welcome Mr Bush as he became the first US president to visit the country.

Mr Bush is winding up a four-nation tour of Asia in which he has been dogged by questions about the Iraq war.

Mr Bush expressed his gratitude to his Mongolian counterpart for the country's small but politically-important troop contribution.

"Mongolian armed forces are serving the cause of freedom and the United States armed forces are proud to serve beside such fearless warriors," he said.


Two words for Mr. "Dubya" Bush
Ha Ha!!!

Every year 250,000 eager foreigners arrive in cities like Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal. After they do so, their careers, finances and lives are destroyed.

Dr. Khalid Rafiq, is one of the hundreds of thousands of immigrants in Canada forced to survive on the worst labour jobs the country has to offer. A Ph.D. graduate from Pakistan, he now earns minimum wage driving a taxi in Toronto for a living.


A related article:

Canada, like many other wealthy countries, wants to attract the best and brightest from developing nations.

The promise? Bring your education and skills and the jobs are waiting. In particular, the Canadian government has been encouraging highly skilled and highly educated immigrants.

In a major speech in September, Prime Minister Paul Martin put heavy emphasis on the need to increase immigration levels to combat an aging population, low birth rate and a shortage of skills.

"We need immigrants," said Martin. "Quite frankly we need more and we need them to succeed."

But can we really accommodate more? What about the tens of thousands already here?

Does Google know what it's doing?

Probably not. And therein may lie its genius.

I went round the "Googleplex" in Silicon Valley California four years after the company started.

It was unreconstructed 1960s California; bikes in the corridors, lava lamps everywhere, the famous ex-Grateful Dead chef cooking delights in the Google canteen, a grand piano in reception for the Google PhDs to tinkle on during breaks.

But most impressive of all was what I saw above the reception desk: a live selection of searches being requested at that moment all over the world.

I read out a few..and then turned to my Google escort.

"No one in history has ever been able to do this before," I said, overwhelmed by it. "We are looking into the mind of the world."

Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.

The head of held Kashmir’s All Parties Hurriyat Conference broke new ground here on Wednesday by proposing a ‘United States of Kashmir’ as he shared for the first time a platform with pro-Indian rivals from his homeland. That Mirwaiz Umar Farooq was invited to speak at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit that was addressed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and foreign leaders, including Israel’s Ehud Barak, is believed to have become possible only after New Delhi’s approval.

Applauding the Mirwaiz’s speech were Pakistan’s High Commissioner Aziz Ahmed Khan and leaders of two major pro-India political parties, who shared the dais with him for the first time ever. They were former minister Omar Abdullah of the National Conference and People’s Democratic Party’s Mehbuba Mufti.

“The conflict over the disputed territory of Kashmir is soluble only if pragmatic, realistic and tangible strategy is established to help set a stage to put the Kashmir issue on the road to a just and durable settlement,” the Mirwaiz told the audience.

Hey Ram
Mahatma Gandhi

I'm bored with it all.
Before slipping into a coma. He died 9 days later.
Winston Churchill, statesman, d. January 24, 1965

Damn it . . . Don't you dare ask God to help me.
To her housekeeper, who had begun to pray aloud.
Joan Crawford, actress, d. May 10, 1977

Am I dying or is this my birthday?
When she woke briefly during her last illness and found all her family
around her bedside.
Lady Nancy Astor, d. 1964

Nothing, but death.
When asked by her sister, Cassandra, if there was anything she wanted.
Jane Austen, writer, d. July 18, 1817

Now comes the mystery.
Henry Ward Beecher, evangelist, d. March 8, 1887

Let's cool it brothers . . .
Spoken to his assassins, 3 men who shot him 16 times.
Malcolm X, Black leader, d. 1966

Go on, get out - last words are for fools who haven't said enough.
To his housekeeper, who urged him to tell her his last words so she
could write them down for posterity.
Karl Marx, revolutionary, d. 1883

I knew it. I knew it. Born in a hotel room - and God damn it - died in
a hotel room.
Eugene O'Neill, writer, d. November 27, 1953

I am not the least afraid to die.
Charles Darwin, d. April 19, 1882

My God. What's happened?( mujhe is par shaq hai) :)
Diana (Spencer), Princess of Wales, d. August 31, 1997

No, I shall not give in. I shall go on. I shall work to the end.
Edward VII, King of Britain, d. 1910

I've never felt better.
Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., actor, d. December 12, 1939

Yes, it's tough, but not as tough as doing comedy.
When asked if he thought dying was tough.
Edmund Gwenn, actor, d. September 6, 1959

Friends applaud, the comedy is finished.
Ludwig van Beethoven, composer, d. March 26, 1827

I should never have switched from Scotch to Martinis.
Humphrey Bogart, actor, d. January 14, 1957

I owe much; I have nothing; the rest I leave to the poor.
François Rabelais, writer, d. 1553

I have a terrific headache.
He died of a cerebral hemorrhage.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, US President, d. 1945

Put out the light.
Theodore Roosevelt, US President, d. 1919

They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist. . . .
Killed in battle during US Civil War.
General John Sedgwick, Union Commander, d. 1864

Oh, I am not going to die, am I? He will not separate us, we have been
so happy.
Spoken to her husband of 9 months, Rev. Arthur Nicholls.
Charlotte Bronte, writer, d. March 31, 1855

Beautiful.
In reply to her husband who had asked how she felt.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, writer, d. June 28, 1861

Now I shall go to sleep. Goodnight.
Lord George Byron, writer, d. 1824

A King should die standing.
Louis XVIII, King of France, d. 1824

Why do you weep. Did you think I was immortal?
Louis XIV, King of France, d. 1715

I am a Queen, but I have not the power to move my arms.
Louise, Queen of Prussia, d. 1820

Too late for fruit, too soon for flowers.
Walter De La Mare, writer, d. 1956

I am curious to see what happens in the next world to one who dies
unshriven.
Giving his reasons for refusing to see a priest as he lay dying.
Pietro Perugino, Italian painter, d. 1523

Lord help my poor soul.
Edgar Allan Poe, writer, d. October 7, 1849

I love you Sarah. For all eternity, I love you.
Spoken to his wife.
James K. Polk, US President, d. 1849

Here am I, dying of a hundred good symptoms.
Alexander Pope, writer, d. May 30, 1744

Sister, you're trying to keep me alive as an old curiosity, but I'm
done, I'm finished, I'm going to die.
Spoken to his nurse.
George Bernard Shaw, playwright, d. November 2, 1950

God bless... God damn.
James Thurber, humorist, d. 1961

I feel here that this time they have succeeded.
Leon Trotsky, Russian revolutionary, d. 1940

I have offended God and mankind because my work did not reach the
quality it should have.
Leonardo da Vinci, artist, d. 1519

I die hard but am not afraid to go.
George Washington, US President, d. December 14, 1799

Go away. I'm all right.
H. G. Wells, novelist, d. 1946

Either that wallpaper goes, or I do.
Oscar Wilde, writer, d. November 30, 1900

Curtain! Fast music! Light! Ready for the last finale! Great! The show
looks good, the show looks good!
Florenz Ziegfeld, showman, d. July 22, 1932

Everyone has a personality of a cartoon character. Have you ever asked yourself what cartoon character do you most resemble? A group of investigators got together and analyzed the personalities of well known and modern cartoon characters. The information that was gathered was made into this test:

Answer all the questions with what describes you best, add up all your points (which are next to the answer that you choose) at the end and look for your results. Do not cheat by looking at the end of the email before you are done.Then forward this to all your friends (including the person who sent it to you) and change the subject of this message to what character is you.

1 Which one of the following describes the perfect date?
a) Candlelight dinner! (4 pts.)
b) Fun/Theme Park (2 pts.)
c) Painting in the park (5 pts.)
d) Rock concert (1 pt.)
e) Going to the movies (3 pts.)

2 What is your favorite type of music?
a) Rock and Roll (2 pts.)
b) Alternative (1 pt.)
c) Soft Rock (4 pts.)
d) Country (5 pts.)
e) Pop (3 pts.)

3 What type of movies do you prefer?
a) Comedy (2 pts.)
b) Horror (1 pt.)
c) Musical (3 pts.)
d) Romance (4 pts.)
e) Documentary (5 pts.)

4 Which one of these occupations would you choose if you only could choose one of these?
a) Waiter (4 pts.)
b) Professional Sports Player (5 pts.)
c) Teacher (3 pts.)
d) Police (2 pts.)
e) Cashier (1 pt.)

5 What do you do with your spare time?
a) Exercise (5 pts.)
b) Read (4 pts.)
c) Watch television (2 pts.)
d) Listen to music (1 pt.)
e) Sleep (3 pts.)

6 Which one of the following colors do you like best?
a) Yellow (1 pt.)
b) White (5 pts.)
c) Sky Blue (3 pts.)
d) Dark Blue (2 pts.)
e) Red (4 pts.)

7 What do you prefer to eat right now?
a) Snow (3 pts.)
b) Pizza (2 pts.)
c) Sushi (1 pt.)
d) Pasta (4 pts.)
e) Salad (5 pts.)

8 What is your favorite holiday?
a) Halloween (1 pt.)
b) Christmas (3 pts.)
c) New Year (2 pts.)
d) Valentine's Day (4 pts.)
e) Thanksgiving (5 pts.)

9 If you could go to one of these places which one would it be?
a) Paris (4 pts)
b) Spain (5pts.)
c) Las Vegas (1 pt.)
d) Hawaii (4 pts.)
e) Hollywood (3 pts.)

10 With which of the following would you prefer to spend time with?
a) Someone Smart (5 pts.)
b) Someone attractive (2 pts.)
c) Someone who likes to Party (1 pt.)
d) Someone who always has fun (3pts.)
e) Someone very sentimental (4 pts.)

Now add up your points and find out the answer you have been waiting for. Put your character in the subject line and forward to your friends and back to the person that sent this to you. Very interesting to see "who" your friends are!

(10-16 points) You are Garfield:
You are very comfortable,easy going, and you definitely know how to have fun but sometimes you take it to an extreme. You always know what you are doing and you are always in control of your life. Others may not see things as you do, but that doesn't mean that you always have to do what is right.Try to remember your happy spirit may hurt you or others.

(17-23 points) You are Snoopy:
You are fun, you are very cool and popular you always know what's in and you never are out of style. You are good at knowing how to satisfy everyone else. You have probably disappeared for a few days more than once but you always come home with the family values that you learned. Being married and having children are important to you, but only after you have had your share of fun times.

(24-28 points) You are Elmo:
You have lots of friends and you are also popular, always willing to give advice and help out a person in need. You are very optimistic and you always see the bright side of things. Some good advice: try not to be too much of a dreamer, if not you will have many conflicts with life.

(29-35 points) You are Sponge Bob Square Pants:
You are the classic person that everyone loves. You are the best friend that anyone could ever have and never want to lose. You never cause harm to anyone and they would never understand your feelings. Life is a journey, it's funny and calm for the most part. Stay away from traitors and jealous people, and then you will be stress free.

(36-43 points) You are Charlie Brown:
You are tender, you fall in love and when you do, you fall hard, you tend to fall quickly, but you are also very serious about all relationships. You are a family person. You call your mom every Sunday. You have many friends and may occasionally forget a few Birthdays (not intentionally). Don't let your passion get in the way of reality. You are definitely an achiever.

(44-50 points) You are Dexter:
You are smart and definitely a thinker... Every situation is fronted with a plan. You have a brilliant mind. You demonstrate very strong family principles. Maintain a stable routine but never ignore a bad situation when it comes.


I'm Sponge Bob Square Pants:. What are you?! Put your character in the comments!

The Øresund Bridge:
@ ØresundsBron
@ Bridge Photo
@ Road Traffic Technology

A powerful bomb exploded outside the front entrance to a KFC restaurant in the southern Pakistan city of Karachi on Tuesday, killing at least three people and injuring 12 others, witnesses said.

The blast, at about 8:45 a.m., set fire to the restaurant, part of the global American fast food chain, and burned several cars on the street outside.

Witnesses said they saw the bodies of at least three people killed in the blast and ambulances were seen taking away at least 12 injured.

Jon Jacobs, a director of independent films who hails from Miami, FL, has purchased a virtual space station from the Swedish software company that owns and operates the Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game (MMORPG) Project Entropia. This is believed to be the largest single purchase of virtual real estate by an individual.

Project Entropia is somewhat different from most MMORPGs, in that the client is free to download and it does not require a subscription fee to play. Instead, the developers make money by taking a percentage cut whenever players convert real money to the in-game currency, called the Project Entropia Dollar (PED), which is fixed at a rate of 10 PED for 1 USD.

By Ayaz Amir

GO see for yourselves, as I have done this past week, and you would repeat Dickens’s opening salvo in A Tale of Two Cities: it was the best of times; it was the worst of times.

Only in our case it has been a tale of two countries: the native half of Pakistan at its best, the instruments of Pakistani governance at their worst. The dichotomy couldn’t be starker nor the lines of this divide more clearly drawn across the very soul of Pakistan.

Pakistanis in the mass never had much faith or trust in their governments before. But whatever was left of this feeling lies buried with the other debris of this earthquake.